I honestly can’t believe that it’s the second Friday of July already! I feel like the start of this year absolutely dragged, but no time at all has passed since March. What’s up with that?
As usual, I’m behind with my work reading and am frantically going through what Hugo nominees I can before the voting deadline on Friday the 19th. I also had the misfortune of being afflicted with a migraine partway through the half day I took off yesterday to take my kids out for general enrichment. Luckily, it was Free Slurpee Day — as my kids would not stop reminding me — and the brain freeze from the frozen beverage (as well as the Excedrin Migraine the sympathetic store clerk sold me) really helped me get through the pain so that I could get the kids through their list of promised activities: sushi, a matinee screening of Inside Out 2, then trips to 7-11, the park and the library, phew! But it did put a significant crimp in my productivity otherwise, which always makes me feel like I’m floundering. Did I 100% identify and cry with Anxiety during yesterday’s movie? You absolutely betcha.
But at least I have this column to help round up the terrific titles that have just come out that I don’t yet have the time to read! First up, we have Lo Patrick’s The Night The River Wept. After months of mourning her miscarriage, puttering around and becoming increasingly irked by her husband (relatable, tbh,) Arlene seizes the change of pace that comes with accepting a job at her local police precinct. When she takes to poking around old case files, she unearths the cold case known as the Deck River Tragedy. Three children were murdered, with the prime suspect committing suicide days later. Arlene recruits the suspect’s prickly, investigative-minded aunt and the station’s straight-laced, tight-lipped receptionist to help her as she reopens the case. This one came to me highly recommended, and I’m super eager to find time to dive in.