Kindles and Kittens

When even my dad is noticing that I haven't blogged lately, it's time to get back into the game.

As I explained to him, it's not that I've been playing a ton of Pokemon Go either (though I've been playing a moderate amount).  It's that ever since I started reading books on my Kindle, I've been reading more and faster than I have in a long time.  Now I wish I'd bought one years ago, but whatever--I've been making up for lost time.  So far, I've read a couple books that my mom loaned me from her Kindle (which is a totally cool feature) and books from the library's Overdrive catalog.  Although it usually takes me a few minutes to find a book I'm interested in that isn't wait-listed, once I do, it's about 30 seconds until the book is on my Kindle, ready to read.  I had hoped that having a Kindle would make getting books from my library a lot easier, and the reality has far exceeded my expectations.

So I might as well re-introduce my Half-Assed Book Reviews feature back to EQ, right?

The Wicked Girls - Alex Marwood

This mystery alternates between two related stories--a serial killer working in a low-rent seaside resort town (featuring the perfectly-named crappy amusement park Funnland) in the present, and two pre-teen girls who ended up killing a young child in their care about 25 years earlier.  Characterization and plot were both excellent.  Recommended!

The Humans - Matt Haig

I thought this would be a SF story, but it's really not.  It's more like: alien comes to earth with a mission to kill some people and discovers this strange human thing called Love, which Changes Everything.  It definitely had its amusing aspects, but overall, it was a disappointment.  Not just because it violated my expectations, but because it didn't feel fresh or new (and wasn't quite funny enough to compensate for that) and was a little cheesy. 

Also, though I gave the author all kinds of latitude because of the obviously ludicrous premise of the story, I still found myself pulled out of the moment by thoughts like, "So this supposedly uber-advanced civilization sends people on assassination plots without giving them even the most rudimentary introduction to how things work on Earth?  These people are capable of literally ingesting and consequently understanding any book with one gulp, but no one thought, Hey, maybe we should let him know a couple of the most basic norms humans follow so he doesn't show up and immediately get thrown into the loony bin.  WTF." 

It's also not clear how well the "aliens who value mathematics above all things" aspect works if you actually know a lot about math.

Alternative recommendation: Humans - Donald Westlake.  It's from 1993 and not easily available, but if you find a copy, grab it!  Angel dealing with humanity beats mathematical alien dealing with humanity 6-0, 6-0, 6-0.  It's funny, dark, whimsical, and wild.  This is one of the books that has survived the book culling of every move I've made since leaving my parents' house without any question.

Dr. Bunny Love--Monday 8/14/17

My outfit for pretending that I work at a rabbit hospital...the kind where we diagnose a human's problems then bring them exactly the right type of bunny to cure their ills.

Outfit cost per wear (OCPW): $16.71

Candyland Business Casual--Tuesday 8/15/17

It's not all just fun and games in the Candyland universe.  Somebody's gotta crunch the numbers to see if all is on track with the expansion of the Licorice Castle.

OCPW: $10.11

Summer to Fall, Part 1--Wednesday 8/16/17

Tone down a bright floral top with the autumn-like colors of navy and olive.

OCPW: $15.98

Summer to Fall, Part 2--Thursday 8/17/17

Burgundy and olive are quintessential fall colors, but kept a bit summery with white scarf and white legs.

OCPW: $9.22

Dressing For a 10 Minute Presentation--Friday 8/18/17

What I wore to introduce a new metric I developed and get feedback from one of the primary audiences for the report (enthusiastically favorable)...at my actual job. 

OCPW: $12.08

In other news...A neural network names kittens!