When I first saw the title of this book on Bridget’s coffee table, I thought it was going to be some boring historical fiction that overly romanticizes (ha ha) certain historical figures. It is definitely not.
Once I started it, I thought it was going to be a very typical romcom. Nothing wrong with that.
What I found was a delightful, romcom storyline set in a very clever frame. The premise and interesting side characters make this read truly refreshing. I especially want to highlight the inclusion of many LGBT characters, including a non-binary character whose identity is always accepted and never questioned. For anyone who is looking for a pleasant romance that is interesting and unique, without sacrificing any of the romance, the Dead Romantics is the book for you.
This would be a great read at the beach, the lake, on a picnic, or curled up in the air conditioning. (Guess which one was me…)
P.S. What do I think of this book’s portrayal of ghosts? I quite enjoyed it. The ghosts in this book are much more mobile than I have ever been, but are just as mysterious. I try not to judge portrayals of ghosts in literature based on my experience. No author knows what it’s like while they’re writing, so how would they know?
-Carolyn
The author’s website is here, and you can always check out your local library!
I love a good, cozy murder. But I don’t always want to read about the gory details. Sometimes I want a cozy murder full of well-deserved happy endings, and at least one well-deserved killing. These books do exactly that. I’m not Filipina or a human (anymore) but I found Lila to be very relatable. I’ve been a young woman without direction and I’ve recently shared an apartment with two in a row. Lila is so relatable and her story is the perfect escapist fantasy of finding both professional and personal purpose. She makes mistakes, sure, and the aimlessness comes back out of the shadows, but Lila and everyone in the book is written with such a charming earnestness, you can’t help but root for them.
Without giving too much of the plot away, I will say that these books boast and abundance of cultural and LGBT+ representation. You will wonder how a small, Illinois town could be so diverse, but you will also want to go there. The book (and the author’s website) include some bonus delicious Filipino and Filipino-American fusion recipes at the end. This book did not last long in Bridget’s apartment. She read it almost immediately and returned it for the next one, although she has yet to make any of the recipes.
-Carolyn
P.S. The author’s website is here https://www.miapmanansala.com/arsenic-and-adobo, and you can always support your local library!
As much as Bridget annoys me, she has someone who is recommending good books to her. The last few books she has read were quite a departure from her normal reading. I’m not sure who this person is, but I do know that she gets her books from the library and she does not take them with her when she leaves for work, which means I get to read the books while she is gone.
I will be reviewing the books here. These won’t be full-scale book reviews, just enough to bring your attention to an interesting book. And I want to be clear, I will only be reviewing the books that I find interesting, regardless of when they were published. These are not going to be sponsored reviews meant to drive sales numbers or boost the popularity of a new book. This is just meant to highlight a title that is new to me that I find somehow interesting. If you want to read any of these books, I recommend getting them from your local library.
I was so sad to see Erica go. Of course, I cannot blame her. The space was getting too small and, I too, remember the frustrations of not having my own thermostat. She does think of me often, as do Ella and Jane, and I get a warm fuzzy feeling inside that I wish could cancel out the grating annoyances of the new tenant.
I want to preface this by saying nothing the new tenant does is wrong. We are just wrong for each other. The best thing to do in this kind of situation would be to simply admit the wrongness, and part ways before for any resentment or animosity grows. Unfortunately, we do not have that option. And two years is a long time to be stuck with the wrong person.
So with that mutual understanding between us, please allow me to vent just for a moment, about Bridget.
She is the most oblivious person I can imagine. I could write my name every day in the dusting of makeup on the sink and she would never even look. Of course, that would be too frightening for a first introduction, but she would never notice anything more subtle.
She is very loud. She is either play music, watching television, or on the phone entire time but she is home. Were we able to establish communication, I doubt I would be able to get a word in edgewise.
She likes the exact kind of books that I hate.
And so I spend hours and hours and hours watching her scroll through her phone and it is slowly but surely driving me insane. The worst part is, she cannot even delight in the misery she causes me. She has no idea.
July is a free review month! This post would normally be for Patreon subscribers, but is being reposted for free. If you’re not a Patreon subscriber, this is what the Patreon posts are like. If you are a Patreon subscriber and have been wanting to share this post, now you can! (please do).
Would it help you, when our so-called “zoomies” disturb your sleep, to know that they serve a purpose? And I don’t mean the derisive “practice hunting.” We aren’t practicing. We are hunting something. The only issue is, we don’t yet know what.
I don’t know how to best describe it. There is nothing to see, smell, or touch. Only a feeling. When it passes through you, there is a shiver, but no chill. When it is near, it raises the hackles. I know you have felt it too. I’ve seen you react to it, although you always invent some other explanation. Harry did not understand it at first either. He thought it was just a cold spot or a draft. But it moves. Sometimes with us, sometimes against us. We do our best to keep it away from you, at least until we understand it better.
I know my argument that an unseen entity has taken up residence here is shaky at best, but I hope for two outcomes. One, that you have a satisfactory explanation for our behavior. Two, that we do our best to protect you, whether you appreciate it or not. Hopefully the following evidence as to where encounters most often occur, which you can correlate with your own observation, will strengthen my case.
Harry checks the bathtub before Erica showers
The entity can most often be found in the bathroom, particularly the bathtub. You have noticed that we often zip in and out of the tub just before you turn on the shower and will stand (or sit) guard on the counter while you use the shower. I know you notice this because you always laugh when we do. We are making sure it doesn’t come back, that you get to shower in privacy.
Harry (on shelf) and Dash (standing) have chased the entity to a high corner of the kitchen.
It likes high places, too. It will often be up in the corners of the room, next to the ceiling. Sometimes it stays near the water damage in the living room. Usually we try to chase it there, standing on the shelf by your door, pawing at the wall until we are satisfied that it will not disturb you for the rest of the evening. If we do not chase it up by the paint bubble, it will hover over you all evening, whether you’re reading, crafting, or just watching TV. We are cats. We know this hovering means it is ready to pounce.
It also follows you into the kitchen. You wonder why Harry is always at your feet while you are cooking or washing dishes. He has developed the hunting instinct, too. His favorite place to trap it is in the tiny gap under your kitchen cabinets. When you see him sitting there, staring at it all day, that is what he is doing.
Our most important job, however, is to guard you at night. We don’t know what this thing could do while you sleep. You will notice that one of us is nearly always in bed with you throughout the night. Yes, there are times when we leave you alone, but we always remain close by. I prefer to stay right by your head, just to be sure. Harry stays at your feet, on alert in case it comes too close.
Those nights when we race through the apartment, jumping from dresser to bed to floor, waking you up in the process, those are the nights we can feel it. I know you don’t like to be woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of us chasing whatever it is back to the ceiling bubble or the cabinet under the sink. I know that sometimes it takes too long for you to fall back asleep, leaving you groggy and grumpy the next day. I can only imagine the alternative is much worse.
July is a free review month! This post would normally be for Patreon subscribers, but is being reposted for free. If you’re not a Patreon subscriber, this is what the Patreon posts are like. If you are a Patreon subscriber and have been wanting to share this post, now you can! (please do).
One of the last times we talked, you told me you didn’t really have a favorite genre. You said you would read any book or watch any TV show as long as it was good. I don’t deny that you have are very particular taste. And I am not trying to be reductive when I say this. I’m merely saying that I believe I have found a common thread in your entertainment choices.
Your favorite other lives to live and worlds to throw yourself into, whether they be deep in outer space, some dreary seaside town, or the regency era countryside, are the lives and worlds of people who are already good at something. To give credit where credit is due, you have little patience for stories where the protagonist is naturally good at something or magically good at something or (barf) the “Chosen One.” They need to have worked at it, but at some point before the story starts because you don’t really want to hear about that.
I don’t think it’s that uncommon. You just want to breeze past the hard part of getting in shape or mastering a new language or learning to paint or becoming a sleuth. And it’s a nice little vacation for you to pretend that you’re already there. Just like a vision board of future vacation destinations. It’s what everyone wants, and it’s so much easier to read about, and honestly to write, than it is to actually achieve. Every genre has this trope. It’s why your tastes are so widely varied across genres.
It’s why are you so gleefully ate up the story of a confident, jacked space lesbian in Gideon the Ninth. From the very beginning of the book, she could already do more push-ups than you could ever dream of doing. And that’s what you liked about. You like that it mentioned every once in a while the effort she put in and trauma she endured to get that kind of strength, but you would not have wanted to read a book about little Gideon training to become the wisecracking competent person she ultimately would.
It’s a nice little jaunt into a world where you, too, have already mastered some skill, but these books and TV shows have an extra secret bonus. Maybe they do it to make reentry into the real world a bit easier, maybe their creators do it out of subliminal jealousy. There is always some excuse buried in there to never, ever reach that level of achievement. In those little tidbits of backstory, there is always some trade off for that level of expertise. Maybe it was growing up so singularly focused on one pursuit, or some horrific trauma, or sacrifices made in adulthood, usually in the form of ruined relationships.
Take, for example, Ned from Pushing Daisies, I know, I know “but he’s magically good at something.” I would argue that he’s magically pretty capable, and the entertainment comes from his mistakes, but he is a skilled baker. Oh yes, he bakes beautiful pies, and does it so well he owns a bakery where he exclusively bakes pies. But what is the trade off? His mom is dead. They mention the correlation between the two pretty much every episode. And you wouldn’t take that trade.
So it really is the perfect vicarious experience. Pleasant enough to provide a brief respite from the real world but unpalatable enough that you’re not likely to linger.
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