I Miss Reading

I have had the hardest time focusing on books since my sister passed. Mom and she both commented on how upsetting it was to lose that ability because of chemo, and now I can concur. It really stinks to have lost that little window to escape.

I am, slowly, starting to be able to read a little here and there. But for every book I finish, I've probably started and stopped -- no lie -- ten others trying to find something that would stick.

My current read, which I'll finish tonight, is Dream Town by Lee Goldberg. My uncle (I think it was my uncle) pointed me to them and I am grateful for it. They're police procedurals and kind of a mix of Harry Bosch and Eve Dallas (Michael Connelly for the first, JD Robb for the second). As I adore both of those, it was a no brainer to give them a shot. So far, I honestly have been enjoying these books more than I've enjoyed the most recent Connelly offerings. (Because Bosch is old and retired and he's trying to make Renee Ballenger the new MC, but she's...a terrible mixture of stupid and obnoxious. Flaws are all well and good, but she's so flawed that I'd want nothing to do with her in real life, and I'd warn others off as well. So trying to root for her is...not super successful for me.)

I picked up The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (the most recent save one in Panem, the world of the Hunger Games) but I can't get into it. Maybe I will eventually, but the start makes me think they're trying to make President Snow something more than the evil villain he is in the initial trilogy and, like Wicked, I don't love the trend of making evil into misunderstood and justified. (Although it's a culturally relevant idea, so I get why, but it's just not a trend I feel like we should embrace in books OR real life.) 

My usual go-tos of Susanna Kearsley and JD Robb have been re-read so often that I don't even want to re-read them again right now. SK did just release a new one, but it's another of two historical timelines (her usual is one modern, one historical) and while I can handle historical fiction when there are breaks for modern day, I found the last dual-historical a bit of a slog so I've started and stopped that one several times as well.

What do I do with the time I would otherwise be reading? I've been watching Pop Culture Jeopardy and playing a dumb little doohickey swapping game on my phone. Because by the end of the day, that's about the concentration/brain power I have left in me. 

I hates it.