Reading In/Out 7/28/2026

This weekend wasn't a total bust reading-wise, but also I had a fibro flare on Sunday, and I couldn't lift a hardcover.

OUT

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster - I did manage to wrap this up last Tuesday. My favorite character was, of course, Tock the dog. In case you are one of the few GenX-ers that didn't read this as a kid, I'll attempt to sum it up. Milo doesn't like school or reading or anything that feels like work. One day, a toy tollbooth shows up in his room. He hops in his toy car and goes through the tollbooth. On the other side he is in an entirely different world that is full of puns and wordplay. He meets the Spelling Bee who spells various words after she says them, and the Humbug who is quite the complainer. He goes on quite the adventure through this land attempting to rescue Rhyme and Reason, two princesses whose imprisonment banished all sense and beauty from the land. It's a pretty good time, and the puns are pretty good. I used this book to satisfy a challenge from the r/Fantasy Bingo to Read a Children's Chapter Book I Missed As A Child.

Freaky In Fresno by Laurie Boyle Crompton - When I started listening to this, I wasn't really sure how far I would get. The main character was really mean to her cousin. Yeah, the cousin was obnoxious, but so was our girl, Ricki. The two used to be best friends, but then Lana, the cousin, got really into fashion and makeup and started a BoobTube (YouTube) channel about makeup and is on the verge of internet fame. Ricki was no longer cool enough to hang out with, and her feelings were hurt. Their aunt gives them a cotton candy pink Buick Skylark to share in an attempt to bring them together. While fighting over the car, they switch bodies. So this turns out to be a Freaky Friday retelling. It ended up being decently cute and had a tidy ending. Don't be fooled by the dog on the cover. She looks cute, but, being a Chihuahua, she is actually a demon straight from the pits of hell.

CONTINUING

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - I finally got the library copy of this and I can finish this stupid thing. Believe me, I checked that the library copy had the pages in question before I checked it out.

Who Is Government? by Michael Lewis - I am enjoying this. It's basically a series of essays that extoll the virtues of the unsung heroes of the Federal Government.

The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee - I am about 20% through this and I am enjoying it. So far, it's basically a sci-fi/mystery. Some suspicious things are happening in the Company (read: the government) and Isako is going to get to the bottom of it.

Immortal Game by Allison Saft - So our girl Shae is in the fairy world to play in the ultimate chess tournament. She could play against the king of the fae and get her sister back. Right now, she's trying to decide if her oldest rival in the chess world is really as bad as she thought and maybe she kind of likes her, likes her. I still think it's all for nothing and the sister doesn't want to return to the mortal realm, but whatever. There's a dog.

IN

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton - In an alternate Victorian (?) London, there is a society of pirates who are all women. They are also magical. At the beginning, Cecilia and her great-aunt are sitting in their parlor when someone knocks at the door. Next he is trying to climb in the parlor window. When confronted, he says he thought this window opened onto a bedroom, to which the aunt replies that they are not such riff raff that they sleep on the ground floor. Next he throws a grenade through the window, which Cecilia picks up and tosses back out the window. Also, these magical pirates have flying houses. The pirate who is trying to kill them is a bad pilot and puts her house down on top of another house, leaving the man she hired to do the assassinating to climb a drain pipe on the lower house in order to reach her house. It's absolutely ridiculous and perfect. I picked it up because my hands hurt too much to hold the Isako book, which is hardcover and almost 500 pages.

There you have it. I am pretty well set for the week. Well, hopefully I can finally finish The Name of the Wind. Other than that, I probably won't get anything finished in the near future. But I will have some pretty fantastic reading to do.