Life proceeds apace here at Books & Tea. I’m posting this because at this point, I’m still in the middle of a book and have nothing ready to review. Grab a cup of tea and read these articles instead.
Book Links
- Lara Elena Donnelly’s debut novel Amberlough comes out soon, and its book trailer is SMOKIN’. Oh god, this looks awesome.
- Looking for spec-fic books that feature asexual or aromantic characters? Claudie Arsenault has got you covered with an entire database of aromantic and asexual speculative fiction.
- This Strange Horizons panel discussion about what spec-fic’s focus on political systems and resistance can teach us as we head into an atmosphere of political instability is worth your time.
- Rebecca Ruth Seidel’s guest post on The Bias examines the ways in which the “Farm Boy” trope intersects with, and contradicts, her own experience as a farmer and a woman who enjoys geek culture.
Tea Links
- Time to toot my own horn here: According to Feedspot, Books & Tea is one of the top 100 tea blogs on the web. Very flattering!
- The above-mentioned list of tea blogs led me to Mel Had Tea. Check out her 2016 recap, where she talks about her tea sommelier studies, travels, and photojournalism highlights.
- Cwyn’s exploration of pu’erh fermentation techniques has been really interesting. Here’s her in-depth guide to how to rescue your pu’erh cakes from mold and restore them to their former glory.
- Matcha is one type of tea that I have absolutely no experience with. Lu Ann’s post on The Cup of Life about how to make matcha has lessened the mystery somewhat.
Life, the Universe and Everything Links
- “We’re not machines. We’re human. It’s okay if it’s not perfect.”
- Foz Meadows takes the piss out of America’s new favourite pastime of criticizing Millennials, telling TED talker Simon Sinek to STFU. Thank god.
- The inventor of Pinyin has just died at 111. The introduction of Pinyin, the most widely-used Romanization of Chinese characters, helped western cultures understand Chinese languages and also appears to have helped raise China’s literacy rate.
- If you’ve never encountered sci-fi and comic book writer Genevieve Valentine’s Red Carpet Rundowns, where she snarks about the fashion choices found on award show red carpets, today’s your lucky day.
Have you found anything interesting you want me to share? Include a link in the comments!