The Return of the Bachelor

I have some new reviews for you, but I am super tired, so we'll see how far I get tonight before I pass out on my laptop. Let's get the TV show out of the way first. I can't believe The Bachelor is a "reality" show, as each season has a formula, and it's pretty much the same for either a bachelor or bachelorette. Early on, one of the contestants establishes herself as an aggressive minx, constantly "stealing" the bachelor away for extra one on one time (Devin played the male minx during Jenn bachelorette season). The minx will barge in on a group date or another girl's tête-à-tête with the bachelor at the mansion and demand a private convo with him. Several other contestants will act (or pretend to be) horrified by this obnoxious behavior and gossip about how uncool it is. Sometimes one of them will even cry. Someone will moan about she may not be able to continue if so and so doesn't rein it in or leave the show. One of them will decide to take a stand and confront the minx. It doesn't go well. OMG, now we have all this drama in the house! The bachelor gets wind of it and is very displeased ~ he sternly reminds them that this is about his journey for love and they all must respect the process blah blah blah.

While all this is going on, the dates continue at their rapid pace as the bachelor tries to find his true love among the women pre-selected for him. Same goes for the bachelorette seasons, at least the ones I have seen. The weird thing to me is that the bachelor doesn't seem to have very much chemistry with either the minx or her nemesis (compared to the others), yet he keeps giving them roses so they stay on the show. It's almost as if... [crazy conspiracy theory alert]... the whole thing is planned out in advance by the producers in order to create conflict out of nothing at all and ramp up the drama factor. I know, I know, that's pretty nuts of me to imagine. What can I say? I'm really tired and loopy. I still enjoy the show, somewhat, but my interest has waned, especially because most of the couples break up sooner or later. I was disappointed that Jenn chose Devin, as I had considered him a jerk the whole time, and then he brutally dumped her almost immediately after the finale, proving that I do in fact have good radar to flag a bad guy... just not in my own dating life.

None of this applies to the Golden Bachelor/ette as old people have their own set of problems, generally involving family and relocation issues. I was talking about geographical undesirability with one of my coworkers yesterday, reminiscing about how men in Los Angeles freaked out about the idea of dating someone forty miles away in Orange County. Some of you may remember I wrote a whole poem about it. I wonder if that guy ever found anyone within five miles of the West Side. You think I am joking? I am not! Five miles was his limit. He's still handsome, for an oldie ~ I look him up occasionally on his law firm's website. Not that I am interested in dating, of course!

Sometimes I use bold for emphasis, and sometimes I use italics. Which is better? Should I save italics for book and movie titles? I don't like to use a lot of bold though because I find it distracting. You know what else I hate? When writers/bloggers put words in "quotes" for no "reason." It drives me batty. 

I read Imaginary Strangers by Minka Kent for my two-word title reading challenge box, and I gave it only two stars. Ridiculous plot, unlikeable characters, present tense... just ugh. The main "conflict" was a woman being unable/unwilling to tell her very nice husband about her terrible past, so therefore when some shit starts going down she supposedly has to handle it by herself and lie to him constantly, but you know what? The entire story could have ended on page one if she had been honest with him. It would have been a much better book in that case, lol. I started and DNF'd two others: Dead Girls Don't Blog by Pamela Frost Davis and Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby. Dead Girls was boring AF right from the start; Requiem was written in vernacular (Black and Jewish, or what the author imagined them to be), but without speech indicators, which made it even harder to follow, and I gave up immediately. I actually saw the movie a while back, and it was OK. Anyway, I refuse to read books I hate or that require a lot of effort, and if that means I don't finish the challenge, so be it. I will still read 100-125 books this year, but I may not complete every challenge category. Whatever, who cares, amirite?

Must go crash... more tomorrow...

Hey, it's tomorrow! February 7. I have returned to finish my post at early dark thirty... and my search bar says it's National Wear Red Day. WTF is that? Oh, it's to raise awareness for women's heart health, just in case someone doesn't know that heart disease is still the No. 1 killer of American women, not breast cancer, which gets more attention, or trans migrants invading our bathrooms. Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 killer of new moms too, so it's not just us old crones who need to be aware. I am aware... I just don't do anything about it. Well, that's not entirely true. I do watch what I eat and try to avoid stress (aka dating), but I know I do not get enough exercise. 

What was I talking about again? Oh, reviews. I actually read a book I liked a lot (cue trumpets) ~ The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth. This suspense novel satisfied the challenge request for three or more POVs. Here we had POVs from two sisters, Rachel and Tully, plus Heather (their father's younger girlfriend/wife), all nicely separated by chapter and in past tense. The characters were well developed and interesting, and the plot revealed a few twists I did not see coming. There is domestic violence depicted in this book, so that may be a trigger warning for some readers. I do have triggers myself, but they mostly involve bad writing and the Holocaust, two things I refuse to deal with in fiction. In fact, I have learned to avoid any book set between 1920-1960 for this reason. Anyway, if you can handle reading DV, I highly rec The Younger Wife. I gave it four stars, not five, because there were a few first-person interruptions from another character in present tense. We absolutely did not need these.

It's Friday! Tomorrow I have a games with friends event at Stonefire Grill, and Sunday is my book club potluck lunch and discussion. In between, I will be reading my next Victoria Holt novel: Voices from a Haunted Room. Hope everyone has a good weekend!