Reading In/Out 6/16/2026

I actually finished some dang books! We canceled dance hangout since no one would be there. More reading time!

OUT

Read This to Look Cool by Maeve Dunigan - I finished this up on Saturday after work. I was waiting for Mike to get ready to go to game night, and I had about 4 minutes left. I enjoyed this. It's a collection of personal essays from her life. I'm thinking she's around 30 now, based on the dates of some of her stories. Just a few years older than my kids. But her stories about being a weird kid, were relatable to me. Just like, the weird things kids think and do. And how all those things lead to being a weird grown up who is too anxious to call for pizza. I firmly believe the online ordering system was created by Gen Xers who wanted pizza, but didn't want to have to talk to a human.

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas - This was a good time. The last story set up the rest of the series quite nicely. In this book, the main character, Celaena, is 16 and is the best assassin in the Assassin's Guild. Stuff happens; she gets even better; more stuff happens; she ends up in a prison cart being hauled to the prison mines which is where she is when the original series starts. Now we know why she is the way she is.

Life After Death by Damien Echols - This was fascinating. This guy is a year younger than me. When he was 18, he was accused of murdering 3 11-year-old boys with his friends in a Satanic ritual. He was poor and weird and there was a juvenile case worker who was obsessed with the idea that he was a satanist and hounded him constantly about it. Satanic Panic was very real in Eastern Arkansas in the early 90s. He and his friend were convicted. The other kid was convicted, too, but he is the one who confessed first, so he was given a lesser sentence. Damien was the "ringleader" so he got a death sentence. He spent 18 years in prison. A couple years in, he got a letter from a woman who had heard of his troubles. They fell in love. They got married in the prison. She moved to Little Rock, Arkansas to be able to visit him regularly. HBO did a film about the whole deal. Peter Jackson got involved. He did another film. A whole bunch of other celebrities got involved and poured money into his defense. Instead of prosecuting him again in a retrial, the state decided to offer a plea deal. All three guys took it and walked out of prison in 2012. Later it was determined that the actual killer was the dad of one of the murdered boys. This book is told three ways. Damien writing after release; Damien's journals while in prison; Damien's blog posts nearer the end of his prison stay. The journals are very surreal, almost psychedelic. He and his wife are still married and live in Harlem, NY.

Continuing:

The King's Ransom by Janet Evanovich - I am now two-thirds of the way through this. I'm sure it will get finished this week. I can read a big chunk of it on my hour long lunch break. It's pretty fun.

Exhalation by Ted Chiang - I started this after finishing The Assassin's Blade. It is another collection of short stories. They are much shorter than the last one. They usually run about 30 pages or so. They are a bit weird. The first one was about a time travel portal in Baghdad. I've started the second one, but not finished it yet.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - I started this last night before bed. I read about 17 pages. I was mostly just getting it started because if I didn't, I wouldn't have that momentum to keep going after the long gap in reading that is Tuesdays. I like the 4% I've read. Can't tell you much. It's over 700 pages, so I figure I will be reading it for a hot minute.

That's it. That's what I read. I'm pretty proud of myself for finishing up those two books I'd been reading for ages.