It's been freezing in the Bay Area lately
At least by wimpy Bay Area standards and especially at SFO.
So grateful my apartment, heat in my apartment, hot water in my apartment, comfy sweats and Bombas socks. In other words: Privilege, privilege and more privilege.
Including having an extra PTO day because we have been slammed the last few days and I've been on my feet at work for hours. So more gratitude that I'm not longer carrying the extra weight that would have made such standing impossible.
Any day I'm not back at the Desk of Doom is a good day.
Hari Om!
I was so beat up, I slept from like 1030PM to nearly 730AM, with a few wake-ups from the old bladder. I had a really long narrative dream incuding relatives (not my real ones) and I woke up thinking I still needed to finish an assignment that I and my (not real) cousin were supposed to finish together, which had something to do with recording a (fictional) conversation in a car. Very complex. Clearly my brain and body really needed some rest.
@@@@@@
Recent reading....this is going to get long.
Romancing Waikiki by CJ Johnson
This is the book I purchased at Honolulu Coffee in Waikiki, where I actually met the writer and he personalized the signature on the book for me. Absolutely lovely man. Therefore, I am sorry to report that I was underwhelmed by the writing overall. I realize short stories present a particular challenge in conveying information quickly, rather than giving back-stories time to unfold. However, it got really repetitive and obvious to have each character speaking large chunks of info-dump to other characters they had just met to get the actual romances going.
Multiple characters offered to serve as impromptu tour guides or spontaneously went off on adventures with virtual strangers. Obviously this is a familiar trope, but in a short story collection where it happens over and over, it just feels like lazy writing.
All the children were well-behaved and also spoke in full sentences, sometimes whole paragraphs of perfect grammar, often with more info-dumping.
Most of the stories were basic Will they/Won’t they and given the theme….
Also not a lot at stake beyond the romance in the stories. A few had more complex themes, but even homelessness, Alzheimer’s, and an abusive husband ended up being sort of glossed over into happy endings. The abusive husband wasn’t nearly as evil as a social climbing woman who ruined her husband’s relationship with his parents because he wasn’t strong enough to stand up to her.
The stories that took place in other time periods didn’t really convey that through dialogue or period details.
I also found some typos. (I know, picky, picky; picky.)
I sound like a fault-finding bitch; going full Pauline Kael on a trifle that seems to make people happy, if Amazon and Goodreads are anything to go by.
The individual stories were mostly pleasant enough and I really did enjoy the mentions of the various places I personally enjoyed on that trip, including the coffee shop itself.
Getting my reading habit back and reading books I’ve really enjoyed has made me less tolerant of books that are just ok, I guess.
Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane
Don’t laugh, but this is the first Dennis Lahane novel I’ve ever read and I’ve never seen any of the movies adapted from his novels. (I may have seen some of the episodes he worked on for The Wire.). Someone at the Lounge just handed this to me, rather than throwing it away after they finished reading it.
Holy guacamole, Batman!
The writing and especially the plotting and characterization were so good. Great twists. I started it as one of my “20 minute a day on BART” books and binge-read the last 50 or so pages in one fell swoop, because I *had* to find out what happened; even though I had a lot of fear and anxiety about where it was going, some of which was justified. It’s definitely in the hard-boiled, dark and violent spectrum of the mystery genre, but so well-written.
It’s a sequel, but that’s not a problem. All needed info is given pretty seamlessly.
So grateful my apartment, heat in my apartment, hot water in my apartment, comfy sweats and Bombas socks. In other words: Privilege, privilege and more privilege.
Including having an extra PTO day because we have been slammed the last few days and I've been on my feet at work for hours. So more gratitude that I'm not longer carrying the extra weight that would have made such standing impossible.
Any day I'm not back at the Desk of Doom is a good day.
Hari Om!
I was so beat up, I slept from like 1030PM to nearly 730AM, with a few wake-ups from the old bladder. I had a really long narrative dream incuding relatives (not my real ones) and I woke up thinking I still needed to finish an assignment that I and my (not real) cousin were supposed to finish together, which had something to do with recording a (fictional) conversation in a car. Very complex. Clearly my brain and body really needed some rest.
@@@@@@
Recent reading....this is going to get long.
Romancing Waikiki by CJ Johnson
This is the book I purchased at Honolulu Coffee in Waikiki, where I actually met the writer and he personalized the signature on the book for me. Absolutely lovely man. Therefore, I am sorry to report that I was underwhelmed by the writing overall. I realize short stories present a particular challenge in conveying information quickly, rather than giving back-stories time to unfold. However, it got really repetitive and obvious to have each character speaking large chunks of info-dump to other characters they had just met to get the actual romances going.
Multiple characters offered to serve as impromptu tour guides or spontaneously went off on adventures with virtual strangers. Obviously this is a familiar trope, but in a short story collection where it happens over and over, it just feels like lazy writing.
All the children were well-behaved and also spoke in full sentences, sometimes whole paragraphs of perfect grammar, often with more info-dumping.
Most of the stories were basic Will they/Won’t they and given the theme….
Also not a lot at stake beyond the romance in the stories. A few had more complex themes, but even homelessness, Alzheimer’s, and an abusive husband ended up being sort of glossed over into happy endings. The abusive husband wasn’t nearly as evil as a social climbing woman who ruined her husband’s relationship with his parents because he wasn’t strong enough to stand up to her.
The stories that took place in other time periods didn’t really convey that through dialogue or period details.
I also found some typos. (I know, picky, picky; picky.)
I sound like a fault-finding bitch; going full Pauline Kael on a trifle that seems to make people happy, if Amazon and Goodreads are anything to go by.
The individual stories were mostly pleasant enough and I really did enjoy the mentions of the various places I personally enjoyed on that trip, including the coffee shop itself.
Getting my reading habit back and reading books I’ve really enjoyed has made me less tolerant of books that are just ok, I guess.
Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane
Don’t laugh, but this is the first Dennis Lahane novel I’ve ever read and I’ve never seen any of the movies adapted from his novels. (I may have seen some of the episodes he worked on for The Wire.). Someone at the Lounge just handed this to me, rather than throwing it away after they finished reading it.
Holy guacamole, Batman!
The writing and especially the plotting and characterization were so good. Great twists. I started it as one of my “20 minute a day on BART” books and binge-read the last 50 or so pages in one fell swoop, because I *had* to find out what happened; even though I had a lot of fear and anxiety about where it was going, some of which was justified. It’s definitely in the hard-boiled, dark and violent spectrum of the mystery genre, but so well-written.
It’s a sequel, but that’s not a problem. All needed info is given pretty seamlessly.