Sometimes I read books because I want to learn something. Other times I read books because I want to laugh. And once in rare while, I find a book that captivates me, educates me, and entertains me all at the same time. 

In this case, the universe sent me three of these unicorns and now I want to share them with you:

This is my favorite couple. I kept finding their videos by accident during COVID and watched them every time. They are hilarious and approximately my age - which I appreciate. I checked this one out for the Holderness magic, not because I needed their advice. That said, I enjoyed it. Their stories were hilarious, but it made me like them more because they are so honest in their approach. This is my favorite story:
Penn texts Kim and it goes like this - “Hey, just letting you know I took a big tablespoon of peanut butter to have a peanut butter lollipop as a snack. I didn’t have any of it and now I can’t find it. I love you, bye.”
I feel like my husband and I are going to have the same conversation one day, only I’ll be playing the part of Penn. The couple was also on the 33rd season of The Amazing Race, so pick up this book, watch their season and enjoy the magic that is the family Holderness.

Do I love philosophy? No I don’t. Mostly because philosophers like to ask difficult questions with no answers. Um…where’s the fun in that? Also, they are, to a man, depressing people. No thank you. That said, I absolutely loved this book. Michael Schur, creator of The Good Place and Parks and Rec, tackles the existential problems of life and how various philosophies would tell you to handle it. If you watched The Good Place (which if you haven’t, you tots should), this would be like Chidi teaching a never-ending class about how to go through a day. But funny. As in his work, Michael Schur is brilliantly hilarious. I never knew that someone could make Immanuel Kant or Jean-Paul Sartre laugh out loud funny. Did I learn stuff? Yes I did. Do you want me to stop asking you rhetorical questions now? Ok fine. But you should still check this one out.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with my library job. It’s inside (read: not hot). I have access to all the books I could possibly read (+ 1000). But just in case, I thought I’d check this one out. You never know when being a supervillain might come in handy. And I have to say that I LOVED THIS BOOK! Author Ryan North normally writes for comic books. For this one, he researched all the possible scenarios one might need to take over the world - but you know, for real (aka no freeze rays here). There are so many fun rabbit holes to go down that I was captivated every time. So much so, that I usually forgot I was supposed to be learning how to be a supervillian. Then he’d say something to bring it back and I would laugh. The chapter on Time Travel may be my favorite thing ever written ever. Seriously, check this one out and then tell your friends. Or don’t. You don’t want everyone to know your game plan (wink wink).

Ok friends, those are my finds. Any of them would make great entries into your Summer Challenge log. If you haven’t yet, sign up here and get started! 

Happy learning and laughing…
:) Amanda