A Glimpse into my mind

I am choosing to not give the fascist narcissist that is moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave the video ratings he craves. So because I am off work for the Federal Holiday of honoring a true hero (Martin Luther King, Jr.), I’m going to focus on other things.

One of the things I thought I would do is review my reading statistics for 2024. For this I am not short books/stories – maybe for 2025 I will.

Cutting to save space for those who honestly don't care. ( Read more... )

A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Many of my friends read this book in the month of October with a "one chapter a day" as it has 31 chapters. While I understand the attraction of doing that, I found it extremely difficult with my reading style. Many chapters were only a couple pages and having to stop after just 3-5 minutes of reading actually caused me to have a visceral anger reaction. That being said, if I do read this book again, it will be in "chunks" not single chapters.

As for the story - it was ok. But my reaction to the story may be colored by my reaction to the "reading challenge rules". I may try again next October and do it more in longer stretches of reading.
But I can see how others would really enjoy the book.



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You Should Smile More by Anastasia Ryan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


For several years, Vanessa has worked for a small telemarketing firm. She hates it - the guy in charge is a complete self-centered wack-a-doodle - but it lets her pay her rent and take care of her foster kittens.

Then one day she is called into the conference room where he is let go because "We don't like your face". The boss says her resting b*tch face gives off bad vibes and shows she has a dark soul not cut out for the business. Never mind that she always hits her targets and is one of the best producing people on the team. She refuses to sign the paperwork to get the laughable excuse for severance pay, and files for unemployment. Through the unemployment office, she learns that no one who has ever been terminated from that company has ever requested unemployment insurance. That is quickly followed by her old boss sabotaging future job prospects.

After a drunken night with her former work besties, they hatch a plot for revenge. And they all learn more about themselves and their old company than the ever imagined.

+++++

This book was an absolute hysterical fun ride. Was it great literature? No. But it was a book that made me laugh all the way through and live out my revenge fantasies fror a heinous toxic job that I left not too long ago. I'm pretty sure the author wrote this as a revenge fantasy/satire and that is perfectly OK.

The one thing I will say is that many classify this as a rom-com book. But the "rom" part is so minor that it almost didn't need to be there. I think this would have worked just find as a Chick-lit comedy.

I have already told MANY friends they are in the rotation for this book. Highly recommend if you want light hearted fun.



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Shine by Jessica Jung

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


3.75 stars but not enough for me to bump it up.

Rachel is an American-born Korean who was recruited when she was 11 to join DB Entertainment in Soul, South Korea. DB is an entertainment group who trains and pumps out K-Pop groups and stars. She's been working for 6 years towards the hope that she will be picked to be in the next new group. She has several things going against her:
1) she's American born
2) unlike the others in the training class, she does not live at the training compound and attend the training sessions 7 days a week. Her mother agreed to move to Korea but Rachel has to still attend regular school during the week and thus only train on weekends.
3) She gets massive stage freight when put in front of a camera.
4) Her biggest competitor, Mina, for the lead spot in the group is actively working to get her disqualified and kicked out of the program.

Enter a new complication - Jason Lee. He's the lead singer of DB's current top K-Pop Boy Band and he has the hots for Rachel. The reason for the complication is that there is a strict no dating rule for the girls as long as they are a trainee and under contract, AND she's starting to have feelings for him too.

What's a girl to do when her dreams are within reach but people keep trying to keep them just a hair's breadth away?

+++++


Disclaimers:
1. I am NOT someone who is in to K-Pop.
2. I am a 50 year old white woman.

1 + 2 = I am NOT the demographic this book is geared for.

That being said, of what i would classify as a YA (the main character is 17) book it seemed to hit it's mark for enjoyable escapist real-life fantasy.

Yes, there were some cringe worthy interactions. Yes there were parts of the story that felt a bit forced. Yes I would have liked to have seen more into the darker side of these singing group factories.

But I did like how the girls were all facing sexist, ageist, body-shaming, double standard issues. And I loved the relationship between Rachel and her younger sister.

All in all - for what it was, I liked it.



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The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World by Jacqueline Novogratz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Ms. Novogratz is an inspiring woman who went from a position of privilege and an idea to change the world, in a way that I could only describe in modern vernacular as “white savior”, to working with the poorest in Rwanda (pre-genocide) and Ghana, where she fought to found a woman run bank that specialized in microfinancing loans for women to finance ways to establish their own businesses to provide for their families. She then returned back to the United States and at the Rockefeller Foundation, where she realized that what is needed in philanthropy and charity is what we at the Community Foundation refer to as “centering on community voice.” It’s all well and good to fund a flour processing mill’s construction – but when you do not provide the means to teach the workers how to repair the equipment or factor in “how are they going to obtain the fuel to run the machines”, your money and time are wasted and often resented by those you are trying to help.

She went on to found the Acumen Fund – a Not-for-profit that provides grants and loans to low income/poverty level entrepreneurs around the world to help bring dignity and independence to those who need it the most.

+++++

I cannot even tell you how this book landed on my radar, but somehow, I had requested it from the library and then promptly forgot about it. But when it became available, I trusted that past me had a reason for wanting to read it. And I am glad I did.

This was a good book that looks not only into the life of a rather extraordinary woman, but makes you think on just how much the global community is interconnected and how one small act can make a HUGE change in not only the world but also just one person. And you never know how changing the life of that one person can in turn, change the world.




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She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Senior year of High School is never easy. But it's harder for Scottie when her girlfriend, Tally, breaks up with her and switches schools in order to play for a better basketball team. Then Scottie has to face Tally on the court - and loses. After the humiliation on the court, Scottie gets into a parking lot fender bender with Irene - head cheerleader and Scottie's nemesis. To make matters worse, Scottie and Irene's mothers work out that Scottie with give Irene a lift to and from school while Irene's car is in the shop.

When Scottie gets a text from Tally that shows she's jealous of the time Scottie is spending with Irene, Scottie hatches a plot to get Tally back. She works out a deal with Irene - Irene will act as Scottie's girlfriend for the rest of the basketball season and Scottie will help Irene pay for the repairs to her car.

What could possibly go wrong?

++++

A cute YA book that doesn't take itself too seriously. I liked that it actually calls itself out when Irene says that the deal seems to have been taken right out of the movie "Can't Buy Me Love" (which I loved when I was younger). I liked how the kids have a weird fascination for 80's and 90's movies.

There really wasn't anything I didn't like about the book. It was a good book for what it is - a YA rom-com.



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Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


4.5 but not quite a full 5 for me.

I do now understand why people have been raving about this series. This has many of the elements I love - magic, a heavy Russian-esque influence, a mysterious evil and a vague prophecy.

I will certainly be continuing the series and will be watching the series on Netflix.



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Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


at the closing of World War I, Macon, Georgia has seen a rise in the activities of the Klu Klux Klan. What most people don't know is that this is because the book, and the subsequent movie, The Birth of a Nation, is a conduit for bringing demons into our word. These demons have a developed a taste for human meat - specifically African American.

Mayrse and her friends hold the ability to see the demon behind the human mask and she and others fight to keep the demons at bay and save humanity.

++++++

This was an interesting book, just not my preferred genre. I think what worked best for me was the reader. She really brought the characters to life.



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The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


They were just children when they were selected to be part of a challenge... to be trained and then eventually pitted against each other, at a location to be determined later, until there was a victor.

But they were never told the rules of the game. Just that they had to overcome their opponent.

The venue eventually becomes clear - the Night Circus. A Circus that travels around the world, mysteriously springing up in a new location without much warning at all.

But can they do what needs to be done so that there is a "winner" in the end?

+++++

I totally regret having kept putting this book off, every time it got brought to my attention.

It has feels of Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Game of Love and Death, and a good gothic magical realism mystery, but combined into something new and unique.

I highly recommend.



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I am participating in the St. Martin's Press promotion boycott.

While I do not do book tok or bookstagram posts, I do post on facebook, goodreads and dreamwidth. I hold no aspirations to being a book influencer of the scales on tik tok and instagram, I do know people here and my other platforms do read my reviews.

It is easier to share why book influencers around the world are participating in boycotting any social media promotions of books published under the St. Martin's Press imprint. As such, I encourage you to read these:

https://prismreports.org/2024/01/18/bipoc-book-creators-boycott-st-martins-press/

https://r4a.carrd.co/