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All the book reviews, short stories and music features from the blog last week with a couple extras.Too much? Not enough? Let me know what you think.

Hi! You’re here! Thank you.

I was taken out hard by a virus this week, but I’m fine now. Last week was all hotels and events for work. Part of my real life involves producing events like converting an airport hangar into a casino/concert venue. It was a ton of fun, but it also turns out big rooms full of strangers are still risky spots. Who knew?

All that travelling then all the recuperation meant less posting than I wanted, but I still found some great stuff to share. I’ve been updating the best-of links pages (music and books), and there will be more there next week too.

Seriously though: listen to the playlist this week, there’s some remarkable stuff in there from artists I’d never heard before (Witch Post and Ski Team, for two).

Here’s what I got up to this week:

There were only four short pieces in the link stash on Monday. You should read Signs of Suffering first, then come back for the others.

Only two books:

H is for Hawk: holy shit, this book. It’s a grief memoir, it’s a nature story, it’s a biography of a weenie (T.H. White, not the author). It’s incredible.

Old Man’s War: A great modern repackaging of some classic sci-fi without the ick. John Scalzi is a living legend.

Extra credit: Here’s a short story by Catherine Lacey in Granta and another killer bit of sci-fi by Colin Alexander in Radon Journal. Both of these will be in the first bunch of short stories of 2025, but I like them too much to hold off.

I’m always looking for good writing and good music. If you have something to recommend, either your own stuff or something you’ve found, lay it on me.

12 days of mailin’ it in continues. Another five great live sets by bands that I’ve featured here in 2024. Seriously, put any one of these on while you’re cooking, and you’ll be a fan of the artist by the end.

The upsized playlist is a ripper this week, with lots of really interesting stuff. It features singles from previous faves The Velveteers, Mother Tongues, Coast Arcade, and Mandy, Indiana, and new discoveries from:

New discoveries from:

25 songs, 85 mintues. Hear it all on Apple Music or Spotify

Extra Credit: This Christmas Party DJ mix from Niina is great, and full of hilarious and surprising vulgarity.

Also, this is an absolute classic Christmas mashup from 10 years ago that still gets play in my house every year. If you want the individual tracks, let me know and I’ll share. The originals seem to be gone.

Get the playlists

NEXT WEEK: 12 days of mailing it in concludes. Not much else. I’m sandbagging all the new stuff.

Have a great holiday. Thanks for being here. Get lots of rest and I’ll see you in the new year.

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