Can a dog run?

[todayiamadaisy]

(Is the laudanum for the SLEEPLESS BABY or the exhausted mother, do you think?)

When the history of the coronavirus is written, let it not be said that Australia didn't put its finest minds to work on the problem. Click for the headline, stay for the rest of the article, which just gets better.

I've got an actual entry half-written, but let's get this out of the way in good time:

March books read

* Fly by Night - Frances Hardinge (2005) ★ ★ ★ ★
I read and enjoyed the sequel to this a few years ago, and thought it was time to find out what came before. And what came before was a slow-starter of a story that turned into a romp with spies, highwaymen, radicals plotting to overthrow the government, and some of the most entertaining character names ever devised.

* False Value - Ben Aaronovitch (2020) ★ ★ ★
The eighth novel in the Rivers of London series and the first in a new cycle of stories after the Faceless Man saga wrapped up in book seven, this fell a little flat for me. This time, Peter is investigating a crime where technology and magic meet, which is an interesting premise but came out over-wordy and under-cooked. Still, it won't stop me looking forward to the next one.

* The Living Mountain - Nan Shepherd (1977) ★ ★ ★ ★
Written in the 1940s but not published until 1977, this is a simple, lyrical meditation on the Scotland's Cairngorm Mountains, moving through the inanimate aspects of them (rock, water) to the living (plants, animals, people). Short and beautiful.