Friday Reads: Sourdough by Robin Sloan

Delightful and effortlessly readable. That's the description I kept coming back to as I was reading today's Friday Read. As many of you know, I'm an enthusiastic subscriber to the Book of the Month club. (If you want to check it out, my referral link will get you your first month for 9.99 and a cute tote bag.) And one of the things I like best about the club is that it forces me out of my reading comfort zone. Sourdough by Robin Sloan is a book I never would've picked up and checked out on my own. A book about a slightly magical sourdough starter? What?

But I'm telling y'all, this was the perfect book for the reading slump I was in. It was so fun and quirky and just a delight to read. There was even a tiny little romance in it. I like books that make me feel good and smile, and this one definitely did. So if you find yourself in a funk or a bad mood, give it a try. Bonus: The cover on the hardback glows in the dark!

Also, be warned. It's going to make you crave bread. It made me bake, lol.

See...

So books and bread, a winning combo. I bought this author's other book while the bread was still cooling off. That's the highest compliment because my TBR is like whoa and I do not need to be adding more books. 

About the book:

Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions. She codes all day and collapses at night, her human contact limited to the two brothers who run the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall from which she orders dinner every evening. Then, disaster! Visa issues. The brothers close up shop, and fast. But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. She must keep it alive, they tell her—feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it.

Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she’s providing loaves daily to the General Dexterity cafeteria. The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market, and a whole new world opens up.

When Lois comes before the jury that decides who sells what at Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. But then, an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. But who are these people, exactly? 

Leavened by the same infectious intelligence that made Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore such a sensation, while taking on even more satisfying challenges, Sourdough marks the triumphant return of a unique and beloved young writer.

Amazon | B&N | Indiebound | Book of the Month Club (where you can get the hardcover for about half the price)

What are you reading this weekend?

Win 12 Signed Romances!

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Have a great week!

Self-Care Tip: Why I'm Going Old School for News

Earlier this week, I retweeted an article I wrote last year about the Highly Sensitive (HSP) personality type and how it’s important to practice self-care, particularly when there is a tragedy being reported in the news. This week the horrible and tragic situation in Vegas brought this to mind again because in our 24-hour news culture, it has become the norm to replay traumatizing videos over and over again and to dissect every small piece of it and to interview victims who are still bloody, in shock, and processing the event themselves about all the gory details.

Seeing the videos and interviews is disturbing to everyone because the whole thing is awful and tragic and terrifying, but to some of us, it can feel like more because we can’t dial down the empathy or separate ourselves from the intense emotion of it all. Seeing it over and over can send us into a spiral of imagining the victims’ pain, picturing horrible things, thinking about what their families are going through, and feeling deeply anxious or distressed. It’s a bad and unhealthy cycle to get caught up in.  

Whether you want to label it “highly sensitive” or not, I’ve known this about myself for a long time. I’ve always had an intense empathy response. It was what led me to become a social worker and therapist. I wanted to help people. It’s also what made me realize social work might kill me because I couldn’t mentally leave things at the office. I worked with kids and the stresses and problems they were having went home with me each night. It takes a special person to be a social worker, nurse, doctor, first responder, etc. It takes someone who can separate emotions out in order to do their job effectively. I realized I wasn’t the right fit for it. 

But I’ve learned that this quality is also what makes watching the barrage of daily breaking news so difficult and stressful. I want to know what is happening in the world so that I’m informed and can take action when and how it’s needed (I still have that desire to help), but I don’t gain any additional information by seeing these traumatic things running all day long over and over again. Plus, outside of being sensitive or not, I don’t see how it helps victims to stick a camera in their face an hour after the scariest and most devastating moment of their lives to interview them about what it was like to see people killed around them. How does that help anyone to do that?

This is obviously just my opinion, but that “breaking news” dissection of every event, not to mention the constant yelling over issues on the national news stations (regardless of political leanings) has turned me away from news pretty much completely. I watch my local affiliate at night for the weather and that’s about it. The morning news show I watched for most of my adult life is no longer watched. And frankly, Twitter has become much of the same for me. I used to spend time there to socialize during writing breaks (and I'd get news that way), but now I only pop in and out to respond to people and announce book/blog info because otherwise, there’s so much anger and arguing that it's often a stressful place to be. I’m not saying the anger isn’t justified, but I can't invite that into my day every day. I’ve had to step back from all of it because otherwise I would just spend my day anxious, depressed, or pissed off and get nothing else done.

However, I still want to be an informed person and citizen. Total avoidance swings too far in the other direction. Sticking my head in the sand and ignoring everything doesn’t help either. So this week, a possible solution hit me: ingest the information in a different, calmer, more controlled way. The old school way. For the first time in my life, I subscribed to . . . a newspaper. Yes, the paper kind delivered on your front doorstep. They still do those. Shocking, I know. But after researching, I realized that it could offer a good solution to my dilemma.

Benefits to the newspaper over TV/internet:

• There are no looping videos like TV and the internet that show traumatizing content.
• There is no need to constantly repeat the same stories or obsess over every minute detail as “breaking news” to fill 24-hours of airtime (on the contrary, there is limited space so only the most important stories make it in.)
• There is no scrolling news ticker at the bottom or competing videos in the sidebar, which help create information overload and that anxious feeling.
• A newspaper will have some local, in depth coverage so that I know what’s going on in my city and state.
• In addition, a newspaper will cover other important stories you're not hearing about on TV because one big headline tends to dominate TV news for days at a time. There's a whole world of news going on out there (nationally and internationally) that gets lost in the noise.
• Positive stories are included as well (which seems to be becoming more rare on TV, though my local news does try to highlight at least one positive story each night.)
• Fact-checked news that hopefully covers stories from both sides. (I researched which newspapers were the most even-handed because even though I lean strongly one way, I think it’s important to get opinions from all sides.)
• Bonus—there is no comments section to raise your blood pressure and no pundits yelling at each other! I can read, process, and develop my own opinion without all the racket.

There are more benefits (paying to support writers, getting local restaurant/event information, movie reviews, etc.) but those in the list are pretty huge in my book.

I’ve also decided to try out a few magazines since I also like in depth dives into different topics. I’ve subscribed to The New Yorker, National Geographic, and Scientific American.

Yes, it’s retro and Luddite of me maybe, but sometimes the old way of doing things isn’t always the inferior way. For those who need to step back for their own emotional well-being or simply those who want information without the barrage of noise and repetitiveness, I think this could be a solid answer. I just started my subscription and am going to get the weekend editions, so I’ll report back how it goes.

Is anyone else in the same boat with the 24-hours news culture? Anyone still subscribe to a newspaper or magazines?

October Read and Watch Challenge: STRANGE

It's that time of the month again--time for a new monthly theme for the Read & Watch Challenge! This month I wanted to nod to Halloween and the change of seasons (if we ever GET a change of season here in Dallas. So. Hot. Still.) But I also didn't want to make it all about scary books and horror because not everyone reads that. So I thought the word STRANGE could cover a lot of bases. 

*If you're not familiar with the challenge, you can find out the details here. Feel free to join in anytime.

So, I have a few recommendations for you and then I'll give you some of my plans for what I'm going to read and watch this month.

What to Read:

First, I'm going to recommend (with caveats) a horror writer that I discovered last year: Grady Hendrix. So his books are like if horror movies from the 80s got mixed up with a Southpark episode. They are gory but also darkly funny and snarky. Having said that, don't read these if you don't like horror or are easily grossed out. They are still horror, even if they have that dark comic edge. But I've enjoyed both of these, and I love the quirky concepts.

I read My Best Friend's Exorcism last week and it was a page-turner. Plus, the presentation of the book itself adds to the experience. The hardcover I have looks like a high school yearbook complete with signatures and cheesy pages with dedications and school clubs and such. Also, each chapter is the name of an 80s song. I'm not sure if all the humor will land if you didn't grow up in the 80s. Like I can remember how there was this rampant fear back then that satanists were stealing kids and doing rituals in the woods near my house. It's weird to think about it now, but people legitimately were worried that kid-stealing satanists were a widespread problem. So there are nods to that time in this book. Also, there's a scene at the end where she invokes a view things during an exorcism (I won't spoil it) that made me laugh out loud and made the whole book worth it. But it is GORY. I was grossed out a number of times. So this isn't going to be for everyone.

This photo is of the hardcover that I have, but the paperback version has one that looks like a crazy VHS tape. Also, it looks like the kindle version has enhanced content.

My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

An unholy hybrid of Beaches and The Exorcist that blends teen angst, adolescent drama, unspeakable horrors, and a mix of ’80s pop songs into a pulse-pounding supernatural thriller

The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act…different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby. Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries—and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?

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Also, if that one appeals to you, I'll do a shout out for another by Grady Hendrix that I read a few years ago. I did a full review on this one here and have already recommended it. But in case you missed it, it's a horror story set in an IKEA-like store. Who wouldn't think that getting lost in an IKEA at night would be scary? I highly recommend the print copy of this one because it's made to look like an IKEA catalog and has drawings of different furniture that becomes increasingly sinister as the story goes on. :) 

Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix

A traditional haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary setting, Horrorstör comes packaged in the form of a glossy mail order catalog, complete with product illustrations, a home delivery order form, and a map of Orsk’s labyrinthine showroom. It’s “a treat for fans of The Evil Dead or Zombieland, complete with affordable solutions for better living.”—Kirkus Reviews. 

Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking.
 
To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.

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If you like your strange with a little more science fiction and less horror, you might want to try Dark Matter by Black Crouch. This is a thriller with a science fiction twist. It puts the characters in a lot of strange situations, so this fits the theme perfectly. I did a full review here, but here are the details about the book:

Dark Matter by Black Crouch

A mindbending, relentlessly surprising thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy.

“Are you happy with your life?” 
 
Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. 
 
Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. 
 
Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”  
 
In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.
 
Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.
 
Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.

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What to Watch:

It

Okay, y'all, confession: the original IT was one of my favorite movies/mini-series (even though the ending always pissed me off.) I saw it high school and read the book and loved that brand of horror. So I was both excited and nervous when the new one came out because remakes are usually a big disappointment. But I got a chance to see it this week and I have to say, I was impressed. They did a really great job with it and benefitted from the technology advances since the first one. Plus, the child actors did a great job portraying the characters. I also liked that this one just focused on the half of the story that took place when they were kids (they moved it from set in the 60s to the 80s). There will be a second movie I'm guessing to cover the adult portion, but it made it feel less rushed. So if you like a scary movie that's more about psychological horror than jump scares, this is a good choice. For me, this one is all about characterization and caring about the characters, which is often rare in modern horror movies.

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What I'll Be Reading:

Sourdough by Robin Sloane

This is one of my Book of the Month picks and I love the sound of this one. Magical bread? Sign me up. :) (Also, if you're interested in checking out Book of the Month, you can get the new John Green book or the new Stephen King and Owen King book for free. My referral link will get you 3 months for 10 dollars a month, which is way cheaper than the new release hardbacks are sold anywhere else.)

About the book:

In his much-anticipated new novel, Robin Sloan does for the world of food what he did for the world of books in Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore

Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions. She codes all day and collapses at night, her human contact limited to the two brothers who run the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall from which she orders dinner every evening. Then, disaster! Visa issues. The brothers close up shop, and fast. But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. She must keep it alive, they tell her—feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it.

Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she’s providing loaves daily to the General Dexterity cafeteria. The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market, and a whole new world opens up.

When Lois comes before the jury that decides who sells what at Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. But then, an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. But who are these people, exactly? 

Leavened by the same infectious intelligence that made Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore such a sensation, while taking on even more satisfying challenges, Sourdough marks the triumphant return of a unique and beloved young writer.

---

Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix

Yes, this one is the very definition of strange and it's another pick by Grady Hendrix, but I'm fascinated by the evolution of book genres and this is all about the rise of horror in the 80s and the history of it. Oddly enough, it's tied to romance (picture those gothic book covers with the woman running in her nightgown away from a big scary house.) So yes, this is a weird pick but I'm looking forward to it. Plus, it has all kinds of photographs of the creepy and weird horror covers of the past.

About the book:

Take a tour through the horror paperback novels of the 1970s and ’80s . . . if you dare. Page through dozens and dozens of amazing book covers featuring well-dressed skeletons, evil dolls, and knife-wielding killer crabs! Read shocking plot summaries that invoke devil worship, satanic children, and haunted real estate! Horror author and vintage paperback book collector Grady Hendrix offers killer commentary and witty insight on these trashy thrillers that tried so hard to be the next Exorcist or Rosemary’s Baby. It’s an affectionate, nostalgic, and unflinchingly funny celebration of the horror fiction boom of two iconic decades, complete with story summaries and artist and author profiles. You’ll find familiar authors, like V. C. Andrews and R. L. Stine, and many more who’ve faded into obscurity. Plus recommendations for which of these forgotten treasures are well worth your reading time and which should stay buried.

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This is another Book of the Month pick. The premise seems to fit the Strange theme perfectly.

The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh

From the Edgar Award-nominated author of Shovel Ready, a blistering new thriller that Dennis Lehane calls “propulsive and meaningful”

For fans of Cormac McCarthy, Jim Thompson, the Coen Brothers, and Lost

Imagine a place populated by criminals—people plucked from their lives, with their memories altered, who’ve been granted new identities and a second chance. Welcome to The Blinds, a dusty town in rural Texas populated by misfits who don’t know if they’ve perpetrated a crime or just witnessed one. What’s clear to them is that if they leave, they will end up dead.

For eight years, Sheriff Calvin Cooper has kept an uneasy peace—but after a suicide and a murder in quick succession, the town’s residents revolt. Cooper has his own secrets to protect, so when his new deputy starts digging, he needs to keep one step ahead of her—and the mysterious outsiders who threaten to tear the whole place down. The more he learns, the more the hard truth is revealed: The Blinds is no sleepy hideaway. It’s simmering with violence and deception, aching heartbreak and dark betrayals.

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What I'll Be Watching

Here's what's on my DVR or in my Netflix/Hulu queue that fit this theme: Channel Zero (season 2), The Handmaid's Tale, The Mist.

All right, those are my picks, I'd love to hear some of yours! Do you tend to seek out creepier books as Halloween gets closer or do you steer clear of them? What is the strangest read you've read lately?

Reader Woes: The 3 Categories of DNF (Did Not Finish)

Four years ago almost to the day, I wrote a post about the 10 Things That Make Me Close a Book for Good. Back then, I was fighting with my tendency to be a Chronic Finisher when it comes to books. I don't fight that anymore. If I don't like something, I have too many books in my TBR pile (10 years worth, actually. I calculated based on my average books per year read rate. Scary.) to waste time on reading something that's not doing it for me. This year so far, I've read fifty books to completion and have DNFed thirteen (so about 20%).

However, when I looked back at that old post, I realized that though some of my reasons have remained consistent, some have shifted. So I thought it was time to revisit the topic again. Also, I found this quote by W.H. Auden on the Modern Mrs. Darcy blog, and I think this helps categorize DNF reasons in a broader, more universal way that you might find useful. And though I don't like his use of the word "trash" because we all know where he'd probably file romance, I think the general idea works with some tweaks.

Here's the Auden quote:

“For an adult reader, the possible verdicts are five: I can see this is good and I like it; I can see this is good but I don’t like it; I can see this is good, and, though at present I don’t like it, I believe with perseverance I shall come to like it; I can see that this is trash but I like it; I can see that this is trash and I don’t like it.”

So tweaking his use of the word "trash", I've used the quote to come up with the three categories that lead us to not finish a book. Looking at these, I've found that all my specific reasons really do fit under one of these three categories.

The 3 Categories of DNF

 

1. I can see this is not well-written, and I don't like it. 

*My version of Auden's "I can see this is trash and I don't like it."

• Bad writing

This, like most of the categories, is mostly in the eye of the beholder. The longer I write, the more I learn about craft, the pickier I can be about quality of writing. If the writing itself is distracting me from the story, it's a no go for me. 

• Boring

I know we live in an age of distraction and it takes some effort to focus on a book. But if I'm not compelled to turn the page or I keep putting the book down, it's probably not the book for me. I'll give books some time, especially in certain genres, to capture me, but if I'm 50 pages in and still not compelled, I'm out.

• Loses steam in the middle

This has happened to me a few times this year. I'm liking a book, enjoying the journey, then it drags in the middle and I lose interest. I know how tough middles can be to write, so I don't make a snap decision on this, but if I'm halfway through and no longer care how it ends, I'm moving on.

• Too stupid to live characters

I can handle characters making bad decisions, but if they're making stupid ones for no apparent reason other than that it serves the plot, I can't stick by them and read the story.

 

2. "I can see this is good, but I don't like it."

These are the reasons that are specific to me and my tastes. They're not bad books. They are just not books for me. In fact, often when I read a book that is too plot-heavy and not enough characterization for my taste, I have a friend who I know will probably love it because she loves a great, twisty plot and isn't as concerned about characterization.

• Unlikable characters

This is probably my number one reason. I'm a character-driven writer, but I'm also a character-driven reader. I need to care about someone in the book. I need to feel like I know them. I need someone to root for. The latest trend with thrillers where everyone is unlikable doesn't work for me. The book can be written well but if I don't care about the people I'm reading about, I have no reason to turn the page.

• It's all about the twist ending and not much else.

It's a trend, particularly since Gone Girl (which I liked but don't want to read 20 others like it.)  Many people want to the big "gotcha" at the end. I get it, but I'm learning it's not for me. I like a good twist if the story has had at least one great character I can root for, but I'm finding often the "twist" books have unlikable narrators and the book focuses too much on setting the pieces up for the reveal instead of telling a story I want to read. 

• Unreliable narrators

Also a trend from Gone Girl. Honestly, if a book says "like Gone Girl or Girl on a Train," I read that as code for "unreliable narrator" and move on. I just don't enjoy that trope.

• Super sad books, particularly cancer/medical storylines

I write romance for a reason. I can't handle too much sadness in my books with no happy or hopeful ending. Plus, books with medical storylines make me hypochondriac and paranoid about symptoms, lol. If I feel one of those storylines coming on, I bail.

3. I can see this is good, but it's not the right book for me right now. 

*This is my version of Auden's "I can see this is good, and, though at present I don’t like it, I believe with perseverance I shall come to like it."

• Wrong mood

I'm in the mood for something light and a book is too dark. I'm in the mood for contemporary and this is paranormal. I'm absolutely a mood reader, so a book can be amazing but if it's not a fit for what I want at the moment, I'm going to put it aside.

• Wrong time

Sometimes I'm too distracted by life to read certain things. Like in stressful times, I need something light and happy to read. Or it may be winter and the book takes place at the beach. The book may be good but it's just not the right time for me to read it.

• One day I may appreciate this but I'm not ready yet

This was me in high school with the classics. I wasn't ready for them. This also could be that I can't relate to a book yet because I haven't hit that stage of life. Or it's about an event that's still too fresh in memory, and I'm not ready to dive deep into it yet.

• Burnt out on a genre, storyline, or topic

I have to mix up genres and types of stories. If I read too much of anything in a row, I start resisting books in that zone.

See? Those three categories really do cover a lot. And for those of you who are chronic finishers, thinking of these categories can help with the guilt because in many cases, you're not saying it's a bad book, you're just saying it's not the right book for you at that moment in time. That's okay. (So is thinking a book is straight-up bad.) Free yourself from having to get to the end if something isn't working for you. Life is too short to waste time on books that you're not excited to finish.

Do you recognize these categories in your own reading life? What are some of the common reasons you DNF a book?