Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are fine, I guess. We’re not here to listen to me grumble. It’s the last Wednesday of March, so you know what that means. It’s book review time! This month, I just went with something that had a pretty cover. The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop by Takuya Asakura was released by Harper360 on the 24th (yesterday). As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing!
The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop follows Sakura and Kobako, her cat, as they use their unusual bookshop to help people confront and conquer their own grief. The customer must be reading the same page of the same book on the same day in the cherry blossom season for the path to the bookshop to open. It’s a strange kind of magic. No one quite understands how it all works. But if you’re lucky, the bookshop might even appear for you.
The plot and arrangement. The book is broken into four short stories, basically. Each one focuses on a different person or people and refers back to a book that somehow shaped their lives. The last one gets pretty meta. It’s all very lovely, but kind of shallow. Instead of really digging into each character and situation, everything is kept simplistic. That’s not bad at all. It makes for a calming read in a time of chaos. I think it’s mostly meant to make the reader think about their own life. To make them conjure up a story about the grief that they need to process. I’m not the target audience on that front, but it was still a soothing read for me.
The characters. Again, they’re all pretty simplistic. We don’t get to spend enough time with them, even Sakura and Kobako, to form any bonds. I enjoyed the different depictions of people, but there wasn’t much flesh to them. I don’t even remember most of their names. It wouldn’t be ideal if this were a character driven story, but it’s not. This is a plot driven story. The reader is meant to engage with the plot more than the actual characters. At least that’s how it seems to me.
The writing. Even that is pretty simplistic. I don’t know if it’s a translation thing or what, but it’s very basic. I know a lot is lost in translation, the translator even explains some of what is lost. But I think it works to enhance the calming effect of the book.
Ultimately, I enjoyed The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop for what it was. A calm in the storm. Did I want more out of it? Yes. Am I mad about not getting more? Not really.
Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. A solid 3. Yes, it could’ve been better, but if you’re looking for something calming and easy to read, I recommend trying it.
Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Things here are fine, I guess. Eye twitch inducing. But fine. So far. I don’t have much to ramble happily about. The stuff I have to rant about isn’t really worth a full post each. So, here’s a short list of things I currently scream into the void about. The scream is internal and the void is just that dark space in my soul where I shove all the bad/annoying stuff. Yes, my soul has pockets! Anyway, to the mini rants.
1. -Gestures at the world, but mostly this country- You get it, right? I mean, the administration is literally starting a war just to distract from the fact that the orange dude is a pedo. The government is shut down because the right wants to fund the gestapo wannabes and rig the midterms because they know people are tiring of them. And just the general horribleness of people (coughMAGAtscoughcough). Yeah. You get it.
2. The batteries in my chair are dying. Again. They were just replaced July 1st. And, of course the company who handles the chair is giving me a hard time about replacing them because the warranty is only 6 months and Medicare/Medicaid usually only covers one set a year, so they wanted me to pay out of pocket without even trying to get the batteries through insurance. Just fucking try. That’s all I ask.
3. My chair is old and discontinued and needs to be replaced. The company mentioned above is trying to pressure me with scare tactics about not being able to maintain it. Blah blah blah. Yes, I’m aware I need a new one. I hate the entire process of having to prove I’m “cripple enough” and spending months arguing about what I need or want and then having to adapt to a new chair, especially when it isn’t the same model as the one I’ve used for 15+ years. They’re never comfortable enough and more often than not, I lose something. I lost my ability to game switching chairs. Okay, it was my ability to sit forward on my own that cost me my gaming, but it happened during a chair switch. I lost most of my ability to type switching chairs. Most of the time, it’s just little things that no one else notices like not being able to hold a fork the way I used to (something I can adapt to even though it’s not as easy as it used to be), but sometimes the losses are big. And it’s scary. That’s why I avoid changing chairs until I have no choice. So, when that process starts, prepare to listen to me bitch about it.
There’s more, but it’s making me angry just thinking about everything, so I’m going to stop now. What’s bothering you? What are you screaming into the void about? Feel free to share here or on my social media pages! I’ll be back next week with our regularly scheduled book review.
Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? I’m tired, hurty despite taking aspirin, and high on Benadryl. I really don’t feel like writing anything here, but I don’t want to skip two weeks in a row. Luckily, it’s Women’s History Month, so I’m going to do something I do just about every year. I’m going to share some lovely lady authors with you! It’ll be a short post, but at least it’s a post. On to the ladies!
1. Leonie Swann. Specifically her Agnes Sharp series. I love those books.
2. Jennifer Dupree. She’s a wonderful lady and a great writer. Yes, I’m biased because she’s a Stonecoast buddy, but that’s okay.
3. Ellie Alexander. Specifically her bakeshop mysteries. I’m currently working my way through them. On number 6, but there’s around 23 at the moment.
4. Jesse Q. Sutano. Specifically her Vera Wong series. I’m planning to try out the aunties books too.
5. Melanie Brooks. Again, Stonecoast has me biased, but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong. Lovely lady and great writer.
Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone this lovely Wednesday? After two nights of little to no sleep for no reason other than my brain insisting on being awake, I’m exhausted. There’s nothing I want to blog about. If you have anything you want me to ramble about, let me know here or on my social media pages and I’ll do that next week. But for now, I’m going to go do nothing and hope I can sleep tonight. Later days.
Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Things here are about the same. The government has finally approved my benefits for the coming year (it starts March 1st, it’s weird), so yay for still being cripple enough. I guess. Anyway, it’s the last Wednesday of February, so you know what that means. Book review time! This month, I decided to try getting outside my usual murder mystery stuff and jump on the romantasy train. Not even the fluffy kind. Turned out to be straight up fantasy with a little romance mixed in. The Trident and the Pearl by Sarah K.L. Wilson was released yesterday (the 24th) from Orbit Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing!
The Trident and the Pearl follows Coralys, a queen desperate to save her people even if it means submitting to the will of the gods. To stop the storms that have destroyed her isles, killed so many of her people, and even taken her husband, she makes a bargain with a voice on the wind. Stripped of her title, she’s forced to marry the first man who steps foot on her land. An old fisherman. But at least her people will be safe. Right? Dragged into the gods’ petty bickering, Coralys soon finds out nothing is what it seems in her new life.
Book cover: I don’t normally mention the covers unless they’re super pretty or something, but this cover is annoying. Did no one read this book before they commissioned the art? Both Coralys and Oke are described as having brown skin. Why are these people so white? The artist even mentions working with the author directly, so the color of the characters should have been easily established. Was the brown skin in the book just added as an afterthought or what? Did they make them white in the final draft and I just don’t have that? I’m so very confused.
Plot and pacing: the plot had so much potential. I wanted to love it, but everything was pretty much a mess. The first half of the book is spent repeating the same stuff over and over again. I almost gave up. When things finally do start happening, it still manages to be super slow. A lot of the story relies on miscommunication, but after a couple of examples the rest are so forced that it turns into willful ignorance which ruins the whole story. It was a dumpster fire in terms of pacing and the execution of the plot.
Characters: everyone else is fine, but Coralys is horrible. She’s supposed to be this amazing queen, but she’s an idiot. Basically, she immediately comes to the wrong conclusion about EVERYTHING and will only listen to people who reinforce her beliefs despite knowing they’re evil and out for themselves. Holy shit, she’s a MAGAt. Kidding. Kind of. Anyway, she’s not a good character at all even though the story keeps insisting she’s wonderful and amazing and all that fun stuff. The rest of the characters are pretty flat. Including Oke.
Writing: it was nice for the most part. A little purple for me. But it wasn’t bad.
Ultimately, I didn’t like The Trident and the Pearl. It was a mess. I wanted to enjoy it because it’s got all my favorite fantasy things in it, but it didn’t work.
Overall, I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. I don’t recommend it, but it got published and some people like it.
Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are quiet. There’s not much to ramble about. You know how Kindle has those reading challenges and sometimes you have to choose a book from a curated list? Well, I didn’t feel like spending money on a new romance book, so I checked to see if they had any that were free with Prime. There were a bunch of half-assed porn books (not that I have anything against those, I just prefer well-written porn) or a bunch of “classics.” I just grabbed the first classic I saw and decided to try it. I fucking hate it. Deeply despise it way down in the depths of my soul. I’m only about 75% of the way through and I will finish it, but there’s no chance of it redeeming itself. What is it? Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Why do I hate it? Eh…
1. The writing style. Instead of telling the story in a straightforward way, which would’ve worked perfectly well, it’s mostly told as gossip to entertain a sick dude who has literally nothing to do with these people. It’s almost as bad as epistolary novels (books written as letters between multiple characters). This is definitely a me thing. I just don’t enjoy stories told second-hand, especially when they start mentioning the inner feelings of characters they would have no way of knowing about. It’s annoying.
2. The characters. There are zero redeeming features about any of these people. Oh, but it’s about love and missed moments and intense possessiveness! Bullshit. It’s about toxic, abusive personalities and what happens when they all collide hidden behind a thin excuse for love that’s really just childish possessive behavior that ran unchecked into adulthood. It’s not romantic. It’s not love. Heathcliff and Cathy are horrible and toxic and definitely more Joker/Harley than anything else. It’s gross. These are not the relationship goals you’re looking for. Also, the “good” characters are judgmental asshats.
3. The random animal abuse. There’s no reason for it. It’s quite obvious these people are horrible. The animal abuse is unnecessary.
I could go on, but it’s late. Needless to say, this book is bad. If you try to convince me otherwise, I’m going to guess that you haven’t actually read it. Maybe the movies twist it into something entertaining, but the book sucks.
Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? I’m beyond tired for no reason. I don’t feel like complaining even though I could. Didn’t watch the halftime show. Definitely didn’t watch the other thing with the irrelevant old white dude/pedo and handful of people I’ve never heard of. So, instead, I’m leaving you with a video of Mardi and the metal stick she found behind Dad’s shop. She found it a long time ago, but he only gives it back to her once in a while. Why? Because she does this for hours if it isn’t taken away and hid. It’s adorable for the first five minutes. Plus it terrifies the other dogs. Anyway, here’s a picture of the little terror. The video is under that.
Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are okay. I have nothing to ramble about, so Dad suggested that I rant about our ordering experience with Outback Steakhouse in Mesquite on Sunday. There’s so much stuff going on in the world that this is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, so I feel like I’m just bitching to bitch. Which I guess I am. But it was annoying and I’m trying really hard to convince myself that I am allowed to feel my feelings and share them even though I know there are worse things happening right now. It’s okay to be made happy or annoyed or whatever by the little things even though major things are happening all around you. Right? I feel like I’ve seen a meme with that somewhere. Anyway, to the rant!
First, some background. I do not order through third party delivery sites. If I’m ordering food, I only want to deal with the restaurant, not some middleman who charges ridiculous fees. If the restaurant wants to outsource their deliveries, that’s fine as long as I don’t have to call DoorDash or whoever myself when no driver shows up. If I order through a restaurant’s website, I expect them to deal with any errors and they usually do. If they don’t, I never order from them again. This severely limits our options, but I don’t like middlemen and neither does Dad. Don’t get me wrong. I tried a couple of delivery services, but a few orders in and there’s inevitably a screw up and the delivery service blames the restaurant and vice versa, then it takes me multiple phone calls to both places just to get our money back. It’s not worth it to me.
Second, the facts. Sunday is my shower day, so Dad doesn’t feel like cooking after spending hours getting me ready for the week. Thus, we almost always order something that day. There are multiple steakhouses in Mesquite, but only two fit the criteria above: Outback and Saltgrass. The latter is more expensive for smaller portions and basically the same selection and quality, so it’s super rare for us to order from them. Outback has always been our go-to, even when we were still going out all the time. They didn’t have half their steaks or appetizers. It was weird. But we found things to order. So, I placed an order at 7:46pm (they close at 9:00pm). The email said the order was scheduled for delivery at 8:34pm. The confirmation page after the order was placed said the estimate was between 8:34pm and 8:44pm. I know they use DoorDash for their deliveries, so when I didn’t receive any tracking info by 8:30pm, I was antsy, but I had to wait until 8:45pm to call the restaurant because I’m weird and have to give people the full time they estimate or else I feel like a Karen. So, I called the restaurant at 8:45pm and got swapped around three times before the manager got on. I can’t remember her name, but she was polite and understanding. She acknowledged that our food was ready and had been waiting for an unspecified amount of time, but no one had picked it up. She offered to call DoorDash and find out what was going on, but admitted that since it was ten minutes to closing, the driver probably wouldn’t make it in time. She also offered to refund the order if I’d rather do that. I opted for the refund because it was late and I didn’t feel like dealing with it. But most places close early on Sundays around here. Even the places that are open late close delivery at 9:00pm or 9:30pm. So, Dad ended up having to warm up leftovers. On Monday, I filled out the “how did we do” text with my complaints. On Tuesday, I checked their website and most of the missing stuff was back, so I guess they somehow ran out of a bunch of stuff on Sunday. I also received a form text from the owner with the obviously vague apology and link to a $20 discount for our next order.
Third, the rant. I understand shit happens, but this is the second time this has happened recently. The first time was a fiasco because the dude didn’t know how to do his job, but at least this manager knew that since I ordered through them, she was supposed to fix it. I was really thrown by the lack of selection, but after checking the menu again, I realize they just ran out of things. How you run out of six appetizers and three or four steaks is beyond me, but whatever. I would blame the weather, but honestly, you’ve had time to restock. Their quality has also been really hit or miss lately. Another gripe is that the order sat there for who knows how long and no one bothered to call me and say “hey, we’re closing in half an hour and your order has been sitting here. What do you want to do?” Ideally they would’ve called DoorDash already so they could give me my options based on all the info. But either way, a call would’ve been nice. And last, the $20 discount is a joke. For one, that doesn’t even cover an entree anymore. It barely covers an appetizer (but yeah, keep telling us how great the economy is…). A couple years ago, it would’ve helped placate me. But it’s mostly annoying because there are zero instructions with it. All it says is “redeem now,” so I figured it was like everywhere else where it would be automatically added to my rewards account. Nope. It says you have 15 minutes to use it once you redeem it, so are you sure you want to do this? No. It doesn’t bother telling me if I need to sign in and get the order ready first or if I have to click it then only have 15 minutes to create the order and place it or what. Just add it to my account or send me a code to enter at checkout. Instead, they make it so difficult that people don’t use the discounts which is insulting because I know it was specifically designed to make people give up on using it. Ugh. Be more like Panera. They just add discounts to your rewards account and give you six months to use them. Easy peasy.
I’m done. I probably missed things, but oh well. See you next week!
Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely last Wednesday of January? There is so much to scream into the void about, but I’m going to push it down and focus on the book review. That’s right! It’s book review time! This month, I went with a cozy mystery. A Field Guide to Murder by Michelle L. Cullen was released yesterday (the 27th) from Crooked Lane Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s do the thing!
A Field Guide to Murder follows Harry, who has recently fractured his hip and believes his globetrotting life is behind him, and Emma, his caregiver who is trying to get Harry back into the world while avoiding her own problems. When a neighbor calls him during her death throes, Harry finds life in trying to solve her (maybe) murder. Emma gets dragged along for the ride until she realizes she’s finding herself as well. Can they help each other find renewed purposes for their lives? Can they solve the case?
Plot: enjoyable. I’m growing fond of stories that follow people post-retirement. Harry is an older gentlemen and Emma becomes like a second daughter to him. Found family! The mystery part of the plot is standard, but with little twists that make it fun. An upscale gated neighborhood basically (not sure if it’s actually gated or just has that feel) where everyone knows each other and it turns out most of them are shady. One of them dies mysteriously. Drama is revealed. Plus Emma’s drama. It’s all woven together pretty well for the most part. No real complaints here.
Characters: there are too many. This is my only real complaint about this book. There are far too many named characters that don’t really need to exist. It happens a lot when stories are weak, so the author throws in a bunch of names to confuse the reader in an attempt to hide what’s happening. I hate it, especially when it isn’t needed. This story is strong. We don’t need to meet every single neighbor. I knew who the bad guy was, but I kept confusing another name with his, so it was super weird. There are like 12 neighbors plus Emma’s family and Harry’s family and his acquaintances. Oh, and the police officers. It was an unnecessary amount. That said, I loved Harry and Emma. There wasn’t enough page time to get to know everyone else properly.
Writing: smooth. There wasn’t anything particularly special about the writing. It was unobtrusive and let the story shine. Made for a quick, smooth read.
Ultimately, I really enjoyed A Field Guide to Murder. Aside from the annoying amount of characters, I liked this one. I’ll definitely pick up book two if there is one.
Overall, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I do recommend it for anyone who loves cozy mysteries, older protagonists, or even just found family stories.
Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Not much going on here, so I thought I’d just ramble about some random life updates. They’re all pretty mundane. We all know things are horrible right now, so I don’t want to add to the unpleasantness (read that as “I don’t want to rant about the atrocities because there’s just too much happening and I wouldn’t be able to stop, so I’m just bottling it all up”). So, mundane life events it is!
1. Sophia and Bonnie (pictured) had their yearly check ups. They’ve both gained weight, but apparently they aren’t chunkers yet, because the doctor didn’t recommend they lose anything. Other than some teeth issues that we can’t afford to fix (and they don’t seem bothered by), they’re both healthy and happy. Mardi goes in for her yearly in April.
2. It’s that weird time where all the doctor appointments seem to happen. Dad and I both go see the doctor on February 2nd for a three month check up. I don’t usually have this appointment, but my yearly showed I was anemic and lacking vitamin D, so I’ve been on supplements and she wants to check to make sure my numbers are going up. I also have a video visit with Dr. Lucifer today (the 21st). She’s my pulmonologist. And no, that’s not her actual name. It’s pretty much “Anything new?” “Not really.” Then a half hour of randomness.
3. Dad made a loaf of rustic wheat bread! It turned out good. Dad was afraid it would be super dense because it deflated and felt like a brick. But it was pretty fluffy and had a nice crust. He salted the crust too, so that added a pop of flavor. It was yummy. He also made a ham, which means beans in the foreseeable future! Mmm…
That’s about it. I’ll be back next week with the usual book review!
Shawna's Blog of Doom 