rakan

Currently Reading
How to Survive a Horror Story
16%. A group of people are invited to the reading of a will for a famous horror author at his family mansion, only to find it's haunted. Interesting so far.

Newcomer
52%. Second (in the English translation order) Detective Kaga mystery. This is told in an interesting manner, not with the detective as the POV character, but with each section being from the POV of a possible suspect, but with each section wrapping up by clearing that person. I liked the first book better, but I'm enjoying this one, too.

Shady Hollow
74%. A typical small village murder mystery, but they're all woodland creatures. I got this on an audible sale when I was looking for a second book to buy on a buy one get one free sale, so I took a chance on something I was not wholly sold on and without having finished this book I can say I definitely will not be continuing the series. I have often struggled to figure out what makes something a "cozy mystery", and it seems that a lot of times things are declared to be cozies just because the person solving the mystery is a woman, or they're not a professional, but then I started this book and I'm like, that's definitely a cozy mystery. Way more time is spent on describing in detail the various animals and their town and all that than on the mystery, especially in the first third of the book. It's not what I'm interested in, and for me this would have worked much better as a comic, where you can just show all the cute animals and stuff through illustration, without going on and on about it forever. The mystery is fine, though, so it's not a bad book, just not a good fit for me.

The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
13%.

Recently Finished
Isle of Ever
I was not expecting this book to end without wrapping anything up. There is a sequel, and this really feels like what should be one book split into two, which is not my preference.

A Death at the Dionysus Club
I guess these books are from a small publisher, but that doesn't excuse the lack of professionalism in the audiobooks. The first one had a narrator with a lozenge in his mouth the whole time, and this second one has a different narrator who did the whole first chapter in a wildly different voice than he did the rest of the book, like he was trying it out and decided not to continue with it, but rather than rerecord the first chapter, just left it at that. The voice used for the first chapter was terrible, so I'm glad he switched, but why on earth leave it like that?

Drop Dead Sisters
This was fun. Not sure if I will read the sequel or not, though.

Abscond
Coming of age short story set in the 1960s about an Indian American boy dealing with his father's sudden death. I enjoyed it.

1. It's the weekend! I feel like it's been a long week for some reason, even though I haven't had to help out with the new store as much.

2. We ordered from this fried chicken place we got from a couple times a while back and then forgot about. They have a new salad on the menu which had fried chicken, edamame, cucumbers, daikon radish, crunchy ramen topping, and a yuzu dressing. It was so good and also so huge, so I have plenty left for lunch tomorrow.

3. Cutie sleepy Chloe.

1. We went to Disneyland for dinner this evening. It was very busy (lower level passholders who were blocked out for summer are back, plus there are currently two Magic Key promos going on that are probably driving even more people to visit specifically during these few days) but we had a nice time.

2. Our next two new stores both got pushed back, so they're now going to be February and June of next year, which means early April will be the perfect time to take another trip to Japan.

3. That snoot!

1. We got Indian food from the same place as we did a couple weeks ago and this time both our main focus was the batter fried paneer sticks lol. I just ordered them on a whim last time (they're called paneer pakora so I was expecting more of something filled with cheese rather than what it was) but they were so good. (The other food we got was good, too, but these would be hard to top.)

2. I am so glad I spotted Ollie like this and was able to get some photos. Truly a sight to brighten any day.

1. The filming at the store went well today (and thankfully I did not have to be involved in any way). They filmed five segments that aired live and posted one on their website (not sure if it's region locked).

2. I had a chill work from home day today.

3. I played Donkey Kong Bananza when it first came out and then got so busy with the new store that I didn't play it at all for a couple weeks, but I picked it up again the other day and have been playing it more and am really enjoying it a lot.

4. Carla made butternut squash soup for dinner and it's so good! We also had quesadillas, which were delicious as well. Usually I like combining quesadillas with tomato soup (better than grilled cheese and tomato soup, imo, though I like that classic combo as well) but it works well with the squash, too.

5. I got too close to Tuxie this morning when trying to get pictures of him, but he paused politely mid scamper for me to get another one.

1. We took a nice walk this morning down to the Italian deli to buy sandwiches for dinner. We tried to get out before the sun got too bad, and mostly succeeded, though there was still more sun involved than I would prefer. Worth it, though.

2. We had a big plastic laundry basket in the hall by the dryer that we use to carry laundry from the washer (which is by the back door) to the dryer (which is all the way across the house by the bedrooms), but it was always in the way and I'd been thinking about looking for a better solution when Carla nearly tripped on it the other day, which made me actually go online and search for collapsible laundry baskets, which I was sure must be a thing, and sure enough there are tons. I got this one off Amazon, which is just slightly smaller than the basket we had before, but can be collapsed down small enough that it can just slot in on the side of the dryer and not be in the way at all! It's been a life changer. Why did we not do this before!?

3. Gemma loves Carla's hair ties so much.

It's Halloween season! Well, not really. Officially Halloweentime at Disneyland doesn't start until August 22nd, but the merch is already out in force and some decorations have started to go up, too.

( Halloween merch ahoy! )

1. My hip was still a little off this morning when I got up, but it seemed to get better throughout the day, despite me driving to Irvine and back, so hopefully it's back to normal.

2. I finished the puzzle of doom!



While it was kind of a pain and it took me nearly a month, I do feel very accomplished about completing it.

3. I love how sweet Molly's face looks here.