EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi everyone!

Hope you all are holding in there. Been a bit of a rough week but hanging in. helps that yesterday was really lovely weather so I could go for a run and wave to neighbors from far away.

General group stuff: I started a thread for suggestions for next read! I'll send out a group wide message soon too. Not a rule, but my general personal recomnedation is let's go for something that is not apocalyptic haha.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

This week I finished:

The Water Dancer - this is my popsugar book by a journalist, his first fictional novel. It was a beautiful book, great story, not at all what I wanted to read at this time. My library holds that i put in months ago before all this got terrible are all coming in now, and nothing that I want to read haha.


There There - popsugar book that won an award in 2019, read harder book by a Native American, Indigenous people, First Nations author. This was supposed to be April's books & brew read, but the physical meeting is obviously cancelled and the librarian in charge isn't sure what to do about book selection. Several of us got it and read it before all the libraries closed, but not everyone did. She's re-working all the future selections to be off hoopla for the time being, since that has no waits, just hold limits. Might end up just doing an unofficial "if you read it, let's do a zoom meeting" meet for it, and figuring out something else official, or skipping April for now.

Currently reading :

Men Explain Things to Me - again, put this on holds months ago, now it's up and i don't want to read it right now haha. I'd at least thought it might be kind of funny-exasperating but it's just diving straight into how men not respecting women enough to listen/accept their opinions and personhood leads to violence, assault, rape, death etc. Luckily it's only 130 pages or so, so hopefully can move on quickly into something more escapist.

QOTW:

What are your favorite funny, whimsical novels?

I like Christopher Moore, although some better than others. Love the Bloodsucking Fiends series, and Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d'Art, and Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings in particular.

I also really enjoyed How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe which gave me a lot of Hitchhiker vibes.

At last check-in, I had just started The Chef. It was not one of James Patterson's better efforts - a great concept, but the story was just too scattered and the characters were too derivative of some of his better books, which was a constant reminder of the badness of this one.

Next, I pulled one off of my TBR list that had been there forever - Two Boys Kissing. I'd heard so many good things, but wasn't sure what to expect because of the odd ways that it had been described. I 100% understand now why everyone had such a hard time describing it - it is a beautiful piece of art, like a really fascinating painting that you can stare at for hours and keep seeing new things. Describing it in a literal way doesn't really do it justice - the general framing story is two boys trying to break the world record for the longest continuous kiss, and several other stories intersect or parallel while a ghostly group from the past comments on everything. It's just this amazing snapshot of a moment in time for all of these people without getting overly detailed on what came before or after. It's not terribly long, maybe about 200 pages, and just one continuous flow with no chapter breaks, so it's a great one to curl up with if you've got a free few hours and are starting to forget what the outside world is like, both the good and the bad.

Jumping from one end of the literary spectrum to the other, I'm now reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle for IRL Book Club #1. I'm blessedly nearing the end, but it is LONG. And I didn't realize until now how thoroughly and completely disinterested I am in dog breeding and training. I mean, not even a little bit of interest. And this is 600 pages of completely one-dimensional human characters (in the broadest sense of the concept) talking in minute detail about theories, practices, and philosophies of dog husbandry. I'm sure a hardcore dog lover would enjoy this more, but I am very much looking forward to not thinking about dogs for some time after this.

QOTW: I love almost everything by Jasper Fforde and Ben Aaronovitch - and in general, fun and whimsy are my favorites. I also really enjoyed The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which we read here; and I hope to read more of that series.

I'm settling pretty well into working from home. We do kind of need to brave the grocery store and the pharmacy soon, though, so not really looking forward to that.

This week, I finished Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey, which was my Popsugar book by a trans or nonbinary author. I enjoyed this one a lot, but it got a bit dark. The mystery was definitely engaging all the way through.

Thanks to my library's hold's coming though suddenly, I just finished (about ten minutes before posting this) Gailey's new novella, Upright Women Wanted. I'm counting this one as my Popsugar western, although it's more of a dystopian future wild west, it's definitely got that western feel. The dystopian part isn't really explained too much, only that there is technology but everything's controlled by the big-brother-like State, and the U.S. seems to have mostly devolved into the wild west again. But I liked this one a lot. It's about Librarians who travel from town to town, ostensibly to bring "Approved Materials" from the State to the townsfolk.

I haven't started it yet, but next up, I have another hold from the library to finish, Silver in the Wood. This is my planned Popsugar book with "gold," "silver," or "bronze" in the title.

QOTW: I'm never sure that the books I consider fun and whimsical would be by everyone's definition, as many of them do also get serious at times.

I'd say The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Cat Valente for sure. The Goblin Quest series by Jim C. Hines, and also his Janitors of the Post-Apocolypse series (Terminal Alliance). Patrick Weekes's The Palace Job is just fun. For a fun, silly, non-fantasy rom-com, I loved Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren.

I am not too picky on the definitions haha, I just am being crushed by very heavy, super serious writing and want a break when I catch up on loans.

I don't have a good portable device for reading Hoopla books, so I am taking advantage of not having to port anything right now, plus an apparent increase from six borrows per month to ten. This week I read Beauty and the Clockwork Beast, the first in a "Steampunk Proper Romance" series. Those are not words that typically describe my reading habits, but I did go on a beauty-and-the-beast reading binge a few years ago when the live-action movie came out, so when I saw this one I thought I'd give it a shot. The story didn't turn out to have much to do with the traditional beauty and the beast scenario (roses, destitute father, imprisoned daughter), just a beautiful woman and a beastly (in multiple ways) man thrown into a supernatural mystery together. The writing wasn't amazing, and the steampunk was at times just a thin veneer (there were ray guns, distinguished from any other guns only by the word "ray"), but after a somewhat slow start I did get into the mystery aspect and some of the romance. ("Proper" does turn out to allow kissing.)

QOTW: I don't know if it's my favorite, but an unexpected find that I randomly picked from the shelf because it mentioned birds: A Guide to the Birds of East Africa. It's a funny novel with a diverse cast of amusing characters and some surprisingly poignant moments. Also some birds, but not that many, so I don't think it would put anyone off birds for months. ;)

I've found myself gravitating towards comfort reads, so I haven't read anything new this week. I read The Lions of Al-Rassan for the fifth? sixth? time and it satisfied my soul. I'm wavering about what to pick up next...I have some new books handy, but I kinda want to plunge back into old favorites and have been itching to re-read the Wrinkle in Time series since the kiddo has gotten interested. So I may just do that next.

QOTW: Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books, anything by Gail Carriger, anything Discworld. And here's one that's less well-known but is utterly delightful: Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. There are sequels, but I haven't read them (yet). Oh, and I recently read Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton, which was essentially a Victorian era comedy of manners...but all of the characters are dragons. It was a ton of fun.

Another quiet week, but I did get a bit more reading in:

The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation Into the Writing Life, because I've been getting this itch for a while now. Pretty inspiring. Used for the Hufflepuff/Citrine/yellow cover prompt.

The Night Masquerade, a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. The books got better and better. Used for Slytherin/Dungeons/fantasy book prompt.

The Graveyard Book, yet another home run from Neil Gaiman. I started reading the physical book, but I switched to the author's reading on YouTube. Slower but so delightful. Used for the Hufflepuff/Neville Longbottom/coming-of-age story prompt.

26/60

QOTW: I'm a die-hard Douglas Adams fan. I'll have to give Christopher Moore another go. I read Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal last year, and while it had moments, it didn't leave a lasting memory.

Not much new here, aside that Spring may have finally started to join us! It's nice to hear the sound of snow melting off in the sun, and finally let a bit of fresh air into the house.

During this week of exile (which just sounds better than lockdown): finished Golden Son, read Morning Star, and am partway though Iron Gold. I've got feelings, y'all!!! Now that the author is finally back to writing an original story in the complex society he created, I REALLY loved the second two in this series! It's political, scheming, and with characters that are deeply flawed, nuanced, and very much anti-heroes that are still trying to do the right thing.

My feelings on Iron Gold are a bit more mixed so far. I've really liked being in Darrow's head for over 1000 pages, and I'm finding that I'm not really liking sharing him with the shifting points-of-view so much. Hopefully I'll start to fall in love again once the other three plot-lines really get their feet under them.

QOTW:
My favorite whimsical novels are as follows:

- Knight Life - King Arthur resurrected in the modern US, and reunites all the guys who wound up immortal courtesy of the holy grail. He determines that the best way to re-ascend to power is to run for mayor of New York.

- Q-In-Law - One of the Star Trek NextGen spinoff novels. Q and Lwaxanna Troi happen to show up on the Enterprise at the same time. They meet. This goes 100% EXACTLY how you hope it does.

- Off to Be the Wizard - A computer hacker on the run time travels and sets himself up to be a wizard in the middle ages to hide. Except he's not the first one with this idea. It's even an officially Epbot-approved good time, based on who shows up in the author's acknowledgements!

- The Princess Bride - Even though the book works on a totally different wavelength than the movie, it's still a really fun read, with a funny meta-plotline and some terrific one-liners that aren't in the movie. You also really start to appreciate how much of an accomplishment getting the movie made actually was! At the end of the day, I really love them both!

- The Firefly novels - yes, there are official spinoff novels (3 so far), and yes they are everything wonderful that the series was. Because we all need more Mal Reynolds in our lives, right? The separate set of graphic novels are lots of fun, too!

This week I finished American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century. This was an impulse grab before my library closed. It moved along well and was really interesting. Hard (and scary!) to believe this was non-fiction.

Still listening to Serpent & Dove and enjoying it. Next up is finishing The Starless Sea.

QOTW: When I need funny, "fluffy" novels, I turn to Sophie Kinsella and Janet Evanovich. I love Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series and the Fox and O'Hare series. Shopaholic and some of Kinsella's other books are also usually decent for a laugh.

Sarah, I stopped after Morning Star because I was just so satisfied by the way it ended that I wanted to leave the future of the society ambiguous. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the later books - maybe you'll make me change my mind :)