Happy Monday, Boozie Readers!

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

Also, if you’re in the US, Election Day is Nov 3rd. Please, for the love of the gods, vote. Find out more info about your state here.

Sam’s Update

It was Dewey’s! And I got some good reading done. Really excited.

What Sam is Currently Reading:

• Spindle by EK Johnston: I only just started this, but it sounds like a “bring magic back” Rumpelstiltskin story. We’ll see.
• Crown of Feathers by Nicki Pau Preto: This is a YA story about a girl named Veronica, who has to pretend to be a boy so she can be a phoenix rider. I’m like 40% through and I’m still waiting for it to “start.”

What Sam Finished:

• Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi: This is one of my most anticipated books of the year. After my life-altering experience with Homegoing I just absolutely needed this book. TK is about Gifty, a first generation American to Ghanaian parents. In the present day, Gifty is in her last year of her biochem program (?) and studying addiction in mice while also moving her acutely depressed mother in to live with her. We go back and forth between Gifty’s childhood and the struggles of present day. Gyasi really knows how to hit you right in the feels, don’t she? I loved this. Review to come.
• Age of Empyre by Michael J Sullivan: This is the finale to the Legends of the First Empire series and I put it off for so long because I didn’t want it to end… I can’t really say what it’s about because spoilers, but I loved it.

Minda’s Update

Feeling refreshed after celebrating my anniversary this past week! Stay tuned for some review writing this week (and tackling this list). 

What Minda is reading now: 

• The Mirror Man by Jane Gilmartin – What if could watch someone else live a year of your life for $1M and no one would know? Slow-burn thriller of what it would be like to watch a clone live your life. Enjoying so far! Came out this past week—thank you to Harlequin for the advance copy!
• 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. This is seriously so good. Don’t sleep on the audio version!

Ginny’s Update

Thank god for Deweys, otherwise I wouldn’t have read a single book this weekend, even if I did take multiple breaks for schoolwork, my grandmother’s birthday party, and naps.

What Ginny Finished:

• The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel: I’m planning on writing a review. This is a book I think I need to read again. There are a lot of different plot lines and the book jumps through time. I felt really deeply for a few of the characters and fucking LOATHED others. That being said, this book is one of the ones that will probably sit with me.
• Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg: I know you’ll all be surprised, but I read this book for a class! This book offers advice to women working in the business world (or any job frankly). I really appreciated some of the advice in this book as well as the personal stories, but it’s kind of interesting to read this far enough in the future that google has removed it’s “do no evil” clause from their business statement and Mark Zuckerburg is constantly in a courtroom for a variety of reasons. I know Sheryl had a good time working for Facebook and Google, but…
• The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite:  This is the second book in the Feminine Pursuits series, and is in general just a delight. You have beekeeper and eccentric Penelope, who runs into press-owner and certified Strong lady Agatha. This is a slow burn to end all slow burns, because both women have a reason to be hesitant. But still, a delight.

What Ginny is Currently Reading:

• Rules for an Unmarried Lady by Wilma Counts: I wanted another easy read and forgot I promised Sam that the next book I read would be one that I borrowed from her…. This book is set in the same era as the Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows (which is a funny coincidence), but follows Harriet and Quint, who are in charge of taking care of their mutual nieces and nephews (they’re brother to the father and sister to the mother of said children). There’s a shitty grandmother who is constantly getting in the way. And even though they were primed to not like each other… they’re starting to like each other. Just a fun easy read.

Until next time, we remain forever drunkenly yours,

— Sam, Ginny, and Minda