Short and Sweet: April 28 - May 4

I was craving plot this week, particularly with the stress of a board meeting at the end of the week and coming off of the Elin Hilderbrand novel that I surprised myself by enjoying last week. I rolled the dice with another romantic comedy and tried some Emily Henry and then sought some known and beloved ground with an Elmore Leonard for one of my book clubs. No time for woodworking books this week, but I am getting closer to pulling the trigger on a cordless power tool kit so I can get started on building a workbench. I just can't quite wrap my head around the idea that I'll likely need a workbench to build a workbench, though...

Books

• Book Lovers by Emily Henry (read): I'm secretly a sucker for a romantic comedy. They used to be my go-to when I was hung over and in need of a day spent laying on the couch, and I kind of loved the heavily formulaic nature of the genre. I gravitated to the B-tier films – no Julia Roberts or Meg Ryan for me – and I've watched Sweet Home Alabama and The Wedding Date more times than I care to share (certainly often enough to have shocked my wife and to recognize the voice-over guy from the Home Depot ads).

I found the conceit that the main character is the career-oriented woman who can't leave the city in every romantic comedy (at least, of the Hallmark ilk) to be strong enough to hook me early on, but the non-stop witticisms and jokes in every line of dialogue in Henry's novel grated on me and it came off as if the author had watched too many episodes of Gilmore Girls. Eventually, I let the dialogue go and started to enjoy myself, and the age-old lesson of "let the work be what the work wants to be" won out again. If Hilderbrand's novel was Prosecco last week, this is a White Claw – but a good brand that's probably better than White Claw. I draw the line at hard seltzer, so I don't really know these things.

• Pronto by Elmore Leonard (started): Like slipping back into a pair of comfortable jeans after wearing Spanx for a hot date – sorry, I can't get Emily Henry out of my head.
  
  I love Elmore Leonard, but I found the start of Pronto to be somewhat disorienting. I wanted Justified, but this debut of the character Raylan Givens reads more like Get Shorty at first. At least I let it go quickly, though, because more Get Shorty is always fine with me. I'm ready for Raylan to be a badass, though.

Articles and Episodes

• Jill Lepore looks at the Penguin Little Black Classics series, which I used to read on the subway some years back: Some read, some start blogging about the inward and mundane...
• Taskmaster, S19:E01: My favorite show on television is back for a new series with an excellent cast this time around. Jason Mantzoukas really set the tone for the episode and was a welcome surprise. I've always enjoyed him, though he's basically played the same manic unhinged character in everything. This was a minor change of pace, I'd say. Loved it.
• Strapped, West Texas episode 1 (from No Laying Up): I'm a fan of No Laying Up's videos - particular their series that involve travel - more than I am of their podcasts. This particular series involves the member of NLU that I'm convinced I could actually be friends with (Big Randy) and Neil taking a short golf trip on a budget. They start out in Lubbock here and play with an impressive Scottish golfer who plays for Texas Tech and is convinced that you could make a fortune by opening a Chipotle in the UK. (Great music in this episode as well! A killer Buddy Holly cover, The Mountain Goats, John Prine, The Kinks...)