Social Justice Reads

You guys, I am bad at posting. I am going to go ahead and blame vacation time (Hawaii post coming. I swear. It is like 85% written and I am trying to get that last 15%) but I have been lazy and unmotivated and have spent a lot of time watching episodes of Big Fat Quiz of [blank] on YouTube.

Me, basically

So while I work up the energy to actually get something real written, let's crowdsource some social justice reads. Because yeah we should probably have a better understanding of some of the terrible things happening in society. You know, other than the other terrible things happening

I have some stuff on my radar but what else should I add? Here's what I've got

Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America by Michael O. Emerson
A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

So WHAT ELSE? TELL ME YOUR RECOS

Pretty excited about my current to read list

I just got approved for a couple NetGalleys and, you guys, I am preeeeeeetty excited about my current reading stack and thought I would share. Plus this buys me some time to work on my Cuckoo's Calling review, which I should really get to. #procrastinationftw

But anyway, check out my current "I am reading this" list:

The Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik (this one isn't a NetGalley but I'm reading it now and it fits)

It's Up To The Women by Eleanor Roosevelt

Virgin Envy: The Cultural (In)Significance of the Hymen by Jonathan Allan, Cristina Santos, and Adriana Spahr

I am going to be SO MUCH FUN. The books are all on my ereader so unfortunately people won't get to see the covers but maybe people will ask me what I am reading. And then regret interrupting me.

Cheap books, you know I love you

So I wrote recently about how I bought some new books, cos that's always fun. And then I was thinking about how I could write a review (Hag Seed review up next!) instead I could write about BookSliced.com, which lets you set up alerts when ebooks reach a certain price point. So that's pretty swell and while I don't get the emails too often (probably cos I set the alert prices really low) it's a nice surprise when I get an email telling me about some book I had completely forgotten about is now on sale.

My and Tom's reactions to me buying more books

I've tried other sites like BookBub but that one just sends you an email with currently discounted titles and most of them...they are not my thing. And really a lot of the ones I can find browsing through BookSliced are in a similar "not my thing" group. That is also probably why the alerts are sporadic.

The one complaint I do have with BookSliced is OMG THE TEXT SEARCH IS SO BAD. I can't figure out exactly how the text search is working but searching for titles or authors is really hit or miss. It doesn't seem to recognize quotes or some other basic Boolean operators and almost regardless of what I type in, I tend to get a lot of self-help and romance titles that don't seem to contain any of the words I searched for.

So yeah, search takes some work but hey, discounted books, that's super fun.

Alright, fine. I'll get working on reviews.

Most recent book acquisitions

I want to write a post. But I don't feel like writing a review. I can't focus right now. Even these three sentences have taken me a good few minutes to write, though a lot of that is because I started Stranger Things. Instead of writing a real post I figured hey, I bought a bunch of books recently. Let's post about that instead.

I go through phases with book purchasing, getting a stack and going on a buying ban till I read them, repeat. Recently I just finished the unread pile I had, so it was clearly time I buy a bunch. It's never my intention to suddenly buy a bunch of books. It just sort of...happens that way. We just found ourselves at some bookstores (Just tripped and fell into them, I'd say) and then there were a few sales going on. So why don't we take a look at the latest additions.

Bottom to top we've got

Romeo And/Or Juliet by Ryan North. Another Shakespeare choose-your-own-adventure book (you know, those old things). My friend had gotten me To Be or Not To Be which I never actually reviewed because how can you actually be DONE with a choose-your-own-adventure book? Anyway, I saw this and decided yes, I need more of this in my life. It was the right choice.

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan. The sequel to Crazy Rich Asians which was a very good time so hey, why not read more about people who "have more money than god"? Besides, CRA sort of ended assuming you would read the sequel so I'm doing what I can.

Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore. Always more Moore. I've been waiting for this to come out in paperback and look at that, it did. I also happened to forget to bring a book with me, so naturally I had to pick up a couple others. Didn't have a choice, really. It's the sequel (another sequel!) to A Dirty Job one of my fav Moore's about collecting souls and things maybe not going so well.

Tales of Burning Love by Louise Erdrich. I need to expand my reading and I like the Erdrich I have read (even if it's suuuuuper intense) and since this is a bunch of short stories building to a larger narrative I thought that would be fun. Also it's on sale and those are swell.

Above that is my Kindle cos I got a few eBooks as well.

Hag Seed by Margaret Atwood. I got approved for a NetGalley for Atwood's new book (YAY) that is about a guy putting on a production of The Tempest with prisoners.

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (wink) It was on sale and I like sales and people have been talking about this one for awhile so hey, why not?

What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe (aka, guy that does XKCD webcomic) I've been wanting to pick this up for awhile but it was always so expensive. I hope it works well as an ebook cos I had been waiting for an actual copy to go on sale but then this version was cheap and I like cheap.

Maybe this new stack will inspire me to get ahead on reviewing. But for now, I'm gonna keep watching Stranger Things.

A Day in the Life (sorry it's not more interesting)

I was (way) behind on my feedly and I saw a bunch of people had done a A Day In The Life thing where they recorded a day in the life. If that wasn't clear from the title. And I figured even though I missed the even this sounded like a fun thing so why not give it a try. I didn't pick out a particularly exciting day, so already I have not thought this through. Here's what my day was like last Thursday (when I started writing this)

6:20AM
Alarm goes off.

It says it's 6:28 because I have to trick myself that it's ever so slightly later. I don't know why. This is stupid. My just awake me thinks she got 8 additional minutes of sleep, so whatever.
I don't use the snooze in part cos I found I just end up more tired and also the alarm is currently on the other side of the room. We just bought a new mattress but don't yet have a frame for it, so it's sitting on the ground and the alarm is on a bookshelf far away.
We have dimmer switches in the bathroom. Actually on most of our light switches. Our house is kind of weird. But anyway, I cannot recommend dimmer switches in the bathroom enough cos while everything is dark instead of blinding myself by turning ALL THE LIGHTS ON, or showering in the dark, I can just turn the lights on slowly.

6:40 AM ish
I turn off the alarm clock (which Tom has continued to sleep through) and turn on Netflix since I watch one episode of some 30 min sitcom while getting ready. Right now it's How I Met Your Mother which I keep saying I'm going to stop because OMG I HATE TED but I keep going cos I can't decide what to watch instead.*
I try to pick out clothes the night before so it's one less thing I have to think of in the morning.

But I usually end up deciding that what I picked out was TERRIBLE and try to figure out something new before I have to catch the train. I pretty much wear (nice) jeans and a (slightly fancy) t-shirt to work**, so you'd think this wouldn't be hard. You'd be wrong.
I ended up wearing a new outfit Stitch Fix sent me that I'm pretty sure I wore less than a week earlier but not in front of the same people so WHATEVER, it's clean and it works. Plus the sweater is so soft and bright yellow, so that's fun.

7:00 AM
After my show ends and I change Netflix to something that might help Tom get up (recently Archer or Parks & Rec. Something we've seen a million times that I don't care if I miss.) Around this time his alarm starts going off. He's still asleep but will somewhat answer me when I say I'm leaving. It's nice I don't have to worry even a little about being quiet.
I head downstairs and gather all my stuff

7:09 AM
Head out to catch the train. I usually read a NYTimes "Morning Brief" email, so I can pretend I know what's going on in the world that day, and then I'll do a few Duolingo lessons and then read or sometimes listen to music for the rest of the trip.

8:15 AM
Train makes it into Penn. Now I get to battle the crowds and why can't they put in wider staircases? There are roughly 2 million people trying to go up this staircase  and it's wide enough for 2 people. Now it's time to rush over to the subway.
Make it over to subway platform, in what should probably only take 1 minute to do, but there are so many people, that is never the case. Also I miss the first train because I always miss the first train because the platform is always stupid crowded.

8:35 ish AM
Make it to the office.

Sometimes I'll get iced coffee on the way but trying to NOT spend so much money when there is literally a free coffee bar at the office. Also it's nice to get in before most people (typical time in is somewhere between 9-10) cos it means I can go through email and make sure there are no emergencies before everyone else gets in with their emergencies.
I'm a research analyst at a PR firm and PR is essentially a series of fires that need to be put out, or I guess sometimes fires you really want to fan. Apparently in studies done about "most stressful jobs" behind the ones that I feel like should actually be stressful (Police Officer, Military) ranks PR and while I think it's silly to compare them, I also don't think it's wrong. Luckily I'm not quite in the position they're focused on but yeah. Lots of emergencies, so that morning time can be nice. Even if I only use it to eat cereal.

9-5:20
I realize this is the whole day but do you really want to hear what I did? How about this, out of an 8 hour day, I had something like 5 hours of meetings or calls or something. I missed lunch but a co-worker wanted a snack so around 4:15 I ran out to get a sandwich that I INHALED before running to another meeting.
One nice thing about living pretty far from work is I'm tied to the train schedule, which means my day (at least at the office) ends by like 5:30 so I can run to catch the train.

5:45-7 PM
Commute home. Earlier this week NYTransit managed to first run over a guy who wandered onto the tracks (Monday) and then set the tracks on fire (Tuesday). Which caused something in the realm of 60-90 minute delays and OH MAN, THAT MAKES FOR A FUN EVENING.

Me to NJT

I apologize to anyone who follows me on Twitter cos those days were nothing but cursing at the trains. But luckily this day things actually ran on time. I do more reading on the train ride home

7-10 PM
Tom had to work late so I was going to do my own thing for dinner. But since I had just eaten at like 4:30 wasn't super hungry so I did really productive things, like dick around on the computer and watch TV. I did some light cleaning in the kitchen (unloading dishwasher, putting away things on the drying rack, wiping down counters) but that's about it. Tom was originally thinking he'd get home around 9:30 so I was going to make salad for dinner but it ended up closer to 10. Though he brought leftover pizza with him so win.

11 PM
Go upstairs, fall asleep to Bob's Burgers. I'd say repeat except I worked from home the next day so yeah. Similar but not really the same. Will we make it to the gym in the morning before work? (Spoiler, we will not. But we do go after so it's fine.)

If anyone else wants to do one of these day-in-the-life things, I find them super fascinating to read. Even if your day is super mundane (see my entire post), I am still TOTALLY THERE FOR IT

*Past shows include: Scrubs, 30 Rock, Parks & Rec, My Name Is Early, Malcolm in the Middle. If you have recommendations for other 30 min shows that are on Netflix and don't require me to pay a lot of attention, I'm looking for recommendations.
**I had a meeting at a (new to me) client's office and got a note from some members on the account team making SURE I would not dress up for the meeting and that jeans are preferable (4 out of the 5 people in the meeting were in jeans). It was the one day I was thinking maybe I would dress slightly nicer, but not too upset they shot that down before hearing my idea. Thank you, some-what-creative-field, for your lax dress code.

Bookshelf tour!

Now that we're all moved in and settled, you guys want a bookshelf tour?* Of course you do. Or if you don't, whatever, my blog. Here we go, bottom up

BUILT INS!

 I'm not going to say we bought the house because of the built ins because that would be ridiculous. We also bought it for the fireplace.

But seriously, look at this thing. I can fit in it.

Anyway bookshelves. These built ins are in the basement and can you tell which side is mine? We agreed to split the shelves so Tom gets all his sports stuff down here and I get a selection of some of my favs.

Moving upstairs, we actually do have some more built ins on this floor, but so far they have not been taken over by books. Well, except for Calvin and Hobbes but otherwise, it's pictures and mementos and Mets bobble heads and a brick** and Nightmare Before Christmas music boxes. As you do.

But back to the books.

This is where the bulk of the books live. They are marginally organized. Shakespeare is mostly together. Horror (minus the Stephen King and a few other picks) are together. Vonnegut and Morrison are together and I don't really know why they always end up next to one another but they do. The rest of it might get organized at some point. Maybe.

This table behind the couch is not technically a bookshelf but yeah, it's only a matter of time before it fills up.

Upstairs!

Our bookshelves/night tables. Tom's side (on the right) is random books that didn't end up somewhere else. His sports books all made their way downstairs, hence the lack of theme here. Oh also and there are random DVDs that ended up upstairs instead of with all of the other movies.

My shelf (left) includes my favs: Fforde, Bryson, Moore and then a few other key books.

There's shelf in the spare room and right now it's spillover. Which is sort of what the room itself is though we're working on cleaning that up. I don't have a picture of it cos I forgot to take one when I was upstairs and now I'm downstairs and, well, I think you see the problem.

So there you go. My bookshelves.

*Also I want to post something that isn't a review and this is what I came up with. Technically I wrote a draft post where the only thing in the post was "Bookshelf tour!" Thanks, past me, for the idea.
**If you are curious, the brick says "Trapped in a brick factory get help" and is a replica of the one at CitiField when they built the new stadium because every once in awhile I give great gifts.

Bookish coincidences

(This isn't really a real post but it's something odd I wanted to call out and also hey, look, now I have another post done!)

I started listening to Serial the other day. You know the podcast that was a big thing awhile ago? I am amazing at jumping on trends after the moment has passed. But I was up to date on Freakonomics and wasn't in the mood for Welcome to Nightvale but still wanted to listen to something while working and said "Hey, here's a thing that people like and SNL did that parody and PBS Idea Channel had 2 episodes about it, so yeah, let's try that."

I listened to the first 6 episodes while working and later starting to make dinner. That's something like 3 1/2 hours. Then listened to another hour today while cleaning, so yeah, I am enjoying it.

But I'm not (just) writing to be like "Check out this thing I like that you probably know all about already." I'm also writing because I didn't expect there to be overlap between this podcast about a 15 year old murder and A Walk in the Woods but there is! Kinda!

At one point in the podcast the host is meeting with a law professor who runs an organization The Innocence Project, which reexamines cases where it seems the person could have been wrongly convicted. One of the cases she had worked on (not sure if part of that organization or just a case she had taken) was a guy who had been accused of murdering two hikers in Shenandoah National Park. You know, the hikers Bryson mentions in his book as the ones that were killed a few weeks after he and Katz passed through the park.

There isn't anything more to this other than a coincidence but I thought how strange it was that that was the case she had worked on and referenced during the podcast. And of course I recently re-read the book because I was going to see the movie (which I did, and which does not mention the murders because, you know, why would it?)

Sometimes coincidences are a real thing. Get off your throne, Mycroft. 

Something to take from this? Umm, listen to Serial and read A Walk in the Woods. Just cos those are two very cool things. I told you this was a non-post.

Moving success: I have internet again

I'm pretty sure this is longest I've gone without posting since I started this blog.

As I mentioned last time, we just moved and I was probably going to be MIA while we did that whole packing and unpacking and getting internet and finding where the hell everything ended up (present me is so annoyed at past me for not being more organized) and this is clearly not a real post. It is a post to tell you that I got internet so I'm going to try to be back soon. Maybe I'll even post some pictures of the new place, though that might be down the line when we're no longer using beach chairs in the living room.

One thing I do need to consider is how to organize my books. I never really thought I organized them much, but it turns out that's a dirty lie. Because now they're not organized at all. My brother helped me unpack and he just put books on whatever shelf was closest which is FINE and what I told him to do, because I'm not that much of a crazy person. But it does mean that I have no idea where any books are. I do however know that all bookshelves (once we brought and built-ins) are filled and I still have a giant suitcase full of books hanging out in my mom's basement waiting for a home. Perhaps a purge is in order.

Or this

I do need to get to reviewing because, as per usual, I am waaaaay behind. So let's see what's to come, shall we?

Euphoria by Lily King - historical fiction based on the life of Margaret Mead, who knew this would be so good (many people, if reviews are to be believed)
Crocodile on the Sandback by Elizabeth Peters - well THIS I knew would be a good time cos it had the Alice seal of approval. And also she gave me a copy to read. So much fun.
Coronado & Other Stories by Denis Lehane - It's been awhile since I've read the guy and I'm happy to report he does short stories well.
The Dinner by Herman Koch - just people being the worst. Absolute worst.
A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin - More Game of Thrones but almost none of the characters you've grown to love. (But still good. Still good.)
The Martian by Andy Weird - Did you know I love this book BECAUSE I LOVE THIS BOOK and that last post about my excitement for the movie meant I couldn't help but re-read this.
Self-Inflicted Wounds by Aisha Tyler - I feel a lot of kinship of how Tyler describes her ability to hurt herself in spectacular ways. Especially considering I'm nursing a few battle wounds from when I fell walking up some stairs while carrying pizza. (Don't worry, the pizza was unharmed, though a garlic knot was sacrificed.)

Books and friends are the best, moving is the worst

I haven't had a housing update in a while, mostly because buying a house (when mortgages are involved, anyway) is a paaaaaaainfully slow process. And when you're dealing with 2 different banks and 2 different places (buying one and selling another) things take that much longer, and I know people are well-meaning, but if everyone could stop asking me when closing will be, that would be great. I promise all parties will be alerted when something is actually set, but till then know that each time you ask me (and my answer is the same "I don't know. Hopefully soon because we're done with most steps. Yes, I know we thought it'd be done already, but it's clearly not.") my stress level increases and since there's nothing I can actually do at this point, you're not helping things.

We've been slowly packing for a while now, starting with the books because book are always the easiest thing to pack. They're the biggest pain in the ass to move but they fit so nicely in boxes. They're also something we don't need day-to-day so it's a good first thing to go. Which means I've been staring at empty bookshelves for roughly ever now. Well, not entirely empty. I saved a couple books that I hadn't read yet and of books just naturally seem to appear, even when I'm not buying new books. Or at least not new physical books (hellloooooo, ebooks).

Rather than write another review (be productive, whatnow?) why don't we take a look at my depressing bookshelves (boo) and my new books (wheee!).

They're so lonely

Book prison. Note the bar remains unpacked. #necessities

NEW BOOKS!

OK, so, one of those new books is actually Tom's. But you know, married so his = mine. (And mine=his and "it's our nausea" and blah blah blah.) But anyway, the books:

Exploring Calvin & Hobbes: An Exhibition Catalogue by Bill Watterson and Robb Jenny - This is Tom's, a gift from good friends of ours who understand our love for C&H. We have the full, hardback copy of all of the strips, plus most of the individual books that were put out, and the 10th Anniversary copy. Our table at the wedding even included 2 Calvin & Hobbes quotes. My iPad includes a Calvin & Hobbes quote engraved on the back AND C&H make up the login screen. So yeah, we are fans so this was an exciting addition.

To Be OR Not To Be: A Chooseable Path Adventure by Ryan North, Shakespeare and YOU - Yes, this is a Hamlet Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book. HOW AMAZING IS THAT? So amazing. Same friends that gave Tom the C&H book gave me this one. Because books and friends are just the best. I've flipped through it and already seen exciting endings (is that Ophelia with a chemistry set??) so yeah, this is going to be great.

Euphoria by Lily King - This was the second book in the book-of-the-month club Tom got for me. I know nothing of it and while the summary didn't exactly excitement at first, I've seen some good reviews from people with good taste, and the last book (The Husband's Secret) was a success, so I'm tentatively optimistic.

Fat Girl Walking: Sex, Food, Love, and Being Comfortable In Your Skin...Every Inch of It by Brittany Gibbons - This was a review request book, which I am often skeptical of BUT this was from a publisher I've heard of* and I skimmed Gibbons' blog and liked what I saw so yeah, I'm excited for this. Besides, the cover reminds me of How To Be A Woman so hopefully it'll be along those lines (in terms of awesomeness, if not content).

So there you go. New books, sad bookshelves, moving stress. Man, I hope the next post on this topic is us unpacking in our new place. *fingers crossed so hard they might break

*Sorry self-publishers. I know being self-published itself doesn't mean the book won't be any good. But I have been burned enough to assume this is more likely to be the case, unless you've proven yourself otherwise.

This isn't a review. Obviously

Hi everyone.

I'm writing this cos I feel like I should write something else. I have my Villette posts which THANK GOD because one, that readalong is hilarious, but also because I need to have something where I have to do a post. Because it's been a while since I actually wrote a review. I was really hoping to get one this week and yeah, that's just not going to happen. It's April (as you may have noticed) which is the month after quarter close, which at work means OMG WE NEED MONTHLY AND QUARTERLY REPORTS PULLED RIGHT NOW! AND ALSO ALL OF THESE LAST MINUTE REQUESTS THAT WE KNOW YOU DON'T HAVE TIME FOR BUT I NEED IT ANYWAY KTHXBAI.

If I were to try to write a review right now, it would come out roughly as coherent as that paragraph above. But you know what? Let's keep me honest and see what I have in the queue to review. (Ha that rhymes. I...I need more sleep.)

Naked by David Sedaris - funny essays. Nothing that is really standing outright now, but that's roughly how I remember his other stuff. I like it then forget it. I'd still read more.

California by Eden Lepucki - I would die in an apocalypse. I mean, I knew that already, but this book really drives home that point. There were multiple points of view, which I looooove and did not go the way I expected.

Blindness by Jose Saramago - The book has a style that takes some getting used to, since it's pretty much one long run-on sentence with no quotes so figuring out when someone is talking takes some time. BUT it's an interesting story, and well-written, even if it involves a lot of feces.

The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell - This is a lot like Naked in that it's a bunch of funny essays that I remember enjoying at the time but can't think of any now. But it was good.

The House Girl by Tara Conklin - This was...disappointing. It wasn't terrible. It just wasn't that good. The fact that I was reading this at the same time as Villette probably didn't help because even when Villette drives me nuts, I can appreciate how well-written it is. And by contrast...

Man I have my work cut out for me. It will happen! I will get all caught up. At some point this year. Probably. Now if you'll excuse me

I'm sorry I've been MIA

I opened up this post with every intention of writing my review for Clay's Ark. And it's just not happening. Not because I'm in any reading or writing slump. I'm in a work-is-stupid-insane-right-now slump. Well that's not really a slump. More like this.

My week. I wish I had pizza

By the time I get home I don't want to do anything that requires thinking. Which is why I'm currently watching My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding (DON'T JUDGE ME). But I wanted to let you know where I've wandered off to and also why you might be getting comments on your posts that are like a week+ old.

But I am reading, lest you were worried. I've got three books going at the moment. Fun Home which I've been wanting to read cos I really want to branch out and read some graphic novels. And now I am.* Then there's Lexicon which is confusing me at the moment and I feel like I need to start over so I know what's going on. Not that I believe the book is confusingly written, but that whole lack of brain power thing. And then there's The Patternmaster, the final in the Patternist/Seed to Harvest series.

So yeah, that's what's going on over here. Hopefully by next week (...or the week after) things will be back to normal and I'll actually get reviews of Clay's Ark and Sacred up. Yes, that would be good.

*see what I mean about lack of brain power right now? You should know this post took me like an hour.