The berries on their branches

Today I awoke to exactly the kind of weather I most enjoy: a blanketing fog that didn't lift until at least midday. I took a bunch of photos on my way to the pool, revelling in the arrival of autumn.

It's not been a great month for reading (to be honest, I've been too stressed about the grim political situation in far too many parts of the world), but I did manage to finish a couple of other books before the close of September.

Those books are:

The Community (N. Jamiyla Chisholm), a memoir about the author's experiences growing up in a cult. The cult in question drew on elements of militant Black separatism in the US, Islam, and a jumble of conspiracy theories, and resulted in the inevitable toxic mix of abusive isolation from the outside world, paranoia, financial exploitation of cult members, child sexual abuse, etc. It was an interesting book, and but it wasn't quite what I wanted to read — it focused much more on the author's relationship with her parents and thoughts about her own childhood, whereas I wanted a fuller focus on the cult itself, and the socio-cultural factors which shaped it and made it attractive to its members.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club (Malinda Lo), a work of historical fiction set in 1950s San Francisco, as seen through the eyes of Chinese-American (and closeted lesbian) teenager Lily Hu. The racism, sexism and homophobia of the period all get a look-in, as well as the major political currents of the era (McCarthyism, the space race, Cold War fears of spies and infiltration, the communist revolution in China). Against this backdrop, the book tells a coming-of-age narrative, as Lily falls in love (with a girl, with a nightclub, with a vibrant, clandestine queer community) and tries to contend with the dual challenges of familial and community expectations, and her own hopes and aspirations. As a snapshot of a time and place, Last Night at the Telegraph Club is fantastic — the hidden queer community is particularly well done — although I felt the book as a whole seemed to leap from episode to episode rather than telling a flowing story (and it ended in a manner that was both abrupt, and far too tidy). My absolute favourite part, however, was its multiple mouth-watering descriptions of Chinese food, in all its regional specificity — this is definitely not a book to read when you're hungry!

Let's hope I can be a bit better at reading regularly in October!

September TV shows

I'm racing to get this done before the month ends. As always, it's been a pretty mixed month in terms of genres of shows watched. I finished five TV shows:

The Capture — the second season of this classy BBC spy thriller, which focuses on the use of sophisticated deep fake technology by the security services of the British state (and others). This is a twisty, gripping, well told story, but I can't help but feel — in light of so many instances where I've seen people fooled by much cruder fakes — that most states would never bother with something this complicated and expensive when they could just throw out an out-of-context video or provocative social media post, and achieve the same effect. Nevertheless, this is well worth watching.

Shetland — the concluding season (at least with this protagonist) of this melancholy, atmospheric crime series did a great job in wrapping things up. As always, the setting is the star of the show. I'll be sad to see Jimmy Perez go — he's a great character, and his insistence on taking on the pain and problems of everyone he encounters (another character even called him Shetland's 'sin eater,' which is something I've been saying since I first watched the series) is so brilliantly written.

Our Flag Means Death — Matthias and I were finally legally able to watch this show during our holiday in New York, and I'm so glad I had this opportunity. I don't know if I have anything to say about this show that hasn't already been said, except to say that I feel blessed to have not one but two anti-colonial, queer pirate shows of such great quality!

Surreal Estate — a deeply silly show about a team of real estate agents who specialise in dealing with haunted houses. Tim Rozon (from Wynonna Earp) stars in the show, and has clearly found his niche in low-budget, ridiculous genre shows.

Crossfire — a three-part British miniseries about a group of friends living through an attack by gunmen on the hotel in Spain in which they are holidaying. It digs into the unspoken tensions in all their various relationships, which are laid starkly bare in their experiences during the siege, and in its aftermath. I found its conclusion and choices in emphasis in the final episode a bit offputting; the sections during the siege and the lead-up to it are great, but it felt as if the conclusion belonged to an entirely different show, and lacked the quality that had been present for the other portions of the series.

And that's been my month in TV.

Friday open thread: hot beverages

I was going to ask a much more complicated prompting question this week, but to be honest the grim political (and geopolitical) news flooding in from all over the world has done an absolute number on me, and I'm not capable of much more than listenining to Tactical Sekt at top volume and fuming on Twitter.

Therefore, a simpler, kinder prompt:

What are your preferences when it comes to hot beverages?

( My answer )

What about you?