Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me
Book Notes Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 16:52 on 11 April 2020
Today is the day of the run-on sentence book review. It happens.
This book was on a Book Riot reading list, giving readers 16 Uplifting Books to Read in These Dark Times (endquote). Having been in an on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again relationship for far too long, I gravitated to the book. I might have been hoping for some insights into my own pain, even if they might come from a fictional, high school, queer graphic novel.
I can't say I received any profound insights, but I enjoyed the book. I became engrossed in it while reading, to the point of being annoyed at every distraction that pulled me out of the narrative.
The "can be read in under an hour" (not a criteria or categorization I usually note) book follows Freddy, a mixed race lesbian whose girlfriend, Laura Dean, natch, is a really awful girlfriend and keeps breakup up with Freddy. Freddy knows the relationship isn't good, seeks help from a queer-love advice columnist, tires her friends out with the Laura Dean drama conversations (I know this one), loves Laura Dean even as it kills her (this one, too), and hurts through most of the book.
Several unexpected plot twists later, Freddy finds good people, and manages to recognize her good fortune, with the help of the advice columnist (who, let's face it, gives the advice I was looking for, too).
The book was clearly not written by George R.R. Martin, and doesn't delve into the depth of Hell that high school can be, but that's okay. The subject matter is deep enough, losing a love, walking away from that love when it isn't healthy, is a hard enough topic, no need to pile on with other high school drama distractions. I enjoyed the book. It is, as Book Riot suggests, an uplifting book in these dark times.
Running Loops
Blog Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 15:07 on 11 April 2020
As I do in lockdown mornings, I go for walks. Beagle needs walking, lets me know that we are walking, and then tells me we are walking now. I appreciate the routine, and the early morning movement, so I'm grateful for his reminders.
This morning on the walk, as we were walking along, beagle sniffing all the things, my learning about the post office's late 1700s difficulties, a conversation and squeaking noise approached from behind. Worried someone might come within the recommended physical separation distance, I turned to see what the noises were. I saw a young kid riding his bike along side a woman running. The two were chatting in a parent-child way, the boy wandering a bit on his bike as she ran straight.
And it reminded me of my Orleans runs around the block with Hayden. I'd plan to go for a run and invite the boys to bike along side me. They usually said no, but every once in a while one would say yes. We'd go off, my running with his biking slowly next to me. We'd progress around the neighborhood, loop around blocks, and cross our paths in figure eights shaped by parking lanes and side streets. Sometimes a truck a of teenagers would hoot at me, and Hayden would be puzzled, then grumpy when he realized what happened.
I never ran fast, was out of shape, but I enjoyed the run. I enjoyed the kid's company. Running next to him is a nice memory, surfaced by mother and child running by me today.
The Wish List
Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 14:29 on 10 April 2020
After lamenting I wasn't going to be able to achieve my year goal of "read 100 books" if I also go for my goal of "read the entire Wheel of Time" (14 books that are the equivalent of 36+ "normal" books, given the length of each WoT book), Kris said, "Read a bunch of short books!" While, yes, that would work, reading short books for the sake of achieving a "read 100 books this year" goal feels somewhat like cheating. Book length is typically not a factor in my book selection process. I hemmed for a bit, causing Kris to jump up, and grab this book from his shelf. "Here, I think you'll like this one. You can read it in an evening."
Which was mostly accurate, I could have read it in an evening. I had another two (okay, four) books going, so it actually took me two treadmill walks and a curl in my reading chair to finish it, so maybe a 3 hour read? Which is to say, this is a fun, cute, fast read.
The book opens with Meg Finn making a choice, which pretty much sets the theme for the book: choices have consequences. Some choices, while not bad, don't results in a life we want. Some choices made in fear set the tone for a life.
Meg's initial choice cascades into her dying (in the first chapter of the book, so not much of a spoiler). Her soul is exactly neutral between good and evil, so she is sent back to mend the last wrong she committed before she died, which was also helping the last person she harmed before she died. Enter Lowrie.
Lowrie's been lonely for the last few years, after his alcoholic, abusive wife died. In his isolation, he made a Wish List, tasks to do before he died to correct the choices he made that lead to his disappointing life. The rest of the story is about the four items on his Wish List, Meg's helping Lowrie complete the list, and how sometimes the choices we make don't have the consequences we thought they might.
It was a fun, easy, fast read. If you are an Artemis Fowl fan, definitely worth reading.
Meg bristled. "I'm not afraid of anything, Belch Brennan!"
Belch chuckled nastily. "Prove it."
He was manipulating her, and she knew it. But Meg Finn could never resist a dare.
Page 3
This wasn't real. It couldn't be happending to her. Fourteen-year-olds didn't die; they went through a troublesome phase and grew out of it.
Page 15
Lowrie had spent so much time mulling over these particular questions that he had managed to isolate a few key moments in his past. Ones where he had a choice to make, and made the wrong one. A litany of mistakes . A list of would-haves, could-haves, and should-haves. Not that there was any point in thinking about it. It wasn't as if he could change anything now.
Page 42
"No, You're right. What life? What's what I've been trying to tell you." Lowrie's eyes were lost in past memories. "If only..."
He shook himself back to the present. "To late for if onlys. Time to do something about it."
Page 56
"But these? I mean, what's the point? It's crazy."
Lowrie nodded. "To you, maybe. To everyone else on the planet. But these were my greatest failures . Now I have a chance to put them right, even if no one cares but me."
Meg was running out of arguments. "But what will it chance, running around the country like a crazy man?"
"Nothing," Lowrie admitted. "Except my opinion of myself. And that, young Meg, becomes very important to a person as they grow older."
Page 58
Can confirm.
"Lowrie, you should be in a hospital," she said gently, alighting from the fence top.
"No," snapped the old man, a sheen of cold sweat shining on his forehead. "What can I do in a bed? The same as I've done all my life. Nothing! Now are you going to help me or not?"
Page 127
Like all intellectuals, he could nto resist the impulse to explain the procedure.
Page 152
I laughed out loud at that line.
"This is your last chance, too, Myishi. You do know that, don't you?"
Myishi nodded weakly. Funny how a man's smugness deserts him in a face of oblivion.
Page 155
Twelve months a year, the small town was hopping with Americans looking for their roots, Dutch tourists looking for hills, and New Age mystics searching for leprechauns. In this company a man talking to himself seemed the epitome of normality.
Page 175
Except during a worldwide lockdown.
Every breath could be his last. It felt worse now, somehow. Now that he had rediscovered himself. There was more to lose.
Page 233
Everyone deserved an equal shot at redemption. Even the Man Himself agreed with that.
Page 235
Calling out the body shaming
Blog Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 10:20 on 10 April 2020All the days blur together.
Of note, waking is a crap time to call out an Irish American man and a Cuban American woman for body-shaming an African American woman. Said man launched into a rant about how the woman shouldn't show midriff on television, while she was talking about the opening of the Hart Island potter's field for the unclaimed Covid19 dead. Now, why said man cared about the woman's midriff showing, I have no idea. He did, though, and let us all know how incensed he was that she dared show midriff.
After which the Cuban American woman launched in, "She does not have the body to be wearing that shirt." Like, WTF? She has boobs, she has the body, and again, WHO CARES?
So, I asked them, "Would y'all be commenting if it were a white dude showing some skin?"
At which point, the Irish American male who considers himself a Good Guy™, launches into "Oh, you're going to pull out the race and gender cards?"
Nope. I am, however, going to call you on body shaming, because assholes who body shame should be called out.
The two of them then launched into defending their actions, none of which I actually read, because, as Jonathan points out, "no one likes to be called out for being an asshole," and every online forum says, "don't feed the trolls." Usually when you do call them out, they dig in harder. Which these two did.
To my relief, several others in the group chat privately shared support for my calling the two of them out.
Upside, did the right thing. Upside, had support. Upside, my skin is already thicker, and I'm more aware of my reactions to inflammatory comments. Downside, found out a friend of a friend is a jerk. I already knew the other one was an asshole, but he prides himself in that title, so I'm not worried about that moniker. I wasn't expecting the woman to be a jerk, though, from my interactions with her.
Stress makes us all more of what we already are.