The American Way: rugged individualism within socially acceptable parameters!

I read thirteen books in October! (And DNFed two.) And three already in November.

Geoff and I are considering going to the Channel Islands on our next trip, so I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for research, like you do. It did a good job of really making me feel the location and community, and although for the most part it hit all the expected beats -- city girl ends up in small tight-knit rural community, you will be shocked to learn that she finds love and meaning there! -- it had some unexpectedly hard-hitting moments as well, and certainly didn't make me any less interested in going to Guernsey! Although I plan to bring my lover with me rather than finding one there, thanks anyway.

My local book group read This Is How You Lose the Time War, which took me a while to get into, because significant aspects of the worldbuilding aren't explained, you're just dropped into them; but I absolutely think that was the right way to write it, and once I found my feet I really liked it.

I DNFed The Summer Is Ended and We Are Not Saved, because I thought I was in the mood for a horror novel but within fifty or so pages something so horrible happened that I was donezo, nope, nope nope nope, close file. It did seem to be well written, though; I expect it's a good book but it was way too much for me. So instead I read something called Fake Dating the Prince, which is exactly what it sounds like plus also gay, and it was delightful. The horror novel I read that was just my speed was Meddling Kids, which starts from the premise of "What if Scooby Doo but also Cthulhu?" and was a romp. But also horror. But also a romp. (The frontispiece is a reproduction of a 1977 local newspaper article about the protagonists' last case as teenagers: "Teen Sleuths Unmask Sleepy Lake Monster," and the town is Blyton Hills and the article is written by Nancy Hardy and the photo is credited to J. March and I'm not sure the author could have name-checked more teen classic lit if he'd tried for a week. I knew I was in good hands from that moment.)

In the category of fan writers gone pro, I really liked Freya Marske's Cinder House and loved Emily Tesh's The Incandescent. In the category of fan genres gone pro, not sure about the writers, I've been reading a bunch of hockey romance; I picked up a couple of Rachel Reid's one-shots and then got tired of waiting for a library copy of her Game Changers books (one of which is soon to be a Crave miniseries!) and bought an omnibus of the first three when it went on sale. I've read the first one and am about to start the second, on which the miniseries will be based. I heard somewhere that Reid commented somewhere that a PG-13 adaptation of the book would have to be, like, twelve minutes long, because there's so much sex in the book? Anyway I look forward to reading it 👀.

As for watching, I watched The Long Walk with dorinda; I remembered being quite moved by the novel decades ago, but I hadn't even realized there was a movie until a couple of weeks ago! It was well made and wrenching and I'm glad I saw it but wow I am not making a general recommendation. Another friend and I watched the movie of What We Do in the Shadows; I enjoyed it and was surprised when I mentioned it to Geoff and he said he thought it was terrible! But my friend wants to go on to watch the TV show together. I'm not sure I'm up for that much casual killing of humans as light entertainment? (Despite the fact that she and I just finished watching Interview with the Vampire together. At least there it's not played for laughs as much.)

And season 10 of Shetland premieres in the UK today! I'm really looking forward to that. Also, looking further ahead, the Call the Midwife Christmas special and new season -- and I was absolutely thrilled to hear that they've announced a prequel series! The main show is getting awkwardly close to modern times, and I would love to see younger versions of the characters before and during the war.

Whee!

ETA: Oh, Rachel Reid. I'm not qualified to reality-check your hockey writing -- and let's be real, it's not like I'm reading you for the hockey -- but when you tell me that Montreal is an hour's drive from Ottawa? I have questions.