Hestia
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hestia9020.bsky.social
Hestia
@hestia9020.bsky.social
530 followers 1.9K following 480 posts
Recovering librarian; science fiction reader/watcher; she/her.
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hestia9020.bsky.social
in this case Jadzia is going to leave Starfleet and everyone she knows, plus turn into an noncorporeal, interdimensional being for 60 years at a time.

Which, okay, but for this guy?
November 28, 2025 at 12:53 AM
hestia9020.bsky.social
I love this one from East of the Sun, West of the Moon. The abject misery.
A woman kneeling in the middle of a tall forest: Kay Nielson illustrated from East of the Sun, West of the Moon.
November 17, 2025 at 1:01 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
People of BlueSky! Let's get to know each other better! What is your all-time favorite TV show?
November 5, 2025 at 1:26 AM
hestia9020.bsky.social
#bookrec

Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder

Disgusting, weird and wrong...I absolutely loved it.
The cover of Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder (Bram Stoker award-winning author). The cover is the title in white over a creature that's a brain with tentacles and wings, holding a knife, wrapped in a rosary and crucifix.
October 19, 2025 at 2:52 AM
hestia9020.bsky.social
Who's your favorite Jedi? (Wrong answers only)
Photo of Delenn (played by Mira Furlan) from Babylon 5, with text quoting her, "Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives...be somewhere else!"
September 30, 2025 at 2:08 AM
hestia9020.bsky.social
Also, apparently Laurell K. Hamilton wrote this tie-in novel, which I haven't read but feel certain would be deeply disappointing to fans of Laurell K. Hamilton's other novels and/or fans of Klingon romance.
Cover of Star Trek The Next Generation tie-in Nightshade (The New Novel By) Laurell K. Hamilton, with a picture of Deanna Troi staring judgily in the foreground, with a larger Worf (also looking unhappy and a bit fierce) behind her. There are pink alien (I think) flowers in front of them in the bottom right corner...don't know what that's about.
September 30, 2025 at 12:35 AM
hestia9020.bsky.social
I just finished the graphic novel Simplicity by Mattie Lubchansky.

Brilliant.
The cover of graphic novel Simplicity by Mattie Lubchansky features a person falling diagonally, surrounding by glowy tendrils and an orange flower. In the upper right corner are hands in wide sleeves reaching out for him.
September 4, 2025 at 6:29 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
Deep Space Nine rewatch:
S.2, Ep.1: The Homecoming

Season two begins with a three-episode arc. In this one, Kira (wearing a Bajoran-chic crochet vest) and O'Brien save a Bajoran folk-hero, and some people aren't so happy about it.
Miles O'Brien gesturing toward Kira Nerys in a very fashionable crochet vest. You'd think they were going on a nice picnic or something, but no, they're pretending Kira is a sex-worker so they can get inside a Cardassian work camp to rescue a man people thought was dead.
September 3, 2025 at 10:59 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
Enjoying the breeze and looking forward to the crispy cool fall weather ahead.
Some trees and green foliage.
September 3, 2025 at 4:50 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
As a bonus, it features these alien hunters dressed like extras from the classic 80s miniseries "V".
Three alien soldiers fashionably dressed in red uniforms and silver helmets with blue lights across the eyes... apparently they had just been watching "V" and HAD to have that style.
August 17, 2025 at 1:42 AM
hestia9020.bsky.social
Picture of Chidi from The Good Place stirring a pot and singing "You put the Peeps in the chili pot it makes it taste...bad." (While wearing a very nice, somewhat tight pink shirt that says, "Who What When Where...Wine")
June 13, 2025 at 7:35 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
Karin Tidbeck's collection Jagannath: Stories is super weird and really fun.
Cover of Jagannath: Stories by Karin Tidbeck. The background is black with stars, the cover text is mostly squared-up around the outside, with a vaguely horse-like shape of purple, blue and green lines and swirls in the middle. Other text: "Author of Amatka" and quote, "I have never read anything like 'Jagannath'...ominous...funny...and mysteriously tender. These are wonderful stories." -- Ursula K. Le Guin
May 9, 2025 at 4:29 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
I don't know what it means that the first few Val Kilmer references I saw this morning were to Top Secret, but I think that's pretty great.
April 2, 2025 at 2:15 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
Reread: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler.

Butler writes of a U.S. falling apart: Lauren starts off in a barely middle-class cul-de-sac that's walled apart from the increasing numbers of desperate poor.

Then, driven from her home, she has to find something new.
The cover of the novel Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. ("New York Times bestseller" and "Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author"). A graphic arts-style Black woman wearing a bright pink and orange dress is surrounded by a few stylized pink, orange and yellow seeds falling around her. (Really beautiful!)
April 1, 2025 at 4:17 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
A tree sculpture from yesterday's ice storm in northern Wisconsin:
Trees alongside a narrow road. The trees are entirely covered with a layer of sparkling ice. A full bough leans artfully over the road's one plowed lane: Mother Nature is destructive, but so beautiful.
March 31, 2025 at 10:34 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
The other one is The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, which I was assigned and read in 1989 for a college class.

I have long referred to this as the most depressing novel I've ever read. Like the Harpman, it's very short and just awfully sad. (Morrison's prose, though: just beyond.)
The cover of an early edition of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. The text is black on beige below, with what I think is a *photo* of a young Black girl with ribbons in her hair and closed eyes, lovingly holding a blonde, blue-eyed doll. (Under the author's name, it says, "Author of Song of Solomon and Tar Baby" and "So charged with pain and wonder that the novel becomes poetry"--The New York Times)
March 23, 2025 at 6:16 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
I read the edition below, the Avon Eos 1998 one. (Same translator.) The Cut article doesn't talk about this edition, which makes some of their information either wrong or confusing.

I was pretty sure the copy I read was sold as science fiction, and Eos was a science fiction/fantasy imprint.
The cover of the 1998 Avon Eos edition of I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. There is a hazy background and a lighter hazy image of a woman wrapped in beige cloth and veils. With a wingish-looking piece of veil to the left and a light to her right, she looks vaguely angelic. There is a blurb, "Fascinating...each relevelation is a small miracle" from The New York Times Book Review. There is a purple bar at the bottom that says, "Special $3.99 price."
March 23, 2025 at 6:16 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
So, a couple of books I read 25+ years ago.

I saw Jacqueline Harpman's I Who Have Never Known Men on one of B&N's tables the other day. (The edition below.) A bookseller on Bluesky said this one was selling, and a recent article in The Cut talked about its rise through BookTok.
The cover of I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, translated (into English) by Ros Schwartz. This is the cover of the 2022 edition, published by Transit Books. It has a simple graphic arts look, with a red border, a white ladder coming out of a square hole, a yellow diamond above the ladder, and a sliver of moon to the side.
March 23, 2025 at 6:16 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
My son, home from college, left me a book he just finished (Simon Jimenez's The Spear Cuts Through Water) with a note saying, "Beautiful. An achievement in wielding the English language."
Cover of the book The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez (Author of The Vanished Birds.) Background is watery blue-green with undersea plants. There is a bright green hand with two figures in black in the palm. The figures are either fighting or possibly dancing.
March 22, 2025 at 4:30 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
Ok, hear me out. A Lord of the Rings re-make, but with these two taking the One Ring to Mordor
Laverne (Penny Marshall) and Shirley (Cindy Williams) on a bike from the credit montage of the show "Laverne and Shirley"
March 13, 2025 at 10:42 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
Snapdragon by Kat Leyh (middle-grade graphic novel) is a warm and empathetic real-world story with fantasy elements. I love the relationships between Snap and her family and friends. A joy!
The cover of Snapdragon ("You can find friends in the strangest places...) by Kat Leyh. Snap is standing by her red bike with her dog, G.B. in the crate on the back. They are in front of a ghostly buck moving between the trees.
March 1, 2025 at 4:06 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol is a middle-grade graphic novel delight. Funny, heartfelt and real.

It's semi-autobiographical, and (as a die-hard fan of electricity) I especially love that it doesn't lean into the idea that if you just try really hard, camp will be the best experience of your life.
The cover of the graphic novel Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol, featuring main character "Vera" hauling a bunch of packs, with tents and other campers in the background
February 28, 2025 at 8:22 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
Continuing my Earthsea reread:

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Le Guin is a brilliant sequel to A Wizard of Earthsea. We meet Ged again, but the main character this time is the priestess of a desolate and all-but-forgotten temple, along with the titular tombs and an underground labyrinth.
The cover of Earthsea: The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Le Guin (with a new afterword from the author.). The cover is brown with gold lettering, and an illustration of a gold band engraved with waves, broken in half.
February 20, 2025 at 1:58 AM
hestia9020.bsky.social
A SORCERESS COMES TO CALL is an enjoyable fractured fairy tale. (T. Kingfisher's writing is always a pleasure to read)
The cover of A SORCERESS COMES TO CALL by T. Kingfisher (USA Today bestselling author of NETTLE AND BONE.) The cover is black with a couple of weirdly shaped tan-colored trees and white text.
February 15, 2025 at 11:53 PM
hestia9020.bsky.social
THE POSSIBILITY OF LIFE by Jaime Green: an enjoyable short tour through efforts to find or imagine life beyond Earth. Pleasant to read and thought-provoking.
The cover of The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination and Our Quest for Kinship in The Cosmos by Jaime Green. A planet (or moon?) hovers above a rocky landscape, set against a starry sky that's reddening just above the landscape below.
January 28, 2025 at 2:58 PM