Reading | Currently...

 

 

How long has it been since I've made a reading update? A few years, maybe?

 

My theme for 2026 was returning home, as in to myself. To the things that made me who I am, to who I was before getting re-married and moving to a state that the rest of us would never think to even move to. And for me, reading has played such a huge part of my life. From being one of the only kids in Kindergarten who could read by themselves to working in the library for most of my elementary years (and checking out an insane amount of books), to becoming a well known book blogger before accepting a job to Disney World.

 

I try to take it more seriously in the Fall since most of my favorite books fall into the genre's that just scream Fall, to me at least. Which is why I made my Annual Halloween Reading Challenge in 2008 and I've tried my best to keep up with it all these years. I actually look forward to this.

 

 

I recently finished Wildthorn, which is wild since this was a title I did get for review before it was released and I guess I just forgot about it? Or looked past it? I have no idea, but I was surprised to already see it in my Kindle library. This however, tends to happen a bit.

 

Wildthorn takes place in the 1900's when women were thrown into asylum's for whatever reason. It's such a cruel and unfair thing. Especially for the main character -- what her family did was beyond fucked up. I'll write my review of it soon, before I forget what pissed me the fuck off about it all. 

 

I've been diving back into researching various asylums, their lore, what they've turned into after all these years, what their ghost stories are... this is the result of your mom and all your friends and their moms working in an asylum while you were growing up. Literally, at some point my high school best friend along with both her parents AND her brother were all coworkers with my mom. Most of my close friends parents were also coworkers with my mom, including my baby daddy which I had no idea about until about five years ago. It was probably best I never knew, considering... how big of a crush I had on him growing up. The fact that so many people I grew up with also grew up with the stressors of our mom's working at that hospital and we all know the lore and the stories is wild. But also, when you're from a place like that it seems so... normal. Like the people who had parents who worked in other hospitals, it was like "wait what?" and after leaving home it was even more different. Like I'm the only person who had a parent who worked in an asylum lol.

 

I think culture shocks might be one of my favorite things about moving to so many states and different places. Like seeing just how different other peoples lives are from yours. It's so interesting.

 

 

On that note, I started reading A Cure for Dreaming which takes place in sort of the same time frame but doesn't really include an asylum. At least, I haven't came across one in the book yet but the main characters dad is just as fucked up, if not worse. It also amazes me just how long men have been trying to control every aspect of a woman's life as if that's okay or something.

 

The fact that saying a woman is worth marriage if she's submissive and quiet is insane. Beyond insane. By all means, please, don't marry me if you're upset I won't stfu. You're doing me a favor. Go build a fuckin house somewhere or something. Do something manly with your dumb ass.

 

I really hope the main character gets the fuck away from her psycho dad and finds the peace she's looking for. I honestly could not image being a woman back then, I'd stir up all kinds of problems. I mean I already stir up problems, esp when it comes to being a feminist, since I was 20. So that's not changing. 

 

This was a... nice little history trip to take, I guess, before the spooky season lol. Will my random researching of asylums slow down? Fuck no. Partly because I miss finding things to jump down rabbit holes about and because what better thing to read about?!

 

October's theme is going to be mostly botanical murder mystery because that's sort of my weakness. Give me plants that want to engulf people whole for no other reason than to cause chaos lol!