EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi everyone!

Is this the longest week in the world for anyone else? It's a holiday weekend in the US, so I suppose that's part of it. So at least Monday is off!

This was kind of a break week for me. I finished The Fifth Season which was good, but a bit of a long read for me. I ended up also reading Dealing with Dragons as just a bit of a breath of fresh air before finishing up.

I decided since I was in a lull between library books, that it was a good time to catch up on my comics. I won't bother listing them all since it wasn't reading trades, it was reading individual issues across a bunch of series. Probably read 50 some over the last few days. (i didn't actually count).

But now I have a pile of library books that just came up, so back to the grind! haha.

Next up is probably Murder on the Orient Express since that one came up first.

How's everyone else doing?

Well my husband has his summer vacation so my reading has slowed down considerably. Though we are visiting the Harry Potter exhibition tomorrow so I can't complain.

I reread the first volume of Amulet and then read two and three that I had lend from a friend. I also read Ruined in one sitting this morning as hubby watched our son.

I really like the graphic novel Amulet. I love the backgrounds that Kazu Kibuishi draws.I have the first one myself but never continued to buy the rest of the volumes that already out. But I think I'm going to ask for volume 4 for my birthday.

Ruined was a good young adult high fantasy read. It needs a bit of work in the world building department in places but it was very likeable. I am interested in reading on.

Annemieke,

Not sure where you're at, which Harry Potter exhibition? sounds fun!

I live in the Netherlands and it was in Utrecht. Costumes and such were there. It was certainly fun to see!

Oh cool! :D I went to London last year and did the Warner Bros Studio Tour, it was really awesome.

Hello, All!

I am *this close* to finishing the 40 book 2017 PopSugar Challenge! This past week, I read The Dragon Can't Dance for the prompt for a book that takes place around a holiday other than Christmas. This book tells the stories of a group of characters living in one of the slums in Port Au Prince (Trinidad and Tobago) during the 60s/70s and how Carnival gives them a way to show others that they are people, too, as the nation struggles with their colonial past. I wanted to read a book around Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but this came up in my search instead, and I decided to go with it as it reminded me of the books I read in a Commonwealth Fiction course I took and enjoyed long, long ago during my undergrad. The first half of the book was really wonderful, but the second half got a little too, "the character is telling me instead of showing me" existential, and I kind of tuned out a bit as I pushed through to finish it. Still, I didn't regret reading it and give it a solid three stars. If you're interest in post-colonial fiction, it would be an excellent read.

I'm currently on the last book of the 40 and only have about two hours of reading left. The final prompt for me was "a book with a month in the title," so I chose Miss September, mostly because my birthday is in September, so I thought that might be an added challenge, and I could get it from one of the libraries on campus. It's also neat that I'll be finishing in September. It was written by a Quebec writer and it's set in Montreal during the 1990s, which was when it was written. (funny story, I went to find the book in the library stacks and it was is in the Francophone section, and I thought I was only going to be able to get a copy in French since all the books were French. That would have REALLY been a challenge! But they had an English translation, phew!). I'm enjoying that I recognize a lot of the places described in the book, but the book itself is pretty bad, with a particularly wretched job done of characterizing the young, female protagonist through a clearly male gaze. But, it's a quick read and some of the characters are interesting, so I don't think I'll have a problem getting through it and checking it off my list!

Sheri, are you reading Murder on the Orient Express because the movie is coming out soon? I saw the trailer for it the other day and it's packed with stars--it must have been quite interesting to have all that star-power packed into a train car set for a few months while they filmed it! How are you liking the book so far?

Annemieke, it's been so fun seeing all the HP celebrations going on today that have shown up in my social media feed. Did you dress up as well?

Hi Stephanie,

I have a September birthday too! September 18th :D

Congrats on almost finishing the main challenge!

I did vaguely hear there's a movie being made, don't know anything about it. Initially I picked it for my book written between 1900-1950 or something like that, but it had such a long wait list I ended up reading Anne of Green Gables instead. but I felt like it was weird that I'm such an avid reader and have never read any Agatha Christie. So seemed like I should fix that. Also, now that I'm about half through it, i can clearly see a lot of pop culture references it. I totally remember an Animaniacs episode that is clearly a play off it. I think Yako even called himself the Great Yackot. Also I think it was referenced in Diamond Age briefly, as an old period piece murder mystery an actress was acting in. I'm enjoying it so far, it's a nice brisk read. I don't know that I'll go out and read all her books, but I'm still enjoying it.

I just finished Nora Robert's Come Sundown. It was a classic NR. There have been a few of her more recent novels that I have not liked and in fact, didn't bother to finish. I don't get into the dark stuff she sometimes ties in there.

I'm starting Hidden Figures for the book club. It just came in from the library.

Last weekend, Friday and Saturday, my husband and I moved our 22 year old daughter into an apartment in Brooklyn. Within 2 hours of when we left she had gone to the library to get her library card (she was denied until she could produce proof of residence in the form of any kind of mail to an address there, so it took her 2 more days). She was taking care of the important stuff!

Stephanie wrote: "Annemieke, it's been so fun seeing all the HP celebrations going on today that have shown up in my social media feed. Did you dress up as well?"
Haha no, unless my quidditch shirt counts. I did get my own ravenclaw scarf though!

Annemikes, you shirt totally counts! Susan, you daughter has #priorities! :-) What does NR stand for?

NR just stands for Nora Roberts.

Duh! I was over thinking it! I was all, "TBR, DNF...what's NR?" :-)

Annemike, she totally has her priorities straight ;)

Oops, meant Susan, can't edit on the app!

Hi all -

Despite not having much reading time, I seemed to get through a lot (thank you kid's book and Mindy Kaling fluff).

I finihsed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was great! I still can't believe I didn't read this as a child. The rest of the series is on my TBR list, but will have to wait until I finish my reading challenge.

After that I tackled Mindy Kaling's Why Not Me? as a book by a comedian. This was a poor choice. Her first book came recommended to me, but when I went to the library they didn't have it in. They had this one though and I figured that was good enough. This has been a category I've been avoiding, so I wasn't too set on any book in particular. Why Not Me features weird little anecdotes from Mindy's time on The Office and The Mindy Project. I didn't follow either of those shows and I'm not that familiar with Mindy in general, so most of the references, one-liners, and the tone of the book in general were lost on me. Oh well. At least I can cross that category off my list.

Yesterday I managed to scrape out some time to finish Frankenstein. Again, I can't believe I didn't read this before. It was not what I was expecting and I enjoyed it. I was continually surprised how different the book is from most of the movie adaptations, but in a good way.

Next up is either The Hangman's Daughter or The Shadow of the Wind as a book translated to English. The Hangman's Daughter is available on the Kindle app, making it more transportable, but The Shadow of the Wind has been on my TBR for quite some time. Any recommendations either way?

I'm not familiar with either of those, sorry I'm no help! I thought the same about Frakenstein, not at all what I expected. I enjoyed it though!

Glad you liked The Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. It's such a classic!

I really liked the Hangman's Daughter, though what I remember most about it was the introduction of coffee to the region. I have to admit that part fascinated me. Plus this reminded me I need to check out the sequel through the library.

When you said "book by a comedian" I don't know if it would qualify but I immediately thought of the couple of Dave Barry books I've read. They are hilarious. On road trips my husband and I used to read them aloud to each other while the other was driving. It was great fun.

I absolutely loved Trevor Noah's book Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood as a book by a comedian. The topic is pretty hard: growing up mixed-race under apartheid (and so he was actually the product of a crime by law at that time!), but he manages to use humour to really underscore his messages about systematic racism. That sounds like such a downer, so I don't think I'm making a very good case here....But, it was one of my favourite books from the Popsugar regular challenge this year, for what it's worth. I laughed out loud many times even while I was marveling at his story. Oh, and the book is also a real homage to the strength of his mother.

Oh, and I love Frankenstein, too! It's such a great book and well ahead of it's time with some interesting moral dilemmas that are still relevant today (IMO). I'm surprised it's not on more school reading lists.