Have the days been smearing together for everyone else? They’ve been smearing together for me. I felt like I had a smattering of Wednesdays and Thursdays and half a Saturday. It’s been a weird week, but I did make it to the grocery store on one of those Wednesdays and got everything I needed. Hooray.

Obligatory Mina Photo:

It used to be that Mina would start begging for breakfast before the alarm, which I could sleep through. She’s a little cat with a little meow, so I could ignore her mews and, twenty minutes later, feed both the cats after the alarm went off.

But no longer! Both cats are in on the act now and Sidney, being a much bigger cat, has a much bigger meow. I can’t sleep through that, but I steadfastly refuse to get up at 6:30 in the morning just because the cats don’t want to wait until 7:30. This will be a battle, but I will win.

What I Finished Reading Last Week:

• Summer of Blood: England’s First Revolution by Dan Jones
• Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) by Leigh Bardugo

I wanted to read some nonfiction last Sunday, so I grabbed Summer of Blood off the shelf and read the whole thing that day. It was an enthralling account of the Peasant Revolt of 1381 in England, where the people– overtaxed and oppressed by laws aimed at keeping them poor– finally revolted against the fourteen-year-old Richard II and his advisor and regent, John of Gaunt. I’m sure the history is accurate, but I know very little about the revolt, as none of my history classes ever covered it. I have another of Jones’s books, and I’m looking forward to it. It’s about the Plantagenets, the dynasty that ruled England for a couple of hundred years before the Tudors came to power. It looks pretty interesting, so I’ll probably get to it soon.

Crooked Kingdom is the second book in Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows duology. This was my second reading, and I enjoyed it more this time around. I had forgotten a lot of the details, so in a lot of cases, it was like reading it for the first time. I’m still not sold on Nina as a character, and I’ve heard she’s in King of Scars, so that’s a thing. But I am looking forward to reading King of Scars whenever the ebook downloads to my Nook.

 

What I’m Currently Reading:

 

• A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel, audiobook narrated by Jonathan Keeble (76%)
• The Mirror and the Light (Thomas Cromwell #3) by Hilary Mantel (452/784)
• Lobizona (Wolves of No World #1) by Romina Garber (30%) ARC provided by NetGalley

 

I have a feeling that Robespierre is about to do something awful because he’s imagining that his friend has said awful things about him. That friend did not say those things, but Robespierre’s suspicions are entirely plausible because that friend is a horrible person. But then, most of the people in this story are awful.

In The Mirror and the Light, Thomas Culpeper just showed up and I nearly hissed at him. I don’t know if that’s because I dislike Culpeper that much, or if I’ve just been spending too much time with the cats. But at any rate, I’m making quick progress through the book. Cromwell keeps triumphing over enemies, and I’ve finally come across the quote, “I’m in awe of myself”. Someone like Crumb should know better than to express such hubris, but there it is. Even the blacksmith’s son from Putney can be proud of the amazing things he’s done. He just has to tread carefully.

Lobizona is a YA fantasy about a young woman who is A) an immigrant without documentation in the US, and so must hide from the authorities and B) is a young woman who has to hide from her mother’s past and everyone else, thanks to her strange eyes and stranger heritage. When her surrogate grandmother is attacked and her mother arrested by ICE, her world is turned upside down. I’m about a third of the way through, and I’m uncertain of how I like it so far. It’s a quick read, though, so I’ll get through it quickly.

What I Plan to Start Reading This Week:

I have no idea. There are a few possibilities on my shelf, and I might have a digital hold coming in from the library, so we’ll see what I end up being in the mood for.

What I’ve Been Watching:

The Fellowship of the Ring: Special Extended Edition
The Two Towers: Special Extended Edition
The Return of the King: Special Extended Edition

Because why would I not re-watch my favorite movies when I’m stuck at home four days out of five?

How to Train Your Dragon
How to Train Your Dragon 2
How the Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World

I adore the first Dragon movie, and I enjoy the second one. I managed to miss The Hidden World when it was in theaters, so I bought it for myself for my birthday last month and finally got around to watching it. The first one is still my favorite, and while I liked the messages in The Hidden World, I didn’t like it as much as the others. The animation is amazing, though. You can definitely see the advances they’ve made from the first movie to the third. And now that I have a black cat, I see so many parallels between Toothless and Mina, which makes sense, as the lead animator for Toothless based the dragon’s movements on his cat’s.

Modern History TV

This is a YouTube channel devoted to all things dealing with medieval knights- primarily English knights. I’ve learned all sorts of things about horses, armor, and weapons in the medieval era. And while I’ve done plenty of research dealing with medieval warfare and horsemanship, it’s nice to see that I have been pretty much accurate in my depictions. The host, Jason Kingsley, is a tournament fighter and jousts in historical re-enactments, so he shows the practical side of weaponry and horsemanship. Plus, he rides some gorgeous horses.

 

About That Writing Thing:

I’m a little behind where I want to be on Part 5. Part of that is due to the fact that some of my old online friends got together on a Discord server, and we’ve been chatting a lot. It’s great since I haven’t ‘seen’ some of them for a few years. But it has distracted me from writing, so I need to hunker down today and see about finishing up the rest of Part 5 so I can get it edited, as it occurred to me that I only have a couple of weeks before it’s scheduled to be posted. But I don’t think I’ll have a problem getting it all done. The hardest bit of this part is the sentimental aspects (I’m bad at those). The sad bits are still to come, and that’s less difficult for me to write than something sentimental. If I don’t manage to finish it up today, I’ll make a concerted effort to do so on Tuesday or Wednesday.