EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi all,

Pleased today this has been a MUCH less eventful week. Had a friend over that we haven't seen in a year, that was nice. First house guest since *gesturing at everything*. (all vaccinated etc). Having in laws over starting tonight, less pleased about that. Not that i don't like them or get along, just house guests back to back is always stressful, and I had thought they were coming Saturday only up until yesterday. (Husband thought that too, they have NOT been communicating their plans well). But i'm sure it'll be fine.

Book club: Don't forget, finished reading thread is up for Project Hail Mary. Feel free to post your thoughts!

This week I finished:

Fables: Compendium Two - these things are so massive. But I do like being able to read a whole swath of story at once, instead of constantly changing volumes, or only grabbing one and then forgetting about it for months before getting another.

Record of a Spaceborn Few - audio re-read. this is probably my least favorite of the series, but it still has a lot of good moments. I really like how she uses different galactic situations to really address current issues in our society.

The Priory of the Orange Tree - this was a good read, if long. I liked the female characters, and i thought it was a fresh take on high fantasy. Different dragon tropes than usual, different system of magic, didn't feel super euro-centeric in origin.

Currently reading:

News of the World-audio book read for my books & brew club. Not super enthused about this pick, set in Texas but it's very western-y. Not my genre, and about 2 hours in still not really sold. At least it's short.

Hummingbird Salamander- I really loved Annihilation by this author so when I saw this on the shelf, grabbed it. Taking a bit to get into it, not sure if i'm just having attention trouble, if it's the book, or what. Still going to go with it.

Vulnerable AF - I like Tank and the Banga's music, cool to read a book of her poetry

QOTW:

I'll borrow from popsugar again. Are there any book characters you'd like to be friends with? I know that's also one of the prompts from the book nerd's challenge!

When I was a kid I desperately wanted to be friends with Carol, Lisa, and Stephanie from the Saddle Club, and become a member and ride horses with them.

For the prompt I picked Eve Brown from Act Your Age Eve Brown, she seemed pretty relatable and like she'd be fun to hang out with. I'm sure there's others but those are what come to mind!

Had a nice visit with my sister and brother-in-law last weekend, so that was a good break, but I think work is going to be kind of nuts for the foreseeable. I am at 93 and 141 on the print and e-book hold lists for book club, so hopefully I'll have final thoughts in a month or so.

Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl - This was great. The author did his PhD on the Blakiston's fish owl, and he describes his first sighting of said animal "as if someone had hastily glued fistfuls of feathers to a yearling bear." The book details the various adventures and mishaps involved in doing research in the Russian Far East with a revolving cast of variously eccentric local field assistants. Super funny, recommend to fans of owls and/or drunken Russians.

All the Lonely People - This is one of the classic mystery blogger's favorite "contemporary" mystery series; it was published in 1991 and kind of made me realize how long ago that was. I'm a bit surprised the blogger liked it, as it reminded me a lot of a cozy in terms of tropes and stuff (protagonist suspected of murder, decides to investigate to clear own name, bumbles around, accuses wrong person, gets attacked by murderer, etc.) except with a decidedly noir kind of style. Definitely one of those "setting is a character" books, interesting portrait of Liverpool.

The Magical Unicorn Society Official Handbook - Bought this for myself as a treat because it looked cute. It is cute! It has two different styles of illustration (both sort of stylized botanicals) and various lore and stories about the seven extant types of unicorn that the author invented, presented as nonfiction. Good for any unicorn-loving child or child-at-heart.

QOTW: Oh gosh, basically all the characters that are too cool/competent for me to identify with! Lots of characters from the Wayfarer series (Dr. Chef!), Cimorene and Morwen from the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Aerin from the Damar series... I feel like there should be some from mysteries. I think for the challenge I put Bronwyn from A Deadly Inside Scoop, because you should always make friends with someone who runs an ice cream shop. I would say Sherlock Holmes, but I don't know if I could handle being his friend and he's not a fan of women anyway. Maybe Watson, since he's a nice guy, and then I could meet Holmes occasionally.

So they officially re-suspended our back-to-office hybrid schedule, so I'm back to working from home full time. Glad things were a little bit better for you this week, Sheri!

Just a couple of manga finishes this week: Library Wars: Love & War, Vol. 3, Library Wars: Love & War, Vol. 4, Library Wars: Love & War, Vol. 5 - still enjoying this series. It's fun and I'll probably keep reading as many volumes as the library has.

Otherwise, I'm still reading The Invisible Library, which I'm liking a lot so far.

QOTW: When I was a kid, it was the Babysitters' Club. I always thought it would be cool to have a group of friends like that.

I'd agree with Aerin, definitely, and a lot of the characters from the Wayfarer series. Also, many of the Herald characters from Mercedes Lackey's books seem like they'd be fun to hang out with. I'm sure there's tons of other characters, but I'm drawing a blank.

If I had to pick someone from a book I read this year, I would probably say Clara from Paladin's Strength, or maybe Irene from The Invisible Library.

We got some rotten news yesterday - my kid tested positive for COVID and we had to cancel the camping trip we had planned for next week with my parents. It could be so much worse - but the kids are devastated. So we're quarantining for a while...lots of time to read, I guess?

Last week I read The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie and I LOVED it. I need to read more of her work because this was so unique! It's narrated in the second person, and the gradual piecing together of the puzzle of who exactly is narrating is well done.

I'm about to start Brown Girl in the Ring.

Kiddo and I have moved on to the Norse gods and just started The Sword of Summer. I guess we're having a Rick Riordan kind of year!

QOTW: I always wanted to hang out with Kim Ford and Loren Silvercloak from the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy. Any of the characters, really, but especially those two.

still reading The Woman They Could Not Silence.... but I have three more books out from the library! gotta get reading! :P

oh no, Shel! hope your kid gets better soon!

QotW - gotta admit, I hadn't really thought about the question that way. i mean, i'd love to have been Damon's girlfriend in Vampire Diaries; or be the woman in all those romance novels i'd read.
i suppose the character that i'd like to hang out with would be with the Companions from Dragonlance, before the War of the Lance. it'd be fun to somehow go on adventures with them all - Tanis, Tasslehoff, Flint, Raistlin, Caramon, and Tika.... and maybe Kitiara.

Last week I actually finished reading some books! I feel accomplished.

I finished:
Blood of the Earth by Faith Hunter. This is the first book in the Soulwood series which spun off of her Jane Yellowrock books. It's been a long time since I've read any of the Jane Yellowrock series, so it took me a bit to remember the events which introduced the main character Nell Ingram. I ended up really enjoying this and will be picking up the rest of the seres at some point.

Stealing From Wizards vol 1 Pickpocketing by R.A.Consell. This was picked up after reading Jen's review over on Epbot a few weeks back. It was such a fun book. I have book two waiting to be picked up but this week has been bad for lunch reading as we had prep for our open house this past Thursday.

Hubby and I finished listening to 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson. We both hated it. it was drawn out, the plot meandered and the ending left both of us feeling Meh. It's set in the same universe as his Mars books but was nowhere as good as those were. This is yet another book by a well liked author that has been a disappointment to read this year.

So this week I am focusing on reading a few books:

The Mercy of This Air by Ronlyn Dominigue This is an older book from my pile of bookcrossing registered books I am trying to read and pass along. I think it came into my hands in late 2018 or early 2019.

Hubby and I are listening to The Burning White by Brent Weeks. This has been in our to listen list since it was released at the end of 2019. But we were two books into a reread/listen to the Wheel of Time series, and didn't want to mix two different epic fantasy series.

I also have My Fair Lazy by Jen Lancaster on the couch as her humor is a nice chapter a day type reading.

I did throw the second Stealing from Wizards book into my bag for lunch reading next week. I've got company at the end of the week, so we shall see how much reading gets done.

QOTW: I really think that Kitty Norville would be a fun character to hang out with. Also the hobbits from LotR which I have wanted to meet since I first read The Fellowship of the Ring in fourth grade. Probably one of the reasons why I reread the trilogy as often as I do.

Trystan wrote: "

QotW - gotta admit, I hadn't really thought about the question that way. i mean, i'd love to have been Damon's girlfriend in Vampire Diaries; or be the woman in all those romance novels i'd read.
i suppose the character that i'd like to hang out with would be with the Companions from Dragonlance, before the War of the Lance. it'd be fun to somehow go on adventures with them all - Tanis, Tasslehoff, Flint, Raistlin, Caramon, and Tika.... and maybe Kitiara.


Oh! The companions would be a good group of characters to hang out with!

nimrodiel wrote: "Oh! The companions would be a good group of characters to hang out with!"
I've also seen there's supposed to be a new trilogy coming out from Weis & Hickman.... I'm checking every so often. :)

I was preparing for and then on a 10-day vacation and just returned yesterday so it has been a few weeks since I checked in. Shel, I hope your child has a mild case and is getting better. Stay healthy!

I finished The Alice Network for a neighborhood book club I just joined. It was interesting and I was happy to learn about the women spies of WWI. Although the book is fiction the other characters are based on real people. I did not know anything about the roles of these brave women.

On our schooner vacation I read The Cake Therapist. It was just a light food-related book recommended on a cooking FB page I'm on. It was only okay for me. The writing left a bit to be desired. There were several plot lines that just kind of stopped. The writing felt like a bit of a mess. But it served its purpose for fluff for vacation. I mean, I didn't hate it and I did finish it. I guess I'm damning with faint praise.

I have since started Klara and the Sun in book format. I'm waiting for the next neighborhood book to come in at the library so this book may be paused if that happens.

I am listening to the 7th Expanse book Persepolis Rising. I am only about 20% of the way through and these are long books, usually about 18 hours on audio. So you'll be seeing me list it for a while!