(no subject)

Died on this day in 1355 aged 36 Eleanor of Woodstock (my toy,wikipedia). Daughter of Edward II. Married her 2nd cousin twice removed who was rather older than her. After she was widowed she was left in poverty, and ended her life in a convent.

Born on this day in 1451 to King John II of Castile and Isabella of Portugal, Queen Isabella I of Castile (my toy,wikipedia). Mother of Catherine of Aragon (wife of Henry VIII). Her marriage to the King of Aragon united Castile and Aragon in personal union. They threw out all the Jews and Muslims from Spain and sponsored Christopher Columbus to go fuck over the new world too. Yay...

Reading Wednesday

Finished
Goblin Emperor (Addison, Katherine)
I was distracted from the climbing book... this is really good, very hard to put down! The very first scene reminds me strongly of the last scene in a different book (naming it is now a spoiler, please rot13 in comments, because others may not have read both) except that Maia (the protagonist of this book) is caught rather less prepared.


Current
Rock Climbing, Essential Skills and Techniques (Peter, Libby)

This is a combination of the bloody obvious and the terrifyingly confusing. Hopefully I will figure it out.

Three-Body Problem (Liu, Cixin; trans. by Liu, Ken from Chinese)

So far this is very interesting. I don't often read works in translation, so I have no idea if this is typical of Chinese SF, if it is I should clearly read more. It is volume 1 of 3, the other two presumably to be translated and publish in English in due course (Tor have announced the cover for #2)


Next
probably the Seanan McGuire novella sitting on my table at home. (I rather hate the way that it is possible to import physical books but not ebooks; stupid lack of free trade, stupid publishing industry, etc.)