Happy Monday, Boozie Readers!

Just your weekly reminder that all lives can’t matter until black lives do.

Ginny’s Update

Hey y’all. It’s been another crazy week. A 24 hour case competition, way too much homework, and making the decision that I can’t make it back for the wedding of one of the most important people in my life. So, it’s been a doozy

What Ginny is Currently Reading

Nothing. I just finished a book and I’ve gotten out of the habit of immediately starting the next book. It’s weird

What Ginny Finished:

• The Color of Space by Marion Zimmer Bradley:I read this for a book club and it was a really good choice. Short and fast, set in the future, there are multiple aliens races and space travel is possible. However, there’s a secret behind space travel that has been inaccessible to humans, or at least, that’s what everyone thought. This book is light of female characters which is a bummer, but the story is pretty strong and this is crazy fast-paced. I was very satisfied at the end.
• Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams: This is the second book in the Bromance book club series and I so enjoy it. This book did need a bit of a trigger warning, a lot of the plot is set up around taking down a celebrity chef that has a history of assaulting female employees. But I enjoyed the prickly nature of the leads, and the way that their various faults complemented each other.

Minda’s Update

I have an actual update this week! Breaking the non-reading streak—woo. The fall weather and pumpkin spice is getting me energized (jokes, but not really).

Also reading, but not listed below, is a few chapters from the book my husband is writing (!).

What Minda is reading now:

• If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio (audio) – After 10 years in jail for a murder he may or may not have committed, Oliver Marks is retelling the story he’s kept secret—what actually happened around the murder in question. Loving this so far—the pretension with all the actors/acting school is like every drama club person you’ve ever met.
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo – Non-fiction from a professor of multicultural education on “how white fragility [defined as the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially] develops, how it protects racial inequity, and what we can do to engage more constructively.” 

What Minda finished:

• Followers by Megan Abbott – This book follows two timelines: one pre- and one post- a cataclysmic event called the Spill. As would happen in a book like this, the lives are intertwined in ways that will surprise you somewhat. The books themes explore “followers” vs irl connections, and how far some people will go for either. I give this book 4/5—for me I loved the premise, but thought it failed to live up to its full potential.

Sam’s Update

I felt really good this week until I didn’t. It was a bad anxiety week. BUT I did spend all day yesterday painting my new bookshelves so it all works.

What Sam is Currently Reading:

• A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe: This is a YA story about Thea, an apprentice alchemist to her mother. They’re trying to create the philosopher’s stone. Mama almost made it, but went fuckin’ mad and tried to kill her. So she was forced to leave to go meet her father for the first time ever. Her father who doesn’t even know who she is. He’s also an alchemist and wants the stone, he decides to be a selfish ass and so she has to run away with HIS apprentice and things go from there. I’m sort of loving this. So much.
• A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine: I’ve only just started this but basically, in this world, the folks in the empire can, sorta, absorb folks’ memories. Anyway? The main character is a new ambassador to this planet and she’s got this person in her head and when she gets there, the person in her head was the previous ambassador and he’s dead and no one knows why. WHODUNNIT?

What Sam Finished:

• The Wold of Oren-Yaro by K.S. Villoso: I FUCKIN ADORED THIS. This bitch queen could not catch a break. I felt real bad for her.
• The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis: This is a story about runaway “welcome house girls” trying to find a new and better life. I really really enjoyed this. Way more than I thought I would. Is it the best? no, but way better than I meant to.

Until next time, we remain forever drunkenly yours,

— Sam, Ginny, and Minda