Yesterday, I reached out to the necessary parties to get updated reference letters for my coop board application package, as well as the materials the seller also has to sign (this was not something I had to do the first time around), and also arranged payment for the appraisal, which they think they will be able to get scheduled soon. I filled out a lot of the application form and ugh. I am left once again with an uneasy feeling about passing financial muster despite the knowledge that I should, since I already manage to do so now with higher monthly expenses.

In other news, last night I dreamt I was at some kind of wild party at a hotel and someone was leading around a tiger on a leash that they'd named Anakin and I was like, "I'm allergic to cats, so I'll be going now, but at least you won't be surprised when it turns on you and kills you all." My brain. I don't even know.

Anyway! Today is Wednesday, so here's what I'm reading:

What I've just finished
The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata, which is a modern romance in which our heroine marries our hero because he needs a green card and she needs her student loans paid off. It's a pretty slow burn, and I liked it okay, but I didn't LOVE it, because there is no snappy banter here. Aiden, the hero, is pretty laconic, mostly uninterested in pop culture, and not at all witty, so I didn't really warm to him, though I did like him more at the end than I did at the start. I also thought the setting was pointless - the fake football team names were jarring, especially considering it was supposed to be set in Dallas! And there was no reason it needed to be in Dallas - there was nothing about the city in the book. It could have been set anywhere in Generica. *hands*

Leia, Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray, which I loved. It's a coming of age story for 16 year old Leia, who has to complete a series of formalized challenges in order to be invested as the heir to the Alderaanian throne, and I think it did a great job with both her characterization and with weaving her story into the rest of Star Wars canon. Bail and Breha get to shine (♥ORGANAS♥) and there are some nice references to Padme, and Tarkin is the main villain - Vader never even gets a mention, which is appropriate for this point of Leia's life. I guess my one quibble is that I like the fanon explanation of the reason the Organas adopted - Breha had numerous miscarriages and they'd decided to stop trying - over the now canon explanation that she had had an accident in her youth and her health was not up to even trying. Idk. I mean, her having artificial organs is very Star Wars, and the end result was the same, but sometimes fanon feels more emotionally true. *hands* I did like that we finally got to see Breha in action and that she was just as deeply involved in the Rebellion as Bail, and I might have cackled with glee over the scene she and Bail orchestrate for Tarkin's benefit where she accuses him of cheating with Mon Mothma. I like that you can see all four of Leia's parents in her, and Breha not least among them.

What I'm reading now
Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo, which is a YA take on Diana's emergence into Man's World, and I like the focus on her and another teen girl, but I personally am more interested in Diana already in the world, rather than another origin story, so I'm a teeny bit disappointed, even though I kind of knew going in it was going to be what it is.

What I'm reading next
Probably The Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone, which is the next book in the Craft sequence.

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