Faust has been on my bucket list for a very long time. Ever since I was a wee lass who just finished Madoka almost ten years ago. But I never got around to it until now. I read both parts over the past couple of days. They were fun reads, but I liked the first better than the second. Some thoughts under the cut.

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I finished this collection of Ursula Le Guin's work a few weeks ago, but honestly doing book reviews takes a lot of effort! /_ \ So I'm keeping this one short and sweet.

This is a collection of Le Guin's first 3 published stories. All 3 are set in the Hainish Cycle verse, but each stands independent of each other and of other published Hainish Cycle works. As the first of Le Guin's published works, these are naturally less polished than her later work. They lack the clarity and purpose of The Left Hand of Darkness. However, even this early in Le Guin's career, you can see her breathtaking capacity for imagination. I found them fun and engaging without requiring too much from me.

Recommend if you:

• Are interested in Ursula Le Guin generally as a writer
• Are looking for short, self-contained stories
• Enjoy stories that give you just a glimpse of other words
• Like stories about disparate characters working together and the struggles inherent therein

Do not recommend if you:

• Want a more fleshed out story with side plots and lots of characters
• Want character-focused stories (these stories are more on the "plot" side of "character vs. plot driven")
• Prefer when fantasy/sci-fi worlds are thoroughly explained in text
• Dislike adventure as a genre

Crossposted from my main account

This is one of the cookbooks that we got with holiday money. Neither of us had heard of Italian Jewish cooking before, although we're familiar with Italian and Jewish cuisines separately. This book makes a nice introduction to that, with bright pictures and charming recipes.

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from amazon;

As sisters they share an everlasting bond; as queens they can break each other’s hearts…

When Katherine of Aragon is brought to the Tudor court as a young bride, the oldest princess, Margaret, takes her measure. With one look, each knows the other for a rival, an ally, a pawn, destined—with Margaret’s younger sister Mary—to a unique sisterhood. The three sisters will become the queens of England, Scotland, and France.

United by family loyalties and affections, the three queens find themselves set against each other. Katherine commands an army against Margaret and kills her husband James IV of Scotland. But Margaret’s boy becomes heir to the Tudor throne when Katherine loses her son.

Mary steals the widowed Margaret’s proposed husband, but when Mary is widowed it is her secret marriage for love that is the envy of the others. As they experience betrayals, dangers, loss, and passion, the three sisters find that the only constant in their perilous lives is their special bond, more powerful than any man, even a king.

it should've been titled margaret; tutor princess & queen of scotland. with bit parts by katherine of aragon & mary, dowager queen of france. i kept expecting the POV to shift to one of the others but it didn't.

and philippa gregory must belong to the richard III defense society. because she has him as the good guy, either very obvious as in the kingmaker's daughter and the white princess or subtle as in this novel.