Friday Read August 4

Hello Friday. I will have little to no time to read anything this weekend. I work Saturday, so I can read some Saturday evening. Sunday I have to visit high school Sunday Schools in the morning. I work from 12:30 - 5:00. And I have dance at 7:00. Then I'll collapse. I have a therapy appointment Monday at 11:00, then I have to wait for the heat and air guy to come check our system. I can read while I wait unless I pass out. I never get much read during the work week. If I was independently wealthy I would get more reading done.

So now that we know I will not be reading that much, let's talk about what I am working on. I must be feeling some stress because I've got a bunch of books on the go.

Smoke by Dan Vyleta - When I first opened this to read it, I nearly fainted. The font is super tiny. I definitely need my reading glasses for this one. I tried to read a chapter last night without my glasses and it was a trial. That being said, I am liking the story so far. We are following Thomas and Charlie who are boys from high class families at a boarding school in Oxford. Charlie is happy-go-lucky and Thomas is brooding and angsty. In this Victorian England, when you sin you give off smoke. It comes out of your mouth and your pores. It stains your clothes and your skin. In this school, boys are punished if their clothes are sooty because they are supposed to remain soot free. They are upper class, so obviously they are pure.

The Five: The Lives of the Jack The Ripper's Women by Hallie Rubenhold - I started reading this at lunch the other day and I am really liking it. It follows the life of each one of the women Jack murdered up until their deaths. I'm still on the first woman and her story is fascinating. Polly was married for several years and had many children, 5 of whom lived to adulthood. But just after the last one was born, she walked out of the house and left them all to their father and his mistress. Without the protection of a male relative, she was pretty helpless. She was in and out of the workhouse several times. The main point of this book is that these women were not prostitutes, as is frequently stated, and he killed each of them in their sleep.

In Praise of Good Bookstores by Jeff Deutsch - I'm half way through this one, and as far as I can tell, it's really in praise of one particular bookstore that is extremely niche. Deutsch is the director of the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore in Chicago which caters to people who are students at the seminaries near it. It sounds like a bookstore I wouldn't bother going into, but he seems to think it is the epitome of the abstract concept of bookstore. I just need about 2 hours to finish it up and have an actual opinion.

Happy Place by Emily Henry - I haven't actually been reading this. I was saving it to read at work, but then I picked up The Five and I've been reading that. I will eventually get it done. It's fine. I'm not pressed about it.

G'Morning, G'Night: Little Pep Talks for You and Me by Lin Manuel Miranda - When I do finish the bookstore one, I'll pick this up. I'm reading these shorter books in small snatches of time like while dinner cooks. Times I don't have enough time to sink into Smoke. That one takes more attention. I imagine this will be pretty quick.

I think that's probably enough for a week where I won't have a lot of reading time. What are you reading now?