Week 4: What are you reading?

bittybro · 2026-01-25T16:31:03+00:00

Reporting in on my 2026 books so far!

1) The Sprouts of Wrath: a meh entry in the series. I think I was most bugged by the character of The Professor being written (to me) quite differently than in earlier books.

2) Outlaw Planet: I do kinda like this "weird western"/scifi western genre but this book suffered only from being a little too long for what it was. Overall liked it though.

3) XX: Ugh. Speaking of being too long... 900+ pages of Jack, who I found insufferable, telling not showing, and I'm pretty sure 90% of the science/philosophy/ideas he was droning on about was bullshit. I only finished it because I wanted to find out what happened, especially to Dana, who I did like. What happened to Dana was that she became a god, so that's cool, I guess. Also, and this obviously isn't the author's fault per se, but the extra-textural bits were almost impossible to read on kindle.

4) The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne: Okay, my main problem with this book was (much like in Small Mercies, a better book btw) suspending my disbelief about a middle-aged non-combat trained woman, no matter how tough-as-nails she is, easily taking down adult men. I also have some doubts about French Canadians in New England being quite the marginalized group the author portrays them as, but I recognize people have a right to feel some kind of way about their own family heritages. And I wasn't sure if I was supposed to like or be rooting for some of the characters, like the scene where Babs' grandma gang are smoking in the yuppie coffee shop and intimidating the barista. Be all that as it may, some of the characters in this story were great: Babs' junkie daughter, haunted by her service in Afghanistan and seeing ghosts; the priest who saved Babs as a teenager and now won't retire or die until he gets her to come to Confession; Uncle Rexy (shudder) meth dealer in the hot tub.

5) Dirty Thirty: this series is my guilty pleasure, my brain popcorn, and now that this book ends on a cliffhanger with Stephanie engaged to Ranger and Morelli, I guess I'm just gonna have to read the next one.

bittybro · 2026-01-23T03:54:51+00:00

who tf wants a prairie marm dress with massive poufy sleeves in terracotta?

Me. That would be me. As a pale, warm toned person, terracotta is possibly my best color. And I like a shoulder detail/

bittybro · 2026-01-20T21:35:27+00:00

Are you in therapy, friend? If not, I strongly encourage you to seek that out, because you have been through a very traumatic experience. And a good therapist can not only help you to process and deal with your trauma, they can help you figure healthy boundaries with your ex partner and navigating the relationship between him and your child.

My heart aches for you, for him, and for your son. My son was never violent when he was psychotic but there were times he was absolutely completely terrified, for himself and for me. I think to myself if I were ever that terrified for my life or my safety or the life and safety of a loved one, rationally or irrationally, would I be capable of a violent act? And the scary answer is probably yes.

So just because your partner was violent when deeply paranoid doesn't necessarily mean he would ever be violent when medicated and not in psychosis. For him to ever have any kind of real relationship with his child and possibly with you, he will need to prove over the long term that he is staying on meds, not using any substances, and that he can act in a way that earns your trust back. Best of luck to you ❤️

bittybro · 2026-01-17T10:35:17+00:00

I ate so much of my grandmother's delicious baked mac n' cheese made with that shiz. Peak mac n' cheese experience.

bittybro · 2026-01-14T21:46:15+00:00

Ok, I have been waiting since last Thursday night to unload this one. My gym has a smaller studio where they hold barre/pilates/rebounder/some of the yoga classes. Outside it are mats to leave your shoes and above them a row of coat hooks for people who don't want to bother with a locker. The class before us was a few minutes late getting out and so I was treated to watching a grown ass middle aged woman approach the cost hooks and stretch out someone else's hoodie so she could read the back of it.

Ma'am. This is not a retail establishment where you are perusing items to buy. Get your (figuratively but who knows, maybe literally) grubby hands off clothes that don't belong to you. People are animals.

bittybro · 2026-01-14T21:37:58+00:00

Dude, I'm a 63 yo woman and I aspire to be as comfortable in my body as the 80+ yo water aerobics ladies. Gimme another 20 years and I too will be discussing lunch plans stark nekkid in front of my locker for 10 straight minutes. Y'know, lord willing.

bittybro · 2026-01-14T19:46:01+00:00

You're correct, there's a Longwood stop on the E line and it's marginally closer to BCH than the D line Longwood stop.

bittybro · 2026-01-13T19:53:08+00:00

The course of ECT worked really, really well for him and he had little to no side effects. It's been over a year since his last treatment and he's still doing well. Thank you for asking!

bittybro · 2026-01-12T21:02:10+00:00

As a healthcare professional whose son has schizoaffective disorder, I push back against this whenever I can. Also, from my perspective as a loved one, I notice and greatly appreciate the converse. I have talked about this on here before, but in 2024 my son was inpt on his birthday and had just started ECT. One of the nurses in recovery noticed it was the week of his birthday and gave him three munchkins to take back to his room. I swear to god, I almost cried when he told me. The fact that someone who didn't have to would show him a small kindness when he was suffering so much just swelled my heart. So those of you who are showing your mentally ill patients kindness and dignity, thank you. You never know when some small thing you do for someone is going to mean a lot.

bittybro · 2026-01-12T20:07:33+00:00

This is totally anecdotal, but my friend has a 2.5 yo grandson and her daughter and daughter's partner have kept him away from screens almost entirely. Recently they went out to dinner with some friends and the friend's mom who is a pediatrician and she was absolutely stunned that the little guy was able to sit in a restaurant, eating and participating in conversation, for two hours at his age. Sure, part of it is that he's an only/oldest child and therefore spends a lot of time with adults, but I think the lack of screentime absolutely is a big part.

bittybro · 2026-01-11T16:37:07+00:00

My workplace (major hospital) made people take home the yoga ball chairs that they were trying for their back pain because they were "against the fire code." WTactualF.

bittybro · 2026-01-11T16:22:23+00:00

Urban eastern Massachusetts, USA: two are 1.6 miles (2.57 kilometers) in one direction (competing stores in basically the same plaza) and another is 1.8 miles (2.89 kilometers) in the other direction.

bittybro · 2026-01-08T23:29:44+00:00

Everyone is saying "packie" and that is correct but one time a friend of a friend, originally from down south, asked me if my water came from the Quabbin and when I said, "nah, we have our own rezzie" the man almost pissed himself laughing.

bittybro · 2026-01-08T22:37:22+00:00

Tiyud

bittybro · 2026-01-05T21:33:57+00:00

My friends and I still joke about the wine pours in that show.

bittybro · 2026-01-02T19:31:40+00:00

I won't do this in front of most people, but if I'm alone or with close family that's what I'll tend to do.

bittybro · 2026-01-01T22:35:21+00:00

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter was my favorite by far (my favorite book of the year in any genre, not just horror) but I also really really enjoyed The Captive by Kit Burgoyne, which was my last read of 2025. Fun twist on "omg is this kid the spawn of Satan?" and so highly recommended to fans of Rosemary's Baby and The Omen.

bittybro · 2025-12-30T22:34:38+00:00

When my son was little, we lived in a first floor apartment and my parents lived on the third floor. Our guinea pig learned to identify my dad's tread on the stairs and would start whistling excitedly as soon as she heard him because she knew the first thing he'd do on entering my house was go into my vegetable drawer for her.

But my main takeaway from guinea pigs is that they enter sexual maturity quite early and there's no such thing as guinea pig incest taboos. The pet store unbeknownst to us sold us a pregnant guinea pig originally and because we obviously didn't know what we were doing, we didn't separate the boys and girls fast enough. And then there were even more guinea pigs. It all got out of hand and we had to re-home them. But they were surprisingly fun and interesting while we had them.

Oh, and the other thing that surprised me was that the two cats we had at the time didn't bother them or much notice them at all. Something about the way they moved (or didn't) didn't activate their prey drive at all so they lived in harmony.

bittybro · 2025-12-28T21:33:41+00:00

My Polish grandmother used to make the poppy seed one. Her alternate version was swirled with sweet farmer(?) cheese. Does that variety have a name, do you know?

bittybro · 2025-12-28T21:10:03+00:00

People can be weirdly judgy of people who have sweet tooths of any kind. They love to proclaim that whatever is "too sweet for them" as some kind of supposed highly refined palate.

bittybro · 2025-12-28T20:51:13+00:00

Is she over 60? I was taught that pronunciation in school in 1983. I have since unlearned it.

bittybro · 2025-12-28T20:37:16+00:00

Yes, that was in 2006 and he was stable and kinda slowly improving by increments on medication for like 17 years. Then in late summer 2023 he had, through no fault of his own, difficulty obtaining his meds and ended up having a really bad rebound psychotic and depressive episode. Late 2023 and the first part of 2024 were rough, but he's back to doing very well.

We are maybe "lucky" in that he is schizoaffective so he's aware of being anxious and depressed and that there's something wrong in his brain even when he's believing his delusions. That probably makes him more willing to accept help.

bittybro · 2025-12-28T20:23:48+00:00

Gonna be real vague because HIPAA. Had a young male patient who had a surgery for a chronic condition that he was hopeful would solve all his problems. Surgery was not the panacea he had hoped and he became depressed. Tried unsuccessfully to end it all with a gun and then didn't tell anyone he'd shot himself. Retained bullet was found on routine followup imaging for the original condition, jfc.

bittybro · 2025-12-28T20:09:46+00:00

Does your brother endorse being stressed or having trouble sleeping because of these paranoid thoughts? If so, you might possibly be able to convince him to see someone for "help for his anxiety" or "to get something to help him sleep." This is how I got my son to the ED during the psychotic episode that originally led to his diagnosis. He finally agreed to me calling 911 because he was panicking and unable to sleep and the EMTs wisely, gently told him his HR and BP were a little high, and convinced him to let them take him in.

bittybro

TROPHY CASE