List is over here o/

I saw Delphi post theirs awhile back and it stayed on my mind. I ended up with 25 because while I read quite a bit, I went back and forth on what I considered was formative to me. I read a lot of fiction and poetry as a child that I enjoyed but wouldn't go back to. A lot of the literature I was given in school was for the most part fun or challenging reading, but I hadn't retained many solid opinions on it. Or I just didn't feel like my feelings were strong enough?? My brain made it difficult for me so I went with gut feelings over all lol.

For books that are apart of series, it's safe to assume the whole series counts <3

It was fun strolling down memory lane and counting how many of these I still own today (14!)

Six books this month, so I've read 31 so far this year.

Their Finest by Lissa Evans
Having read one of Lissa Evans WWII books last year I decided I'd see what else of hers the library had, and this is the first of two books.  It tells the story of the making of a film about Dunkirk by a ragtag collection of individuals.  I liked it, sympathised with the main character, but also enjoyed seeing various other characters and how they dealt with the difficulties caused by living in London during the war.

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
I didn't enjoy this book as much as many of the other Discworld stories.  Very much a standalone, I really missed the regular characters.  Also, while I understood where Pratchett was coming from, and would agree with a number of his thoughts, I felt it lacked some of the lightness of touch he usually has.

Plenty under the Counter by Kathleen Hewitt
Republished by the Imperial War Museum and written during WWII, this was one of the runners up for the Shedunnit wartime month.  As such I liked the sense of the period, but as a detective story I didn't find it that strong.

The Body in the Dumb River by George Bellairs
A couple of people have recommended Bellairs to me, so I borrowed this from the library.  Written in 1961, so outside the usual Golden Age period, although Bellairs started writing earlier.  Chief Inspector Littlejohn is my sort of detective, sorting through all the facts and working out what happened and why.  There's a definite sense of the people and the period, and although not an exciting crime, it's all very believable.

The Blanket Cats by Kiyoshi Shigematsu
Goodreads has started running some different challenges, and this is one of the books in the Heritage category of the current seasonal challenge.  Having read a similar book last month, I thought it would be fun to read another (also from the library).  I quite enjoyed it, but I think that will do me for this particular type - too much time on the people, too little time on the cats.

Mrs Plansky's Revenge by Spencer Quinn
This was recommended as a slightly different take on the crime genre.  The basic crime is financial via the internet, and the interest comes from how Mrs Plansky deals with it.  The first third of the book is quite slow, but then it improves and I was definitely cheering Mrs Plansky on by the end, which was not as I'd initially expected.


My book bingo card.  Finally achieved a row and a column.  I'm expecting to complete this in July/August, slowly reading books in the last few categories.

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Title: Antigen
Author:kat_lair
Fandom: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Pairing: James T. Kirk & Leonard "Bones" McCoy, James T. Kirk/Leonard "Bones" McCoy
Tags: Anti-sex pollen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Touch Aversion, Touch-Starved
Rating: T
Word count: 2,111

Summary: Jim was familiar with all the evolutionary, physiological, psychological, cultural reasons why humans needed touch. Group and individual variation obviously existed, but as a species the requirement for connection went DNA-deep and the impacts of being deprived of it were well-documented and happening right in front of his eyes, right in his own body too.

Author notes: Picked some spring themed prompts to get me out of a writing slump. This was for the prompt 'pollen'. Unbetaed so if you spot a typo or mistake you should tell me.

Antigen on AO3

( Antigen )

***

I wasn't sure wholly what to expect from PS I Love You by Cecelia Ahern, since I've read two of her books before and one of them was surprisingly fantastical...

This one is entirely real-world, about a young woman who loses her husband, but he leaves behind envelopes for her to open once per month, containing instructions for things she ought to do to move on in her life.

So, it started from a place of deep sadness, with the death of Holly's husband being quite fresh - but because I didn't know any of the characters yet, that emotion wasn't earned so it didn't land for me until quite a way through the book.

It also felt tonally very inconsistent - though I guess you could argue that's a very accurate depiction of grief, where sometimes Holly would have good day and sometimes bad. But it didn't feel very authentic - and it was a bit contradictory when she would go out clubbing and being having a wild old time, and then it would say she hadn't managed to feel happy at all in six months, which clearly wasn't the case.

A lot of the other characters in the book seemed very over-the-top, to the point of caricature in some cases, which jarred a bit with the emotional journey Holly was going on.

But it did get me tearing up a few times, quite a bit of it was fun, and it completely blindsided me with what happened at the end, since it had seemed to be going in a very predictable direction, and then - didn't.

It wasn't tough to read in any way, and I would say I enjoyed it overall. But it wasn't as impactful or as entertaining as I'd hoped.

 ----

This has been a week. It culminated in last night, when mom went to the hospital again, this time for severe abdominal pain-which they could find no cause for, and thankfully it eventually went away, so they let her go home, and she's fine right now.
She's also having more trouble paying the bills. Wednesday morning she initially thought we'd suddenly gotten a phone bill for $666 dollars, which certainly would have been appropriately symbolic for the phone companies, but it turned out that was, instead, how much she'd overpaid them by, since she'd paid last month's bill multiple times. We're going to have to set up some sort of system for keeping track of what's been paid and what hasn't.
But it's not like my memory's very good either, right now. Feels a good deal like a sieve at times. Tends to happen, I've been told, when you country starts descending into a fascist dictatorship. Yesterday, we all got an email saying we don't have to email them five things we do each week anymore, but were required to come up with some way to improve governmental efficiency by Wednesday; and it was very clear once I saw the form they're hoping we snitch on each other. I made a general comment about a less hot-button practical matter I suspect a lot of people will make, one I could avoid blaming anyone for.

***

Title: Vernal
Author:kat_lair
Fandom: Wheel of Time (both book and tv-show applicable I think)
Characters: Aviendha, Moiraine Damodred, Egwene al'Vere, Bair, Melaine
Tags: Canon Compliant, Rain, Ficlet, Rhuidean 
Rating: G
Word count: 737

Summary: The rain lasts until sunset.

Author notes: Picked some spring themed prompts to get me out of a writing slump. This was for the prompt 'vernal'. Unbetaed so if you spot a typo or mistake you should tell me.

Vernal on AO3

( Vernal )

***

Have a wonderful day.

 I'd like to participate in more things in life. more writing. more roadtrips. More. More. There's never quite enough, is there?

No, not really. 

I'd like to do more. My boyfriend got me a headset. Or earphones. Over-the-ears. Point being, I'm glad because they make everything shut the hell up for a little bit, but I just got them. I wish I was more productive. Tonight, I'm mealprepping. Dinner. It's my off day and I have a week until school starts, so I might as well enjoy it, right? 

My goal is posting more. Hanging out more. doing more. 

I think I'm gonna start participating in fandomweekly again. 

...I tended to enjoy grinding against the deadline, anyway. 

I have to find gifts. But... me and bf are slowly getting there. Maybe the failing relationship is in front of my eyes and I'm just too stubborn to see it. Or maybe it's just be and my insecurities festering like rats on Kenny. 

I got a Stan figure! And some posters. And some new clothes. It feels like a new me. More... cutesy. But more kitchy. More me. I drew today?

All the small things count for something. 

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