EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi all, another late check in. busy time of year!

this week I finished.

Beauty and the Werewolf - was a comfort reread

The Sea of Monsters - audio book re-read

The Women of the Copper Country - books & brew read - this was well written, and I think important to read, but I wish it was a pick for earlier in the year or saved for next. It was about the copper strikes in the UP and so many of the attitudes in it are still prevalent nearly 110 years later. It's depressing and sad, and not the best book for me to be reading in the fall during time change weekend when it's hard enough to keep my mood up.

currently reading:

Scarlet - audio re-read

Night and Silence - need a mental break, finally able to get to some good urban fantasy.

I had a good reading week! I read A Spindle Splintered in one sitting and am looking forward to the group discussion - loved it! I tagged it with the "should be made into a movie/series/musical" prompt because I think it would be an AMAZING animated miniseries!

One other finish - The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente (book with a color in the title). It was an interesting mix of whimsical and thought-provoking. I just loved the narrator and the worldbuilding...except that the world is a depressing one, being our own world in a future where sea level has risen so high that all of the land is underwater and people are living on the great Pacific garbage patch (which, sadly, is a real thing today).

Now I'm reading Binti: The Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor. I got it from the library bound in one volume - I've finished the first two books (plus the short story that takes place between them), and am going to start in on the third tonight.

Bedtime kid reading is still The Ship of the Dead with fifth grader and The Witches with first grader.

Aside from a bunch of manga, last week, I finished:

Haunted Heroine - A solid entry in this series. The first three books were romances for each of the three main heroines; this fourth book circles around for a check-in on the relationship from the first. Mostly I wanted to get caught up so I could read the new one that just came out.

A Spindle Splintered - I just finished this today. I read most of this in the car during a road trip. I really loved it!

Currently reading:
I haven't started anything just yet, but next on my list is probably Aurora's End which just came out, depending on when my library hold comes in. If not, I'll probably fill time with another novella or two until I get my hands on it.

i've since finished Dune: The Duke of Caladan. i could read Dune: The Lady of Caladan, as it IS out in hardback.... but I'm going to wait until it's out next year in paperback - it's trade paperback size, totally NOT the size of 99% of my other Dune books! XD

while waiting for a library book to come in, I read Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes, which is a reread.... but not really, because it's been a while since I read it, so it feels like a read. there's 12 books (collected volumes), and I've only read 8, so the last for will be reads instead of rereads.

now I'm reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. a friend who lives many states away read book 4 of the series and enjoyed it, but I figure I'll start at the beginning and see if I like the first book. my reasoning for this is while I finally made it through the Alienist, i have no desire to read the sequels. so far, i feel like I'll read the rest of the Wayfarers series :)

also, I've completed reading 54 books - this ties me with the number of books I've read in 2009! my current book and the next one will tie me with the number of books i read in 2014. yaaay! :D

The wayfarer books are more stand alone than your average series, but they do happen in chronological order. And all of them connect back into the first book in some way, so it’s not a bad idea to read in order. Hope you like it, I love that series :)

I finished Adam Savage's memoir Every Tool's a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It. I was "this close" to finishing it last week. My husband is reading it now (from the library).

And, also as I mentioned last week, I started Stanley Tucci's memoir Taste: My Life through Food for my neighborhood book club. I got the audiobook because I am still something like #60 on the hold list and our meeting is next week. I am about 2/3 of the way through the audiobook. He narrates so it is very enjoyable and similar to his personality on his CNN series. I am going to keep my library hold so I can see the recipes in the print book.

Once done with that I'll get the audiobook for A Spindle Splintered, assuming I don't get my library hold. When I ordered the website said copies were available, but then by the time it came to fill it I'm way down a waitlist.

I had to put my listening of The Thursday Murder Club on hold for these others. I guess that is now 3rd in the audio stack.

I am at 36 books this year, not counting the three I mentioned here. That is far more than I typically read but I've been tracking the short stories and novellas I read from the Expanse and John Scalzi (or at least I note on GR that I read them and they're on the list now). But listening to audiobooks as I walk is a huge boost for me.

aww thanks, Sheri! that's also good to know! :)

This week I finished Flying Finish by Dick Francis, as part of my effort to read books that I own and get rid of them if I'm not going to read them again. Thought this would be one to donate, but it made the keep pile; aged better than I thought for a 1966 mystery novel. This one was pretty normal, but I've found it interesting how all his books involve horses, but sometimes the link gets creative. One of them the main character was an artist who painted horses.
Also finished The Gift of the Magpie, #28 in the Meg Langslow series by Donna Andrews. These are always pretty comfortable. I'm able to suspend my disbelief over how many crimes a small-town mom blacksmith/community organizer runs into, but what I sometimes have more trouble with is how much time a mom of twins has to solve crimes in her spare time.
I am up to 97 books, on track to reach my target of 110. Getting trickier to finish up my last categories for book nerds. Especially finding it hard to settle on an audio book, which I don't prefer except for road trips. I am currently working on Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View. It's the original Star Wars, told in 40 short stories by different authors, from the point of view of minor characters. So far a rebel captain, some stormtroopers, a jawa, and a sand person. I was able to renew so will keep at it.

Kathy wrote: "Especially finding it hard to settle on an audio book, which I don't prefer except for road trips..."

I like nonfiction better for audiobooks, especially if it can be read by the author. May I recommend As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride or Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving, both of which are read by the author (and in the case of the first book, some cameos by other members of the cast and crew)? I listened to them both on audio and they were good fun.

Shel wrote: "Kathy wrote: "Especially finding it hard to settle on an audio book, which I don't prefer except for road trips..."

I like nonfiction better for audiobooks, especially if it can be read by the aut..."
Thank you-I forgot about As You Wish!

@kathy, I just finished Taste: My Life through Food on audiobook. Stanley Tucci has a very soothing voice and I very much enjoyed it.

I'm new here but figured I'd say hi.
reading Honeybee by Craig Silvey.
it's set in the city I grew up on which is strange to read. but it's confronting. This isn't what is call an enjoyable read so far but I'm still reading because it's both heartbreaking and interesting.

Welcome heather, glad it started working!

*waves at Heather*

It's really disconcerting to read a book set in a place you know well! I teach in the town where Defending Jacob is set - in fact the school in the book is based on the school where I teach (it's given a different name but the description is spot on, right down the the traffic circle in front of the building, and all the other landmarks are real places), and it was really disturbing to read. The author lives here.

I don’t think I ever read a book set immediately where I live, but I have read books that go to Michigan. For me I think the most jarring thing is when they get it super wrong haha. Like I love Lauren Beaukes but she’s from South Africa. She clearly researched Detroit, but just as clearly had never been there in the fall/winter. Had young women going to an outdoor party in November, describing the party clothes they were wearing. No lamenting over “I’m dressed cute but no one will see it under my winter coat” or “I didn’t want to cover my outfit with a coat and now I’m freezing” or any of the other trials of trying to look cute in Michigan after October haha. And no one was complaining “who thought an outdoor party in November was a good idea, that wasn’t a casual bonfire where you can bundle? “

I grew up in New York City, which of course is the setting of a lot of books. I do like reading books set there, especially in Manhattan. If I read anything that's set in the specific area where I grew up (Staten Island) I do admit to chuckling and nitpicking.

the closest i got to a book set in a place i live is one of the Stephanie Plum books. Stephanie lives in Trenton/Hamilton, New Jersey, and in one of the books, she drives across one of the bridges to have lunch at the McDonald's in Morrisville.... and i lived in Morrisville for 11 years. :D

Jen wrote: "I grew up in New York City, which of course is the setting of a lot of books. I do like reading books set there, especially in Manhattan. If I read anything that's set in the specific area where I ..."
Jen, have you read The City We Became? I really liked it (once I got used to how weird it was) and was curious to hear the perspective of someone who lived in New York.

Kathy, I haven't read it yet, but I've been meaning to. It's definitely on my radar for the near future. I have a couple other library books to get through first.