I don't mean to nitpick, Tom, but is this really your plan?

Just finished watching Julie and the Phantoms on Netflix, a show that has no business being as good as it ended up being. Julie is a teen who lost her mom, and also lost the ability to play the music that she used to make with her mom. When she accidentally brings three ghosts—three members of a boy band that was on the verge of breaking out when they died—back, they discover that they can be heard when they’re making music. The actors commit to roles that require extreme suspension of disbelief, and they’re very wholesome and charming. The songs are generic but the lead is a great singer, and I ended up sobbing twice in later episodes because it skillfully played on my heartstrings. Obviously, premised on death of a parent, death of a teenaged child. Mild romance, no sex.

Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves: ( war and intrigue )
Adrian Tchaikovsky, Guns of the Dawn: ( monstrous regiment? )
Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Tiger and the Wolf: ( shapeshifters without fandom tropes )
Aiden Thomas, Cemetery Boys: ( YA fantasy )
Susanna Clarke, Piranesi: ( drowned world )
Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry for the Future: ( ecohopepunk? )
Everina Maxwell, Winter’s Orbit: ( romantic SF )
Seanan McGuire, Across the Green Grass Fields:( unicorns )

Preliminary notes: (1) Survivorship bias, or why taking lessons only from the successful is a really bad idea, in an elegantly written narrative.

(2) Ugh, I hate grading.

(3) Note to self: Veronica Mars, for all its awesomeness and willingness to engage with class and gender politics, often enough cozied up to the creepy side thereof. ( S1 rewatch in anticipation of movie )

I did not notice at the time, but this is a depressing set of books.

( a book on gun guys )

( Confessions of a sociopath, bad evidence in criminal cases, America's secret wars, why your food is full of salt sugar and fat )

catdancerz , sol_se , realpestilence , rejeneration , laceymcbain , bexless ,ingridmatthews, ciian , flesh , sprat , grlnamedlucifer , suzvoy , pinkfinity (Cthuluclaus!), gblvr (another Cthuluclaus!), and anonymous givers: thanks so much for the virtual gifts! You are sweet and I feel terribly guilty about being out of the loop right now. I go through feast and famine with stories; hopefully more feasts are on the way, with my Eight Crazy Nights about to start.

( hip-hop and intellectual property; art and law; luxury brands; and sex for pay )