Introversion Be Damned!
Currently reading:
Who is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews
[new undisclosed book for undisclosed freelance work]
Books finished this week: 1
My familiar had to be in on this book photo 🐈⬛
★★★☆☆
Where this book came from: It feels silly to have forgotten already, because it was only a month and a half ago, but it was either Green Apple or Black Bird in San Francisco.
Why this book: Secret British and Irish witches?? Anne Boleyn?? C’monnnn.
Thoughts: I adored the premise and greatly enjoyed the questions this novel raised, but this is one where I felt the execution didn’t live up to what the synopsis promised. It felt like there was a lot of talking in circles (sometimes with language that felt cringey and forced) until the action picked up in the last 50 pages or so. I felt more emotion in those final pages, as well, emotion and connection to the characters that I should’ve been made to feel much earlier. I know this is the first in a trilogy (I believe), so maybe more of that will come in the following books? But I didn’t care much about a good amount of the cast, even if their powers were cool. There were also some line-level issues—there were a good amount of tense shifts; it was also sometimes unclear who was speaking in a conversation, because only pronouns would be used when both people speaking had the same pronouns, or because one character’s actions would lead into another character’s dialogue—that I wish the writer or her editor (or copyeditor) had fixed up. Still, this is a fun and relatively quick read, so I definitely recommend for any witchy-types out there, or anyone looking for magic-in-the-modern-age.
Library updates:
I’m nearly done with my fourth——maybe fifth?——listen of My Dad Wrote a Porno. I got to see their live show a few weeks ago at Radio City (which was excellent) and started relistening in preparation, and I just haven’t been able to stop. I don’t often reread books, but I’m terrible about watching new shows and listening to new music or podcasts. I don’t mind Porno being a comfort listen, though.
I also apparently decided to become an Oasis fan this week. I love their song “Stay Young,” because it’s on the soundtrack for The Faculty (unironically one of my favorite movies), and now I’m also a big fan of “Stand By Me.” If you’re leaving, will you take me with you?
As I mentioned last week, I saw Come From Away, which was my fourth stage show this year. Before that, it had been a long two years and one(ish) month since I saw Hadestown way back in early March 2020. This past Wednesday, I saw my fifth show——A Strange Loop——which I really liked. I think I want/need to see it again, though.
I got some nice feedback at work and on my freelance review, which has helped lift my spirits this week. I’m trying to be better about going out and doing things, too, with it being summer and having my weekday evenings free now.
But my greatest joy so far this summer has been going to the beach. I love going with friends, but I’ve found myself going on my own quite a bit, usually trying to get out there at least once each weekend to catch up on reading and try to (safely) tan.
I went last Sunday——after posting last week’s missive——and started reading Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, and spent a few hours just enjoying the sunshine and my two contraband beers. In the last hour or so I was there, I was thinking about packing up to head home when one of the women sitting on the blanket nearby came walking toward me. At first, I assumed she was just walking unnecessarily close to my chair on her way to the bathroom. But then she stopped and told me she had drawn me. Did I want to see it?
I absolutely did, obviously, and it’s absolute perfection. It’s me in my element—messy hair, beach chair, leg out, book in lap. Sunglasses on and world tuned out. I want to pay her so I can use it as my personal branding logo; maybe I will. But in the moment, I just thanked her, and then gave her my Instagram so she could tag me in the post, because the internet is shit at the beach. (We spent a minute or two commiserating over the bad service out at Jacob Riis.)
It was a super short interaction, and maybe I was a little sun- and second-beer-tipsy. But it really put a lovely spin on my day. I thought of it again on Wednesday night, after seeing A Strange Loop, when I missed my train and went to a bar to grab a beer and kill an hour before the next one. I ended up talking to the bartender the whole time (and accidentally turning my “just one beer” into three in 45 minutes), and whereas I’d wanted to get home as soon as possible when I first walked in, I almost didn’t want to leave by the end of it.
I’m trying to embrace moments like that. Trying to enjoy people more. I’m an introvert, but it can be nice to pay attention to the world and spend a moment with another human.
Closing thoughts:
Pay attention.
