RogerBW's Blog

Rear Window (1954) 24 June 2025

1954 suspense, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, James Stewart, Grace Kelly: IMDb / allmovie. Laid up after an accident, photographer "Jeff" Jefferies becomes suspicious of the goings-on in the apartment opposite.

[more]
Small Miracles, Olivia Atwater 23 June 2025

2022 short stand-alone modern fantasy novel. Gadriel, the Fallen Angel of Petty Temptations, has a debt to pay off, so ends up having to tempt Holly Harker. Just a little bit.

[more]
The Weekly Challenge 326: Day of the Decompression 22 June 2025

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved a date calculation and run-length encoding. (Note that this ends today.)

[more]
Psycho (1960) 21 June 2025

1960 horror, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh;: IMDb / allmovie. Faced with unbearable temptation, Marion Crane steals some money from her employer and flees the city. Tired and wrung out, she stops for the night at a motel…

[more]
Neighbourly Games 16 June 20 June 2025

More gaming with nearby friends.

[more]
Orbital Claims Adjuster, Andrew Moriarty 19 June 2025 - 1 comment

2018 SF, second of an ongoing series. Jake Stewart messes up an easy job and gets drafted as prison labour…

[more]
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) 18 June 2025

1949 black comedy, dir. Robert Hamer, Dennis Price, Alec Guinness: IMDb / allmovie. Growing up in poverty after his mother was cast off by her family for marrying unwisely and below herself, Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini determines to have his revenge.

[more]
I Don't Love Python 17 June 2025 - 1 comment

I've been writing Python since 2020, mostly for the Weekly Challenge small programming problems, and there are things that irk me about it

[more]
The Magpie Key, Sarah Painter 16 June 2025

2022 urban fantasy, eighth and at the time last of its series. Lydia Crow knows who's causing all her problems, so she will continue to ignore them.

[more]
The Weekly Challenge 325: Finality of the One Consecutive Price 15 June 2025

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved various sorts of array searching. (Note that this ends today.)

[more]
Thirsty Meeples June 2025 14 June 2025

Back to the boardgame café.

[more]
Barbarians at the Gates, Christopher G. Nuttall 13 June 2025 - 1 comment

The Grand Senate controls the Terran Federation, but is hopelessly corrupt. When one of the Federation's admirals leads an attack on Earth, he is just barely beaten back, and so his forces need to be suppressed…

[more]
An Accidental Death, Peter Grainger 12 June 2025

2013 police procedural mystery, more or less. After an unspecified incident, Smith has refused to retire as everyone expected and has instead taken a demotion to Detective Sergeant and a load of trivial casework: community liaison, school lectures on how drugs are bad, and signing off on an accidental drowning…

[more]
Making It So, Patrick Stewart 11 June 2025

2023 non-fiction, autobiography. Patrick Stewart recounts his life story, from childhood and early years as an aspiring actor to success and wide acclaim.

[more]
Floodtide, Heather Rose Jones 10 June 2025

2019 Ruritanian fantasy-romance, fourth of its series. Rozild is dismissed from her post as a laundry maid for "unnatural behaviour", but finds a new if parlous position as apprentice to a dressmaker.

[more]
The Path of Cunning Issue 6 09 June 2025

The sixth issue of the GURPS fanzine The Path of Cunning is out.

[more]
The Weekly Challenge 324: The Total Array of Xor in 2-D 08 June 2025

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved array rebuilding and combinations. (Note that this ends today.) I did this in fewer languages than usual because of UK Games Expo, but I included my favourites.

[more]
Ghost Hunter, Jayne Castle 07 June 2025 - 1 comment

2006 romance/SF/mystery; third of its series but effectively stand-alone. Elly St Clair was engaged to the local Guild boss, Cooper Boone, but things went wrong and she left the small town for the big city. Now he has to go to the city, and getting her back is only part of his mission.

[more]
Neighbourly Games 2 June 06 June 2025

More gaming with nearby friends.

[more]
A Marriage of Undead Inconvenience, Stephanie Burgis 05 June 2025

2024 romantic fantasy novelette, first of a new series. Margaret Dunhaven has married in haste to prevent her family's ruin, and is now Lady Riven, wife of the infamous vampire lord. Well, at least he has a library.

[more]
UK Games Expo 2025 04 June 2025

I keep going back to the UK Games Expo. With images; cc-by-sa-nc on everything.

[more]
Assassin's Masque, Sarah Zettel 03 June 2025

2016 historical adventure, last of its trilogy. Margaret Fitzroy's father has reappeared, but some of her enemies are now in high places, and everyone may have been lying to her.

[more]
Daughter of Witches, Patricia C. Wrede 02 June 2025

1983 fantasy, second of the very loose Lyra series. Ranira is a bond (more or less indentured) servant in Drinn, which is ruled by the Temple of Chaldon. Then some foreigners take a room at the inn where she works, and everything is turned on its head.

[more]
The Weekly Challenge 323: Incremental Tax 01 June 2025

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved light parsing and tax bracket calculations. (Note that this ends today.)

[more]
Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2300ad 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech bayern beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter disaster doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 essen 2024 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror horrorm science fiction hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant review reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 typst vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1