Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

In honor of Pride Month, something happened this past Monday that reminded me of how much more diverse are the people in my world than was true even 10-12 years ago. I moved to a different University for work, located in a large urban area. My main goal was to increase the diversity in my immediate world. I had become disillusioned with the institution for which I was working in many aspects, not the least of which was the lack of diversity on the campus, especially among faculty and staff, but also students. Then in the course of my unexpected medical challenges, I ended up with “titanium sports model” knee joints and the need to work out in a heated therapy pool, not only to strengthen and rehabilitate the knees, but also to lessen the effects of rampant osteoarthritis in the rest of my body. This need led me to the Indianapolis Healthplex which is one of the most diverse environments I have ever experienced. It was in that pool last Monday that a new-to-me member introduced herself and we got to talking, learning about each other. In the course of the conversation, she mentioned her “wife” and it struck me that I now have more than 10 significant people in my life who are in long-term committed relationships with a person of the ‘same sex’. It is just in the past 2 years that 5 more female-female couples have been added to my group of friends and acquaintances.

I was marveling on my way home that this is now ‘normal’ for me and no longer a ‘novel’ situation to which I am rarely exposed. That makes me so very happy on so many levels: (1) I have indeed progressed well beyond my own “Midwestern red neck” upbringing and that negative/fearful culture; (2) This no longer ‘shocks’ or even surprises me (It did the first 2-3 times, ‘cause it was so very far from my realm of experience and comfort); (3) Apparently, there are many more people out there who are now willing to be forthcoming with such personal information with little to none, or at least a much diminished, fear of a negative reaction from me/others; (4) Although petty of me, it gives me a sense of mild satisfaction to know this would simply enrage my mother were she still alive—she would be sputtering and spitting as a preview to a very long lecture berating me as a human being (And yes, you can be sure I would detail this information for her. Just because I could…*insert evil grin here*); (5) I have learned to accept most people I encounter even if they are quite different from me—in intentions, thoughts, and/or behaviors—though I admit those who are still prejudiced/discriminatory challenge me to somehow express my disagreement respectfully while trying to challenge them to open their own minds somewhat…sometimes I use a short personal story or a question to try to draw them out, hoping they might begin to realize they’re usually just blindly following what they have been taught or have learned, without ever questioning it. Does that always work as I intend? Of course not. But I realize it requires repetition and if I can provide just one more time they are challenged to evaluate their beliefs, I will be happy to do that.

Reading books with more diverse people and relationships between and among those people definitely helped me learn to be more comfortable with other people and to accept them as they are. But I feel there is no substitute for having people different from myself in my daily life. I enjoy learning about other people’s lives and worlds. This opens me up to so many possibilities!

Admin Stuff:
Nadine has an amazing discussion thread going for 2021 Pride month!

The June discussions are in the Current Monthly Read folder. Terri is leading the discussion of Dear Martin by Nic Stone! Kudos to her! This can be used to fulfill prompt #20 A book on a Black Lives Matter reading list, in honor of Juneteenth on June 19th. My copy arrived and I’ll plan to read it this weekend.

We are still looking for a “luminous leader” for July’s Group Read discussion of The Guest List by Lucy Foley! This will satisfy prompt #22 A book set mostly or entirely outdoors. And we need a “mover and shaker” to lead August’s Group Read discussion of Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas, which will satisfy prompt #5 A dark academia book. Finally, there is the September discussion of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab to satisfy prompt #11 A book about forgetting. PLEASE MESSAGE EITHER NADINE OR MYSELF TO VOLUNTEER FOR ONE OF THESE!

I’m thinking we should post polls to select monthly group reads for the final quarter of 2021 soon. And honestly, I cannot believe we are almost halfway through 2021! Yikes!

Question of the Week:
How do you organize your Goodreads book shelves? Do you have a lot of shelves or are you a minimalist?

I realize that at some point in time this question or a similar one has probably been used, but it has been long enough that I felt it wouldn’t hurt to revisit it…I hope I was correct! 😉

I have 265! I decided to edit my shelves several months ago and created 3 more “exclusive” shelves (Goodreads automatically provides 3: Read, Currently Reading, To Read):
(1) DNF—books I tried to read and want to remember that I did at least try. There are only 2 books currently on this shelf.
(2) Do Not Read—books that I considered for my TBR listing but want to remember that I never want to inadvertently consider them ever again. These are mainly and foremost “horror” books. I do NOT do horror. I can’t. It just doesn’t leave my mind. Ever.
(3) John Owns—books that are in my husband’s collection. This way, if I’m ever in a bookstore considering purchasing something for him, I have an easy way to check to see if he already owns a copy. Currently there are only 200 books listed which means I really need to get into his bookshelves and start scanning again. I’m sure that’s a rather small percentage of the books he owns…

I made a conscientious decision to NOT have a “fiction” shelf because the majority of books I list are fiction, so unless it is on the “Nonfiction” shelf I automatically know it is fiction.

I have been adding shelves recently to better denote the “international”/outside the US settings of books. For example: Africa, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, etc. I like tracking that data.

Then I have shelves for each year of the POPSUGAR and ATY challenges from 2019 to present. I also have a shelf for each of the other two annual challenges in which I participate: Reading Women and the Book Riot Read Harder.

I also have a shelf for each year of the Christamore House Guild’s Book Author Events from 2018 to present.

I have recently begun to denote which century a specific book was either published in or set in. Though I think I need to separate those out more specifically to suit me.

How about you? I am always fascinated to review other readers’ shelves to see what is important to them in organizing and labeling their books.

Popsugar: 36/50
ATY: 47/52
RHC: 10/24
Reading Women: 10/28

FINISHED:
These first two are from the last (week-long) Readathon in which I participated:
The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death: Reflections on Revenge, Germophobia, and Laser Hair Removal by Laurie Notaro ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ is a collection of humorous short stories. I did actually laugh out loud occasionally and chuckled quite often!
POPSUGAR: #30, #36-566 reviews on Goodreads, #46
ATY: #3-When the dog bites, She includes some humorous information about her dogs, #8-Alaska, #20-I would read more of her books in the future, #21, #29, NEW #33, #34, #36, #44-The word “revenge” is negative, IMO, #51, #52-In the end I enjoyed this book!
RHC: #24

Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ was well done, IMO, particularly for juvenile/middle grade! I admit I am in love with the cover image, ! Those henna designs fascinate me! For me, this story seemed a bit “too good to be true,” but for children, I think it works well.
POPSUGAR: #18-Opportunity for all, #21-Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Juvenile, Young Adult, #30-Pakistan, #34-Equal opportunity for all and the elimination of the feudal landlord system, #43
ATY: #3-When I'm feeling sad/I simply remember my favorite thingsAnd then I don't feel so bad/Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, Amal was sad for being kidnapped from her family and forced to work as a servant, Nabila adopted a stray cat and fed it milk everyday, Roses were grown in the Khan garden, just as at Amal’s home, #8-Pakistan, #17, #20-Amal’s future has been restored, #23-Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Juvenile, Young Adult, #24, #27-Justice, Death, Judgement, The World, #38-ROOF: One of the first things Amal notices is how high the ceilings/roof are in the Khan’s house, #40, #49, #52-In the end Amal regains her freedom.
RHC: NEW #14, #24-Nabil’s adopted stray cat.
Reading Women: NEW #15, #18

I read Monogamy by Sue Miller ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for the Literary Wives online book discussion group. This was one of my favorite reads for that group. I appreciated the fact that both the male and female partners had extramarital affairs even if only very briefly for the female and much more prolonged for the male. This was my first Sue Miller book and I will plan to read more of her books in the future. I know I own a copy of The Senator's Wife that I have not yet read…
POPSUGAR: #18-For me, monogamy in a committed long-term relationship/marriage is an absolute requirement, though alternative arrangements may be quite acceptable to other people, #19-Graham describes himself as “fat,” #21-Adult Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Family, Fiction, Marriage, Relationships, #27, #30-Cambridge, Massachusetts, #33, #37, #38-Annie is a photographer
ATY: #2, #3-whiskers on kittens, referring to Sam, Karen’s cat, left to Annie, along with $50,000!, #6, #8-Cambridge, Massachusetts, #20-Graham’s past definitely impacted his present and perhaps his future with Annie, had he lived. Though it took Annie a while, she was eventually able to move beyond the past and to once again Miss Graham’s presence in her life, #23-Adult Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Family, Fiction, Marriage, Relationships, #27-Death, Judgement, The World, The Fool, #29, #31, #49
RHC: #24-Sam!
Reading Women: #5

CONTINUING:
Along Came a Spider (Alex Cross #1) by James Patterson
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman
Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois

I finished Miriam's Song as my book published in 2021. I liekd it.

I'm now reading The Jungle Book and Other Classics as a favorite from a previous year--a childhood classic I never read. It's alright.

QOTW: I don't. I just have the read and the want-to-read shelves it gives you automatically.

Happy Thursday, y’all. And happy Pride month!

I FINISHED THE CHALLENGE! Finished the last two books of my challenge this week. Whoo. Now to chip away at the never-ending to-read list, haha...

Books read this week:

The School of Essential Ingredients -- for “book set in a restaurant.” Cute and full of mouth-watering food descriptions, though it felt like every character’s arc ended just as it got interesting…

The Minor Third -- for “book about art or an artist.” I count stage magic as a performing art, heh… Just as good as the first story, and surprisingly heartwarming, as well as opening up some epic plot threads to be picked up in the third book (I hope…).

A Gryphon's Trial -- not for the challenge. Sequel to A Gryphon's Journey, and a fun animal-adventure story in the vein of Warriors or Wings of Fire.

Balan Wonderworld: Maestro of Mystery, Theatre of Wonders -- not for the challenge. Spinoff novel of a video game, and despite the game apparently being garbage, the book was actually really enjoyable.

The Cardboard Kingdom #2: Roar of the Beast -- graphic novel, not for the challenge. Aimed at kids, but still a delightful celebration of imagination and friendship.

Currently Reading:

The Line Between
Mars Evacuees
The Apothecary Rose
The Minor Third

QOTW:

It depends on whether I've read the book or not. I have "read," "want to read," "did not finish," and "currently reading" shelves, and then a "books I love" shelf for books I've read and highly enjoyed. I also have shelves for each of the PopSugar reading challenges I've participated in (every year but 2016).

My "want to read" books are split up by source -- I have a "to read: library," a "to read: inter-library loan," a "my kindle books," and a "I have no self-control at booksales" (physical books I own).

No finishes this week, but I’m making good progress on all the books I’m reading. My formal training at my new job has finished so I’m working on my own as of today. Fortunately, everyone expects and is prepared for me to ask them a lot of questions. I don’t know yet if I’ll want to work with an audiobook playing so I’ll stick to music for now.

Reading
Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin (a book by a Muslim-American author)

The Power Behind the Throne by Steven Savile (a book with under 1,000 reviews)

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy (the book on your tbr with the prettiest cover)

QOTW
I’m highly organized. Each book I read it put on multiple bookshelves:

1. The year the book was read (2021-booklist)
2. The genre, with sub-genres for YA books
3. If I read it for Popsugar (reading-challenge)
4 If I own it (owned)
5. And also the format I own it in (audiobook, print, kindle)
6. If it’s a favorite book, I put it on my favorites shelf

The only reason a book wouldn’t be on those bookshelves is because I read it before I joined Goodreads. I put those on a 1990s-booklist or 2000s-booklist (I don't remember any books I read/were read to me in the 1980s), but I don’t classify by genre and format.

This is so lovely to hear, Lynn! My theatre company had a small get-together this past weekend and I was deeply glad to spend time in the company of such a hardworking, understanding, loving group of friends again. Several of my friends have recently updated their personal pronouns and I'm doing my best to mentally adjust to that; I don't have a lot of experience with using they/them as a singular pronoun when referencing a specific person, but I'm working on it!

My dental saga appears to be ongoing, but hopefully today marks an end; I had a wisdom tooth pulled two months ago, and a small bone spur cropped up within the last few weeks; (view spoiler)[this week it has decided to become a painful nuisance, to the point of drawing blood. I never imagined something in my mouth could be so sharp! Sneezing and talking are rather painful, and eating has become an exercise in patience. (hide spoiler)] Thankfully, getting it filed down this afternoon, and hopefully that's the end of this business.

We've been flying through Peaky Blinders since starting to watch it about two weeks ago; we're well into season 4 now and loving every bit of it. The recent inclusion of the Italian mafia characters feels very Godfather-esque. I'm sure Puzo and Coppola would approve.

In the meantime, I've managed to finish three books this week:
Armistice and Amnesty - both 4-star reads. I love this world so much, and I'm so glad I stumbled upon Amberlough a few months ago. If you count Cabaret among your favorite musicals and you appreciate political intrigue, I would recommend this trilogy. Definitely keeping an eye out for any future Lara Elena Donnelly books!

We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride In The History of Queer Liberation - 5 stars. A superb coffee table book with plenty of photographs to accompany the history told, much of which I was previously unaware. This made it onto my wishlist before I'd even finished the first chapter.

PS 38/50

Currently reading:
First Among Sequels
The Unbroken
Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao's Revolution

Upcoming:
The Chosen and the Beautiful
Tides
Queen of the Conquered
Ace of Spades
Dead Dead Girls
A Dark and Hollow Star
An Unkindness of Ghosts
Girls of Paper and Fire

QOTW: How do you organize your Goodreads book shelves? Do you have a lot of shelves or are you a minimalist?
I have a decent amount of shelves, which I tend to organize by genre with a few separated/sub-categories for various locales in historical fiction. I also have some fun ones like WTF-did-I-just-read, Assholes-with-money, and Book-hangover-like-whoa, which I personally find entertaining. Feel free to peruse at your leisure! Eventually I want to weed through my Eventually-Possibly shelf and separate them into either Eventually OR Possibly, but that's a rather large project and I haven't had a good rainy day lately.

June is Pride Month! I am a proud ally and I have a beautiful pride flag displayed on my house. It amuses me to think my neighbors might wonder if I'm divorced because I'm a lesbian.

We are discussing books we are reading for Pride Month here:
Pride Month Reading

May was AAPI month :-) (Although I borrowed so many books from the library for AAPI reading that I'm still reading them now ...)

Hi everyone. I'm a little pink from the nice weather yesterday but not sore luckily!

My nephew was watching me on Goodreads yesterday and asking questions about how it works. Then, in the two minutes it took me to go on a bathroom break, he'd added about twenty books to my TBR that he wanted to read lol. Sneaky! I waited until he left to then remove them all. Hopefully he won't notice next time he visits.

This week I finished 3 books. The Dhammapada has been in my backpack for months and I finally read it because I was called into work on an emergency and forgot to put another book in my bag. It isn't really meant to be read in one big chunk like that so I should probably look over it again one day. There were some things I liked, some I disagreed wit and some I had never really considered.

I also finished Moxie which I really loved. I very rarely read contemporary YA but this year I've read two that have both been 5 star reads, so maybe I should give it more of a chance. I've also had Rebel Girl stuck in my head since I finished it.

Finally I just finished The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, which I also loved. I've loved every book in the series and I'm sad that this is probably the last book. I would also like a Laru buddy to pet and make me cake. Just saying. :D

Currently reading: Ariadne but I feel a bit disjointed from it. It is a story I know very well as I wrote a version for NaNoWriMo once, and this version is very different to how I envisioned it so I am having a hard time reconciling the two. Not the author's fault at all and if it was any other story I would probably have flown through it by now.

QOTW: I thought I had a lot until I saw Lynn's number! Mine are mainly genre ones but I have a few personal ones like "tragic." You can have. the saddest story in the world but if it doesn't make me cry, it doesn't make the shelf.

Happy Thursday!   Last week I had to go work in the office and it was awful!  I indulged in some online clothes shopping after that - and I realized I haven't purchased anything new to wear (other than a few T-shirts) since 2018.  But no matter what kind of fun new shirts I have to wear, I STILL have the agony of being forced to wear SHOES all day when I'm in the office.  Ugh!    It's so nice to be working from home this week, I can make toast, I can pet my dogs, and I can run around barefoot :-)

It's "Ants in the House" season here.  As I was typing just now, I looked up and saw a big black ant crawling over the unopened box of Terro ant bait.  Kind of ironic.  I stopped typing to grab a tissue to crush the ant, and ... it's gone.  Now my skin is all creepy-crawly worrying that an ant is crawling up my leg.  Downside of being barefoot, I guess!


This week I read 5 books (& DNF’ed 1 book), 2 for this Challenge, so I am now 32/50.

books I finished:
Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seichō Matsumoto- this was on my personal list of 21 books I must read this year, and I found it to be rather slow.  This is the second Japanese mystery I’ve read, and the other one was similar - is this the style for Japanese mysteries? Or did I just happen to pick up two that were slow, and clever, with rather workmanlike writing?  The book cover shown on GR is black & white, so I thought I’d use it for that category.  However, the cover on the copy I borrowed was NOT black & white.  If this were a difficult category for me, I’d use this one anyway, but I’ve got a few other options so I’ll try again.
  
Murder Lo Mein by Vivien Chien - Lana’s restaurant is participating in a noodle contest, and someone keeps murdering the judges!   Most of the book takes place in a variety of Chinese restaurants, so I checked off “takes place in a restaurant.”

Less by Andrew Sean Greer - it took me a long time to warm up to this short book, but by the end I was enjoying it.

My Brother's Husband, Volume 1 written & drawn by Gengoroh Tagame- this is a very VERY sweet story, a bit too sweet for me.  This is the second manga I've read, and I checked off "format you don't usually read."  (Coincidentally, both mangas that I've read involve a man home raising a young daughter.)

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid - I'm not exactly a member of TJR's fan club, but this book won me over, and I really enjoyed it.


DNF:
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey -  this was on my personal list of 21 books I must read this year, and since it’s 900+ pages, I was planning to use it for “longest book” ...  but I just could NOT with this book.  I rarely like long books so I’m really aggravated that I have to try to read another one still this year, but I will forge ahead bravely!  



QotW
Oh I have LOTS of Goodreads shelves!!  I've got 8 exclusive shelves; other than the standard three, I also created shelves for: 
* back burnered (I started it, set it down, but I will DEFINITELY get back to it ... eventually), 
* did not finish
* nope (I am never reading this book, for reasons) 
* poetry to read
* shorts to read

Looks like I have 209 shelves, total.   I shelve books based on genre, subject, and setting, so when I'm in the mood for a detective mystery or a dystopian or a microhistory or a book set in the early 20th century (or I want to recommend one), I can quickly check my shelf to see what I've got.   

I used to have shelves to keep track of books I want to read for reading challenges, but I found it works better for me to track that in a spreadsheet instead.

I don't really use my shelves to track statistics like where the book is located, countries the authors are from, male & female authors, etc.  I have shelves for "Author of Color to read" and "Cultural Appreciation Month to read" for when I'm in need of inspiration, but once I read the book, I no longer keep track of author identities, although I do track those stats in my spreadsheet.  

I also have shelves for books I re-read and books I want to re-read, books I must read this year, books I REALLY REALLY want to read (as opposed to the 1700 other books I also want to read), new releases, books I want to read that my library doesn't own, translations, the next book in a series I'm reading, and series that I really need to finish, books I might want to bring on my annual summer beach vacation to my mother's house, books I listened to as audiobooks, books I think I want to listen to as audiobooks, books I read in the year they were published, and books that were so good they are all-time favorites.




* So, I'm done typing now, and that ant still hasn't reappeared.  where did it go????? Lesson learned: always kill the ant the instant you see it. (Unless you've already set up the ant bait, in which case you must leave the ant alone to bring the bait back to the nest.)

My reading's slowed down lately, and I'm wondering if that's valid feedback to give to my endocrinologist next week when they ask how I've been doing off my anti-thyroid drugs! I've had some other symptoms reappear so I'm putting down my lack of concentration to that. Hopefully they won't be all "try a few more months" otherwise my summer challenges are doomed.

I did finish Ariadne by Jennifer Saint for ATY (set somewhere I haven't visited) on audio. This was a fairly straight retelling of Ariadne and Phaedra's stories and was lacking something. Having the first person narrative of characters who weren't involved in a lot of the action didn't help, they were often being told stuff that had happened elsewhere. Maybe too much padding? I did like Dionysus in it though.

I'm very nearly finished The Wolf and the Woodsman but it's my partner's birthday today so I doubt I'll finish it tonight.

QOTW:
I have four extra unique shelves: pre-order (so I don't forget what I've ordered and buy it again, it happens), dnf, on-hold and depths-of-kindle (for books I'm no longer that interested in but they're in my kindle archive so technically I still have them to read).

Then for the rest of my shelves I organise by challenges and genres with a best of shelf for each year with my 5 star reads on. Most my demographics tracking I do in my spreadsheet (ethnicity, nationality, setting, etc) as it gets a bit much having shelves for everything, though sometimes I see really creative shelving and get tempted to branch out.

Nowt much happened in my life this week, though I'm planning a great big post-lockdown bookshop crawl for either the weekend or next week. Watch out Edinburgh, here I come!
However, big news in the owl stream that has consumed my life: we have three baby barn owlets! The third hatched only a few hours ago and I honestly almost cried. I'm overemotionowl.

Books (4 this week):

Hidden Valley Road - This was quite interesting, though I was dismayed by how much of the history of psychology can be summed up as "it's got to be the mother's fault". Also there are quite a few references to child abuse, both towards the Galvin children and perpetrated by at least one of the brothers as an adult, yet no mention of said abusers facing a single consequence. Aside from like, being yelled at during a dinner once, because the parents forced two siblings into proximity even after finding out that one had done unimaginably horrific things to the other! Really, even without the schizophrenia aspect, my reaction to the whole Galvin family is basically "WTF".

Gender Euphoria - It's a shame that on Goodreads you can only see the cover, and not the spine, which is my favourite part of this book's exterior design - it has all sorts of gender-related Pride flags down it. :) I must admit I don't recognise most of them, I know the intersex one, and I think another is agender.
The essays were, hmm, nice? Appreciated the neurodiverse representation. They were pretty short though. And, no offence intended to Laura Kate Dale, but I didn't think every other essay needed to be by & about her. A lot of hers were interesting and relevant, sure, but we could've had a dozen more contributors with even more unique and fascinating perspectives!

The Animals at Lockwood Manor - Did not live up to expectations. I liked the main characters, found both quite relatable at points, especially regarding mental illness representation. Everything else though, nope, sorry. Gothic storyline was derivative, romance was poorly paced (basically strangers for half the book, then immediate switch to madly in love, can't-live-without-her mode), and there's a really unpleasant twist right at the end where child abuse is brought in as a shock plot point.

Can we just stop with that? There's certain topics that, I wouldn't call them a "trigger" as that feels like appropriating medical terminology, but I need to know ahead of time and make sure I'm in a good healthy headspace to handle reading about them. And it's not just me, there are some really obvious topics that it's perfectly normal to not want to read about without preparation - y'know, murder, torture, assault, etcetera. Yet! They keep getting thrown into books so casually! Like they're nothing, couldn't possibly trouble anyone! Certain things should not be sprung on the reader as a surprise. Give us some content warnings for god's sake!

Seven Worlds One Planet: Natural Wonders from Every Continent - Heh, bit of a palate cleanser. Beautiful nature photography and facts.

Currently reading Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England and The Naked Civil Servant but might put them both aside. Not really getting along with them. Perhaps just not in a nonfiction mood.

Next up I think I'll start Love After Love.

QOTW: I have uhhhh 91 GR shelves. 😅 (Clearly, I need to add 9 more.) 10 of those are exclusive shelves, counting the default Want to Read, Read, Currently Reading.
My custom exclusive shelves are:
Owned TBR
Kindle TBR
to be reread
ordered (was going to use it for tracking preorders, but... haven't been doing that, might just delete it)
And then 3 DNF shelves:
DNF
temp-DNF (basically paused reading)
DNF try-again-later (for when I'm going to pick them up again but start right over at the beginning)
I might just conflate the latter 2 since I don't really utilise the "try again later" one. Maybe call it "soft DNF"?

The non-exclusive shelves are just a bit of a mess. I have ones for what year books were obtained in, what year they were read in, shelves for books that were read and obtained in the same year, shelves for where they're set, a shelf for LGBTQ+ books, a shelf for books with disability or mental-illness rep, shelves for gender of author, dozens of shelves pertaining to various reading challenges...
Then just some for weird things I like, such as "corvid covers and titles" (crows ❤) and "islands" and "witchery".

Saw my parents at the weekend for the first time since last August, so that was great! But now a dreaded busy period at work is fast approaching - it's never usually fun, but it's going to be even worse than usual this year for various reasons (of which the pandemic is only one, and possibly not even the worst!).

Finished:

Edinburgh Twilight for A book that has a heart, diamond, club, or spade on the cover. I wanted to like this, but it just ended up being 'meh'.

The Vanishing Half for A book on a Black Lives Matter reading list. Having seen a fair amount of good press about this, I think my expectations were a bit too high. I liked it, but it didn't rock my world.

Started:

The Endless Beach, which I'm hoping will work for A book set in a restaurant (although it's possible I'll end up not being able to justify it for this prompt, oh well...)

QOTW:

I'm pretty minimalist - I only have the three standard shelves, plus one for the each of the Popsugar challenges I've done. I have contemplated creating other shelves before, based on various criteria, but always stopped myself, because otherwise where would it end??!! I might create a re-read shelf at some point in the future, if I re-read anything that's already on the 'Read' shelf, but that's about it.

Nadine wrote: "Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey - this was on my personal list of 21 books I must read this year, and since it’s 900+ pages, I was planning to use it for “longest book” ... but I just could NOT with this book...."

This *was* my longest book too but I read one page and thought nope, I can't do 1000 pages of this. It's gone into the charity shop donation pile now.

Cendaquenta wrote: "However, big news in the owl stream that has consumed my life: we have three baby barn owlets! The third hatched only a few hours ago and I honestly almost cried. I'm overemotionowl."

I was so excited to see that when I logged on this morning!! All three owlets to match all six kestrel chicks 😍

Hello! It's too hot today. We've been smashing records for a week now because it isn't supposed to be this hot this early, but the heat advisory is supposed to end this evening, so maybe the 90s and humid is ending too. Of course, tonight is the night we have a company outing to a baseball game with my husband's company, and today is supposed to be the worst day of the week. Hoping for the best. Or a light wind. We'll see.

Finished This Week:
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. I found my comments on How to Stop Time from earlier in the year where I said I didn't like "people who just don't age" stories, but it turns out I probably just didn't like *that* story. I liked how the passage of time was shown for Addie, and I believed her motivations for how she acts. Very much enjoyed. Using for #11, About Forgetting.

Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton. Another space book I've been meaning to read, written by two of the Mercury 7 astronauts. Alan was the first American in space, got grounded by an inner ear disease after, and made it to the moon on Apollo 14. Deke was grounded by a heart murmur and didn't get to fly as part of Mercury, but finally got to go to space in 1975 as part of a joint American-Russian effort. Both worked for NASA for the whole of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, mostly in administrator roles after they were grounded. I've read a lot of accounts of NASA in the 60s, and this contained the most graphic depiction yet of the fire on Apollo 1. Most of the other accounts just said there was a fire and the astronauts died. Deke was there when they opened the compartment, and never forgot what he saw, which very much comes through on the page. Still a good book for what it is, Deke and Alan's stories. Not using for prompt.

Rebel Sisters by Tochi Onyebuchi. The sequel to War Girls, which I read back in February. This book is about after the war is over, and how people move on, or can't. It's about refugees and governments, PTSD and processing your trauma, and whether you can live next door to someone who used to be the enemy. But mostly it's about what should be remembered after something traumatic, and who gets to choose how it's remembered. It takes a LONG time to get there. I didn't like Ify for most of the book, but I didn't especially like Ify in the last book either. I'm glad I read it though. Not for prompt, but would fill #2, Afrofuturist and #11, About Forgetting.

Grand Union: Stories by Zadie Smith I picked this up from the library for the Reading Women prompt of A Short Story Collection by a Caribbean Author. I didn't connect to or actively disliked almost every story. There were maybe two I didn't dislike. I really should have read the reviews first.

PS: 29/50 RH: 8/24 RW: 14/28 ATY: 36/52 GR: 73/150

Currently Reading:
The Chaos of Empire: The British Raj and the Conquest of India by Jon Wilson. I made it four pages before it put me to sleep again. Now in chapter three, I think. Starting to seriously question if this just isn't the year I learn about India. I was reading this to be able to read The Far Pavilions as my longest book on my TBR, but A Dance with Dragons is starting to look mighty tempting.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Picked up this off my shelf as something happy, as everything I have out from the library is about war or slavery or discrimination, or a combination thereof. Enjoying it so far. No, I have not read it before.

Up Next:
The Poppy War / The Dragon Republic / The Burning God by R.F. Kuang. Book 3 finally came in from the library, so I need to reread book 1 and finally read book 2.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. Book club meets Tuesday, so need to read this by then.

Stonewall by Martin Duberman. My Pride reading, for Read Harder's LGBTQ+ History book.

Daughter of Sparta by Claire M. Andrews. Came out Tuesday, and I'm already #1 in line at the library. I imagine I'll get this soon.

QOTW: How do you organize your Goodreads book shelves? Do you have a lot of shelves or are you a minimalist?
I've mostly only had the three default shelves, but I added a history shelf early on for my history non-fiction, then a library shelf back in December and a space shelf last week. I plan to add more shelves for the big topics I love - World War II, American Revolution, Greece & Rome. I also want to make shelves for each year, and divide up the fiction in some way. Lots of plans, not so much in the execution yet.

Ashley Marie wrote: "I was so excited to see that when I logged on this morning!! All three owlets to match all six kestrel chicks 😍"

omg, I keep meaning to ask and forgetting - what is your Youtube username? We must've chatted but I have no idea who you are on there 😳😳😳

Kenya wrote: "Balan Wonderworld: Maestro of Mystery, Theatre of Wonders -- not for the challenge. Spinoff novel of a video game, and despite the game apparently being garbage, the book was actually really enjoyable."

WHAT. They wrote a book based on this fever-dream of a video game??? I can't fathom what the story would even be since the game itself makes zero sense and the set-up feels like they've jammed several completely different games together..."bizarre" is the only word I can think of to describe it. And not the good kind of bizarre.

Happy Thursday and Happy Pride Month!

When I was 6 or 8 we had new neighbors that moved into the house next door. It was two males and one female and their three dogs. The house was (is?) kind of creepy because it was a large Victorian house which was the only type of that house on my block. I was a shy kid and didn't like to talk to anyone I didn't know but one day it snowed and I was playing out front and I fell. One of the male occupants of the house saw me crying and brought me inside for some hot chocolate (not in a creepy way, I had seen them before and my parents talked to them so I felt no stranger danger). I loved their dogs and felt safe there. My mom told me a few days later that the men were gay and the woman was a lesbian and they were all friends. So (me being a kid) I asked "what does gay mean?" and she told me it is when two people who are the same gender love each other. My response was "ok" and that was the end of the conversation. I have never felt "uncomfortable" or "judgmental" about anyone's lives or life choices. Everyone has a path and love is love is love.

Now as an adult, my two best friends both have brothers who are gay and my boyfriend's sister married her wife a few years ago and they live with their boyfriend in Los Angeles. If anyone is lucky enough to experience love why not just be happy for them and let them love? History is full of gender fluidity and same sex relationships, let people just be themselves.

Now, onto books...

Finished:

Betrayal: The Betrayal; The Secret; The Burning by R. L. Stine (A book that has fewer than 1,000 reviews on Goodreads). I have a deep love for the Fear Street books. I was the kid under the covers with a flashlight reading long after my bedtime. I am looking forward to the Netflix films but was hoping for more of an anthology series of each book (which could still happen I guess). The books aren't challenging in any way which is fine. I devoured the 500+ page book in less than 3 days and have zero regrets.

Currently Reading:

The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani. Almost finished with this one. I am listening to this on audio and I really like the narrator. She has a beautiful British accent that is very devious in tone (in a good way).

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Just started this one but is really good so far.

QOTW:
I really need to step up by Shelves game on GR. Looking at all the shelving ideas has inspired me to sift through all the books I want to read and categorize them. Currently have the standard shelves, all the Challenges shelves and a DNF that has 5 books on it and is the thorn in my side because I HATE to DNF a book but I just couldn't slog through those.

Cendaquenta wrote: "Ashley Marie wrote: "I was so excited to see that when I logged on this morning!! All three owlets to match all six kestrel chicks 😍"

omg, I keep meaning to ask and forgetting - what is your Youtu..."

Yes, we have! I'm Ashley CD in the chatbox :)

Katy wrote: "I'm now reading The Jungle Book and Other Classics as a favorite from a previous year--a childhood classic I never read. It's alright."
I just realized I have never read The Jungle Book!

"QOTW: I don't. I just have the read and the want-to-read shelves it gives you automatically."
I assumed this would demonstrate my overly-OCD organization of books on my Goodreads shelf... You qualify as a minimalist in my world!! 😊

oh, gosh, of course - duly noted, will endeavour not to forget 😅

Not much to report on my end. We're back in the office three days a week and it's exhausting! I forgot how little I can get done at home when I work from the office because I'm so tired in the evenings that I just...sit. I'm still getting my workouts in, at least, but it still feels like my productivity (at home) has gone way down (and it already wasn't great).

That being said, one of our programs started last week and we've been inundated with appointments. It's overwhelming but it's reminding me why I love my job.

I'm currently sitting at 17/50 books for the challenge, so it's safe to say I'll likely not finish this year. Which makes me sad because I was excited about so many of the books I'd chosen for it!

Finished:
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger: A book by an Indigenous author. I really enjoyed this! The world she created was really interesting and the story itself kept me engaged. I'd love to see the author write more books in this same world.

Up Next:
ADHD Does Not Exist: The Truth About Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder: not for the challenge, probably. I've worked with several students with ADD/ADHD who struggle to make it through our rigorous, unfriendly-to-neurodivergents programs. I wanted to learn more about how the ADHD brain works, but it's surprisingly difficult to find (I like to know the brain processes; it makes it easier to come up with strategies). This book seemed like it'd be the closest to what I'm looking for.

QOTW:
I have 34 shelves, mostly genre-based. I do have an exclusive DNF shelf, and ones to track my Audible and Kindle books. I don't have more because I keep a catalog of all my owned books through The Library Thing and that's where I REALLY go to town with the tags!

Hi all! Having a much better week physically and emotionally than last week! Stupid steroids! But it seems they worked and I may be going back to work soon. Which will cut into my reading time....

Weather got hot again! We had to put the AC in our bedroom. It's supposed to cool off this weekend. I planted container gardens for the first time ever just a couple of weeks ago, and I have sprouts in all of them! Tomatoes, carrots, onions, and cucumbers! Now hopefully I can water (but not overwater!) and care for them enough to get some veggies!

I finished Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy for a book with less than 1000 ratings. It was OK. I can't put my finger on why I didn't completely like it. At any given moment, I enjoyed the story and writing, but something about it didn't flow for me. Fascinating story, but maybe just read the wikipedia page?

Made progress all over the place with my reading this week:

Burn Baby Burn
The Wichita Divide: The Murder of Dr. George Tiller, the Battle over Abortion, and the New American Civil War
Dear Martin
A Town Like Alice

I need to keep chugging, as I said, if I go back to work, that'll kill my reading time. But also, because I'm still suffering from library grabby hands, I took out 2 more books this week, put 2 more on hold that I'm going to pick up next week....


QOTW: I only have the original 3 as exclusive shelves. I have about 20 other shelves. I feel like I should be more organized and have more shelves, but organization and sorting are not my strong suits! In any area of my life, not just here!
I have an audiobook shelf, nonfiction, a shelf for books written or set from 1900-1945, a mental health shelf, YA shelf, a few others.

What are people meaning by exclusive shelves?

Lynn wrote: "In honor of Pride Month, something happened this past Monday that reminded me of how much more diverse are the people in my world than was true even 10-12 years ago. I moved to a different Universi..."

Lynn, I'm glad that she could just say that in a conversation with someone she just met! I've lived in rural, conservative areas my whole life, and it usually takes a bit for that to come up when I meet new people. But I saw an article just this week that said even a majority of conservatives now support gay marriage! *My* petty side says "see? I TOLD you SO it wouldn't ruin society!!" ;D

Nadine wrote: " * So, I'm done typing now, and that ant still hasn't reappeared. where did it go????? Lesson learned: always kill the ant the instant you see it. (Unless you've already set up the ant bait, in which case you must leave the ant alone to bring the bait back to the nest.) "


You're cracking me up and all I can think of is Allie Bosh's "Spiders are Scary" post.

PopSugar 49/50
Goodreads 60/100

June is moving along a little slowly for me, but it did finish 1 book this past week: Stories I Only Tell My Friends. Rob Lowe is a hot nerd. I really enjoyed that story!

I'm currently reading:
The Tsar of Love and Techno - Anthony Marra is an OUTSTANDING writer. This series of linked short stories (like Olive Kitteridge) is much less bleak than A Constellation of Vital Phenomena.

The Garden of Evening Mists - I'm reading this with my TBR twin from the 2021 Reading Challenge group. I've decided to focus on classics, nonfiction, and award winners/ nominees. You know, the intimidating stuff! I love the positive peer pressure of a reading buddy. This is a slow burn. I know nothing about Malaysia, so it's quite interesting.

Up next:
The Husbands - I won the ARC and I need to get my review in! I'm convinced the more promptly you read and review your ARCs the more likely you are to win another!

The Fifth Season - This is for my last PopSugar prompt (afrofuturist)! I can't get myself motivated to read it!

Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding - I'm hoping this motivates me to get back to the gym. The COVID 15 is real, ya'll.

QOTW:
I'm a minimalist!

Want to Read
Currently Reading
Read
read-kids-books (exclusive. I don't like them mixed with my adult books.)
recs-for-girls (exclusive. I have 2 daughters.)
xenofiction-recs-for-fi (exclusive. This was a stage for my younger daughter!)
audiobooks
favorites

Oh yeah, I have a shelf for audiobooks too because I don't like the square audiobook covers for some reason. So I add the UK print edition and stick it on a audiobooks shelf so I know it was listened to.

Kenya wrote: "Happy Thursday, y’all. And happy Pride month!

I FINISHED THE CHALLENGE! Finished the last two books of my challenge this week. Whoo. Now to chip away at the never-ending to-read list, haha..."
Wow! I am so impressed! Congrats on finishing before the year is even halfway over! ✨✨🎆🎆🎈🎈👍

"Books read this week:
The School of Essential Ingredients -- for “book set in a restaurant.” Cute and full of mouth-watering food descriptions, though it felt like every character’s arc ended just as it got interesting…"
And lucky for you, there is sequel, The Lost Art of Mixing which I would also highly recommend...

"The Minor Third -- for “book about art or an artist.” I count stage magic as a performing art, heh… "
This series looks like it will be so much fun!!

"A Gryphon's Trial -- not for the challenge. Sequel to A Gryphon's Journey, and a fun animal-adventure story in the vein of Warriors or Wings of Fire."
I'm relatively certain I can blame you for the fact that the first book in this series is on my TBR listing! 😏

"Balan Wonderworld: Maestro of Mystery, Theatre of Wonders -- not for the challenge. Spinoff novel of a video game, and despite the game apparently being garbage, the book was actually really enjoyable."
You made me laugh! Mental note to avoid that game! LOL

"The Cardboard Kingdom #2: Roar of the Beast -- graphic novel, not for the challenge. Aimed at kids, but still a delightful celebration of imagination and friendship."
This reminds me of my children when young. I would go to various stores and collect cardboard boxes every few months and they would construct things with them: cars, trucks, buildings/towns, cradles for their Cabbage Patch dolls, etc. Though I typically am not into graphic novels this looks like I should check it out!

"Currently Reading:
The Line Between
Mars Evacuees
The Apothecary Rose"
*sigh* More on my TBR listing... 😉

"QOTW:
It depends on whether I've read the book or not. I have "read," "want to read," "did not finish," and "currently reading" shelves, and then a "books I love" shelf for books I've read and highly enjoyed. I also have shelves for each of the PopSugar reading challenges I've participated in (every year but 2016).

My "want to read" books are split up by source -- I have a "to read: library," a "to read: inter-library loan," a "my kindle books," and a "I have no self-control at booksales" (physical books I own)."
That made me laugh! Of course, I have no idea about that concept 'cause I always exert self-control at such events! NOT!!! 😂

Heather wrote: "No finishes this week, but I’m making good progress on all the books I’m reading."
Ack! Finishing may be highly overrated!! LOL Progress though. Progress is GREAT!!! 😆

"My formal training at my new job has finished so I’m working on my own as of today. Fortunately, everyone expects and is prepared for me to ask them a lot of questions. I don’t know yet if I’ll want to work with an audiobook playing so I’ll stick to music for now."
Congratulations! And best of luck for success on your own!! I'm glad to hear others expect you to have questions as you work independently. Sounds as if they expect to help when they can. I can't imagine a job where I could listen to audiobooks unless it was cleaning or something like that. I would get way too distracted!

"Reading
Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin (a book by a Muslim-American author)"
Hope you enjoy this!

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy (the book on your tbr with the prettiest cover)
I hadn't thought of this book in forever! I should read it...

"QOTW
I’m highly organized. Each book I read it put on multiple bookshelves:
1. The year the book was read (2021-booklist)
2. The genre, with sub-genres for YA books
3. If I read it for Popsugar (reading-challenge)
4 If I own it (owned)
5. And also the format I own it in (audiobook, print, kindle)
6. If it’s a favorite book, I put it on my favorites shelf

The only reason a book wouldn’t be on those bookshelves is because I read it before I joined Goodreads. I put those on a 1990s-booklist or 2000s-booklist (I don't remember any books I read/were read to me in the 1980s), but I don’t classify by genre and format.."
You are organized!! 😊 Yeah. I have added some in that I read prior to joining Goodreads but certainly not all...

book of the monthI'm always game to lead a group discussion put me in where needed. I've lead a couple of times recently so I totally see the benefit of new blood but I'm here in a pinch.

QOTW OMG, I have so many shelves. Too many shelves. But I use them to remind myself of forgettable books. And to remind myself what other prompts they might fit if I do a prompt shuffle which I am wont to do.

complete
Soulless by Gail Carriger the first in her parasol protectorate series read for a steampunk prompt. It is a fun book. Fun enough I picked up the second in the series but not as much fun as i found her spy school series which is in the sameish verse.

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes for a prompt about gun violence. This was both heartbreaking and hopeful. I don't know how I feel about one part of the book but it is a deep cut and spoilers...

Black Brother, Black Brother also by about two brothers in a private prep school one who could pass and another who very much couldn't and how the darker brother is set up to fail. It goes into a discussion of the school to prison system but not a very in depth one (it is a middle grade novel but I feel weird about being more educated about this on a Freeform show (Good Trouble) than in a book about this subject. Alternately, there is a fencing plot that I sort of loved and now know way more about fencing and am inspired to learn more.

The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal which is a super short story and part of a bigger collection but it WAY made me want to read the rest of the collection.

and Juliet Takes a Breath: The Graphic Novel by Gabby Rivera the graphic novel adaptation of her novel of the same name. I LOVED this one and now kind of want to read the novel because that feels like it should be a richer experience, but also how much richer can it be because... this was rich. All sorts of representation and one of the better examples of how white people can very unthinkingly marginalize people of color and how that wounds them. Lots and lots of other stuff here, too. Loved it.

Currently reading
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland after the battle of Gettysburg the dead rose and started fighting the survivors. Mid zombie apocalypse the slaves have been freed but now are in a disturbing caste system where they fight zombies and serve at dinner parties for white people. The book is well aware of how messed up this is and it is really, really engaging. it is listed as YA and the protagonist is 16 so... but seriously there are disturbing situations and all sorts of themes in this book. I'm enjoying it.

Two books this week neither for Popsugar (one for the alphabet challenge and one for the cloak and dagger challenge)

The Monster in the Box by Ruth Rendell, honestly this was rather plodding.

You've Got Tail by Renee George which honestly the psychic protagonist spends more time worrying if she should be sleeping with her missing best friend's kid brother than either of them spend trying to FIND the friend.


QOTW I do my shelves by genre but I try to keep it minimal. I don't have a bunch of Tumblr-esque shelves.

Cornerofmadness wrote: "Two books this week neither for Popsugar (one for the alphabet challenge and one for the cloak and dagger challenge)

The Monster in the Box by Ruth Rendell, honestly this was rather..."

Two things... 1)tell me about the cloak and dagger challenge
2) I read like 5 books in a psychic mystery series I didn't particulalry enjoy because she was increasingly involved with and eventually married an FBI agent who didn't believe in psychics and I just wanted her to kick him to he curb. I mean I am SUPER skeptical about psychics. But if your girlfriend/wife is a person who makes her living as a psychic and helps you solve at least one crime per book because of her psychic prowess and you still don't believe in psychics? You don't get to also sleep with the psychic.

Melissa wrote: "What are people meaning by exclusive shelves?"

They're shelves that don't require the book to be on any other shelf. If you create a regular DNF shelf, it'll also automatically put it in your TBR or Read shelf, which is annoying if you don't want to have it on either of those (since you plan to read it and haven't technically finished the whole thing).

I hope that makes sense!

Shannon wrote: "Melissa wrote: "What are people meaning by exclusive shelves?"

They're shelves that don't require the book to be on any other shelf. If you create a regular DNF shelf, it'll also automatically put it in your TBR or Read shelf, which is annoying if you don't want to have it on either of those (since you plan to read it and haven't technically finished the whole thing)"

Oh, that sounds nifty! Thanks for the explanation!

I feel like I had a pretty good reading week!

Finished: When You Wonder, You're Learning: Mister Rogers' Enduring Lessons for Raising Creative, Curious, Caring Kids This one was very enjoyable, focused on the principles Mr. Rogers used to design his show. A perfect fit for me since I'm immersed in education and Mr. Rogers is one of my heroes.

The Night Watchman This was read for a book club I'm joining and I had to force my way through it. It only sporadically captured my attention. And it's narrative arc was practically non-existent.

Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes I used this for ugliest cover on my TBR list. I didn't get as much out of it as I did with Thought and Language, but maybe I just wasn't in the right mood.

Started: My Ántonia This is another book club book and I'm enjoying it pretty well.

Qotw: So I added partly-read to the exclusive shelves already provided. I have a bunch of other categories, but I rarely use them. One thing I try to do is keep track of which to-read books are available at local libraries, so I'm not tempted to buy them when at a bookstore. I had a shelf for the pop sugar challenge last year, but haven't created one yet for this year, mostly because I'm tracking with a paper tracker.

Hello hello! Mostly good week: video games, sunshine, dog petting, sewing! But my little cat has a cold and an ear infection and looks (adorably) miserable and last night I had to fight several of my worst enemies.

NOTE: If like me you are a person who hates bugs and arachnids, skip the rest of this paragraph. While this is by far my favorite apartment I've lived in in Chicago, it has one fatal flaw: I've encountered more house centipedes in this apartment than I have in all my life leading up to this point. My one cat has at least gotten very good at hunting them, but no matter how many I see, how regularly I remind myself I am much larger than them and can take them in a fight and I shouldn't hate something just because it has more legs than I consider reasonable, every time I see one my brain process just devolves to "eeeeeeeeeee no no no no no no no why no." So of course last night within a one hour span I had to catch not one but two house centipedes and the moment I turned around from dealing with the second one a giant spider descended from my ceiling. If gods exist, I have apparently somehow angered ALL OF THEM.


Finished:
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon - this was my longest book on my TBR and I finished it!! I also lucked out because despite being over 800 pages I found this book SO engrossing and enjoyable! The world building and story was so cool and interest, there was a great balance between the four POV characters, and it was really delightful for me to get to read some very queer and femme-centric epic/high fantasy, something all my epic/high fantasy growing up was sorely lacking.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells - it felt like every weekly check-in somebody was talking about how great the Murderbot books were so I finally got the first one from the library and y'all were right, this was super fun! It's the first book I've read this month that wasn't explicitly queer, but since it seems like a lot of the supporting cast are poly and Murderbot (in this installment at least) is reading as very ace spectrum to me, I'm counting it, haha.

The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson - I feel like I am a terrible queer because I did not love this. 😬 It was well-written, very thoughtful, I 100% understand why other people love it, but it just unexpectedly wasn't for me. I am maybe just in a place where overly intellectual, academic self-reflections are not what I'm interested in reading.


Currently Reading:
One Last Stop
The Tombs of Atuan
Spoiler Alert
Loveless


QotW:
I have about sixteen shelves! I love making up themes for shelves like I do for music playlists.
Some of them are typical genre stuff: comics, memoirs, poetry, scifi, LGBTQIA+, my DNF shelf is called "I just gave up."

Then there's less typical ones: faerie folk, post-apocalyptic, fairytale retellings, enemies to lovers(my favorite guilty pleasure trope!).

And then the ones that are probably odd, haha: labyrinths, books with cats, books about books, "blank of blank and blank" title, which for a while I feel was very popular for YA/fantasy book titles. I'm probably going to add one for dragons, because I love dragons. My criteria for what deserves its own shelf is pretty random. 😅

Happy Thursday! I didn't get much reading done this week, because I fell into a deep, dark Netflix rabbit hole. Oh well. I take that as a sign that my brain wants mindless entertainment.

I finished:

Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone: I read this for a past prompt (celebrity book club). The reason I wanted to read it was because of the author's Red Table Talk episode, so I got the audiobook. There were a lot of good messages in the book, but overall I have to be in a certain mood to enjoy a self-help style book and for that reason, I found myself rolling my eyes and picking it apart a little bit.

Currently reading:

The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI's Original Mindhunter: This book continues to be pretty good, but has kind of a long, meandering way of getting to the point of a story. While I find it a little annoying, I think it is actually pretty effective in a book such as this.

Mockingbird: This book has been a nice little surprise in some ways and a shock in others. The character development is very interesting in this book and that is what has me committed to finishing, but I will say that I wish the description was a bit more specific about the content. I'm not particularly aware of trigger warnings, but I think if I had known the nature of her brother's death, I may have mentally prepared myself a bit before picking it up. I wasn't ready for the direct way that it was approached, although it makes sense in the context of the narrator.

QOTW:
I only use the shelves already provided. I am very particular about what books I will even add to my TBR list. I keep a separate excel spreadsheet with extra information, like where the book is available (Library, Overdrive, Hoopla, Kindle Unlimited), but I don't feel like I need all that information on Goodreads. I really probably should have a DNF shelf, but something about that is unsatisfying to me.

Shannon wrote: "Kenya wrote: "Balan Wonderworld: Maestro of Mystery, Theatre of Wonders -- not for the challenge. Spinoff novel of a video game, and despite the game apparently being garbage, the book was actually..."

Funny story -- the book contains all the story bits left out of the game! It's supposed to be a "companion" to the game, but since the game is mostly dialogue-free the book ends up containing the entire story proper. The story actually makes sense in the book, but it feels rather scummy to force players to buy the book if they want to make sense of the game

Alex wrote: "The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson - I feel like I am a terrible queer because I did not love this. 😬 It was well-written, very thoughtful, I 100% understand why other people love it, but it just unexpectedly wasn't for me. I am maybe just in a place where overly intellectual, academic self-reflections are not what I'm interested in reading."

oh thank GOD, someone else disliked it too

I got like three-quarters through, loathing it, then came a few pages of incomprehensible textwall, with the line "you can stop now" buried somewhere in there - DON'T GOTTA TELL ME TWICE.
DNFed with extreme prejudice.

Alex wrote: "So of course last night within a one hour span I had to catch not one but two house centipedes and the moment I turned around from dealing with the second one a giant spider descended from my ceiling. If gods exist, I have apparently somehow angered ALL OF THEM."

well... I guess you know why the spider was so big, at least? Free, eight-legged assistant pest control 😅

Shannon wrote: "Up Next: ADHD Does Not Exist: The Truth About Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder: not for the challenge, probably. I've worked with several students with ADD/ADHD who struggle to make it through our rigorous, unfriendly-to-neurodivergents programs. I wanted to learn more about how the ADHD brain works, but it's surprisingly difficult to find (I like to know the brain processes; it makes it easier to come up with strategies). This book seemed like it'd be the closest to what I'm looking for."

Oof, I really wish I had a better recommendation I could offer you because, as a person with ADHD who was misdiagnosed with a variety of things and put through very unhelpful treatments for conditions I did not have for decades because of people like this author, this book makes me froth at the mouth angry.

Lynn wrote: "In honor of Pride Month, something happened this past Monday that reminded me of how much more diverse are the people in my world than was true even 10-12 years ago. I moved to a different Universi..."

Our taste in books is so different, but I always find your choices so diverse that I'm convinced you are a fascinating person in real life. I took a really interesting personality test for my job called the "Real Colors." It splits people into 4 colors based on which area they are most dominant in, but each person is a blend of all the colors. I keep trying to figure out what color you are and I keep changing my mind based on your book choices haha.

I managed to knock out a couple more prompts

Locked room mystery

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. Ehh. I'm just not a huge Christie fan.

set in multiple countries

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. I'm late to the party on this one but I loved everything about this book. Everything.

no prompts from favorite to least

How Not to Ask a Boy to Prom by S.J. Goslee. YA romance with fake dating. Absolutely adorable. One of my Prime month reads.

Love is a Rogue by Lenora Bell. Historical romance. Bookish sister of a duke/naval officer and carpenter. Thoroughly enjoyable read.

The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person by Frederick Joseph. I see it marketed a lot as YA. He tells his experiences as a black person and interviews a lot of people. Explains a lot of microaggressions. A good read.

Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller. YA fantasy. Daughter of a pirate king who is looking for a map to a lost treasure. There is some stuff that comes out of left field halfway through the book but still enjoyable.

QOTW:
I have three shelves: currently reading, read and want to read and my want to read are only books I physically own.

It's been a busy week - one last full week of school, plus a halfish week left. So, grades, projects, galore!

I finished one book this week: Middle England for prompt #47 - a book that reminds me of my favorite place. My sister and I love traveling in England, so this one took me right back. An interesting book that has a lot of recent history ... but history that seems like it happened a lot longer ago than it did.

QotW
I'm fairly minimalist. I have very specific categories for certain fiction books that I usually read - say, WWII/Holocaust, as that is my preferred historical fiction. I have Brit Lit, American Lit, World Lit, Own Voices, Middle Grade, YA/Adolescent, and a few others. I do have a generic Nonfiction shelf, and one for each PS Challenge. I try to keep it simple. If I have to tag it in a million different ways, I'd probably avoid posting anything on the book.

Ashley Marie wrote: "This is so lovely to hear, Lynn! My theatre company had a small get-together this past weekend and I was deeply glad to spend time in the company of such a hardworking, understanding, loving group of friends again. Several of my friends have recently updated their personal pronouns and I'm doing my best to mentally adjust to that; I don't have a lot of experience with using they/them as a singular pronoun when referencing a specific person, but I'm working on it!"
You and me both! I'm trying to totally eliminate the gendered pronouns, especially at work. Some habits are just tough to break!

"My dental saga appears to be ongoing, but hopefully today marks an end; I had a wisdom tooth pulled two months ago, and a small bone spur cropped up within the last few weeks; (view spoiler) Thankfully, getting it filed down this afternoon, and hopefully that's the end of this business."
Ooohhh...that sounds painful! I sure hope this is the end of the dental saga for you!!

"In the meantime, I've managed to finish three books this week:
Armistice and Amnesty - both 4-star reads. I love this world so much, and I'm so glad I stumbled upon Amberlough a few months ago. If you count Cabaret among your favorite musicals and you appreciate political intrigue, I would recommend this trilogy. Definitely keeping an eye out for any future Lara Elena Donnelly books!"
I had already added the first in the series to my TBR listing. Your description is intriguing!

"We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride In The History of Queer Liberation - 5 stars. A superb coffee table book with plenty of photographs to accompany the history told, much of which I was previously unaware. This made it onto my wishlist before I'd even finished the first chapter."
This sounds perfect for a Book Riot Read Harder challenge prompt-Read an LGBTQ+ history book.

"QOTW: How do you organize your Goodreads book shelves? Do you have a lot of shelves or are you a minimalist?
I have a decent amount of shelves, which I tend to organize by genre with a few separated/sub-categories for various locales in historical fiction. I also have some fun ones like WTF-did-I-just-read, Assholes-with-money, and Book-hangover-like-whoa, which I personally find entertaining. Feel free to peruse at your leisure!"
I LOVE those! 👍🤗

Nadine wrote: "June is Pride Month! I am a proud ally and I have a beautiful pride flag displayed on my house. It amuses me to think my neighbors might wonder if I'm divorced because I'm a lesbian."
Ha! Ha! That reminds me of a time over 20 years ago, only a few months after my divorce, I was attending some small-venue musical event with a friend and since I had long hair, I put it up with a brand-new baseball cap a good friend had recently gifted to me and the friend I accompanied was quite upset because she feared other people might think I was a lesbian... I just laughed! I changed nothing. Admittedly, this was in a midwestern US rather small town, so was definitely something different, especially at that time, but really? Come on... Though I found additional humor and irony in the situation because my good friend who had given me the cap happened to identify as queer female... LOL 😁

"We are discussing books we are reading for Pride Month here:
Pride Month Reading"
And I'm very sorry for neglecting to include the correct link, Nadine! Thank you for correcting me and I'll edit my posting, just in case...

"May was AAPI month :-) (Although I borrowed so many books from the library for AAPI reading that I'm still reading them now ...)"
I admire your commitment to these recognition months! I get so many great recommendations from your postings for those!

Alex wrote: "Oof, I really wish I had a better recommendation I could offer you because, as a person with ADHD who was misdiagnosed with a variety of things and put through very unhelpful treatments for conditions I did not have for decades because of people like this author, this book makes me froth at the mouth angry."

I have no doubt! So many of my students (especially those who grew up female-coded) struggle a lot even to accept themselves because they've spent their whole lives thinking (or being told) there's something wrong with them and they're just somehow "broken." It hurts my heart to know they've had to go through so much just to get a diagnosis and be taken seriously at all.

I try to work with them on reframing that as "your brain is just different from whatever some person decided was 'standard,' but your brain doesn't actually have anything wrong with it. The people in power just decided to only make things that work for one way of thinking and processing." But it's a lot of unlearning and internalizing, and I know I'm not really qualified to be the one to help them in that area.

My personal neurodivergence is more on the mental health side, so I wanted to be able to connect more with these students. I'm not a therapist, but I want them to feel safe talking to me, not like I'm just telling them "you should try harder at school."

I chose this book partially because, even though I disagree with his premise that ADHD doesn't exist (although one review said he does eventually determine it DOES exist, he just gives it a different name lol), I'm interested in all those different ways it can affect people. Not everyone has every piece that he covers, but it's helpful to be able to try some different approaches based on how the student's been affect/has struggled.

If anyone else does have suggestions of better things to read on this topic, I'm definitely open to not sticking with this one!

Lynn wrote: "In honor of Pride Month, something happened this past Monday that reminded me of how much more diverse are the people in my world than was true even 10-12 years ago. I moved to a different Universi..."

@Lynn - just want to compliment you on your wonderful essay about your own personal journey to bring more diversity to your life, not just your reading! What a wonderful thing to realize about yourself and your life!

I'm a firm believer that diversity is a full time 24/7 year round activity - both in reading and in life. I'm a farmer's daughter raised in a very white small rural community in upstate NY, one that is very conservative republican as well. However, my own family was pretty accommodating -- might be because we were the few liberal blue democrats in the community! But what really opened my world was coming to NYC in 1973 to attend Barnard College. And that world has only grown more and more diverse on every level and in every way. My travels have assisted with that as well.

It's funny, but I tend NOT to read for those specially designated months such as Pride or BLM or even Women's History. I read that way all year long and in a way, it's become my own private little rebellion to the concept of a specific dedicated month for such reading, which implies no need to do so the rest of the year.

But I tend to be contrary. In a good way, I hope!

I’ve got 2 weeks off from work! Started it with a big headache and fatigue, guess all the stress had to find its way out. And it’s still a pollen explosion over here, so I finally decided to buy some medicines. And guess what, they worked, woohoo!
Next we knocked down our old shed to make space for a new one. With a porch, to enjoy summer evenings like we have now.

20/40 - 50% done!
Finished
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley ⭐⭐⭐
Prompt: #39, a book everyone seems to have read but you, #29, a book set in multiple countries, #33, a book featuring three generations

I wanted to know what the buzz was all about, so I started part 1. It’s a pleasant read, and, well, all the open ends are quite genius if you want to sell 7 parts of it.

Currently reading
John Adams
My Brilliant Friend

QOTW
I thought I had a lot of shelves, but compared to some of you with 3-digit numbers… I think I am a minimalist with my 40 shelves. I have shelves for every challenge I participate in, for countries a book is about or set in, genres, themes and books I read in English or German (my standard is Dutch).

Thanks for the tip on the exclusive shelf. I did not know I could make an exclusive shelf myself. *makes a dnf-shelf*

The heat wave is breaking up, finally! I've hidden from the heat for what feels like forever.

Finished:

When Dimple Met Rishi - loved this! An absolute delight! I did not need this for challenge. It may be YA, and it's a bit fairytale HEA, but it reads really well for adults too. Dimple is such a wonderful strong young woman, you can't help loving her. Plus how can you not love a book that gives us 'Aberzombies'? That's up there with 'Masters of the Universe and Social X-Rays' coined by Tom Wolfe in The Bonfire of the Vanities
Summer of a Thousand Pies - a middle-grade story about a young girl experiencing her first real home and community inclusion after a life of homelessness with her father. There's a bit of 'Judy and Andy put on a show to save the farm' about it, but it's also a very inclusive story touching on DREAMERS and same sex couples in parenting roles. And there are pies, lots and lots of pies!
Sorry Not Sorry - British contemporary chicklit that was fun and good enough that I want to read the sequels that focus on the continuing stories of side characters. I did not however find it 'uproariously funny' as so many of the publisher quotes suggest it is. That could be a function of it being very British (our humor is different) or just my age versus this book featuring 20-somethings. But still fun.

Currently Reading:

The Left Hand of Darkness - for my Feminerdy Book Club this weekend. I suspect I will end up underwhelmed .... and for the reasons I don't really like SciFi and Fantasy, not anything intrinsically wrong with the book or what it is exploring. This is considered LeGuin's masterpiece - set on a planet where there is gender neutrality.
How Much of These Hills Is Gold - a buddy read in another group and I'm behind. First chapter packed a wallop but I'm finding it a little bit weird a few more chapters in and its not gripping me. That may also just be my mood right now.
The Mysterious Benedict Society
A Suitable Boy - longest (in pages) book on my TBR. I downloaded the only ebook available - through Amazon Kindle Unlimited - and it is full of errors -- including chunks missing in sentences. I really don't want to purchase a print copy becuase this is BIG and will be heavy to handle. But the poor quality of the ebook may force the me to do so.

QOTW: Well, compared to many, mine's pretty limited, or at least was. As I do challenges in another group, and generally use GR to keep track of books more and more, I have been expanding it steadily. In fact I tweak it from time to time - removing some shelves, adding others, renaming some.

I added 3 exclusive shelves a year or so ago:

Audio - I listen to very few audiobooks (not my thing) and the ones I do listen to are almost always rereads as those are the only audiobooks I can really follow -- my mind wanders when I listen.

DNF - what few books I truly DNF. Yes, I'm one of those people who will generally finish any book started. But there are exceptions which are to me worth tracking.

Giveaways - I was tired of those Giveaways I entered automatically swelling my Want to Read list.

For others, I have some relatively specific and eccentric topics like francophilia and male bodice rippers, some geographic like middle east and india, many general categories like shortstories and essays, cozy mysteries, thrillers. I also have separate shelves for each year of PS.

I have a buddy read shelf, one called monthly challenges where I post books I will be reading - possibly- for some monthly challenge or read-along.

I make shelves 'sticky' - so they are at the top, just under the exclusive ones - that I need to access regularly for challenges or group reading.

My shelves are a never-finished work in progress as I constantly tweak it to make it easier for me not only to track reading but also find books I have read or relate to a specific topic.

Sarah wrote: "Hi everyone. I'm a little pink from the nice weather yesterday but not sore luckily!"
Pink is good... 😁

"My nephew was watching me on Goodreads yesterday and asking questions about how it works. Then, in the two minutes it took me to go on a bathroom break, he'd added about twenty books to my TBR that he wanted to read lol. Sneaky! I waited until he left to then remove them all. Hopefully he won't notice next time he visits."
How cute! That made me laugh!

"This week I finished 3 books. The Dhammapada has been in my backpack for months and I finally read it because I was called into work on an emergency and forgot to put another book in my bag."
I guess I've been under a rock not to have heard of this one before, but I would definitely like to read it.

"I also finished Moxie which I really loved. I very rarely read contemporary YA but this year I've read two that have both been 5 star reads, so maybe I should give it more of a chance."
Ooohhh...This sounds fun!

"Finally I just finished The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, which I also loved. I've loved every book in the series and I'm sad that this is probably the last book. I would also like a Laru buddy to pet and make me cake. Just saying. :D"
So would I! I'm sure I'll break down at some point this summer and purchase a copy of this. I just won't be able to wait...

"Currently reading: Ariadne but I feel a bit disjointed from it. It is a story I know very well as I wrote a version for NaNoWriMo once, and this version is very different to how I envisioned it so I am having a hard time reconciling the two. Not the author's fault at all and if it was any other story I would probably have flown through it by now."
I can see how that might present a challenge! And congrats for doing NaNoWriMo!

"QOTW: I thought I had a lot until I saw Lynn's number!"
I am here to make others feel better about themselves. LOL 😁

"Mine are mainly genre ones but I have a few personal ones like "tragic." You can have. the saddest story in the world but if it doesn't make me cry, it doesn't make the shelf."
Now that is pretty specific criteria! 😁