Mexico. Slow burn start. The fairly tame beginnings veered into brutality and depravity around the midway point. The ending felt like careening off a cliff. Shocked. Disturbed. Repulsed. And yet....the story failed to thrill me.

Perhaps reading so slowly left me too much time to ponder what I wished I knew rather than focus on what was laid out before me? The characters never felt more than pieces being moved through a preordained plot.

Sipping a spicy mocha at a local coffee shop and spot a short story dispenser. ? I made my touchless selection (the future!) and 10 minutes later I have a copy of "All the Animals are Waiting for You" by Jane McCafferty.

Technically, I requested an international story but received something from a CMU faculty member instead. All is forgiven though. I am just tickled to have this unexpected encounter with a short story dispenser. ?

Random visit to Posman Books for some rainy day browsing. You'd think my current slow reading pace and massive tbr mountain would make me reluctant to add to my bookshelf. Welp, it seems there's always room for one more book (or two)!

Can't resist browsing one of my favorite annual library sales 📚 💕

My insides feel all twisted up. Bleak. Bleeeeeaaaaak. Page after page, things kept getting weirder and more hopeless. Whew. I need a hug now?

#40for40

Wild premise...what am I reading... apocalypse by meme? LOL

I nodded to indicate that I was happy to be of service.
"Can I get you something to drink?" he added right away.
"Perhaps a little red wine," I accepted out of politeness, "if you'll be joining me."
"I never drink," said the Count, with a theatrical pause, "wine."

☠️

Trying a new book and a new coffee shop tonight 📖 ☕

Finished my first book of #40for40 a few days ago and I didn't realize this was part of a series until now. Like, there's more!!?!!!?! OMG. I have a thicc stack of library books waiting for my attention but I'll absolutely be returning to this story.

A graphic novel set in the Ivory Coast, 1978. Brimming with drama and mess. Maury Povich levels of mess. Loved it.

I am determined to read more books this year and engage with my Litsy community again. With that in mind, I'm pushing myself to finish forty books in 2024. Since my reading goal is partly inspired by my milestone birthday, I've been calling it #40for40. Looking forward to sharing my reads with y'all!

Fucked up and fun. Quick read. Nice palate cleanser of a book.

I really really really wanted to like this book. So much about it reminded me of the iconic Candyman movie of the 90s. Tragic death. Vengeful ghost. Birth of an urban legend within an oppressed community. Alas, it went left (sexy encounters) when I desperately wanted it to go right (scare the shit out of me).

"It looked as if I was stepping into a lake of crimson, a place of baptism. It was so dark there was no telling how deep it could be."

I've reached the halfway point of my third book and this feels like a good place to end my readathon run. I've had a great time picking out books throughout the day and then settling in for some dedicated reading time. Felt like each book was better than the last and now I'm ending my readathon with an absolute banger.

I really needed this omg 😭

#deweysreadathon

Wonder, loss, betrayal. The burden of responsibility. Magic and monsters.

#deweysreadathon

Well damn! 👀

"Still, giving up writing and reading, abandoning my work and my books, would leave me without any consolation. It would be like giving up life itself." p.17

#deweysreadathon

"Readers seek out fellow readers as much as they seek out books, though fellow readers are, alas, more difficult to find. So we hold onto them for life."

Tonight I opened my library book bundle bag and am thrilled to see Silvia Moreno-Garcia was included in the stack! I am so hyped for #deweysreadathon tomorrow y'all 😆

I left the library with an arm full of books and one book bundle bag of Mexican fantasy and horror. It was all too enticing to leave behind. I'm definitely readathon ready now! Should I open the mystery bag or wait until Saturday for a readathon surprise???

This is obviously the universe telling me I should participate in the readathon this weekend. 📚

Finally finally got to the top of my Fairyland book stack. Excited to get into it. Thanks for the recc @Bookwomble!

I'm loving these Library of Congress bookmarks my local library is giving away. The Nosferatu bookmark is my favorite. 🥰

The Way to Fairyland mystery bag book reveal. Anyone see a fave?

Went to the library's summer reading event today and snagged an awesome mystery bag of books. Couldn't pass up The Way to Fairyland theme (peak into parallel worlds with five novels for adults)!

I left all my responsibilities behind and finally feel free to rest, to read. Nearing the end of this strange little book I started in January. Feels absolutely wonderful.

"He lounges with one arm supporting his head, surrounded by the carnage his imminent death has triggered...soothed to see the destruction of everything he has owned before he also dies, believing that he will find it all around him when he wakes again on the other side of his death, the fragments of porcelain miraculously reunited, the wounds of the women and horses and slaves miraculously healed."

Image: La Mort de Sardanapale by E. Delacroix

Quenched my craving for bubble tea and finally sat down to read. A momentous occasion because I've gotten no reading done in months and months and months, so I'm feeling great right now.

Next up! #leftonread #battleofthebooks

Someone wanted to check if this book really tasted of citrus. 🥲 #Bowser

First up in my #battleofthebooks prep. We've divvied up the competition book list between the three teammates. Off to a good start. Feels really nice to be reading again. #leftonread

It's been a long hiatus and I haven't read much of anything since I've been gone (😭). My local library to the rescue! They are hosting a bookish, boozy trivia night in a few months. My team with @PMMREADS and @ConnieDavila is registered. My books are in transit. I'm excited to get reading again. Wish us luck!

"...I started to wonder, Where is my fantasy, my future? Why don't Black people exist in speculative worlds?"

Man, the editor's introduction took me back to my childhood. I remember falling hard for speculative fiction. Like her, I wondered what happened to all of the Black people that seemingly disappeared from various versions of those strange and familiar worlds. My suspension of disbelief depended so much on ignoring the absence of BIPOC.

Second warm day in a row!! I really needed this. 🔆

"The analog flying foxes of the air, the fruit bats with the wingspan of a child, roost under the eaves and orifices of the rotunda, upside-down like furled umbrellas in the groove of a coat rack or a lacquered tree."

Someone please tell me. Is Karen fucking with me?? I just want to know. Asking for a friend. That friend is me. Because I am in tears, literal tears, crying laughing at the literary excess.

We got a bit of sun and warmth today! FINALLY. I am so sick of the cold. It is the middle of May. Pittsburgh, do better.

Three books came in my Lit Love subscription from Amazing Books. I never know what's coming and it's fun to see what they pick for me.

#Minnie took a moment to sniff each book. Then #MooMoo decided these books were best suited for sitting and sunbathing.

Free audiobook to anyone willing to try the Penguin Random House audiobook app. The app rating in the Google Play store is not great. I wonder what this is like on the iPhone.

I cannot stop giggling. These sentences are extra as f***.

"The information highway, bereft of its data warehouses, lies noiseless as a liquid gold sun drops into the horizon, one glowing elegy to a bygone age of digital flotsam and jetsam."

Book: "...this age of crisis. No amanuensis...”

Me: *puts dictionary on speed dial*

This sounds like such a strange little book. #nextup

From cover to cover every story is a Filipino story. At times tender or absurd or unsettling. Siasoco created a diverse group of complex characters. After reading the first two stories I began to lose interest in this collection and needed to take a break to go hang with some others books. I'm glad I picked this up again a couple weeks later and gave it another shot.

”Congratulations, Hugo, you are the equivalent of a human platypus."

Nothing quite like a little casual bigotry to bring a character into sharp focus. Equating American with whiteness. The derogatory Tagalog used to reference people of Chinese descent. This made me bristle.

Comedy specials, Netflix rom-com and now this book. Loved them all. Count me in on whatever's next for Ali Wong.

That's a wrap! I really enjoyed my reading day. I clocked 11 hours 8 minutes of reading time and very nearly finished my second book. Now to sleeeeeeeeeep.

#24hourreadathon

"I'm your mother. I don't write fancy. I don't use words like 'facetious' or 'effusive.' I use words like 'doo-doo,' 'caca,' and 'punani.' Once I embraced that, these letters were an absolute pleasure to write."

Next up!

#24hourreadathon