Keith Chaffee
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keithchaffee.bsky.social
Keith Chaffee
@keithchaffee.bsky.social
370 followers 530 following 310 posts
Retired librarian. Love books, movies, TV, music. He/him.
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keithchaffee.bsky.social
Finished another crochet blanket, made of the Pinwheels square (designed by Soledad Iglesias Silva), from the book THE ULTIMATE GRANNY SQUARE SOURCEBOOK, which collects 100 square. They're all one of two specific sizes, providing lots of mix-and-match opportunities.
A crocheted twin-size blanket of bright multi-colored pinwheels on a white background. Close-up of a single pinwheel square from the same blanket. It's got a blue center edged in red and pink stripes, centered on a white square.
November 23, 2025 at 8:02 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
First crochet project I've finished in more than a year of experiments, stops and starts, and abandoned plans. The pattern is "Something Different," designed by Ineke Mooijenkind. Xmas gift for a nephew who's just moved into his own home for the first time. Photo #2 shows the center motif.
A large afghan is draped over a chair so that you can see everything from the center to the edge. The design ("Something Different," designed by Ineke Mooijenkind) is mostly made up of square corners and sharp angles, with a zigzag edge. Colors are white, medium gray, and two shades of muted blue. A closer view of the center motif of the same afghan.
October 26, 2025 at 6:51 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
Well, since we're all sharing... 🎥
A "100 Best Movies of the 21st Century" Reader's Choice ballot, listing Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Hundreds of Beavers, I Saw the TV Glow, Inside Out, Melancholia, Mysterious Skin, Parasite, Tears of the Black Tiger, and Up.
June 24, 2025 at 10:38 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
@charliejane.bsky.social has been sending galleys of her forthcoming novel, LESSONS IN MAGIC AND DISASTER, to some of her newsletter subscribers, and I was lucky enough to be on that mailing list. Y'all have got a treat waiting for you when the novel arrives in August. #booksky 1/2
Book cover: "Lessons in Magic and Disaster," Charlie Jane Anders. The author/title, written in large bright yellow letters against a muted photo of tree branches against a dark purple background. A few bright white and yellow daisies drift down in front of the lettering.
March 2, 2025 at 7:02 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
January reading (3/3):
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft
Cue the Sun!, Emily Nussbaum
Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 6 (1944), Isaac Asimov & Martin H. Greenburg, eds.
#booksky
Book cover: "The Dream-Quest of Unkonwn Kadath," H. P. Lovecraft. A grotesque tangle of screaming mouths and beady red eyes against a pale gray background. Book cover: "Cue the Sun!," Emily Nussbaum. A photograph of a group of teenagers lounging in the sun on patio furniture; a shirtless man holds a movie camera, with which he is filming them. Book cover: "Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 6 (1944)," Isaac Asimov & Martin H. Greenberg, eds. Against a dark coral background, a small illustration of a nude male figure sitting alone on a rock. Behind him, a glowing object falls through the clouds.
February 2, 2025 at 12:13 AM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
January reading (2/3):
Dead Men Don't Ski, Patricia Moyes
The Evolution of the Gospelettes, Tammy Oberhausen
Selected Stories, Fritz Leiber
Book cover: "Dead Men Don't Ski," Patricia Moyes. An illustration of a ski resort. Two people stand at the front, both dressed in warm winter clothing and wearing goggles that hide their eyes -- a slim blonde woman and a burly man with a dark beard. Behind them, a ski lift stretches down the mountain. Book cover: "The Evolution of the Gospelettes," Tammy Oberhausen. The title/author name dominate the cover, but scattered among the words are illustrations of the six members of a family gospel group -- mom, dad, three daughters, one son -- in hideous matching powder-blue gowns and suits. Book cover: "Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories." Against a dark grayish-blue background, a grid of lighter blue lines. Through the gaps in those lines, a portrait of Leiber emerges.
February 2, 2025 at 12:06 AM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
January reading (1/3):
The New Voices of Science Fiction, Hannu Rajaniemi & Jacob Weisman, eds.
Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret, Benjamin Stevenson
Legends and Lattes, Travis Baldree
Book cover: "The New Voices of Science Fiction," Hannu Rajaniemi & Jacob Weisman, eds. An adorably clunky robot sits facing us; behind him is a blue background and a list of some of the authors included in the book. Book cover: "Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret," Benjamin Stevenson. A Christmas-red curtain is open to reveal a stage. A string of multi-colored Christmas lights hang above the stage. Scattered about the cover are various objects relevant to the mystery, most prominently an ax and some feathers. Book cover: "Legends & Lattes," Travis Baldree. Two women smile at us from behind a pastry-covered table. The taller, more muscular woman (she's an orc) is green with fangs and pointed ears; she holds a coffee pot and a coffee cup. The shorter woman is bring pink with devil horns; she holds a cake on a platter.
February 1, 2025 at 11:59 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
💙📚 November reading (2/2):

Time and Again, Jack Finney
Greatest Hits, Harlan Ellison
Book cover: "Time and Again," Jack Finney. Concentric circles showing images of New York in the 1880s (black and white winter scene of people in the park) and the 1970s (color photo of the same area, now dominated by taller buildings). Book cover: "Greatest Hits," Harlan Ellison. A giant human head carved of stone; where the face should be, four green hands peel the front of the head apart from the inside to reveal the "Greatest Hits" title. Title and author's name are written in a late-1960s hippie-ish typeface in psychedelic shades of blue and gren.
December 2, 2024 at 11:05 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
💙📚 November reading (1/2):

The Big Bite, Charles Williams
The "I Don't Want to Cook" Book, Alyssa Brantley
A Lot Like Christmas, Connie WIllis
Book cover: "The Big Bite," Charles Williams. A woman leans out of the front passenger window of a car, facing away from us; the background of the cover is a bull's eye in shades of teal, getting lighter towards the center. Her head is silhouetted against the white center ring. Book cover: "The 'I Don't Want to Cook' Book," Alyssa Brantley. A cartoonish illustration of a fried egg spilling out of an eggshell that has been cracked in two. The title is written on the white part of the egg; the O in the word "TO" is a yellow circle -- the egg's yold. There's a fork in the upper right corner and a whisk in the lower left. Book cover: "A Lot like Christmas: Stories," Connie Willis. An extreme close-up photograph of a few branches of a Christmas tree. We see five or six ornaments dangling. Those in the background, slightly out of focus, are standard ball-shaped ornaments in red and gold. In sharp focus in the foreground are ornaments shaped like a small rocket and a robot, both rather old-fashioned looking, as if they came from the cover of a 1952 pulp SF magazine.
December 2, 2024 at 11:05 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
💙📚 October reading (3/3):
Book cover: "Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 5 (1943)," edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Grenberg. The title in large letters on a teal background. A relatively small illustration of a spaceship soaring away from an asteroid at the bottom, with the editors' names below it. Book cover: "84, Charing Cross Road," Helene Hanff. On a background photo of very large, full bookshelves, an ivory rectangle containing the title/author's name. Book cover: "Foundation," Isaac Asimov. A small illustration of doors separating to reveal a man in a suit seated on a throne. That is set on a background which duplicates the same illustration in monochromatic shades of bright orange.
November 1, 2024 at 1:02 AM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
💙📚 October reading (2/3):
Book cover: "Fast Company," Marco Page. A red background. A stern-faced stone bust looms in the foreground, with several books scattered behind it. Centered on the horizon, the silhouette of a running man. Book cover: "Hi Honey, I'm Homo! Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture," Matt Baume. On a purple background, a mid-20th-century style drawing of a 1950s TV set on an orange table top. The angles are all off-kilter -- no right angles -- and the title is slanted jauntily atop the TV, with the subtitle in the TV screen and the author's name written across the front of the table. Book cover: "What Goes With What: 100 Recipes, 20 Charts, Endless Possibilities," Julia Turshen. The title/author's name in a central panel, surrounded by smaller photos: recipes from the book, a pantry filled with spices, the author in her kitchen.
November 1, 2024 at 12:57 AM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
💙📚 October reading (1/3):
Book cover: "Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show," Tommy Tomlinson. A woman in a purple jacket and skirt, seen from the chest down, holds the leash of the dog standing to her left, a beautiful and majestically silly-looking Afghan hound. Book cover: "Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film," Alonso Duralde. Against a black backdrop, a series of rainbow-colored spotlights shine towards the top of the book. In each, a different iconic actor is shown. I am very bad at facial recognition, but I believe they are Tab Hunter, Divine, Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong, and Laverne Cox. Book cover: "A Desolation Called Peace," Arkady Martine. A lone figure stands in front of a large window/viewscreen, through which we see a spaceship made up of concentric rings, against a backdrop of gray/white/red clouds.
November 1, 2024 at 12:50 AM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
September reading (2/2):
The Compleat Werewolf and Other Tales, Anthony Boucher
Lost: Back to the Island: Emily St. James & Noel Murray
Drive-Thru Dreams, Adam Chandler
...and some Hal Clement stories
💙📚
October 2, 2024 at 8:10 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
September reading (1/2):
Death of an Old Sinner, Dorothy Salisbury Davis
xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths: ed. Kate Bernheimer
The Endless Vessel, Charles Soule
Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, Wole Talabi
💙📚
October 2, 2024 at 8:08 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
First 10% is pretty good for me. I'm not usually an early adopter of anything!
September 16, 2024 at 10:56 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
💙📚
What I read in August (3/3):
The Alchemy of Stars II, ed. Sandra J. Lindow
Time (Complete Short Fiction, vol. 3), Robert J. Sawyer
...and scattered short fiction by C. L. Moore and Jennifer Pelland
September 2, 2024 at 1:22 AM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
💙📚
What I read in August (2/3):
The Platinum Age of Television, David Bianculli
Jackalope Wives and Other Stories, T. Kingfisher
Bed-Knob and Broomstick, Mary Norton
The Alchemy of Stars, ed. Roger Dutcher & Mike Allen
September 2, 2024 at 1:20 AM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
What I read in August (1/3):
From These Ashes: The Complete Short SF, Fredric Brown
The Mimicking of Known Successes, Malka Older
A Comedy of Murders, George Herman
The Four Profound Weaves, R. B. Lemberg
September 2, 2024 at 1:18 AM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
Finished today: "The Alchemy of Stars," two collections gathering the winners of the Science Fiction Poetry Association's Rhysling Award from 1978 to 2018. A wide range of styles and topics, and most of it easily accessible even to someone like me, who doesn't read lots of poetry.
💙📚
Book cover: "The Alchemy of Stars," ed. by Roger Dutcher & Mike Allen. In the upper left corner, a large round object with light escaping around its edges, perhaps a planet eclipsing its star. A smaller rock -- an asteroid, or a meteorite? -- floats nearby against red and white clouds of space dust. Book cover: "The Alchemy of Stars II," ed. Sandra J. Lindow. An abstract painting that might be interpreted as an alien landscape -- a craggy dark pink landscape at the bottom, curving upward at the sides as if seen through a distorting lens. Above that, puffy clouds in cotton-candy blue and yellow pastels.
August 29, 2024 at 9:13 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
Finished today: "Jackalope Wives and Other Stories," T. Kingfisher. Delightful collection, strong influences of American folklore and classic fairy tales. Wide range of styles/tones, from creepy to madcap. There are witches, gods, enchanted animals, and narwhal turds. What's not to like?
Book cover: "Jackalope Wives and Other Stories," T. Kingfisher. The background is an ornate wallpaper-style print in muted shades of brown and gray. Against it is a bordered panel showing a desert landscape, from that panel, a jackalope leaps out, breaking the borders of the landscape.
August 25, 2024 at 8:05 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
The challenge is to choose 20 books that greatly influenced you. One book per day, for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
💙📚 #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge
20/20
Book cover: "The City & the City," China Mieville. The background is a mottled sky-blue, interrupted by a white stripe containing the author's name. Below that, the title; the second "THE CITY" is written in reverse, with backwards letters reading from right to left. At the very bottom of the cover, the skyline of an older city -- lower buildings, mostly made of wood and stone. At the very top, the upside-down skyline of a more modern city, with more metal and taller skyscrapers.
August 25, 2024 at 5:57 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
The challenge is to choose 20 books that greatly influenced you. One book per day, for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
💙📚 #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge
19/20
Book cover: "Let Me Clear My Throat," Elena Passarello. A solid black cover; the title and author's name are in relatively small white text, right-justified, about 1/4 of the way down the cover. In the lower left corner, a photograph of a woman, from the abdomen up. Her head is tilted back and her mouth is opened very wide; she appears to be screaming, or perhaps hitting a particularly impressive musical note.
August 24, 2024 at 5:11 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
The challenge is to choose 20 books that greatly influenced you. One book per day, for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
💙📚 #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge
18/20
Box set of three large hardcover books: "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes," Bill Watterson. The books and the box are a dark brown; the side of the box is orange/rust. Centered on the side is an image from Watterson's comic strip showing Calvin and Hobbes (a small boy and his stuffed tiger, brought to "life" by his imagination) relaxing under a tree.
August 23, 2024 at 6:25 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
The challenge is to choose 20 books that greatly influenced you. One book per day, for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
💙📚 #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge
17/20
Book cover: "Stories of Your Life and Others," Ted Chiang. A blue sky, pale at the bottom with fluffy white clouds; darker with scattered stars at the top. The book's title and Chiang's name form a large circle, in which we see the three hands of a clock, set to 11:10 and 32 seconds (as best I can eyeball it without numbers on the "clock").
August 22, 2024 at 5:05 PM
keithchaffee.bsky.social
The challenge is to choose 20 books that greatly influenced you. One book per day, for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
💙📚 #BookSky #Books #BookChallenge
16/20
Book cover: "The Little Women," Katharine Weber. The top two-thirds of the book is an orange-rust background, on which the author/title are written in a lightweight type. At the bottom, a painting of three young women. At the left, one sits in a chair, focused intently on her reading. At the right, one leans against a sofa, curled almost into a fetal position. The image is dominated by the middle woman, who takes up most of the sofa -- one foot on the sofa, the other on the floor; her dress is an orange that echoes the cover's background color.
August 21, 2024 at 5:45 PM