July is the beginning of the Great Sticky Siege that is an Alabama summer, as we all flee inside to worship the freon god and hope our AC units can hold the line until relief breaks in October. It continued my unusual reading pattern this year, with a huge amount of fiction, but history did return fire a bit. We’ll see if it regroups and stages a counter-assault. I was also distracted by trying two ‘cozy’ games, Wylde Flowers and Sun Haven. They’re both a bit like Stardew Valley, which I tried a year ago and have played obsessively since, but markedly different despite both incorporating magic.
Month’s Best:
Extinction, Douglas Preston (F) & Brutal Reckoning, Peter Cozzens (NF)
Favorite Quote:
“This is interesting, meeting you here,” said Madred.
Placing his spoon next to his bowl, Garak clasped his hands on the table. “It was my understanding that being forced into exile meant never having to see people I don’t like. Leave it to Central Command to fail at something so simple.” Star Trek: Pliable Truths
Classics Club:
……
Readin’ Dixie:
While We Were Watching Downton Abbey, Wendy Wax. This is set in Atlanta, and some of the characters are deep-South aristocrats, so I’m claimin’ it.
Brutal Reckoning, Peter Cozzens. A comprehensive history of the Creek War that would open Alabama to settlement.
Science Survey:
…..
Science Fiction Book Bingo:
Terra Firmer (A Book Set on Earth): Extinction, Douglas Preston.
New Acquisitions:
A new Star Trek novel (which I’m already halfway finished reading, hah) and a history of colonial Pensacola. I keep wanting to do a weekend there outside of tourist season. In addition to the historic town, it also hosts a naval aviation museum!
The Unreviewed:
None!
Coming up in August…
Next week I’m planning on doing a reprise of Blast from the Past, though there will be history & Star Trek as well. I’d like to focus a bit on NF before grad school opens again in the middle of the month, and I have a science series in mind that will have a rather obvious theme.
Reading Freely 
Hey Coffee, just wanted to drop by and say thanks for all your comments. I LOVE comments on my blog, so today was a great blog day in that regards 🙂
If you don’t mind me being curious, how did you come across my blog?
You’d commented on someone else’s place within the last day or so, and I just clicked over out of curiosity and began exploring your author indexes!
Ahhhh, thanks. Glad to know somebody found a use for the author index. 🙂
Oh geez yeah stay cool as much as possible, it’s been very hot here too but maybe not as hot as Alabama!
I’ve also been playing Stardew obsessively so I’m really interested in your cozy game recommendations! Just looked them up on Steam and put them on my wishlist for next time I want to try another cozy game. Which of the two do you prefer?
It’s hard to say right now because I’ve only played the Wylde Flowers demo, which doesn’t allow for much progression, and I’m still only a few days into Sun Haven. I’ve enjoyed WF more, but mostly for the vocals and the different perspective.
Ah okay alright that’s fair, you might need more time to know for sure then. I do like the premise of learning to be a witch in a small town, very cute! I think I’ll only switch to another game once I’m finished all my Stardew goals that I want to do: Trying to marry Elliott and max out all my skills. It takes me longer than it should because I’m a putterer 😂
The nice thing about SDV is that there’s no rush. Sounds like you’re early in? I’m in year 5 of my primary save but have done other saves to explore the different map types. I just did one save with the challenge of getting to the bottom of the mines in Spring of Year 1, and managed it on day 21. 😀
Elliot’s a hard one to romance….he’s always hiding away in his cabin!
Yes that’s true, I play with my husband and while he min maxes everything I am just organizing my inventory & picking up every last thing I see on the floor lol. He already maxed out all his skills a WHILE ago and I’m just trying to get to 10 on everything and it’s year 3 😂😂
OH wow nice, yeah I’ve done other saves by myself and with a group of friends but I have not done any challenges like that, that sounds hard but so fun!!
He is hard to romance but he’s the only one I care about. Long hair + writes books; I don’t want anyone else lmao. He finally dedicated his book to me and I’ve never been in love with a collection of pixels before 😂😂😂 What is Concerned Ape doing to me? lol