EPBOT Readers discussion

Hello everyone,

Last week was crazy for me and I didn't get a post out. Within 48 hours I went from four days skiing in Maine to going to a friend's daughter's wedding in the Bahamas. Good things all around but stressful and busy. It has been a very warm winter here in New England. I hope everyone is doing well and getting all the reading time that you want!

Since last time I finished The Human Division on audiobook. This book was released online in chapters and it felt like it ended without Scalzi's usual good wrap-up. Maybe the loose ends are tied up in the 6th book.

I had previously listened to The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter a couple years ago and still had that audiobook. So I am listening to it again for the FoE book club selection right now but on 1.5x speed. I rarely speed up the reading speed but given that I read it already I just wanted to remember the story. 2x was too fast.

I am "this close" to finishing The Reading List. I was too close to finishing to take it on my trip in physical book form because I'd run out of material. But I've picked it back up now that I have returned and expect to finish it this week.

The book I took on my trip was one I have and put aside a few months ago One Day in December. It was not a DNF, it just got pushed aside from book club books and other reading. And it is only okay to me so I wasn't feeling compelled to find time. But I had sufficient story remaining in the book for the trip so I took it. I am back into the story and will return again after I finish The Reading List, which is a library book.

QOTW:
What are your thoughts on book clubs where you don't particularly like the books chosen? What are some ways to choose books?

I pretty much enjoy the FoE book club books suggested and chosen. I am in an IRL neighborhood book club. And there I have been very hit or miss about the books selected. Often the most recent book suggested is the one chosen, or the person who can describe it longest in person. I more often suggest books over email with a GR link to the description. Last week was the first time we did a shared Google sheet poll. I enjoy connecting with my neighbors that live on my street but the chosen books generally are not that enjoyable to me. They really like historical fiction and one outspoken person really likes horses. I can handle it once in a while but not every month.

Anyway, I'd love to hear other's experiences.

Wow, Susan, that sounds like quite a trip! :)

I feel really relieved this week. We got our storage items moved to the new storage place, and now we just have to finalize cancelling the old one. I just feel like a heavy weight is off my shoulders now that it's all done.

Finished:
The Wedding Date - 3 stars - for the Popsugar prompt of a book written during NaNoWriMo. This was really just okay. Nothing special, but nothing horrible, either.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea - 4 stars - for the Popsugar prompt of a book with "girl" in the title. I really enjoyed this. The writing was good and the story was solid. There was a little insta-love in the romantic arc, but not too bad.

Comics & manga (not for prompts):
Wonder Cat Kyuu-Chan, Vol. 7
The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún Vol. 12 - .Dear Side Stories

Currently reading:
The Afterward - for for the Popsugar prompt of a book with a queer lead. Not too far into it yet, but the main character is a thief so I am already here for this. (I have a soft spot for thieves and rogues in fantasy fiction.)

Planned:
Nick and Charlie: A Heartstopper Novella
The Wicked Bargain

QOTW:
I haven't been in any IRL book clubs, mostly because I don't have time to go to meetings. I also tend to be really shy and quiet in person, so it's easy for me to get talked over and get frustrated in group situations.

For online book clubs, if I'm not interested in a selection, I just don't participate in that discussion.

In my old online book club, we would rotate genres and read a different genre each month. People could nominate up to three books, nominations could be seconded by anyone, and then we'd vote. We would also choose two books: one we'd break into sections and read together week by week, and a bonus selection where we'd have a discussion thread up for the book, but not a discussion leader.

I've got a lot, so I will try to minimize blather, but I do need to go on about at least one of them.

Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America - Subtitle should be "should we try to save endangered species, and is that even possible?" which are of course unanswerable questions.

The Conjure-Man Dies: A Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem - Arguably the first Black mystery novel (there are caveats). It was great! Lovely prose with a slight tendency toward the overwrought, varied characters, and lots of humor. There were some far-fetched plot elements, but that's not unusual for the genre. Definitely deserves to be better known. The edition I read had extensive footnotes, including translations of "Harlemese" that the author had included with a different book, most of which were unnecessary. I could figure out "hot", "daddy", "haul hips", and "back in Bunghola" on my own, thanks, so if you get a less annotated edition I wouldn't worry too much. Also, bonus fun fact, I read this line on February 2: "Yestiddy was the first o' February wasn't it?"

Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution - Picked up from a Little Free Library; subtitle should be "what I did as NYC Transportation Commissioner" but it was interesting.

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere - 20-year-old book of short stories. They were good, but possibly not modern classics; I'd recommend something contemporary instead.

Midnight Duet - This is a gender-swapped contemporary romance version of Phantom of the Opera. It's kind of a fun over-the-top hot mess in much the way that the ALW musical is, although without the more problematic elements. I thought it was OK, but if you are a superfan of the show and/or like spicy insta-lust, it may be for you!

QOTW: Basically ditto to Jen, no IRL clubs and I just skip the ones that don't interest me here.

Back on my pace of about 2 a week and trying to read short ones to get back on track for my yearly challenge. I read Crudrat by Gail Carriger, which is her shift into YA Science Fiction. Definitely liked it and will continue when there's more, but didn't love as much as her Parasol books. I ordered it from my local bookstore and was disappointed that about 10 pages were not bound and fell out when turning. Bookstore said it was common with print on demand and suggested I report on author's page, and she emailed me back! She said there's two choices for self publishing, Amazon and Ingram, and they both suck. Bummed to have a crappy quality book, but fun to email with one of my favorite thors!

Next was Recursion that was recommended by over on BookNerds. Pretty intense book about time. Would definitely recommend for fans of near future scifi, although I would put a trigger warning for child death and alzheimer's.

Needed something fluffy after that and Heist Society fit the bill. YA Ocean's 11, the ending was clever enough that I would read more in the series.

Last finish was Cinderella Assassin, which I got in a storybundle. Finished it to see what happens, but author tried to jam too much in: alternate Cinderella, repressed magical creatures, tech, love triangle. Squished into about two days.

About to finishSubpar Parks: America's Most Extraordinary National Parks and Their Least Impressed Visitors, inspired by the FoE who is making a quilt off of the illustrations. The author/illustrator is a big national park fan, and each illustration is paired with a nice little summary of key things for each park, plus a gentle mocking of the person who left the one-star review.

QOTW: I have an IRL book club that I've been in about 5 years, and here about 4 years. I definitely have a higher success rate in liking books this group picks.
I am the only "genre" reader in the IRL group, so I read a lot of popular stuff I normally wouldn't pick. Guessing I have about a 50% rate of liking the book, and about 25% I don't get past page 50. Fortunately there is no shaming if you don't read the book. We take turns picking each month, as well as picking the restaurant where we meet. Usually we don't discuss the book more than 15 minutes or so. Nice to have something to get me out of the house regularly that I don't need to organize.

A couple of finishes since last time:

We, the Others: Allophones, Immigrants, and Belonging in Canada about the immigrant experience in Quebec, which remains a hot topic button, particularly as it relates to the preservation of the French language. Had me nodding my head in recognition quite often, even though the arrival on the North American continent of one of my ancestors goes back to 1654. Seems the one who arrived in the late 50s trumps old roots. Used for Book Nerds prompt "character who speaks more than one language".

Then, I went out looking for Black authors for Black history month.

My Sister, the Serial Killer was darkly fun, and the audiobook narrator shifting across Nigerian accents was delightful. I used for the Book Nerds BIPOC author prompt.

The Nickel Boys. I was trying to seek out new-to-me authors, but the selection of audiobooks at my libraries appears limited when it comes to Black authors. It may be my library, or could it be a publisher's resistance to invest to produce audiobook versions? I'd read Colson Whitehead's zombie story Zone One a few years back. This one is much more grounded in reality, with its own set of horrors. Whitehead has a knack for writing scenes and capturing moments that stay with you. I used it for the Book Nerds "with an epilogue" prompt.

I also had a strange experience with another book, Black Leopard, Red Wolf I restarted the audiobook twice, and even then, I'm having the hardest time figuring out what is going on in the story. The narrator's accent doesn't feel like an obstacle - it has a deep, dreamy quality to it - but combined with the fable-like tale that includes stories within the story, I can't make heads or tails of anything, I have returned the audiobook version, but I'll be borrowing the ebook to see whether my eyes can keep me following.

I'll finally be getting around to Children of Blood and Bone next.

QOTW: I've never had an opportunity to join an IRL book club. Most virtual clubs I only join in when the timing is right for me and any given book - I usually wait until the hype and the long hold lines dwindle before engaging with books, which leaves me way behind the pack for a lot of clubs :)

Been a good few weeks!

Tales from Earthsea was good fun, it filled in a lot of little gaps in the backstory of the series. I have always enjoyed Ursula K. Le Guin's short stories so I knew this would be a treat.

Into the West by Mercedes Lackey: second book in her newest series about the founding of Valdemar. Fellow Valdemar nerds would enjoy!

Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede: I've seen this book around for years and kept thinking it looked like fun, but never got around to picking it up until my other GR group decided to do a buddy read. It's an epistolary novel with the story told in letters between two cousins - one in the country estate, one in London - in an alternate Victorian England populated by magicians. There are more in the series, and I liked it well enough that I may continue, but it didn't have me racing out to pick it up right away.

Harriet the Invincible by Ursula Vernon: read this one with my second grader, and we both absolutely loved it. It's utterly delightful. Will definitely be racing out to pick up the sequel to this one!

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones: something a little different. A blogger I follow recommended this one, my library had it ready for immediate download, so I decided to check it out. I found it a bit confusing (the book traded first person narrators, and their mothers were major plot points, so I had to keep stopping to think of who was narrating and which "mama" she was referring to) but I thought it was a lovely book otherwise and I would certainly read more from this author.

I'm now rounding out the Earthsea series with The Other Wind.

QOTW: I've only ever done one IRL book group, with a group of fellow teachers who organized ourselves (we purposely did not invite any English teachers because we didn't want to feel self-conscious about our discussions). We didn't have a real formal procedure for picking books, people would just toss out suggestions. I was definitely the only genre reader in the group but it was good for me to branch out :) There were a few books that I disliked that everyone else seemed to love, but it was an easygoing crew who were all friends so disagreements were no big deal.