My Best of May

I didn’t quite catch up yet, so I am going to post brief reviews of my best reads with publication dates in May. Remember that an index of all the short fiction I read is available here on this website.

“Archaeological Evidence for the Time Traveler” by Tia Tashiro (7,090 words in Clarkesworld) – A mother and archaeologist starts to find messages meant for her on the walls of caves on her dig sites. A deeply felt story about a mother and wife dealing with difficult relationships and work.
“The Last Season of Your Life” by Christopher Barzak (1,505 words in Lightspeed) – A teenage boy who died in a car crash finds he can’t move on to what comes next. Filled with longing and compassion and patience.
“The Profitable Sentience of Household Goods” by Louis Inglis Hall (3,290 words in Clarkesworld) – A newly installed light switch is greeted by his household Buddy who teaches him how to be smart. A haunting tale of sentient AI but maybe not in the way you expect.
“The Scent of Memory” by Zhao Haihong translated from Chinese by S. Qiouyi Lu (4,350 words in Clarkesworld) – A young man attempts to win back his first love. The means are fascinating and more than a bit quesionable.
“The Glass City” by AnaMaria Curtis (3,122 words in Uncanny) – A stranger and his dog walk around a glass city where the residents live with their insides on the outside. A beautiful look at pain and vulnerability.
“The Two Thousand and Seventieth Time Sara Deletes Her Family” by J.R. Dewitt (3,940 words in Analog) A struggling mother uses a sim chip in her neck to avoid the hard parts of her life. A cautionary tale. (Unfortunately, not available to read for free online.)
“Half Inside the Spirit Box” by Stephanie Feldman (6,382 words in Asimov’s) An escape artist and a medium both haunted by their past each hold the key to the other’s future. (Unfortunately, not available to read for free online.)

Focus on Short Fiction

Wow! It has been almost two months since I posted here. I haven’t posted another review because I have shifted my reading focus to short fiction. I am still reading longer works which I will review here when I finish them. For all my short fiction reviews, click over to my short fiction page. I do my best to update that every Saturday morning. I also do my best to update my speculative fiction index every second Sunday of the month.

I am also contemplating doing some longer reviews of the best stories I read in a month, sort of like various reviewers do in Locus. But I have fallen behind and am just finishing up my reading for June. Perhaps next week I can post reviews for the best of June. Fingers crossed!🤞🏻

Make Room for Fun!

The cover of the book The Power of Fun by author Catherine Price side by side with an author photo

I found the book The Power of Fun by Catherine Price eye-opening. It revealed to me the importance of making room for fun in my life as a well as the fact that I haven’t done that as much as I thought. The author defines True Fun as a combination of playfulness, connection, and flow. While any of these three is welcome and enjoyable, only when all three are present do we reap the rejuvenating benefits of True Fun.

The book is also a lighthearted manual for how to invite more True Fun into your life. And invite is the right work. You can’t “make” True Fun happen. In fact, if you try to force it, you drive it away. Kind of like happiness, it is the by product of other activities. She even cautions the reader not to make fun into work and tells the reader to be kind to yourself.

Once you learn about your fun factors and fun magnets, she uses the acronym SPARK to put into action what you learn about yourself.

Make Space
Pursue Passions
Attract Fun
Rebel
Keep at It

I’m not usually one who is eager to put into action the steps outlined in a book. I am more likely to catalog the information as something learned. But in this case, I am looking forward to my fun audit and keeping my fun times journal. I even expect it to be fun!

Managing Passwords

There are a lot of recommendations out there about how to create secure passwords.

Use a unique password on each site
Make them hard to guess
Use numbers and special characters (like *~$#@)
Don’t write them down any where

If we do all that, how are we supposed to remember the seemingly zillions of passwords we need to remember? It seems an impossible task.

One highly recommended solution is to use a password manager. I use one every day. The most popular ones even include a password generator to help you create better passwords. Essentially, a password manager is a place to create and store your passwords. You secure access to it with a password, but this password becomes the only password you need to remember. All of your other passwords are locked in your password manager. When you need to enter a password, you simply open up your password manager to find the password for the site and copy and paste it into the login screen. Many managers even have browser plugins that will do this for you automatically!

There are many password managers out there. Most of them have a free version as well as a premium version. The premium versions are generally inexpensive (I know of one that is $12/month). The one that is best for you will depend on how you use passwords and what digital tools you use (smartphone, tablet, computer). Here is a list (in alphabetical order) of some of the most popular ones.

Finally, here are a few recent articles reviewing password managers.

So, don’t wait. It will take a little bit of work and time. But it will be worth it to protect your data and information from all the hackers and security breaches that seem to fill the news today. And if you have any questions, let me know in the comments.