#kobo not charging

[filet-o-feelings]

Okay I'm not usually a fan of rereading books because I have so many other things I still want to read, but I started rereading RWRB yesterday and I'm enjoying all the little details with the perspective of having already read it, who know I'd enjoy reading it again maybe more than the first time?

[caffeinated-bibliophile]

You know how there's stuff like Book Bub and Book Riot's ebook deals emails?

Is there one that's for NON Kindle books like for the Kobo store?

When I finally replace my kindle, I do think I'll try a kobo, but I'm also trying to not buy many ebooks from Amazon anymore.

[lemonadeandlanguages]

every week i fight with my kobo because it won't turn on

if you're low on battery, why don't you just tell me instead saying you've got 30% battery then of refusing to turn on???

[thebibliosphere]

I love how transparent you are about what its like to be a self published author in this day and age, and i was just wondering if there was a difference on your side between amazon ebook/paperback and audible - and also if Scribd is any better, because i use it as an alternative to amazon whenever possible (and whenever the library doesnt own a copy of whatever im looking for) is it functionally all the same? What is best for you?

Thank you!

I actually did a huge long post a while back when I got the audiobooks produced and uploaded to various platforms. I included Scribd in the breakdown after people falsely claim that Scrib is better for authors than Amazon/Libraries.

A lot of people were not happy when I burst that particular bubble by showing that Scribd paid me 97 cents out of the 19.99 price tag. Which is less than what Audible paid me.

Now, obviously, Scribd is different because it's a subscription service, and you’re paying for access to multiple things with that subscription. But saying it is better than libraries is just false because I also showed the numbers for that, and my income from libraries was several times higher than both Scribd and Amazon combined (for audio), which is why authors are always begging people to request their work in libraries.

Libraries pay us better and are usually free. Not always. I know it depends heavily on the country, but for most of my English-speaking audience, that is the case.

Now, this is not to say people shouldn’t use services like Scribd. If Scribd is what you can afford and it gives you access to things your library can’t fantastic. Please continue to access our work through that legal option. I would much rather earn 97 cents than zero.

But uh, yeah, Amazon pays me more than Scrib for digital stuff and I really don’t like when people who aren’t on the author side spread misinformation and frame it as some more “gotcha.”

The sad truth is Most retailers pay us the same or within the same royalty range. The difference I earn between Kobo vs Kindle is literal pennies with Amazon coming out on top. I make my work available on multiple platforms to give people options, but unless you’re buying directly from my personal storefront, it's all roughly the same.

I do actually earn more from Amazon paperbacks than I do any other retailers (for self-pub, paperbacks are a flat rate regardless of how much a retailer is charging), but the difference is about ten cents, so I always tell people to buy from wherever is best for them.

I like bookshop.org because they give some of the profit on their end to indie bookstores. Same with libro.fm for audio.

Audiobooks are just a whole fucking nightmare. Audible sets your price point for you and takes 80% of your royalties. And because Audible does that, I have to then use that price tag on all other platforms or risk being fucked by the algorithm gods. Other audio retailers take about 60-70% in royalties, most of them veering toward 70%.

As we say in radical acceptance therapy, it is what it is—fucking end-stage monopoly driven capitalism.

Now, speaking personally, when it comes to digital media, I earn the most royalties from my Payhip store where I keep 90% of my income.

That's the best place for me.

It's also why it's worth looking up an author you like to see if they have their own storefront. It doesn't help our sales rankings or put us on any bestseller lists, but frankly after launch week, who cares. I’ll take being able to feed me and my dog.

I hope that helps!

[seven-homosexual-dinosaurs]

If holoen was a high school au myth would be the seniors everyone knows but don’t know how and Gura heads the marine biology club but doesn’t know how to swim and Watson notoriously knows everything about everyone, even things you don’t know about yourself and Calli is cool and mysterious but most people don’t know that she’s so horrifically bad at keeping plants alive that she’s not allowed in the botany club’s room and Kiara works at a fast food place but no one can figure out which one since she keeps somehow appearing in all of them and Ina looks like the most normal one out of all of them until you catch a peek at her sketchbook and it’s just filled with drawings of creatures unknown and incomprehensible scribbling she claims she doesn’t remember writing.

Promise used to head student council until they all stepped down (got kicked off) for a classified incident that involved one alleged charge of eco-terrorism and at least three dead rabbits found in the club room and Bae has gotten in trouble for biting people at least seven times and Kronii can always tell you what time it is without looking at a clock and Fauna runs the botany club but secretly uses the club room to grow weed on the side and Mumei is the weird kid that no one but Promise quite understands beyond the fact that she once entered a classroom through the window because the halls were too crowded and Irys is the kid that keeps buying out the soda machines and then throwing the empty cans at Bae and there are several student groups dedicated to figuring out wtf is Promise’s deal with alleged crime and whatever romantic fuckery is happening in the group.

Advent is a group of “delinquents” that except for Shiori and Biboo are just really bad at following the rules and Shiori is the girl who has somehow read every book ever and can give a full literary analysis on them and Nerissa is in at least five situationships with five different girls and Biboo keeps threatening people and then claiming “Oobib” did it and people believe her cause she’s cute and FuwaMoco once got in trouble for bringing a dead bird they hunted to school to show Advent and the entire group has reserved seats in detention yet they somehow manage to escape every time.

Justice is the new student council and Liz is the kid that patrols the halls to make sure no one gets bullied and Gigi and Cecilia may or may not have robbed a 7/11 one time but it’s ok since they only ever cause mischief outside of school grounds and “for justice” and Raora has four cats at home and constantly talks about them and one time got in a fight with someone over breaking spaghetti that resulted in several broken bones and a lifetime ban from Olive Garden but it’s ok because she never fought over food again (Justice has her on a leash).

Calli and Kiara babysit the neighborhood kid Kobo and are lowkey competing to be her favourite and Kronii and Gura have gotten in at least six fistfights yet are somehow really good friends and Liz and Nerissa have a Romeo and Juliet type “forbidden romance” that they’re really dramatic and secretive about when in actuality literally everyone knows about it.

[dduane]

I know you probably answer this constantly but your ebook tag is mostly promos so I can't find it answered... can youexplain how the ebooks work? How many devices can you use a link for? And how do you get new links for books you've downloaded previously?

I'm not sure whether I know exactly what you mean by "how the ebooks work", but let me start simply and we'll see how we get on.

All our ebooks are sold DRM-free. This means that you can use them on as many of your devices as you please that support the format you've bought.

(We sell our ebooks in .epub formats that suit Apple/iBooks, Kobo, Nook, and a generic .epub format that suits almost all other ebook readers. We also sell the .mobi format that until recently has run on the Kindle and Kindle App, but Amazon is now phasing this out.. so we're advising Kindle users to buy the generic .epub format now. If their device still prefers the .mobi format, we'll happily supply that to them.)

To buy one of our ebooks, you just roll up to a given product page, pick a format of that ebook that suits your needs, and buy it. You can use a credit card (Stripe is our processor), Apple Pay, or PayPal. This video will walk you through the basic purchase process.

The store handles the purchase proper, and then sends your transaction to an internal app called FetchApp. This app in turn mails you download links for the ebook files. You then click on the download link in the email and pull the files down to your computer (usually), then sideload them to your reading device. (Info on how to do that is here.)

When you buy one of our ebooks, you own it. Once bought, we have no way to exert control over it (and ye gads, we don't want any). If you've got a Kindle version of one of our ebooks, and Amazon (in some kind of fit of pique) disappears one from your library, we'll replace it in that format or another one, free of charge. If you have to change formats due to machine misadventure, disk crash, misplacing your files, changing platforms or whatever, we'll replace them for you free. We have no space program to support and are delighted to do you this service... because seriously, shouldn't buying a book once be enough? :) ...To get your ebook download links refreshed, you email our support address quoting your original order number, and within a day or so we'll send you new links.

If you have any other questions, comment here and I'll be happy to help.

[kemetic-dreams]

The Story Of Killi-We" Nwachukwu, The “Nigerian Super man”

Nwozuzu Nwachukwu popularly known as 'Killwee', is an icon of strength from the Imo state, who was born He was born in 1931 and died October 31, 1992. in Nigeria, you can't talk about strength/manpower without mentioning Killwee, Power Mike Okpara and Ben Lion-Heart. These are true icons of strength and wrestling in Nigeria and Igboland.

"Killi-We" Nwachukwu, was for more than two decades celebrated as a homegrown Nigerian “superman.” Some of his legendary feats of strength included lifting buses, having cement blocks crushed on his head, and allowing cars to drive over his body.

An extraordinary characteristic Superman! Nwozuzu Nwachukwu. Story has it that Killwee was an epithet he got after a battle with an obstinate man who wouldn't pay him for a truck heap of products he passed on from the market to the man's home.

He used to push a wooden two wheel truck with which he conveyed merchandise for individuals. In those days lorries and get trucks were not many and costly to enlist.

So subsequent to dropping off the merchandise, the man wouldn't pay what Nwachukwu charged asserting it was excessively high. He attempted to leave and Nwachukwu got him by the hand demanding he should pay.

A battle resulted and he lifted, hammered and stuck the man to the ground. The man's wife ran into the house and came out with a wooden pestle to safeguard her husband. Nwachukwu grabbed it from her, lifted the lady up and nailed her to top of her husband on the ground.

she began shouting, Killi we o! Nwachukwu, You should Killi we o!" which means, Nwachukwu, kill us! That’s how he got his name, Back then 80s Killiwe Nwachukwu was highly respected by numerous individuals of his generation for his power.

Some people has this to say about him: He existed. Back in eighties, he came to our school, we paid 50 Kobo to watch him. He carried 10 bags of cement on his stomach and toyed a 504 peugeot SR with a rope on his teeth.

Story had it that when he died, his body was deposited in Aladinma mortuary, he in the night, will carry don all other corpses and Strech himself on them. He continued this till he was rejected by the morgue. He was real.

[amandacanwrite]

Signal Boosting!

A friend and colleague of mine, Krys E Jay is releasing a new book and I wanted to tell you guys about it!!

Phoenix Awakening is a romantic fantasy novel and the first book in the Hiraeth Song series! It's their debut novel and is available for preorder now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. Honestly, pretty much anywhere you can purchase books! It's coming out in just a little under a week!!

Here's what it's about:

War cannot be ignored. It creeps into all aspects of life even when those in charge deem it best to disregard and keep their people in ignorance. The Kingdom of Ignis is no exception. As its princess, Moira's life centered around mundane worries such as picking what outfit to wear out of the hundreds gracing her closet, avoiding her lessons and hanging out with her Scarlets. But that all changes on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, when the walls surrounding the Five Kingdoms are breached and she pulls a wounded soldier up through her shadow. Swept up in the rippling consequences, Moira must mend burned bridges and awaken the latent Gift within in order to prove herself worthy of the knowledge and responsibilities befitting her title. Or risk losing all she had to begin with. Phoenix Awakening is Krys E Jay's debut novel and the first book in the Hiraeth Song series, containing a taste of forbidden romance, a spoiled princess and an ever encroaching darkness.

I'm so friggen excited for this and It would mean alot not only to me but @authorkrysejay if you could give this post a bit of a boost by reblogging it and commenting! If you pre-order it also let us know so we can shout you out!

[authorkrysejay]

Phoenix Awakening Tropes

Phoenix Awakening is the first book in my Hiraeth Song series and a long time labor of blood, sweat and tears.

Synopsis:

War cannot be ignored. 

It creeps into all aspects of life even when those in charge deem it best to disregard and keep their people in ignorance. The Kingdom of Ignis is no exception. As its princess, Moira’s life centered around mundane worries such as picking what outfit to wear out of the hundreds gracing her closet, avoiding her lessons and hanging out with her Scarlets. 

But that all changes on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, when the walls surrounding the Five Kingdoms are breached and she pulls a wounded soldier up through her shadow.

Swept up in the rippling consequences, Moira must mend burned bridges and awaken the latent Gift within in order to prove herself worthy of the knowledge and responsibilities befitting her title. Or risk losing all she had to begin with. 

Author's Note:

Each book in the series gets progressively darker and deals in heavier themes. This one is rather light in comparison to book two and three.

Releasing February 2nd 2024. My book is available for preorder on Amazon, Barns n Noble, Kobo, Google and Apple Books and more.

Check out my Instagram for fun reels and character boards

[spikewriter]

Stuff Your E-Reader Day on Friday, June 30, 2023

I'll be putting up promotional posts on the day, but there is large free book promotion coming this Friday. Over 1000+ books free on platforms such as Amazon, Kobo, B&N Nook, and Google. Some of the books are already free (as we have to set the promos early so Amazon will have time to get off their butts and price match), and can be found at:

And, yes, there is no requirement to sign up up for newsletters or anything like that. Just click the "buy" button on the appropriate platforms for the books you like. Many of the Amazon copies aren't free yet (I just sent off the price match request for mine), but if you want to start poking around, you can.

While the majority of the books are by romance authors, there is are books by BIPOC authors, LGBT+ protagonists, and authors with disabilities. Some of the books in these categories are not romances. Zoe wanted to include those as a way to give them exposure.

If you want to download my entry, it's To Lure a Lord by Caro Kinkead. At the moment, free everywhere but Amazon (probably free there by tomorrow or late this evening).

Also, if you write romance and would like to participate in next quarter's promo (there is no charge for participating), you can find info here. If you need an invite to the Facebook group where this is organized, message me.

[mizkit]

new blog post: Recent Reads: Species Imperative, Julie E. Czerneda

new blog post on https://mizkit.com/recent-reads-species-imperative-julie-e-czerneda/

Recent Reads: Species Imperative, Julie E. Czerneda

Along that whole topic of ‘books don’t have shelf lives…’

I’ve been aware of Julie Czerneda’s books since they first came out, and somehow just sort of hadn’t ever gotten around to reading any. I specifically remember the title A Thousand Words for Stranger, which I still think is a great title, and I specifically remember the cover art for the Species Imperative trilogy.

Well, the other day, book one, SURVIVAL, was on sale at Kobo, so I thought “yes I should buy this” and I did, and read it, and immediately bought and read the second two, all in about a week.

For one thing, they’re like custom-fit to my little Alaska-raised heart: the lead, Mac, studies salmon (how could I, a girl from the Kenai, not love a salmon-researching heroine?). She deals with magnificently-realized bureaucracy and characters who are just so human they kind of kill me. One of my favorites is just awful.

Furthermore, the aliens are AMAZING. Absolutely TERRIFIC. Occasionally very, very funny (they’re not, overall, funny books, but the moments of humor land perfectly), very alien, sometimes heartbreaking, and always compelling.

I was unreasonably pleased with myself for anticipating a couple of the plot points, and the only thing that annoys me about them is that I have, in fact, been aware of them since their publication, and I haven’t read them before now. :)

SURVIVAL, Book One of Species Imperative Available everywhere now (should be a magic link that lets you choose your store)

Dr. Mackenzie “Mac” Connor is a workaholic and trained biologist at the Norcoast Salmon Research Facility. When she and fellow scientist Dr. Emily Mamani settle in to monitor this year’s salmon runs, an unprecedented arrival interrupts their research: Brymn, an archaeologist and the first Ohryn alien to ever set foot on Earth. He has come to get Mac’s help in uncovering what created the Chasm—a part of the universe whose once-populated worlds are now mysteriously empty of any life-forms.

When a devastating attack on the Base results in Emily’s abduction, Mac is forced to flee with Brymn—and to wonder if Earth may be under attack by the Ro, the aliens Brymn suspects are behind the Chasm. Cut off from everything and everyone she knows, Mac finds herself in grave danger and charged with protecting the human race from extinction…

[sweetfirebird]

So stressed from this that I downloaded long kinky poly fic from a03 and am now charging my kobo so i can read them later as a reward AND THEY'D BETTER BE GOOD OR SO HELP ME

(If you have never seen the movie Support Your Local Sheriff you need to understand that I am saying that line with ineffectual rage like Miss Prudy in that film. "I am sick and tired of all these stupid things that keep happening to me! *shakes fist* and somebody better do something about it!")

[caffeinated-bibliophile]

So my kindle that I've been complaining about for 5 years will last less than 3 hours (but a smidgen more than 2 hours) on a charge while it's in airplane mode with the brightness about midway.

Which sucks because it means I can maybe get halfway through a novel before I have to charge it, and it takes hours (like, overnight lmao) to fully charge.

And then it will drop to like 92% within a couple minutes of being turned on again. (And it drains faster than it charges, plus my port is kinda fucked up so I can't use it while it's charging anyway.)

I can't replace it just yet, but I'm kinda glad I've put off getting a Kobo for so long because now maybe I can get one of the color ones.

[alfvaen]

Novel Sun

Time marches on…and while time was marching on through the month of June, I read a number of books. If you don't want to find out more about them, you should stop reading now.

Potential spoilers for Minister Faust's "War & Mir", Sharon Shinn's Archangel series, Django Wexler's Shadow Campaigns, and of course Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga.

Lois McMaster Bujold: Diplomatic Immunity, completed June 2

Getting into the home stretch on the Vorkosigan Saga Reread…by which I mean, getting into the latter-day books that I generally didn't enjoy as much. For one thing, the title does nothing for me. "Diplomatic immunity" has nothing to do with anything. It would make a better title for Jhereg than it would for this book. Is it worse than The Warrior's Apprentice? Yeah, probably. But anyway. The plot is not fudged by the mind-numbing coincidence which ruins Komarr for me, but it has a similar feel of trying to solve one mystery and then mostly tossing that aside because of a different mystery. Maybe this is a standard kind of thing for a mystery, or a thriller, but I don't know if I'm a fan of it. The underlying plot is (spoilers) mostly drawn from Cetaganda, the setting is extrapolated from Falling Free, and while there is plenty of excitement and tension, at least in the second half of the book, it's not quite enough to outweigh the other bits, and it leaves me nitpicking. (Is there any reason for the admiral in charge of the fleet to be a Vorpatril? Plenty of other Vor families exist… Also, the character going by the alias 'Dubauer' kept making me wonder if there was some connection back to the brain-fried guy from Shards of Honour, which there is not…) Also, Ekaterin and Roic are both present, but neither gets POV; I can see that maybe there's not enough for Ekaterin to do to give her her own POV, but there almost is. Anyway, it doesn't quite feel fully satisfying, and maybe some of these things are why, but it's hard to quantify.

Minister Faust: War & Mir, Part II: The Darkold, completed June 7

Once again I had almost completely run out of books by male "diversity" authors (and in general I seem to need more African vs. Asian, too) so after the last one I recalled that I hadn't yet gotten the second book in Minister Faust's "War & Mir" series. What with one thing and another, I ended up having to get my wife to purchase it on her Kobo the night before I was due to start it.

Minister Faust is not his real name; his real name is Malcolm Azania (one time he was running for MP and had to do so under his real name, and I didn't connect them for a few years) but I believe he originally used Minister Faust as an alias when he was hosting a local radio show (yes, local as in Edmontonian). I've met him a couple of times, most memorably when he did a presentation at a local con about why one should watch "Avatar: The Last Airbender", which I did, and it was great, so thanks for that. I've read most of his other novels, I think--Coyote Kings of The Space-Age Bachelor Pad, From The Notebooks of Dr. Brain (which I think he's re-released under a different title), and The Alchemists of Kush, though it looks like there's plenty of stories that I haven't read, and maybe more recent novels.

There is, handily, a summary of Book One at the beginning of this one; I usually like those because I frequently forget what happened because of how I tend to space out the novels in a series. I remembered that it started out in Edmonton, a local downtown mall got trashed, and there was something about the "Diefenbunker", a former cold-war bunker near Ottawa from the days of Prime Minister Diefenbaker, and some kind of hidden civilization elsewhere in the solar system and an arrogant princess type that our protagonist had to deal with.

This one goes through some dark places, as our main character is now a fugitive and separated from most of his resources, and with a boy to take care of. There's human vs. "Numan" racism, oppressive "company-store" indentured servitude, tragic character deaths…our main character is sorely tried. So it's not a cheerful book, but there are moments of triumph. Unfortunately, I suspect that (like some of the other books I've read this year) the next book in the series is delayed and not yet out.

Django Wexler: The Shadow Throne, completed June 13

Decided to go back to some epic fantasy (well, gunpowder fantasy, at least) for my next book, mildly thick, and return to the Django Wexler series I started less than a year ago (a pretty fast pace, for me). The first book took place in a fantasy north-African setting, with a colonial army forced to take the side of a decadent ruler over the religious fanatics trying to overthrow him. Somehow it managed to feel less problematic than that summary implies, because there's treachery within and without, and dark demonic forces that our protagonists are, of course, against. Said protagonists are Winter, the young commander who's secretly a woman (and a lesbian), and Marcus, the doughty captain, but a central character is Janus Vhalnich, a new commander sent down there to fail, but with an agenda of his own.

The second book opens with the three of them returning from overseas to the capital after their (spoilers: successful) campaign, and without the army from book one because Janus is in too much of a hurry. Not to worry, there are plenty of new secondary characters, starting with a new POV character, Princess Raesinia, sole heir after the untimely death of her brother; the reason Janus is in so much of a hurry is because the king is on his deathbed and not expected to last much longer. Raesinia is secretly working with revolutionaries who don't know her true identity, to try to counter the plots of Duke Orlanko, the sinister head of the kingdom's spies. Janus is appointed Minister of Justice, Winter gets sent undercover (where she has to "pretend" to be a woman) and Marcus is put in charge of the city guards, and soon it becomes clear that this is based heavily on the French Revolution. Which apparently makes Janus…Napoleon? And Orlanko, I dunno, Cardinal Richelieu? The magical elements are sparing but highly significant to the plot, and Marcus and Winter's backstories are also relevant. Occasional villain POVs are not too disruptive. There were several places where I got stuck on a page, mostly because it was doing description and I was just having trouble focusing on it. And plenty of times there were gaps between scenes where time passed but it wasn't immediately clear, so a little confusing. Minor points, mostly.

I'm not sure what the title's referring to, though. I don't know if the phrase was ever explicitly used in the book, though I may have missed it. Maybe it's just metaphorical, but it bugs me a little.

Sharon Shinn: The Alleluia Files, completed June 18

Looking now for a female author, not epic fantasy and probably not space opera (since there's more Vorkosigan coming up), I still had a few choices. I wasn't really feeling like urban fantasy, either, so I ended up picking the Sharon Shinn mostly because it had been waiting for quite a while.

My wife has read a liked a lot of Sharon Shinn, but I was kind of meh on the first Samaria book, Archangel, and it took me a while to get around to the second one, Jovah's Angel. I liked that one a lot better, though. So I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to get around to this one. I've probably forgotten a lot of what happened last book, of course. But it's okay because it's been a hundred years and most of the people on the planet have also forgotten what happened back then.

The Samaria books take place on one of these lost colony worlds, whose inhabitants have pretty much forgotten that it's a colony world. (Sometimes this gives me Pern vibes.) Some of the inhabitants are angels--they have wings, and can fly, and they can sing to the god Jovah for some things (like rain, or food, or thunderbolts) and if they sing it right, then Jovah will give them what they ask for. Angels and humans can (and perhaps must? I'm not quite clear) interbreed, and their offspring can be either human or angel. Angel-human romances are a big part of the series.

Most of the action takes place on the island of Samaria, centre of the human colony, and most place names and personal names are very Biblical--this book includes a Tamar and a Jared, for instance. In the last book, the angel Alleluia made some discoveries about the technological underpinnings of their society, but was not ready to reveal them; there's a group called the Jacobites who believe that Jovah is not a god but mere technology, and they search for the "Alleluia Files", a lost record that they believe contains proof in Alleluia's own words. The current Archangel, Bael, does not like the Jacobites at all, and is secretly trying to wipe them out…but there are now settlements off Samaria, in the land of Ysral, where they welcome Jacobites, and are trying to embrace some of the technology rediscovered in Alleluia's time, such as motorized vehicles and the ability to record and transmit sound.

We follow the characters of Tamar, a Jacobite who soon ends up a fugitive; Jared, an angel who is mostly drifting through his life; and Lucinda, a somewhat sheltered angel who has been raised on an island between Samaria and Ysral and is just now exploring mainstream angel society. There's some harsh tonal shifts between Tamar repeatedly fleeing for her life, and Jared wandering through upper-class diversions before he stumbles upon her, and it doesn't always quite work, but for the most part it's a satisfying conclusion to the original trilogy. There are two more books, but I'm told they are further back in the timeline and concentrating on the angel-human romances rather than the rediscovery of technology, so I may leave those for now, since we have a number of other Sharon Shinn series to choose from. I've thus replaced it with Mystic And Rider as my next likely Sharon Shinn book.

Lois McMaster Bujold: Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, completed June 22

The next Vorkosigan reread...I recall this as a fun book but not always satisfying, because there are some abrupt lurches in the plot which don't really work for me. As the title implies, we are focusing on Miles Vorkosigan's cousin Ivan Vorpatril, who has showed some signs in the past of wanting to settle down, and Byerly Vorrutyer returns from A Civil Campaign as his foil. His romantic interest is a new character, a woman named Tej of mysterious background, who Ivan is obliged to marry early in the book, after a he-investigates-her-she-stuns-him meet-cute turns into the-authorities-are-after-her. And then a bunch more characters from her past show up midway through the book and kind of take over the plot. Simon Illyan at least does get a good role in this one, and the climactic scenes of the book are pretty good, but it doesn't hang together as well as it should.

And that's all for June, because the next book I chose turned out to be another thick fantasy book, and will take me into July. I am embracing my Goodreads Challenge rebellion, by which I mean I'm probably going to lower my total to 90 for the year.

I did read another Love & Rockets ebook on my Kindle Fire, from the bundle I got a while back. This one, Luba And Her Family, has bits that I probably remember from some of the comics that I got (I do have some of the Love & Rockets Vol. 2 though I haven't read them very much), though there were some scenes from the comics that I remember that weren't in here so I have apparently read even further than this. It's all, or almost all, set in California, little or nothing in Palomar. A lot of it follows Venus, a preteen girl who is the daughter of Luba's half-sister Petra. We do also see Luba herself, and Doralis and Pipo and Sergio, and Guadalupe and Gato and Casimira, and even a little bit of Maricela. Oh, and Khamo flashbacks, which is interesting, since he's always been a bit of a cipher. Nothing of Heraclio and Carmen (who are probably still in Palomar or something). It's interesting, though there's little plot throughline, nothing like "Human Diastrophism" or "Poison River".

I put the Sugar book on the back burner again, and wanted to pick out another more interesting nonfiction book to read for a bit. I had taken a few of my late stepfather's last time we visited my mom, but some of them seem to have aged poorly. Wikinomics, all about online collaboration, it positively ancient, and More Good News, about climate change, was also a decade or so old. I'm trying Risk by Daniel Gardner (which has been reprinted under other titles as well, such as The Science of Fear), though I haven't gotten too far yet. He seems a little gosh-wow about evolutionary psychology, which I am so over, not to mention the "obesity epidemic", but there might be something interesting about cognitive biases. He also draws from the Thinking, Fast And Slow theories about the two types of thinking. And it even has a special afterword about the 2008 financial crisis! …So we'll see how it goes.

[corvid-language-library]

Put my kobo on charge last night and then forgot to put it back in my bag and I have a 30 min train journey and I'll be at the classroom 3 hours early 🙃

[asha-mage]

I need to finish cleaning my house before DnD this afternoon but I am so cozy and my kobo is fully charged and the gay people on my phone are having a grand old time. So I. I don't wanna.

But alas. I must.