Jenni > Recent Status Updates

I'm honestly loving how often Herman Melville is quoted in this.

I could totally fathom Madame Kolkhlakov being a cougar but the 19th c. Russian equivalent of feet pics was not on my bingo card.

Over halfway through this 42-hour audiobook and Fyodor has finally been murdered (spoiler alert).

Not Madame Khoklakov as the original Amway hun 🤣

I dunno man, you're losing me at "she hears infrasonic ultrasound."

No spoilers, but the chapter in this book titled "A Squeeze of the Hand" is much less hilarious than the one in Moby Dick...

"Then, suddenly, [the egret/ibis/random white bird that hangs around the Miami Seaquarium orca show] drops from the sky to the middle of the stage out of nowhere, like Lady Gaga at the Superbowl."

The timeliness with which this book has come into my life is nothing short of uncanny.

"I feel like the world is divided into two types of people: people who know loss and people who don't."

Woof, also very relatable.

The DVD mom wants to watch disguised as a present is soooooo relatable omg 😂

The part where the iCarly creator (we all know the one) specifically requests wardrobe fittings for bikinis 🤢🤮

I'm loving this book but I'm haaaaaaating this book ugh

"If was one thing all people took for granted, was conviction that if you feed honest figures into computer, honest figures come out. Never doubted it myself, 'til I met a computer with 'sense of humor.'"

Loving this breakdown of lunar grassroots organization.

Update: the book took a surprisingly progressive turn and now the computer is genderfluid.

"Some girls are very not-stupid, Mike."

The parts with the sentient computer are fantastic, but the casual 1960s racism/sexism (that doesn't seem to be trying to be malicious but is littered with microaggressions of the time) is reallllllly hard to get through 💀

Came for the fun whale facts but stayed for the Ishmael/Queequeg bromance.

I was honestly considering DNFing after we meet Deidameia on Scyros because the way Miller handled this part was giving me the ick.

Then in pops Odysseus who is the best character in every version of this story and my hand was stayed.

Lest anyone think I chose to read this book: I'm trying to get some professional development credits.

I like how the entire concept of this three-hour long audiobook exists as a children's picture book in-universe.

😱 ...Or should I say 🤯
Genius use of emotional whiplash to put that chapter after the one where people are laughing about Culture ship names.

This last chapter wants to be an anime so bad

I get why people write so many anomalous zone/alien mind control books. They're easy to write, in a sense. You can plagiarize from so many different stories that came before that no one can say you lifted your premise from just one, and all the stupid decisions your characters make to drive the plot can be chalked up to "tHeY wErE bEiNg MiNd CoNtRoLLeD tHe WhOLe TiMe!"

This book counts for both the AAPI Heritage and Pride Month reading challenge badges, so I'm trying something new.

Already a little confused at the inciting incident: Yeva kills a dragon and her dad has to send her to her uncle to train to be a night. Yeva does not want this. Dad does not want this. Mom is away but would also not want this. Uncle doesn't want this either apparently. Why are we doing this again?

"This guy I've only known a few days is usually pretty cheerful, but he's been uncharacteristically upset ever since last night when A MONSTER TORE HIS F❄️CKING LEG OFF."

I'm honestly surprised that between being a top-tier surgeon, genius physicist, bargain bin Cal Lightman, and consulting paranormal detective (?) our man Harold never found time to become an elite mountain climber.

And yet of course he's still pretty good at it?

Oh, so this Harold guy is just Tim Roth in Lie to Me.

I'm really only reading this book to get the Armchair Explorer badge for the summer reading challenge.

I'm reading THIS book in particular because it's narrated by Peter Kenny. I realize I am 0/1 when it comes to picking books based on narrator alone, but learning from past mistakes is for squares.

The intro music to this audiobook is going HARD.

Multiple characters in this book: "something something centrifugal force..."

Me: Lol that's not really a thing.

Character later in book: "something something centrifugal force..."

Another character: "uHm ACTUally centrifugal force isn't real, it's just inertia!"

I like this book already.

I dunno man, I feel like I should dip now that we've devolved into just literally quoting movies but it's the only thing making laundry and reorganizing my sock drawer fun by comparison...

Literally the only reason I'm listening to this is because Steve Blum narrates the audiobook. It's the only thing keeping me from cringing into an infinitely massive singularity.

"...Now, all you children be quiet, Rudolph is going to tell about the murder."

"Hurrah! The murder!"

Ántonia out here raising the next generation of True Crime podcasters.