Kimberly Hirsh

My kid, raised in a mostly secular witchy agnostic home but with a vague understanding of holiday stories, after I explain that the Pharisees in Jesus Christ Superstar are worried Jesus will get too much political power:

“Why would they be worried about a baby?”

I would like to thank the fine people at Nintendo of America for making the Easter Bunny’s job much easier this year.

M: Did you get me the toys and candy? Me: What do you want the story to be, baby? M: I want it to be the Easter Bunny. Me: Okay. The Easter Bunny got them.

Spouse: So, how do I write up a plan for this research project?
Me: Step 1. Get a PhD. Just kidding! Read this one chapter - whoops, all of part II - whoops, all of part II and chapter 1 - of Creswell & Creswell.

🔖🎵🎭🍿 Read Judas Christ Superstar: Easter thoughts on being just (Reader) by Katie Prout.

This piece is excellent. JCS is an extremely important show to my family as well. I have a lot more thoughts about it and if I feel up to it, I’ll write them up later.

My closest friends are now the crow who hangs out in my yard and the moon. Also, I received a shipment of crystal-infused bath products today so… Not getting LESS witchy in my middle age.

Finished reading: The Date from Hell by Gwenda Bond 📚

Review coming soon!

If you make a purchase through a link in this post, I may earn a commission.

Do you wish Dan Brown books were sexy and full of pop culture references? Do you like your religious artifact stories with comedy and kissing? Have I got the books for you!

Gwenda Bond’s books are always The Most Fun and her madcap fantasy romance duology is no exception.

First up, NOT YOUR AVERAGE HOT GUY:

Callie is a recentish college grad with no particular direction in life but a great love of books, learning, and creepy religious lore. She also works at her mom’s escape room. When Callie designs an immersive culty room and puts a book in it that is ACTUALLY an arcane artifact, cultists come to claim it and try to use it to release a demon on earth to bring about the end times. But instead they summon Luke, the super sexy prince of Hell. Wackiness ensues as Callie and Luke must team up to find the Holy Lance (that’s the Spear of Destiny for you The Librarian fans) and keep it from the cultists (who don’t actually know that Luke isn’t the demon they were trying to summon). To do so, they travel through painful demon magic, bopping around the world in a way that would make an Indiana Jones map look like Charlie Kelly’s conspiracy board:

Because you know how romance works, you know that they figure it out and get a Happy For Now. It’s important that it’s a HFN because a Happily Ever After wouldn’t leave room for the sequel:

THE DATE FROM HELL

Callie and Luke are happily dating now and they have an amazing date planned. But they also have a bit of a revolution planned: Callie wants to petition Lucifer to reconsider the damnation of people like Agnes, a 12-year-old girl who really probably should not have been sent to hell and certainly isn’t an adult by modern standards. Lucifer agrees to a meeting — on the day Callie and Luke are scheduled to have their big date. Which also happens to be the same day Callie is supposed to be helping her mom with a big escape room event to raise the money to make repairs after the mess she and Luke got into in NOT YOUR AVERAGE HOT GUY. Lucifer says that Callie and Luke have 72 hours to prove that they can redeem someone who deserves to be released from hell. The person he chooses is Sean, a lost-Hemsworth-brother-type/international art thief who oh, by the way, is a Grail seeker. More wacky hijinks ensue, more traveling by map, and more Arthuriana than you can shake Excalibur at. (Excalibur isn’t in the book to my recollection, by the way.) I briefly found myself thinking for a moment, “How wild is all this Arthuriana just happening in Callie’s real life?” before remembering that OH YEAH HER BOYFRIEND IS THE PRINCE OF HELL.

Because it’s a romance, it ends with a tidy Happily Ever After (leaving Gwenda free to work on other romances like MR. & MRS. WITCH). Callie figures a lot of stuff out, so does Luke, and they get to be together, yay. (And if you consider that a spoiler, romance probably isn’t the genre for you.)

What I loved

So many things! But here’s a partial list:

• The meticulous attention to detail with respect to all the mystical artifacts
• Callie’s supreme nerdiness
• Detailed Escape Room stuff
• Pop culture references aplenty (Wondering if you share Callie’s opinion on Season 4 of Veronica Mars? Read THE DATE FROM HELL to find out!)
• The love that radiates from Luke whenever Callie Callies all over the place - seriously, I haven’t read this much warmth in a romance novel since I don’t know when (because warmth is different than heat)
• Lilith. I just love her, okay?
• Porsoth, a polite Owl Pig Demon who is a bit stuffy but can get scary when necessary
• The affection Callie has from her mom, her brother Jared, and her bff Mag (who uses they/them pronouns and nobody ever makes it a thing)
• What Gwenda does with Arthur and Guinevere, can’t say more or it’ll spoil you but big ONCE AND FUTURE graphic novel vibes

I can’t think of them all. If this isn’t a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is: My whole family is going through a rough time right now and it makes it hard for me to immerse myself in a book. I would often read a chunk of THE DATE FROM HELL and then step away from it for a few days, but I ALWAYS CAME BACK. There are a lot of non-mandatory things I’m abandoning in life right now, but this book kept me returning.

What I need to warn you about

I really can’t think of much. I guess if you don’t like people being playful in stories about holy artifacts maybe skip these?

What I wanted more of

I can’t think of anything here either. Everything was exactly what it needed to be.

Who should read this

People who like Indiana Jones AND Sabrina (the Harrison Ford version). People who don’t know what to do with themselves and want to see somebody who also doesn’t know what to do with themself succeed at stuff. People who want a romance that is hot but not explicit. People who wished their were more badasses who were badass for reasons other than their ability to engage in combat (Callie is a badass and no one will convince me otherwise). People who need more fun in their lives.

Highly recommend.

Book: Not Your Average Hot Guy
Author: Gwenda Bond
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: October 5, 2021
Pages: 320
Age Range: Adult
Source of Book: Library Book

Book: The Date from Hell
Author: Gwenda Bond
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: April 5, 2022
Pages: 336
Age Range: Adult
Source of Book: ARC via NetGalley

Me: I don’t remember how to do a remote research interview! It’s been almost two years!

Also me: I wrote a blog post to help people remember how to do remote interviews.

The first me: Bless you, Past Me!

🖖🏻📺 I’m not trying to spoil anybody for #StarTrekPicard but I would squee if we saw Mulder & Scully in the next episode. It won’t happen, but let me live in my headcanon.

📺 Blippi is like if someone fed Mr. Rogers several thousand Pixy Stix.

🖖🏻📺 This /Film review of #StarTrekPicard 2x07 verbalizes something that’s bothered me all season:

“Picard” has invented trauma for the character, just so there would be a reason for him to overcome it.

First iced chai of the season.

Ethnographers, what are some of your favorite ways to ease a participant into an interview?

🔖 Read Projects: The Alastair Method.

Alastair Johnston has created a Kanban-like tracking system for the Bullet Journal that I may modify for use as an analog writing audit/pipeline.

Want to read: Water 4.0 by David Sedlak 📚

Want to read: The Wastewater Gardener: Preserving the Planet One Flush at a Time by Mark Nelson PhD 📚

🍿 Watched Brave Blue World: Racing to Solve Our Water Crisis. 🌊

This shows some awesome innovations in water conservation from people all over the world at all different levels (city, business, household…).

🔖 Read ecosystem theory: how to reframe the “i do this or i do that” binary (Thrive PhD) by Katy Peplin

Such a helpful perspective.

My mom went to the hospital Saturday due to muscle weakness. (Previous surprise visits involved myocardial infarction & colitis, plus a bonus myocardial infarction during scheduled chemo.) It’s hard & scary each time a new complication comes up & it’s why I’m not posting much.

Brent Spiner is killing it on Picard. 🖖🏻📺

Hi there! This morning the outdoor temperature is 44F. When I pick my kid up at 3 pm it will be 80F. Welcome to central North Carolina!

Another super informal poll! If you are a scholar, regardless of your relationship ship to academia (student/university employee/working outside academia), do you use Google apps like Docs, Sheets, & Slides?

According to this blog post, some of the core concepts of Learning Experience Design include:

• human-centered design
• constructive alignment
• learning environments

🔖 Read Plan to rewrite NC teacher licensing could also raise pay, but it’s too early to say

Educators, what do you think? I’m not sure about the options for evaluation, but I like the idea of teacher leaders getting paid for their leadership work.

I’m curious: if you are currently or have ever been in a graduate program, are you familiar with the concept of “personal knowledge management”?