Grace > Recent Status Updates

I think this book is gonna pull me out of the book slump

“And now the island had a new kind of life. A strange kind of life. Artificial life.” NO. NO. NO. BURN IT WITH FIRE.

When I first heard about this story, I recoiled a bit. The premise seemed to be nothing more or less than AI propaganda meant to make all of us sympathetic to AI so that we might, I dunno, forfeit our rights and power? Go gentle into that good night? I know now that this was written before the AI boom in 2016, so I’m less inclined to view it as insidious. But I am still wary.

S. P R U C E U P. PLEASE THIS IS SO FUN AND FUNNY

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE

This book is basically three books all smushed together into one. The plot developments are interesting, but I think they would’ve been far MORE interesting if they had been given more space to breathe. As they are now, the plot movements are all quick, bold, and slightly overwhelming for a casual reader.

What I’m learning (I am taking deep breaths) WHAT I’M LEARNING is that ecological education that is removed from indigenous education and TEK (or other related knowledge systems) feels like being stabbed One Million Times. I am not interested in playing pretend with economists about ecosystem valuation when the land is so often the thing that is hurt the most in the process.

THESE PHILOSOPHIES DO NOT COEXIST. We’ve tried!!! We gave it a good effort, gang! But CLEARLY this isn’t working. Why are we still pretending that the economic valuation system we’ve got is a true and valid “valuation” when it unduly favors human economic activity???? WE MADEEEEE THAT UP. THAT’S NOT REAL. THE DRAGONFLIES DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE US DOLLAR.

WHY ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT OF A LANDSCAPE THAT THEY’VE ESTABLISHED HAS CRUCIAL EXTERNALITIES VALUE. WHAT. WHAT. WHAT. ECONOMIC VALUATION OF EXTERNALITIES SIMPLY AINT IT. Every new chapter keeps restating “yayyy externalities!!! Land is important 🫶” and then immediately writing about the economics of land management and land valuation.

I. Hate the definitions of rangeland sustainability and rangeland management. So much. Legitimately developing headaches from reading these. THESE ARE I N C O R R E C T AND DEEPLY INCONSIDERATE OF ANYTHING THAT’S NOT A HUMAN PERSON. THIS IS ECOLOGY. WHAT ARE WE EVEN DOING

Unfortunately, this book is trying to kill me.

IS CON ARTIST SHORT FOR CONFIDENCE ARTIST?

AHAHAHHAHAHHAAHA. Love that the theme of this basically amounts to “never underestimate the number of shenanigans a woman is willing to tolerate to achieve her own shenanigans” and also “women will acclimate to anything, shield bugs included”
I’m having a great time

I love that Ruby takes the romantic concept “I would know you anywhere” and makes it into a threat and a promise

Reading for fact or fiction challenge

Reading for worlds away challenge

Reading for staff shelves challenge

I can feel myself imprinting on this like a little lost duckling

Reading for staff shelves: 2026

Reading for community picks: July 2026

…I object to “something more” here. There is a way to write romance well and in a way that honors all kind of love, and does NOT pin romance at the top of some imaginary love heirarchy, and this isn’t it. What do you MEAN something MORE? As if friendship enough isn’t sufficient? As if romantic love constitutes a force of MORE love rather than just a _different_ kind of love? NO!!!!

“‘And what if the girl you like just wants to be friends?’ ‘Then you use lunch to convince her that something more is better, Adeline says somber and serious.” Hey friends this is not an acceptable theme in contemporary romance novels. If the girl wants to be friends, we HONOR and RESPECT her DECISION. ALSO (continued in next note)…

THEY ARE BOTH LONELY AND ISOLATED BC OF LARGER SOCIETAL FAILURES. MAKING THEM GET TOGETHER IS A TRAGEDY ACTUALLY. I’LL DIE ON THIS HILL.

This man’s anxiety only exists when the author remembers that it was supposed to be central to his character (i.e., infrequently)

Romance as a cure for anxiety is…. A Choice. The thing these characters both want is Connection, and it’s maddening that the only way they can achieve this is via romance. They’d be better *friends*

This girlie deserves so much better than this man. What even is this

Reading for Goodreads: Chart Toppers challenge. And also bc I want to

Minutiae read as “mih-nuh-shuh-ee” brings me joy. I <3 Thérèse Plummer

“He doesn’t understand that asking is work.”
Hartley makes some decent points here, but I continue to struggle to understand why the way forward demands so much of women and so little of men.

Emotional labor = “Publicly observable facial and bodily display that has exchange value and is sold as a commodity” from The Managed Heart.