Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion
2018 Weekly Checkins
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Week 9: 2/22 - 3/1
Fannie wrote: "The weather is crazy in Europe while here (Canada) we are having above 32 F degree and sunny. Feels like spring, but it only means that we will have another great snowstorm until April.I finished..."
Altered Carbon would be perfect for the cyberpunk prompt.
Mod
Well, we were under a red warning for snow where I am here in Scotland, so basically the whole country shut down. The kids are on their 3rd snow day tomorrow, and even my husband got sent home from work early and was off today. Worst (best!) snow I've ever seen, very cool.Reading-wise, I'm chipping away at The Goldfinch. I really like it, I just haven't got as much time to read at the moment. So I'm still only on 8/10 for the challenge. I'm also dipping in to The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, just because. It's written as a chapter a month, so that's how I'm reading it.
What was your favorite assigned reading book in school?
As a rule, I wasn't a fan of our English texts, though I appreciate them more as an adult. I remember we did Shakespeare (Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream), Hobson's Choice, Of Mice and Men, Animal Farm...I can't think of many others. We got to chose our own book to do our final essay on for our Higher - I went for Trainspotting!
Thank you Shannon and Nadine. I didn't know what cyberpunk was.
Happy March everyone! It's still unseasonably cold here in Phoenix. I shouldn't complain, though, as we're looking to move to Idaho within the next few months. So I'll have to get used to colder weather again in the winter!
This week was a bit more productive than usual with regard to reading - four finishes this week, so I'm now up to 16/50.
Finished:
Maplecroft. I read this for a novel about a real person. I love, love, LOVED this book. Oddly, I don't typically like period pieces, or omniscient viewpoints (in this case, a collection of letters), and I can even be kind of meh on Lovecraftian sci-fi. But I loved every single one of those elements in this book. They fit together so well! It was a creepy, fast-paced page turner, and the prose was elegant but concise, with just enough detail (but not too much). I will definitely be adding more of Cherie Priest's work to my TBR.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon for a bestseller from the year you graduated. Though I'm a huge Stephen King fan, I was strangely disappointed by this one, unfortunately.
Blue Is the Warmest Color. I stumbled on this graphic novel last weekend at a used book store. I'd seen the movie, didn't really care for it, but had no idea it was based on a graphic novel. So I took a chance and picked it up, and am really glad I did. It was sweet, if a little sad. I think I'm using this for the prompt with your favorite color in the title, but it also fits the movie prompt and LGBT prompt.
Howl's Moving Castle for the anti-hero prompt. This was a cute, easy, fun read. I love the movie, and found I enjoyed the book just as much (if not more).
QOTW: Oddly, I don't really remember much of my assigned reading from high school. The only two I definitely remember reading are Lord of the Flies and The Red Badge of Courage. I actually remember liking both quite a bit, actually, even though I remember being reluctant to start Lord of the Flies initially.
Juliet wrote: "Cendaquenta wrote: "Britain is currently experiencing a severe storm called "The Beast from the East" and Scotland's getting the worst of it just now,..."Ohh, we call it the "Moscow-Paris" in France..."
Well, we don´t really call it anything in Denmark I think, but in my house we just call it The Siberian Wind :) So, cold and windy, but also clear and sunny.
This week I finished:
Norse Mythology on audiobook, for "tied to your ancestry". I really liked it, once I got used to the pronunciation differing from what I´m used to. I knew the myths, but read them a loooong time ago and Neil Gaiman is a great narrator, and did a really good job of retelling them.
Fuglemanden (The Birdman) a new release, graphic novel, only in Danish, sorry. Really good! About a girl who slowly develops a psychosis. Birds and the birdman play a big part of the disturbing things that are part of a reality only she can see. Using it for "mental health"
Currently reading:
Bjørneby (Beartown)
QOTW:
I mostly remember feeling strongly against reading assigned books. I do remember reading Momo in German class, which I liked, but I had already read it before and liked it. And The Catcher in the Rye in English, but I don´t remember if I ever finished it. The only thing I remember reading in Danish class (my main language) is poems (but I don´t remember which) and some absolutely boring folk ballads. I don´t know if they are boring, but at that time in my life they absolutely were.
Hi everyone. Here's another snowy update from a very cold Brit. I'm stuck at work because of the snow, but luckily work for me is a 4* hotel so I'm eating junk food and watching rubbish TV in a nice big suite. Hopefully the trains are back up and running tomorrow so I can get home for the weekend! - Side note: You guys are reading a lot of awesome looking books this week. My TBR has just increased yet again.This week I finished Our Dark Duet for the alliteration prompt. I discovered my love of V.E. Schwab last year and read five of her books. This is the final book my library has of hers (sad times!) and I am sad to say it was my least favourite. Not that it was a bad book but I had pretty high expectations going in which it didn't come close to living up to.
Currently reading The Map of Time. I am only one chapter in and so far my overall feeling is confusion. The view point has jumped around like crazy so I am not overly sure who I am meant to be rooting for yet. Hopefully that will become apparent soon.
QOTW: We were assigned a lot of poetry at school which I didn't particularly like. Love poetry at 13 made me want to barf or giggle, depending on the content, and war poetry at 15 was taught by my least favourite teacher of all time, but to her credit I can still remember parts of The Charge of the Light Brigade and Dulce et Decorum Est so she must have done something right.
I don't remember a lot of books being required reading apart from Of Mice and Men which I liked and I think Flowers for Algernon but I only remember snippets of this one. I know I read a lot of plays for A Level drama, but it was a long time ago and a lot of the titles escape me at the moment. A Midsummer Night's Dream sticks in my mind because everyone else in the class hated it but I loved it.
Emily wrote: "I'm meant to be flying to New York on Saturday to see my long distance partner who i haven't seen for months so nervous about that... Lots of calming reading to distract me. ."I hope for you and your partner's sake, Emily, that the nor'easter hitting us here in NYC tonight and tomorrow has departed well in advance of your trip on Saturday! So far sounds like the worst of it will be hitting south of us - Washington DC to be exact. Will keep fingers crossed for you.
Happy Thursday! 19 of 50 down and the longest one should wrap up this weekend.Completed:
#41 The Burden of Proof – Honestly, the theme of the novel – the true burden of gathering proof – makes for a compelling story, but the storyline in getting there was imposing, perhaps a legal statement from Scott Turow? I was not a fan. In fact, this book is making me dread another legal thriller I have in queue for another challenge! But this 606 bestseller from 1990 means I can cross a major item off!
Give Up the Ghost by Juliet Blackwell for a palate cleanser. It’s a silly cozy about a home restoration specialist that can see ghosts and keeps stumbling across murders. It was useful in a frivolous challenge celebrating black history month where I needed to find Black in an author’s name.
#43 Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner, borrowed from the library. British mystery following the death of a pregnant police detective’s sister’s baby daddy and the best suspect is very close to her. I haven’t read the first in the series and will admit I struggled at the start. Now that I’ve picked up steam (no place to go but ahead!) I’m enjoying the well thought out intertwinings of the story.
#23 Landline – Book about time travel. This is one of those prompts I dread. I really don’t like science fiction in general. Fortunately, this is more YA (oops, another genre for which I don’t care) and chick lit. An old landline keeps the annoying protagonist in touch with her husband, roughly 20 years ago, before they married and when they had a fight that almost ended their relationship. Oddly, before the husband and two daughters headed to Nebraska for Christmas with his mom, they had a similar fight. The best I can say for this – it’s a fast read.
Currently reading:
Will start Educated: A Memoir tonight. Not for this challenge.
QOTW -- Favorite assigned reading book in school
Too many too chose from! I loved To Kill A Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet…
Good morning from very sunny Warren in the middle of nowhere. Still no rain out here. Only getting to 34C today which is nice. Currently 21C. I’ve got all the windows open trying to bring in some cooler air before it starts to heat up again. Only finished one book this week.
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton. I really enjoyed it. I’m using it for the problem facing society prompt because it is basically a reflection on the measures people go to so they can be beautiful. Beauty at all costs. It may be a fantasy book and not a non fiction book but it’s spot on.
Currently reading....the five or so I was still reading last week. I bought The Belles on Saturday and it jumped ahead of the others. Now what’s still there?
Wonder Woman Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo (ebook from the library which I better get into before it’s due back) It’s pretty good. I keep forgetting it’s on the library app and haven’t gone back to it.
Armada by Ernest Cline (audiobook) Read by Wil Weaton which I’m enjoying while I do the housework.
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin (ebook) I’m enjoying it but I just haven’t got back to it yet.
Dear Fahrenheit 451 by Annie Spence (ebook) I’m not enjoying this but I do read a letter here and there and will finish it. Eventually.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (paperback) I liked it when I started reading it in January but just haven’t been in the mood for it for a while. I’ll get there.
It seems I have been picking up shorter paperbacks and reading them instead of reading the already started ebooks. I really have to force myself to finish an ebook between each paperback.
QOTW
Assigned school books eh.......I hated Huckleberry Finn. Only book I never finished and like the other person way up the list it still eats at me.
On the other hand I loved Day of the Triffids, 1984, To Kill A Mockingbird, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Animal Farm, Under Milkwood, Z for Zachariah, Brave New World, Logan’s Run (Our Yr 10 theme seemed to be about the world after Wars and what we would end up like hence Z, BNW and Logan’s Run which was also on TV at the time and one of the questions in our School Certificate was about an automated house after a nuclear explosion and the rituals it went through every day even with everyone gone. But they weren’t gone really. They were burned onto its front wall because they were outside when the bomb hit. Always stayed with me that short story. There was a lot of nuclear holocaust stuff around in the 70s because of the arms race between the US and Russia and the Cold War.), Picnic at Hanging Rock, Sons and Lovers, anything and everything by Shakespeare including his sonnets, the poetry of TS Elliot, and so many more that I can’t think of right now because...you know....I did leave school nearly 40 years ago and the memory isn’t as good as it used to be. For a Catholic school we had a very diverse range of assigned books. And being an eclectic ravenous devourer of books I really liked most of them.
Cornerofmadness wrote: "My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 1 by Emil Ferris. It's set in 1960s Chicago (starting the year I was born as it turns out) and the art in this 400+ page graphic novel is just amazing."I've been thisclose to buying that more than once. One day it will be mine!
Theresa wrote: "I spent as much time as possible seeing films there -- so good! And the audiences ... you could hear a pin drop! When was the last time you saw a movie in a theater that was that quiet?"
Umm... All the time? Unless the audience is reacting to the movie. Do you live in a chatty town or something?
This week I finished another book. Well... two, but only one count for the challenge. So I read Perdida. It's a brazilian book. A very comic romance. I'm not a big fan of the genre, but it's worth it. It means "Lost". This book fits in the prompt: Your favorite prompt from the 2015, 2016 or 2017 POPSUGAR Reading Challenges. I chose the 2015 Challenge an the prompt was "A book by a female author". In this case the author name is Carina Rissi
Sarah wrote: "rrently reading The Map of Time. I am only one chapter in and so far my overall feeling is confusion. The view point has jumped around like crazy so I am not overly sure who I am meant to be rooting for yet. Hopefully that will become apparent soon.."
Interesting, Sarah - it's been in my TBR pile and potential Pop Sugar read for over 2 years. I did start it at one point and also found it hard to pin down which is partly why it got put aside after a chapter or so. Plan is to read it as my time travel book this year. Might move it up in the TBR pile.
Anne wrote: "#41 The Burden of Proof – Honestly, the theme of the novel – the true burden of gathering proof – makes for a compelling story, but the storyline in getting there was imposing, perhaps a legal statement from Scott Turow? I was not a fan. In fact, this book is making me dread another legal thriller I have in queue for another challenge! But this 606 bestseller from 1990 means I can cross a major item off!."Anne - that is not a typical legal thriller IMHO, and in fact I found it quite a slog when I first read it. Far prefer Presumed Innocent of all Turow's books. He's a very dense writer and even as a lawyer I find his books tough reads, even if ultimately liking them.
Far more typical/accessible legal thrillers are those written by William Bernhardt, John Grisham (of course - real potboilers), or Lisa Scottoline
Sarah wrote: "war poetry at 15 was taught by my least favourite teacher of all time, but to her credit I can still remember parts of The Charge of the Light Brigade."My entire knowledge of The Charge of the Light Brigade is when Alfalfa recited it in The Little Rascals.
I finished My Sunshine Awaythis week for the prompt that includes a weather element in the title. It was okay, not great, not bad. I am currently reading Autonomous for a book with an ugly cover. It's taken me awhile to "get into" this book, but I think I'm finally there and will finish it tonight or tomorrow. It's interesting, and could be used for multiple prompts in the challenge (anti-hero, LGBQT, ugly cover, a problem facing society today).QOTW - I have several "required reading" books that I still love today. In high school, The Grapes of Wrath and Brave New World come to mind, as well as the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. In college, I was lucky to take several different literature classes that had excellent required reading. Cry, the Beloved Country and Crime and Punishment were required summer reading before my freshman year. The Handmaid's Tale was also required in a freshman seminar I took, and my sophomore year, I enjoyed Deidre of the Sorrows and Cuchulain of Muirthemne: The Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster in an Irish Literature class. I could probably keep going with more books!
poshpenny wrote: "Umm... All the time? Unless the audience is reacting to the movie. Do you live in a chatty town or something? ."
OMG, where do you live! Can't go to a movie in a movie theater in NYC without people having conversations during movie, ongoing commentary during the movie, eating full meals, texting or answering emails on their phones (so the light of the phone constantly catches your eye - had that problem at theater last night too), people leaving and coming back 3 or 4 times during movie, kids whining (I would too if I were 8 years old, it was 10 PM and mom and dad brought me to see The Zookeeper's Wife), etc.
Well, you can if you go to the first showing of the day - which means you are basically the only person in the theater. It's really appalling just how bad it can be here.
We went to see Wicked on Broadway a few years ago and the guy in front had his phone out the whole time. I thought my Husband was going to go off his head at him. Saw Oz the Great and Powerful at the El Capitan in Hollywood and the whole audience was cheering and carrying on. It was definitely different. But so much fun. And they had all of the costumes there too. And there was a magic show on before the movie.
The only other time I’ve been to a cinema in the US was when we went to the Hobbit at the cinema there at the Dolby Centre. But the hobbit wasn’t in a newer one. Nope it was actually in the Chinese Theatre itself. That place is so beautiful. There were only a couple of other people in there with us too so no worries about noise or phones.
Hey everyone!Last week I didn't check in, my bad. Anyway, this couple of weeks have been really slow for me. I only managed to finish two books.
Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce. So this is my first Tamora Pierce book and I really liked it!!! It really had Harry Potter vibes in a very different world. Just give a school of magic and I'll be in!! I will definitely be checking out the rest of Tamora's books, which I know there a lot. Yey me!! Btw, I used this book for my new releases challenge.
Palace of Treason by Jason Matthews. I used this for the prompt a book from a series you've already started and I chose this one because the last book has also been released and I wanted to read both of them and finish this series. It's really good, especially if you like your spy action theme. I really like the main character, Dominika. She doesn't accept any sort of BS. Good for her!!
Currently reading:
The Kremlin's Candidate by Jason Matthews. Really good so far. The last book in the series.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. It is taking me forever!!! Will comment on this book as soon as I finish it.
QOTW: The Odyssey by Homer. Thank God for this book and my literature teacher, who chose my very first fantasy book ever!!
Theresa wrote: "poshpenny wrote: "Umm... All the time? Unless the audience is reacting to the movie. Do you live in a chatty town or something?"OMG, where do you live! Can't go to a movie in a movie theater in NYC..."
Wow. I've had those movie experiences, but they are the exception. I currently live in Portland, OR. It's a great town if you love books and movies, which I do. Not only do we have Powell's City of Books (and it's branches), there are a couple of B&N's left, a bunch of small bookstores, and lots of books in thrift shops, including one Goodwill I know of with about 7 or 8 aisles of books.
For movies we have big chains like Cinemark and Regal (including an art house Regal), there are quite a few small, old independent theatres too. Some are just second run theatres, and some do a mix of first run. art house, documentary, foreign, local, vintage, hilariously bad, and festival films. They sometimes have filmmakers chat afterward. (For example, I've seen James Ivory of Merchant/Ivory and Peter S. Beagle.) A few still show films in 35mm and one restored their 70mm projector! At least once a month you can see a silent film with live organ. And once, get this, I paid a lot of money to not watch a movie. It was an art piece, and all of the adults had to be blindfolded while a child whispered what was happening on screen in your ear. OH and last year a local video rental store owner wanted to retire, and a theatre did a kickstarter to raise a quarter million dollars to buy it and keep it open. They did it in nine days.
This town flipping loves both books and movies. 80% of the time, if I hear people talking before the film, it's usually about film, or the topic of the film we're about to see. I do sometimes hear people eating meals, because several theatres here deliver them to your seat before the movie, but usually it's pretty quiet. It probably helps that some of the theatres are 21 and over, but even the all-ages screenings are usually very well behaved.
The El Capitan and the Chinese are both beautiful theatres!
Mod
That's awful! I HAVE experienced it, but it's rare here in Syracuse. Last two movies I went to were pin-drop quiet (except when the audience was having an audible reaction of some sort, of course).
Movie tickets are so expensive these days I wouldn't ever go to the movies if it was always like that!
This week, I finished How to Save a Life. This was my "book with song lyrics in the title."I also finished Town on Trial, which I am using for my "book with alliteration in the title."
QOTW:
I really don't like being told what to read, so I was never a fan of my high school required readings, but I will say Night was one that stayed with me.
It has done nothing but rain in Tennessee! Schools were delayed 2 hours today so buses and cars could avoid flooded roads. Currently I’m reading Artemis Fowl as my villain book. He definitely is foul!!!! This will be challenge read #8 for me. I teach fifth grade, so with promotion and state testing coming up I’m not reading as much personal reads as normal. I’m not enjoying this one either so that makes it tough. I’m looking forward to my next one, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber. QOTW- My favorite assigned reading would probably be To Kill a Mockingbird from high school and The Sound and The Fury from college. (Just realized the similarities after all these years... lol)
Portland, Oregon....sounds like somewhere I’d like to be poshpenny. Bookshops and picture theatres galore. And so beautiful with the mountains. Except I’m not sure about being so close to Mt St Helens. Isn’t that still active? We don’t have active volcanoes in Australia. Most of ours are worn right away and sometimes you can see some volcanic plugs and that where the mountain has been worn away and the rock from the volcano is still there. Australia is very old. It doesn’t creak and groan and spit fire anymore. Thankfully. They are lovely theatres. I’m so glad we got the opportunity to go see them.
Happy Thursday and first day of March! Woohoo! This week I finished three books, bringing my total to 11/50!2. True Crime - Heist: The Oddball Crew Behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft ★★★
13. A book that is also a stage play or musical - Matilda ★★★★★
29. A book about or set on Halloween - The Serpent's Secret ★★★
QotW: One of my all-time favorite books is The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, that happened to be assigned in junior high. It was breathtaking, heartbreaking, and completely engrossing. I still vividly remember reading it for the first time with alligator tears smudging the final pages... and yes, it was the school’s copy! Shortly thereafter, I went out to buy all of S.E. Hinton’s books and a couple years ago I had to buy the 50th anniversary copy of The Outsiders as well!
Jacqueline wrote: "Portland, Oregon....sounds like somewhere I’d like to be poshpenny. Bookshops and picture theatres galore. And so beautiful with the mountains. Except I’m not sure about being so close to Mt St Helens..."We are about 70 miles from Mt. St. Helens. Sometimes I can see it on my way to work. Mt. Hood is closer, and also active, but they mostly just sit there looking pretty. (Mt. Hood is home to Timberline Lodge, which played the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining.) I've never seen either of them do anything. We have some tiny, extinct volcanoes even closer, and they make lovely parks. Honestly this is, catastrophe-wise, the mellowest place I have ever lived. Everywhere else I've lived had regular earthquakes, fires, floods, mudslides, hurricanes, wild animal attacks... Here it sprinkles a lot and snows a little bit sometimes, and that's about it.
Hi everyone, it took me all week to finish this book. I read my notebook. It was interesting, but long. Has to do with death and grieving but also with addiction and crime. But I think I’ll put it in my Author with a different ethnic background. Whatever that’s called.
It’s all fascinating to me......I grew up watching movies with Wagon trains where everyone was on the Oregon trail and going on about going over the Rockies. And fighting Indians. Yeah big Western fan when I was younger. I even had a teepee and an Indian squaw outfit. Sooo long ago. And the landscape is so much different to what we have. Even the desert is different to our desert. And what I wouldn’t give to go to Arizona. I had the window seat booked for when we flew from LA to Houston and the guy upgraded us to premium economy and we ended up in the middle row so I couldn’t even get to see it as we flew over. So far over 4 trips we’ve only got to LA, San Fran, Vegas (but didn’t have time for the Grand Canyon tour but we did see it from the air a few years before), New York and Houston.
Hi all,A cool but sunny day in Vancouver.
I am at 6/40 and 3/10.
I recently finished The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy The Shocking Inside Story, for the true crime prompt. It's a long book! I really enjoyed reading this book, but overall, it was pretty darn creepy and scary in certain parts.
And as a real palate cleanser, I am now reading High Five....just lighter and fun. I'm working my way through this series during 2018.
I have more planning to do, in terms of what to read next. I should spend a bit of time with the challenge list, to get a handle on it.
QOTW: I hated almost everything we read in high school. And we completely skipped many of the classics you've read. I enjoyed Shakespeare. And I laughed when we read Chaucer, in English Lit class. It was way better when I got to university....I had more pick in my classes, and with the reading choices.
This week I finished#30 'twins' The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand
#21 'favourite colour' Ice Blue by Emma Jameson
#24 'weather element' Thunderhead by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child and
#39 'bookstore' Bad Sons by Oliver Tidy, this replaces 'Hounded'
for this challenge.
For the SciFi/Fantasy challenge in my other group I finally finished Viridis by Calista Taylor, and good riddance to that drivel.
And just for fun I read The Tell All by Libby Howard.
QotW:
The few assigned readings I had to get through were boring and my teachers were bad. Awful experience all around.
I had a really great reading week!Completed
Stone of Tears by Terry Goodkind - 3. The next book in a series you started
FINALLY! Two months later, I have finally toppled this mammoth sized book. Didn't enjoy it as much as the first one, which I reread last year, but I was determined to finish it.
We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - 15. A book about feminism
Couldn't decide which to read for this prompt, so went with both. They're short. lol
The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick - Read both of these for ATY and loved them
Regular: 15/42
Advanced: 2/10
Currently Reading:
My Lady Jane (almost finished)
Welcome to Night Vale
QOTW: What was your favorite assigned reading book in school?
I loved all the Shakespeare that was assigned. Especially A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, and Macbeth, but I really hated all novels.
Finished this weekThe Marriage of Opposites Finished 2/25/2018, 4 stars, A book based on a real person
Adulthood Is a Myth Finished 2/26/2018, 4 stars, A past Goodreads Choice Awards winner
We Should All Be Feminists Finished 2/28/2018, 5 stars, A book about feminism
Currently reading:
Black Jesus and Other Superheroes Still working through this collection of short stories. I'm liking it more as I read through each of the stories and get used to the style. This will not fulfill a prompt.
Memoirs of a Geisha I had paused on this to finish a couple other book but will pick it back up this weekend. I am using this book for a book set in a country that fascinates you
Postponed
Sleeping Beauties Since I didn't finish this in time for my book club I've decided to postpone finishing until later in the year when I'm more in the mood for it. I still intend to use it for a book with two authors
QOTW: What was your favorite assigned reading book in school?
I liked a lot of assigned reading books in school actually. I really enjoyed reading Lord of the Flies and Animal Farmin middle school. In high school I loved the dystopian books: 1984, Brave New World, A Clockwork Orange. I also really liked The Catcher in the Rye, The Scarlet Letter and Nathanial Hawthorne's short stories, and short stories by Edgar Allen Poe.
I am so tired of rain.Status so far - 8/40 1/10 26=off-prompt
I only finished one book this week, and it was not for this challenge.
I finished The Woman in the Window. I can't remember the last time I read a psychological thriller. At the end of the day, I have a love hate relationship with this book. I couldn't help but think about Read Window through the entire book. Books that have references to movies or other books can be fun, but the numerous references in this book were just plain tiresome. The author loves Hitchcock movies. I get it. I feel like the author was relying on the story from Rear Window too much for his own story. I see so much potential in this author. He did a great job capturing the struggles that someone with Anna's addictions who is moving through a devastating grief would have. I liked her snark! I thought the sections of online dialogue were very good and did a great job of showing us how easy it is to isolate ourselves from the world and still fool ourselves into thinking we are engaged with society. The way he went back and forth with the stories to slowly reveal the full picture was very well done. I'd like to see this author step out from behind movies and trust his own creativity more. 2 Stars
I'm currently reading:
Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service. This is really good. I'm working my way through it as I have time.
Don Quixote for a book about a villain or antihero. It just goes on and on. I'm about a third of the way through it and starting to get bored and impatient.
Sunbaked for something light. Ok, so i'm 75% through this book, and yes, I have read it before. It has been years, but I finally put a few scenes together and realized I have already it. Not the first time this has happened.
QOTW: It's been so long. I can only remember a few books that were assigned most of which I didn't like. I do recall liking Hamlet.
Spring is here too and my daffodils are peaking up today, although I am sure we will get more snow.It's been a week for finishing books, between my hard copy reading, my audiobook, and the audiobook my husband and I listened to together.
The Golden Tulip was a slower read, but I really enjoyed it and enjoyed following this family of artists and others in the art community. lovely. this will fill my gift prompt.
I am malala was amazing, one of my all time favorites and I sped through it. I listened to the audio book and the narration was great. I love Malala's perspective, weaving of history, culture and joy in living. This will satisfy my book I meant to read in 2017 prompt.
The 7th Cannon was a great legal thriller that had both my husband and I on the edges of our seats. I'll be looking for more books from this author. I am using this for book set in the decade you were born, it's a good one if any other 80s babies are looking for something.
Favorite assigned reading, I really liked The House on Mango Street, The Good Earth, and All Quiet on the Western Front. Another favorite was an author study where we could read 3 books from a classic author, I choose Amy Tan and loved The Joy Luck Club, The Bone Setters Daughter and the kitchen god. I've had some good language arts and humanities teachers to thank for some great reads!
I’ve read a ton over the past week! Tonight I finished a book that was due today, and since it was a prospector loan from another library, it couldn’t be renewed. I finished at 7:45. The library closes at 8. It’s a 13 minute drive. I handed it to my husband who was in his jacket and shoes and he sprinted off to return it for me. It was rather comic. What Happened - I put this into a problem facing society today, since she focused a lot on issues of Russian interference, fake news, the anger of white men in the Rust Belt, the issues of coal and creating new jobs, etc. It was a hard read. It made me sad and my husband angry (he didn’t listen to all of it, by significant portions.)
The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy The Shocking Inside Story - I ended up with the super abridged audiobook and decided I’d learned enough to count it, though I think I put it into the true crime prompt with Book Riot because I tend to finish that up first.
Kitchen - this was a reread (fifteen years later) and I appreciated it a lot more this time. I slotted it in as a one sitting read for Book Riot.
Uncle Tom's Cabin - this was such a slog. If it hadn’t been for a 1001 TBR challenge, I probably wouldn’t have made it past the first sermon. The plot might have been interesting, but between the constant preaching and the racism, it was such a rough read. Thankfully I had the audiobook and I stuck it on 2x speed and played a lot of games of Homescapes and Gardenscapes and folded a lot of laundry. And then it doesn’t fill any prompts for me, so.
Viola Desmond Won't Be Budged - this is just a picture book I read with the girls. I wanted them to get some black history month from a Canadian perspective. It arrived on the last day of the month, so just in time. I had never heard of her, so clearly I could use some black Canadian history as well.
Pashmina - I finished up Uncle Tom’s Cabin at about 11 last night but I wasn’t quite ready to fall asleep, so I read this graphic novel. It’s sweet and I loved the art. Highly recommended. I don’t think I put it anywhere.
Death and the Dervish - this was a bit of another 1001 slog. It was a loan from another library system and so unrewable and I think that’s all that pushed me through the first half. The second half was much more interesting, with more plot and more intrigue and betrayal, rather than philosophical musings. Overall, I’m glad I read it but it was more of a kale experience than a cupcake one.
I haven’t started anything yet, but I have lots that will be prioritized by deadlines - The Back Room is another ILL that has to be returned by next week and my book club is on Tuesday and I need to read Sleeping Beauties, which I just finally got after a long hold list. And another book club read is The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone, though I have a couple of weeks left there. Oh, and Blonde I’d like finished by the end of the month. So, I should really get started, but I may just relax with another graphic novel before plunging back in to something longer.
QOTW: Amusingly, these questions often seem to correspond with other things for me - this time because the monthly read, The Handmaid's Tale, is my favourite assigned reading from high school. Generally I didn’t like being told what to read, nor did I like being told what to see in the books we read. For me, this was the first book that I loved in spite of it being assigned and I still recall doing an essay on language use in the book, especially the scrabble words. Amazing book. Atwood remains my all time fav author.
I finished three books this week, all of them for the challenge.I read Six of Crows for a book about a heist. I loved this book! I had to go out an immediately get the second one which I'm reading now (not for the challenge).
Also finished Sightwitch for a book published in 2018. I was excited to read this one even if it isn't the Witchlands book I was hoping for this year. I'm really enjoying this series.
Finally, just yesterday I finished reading Maplecroft for a novel based on a real person. I liked this book. The story was intriguing. But I guess I'm not really a fan of the epistolary style.
Currently reading Her Smoke Rose Up Forever for a female author using a male pseudonym. And of course Crooked Kingdom.
QotW:
I remember having to read To Kill a Mockingbird, but I don't know if I liked it. It's on my list to re-read this year. I do remember liking The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1984 and Animal Farm. And in college I enjoyed reading One Hundred Years of Solitude and even more, The House of the Spirits.
I've been chewing away at my first long book of the year, White Teeth, so this reading week was slow again. I'm about 25% done with White Teeth and loving it so far. My boyfriend read to me my finished book this week because he was reading it for an Asian history class and because we like reading to each other sometimes! Finished:
- Dumb Luck
Currently reading:
- White Teeth (book with twins)
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (book mentioned in another book)
QOTW:
It helps I started Goodreads during my last year of high school so I could record everything I remembered reading for school into my read list... Hands down my favorites would be The Book Thief and The Importance of Being Earnest for my senior honors class and The Kite Runner for my junior honors class in high school. For college, without looking, my favorites have been Cloud Atlas, George Washington Gomez: A Mexicotexan Novel, The City & the City, and The Lightning Thief (for postmodern lit, Latino lit, writing about lit, and YA lit classes respectively).
Nadine wrote: "Theresa wrote: "OMG, where do you live! Can't go to a movie in a movie theater in NYC without people having conversations during movie, ongoing commentary during the movie, eating full meals, texti..."To be fair, the experience at art houses like Film Forum and Quad Cinema, or Lincoln Film Festival or the Thalia are respectful engaged audiences, as are audiences for Fathom Events special showings, as well as film festival audiences (and we have all kinds of those).
And I am not complaining about appropriate movie responses.
It is the first run chains that are the problem in NYC. For example, I went to see Wonder Woman on a Saturday, first show of the day, about 3 weeks after it opened. There were about a dozen people in the audience including families with very young children. All was fine, until about the halfway mark whena group of 7 or 8 seniors arrived, some in scooters, some in rotolators, some with canes. All had full meals with them and seem to have done their grocery shopping on the way to the theater. They did not stop talking, kept getting up and moving their seats in the mostly empty theater, rustled bags non-stop, ate loudly, then left 15 minutes before the movie ended. Even the young kids were irritated by them. It was awful. Too many people behave in these theaters as if they are at home with tv on while eating dinner.
Poshpenny- Portland sounds lovely and I hope to visit there one day. We too have lovely bookstores, and I spend lot of time in them! I love visiting bookstores and needlework shops when I travel.
Another pathetic week of reading. In my defence I have had marking or drafts in for y8, y9, y10, y11 and y12 tests to mark. Doubt it will let up any time before November but at least I should have finished building and moving house in the next couple of months.I only completed 1 book:
6. A novel based on a real person Still no Mawson
Good but not great. A very different perspective on Mawson and Close compared to other books on that expedition.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
am still in the process of reading:
A book with alliteration in the title The Great Gatsby
A book set at sea- Robin White- Hunters in the Sea
A book by two authors Tim Haines and Paul Chambers- The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life
A book from a celebrity book club Paul Beatty – The Sellout
A childhood classic you’ve never read RLS- Treasure Island
Hope to get one done over the weekend.
QOTW:
To Kill a Mockingbird and Animal Farm and 1984 and A Midsummer Night's Dream are all pretty fixed in my head without needing to think. I actually focused on sciences but loved English Lit. as a dos subject.
I read parts two and three of a Dystopian trilogy by my favorite Austrian author (all three together for the "favorite prompt from a past challenge" prompt => A trilogy):Die Verschworenen ("The Conspirators", not published in English)
Die Vernichteten ("The Annihilated", not published in English)
Currently reading The Mirage (for the alternate history book prompt in the ATY challenge).
QOTW:
I really enjoyed Hamlet (and by extension the entire semester we spent discussing Shakespeare in the advanced English course [German school system]) as well as Angela's Ashes (same course).
By contrast, I hated the sickening tale that is Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum) with a vengeance, to the point that I threw the book across my room after reading the first two chapters and only picking it up again once when we had to write an essay on a chapter somewhere in the middle. I somehow managed to get a decent grade on that essay, but I mostly winged it, having no clue about the greater context in which that chapter appeared :D
Theresa wrote: "poshpenny wrote: "Umm... All the time? Unless the audience is reacting to the movie. Do you live in a chatty town or something? ."
OMG, where do you live! Can't go to a movie in a movie theater i..."
It's the same down in Florida - that's why we go to the movies less than we used to, and are particular of times and theaters that we go to. Unless I'm going to a premiere, I don't go Friday or Saturday nights for sure. During the busy times there are always people moving around, going in and out, talking, kicking the back of your seat... It's better if you go to a theater with the reclining chairs, that seems to settle people down (plus they can't reach the back of your seat lol). It's the same with all types of events -- concerts, plays, games, etc. -- people really are incapable of being quiet anymore, or sitting still.
Good morning, everyone! It's a beautiful day here in Lawrence, Kansas, where hopefully the deep freezes are done for the season.FINISHED
I finished 6 books this week (!), which sounds quite impressive until I remember that most of them were 1) short and 2) had been in-progress for a while. 3 of them checked off Popsugar prompts, bringing me to 10/50 for that challenge.
Home Fire for Popsugar's prompt of "a book with characters who are twins" - My second 5-star read of the year! An absolute stunner.
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter for Popsugar's prompt of "a book about mental health" - I admired this book more than I liked it, but I do think it was quite strong.
Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem for Popsugar's advanced prompt of "a bestseller from the year you graduated high school" - I needed a quick win this week, so I read this. It took about 5 minutes, so I'll probably try to replace it at some point.
Not for any challenge, I also finished Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs (very strong), Ms. Marvel, Vol. 8: Mecca (one of the best entries in the series, I think), and the audiobook of The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (a re-read, and WONDERFUL on audio).
IN PROGRESS
I'm almost finished with Speak No Evil and The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly, both of which will count toward this challenge.
DNF
I quit Black Deutschland, which was just too cerebral and impenetrable for me.
QOTW
I remember really liking Beowulf! That's the one that sticks out as "expected to hate it, actually liked it a lot."
Hi all, I'm later than usual so I don't have time to check in on what everyone's been posting so far! Hopefully I can go back later. I didn't finish much due to trying to get caught up in my eternal comics backlog. All I finished was The Cruel Prince which I'll count for my book with twins. I liked it, although it ended on a cliffhanger and book two won't be out for a while.
Currently reading The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. which will either be my heist or two authors novel.
QOTW:
I don't think how schools handle assigned reading is very conductive to enjoying reading. I'm a huge reader, but once I got into high school or so I started finding school reading to be incredibly tedious. Not sure if it's the book selection, or just the way the papers and discussions were handled. but I remember being bored or disliking most assigned reading. Even the stuff we got to choose, I ended up being annoyed by by the time we were finished with it.
I have finished no books this week. I'm afraid The Handmaid's Tale has me stalled and is sucking the will to read out of me. Time to take a break from it for now.Also, I am still working on The Complete Tales by Beatrix Potter for Author with the Same First or Last Name as You. Because, as I've said before, my real first name is Beatrix.*
*It's true. I have said this before.
I had a pretty good reading AND challenge week! Woo!Finished:
#14 - Author of Different Ethnicity -- I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez. I liked it overall and would recommend it to YA lovers!
#34 - Book published in 2018 - Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella. I just love Sophie Kinsella from my younger days of reading her Shopaholic series. You need these books sometimes to break up some heavier reads. This was not my favorite of hers, but still enjoyable/quick read nevertheless.
A#1 - Allegory - Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie. I think I can count this book as an a allegory, even if the connection is not as precise as something like Animal Farm, given that it is a retelling of Antigone and therefore, all the characters, conflicts, events, and even themes are basically symbolically developed. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it. It gave me a lot to think about and inspired adding some new things to my TBR list!
Challenge Update: 17/40 and 1/10 prompts accomplished
Currently Reading:
#6 - Book about a real person - The Paris Wife by Paula McClain. This is a fictional account about Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley. I am listening to it on old fashioned audio CDs and I am almost done with disc 6/10. I like it so far, but don't love it. I think it will end up being a solid 3.5 star rating at this rate.
??? - Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak. Just on my TBR list and may or may not fulfill a prompt. Grabbed it when I saw it at the library on an impulse. Only about 40 pages in, but pretty intrigued so far! I love me a good family drama.
QOTW:
Well, I am an ELA teacher, so I was a little disheartened by how many people didn't like or even remember their assigned reading! I don't actually assign whole class novels anymore - I let students choose their own - so I guess I get it a little bit. I also realized that while I loved my literature classes growing up, I didn't actually love most of the actual literature either! I guess some favorites would have to be The Giver from sixth grade and The Poisonwood Bible from senior year. Most of my favorite curriculum books I read on my own as an adult - Mockingbird, Gatsby, The Outsiders, Shakespeare...
Hello,I haven't posted anything for a while, between busy season at work (I'm an auditor in a public accounting firm) and reading War and Peace, I haven't been able to finish anything.
But finally, I have FINISHED War and Peace!!!!!
I started reading it back in November, and although I've read other 1000+ page books in a lot less time before, this one just took me forever to get through. I found it pretty interesting, except some of the war sections, and the 2nd epilogue. But I just fell asleep fast every time I started reading it at night. I think not seeing any progress on my kindle on the % done doesn't help either. This was the first book that long that I read on the kindle. I'm trying to go back and finish the 2015 and 2016 challenge this year so I think I'm going to use it for 2015 - A book with antonyms in the title.
This brings me to 3/52 for the year.
Up next is: Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
QOTW:
I used to hate the assigned readings in school, so much so that I'd tell my mom I get head aches when I read...
poshpenny wrote: "Sarah wrote: "war poetry at 15 was taught by my least favourite teacher of all time, but to her credit I can still remember parts of The Charge of the Light Brigade."My entire knowledge of The Ch..."
Maybe that's where I actually remember it from!
So for the next 3 days I'm not going to get much reading done since I'm going to Emerald City Comic Con. But I am meeting/seeing at lot of authors. Yesterday I got to listen to Kendare Blake, Seanan McGuire, Charlie N. Holmberg, Emily King, Annalee Newitz, K.C. Alexander, Liana Brooks, Robin Hobb, Amy Bartol and Chloe Neill.
Today i should be going to see Sarah Tarkoff, Amy S. Foster, Rachel Hartman, Jesse Bullington, Fonda Lee, and Tamora Pierce.
Saturday and Sunday it will be Jeff Wheeler, Terry Brooks, Adrian Liang, Myke Cole, Spencer Ellsworth, Sam Sykes, Richard Baker, R.A Salvatore, Ed McDonald, Delilah Dawson, Michael Miller, AdriAnne Strickland, and Jim Butcher .
I finished 3 books this month 2 of them for this challenge which brings me up to 14/42
FINISHED:
Betty & Veronica: Prom Princesses I'm on an Archie kick.8. A book with a time of day in the title
Alaskan Dawn free on Amazon. I enjoyed it. its a romance.10. A book about death or grief
Sparrow Hill Road Really liked it. The main Character is Rose who is a ghost. This might also fit for time travel as time has no real meaning to ghosts. CURRANT:
nothing really, i've got books but i havent touched the in a week or so.
QOTW:
I dont remember enjoying any of the books I had to read. there might have been one or two but i cant remember them
Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (other topics)Goodnight Mr Tom (other topics)
Wuthering Heights (other topics)
Lovecraft Country (other topics)
To Kill a Mockingbird (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Philippa Gregory (other topics)Morton Thompson (other topics)
Philip Pullman (other topics)
Ralph Bulger (other topics)
Chloe Benjamin (other topics)
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The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty's Prince by Serena Valentino, which I'm currently using as my allegory
River Notes: The Dance of Herons by Barry Lopez, which I used for Book Riot as my book about nature
QOTW: So I'm with you, that was longer ago than I'd like to admit, and I am not sure what I read in High School that was assigned vs. all the books I read that weren't assigned is the trick. Or even what was assigned in HS vs JHS. But the one I think I remember being required and know I loved was Catch-22. I'm actually planning a reread of that book this year.