Everything’s Gonna Be All Right
Currently reading:
We Hexed the Moon by Mollyhall Seeley
Out There Screaming, edited by Jordan Peele
An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo
The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis [audiobook]
Books finished this week: 2
★★★★☆
Where this book came from: Ordered from Kew & Willow!
Why this book: “Patty Hearst fanfic” is my favorite genre. (“Anne Boleyn speculative fiction” is a close second.)
Thoughts: If you know me, you know genre fiction is my jam and I rarely dip into literary fiction nowadays. I would classify The Bombshell as lit fic, but I still loved this book. It helps to be hyperfixated on the general concept (you know, the idea of a wealthy teenager being kidnapped and then radicalized) and interested in the setting (Corsica in the early 1990s, in this case), even if you know nothing about it. But I also just really liked Séverine as the protagonist and wanted to see what kind of ideas she came up with, first to escape and then to level up the cell. I docked a star mostly for the last quarter of the book, because we jump twenty years into the future and, while I didn’t hate it, I was much more invested in the ’90s plotline.
★★☆☆☆
Where this book came from: Hilariously, I preordered the paperback in the same K&Worder that got me The Bombshell.
Why this book: I had a meeting with an agent a couple months ago at work and they recommended this book, and I had even higher hopes for it after the bookseller who handed me my preorder talked about how much she loved it.
Thoughts: I’m so sorry, but I didn’t love this. That’s partly my own fault, for somehow not picking up on the part of the back cover summary that mentioned a “devastating war” and focusing entirely on the “cute robots make noodles” pitch. This is set in a semi-dystopian future, in which California apparently went to war with (and won its independence from) America, and the nation-state is still rebuilding. A bunch of robots who served different wartime functions were then sent to work in a ghost kitchen, were shut down for some reason a year or so earlier, and come to during a flood to save the building and figure out what comes next. So, yeah, I wouldn’t exactly call this “cozy,” because literally all the robots are traumatized and we get a lot of flashbacks to some deep, dark stuff. The noodle-cooking parts could’ve been fun, but I also hated the lackluster conversation the bots have about naming their restaurant “Authentic Noodle.” One of them insists they shouldn’t, because the noodle dishes aren’t authentic, but they’re overruled and the bots proceed with that name, which felt . . . bad. I can also usually bond to anything with a cute storyline but I didn’t care about any of the robots or their journeys. I was expecting a ghost kitchen run by robots in the modern day, and that maybe they’d be inspired by watching cooking videos or human chefs in other restaurants and deciding to give it a shot themselves, just something whimsical and fun. Again, it’s totally on me for my expectations not matching the reality of the book, but I do also just think Automatic Noodle didn’t work as what it was actually trying to be.
Library updates:
This was a week of ups and downs, a study in balances. Positives include a couple of lovely weekend outings last week and this one, a truly glorious catch-up with a friend (hi, Jacki!) on Monday evening, and another excellent cat book club with Melissa (hi, Melissa!). Downs include the anniversary of my gran’s passing on Monday, the loss of Dolly Parton on Tuesday, and the loss of Tim Curry on Wednesday.
(And apologies to Mr. Curry for not including more of a tribute to him. Full disclosure, I started drafting this missive on Tuesday evening, to work through some feelings, and I had no idea news of his passing would break the next day.)
Anyhow, I’m going to try to find a way to blend the good and the bad, the wonderful and the sorrowful.
First, a little bit about Gran. Christ, she was amazing. She was strong and fun and full of so much intelligence and talent and love. She was a businesswoman, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, the daughter of immigrants. She was an incredible cook and baker. She was very bad at Uno, though I think a lot of it was an act. She loved Tom Jones and Andrea Bocelli. She was a source of wisdom, care, and entire gallons of ice cream, and I did not spend nearly enough time with her while she was here. I’m very sad about that. But I am so goddamn lucky I got to have her as long as I did.
And second, Dolly. It feels ridiculous to mourn someone I never knew, but, fuck, this one hurts. I always knew of Dolly, mostly as the Southern lady with the big hair in Steel Magnolias when I was a kid, but I didn’t become an honest-to-god fan until probably a few years ago. I started listening to her music and had some favorites. Then I worked on a book about her (an unauthorized biography——sorry, Dolly) and spent hours listening to more of her music as I read and edited and learned. As far as I can tell, she was a musical genius, an entrepreneur, and a genuinely beautiful soul, and I will always admire the work she did to promote literacy, keep people safe and healthy, and just take care of others.
As I get older, I become painfully aware that life is about loving and losing people (and pets, and places). I try not to think about it too much, of course, but it’s a fact of life that hovers a little closer with every passing year, and every celebrity death that hits hard, and every personal loss that levels me for days. It fucking sucks; it isn’t fucking fair.
But, as Dolly sang, “You better get to living.” And as Gran said, “Some bitch.”
Life is awful and beautiful, and I’m going to live it. I’m going to create and read and laugh with friends over light-up ice cubes and buy goddamn books and do long FaceTime calls with people I miss and drive to the beach and order takeout whenever I damn feel like it and get one more drink and one more coffee and one more sweet treat.
Some bitch, let’s get to it.
Closing thoughts:
It’s gonna be okay.
Total books read from the Moratorium Library: 231
(Total books added to the Moratorium Library: 488)
Bought these last Sunday afternoon at McNally Jackson, after a joyous brunch at the American Girl Cafe. (Yes, really.)
Bonus image of me and my daughter-for-the-day at American Girl<3
