This has been a week of almost absurdly nice weather in Cincinnati, so I’ve actually been trying to spend some time out of doors instead of in front of the computer, which has been nice, even if it has also been a painful reminder that the foot I broke over a year ago is still not entirely back to normal. The kitten, Spot, continues to still be the number one enemy of productivity this week, as he is both fairly demanding (for example, he just switched from meowing insistently at me for attention to getting into stuff on the dining room table so I had to get up and shoo him down) and endlessly entertaining (cute and funny).  Finally, it took me forever to finish my post on the Game of Thrones finale. The word count wasn’t that high (only around 3600), but it was just a tough episode to get through a second time.

All that said, I’m looking forward to this coming week. It’s supposed to be hot and rainy and almost certainly intolerably humid, so I expect to be holed up inside where the air conditioning is. With no Game of Thrones, I’ll have all week to catch up on my summer reading and to write about books. Next weekend is going to bring one last trip to Huntsville to clear out my partner’s mom’s house, but that should just take a day or two and then that whole saga should be behind us. It’s looking like things are finally going to be more or less back to normal around here after this, and I can not wait.

A new trailer came out for the next Star Trek movie this week, which is cool, but obviously the most important thing about it is the new Rihanna song that debuted with it, “Sledgehammer”:

Also in Star Trek news this week, the Smithsonian unveiled the newly restored original model of the Enterprise.

Jessica Williams is leaving The Daily Show to work on her own series for Comedy Central.

The Toast shuttered their doors on July 1, and Hillary Clinton wrote a farewell post for the blog that had me in actual tears.

Neil Gaiman’s next book is going to be Norse mythology.

N.K. Jemisin has released the first chapter of The Obelisk Gate. 

J.K. Rowling has released more North American wizarding world stuff on Pottermore, and it seems she’s doubling down on promoting colonial narratives and erasing Native Americans. Over at Natives in America, you can (and should) read Loralee Sepsey’s post about the issue, “Dear JK Rowling: We’re Still Here.”

Sci Phi Journal has made their Hugo Voter’s Packet material available to everyone.

Speaking of the Hugos, Joe Sherry over at Nerds of a Feather continued his review of this year’s finalists this week with looks at the nominated Fancasts and Fanzines.

Clexacon is a thing, if you are an LGBT woman or a fan of LGBT women in the media.

Pornokitsch is going to be hosting a read through of Mary Shelley’s non-Frankenstein work.

Mythcreants takes a look at 5 Bad Ideas That Science Fiction Teaches Us to Love.

Speaking of bad ideas, it turns out that Octavia Butler predicted Donald Trump’s campaign slogan years ago.

I kind of loved this admittedly very nerdy and pedantic piece on the poorly thought out demographics of Westeros.

Not as much as I love these Disney Princesses Reimagined as Cats Reimagined as Sharks Who Are Not Disney Princesses: