This week has been a whirlwind. I’m still kind of in a Thanksgiving food coma, and recovering from two days at Great Wolf Lodge, but you only turn eight once. Happy birthday Dash! Can’t wait to play Killer Queen with you again soon.
Kind of a rough week for reading. I start to wonder, is it me? But no, it’s not me. Boomer1 was a great premise but not well executed at all. I can’t get enough of the boomers vs. millennials discourse, so it’s really saying something that I got sick of this book. There is so much material to work with here and somehow this still comes up 100% insight-free. The chapters about Julia are so heavy handed to the point where it’s embarassing; he might as well just replace it all with “I AM USING DEAFNESS AS A METAPHOR” and save us all some time. I liked the chapters about Cassie even though he kind of sold her out in the end, but overall this was a big disappointment for me.
I don’t really have a lot to say about The Shortest Way Home. It was okay. It was probably one of the okayest novels I have ever read. I know this is going to sound like the most backhanded compliment ever, but I kind of admire the author for really working at her writing despite not having any innate talent. Ok that sounded a lot meaner than I meant it. This is a perfectly fine story, and the writing isn’t bad, but just isn’t good, but somehow it feels like it’s the best that she can do. I guess this is fine for a vacation read or something. Pleasant but totally forgettable.
The Cabin at the End of the World was definitely a page turner. I stayed up much later than I wanted to the night I started it; it really hooks you right away. When I was about halfway through I wondered why I’m not reading horror more often. I absolutely love horror movies but I almost never read this genre. The premise was kind of like The Strangers, one of my favorite and scariest of scary movies. Sadly, this fell apart in the third act in a big way. There was a storyline that never resolved, and the whole thing felt a bit messy. It also felt like it couldn’t decide whether it wanted to have a supernatural element or not. It definitely didn’t need one. Very mixed for me but I think I might try another one of his, because the writing is really there.
Today I’m halfway through Listen to the Marriage, which is very much in the ‘not for everyone’ category, but so far it’s very much for me. This takes place entirely in the office of a marriage counselor, focusing on a separated couple trying to navigate whether to divorce or reconcile, so if it’s a hard pass for you, I don’t blame you. I always love novels about divorce though, and I’m finding this really insightful and interesting. I don’t know if these two are going to reconcile, and I don’t know what I’m rooting for. It’s very short, so I should find out soon. Anyway, happy birthday to my baby!
