Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

Happy Thursday bookish friends!

It's hard to believe the end of 2016 is only a few short weeks away! For those of you in the final push in your reading challenge how's it going? Are you going to be up till midnight on the 31st finishing your final book or are you nearly done?

I haven't finished any books this week. I found myself flipping back and forth between books but unable to settle on one - that is, until last night. I am about halfway through Nine Women, One Dress after picking it up at the library just last night! It's a great read! Definitely chick lit but it's good quality chick lit :)

I am also still trucking along on the Washington biography. At this rate it will definitely count towards next year's challenge because it will take me that long to read it!

Question of the week: Is there a book scheduled for publication in 2017 that you are really excited about?

For me I think it's A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn. This is the second book in her new Veronica Speedwell series.

I am still holding out a glimmer of home that Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone will be released, but Diana Gabaldon has made it sound unlikely.

I finished If You Could Be Mine. At first I thought I didn't even finish any books this week - until I looked it up and remembered. Does that say something about the book I read? Maybe - it was just okay. The main character was younger and didn't make great decisions.

Still only have one book left! Ahh! Its the book recommended to me by someone I just met. I have it checked out (Hex Hall) but have had zero motivation to read it. Maybe I'm just getting burned out - I set my sights on reading 95 books and that is just too much for me. I'm sitting strong at 87.

Going on a weekend trip tomorrow to New York - here's to hoping I find a book bought on this trip! ;)

QOTW Up until this year I don't even read that many new releases - I don't buy a lot and it always takes the library a little bit of time to get them in. But 15 (wowza!) books out of my 87 were published in 2016. So maybe this trend will continue in to next year! And then I get the satisfaction of checking off that prompt while reading a new book!

I finished Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 & 2 on Sunday for "first book you see in a book store" and with it finished my 2016 Popsugar Challenge. Woot woot!

Right now I am reading Middlesex] for my book club. It doesn't fit in any of my remaining challenge prompts (for my non Popsugar challenges). I am enjoying it thus far. I am probably one of the last people (particularly in Michigan where it is based) to read this book. I attempted to read it 10 years ago but it didn't hold my attention.

Question of the week: I don't even know of any books scheduled for publishing in 2017. I pre-ordered by Hilaria Baldwin, who is Alec Baldwin's wife. I follow her on Instagram and she is such a positive person. That book is being released on 12/27/2016 though. (I'm using it for "book with pictures.")

Juanita wrote: "I am probably one of the last people (particularly in Michigan where it is based) to read this book."

Well, I can't speak for Michigan, but outside of that you definitely aren't the last :) I haven't read it yet. I will probably get around to it eventually.

I finished Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two for my Published in 2016/December Challenge, and that makes me done for the entire challenge!

I started 11/22/63 for my 800 page book for next years challenge, with the intent to finish it as soon after 1/1/17 as I can. I'm about 10% done, and if I'm not careful I'll finish too early. It really grips you and keeps you wanting to go on!

QOTW: Gotta be Peace Talks by Jim Butcher, which is book 16 of the Dresden Files series. It's scheduled to be released in 2017, but had been scheduled to be released in 2016 too, so we'll see how that works out.

Hey people! I haven't been around for quite a while... Pretty busy on my twofold occupation as as IT guy and as a union representative... By the way, haven't found a book for the occupation prompt yet. Also, my free time has been quite eaten up by my new mania: my running has taken larger proportions in the last few month, about 80 miles for November, yay. I mean, that's a lot for me. :-)

So, where I am, reading-wise? Not much progress since the last time I posted. I'm stuck on a book through which I'm progressing like a snail on crutches... It's pretty clear now that I won't succeed in my doubled-up challenge, by far. Only progress since my last post:

✅26. A book and its prequel: William Shakespeare, Hamlet , Methuen, 1985 (first ed. 1602) / John Updike, Gertrude and Claudius , Random House, 2000.

I had red the prequel first, and that's one of my very good surprises of the year. I had never read Hamlet in English before; that was pretty cool actually.

✅✅29. A dystopian novel (2): Olivier Sillig, Bzjeurd , Atalante, 1995.

This could have gone to the SF prompt as well. With this weird title, this is a very strange and very dark piece of fiction, taking place in what seems to be a postapocalyptic world (only a few hints to that, mostly towards the end of the book). All in all, a very good novel, which would certainly have been more widely recognized if it hadn't been published in French by a rather small press (at least it was small at the time). I only discovered it by chance on the shelves of the charity bookstore next door!

I'm now at 65 books on 82... Three books currently being read for the challenge, including the one on which I'm stumbling and one I haven't touched for months. Hope to have more news next week!

--Christophe.

Juanita and Mike, congratulations on wrapping up the Popsugar Challenge! I'm jealous!

Still at 39/41 here. I'm getting really stalled on The Nix, which is an objectively very good book that is so incredibly Not My Thing. I'm determined to finish it this weekend - I'm less than 200 pages from the end, but UGH I am not looking forward to it. I'm only sticking with it at this point because there's no way I could get through another 600+ pager by the end of the year.

I did make some progress on other challenges this week, though.

For Around the Year, I finished The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer (a book about a thing that goes bump in the night) and March: Book Two (highest-rated book on my TBR). I'd recommend both! Now at 50/52 books - definitely going to finish this one.

For Modern Mrs. Darcy, I listened to the audiobook of Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives (a book you've read at least once already). Still love it - this could work for next year's "book with career advice," too. Now at 10/12 books - not super worried about finishing this one.

QOTW: I'm SUPER excited about two queer historical romances coming out (unintentional, but ha!) in 2017: Wanted, A Gentleman and The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue. I actually have an ARC of Wanted, A Gentleman already, but I'm saving it until I've finished The Nix.

Christophe wrote: "Hey people! I haven't been around for quite a while... Pretty busy on my twofold occupation as as IT guy and as a union representative... By the way, haven't found a book for the occupation prompt ..."

I was wondering where you were! Glad to hear from you!

Yay Christophe! So good to hear from you.

Btw, I've never run 80 miles in my life so to do so in a month? Good on you!

I am still at 40/41 but I finally started my final book last night. I hope to finish it by the end of the weekend.

QOTW: I can't think of a single book coming out next year that I'm looking forward to. I'm always holding out hope that George R.R. Martin will get it together and get The Winds of Winter out but I doubt it. Maybe if Philippa Gregory releases a new book next year I'll be excited for that one.

Juanita wrote: "Yay Christophe! So good to hear from you.

Btw, I've never run 80 miles in my life so to do so in a month? Good on you!"

I'll second that! :)

Re-bonjour Christophe. Glad to hear from you.

And I am at 41/41. This challenge is done and I am glad that I did it. My last book was the political memoir with: The Conquest of Gaul. It was not easy to follow, but interresting anyway.

QOTW: I don't read a lot of new release, but I can't wait for Doors of Stone. No idea if it will be for 2017, but I can hope.

Juanita wrote: "Yay Christophe! So good to hear from you.

Btw, I've never run 80 miles in my life so to do so in a month? Good on you!"

Actually I hadn't run that much until about three years ago, when two things happened: My scale began to be pretty rude to me, and a good friend of mine told me about her running, as the cheapest and most addictive form of exercise. So I went and bought running shoes, and started running about once a week, for pretty short distances at first, and then more and more... I hadn't run an organized race until last summer. Then I registered for a 17km race in September, and since the registration was very early, I also registered for a 20km race in July, next to my vacation place. And then another 20K in August, and then a half-marathon in October (with the friend that got me into running in the first place)... I'm not very fast, and at 46 I'm not going to break any record. Still, I'm pretty pleased by where I got, for a middle-aged nerd without no athletic past to speak of!

Hitting pause now on competitive races, but I'm registered for a half-marathon in early March and a 30k trail race two weeks later. Trail running is really what I love, not easy when you live plump in the middle of Paris! I might spend a few month in Texas next year, already checking the trail/mountain races in the area... Quite addictive, indeed.

QOTW: I have absolutely no idea on what books to expect next year, to tell the truth. I'm quite curious about the new Saucony Freedom ISO running shoes, though! ;-)

Fannie wrote: "And I am at 41/41. This challenge is done and I am glad that I did it. My last book was the political memoir with: The Conquest of Gaul...."

Congrats on completing the challenge! In what language did you read the Caesar book?

I can't see a mention of that book without thinking of a scene in one of the Asterix comic books:

(one Roman talking to Caesar) -- He's fantastic!
(Caesar) -- Who is?
(Roman) -- You are.
(Caesar) -- Oh, him!

Ha ha! I think that scene capture really well the way the book is written. At first I had trouble with Cesar refering to himself at the third person. I had to look on the web to be sure it was written by him.

And I read it in french.

No progress to report for this week, I'm starting to get worried I really won't finish after all. Knowing me I will be the one up until midnight on New Years Eve trying to finish :)

I've just started Time and Time Again and A Discovery of Witches so hopefully I will do work this weekend!

QotW: I cannot WAIT for the unreleased Cormoran Strike. I wish we had a release date but I know JK is still working on it. If you hadn't read the series yet, you need to ;)

Other than that I don't read many unfinished series or follow new releases. I usually wait until the hype gets to me and everyone bugs me to read something.

I had just been thinking we hadn't seen Christophe because he ran circles around us and finished his double list, when in fact he was literally running in circles.

I listened to Middlesex for my Oprah book, and the narrator was really good. Even though I chose a short children's book for my state, I have avoided it so much I dumped it and read a picture book instead, Larry Loves Portland!: A Larry Gets Lost Book.

I'm at 39/41!

I'm currently listening to American Assassin, which was recommended to me by the closest thing I have to family. I have still not been able to pick up Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography since the election.

QOTW: Nope. Not that I know of.

poshpenny wrote: "I had just been thinking we hadn't seen Christophe because he ran circles around us and finished his double list, when in fact he was literally running in circles..."

LOL, now that's funny :)

This has been a great week for me, Challenge-wise, because I tidied up several loose ends. This week I (finally) finished the last two books for the Book Riot challenge, and did a little deep dive into the Around the Year categories and found I had read a few books that would fit some categories, and then I read two more books for the challenge, so now I only have three books left for AtY, two of them in progress! So I'm pretty excited that I will definitely be able to finish all the challenges I started this year. That will make THREE Challenges completed this year for me, which frankly is one or two too many. Next year I think I'm just doing PopSugar.

This week I finished:
Raymie Nightingale - I love Kate DiCamillo, and used this book for the "read aloud" category in Book Riot, and it was disappointing so it took us forever to finish because we never wanted to get back to it.

The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction - for the Book Riot "essays" category; this was okay, and I'm cheating a little bit because I didn't read ALL the essays, I skipped around, but I read about half of them.

Career of Evil for AtY "author who uses more than one name" category - I listened to the audiobook, and I'm just in love with Robert Glenister reading Cormoran Strike so I can't even be objective about these books. I love them!

The Lover for AtY "saw the movie before I read the book" category.

Poems to Learn by Heart - this was for no challenge whatsoever, and it was also disappointing.

Real Murders - for AtY "Goodreads recommendation" ... meh. It was one of Charlaine Harris's first books, and it shows.

QotWOff the top of my head, I can't really think of any books coming out soon, which is weird since I know last year at this time I was excited about a few. Let's see, I'm looking forward to Bitch Planet, Vol. 2: President Bitch, which I have pre-ordered, but I don't think that counts since the individual issues were published this year. I am excited for another Cormoran Strike novel! but I'm afraid she won't actually publish it this year, since she seems so busy with the Fantastic Beasts movie series. ... I guess I'm looking forward to Marie Lu's Warcross, but with reservations - I LOVED her first series (Legend), but didn't care for her second series (the Elites). I'm planning to read the graphic novels that Marissa Meyer is creating as part of the Cinder series: Wires and Nerve, Volume 1, but graphic novels are not like regular novels and I'm afraid I'll be disappointed at the transition or the art. And I'll definitely be reading the first book in Laini Taylor's new series (which is a continuation of her Smoke & Bone series), Strange the Dreamer. I've got all of these on my TBR, but I can't really say that I'm SUPER excited about any of them.

Juanita wrote: "I am probably one of the last people (particularly in Michigan where it is based) to read this book."

Haha no you're not! (well, outside of Michigan anyway) I haven't read that book! (I confess, I sometimes get it confused with Middlemarch, which I ALSO have not read. I know, I know, they are totally different books!)

Well done on the running, Christophe!! I would like to be a runner, but my legs tell me NO. I have some weird tendonitis thing that causes great pain, so I finally just gave it up. I walk. It's not the same, but my dogs really like it :-)

Only one book left for me to finish the challenge this year. Been struggling with it so I started a book club pick instead (Everything I Never Told You). Thinking I'll bring my other one with me to my inlaws for Christmas. It's the middle of nowhere so it might motivate me to finish it.

QOTW: There are so many books I'm looking forward to it's hard to pick just one

I finished two Popsugar Challenge books so I finished!

Read:
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. This was a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for fantasy. I read it for the romance set in the future.

For a book over 600 pages, I finished The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. Loved it!

I have two books left for Around the Year and one book left for Book Riot.

Question of the week: Is there a book scheduled for publication in 2017 that you are really excited about?
The sixth Max Tudor book by G.M. Malliet comes out in April. It's called Devil's Breath.