So my book club is doing middle grade mysteries for October, and unfortunately, I can only nominate one book. One! This is sad for me because I have a lot of books that I could recommend because I want the people in my book club to read and/or talk about them. Just for context (do I need more context?), after I taught the detective literature course at my school last fall, I said my dream would be to teach the class again and focus solely on middle grade capers or puzzle books. (I was sick of all the murdering and violence in the adult literature.) The point is that this topic lives close to my heart.
So, anyway, here are all the books I wanted to nominate for my book club to read and the one I did wind up nominating in the end.
1. It is so good, y’all. So so good. I can’t wait for everyone to see it on Thursday. It’s super funny and just a delight (of course). Also, Maggie Lawson is a badass and I freaking love Juliet. (I feel a Juliet appreciation post coming on.) In conclusion, the movie did not disappoint at all.
The premiere event was fun. I got a trivia question right (“Who gave the Blueberry its name?”) so won some swag. And it was just so awesome to sit in a room full of fans who were all excited about seeing those two goofballs on screen.
2. While I was waiting in line, I finished a book:
I really liked this. As the mother of a child who has anxiety, a lot of the stuff Aza said sounded very familiar. I will also say that I got a real sense of Aza’s OCD and just how trapped by her thoughts she was. That was very well done. I also appreciated that this was a lot less precious than some of John Green’s more recent novels and that the love interest was actually a pretty down to earth kid.
So after my post of melancholy and woe, a coworker reached out to me, and we spent part of today together. She and her life partner (it always feels weird to call a couple that has been together forever but isn’t married yet–or that may not get married–“boyfriend/girlfriend.” I mean, we called my [great]grandmother’s partner her boyfriend and they were together before my mother was born and stayed together until he died. “Boyfriend” just seems woefully inadequate in that case, yes? But, as usual, I digress) took me to Grand Central Market and The Last Bookstore, both of which are Los Angeles hot spots and one of which just had a reopening.
I thought I would come home and take a nap after that, but I felt rejuvenated enough to go to this book club event I was waffling on. (I actually found this book club through book blogging! Alysia from My Little Pocketbooks started a book club called Mocha Girls Read, and I remembered that it was in LA, so I looked it up when I got here.) The book club was hosting one of those paint and sip parties, and I have always wanted to do a painting class. Since I was already on an interaction high, I decided to try it out.
I’m glad I went. One of the women said she hasn’t started the December book club selection because she started The Lunar Chronicles and is in too deep to quit now and read something else. I told her we could talk about it at the December meeting since I’ve read the series and understand that she might need to talk to someone about it. So now I’ll definitely feel a little less overwhelmed going to the book club in December since I’ll have met some of the women.
Also, the woman who runs the studio reminded me of my grandmother. So that was nice.
Then, on the way home, my Lyft driver asked me what kind of music I listened to and when I said mostly ’90s R&B, he put on Xscape and Dru Hill. (That partially inspired my GIF choice–gotta rep that ’90s hip-hop.) And that was after the first Lyft driver and I talked about Hamilton on the way to the class. (She saw the play a week ago after not knowing anything about it [!!!] and was blown away. I told her to invest in the cast recording. And also that I hated her.) (I’m kidding about that last part. I didn’t say it, but I did think it.)
Anyway, now I’m home and it’s 10 p.m. on Saturday so of course I’m about to get in bed.
The Englishist 