The Friday 56 (253) & Book Beginnings: How To Break Up With Your Phone by Catherine Price

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. **Note: Freda @ Freda's Voice is taking a break from The Friday 56; Anne @Head is Full of Books is hosting for now.**

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader that asks you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you're reading.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

Do you feel addicted to your phone? Do you frequently pick it up “just to check,” only to look up forty-five minutes later wondering where the time has gone? Does social media make you anxious? Have you tried to spend less time mindlessly scrolling—and failed? If so, this book is your solution.

Award-winning health and science journalist and TED speaker Catherine Price presents a practical, evidence-based 30-day digital detox plan that will help you break up—and then make up—with your phone. The goal: better mental health, improved screen-life balance, and a long-term relationship with technology that feels good. This engaging, user-friendly guide explains how our smartphones and apps are designed to be addictive and how the time we spend on them is increasing our anxiety and damaging our abilities to focus, think deeply, form new memories, generate ideas, and be present in our most important relationships. Next, it walks you through an effective and easy-to-follow 30-day plan that has already helped thousands of people worldwide break their phone addictions and feel more fully alive. Whether you need help for yourself or for your family, friends, students, colleagues, clients, or community, How to Break Up with Your Phone is the ultimate guide to digital detoxing. It’s guaranteed to help you put down your phone—and come back to life.

Beginning: "Let's get something clear from the start: the point of this book is not to get you to throw your phone under a bus."

56: "The second task required for concentration doesn't get as much, well, attention. But it's just as important--if not more so: we need to be able to ignore distractions."

Comments: I reread How To Break Up With Your Phone last month. It was kind of refreshing to revisit this one after so many years, especially with how relevant some of the chapters still are (but more on that on an upcoming blog post). What are you reading this week? 

Quarterly Recap: January-March (2025)

It’s April…already. Somehow, we’ve made it four months into 2025, and so that means it’s time to look back at everything that’s been happening on the blog for the past three months. As always, I’m starting with reviews.

January, February, and March Reviews...

• A Harvest of Hearts by Andrea Eames
• The Witless Protection Program by Maria DiRico
• Written in the Waters by Tara Roberts

January, February, and March Other Blog Posts...

• What I've Been Listening To: January-February
• Doctor Who: Blink, Silence in the Library, and Forest of the Dead
• Short Stories I Read In January
• Nutcracker: The Motion Picture
• Short Stories I Read In February
• What I've Been Listening To: November-December 2024
• Happy New Year!
• New Year, New Stuff
• We're Back & Some House Keeping

As I’m writing this, I’m currently working my way through King’s The Shining. So, I’ll probably mention the book and my thoughts about it later when, you know, I actually finish reading it. Also, looking ahead, some of my most anticipated books this year are coming up. And, on the subject of the blog, I have no concrete plans other than to maintain my scaled back approach since, so far, it’s left me with more time to do others things as well as to just take my time with what I’m reading and sit with any given story longer than what I used to. It’s been great.

 

Short Stories I Read In February

It’s the twenty-ninth of March. So it’s time to write about the short stories, miscellaneous posts, and podcast episodes I read or listened to in February.

This month was a much slower one, so I settled for reading a couple of stories from Naomi Novik’s short fiction collection, Buried Deep and Other Stories. I went into this one knowing I would likely encounter spoilers for Novik’s other series, including The Scholomance (which I have two books left to read). However, it doesn’t bother me or ruin my potential enjoyment, but it is something to keep in mind.

Araminta, Or, The Wreck Of The Amphidrake is the first story in the collection. Lady Araminta often went-against-the-grain, and as the story tells, she was caught reading a spellbook among other things. So a solution was reached: she was going to get married. But, as the way these things typically go in fiction, even the best laid plans can (and often do) go awry. I liked the seafaring and fantasy aspect of this story as well as Lady Araminta’s personality, her practical way of thinking, her inclination toward adventure, and her desire to do anything other than go home and do what was expected. That plus the environmental dangers and a rather inventive solution to Lady Araminta’s problems, made a story I found interesting and ultimately wanted more of.

Then there was After Hours, a story set in the Scholomance (and I believe it takes place after the end of the trilogy), about a mushroom witch who—after finding herself backed into a corner—enacts a desperate plan. But, the rules are there for a reason, and to break them is really at your own peril. And that was, ultimately, part of the lesson in the story for Beata. Oh, and it’s good to have friends/be on friendly terms with your roommate—because the Scholomance had its reasons for pairing people. Honestly, I adored this story, and I reminded me what I loved about A Deadly Education. And, hopefully, maybe, I’ll have time to take a look at the series again, like I did with The Raven Cycle.

From Around the Web…

• Thee Enduring Appeal of Magnificent Trees and Fantasy Forests [Kali Wallace; Reactor Magazine; January 30, 2025]: It's an essay about trees (both real world and of the magical/imagined variety from various works of fiction and media). 

• Choose Your Fighter: YA versus Adult [Maggie Stiefvater Substack; December 6, 2024]: I enjoyed this essay from Maggie Stiefvater about her decision/mindset/approach to making the switch from YA to Adult fiction.

Music Monday (312): Michi, Mothica

Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: I've been listening to Michi lately, specifically her latest album, Dirty Talk. It's Disco/Funk music, and I love it! Check out one of my favorites: Walking Away.

Adri: Last Music Monday, I picked Red by Mothica and was going to listen to the rest of the album. However, I waited when I saw there was going to be a visual version. So of course my pick this week is Kissing Death (Visual Album) by Mothica.

What are you listening to this week?

What I've Been Listening To: January-February

One type of media which has brought me some measure of joy and relaxation at the current moment is: music. January and February saw the release of some of my most anticipated albums, and with how many of them I enjoyed, the first quarter of 2025 has set the bar pretty high. And with that, welcome back to the music minded corner of Our Thoughts Precisely!

Hurry Up Tomorrow by The Weeknd is supposed to be his last under this particular name. Honestly, this album is a vibe. It was a sequel to Dawn FM and a callback to his previous work, mixing in references, themes, and dark imagery while also pulling in beats which could sound familiar at times but with a fresh take. Hurry Up Tomorrow was contemplative; an album that was in conversation with The Weeknd’s career and discography—the effects of the persona on the person behind the artist—while, at the same time, as the title suggests, it was looking forward.

I’m an occasional listener when it comes to Kendrick Lamar, as such his latest album, GNX, wasn’t initially on my radar. However, I circled back to it after his Super Bowl Halftime performance, particularly in search of his collaboration with SZA, Luther, which was one of the songs they performed. GNX felt like a hip-hop and rap album from the early 2000s but with an update. Kendrick Lamar delivers some excellent verses over quality production.

Next, I checked out four artists—The Pocket Queen, ALT BLK ERA, Defences, and Justice— based on Adri’s recommendation.

Justice’s Hyperdrama is a solid electronic album with a number of great features including with Tame Impala (Neverender, One Night/All Night), Thundercat (The End), Miguel (Saturnine), RIMON (Afterimage), Connan Mockasin (Explorer), and The Flints (Mannequin Love).

Then Groove Theory Vol. 1 by The Pocket Queen is a short EP. I really like this artist’s style. Her music is almost like a drumming showcase while it also takes some influence from R&B and disco, for a very smooth listening experience—this is also true for her latest song, Good Vibes featuring Duckwrth.

Shadowlight by Defences and Rave Immortal by ALT BLK ERA scratched my itch for rock music. Shadwlight falls on the heavier side standing firmly in metal. All-in-all, it’s an incredibly enjoyable album. And then there’s Rave Immortal, which is the first of the two rave inspired albums I’ve listened to so far this year. It’s rock and, in the words of Adri, “dubstep,” but it isn’t all fun and game, there are some reflective songs there too (Straight To Heart and Come On Outside for example).

And last, but certainly not least: Eusexua by FKA Twigs. This was my most anticipated release for the first quarter of 2025, and it did everything I hoped it would. It kind of filled the space left by Brat with FKA Twigs’s take on rave. They’re two very different albums, and Eusexua, in particular, has a grungier party vibe—a little strange, a little ethereal—which was complimented by Twigs’s vocals.

Here are some singles which made it onto my playlist: Weight of Desire by Tennis, Disease and Abracadabra by Lady Gaga, Monsters by Nova Twins, Good Vibes by The Pocket Queen featuring Duckwrth, Meddle In The Mold-A Colors Show by Banks, and Butterfly by Marina.