Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

Whoo! Whoo! It is THURSDAY!!

I was without a working kitchen sink for 10 days. I let my husband mess with it for 4 days. Took me 5 more days just to locate a plumber willing to come to the house and evaluate the situation. Finally got it fixed and then a leak had started under the sink. The plumber returned and fixed that, replacing the faucet and some of the piping under the sink and I have yet to be billed, but I already know it will be just under $400 at minimum. Although he was very apologetic about the fact that the person he sent to fix this somehow missed the trouble with the actual faucet and piping under the sink. I appreciated his honesty... I hope all of you have working plumbing without any of these headaches! I admit I rather enjoyed the time off from cooking, however!!😊 Gettin’ lazy in my old age!

Admin Stuff:
Brandy B is leading August’s discussion of Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas! I will plan to tackle it this weekend. I assume I will need to skip over some of the more “horror-y” parts… And don’t forget to post the book(s) you have read to fulfill prompt #5 A dark academia book here!

WE STILL NEED DISCUSSION LEADERS FOR THESE TWO MONTHLY GROUP READS:
October: #13 A locked-room mystery
(“Spooktober”/Halloween)
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Are you the "fascinating facilitator" needed to lead discussion of this book?
December: #1 A book published in 2021
(Because it’s the end of the year!)
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
There is need of a "gifted guide" to lead this discussion!
Message either Nadine or myself to volunteer!

Question of the Week: Have you ever thought that you would like to be friends with a character from a book you’ve read? What is that book and who is the character?
(I co-opted Allie’s answer to last week’s question to use this week! Thank you, Allie! Sneaky, aren’t I? LOL)

Oh, so many! Since I typically read for characterization, I end up with a ton of characters I would like to meet IRL and befriend! Since I just finished reading The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, the first in the Mrs. Pollifax series by Dorothy Gilman, definitely Mrs. Pollifax! For a woman in her sixties she is remarkably stalwart and steady. In this first book she already proved she could kill a man to save her own life and plan an escape from a seemingly impenetrable remote prison facility! Whoo! Whoo! You go, girl! This is one of my favorite characters, which I’m certain has to do with our shared characteristics, mainly that we are both white women in our sixties! But I can live out some fantastical situations and actions vicariously through Emily. 😊

There really are too many to try to mention here, so in the interest of getting this posted and starting the conversation, I’ll desist!

Popsugar: 39/50
ATY: 48/52
RHC: 11/24
Reading Women: 11/28

FINISHED:
I read and thoroughly enjoyed Good Wives (Little Women #1, part 2) by Louisa May Alcott ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for a 2021 Reading Challenge August Buddy Read. I was definitely in the mood for just this type of book. I love Alcott’s writing! Anxious to read the next two installments September and October.
POPSUGAR: #7, #18-Supportive family, #21-Classics, Coming-of-Age, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance, Young Adult, #27, #33, #37, #38-Jo is a writer, Amy is an artist, #46, #47-Alcott is one of my favorite writers,
ATY: #1-In the beginning it was just four sisters, #3-…whiskers on kittens…Beth loved her kitties!, #6, #8-Massachusetts, #13-I reread Little Women in 2020 after 50+years!, #15, #19-Interesting to see how the four sisters adjust to changes as they enter adulthood, #23-Classics, Coming-of-Age, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance, Young Adult, #27-Strength, Death, #29, #31, #32, #34, #39, #40, #49, #51

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (Mrs. Pollifax #1) by Dorothy Gilman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Love me some Emily Pollifax adventures!
(I will return later today to complete this listing of prompts.) Or not until next Monday! 😁
POPSUGAR: #3-A playing card of diamonds, #7-She’s a spy!, #22, #27, #29-US, Mexico, Albania, #30-Mexico, Albania, #34-Rescuing unjustly imprisoned people, #47-One of my favorite series!
ATY: #1-The beginning of a series, #3-...warm woolen mittens... The wool dress she had to wear as a disguise, regardless of the intense heat during the day!...cream colored ponies... The donkeys they had to ride!, #8-Mexico, Albania, #19-Little did the doctor know just how much his seemingly harmless question would impact Mrs. Pollifax’s future, #27-Death, Judgement, The World, #29, #31, #34, #35-Mexico, #40, #42
Reading Women: #5, #18

CONTINUING:
I wanted to finish Precious and Grace (The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency #17) by Alexander McCall Smith, but am only about halfway through… Only four more installments to go to be caught up with the series and ready for book #22 to be released this October!
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. Cannot count the number of times I nod my head in agreement while reading this! It is so very sad how much the underlying racist U.S. policies and mores had indoctrinated his own mind. Kudos to him for being able to recognize it and not only deal with it, but use it to advance his own and others’ understanding and development.
Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

PLANNED:
For August Buddy Reads:
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
Xenocide (Ender’s Saga #3) by Orson Scott Card. Can’t wait! Card’s writing just draws me in…
Force of Nature (Aaron Falk #2) by Jane Harper. I so enjoyed Harper’s writing in The Dry, though not so much the story. Anxious to see how this one goes!
The second book in the Alex Cross series grossed me out quite a bit, but I’m giving it one more try with Jack & Jill (Alex Cross #3) by James Patterson. If this one is too grisly for me, I’ll not continue with the series.
For our August Monthly Group Read, my copy of Catherine House arrived!
For my face-to-face book club at my favorite used bookstore, The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich, which is a historical fiction novel based upon her grandfather’s experiences. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction this year. I will pick up a copy this weekend.
I so want to make time for this next one…
The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman
And…
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende to fulfill the 2020 Reading Women prompt #26 A book written by Isabel Allende.
Paradise by Toni Morrison to fulfill the 2020 Reading Women prompt #25 A book written by Toni Morrison.
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

Lynn, you always seem to be dealing with broken things! We've had a few minor plumbing issues this year but my partner has had better luck fixing things himself.

Ellie wrote: "Lynn, you always seem to be dealing with broken things! We've had a few minor plumbing issues this year but my partner has had better luck fixing things himself."
I know... It is my lot in this lifetime it seems! LOL

Thursday again means theatre again tonight! Tuesday was my favorite kind of relaxing day, hanging out in the yard with the husband and the cats (my cats LOVE being outside, especially the one who mostly lives there, so when we spend a day outside she's in kitty heaven). We've had lower humidity this week thankfully, so we had a fire, cooked dinner, and made s'mores :) Lots of fun Olympics action too! I loved seeing the US women in beach volleyball last night (and a bit disappointed to see (view spoiler)[Latvia lost to Australia (hide spoiler)] when I checked highlights this morning).

I finished two books and a short story this week:
The Brothers Cabal - 4.5 stars. This series has been a ton of fun! There's still another book left (and hopefully one more being published eventually to wrap things up properly)
A Long Spoon - 4.5 stars. Howard's wordplay is unparalleled. If you like Jasper Fforde, definitely check this series out!
Terms of Surrender - 5 stars. I expected this book to take me four days, not four weeks! Real life kicked in this past month (and a bunch of other books) but I looooved this. Excited for the finale!

PS: Still 41/50!

Currently:
Homegoing - the audiobook is fantastic
From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars - we watched the Netflix docu-series based on this book and loved it; I'm excited because there are more stories with more mothers in the book than were shown on tv!
The Unbroken - now that I've knocked out Terms of Surrender, I have room to finish this!
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent - Saw a Twitter thread about the CIA this morning (featuring this Wikipedia article) and it reminded me that I desperately need to get back to this!

Upcoming:
The Dark Enquiry
The Hangman's Daughter
The Rise of Wolf 8: Witnessing the Triumph of Yellowstone's Underdog
One of Our Thursdays Is Missing

QOTW: Question of the Week: Have you ever thought that you would like to be friends with a character from a book you’ve read? What is that book and who is the character?
All the time! A few recent favorites:
I love Glain and Khalila in the Great Library series (Ink and Bone).
Lady Julia Grey and her sister Portia, Lady Bettiscome (Silent in the Grave)
And Cordelia in Amberlough is my theatre queen!

Happy Thursday, y’all.

Not much to report beyond the usual heat, wildfires, Delta variant spread, etc. So moving on to the roundup...

Books read this week:

The Final Girl Support Group Group -- I usually like Grady Hendrix’s books (I liked Horrorstör and loved The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires) so I was disappointed that this one fell flat for me. The characters were all thoroughly unlikable, and there were too many coincidences. The nods towards and homages to classic slasher movie franchises were fun to look for, though.

Long After Midnight -- short story collection by one of my favorite authors of all time, Ray Bradbury. A few of these stories are genuinely disturbing and chilling, and others I’d read previously in another collection, but I still love his work to death.

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void -- journalist Mary Roach takes a look at some of NASA’s wackier exploits in their attempts to make space travel livable and more comfortable for its astronauts. A good mix of humor and fact, and in my mind a better read than Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War (though I want to read more of her books now…).

The Grabbem Getaway -- yes, it’s a kid’s book. No, I don't care. It’s a cute and fun read about a video-game-loving boy and the runaway robot he befriends. Also kudos for diversity in its lead character! (The text only ever describes the main character as “brown” but it also implies that his family may be from Sri Lanka.)

Pawcasso -- graphic novel, and a great read for dog lovers. The artwork is adorable too.

DNF:

The River Has Teeth -- just wasnt getting into it as much as I hoped. Maybe I’ll try again later…

Illegal Alien -- “oh hey, a legal thriller involving aliens! Oh wait… I forgot I don’t like legal thrillers. So that’s how you make a first contact novel boring…”

Currently Reading:

The Space Between Worlds
The Midnight Circus
The Past Is Red
Faerie Tale

QOTW:

This is going to sound bizarre, but... Murderbot from the Murderbot books. I know they're antisocial, but honestly my friends and I chill and hang out all the time by just sitting together, playing/watching/reading something, and doing absolutely nothing, so doing the same thing with a rogue security robot would be a delightful experience. Maybe I'm just weird...

I've not been in much of a reading mood this week, but I did finish off a couple of books. I am getting to that point in the challenge year where the books I want to read to don't fit any prompts, and the books that I should be reading aren't calling to me.

Finished:
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland for ATY (building in title). I loved this, so dark and creepy! I am not sure what I expected when I picked it up, but I don't think I'd paid attention to it being horror. But anyway, I was great and I'm glad it was a surprise.

Pumpkin by Julie Murphy for body positivity. This was charming as all her books have been. Listened to it on audio and the narrator was perfect for Whelan.

Currently reading Afterlove and listening to Fake Law: The Truth About Justice in an Age of Lies.

PS: 35/50 | ATY:36 /52 | GR: 77/100

QOTW:
I know this has happened to me but now I can't think which books is was! I do know I would like to join the book club in the The Paper & Hearts Society books.

Often in YA I think how lovely it would have been in school if I'd had some of the friends that are in books.

I did the most important thing someone can do when moving to a new place ... I got my library card!! The building is beautiful, the collection is great, the librarians are friendly! I got set up with Libby and Hoopla (which my old library didn’t have.) Now I feel completely settled into my new neighborhood.

I don’t like the challenge tracker telling me that I’m behind so I focused on reading some shorter books this week.

Finished
After the Funeral by Agatha Christie (a book with a family tree). A good Poirot mystery, but nothing really remarkable either.

Captain America by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Vol. 1: Winter in America by Ta-Nehisi Coates (a book in a format you don’t normally read). Well, I did it. I read a whole comic book. I didn’t feel like I could accurately rate or review it. There was a lot of great content and social commentary in the story, but this is not the format for me. I would have loved this as a novel or movie, though.

Forever Wild by KA Tucker. I didn’t realize this was a Christmas story sequel. I would have made sure to read it when it came out in December or soon after. Oh well. I read it now and enjoyed it very much.

1919 by Eve L. Ewing (a book on a black lives matter reading list). Between learning about Juneteenth last year and the Tulsa riots this year, I knew I wanted to pick a history book covering an event I hadn’t learned about in school for this prompt. A book of poetry felt like an interesting way to learn about race riots in Chicago 1919. This was such a powerful book! There are quotes and informative texts before the poems to put them in context of the events. Eve L. Ewing is an incredible talent. I’ll read more of her books, and that’s the first time I’ve ever said that about a poet.

Reading
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hubbert (a book about body positivity). Remember last week how I was lamenting that I hadn’t finished the audiobook and when I went to renew my library didn’t have it anymore? My new library has the audiobook! There wasn’t a waitlist either.

Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin (a book by a Muslim American author). This book is going back on my reading list because it’s my pick for my long drive audiobook this weekend.

Relativity by James Swallow (the book on your TBR with the ugliest cover)

Lovesick Braves by Pamela Sanderson (a book by an Indigenous author)

QOTW
The one that springs to mind right away is Catherine from Northanger Abbey. That overactive imagination is hilarious! Although, I’d definitely have to be the mom friend around her. I always thought Ron was a really good friend to Harry and Hermione, especially considering how annoying being their friend could be at times.

Good Morning All, I finished three books for the week. I just realized none were for the Pop Sugar Challenge.
Song For A Whale by Lynne Kelly. Middle Grade, Contemporary, Disability. 4 stars. Positive story. I thought it "jumped the shark" toward the end (I was trying to be funny there).
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova Bailey. 4 stars. Memoir, Nature,Science.
Awk-Weird (Ice Knights, #2) by Avery Flynn. I started the series last year. 4 stars. Chick Lit, Romance.
Question of the Week: Have you ever thought that you would like to be friends with a character from a book you’ve read? What is that book and who is the character? As someone above said there are so many. Probably Harry, Ron, and Hermione from Harry Potter. Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird.

Heather wrote: "I did the most important thing someone can do when moving to a new place ... I got my library card!! The building is beautiful, the collection is great, the librarians are friendly! I got set up wi..."

Hooray for new library cards!! Hoopla and Libby are two of my favorite resources. Have fun with Get a Life, Chloe Brown!

Set somewhere you'd like to visit

Enjoy the View by Sarah Morganthaler. Contemporary romance. Set in Alaska. I found it very meh. Too long and lack of chemistry and just blah.

no prompts from fave to least

Clap When you Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. YA novel in verse about grief and secrets. Probably one of the best books I've read this year.

Ten Rules for Faking It by Sophie Sullivan. Contemporary romance. Not spicy. Super cute. Really enjoyed it. The main character has social anxiety and her friends and family kind of annoy me because like her parents plan a birthday party for her when she doesn't like parties and her friend tries to tell her they were just trying to doing something nice for her. And they weren't because they just discount her social anxiety and her not wanting a party. Off my soapbox. Still enjoyed it. The book with the brother comes out in January and I'll pick that one up too.

White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig. YA mystery. I actually really enjoyed this. I think it would make an excellent Netflix series. (CW: gay slurs)

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young. YA. Vikings. The romance was seriously lacking. It was billed as enemies to lovers by booktok but the progression wasn't there. It was I hate you to I will abandon my life for you without the inbetween. It was okay.

There Will Come a Darkness by Katy Rose Pool. YA fantasy. It took me like halfway through to really get into this book. Also, I hate the multiple POVs that seem to be in every fantasy book. I'm over it.

The Obsession by Jesse Q. Sutanto. YA version of You. Was it great? No. Would I pick up a sequel…probably. (CW: domestic abuse, suicide)

The Heiress Hunt by Joanna Shupe. Historical romance. I generally love Shupe but the heroine in this one kind of drove me crazy with her immaturity at the end of the book.

I finished Arabian Nights: The Marvels and Wonders of The Thousand and One Nights, Volume 1 of 2 as my anonymous book. I don't recommend it. I enjoyed a couple of the stories, but it's mainly 600 some odd pages of wanting to kill all the people. Just all of them. There are no, or at least very few, rootable characters in the stories. And that goes a million times for Aladdin. Made me ragey.

I am now reading Crows & Cards as my book with a heart, spade, diamond, or club on the cover. 65 pages in and so far so good. Very Twainian (not a thing? Is now).

QOTW: I'm sure I have. I would love to be friends with Anne Shurley. Hard to think of others off the top of my head.

Work continues to be busy and stressful - am already looking forward to the weekend!

Finished:

A Beautiful Poison for A book with an oxymoron in the title. I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the other book I've read by this author, and I think I pretty much worked out whodunnit before the reveal.

Started:

Kingshold for The book on your TBR list with the ugliest cover. It's not so much that the cover is ugly, more that it's just the dullest!

QOTW:

I'm sure there are loads, but I've always thought it would be cool to be in the lives of Falco and Helena from Lindsey Davis's Falco books.

Hi everyone. I have been extremely busy and have not had a chance to check in for weeks now. I had surgery on Friday, so now have lots of time on my hands while I recover. Unfortunately, it's not really comfortable to sit or lie down and read. So I have been pacing around the house or outside a lot while listening to an audiobook. The weather has been really cooperative too, barely getting above 80 most days and not too sunny. Perfect for walking around the neighborhood or backyard.

Finished:
The Worst Best Man for book with an oxymoron in the title. This was very meh. Taking up with your brother's former fiancee, yuck.
Seven Days in June I really had no expectations for this book, but I loved it. Very quick read.
Happiness for Beginners Very cute.

Currently reading:
Half of a Yellow Sun A nice cheerful book for my recovery reading. For Women's Prize For Fiction.
Project Hail Mary Really like it so far.
Cleopatra: A Life
War and Peace I've been reading this since January. I really should make an effort to finish it before going back to work.
Tokyo Ever After on audio, for book set in multiple countries.

QOTW:
I am sure there is, but I can't think of one off the top of my head right now. Maybe something will come to me later.

No major updates here! Lynn, I'm so sorry about all the things falling apart! I hope you get a reprieve from all of that.

I do have a date tonight, which I'm not looking forward to, mostly because I hate dating lol. But apparently that's how you "find someone" or whatever. *sigh* Wish me luck!

Finished:
Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme - a book with an oxymoron in the title. This was interesting and I'll probably use it for reference, but while it claims to explain the history of the nursery rhymes, most of them are "It could be about this! Or it could be about this! Or maybe even this!" I get that we don't know, but a book that covers so many rhymes and all but maybe two are just "we don't know what it's about, really"...yeah, that's not very interesting.

Currently Reading:
The Silver Arrow

QOTW:
I don't even know how to answer this, just because there are so many! It may sound silly, but I feel like they're already my friends - I can visit them whenever I want and they'll always be there for me! :)

Milena wrote: "Hi everyone. I have been extremely busy and have not had a chance to check in for weeks now. I had surgery on Friday, so now have lots of time on my hands while I recover. Unfortunately, it's not r..."

I hope you have a speedy recovery! If it's a longer recovery period, I at least hope the pain of healing reduces quickly.

Happy Thursday!

This week has been very trying. I feel similar to Lynn in that parts of my car keep falling off. First it was one hubcap (no biggie), then the glass on my driver side mirror fell off, then the "VW" logo on another hubcap fell off. It is like my car is falling apart literally piece by piece. Fortunately I can buy replacement glass and attach a new mirror.

Also - my pup has UV-itis which is an infection in his eye. Apparently very common in Akitas which he is part. He is on a long list of meds and hopefully it clears up pretty quick. Absolute worse-case scenario he could lose his eye. We are hoping the antibiotics and steroids can clear it up before it gets too far gone.

On to books....

Finished:
Nothing

Continuing:

How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C. Pam Zhang. This book is beautifully written but the story is a little slow.

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult. This is my first Picoult book and I didn't realize it was "romance" until after I started it. Romance is not my thing but she writes well enough for me to keep going.

QOTW:
When I was a kid, I would have loved to be a member of the Babysitter's Club and be friends with all them. I identified a lot with Mary Anne and I wanted to be like Kristy or Dawn. As an adult, I read more Thriller/Mystery and wouldn't necessarily want to be friends with any of the main characters, too much drama.

Hi everybody! Though it's a bit late in the year, I thought I'd join up, since I realized I'd covered about half the tasks with previously read books anyway. Currently at 20/40 tasks done, reading a couple.

Continuing:
A book about a subject you are passionate about: A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome
A book in a different format than what you normally read: Kushiel's Dart (audiobook)
Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR Reading Challenge: Les Misérables (Book set in an Olympic city from 2020)

QOTW: One of my favorite books as a kid was Journey to the River Sea - I'd have loved to be friends with Maia and Finn and the rest, and explore the Amazon with them!

39/40

Only one more book to go! Of course, it's my TBR longest book, so it'll take me a month at least.

Read: Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming for TBR Random Choice: prompt. Man! Was this a slog. I hated the random choice last year and wasn't very fond of it this year either. Even though I did it in a more *fun* way this year. I took all my TBR's and spread them all over my bed and then chose blindly. You'd think a random selection among books I wanted to read would go all right. *shrug* Oh well.

How to Teach Adults: Plan Your Class, Teach Your Students, Change the World This had good advice for teaching in general. I didn't find a lot of advice specific to teaching adults. For example, it would have been helpful to have more advice about finding appropriate materials for struggling readers who are adult learners.

The Son of Sobek This is a cross-over between Percy and the Kane siblings. I didn't even know these existed until recently because they only came out as e-books. More like a short story, they read quickly and are pretty fun for Riordan fans.

The Pull of the Stars Read this for a book club. It was fascinating! Aboout a maternity ward nurse during the 1918 pandemic.

Started: Remembrance of Things Past: Volume II - The Guermantes Way & Cities of the Plain Started this for TBR Longest prompt. I have a love/hate relationship with Proust. On the one hand, he's a fantastic writer. Even how he handles the convoluted sentences is amazing. (It's a translation, but still.) On the other hand, his books just reek of privilege. He has nothing better to do than stalk the women he randomly falls in love with. The subject matter is rather revolting.

Radicalizing Learning: Adult Education for a Just World Finally got to go to the stacks of my local college library for this one! They've been closed through most of Covid and then they changed how patron check-outs work! (Because access to other library systems is not enough!)

Qotw: Ah, this question is much easier to answer than last week's! I would like to be friends with Stargirl. She's kind and interesting and I would like to support her just being who she is. I would also like to be friends with the friends of the main character from Real because they see past superficiality and recognize true worth.

Doni wrote: "Ah, this question is much easier to answer than last week's! I would like to be friends with Stargirl. She's kind and interesting and I would like to support her just being who she is. "

Oh, you're so right! I couldn't think of anyone specific, but I'm definitely here for a friendship with Stargirl.

Happy Thursday and Feast of the Transfiguration for those who are celebrating this week! I have not gotten far at all in my reading. I've just been watching the Olympics non-stop. It's the only time I care about sports. XD

Currently Reading

The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights, Volume 1 of 3 for "book by anonymous author". Halfway through this brick....

QotW

Oh yes! All the time! I've mentally adopted Rand al'Thor from The Eye of the World and Kaladin and Szeth fromThe Way of Kings. Those boys just need momma hugs, a vacation, and a good therapist. XD I'd love to hang out with the Narnians. Having the cast of Tsubasa or Watanuki from xxxHolic as friends would be cool too. And, of course, everyone needs a Samwise Gamgee in their life.

Heather wrote: "I did the most important thing someone can do when moving to a new place ... I got my library card!! The building is beautiful, the collection is great, the librarians are friendly! I got set up wi..."

O, that's the best thing to do when you start in a new place! Happy reading!

So here’s a little story. My boyfriend’s parents picked up their granddaughter from the airport, sneezing and coughing and all and she turned out to have covid. Luckily no one else got sick. They were all vaccinated, her brother had 1 shot, so I think vaccines worked pretty well here. End of story.

And I got really happy reading the news that the US is considering to allow fully vaccinated tourists into the country. We’ve planned a trip to Florida this fall, so fingers crossed!! I really need some vitamin sun&happiness this fall, work is gonna be insanely busy from September.

27/40
Finished
Tand des tijds by ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Prompt: #31, a book by a blogger, vlogger, YouTuber or other online personality (P.G. Kroeger is co-host of a popular podcast on politics in the Netherlands)

A book on the political party I used to work for. It’s about the exact period I worked there. It’s a sad story: how people destroy a party (yes, you’re not alone over there, we do stuff like that too. Although we didn’t storm parliament, but my former party managed to get itself almost voted out of it.)

Currently reading
De Dertigjarige Oorlog: De allereerste wereldoorlog 1618-1648
Eline

QOTW
Anne of Green Gables. She is so much like my BFF when I was young. Sadly my friend died in a car accident when we were 13. Reading Anne of Green Gables brings back so many good memories, I was so lucky to have her as a friend in my life.
And I really like to be friends with all the strong women in historical fiction books. I truly admire them and I want to know how they got so brave.

Hi all,
Much better week this week. Nice and uneventful! I'll take it.

This week I finished:

Fables: Compendium Two - such a long epic story, enjoying it. These books are a beast to read, SO HEAVY. but I like being able to read long swaths of the story at once, instead of having to keep grabbing new volumes.

Record of a Spaceborn Few - finished audio re-read. This is probably my least favorite of the series, just feels sadder and less of a snug plot. But there are still a lot of great moments in it, and she has such a great touch for using science fiction to explore common issues in our societies.

The Priory of the Orange Tree - This was good, i really liked all the good female characters, and i thought there were a lot of nice new looks at fantasy rather than just treading out the same tropes over and over. Counting as my family tree book, although it's really more a list of characters and relations. It was in the listopia, i'm counting it.

Currently reading;

News of the World - this is my next books & brew pick. And my books and brews will actually be in the brewery next week! I'm both excited and nervous about it. I've been going to restaurants, and I've heard this place in particular has been VERY careful, and enforcing their rules, taking all the precautions etc. And I know all the core members, at least, are vaccinated. But it still feels dicey going back to in person now, with the Delta going around. Although my immediate area is doing ok, right now. Still will probably wear a mask, except while drinking, just to be safe. Anyhow, only about an hour into the audio book. I am not super enthused about it, and it's only 6 hours so i figured audio book will make it go better. It's I think nominally a western, although it's set Texas. Feels like a western anyhow, and that's not my favorite genre. It's not terrible so far, but also not amazing. We'll see how it goes.

Hummingbird Salamander - random library book i picked up because I can't help myself. I loved Annihilation, so ecothriller by the same author is hard to resist.

QOTW:

When I was younger I wanted to be part of the Saddle Club. Ride horses with my best friends? Yes please!

I really liked Eve in Act Your Age Eve Brown. I felt like I could relate to her. I'm sure there's others!

I admit a lot of times I like disaster characters, but they wouldn't be good friends in person haha.

I've got my rading mojo back --- now to just get back to doing things -- safely in a limited way -- rather than hiding in my apartment...and working. Work continues super busy. A good thing but tiring.

I'm currently 35/50 for PS!

Finished - none for PS:

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation- this was a reread and amuse bouche after reading The Lacuna which affected me so powerfully. I loved it more than when I read it when it was published! Think the escapades of The Scarlet Pimpernel only during Napoleon. One funny thing: there was a scene I vividly remembered from the book - only it isn't IN this book! Now I'm on the hunt for what book involving a young woman spying on Napoleon and having access to his study had that scene....or maybe I just fantasized it.

Ivy and Intrigue: A Very Selwick Christmas - a Christmas Novella involving the Pink Carnation that I stumbled on while checking out the next in the series. It was light, fun and set at Christmas.

The Three-Body Problem - classic hardcore SciFi - this month's pick for my Feminerdy Book Club. Warning: all the jacket summaries, promos, publisher blurbs, etc. contain a MASSIVE spoiler! Set in China, this starts at the Cultural Revolution and moves to present day. You are meant to discover what's really going on at the same time as the characters in the book. Those spoiler summaries ruin that so much. This is also the foundation story of a trilogy. Lots of science and even some LitRPG, but also great characters and interesting plot so the science dumps don't distract. I am not much of a SciFi fan so this was a good but not great read for me. I do think though I will read the full trilogy.

Currently Reading:
She Who Became the Sun - alternative history fantasy set - again! - in China but in the 14th Century. Also the first book in a trilogy. Author is quoted as saying this is the kind of saga she wanted to read. So far, it's a terrific engaging read.
Death Comes to Pemberley
The Yacoubian Building
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

QOTW: I really can't think of any although there have probably been a few. Now, men I'd like to seduce, er ... date!... bet I could come up with quite a few! I do so enjoy a good romance.

For the second check-in period in a row, I haven't finished anything. Sooooooo, no changes to my reading totals for this challenge (19/40 and 2/10) or my overall Goodreads reading challenge (38/100). Hopefully, I'll have at least one of the books in progress by next week's check-in :) I feel like my reading pace has slowed this year compared to the past couple of years, but I'm still plugging along :)

Finished:
* nada

Currently Reading:
* Shell Game by Sara Paretsky; and,
* Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski.

QotW:
Have you ever thought that you would like to be friends with a character from a book you’ve read? What is that book and who is the character? I've definitely had that thought more than once while reading. If I had to pick one character, I'd go with Myrna Landers from the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny (though I'd love to be friends with many of the residents of Three Pines and the Sûreté du Québec officers who work with Gamache! :)).

Hi all! It's been a beautiful week here in NY! I've picked 2 cucumbers from my garden, and I have lots of little green tomatoes on my tomato plants! We've also been watching some Very Hungry Caterpillars munching on milkweed in our yard, one's got to be about ready to spin a chrysalis, he's so fat! It's so nice that it's been sunny, but not too hot out lately!

I also got my 2nd shot this week... kinda. With the meds I'm on, I may not develop antibodies, so my doctor wanted me to get 3 total shots, but no one's willing to do it at this point because there's no approval for it. At least I've had 2. I'll have to keep masking and distancing because I have no idea if they've been effective or not.

I finished reading In the Forest for a book set outdoors. Wow that was dark and intense, but I thought it was well done and I would read more by the author.

Still working on Les Miserables, I've made it past 100 pages! Only 1300 more to go!
I need to get back to Dinner with the Smileys: One Military Family, One Year of Heroes, and Lessons for a Lifetime.
I also just started The Razor's Edge, which I think I'm going to like.

QOTW: So many!

Lou from Serpent & Dove, she'd be a lot of fun.
The Housekeeper, Root and the Professor from The Housekeeper and the Professor, they're all so sweet.
Sybella from Dark Triumph, I need a badass in my crew.
Leisel from The Book Thief, we could compare books.

Many, many more.

Oh! And I thought of an answer to last week's question. Tambudzai from Nervous Conditions reminds me of myself. There's a scene where she goes to school and enters a library for the first time and thinks to herself that she wants to read all the books. Yep, Same!

Still watching the Olympics, but at least read a little bit. I couldn't sleep last night so ended up watching sports climbing, which was quite entertaining. And the men's silver was won by someone from my state, so Yay!

Finished
Death Comes As the End by Agatha Christie - 4 stars; not for challenge
My July Christie read (late). This was quite a different sort of story for Dame Christie. It is set in Egypt in 2000 BC. I really enjoyed the story and the plot, and learned a thing or two.

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman - 3 stars; PS #42 (shortest book in TBR)
An okay retelling of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. I wanted to like it more than I did, which is always how I feel about most Gaiman books. They are fine and somewhat interesting, but they don't rise above a 3 star level for me. I should quit trying to make it work.

Next up
Henry V by William Shakespeare - my July Shakespeare
Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

Goodreads: 65/100
Popsugar: 38/45, 6/10

QOTW:
Murderbot comes to mind. I'd love a friend who can protect me when needed and leave me alone a lot. I'm not a touchy, huggy person, so we'd get alone just fine.

Lynn has made Mrs. Pollifax sound like a friend I should have, so I've put the first book on hold at the library.

It's been a pretty quiet week I guess. Can't get anything done at work and lots of jigsaw puzzles at home. Also hot flashes in the summer are not one of my favorite things

Finished:
Ready Player Two - Fewer video game references and more spending a long time on things I've heard of this time.

Papasaurus: - average board book. cute.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Can't wait for more Monk and Robot.

Harley the Hero - Picture book my friend recommended. It was fine.

Death at Greenway - For a book set at Agatha Christie's house, I thought it would be rather more Christie-esque. It was fine.

Run: Book One - FINALLY!!! The next set of John Lewis graphic memoirs is here! I've been waiting for YEARS! If you enjoyed March, you'll enjoy this. Includes the origins of the Black Panthers, and pages of notes and reference materials at the end.


Currently Reading:
The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde - Anthropomorphic rabbits in the UK as a vehicle to talk about prejudice

Defekt - Sequel to Finna, about workers at LitenVärld (IKEA) the maze-like furniture store with wormholes to other dimensions.


QOTW: Have you ever thought that you would like to be friends with a character from a book you’ve read?
Nick and Nora Charles - The Thin Man

Also:
Eeyore
Frankenstein's creature
Jeeves
Matilda
Pippi Longstocking
Nick and Charlie - Heartstopper
Mr Lemoncello - Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
Arthur Parnassus - The House in the Cerulean Sea
The Mole, The Fox and the Horse - The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
Fatma el-Sha’arawi - A Dead Djinn in Cairo
Mrs. Pollifax
Phryne Fisher - Cocaine Blues
Housekeeper - The Housekeeper and the Professor


Oh and while scrolling through looking for this answer, I found the one for last week. Except for the very beginning and ending, I am Edward Tulane, currently sitting on that shelf. - The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Ashley Marie wrote: "We've had lower humidity this week thankfully, so we had a fire, cooked dinner, and made s'mores :)"

I haven't had s'mores for ages and I love them so much. This reminded me that I've been meaning to get an indoor s'mores maker. Just because I'm not able to build a fire or go camping shouldn't mean I am denied one of my favs.

Kenya wrote: "This is going to sound bizarre, but... Murderbot from the Murderbot books. I know they're antisocial, but honestly my friends and I chill and hang out all the time by just sitting together, playing/watching/reading something, and doing absolutely nothing, so doing the same thing with a rogue security robot would be a delightful experience. Maybe I'm just weird..."

Weird minds think alike . . . (I wrote my post before I read the others).

Alex wrote: "The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights, Volume 1 of 3 for "book by anonymous author". Halfway through this brick......"

I just finished a different version. I don't envy your continued slog.

Kenya wrote: "This is going to sound bizarre, but... Murderbot from the Murderbot books. I know they're antisocial, but honestly my friends and I chill and hang out all the time by just sitting together, playing/watching/reading something, and doing absolutely nothing, so doing the same thing with a rogue security robot would be a delightful experience...."

Can I join you?

Gemma wrote: "I've always thought it would be cool to be in the lives of Falco and Helena from Lindsey Davis's Falco books"


Oh, I totally agree! being there watching Helena twist Falco around her little finger...

Doni wrote: "Started this for TBR Longest prompt. I have a love/hate relationship with Proust. On the one hand, he's a fantastic writer. Even how he handles the convoluted sentences is amazing. (It's a translation, but still.) On the other hand, his books just reek of privilege. He has nothing better to do than stalk the women he randomly falls in love with. The subject matter is rather revolting...."

Oh, you have my hearfelt support on this! If I had not spent 9 months reading the entire work, all 4500+ pages between September 2019 and June 2020, I would be right there with you! Instead I have 1500 page A Suitable Boy to read. Easy peasy.

I had to average 400 to 500 pages a month with Proust to finish. I also did it with a discussion group at tbe Center for Fiction in NYC which helped immensely to keep me on track. Did read a few other things along the way as I needed breaks. Got really good at just reading what I could whenever I could, stopping and picking up sometimes in the midst of one of his multi-page paragraphs.

It was so worth it. One thing to consider as you read: the French consider this a great satire of French society at the time, and humorous. You can definitely see that as you read. Is Proust celebrating the narrator's life? Approving it? Or holding it up to be realized as ridiculous, etc? Or is it a way to avoid becoming what you claim to want to be? All of the above and more.

A little anecdote from reading it: just as we all went into lockdown last March, we read the book in which Albertine was 'social distancing'. That amused us all during our first Zoom meeting to discuss.

And I do hope you enjoy the orchid and bee chapter...it is a gem.

Lastly, the final chapters bring it all to an awesome conclusion...truly masterful.

Hello hello! Spent most of today outside with my best friend and had a picnic, which was lovely, and also brings us to this week's VERY IMPORTANT DOG UPDATE: a cyclist pedaled past us and was wearing a backpack in which was sitting a little black and white dog (I think maybe a spaniel?) that was WEARING SUNGLASSES. It made me realize I will never be as cool as that dog, which is a bit of a blow, but seeing a pupper in sunglassses made it okay.


FINISHED:
Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore - I gave this three stars but was mostly rounding up to be kind. I remember really liking the other Graceling books when I read them like nine years ago but this one did not do it for me. The action scenes are great when they happen, I like a lot of the little fantasy elements she peppers her universe with, but the story dragged a ton between action moments and I found myself rolling my eyes at about 99% of the characters and not particularly caring if they lived.
Orpheus Girl by Brynne Rebele-Henry - sigh. This was so short but took me forever to get through because it was just consistently depressing throughout the whole read. It may just not be the style for me. I also love the Orpheus/Eurydice myth, which this took from extensively, but honestly the author could have removed all elements of the myth from this book entirely and it wouldn't have changed anything at all, which makes me feel like it was crammed into the narrative to grab people's attention, which is unfortunate.
Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede - this was fun! I wasn't quite as in love with it as the first book, but I still enjoyed it thoroughly.
Paper Girls, Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughn - I have now read two volumes of this comic and cannot for the life of me tell you what is happening here.

Currently Reading:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - I can't believe they had the audacity to have me read THIRTY-SIX WHOLE PAGES before introducing me to Lisbeth, outrageous
Storm Front - yikes on bikes I am only about 10% of the way into this book and it is already like, AGGRESSIVELY misogynistic. Does that ... get better??
Loveless

QotW:
Oh, often! But I also want to be friends with pretty much everyone, haha. Some characters I would love to hang out with and feel like it would probably go well: the whole main cast of One Last Stop, Addie LaRue(and Henry!), Anne Shirley, Chih (The Empress of Salt and Fortune), Vasilisa (The Bear and the Nightingale), probably Murderbot but *definitely* ART.

Happy Thursday. I spent most of today doing yard work in the heat and then I had choir practice, and now I'm kinda ready to just curl up and sleep. I'm looking forward to the gold medal soccer game tomorrow morning, but that just means I have even more reasons to go to bed early tonight, but I am a complete night owl, so we'll see if I actually manage it.😜

Stats
Popsugar: 41/50
ATY: 44/52
ATY Rejects: 17/25

Books I finished:

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall ⭐⭐⭐ - I finally managed to finish this!!!! I really liked the sections that were letters from Markham to his brother-in-law, but the diary section in the middle just dragged soooooooo much for me. I used it for PS: A book that was published anonymously.

The Memory Thief : And the Secrets Behind How We Remember: A Medical Mystery ⭐⭐⭐ - I had beenreading mostly fiction lately and I wanted a nice interesting nonfic and this was available and looked interesting, and it wasn't until I was half way through it that it occurred to me how it was perfect for the forgetting prompt. The science was a little over my head in places, and the ending was a bit of a let down because it was literally 'but then covid happened and messed up all the research' 😒

Almost Just Friends(Wildstone #4) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - This was a comfort reread.

Anya's Ghost ⭐⭐⭐ - This was fun and light graphic novel. My sister didn't really like it, so I didn't have high hopes, but the cover art called to me. I ended up using it for the black and white cover prompt, and just ignored the the title in colour.

Incense and Sensibility(The Rajes #3) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I've been waiting on my library hold for this since it came out at the beginning of July, so despite the fact I have a bunch of other library books out right now, I jumped it and read this first as soon as it came in. I love the interpretation of the story to fit modern times, but the HEA happened rather quickly for my tastes. I used it for the prompt from a previous Popsugar challenge - A book with a pun in the title.

Books I made progress on:

Ninth House - I'm enjoying this and would be almost done if Incense & Sensibility hadn't come in.😏

Mr. Kiss and Tell - I loved the show, but this is not my genre. Still, I need a book that my best friend would like, and she doesn't read so I don't have a lot of options...

Bitten to Death - Continuing the reread of the series.

QOTW

Murderbot was the first one that came to mind for me too. Someone who will sit around, not expect me to talk and just enjoys watching the same TV shows over and over sounds wonderful to me.

I've read a couple of things

For the prompt A book from your TBR list chosen at random I read
A Sanctuary of Spirits by Leanna Renee Hieber. It wasn't random. I very much enjoy this author and series but you will want to get book one first.

I also read Qi, Vampires, and Shearing by Christopher J. Timms a lit RPG in a fantasy Australia setting that wasn't bad.

QOTW Oh so many characters I'd want as friends

Legolas from Lord of the Rings, Hero from the Sebastian St Cyr books, Nancy Drew , Thomas Raith and Harry Dresen from the Dresden Files Hercule Poirot and that's just a very short list

Alex wrote: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - I can't believe they had the audacity to have me read THIRTY-SIX WHOLE PAGES before introducing me to Lisbeth, outrageous
Storm Front - yikes on bikes I am only about 10% of the way into this book and it is already like, AGGRESSIVELY misogynistic. Does that ... get better??"

Yes, how dare they!! I felt this same way about Dragon Tattoo! Lol.

And I read the first three Harry Dresdens before dropping the series; of course friends say it gets better, but you have to wait til about 5-6 books in for that to happen (supposedly).

Hm. It has been... some time since I last checked in. No particular reason, nothing bad happened.

I did more Lego, the Medieval Blacksmith's Shop set this time. Eyeing up the new Taj Mahal set next, just waiting for a deal.

Books read since last check-in:

The Travelling Cat Chronicles - Liked it but felt the ending was a bit emotionally manipulative.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld Imaginarium - Beautiful collection of art, made me a bit emotional. I will never stop missing Terry Pratchett.

She Who Became the Sun - Excellent. Looking forward to rereading already, and oh boy I hope it gets a TV series adaptation.

The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Outlaws of Sherwood
Had a bit of a minor Robin Hood kick. "Adventures" was fun, sort of a Victorian-era overview of most of the major legends, though oddly Marion doesn't appear.
"Outlaws" was just great. Somewhat more realistic take on the mythos, where Robin is just a young man in unfortunate circumstances (and not even that great an archer!), who is sort of pushed into this role of folk-tale figurehead. There's great emphasis placed on just how stressful it is being an outlaw, just trying to feed and shelter yourself and your friends, never mind everyone who runs to the woods looking for a hero to save them.

The Wee Free Men - I've been meaning to reread this for a while and then a whole load of Twitter drama went down involving Pratchett (bigots claiming he'd've been on their side and arguing about it with his own daughter) - which pushed me to pick it up now.
The Tiffany Aching books are real comfort reads for me, I might do a whole-series reread.

QotW: Have you ever thought that you would like to be friends with a character from a book you’ve read? What is that book and who is the character?
The aforementioned Tiffany Aching is a big one. We're a lot alike - weird little anxious, overthinking know-it-alls with a deep love of words. I think if we'd met as kids we'd've just clicked.

Someone above mentioned Eve Brown from the Brown Sisters series and, yes, absolutely. She literally bursts onto the page belting out songs from Wicked and my instant response was "HI FAVOURITE CHARACTER!"

Honourable mention to Becky Chambers's characters. Sissix is my favourite but I want to meet and hang out with basically all of them.

Teri wrote: "Ashley Marie wrote: "We've had lower humidity this week thankfully, so we had a fire, cooked dinner, and made s'mores :)"

I haven't had s'mores for ages and I love them so much. This reminded me t..."

The package of Hershey's I picked up had helpful suggestions for making s'mores in the house! Campire, grill, microwave, and toaster oven were all listed :) Sounds like the best way indoors (I think) is a toaster oven, where you stack graham/chocolate/marshmallow, toast it til golden-brown, then add the final graham on top :)

Oh gosh, I forgot my Very Important Dog Update of the week! On Monday I went to a Lughnasadh party at a friend's house (lots of bread, bc harvest) and they have a pair of Siberian huskies. Winter, the newer addition, stayed in the house as she is nervous of larger groups of new people, but D'Artagnan was SOOOO HAPPY to see everyone :) romping around like a big fluffy horse. I told my husband I want five immediately.

Wow I completely lost track of the days!! I forgot yesterday was Thursday!


Happy Thursday. FRIDAY! I’m still at the beach, just a few more days left of early (SUPER early! before-sunrise-early!) dog walks to the bay. If left to my own devices, my vacation would consist of walking, reading, napping, pie, and ice cream, and I would read SO MANY books. (One year during vacation, I finished a novel every other day!) Alas, I am not left to my own devices. My family keeps wanting to do things and this has really cut into my reading time. I did get the pie & ice cream, though.

If any of you are ever in Ocean County, NJ, https://mythreesonsseafood.com/
”>My Three Sons has the best store-bought pie I’ve ever had. I recommend the peach-berry and key lime pies. It’s worth a lengthy detour down Rt 9. Yeah they sell other stuff, too, but I go there for the pie.

This week I finished some books, and one even counted toward the Challenge.

The Last Final Girl by Stephen Graham Jones - I am not a horror fan, and definitely not a slasher fan (and those who are sensitive to horror and gore should not read this), but I found this book immensely entertaining. I just love SGJ’s writing style. The ending confused me though - has anyone else read this? I used this book for the “Indigenous author” category.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon et al. - this was okay. Really interesting concept, but the genesis of mermaids was sort of hand-waved, and I was super hung up on how it absolutely could not happen that way. Also, the MC was unappealing to me - all of the secondary characters were great, but this book really hinges on Yetu, and I did not enjoy being in her head, she came across as incredibly whiney to me.

Naming Our Destiny poems by June Jordan - (okay, I’m ABOUT to finish this today, just as soon as I get off of Goodreads) I wanted to like this a lot more than I actually liked it.




QotW


I’m sure that there are a lot! But I can only think of a few right now. I’d love to hang out with Roxane from Kristen Lepionka’s mystery series. And I think I’d like being friends with Zee from Bryan Greenwood’s recent book, All the Reckless Oaths.


But maybe those women would actually annoy the crap out of me irl! Hard to say.

Wow Lynn I cannot imagine ten weeks without a sink!!! Such bad luck you’ve had!! I am very lucky that my ex apprenticed as a plumber long long ago, so he can usually fix any of my plumbing problems (sometimes he does a half-assed job, my kitchen sink still leaks, but I just keep a bucket down there,- really I should remind him it still needs to be fixed - and we had to flush our upstairs toilet with a bucket for a few months until he finally came over and fixed it - but he’s free!)

Kenya - what a coincidence! We both read “final girl” books this week!! Have you read Jones’ book? I’m wondering how they compare. It sounds like Hendrix used the same idea.

Heather - very exciting!!! Enjoy exploring your new library!

Shannon - I hope your date went okay.


Milena - feel better soon!


Pooja - welcome!! It’s never too late to join us :-)

Oh, Alex, give me some encouragement to keep reading Eye of the World. Having DNF’ed my last longest book, this is now the longest book on my tbr. I started it a few weeks ago and … nothing is happening. It was so boring, I can’t seem to get myself to pick it up again. It’s just two old guys complaining at each other about who is the most evil.

Alex R - love your VIDUs!!



Storm Front remains fiercely misogynistic throughout. I know that series has its fans, but I’m never reading another one of Butcher’s books after that.

Alex wrote: "Hello hello! Spent most of today outside with my best friend and had a picnic, which was lovely, and also brings us to this week's VERY IMPORTANT DOG UPDATE: a cyclist pedaled past us and was weari..."

I think we can all agree that, even though the dog isn't fictional, we'd all love to be friends with a dog that cool!

poshpenny wrote: "QOTW: Have you ever thought that you would like to be friends with a character from a book you’ve read?
Nick and Nora Charles - The Thin Man

Also:
Eeyore
Frankenstein's creature
Jeeves
Matilda
Pippi Longstocking
Nick and Charlie - Heartstopper
Mr Lemoncello - Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
Arthur Parnassus - The House in the Cerulean Sea
The Mole, The Fox and the Horse - The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
Fatma el-Sha’arawi - A Dead Djinn in Cairo
Mrs. Pollifax
Phryne Fisher - Cocaine Blues
Housekeeper - The Housekeeper and the Professor"

Oh my gosh, your friendship list is fantastic! I haven't read some of these, but the ones I have read...absolutely. I didn't even think of Nick and Nora, but man, they would be a BLAST to know (unless I happened to be murdered or accused of murder...)