Joe Kessler > Recent Status Updates

Took this long for the book to actually establish why it's called that? Interesting choice.

"There are only two kinds of stories worth telling: the ones that send children to sleep and the ones that send men to war."

This was feeling like it might be a 4.5, but idk how I feel about those recent twists or how much of the book is still left. So we'll see!

Thomas Covenant mention! (Stephen King calls it "remarkable.")

Honestly not expecting much from this book, but it's what we're discussing at my temple's book club tonight, so.... here we go.

Getting my bookworm eldest child hooked on Diana Wynne Jones this week... She's read Archer's Goon and Charmed Life so far, and has now started on The Lives of Christopher Chant. I'm a very proud parent.

(She's in second grade, but was reading Lemony Snicket to herself before kindergarten, which is way beyond where I was at her age. And her siblings seem to be developing literacy skills at more typical benchmarks.)

Huh. Looks like my iPhone app has updated to allow the new partial stars option, but the desktop (Firefox) site that I usually post reviews from still hasn't. I might or might not adopt the halves going forward, but are people really going back and updating old ratings? That seems like a ton of work.

This book is long and I have been either sick myself or looking after sick children for a few days now. But I'm plugging away at the audiobook when I can. It's enjoyable enough on a scene-by-scene basis and for the recurring legal satire, but probably heading towards a 3 for me if the overall plot doesn't grow more cohesive / compelling.

They keep mentioning Bleak House in Black House, so I guess now I'm reading them both.

"Ace examined the instrument panels of the central console, as if they might provide her with an answer. 'Think! What would the Professor do?'

'Knowing the Doctor he's probably already done it and is just waiting for us to catch up with him,' said Benny."

I have a suspicion, but that will be a very good twist if I'm right.

"Realizing that the TARDIS was about as useful to her now as a box of Kleenex to a Cyberman – or a sense of integrity to the Doctor – she stalked off towards the hills in search of civilization."

Finished a book so new that it doesn't have a Goodreads page yet (The River That Ran Away to Paradise, the newest Nine Worlds novella from Victoria Goddard). So now... we wait!

Today is the last day of my company's summer reading program, which works out well, since I'll be on vacation all next week. Anyway, I seem to have posted more book reviews to Microsoft Teams than the next three people in the company combined:

Me: 33
Coworker 1: 17
Co. 2: 11
Co. 3: 4
Co. 4: 2
Co. 5: 2
Co. 6: 2
Co. 7: 1
Co. 8: 1
Co. 9: 1

In the words of Elle Woods, "What, like it's hard?" 💅

"It’s a big universe, Professor. Anything that’s not impossible, is merely waiting to happen."

‘Just remember what curiosity did to the cat,’ she cautioned.

‘Why do you think they have nine lives?’ he replied. ‘And why do you think Time Lords have twelve?’

This character just mentioned hiding a lightsaber under the underwear in her drawer, which I *think* might be the first time underwear has been canonically recognized in Star Wars??

(George Lucas famously told Carrie Fisher that her costume didn't have a bra because "there's no underwear in space." I hope this is the author intentionally pushing back on that, and I wonder if there was an editorial fight about it.)

Way better than the other books I've read from this author, thank the stars.

Phew. That twist was painfully obvious all along, so I'm glad it wasn't kept as a big surprise for the end.

~We've been broken up for months and I've been hooking up with someone else but I'm mad and jealous that my ex is doing the same now~ 🥱

My job is running a summer reading program, with prizes to whoever can post the most book reviews to the Teams page they set up. In the time since this started, I've been responsible for 14 of the 31 submissions so far, with my closest competition posting another 9.

(The challenge is actually trimming down the reviews I'm writing anyway, since we're supposed to limit each one to 2-3 sentences!)

"She knew if she concentrated on what she read or heard spoken, she would become aware that it was Trans-anglish or Galacticspeak or some entirely new language, but at the moment it was convenient to think of it as her mother tongue. Once again, the TARDIS had telepathically induced the local language through her subconscious mind." First mention of this in the canon! I think?

I'm sure there are some twists a-comin' but this is just a generic Gone Girl knockoff so far

"He's on his way to the cemetery. Make sure he gets the maximum use out of it."

(Progress estimated; I'm reading from my bound series omnibus edition.)

Been reading this as a bedtime story to my girls -- their first Narnia book! My 7-year-old is so far convinced that the Queen is a good guy and Mr. Tumnus is lying about her. I blame Frozen, I think.

"On most inhabited planets with these carvings, there are legends of ancient beings who ruled everywhere, before dying out. The legends also say that someday they may return, but that’s a facet of legends about everything from Davros to King Arthur."

Barbie (2023) ass conversation

This is... a lot of name-dropping of real Hollywood people, and it feels especially disrespectful to say that your fictional character used to date Natalie Wood. I definitely prefer the Taylor Jenkins Reid approach of populating the story almost entirely with made-up celebrities.

If S.A. Cosby ever wrote a vampire horror novel, I feel like this is about how it would go.