EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi all,

Sorry I dropped off again. It's been hectic at work, and returning back to life. Had an event every week the last several weeks, plus went to Raleigh for a week. It's been fun, but busy.

Supposed to go to a concert tomorrow, but we'll see if that actually happens. they're predicting 11-14 inches of snow starting in the afternoon, carrying on all evening. Not driving in that!

I lost track when I posted last. So a selection of what I've been reading:

The Terraformers - this was interesting, although I think a bit all over the place. There were bits I wish had gotten tightened up and explained more. I do really like Newitz's writing, they always come up with such fantastic ideas.

A Court of Thorns and Roses - decided to finally check out all the hype over Sarah J Maas, and I think i can say I don't really get it. It was....fine. I didn't hate it. But I've read plenty of far better Beauty and the Beast retellings. Feyra was pigheaded, but not really in a fun way. More just in a ..."they literally told you not to do that, what did you expect to happen?" way. I also thought she had way better chemistry with both Lucian and ..Rhys? so I found the Tamlin romance part kind of a bore. I doubt I'll continue the series because i'd just be rooting for her to go ditch Tamlin and end up with someone else and be disappointed.

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir - another TBR challenge read, this was hard to get through but powerful. I admit I only really knew about the movement from what was in the media, so it was good to learn more from one of the actual founders.

House of Hunger - had this on hold for months, finally came up. I wanted to like it more than I did. It had so much promise, and started off really strong, but ended up falling a bit flat. It was pretty short, only around 250 pages I think. If it had been fleshed out a bit more, i think it would have been stronger. It had some pacing issues, starting off at a nice clip, but then dragging in the middle. But then ended really abruptly and in a way that didn't really feel like it resolved a whole lot.

Keeper of Enchanted Rooms - Another TBR challenge pick. I'd gotten it from amazon first reads. This was a delightfully cozy book, I recommend it for people looking for a good cozy read! It's the first in a series, but i think it's resolved enough in the end that you won't feel like you HAVE to run out and read a second.

The Raven Tower - Yet another TBR challenge pick. I love the Ancillary Justice series, so had been looking forward to reading more of her work outside of that. I didn't really end up liking this as much. It wasn't bad, but I got really distracted by the writing style. A lot of it was written from an outside perspective being narrated towards one of the other characters. so "You did this, and then you did that". It was confusing and I kept trying to figure out who was talking. Also the time kept jumping around and i had trouble keeping track of what was happening when. Some of that could just be me problems, not necessarily problems with the book.

House of Earth and Blood - So while i wasn't exactly thrilled to read another Maas, there's another digital book club i'm in that had selected this for the March pick. A lot people were having trouble getting it/were worried about finishing it. I have access to a library that both has a huge selection and not very may people seem to use digitally, so I was able to get it in less than 2 weeks. So I felt obligated to give it a try so at least SOMEONE would participate in next month's discussion. I actually liked this one much better than a Court of Thorns. Not enough to say I'm a converted Maas fan, but I would possibly, maybe, consider reading the second one. If I felt like another 800 page read. Maybe later in the year. There were some genuinely moving parts in it. My biggest beef with it was that i don't think it NEEDED to be 800 pages. Around the 400 mark i was going "how on earth are there 400 pages left? how has the plot moved so little?" If you're racking up that kind of page count, I should be so lost in it, I'm not even noticing. That being said, it did pick up a lot in the second half. So...I don't know. Like i said, maybe if i hit a lull later in the year I'll give the next one a try, if only to wrap it up.

The Wedding Date - I'd hoped for some nice easy fluff after that big tome. I guess this served for that, but man this was a mess. It was a nanowrimo book, and I think a debut, and it really felt it. I feel like the author couldn't really decide on the steamy level of her book. So the dialogue and action would be ramping up...and then all of a sudden they'd be in the aftermath gasping for breath. I actually went back like "did my eyes glitch on the page?" It's not that I NEED explicit details. It's just...you write differently if you're not going to put them in. You fade to black. You gracefully exit the scene and re-enter later. This felt like she wrote out a whole steamy scene, got mortified, deleted the explicit bits and then didn't edit the scene any further. It was like a glitch every time they got intimate. So in my mind it means no type of reader would be happy. If you want NO steamy bits, the dialogue/scenes leading up to those parts are probably far too raunchy. If you DO want the steamy parts, it's not satisfying at all. Or if you're like me where you can take it or leave it, it just is annoying because it's in a weird awkward middle place. Also it's got my least favorite tropes of "drama based on just not communicating properly", and I don't really think Drew is nearly as nice of a guy as everyone keeps saying he is based on any of his actual actions. I wasn't really rooting for their relationship to work out.

Currently reading:

The Cloisters - current audiobook, not too far into it but liking it so far

I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself - randomly grabbed this from the library. interesting, don't know what to think so far

Check, Please! Book 1: #Hockey - quick comic read, cute so far

QOTW: Do you remember learning to read? What do you remember?

Memories are weird, so it's hard to to know what i actually remember vs what I remember people telling me. I mostly know that I hard time learning to read in kindergarten. I have a fall birthday, and I started early when I was still 4, turned 5 in September rather than being held back a year. I started first grade in the lowest reading level, but apparently something clicked in that year, I ended first grade in the highest reading level. I don't know how much of that is "remembering" vs being what my mom telling me. I do remember reading a lot, and my mom reading to me every night. And in second grade my teacher LOVING Clifford the big red dog and having a contest that the any kid who read every single Clifford book got to take the giant stuffed clifford home for a night. I was the first to do it, I think within the first month of school. (it helped that my mom taught second grade so we had a good chunk of the books at home, I didn't have to borrow them from the classroom, I was plowing through ten a night ),

The nice thing about 11-14 inches of snow is that you have the perfect excuse to just stay home and curl up with a book! We usually get at least one big storm like that each winter, but so far haven't gotten more than 3-4 inches at a time, and it's been warm enough that it doesn't really last. My kids are so bummed, they're dying to go sledding.

When I posted last week I had just started Songs of Earth and Power. I got about 9 chapters in and then gave up. I would have given up earlier, except that I'd read it before and rated it 4 stars. It just felt a little too bleak for my mood right now, and it suffered by comparison to Stephen King's Fairy Tale which I read fairly recently and has a somewhat similar plot.

My ebook loan for the fourth Murderbot novella just came in, but I can't find my kindle to read it on!! I may have to suck it up and read it on the app on my phone if I can't find it soon.

QOTW: I don't remember learning to read at all. I do remember that I was one of only two kids in my kindergarten class who was reading already when kindergarten started, and I have hazy memories of the two of us being pulled into the hall to practice with our classroom aide while the other kids got their phonics instruction. I also remember the "letter people" characters that were part of the phonics lessons - I remember Mr. T had Tall Teeth, and Mr. H had Horrible Hair. I don't remember any of the others. Anyone else who was in elementary school in the early 80s remember these?

Edit: I did a google search and found the letter people on Wikipedia! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Let...

Shel -

The main issue is the tickets are already bought, so we're out money if we don't go. I DID buy insurance on it, because back when they went on sale numbers were spiking so we were concerned we'd get sick. But unfortunately it only covers weather if it's actually declared a state of emergency and the venue does not cancel the show. Not just if we, personally, don't want to drive and don't want to risk it. So we're going to have to just keep an eye on the weather and see how it looks and make the decision as it gets closer.

We had the letter people in my classroom! They actually had little blow up things of them, i think. like inflatables. I remember being disappointed because S was just some sock guy because everyone got a special coloring page for their first initial and I wanted something cooler.

The children's library branch I have been using for my holds has been having HVAC issues, and they kept closing early last week. I finally had to go outdoors before noon on a Saturday in the rain to make sure I could pick them up. The horror!

How to Be Black - This is a decade old but I only found out about it because the author hosted a PBS show and I looked him up. So it was very Obama-era but still very funny. He totally called me out with the introductory chapter titled "Thanks for Celebrating Black History Month by Acquiring This Book" (apparently it was published January 31 with this intention).

True Biz - Once again I waited for the hype to die down to get this one. I thought the hype was mostly deserved, but it kind of fell apart at the end. There's a lot left unresolved, which is OK, but it was also pretty anticlimactic as well, and there's a new character POV/backstory thrown in really close to the end for some reason. I would still recommend it for the writing and the window into Deaf culture (a Deaf booktuber I follow liked it and I trust their experience).

QOTW: I could read at least some before I started school, so I really don't remember learning. I remember my "advanced" reading group having mimeographed sheets that had one page with words replaced with drawings (dog, farmer, etc) and another page with just the words, and I would flip on over to that, thank you.

Pretty sure we did NOT have the letter people. Those are terrifying!

Happy Friday! I'm on vacation today and Monday, and we're going out of town for the weekend. I'm looking so forward to getting away, at least for a little bit.

Finished:
The Afterward - 3.5 stars - for the Popsugar book with a queer lead. I enjoyed it overall, but I feel like the author just skipped over the actual plot resolution and took us right to the aftermath, with a "I'm glad we were able to...." tell not show. It kind of sapped the power out of the ending.

Nick and Charlie: A Heartstopper Novella - 3.5 stars - not for a prompt; just a short little novella about the Heartstopper characters, taking place after the events of the comics.

Comics & manga (not for prompts):
Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 2
Skip and Loafer, Vol. 5
The King's Beast, Vol. 9
Something's Wrong With Us, Vol. 13
Snow White with the Red Hair, Vol. 23
Komi Can't Communicate, Vol. 23
Rainbow Days, Vol. 1
Rainbow Days, Vol. 2

Currently reading:
The Wicked Bargain - for the Popsugar prompt of a book that features two languages. This is a historical fantasy taking place in the Caribbean with a queer, nonbinary lead and lots of Spanish sprinkled in. I'm not too far in yet, but so far I'm enjoying it.

Planned:
Ariadne
The Mimicking of Known Successes

QOTW:
I learned to read at home before starting school, so I don't even remember a time when I was reading anything within reach, including cereal boxes at breakfast. I do remember being bored in the first grade during phonics lessons, because I already knew all that. I vaguely remember the teacher letting me read quietly in class instead.

Welcome back to the check-in Sheri! I hope you get to go to your concert tomorrow. Hopefully it will end early enough they can clear the roads for you.

I only have one finish this week The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. I enjoyed this book a lot. It was totally cozy and low stress. I liked it better than The House in the Cerulean Sea. It made me feel a bit like Legends & Lattes.

I then started reading my book for neighborhood book club, The Memory Keeper of Kyiv. It is a time swapping book where every other chapter is current-ish (early 2000s) and back to the 1930 Ukraine. The Ukrainian parts are very depressing and I find myself looking forward to the modern day chapters to relieve that. I'm enjoying the overall story more than I expected but it is heavy. I kind of wish I'd saved The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches until after this.

When I cannot tolerate reading the sad story of Ukraine before bed, I re-acquired I Wouldn't Do That If I Were Me: Modern Blunders and Modest Triumphs from the library. I can read one or many short humorous essays and put it down whenever. It is a good palate cleanser when needed.

I'm listening to the final Old Man's War story, The End of All Things on audiobook. This has been a good series. This one seems pretty long as each chapter is about an hour long.

QOTW:
I learned to read either in kindergarten or 1st grade. I vividly remember reading the old Dick and Jane books. I was an average student/reader while in a Catholic school (K-3). Once I moved to the public schools in 4th grade I suddenly was in the top reading group and a straight A student. The schools were equally as good, I think I just didn't "fit in" with the strictness of the Catholic school.

I unfortunately did not go to the concert. Ended up being a full blizzard with thunder snow and lightning and a travel advisory. They didn’t cancel it but we didn’t feel safe going out, and the storm was due to continue all night. Considering we’ve been tag teaming the drive way for two hours now, I think we made the right call. I actually had gotten ticket insurance on it because it was the first event tickets I’d bought in ages and were so far in advance I’d been worried about if we’d get covid or something. So I filled out a claim, because extreme weather is supposed to be covered. We’ll see if I get my money back! She’s actually coming back to town later this month at a different venue, so maybe I’ll just try to get tickets to that instead.

Good luck with your ticket claim! Sounds like it was the right decision.

We totally understand Sheri. We had tickets back in Sept 2021 to Cheap Trick in NH. We bought them around the time everyone was vaccinated. But when Sept rolled around, we just didn't feel comfortable as NH had no masking and it was the beginning of Omicron and we watched COVID numbers just keep creeping up. We did not have insurance, we tried to give them away and had no takers so we ended up eating the cost. But we made the right call at the time. Someday we'll get to see them.

I hope your insurance comes through and that you get tickets to the new event.

Just one finish for me this week: The Book Eaters. I have zero recollection of how this book got onto my radar, but it was an enjoyable read. I used it for the Book Nerds "child under 10" prompt. 15/100

QOTW: I'm pretty sure I learned to read at home, ahead of what was being taught in kindergarten. My parents were both readers, and I had plenty of my own books as well. No letter people for me. I do remember learning to write letters on those lined sheets with extra dotted lines above and below.

Dani- It was all over Facebook/every book site I follow right before it debuted! To the point where when I saw it in an indie shop just after it dropped I had to buy it just to see the fuss. (I mean I also always try to buy something when I’m in an indie store)