SSJCPL (Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library) discussion

Hi All!

Keeping up with trying different methods of reading and books I thought it would be fun to read books from around the world. Here are five books, choose any one you like to read for the month and comment on what book you picked, where it took you, and how you liked it! Your book choices are:
1. Bitter Orange
2. The Bear and the Nightingale
3. Human Acts
4. The Witch Elm
5. My Sister, the Serial Killer

Happy Reading!

I am going to check out The Bear and the Nightingale. The author studied Russian and lived in Moscow at one point, but it is funny to me that she wrote the first of the Winternight Trilogy while she was living in Hawaii.

As an aside, I am also halfway through a book I started last year and decided to pick up again: Necroscope. This is a horror story/spy thriller that spans England, Russia, and Romania, so it kind of fits in with this month's theme.

Those sound amazing! I also want to read The Bear and the Nightingale, mainly because it's based in Russia and I find that country fascinating. But for this forum I'm not sure what I'm going to choose yet. I'm thinking maybe Bitter Orange or The Witch Elm.

I'm going to read The Bear and the Nightingale too :)

Awesome! I added a photo of the adult section display at the Chavez Library. I checked out The Bear and the Nightingale, so I put the sequel on the display.

Be patient with me, friends. You know I do not read as fast as you all. I am about 450 pages into Necroscope (a 500+ page book), so I will finish it tonight and start on Bear and Nightingale this weekend.

What I can say for Necroscope, especially in regards to our theme this month, is that it takes you from Russia to Romania, Germany, Scotland, and England. They all sound really cold in the book! It is written in past tense and third person, which you know I prefer. There are characters with ESP abilities, ghosts, and vampires, so that makes me happy.

But it moves so slow and doesn't have the humor that Dead Until Dark had. It also doesn't do a good treatment of female characters nor characters of color, and that grated on me. I want to finish the book for the parts that are good, but I wont be continuing the series.

As promised, I finished Necroscope and started The Bear and the Nightingale. Necroscope wasn't worth it, sadly. It was a three day weekend, so I also read the next volume of Hellboy which was pretty good, and Neil Gaiman's Preludes & Nocturnes which was very good and I highly recommend it.

I also started The Night Eternal and Already Dead, neither of which grabbed my attention past the first couple of chapters, sadly. Too dark, bleak, unhappy. The reason Dead Until Dark worked for me was there was so much humor and optimism even in the midst of the suspense.

I am on the fence about The Bear and the Nightingale. The atmosphere and mood are great, but none of the characters have really compelled me yet. I'm only three chapters in though, and since this is one of our book club picks I am going to keep at it. Anyone else reading this and have any thoughts to share?

Michael, anything by Neil Gaiman is a great to me, although if I read him before I fall asleep, I always have the strangest dreams! I’m reading “My Sister the Serial Killer” first for this month. I’m so behind on my reading. I hope everyone is doing well!

Kari, I love Neil Gaiman too! Especially his fairy tales. I'm working on a PhD in mythology, and we studied his take on the traditional stories. So cool!

Michael, is there a YA group? I read a lot of it, especially contemporary, and would love to talk about what I've read and all the new books coming out this year.

Right? Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods, so good! I'm happy that a lot of his stuff has been picked up for movies and tv shows too.

Deborah, Brianna and I started this group not even a year ago, and we have been playing around with the format ever since. Originally I managed the YA Discussion and Brianna managed the Adult Discussion, but since our group is relatively small we decided to combine them.

However, there is still a YA Discussion Forum here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/.... If you have YA books you'd like to share with the group that don't necessarily fit into our monthly themed discussions, please by all means share them there.

As Michael said, there is a YA discussion group as well but feel free to post wherever you see fit as well. Many of us read YA a ton and would love any recommendations you have. I'm sure many of us would love to recommend any new finds as well.

Deborah wrote: "Kari, I love Neil Gaiman too! Especially his fairy tales. I'm working on a PhD in mythology, and we studied his take on the traditional stories. So cool!

Michael, is there a YA group? I read a lot..."

I love YA books also! So please post anything your recommend :)

I read My Sister the Serial Killer over Christmas and I liked it a lot! It raised a lot of questions about nature vs. nurture and the lengths you may go for loved ones and family even at your own personal expense. How are you liking it so far?

Ok, I'll be honest. I did try to read Bitter Orange but just couldn't get into it. I think it was just not the type of book I wanted to read this month. Instead I read a book called The Spite Game. This was exactly what I wanted to read. Was it great literature, no. But it was highly entertaining about a young teenage girl in Australia who is determined that she is going to seek revenge on girls from who high school who bullied her. If you're looking for an entertaining thriller, this is a good one. :)

Shame! Unacceptable! How dare you? The audacity! The nerve!

Completely kidding! I appreciate the honesty, especially since I have had the same struggle so many times in the last year. That book sounds like it was still on theme at least!

I've been too busy with schoolwork this week to do any reading. My hope is to dive back into Bear and Nightingale tomorrow.

I only had time to read one book in the category this month, but wow was it a good one! I really like the writing style of, “My Sister is a Serial Killer”. I was engaged from the beginning to the end and highly recommend!

That is great! I am sorry to say I could not get into Bear and Nightingale. Last weekend I tried, but did not get further than a couple chapters. Then I picked up Living Dead in Dallas and am already hooked. I also got Darlene to read the first book, so I need to finish this one fast so I can pass it along!