Hi. We’re about halfway through November. Between finishing up work and ensuring that everything is ready for my Maternity Leave, trying to get a mountain of baby clothing (and sheets and towels and wraps) clean, get my Postpartum Meal Prepping started (started… not close to finished), the exhaustion that comes with 35+ weeks pregnancy, my 36th Birthday (11/11), and the plethora of random things surrounding my life… I’ve been putting off my October 2024 review.
Luckily, I am pretty good with writing the reviews soon after I read them because this pregnancy brain is not good for retaining any information (I showed up a day early for my Maternity Photos). I’ve already gotten through 2 books for November but I’m still behind on my reading goal for the year. It’s not that I’m not motivated but whoa am I suddenly incredibly busy… and yes, I’m watching a lot of movies instead.
In October, I had 2 baby showers (1 with family/friends and 1 thrown by my co-workers) and both of them were just magical. I’m really bad at having attention on me (if anyone ever tells a restaurant it’s my birthday and they sing to me, I will actually melt into a puddle of embarrassment, thanks) so I had to work real hard on being okay with people asking me how I’m doing… Even though “I’m actually doing great” is not what anyone wants to hear. But it’s true. I’ve had a fairly great pregnancy with no real issues but I still can’t imagine doing this like 12 times. Perhaps it’s because I am 36 (hello geriatric pregnancy) but I miss being able to easily get out of bed.
This year for Halloween, we still managed to throw our very small pumpkin carving party because I really wanted to dress up as Fat Thor. I’ve never been one to show off my stomach so I counted this as possibly my only time – I wanted to go all out. All I kept thinking was “What are we going to dress this little pumpkin up as next year?”. Being pregnant during the holidays routinely makes me think things like: “This is the last Halloween where I’m not a MOM” or “This is the last birthday I celebrate where I’m not a mom” or “This is the last last Thanksgiving without being a mom”. It’s been so fun to think about how differently the holidays will be next year… And I can’t wait to share it all with you!
Insomnia by Stephen King
My Rating: 3/5
What’s it about: Ralph cannot sleep. He’s tried everything to make himself sleep. While not sleeping, he starts noticing some of his neighbor’s strange behaviors… And some really weird dudes around his neighborhood and always somewhere regarding a dead body. He’s an old dude so everything chalks it up to possible dementia, which Ralph really starts to believe in too, until his friend (and Lady Friend) stops sleeping and starts seeing the weird shit too. Oh and also, this all takes place in Derry…
My Review: In case you missed it… this takes place in the same universe as IT and it’s almost as long as IT. Except that I felt like IT was a good length (even though I believe it’s over 1,000 pages – it was needed for all the history). Insomnia is almost 800 pages and could easily cut out around 500 pages without destroying the story. There were so many side conversations that Ralph had with so many people who didn’t matter. I read each and every one, thinking they’d come back to the plot or have something to do with what was going on and many never did. Some of these interactions would take ~20 pages just to get through! I love how well Stephen King builds his small towns. He is excellent at inventing characters and developing them. 10/10 there. IT was about the entire town as a whole. Under the Dome (even though I still hate that ending), was about a town as a whole. This book, while the town is important, is more about Ralph’s journey through his insomnia and finding out that it was created so that he could supernaturally rise to another level and help to save people from a rogue psychotic agent. Also, King killed a dog – AGAIN. I swear, if the dog isn’t a corgi, it’s not going to survive a King novel and I’m over it. I hate when a dog is introduced in his books. Anyway, back to the story. I did very much enjoy the idea of the plot: A town is torn apart by a woman who is going to come talk about Pro-Choice. You have the Pro-Lifers versus the Pro-Choicers and it becomes violent due to one man, Ed, who has been driven into insanity due to said rogue psychotic agent and his plans. It’s an interesting take on the Greek Fates and I always love seeing an old person be the hero. All in all, I did enjoy the book but I had to remove a star due to length. I STRUGGLED through it. There were too many long sections regarding the auras surrounding Ralph that he could see and the random tasks that he did over and over again.
Just Haven’t Met You Yet by Sophie Cousens
My Rating: 2/5
What’s it about: If you’ve seen “He’s Just Not That Into You”, Lauren is Ginnifer Goodwin’s character who is obnoxiously obsessed with “Meet Cute” love stories but doesn’t understand that forcing a meet cute doesn’t actually work. Oh and then she gets her meet cute story I guess so whatever.
My Review: Honestly, there’s nothing I can do about the spoilers here… It wouldn’t be a fair review if I didn’t put my full thoughts behind it and this includes giving off the ending. That is your warning.
This book pats itself on the back for being very clever and “tricking” the reader into thinking our heroine would end up going after one guy, but goes after another. When our cabbie was introduced, I had a feeling Laura would end up going after him instead. But when the author continued to describe the man – making him undesirable not only to our lead gal, but also to us, the readers… It felt really out of nowhere that Laura would suddenly want to be with him. Sure, after obsessing over finding her ~dream suitcase man~, it might be a let down to have her end up with him. I get that. Throwing our cabbie in there was to make it less predictable. All for it. But it just felt too long to get there and then anticlimactic when we did. There’s such a nice little bow over everything in the end and it was just a waste of time.
Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: The Novelization by A.C.H. Smith
My Rating: 2/5
What’s it about: If you haven’t seen The Labryinth with David Bowie, you should really fix that and not read this book.
My Review: If you were to ask me my first “screen time” memory, it’s this movie. We didn’t have cable and before my mom started up our Disney VHS collection, most of our VHS’ were taped from being shown on TV. I wore the shit out of this VHS. By the age of 12, I could recite the entire movie to anyone who asked (and many who did not ask). David Bowie was one of my first crushes. I showed this movie at my 6th grade sleepover and all the girls hated it and made me turn it off in order to watch Big Daddy (I was distraught, of course). I have a tattoo from Labyrinth and I still list it as one of my favorite movies ever. When I found this book, I was skeptical but the reviews were fantastic. I walked into the book thinking it’d take the movie and just add more to it… which, I guess it did… but it was so bad. The writing was atrocious and the narrator was finicky – there never seemed to be a distinctive voice. Each character was very one dimensional. I had hoped we could get inside Sarah and Jareth’s heads a little but when we did, it was just disappointing. The few things that were added really didn’t add anything to the story and the quotes that were taken from the movie were almost always a little off because they changed it. As a huge Labyrinth fan, I was highly disappointed and got to the point where I was just speeding through it just to be done with it.
Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes [audiobook]
My Rating: 4/5
What’s it about: Paul Holes tells his story about how he got into a life of finding serial killers (and r*pists) in the Bay Area. He was essential in finding The Golden State Killer because he would not give up.
My Review: I really enjoyed this book! I think it would be better to read it than to listen to it (the author and narrator has a bit of a monotone but overall, didn’t deter me from listening). Paul worked cold cases in the Bay Area and so many of the cases are ones that I heard about growing up here. It was so interesting to hear the “behind the scenes” things that happen in order to get any cold case off the ground and I became frustrated (just like Paul does) about the red tape and bureaucracy that makes it difficult to get things done. The dick measuring contests between different counties (even though there’s evidence that two crimes might be linked) that stop cases from being solved made me want to scream. Paul talks about his own personal life and how the job affected it as well. At one point he talks about being raised Catholic but not believing in it later on down the line and I feel like his struggles are the same as mine. He even talked about moving back with his parents after a divorce and telling them he was going to a different mass service… but escaping to a nearby cemetery instead. My kinda person. I think Paul and I would be friends.
Did you read any great books in October? I’m bummed knowing that I likely won’t be on the Audiobook train for a while since I usually only listened while I was commuting. I’ve turned to podcasts while going on my walks (which sure are lessening) because they’re shorter.
Writes with Wolves 