Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion
2019 Weekly Checkins
>
Week 39: 9/19 - 9/26
So much rain this week! We had a stream running down our third floor corridor at work because water was streaming through an open window. My shoes from Monday still haven't dried out and a colleague has a water-logged car. Not the kind of autumn I enjoy. Even the dog doesn't want to go out in it (and she loves muddy puddles and swimming).I read The Giver of Stars for review and a book I think should be a movie, just because I am never going to fill this prompt otherwise, it's rare I desperately want a film version of something. I think it has sold adaptation rights? I liked learning about the pack horse librarians. If you already like Jojo Moyes' historical fiction, you'll probably enjoy this with its easy to like characters (one very easy to hate character) and a smidgen of romance.
I finished The Ten Thousand Doors of January for ATY rejects (portal fiction). I liked the idea but I didn't really get absorbed into it.
And I listened to The Lottery and Other Stories for a book seen on TV (in The Haunting of Hill House). This wasn't what I was expecting but I enjoyed a lot of the stories. I don't think I've read much about everyday life from that era, so it was interesting in that way and Shirley Jackson does do good endings.
Am currently reading Pet for African author (I split this prompt out into three) and listening to Command and Control for ATY (second book for two related books).
PS: 46/52 | ATY: 47/52 | GR: 102/100
QOTW:
I had a real slow patch (in terms of quality) this year but more recently I've been reading books I absolutely loved:
Sadie by Courtney Summers (YA Mystery)
The Heartland: Finding and Losing Schizophrenia by Nathan Filer (Non-Fiction)
To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers (Sci-Fi)
Sanctuary by V.V. James (Fantasy)
Heartstream by Tom Pollock (YA Thriller)
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel (Sci-Fi)
After Atlas by Emma Newman (Sci-Fi)
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (Dystopia)
I finished up the last of The Borgias: Power and Fortune as my book published I 2019. Interesting and informative.I read The Sky is Fallingas mybook by an author with first and last name that starts with the same letter. It was absolutely ridiculous. I don't recommend at all.
And, I'm close to the end of The High Mountains of Portugal as a fave category from previous year, book that takes place in Europe. I don't think I've read a book that takes place in Portugal. Which is weird because I used to work at a travel agency and we had to take this travel class and do a presentation on a country. I was assigned Portugal. So, I did a lot of research about it, just haven't read a book that takes place there.
QOTW:
These are the 5 star books I've read this year
11/22/63
Devil's Brood
The Nightingale
Everything I Never Told You
David Copperfield
Wuthering Heights
The last two were rereads
For the last 23 years I have been a stay at home mother- then last Monday I started a job (outside the home). I really like my job- and I'll like it better once I really figure it out- but this job is really cutting into my reading time. When I told my 16-year-old that he said, "Good, you need a life." He, obviously, is not much of a reader.This week I read:
Calling Invisible Women- this was a rather fun book about a mom who went invisible and her family didn't even notice. There was more- figuring out why she was invisible, finding more invisible women... I enjoyed this book.
The Garden of Small Beginnings- this book was meh for me. I wanted to love it, but just felt like we were going around in circles.
All the Impossible Things- a cute middle grade read about a girl in foster care that can sort of control the wind. She is still learning how to harness her power.
Don't Say a Word- I enjoy this series (I hope it is a trilogy and not longer than that- I just am getting the trilogy vibe). The biggest issue I have with it is that it refers heavily to the last book. If it has been a while since you've read the last book you really have to think (and if you're reading a YA suspense, you didn't come to have to focus your memory). The next one probably won't be released until middle to late next year so I might have to reread.
Nadine, I am glad to hear you liked The Glass Ocean- I picked it up at the bookstore the other day on a whim. I have never read anything by this writing team.
Happy Reading!
Happy Autumn felow Northern Hemisphere residents! It's my favorite season. Now if Mother Nature would just get the memo and drop our temperature out of the high 80's and 90's.In case you haven't seen it, I added a thread to get some feedback on the reading challenge - what you love to see and hope to not see again for a while. You can check out the thread here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Thanks to a weekend readathon with some friends I managed to finish several books this week, and I tried to focus on knocking out several left on my reading challenge list.
Finished:
The Passengers by John Marrs. This book was so fantastic! I think I still loved his other book, The One, just a hair more, but The Passengers is compulsively readable. Eight people climb into their fully automated driverless cars one morning. After they enter their destination into GPS and settle back for the ride a new voice comes over the speaker and tells them they are being rerouted and that in 2.5 hours they will be dead. The book follows each of the passengers as their individual stories (and secrets) unfold along with a secret jury that had convened to judge whether a recent accident involving a driverless car had been the fault of the car (i.e. the technology) or the person who died. The Hacker, meanwhile is driving the entire scenario to his desired ending. Such a good read. I think I read it in a matter of hours.
The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory. Book 3 in her Wedding Date series. I loved this installment in the series. Maddie and Theo hate each other pretty much on sight, but they share a best friend, Alexis. Basically this is a hate to love story, but the characters are likeable and the story is fun. The whole series is fun!
The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo. I LOVED this book! Leigh Bardugo has written a brand new collection of fairy tales in the style of the Grimm brothers - darker stories with some very un-Disney endings. I used this one for a book inspired by folklore. I recommend this to anyone who likes fairy tales, folk tales, mythology, etc.
Twelfth Night by Deanna Raybourn. This one's a novella from Raybourn's first series, Lady Julia Grey. I know the Veronica Speedwell series is super popular right now (and super good), but Julia and Brisbane will always hold a special place in my heart. I wonder if it's because I read this series before Veronica came about. Anyways, this was a reread but will hopefully be part of my two books with the same title...assuming I can finish Shakespeare's Twelfth Night!
Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography. This was a fun choice f or my choose your own adventure book. His writing was witty and charming. Skipping around the book left me with an odd timeline of events, but I tried to view it more as little vignettes.
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. I did enjoy this book, but I'm wondering if I just need a break from YA fantasy series. I don't have a strong desire to pick up book 2 yet. I'm sure I'll get around to it eventually. The audio narration of this was excellent.
Currently reading:
House of Salt and Sorrows - I just picked this up last night so I haven't read much yet. Dark, ghostly, eery retelling of the twelve dancing princesses. Sign me up!
Emma by Jane Austen. This is one of only two Austen books I haven't read yet (the other is Mansfield Park). I'm listening to the audiobook with Emma Thompson and will be using it for my book I've seen someone read in a movie (The Jane Austen Book Club - such a great movie!)
43/50
QOTW
Some recent 5 star reads for me:
The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic - as mentioned above
Bury Your Dead - #6 in the Inspector Gamache series and my favorite
I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life
As an honorable mention I'm going to throw in The Passengers (also described above) because it is really a 4.5 star read and I'm really tempted sometimes to bump it to 5.
I'm hoping to pick up some new potential favorites by seeing what everyone lists as 5 star reads!
Mod
Like Nadine, I am also on my penultimate (so much more fun than second to last) book. Unlike Nadine, I am not done yet. The last two books are taking forever.Finished:
The Bookshop on the Shore on audio.
Currently reading:
The Overstory I didn't realize this book is over 500 pages. I both like it and don't like it. This morning I read a sentence about a character's coprophagic grin. It made me happy that I knew the word, but couldn't he have just said shit-eating?
Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players
Brideshead Revisited Listening to the audiobook read by Jeremy Irons and really enjoying it.
Middlemarch has been temporarily set aside so I can finish the last two books for Popsugar.
QOTW:
Such a great question. My most recent ones are:
Little Historical fiction based (not sure how loosely) on the early life of Madame Tousseaud.
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts
Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery
The Secret History
The Calculating Stars
So tired. I finally decided I'm tired of being fat, so I pulled out my old Fitbit and started walking. Averaging 15000 steps a day and aiming for a five pound weight loss each month. Wish me luck!Challenge Progress: 45/50
Completed:
Three Women: "We don't remember what we want to remember. We remember what we can't forget." I think every woman has her own "me too" story, but these women's stories of desire (power, want, fulfillment, understanding...) are laid out in a brutal fashion. Fascinating and tragic. ★★★★
Lord of the Flies: Horrifyingly real. This is how boys would truly behave. Their de-evolution from proper British boys into savages is riveting. The edition I read included a foreword by Stephen King that was illuminating and in itself well worth reading. (A book with more than a million ratings on Goodreads) ★★★★
Bitter Greens: I loved this book! I picked it up as simply a retelling of the Rapunzel fairy tale, but it was so much more than that. This is a story within a story within a story. There's the story of Rapunzel and the story of La Strega (the witch), Selena Leonelli. But the most fascinating part was about the real-life author of the Rapunzel fairy tale, Charlotte-Rose de la Force. Full of twists and turns and complicated characters. Again, I really, really liked this one. (A book with salty, sweet, bitter, or spicy in the title) ★★★★★
Currently Reading: The Institute, The Testaments, Shortest Way Home: One Mayor's Challenge and a Model for America's Future (a book with pop, sugar, or challenge in the title), Lab Girl (a book recommended by a celebrity you admire - Barack Obama)
QOTW:
I just checked my stats, and I was surprised by the large number of 5-star ratings I've awarded this year. Then I remembered that my reading has also exploded this year... I've rated 125 books!
My most recent 5-star reads are: Bitter Greens, The Swallows, They Called Us Enemy, Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood, and The Lager Queen of Minnesota.
While it is technically fall, the temperatures have not fallen yet. I'm so excited to wear my fall clothes and boots, but it's just too warm out. I really felt like I was getting a lot of reading done, but I'm just so busy that I'm stuck only finishing one book a week.This week I finished a re-read of Call Me By Your Name, which is such a beautiful book and I can't wait for the sequel. I'm ninth in line at the library, so I should have it soon.
I am currently reading The Chestnut Man as my book set in Scandinavia. I'm about halfway through and I'm enjoying it. I also just got a bunch of books out of the library that I will need to finish in the next three weeks. I'm looking forward to that.
QOTW: My last five-star reads were:
Call Me By Your Name, which I just finished again;
The Bear and the Nightingale, which was super lovely, but I didn't love the second one as much and I'm not sure how much I am interested in the third;
The Flight of the Silvers, another re-read and another book where I'm not super into the sequel; and
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, my favorite Harry Potter book, which I have recently learned a lot of people hate.
I'm hoping to get a few more five stars in before the end of the year.
Happy Thursday! 49/50Completed:
The Last White Knightby Tami Hoag was for a different challenge but was, surprisingly, a romance novel. She’s a good writer, but I prefer Kovac and Liska. It was written in 1992, which was prior to the common use of cell phones, so that was kind of fun. You forget just how recently that was!
Ruth Ware’s In a Dark, Dark Wood bodes the question – why had I not read this yet! As someone who has gone to more than my fair share of former boyfriends’ weddings, Nora’s trip to a former BF’s weekend hen party, where she learns that the bride to be is marrying her ex-boyfriend who is still the object of her desire is fantastic. My only complaint is that because I have the audio book, I can’t read faster than the speaker. Really, really good! (Oh, and apparently someone murdered someone and Nora is trying to recall what happened from her hospital bed.)
Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter is a fun thriller. Imagine having a birthday lunch with your mother at the mall when a crazed gunman opens fire. Then imagine your mom, a fifty something cancer survivor, taking down the gunman single handedly. She’s then the victim of a home invasion and you get sent on the lam with her ‘go’ bag. Who is your Mom? Andi sets off to find some answers.
DNF
The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo is for my Europe reads. It’s rare that I can’t finish a book about a book club. This one was just that boring.
In Progress
Mrs. Saint and the Defectives by Julie Lawson is a story of a divorced woman forced out of her high end life when her leech of a husband is caught cheating on her and had spent all of the money she had earned. Mrs. Saint is the overreaching neighbor.
Hark the Herald Angels Slay by Vicki Delany is a cozy that features a town celebrating Christmas year round. Our protagonist's ex-fiancee is found murdered in her shop.
QOTW Thus far this year, I’ve had 3 five star reads. Only the first one was for the challenge:
Orhan's Inheritance
Pieces of Her
The Emperor General: A Biography of Douglas MacArthur
Hello all,After a very beautiful summer I am happy to see the beginning of autumn (is it autumn or fall? I'm always confused).
I realized that I didn't post here since the beginning of August so I have a few books to report. I am almost done with the challenge (not doing the Advanced one), but I feel like reading anything but books toward this challenge.
Books I read:
The Golem and the Jinni that I liked.
The Two Towers. A re-read of a favorite book.
The Graveyard Book. I will be able to participate in next month discussion. Gaiman is hit or miss for me, but that one I liked.
The Wedding Date for the prompt with a wedding in the story. Meh!
The Lovely Bones not at all like the movie.
Artificial Condition still love Murderbot.
Mansfield Park another re-read.
Currently reading:
They Both Die at the End I had to return that one to the library, but I,ll get back to it even if I don't really like it so far. A bit too YA for my taste.
To Be Taught, If Fortunate really good so far.
QOTW:
I feel like I had a great reading year so far, here's my last 5 stars books
Artificial Condition
The Two Towers
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Ready Player One
Happy Thursday! The weather here has been crazy this week - 80's one day, 60's the next. I just want fall weather so I can do all my favorite things - fall foliage drives, pumpkin and apple picking, hayrides, etc! I finished three books this week (all five star reads), two for the challenge which leaves me with only one book left. Finished:
The Little Prince - I read this for prompt #14 - a book you see someone reading on TV or in a movie. Sawyer read this on LOST, and it was actually my first time reading it. I loved it!
Dry - I listened to this for prompt #41 - a cli-fi book. I was not looking forward to this prompt at all. It isn't a normal genre for me, but I ended up loving this book.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - why did I wait so long to read this? I loved this book so much. The writing was excellent and the story was great.
Challenge Progress:
Regular Challenge - 39/40
Advanced Challenge - 10/10
Total - 49/50 - I only have prompt #3 left - a book written by a musician.
Currently Reading:
The Turn of the Key - listening to this.
The Nanny at Number 43 - I have an ARC of this.
I'll pick another actual book to start reading tonight, but I'm not sure which one yet!
QOTW - What are your last few five star reads?
The Little Prince
Dry
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Warcross
Three of these were books I finished this week! Looking forward to see what everyone else answers for this question.
Fannie wrote: "After a very beautiful summer I am happy to see the beginning of autumn (is it autumn or fall? I'm always confused)."
I usually say Fall out of habit, but I much prefer the word Autumn. It sounds more polished and proper, and since it's my favorite season I want to give it all the accolades I can!
Mod
Nadine wrote: "Anne. LOL! I get lots of reading done at work, but of course I can only pull this off because I’ve been working here forever. Boring tele-conference meeting? Whip out the ebook! Lunchtime? ebook! C..."I am a para at a school reteaching reluctant readers (and students struggling with math). So I guess you could say I read a lot at work. The reading is just little books like "In the Shopping Cart"..."I like bananas, I like eggs,' etc. Not my standard fare.
This week I decided to organize my TBR books (on my shelf and Kindle) on Goodreads. I'm stunned to realize I have 72 (!!) purchased, unread books. And worse, I bought several of those books in paperback and Kindle because I forgot I had them in the other format. I really hate wasting money like that. I am not too happy with myself right now. Finished
Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream by Carson Vaughn. This book isn't what I expected. I thought it was going to be about a small zoo closing and the town suffering an economic downturn because of it. That's what the summary and reviews made it sound like. It was actually about terrible, selfish people who had no business running a zoo. They tried to keep the zoo open at any expense, including the animals' welfare, and a lot of animals ended up dead or mistreated because of it.
Reading
The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien
Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen
The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation by Colin Calloway
QOTW
I'm rereading The Lord of the Rings right now and that's a 5-star read for me. Otherwise, I've had a long string of mediocre books. I had to go way back in my reading list to find 5 stars. No wonder my reading has slowed down lately.
Uprooted
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Storm of Locusts
Nadine wrote: "Fannie - Yes! - in the US we say both Fall and Autumn, they are the same. (I think I say “fall” more than I say “autumn”) but in the rest of the English-speaking world I think it’s just Autumn. I’v..."Well some countries have mostly evergreen trees... I was curious so googled and apparently the UK used harvest, fall and then autumn, perhaps influenced by Shakespeare or Chaucer! I only ever say autumn, and it's rare to hear Brits says fall.
https://www.dictionary.com/e/fall/
Happy Autumn!! Our temps are high of 92 - 95 for the next week, so I'm pretending... There are a couple of trees that drop their leaves and my daughter goes out of her way to step on them during our walks. She says she likes the crunchy noise and makes it feel more like fall!Finished:
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman – PS# 36 – A ghost story. 4 stars A normal story about a village raising an orphan child, just in a graveyard!
The Perfect Wife by Blake Pierce This is my first read by this author. I enjoyed the book. 4 stars. I liked the thriller genre without a gruesome murder. (Is mild-thriller a sub category?)
Swine Not?: A Novel Pig Tale by Jimmy Buffet – PS#3. This was a prompt I wasn’t looking forward to, so thanks to Mr. Buffet for writing a story instead of another song. Swine Not? Is a very cute story, light hearted, funny to read.
Laika by Nick Abadzis – PS#20 – A book set in space. This was also a prompt that is not a favorite subject. This book was a graphic novel, which is the first time I’ve read one. I enjoyed reading the different format.
Currently Reading:
I’d Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel – PS#8- A book about a hobby. Very Funny, can so relate...
I Heart London – BOTM for the I Heart series
Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea
Timbuktu by Paul Auster
Slow Reads:
5% - Emma by Jane Austen – classic for personal challenge. I have both the e-book and audio that I will switch up. Audio is 18 hours.
10% - The bear in the Nightingale – PS #12 – A book inspired by myth/legend.
QOTW – What are your last few five star reads?
I will come back to ready everyone’s list. I’m in need of suggestions. I’ve read a few 4 stars, but not many 5 stars.
Rebecca - I really enjoyed this classic.
Where the Crawdads Sing
Happy Thursday all! Here in Jersey we're at the part of the year where it's cold in the morning... but 90 degrees by noon! Still working on my last challenge book... I will finish... eventually... Finished:
Positively Izzy- I didn't like this as much as the other two by that author, mostly because I got people mixed up with each other. I really thought Izzy and Emmie were the same people for about half the book. (It may not have helped I read this series backwards.)
Invisible Emmie- I may have related to Emmie a little too much...
Currently Reading:
Emma (A book recommended by a celebrity you admire)
The Lives of Tao
The Second Life of Nick Mason
Charlie Hernández and the League of Shadows
QOTW:
My last few 5 star reads are:
Hawkeye, Volume 4: Rio Bravo (all of this series is good but this one was phenomenal )
I Work at a Public Library: A Collection of Crazy Stories from the Stacks (I too work at a public library, and I can confirm the truth to these tales.)
The Ghosts of Belfast- I love this one so much that even though I read it in January, I re-read it as an audiobook this month.
Hey y'all. Heck of a week, so let's talk books and get my mind off it...Books read this week:
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove -- Christopher Moore has been a bit of a hit-or-miss writer for me, but I find I enjoy his Pine Cove novels. This particular outing is risque and inappropriate but downright hilarious, with a cast of delightfully quirky characters.
Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow -- short story collection compiled by classic sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, and containing stories by some older well-known authors (John Steinbeck, E. B. White, John Cheever, Roald Dahl, Franz Kafka, Shirley Jackson, etc.). A LOT of these stories were pretty grim and nihilistic, though there were some interesting ideas among them.
The Plague Dogs -- I loved Watership Down and enjoyed Shardik, both by the same author as this book… but this one was a HARD read. Not only because of the graphic animal cruelty and the absolutely unlikable human characters, but because the writing was way overblown and the pacing was so freaking slow. Just glad to be done with it.
BB Wolf and the Three LPs -- graphic novel retelling of “The Three Little Pigs.” I expected an interesting music-centric retelling of the fairy tale, something along the lines of the one “Loony Tunes” short… was NOT expecting a grim and rather gory allegory about racism and the Jim Crow south. And to be honest, it didn’t work very well as an allegory in my opinion.
Currently Reading:
Chef Maurice and a Spot of Truffle
Behemoth: The History of the Elephant in America
Ratha's Creature
The Ten Thousand Doors of January
QOTW:
How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women
Pumpkinheads
The Habitation of the Blessed and its sequel The Folded World
This Is How You Lose the Time War
Good Morning,The weather here needs to make up it's mind...it's nice and cool and then gross and hot.
I finally changed my reading challenge to read total from 40 to 52. I only read 34 last year and am currently at 38, so I'm pretty proud of myself. And I'm pretty excited to start my October creepy/scary reads, only four more days.
Finished:
The Power for a book about someone with a superpower. Wow, this book is pretty spectacular. It was actually pretty different than I expected it to to but it was still so interesting.
Anne of Green Gables for a book that has inspired a common phrase or idiom. I saw this as a suggestion for this prompt and since I had never read it before, I thought it was about time I read it. Oh, I loved it. I wish I would have read about smart and headstrong Anne Shirley when I was a teenager.
Currently Reading:
The Time Traveler's Wife for a book with at least one million ratings on Goodreads. I'm half way through this. I'm do like it, it's just taking awhile to get through. I'm wanting to have it done before I start my October creepy reads. I'm just going to focus on this one until I finish it.
QOTW:
When I like something, I am not afraid to give it five stars. Also, when I hate something, I'm not afraid to give it one star.
Here are some of my recent five star books:
Anne of Green Gables - I just finished it and loved every second of it.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer - I read it earlier in the summer and it's so well written (and creepy!), I am constantly recommending it to people. It's my favorite book of the year so far.
Red, White & Royal Blue - This book was just so wonderfully sweet (and steamy), it's everything I want in a romance with the added bonus of the enemies to lovers trope.
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World - I've challenged myself to read more nonfiction this year and I'm glad I did because I may have not picked up this book otherwise. It was so informative and fun.
Oh gosh, it's been ages since I posted an update here! I discovered the Seasonal Reading Challenge in July and it sort of ate my brain, haha.Finished
How Long 'til Black Future Month? - I really enjoyed this! The stories were creative and interesting, and I love how strong Jemisin's voice is. Usually in short story collections, I have a mix of stories I love and hate, but this one was different - I pretty much gave the stories a 7 or 8 across the board. None of them were life-changing, all-time favorites for me, but they were all good. I'm glad I read this one. Read for the book with a question in the title prompt. 4 stars.
The Handmaid's Tale - Kind of amazing that I didn't get around to reading this classic until now! I found it a quick and engaging read, very enjoyable as a story and just as relevant now as it was when it was published. Some really lovely descriptive writing in this, too, which I feel like is perhaps overlooked in this book because of the focus on its subject matter. I'll definitely be reading more Atwood. Read for the book with at least one million ratings on Goodreads prompt. 4 stars.
The Neverending Story - Classic fantasy is probably my all-time favorite genre, and after reading this, I feel like it's criminally underrated - I've heard people talk about the movie, but I don't remember hearing much at all about the book. What a clever, creative, beautiful story! This book would have been good just based on the richness of the fantasy world it describes, but the way it plays with the text through color and design, the meta turn halfway through, and the sense of deep truths interwoven with playful nonsense place it as one of the best books I've read this year. Read for the book you see someone reading on TV or in a movie prompt. 5 stars.
Total Complete: 42/50
Up Next
Night Film - for the "read a book during the season it is set in" prompt
QOTW
What a great question! I've read almost three times the number of books I got through last year (thank you reading challenges!), and though I think my ratings have stayed pretty proportional, that still means lots more 5-star reads. Here are some of my favorites:
The Song of Achilles
The Green Mile
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
The Fireman
The Heart's Invisible Furies
Prince's Gambit
Freshwater
Tipping the Velvet
The Binding
Uprooted
Salt Houses
Vita Nostra
Red Rising
The Wonder
The Neverending Story
I'm so glad September is almost over! The next four days will continue to be crazy, as this month has been, but October 1st will bring in a less hectic schedule for a bit. This week I listened to Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change which I finished right before I had the honor of awarding Ms. Abrams the Distinguished Public Service Award from the LBJ School of Public Affairs (where she went before Yale Law and I'm the Alumni Board President). It was a very exciting event and I was glad I learned her back story before meeting her. She's quite the entrepreneur! She's also published multiple romance novels and is an introvert like me (most of us here??). ;)
I also listened to Internment for one of my book clubs... This was the first book (after two years of monthly reads) that we didn't like! One person in the group passionately hated it, and the rest of us were ok with some parts but had a lot of bones to pick with this one. It's too bad, because it's an important topic and we liked the intended message, but it wasn't executed very well. :/
I also finished Love in the Time of Cholera which I liked on a paragraph level, but the audio wasn't able to capture my attention where I could stick with the full story throughout the book. I think this one would have been better in print.
Currently reading: (a bunch of short story collections as I'm finishing my short story for a contest due September 30th) Bloodchild and Other Stories, 40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology, and Brownsville: Stories. I'm also listening to The Library Book for another book club.
QOTW: I like this question - it helps us easily see recommended books!
My top reads lately have been:
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (I didn't care for the Hollywood/gossip parts as much but the last hour of the audiobook had be crying pretty hard, so I guess I got sucked into the story!)
Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions
A People's History of the United States
The Reckonings
Fruit of the Drunken Tree
Heads of the Colored People
American Spy
Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen: A Novel
I didn't finish anything this week, I'm still 36/50 for the challenge.I'm currently reading The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral-And How It Changed the American West.
QOTW:
My last few 5 star reads:
Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt
Veiled Freedom by Jeanette Windle
The Last Move by Mary Burton
Batman: Year One by Frank Miller
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Ruffian: Burning From the Start by Jane Schwartz
Good morning group! I guess it's fall around here too. Although that means rainy, muggy weather rather than cooler temps. We probably won't see those until after Halloween.I only finished one book this week. I read The Case for Jamie for a retelling of a classic since these books are sort of based on Sherlock Holmes. I enjoyed this way more than the second book in the series. It made more sense plot and character wise and had a much more satisfying ending. There were twists I saw a mile away but a couple that still surprised me.
I'm at 37/50 for the challenge.
QOTW: I have given 12 books a 5 star rating this year. I'm rather generous with my ratings but I thoroughly enjoyed all of my high rated books and would recommend them to anyone. My most recent are:
The Case for Jamie
Goldenhand
The Song of Achilles
Us Against You
Wintergirls
Laura wrote: "So tired. I finally decided I'm tired of being fat, so I pulled out my old Fitbit and started walking. Averaging 15000 steps a day and aiming for a five pound weight loss each month. Wish me luck!..."
Good luck, Laura! 15000 steps a day is amazing!
Good morning from Columbus! Can we please get some autumn weather?! I just want my leggings and scarves. And to not sweat. Accident update: I got a rental, they gave me a freaking Dodge Charger. I feel so ridiculous driving it, I miss my mom car. Hopefully we’ll be moving on to negotiating the amount I’ll get for a replacement by Friday.
Anyhow, I got a decent amount of reading done this week!
Stardust for the zodiac or astrology term prompt. Dare I say I like the movie more than the book? Don’t get me wrong, this was a delightful adult fairy tale, and Neil Gaiman narrating his audiobooks is always delightful, but the movie was just... more. A+ tho, would read (listen to) again.
In Watermelon Sugar for the “pop” “sugar” or “challenge” prompt. I’m... not entirely sure what this was. How did I become aware of this? Did some recommend it? I made the most perplexed face the entire time I read it, thankfully it’s a short book. It wasn’t bad, it was just really bizarre. Post-apocalyptic, but also absurd humor, and talking tigers, and a touch of nihilism? Is there some context to this book because I desperately want it lol
Tangleweed and Brine for a book based on mythology, legend, or folklore. This is a collection of short stories that are retellings of classic fairy tales. All but one from the perspective of the women in the stories, and they all have a pretty dark undertone. Kinda bleak, but I loved the writing style.
Where Are the Children? for a book with a question in the title. I read this in a few sittings one day because it made me so anxious. A woman is convicted of killing her two children, but is released on a technicality. She moves, creates a new life and then finds that her two children with her new husband are missing. Drama ensues. As a mom, the book obviously got to me and I had to finish it ASAP because I couldn’t not know how it turned out. I think I would have appreciated it more if there was more suspense I think. But overall, I can see why this was highly recommended by many.
And Another Thing... a book set in space. I’m so glad someone picked up the Hitchhikers series where Douglas Adams left it. I think Colfer did a fine job picking up on the spirit of the series and gave us a bit more closure, since book 5 ended on a pretty bleak note. No, it’s not as good as the first book. But it was enjoyable and I’m glad I got more time with the characters.
My Thoughts Exactly for a book recommended by a celebrity I admire. This was a hard prompt, none of the celebrities I genuinely admire have a list of books accessible, so since I’ve loved Lily Allen since she was just putting out music on MySpace, I figured she’d recommend her book? This book was lovely, rough and sad and funny and I loved it. She’s roughly the same age as me, so we went through our messy years together. And she really has a way of writing about her experiences with men and sex and growing up. She articulated it in a way I never could. It was strange to realize things that felt so isolating were in fact being experienced by so many other young women. We’ve just been conditioned to feel guilty and not talk about it. Phew. I did not think the memoir of a singer I love would be like therapy to me lol.
I’m at 121 books read this year, 33/40; 5/10 for popsugar, 15/24 for book riot, 3/12 for back to the classics, and 11/37 for Marisha Pessl’s challenge.
QOTW:
My Thoughts Exactly
Stardust
The Shadow of the Wind (all of the books in this series)
Hello Girls
Happy Thursday! Coming to the end of the third quarter, I'm at 37/50, which is on pace to finish the challenge. But I'm mostly down to prompts that I won't accidentally fill (e.g., monastery/abbey/convent, over 1M ratings, inspired a phrase or idiom), so I may have to cut down on my normal impulse reading for a while.(I say this, but I didn't actually do any challenge reading this week, so...)
Currently reading:
Mother of Learning - Zorian, an ordinary mage academy student, finds himself trapped inside a one-month time loop that culminates in a large-scale invasion of the city. Can he use his foreknowledge, combined with multiple resets to investigate and hone his magical skills, to stop the invasion? And can he find a way to escape the time loop?
This is a fun ride if you're into mage schools and time loops. A couple caveats though: It's slow at the start before the time loop gets under way. Also, it's a periodically-updated web serial and (to my understanding) not complete yet, though it's close.
QotW: Here's all my five-star books this year:
Archivist Wasp - YA post-apocalyptic fantasy. The main character can communicate with ghosts, and a ghost commissions her to find his lost friend (also a ghost). Great pick if you still need a ghost story but don't want a horror book.
The Stars Are Legion - Space opera with an all-female cast. Very weird, in a good way.
Wilder Girls - Body horror, paranoia, and secrets at a quarantined all-girls boarding school. Also, amazing writing. A while back we had a QotW of "what would you consider beautiful writing?" I'd like to hold up this book.
Also a couple honorary mentions for 4.5 stars:
Seven Blades in Black - Swords-and-sorcery fantasy, featuring a gunslinger out for revenge against her former comrades.
Vengeful - Supervillain rumble!
HelloIt has been a bit since I have last posted.
August and September have been just crazy months with safety inspections and inventory at work. Organizing our towns Terry Fox run, a daughter that was just diagnosed with asthma and a cat diagnosed with kidney disease.
I am actually looking forward to the next two months winter tire season the stupid crazy time at work. It is just starting to ramp up as SNOW :-( is predicted for the weekend.
So I haven't had much time to read
I reread The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future as I started a journal earlier this year and just wanted to review, I really like his guides on working on larger projects and toward goals. Using that for my re-read of a favorite.
I have slowly been reading Sagittarius Rising for the prompt book with a zodiac sign in title. ( Had to go with my sign). Really enjoying it as it is real life account of a young gentleman learning to fly during the first world war. Just looking up the planes and areas he is describing is mind blowing what he and all the people who fought went through.
QOTW
I am pretty stingy with my 5 stars and have only given out one this year
A Dangerous Collaboration
I was actually watching "The Mummy" with Rachel Weiss and realized that the character she plays reminds me alot of Veronica Speedwell.
Happy Reading everyone
Cheers till next time
It’s been forever since I’ve visited these updates. School started and my reading slowed down and I’ve been super busy. So, this is a month + update.Books that tick off prompts:
Book published posthumously: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I had been “reading” this book for almost a year. Just very dense and requires a lot of attention.
Book someone is reading on tv: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Not my favorite Austen book and it took me awhile to finish it.
A book revolving around a puzzle: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. I really enjoyed this right up until the end. But I would watch the heck of a Netflix series based on the book.
Favorite prompt (should be made into a movie): Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev. Delightful retelling of Pride and Prejudice with flipped genders and non-white characters.
Books that don’t tick off prompts from best to worst:
Transcription by Kate Atkinson. I love Atkinson.
The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare. Delightful historical romance.
The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout. Non-fiction about sociopaths. Interesting read.
Internment by Samira Ahmed. YA where in the U.S. they start to place Muslims in internment camps.
Wildcard by Marie Lu. I didn’t like this nearly as much as I liked Warcross.
Necessary People by Anna Pitoniak. Would watch a Netflix series.
Sweet Little Lies by Cat Kinsella. Police procedural. Would read more in the series.
The Austen Playbook by Lucy Parker. Contemporary romance about an actor and a critic. It was good but not great.
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim. A fire breaks out at a facility where patients are getting hyper-oxygenated air. Basically a whodunit. It was okay but I also think this could make a good Netflix series.
by Helen Huang. I did not like this nearly as much as I liked The Kiss Quotient.
A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena. It’s about a girl with a “bad” reputation living in Saudi Arabia. It was okay.
Supermarket by Bobby Hall. Try Hard. If I didn’t dislike the characters in Meet Cute so much, this would be at the bottom.
Meet Cute by Helena Hunting. I did not like either character. They were purportedly adults but had a very juvenile sense of everything.
QOTW:
The last 2 five-stars for me were Persepolis which I read this summer and Killers of the Flower Moon from last year.
Good morning and happy Thursday from Ohio. I'm not sure what the weather is doing outside because I'm at work and we have no windows in our office. ((Sad face))I finished 2 books this week:
How Long 'til Black Future Month? My IRL book club read this book and I went and but only finished a fourth of it. I finally finished it Friday of last week and was so pleased. This collective of short stories was awesome. I gave it 4 stars.
The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina: Separating the Myth from the Medicine As a doula and someone who thought she knew alot about the reproductive system I can tell you I learned alot more and dispelled a bunch of old wive's tales that I learned. I loved that this book was written by a woman and a doctor.
Currently Reading
The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein for prompt #15 A retelling of a classic. I've never read Frankenstein but after reading just a little of this I want to see Victor Frankenstein's side(even though I think he's a psychopath)
QOTW:
The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina: Separating the Myth from the Medicine
Periods Gone Public: Taking a Stand for Menstrual Equity
Book Love
Fatale, Vol. 1: Death Chases Me
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
Hi all, It's been a while since I posted anything, but I've read a lot of books in that time. I think I am up to 47 of 53? (I decided to read a book from my favorite prompt from each year of the past Popsugar challenges.)
A book published posthumously: The Lighthouse at the End of the World: I don't know if I've ever read a Jules Verne book and this did not disappoint!
A book set in an abbey, cloister, monastery, vicarage, or convent: The Murder at the Vicarage: I usually find myself reading an Agatha Christine book each year so this one was a no-brainer. My first Miss Marple mystery.
A book written by a musician: Tuesdays with Morrie
A LitRPG book: In Real Life - I was dreading this prompt so was happy that I could find a graphic novel in this category.
A book about a hobby: Caching in: My family and I love to geocache, was I was excited to find a book about it. There are several out there, but this was the only one my library had. Lol!
A reread of a favorite book: Coming Home: I discovered this British author years ago, and this is one of my favorite books of all time! I come back to it every few years.
A book with at least one million ratings on Goodreads: The Da Vinci Code
QOTW:
The books I gave 5-stars to this year are
Coming Home: Like I mentioned above, one of my favorite books of all time!
Where the Crawdads Sing: I think this is going to be my favorite read of the year!
Ask Again, Yes
Jumanji: I've seen the movies but never read the book, which was delightful!
Hello all! Fall is here, and we're finally going to get cool weather to go along with it! Huzzah! Starting tomorrow so I may be jumping the gun a little bit but I am just so excited.I finished one book this week but hooo she was a beast: To Green Angel Tower. 1098 pages to wrap up the series. Unsurprisingly given the length, it did drag a bit in the middle, but I actually shed a few tears at the end.
I've just started Artemis, and I'm looking forward to a faster read. I'm also planning on getting back into Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which I am determined to finish by the end of the year.
QOTW: My last few five-star reads were:
La Belle Sauvage
An Unnecessary Woman
Tempests and Slaughter (I'll be honest, this rating was partially motivated by my deep love for all things Tamora Pierce)
Cutting for Stone
Hi everyone, I was at Cedar Point over the weekend for a very sweaty Halloweekends. I managed to catch some germs, so now am sick booooo.
This week I finished:
The Murmur of Bees - This was my read harder ownvoices fro Mexico. It was well written, but not really what I prefer to read. Kind of slow, depressing.
Educated - reading women shortlist book. I'd seen a lot of people raving about this, but wasn't super interested. But I figured I'd try it for the prompt and wow, I LOVED it. It's hard to imagine someone growing up in that sort of life and managing to break free. Was super impressed and really enjoyed her writing style.
The Fairy Godmother - just an easy reread because I had a bit of a book hangover.
Sweetness and Lightning 1 - read harder book of manga. I liked it ok, but felt it didn't go anywhere in volume one, was all set up. The source I read it on only had first vol free and my library doesn't have it digitally so I'll probably not continue.
The Vine Witch - reading women book about nature. Picked this up on a book deal, it was a fun quick read. Nothing stunning but i'll probably read the next if I find a deal too.
Down to 1 prompt left for Read Harder, one for Reading women, woo! I'm skipping the two reading women bonus prompts, neither author has books I feel like tackling right now. Maybe next year.
Currently reading:
Legendary - been on the waiting list for a while, finally came up. I don't love the series as much as some do but it's interesting enough to continue.
QOTW:
Educated was the most recent one. It was engrossing, couldn't put it down.
I've apparently been in a bit of a "decent" book span, mostly 3-4 stars up til July, when I read several in a row Middlegame which was just excellent. I loved it, very mind bending.
Sunstone Vol. 6 great graphic novel that combines excellent art with a really lovely storyline.
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - Wasn't sure I was going to like this, ended up loving it.
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup - another excellent nonfiction, it was a fast paced read that was hard to believe it was true. Kind of scary actually!
Hi all! No autumn weather to report here yet, lol. Autumn usually begins in SoCal around December or January, which is depressing. Anyway I've been really slow with the reading lately, but I only have one challenge category left to finish so I'm excited!! Read this week:Lirael: Definitely didn't like this as much as Sabriel. Lirael and her dog are terrific and then Prince Sam is just the wettest blanket of all time. I'll probably read the next book, though.
Red Sister: for the "takes place in a convent/monastery/vicarage" prompt. Omg I loved it. I read Mark Lawrence's Prince of Thorns and I really enjoy his sociopathic murder children.
Currently reading:
Till We Have Faces
Night Watch (second book for "2 books with the same title" prompt)
Child Star
Words of Radiance (audio)
QOTW: I thought I was pretty stingy with my 5-star ratings, but I've started reading more fantasy/sci-fi recently (which was my first love) and suddenly I'm very generous with them. Last few:
Red Sister
A Memory Called Empire
This Is How You Lose the Time War
Under the Pendulum Sun
The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics
Happy Thursday! Our weather has gotten slightly cooler this past week which has been nice as we were able to take our dog for a walk at around 6:30 yesterday while it was still somewhat bright out. Usually we can't take her out until much later as the pavement stays hot for so long and she also is pretty pathetic when it comes to moving around in our humid climate (something I can relate to). Poor thing always tends to put a few pounds on in the summer which we work off during the fall/winter months as she is able to go on a lot more walks/adventures once it cools off. I'm really looking forward to the nicer weather. It does feel like it's early for our area so I've got my fingers crossed that this week isn't just a fluke! On to books!
I finished 4 books this week (one of which was about 2 hours ago). To start, for the ghost prompt I read The Screaming Staircase which was alright. I wouldn't say that I ended up fully enjoying it but it certainly wasn't a bad book. In fact, I think if I had been in a different mood I would have quite enjoyed it. This week it only rated a 2 star review.
I followed that up with Faceless Killers for a book set in Scandinavia as it is based in Sweden. This is the first book of the Kurt Wallander series and I was actually really looking forward to it as I really loved the Swedish tv show based on these books. I was a little disappointed. I thought the overall mystery was a good one although wasn't crazy about maybe the last eighth of it. I also found myself not really liking Wallander as he doesn't really treat women well. The only thing that redeemed the book after reading some of the lax treatment he gives his fellow female police officers is that this behavior it is something that the character actually reflects on. This to me leaves room for character growth. I just wish I would know if that's something that will end up being a feature for him or not as the series progresses. I have a feeling it's probably more a reflection on the author than anything else.
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle was a book I started maybe 2 weeks ago and man... What. A. Slog. I had the hardest time getting through this book. I ended up having to get the audio book after I got through about a third of the way so that I could just put it on during work to get through it. I flipped back and forth from audio and physical book. I'm impressed that the author tackled such a clever idea but I'm not sure if it was well executed. I'm a little biased though as I generally hate groundhog day type stories and so statistically, this kind of book isn't my jam.
The last book, is my first children's book that I've read in awhile. It's a whole 32 pages. Little Mouse on the Prairie was one of my favorite books growing up and I randomly remembered it during a conversation with my husband last week. I found it for a few bucks on amazon and decided to go ahead and buy it for my own child. So this is the first book for my kid's library which made me all warm and fuzzy. It's a retelling of the grasshopper and the ant using field mice.
QOTW: I've been more stingy with my 5-star ratings than I was last year so I only actually have three for the year. I have a ton of 4 star reads though.
Carry On (the sequel was released on Tuesday and I'm waiting for it to arrive at my library)
All Systems Red
Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow
Hi everyone. I had my reading time rudely interrupted this morning when my brother's girlfriend sat next to me on the train and chatted the whole way there. She's nice but I'm not a morning person. It's usually me, my earphones and my book so I am glad she wasn't on my train home.This week I finished The Supernatural Enhancements which I have mixed feelings about. The set up was great and I was very intrigued about what was going to happen. I didn't even mind the gimmicky writing style but there was some serious issues. The ending turned a bizarre and abrupt corner which didn't correlate to the rest of the book but, worse that that was the weird relationship between 17 year old girl and the main character in his twenties. (view spoiler)
Currently reading: The Magic Thief. I think I'm enjoying this one more than the first one. Mal doesn't make as many stupid decisions as Avery
QOTW: Ooooo I like this question. Not including re-reads, my 5* reads so far this year are:
13 Minutes
Daisy Jones & The Six
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
The Song of Achilles
The Name of the Wind
Les Misérables
The Winter of the Witch
It is still late summer in NYC...too warm and humid. Not happy. Work continues to be very demanding. And I am committed to a bucket list read that will take a few months...Proust.I start a Proust reading and discussion group at The Center for Fiction here in NYC. Something on my reading bucket list forever is reading the entire Remembrance of Things Past, I have already read a bit in French in college. Doing it in French isn't in the cards anymore, though I figured I could manage English. But only with some kind of discussion structure to keep me on track and give me others to talk to about it. Fortunately the Center for Fiction routinely runs such groups. The Proust is divided into books which I will be treating as individual finishes as I go. And this is the 1981 translation referred to as the Black & Silver
. Finished:
Ouverture/Combray I and Combray II - has the famous cup of tea and madeleine scene! Also introduces narrator, family, other important players, locations and the broad themes Proust will explore of involuntary memory and obsessive love. It us often funny, always lush and charming..for example, narrator calls the lilac trees along his favorite walk houris! I was able to slot this into AtY multigenerational saga...maybe a little bit of a stretch but works for me.
Grand Hotels of Egypt: In the Golden Age of Travel - Coffee table book that is also a great read. For another GR group challenge.
Currently reading:
A Natural Woman: A Memoir - this is my PS book by a musician. Loving it.
Home to Stay - to be finished when I need a romance fix.
When I finish A Natural Woman: A Memoir, I will only have one more to read for PS. I only have 1 more for AtY!
On the Nightstand:
The Master and Margarita
We Should All Be Feminists - I know it is very short - I'm using short things - or things I can read in short spurts like short stories and essays as relief reads when too tired or distracted to read the Proust sections for each class.
QOTW:
Most recent 5 stars in reverse read order:
Grand Hotels of Egypt: In the Golden Age of Travel
Swann's Way, Part 1
Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia
The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop
Exit West
and here are the next set of 5 star reads in reverse read order, as those above are not representative of my typical reading habits, LOL:
If Tomorrow Comes - a heist - actually a re-read.
Murder at the Cat Show - a cozy - actually a re-read
Snowdrift and Other Stories - regency historical romance
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland - tissues required but so good and positive
The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise
This week I finished:The Walking Dead Volumes 15-18
I'm Just a Person: My Year of Death, Cancer and Epiphany: Love Tig. The audiobook was great.
Hanover House and Her Darkest Nightmare: rereading the series, before I let myself read the last book.
The Lost Hero: I wanted to love this one as much as Percy Jackson, but I really didn't. I may read the second one, but I thought this one was too long and not as engaging.
The Last Black Unicorn: I know a lot of people found this book offensive at times, but I tend to think that's to be expected when reading a comedian's book. I chose the audiobook and she had me in tears from laughing at one point.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: audiobook tour of Harry Potter continues.
Currently reading:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Hello Again - rereads
The Walking Dead, Vol. 19: March to War
QOTW: I'm very generous with 5 star ratings, so I'm not sure my answer would be useful to anyone.
Happy Thursday. I've spent the last week raking leaves and I got them done just before the rain started yesterday so YAY. I'm not ready for the sun to be gone, but other than that, I love the fall.Books I finished:
Bossypants - I've been meaning to read this since it came out, and then it was just sitting there at the library, so despite the number of books I already had at home, I borrowed it and then read it right away. I enjoyed it.
River of Blue Fire - I love these books, but they do take a long time for me to get through.
That puts me at 46/50 for the 2019 challenge and 44/50 for the 2018 challenge which means I only have 10 left to complete.
Books I made progress on:
Britt-Marie Was Here
QOTW
I'm a little surprised by how stingy with the 5's some people here seem to be. I'm currently at 17/82 for 5 star ratings on new to me books this year. The last 5 have been:
The Bride Test
The Unkindest Tide
Sweep of the Blade
My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
In complete slump because I have two bookand s I was given for review and they're both boring me but i have to get them read.All I've read otherwise is Neil Gaiman's Snow, Glass, Apples which is dark and fantastic
QOTW okay let me go looking because there haven't been many this year!
Wow okay there has only been ONE Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
But these 4 stars were close: Nine of Stars by Laura Bickle, The Child Thief by Brom, Blood Red Roulette by Jana Denardo and What Fate Portends by Clara Coulson
And I barely have any FOUR stars either. Man, that might be why I'm in such a slump. I've made sketchy choices this year.
Happy Thursday Everyone!I'm brand new to the weekly updates, so let me do a small introduction. My name is Patricia. I'm a 23 year old reporter at a small paper in Northern Michigan. I've always loved reading, but being a student for the last 18 years or so hasn't allowed me to free read as much as I'd like to. Now that I have a full-time job I have more time to read because my nights are free (usually). Our paper is small with only two reporters and two editors. Anyway, enough about me.
For those familiar with Michigan weather you know its usually a cool 60 degrees by now; however, last Saturday when I was covering a local festival it was in the 80's. Pretty cool, but I agree with everyone. I'm ready for some fall weather too. On to books.
With my hectic schedule I've only managed to read six books this year (I have a goal of 24 ;however). The majority of them read in the earlier part of the year including (in read order) The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, About a Girl, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, Turtles All the Way Down, Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up and Choose and Choose Again: The Brave Act of Returning to God's Love. Much longer titles than I remember!
Monthly read:
I'm really excited to get back on the monthly read trail with everyone. I loved reading Stuart Turton's book early this year and never would have read it on my own. It was such a spectacular read that I expect The Graveyard Book will create an immense sort of joy as well.
Of the six listed above only a few have followed the challenge. Right now I just read for fun, but I try to participate in the challenges when I can.
Currently Reading:
I decided to take a swing at reading a book that frightens me in terms of length. I have never attempted or even considered reading a book with 771 pages, but back in July I found myself purchasing The Goldfinch. I was evidently very willing to give it a try. Currently, I'm at 15% read, but I am loving it. Hopefully I'll finish it by December and can see the movie – A book becoming a movie in 2019.
As a lover of John Green I started reading An Abundance of Katherines just a few days ago and I just love the way he writes. I expect to be done with this next week if I keep with a good pace. I'm at 17% read right now. – No idea if this fits a prompt. Just reading it for fun.
I recently joined a bible study at a local church and they have a monthly book read on Saturday mornings. This weekend I expect I'll start None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different from Us.
QOTW:
I love this question! I actually added all the 5-star ratings in this thread to my "want to read" list because I'm confident in everyone's recommendations and I'd love to try something new.
My 5-star ratings are the six listed except About a Girl and Choose and Choose Again: The Brave Act of Returning to God's Love. They are worthwhile reads, but they took me a long time to get through them because I got very bored.
Thank you for inviting me with open arms. I can't wait to keep reading and updating with my fellow bibliophiles!
Checking in, on a Thursday...so satisfying!I read two books this week, one was for PS so I'm now sitting at 40/55 (31/45, 9/10).
My first book wasn't for PS, but did tick off a Modern Mrs Darcy prompt. It was Difficult Women by Roxane Gay. I am a fan of Roxane Gay, I love to hear her talk and I enjoyed Bad Feminist earlier this year. This is the first prose I've read by her, and whilst I did find it a bit of a mixed bag I really did enjoy this collection of short stories. Some of the metaphors went over my head, but even when I didn't quite get what a story was about I was still moved by the quality of her writing. And then the stories I did connect with (which was most of them) often hit me like a fist to the guts. These stories cover grim subject matter, and my heart broke for so many of the "difficult women" in them. There's not a whole lot of hope in these stories, but the female existence is often peppered (or completely saturated) with these sorts of experiences and I think voicing these is so important. That Gay can do so in such beautiful language is testament to her talent.
And today I finished The Orange Girl by Jostein Gaarder for prompt #23 set in Scandinavia. This book disarmed me, I don't know what I expected going into it but I got something I hadn't anticipated. This is such a simple book - a son is given a letter written to him by his father in his final days when the boy was just a toddler, which contains the mystery of his father's first love. But the simplicity is deceptive. I had expected to read about loss and love, and there is certainly that. But this is almost a smoke screen to the core of this story, which is to ask a big question about the point of existence. Especially considering that I was initially uncomfortable with where this story was headed, given the father's obsessive tracking of a woman he'd barely met whom he'd decided was his soul mate, I'm glad I stuck with it. The themes of fairy tale and whether pleasure is worth the pain of inevitably having to lose it all transformed this from an unrealistic love story into something much deeper.
QOTW - What are your last few five star reads?
I give a lot of 4 stars, but for a book to get a 5 star I need to really have had that whoah moment. You know, when you've finished the last page and you just need to kind of sit for a moment, exhale, and digest the fact that it's over. So my last few were The Secret History, All the Light We Cannot See, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, How to Breathe Underwater and Swan Song.
Hi all-I'm loving the brisk fall weather but not enjoying having to put up my sandals!
This week I finished:
The Sense of an Ending. I'll be real honest- I don't even remember this book.
Final Girls. I enjoyed this and have to admit I didn't see this particular twist coming!
Second Grave on the Left. One of my comfort genre's. I enjoyed this but will have to see how the characters develop. There are a lot of books in this series though and they are highly rated so I'm hopeful.
Underland: A Deep Time Journey This weeks audiobook. I really enjoyed this.
Verity So I was really enjoying this book until the end. The twist is totally not possible and it ruined my enjoyment of the book. I don't ask for much in a book but I do want consistency with the world it is set in and that means if you set it in the real world it needs to be consistent with the real world.
I am currently reading:
Matilda and
The Sisters Brothers
QOTW:
My 5 star reads this year include:
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle mystery with a twist that people either seem to love or hate. I, obvioulsy loved it.
Educated Memoir that I listened to as an audio book
A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story A childrens book about a child refugee. I listened to this as an audiobook and it is told very well in that format.
Long Way Down a novel told in verse
Strange the Dreamer young adult fantasy with just amazing character development and world building.
The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connections and Courage. Which I listened to as a leadership development book.
So each of my 5 star reads were very different but all of them left me going "wow!" when I finished them.
Good evening!... Where did September go?
Didn't do anything this week but at the weekend there's a convention in Glasgow so I'll pop along to that, and next Wednesday I'll be going to Waterstones for an LGBT+ bookclub session discussing This Is How You Lose the Time War and straight afterwards a book launch with Kirsty Logan. Looking forward to all that.
Completed this week:
The Ten Thousand Doors of January - Loved this, it wasn't what I was expecting but it was a delight. It's a little bit Jane Eyre-ish, little bit Every Heart a Doorway, and a sprinkling of Lirael.
Mister Pip - This was decent. Made me want to read Great Expectations again.
Uncanny Magazine Issue 30: Disabled People Destroy Fantasy! Special Issue - Again, decent. Really liked Sarah Gailey's story.
Emergency Skin - Slightly heavy-handed but good story. Amusingly ironic that it was released through Amazon, seeing as it's very much anti-capitalism, anti-billionaire, anti rich-white-dudes-only-out-for-themselves.
Ark - Peaceful apocalypse story about a young woman, an old man and a greenhouse in the Arctic Circle. Really liked it.
Bellman & Black - This was interesting. I don't think it was quite as good as The Thirteenth Tale but still gorgeous. Seems to share some themes with Once Upon a River, with the haunting presence of a mysterious, but helpful, Death figure.
Currently reading Salt and Saffron. I'm really liking it. Don't 100% understand it, since it's all about Pakistani family and culture and I'm kind of a basic white girl, but it's got an interesting premise, and it's funny, which was a surprise since the only other Kamila Shamsie book I've read was the very dark Home Fire.
QOTW: My last few five-stars were:
Jade War
Six-Gun Snow White
and
If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again
... So I guess to get a 5-star, a book has to either break my heart, make it grow three sizes, or both.
Heather wrote: "This week I decided to organize my TBR books (on my shelf and Kindle) on Goodreads. I'm stunned to realize I have 72 (!!) purchased, unread books."
Oh yeah, that's... an outrageous number... yes, absolutely...
*frantically shoving 450+ unread books behind furniture*
(hush hush, my pretty paperbabies, I'll read you yet...)
I adore fall weather (I use fall and autumn interchangeably). I wish the seasons were evenly divided into 3 months each. Only one book finished this week:
An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn - PS #12 (inspired by myth/legend/folklore); 4 stars
I finished The Odyssey last week, so it seemed like a good follow-up to read a book inspired by it. I learned more about The Odyssey reading this book than The Odyssey itself. The author taught a college course on the book, and his elderly father attended the class. Afterwards, they went on a cruise which followed the path Odysseus took to get home. I'm always a sucker for a difficult father-child relationship story.
GoodReads: 59/80
PopSugar: 38/52
ATY: 45/52
QOTW: I don't typically give out a lot of 5 stars. I basically have to emotionally hug the book at the end. Here are the ones from this year. It's more than usual, but it includes a few well-loved re-reads.
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (memoir; re-read)
Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family by Miep Gies (memoir; re-read)
Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You by Lin-Manuel Miranda (inspirational)
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (non-fiction)
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate (historical fiction)
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (classic fiction; re-read)
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim (fiction)
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (fiction)
Becoming by Michelle Obama (memoir)
I've not had a great day. But now I'm home and look forward to reading this thread and seeing the book love and later watching a new episode of The Good Place with some Jameson, so yay for that.I could feel I was going to stumble on most of my remaining prompts for the rest of the year, so to quash the stress of that I found some videos of people reading fitting picture books. Now I have a bunch marked off, and if I read novels that fit later I can always swap them. Or not. I have no picture book shame.
I'm now at 45/50
Finished:
How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems - Really fun
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - My first book with matching titles.
The Velveteen Rabbit - As seen on Friends
The Little Prince - Million ratings
Exit West - Obama rec. I really enjoyed it.
Monsters Love Colors - Love in the title. Nothing special. It was fine.
Mousetronaut: Based on a (Partially) True Story - by astronaut Mark Edward Kelly, read by his twin brother, astronaut Scott Kelly aboard the ISS for Storytime From Space
Mousetronaut Goes to Mars - More Storytime From Space!
Currently Reading:
Much Obliged, Jeeves - Mmmm, Wodehouse
Warren the 13th and The All-Seeing Eye
The Bees
QOTW:
The Calculating Stars
Two Boys Kissing
They Both Die at the End
Exit West
Cheshire Crossing
Fruit of the Drunken Tree
Hello book friends. Hope everyone is doing well. The weather is cooling off here in Vegas which is lovely. I have the fall bug big time. Starting to decorate for Halloween a little. Plan on getting the works done on my day off Monday. Woohoo.29/40 Regular
5/10 Advanced
Finished
Book Club choice. Super predictable imho.
Currently Reading
Loving this one on audio so far!
QotW:
What are your last few five star reads?
All my 5 Star for 2019
I forgot the most recent one which was amazing!!!!
I have 5 or 6, 5 star picture books. If you are interested let me know and I will add.
I'm still working on Alexander Hamilton. After I got to about 30% of the e-book, I started over with the 36-hour audio book. I'm on chapter 24 (of 43), with about 13 and a half hours left. I'm hoping work doesn't explode (like it did last weekend) and will leave me some listening time this weekend while I work on stitching Christmas decorations. I've got my regular greyhound adoption group meet and greet Saturday morning, but at least I only have greyhound stuff on Saturday rather than Saturday and Sunday, like last week. Temperatures are still in the 90s every day, and I don't keep the 11-year-old dog outside once the temperature hits 80F, so Saturday's event might end at 9am. Finishing Hamilton will cross off three prompts, leaving me just two more books for PopSugar (choose your adventure and two female authors), but several books to read if I'm going to make 52 books in 52 weeks. (I've tackled a couple of long books this year: Hamilton (818 pages) and Mueller (720 pages)).I think I'm not doing PopSugar next year. I'll probably stay here on the site and keep up with what's being read, but I want to throw myself into several series--some SciFi, some mysteries--and I don't think many of those books will fall into place in a list of prompts. This year, many of the prompts were author-based, and how many such prompts can I expect to fill with the author of a series? Also, I've looked at the list of suggested prompts or next year, and I don't see very many I'm interested in. Maybe I'll just see how many series books happen to fall into a prompt's description.
Nadine wrote: "It’s officially autumn in the northern hemisphere. The trees are turning colors here. October is right around the corner! In October, our group read will be The Graveyard Book.Th..."
Be selfish! It helps us all. Unless there are some of those crazy people who want to SHORTEN there TBR list. (jk. If you are trying to shorten I support you, I just don't understand you. <3)
Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
AlterWorld (other topics)Drawn Together (other topics)
The Book of Gold (other topics)
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (other topics)
Escargot (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Lisa See (other topics)Garth Stein (other topics)
Louise Penny (other topics)
Brian Selznick (other topics)
Ada Calhoun (other topics)
More...
This week I finished 5 books, 1 for this Challenge, so I am now 51/52. (Only one left y'all!!!!)
His Perfect Partner by Priscilla Oliveras - this contemporary romance was very average.
The Glass Ocean by Karen White, Lauren Willig, & Beatriz Williams - I ended up really enjoying this and now I’m really looking forward to their third collaboration! (I’ve read quite a few books from Williams and Willig but none by White - I should remedy that!)
From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden by Amy Stewart - this was short and delightful. My penultimate challenge read! I read this for “about a hobby.”
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky - a book on my personal challenge list of books I need to read in 2019. This took me a long time to get through!! It’s interesting, but kind of dry.
The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon - I was pleasantly surprised by this book and I ended up loving it! This was my final book for the AtY Challenge (it was a National Book Award Finalist).
Question of the Week:
What are your last few five star reads?
This is a somewhat selfish question, since I’m looking to finish the year with a few great reads! (I expect we will revisit this question again in December to recap our reading year.) (When I picked this question for the QOTW this week, I was in the middle of a long series of disappointing reads and really really needing something good, but this week my reading was much better! But I decided to stick w/ the question.) Of course there are no guarantees, since we all have different tastes.
The last few full length novels I’ve given five stars are
allmostly mysteries, which is a coincidence:The Lost Man
Pieces of Her
The Stories You Tell
The Sun Is Also a Star (which I just finished last night!)
My other recent five star reads:
Unaccompanied - poetry
Her Body and Other Parties - short stories
Mapping the Interior - a novella
The Antlered Ship - a picture book
Dear Darkness - poetry