Sunday Post: May 15, 2022

Hello, my lovelies.

I’m going to share something that I shared on my Facebook earlier this week, so apologies to the two of you who I am Facebook friends with for the dupe.

Also, if you want to be Facebook friends, hit me up at facebook.com/loripiper. I’m super liberal and rant as much about politics as I talk about books, but if that isn’t off-putting, I’d love to see more of you. 🙂

So, there’s probably a 99% chance that I am undiagnosed ADHD, of some flavor. I am certainly somewhere on the neuro-divergent spectrum. As to why undiagnosed…well, it wasn’t a thing in the 80s, when it probably could have done some real good, and I’m great at masking and self-medicating with caffeine, and I can usually get done what I need to as long as there are deadlines with consequences, and if there aren’t consequences, well…how important is it that *that thing* gets done anyway? But, yeah…I have all the classic symptoms. Disorganized. Hyper—focused. Easily distracted. Impulsive. Need to have several things going at the same time—I had 53 open Chrome tabs yesterday. Forgets, well, everything. Withdrawn. But also talkative.

I’m also a terrible, terrible, uncooperative, non-compliant patient. I can barely manage to do the things to manage my anxiety and chronic depression, and I DON’T do the things to manage my MS, so adding one more disease that I need to *deal with*…yeah, no.

Anyway. My friend Philip has been trying to get me to watch Stranger Things for years. He really thinks I’d like it, and I don’t think he’s wrong…but a) I don’t really watch much television anymore, and b)…well, I saw this meme this week, and it knocked me out—

And I realized that this applies to Stranger Things, yes…but it applies EVEN MORE to books. I say that I am a mood reader, but it’s kind of more that that.

It’s not that I didn’t WANT to read that book that I was supposed to review before Saturday, it’s not that I was not in the MOOD to read it, it’s not that I didn’t think I would love it (Christina Lauren…huzzah!).

It’s that the Neurodivergence Department in my brain hadn’t approved it yet. And I have no control over that.

I guess it’s fortunate that they are so responsive to deadlines— the approval come through in the nick of time—but man, they DO like cutting it close. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I’ve decided that the bureaucrat assigned to my TBR is named Donna, btw. And I DO NOT like her one bit. 😆

I read seven books this week, bringing my total to 124, or 60 books ahead of schedule.

I used to look at some of the insane numbers of books people read and wonder how on earth they did it when I was struggling to read a book a week. Turns out, being retired in the middle of a pandemic was what it took. I now read all the books.

The Final Girl Support Group was a tricky read, since I have never seen a horror movie. I missed a lot of the subtext, and I found the characters unsympathetic and tough to root for. So, a miss for me. Once Upon a Bet was a cute single-dad romance which ultimately had very little to do with a bet at all. Good chemistry between the leads, cute kids.

Goodnight was the story of a presumed-straight cowboy on the gayest single ranch I have ever seen, who falls for a cam-boy. Could have been cute, but I found the leads unconvincing. Pretty Obsessed was a fairly standard bi-curious rocker finds love, with a little too much emphasis on the supporting cast for my liking. I was frustrated by how long it took to get back to the main story throughout.

Boyfriend Goals was the super-sweet story of a Milo, an overprotected gay boy with autism, the bookstore he inherits from the grandmother he never met, and the sexy tattoo artist next door. I thought that Milo’s autism was handled with care, and the love story was somewhere between sweet and cloying. But I did really like Milo, which sort of saved it for me.

Something Wilder was a rollicking good time, and was yesterday’s review, so not much new to report there.

Finally, Real Players Never Lose features Teddy, a ridiculously rich, hot, out-of-control frat boy and Vanessa, the girl he strikes a deal with to pretend to be his girlfriend to get his father off his back about his partying. Vanessa is smart, no-nonsense and has no time for charming Teddy…but what happens when Teddy falls for Vanessa? I loved this one for it’s curvy-girl rep, and the role-reversal of the guy being the one to fall first. Charming story.

OK, that’s all from the 52 travel desk, where we are preparing for our first cruise in two years. More on that next week!

Till next week, stay safe, remember that COVID is really, really good at doing what it does, and maybe get a pedicure. You totally deserve to be pampered a little.