Happy Monday, Boozie Book Nerds!

This is your weekly reminder that black lives matter. Also, #StopAAPIHate

Minda’s Update

Happy Fourth of July holiday!

What Minda is reading now:

• How to Hack a Heartbreak by Kristin Rockaway – “After one dick pic too many, Mel has had it. Using her brilliant coding skills, she designs an app of her own, one that allows users to log harrassers and abusers in online dating space. It’s called JerkAlert, and it goes viral overnight. Mel is suddenly in way over her head. Worse still, her almost-boyfriend, the dreamy Alex Hernandez–the only non-douchey guy at Hatch–has no idea she’s the brains behind the app. Soon, Mel is faced with a terrible choice: one that could destroy her career, love life, and friendships, or change her life forever.”

What Minda Finished:

• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab – “France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever—and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.” Loved it!! Stay tuned for review.

Ginny’s Update

Hey everyone, Happy day after the 4th. Hopefully, everyone dealt with the fireworks well. And I’d like to mention the fact that we live on Indigenous lands and as a country we can do better by them.

What Ginny Finished:

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• The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon: This feels like an ode to public radio. Shay and Dominic are coworkers at a local radio station that are pretending to be exes to run a dating show. This book was really cute even though there were parts of this that made me cringe like nobodies: business. The growth in this was great.
• The Four by Scott Galloway: This is a business book that is looking at four of the companies with the most impact: Facebook, Amazon, Google. and Apple. If anyone is interested in the current tech landscape I think this book does a nice job of creating a succinct overview (albeit a few years out of date at this point).
• Blackout by Mira Grant: This book is the third book in the Newsflesh trilogy and boy is it a whopper. After multiple books talking about conspiracies using the zombie apocalypse to keep people docile, Shaun and his team are finally after the “big boss.” Also, George, who SPOILER ALERT was conspicuously absent in the previous book, is back. This book is a romp, albeit anxiety inducing. I wrote a review to wrap up the trifecta so keep an eye out.
• To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers: This book follows the exploits of community-funded astronauts who do as much as possible to have as little impact as possible on the worlds they interact with. Honestly, I’m still not sure how I feel about this book. The worldbuilding was great and I loved the different planets. I also thought the ways technologies were handled were really interesting. I might write a review to get all my feelings out.

What Ginny is Currently Reading:

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• A Phoenix First Must Burn by Various Authors: This is a book of short stories centered around black women in fantasy, and so far I’ve loved it! I’m still enjoying this even if it’s slow reading. i’ve also expanded my TBR with a few of the authors because I loved their tone!
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke: I have to admit this is my third time trying to read this book, and honestly, I’m still not sure if it’s going to be worth it. This book is LOOOONG, and written in a style of prose that I’m not particularly fond of. So, we’ll see.
• The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik: This is the second Scholomance book (the first was A Deadly Education) and I freaking love this so far. El is as prickly as ever, but it’s interesting to see the major differences between the first book and this one. Basically, it’s senior year at the school that’s supposed to protect you but also has a lot of things that want to kill you. Have at it!

Sam’s Update

Happy long weekend!!!

What Sam Finished:

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• Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline: This is the sequel to the acclaimed Ready Player One. Listening on audio and this starts several years after the first one. Basically, there’s a new contest and they have like 12 hours to solve it for spoiler-y reasons. I wasn’t as impressed by this as I wanted to be considering how much i loved the first one but here we are.
• The House of Always by Jenn Lyons: Oh my GODS do I love this series. They’re so unique in the way they’re told. There are so many characters and frankly I love them all. It’s incredibly complicated, but so well told that you can’t really forget anything (especially since the super complicated things are explained through the footnotes). I cannot tell you how much i love this series, i literally tried and I can’t. Review to come.

What Sam is Currently Reading:

• These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong: So this is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet but in Shanghai in the 20s? I think? There is talk of flappers so me thinks yes. Listening on audio and I will say that I only half pay attention and I’m still getting it, so… that’s not high praise at this point.

Until next time, we remain forever drunkenly yours,

— Sam, Ginny, and Minda