Joy > Recent Status Updates

No set goals this year beyond my 52-book goal. One book per week. I want to keep it simple and pick up any book I want. If it includes a bucket-list, TBR, or a finish-later book, so be it. I'm just going with the flow this year: no clubs, no lists, no challenges, and no competitions. I've had my fill. Just wandering down my personal path of bookish happiness. :)

“The last time the Atlantic had leapt from its bed was in the Great September Gale of 1815. In the intervening century, as the nation expanded and prospered, the lesson of history was forgotten. By 1938 the barrier beaches of Long Island and southern New England … had become popular summer resorts.”

I read this passage as I crossed over the Whitestone Bridge today. Mind-blowing.

DO NOT JUDGE ME. I loved this movie, and there's a sequel now.

Okay, the book finally settled in. I'm still not happy, but it became proper horror instead of a 1950s critique of a female teenager who won't toe a religious ideal. It's still dated, but that's okay, I don't mind dated. As long as it's not making me actively angry, I might finish it. This is why I try to read to the halfway point.

I can't wait to get to 50% of this book so I can DNF it. It's beyond dated and tedious and boring. It's insulting. There is no horror, there are only virginal men fantasizing about, and then endlessly mansplainin' to each other how 16-year-old girls *should* behave. Then they call her names when she doesn't live up to their imagined expectations.

This book isn't a classic, it's just awful.

Can't. Stop. Reading.

So many characters! I'm having a hard time keeping track of them! Especially since *poof* they die! This is a promising Space Opera, though. Exciting!

“All they had was each other. And their babies. And after this was over, they'd never see each other or their babies again. They were completely and totally alone.”

“…PFs (putative fathers).”

Here, have some old-fashioned misogynist double standards.

“Work meant that instead of their parents paying $3.73 a day for room and board, they got it for free.”

If Hendrix is basing this on Georgia Tann, what he's not saying is that the babies were sold for thousands of dollars. Babies. People. Sold. Think about what that means. It was less about sexual taboos or unmarried girls and more about money.

“A mother was supposed to love her baby, but this paper would record forever that she was an unnatural mother. It felt too big; the consequences reached too far into the future. She couldn't wrap her head around it.”

“Right there on the blank line, in perfect cursive, she wrote, 'Jane Doe.'”

She is broken down until she is no one.

“You will sever your connection with Wellwood House the instant you walk out our front door. That is the gift we offer you. If you obey me in all matters, when your time here is over and your crisis has passed, it will be as if this never happened.”

Until your child is no longer a child, and they cannot forget that they are a question mark.

“But when this is over,” Miss Wellwood said, and her voice softened, “you will present the gift of your child to a deserving family and you will return home and forget this ever happened.”

My heart breaks.

“Because if you don't stand up for the stuff you don't like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you've already lost.” ― Neil Gaiman

Well, well, well. This is definitely something I'll remember about 2025.

This is getting a bit repetitive. Obviously, it's basic talking points about late stage capitalism. It's not a bad book, it's just boring. Unfortunately, it is also putting me to sleep. That's a good thing when I read it in bed, not so much in the middle of the day. I think I may be done with this soon.

I summarized how I rate books here in the comments. GR is so weird about character limits.

82 is the average number of books I've read over the years here at GoodReads. So my goal will be to surpass this. If I don't, that's fine. I have a lot of things going on this year, but I'll always make time to read.

My personal goal this year is to winnow through the books in my 'finish-later' pile, and continue to work on my 'bucket-list'. I'd like to complete the catalog of at least one favorite author.

“How much weirder, thought Kline, is it possible for my life to get?”

The most meta line I've read all year.

I'm not sure how much more I can take of this. It's occasionally funny in a droll kind of way, but the characters are like fingernails on a blackboard. I disengage from the book in a foul mood. Honestly, I don't know if that's what Wells intended, but it's wearing me down. From the reviews, the book gets better around the 50% mark, so I will give it a bit more, but if it doesn't get better today, I'm done.

This is not the book I expected. It's horrifying to be sure. What I didn't expect is the way in which empathy is slowly torn away from the individual. This is why I love well-written horror. It can leave you bottomed out and thinking about your own life and core values.

Finally began to understand what "happened in Atlanta" while reading last evening. Very creative in a WTF kind of way. I'm going to have that horrible image banging around in my head for quite awhile.

Also beginning to understand heroine addiction. This is what I love most about cosmic horror.

Short story: Mammal - Ben Sobel tests cosmetic products on small, restrained mammals for a living.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Noping right out of this story.

Ben Sobel tests cosmetic products on small, restrained mammals for a living.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Noping right out of this story.

I'm really confused.

Yeah, nah. I can't do this. The characters are annoying idiots.

"In every race so far, Wind had broken to the lead and stayed there"

Oh, Mr Jordan, this is such juvenile humor. But cleverly written. 😆

This is taking forever.

It's taken me an entire month to get to 50% of Bad Man. It's an engaging story, I just can't seem to get into it. I'm reading around 45 minutes a day when I read. Lately I've been letting pictures through a screen blend in my brain instead of doing interactive things. Listening to podcasts while I go about my day rather than audiobooks.
I seem to like my book, but if it doesn't pick up, it will make me sad.

I can't believe what a hot mess this book is. It's like she overstuffed a suitcase and decided to throw out plot, characterization and setting in favor of obvious red herrings, one-dimensional dialogue and confusing inner monologues.

I want to pursue Kate, pin her down for answers. But I can't, I have to comfort my child.

That child is an excuse accessory. And really annoying.