Show Us Your Books February 2022

February! I love reading month! Black History Month! Black History is every month and Black History is everyone's history! Every month is the month to read Black authors! 

Here's what I've been reading since the January 2022 linkup: 

Engrossing Reads

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angelina Boulley - Ugh knife through a heart big feelings loved this. What a main character - what tremendous surrounding characters. Reckless teenager things without care for danger. Huge traumatic events. What a great reading experience. I loved the setting and all the tribal background aspects also. OCNJ library hard cover

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner - This was hard and sad but also full of love. It is so important to talk about grief, and the many ways in which it impacts and manifests. I loved the food associations. That is a thing in my family. OCNJ library hard cover, so annoyed when I don't take a photo of the book as I'm reading it

The Fields (Riley Fisher #1) by Erin Young - This is the allegedly the first in a series, and some of the difficulties I had reading this I attribute to that. The first series book is rarely my favorite, but this one kept me in enough to definitely be in on the next one. OCNJ library hard cover

Chloe Cates is Missing by Mandy McHugh - I certainly did not expect to be as drawn into this one as I was. Let's be honest though I request a lot of books on Netgalley and when it comes time to read them forget anything that might have prompted me to request it unless it's a known author or I liked the title. Interesting little layers in this book. This was a RIDE. The last 25% like constantly WHAT IS HAPPENING. This was darker than I anticipated when I started, and better too. Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby - The copy I borrowed from Jana sat on my bookshelf for an eternity and this is the one where I finally read it. Quick and violent AF. I liked this more than Blacktop Wasteland and liked both dads despite myself. Hard cover, Jana's copy, borrowed and mailed back

Passed the Time Just Fine

Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow - This was dark as hell. It is about teenagers but it is not YA. It was a quick read and had me guessing at various things of what was actually going on. I was not correct and what was actually going on was completely horrible. Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review. Book publishes today

Shadows of Pecan Hollow by Caroline Frost - This book felt familiar at the start, like a little bit of She Rides Shotgun, maybe? I think that's the title I'm thinking of. This sagged in a few spots, and could have benefitted from an edit of about 50 pages, but that didn't stop me from liking it. Some of the small town characters were delightfully weird and I wish Frost leaned harder into that. Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review. Book publishes today

The Coast-to-Coast Murders by James Patterson/J.D. Barker - This was fine. Totally fine. Actually I liked it a lot except to heft it around is annoying, and that's because of the short chapters. The end was wild. I'm pretty sure this is a book I bought early on in Covid and had to make like a whole Target order out of the few groceries I was trying to source for delivery. Remember those times? Kill me. Hard cover, own, passed on to Dad

The Saints of Swallow Hill by Donna Everhart - I started this and then stopped because I was not in the mood for heartbreak. It is tough but there are light spots - do not think this is Four Winds type of dreary. I know people are comparing it to Four Winds as a compliment but I don't think that is a compliment LOL.I loved Rae Lynn, she is a great character. I came around to Del also. I also learned a lot about turpentine, absolutely none of which I knew before. Good writing. Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review

A Cold Day for Murder (Kate Shugak #1) by Dana Stabenow - I came across this series sometime last year? I bought the first one on Kindle to interview it. There are quite a lot of books, and I think I'm going to give it a go. Since it's an old series, if I continue to click with it I'll always have another standby comfort/kick me back to reading read if I get in a rut. Kate is a great character. Kindle, own

Find Me in the Dark (Detective Harlow Durant #1) by Dea Poirier - I got this on kindle because I have the second in the series from Netgalley and we do not read two before one in my universe. Solid enough to continue to two, which is all that is required. I give a lot of leeway to the first in a series. This only needed some of that. Kindle, own 

Didn't We Almost Have It All: The Genius, Shame, and Audacity of Whitney Houston by Gerrick Kennedy - More of a collection of essays of factors in Whitney Houston's life and the author's thoughts on them than a true and full biography - if you know that going in, you will get it. Solid points on how we treat people in the public eye (and private, of course) who struggle with addiction or mental illness or any sort of visible rough patch, what we demand of people who are famous and of Black women and women in general, and the overall concept of shame and how that colors our world. We dishonored Whitney during her struggles, and that's on all of us Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review

Not Worth It

Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner - I don't even know what to say. All assholes from the start, difficult to care about a damn thing. To add insult to injury, I kept thinking there would be a point so I kept reading and there was not, friends. There was not. Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review. 

Did Not Finish

Black Girls Must Die Exhausted by Jayne Allen - We did not click in what is likely a good for you, not for me scenario. I was not into a book about wanting to have kids. 

Linkup Guidelines:

This link up is the second Tuesday of every month and will happen as long as we post about reading books. All are welcome to join us! The next linkup is Tuesday, March 8, 2022. 

1. Visit and comment with both of your hosts, Jana & me, and check in with as many in our reading circle as you can - give some love to the later linker uppers! 
2. Link back to us in your blog post - if you want the button you can get it from that link

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

TWTW - the first one in February

Friday I was working by 7, and left Philly for the shore around 11:00 with my dog crew. It was a shitbomb rainy day. After work, leftovers for dinner and reading on the couch.

Saturday I picked up a floor painting kit at Home Depot and a drive up order from Target before popping out at North Street beach for a solo lunch walk. In the afternoon I finished a book and started another. I was in for the night but Ben had sad eyes so I took him to the beach solo. He was happy as hell while I was cold as hell. 

Wells Fargo across the street from my house changed their lighting and now it's like living in the shadow of a football stadium. I will be Karening about that to the manager and the city on Monday. Honestly though did they not consider all the residences around them? It's egregious and aggressive especially in a very light crime town.

Sunday After coffee and fetch with Ben, I cleaned and prepped the bathroom floor and found that the ultra white paint in the floor painting kit was actually deep tint (read: dark) so I had to go back and exchange that - there were only two in the freaking South Jersey area so thankfully the second one was right. On the way home I stopped at Stainton's to look for something for Lori and picked up two pair of my favorite gloves on clearance. I tinted the white base pink and painted a first coat on the bathroom floor (second photo) and really liked it and now of course think the wall tiles need to be painted so I'll add that to the get this shit done before June list. I'm doing spot touch ups today and will do the semi-gloss top coat tomorrow. I painted my nails after, looked for light fixtures for the bathrooms as the ones that came with the house are at least 10 years old and they're $12 rusted to shit jobbies I've already spray painted a few times (why is finding what I want so hard), and caught up on The Righteous Gemstones while the dogs snoozed in the sun.

We hit the beach for a stroll as we do. Lots of great shells out there, but most inhabited, so we left them. These two below were empty, whole, & keepers!

I'm trying to get a home project done every weekend in February. Here we go! 

Show Us Your Books is tomorrow!

Happy Monday.

Friday Five: news & views & questions for you

Views: pouring rain and gray 

News: Freaking everyone out over rain stopping and the world turning to ice within seconds

I'm digging through all my under the bed storage boxes at the shore this weekend and completing a project. Either papering the powder room ceiling, which will require me to purchase a ladder, or possibly a countertop project in my apartment? I've had the materials for that since last spring. MFD won't be there to complain about the mess and disruption. Do you have any home projects going on, big or small?

I'm ready to order tile paint for the bathroom floor at the shore too. The space is super small. Who has painted a tile floor? Anyone? Bueller? 

I am going from the stud earrings I've been wearing relentlessly the past few years back to hoop earrings and came across unique nose rings in my search - I am not nose ring material but I do like them on other people. Earrings - change daily or wear the same or wear none? Are you a nose ring person? 

I started working at 6:45 today and 7:15 yesterday. I quite like doing that to flex time and have more room during the day. What is your optimal work start time?

I'm in the market for a new hyaluronic serum. I swear I have looked at a zillion on the internet. I'm leaning toward The Ordinary, because I've used it in the past so know my skin will be fine with it and I'm not looking to spend a mint on this particular skincare piece and I'm not looking to switch to any skincare system. Do you use a hyaluronic serum, and if so, which one? 

Today is the American Heart Association's Wear Red Day - heart disease and strokes are responsible for 1 in 3 deaths among women each year. Read more here. 

Yesterday I drove from northern VA back to Philly in rain and fog. Can't wait to drive from Philly to the shore in rain after my morning meeting.  

Happy Friday friends. This is the last month without spring.

  

Thursday Thoughts - When it has to do with my life I wanna be the one in control

1. This is not the move you fucking dumbasses. Bunch of book banning burning fascists. p.s. Show Us Your Books is Tuesday.

2. Glorious beach walk Monday night, so weird to go without the dogs in the off-season. I love the ice on the pipes and pilings.

3. I sent them home in MFD so I could spend a few days working while visiting Kim and family in Vienna, VA. It's so nice to have the flexibility to work from everywhere and spend time with one of your bffs of 30+ years and her family. It really makes for a more rounded life. It was nice to share meals together. Kim and I did a HomeGoods errand, which we used to do in Marshalls in Levittown/Langhorne from the time we could drive ourselves to stores, looped in with a Drug Emporium trip. And Esteban, Kim and I watched the first few episodes of Tommy & Pam. Wild and hilarious. I left before the asscrack on the way down and am leaving at a much more palatable time to go home this morning, getting up early to flex work time instead.

We did games after dinner and Natalia taught me Loteria and we had some Go Fish action as well. She's smart and funny and I love seeing my friends' kids in their own environment.

Some food over the visit: steak salad and fried green tomatoes, mixed mashed sweet potatoes, glorious baked brie

4. I'm ahead on my shore outfitting for the year thanks to the HomeGoods trip. The best thing about going in places other than your usual geographic area is that they have different things. Excellent shore house shower curtain collection at this one. 10/10 recommend

5. We have reached the point in the season where my skin looks categorically awful, just dry and worn. I need to get through February without upending my regimen like I typically do, which throws my face into a tailspin. Already did that a bit with prescription tretinoin, and I'm going to sell that shit

6. I have not seen the Janet Jackson doc yet but I have been listening to a lot of Janet as the title implies. Who has seen it? 

7. Standard yearly reminder that Black History Month is every month, Black history is everyone's history, and that in addition to celebrating Black people we should be examining how much more difficult Black lives are made by systemic racism and every iteration of Jim Crow white people have dreamt up including the current mass incarceration one, question why in the fuck people wouldn't want the actual history of this country as it relates to Black people taught in schools (pretty sure you know the answer even if you don't want to say it out loud), buying Black, paying Black content creators, amplifying Black voices, and making sure there is equity. EVERY month.

8. Add this to one of the conditions in my optimal existence from yesterday

9. Reminder via doodlydays

10. This made me laugh.

Happy almost Friday!

What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to when I'm starting this - this week is of course Control by Janet Jackson - I forgot about this video

Some living conditions in my optimal existence

Groundhog Day for years at this point some days, am I right? Let's list things. Some of the living conditions in my optimal existence include

Windows open, no heat or air conditioning

Always in proximity to a clean bathroom

No petty bitches like character flaw petty bitch, only isolated I was petty today incidents

Four day work week three day weekend as the standard with everyone on earth experiencing an actual work life balance that is healthy and true

Term limits for all politicians and you have to pass an American history and government test to be one

Humid enough for my skin and throat to not be dry but not so humid I can't breathe and am sweating, shiny, and annoyed

Kindness over niceness

Produce that lasts until I'm ready to use it

No traffic anywhere, ever and also no trash on the ground, no pointless graffiti (no pointless graffiti, yes street art), and no unpicked up dog poop piles

Social media channels only work from 9-5 then they go to sleep until the next day

People in a hot hurry to exit trains and planes first would be met at the threshold with an invisible clothesline, falling to the ground and rolling around unhurt but in confusion, clutching at their spilled belongings while everyone who filed out in an orderly fashion like you should breezed through

Little bit of sun, little bit of shade, plenty of time to while the afternoon away on the porch

Returning from a beach walk with a little bag of treasures 

Adult zits are not a thing

Not a peep from the entire trump family, forever more

Never having to put gas in the car, clean baseboards or showers, waste food, or deal with water damage or car repairs

Lipstick that stays on until I wipe it off

A HomeGoods section fully stocked with interesting and beautiful things to peruse 

An endless to be read list - I'd rather die still reaching for new books than scat around for something suitable

Cuticles that maintain themselves

Outdoor showers every day 

The wealth gap cut by 60% 

Obvi equality, equity, safety, free and easily accessible A-Z healthcare including mental dental eye and substance use disorder, food, clean water, shelter, a halt to climate change and a habitable earth we don't allow to be destroyed for money, bodily autonomy, freedom, and joy for everyone in a world where people are fundamentally good. Also the death of systemic racism, garden variety racism, patriarchy, fascism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, homophobia, ableism, all the other shit that turns hatred outward with a focused lens and makes life harder for other people, war, self harm, domestic violence, the 24 hour news cycle, uncomfortable shoes, and the videos where people lip sync and writing is on the screen

Too much to ask?

What are some of your optimal living conditions?