We really do get a lot of visitors to our feeders.

One of the things I enjoy about Deep Space Nine is the banter between the characters. I think it starts with running jokes about Dax being a terrible gossip, then we start to see Dax gossiping with Kira and quite soon we see short bits of back and forth, and I love those bits.

But the other thing we get with the scenes is in the background, the little things that allow a space station or fighter ship to function.

Take this scene:

Chief O’Brien: Dilithium matrix is aligned and calibrated. – Just be a bit more careful, that’s all I ask.
Colonel Kira: Opening antimatter injector ports. – Trouble in paradise?
Doctor Bashir: It was nothing. – Emergency life support and damage control systems standing by.
Chief O’Brien: I wouldn’t call it nothing.
Lieutenant Ezri Dax: Autonomous guidance system initialized and active.
Chief O’Brien: He lost Travis.
Colonel Kira: Hm – sounds serious. – Verify astrometric database.
Doctor Bashir: Miles built this Alamo model, replete with small figures. Quite spectacular, actually. – Data sets loaded and verified. – Anyway, he was showing it to me in Quark’s when we – rather I – accidentally misplaced Colonel Travis.
Nog: Phaser safeties engaged. – Can’t you make another one?
Chief O’Brien: What, so he can lose it again? – Field stabilizers online.
Colonel Kira: Well, that’s what happens when you share your toys. – Synchronizing warp plasma flow…
Chief O’Brien: It’s not a toy! It’s a model, built to scale.
Doctor Bashir: He really did a fantastic job.
Chief O’Brien: Nacelles holding at pre-warp threshold.

These scenes feel real–the conversations people would have while going through checklists or other regular tasks. They’re taking the tasks seriously, but they are also joking around and teasing each other and generally being normal people.

It’s something that was brought up in the episode “In the Pale Moonlight” where they are trying to create a fake meeting between Damar and Weyoun.

GARAK: That’s it. Freeze programme. That’s all the new material. The rest of the programme plays exactly as you saw it before. What do you think?
SISKO: It’s better. They seem more real.
GARAK: Yes, and all I had to do was add a little petty bickering and mutual loathing.
TOLAR: So, you are happy?
SISKO: It’s satisfactory.

It’s the similar principle that makes me love the scenes of teasing and general chatter between the characters on DS9. It makes them seem like real people.

It’s a tiny thing, but I it delightful.

Here are some of my favorite books from last month:

This Side of Murder by Anna Lee Huber is a mystery set post WWI. There aren’t a lot of mysteries set in this time period, which is too bad, because it’s really the start of the modern era. The author also writes the Lady Darby (Anatomist’s Wife) series.  The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater is the conclusion to the Raven Boys series. I put this off for a very long time, because I was terrified it wouldn’t end well. How foolish of me. You really do need to read this series. The Myth Manifestation by Lisa Shearin may be the last SPI Files book, as it was self-published, but it was very well done, and I’ll keep hoping for another book. And I finished my re-read of Rising Stars with Visitations by J. Michael Straczynski. That really is a phenomenal series.

Mystery, Historical

This Side of Murder (2017) Anna Lee Huber 8/10 (Verity Kent)
Bess Crawford
A Duty to the Dead (2009) Charles Todd 7.5/10
An Impartial Witness (2010) Charles Todd 7.5/10

Romance, Historical

The Lescaut Quartet
Dark Angel (1994) Tracy Grant 8/10
Shores of Desire (1997) Tracy Grant 8.5/10
A Scot in the Dark (2016) Sarah MacLean 6/10
Dukes Prefer Blondes (2016) Loretta Chase 6/10
Forever Your Earl (2015) Eva Leigh 5/10

Fantasy, YA

The Raven King (2016) Maggie Stiefvater 9/10 (Raven Boys)

Fantasy, Supernatural

The Myth Manifestation (2018) Lisa Shearin 8.5/10 (SPI Files)

Fantasy, Historical

Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was (1984) Barry Hughart 8.5/10

Comics

Rising Stars, Vol. 3: Fire And Ash (2005) J. Michael Straczynski, Keu Cha, Ken Lashley, Christian Zanier, Jason Gorder, John Livesay, Edwin Rosell, David Wohl, Dennis Heisler, Dreamer Design, Robin Spehar, Liquid!, Matt Nelson, John Starr, Tyson Wengler 9/10
Rising Stars: Visitations (2002) J. Michael Straczynski 8.5/10
Rising Stars: Voices of the Dead / Bright (2006) by Fiona Avery, Dan Jurgens, Staz Johnson, Al Rio 4/10

Audio

Night Watch, Audio Version (1998/2006/2010) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield and narrated by Paul Michael 9/10
Cold Reign, Audio Edition (2017) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam 8/10 (Jane Yellowrock)
The Brimstone Deception, Audio Version (2016) Lisa Shearin narrated by Johanna Parker 7.5/10 (SPI Files)
Hugger Mugger (2000) Robert B Parker narrated by Joe Mantegna 7/10 (Spenser)

Short Story

From the Editorial Page of the Falchester Weekly Review (2016) Marie Brennan 7.5/10 (A Natural History of Dragons)

And now, the stats!

Trade Paperback: 3
eBook: 12
Audio: 4

I read comics this month, hence the three trade paperbacks. And four seems to be new normal for audio books.

Fantasy: 10
Mystery: 6
Romance: 5
YA: 1
Comic: 3
Multiple Formats: 4
Re-read: 12

Genre-wise I had a fair amount of variety last month, but I mostly had re-reads. This seems to be an era of needing comfort reading.

Male: 6
Female: 11
Joint: 2

And female authors take a strong lead in February, possibly because I stalled on the Spenser series, not caring to listen to the narrator for the rest of the series.

And that’s what I read last month. Lots of great books out there, so there has to be something for you!

This may well have been our last hike in snow of the season, so I was glad we were able to enjoy it–and that it was such a beautiful day.

I love the Cranberry Wilderness and am glad we got to hike it in the snow.

Location: Cranberry Wilderness
Trail: Charles Creek, Cowpasture Trails
Distance: 1.9 miles
Elevation: 3422-3564 feet
Temperature: 31 F

There used to be a prison in this area–a prison that didn’t bother with walls and barbed wire, since it was so far away from civilization that there was nowhere for escaped prisoners to go.

Although this prison was open during the Korean war (conscientious objectors were typically sent here) there are very few signs of civilization left: some spots of asphalt, the occasional chimney, and some stairs.

Charles Creek

Since it’s only a half mile, we always walk the Cranberry Glades Boardwalk when we are in the area. Because it’s the end of the winter, the boardwalk is in need of repair–if you need an accessible route, wait until spring when the forest service has been out to repair sections of the boardwalk.

The start of the trail follows the edge of the glade.

I was surprised to see the pitcher plants coming up through the snow all along the boardwalk.

Normally the underbrush is so thick you can’t see the bog, but at the end of the winter all the grasses are eaten are have died down and you can clearly see the boggy areas.

Beautiful!

The Falls of Hills Creek is one of the places where there is a very small window of time if you want light for taking pictures.

We managed to nail that window Saturday.

Lower Falls

Hills Creek

Middle Falls

So, I found this: Racial and Ethnic Categories and Definitions for NIH Diversity Programs and for Other Reporting Purposes.

American Indian or Alaska Native.
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.

Asian.
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Black or African American.
A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. Terms such as “Haitian” or “Negro” can be used in addition to “Black or African American.”

Hispanic or Latino.
A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. The term, “Spanish origin,” can be used in addition to “Hispanic or Latino.”

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

White.
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.

As categories for books go, the following seem to make the most sense, at least as far as my reading habits go:

Native or First Peoples
Asian
African or African American
Hispanic

But that still has problems. Is Arabic a category that should belong there? It’s culturally distinct from Europe and Africa. Should there be a difference between the Hindu and Islamic south Asian groups? They’re certainly very different from northern Asian groups. And what about Russians? Are they Asians or just white?

In my mind, if I’m going to split things into two categories, it’d be white and non-WASP, but that’s all kinds of problematic for a variety of reasons. Division by continents doesn’t work, because: colonization and slavery. Division by color is ridiculous because for the longest time as a kid and even teenager, I thought everyone with “tanned” skin and dark hair was Italian, so I’m completely incapable making that judgement.

So… I’m still stuck.

Although sometimes I hate it, most of the time I love Twitter. And it’s getting love today for allowing me to come across this:

The State of Racial Diversity in Romance Publishing Report by The Ripped Bodice (a romance bookstore).

Earlier this year I wrote a series of posts about kids’ books and made a point of noting that fell into the category of “multi-cultural” (ie non-WASP).

There were quite a few pictures books on my recommended list but the numbers dwindled as the reading age got older.

Now I want to know about both the author identity and character identity of the books I read. Perhaps I should add tags to my reviews? LGBT would be one, and I already have a category for Asian, since I love Asian-flavored stories. But what do I *call* the different categories? Just Non-WASP as a category name? I suck at naming things–and it’s even worse if the name is something important. (Reminder: His Furriness’s official name was “Kat” so when I say I suck at naming things, I really do mean it.)

So what are good category names for such things? Anyone? Help? Please?