Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

Week 30. That sounds so ... late in the year. The summer is going by too fast for me!

Last week, I read Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, who is the master of short stories. This book? Wow. Loved it. Gave it 5 stars, which I rarely do. I was originally planning to slot this for "culture you are unfamiliar with" as it is about immigrants from India but I used Americanah for that. I'm still able to use it for my AtoZ title challenge but not for PopSugar.

This week my reading time has been taken up by watching the Democratic National Convention here in the U.S. On Sunday, I'm going to my first ever European soccer match (Real Madrid vs. Chelsea) at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. It's a bucket list thing for me so pretty excited. Next week, however, my kids are at Grandma's so it will be all reading, all the time! Woo hoo!

Any way, no progress for me. Holding still at 34/41.

Poll open: vote for a road trip book
I've created a poll for a group read for August based on the books nominated. It's open until Sunday. I'll send an email out with our pick once the poll closes.

Click here to vote in the poll!

Remember, please only vote if there's a chance you'll participate.

Question of the week: What's your favorite way to discover new books?

Me? I'm OBSESSED with book lists. I mean OBSESSED! I also rely a lot on my book club and, in the last few years, recommendations from my fellow Goodreads members.

And, if we're being honest here, every day I most look forward to my Amazon Kindle Daily Deals email. If it's not in my in box when I wake up, I get irritated until it's delivered. (That's how I got my copy of Unaccustomed Earth, it was a Kindle deal. I buy them when they're $1.99 to $2.99 and come back to them as the mood strikes.)

I'm at 36/41 after finishing 1 challenge book (out of three books finished) this week.

I have had a little extra reading time this week. Due to a day camp my daughter is in this week I've shifted my work schedule to allow me to get off early each day to pick her up. It has made the mornings even more hectic, but getting home by 4:30pm has been heavenly! I actually have time to SIT DOWN and read after dinner before the bedtime stuff starts!

I finished The Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Romance that Changed the World for my book set in Europe. It was a good book, and I enjoyed most of it, but it was sometimes hard to keep track of the who's who of lesser characters. The fact that Royals loved to name their children after themselves only complicates it. Some of the political stuff dragged, but overall it was a good read about an event I knew next to nothing about.

I also finished The Marvelous Land of Oz and Still Life though they don't work for my remaining prompts. Plan to continue both series.

Question of the Week: I find new books mostly through Modern Mrs. Darcy (website, podcast and kindle deals emails). Other blogs and podcasts provide suggestions as well though MMD is definitely my fav. I also will browse the "customers who bought this also bought" section on amazon for related titles to my favorite books.

I'm up to 29/41!

I only read one thing for the challenge this week. I finished my autobiography Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology. I can't believe all that she went through....

I also finished reading The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend. I read Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination and I finished Shades of Earth. I also started A Man Called Ove - this one is a struggle for me - I feel like its a bit dull. I'm going to give it another chance before putting it on my DNF shelf. So I started reading Three Wishes because that's going to be due back to the library soon.

I can't wait till next week when I have my hands on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child!!! That is for sure going to bring me joy!

QOTW: I find my books through youtube, goodreads, and from you guys!

Megan wrote: "I also started A Man Called Ove - this one is a struggle for me - I feel like its a bit dull. I'm going to give it another chance before putting it on my DNF shelf. "

Stick with it, Megan. Once you are past the first 100 pages, you will fall in love with Ove. (At least everyone I know who has read it has done so.)

I can't wait till next week when I have my hands on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child!!! That is for sure going to bring me joy!"

I'm looking forward to this too!

"I can't wait till next week when I have my hands on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child!!! That is for sure going to bring me joy!"

I cannot wait for this Saturday! (I am going at midnight for the sake of nostalgia). I want to know though, are you guys planning on burning through it or savoring it over the course of the week? I can't decide!

This week I am about to finish See Jane Score for A book set in your home state. A rom-com centering around a pro Seattle hockey player and a Seattle Times reporter. A nice mindless fluff read so far.

Question of the week: What's your favorite way to discover new books?
Right now I have no problem finding new books as I'm trying to whittle down my TBR list, but usually I stick to Goodreads or recommendations from friends and family. But sometimes GR screws me because I typically judge a book by its rating (I usually stick to anything above a 3.7). Anyone else do this??

I wouldn't have any progress to report, if I hadn't lounched myself into my second book of the prompt "a book you can read in one day"! Started it first thing in the morning, finished it 15 minutes ago, with more than half an hour to spare before midnight! Good thing I was on vacation: with a little less than 200 pages, this was near the upper limit pf what I can read in a day, if I'm not doing just that.

14. A book you can finish in a day (2): Chan Koonchung, The Unbearable Dreamworld of Champa the Driver , Transworld Publishers, 2016 (transl. from Mandarin, ed. orig. 2014).

That book was part of a bookshopping spree in a small nearby city (I'm now on vacation in rural Brittany) which happens to have an outstanding book shop (including a decent "foreign books" section, from which I picked this one). Which brings me to...

QOTW: mostly by rummaging through bookshops and library, and sometimes the bookshelves of my own home. Also, reputation, recommendations from friends or family, etc. Reading challenges are certainly a stimulation to explore new realms of the written world!

For PopSugar, I finished Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote and The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. So I'm at 10/41.

Started reading Jane Eyre and am continuing reading Rebecca for a different group. It's a bit hard to read these books at the same time. Both orphan books with a younger woman in love with an older man.

For the Around the Year in 52 books, I finished Absent In The Spring by Mary Westmacott (who is really Agatha Christie).

QOTW: What's your favorite way to discover new books?

Goodreads, browsing at the library, Modern Mrs. Darcy blog, Book Riot.

Lindi wrote: ""I want to know though, are you guys planning on burning through it or savoring it over the course of the week? I can't decide!"

I'm not entirely sure what to expect with this book. Is it going to be in script format? I hope it still has all the magic of the the original series. If it does I will probably fly through it!

Lindi wrote: ""I can't wait till next week when I have my hands on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child!!! That is for sure going to bring me joy!"

I cannot wait for this Saturday! (I am going at midnight for the ..."

I can't wait for this book to arrive also!!! It's for my 'book that brings me joy' prompt because I just know it will. I think I might wait, let my daughter read it first, then read it for my very last book for this challenge. I have two more besides this one.

I finished The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg this week. It was good, I liked it a lot. Fannie Flagg has such a distinctive voice. This was for my blue cover prompt.

Now I will start Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I've heard it's really good. It was recommended to me by a friend several years ago. It's been on my shelf taunting me. It will fulfill my "book about a culture you know nothing about".

QotW: I like it when people recommend books to me, but I also scour book lists. I like to search the free books on Amazon Kindle and sometimes get some really good ones. That's how I got Shatter Me and several classics. I do tend to read everything by an author once I find a great book. Then I attempt to stay caught up when they publish new ones. Goodreads has so many lists. This is my first year doing a reading challenge, and that's been very fun for me. I think I'll continue to look for challenges in the future.

Finished two books this week, hooray! Gilead is one half of the book-and-prequel prompt, and I have Lila to read now. I also read The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer for my murder mystery. It was recommended by a Twin Peaks-obsessed friend, but I didn't enjoy it much, so I'm thinking about finding a more traditional crime novel to read for the prompt instead.

QotW: I browse the library and Goodreads recommendations, but I'm a slow-enough reader that most of the time I'm struggling through lists of recommendations from friends.

Bonjour groupe,

Last week I read the book suggested by a family member (on of my uncle): Rules of Ascension. It was good enough for me to read the rest of the serie I think. That was the only book that I read for this challenge.

I got a call from my library to pick up a reservation I made. It was Cinder that I wanted to read for the YA prompt months ago. I guess they forgot my reservation. I still read it and I was surprise to like it that much since I am not a big YA fan.

I am now almost done with Memoirs of a Geisha for the book about a culture that I am not familiar with. It is very good.

QOTW: My friends and family recommends me book and since I am on Goodreads, my to-read-list explode.

Juanita wrote: Once you are past the first 100 pages, you will fall in love with Ove. (At least everyone I know who has read it has done so."

My Audio request for this just came in. I'm going to try listening to it and seeing if that helps. Thanks for the :)

Lindi wrote: ""I want to know though, are you guys planning on burning through it or savoring it over the course of the week? I can't decide!"

I can't decide either. I agree with Sara though - the format of the book will impact how quickly I can read it! I'm glad I'll be reading along with you guys!

No progress for me this week other than reading most of our July group read book, Everything I Never Told You. I'll have it finished today (Friday) because I only have about 40 pages left and I need to ready for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child! WOO! haha.

My favorite way to discover books has always been youtube or suggestions from friends and family. Lately since starting work at the library I've been getting ideas from seeing what patrons are checking out and that's been fun too.

I finished 3 books this week, but none were for this challenge, so I'm holding steady at 33/41. I'm in the middle of two other books (also not for this challenge), but once I knock those out I'll be reading Go Set a Watchman for my "book set in your home state." Based on what I've heard about it, I'm not really anticipating that I'll enjoy it, but I'm interested to make up my own mind.

QOTW: I recently picked up a second job working in a library (dreams DO come true), so right now my TBR list is growing by leaps and bounds just from seeing what's on the shelves and what's been circulating regularly.

This week, I read Challenger Deep (National Book Award winner), which was phenomenal. It is such a well-written story of a teenager's experience as he begins to show symptoms of schizophrenia. I definitely recommend it.

I also fiiinally finished Cress, which I was about half way through when my library loan expired a while back, and it took me far too long to get it back. Still, it is done, and I am ready to move on to Winter - although, I imagine it will be a while before I can get ahold of that one, as well.

While killing time yesterday, I also read a novella, The McCall Initiative Episode 1.1: Deception. It's an interesting concept, and a fast read, so I might continue with the rest of the series in the future.

QOTW: I usually get my recommendations from friends, Goodreads, challenges, family, other various places on the internet...Yeah, pretty much everywhere. Which is why my TBR shelf will never be barren, thank the gods.

Jessica wrote: "Lately since starting work at the library I've been getting ideas from seeing what patrons are checking out and that's been fun too."

So the reverse of this happened to me yesterday. We were checking some things out at the library. When I approached the desk the librarian was reading a book. She turned around to do something, and I peeked to see what she was reading which turned out to be Andrew's Brain.

Week 30. July 22nd-28th:

I finished 2 books this week:

Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas
The Killing Floor by Peter Turnbull

Neither is for the challenge.

I am currently reading Jane Eyre with Kathy for the book and its prequel prompt.

Question of the week: What's your favorite way to discover new books?

God, there are so many ways. Book clubs, book reviews (NPR and The Guardian are good for this), Bookreporter, blogs, lists, etc.