Cupcakes, plus an alternative to Prime Time

Books: 

This is Prime Time at a certain website that is Too Big, and you know I and this podcast support independent bookstores that actually specialize in and love books. So I support Bookshop.org's Anti-Prime-Time Days--free shipping through the 26th, and excellent discounts on some really good ebooks as well, check that out in their app. I love stalking my wishlist. I am a huge fan of the Bookshop.org ebook reader; it organizes and shelves your books however you want, helps you maintain a wishlist and shows when wished-for books are on sale, and reading is easy and smooth--even when my hands are hurting too much and my eyes are blurry, it just works for me. In the book links I give you (or on the books' pages that you come across) you can easily purchase the books' ebook from there as you can its paperback or its hardcover, then read it in Bookshop.org's lovely, clean app.

If you click through this image, or any book link below (or those I give for this podcast), you support independent bookstores in general, and in particular, the bookstore I choose on my account. Right now, to celebrate all the wonderful things that are happening in NYC, and the recent joyful Puerto Rico Day parade there, I am choosing El Book Stop Bookshop, in Hormigueros & Santurce, Puerto Rico 🇵🇷. If you live nearby, take a photo for me!

So far, Bookshop.org has raised over 48 million dollars for independent bookstores. These are stores that only sell, and love and appreciate, books. They are run and owned by local community members. Unfortunately, at last count, Ama$on still sells half of the books purchased in America. That hurts the possible diverse, thriving, literary ecosystem that we need. Where there are healthy and thriving community bookstores, there aren't book deserts.

My five-star for this month so far:
Penelope's Bones: A New History of Homer's World Through the Women Written Out of It by Emily Hauser, and
Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation by Elaine Pagels
I'll talk about my other excellent reads for this month and last on the podcast, when I catch up with you. I've read eight books this month so far, and I read fifteen last month, so I'm looking forward to it. You will find all of my five-star reads so far for this year listed at the end of this post.

Music:
I've really been doing some deep listening of Florence + the Machine, and to Lana del Ray's early stuff. Women telling stories about pain and strength.

Movies:
This month, I have been mostly reading (and dealing with my health, physical therapy again, I'll explain on the podcast), so there are only two to suggest, but they are both really good picks:

Hokum (2026): written and directed by Damian McCarthy of Oddity and Caveat, this is another claustrophobic Irish horror that delivers. It stars Adam Scott, who owns the screen, and David Wilmot. My short review reads as follows:

Thanks to Hamnet, and now Hokum, I will watch David Wilmot in anything.
An ohm is the measure of resistance between two points.

It Ends (2025): Directed and written by Alexander Ullom as his first full-length film (he produced and edited the short horror film Chipped (2023), which is all about teeth, so I am probably not going to watch it, despite how much I loved It Ends, sorry). It's existential horror, almost cosmic horror, and asks the question: what would you do if you had nothing but time, and no responsibilities? Sounds like a great deal on its face, right?

Family:

I told you about our new addition, the miniature dachshund puppy. Well, she and her siblings are three weeks old, and doing very well. We want a girl, and have our choice, so we will be meeting and choosing her next Friday. I believe she will choose us. The best pets of my life have either chosen me or found me. So hopefully, my little girl will come to me. If not, I will watch all of them with their momma and their siblings, and see who moves me. She won't be ready to come home yet, so I will just have to be satisfied with the cutest photographs and updates ever.

And once more for Bookshop.org: you not only support me and the podcast--and the Little Free Library I am trying to set up for my community, which is in a book desert--you also specifically help 🇵🇷 El Book Stop Bookshop, and generally help independent bookstores in communities like yours, that pay their employees a fair wage, that are kind to their employees, and respect both them and their customers. In no way will you be giving your money to billionaires.

To get you started on some ideas for using that free shipping, here's my five-star fiction reads for this year so far, out of 74 books. I'll bring you the nonfiction list in a followup post, for it is long and requires geeky annotation:

Fiction
Charlie the Choo-Choo by Beryl Evans (Stephen King): in the Dark Tower Universe
Hansel and Gretel by Stephen King and Maurice Sendak: all things serve the Beam
Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom by Sylvia Plath
Elphie: A Wicked Childhood by Gregory Maguire: the Wicked series, the Wicked Years series both
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman: demented domiciles horror
This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances by Eric LaRocca: queer horror, might be considered extreme horror by some (on the verge)
We Used to Live Here Marcus Kliewer: demented domiciles horror, cosmic horror--excellent for fans of House of Leaves, even though it's not ergodic precisely
The Lamb Lucy Rose extreme horror
The Unmothers Leslie J Anderson not extreme horror but intense
Something in the Walls Daisy Pearce: demented domiciles horror
The Devil Crept In by Ania Ahlborn: not extreme horror but intense
The Road Cormac McCarthy: extreme emotions, might be considered horror by some, heartbreaking and graphic

Enjoy the free shipping, and thank you for supporting such a lovely company that, in turn, supports all of our communities. I shall return with my nonfiction list, and a podcast episode. Have fun book shopping, and thank you!