Oh! And I can’t believe I forgot to include NK Jemisin on my list. She’s one of my favorites! I especially love her most recent series (which has been winning lots of awards) which starts with The Fifth Season.

Seconded on the Pratchett; his books are delightful and warm, even as they are incisive. Seconded on Gaiman and LeGuin, and you should read Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman.

I’m on vacation in Italy now, and I’ve been horrified at how careless people have been around priceless artifacts. In one art museum, I saw a middle-aged man casually resting his hand on a Roman sarcophagus that was roped off. In another museum, I saw people reaching out to caress the base of a bronze statue that had…

For the record, DC weather was lovely over the weekend. Temperatures in the 70s! This week, we’re getting temps in the 70s and low 80s and some rain. I have a low tolerance for heat, but even I could work just fine without AC right now because we’re having weirdly cool weather at the moment.

There is so much good food in the DC area.

Barnes and Noble currently has a buy 2, get 1 free offer on Marvel comics and a lot of them already have decent discounts before this sale deal. I estimate that all those discounts stacked together amount to about 50% off if you buy in multiples of three.

Barnes and Noble currently has a buy 2, get 1 free offer on Marvel comics and a lot of them already have decent…

This code has given me so much trouble. First, it kept giving me error messages when I tried to apply it. Then, it looked like it applied, and in the order confirmation the discount vanished, so I had to cancel the order and reorder it. Finally, I just discovered that despite an order confirmation that had the right…

This code has given me so much trouble. First, it kept giving me error messages when I tried to apply it. Then, it…

Update: after all that trouble and an e-mail confirmation that had the correct amount, the discount vanished when the item shipped and Amazon overcharged me.

Update: after all that trouble and an e-mail confirmation that had the correct amount, the discount vanished when…

FYI, the books code is being finicky right now (probably something to do with all the traffic to the site). If it doesn’t work for you but your book purchase meets the terms and conditions, you may have to try refreshing the page and reentering the code a few times before it finally goes through. Then, make sure you…

FYI, the books code is being finicky right now (probably something to do with all the traffic to the site). If it…

I get it, and it wasn’t too long ago I would have thought the same thing.

Ideally, of course, only guilty people go to prison. In reality, a lot of innocent people have been sent to prison for various reasons: biased jury, incorrect identification by witnesses, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We know that these wrongful convictions happen because people have been exonerated by…

This is a lovely, chill game. It won’t satisfy you if you’re looking for a competitive, complex game but it’s the game I always pull out when I play games with people who don’t normally play board games.

This is a lovely, chill game. It won’t satisfy you if you’re looking for a competitive, complex game but it’s the…

Doesn’t apply to pre-orders either, even though that’s not listed in the terms of the discount.

Doesn’t apply to pre-orders either, even though that’s not listed in the terms of the discount.

I LOVE that series by Fred Clark.

Some Christians, like me, look at that concept of “stewardship” as needing to protect and care for the earth and manage its resources carefully. The others believe that God put humans in charge to master and dominate the earth. There are some gender issues wrapped up in that too. There’s also the issue of a whole lot…

I’m a fan of musicals too, and while I enjoyed it, it was nothing special. The music was nice and it had good cinematography, but I really honestly don’t think this is going to be a classic. I think the reason it’s getting nominated for everything is because it’s Hollywood bait. It’s a musical about how hard it is to…

Haven’t played Pandemic Legacy, but it looks awesome. Risk Legacy is excellent. I have a regular group of gamer friends and we’ve all loved playing it. Parts of the world that were valuable strategic points have become so difficult and costly to hold that it’s changed everyone’s strategies. The changing nature of the…

Haven’t played Pandemic Legacy, but it looks awesome. Risk Legacy is excellent. I have a regular group of gamer…

I forgot to add Smallworld to the list. That’s like Risk, but you change factions throughout the game as you decide you’ve expanded your empire as far as you can reasonably go.

I forgot to add Smallworld to the list. That’s like Risk, but you change factions throughout the game as you decide…

Dominion, for sure. It’s got great replay value, and there are a lot of great expansions out now if your dad ends up really enjoying it. Either Dominion or Dominion: Intrigue would be good because they can be used as base games. This is a deck-building game and what’s nice is that the exact combination of cards you…

Dominion, for sure. It’s got great replay value, and there are a lot of great expansions out now if your dad ends up…

Some good deals on board games at Amazon.