Whew, I am all caught up on S3 of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and it got a little dark there, but OMG, I am in love with the fact that Bow’s dad’s name is LANCE, and it is the greatest gift TV has bestowed on me these past few weeks.
Well that and the twins from Sunnyside. They are amazing. Watch Sunnyside on Hulu, y’all! It’s a trip. Because the twiiiiiiiins.
I read some books:
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
So I definitely read this in college, and I 100% remembered exactly nothing about it except Sam Spade traipsing all over town. I knew there was a twist and I remembered who it involved (which I think is forecast pretty well from the beginning of the story), but other than that, I remembered nothing.
The story is good, but there are a ton of characters and details to keep track of, though it seems like there aren’t, which makes it even more confusing that I was so confused. Maybe I was just tired? I don’t know.
Along with sexism, there’s quite a bit of casual racism and homophobia in this as well. It’s nice to see so much diversity represented in the story, I have to say. It’d just be nicer if the marginalized groups weren’t described so cruelly.
I will say that rereading this has made all the noir jokes/references in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? make a whole lot more sense. Like, I got them before, but now I *really* get them.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book was exactly what I expected: a light romantic read, told in trademark Meg Cabot style with a hurricane as a backdrop. I liked it.
There was the hint of a subplot with some teens, and I cannot tell you how much that made me want a whole YA novel with those characters set on this island. I mean, I know there’s going to be another adult book in the series, but HOW FUN would it be to get into some YA shenanigans with Nevaeh and Katie and their Instagram? I’m just saying. I’d be into it.
The Memory Thief by Lauren Mansy
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
At one point, I actually forgot I was reading this book which is never a good sign.
Okay, here are my two big issues with this book:
1. I think the IDEA of trading memories is intriguing, but I still don’t quite understand exactly how it works so the world building didn’t exactly hold up for me. I will also admit that this type of fantasy isn’t really my jam so if I have to think overly hard about it that means I’m not super invested in the characters, so the author has to work that much harder to keep me engaged in the actual world, which…see previous point about this type of fantasy not really being my jam.
2. Lauren Mansy can write whatever kind of book she wants, but I would have liked this book SO MUCH MORE if–and this is the mildest of spoilers–(view spoiler) because this book was just too much about Etta and BOYS BOYS BOYS, and it started with Etta and her awesome younger sister-type charge and I wanted all of those shenanigans and got so very little of them, so.
The Englishist 