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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

The Sunday Post #289

Public Service Announcement

I'm signing up for the 2022 Discussion Challenge hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts At Midnight. The challenge is to post more book or blogging discussions on my blog. I've been participating in this challenge for years and have no idea what to talk about anymore. I'm all out of discussion ideas! If you have a topic you want to see me blather about, please let me know. If you have bookish topics you want to discuss on your blog, please sign up for the challenge. (You can win cool prizes.)

On The Blog Last Week

• On Tuesday, I listed my most-anticipated adult book releases for 2022.

On The Blog This Week

• On Tuesday, I show off my most-anticipated young adult book releases for 2022

In My Reading Life

Last week, I read Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner. This is one of those young adult books that remind me I'm no longer the target audience for young adult books. It's about a teen whose three friends die in a car accident. He feels responsible because they were texting him at the time of the crash. To find peace with his role in their deaths, he decides to have "goodbye days," where he hangs out with the families of his dead friends.

This book is awesome for teenagers because it examines the unique ways humans respond to death. Some of the family members are forgiving, some are angry, some are stressed out, some are confused. This book is an in-depth look at grief. It would be perfect for a young person who doesn't have experience with death. I think they'd learn a lot from it.

I'm an old person who has dealt with my fair share of corpses. I got a little bored with the book and kept wishing something else would happen. It's a long, slow, character-driven story. I appreciated the loving characters and the humor, but I was tempted to skim ahead. There's not much plot.

I guess I'm conflicted about this one. When I was the age of the target audience, I would have loved the realistic characters. As an adult, I kept glancing at my bookshelf to see if I owned any books with more action.

Speaking of books with no action, I finally finished Little Heaven by Nick Cutter. I should have given up on this one, but after 3 weeks of slogging through it, I couldn't bring myself to abandon it. I wanted the payoff for my hard work! This horror novel is reminiscent of Stephen King. There are short bursts of ultra-disturbing horror separated by long stretches of nothingness that an editor should have cut. The book stars three bounty hunters who are hired to rescue a family from a cult compound. Unfortunately, the compound is guarded by dangerous supernatural critters that are nearly impossible to kill.

The horror scenes kept me reading. They are disgusting in the best possible way. Those creatures are terrifying! Unfortunately, the plot bounces all over the place, and the characters are cartoonish. It felt like 3 half-baked novels crammed into one book. I couldn't get invested in it.

In The Rest Of My Life

Five things that made me happy last week:

1. I got a new laptop and new reading spreadsheets! My old laptop died last fall and took 5 years of reading spreadsheets with it. Starting over is both fun and a pain in the ass. I'm going to test out Book Riot's Reading Log this year.
2. I got a new planner too. I'm hoping it will help me not procrastinate blog posts until the night before I need to post them.
3. Watching outdoor ice hockey. Outdoor hockey is the best hockey.
4. I posted my first TikTok video. It might be my only TikTok video because it nearly killed my phone. If you want to see it, I'm @ajsterkel.
5. The Amazing Race is back! It's my favorite reality show. I've watched every season since it started.

I Swear I'm Friendly

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Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other. See you around the blogosphere!