Hello! Happy Thursday! Just an hour ago I sent a text that said good morning and it is now post 7pm EST! Good job Brieana.

Why is this late? Well, I took a well needed vacation! I don't think I've realized how much my brain has been spinning and twisting until I ... uh... *checks notes* stayed up until 3am watching D&D and then woke up early to keep watching more, DAMMIT BRIEANA.

I was supposed to sleep in but ended up spending the whole day with a friend. Lovely! Go do that.

But where does suffering come in? Well, when five of the last six books you've read are stinkers, it can really put a wrench in your reading mood! Truly, there are some days where I regret enjoying the written word. 

As someone who works in book marketing, I understand what it's like to have to sum up a book in a quick snappy line or with an incredible cover but my GOD sometimes that line is unhelpful. Like the book that was pitched as the Great British Bakeoff meets Knives Out, but the murder mystery part started 80% of the way in. Or a book whose cover looked like it was about giant monsters taking over the world, but instead it was about a woman who... murdered people when she got mad.... once in a while... and that only started happening 60% of the way in. 

I understand set up but jeez!

I've said this in newsletters before but I read quite a lot and sometimes I'm glad I do just because after 150 books, I might only fine 10 I really truly loved. And I have definitely given up on books much faster this year. But some of these books??? Even opening them and consuming twenty pages is like 75 points of psychic damage to me. Why was I put on this earth to suffer and consume bad media when I could just watch the new D&D movie with Chris Pine???

Ah yes, I snuck him into this newsletter. Tee hee.

Anyway, I hope you all have a lovely weekend! I'm going to go write another review (don't request 20+ books from a book reviewing site!) and maybe go watch Star Trek. Idk, the older I get, the more I understand the rage of Leonard McCoy.

Oh! Also I finished The Last Of Us if anyone has any in-depth thoughts!

Recommendations:

• "Brieana, how is your apartment messy if all you watch is Youtube videos about cleaning?" What a rude question! But since you asked, I watched a video about ten second habits you can start, and one was folding grocery store bags so you can store them easily. Do you think I immediately went to my giant bag of bags and folded them all??? Of course I did. But it works on other bags too and has def reduced the space they take up!
   
• John Oliver also covered this topic, but Vox has a video about museums and all the stolen stuff inside. It's kind of bonkers to think of how many things are within the British Museum that should go back to their country of origin and they're like "Sounds like a you problem!"
   
• "Brieana, my GOD, do you only read bad books??" Kinda! "Is there ANYTHING you read this month you liked???" Funny you should ask!  So I finished a short story called Even Though I Knew the End which was a fantasy historical fiction about a detective who is trying to get her soul back from the demon who bought it but is also trying to do one last job before she and her girlfriend leave town. It was short, sweet, and wonderful, AND one of my favorite narrators, January LaVoy reads it. (Also January taught me how I should style my hair when I first went natural so I love her.) I also finished book two of The Daevabad Trilogy which was excellent! I warn you though - heavy fantasy, and each book is like 650 pages. But I highly recommend!