Friday Reads 4/11/2025

I have an unplanned day off today. My kid got scheduled for an edoscopy today. Unfortunately, no one at the office told them to not take their Zepbound (GLP-1). That medicine paralyzes your stomach so it slows digestion. This means food stays in your stomach longer. Which means when you are sedated, you will most likely vomit said food and then aspirate it. This is bad. So we've rescheduled the procedure for a Monday. The scheduler told them to have a clear liquid diet the day before the procedure. A Sunday. Easter Sunday. Good thing the kid doesn't like Easter food.

This weekend, or lack thereof includes an early Sunday morning ringing bells at church. It's Palm Sunday. We'll be busy. I have to work for 5 hours on Monday for a training, so I will have some reading time, but the afternoon is taken up with training. Wish me luck getting the following books finished.

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst - I made it to halfway mark today. Also today, I finally became invested in the story. It's a cozy fantasy and it is a slooooowwww burn plot. It starts out pretty intense with the burning of a library, but it slows down pretty quickly after that. There are magical creatures. Let me rephrase that. Everyone is a magical creature. Some of them are considered "people" and some are considered "different". I can't tell what the criteria is for the difference. The plot is pretty easily identifiable which is why I was not invested. If I can see what is going to happen half a book in advance, I tend to get bored. This book reads fast enough that I was willing to give it the old college try. Plus, my coworker has read it, and said it's worth doing. Today, I ran across a plot point that was not heavily foreshadowed and now I'm interested in seeing what else Durst has up her sleeve. Two words: spirit bears.

Compassion in the Court: Life-Changing Stories from America's Nicest Judge by Frank Caprio - I sat down at lunch yesterday and read 50 pages of this. It's an easy read and there are pictures. Yay! I have seen this judge in clips on various social media sites. He had a TV show, but since I don't watch TV and don't have cable, I never saw that. He was a traffic court judge for 38 years. He probably could have done more prestigious kinds of cases, but he says he likes traffic court because they are small stakes. He can show compassion to people and help them out at a time when perhaps that makes all the difference. A $150 ticket is not a big deal to the city, but for a single mom with 2 kids, that could be devastating. The first section of the book is just sort of the history of his family and a recap of his childhood and getting into law. The rest of it is stories of special cases he heard and remembered. I haven't got to that part yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

The Kennedy Girl by Julia Bryan Thomas - When I finish The Spellshop (hopefully by the end of Monday) I will start this for my reading at home book. It's kind of beefy, so hopefully it reads quickly. It's historical fiction, so there's a good chance. Also, it's set in the 60s (not WWII, like so much historical fiction) so that will be fun.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi - When I finish Judge Caprio, I will go for this one. It sounds funny, but also maybe a little twee? Like the moon turns to actual cheese. We know this because the moon-rocks in various museums have also turned to cheese. There are all the conspiracy theorists, of course, but scientists are desparately trying to figure how this is going to affect the tides and therefore all of humanity. I heard it's funny. We'll see.

So there we go. There are more library books on hold, and hopefully they will not all come in at once (hahahahaha! making the library gods laugh again) But this is where we're at right now. The era of library books.

Aren't you impressed with my ability to toss aside my plans to read at Whim? I assure you, I am taking extra anxiety medicine to handle it.