I am so much more relaxed going into this year, with our stated desires to take things a bit easier and spend time reading things that we enjoy. I’ve also dialed back my Goodreads goal for the year to 218, and I do not intend to go over it. I worry that our stats are going to drop, but my peace of mind will be worth it until people readjust.

Books

The books that I’ve read this week are: The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden, and High Energy by Dara Joy. I’m working my way through Death’s Realm right now (a collection from Grey Matter Press) that definitely works best if you read one story and then walk away for a while until that one fades from your mind a bit. I’m also listening to an audio book version of Brian Keene’s The Rising for review. It’s interesting going back to the book after several years, because all I remembered was that I really liked it at the time. What I”m finding is that while I still think Keene is very talented, I no longer like the book quite as much as I once did.

 

I set sort of a teasing goal that I was going to try to read every Severed Press book they release this year, and as much of their backlog as possible. As a result, you’ll see some reviews for Attack of the Yetis, Down from Beast Mountain, Absolute Zero, and Infestation  . Personally, I can’t wait to delve into their titles and begin to learn who I like and who I don’t. Right now I only have vague ideas.

Part of me really loves interacting with authors on Twitter. I get a kick out of it, but I’m not the type of person to fangirl. However, it makes me a little nervous, because if I find out someone’s a genuinely nice guy, then I have problems giving their book a good shred if they need one. Ah, the downfalls of socializing.

Has your personal interactions with an author ever changed the way you look at or review their books?

My next weeks’ reading will probably be finishing Death’s Realm, starting on Ride the Star Wind (which was originally sent to Gracie, but it was clear it was on of those books that were better suited for my preferences.), I’ll also be reading The Zee Brothers: Zombie School Lockdown  . I’ve read the first book in the series, and thought it was hilarious, so I’m eagerly anticipating this silliness in this one. (Think Tucker and Dale vs Zombies.)

Movies

We went to see the new Jumanji, which I won’t be reviewing on the site because it doesn’t fit our genres. However, there was a plethora of jokes involving male genitalia, and stuff that many people were laughing about was just not funny. I’m not saying my sense of humor was better than theirs or some such, but I am disturbed that they didn’t recognize the problem with making your token black character the super aggressive one that was also a scaredy cat and – oh boy oh boy – did he love his drinks. Or that they took the idea of someone who was transgender – a female trapped in a male’s body for this one – and used it to play things so completely over the top it was just stupid and eye-roll worthy. Now, don’t get me wrong, there were legitimately some parts that I laughed at as well, but for the most part I was just groaning and realizing that I really did expect way too much.

On the Indie front, I watched 2017: Virtual Revolution (sci-fi), and The Devil’s Well (horror). Both of them were interesting, and you will see reviews on them closer to their release dates.

Life and Laughter

Monster had her first pulmonary therapy appointment on Wednesday, and we were all in stitches. My child is extremely outgoing, and has absolutely no filter. So, when she was telling her therapist about her 2nd grade boyfriend, and how they broke up, she came out with something that shocked us to goggling and then had us outright giggling.

You see, she’d taken a deep breath, and had this look of absolute sincerity on her face as she says

“At first it was all pink sparkles, but then it just turned to dust.”

 

But wait! It gets better!

When I was telling her Gramma about it later, L tells her Gramma “Yeah, I accidentally kissed him, too.”

“HOW do you accidentally kiss someone?”

“Well, we were going around a turn on the bus and my lips landed on his cheek.”

Oooookay, that’s …well, that’s that.

But then, I, being my usual snarkie self said “Well, better be careful about that when you’re older, you might fall on something else and end up pregnant.” Now, I imagine most kids would have given me a “MOOOOOOOOOOM!!” at that, but all my child did was said matter-of-factly.

“That can’t happen. I’ll be on birth control, remember?”

Sometimes all you can do is acknowledge a point and move on.

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How’d your first week of 2018 go? What books have you read? What laughs have you had?