It is once again that time of the month when I put off writing my reading recap like an idiot, until I end up either doing it at the last minute or (as is the case with this month) on the day of publication. To be honest, I wouldn’t even have been writing it this early because I usually push it off till the afternoon – I suppose we can file this under the Life of a Procrastinator – BUT THEN I turned on my computer and looked at my to-do list, which is packed with the extra cleaning I pushed onto it from yesterday, and I said fuck me I don’t want to do any of that because I restarted my second island at two in the morning and all I want to do is play Animal Crossing and listen to the Impossible Creatures audio book. Anyway, this post was supposed to be published yesterday but it wasn’t, and there was a pile of cleaning I was supposed to do but I didn’t, so now I am trying to get this post out of the way before lunch so I can then get my cleaning out of the way and then settle down for a quiet afternoon on my brand new island. If I’m very good and very disciplined, I might even be able to use the rice-cooking time to knock out some of my cleaning.
UPDATE: lol I wasn’t
On the subject of my posting on a Sunday instead of a Saturday: this post is a day late because yesterday I promised myself that if I did my planned cleaning I could visit Bound Books for their grand reopening. I’ve made it very clear over the last few years that I am solidly food-motivated, but what might not have come through is that my book motivation is far stronger, so the cleaning got mostly done and I then spent the afternoon yearning over books I couldn’t realistically buy. I came thisclose to making off with one of those gorgeous Saltcrop (Yume Kitasei) hardcovers, but I already have one Yume Kitasei on my shelf and I have yet to read it, and I have no idea how I’ll react to her, so I’ve been holding off on picking up Saltcrop. I was also sorely tempted by a nonfiction book exploring the influence of Mesopotamia on general history (yes, really), but I’ve added that one to my goodreads TBR and will revisit it later. I can’t wait to visit this store again. Bound Books has a new fan, though that book about writing seriously disrespected me.
Given my history of book-loving and poor impulse control, I actually did shockingly well in the bookstore and managed to leave with only one book and one keychain. Even if I almost went with the “I will write my book…” typewriter keychain, in the end I stuck to my first choice, because in this house we support our local libraries. I did so well with not buying books that I was able to stop by the cutest, homiest little Starbucks down the street from the bookstore. I now take a professional interest in other people’s iced coffees, as this barista thing doesn’t seem like it’ll be going away anytime soon, so I naturally had to try the iced caramel macchiato with sweet cream cold foam. I bless the kind barista who knew what I meant even when I asked her for an iced caramel macchiato with sweet cream cold brew, JFC you’d think I’d be able to get that out without mixing it up.
October Reading Stats
Books Finished:
- Hamnet – Maggie O’Farrell
- Salt Slow – Julia Armfield
- The Unworthy – Agustina Bazterrica
- The Poisoned King – Katherine Rundell
Books Abandoned:
- I Who Have Never Known Men – Jacqueline Harpman
- The Curse of Chalion – Lois McMaster Bujold
Total Pages Read: 970
This month has been so much better in terms of books finished, though I am dissatisfied with the overall page count. I don’t consider it a good month unless I break 1,000 pages. I am annoyed at how close I got. In the final week of October I didn’t read at all, primarily because I got the briefest taste of Heaven when Lori came to spend her birthday weekend with me. Circe was less certain of how she felt, but she’s recovering.
As for the books themselves, Hamnet was exactly as wondrous as I remembered, and The Poisoned King quickly became a new favorite. I need book 3 asap. Salt Slow, on the other hand, was a library find, and it was okay. Despite a meteoric start – the first story ends with the protagonist turning into a giant praying mantis and presumably eating the boy who is trying to hook up with her at a party – it quickly fizzled, though I did love the story about the vengeful, harpylike rock band. The trouble was that the stories all went largely unresolved, and I don’t like it when people leave me hanging unless they do it well. Except for a couple of standouts, these cliffhangers were not done well. I’m nosy and I need to know what happens next. On the other end of the cliffhanger spectrum, I am still traumatized from The Unworthy, which did handle its ambiguous resolution well (and which was not at all unresolved). This was the bookmark I unironically chose for my Unworthy read. And, no, I am not even a little bit amused.
As far as the other books go, I’ve been on a DNF roll lately. My attention is so limited and my reading so unmotivated that I cannot afford to waste precious time on books that don’t hook me within the first fifty pages, which is why I Who Have Never Known Men got the boot. The protagonist gave off absolutely insufferable smug snotty teenage “I am a genius” vibes of the type that invite an unflattering comparison to Mary MacLane, and I got fed up with her long before the usual fifty-page threshold. It was a library book anyway, so I ended up returning it early. Maybe I’ll try again later; most likely I won’t. Either way, it wasn’t a surprise when I DNF’d. The Chalion DNF was a huge surprise: I got such a bad Chalion hangover from The Hallowed Hunt that I thought my book cravings were nudging me towards a series reread, but apparently I was wrong. I still love this book so much, and I know I will reread the series in its entirety multiple times throughout my life. It’s just that right now is not the right time.
In TV-related news, I just finished the current season of Bake Off on Friday and it was wonderful. I haven’t been as invested in this season as I have been in previous seasons, but all my favorites made it through and the ending made me cry. I restarted the season almost immediately upon finishing it because I need more, and I honestly do not remember very much of it. I cannot believe I have been so checked out this year, where is my head? All of which is to say that I am eagerly anticipating the next season, just as I always do. In the meantime I suppose I’ll be bingeing Is It Cake?, which I haven’t finished yet. I’m pretty sure I watched the first two seasons but didn’t get to the third, either because it wasn’t out yet or because I fell out of the phase.
Currently Reading
Sherlock Holmes Complete Collection
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
No progress this month. Thinking about DNF’ing, tbh, because I have not been reading this thing at all. Might be time to pack it in and just spot read when I want to know about a specific story or novel. On the other hand, I really really really want to read it in its entirety just once, so I’ll have some reference point for where to start the next time I’m in the mood for Sherlock.
Matisse at War: Art and Resistance in Nazi-Occupied France
Christopher C. Gorham
Current rating: 4.75-5 stars. I wish it had fewer typos, but the subject matter is fascinating and I can’t wait to read more.
The Spellshop
Sarah Beth Durst
Current rating: 5 stars. I LOVE THIS SO MUCH, and I am so glad it got scooted up my TBR with the purchase of The Enchanted Greenhouse. I was hesitant on Greenhouse when I hadn’t yet read Spellshop, but then I went on an indie bookstore tour with Lori and long story short Greenhouse hopped into my arms and wouldn’t get down. Was I going to tell it no? Anyway, I’m 67 pages into Spellshop and Kiela is such a fucking mood. The whole vibes are a mood. I will admit that part of the reason Spellshop suddenly got prioritized (a year after I first bought it) is the winged cat featured so prominently on the cover of Greenhouse, because I judge books by their covers and I will not pretend otherwise.
Matisse at War
I seem to find out about all the best things completely by accident. Last year Snug Books hosted author/illustrator Lisa Perrin for the launch of The League of Lady Poisoners, which I believe I only discovered by chance. This year the universe worked its magic again in time for me to attend Christopher C. Gorham’s talk on Matisse at War, which, as mentioned above, is an absorbing read. When it came time for signing, I asked Gorham for his favorite Matisse quote. I absolutely love the one he chose. I really need to start following Snug’s social calendar more carefully. I love their events, and I don’t want to miss anything. Also I always get their newsletter whenever I visit and this time I filled out the word search, which would’ve been great if I’d remembered to turn it in on time. >_< I dragged Lori to that store specifically for the purpose of turning in my word search but then I left it sitting on my desk and didn’t realize I’d forgotten it until we were already out on the town, what the FUCK.
October Eats
It’s been a month of indulgences and discoveries, from the southwest chicken pizza to the peach iced tea with sweet cream – my current favorite bakery drink – to the ground beef stew and carrot cake I made with my brother, to the Peri-Peri dinner with my friends Lauren and Michelle. I was going to bake cookies anyway for Lori’s visit, but then the Lauren dinner came up and I’ve gotten into the habit of greeting Lauren with some kind of baked good every time she visits, and it didn’t seem like a great time to break with tradition. Re: dinner, we got both the fries and the onion rings and shared them because we are all so extra. I’d never been to a Peri-Peri before and was mildly displeased to learn that there’s one right down the street from me. Now I’m going to have to visit it. Re: bakery pastries, I finally tried the obscenely popular croissant donut, and I get it now. I can see why it’s popular.
Bakery Update
The highlight of my fast food life was the discovery of the little magnetic clip-on brush that lives in the fridge filter panel. I officially have no life. That brush was still a pleasure to clean with. It was so satisfying to brush all that lint off the filter, even if I know QC will never check that filter and probably won’t care that it’s clean. I am eagerly anticipating the next batch of fuzz.
The job has been going okay overall, though lately there’s been more downs than ups. Still wouldn’t be caught dead going back to the first bakery. At least there’s moments of humor at this current bakery, such as the new message I want to start writing on receipts every time we run out of something. I learned via Lori that Sheetz has stickers that say “Holy Sheetz! We’re out of _______!”, and it was such a good idea that I wanted to import it to my bakery. My coworker and I decided that our theoretical stickers should say “Holy baguettes!” The rest is now history.
As for the squashed cake, I wanted to immortalize it because people fucking suck. This particular suckster came in to pick up a cake order, was given the wrong one over a misunderstanding with the name on the order, and apparently threw the first cake onto the ground in a fit of rage before he came back to return it??? My guy, literally all you had to do was walk back into the bakery and tell us we’d given you the wrong order. And while we’re at it, maybe double-check the order before you fucking leave? I didn’t see him throw it and the box was oddly intact, given the state of the cake, but the caker on duty saw it happen, or something. I’m not clear on the exact sequence of events, I just know that we had to pull the only other blueberry cake we had on hand to fulfill the original order. We didn’t even realize the cake was ruined until the caker came out and said that it had been thrown. Either way, this dude can get fucked with a jackhammer. I hope everyone is mean to him for the rest of his life.
Kitty Corner
I am very pleased with my pet insurance, which really came through with the vet bills I’ve been having since September. This approval message was too cute not to document.
And Circe is doing just fine, or at least she is for now and I’ll take it. She went through a rough patch when Lori was here, naturally; she is a homebody and a creature of habit, and she did not like having our home and our routine so suddenly disrupted, especially when Lori also happened to be our first-ever overnight guest. I think she was particularly disturbed by the presence of the air mattress, which took up half the living room, and she seemed to expect that Lori would go home a lot sooner than she did because she is used to our guests leaving before bedtime. (Sorry, baby. Auntie Lori was here by my invitation.) It took a few days after the visit, but now we’re back on our usual schedule and the living room has gone back to normal as of yesterday, and Circe has been doing much better. It is impossible to accustom her to the idea of future visits when she is a cat, so I’m not exactly sure what I can do for her the next time except hope that she will continue to mellow out over time.
In happier news, I’ve started drawing cats again!
Not too many cats, but they make me happy. I am particularly pleased with the middle two. Circe looked so much like a paint by numbers when I was mapping out her calico patches that I had to take a screenshot. Even if I haven’t got her stripes quite right in either of the two drawings of her, they are unmistakably her, and I am so glad that I can step away and still come back even better than I was. So far this hasn’t been enough to get me to fully revive the mega-dead A Cat A Day project, but it is hopeful nonetheless. At the very least, I am impressed with Procreate, little though I’ve used it. These newer kitty drawings were all drawn digitally, though I plan to keep the original ACAD blue pencil drawing style. Next step: learn digital watercoloring. With any luck it’ll go better for me than traditional watercoloring.
Postscript
One random thought to close out the post: my friend Linda went to Paris recently and sent me the cutest Eiffel Tower keychain. I am taking this as indelible proof that I am meant to be working at a bakery whose name starts with “Paris.” :’D
