You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

If the two chosen books are not to your liking, you can read another book that fits this month's theme of 'number in the title'.

In order to receive a badge you must:
1. have read the book before or during February 2021.
2. discussed it in this thread. Discussion must be more than "I read the book and I liked it". Discussion requires something more substantial and analytical of what you read. Please elaborate on your thoughts on at least 5 of the following topics:
- Setting
- Characters
- Writing style
- Genre
- How the book made you feel
- Which parts stood out
- Did you/will you read more by the author
- Anything else related to the book you find worth mentioning

This can be done in one post after finishing the book, but preferably in a few posts while reading. Please refer to our group spoiler policy for further information.
3. Report that you have read AND discussed the book in the reporting thread (include a brief summary of what you thought of the book).

General Rules:
1. Please mark your spoilers with the spoiler tags along with mentioning what stage of the book you are at so other's don't get a nasty shock. Chapter numbers/titles are generally best as they are the same across all formats and editions. See our spoiler policy
2. The book may be combined with the Year Long Challenge, Topplers, and Monthly Challenges.

Happy reading!

I'm going to read One Word Kill for the group themed read. I've read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and I don't have access to The One-in-a-Million Boy. I will start it once I finish the book I'm currently reading.

I have Ready Player Two from the library, so I'm hoping to read that for the theme. I really enjoyed Ready Player One. I hope I remember enough of it to make this one enjoyable.

My GR friends have rated this everything from DNF to 5 stars. Their average is only 3.04, which is even lower than the book average of 3.51. I'm not one to put too much stock in the ratings, but I really expected this one to have a much higher score. It's not even close to the rating for the first book. I'm curious to see where I'll fall.

If I can squeeze it somewhere, I'll read Thirteen Storeys

Since February is a short month and it's not looking like I'm going to have a lot of extra time, I did a little gophering. I own three short books that look interesting and fit the theme, so I'm posting them as options here just so I don't forget. :)

Ajax Penumbra 1969 - I really enjoyed Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and I've been wanting to read this short story about when he found the 24-hour book store back in 1969.

Agent 355 - I've only read one book by Marie Benedict, but I really liked her writing and added a few of her books to my TBR. I'd love to see what she does with this female spy story set during Revolutionary War.

The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking - I've been interested in this one for a while, but not had a chance to read it. This would be the perfect excuse opportunity.

I started my book, One Word Kill the other night. It looks like the "add book/author" search is broken again. The book wouldn't come up and I had to copy from my post above.

It took me a bit to get into the story. Part of the problem is that I've never played Dungeons and Dragons board game and am having trouble conceptualizing the mechanics of the game. I have played computer D&D games and loved them. I just went to D&D website and there are some character sheets that I found. Maybe I'll spend some time there this afternoon reading about gameplay.

From the premise of the book, I suspect Nick and his friends are about to play a real life dungeon and dragon game.

Kristie- I don’t think you have to remember a lot from RP1 to enjoy RP2, except the characters maybe. I totally enjoyed it for its own sake and the new trivia stuff is just as awesome. Will Wheaton is just as awesome, if you are listening to the audio version.

Janice- I thought OWK started out a little slow, action wise, but I enjoyed getting to know the players. I never played D&D either, and at least you have digital role playing games over me. I never played WoW but I watched Amy play. The key thing with D&D, is that it takes imagination. The story line does pick up though, if I remember correctly. Just go with it! 😊

Thanks, Cherie. I do have the audio. :)

Cherie wrote: "Janice- I thought OWK started out a little slow, action wise, but I enjoyed getting to know the players. I never played D&D either, and at least you have digital role playing games over me. I never..."

The game play seems to be mainly at the beginning of the book, maybe setting up that Demus (view spoiler)[ is from the future. He established that by giving Nick the rolls he would make. (hide spoiler)]

I'm now at 50% and the action has picked up. I really hate bullies. (view spoiler)[ I wanted to smack that Devis kid in the face myself. I loved that Mia's mother smashed her beer bottle and cut Rust with it. Yeah Mom! (hide spoiler)]

I am reading a horrible book for my F2f book group. It is set on the east coast. It features some very entitled people trying to act like they are not racist.

The book is the opposite of what we are learning from the Black Lives Matter Movement. The book is almost all women. I guess it could be considered a women's friendship book.

If the author references the Kennedys one more time I am going to burn this book.

I think the thing that is driving me really crazy is how the women think their white privalge is okay. Yes I know the book is set in 1969, But I find the women to be so arogant that I an having trouble reading the book.

I am about a third of the way through Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools: Tuck into a Slice of Andalucían Life. I add this book because of someone in this group. Wish I could remember who, but I am happy that I did. (view spoiler)[ I could imagine telling my husband that I wanted to move out of country, but I also think it would be easier if I had vacation there a few times prior. These people are characters and I love how they have taken in Veeky (hehe) and her husband. (hide spoiler)]

I finished the book, One Word Kill. All my friends who have read it rated it as 4 stars, but I rated it as 3. Always the dissenter. :)

I found the time travel theory to be a bit confusing. Change that - a whole lot confusing. (view spoiler)[It seems like Nick and Mia would relive this situation on an endless loop. Unless, they were successful in being able to transplant her memories into her mind after the accident that is to happen when Nick is 40, putting the accident happening in 2022. Except we don't have that technology now. The book was written in 2019, so you'd think he'd set it even further in the future, but then his Demus character would be older than 40 and that might not work for the premise of the book. See this is why I rated the book at a 3. I keep hitting these roadblocks in logic. (hide spoiler)]

Thank you for the info, Janice. I find time travel books very hit or miss. They are difficult to do well.

Christina- I know that Peggy and I both read it a few years ago. I see that Vicki has read it too - maybe it was her. I think I read the second one too, but I haven’t gotten back to them since. 😉

Hi everyone,

Is there a group discussion thread for The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo? I have just finished reading it for the group read and I can't see a thread?

Kay wrote: "Hi everyone,

Is there a group discussion thread for The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo? I have just finished reading it for the group read and I can't see a thread?"

Hi Kay - Discussion is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Thank you so much 🙂

Reading Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools: Tuck into a Slice of Andalucían Life (view spoiler)[ I just finished the chapters about the festival and about the chickens. The stories of the festival have me wanting to visit Spain. The next chapter they "rescue" chickens.. lol. I always get a kick out of city folk in a farm environment. (hide spoiler)]

I finnaly finished Summer of '69. It wit as not to my taste. It was about a type of women who I don't care to read about. They go to country clubs. They think they are not racist because they have a black friend. I know it was set in the '6os but the casual racism and white privalge in the book turned me off.

I think we all have a certain type of person that we just don't care for reading about. Sounds like that is just not your kind of book, Renee. Hope your next read is better.

I am reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. In reading this book, I am fulfilling one of my resolutions to try to read more ebooks, so I have had a slow start, trying to get comfortable with my ipad, and trying to ignore the distraction of knowing Google Search is a click away. I like the features of highlighting a word to find the meaning, and this has worked really well for The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet because the author has introduced me to LOTS of words I've never heard before.
I have also resolved to start at the bottom of my TBR, and read books that have been on the list for the longest, so that means that if my local Library doesn't have the book, I need to buy it - hence trying to go for the cheaper option of ebooks

Shirley- I LOVED The Thousand Days of Jacob!
I spent hours looking up words and places. After I finished it, I reread it again, just for the story. I was wonderful.

Such clever writing too.

I’m starting Ten Women - translated from Spanish. There’s been mixed reviews so interested to see how this goes.

Lilisa wrote: "I’m starting Ten Women - translated from Spanish. There’s been mixed reviews so interested to see how this goes."I'll be interested to hear what you think. I need a book translated from Spanish for one of my Annual Challenge tasks.

Kristie you are right. I just don't like reading about people who think they can do what the wish because of their wealth. I think it doesn'r help that we have been watching a president who does just that.

I listened to Ready Player One narrated by Will Wheaton and I thought it was fantastic. The virtual reality setting of this dystopian novel made for a unique and interesting read. I loved the throwback to 80's pop culture and video gaming. Rarely does a book make me cry but I actually teared up toward the end of this one. I was just captivated by the characters and theme of determination in overcoming obstacles. My only complaint with this book is that I wish the few explicit parts and vulgar language were absent because this would otherwise be an excellent book for me to listen to with my kids - I may still read it to them so I can edit along the way.

I wish Will Wheaton would read more. I love listening to him

I read Ten Women. I really enjoyed it - translated from Spanish. There are 10 separate stories told by the women about their lives and how they got to where they are. They all have one person in common - Natasha, their therapist. Loved the writing and the way the author created all the women, each uniquely different, confident and strong, of various ages and interests, borne from different social settings and circumstances, and with different life experiences. Most of the stories are set in Chile. There’s a lot of life wisdom that each character imparts - really well done. Interesting that the average rating is 3.61 - I gave it 5 stars - so hopefully that average has now moved up!

Lilisa wrote: "I read Ten Women. I really enjoyed it - translated from Spanish. There are 10 separate stories told by the women about their lives and how they got to where they are. They all have ..."
Thank you Lilisa. It intrigues me, so I think I'll put it on my list for the originally in Spanish task in the Annual Challenge.

i just realised that the book I just started fit the theme. This is Les Trois Femmes du consul. (trois = three), This is the second book of a mystery series featuring Aurel Timescu. a strange little man who works in French embassies. The first one was set in Guinea, and this one is set in Mozambique.

I did not realize it until I was almost quite done with it, but the last book in the Miss Buncle series was The Two Mrs. Abbotts, which fit the number in the theme. I finished it on Saturday.
It was a different story line than the first two books, but I enjoyed it. It was a nice series and I appreciated the simple way that the author painted her characters.