I haven’t read many short stories in the past few years, but I gave my nephews compilations in their Christmas stockings as they’ve been struggling with leisure reading in freshman year of high school and college respectively, and so I’ve been reading those myself this week 
Restarting the SIlo series by Hugh Howey, prompted by the show on Apple TV+. Might go back in sci fi time and revisit Asimov this year.
What’s in your hand and on your reading list?
Jouneys to the Other Side of the World by David Attenborough. Thoroughly enjoying this, but then, it’s Sir David. Nuff said.
Gee, I really don’t recall any time for ‘leisure reading’ in college. I did enjoy reading ‘Fear of Flying’ by Erica Jong in one lit class–’ it was assigned!
This was a wonderful article (an opinion piece) about the recently departed actress Linda Lavin. I was a longtime fan of hers, but until reading many articles about her, I was unaware of how multifaceted she was.
And here’s another very good article about her.
I wish I had better appreciated her while she was still with us.
A very interesting read on the performative nature of morality by Manvir Singh in a recent NYer article.
LOL! Sounds like Chidi Anagonye from The Good Place, which was a fun watch until the horrible, terrible, moralistic last episode.
TBH I don’t remember the final episode 
But I very much enjoyed the article.
I loved the last episode! And all the other episodes. Who the hell makes sitcoms about philosophy?
Daemons
“Taiwan Travelogue” by Yang Shuang-Zi, is “the English translation of a Mandarin novel disguised as a translation of a rediscovered text from a Japanese writer”, according to one reviewer. It’s 1938. Aoyama Chizuko is a novelist from Nagasaki who is asked to write travel stories about Japanese-occupied Taiwan for the government. She refuses to produce propaganda, and instead moves to the island for a year to write more objective pieces. She is assigned an interpreter, O Chizuru, referred to mostly as Chin-san.
Aoyama-san is smitten by Chin-san–her beauty, her knowledge of Taiwan, and especially of the food. The book really is a food travelogue, the two of them going from place to place for Aoyama to give presentations and to see the sights, but especially to eat everything. Page after page of descriptions of dishes from three cultures, Japanese, Han Chinese, and Taiwanese (and one or two Western meals). Among all the meals, there are clear erotic feelings from Aoyama about Chin-san, but we can’t tell whether they’re reciprocated. The author, in an interview, does call it a “queer book” (she’s active in the Taiwanese LGBTQ+ community), and class and cultural differences between the characters in 1938 would have made an explicit love story impossible. A delicious fun romp and a deep study of the characters.
ETA: Here’s a gift link to the Atlantic’s review.
This was a fascinating read.
Someone, somewhere recently in HO mentioned a money management book received as a wedding gift. Could someone point me in the direction of that post? Thank you!
Thought-provoking, but a discussion of the topic is likely not suitable for this forum.
Sorry, I don’t have a paywall-free link to post, but I’m choosing to post this anyway because this topic (TBH, this is more like an issue/problem) is important enough TO ME that I feel it’s worth posting here. Although I’m fully aware that ChatGPT and other A.I. sites/apps do have beneficial uses, this one scares me to no end. It’s all so dystopian and no good can come of such uses. If you or anyone else wants to use A.I. in such a way, I can’t stop you or them, but I want no part of it and TBH haven’t used A.I. (at least not knowingly). I’m no luddite, but such technology scares me to death and saddens me intensely.
Lastly,I hope that I don’t get backlash from posting this, but will likely get some because there are those on any site like this that will probably post comments just to rile others up (I guess they’re what would be categorized by the term “trolls”.)
Very well-written and moving story about a family (especially regarding one of their sons) and their multiple losses.
Free access link:
Paywalled link:
A writer friend turned me on to this substack. I got a lot of catching up to do 
I was recently gifted ‘The Glucose Revolution’. Has anyone seen this?
At page 113, Steve is flying to America to stop someone from killing Amy:
"When Steve returns to his seat – a sofa of all things – Brad offers him sushi on a silver tray.
"Steve takes a look. ‘Do you have anything else?’ he asks. ‘A sausage roll? Some crisps?’
"‘I think we have some Parmesan croutons?’ says Brad. ‘I’ll ask the chef.’
"‘Or a Scotch egg?’ says Steve. ‘Whatever you’ve got, I was supposed to be having bolognese tonight, so if there’s any bolognese?’
"‘Of course,’ says Brad. ‘And can I get you a drink? We have eighteen types of vodka.’
"‘Do you have beer?’ asks Steve.
“‘We have twelve types of beer,’ says Brad.”
