Drop a house

 So, been in a Pratchett mood of late, and decided to reread Witches Abroad, which follows Esme Weatherwax, Gytha Ogg, and Margrat Garlick to Genua after Margrat inherits a Fairy Godmother wand. 

Essentially, we get two themes here, the magic of mirrors, and the magic of stories. Seems the current Genua fairy godmother likes trapping everyone in stories and using mirrors to amplify her powers. This kind of irks the Voodoo priestess in the swamp who has resurrected the former leader of Genua. That she can read the future in jambalaya is just a neat trick. 

Any rate, before the trio reaches Genua, we get a few interludes where they deal with local superstitions, including a vampire who winds up gettinmg beaten by Nanny Ogg's cat Greebo. Not long after we get to Genua, a house drops on Nanny Ogg. 

In the end, we find out the bad grandmother is Esme's sister(!), who's been turning animals into humans to feed the stories. 

While this is not my favorite of the Witch stories, it's really funny and has a few things to say worth pondering.

4 derivations and a funeral

 So, a while back, I bought a copy to Alexis Hall's Husband Material, since I enjoyed his previous volume a bit. 

We're back to listening to Lucian whine, although at this point, he and Oliver have been dating 2 years, so none of it is particularly high angst. We do, however, deal with Luc proposing and Oliver accepting, and then a mad dash through 3 weddings, a funeral, and Luc and Oliver's nuptials to round out the event. 

We start with best friend Bridge's wedding, which ends up being a trainwreck, as the venue burns down a week beforehand, which requires relocating to a friend of Luc's mom's estate. 

Then we get the gay wedding of Luc's ex, the one who sold him to the tabloids for a tidy sum. 

And the wedding of Luc's coworker, where we get a view of CoE wedding rites. 

Luc and Oliver have dinner with Oliver's parents, wherein Oliver finally tells his father what he can do to himself. Oliver's father responds by dying. 

Which leads to the funeral portion. 

And then we have Luc and Oliver's wedding, which doesn't quite go as planned. 

Honestly, while I didn't love this one, and indeed, got kind of annoyed with the finale, it was readable, and there were some rather cathartic moments tucked in with the bad rom-com set up. It's not perfect by any means, but it provided what I needed in a moment.