My therapist wanted me to check out Brene Brown, so I've downloaded that but I haven't started. I'm currently catching up on the High Low podcast, which is a gab-sesh between Pandora Sykes and Dolly Alderton. My English friend loves them so she suggested it and I thought I'd give it a go. High/Low is about the high and low brow stories they talk about. It's going fairly well (I'm at the beginning...so like 2017) but it makes me think of my friend so I have lovely thoughts on it. They tend to keep an episode around an hour in length which is a good length of time. 

I took a week off of work last week and used it to clean and do laundry and just veg. I think I needed it because I've fallen so behind with everyone staying with me. I'm still not caught up but it's not unsurmountable and that's just a relief. I also voted and dropped off the ballots for everyone else in the house. It was a group trip. No idea how this election is going to go but I've done my bit. 

There's also a hurricane somewhere in the ocean (or a bad storm) because my nerves are on fire. My migraines have shifted and now I have a pronounced sensory aura. When WebMD says that you can have "pins and needles, or burning" it really underestimates what that means. Burning, for me, feels like my nerves (which I can feel) are on fire. It stops me cold. I'm also getting nauseous. 

BUT the head pain itself is less. So, it's a trade off I'll take. I guess the medicine is working. Although my doctor pointed out that the aura might have always been there in some form but I didn't notice it because my head pain was so bad and constant. So now I notice all the other things. That was a sobering thought. 

Whatever. I'm going to be slow today but it'll get done eventually. I read this book over a period of weeks as it's a lot of information. I think it's a basic recap of what you (should have) learned in high school/middle school history class. Unless you went to the charter school in Texas my cousins (and a few state/national representative's children) went to. They're....dumb. That's not nice to say but there were some hefty payouts for college admission (the "normal" way, not the Operation Varsity way) and lots of remedial courses. I guess dumb isn't the right word, they're uneducated because the charter school failed them. Of course, since there are no (or few) regulations around charter schools there wasn't any safety net where administrators could come in and clean it up. Their mom is furious because my safety school wouldn't admit any of her kids. I don't really understand the total of Texas social scene but apparently the state school which was my safety is where a certain social class goes. I don't know. She explained it to me when I was applying and I had it as a safety as my family was nearby but I chose a different school in the end. I tutored two of her kids through the remedial classes by phone. On top of the tutoring they got at college. So they passed eventually but those remedial classes don't carry the same level of credit as the history 101 stuff if I remember correctly. I asked a lot of questions about their charter school (middle + high) because I couldn't figure out HOW they had graduated without knowing the basic stuff. They learned creationism (and ONLY that) and that all dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time as the Early Civilization peoples (ummm...). Also, they learned that Benjamin Franklin was a President (he was not). 

I feel like I've blabbed on a few things I probably shouldn't have. There are just certain children of certain politicians who have been ill served by the environment their fathers (and grandfathers created). I guess you get what you vote for.  Not my problem...except now we have a huge bunch of idiots running around.

We should talk about the book. Yup. 

Oh man, I think my office became noticeable gloomier overnight. It's just so overcast today and it's doom and gloom in the office. It could be because I was listening to the EAR/ONS/GSK case episodes on Casefile (and before that the Moors Murders). Just gloomy. 

I also somehow didn't photograph this book. I don't know how that happened to be honest. I don't think I have it anymore either, perhaps I sent it off in a book/spa pick-up package to a friend. Somehow this is a mess. I need to get it together. 

I picked this up because Kat Martin is one of the author's listed in the results if you search for "author's like..." I had put in Anne Stuart (since she was in between publications) and I had stopped reading Janet Evanovich (that's another story, but basically the books were getting ridiculous. Well, more ridiculous than I could handle. It was the giraffe running loose in Trenton that finally did me in). I've been looking for new authors to add. So Martin came up in the search, and this is the first book in her series. 

I'm honestly so excited about Halloween. It's my favorite holiday! I don't think our neighborhood will be participating in Trick-or-Treat (which I understand but I'm sad about) and I'm not even sure I'm going to decorate but I love that Hocus Pocus comes on TV all the time. It's the BEST Halloween movie ever. 

​

Amok! Amok! Amok!

I'm going through all these articles I've saved. To "read later" that is. Except if I don't carve out some time to read them, it will never happen! So I've been trying to read through some. 

I read this one from the New Yorker this week. It's about the death of a Sherlock Holmes expert. There were questions by some of his friends, family, and acquittances about whether or not he had been murdered (in a strange locked room mystery) or if he had committed suicide. It was around the time that the last of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's children passed away (and with her, several of her father's papers ended up at Christie's for sale). The article is titled "Mysterious Circumstances: The Strange Death of a Sherlock Holmes Fanatic." I was unaware that Arthur Conan Doyle had children or have followed them at all. Sometimes canonical authors seem to exist as the only object in a void. I had the same feeling when I learned about Charles Dickins (who at age 45, left his wife and took up with an 18 year old actress. He had three hundred children with his wife, or ten. One of those numbers. Dickens' mistress was a year older than his daughter. Dude was nasty. The Invisible Woman is about their relationship. I'm judgy). 

This is the second book that I've bought double copies of. I rely on book covers far too much but in this instance, it's because the title has been changed. It's okay though. I don't really adore either covers as I've become quite fond of the super art deco covers with gilded flourishes. 

No matter what cover, the editions are the exact same inside. 

This is not quite a romantic story, which Heyer is famous for. It is part of her "country house mysteries,"  which are slightly cozy but more so a comedy of errors. I've really enjoyed the ones I've picked up in this genre (although her romances are fun little romps too). 

Everyone in the White House is getting Covid. I don't know the word for "exasperated by people getting the result they were asking for by being idiots" but that's how I feel about it all. It's not schadenfreude because I don't have pleasure in their ineptitude. 

​200,000+ people are dead in America, Donald.  What a fucker. 

I'm still reading the annotated Emma, which I took a break from for awhile. I'm hoping to finish it this year. I just finished The Killer Of Little Shepherds, which is a true crime history story. It's about a serial killer in France and the newer techniques (forensics, psychological, and legal) that captured him. The way that the French doctors and police solved the case are really familiar as they're the blueprint for modern forensics. I thought it was a really interesting book. 

After Popsugar decided to leave me (sob!) I looked around for a replacement. I don't need one but I enjoy getting things in the mail. The beauty box message board I visit was keen on Causebox and I liked a few of their past boxes. They have a different vibe than Popsugar but I decided to try out a year's subscription (so four boxes) to see how I liked it. 

My first box was the (second?) intro box for the summer season. There was a discount for the box (as it has fewer items than the normal box). It was fast shipping, which I note because it seems to be the main complaint about the box (late shipping). I received the second box fast as well but it's under a few more books I need to photograph, so I'll get to it eventually. 

An annual subscription costs around $200 (with the discount from the first box) and you get to customize the box as you see fit. Doing a season by season deal, it costs around $50 but you don't get to pick your items. They have a general focus of companies or items that are green/"good" for the environment. There has to be a "cause" basically. 

I'm a little iffy on self-help books as I find most of the time them to be shallow or overly generic platitudes. There's no action...just talk about action in the abstract. 

On the other side, I'm all in for organizing books, shows, vlogs, etc. I will follow professional organizers on instagram in a heartbeat. I love that crap. I have a whole "want to buy" list of organizing books. It's a (tidy) problem. 

I got this book without knowing who Anna Newton was...but in fact, I'm familiar with her already. Her blog has come across my computer screen a few times. It's The Anna Edit. It's a lifestyle, travel, fashion etc. website curated by Anna Newton. While I enjoy some of the content (the organizing stuff really), I'm on the other end of the spectrum with fashion (I don't think neutrals make up more than 10% of my wardrobe) or makeup (no seriously...I love color and drama) or home decor (Anna likes a minimalist neutral theme). Her book fulfills me in ways the website cannot.