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This was supposed to be the year of “let’s read more fiction books!” So far it’s shaping up to be a losing effort. But enthusiasm remains high and summer is around the corner! Books Read, Fiction Babel, R.F. Kuang ⭐ Homeseeking, Karissa Chen ⭐ Jade City, Fonda Lee ⭐ Books Read, Non-Fiction Emergent Tokyo, Jorge Almazán, Joe McReynolds ⭐ Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann Shattering the Glass, Pamela Grundy, Susan Shackelford ⭐ Stay True, Hua Hsu ⭐ And it’s August, which is clearly not quarter two, but there has been a lot of travel so here we are. After essentially three months away, I’m back at home and ready to cover what I’ve read in April through July. The short answer is: next to nothing! After logging six books in quarter one, I only added three more eligible books in the four months since. So um, here we go and let’s hope second summer’s ocean waves brings a lot of beach reading! Why did my friends and frenemies not tell me to read Babel sooner? My video game...

Covering my book life so far in 2025, as I tell you about how far behind I am. Plus my initial foray into audiobooks! Books Read, Fiction All Fours, Miranda July Afterworlds, Scott Westerfeld Aru Shah and the End of Time, Roshani Chokshi Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Malinda Lo My Ántonia, Willa Cather ⭐ The Anthropologists, Ayşegül Savaş Books Read, Non-Fiction Raising Raffi, Keith Gessen 🎧 Books Quit Daddy, Emma Cline I'm a Fan, Sheena Patel Mistborn: The Final Empire, Brandon Sanderson You Are Here: Connecting Flights, Ellen Oh It’s mid-March and my stated goal of forty fiction books this year is off to a pretty putrid start. With only six books under my belt, I’m barely on pace to make half that goal. And it’s not like I’m not trying, there were just a lot of quits in February, including a few hundred pages of Mistborn: The Final Empire that I’d like to take back. The good news is, I’m currently really enjoying Fonda Lee’s Jade City, and reinvigorated about fantasy after ...

Conflicted about what to do with all those smallish figurines collecting dust in your closet? Let's put them to work around the house! If you came over to my house and looked out the left back window, you might notice a little Donald Duck staring up at you from the corner of the windowsill. Slightly sun faded, the rubber figurine is about half an inch tall and instead of legs, has a suction cup body from the chest down. Unlike his irascible and anxious cartoon self, this Donald is calm and serene, which enables him to do an important job: providing a gentle reminder to not pull down the window shades in order for morning sunlight to stream through to the house plants located on our kitchen floor. That reminder is for me, or for the cleaners, or for any house guests. “Do not close these blinds!” There are other figurines dotting the rest of the house as well, each of them given specific jobs. Hangyodon comes out onto the bathroom counter as a reminder to close the small shower wind...

Today on Plain Explain I am going to explore, and answer, a pressing international sociological observation. As noted before, Plain Explain is me explaining things without the benefit of studying, looking anything up on the internet, or asking anyone else. Just raw unfiltered knowledge... Why are Canadians so nice? There are two factors to look at when answering this question. First, as we all know, Australia was colonized using the castoffs and criminals of Britain, resulting in a population base that was tougher, meaner, and eventually, better at acting. As another Commonwealth country, Canada was initially filled with the exact opposite kinds of British (and French) people: kind, gentle, mellow folk who willingly gave up on their past lives to chase a better future. They weren't dumped in Canada, they chose to go! When you send outlaws to an empty country—well, aside from the indigenous people who, you know, already lived there—you get Mad Max: Fury Road. When you send nice salt...

My new series, where I explain things without the benefit of studying, looking anything up on the internet, or asking anyone. What will this reveal? My ignorance mostly... There are so many things I don’t understand and now you’ll know what I know—and don't know. Feel free to submit any and all questions... I’m open to queries of any type and I’ll give each answer my best shot. Welcome to Plain Explain! How do MRIs work? The other day, I got my first brain MRI and the experience was not what I expected. After donning my little gown and taking out all the metal on my head—minus one earring that just can never come out—I was put into the MRI tube head first. For the next twenty minutes, I was bombarded with magnetic stuff and it was much louder and violent than I’d imagined. Despite the best efforts of the faux-sunny sky above me, it was not a relaxing experience. Of course, I did almost fall asleep but as proven many times, I can pretty much fall asleep under any circumstance. So ho...

Wherein I re-dedicate myself to reading and re-energize my long dormant Goodreads. Plus, presenting a new Bookstagram account! There’s a world where I didn’t read anything in 2021. Usually I keep very detailed records of books I’ve read—and bought—but ever since 2020, it’s been a little shoddy. Somehow, I have no records of reading a book in 2021. Not. A. Single. Book. Someone please surface evidence of me reading something in 2021, please. Remember back in 2019 when I said “After last year’s debacle of twenty-two books read, I think it’s safe to say that I am no longer a reader.” Well friends, I am now officially no longer a reader. In total, it seems like I only read ten books between 2020-2022. I don’t even know how that’s possible but my guess it was video game related. Or just a simple lack of record keeping. The latter is possible because all ten of the books I jotted down from those years are hits, which seems nigh impossible. Here’s the list: A Phoenix First Must Burn, Patric...

Going over my year in books, movies, television, and games. Plus a quit list!   Can you believe it? My first blog post in five years! I'm back baby! I know it's been dead around here since 2020 but I've never stopped blogging--in my head. I've got years of stacked up posts--okay ideas for posts--stacked up and ready to go. I'll lead off with the classic annual review of stuff consumed! My tracking for all consumption was in dire straits in 2022-2022, but I've got it all down from 2023 forward so maybe I'll move backwards. Nothing says "fresh" like years old recommendations! Let's gooooo! Books I’m almost too embarrassed by my lack of book reading to lead off with this subject. I technically logged about twenty books read but some of those were awfully short, some were semi-graphic novel, and some of them I’m just in the middle of them, but past the fifty percent mark. Of those reads, I can only cite four as semi-recommends: 17 Things I’m Not A...

What is this and who is "Jace?" With 2025 starting up, I’ve decided it’s time to return to the world of online writing. At first I was exploring alternative options, such as Instagram or creating another newsletter. However, there are major downsides to both. Instagram is primarily a visual medium and text posts on there are limited to 2,200 characters, which is just around 400 words. That’s enough for some things but not nearly enough for longer pieces—which sometimes I’d like to do. So Instagram was out. Newsletters are fun and I even now have a separate email address specificially for subscribing to them—an idea I strongly encourage you to try—but I like being able to just link to a post in my archives if needed Plus I'm sure nobody wants me to flood their inboxes. Also, there’s some debate on whether using the industry standard, Substack, is moral or not. Additionally, with Mailchimp's Tiny Letter service now discontinued, I just didn’t have the heart to start ano...