DRINK SOME WATER

latest read is Mark Oshiro's each of us a desert, which has been on my TBR for years. it was really good! it follows a teenage girl in post-apocalyptic mexico who has the power to absorb other people's guilt and then feed it to the uncaring sun god; she goes on a journey to give up her power and gets a girlfriend along the way. i love love love the worldbuilding in this, it was a fantasy story obviously but also felt very believable, especially since all the isolated little towns experienced their new culture slightly differently. had interesting things to say about guilt and fault and religion as well. like, sometimes god makes you and then turns around and leaves. sometimes other people use religion just to feel better and not to be a better person. sometimes the right thing to do is stop letting people walk all over you. etc, etc. not much comment on the love story; it was fine, i certainly didn't mind it, but it also would have been a perfectly good story without the romance between emilia and xo. 

interesting to read about people struggling through the desert while we're in a heat wave with high 90s temperatures three days straight. all i gotta say about THAT. im sweaty and our electric bill is gonna be Through The Roof. 

also i have to stay hydrated because I GO TO BARBERSHOP INTERNATIONAL IN LESS THAN A WEEK! first texas to visit family, then colorado for contest. i am very excited and also very nervous. it's going to be a lot of socializing and a lot of complicated jealousy "why can't i sing that good" feelings and a lot of people i don't know and it will do new and interesting things to my psyche. please send your thoughts and prayers, schroedinger's reader, to my poor friends who have to share a hotel room with me in denver.