*Having at least a couple reliable coworkers
*Start of 3 day weekend
*Libraries
*I didn't have produce (nor accused of being a heretic) thrown at me during the class I taught today
*Music, movies, book lovers
#5joysfriday

Talk To Me, trauma
Bring Her Back:more sleepless nights
Here, take my money
#haikuaday

The Phoenician Scheme
Wes Anderson to Anderson “Hold my beer“
I'll still probably see it
#haikuaday

“The bill will include even more funding for the military and more funding for Trump‘s border crackdown, while slashing crucial programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and also repealing clean energy credits put in place by the Biden administration. Up to 15 million Americans will be uninsured by 2034 due to the bill‘s cuts, and 7.6 million will be at risk of losing Medicaid,(cont):
(CONT)

Littens! Proud to announce that my jar of fucks arrived today! Thanks to @jamiearc for putting this on my radar...as I have been saying for awhile now, my fucks to give are like a natural resource, We'll see how long they last. (p.s.: 2 used today)

Early 2025 was truly my own my own winter of discontent (second drumpf term, having to move in the middle of Feb, covid for the second time etc etc) Hornby's novel about a winner of a beauty queen pageant in a British village who proceeded to revolutionize tv has so far been one of my favorite reads of the year. Sophie Straw is absolutely terrific & the cast who surround her are in turns interesting & infuriating. This books has MUCH to say (CONT)

Beautiful & Damned
Spicy Nachos, Horror Books, Good Movies
Memorial Day Break Plans
#haikuaday

According to Ye Olde Goode Reads, I have read 4 of Clowes' books since 2016, but Monica is the first 5 star. This one truly had the capaciousness, & complexity, of a fleshed out novel. , This has much in common with other Clowes works I have read but it was def. a step beyond. One of the first books that I read after my move back in Feb. & I specifically recall it breaking through my mental fatigue at the time as a special work.
#2025bestreads

So much drama at work
Is it me, am I the problem
So few fucks to give
#haikuaday

Daniel Wilson is one of the contemporary greats of evil machines & bk 2 in the Robopocalypse Series looks very promising, esp. with the rise of AI the past few years since I read book 1.
#robot
@eggs @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Day 2 of #2025bestreads was my first book of the year. What was unusual about this one, is I don't recall when my first read of the yr was an audio book (my audio tends to happen on work commutes; at the beginning of the yr I'm on holiday) but I was so riveted by both the story & Haynes narration that I simply couldn't stop listening. This added a lot more to the Medusa story, which I already felt familiar with & genuinely surprised me.

Y'all, I have to teach a 2 hour class this upcoming Friday on basic med support knowledge for supervisors at my agency. I have been feeling slightly discombobulated ALREADY, I need to be combobulated ASAP.
#weirdwords @cbee

Congrats to Mushtaq's Heart Lamp for winning the International Booker Prize! I have stopped following literary prize news the past couple of years for several reasons & it's something outside of the box to make me pay attention (ie: Everett's overdue Pulitzer this year) & now a short story collection! Although I have not read Mushtaq, some of the best fiction I have read over the past few years has been story collections & this is long overdue!

I stumbled across this one at the library today and read the first 70 pages while there. Early 90s Scotland. A compelling narrator, fantastic!!

Is it a goodie? An oldie? Am I just boring? Regardless, I am posting my #tuesdaytunes selections 2 days early with a few selections I never tire of:
*Low: Sunflower
https://open.spotify.com/track/5MLBottNJ4s4yL6t9sIryD?si=1efcba7e33c44138
*Jenny Lewis: Melt Your Heart
https://open.spotify.com/track/3Bmpx1qObH98h6JAuN7VLj?si=d56b8af5095243af
*Phosphorescent: C'est La Vie No 2
(CONT)

3 songs mashed in 1
Early 90s, Dollar Movie Theater Mind Blown
Wayne's World, Party On Garth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ
#Haikuaday

Since it is a bit under the halfway point of the yr, I have made a list of my 15 favorite reads so far. I will be posting these, in no particular order whatsoever.
First up is a retelling of Hamlet with a very unusual POV. The narrator is the unborn child of Trudy & John and is made aware of a plan between Trudy & Claude to get rid of John. The narrator, a bit of a sommelier, & very much aware of the state of the world they are about to (CONT)

Years ago I tackled the wacky tagged Italian epic poem in the 2 vol Penguin set. Total page count is 1,632 pages.
Although it is technically a trilogy, Tolkien envisioned LoTR as a single volume & if it was counted as such then the page count for editions I read clock in at 1,248.
At just a few less pages than LoTR would be King's longest work-The Stand (1,200)
Lately I have been thinking of tackling Shogun (1,300) pages.
#sundayfunday

I'm curious, Littens!
1) Most recent book(s) purchased
2) Last completed book from a library
Since I'm posting this, full transparency
1) A HPB book haul: Steinbeck's “Travels with Charley,“ Kosinski's “Being There,“ “DF Wallace Reader,“ “Virginia Woolf Box Set“ Harlan Ellison “Greatest Hits“
2) I Dnf a book (King's Killing Time), prior to that was the excellent “Before Watchmen: Nite Owl & Dr Manhattan “

Batman's Killing Time is an obnoxiously consistent non-linear story that could have easily been a masterpiece. I ended up DNF'ing this one around the 65% mark. Tom King is a fantastic creator. I highly recommend both The Human Target & Rorschach. There were elements of this I liked quite a bit, however the elements that did not work were too big of distractions.

As the title says the events of this are a bit like origin stories for Nite Owl/Dr Manhattan. Nite Owl is a bit of a poor man's Batman. What is interesting in this volume is how he grows as a character with his interactions with Rorschach & others. The second half of this was absolutely fantastic, easily one of the best graphic novels I have read this year. Dealing with quantum realities, pocket universes, etc. There are times where you (CONT)

Collected from Web Toon, this volume is a collection of stories about the floating skull of Oscar Zahn as he carries out his paranormal investigations. I really like monster of the week stories & the first half of the book scratched that itch, the second half of the volume delved into Zahn's background & was a bit unsatisfying. As this was a library book, overall can't really complain! A pick,

I wasn't planning on posting anything for #tuesdaytunes this week, but I just stumbled across the following & absolutely HAD to post it (Lose Yourself: Sung By 331 Movies):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYtaBfwpg_k
@tiedyedude

Nirvana: a goal hoped for but apparently unattainable
#weirdwords @cbee
#2025readinggoals #relatabale #caffeine #neversaynever #defineapparently

To quote the Ancient Aliens meme: I don't know, therefore Aliens!
I posted about two books finished today. I'm very much enjoying the Lethem but I am thinking it will need to hibernate for now as it is not compatible with my mood/mental space etc (will def come back as it is quite good), which leaves me with me mostly a clean slate except for one story collection which I am enjoying SO MUCH I ordered the physical copy. Will review (CONT)

Lulu's for lunch, Oh Yum
Reading & napping on Saturday, Bliss
One more day of joy

I'm a bit rusty, but here's my #haikuaday

This was a random library find. Bloodshot is essentially an indestructible government soldier who is sent around the world on secret missions. One day, due to a glitch, he realizes that he has been living a series of false memories. He has not been promoting peace/democracy but has been just a tool for the government. The subsequent body count is in some ways typical, but the consistent critique of government propaganda when it comes to (CONT)

A volume of seemingly disparate stories that are actually tied together, each one driven by epistolary elements. The tone of SP is at times that of the content creator of a You Tube video essay. While surprising at times, SP is not quite as clever as it likes to think. For the shortcomings, it's a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. A soft pick,

I just received an email from LOA about a documentary about Gary Snyder, one of the last surviving Beats, & a character in one of the grimmest novels I have ever read in my life (Kerouac's Big Sur). This will be streaming this weekend. Think this will be of interest to you @leftcoastzen
https://email.loa.org/h/i/8AB1ACAB53E732ED

1) Definitely sitting down
2) The tagged book & Fortress of Solitude by Lethem. I really like both of them, but feel like I have been reading them for eons,
@thespineview #two4tuesday

Towards the end of March I read Zahn's Thrawn prequel. I was so impressed that a couple of weeks later I read a a Darth Maul horror novel (Maul: Lockdown) . Between the two, I def prefer Zahn's, but the Mahl was def a bloody good time. Although I don't nec feel compelled to read more by Schreiber in the near future, I will def be reading more Zahn.

This was a random library find last week. I really enjoyed this fast-paced unhinged horror story about a small town that is changed by a mysterious new arcade game. While googling the title just now I see that it's based on an actual urban legend:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-urban-legend-of-the-governments-mindco...
Unrelated to the book, I saw “Sinners“ last night. Def one of the best movies I've watched this yr.

The past couple of months I have been making my way through the 5 original seasons of The Twilight Zone & I finished this week. It's been wonderful, mind expanding & at times a little tedious (see season 4). My #tuesdaytunes selection is the theme song, which for me is one of the best TV theme songs of all-time. This would not simply work with Bernard Hermann's eerie composition only , it really needs Rod Serling's succinct narrative (CONT)

My belated #weirdwords entry is courtesy of the tagged book, which I haven't read but I intend to. According to Ye Olde Google: Illywhacker is “A small-time confidence-trickster or seller of trinkets.“ The con man description does seem very much of the moment.
Carey has yet to disappoint as as writer. I read Oscar & Lucinda shortly after joining Litsy & I STILL think about that book. Another fave is True History of the Kelly Gang.
@cbee

For some reason it feels like April was a lame reading month. I think that this was due to extra work pressure,, looking at my stats the following were my favorites (in no particular order):
*Wake Up & Open Your Eyes
*Nutshell
*Bad News
*Bad Dirt
I'm currently nearly finished with Matheson's Shrinking Man, which I'm very much enjoying. A real master of existential horror.

What happens when BoTM AND Aardvark pick highly anticipated books. “Wow“ indeed.

I currently have a few books going, which is very strange considering years ago I used to be a book monogamist.It seems that the past few years I've occasionally had to reset my current reads, hibernating all but one or two. The problem I have lately is my job. I strongly believe in the importance of it & advocate for it, but at the end of the day I don't have the energy to continue making headway in the Lethem chunkster of a (cont)

I watched the adaptation of Harris novel about a month ago. Talk about timely. Yeesh!

The following LitHub article was from last month, but it is a fantastic look at the iconic villains of literature:
https://lithub.com/the-best-villains-in-literature-bracket/

*Favorite Genres: Horror, lit fic, fantasy, non-fiction, mystery
*Desert Island Reads: Poe's Collected Tales & Poems, LOA Shirley Jackson collection, Complete Shakespeare Plays, LOA Le Guin Hainish Novels & Stories, Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Baldwin's collected essays
*Go-to Reading Snack: Iced coffee
*Weirdest/most interesting place I've read a book: I often bring a book with me when I go to a concert to kill time between acts: (CONT)

Evenson covers much of the same ground as in prior story collections: liminal spaces, ambiguous identities, sci-fi & dystopian horror. Although not as consistently strong as say “Song For the Unraveling of the World“ there are some real gems in here: “Solution,“ “Annex,“ “Vigil In the Inner Room“ & “Servitude“.

This is the craziest horror novel I have read all year. It is also probably the most divisive. Which is unfortunate, because it has a really important message. Wake Up & Open Your Eyes is like old school Stephen King for the social media era, I will say that at several points while reading I was like, “Wow, Clay you really went there,“...and my macabre black soul loved him for it. ☠ 💔

In McEwan's work the narrator Hamlet is the unborn child of Trudy, herself involved in an affair with her brother-in-law Claude. Tired of the Villanelles & Pantoums of her husband, poet John, they begin plotting his demise. The narrator is a wine enthusiast who is also socially aware. Thoughts of revenge are tempting. This is one of the most lyrical novels I have read all year. I loved this version of one of my favorite Shakespeare plays!!

Although I had previously read a Tommy & Tuppence story in a detective story anthology, this was the first novel featuring the married duo I have read & what an absolute delight. Set during WWII Tommy is tasked with trying to determine who might be behind the Fifth Column in Britain. Not one to be left behind, Tuppence secretly joins him. My minor gripe about this novel is that the reveal about the major players def have a deus ex machina (CONT)

I'm going to review bomb Litsy as the last 4 books I have read have been either 4.5 or 5 star reads. My most recent read is the tagged, the second novel in Aubyn's novel cycle comprised of 5 books. In his early 20s Patrick is summoned from London to NYC due to his father's death. In the grips of a drug addiction & despising his father (ironically becoming more like him the older he becomes) this book was the (CONT)

As Joe Hill has announced his first novel to be published in nearly a decade, my #ThorsDayRec is his epic The Fireman. This isn't my favorite novel by Hill, but it was the first Joe HIll book I read & I was riveted & think it is def well-worth reading.

My #weirdwords selection is courtesy of the Nov election & the ensuing economic decisions. I came across my selection on History Today:
For a phrase to express unfortunate circumstances that seem impossible to overcome (‘we‘re fucked‘), the Historical Thesaurus of English tells us that they would have proclaimed themselves to be ‘in hot water‘ (first use 1537), ‘in a pickle‘ (1562), ‘in straits‘ (1565) or, in the most extreme predicament, (CONT)

My #tuesdaytunes selections this week are picked from a relatively new spotify feature (capitalizing on the success of their year end wrap up): On Repeat. Linked below are four of on my current On Repeat that I have yet to get tired of:
*Phoebe Bridgers' Funeral
https://open.spotify.com/track/3rJDsZjIaCfJQSqRUvl0BM?si=93493112cc754fec
*Band of Horses: No One's Gonna Love You
https://open.spotify.com/track/2IvNxLl01CTAfCOA103Tgx?si=e615a11bd9c24783

My #monthlyfavorites in this third month of this truly unholy year, in no particular order:
*Daniel Clowes: Monica
*Timothy Snyder: On Tyranny
*Keiichi Koike: Ultra Heaven Tome 1