Steering into the Slide

How is it February? It really is true that the older you get the faster time seems to pass. It isn’t even that the months seem endless when you were young. It’s that time was meaningless because you had so much of it and so many miles to go. But as you age it speeds up, almost like life is pulling you towards an inevitable conclusion. That’s morose, but also a reminder to live every moment the way you want to live. Write the story instead of filling in the blanks. That last sentence is my love letter to you-since we’ve entered the month of gas station roses and fat babies armed with arrows. Cheap and terrifying. This blog post was all over the place before I wrestled it into something simple. Honestly it veered from the government shutdown to Batman. The writing was skidding on an icy road and turning against the slide. I still want to talk about Batman, but I’ll save it for another day. Today, let’s just talk about the books. Briefly. I read nine books this month. I stopped myself from saying only, but I sort of said it anyway. What matters is not the number, but that I enjoyed every single one. I think we can all take a collective exhale and declare an official end to the Reading Apocalypse of 2018. It did not follow me into 2019. Good stuff. Even with enjoying all nine, there are two that rise to the top. I won’t review them here because they are book club books, and I wouldn’t want to go spoiling things. 

The Good Demon by Jimmy Cajoleas - I thought about those YA naysayers as I read this book. The ones who say YA is too simplistic or not literary enough for rich discussions and in-depth analysis. This book is rich. This book is deep. This book is layered. An English major could bathe in the waters of this book and find a hundred meanings for a single moment. This was good stuff. Although, if you’re afraid of the dark and the evil that lurks in your closet or beneath the bed, read it while the sun is up. Even then, turn on the lights. If you don’t, you’ll wish you had.

The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson - I’ve been waiting for this book. I’ve been waiting for 12 long months. And once I started reading, I couldn’t stop reading. I want to say that my predictions were right, but I’ll refrain. Just like I didn’t say only . . . The Truly Devious series is a magical blend of classic and contemporary mysteries. And the protagonist, Stevie Bell, is the brightest witch of her age. Hermione who? With those fighting words, I’ll see myself out.

I’m off to read On the Come Up by Angie Thomas and The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg. See you soon.