EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi all, been pretty spotty with check ins. This time was because I was on vacation! I was back Wednesday night, but was so exhausted it took me several days to recover. It got late enough I figured it was easier to just combine again.

Went to Portland, it went pretty well. Traveling is stressful, probably wont' try it again a bit longer. Got to Powells, got five books which I think is pretty restrained haha.

This week I finished:

Little Women- FINALLY finished this, it took over a week. I think my kindle page count was off, it says 276 pages but I swear it felt like that took WAY too long for it being that short, and it had both parts 1 & 2 in it. Apologies to those who love the book, I was not a fan in the slightest. Way too preachy and saccharine for me. Felt bored by most of it, partly why it took so long to get through it. Counted for book everyone has read but me

When Dimple Met Rishi - random library hold that got bought that I requested years ago. It was ok, a nice quick read at least. I liked the general writing, but too many plot elements annoyed me.

Radiant Black, Vol. 1, Origins, Stray Dogs, Black Cat, Vol. 4: Queen in Black - working on getting caught up on comics, kinda a hopeless task.

Currently reading;

The Hidden Palace - random library pick, its going to be late back and didn't auto renew, oops. Oh well. Shouldn't have gotten books before vacation, didn't really think about it when I grabbed them.

The Starless Sea - audio re-read

QOTW:

Do you remember learning to read?

I don't have clear memories of it. but I do remember that I started first grade in the bottom reading level, but ended in the highest. Apparently I was a little slower than most, but then something clicked and I zoomed on!

Glad your trip went well, Sheri. We're renting a house on the Oregon coast and driving down the week after next. I'm so looking forward to it; it'll be nice to get out of the house for a while after a year and a half.

Since the last check-in, I've finished one book and a ton of comics which all came up for me at once from the library!

Queen's Shadow - my book starting with "Q," "X," or "Z". I liked it decently well, but it definitely felt more like a character study than an action-oriented plot. I could tell how much the author loves the characters, as she put a lot of effort into exploring them.

Comics and manga finishes:
Library Wars: Love & War, Vol. 9 - Library Wars: Love & War, Vol. 15. (Not linking to all of them individually.)
Spy x Family, Vol. 3 and Spy x Family, Vol. 4
Snow White with the Red Hair, Vol. 14
Sweat and Soap, Vol. 1
Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 31
The King's Beast, Vol. 1 and The King's Beast, Vol. 2
Skip Beat!, Vol. 44 and Skip·Beat!, Vol. 45

I'm currently reading Practical Magic, which will fill my magical realism prompt. I've never seen the movie, so I had no idea what to expect going in, but all the reviews say it's nothing like the movie, so maybe that's a good thing. It's all right so far, but I'm not really attached to any of the characters.

QOTW: I don't have any memories of learning to read either, but I know I did learn really young. I don't really remember a time when I didn't read anything and everything around me.

There was a funny story I remember, though. I think it was in the first or second grade, we had this box of color-coded reading assignments in the classroom that the teacher would give us to do once a week. Each one was like a little folder with a color on it to indicate how hard the reading was, IIRC. I just remember the teacher ran out of colors to give me and just told me to just sit quietly and read books.

Haha that kinda sounds like me in second grade. My teacher loved Clifford, and had a chart with all the books on it. If you read them all, you got to take the giant stuffed Clifford home for a night. I was the first to get to take him home because I read all his books in…I don’t know, the first month? Maybe even after haha. My mom taught second and third grade, she had almost all of them so I’d read a stack every night without having to borrow from class or library.

Since we last checked in, I finished Death's End (absolutely mind-blowing - used for author whose name I don't know how to pronounce), Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works (couldn't really find a prompt that fit that one so oh well), and The Sword of Summer (used for book 1 of a trilogy).

Right now I'm about halfway through The Hod King by Josiah Bancroft and it's just as good as the first two books of the series. The last one is supposed to be published sometime before the end of the year so I'm going to be ready!

Kiddo and I are on to The Hammer of Thor and I'm thrilled to meet a genderfluid character in a book for young readers :)

QOTW: I don't remember learning to read, but I do remember that I was one of two kids in my kindergarten class who already knew how, and the teacher aide would pull us out in the hall to practice reading while the rest of the class did phonics.

Sheri-I'm sure it would be fine with all of us if you switched to a 2-week schedule. We all get to skip whenever we want, so if you could use a break for a bit I approve :).
I've been checking in on everyone but haven't posted for awhile, so will just hit some highlights. I finally got The Witness for the Dead from the library. Liked it just fine, but The Goblin Emperor is a hard act to follow. Same world, and I think a few overlapping characters but main ones are different.
Harry Dolan is a local author of suspense, and so far I always enjoy them because they are set in SE Michigan and I can picture a lot of the places he mentions. The Man in the Crooked Hat had places from Detroit to Chelsea, if any of the MichiganBots still need a book set where you live. It's standalone if you haven't read his earlier books.
I finally broke my IRL book club streak of skipping the books other people picked (it was something like 4 or 5 months in a row.) Lady Clementine is a fictionalized version of the life of the wife of Winston Churchill. I liked it and was interesting and I'm assuming most of the events were true (since people can check) even if exact conversations were fictional. For my book based on a true story prompt.
And I finally read Angel Mage by Garth Nix, which has been on the bottom of my TBR pile. It took me three times to get going on it-not sure why the other times didn't take because I liked it well enough. (I usually wouldn't give a book three tries, but I bought it full-price from local book store hosting a Garth Nix signing, so I decided I really needed to read it if I bought it.)
I remember being a strong reader but not the exact process of learning. And I also ran out of those color-coded reading assignment cards-were they called SRA cards? I do still have a notebook I kept in 5th grade of all the books I read, including ratings-I think the total was 256.

since the last update, i've finished Million Dollar Demon, as well as paging through 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. i say "paging through" because actually it seems there isn't much in the way of what I'm looking for.

years ago, I started writing a time-travel romance (and finished writing it as a nano challenge in 2017) that takes place in 1275 in England. my character is from the US (write what you know, my character is from the PA/NJ area!), from the "present" - so I was wondering what was happening on this land mass in 1275? the answer is: not all that much! the native population were farmers, and it seems it was that way until the 1600s in Plymouth, Mass. so, yep.

I've also just finished Flight and Fight literally tonight, so I'm about to request book 5 from the library. XD

QOTW: Do you remember learning to read? heck no. but I did watch Sesame Street and the Electic Company, and my mom tells me that's how I learned to read. don't remember it though!

This past week I finished The Midnight Library. It was interesting, fun and a fast read. I think it has 280-ish pages. I enjoyed the book even if the ending was predictable. There were a lot of avenues that could have been explored.

I was on a long waitlist for this book at the library so was listening on audiobook. Then the book came in so I was swapping back and forth between the two mediums as I listened or read. Trying to find my place from one in the other. It was for a IRL book club so I needed to finish it by Wednesday (I did), but I don't generally recommend that method.

I am just beginning listening to the 8th Expanse novel Tiamat's Wrath. After that I have one novella and then I wait for the last book to be published.

For reading I just started a book my daughter finished and gave me to read. It is The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions. It discusses the five mass extinctions earth has seen. So far it is interesting.

QOTW: I have memories similar to many others but I don't specifically remember learning. I remember sitting with my mother and having her read to me. I loved Curious George as a young child. I definitely have memory of the old Dick and Jane readers.

I remember watching Sesame Street and Electric Company. I remember the SRA like Kathy. But those were in 4th grade so clearly long after learning to read. Anyway, this has been very interesting to read what everyone remembers!

The House Without a Key - So I first encountered the Charlie Chan movies when I was too young to realize how racist they were, but having seen one as an adult, oof. I was a little concerned about the books, even with the author's stated intent being to create an alternative to the "Yellow Peril" stereotype. I was pleasantly surprised. It was really mostly a portrait of Hawaii a century ago. It depicts the racial/class divisions of the time, and the racism of many of the characters, but those who don't respect Charlie Chan are put solidly in their place, and the only culture that seems to come in for authorial censure is that of the Boston elite. Chan is treated a little in the "funny foreigner" mold of Poirot, but he's a sympathetic and compelling (although minor) character. I will probably read more of these.

Project Hail Mary - I enjoyed this, although I think I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't already read The Martian, to which it is very similar. Full thoughts are in the book club thread.

Dead Man's Detective - I've had this on my Kindle for a while; the author is in Fans of Epbot and mentioned that it was available for free. Urban fantasy is not really my thing, but it said "detective" and, you know, free. I thought that the writing was pretty good, and the world-building was woven in well without being too exposition-y. However, there was at least as much sex as there was detection. If you enjoy the bedroom exploits of horny witches and vampires, this may be for you! I was not expecting romance-novel levels of that.

The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World - I think this was recommended by the NYT via my father-in-law. It was part natural history, part memoir, and part philosophy. I liked the description of the eel's life cycle and the discovery thereof, alternating with chapters about the author's relationship with his father via eel fishing. I felt it got bogged down in the middle with the philosophical stuff, but it got back on track by the end.

Bury Me When I'm Dead - This was a pretty solid novel about a bisexual Black private investigator based in Detroit. The plot might not hold up to a whole lot of scrutiny, but that's typical of this style. I thought there was perhaps one subplot too many, and I didn't love the choice to have most of it from the protagonist's POV with occasional forays into others, but I would consider reading another in this series.

QOTW - I can't remember not being able to read. There must have been a point when story time and read-along records went from look-at-pictures-along to actual reading, but I don't specifically recall it.

Still just slogging through Ulysses. I've decided I cannot bear having to renew it from the library again, so I've buckled down and should be done in the next few days if I can keep up the pace. I've found the last couple of episodes a bit easier to get through, and now that the end is in sight I'm feeling almost fond of the book. Almost. We'll see. Switched back to music and podcasts for my walk to work, so no audiobooks to report either.

QOTW - I don't remember learning to read at all, just that I've always loved it. According to my mother, my sisters and I all pretty much just figured it out on our own. I do remember being introduced to the school library and how to use it.