EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi Everyone!

Having a much better week this week, got the check in up on time!

This week I finished:

Ball Lightning - this was my two word title for Popsugar, and my STEM book for ATY. I liked it overall, although I didn't really connect to any of the characters much. It was interesting, lots of theoretical physics and such. The author said in the afterword that it's sort of a prequel to The Three Body Project, which was pretty interesting.

The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help
This is my book by a musician for popsugar. It was ok overall, but it got rather long and rambling and took a long time to get through. I mostly made it because I know who Amanda Palmer is, and I am a fan so that kept me going, I wouldn't at all be surprised that someone who didn't really know/care about her wouldn't want to keep on. So I feel you, Stephanie haha.

The Wife Between Us - was not a fan of this. It felt like it was trying really hard to be the next Gone Girl and not really working. There were a lot of twists, but they weren't mind blowing "that's amazing!" twists, they were "uh..what? ok...." type twists that were just confusing. This is my book with two female authors for popsugar, and psychological thriller for ATY.

Alice Isn't Dead - I like Joseph Fink, so picked this up on a whim a while ago. I liked it a lot. I didn't realize it was a podcast, might check it out eventually. Not a huge horror fan, but this kept it about where i'm comfortable. This is my popsugar and AtY multiple POV book, and Read Harder book by or about a person who's neruodiverse. Both the author and the main character have anxiety.

currently reading:

Catseye - this is my other half of two books with the same title. the other was Cat's Eye but I figure they sound the same when said out loud so it's close enough. I like it alright.

Proven Guilty - took me so long to get through the Amanda Palmer audio, I'm having to shotgun this one with constant listening, going to expire later tonight. It's a re-read, not for challenge.

QOTW:
Another question from Kathy (thanks for sending!)

What are your favorite books from childhood?

I loved Bruce Coville as a kid, he was my gateway to sci-fi. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher was my absolute favorite though. I also really loved The Little White Horse, I remember reading it a lot. I was horse crazy back then so I read all of the Saddle Club books, as well as the Thoroughbred series.

I skipped another week from lack of anything new to report. This week, at least, I can say that I finished

Shockaholic. *sigh* I just love Carrie Fisher's audiobooks. I put it under prompt 43, muggle studies: a memoir or biography.

A Girl's Guide to Joining the Resistance: A Feminist Handbook on Fighting for Good for prompt 8, Dumbledore's Army: a book about social justice or a current issue.

This puts me at 13/52 for the year.

I'm also about a third into Making History. Hopefully, I can put another dent in it this weekend.

QOTW: My Welsh grandmother (I'm Canadian) used to send me the "Mr." books as they came out, and I still love that stack of small white books. On the French side, I still love Astérix.

I'm afraid I gave up on Left Hand of Darkness (sorry book club). Trying to remember that it's ok not to finish books and that it's ok not to like everything.

I finished Manners and Mutiny as part of the Gail Carriger read-along, enjoying it again.

My unusual-for-me-but-liking-it book is William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope, which is Star Wars Episode IV written in Shakespeare style that I got for Christmas. Because I know the plot and lines of Star Wars pretty well, it's easier to get through than real Shakespeare. I am particularly enjoying the lines from R2D2, which frequently have a series of beeps, followed by an aside where he states his feelings on a topic. Many of the classic famous lines are fun to recognize in their Shakespearean form:
"Your Highness must be lauded greatly for discovering such a wondrous smell as this."

QOTW I read a lot of mysteries as a child. I read Nancy Drew, but it always bothered me that she was 18 in every single book and never aged. I preferred Trixie Belden, a teen sleuth who aged appropriately (still have almost the whole set). I loved books by Elizabeth Enright, who wrote books about the Melendy family and Gone Away Lake. I read Betsy Tacy and Tib books, which my mom read growing up and one of the few daughterbot would read. Other favorites I remember are Egypt Game, Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler, and Harriet the Spy.

This week I finished Mr. Standfast, which I was reading on Serial. It was alright, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped, and thought it was a bit over the top but also not exciting enough. Generally, much less of a rollicking good adventure as the first was.

Just started The Murder on the Links as my next serial, so hoping for a good, fun mystery!

Still plodding along through The Gone-Away World and The Bonesetter's Daughter, but finding both a little hard going at the moment.

QOTW - I read like crazy as a kid, but my favourites are probably the ones I remember my Dad reading out loud to us. In particular, Haroun and the Sea of Stories may still be my favourite book of all time!

Not a lot to report, still plugging at The Left Hand of Darkness and still listening to Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones.

But really I wanted to answer the QOTW. I know I read a lot as a child. I have vivid memories of taking out lots of books from the library as a small child (per last week's QOTW). I have a lot of memories of reading large novels as a pre-teen and teen. I read Papillon and the entire Bicentennial series by John Jakes such as The Bastard and The Rebels. That was an eight book series and they were published in my early teens.

Interestingly enough, I have little memory of reading or what I read as a elementary-aged child say 7-11. I didn't read Nancy Drew. I'm pretty sure I still read for pleasure given the reading I recall on both ends of that age range. But no idea what it might have been. There was definitely some Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume in there, but many details.

And Sheri - as a family with my own children, we LOVED Bruce Coville. His books were some of our favorites, along with Gary Paulsen for audio books on road trips. Those were appropriate for all ages, (our kids have a 6 year overall span) and engaging for adults.

I remember one year we were driving from Florida to Massachusetts and had planned to stop for the night just south of Richmond, VA. We got there mid-afternoon after 12 hours in the car. We were all so engaged with the story the kids asked us to keep going so we could finish it that day. We drove another 90-100 miles just because of the story.

Susan, on Netflix they made a movie of Aliens Ate My Homework! It’s suuuper cheesy but I thought it was fun. William Shatner is Phil! I was mad they got rid of Snout though.

I finally finished a book that wasn’t our book club book! Last week I devoured The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson. I followed her on Twitter for a long time before reading any of her books, but she is good. It’s a quick read, but not due to lack of substance or story. I just didn’t want to stop reading. The only problem is that because it was just released, now I have to wait till next year for the series conclusion. *sigh*

Now I’m back to Alexander Hamilton after a few weeks of break. I’m getting to some of the drier bits about setting up the country’s financial systems. It’s still fascinating, but I don’t have enough economic knowledge to get the full import of what he did (Chernow does an excellent job of explaining, but it’s still a bit dense). I’m about half-way through. I might take a break soon and read another book that is calling my name impatiently, but I want to make more progress first.

QOTW: My town’s library had a very robust kids’ program in the summer, and I would spend half or more of my days at the library sometimes. One of my formative reading memories was finding Lloyd Alexander’s Westmark, which launched me into my love of fantasy. I read A Wrinkle in Time around that time too, and it’s been one of my favorites since. I don’t remember actively learning to read, but once I did al I wanted to do was read.

I don't have much to report this week. It's been a chaotic time (transitioning from office work to working from home) and since my lunch hour is my primary reading time, that went out the window. That said, I did manage to finish Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of A Man, His Wife, and Her Alligator. It got to be a little too far fetched for me, and started dragging around the middle, but it finally caught up in the end. I was expecting a sweeping romance, and got a "they made their peace with their lot in life" instead. So, kind of disappointing, but no real fault with the book.

I also finished Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls on audiobook. Delightful all around.

Currently reading Star Wars: Aftermath. It's pretty much what I'd expect from a Star Wars book, but for some reason it's taking me forever to get through it. The writing and story are fine - I'm just having trouble focusing.

Also reading A Year Without Made in China: One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy as part of my continuing effort to read and clear out the surplus of physical books in my house. So far, it's quite good. Unfortunately, it's Yet Another memoir told from the point of view of a comfortably middle class white family living in New York. There's such a glut of these voices in the memoir genre, and I'm weary of reading the same perspective over and over. I wish the publishing industry would give some new voices a chance. Things are a lot different once you get out of the NY bubble.

QOTW: My childhood favorites are still my passions. Tomorrow's Sphinx, The Egypt Game, Birth of the Firebringer, and so many more. We couldn't afford books when I was a kid, so I relied on the libraries and the R.I.F. program for my books. There were 3 libraries in my local area (plus one we did monthly field trips to from my elementary school). The librarians quickly realized that the usual 5-10 book per account limit wasn't working for me, and they let me take out 20 at a time. Bliss! I always had a tall stack of books next to my bed. My official bedtime was 7pm, but if I was reading, I could stretch it to 8:30, so I was ALWAYS reading :)

Still plugging away at The Left Hand of Darkness.

This week I finished Shadow and Bone and a short story taking place during it, The Tailor.

I also finished some more manga: Again!! 4, Again!! 5, Again!! 6

QOTW: Probably the first novel that I loved was The Hero and the Crown. That was my constant re-read growing up. There were other books I had and liked but I can't remember the titles of, but that one was so important to me. (And it held up after a recent re-read, too!)

I distinctly remember getting caught reading Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys books with a flashlight under the covers when I was probably 8 or 9 years old.

I also used to like stuff like the Babysitter's Club books, Sweet Valley Twins/Sweet Valley High, and then later (age 10 - 12) I fell in love with Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books.

Hi all! I'm late to the weekly check-ins. Sorry about that! I haven't started the club book either. I had been trying to finish up Read Harder from 2018 and finally got that finished on 2/11 with The Night Guest for a book with a female protagonist over 60.

Since that one, I read Life Would Suck Without You: A Girlfriend Memoir for Read Harder 2019 a book published before 2019 with less than 100 reviews on Goodreads. I thought it might also work for the nostalgia one on Pop Sugar, but not really. It was ok. It was a quick read but CW for cancer. It read like blog posts that she quickly put together to form a book without enough connection between IMHO.

I was very excited to read Early Riser, which came out in the US on 2/12. I love Jasper Fforde, it took me a little while to get into this book though, but I ended up really liking it. I used it for book I think should be turned into a movie on Pop Sugar. I like Thursday Next and The Last Dragonslayer series better, but this standalone is interesting.

Tell Me Everything You Don't Remember: The Stroke That Changed My Life was a book that I got as part of the TBR book box through Book Riot. It was in the first box of 3 books that I had only read one of so far and now I had a total of 6 books from them to read. So I picked this one up. I really liked it. It sucked me in completely. There were places it felt a little repetitive, but I felt like you have to cut some slack after reading her story. It does deal with the aftermath of having a stroke, and later depression, so it may not be for everyone, but I found it really fascinating and moving.

Lastly, and this feeds into the QOTW, I read Strange Girl. I read all of the Christopher Pike when I was in junior high/high school in the late 80s/early 90s so I picked this for the Pop Sugar book that makes you nostalgic. This book not only made me nostalgic it felt like deja vu, and I don't really know why. It was published in 2015 and I haven't read one of his books in well over a decade. My best guess is it was a reworking of one of his adult novels (Sati) or his writing was just so familiar it made the whole book feel familiar.


Oh and the Podcast for Alice Isn't Dead is very good, and I don't think it's too scary. I don't watch horror movies either. And this might be scarier in a visual format, but it was ok in audio for me. I have the book but haven't read it yet.

Jen,
I just recently read The Hero and the Crown, I wish I'd found McKinnley when I was younger! I still loved it now, but I know I'd have loved it younger. I loved stories with leading ladies being awesome.

I still love Mercedes Lackey too, haha. I think I found her in high-school ish, with the Tarma and Kethrey books and that lead into the rest of the series.

Jessica,

No worries about the book club, we will probably start picking a new book either this week or next, but the threads will remain open. So you can still contribute to the discussion, no matter when you finish!

Also good to know about the podcast, I'll have to check it out. It might take me a while, I'm still only on year 4 or something for Nightvale, and I'm behind on Adventures in New America.

I finished The Left Hand of Darkness. Definitely don't do the audiobook version. He wasn't the right reader for the book.

I also did Akata Warrior. Love the book and can't wait for more about Sunny and her friends.

Literally ended Cast in Oblivion. I don't want to give up on her series, but this spent way too much time talking about what to do instead of doing it. Blah, blah, blah. Is there a polite way to tell Michelle Sagara that I need her to go back to her balance of action, police procedural and philosophy?