The Friday 56 (157) & Book Beginnings: It Devours! by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor

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. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

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.

About the book...

From the authors of the New York Times bestselling novel Welcome to Night Vale and the creators of the #1 international podcast of the same name, comes a mystery exploring the intersections of faith and science, the growing relationship between two young people who want desperately to trust each other, and the terrifying, toothy power of the Smiling God. 

Nilanjana Sikdar is an outsider to the town of Night Vale. Working for Carlos, the town’s top scientist, she relies on fact and logic as her guiding principles. But all of that is put into question when Carlos gives her a special assignment investigating a mysterious rumbling in the desert wasteland outside of town. This investigation leads her to the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God, and to Darryl, one of its most committed members. Caught between her beliefs in the ultimate power of science and her growing attraction to Darryl, she begins to suspect the Congregation is planning a ritual that could threaten the lives of everyone in town. Nilanjana and Darryl must search for common ground between their very different world views as they are faced with the Congregation’s darkest and most terrible secret....

 

Beginning: "Not everyone believes in mountains, yet there they are, in plain sight."

56: "For the second time that day, Nilanjana has come across this person known as Wordsmith. This solidified it for her. The strongest hypothesis for this situation was active malice, rather than a coincidence of natural events." 

Comments: I finally read one of the Welcome to Night Vale novels. I enjoyed It Devours!, and I'm looking forward to reading the first book in the series. What are you reading this week?

Music Monday (85): Rico Nasty

   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: A lot of good music came out last week. Jidenna released two songs and announced a new album. And Rico Nasty released a new single called Time Flies. I've listened to music by Rico Nasty for a few years, like her mixtape: Anger Management (with Kenny Beats). Time Flies is such a catchy song. I love it a lot. I also like the illustration for the official audio. It's bright and eye-catching....

I've talked at length about all the music I'm waiting for. But I'm curious, what new music are you looking forward to? Or, what are you listening to this week?

Watercolor: Return of the Puffins

It’s been a hot minute since I last talked about the art I was working on over here on the main blog. So, I wanted to do that today.

Lately, I’ve been drawing a lot in my sketchbook, and I haven’t worked on as many paintings as I did toward the beginning of the year. However, on the 5th of June, I went back through some of my older pieces—the ones I did when I was just getting back into watercolor painting— and I came across the page of birds (I believe I mentioned it sometime in 2017?). I was in the mood to paint something different—not a portrait or one of my usual landscapes. I really just wanted to paint a puffin again. So, on the 5th, I worked on this painting.

The composition is a little off. That's mainly because I picked a few random plants I wanted to include, and I unfortunately didn't pay as much attention to the placement. However, this was just a practice piece. If I did it again, I would give more attention to where I wanted the eye to be drawn and would tie the elements in so that it didn’t look so odd next to the puffin. However, I did this for the process, and I accomplished what I set out to do. So, I’m happy with it. (Here's a closeup.)

Now, as far as Mermay...well, I thought about participating this year. However, I didn’t do as many individual pieces as I would have liked. I did a couple of marker sketches (not shown here), but the only completed ones are both in pencil. And the one in the corner is just a landscape I scribbled in because I had a sudden idea for it. However, after that, I got bored with the subject and went on to work on other things. It's a reoccurring theme on my end, which is often why I don't participate in month-long challenges. Since, I don’t have that much to show for Mermay, I thought I would share them here instead of on an individual post…

What have you been working on lately? Did you participate in Mermay?

Music Monday (84): Banks, Moonchild

   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’m currently listening to Banks’s new album, III. One of my favorite songs from it is The Fall.

Adri: I just want to share one of the songs I'm currently listening to, The List by Moonchild.

What are you listening to this week?

Music Monday (83): Chloe X Halle, Phony Ppl

   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: Chloe x Halle released new music in June, and I like both of the tracks. Of the two songs, Who Knew is my favorite.

Adri: I'm listening to Way Too Far by Phony Ppl. I listen to this song way too much.

What are you listening to this week?