August 26, 2025

Reading In/Out 8/26/2025

This post is going to be a bit chaotic. Hold on to your hats.

Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane by Devoney Looser - I think the purpose of this book was to show that Jane Austen was not the prim, proper, prudish wallflower that certain of her relatives would have us believe. The points made were valid and interesting. I could have done with less repetition of the word "wild". It was truly excessive.

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh - So okay. The library staff were sent a reading Bingo board to bring to our staff training day in October. We could use any book we had read this year to mark off the Bingo square challenges. I needed one square to complete a line and the challenge there was to read a book whose author shared a first or last name with your boss. This one is by Allie Brosh. It's not spelled the same, but close enough. Also, it took an hour to read. Easy peasy.

The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan - I gave up on this one. I just did not care. It just felt like too much drama about stuff that doesn't matter. These days I have a lot less patience for that kind of thing.

The Good Vampire's Guide to Blood & Boyfriends by Jamie D'Amato - When I finished listening to the Jane Austen one, I was ready for another audiobook, so I went looking for whatever was on my LibroFM list. This is what I found. I'm about halfway through it now. The main character is pretty relatable, aside from being a vampire, even if he is depressed and anxious and kind of a whiner. He's still funny and smart. The side characters are entertaining as well. Particularly the 90 year old vampire that can't work a smart phone, and always signs her texts.

None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney - This is a little bit unbelievable because I'm 90% sure the FBI would never recruit teenagers to send into prisons and mental hospitals to interview dangerous serial killers. It is set in the 80s which I did not know until there was a message from President Reagan on the car radio. It was going well until the narrator changed from one of the teenagers to a man who is the latest serial killer the FBI is looking for. That POV is truly horrific. I've decided to just read a chapter at a time, to keep from freaking myself out.

Jane Austen: Women, Politics, and the Novel by Claudia L. Johnson - I actually got a chapter of this read yesterday! Goodreads says I'm 34% through it, but when you look at where I am in the actual book, it looks closer to 50%. I haven't actually done the page math, so maybe GR is right.

Now I Rise by Kiersten White - So, since I'm only reading a chapter at a time in the scary book, I decided to choose another YA book to read. This is the second in a trilogy. I read the first one many years ago, but so far, I know what is happening. And I enjoyed the 3% I read yesterday. It's almost 500 pages, so that's more than it seems.

So there we are. Lots of out. Lots of In.