AFKBRBChocolate

I'll put them on the reading list.

Yeah, I wondered if my problems with the 3BP book were culturally-based from the translation, though it was pretty universally lauded as masterful. The motivations and actions of some of the characters just seemed so unlikely to me.

That book won a lot of awards, but it really didn't do it for me. I don't think it's because it's so slowly paced; I've thoroughly enjoyed lots of books at least as slowly paced. Maybe it's that I sat down to read a SF book and for half of it it just feels like we're reading a journal, with nothing especially noteworthy happening. Or maybe I just wasn't in the right place to enjoy that one.

I read those Dispossessed and LHoD in the 80s, and then reread them more recently, and I'm amazed at how well they hold up. So often stories and sensibilities feel dated when you get to many decades from when they were written, but those two books could have been written yesterday. Both masterpieces, for sure. I'm not sure who you feel they're inappropriate for teenagers though.

I never read City of Illusions - at least I don't think I have. I'll add it to my list. What do you think of Three Body Problem? I read the book and didn't really care for it (I know I'm in the minority there).

I read a stupid amount of SF and fantasy (up to 60 books so far this year), and I keep notes, so if there's a particular kind of thing you enjoy I might be able to make a more focused recommendation.

I believe I've read everything recommended in reply to you, and most are excellent. Some books I've read recently that really pulled me in, and that I didn't see mentioned elsewhere, are:

• Sleeping Giants, Neuvel
• Ammonite, Griffith
• Spin, Wilson
• The Space Between Worlds, Johnson
• Service Model, Tchaikovsky
• The Tainted Cup, Bennett

Lots of others of I go further back. I hope you find something you love.

Try Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It's a wonderful story and has an underlying sense of humor in the way that Pratchett's books did.

Practically speaking, there's no good way around it. If you could block them seeing you, they could just make another account to follow you with.

COVID/flu symptoms are the same symptoms as a lot of things, so hard to say anything about what they have based on those symptoms. If their doctor is decent, your best advice is to just let them do their thing. You're not going to get a useful diagnosis from the Lemmy community.

I should stop there, but I came here to answer the title of your post. Yes, my dad died of something they never figured out. Was very strange.

I'm sure there are a number of "we can't allow gay sex because we'd all be having it if it was allowed and everyone should resist the sin like me" people, but there really are a lot of folks who feel it takes something away from them if others get what they have. It's like the mentality of the guy who loves his BMW until his neighbor gets one too, and then he has to get a more expensive car.

It's really gross how many people think everything in life is a zero sum game. The anti gay marriage folks are like that: if gay people can get married then somehow their own marriage is lesser. If people who aren't working get healthcare, then it somehow takes away from them. It's disgusting.

Good info for the five cat owners who don't already know this.

I guess I'm not at all into supernatural stuff, so I wouldn't think "creepy" as in ghosts, but I'd for sure be wondering if there was someone waiting away from the door to cause me problems if I stepped out to look without locking the door behind me. And I don't live in a place where that kind of thing is common.

She and Dolph were quite a striking pair.