EPBOT Readers discussion

Hello and welcome to September.

Here in New England the temperatures have cooled off some and we are able to open the windows at night. I hope everyone is doing well.

Yesterday I finished both in progress books. I finished listening to A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor. This is the second (and last I think) "Carls" book from Hank Green. It is present day sci-fi. I liked the story line quite a lot and found it engaging. But I felt the book was also too preachy a lot of the time. The main characters are the same age as my youngest. I don't think most/any 24 year olds think the way these characters did. I gave it 4 stars because while I liked the story but there were some rough edges and very minor complaints. It is his second novel ever. I am using it for the Book Nerds prompt of GoodReads Choice nominee.

I also finished Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks. Thank you @Rebecca because I never would have otherwise read this book. I'm using it for Book Nerds prompt Longest Title on my TBR List (replacing The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels). I enjoyed this a lot! The history was fascinating and I read it quite fast and learned things! The research was well done (there are 60+ pages of references). As someone in software engineering and who was around the tech industry in the 1980s when the internet was being formed there were several parts I related to and loved. I recommend this!

I started reading The Psychology of Money. This was given 5 stars on GR by a former colleague whom I respect a lot. That alone had me add it to my TBR list. I'm only on Chapter 1 and it is very interesting to me. Again this is a book I would unlikely have picked up otherwise and so far I really like it.

For audiobooks I've gone back to the John Scalzi's Old Man's War universe and started book 4 Zoe's Tale. I am only a few chapters in and so far it is a retelling of book 3 (The Last Colony) but from Zoe's perspective. I hope it is more than that.

QOTW: We're now into September, how is everyone doing on whatever challenge(s) you're doing this year? Are you on track (for whatever that means to you)?

I'm only doing Book Nerds (for my 2nd challenge ever, last year's Book Nerds was my first). I have a personal spreadsheet that I update every 2-3 weeks with whatever books I've finished. I fill in any/every prompt that fits. I still have a couple dozen prompts empty. I fit the books to the prompts. I do not choose books just for the prompt.

One of the main benefits of this group is discovery of things I wouldn't otherwise read, so thanks to everyone for sharing!

Death of a Fool - Once again Ngaio Marsh gives us a mystery in a unique cultural context, this time mummery/morris dance. It didn't really catch my interest, though, and the obligatory young couple wasn't particularly compelling, either. It also made liberal use of the "detective tells someone about a discovery he has made but the reader is not informed" trope. I did figure some of it out, but not the whole thing. Not terrible, but not my favorite of the series.

The Random House Book of Poetry for Children - So I checked this out for a reason that is kind of a long story I won't go into. It's an anthology published in 1983. I liked that it included some older stuff and some things that were not specifically written for children (Rossetti and Carroll; Shakespeare, Frost, Auden), but a lot of the "contemporary" selections aren't really any more. I'm sure similar collections have been published since, and if I were looking for a book for a child, I'd go that route.

QOTW: The only challenge I'm doing is the "Remember to Enter the Dadgum Books in Goodreads" challenge. I've been doing OK, although I was looking at my to-read list the other day and found some things on it I'd already read. The group is helpful for that because I can search the titles in here and figure out at least what week I finished them. (Probably what I should do is click on the titles every week after I post and make sure they say "read".)

I have a few finishes to report since the last check-in.

Holiday Heroine - the last of my challenge books, for the "book that takes place during a holiday" prompt. Although only some parts of the book are set during Christmas, most of the story revolves around the main character's love for the holiday. A fitting ending to this series. I definitely teared up a few times toward the end.

Other Birds - this was a really quick read, and really engrossing. I've liked Allen's magical realism style ever since I read Garden Spells.

Comics and manga:
Honey So Sweet, Vol. 3
The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, A Rún, Volume 8
The Girl From The Other Side: Siúil, A Rún, Vol. 9
The Girl From The Other Side: Siúil, A Rún, Vol. 10
The Girl From The Other Side: Siúil, A Rún, Vol. 11
The Sandman: The Deluxe Edition, Book Two

Currently reading:
I just started Into the Broken Lands. I've been a fan of Tanya Huff for awhile, so I'm looking forward to getting further into this.

QOTW: The only challenge I'm doing this year is the Popsugar challenge, which I just finished on August 31. So the rest of the year, I can read whatever I like. Which is probably going to be trying to clear out my hold list at the library, which is currently maxed out.

Just one read for me last week - The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas (Lady Sherlock book 3). I'm really enjoying this series - it's intelligent light reading that's mystery with a smidge of romance (ok, more than a smidge in this particular installment).

I've started Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which is NOT light reading, but Tchaikovsky has become one of my favorite authors in recent years. His SF is always grounded in biology, which this biology major really appreciates. Lots of SF authors make sure to use correct physics, astronomy, robotics, etc., but sometimes the biology is just too out there to be real. It'll probably take me a while to finish it, because I start my school year tomorrow so I'm going to be tired!

QOTW: Last year was my first year participating in a challenge - Book Nerds with no Shelf Control - and I'm doing the same this year. I've filled 68 of 100 prompts. It's getting a little tougher to complete because I'm mostly a mood reader, so I'm at a point where the books I'm reading will fit multiple prompts that I've already filled, but not the newer ones. I'm not going to go out of my way to finish it, but it might help me decide between multiple possible next reads!