Oh, I know what time of the year it is, but before I launch into full-blown fundraising mode, I kind of want to write about anything else today.  I mean, I warned my friends and family on social media that I’d be flooding my feeds with asks, but you, you my friend, still get to enjoy a fundraiser-free respite. (Unless, of course, you’re following me anywhere else, and well… consider this a break for today. Be a good sport and remember to use words like “magnanimous” in my eulogy.)

Anyway, let’s go ahead and just jump into my story.  To transition to the next part, I started by writing a reminder about what this blog is about, and how the story to follow was really just a slice-of-life, but I got bored with typing the words (yawn), so I’m still going to say something, but I’m speeding it up a bit (word clouding it?) for you:

• Disclaimer
• Me
• 20+ years
• Anecdotes
• Big word, big word
• Rude remark about big words
• Small words, small words
• Still insulting but more accessible – you know by now the beats/cadence of my writing
• Blahblahblah middle bit
• XXOO, Fin, -30-

Woof! I think that’s the outline for most of my posts.  I’ll ponder that later. Now, aren’t you glad that’s out of the way? Now, onward to my declarative statement to kick off the story.

So, I kind of irrationally hate any mention of Schrödinger’s Cat.

All my close friends know it.  And I’m about 98% sure I’ve mentioned it before, so you know it. But for the purposes of this story, I need you to remember that.  Your main takeaway is that bringing it up makes me lose my mind a bit/makes me ragey. Fun fact, so do the fable of the Scorpion and the Frog and the one about slowly boiling a frog.  The word “hackneyed” comes to mind.

Back to Schrödinger’s Cat. I’ll spare you the rant, because I’m kind like that.  You just need this small reminder for the story. 

(Why yes, I did delete an extra ragey paragraph about it because no one needs that today.)

You’re welcome!

(See… magnanimous.)

Now we’re going to take a wee detour, but it’ll all make sense in the end.

So, yesterday I found myself at a bookstore.

(Yep, just opened my eyes and voila – bookstore – does that not happen to you?)

Anyway, bookstores with good vibes are hands down one of my favorite places to be, and yesterday I was giddy.

Plus, I was there on a mission – find a “cozy” Halloween book.

About four years ago, one of my coworkers and I decided to start reading a Halloween book each October. However, the biggest challenge is finding one that doesn’t include a horror element.  We learned early on, after some missteps leading to sleepless nights, that we both get spooked way too easily.  And nothing beats a late text that reads, “Is Chapter 15 safe to read before bed or should I hold off until tomorrow during the day? Oh, the rest of the book is not safe to read at any time of day, you say? Great. I love this for me.”  

A quick rundown of our previous selections:

• The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires – Grady Hendrix
• Horrorstör – Grady Hendrix
• String Follow – Simon Jacobs
• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches – Sangu Mandanna

Grady Hendrix writes a good book that always draws me in, but Grady Hendrix scares the bejeebus out of me, and don’t get me started on the rats and bugs.  (Psst, don’t tell my coworker, but I bought two more of his books, and I’m too scared to read them without a reading buddy. I want to in the way one is drawn to look over the edge of a cliff, but you inexplicably fear you might jump. I feel the same way about most Stephen King novels. Love ‘em. They scare me.) Next on the list, String Follow. It was a bit meh, but at least it wasn’t scary, and then the book we read last year, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, was fine, sweet, totally harmless, but not what I wanted in a Halloween read.

So, yesterday I was drifting from table to table of suggested books, reading dust jackets and taking photos to share with my coworker when a store elf popped into my periphery asking if I needed assistance.  Normally, I’m a “please leave me alone while I shop” kind of gal, but lately I’ve discovered I end up in the best conversations if I just tell the store elves what I need, so I did. “I need a cozy Halloween read that doesn’t scare me!” then shared the backstory behind my quest. She set down all the books in her hand, and off we went from shelf to shelf, book to book, lapping the store as new titles popped into her head, sending us in new directions.  I learned about a lot of her favorites, which landed us in a couple of conversations with other shoppers who were eager to back up her recommendations. 

Now, for those of you who may be looking for some of those recommendations or just curious, here are a few of the titles she suggested:

• How to Survive Camping: The Man with No Shadow – Bonnie Quinn
• I Was a Teenage Slasher – Stephen Graham Jones (and all books by him, which was seconded by another shopper)
• Mexican Gothic – Silvia Moreno-Garcia (one of her favorites – she said it was very feminist and warned that it contained some body horror. She also shared that it was beautifully written, with the author describing the grotesque in a poetic way that made it seem beautiful.)
• The Bewitching – Silvia Moreno-Garcia (same author who is an apparent favorite of hers)
• Practical Magic – Alice Hoffman
• A Discovery of Witches – Deborah Harkness
• Zoey is too Drunk for this Dystopia – Jason Pargin
• Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick – Jason Pargin (she was a fan of anything  by Jason Pargin)

Now you may recall I asked for “cozy”, but “cozy” transitioned into “some humor that doesn’t induce nightmares, please and thank you.” I believe most of the titles fit that bill and came with an implied promise that I wouldn’t have to fear reading a chapter after it becomes dark outside – well, except maybe Mexican Gothic, her strongest recommendation. I’m pretty sure that one will scare me. (In a good way??? Maybe???)

Also, in addition to those recommendations, she made some non-Halloween suggestions. And since I’d stolen a good half hour of her time (and needed to calm down my guilt ferrets), I bought them and tossed them onto my already mountainous TBR pile.

• Wild Dark Shore – Charlotte McConaghy

…and

• Cat Love: A Novel – Tomás Q. Morín

The latter is told from the POV of a well-read cat and described as a “dystopian elegy narrated by a cat imprisoned in a Schrödinger’s box.” Let’s face it, I was sold on the description alone, and then the delightfully well-read book elf read the first paragraph to me. How could I not own it? How often does someone love a book so much that they read the beginning to you?

And now I’ve come full circle. 

A post about how I hate the whole Schrödinger’s Cat thought‑experiment thing… and I still managed to wander into a place filled with stories and leave with a book built around that exact premise.

And I didn’t fundraise at you at all.

See? Magnanimous!