A Bajillion Kitties

I visited a cat rescue "lounge" yesterday, where for $20 you can hang out with a whole bunch of kitties as long as you please. I stayed 2.5 hours, and though it was great to meet and greet a bajillion sweet furballs, I didn't feel that special connection with any cat in particular. It was sort of like how I used to imagine speed dating: I can't precisely explain what I want, but I'll know it when it happens. One of the owners asked me what I was looking for, and I explained about Gatsby... then I said I didn't want to create a shopping list for a new kitty. Each one should be appreciated for its own individual self. However, since there were so many available, I had to start somewhere, so I kinda sorta made a list. Female. Around 2-3 years old. Doesn't look like Gatsby (no tuxies). Even with that, there were probably a half dozen to choose from.

When I'm faced with too many options, I generally shut down and choose nothing, which is what I did... but I think I will fill out their adoption application online and return at some point to make a decision. It's nice to live in a fur-free home as far as less vacuuming, and it's nice not to be awakened by night yowls at 2AM; on the other hand, it's horribly lonely not to have a kitty to talk to and cuddle with. My housemate and my daughters think I should adopt a new one. 

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I'm caught up on the second season of Nine Perfect Strangers. It's not as interesting as S1 because we already know that part of the "treatment" program is to micro-dose the patients with LSD, so there's nothing to discover there, and the family dramas aren't as compelling this time around. I may continue watching because I like Nicole Kidman plus the S2 cast, or I may not. We'll see. There's so much to watch and read. 

I read The Tenant, a psychological thriller by Freida McFadden. It was a fast read, full of twists, and I gave it three stars, but it was very shallow as far as character development and motivations. There was no one likable in the entire novel, which ends up being the case in many books of this type. Everyone is unethical and/or covering up a crime and/or motivated by a single selfish desire, whatever. It just comes down to how well the story is told as far as the drama and secrets. This one was relatively enjoyable, but it's already slipping into the mush of the genre. I crossed off the 2025 Reading Challenge box for a book released in 2025.

The above isn't to be confused with The Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon, another thriller I gobbled up this week (this one for my online book club), which I counted as “by an up and coming author” for the 2025 Reading Challenge. I didn't care for this book and gave it only two stars. The first issue I had with it is that the author chose second person narration for most of the chapters. This is super hard to pull off, and she did not do a great job of it. I understand that it was the victim's technique to distance herself from the terrible things that were happening to her, but regardless if you can't do it well, don't do it. To confuse matters further, CM wrote some chapters in first person from the POV of other characters. We never got the POV of the most interesting character however, which was the serial killer's. Victims are boring! I have read a zillion fictional victims' stories now, and they are of a samey sameness. Let's hear what the killer has to say, what motivates this sicko, how he so precisely plans his brutal acts. It's interesting that these guys are at the mercy of their violent, churning impulses, yet (the successful ones) are so careful and logical, which helps them evade capture for many years.

Next (or actually previously) is The Push by Ashley Audrain, which also received two stars from me. This is a mystery type novel, mostly in an epistolary narration format, via a "letter" a woman writes to her ex-husband. She attempts to explain herself, her mother, grandmother (the latter two from snippets of overheard conversations when she was a child), feelings, motivations, etc., all to make her point that the daughter they share is an evil demon who killed other children, including their son. The reader isn't sure how much of this to believe because the narrator seems unreliable (yay, another category checked off on the challenge) ~ at many points, she questions her own beliefs and perceptions. This could have been interesting, but alas it wasn't. One example is when the protagonist was in agony over how much it hurt to breastfeed. Well, you know what? She could have switched to formula and bottles as opposed to developing a vicious hatred toward her own baby. The baby cried a lot when she was alone with her mother, which made sense when she wasn't feeling any love or comfort from her. Also, some babies cry a lot. Treating them like they're a monster might very well turn them into one, who knows. When I dislike the MC, it's very difficult for me to care what happens.

Finally (or first), I plowed through A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. This is a suspense novel of the old "whodunit" type with lots of suspicious characters and a teenage girl who is smarter than all the people who previously investigated the crime. She has a gay bestie, which has now become a cliche. I enjoyed this fast-paced novel and gave it three stars, though the final explanation of the details of the murder and coverup is preposterous. The fact that all these people reveal so much to this annoying girl is also ridiculous, but the story gallops along nicely and held my interest. AGGGTM fit the young adult challenge category in the 2025 Reading Challenge.

That's all.