a little work stuff, plus some more extensive book stuff

[edenfalling]

I worked in the Collegetown office today, which was pretty slow on account of Cornell having spring break this week. (Yes, that is late for a school with a semester-based calendar. Cornell has a weird break schedule.)

I was able to get all the downtown rents updated in all the requisite locations, answered a ridiculous number of inquiries, showed New Hire 6 a few miscellaneous office tasks, and got him to handle part of some lease processing.

Um. In reading news, I recently finished When the Sahara Was Green: How Our Greatest Desert Came to Be by Martin Williams, which I checked out from the Tompkins County Public Library in hardcover and then kept several weeks past its extended due date because I have gotten out of the habit of carrying physical books around to read in random snatches of spare time. It's good, I recommend it, although the little sketched geological diagrams could stand to be significantly clearer and the maps and images are confusingly labeled and referenced.

I have also recently(ish) finished:

--On Safari in R'Lyeh and Carcosa with Gun and Camera by Elizabeth Bear (novelette: scientist with family secret she was unaware of encounters parts of the Cthulhu mythos; slight but entertaining)

--The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World by Virginia Postrel (informative, enjoyable!)

--Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach (informative, enjoyable!)

--Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree (orc retires from adventuring and opens a coffeehouse; heavy on found family and somewhat incidentally a lesbian romance; nice relaxing fun)

--What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe (exactly what it says on the tin; the xkcd guy doing his thing; I had previously listened to this as an audiobook (narrated by Wil Wheaton!) but the illustrations are a significant part of the charm so I do recommend the text version)

--the Protector of the Small quartet (First Test, Page, Squire, Lady Knight) by Tamora Pierce (girl in Tortall decides to become a knight following Alanna's example... but openly; I devoured these in giant gulps)

--the Provost's Dog trilogy (Terrier, Bloodhound, Mastiff) by Tamora Pierce (girl in Tortall a couple centuries before Alanna's day rises through the ranks of the more-or-less police; interesting take on magic; surprising amount of focus on slavery and police brutality issues; I'm unsure how I feel about Pierce's ability to balance her messages but again I devoured these in giant gulps)

--Artemis by Andy Weir (heist caper in a moon colony; possibly illegal amounts of fun)

--Randomize by Andy Weir (short story: how to rob a casino with computer science; slight but entertaining)

--Iron Window by Xiran Jay Zhao (rage against the patriarchy by way of the tropiest damn giant mecha nonsense I have encountered in a long time; I'm unsure about the balance of the various elements, but this is entertaining as hell and it's very refreshing to see a female protagonist just fucking go for it with hardly any consideration for moral niceties)

--Frontier Wolf by Rosemary Sutcliff (Roman garrison up past Hadrian's Wall at the start of the long Roman retreat from Britain; Sutcliff doing her manly bonds thing and doing it quite well)

--Aurelius (To Be Called) Magnus and Portrait of a Wide Sea Islander by Victoria Goddard (two short stories in Goddard's Nine Worlds universe, which flesh out various worldbuilding and philosophical details)

I am currently working through at least a dozen books, which I will probably forget to report on for another several months. Ah well, so it goes!

And now I think I shall go to bed, because I have a 9am to 9pm shift at Not the IRS tomorrow and I would prefer not to nod off while on the clock. *wry*