tjs_whatnot | (no subject)

a beach in winter with the sand covered in snow text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in cursive font colours blended with the skyline

Challenge #7: In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive

Hmmmm...

Lets see. What do I usually wish for? I can't even remember anymore. Oh yeah...

Artists and Writers: Anything you want to create, either remixing or illustrating something that I've written in the past, or maybe something from the fandom of any of this year's 5 star reads?

Graphics and/or Coding Gurus: I neeeeeeed help! I did one of those reading bingo things--first one I've ever finished and I'm ridiculous pleased with myself--and I'd like to make it pretty, or have links or... IDK, be able to make it mine in someway, ya know? So I need help, or it if is easier to just do it than explain it, then that instead. *looks sheepish*

Readers and Reccers: Sell me on your favorite book from this year!

And wow. That's it. Oh yeah, if you have asked for anything on your Wishlist that you think might be in my wheel house to provide--as a writer, reader or squee-er, do me a solid and link it here, yeah? Cool.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I read a lot of stuff I loved last year!

Probably the warmest/kindest was The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper - Phaedra Patrick, in which an isolated widower finds an unfamiliar charm bracelet in his late wife's things. Each charm relates to a part of her life he hadn't known, and as he looks deeper into each one he travels further out of the rut he settled into after her death and connects with new people, some of whom also loved his wife, and reconnects with their grown children.

The one that's still in my head even though I read it back in January of last year is What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez - Claire Jiminez. Ruthy disappeared without a trace at 13, and in present-day chapters narrated by her mother, older sister, and baby sister we see that her family never really recovered. There are also occasional chapters narrated by Ruthy in the days and hours before her disappearance. A dozen years later, her sisters see the villain of a trashy reality show who looks just like Ruthy might have grown up to, and the family ends up on a chaotic roadtrip to attend a taping of the show to see if it could possibly be her.

Wow! Those both sound super fascinating and so different from what I've been reading that I'm totally going to use them when I'm in a rut, or burned out of a well loved genre (sobriety that's happening right now 😭😭).

❤️❤️