Entertainment for the Long Road

 

My goal is to read this books are much in order as possible. I tried to compile these based on where I'll be around the time of the book. My goal is to not only read while driving, but to also read some in the evening once I settle into my hotel room. I love audiobooks and travel is the best opportunity to read them.

Mirror Lake: Shady Hollow Mystery by Juneau Black

I've been reading this series and I figured I could start out with something a little cozy, light, and not too long for the audio.

A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer by Alexie Dana

I really wanted to read this last October, but I couldn't get a copy in time. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to continue with my cozy mystery theme, but it also incorporated ghosts.

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

I read the first book on my last road trip. My husband enjoyed it enough, so I thought I'd give the second one a stab and see how it goes. What neat, new adventures in faeriedom can Emily get into!

Billy Summers by Stephen King

Billy Summers was on my extended September reading list and I loved the cover. It felt very road-trippy. I enjoy King's modern works and I have high hopes for this book. I've also heard good things about it.

You Like it Darker by Stephen King

Another King book that was on my list of reads for September that I just didn't get to. I like King's short story compilations and those are nice on road trips where you have to make frequent stops.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 

I am really "scared" about this being on my list. Every group I am part of raves about this Fantasy-Romance book and how amazing the series is, but I have yet to have something to draw me to be passionate enough to open the cover. But I figured I'm trapped in my car, so why not give it a shot!

Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi  by John Scalzi

Again, I like short stories and I hadn't seen this from Scalzi, so I snatched it up.

Ghost Walk by Cassandra Gannon

This is my only non-audiobook. I figured if I needed something to read and didn't want to use audio, I'd have this book. Plus its from somewhere around the battlefield and that's roughly where I should be by now.

The President's Brain is Missing by John Scalzi

More short stories and how appropriate for the DC area! Err... not the current president, but that jackhole who is running and wants to destroy our world, because he's literally another variation of all the problematic leaders we've had in our history!

Bad Dolls by Rachel Harrison

I love Rachel Harrison, so to find a little collection of short stories was thrilling. I can't wait to see what she has to offer as a short story writing.

The Games Gods Play by Abigail Owen

I wanted to give something new a try, so I randomly selected this title. Bonus, it's Greek gods. We'll see how it goes!

Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano

A fellow reader on my Stardew Valley Readathon group posted about this book and I was intrigued. I find "found footage" style writing to be interesting (how we're accessing information in a story format that isn't the Blair Witch Project. But guess what! I plan on reading this on or after I visit the Blair Witch Forest! Oh... and it takes place in Wisconsin in a fictional location not far from my home. 

Where now? Who now? When now?: A Preamble

I am a woman who has always suffered from Wanderlust. Blame my Sagittarian birth or my need to connect with something greater in my life, but I always want to go places. I'm not a big every-weekend day-tripper, though. I will admit, I have severe general anxiety and general social anxiety, so being out in the world and having to engage in general-required-adult-life-experiences can really empty my tank. I usually like small once-a-month road trips or a larger yearly family vacation. If I can have a little bit of both, that'd be a stellar year in my book. I, though, have a vacationally-challenged family who also have extreme anxiety, ADD, and severe-hermit-uh-gitis. Add on two pets to board or find sitters for and it makes sense why maybe my Wanderlust simmers and simmers until finally the pot feels like it's going to simmer straight to the ugly, scorched bottom.

So let me fill you in on how I got to the point where I am doing a solo13-day road trip to New England and back with my furbestie. In 2021/2022, I suffered a terrible mental and emotional breakdown. It was heavily brought on by the death of my mother, but it was also that I released myself from my decade-long toxic work environment. I was burdened with the unwilling care of my incarcerated, felon brother, who I have never had a relationship with at all in my life (we are adopted and lived almost separate lives from around the age of 10). Additionally, I've been fighting against my daughter's school district and how teachers have been treating my daughter who had undiagnosed ADD (undiagnosed due to their poor reporting and lack of engagement with parents) and my daughter's severe anxiety brought on by 4-years of a gang of boys bullying her physically, emotionally, and psychologically. All these things took their toll on me and made my mental health worse and worse and worse, despite my battle to trend upwards.

Slowly, though, I have been pulling myself out of the darkness. I am not one to let the "bad guy" win when I can do something about it. So I started to turn my life around. I started from the bottom by looking for the things that make me happy. I knew all the things that used to make me happy or I thought made me happy, but here was my chance to build a new me without the influence of a narcissistic parent or a strange need to make others around me happy. Selfish might feel like a bad word, but I wasn't being selfish about the cookies or the couch. I was using a lense to examine where the real me had gone. For example, I had labeled myself a tabletop game addict and I realized, while I enjoy the occasional game, that's not my passion (unlike my husband who plays tabletop games constantly). I, though, realized I had lost my passion for reading and now it fills my happiness bucket often! The same with watchings movies, but specifically going to the movie theater to watch movies. Slowly I was finding more and more of what makes me the person I am, so that I can be happy and therefore be happier for others in my life. You can't fill another's bucket from your own empty bucket.

When my daughter started high school, though, my happiness train derailed hardcore. She was having a really hard time, which was making it difficult for me to get my daily routines in line. Her daily frustrations and, honestly, abuse from the bullies (yes it continued) and now one specific teacher was also breaking my heart and was causing my husband and I to drift further away from each other. My husband and I, though, have been living together 24/7 since 2020, so it's been a bit of pressure. And, as I mentioned earlier, he is a hardcore hermit and never leaves the house.

All the bad feelings started to consume me. And I mean bad feelings. But unlike ten years ago, I didn't feel like my existence was what needed to be adjusted. I felt like I was wanting so many things that I was never going to get with the people I loved. I needed to take a leap, fly as close to the sun as I can, and hope the fallout isn't the worst.

So I am leaving the day after the election results from in. It'll give me a distraction is something goes wrong. Or if the whole world ends, I will be prepared to Daryl-Dixon my way home with my dog in the aftermath. Or maybe I'll be able to flee to Canada to seek asylum! Who knows! But I'll be able to make it through on my own. I am ready for whatever life has to throw at me.