Happy September

I canceled most of my long weekend plans due to the beastly heat wave, which worsens my migraines. I'm glad I did that because my headaches have been manageable indoors. Later today, my friend L is coming over to hang out/ play games, so that will be nice. I read a psychological thriller ~ They Never Learn by Layne Fargo. This flips the usual male serial killer motif to a woman, which is fun, although the plot gets more and more preposterous as the story goes on. I enjoy a killer who outwits the police as opposed to one who mainly depends upon law enforcement's indifference or incompetence. Alas, we can't have everything in one novel (usually). Since the story and characters mostly intrigued me, and I loved the ending, I gave it 3.5 stars in my reading journal (rounded up to 4.0 on Goodreads because you can't do halves there), which I began today to keep better track of the books I read. 

I recommend the psycho thriller The Devil Inside by Mark David Abbott. It's another turnabout type of story with an abused husband this time. He plots revenge upon his horrible wife, with a shocking twist at the end segueing into the sequel Flipped, which is told from the wife's POV. I gave Devil four stars and Flipped three. Flipped wasn't as fun because it was basically a retelling of Devil with a bit extra, but if you read Devil, you kinda have to read Flipped!

I started The Thursday Murder Club on Netflix the other day and found it too boring to finish despite the stellar cast. I did finish Rent a Groom (Prime), which is the tired old story of a couple "fake dating" (or engaged) due to family pressure or whatever, but then (surprise!) they fall for each other. There are some funny moments. A Perfect Match on Prime is another snoozer I managed to get through without DNFing. The premise is a bit different: a woman who runs a dating site matches herself with someone whom she decides is wrong for her because they're so different re pizza toppings or some shit, so she tries to tweak the site's algorithm to get her "perfect match," but as it turns out... you guessed it. I have noticed something weird about Prime romcoms (not the "famous" ones, but random romcoms I never heard of before with actors I don't know): there is like zero physical affection. I don't think the leads even kissed during the two movies I just mentioned! 

Back to Netflix. I watched the first episode of S2 of With Love, Meghan and enjoyed it. Idk what people expect from a show like this, but it was fun to see her whip up some delicious looking onion tarts and PB smores, plus dye a few scarves in pretty color combos. I will probably watch the whole season, as I did S1, though admittedly I sometimes fell asleep before the end of an ep. I also began the series On the Waterfront, which is a family/ crime drama about some peeps in Florida who start running drugs to save the family biz from bankruptcy. It's interesting enough to keep watching, but I stopped after one ep and will resume later, maybe tonight.

I DNF'd a whole bunch of books this week. There are so many TBR, and I have limited time (both daily and overall, given my age), that there is no point in wasting precious hours on ones that don't grab me from the start. I donated some physical books to my local library; others I plan to theme up in holiday gift baskets. As far as my Kindle, I bumped the unwanted ones off my TBR list by marking them read, as opposed to deleting them entirely (in case I change my mind), but I think that caused Goodreads to count them as read too, which I told it not to do. GR says I read 208 books this year, which is ridiculous because at most I finish 12 per month, including short stories and novellas, which GR counts as finished books. 

Whatever. I am trying to avoid obsessing over trivia and to quit deleting everything that irritates me in an impulsive purge. It's an ongoing process...