Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion
2021 Weekly Check-Ins
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Week 38: 9/16-9/23
Almost done with The Last Full Measureqotw: Yeah I think I was pretty lax this year.
I read Dead Poets Society for dark academia I'm not sure what dark academia is exactly, so not sure if that fits or not
I read With a Tangled Skein for magical realism because I already had it and Amazon listed it under it, but I think that may have been more straight up fantasy. But, again, not sure of the exact definition of magical realism.
I read A Mighty Afternoon as my bw cover. there was a teeny tiny splash of red on it.
For my DNF book I read Great Expectations, which I counted as not finishing because we read the condensed version in HS, but I didn't not finish it.
And, this last one doesn't bother me at all, but I actually read the second shortest book I had because I wasn't in the mood for the shortest. And I'm not 100% sure my longest was my longest, but it was pretty darn long.
Happy Thursday! The autumnal equinox brought another torrent of rain yesterday afternoon and evening, resulting in decidedly chillier temperatures today. I'm fine with it, autumn is my favorite season, but it does make productivity at work pretty rough when all I want to do is snuggle on the couch with a book.A bit of rough luck with books this week, I finished one and DNF'd a pair:
Season of Mists - 4 stars. I'm doing my best to keep my expectations... not low, precisely, but realistic; it's difficult when you read all these introductions and forewords about how this series changed so many people's lives. Still enjoying it very much!!
The House of the Spirits - DNF. I'd been so looking forward to this but by the 30% mark it wasn't doing anything for me. I'm holding onto my paperback and may attempt it again in the future.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - DNF. I was hoping I'd zip through this because it's so short, but I found it repetitive and dull. Whoops.
PS 44/50
Currently reading:
The Hummingbird's Daughter - Another chunkster for Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month!
The Woman Who Died a Lot - Mind-bending, as usual
Circe - Finally got back to this yesterday and 😍😍😍
Is there a book you read for the 2021 Popsugar challenge that you didn’t feel was a perfect representative for that prompt, but it fit well enough to serve your purposes and you used it for that prompt? What was the book and the prompt?
Shōgun, for Longest Book on your TBR, was a DNF but I'm keeping it because the alternative is to read War and Peace, and... not this year. I don't have enough time for that commitment right now!
DarnellBoyd1 wrote: "Google is paying $27485 to $29658 consistently for taking a shot at the web from home. I joined this action 2 months back and I have earned $31547 in my first month from this action. I can say my l..."Flagged.
A book with your dream jobGood Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson. YA mystery. Main character has a true crime podcast. Didn't love it as much as I liked the first but it was still an enjoyable read.
Devil in Disguise by Lisa Kleypas. Historical romance. The reviews on this one are a roller coaster. Of course, there are a ton of 5 star reviews because Kleypas could write anything and her diehard fans will give it 5 stars but there are a lot of people are very upset about a revel about Sebastian from Devil in the Winter but it totally makes sense. What does not make sense is the main character who is running a business just not mentioning it at all halfway through the book and running after the hero. Also, there is insta-love which never works for me. Insta-lust, I can get behind but when did the "you are my heart" happen, because it didn't happen on the page. I love Kleypas but I gave this a 2-star because of the above reasons.
Mod
I always THINK I like Lisa Kleypas, but then I look up the books I've read by her, and I gave them one or two stars. So maybe I don't actually like her writing! I've only read three books by her though, so maybe I just haven't found the right book.
The problem is I get her confused with Loretta Chase, whose books I HAVE liked. (Mostly)
Usually Thursday creeps up on me but this week is dragging, probably because I have next week off work! I don't have any plans, just get some reading done and potter round in a relaxing manner.I have not had a great reading week, everything has seemed a bit of a slog. I at least ticked off a few of the less appealing prompts.
Finished:
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune for a book everyone seems to have read. This finally came out in the UK and, well I just do not think I like his style of writing. It's very children's books for adults, and I'd rather just read the kids book tbh. Less, weird "inspirational" speeches. I liked all the magical kids, wish it focused more on them than Linus.
Q by Christina Dalcher for a title beginning with Q, Z or X. This was a bit overly obvious, I don't know how the supposedly smart main character didn't understand what she and her husband were doing. It seemed like it was being written assuming the reader did not know about eugenics, so it would all be a big surprise. It also contained a domestic abuse storyline, so that instantly makes me enjoy a book less,
I'm Not Scared by Niccolò Ammaniti for oldest book on my TBR. This had an awful choice of narrator for a serious book, he kept doing silly voices and it was so annoying. I felt the whole book was quite old fashioned, maybe because it's meant to be set in the 70s. I feel like I need to go get all the old books off my TBR and take them to the charity shop, this prompt has been such a nightmare, that I just did the audiobook on high speed to get through one!
PS: 46/50 | ATY: 42/52 | GR: 96/100
QOTW:
Well I'm definitely at the "that'll do" stage of the challenge, I probably have lots. I have read three books with small aspects of locked room mystery so by the third, I just accepted I wasn't going to fill the prompt fully. I used Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder for it, where at least the murder happened in a "lock room".
A book in a different format was tricky because I already read in print, ebook, audio, graphic novels, etc. So I ended up using a novel in verse on audio, Clap When You Land and I ended up wishing I'd just read it.
I finished:Always Watching: This one was not my favorite by Chevy Stevens, and I'm a pretty big fan of hers. I am a sucker for books about cults, but there were two other content issues for me. Any book that (I'm not going to say what so that I don't spoil, but we would all agree probably that it is awful) is going to lose major points from me.
Never Saw Me Coming: I enjoyed this one. I had some issues with the twist. I think, if you like this genre, this is one of those books that you can really enjoy if you don't think about it too much.
Currently reading:
Follow Me: I am still making no progress with this one, but I will not give up.
All Eyes on Her: I am not sure that I'm going to finish this one. It has multiple pov's and I'm not sure that there is enough delineation between them for me to follow the story in audiobook form.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life: I think I would enjoy an audiobook version of this more, but someone gifted me the physical book, so I feel required to read it that way.
QOTW:
I feel that all of my books met the prompts, but I feel I missed the intention of some of the prompts. For example, for the prompt "a book by a Muslim American author," I read a comic book written by G. Willow Wilson, but I think in doing so, I missed an opportunity to learn and raise raise my cultural awareness, which seemed like an overarching theme for a lot of the prompts this year. I wish that I had chosen a memoir or something a bit more informational instead. This was an example of my lazy approach to filling prompts at times.
Hi all, Fall is here with a vengeance with cold weather, grey skies, and endless rain. Give me my summer back! I don't want to wear itchy sweaters and leggings and SOCKS. I want breezy sundresses and skirts! At least my birthday on Saturday was still nice and summery.
This week I finished:
The Broken Kingdoms - this is my book by an author that shares the same zodiac sign (virgo). I love NK Jemisin, but this series isn't my favorite of hers. It was decent, but not amazing. I actually read the first book years ago and never really felt compelled to read the next, but figured since she's a Virgo now's a good time to continue. Luckily this one only vaguely referenced the previous, so it didn't matter that it'd been a while.
Tipping the Velvet - 90s bestseller. This was on the listopia, although when I googled directly I couldn't specifically find it on a bestseller list. However it WAS a New York Times listed best book of the year for 98-99, and several other best books. So whatever, I read it in good faith that it was on there. I liked it ok, not as much as The Fingersmith. I think some of it is that i LOVE books about the theatre, and about music halls and stuff. So I was really excited, and got kind of disappointed at how little of the book actually involved that part of her life. So after that the book dragged on a bit for me.
Elizabeth and Her German Garden - finally picked an anonymous book, it was published originally anonymously before the author became known. I liked it more than expected. Certainly a book for introverts, many amusing passages over her exasperation at having to entertain guests instead of reading and planning her garden. Also a lot of chafing at women's place in society at the time, and you can feel the annoyance at her "man of wrath" husband's pontificating at how women are no better than children.
Sex Criminals, Vol. 6: Six Criminals - Picked this up at my fav comic shop before they closed for relocations. Finished up the series nicely, if weirdly. I liked it overall. A lot more serious of a comic than the name and premise lets on.
This puts me at 48/50, woo! I just have DNF and the dream job left. I think i remembered a book I own that i had started and got distracted from that i actually want to read, and I'm waiting for a hold to come in for the dream job one. So close to done! Usually i finish in june/july, this year is just dragging. I might try to finish ATY because i only have about 4 prompts left for that, kinda tossing the rest out the window. I just want to read for a while.
QOTW:
Haha, well I just mentioned Tipping the Velvet. It was on the listopia, but when I googled specifically I couldn't find it on the list. But I wasn't up the for Toni Morrison like I'd planned (I will read more of her next year, just her books can be intense and I'm in more 'need a break' mode. ) Also it did get listed as new york times best book of the year, so I figure it's not like it was some obscure book from the 90s that i was pretending got recognition.
Also for the different format book, I played a talking simulator game which are also called virtual novels. It probably wasn't quite what was in mind for the prompt, but i do plenty of graphic novels, audio books, regular books, ebooks etc. so I figured i'd go kind of weird for it.
For the BLM reading list, I picked Mediocre, that had only just come out at the very tail end of last year, so was written after most the lists were compiled. but it was written by Ijeoma Oulu who wrote So You Want To Talk About Race which was on pretty much all the lists I saw, and it still dealt with race in America, so I figured it WOULD be on a list that was written up this year.
Sheri wrote: "Hi all, Fall is here with a vengeance with cold weather, grey skies, and endless rain. Give me my summer back! I don't want to wear itchy sweaters and leggings and SOCKS. I want breezy sundresses ..."
Happy birthday Sheri!! I'll keep my fuzzy socks and comfy sweaters and wish you back to summer :)
Happy Thursday, y’all.Sad news on the personal front -- my cat Tiger (really my brother's cat, but I inherited him when brother went to college) is going to the vet tomorrow to be put to sleep. His health has taken a nosedive -- unsurprising, given that he's nineteen years old -- and honestly I think it's best if he's no longer comfortable. Still sad, and I'm going to miss him. :(
Books read this week:
The Story of Doctor Dolittle -- this could have been a perfectly charming children’s classic… if it wasn’t for the racial slurs casually thrown into the text and the cringe-worthy racism. Yes, I know it was published in the 1920s, but it’s still gross to read about…
The Odd 1s Out: How to Be Cool and Other Things I Definitely Learned from Growing Up -- I admit that I’ve never watched one of this guy’s videos… but reading his book makes me want to start. He’s hilarious, and his comics are simple but fun.
Hammers on Bone -- detective story with a Lovecraftian twist. Sound like it should be comedic, but is more on the horror and gore side of things. Don’t read if you have a weak stomach or have just eaten…
Velveteen vs. The Junior Super Patriots -- a super-fun superhero book! More of a short story collection than a novel, but I still enjoyed reading about Velma and her adventures, and her account of how being a superhero is far less fun than you’d think...
Chunky -- graphic novel, and a delightful story about feeling out of place and struggling with your self-image… but making the best of it with humor and love.
DNF:
Fool -- okay, usually I like Christopher Moore, and I was willing to give this book a shot despite not having read or seen King Lear (blasphemy, I know…). But even though I don’t usually mind a little vulgar humor, this book seems to be nothing BUT crude jokes. C’mon, at least Shakespeare was clever with his bawdy humor...
Currently Reading:
All Creatures Great and Small
Good Morning, Midnight
Venture Untamed
Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two
QOTW:
I was going to say no at first, but thinking about it, there are a couple that would fit...
Heroes' Feast: The Official D&D Cookbook -- I'm still not 100 percent sure this one qualifies for "different format," as it's still a print book... but it's a cookbook as opposed to a fiction or prose non-fiction book, so technically maybe?
Remote Control -- read this for the Afrofuturist prompt, only for someone to come out and say that the author doesn't consider her work to be Afrofuturist. Maybe I misunderstood the term? Still counting it...
Riot Baby -- I don't think this one was on an actual Black Lives Matter reading list, but I found it on a library's BLM recommendation list. And it's still a brutal commentary about the realities of growing up black in America despite being science fiction, so I think I'll still count it.
Thanks Ashley Marie! Sounds fair to me!
Kenya wrote: "Remote Control -- read this for the Afrofuturist prompt, only for someone to come out and say that the author doesn't consider her work to be Afrofuturist. Maybe I misunderstood the term? Still counting it..."Nnedi considers her work to be Africanfuturist as opposed to Afrofuturist (if I understand the distinction correctly, her work specifically pertains to African characters, while Afrofuturism encompasses the diaspora -- I think). I have seen her books end up on a lot of Afrofuturism lists, though.
Thanks Nadine and Lynn for dealing with all the ins & outs of running the group - sorry to hear that GR is making it even more challenging in some ways!I’m getting a little more in the groove, though I am concerned that I’m behind my planned schedule - I’m only through 34 books on week 39. However, I am making progress through my longest book, and I’m planning some short and fun books to get me back on track. Fingers crossed!
Ellie wrote: "The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune for a book everyone seems to have read. This finally came out in the UK and, well I just do not think I like his style of writing. It's very children's books for adults, and I'd rather just read the kids book tbh. Less, weird "inspirational" speeches. I liked all the magical kids, wish it focused more on them than Linus"
I feel the same way - you put it so well! I liked this, but did not love it the way so many people seem to!
Finished
Nothing that’s on GR, but I did re-read my friend’s manuscript. It was cool to see some changes she made, but I think I’m done being a beta reader for this one - I’m not keen on re-re-reading a book within a few months!
Currently Reading
The Complete Sherlock Holmes - The longest book (by pages) on your TBR list - I'm still enjoying this quite a bit, at Part 5 out of 6. There are a few clunkers and certainly some outdated social views, but overall these stories are tons of fun. I'm now on The Return of Sherlock Holmes, which isn't overall as great as the earlier stories, but still good. Next is The Valley of Fear, then His Last Bow to finish out!
Kill Creek - A book featuring three generations (grandparent, parent, child) - this is such a weird mix. There are really artful components, and I’m super intrigued by the structure of the story - it’s not what I expected from a haunted house book, and I’m keen to see where it goes. However, I’ve had my fill of ridiculous, unnecessary similes, fatphobia, a bit of Woman Written By A Man, and the author’s attempts to write passages in the voices of the author characters. But just when I get frustrated, the author does something interesting or pulls off a truly spooky scene, and I’m back in.
QOTW
Perfect timing, as I’m getting quite creative about prompts:
- I’m sticking with treating different “generations” of horror authors as “three generations.”
- I’m avoiding One Hundred Years of Solitude by doing “One of the 10 books that have been on your TBR list for the longest amount of time” and switching to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
- I searched until I found an image associated with Artemis that had something broken, so I could shoehorn it in
I’m a big believer in “my challenge, my rules” and that this should be fun, so no regrets. I’m just not up for anything “sweeping” or super literary, or (hat tip to Nadine) LONG. This year has been too challenging to make myself read books I’m not excited about!
Mary wrote: " I feel that all of my books met the prompts, but I feel I missed the intention of some of the prompts. For example, for the prompt "a book by a Muslim American author," I read a comic book written by G. Willow Wilson, but I think in doing so, I missed an opportunity to learn and raise raise my cultural awareness, which seemed like an overarching theme for a lot of the prompts this year. I wish that I had chosen a memoir or something a bit more informational instead. This was an example of my lazy approach to filling prompts at times." Please do not feel too bad about this. Yes, reading about cultures other than your own is awesome, but there's this: Authors/illustrators from marginalized communities have been saying that they are only getting hired for work about their identity, and not for other work. I try to mix it up, personally. Some specifically own voices stuff and some less specific, genre, other general stuff. Muslim authors should be able to get published if they write about squirrels in space too.
Its Thursday again and doesn't feel quite like fall enough for me. A couple days of rain, then back to almost 80 degrees, sigh. Challenge update:
POPSUGAR: 37/50
ATY: 38/52
Finished:
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie (no prompt). This one was definitely good and kept me guessing. This is only the second Agatha Christie book I have read and I really like her writing style.
Currently Reading:
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy. I can see why people gave this book low reviews - it is an interesting topic but not executed the best way. Her writing is a little...choppy. I like the premise and it is good enough to keep me reading.
One of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus. This one is taking me a little longer to get into. I read hard and fast recently and now am slowing down. I am sure I will pick this up once I get back into reading.
QOTW:
I have this funny habit of reading books that aren't for the challenge then trying to finagle them into it. I find it easier to justify a book working for a prompt after I have read it.
The shortest book on my TBR prompt was only 30 pages but it was more of a short story among a collection so I didn't count that. The DNF prompt is the hardest for me because I rarely DNF but when I do it is for a good reason and won't pick the book up again. So I used this as a "freebie" and stuck a book there that I read but not for the challenge specifically.
Sheri wrote: "Tipping the Velvet - 90s bestseller. This was on the listopia, although when I googled directly I couldn't specifically find it on a bestseller list..."I interpreted it as a book first published in the 90s that is a bestseller not that it was on a certain bestseller list in a specific period of time. There are a lot of different bestseller lists and not all of them are available to the public. So I don't think that is bending the prompt in the slightest. Her books have sold a lot of the years. I used a Discworld book for that prompt, I doubt it was a NYT bestseller but no one would doubt his books are bestsellers.
Ashley Marie wrote: "Kenya wrote: "Remote Control -- read this for the Afrofuturist prompt, only for someone to come out and say that the author doesn't consider her work to be Afrofuturist. Maybe I misunderstood the t..."She used to be OK with the term too, because she felt it was the best there was. So she is on practically every afrofuturism list going. I decided not to use her books for the prompt but I would have been fine rewording it to an Africanfuturism book if I'd needed to. I don't think Popsugar really intended it to be so specific!
I do this thing where I start a book, and then my head gets turned by another book and then I'm reading that. Until I see another that seems to fit the moment a little better. This leaves me with a bunch of books that I am halfway through. This week, I will focus and complete...oh, look, another book...QOTW: I tend to do the same as Katelyn, and just read and try to find places for them later. My DNF isn't really a DNF; it's just a book I fought to finish
PS: 30/50
RH: 7/24
RW: 1/28
GR: 376/365
HP: 62/62
ATY: 10/52
Currently Reading:
One of Us is Lying
The Hobbit
Hairpin Bridge
Muzzled
See What I have Done
High Five to the Hero
The Library of the Dead
The Samurai’s Garden
The Ickabog
Band of Sisters
Firekeeper’s Daughter
History Smashers: The American Revolution
The Message in the Hallow Oak
Mystery of the Ivory Charm
The Scarlet Slipper Mystery
Nameless: In the Heart of the Fire
James Potter and the Hall of Elder’s Crossing
Cool for the Summer
All the Young Dudes
Finished:
Sunflower Sisters
Hades, Argentina
Voices in the Snow
poshpenny wrote: "Please do not feel too bad about this. Yes, reading about cultures other than your own is awesome, but there's this: Authors/illustrators from marginalized communities have been saying that they are only getting hired for work about their identity, and not for other work. I try to mix it up, personally. Some specifically own voices stuff and some less specific, genre, other general stuff. Muslim authors should be able to get published if they want about squirrels in space too.."What a great point! I definitely didn't think about it that way, but you are 100% right. I always struggle a bit with the prompts that are author specific, because I never used to pay much attention to author characteristics (other than gender), because great stories are great stories. As always I learn from my reading and also this group. Thanks!
I'm going to see KISS in concert this weekend, and I'm really pumped to see them for only the 2nd (and probably last) time.Finished:
Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie (3/5)
The solution and its presentation felt a bit anticlimactic to me, but it was still fun to follow the investigation and read about this group of characters.
Sarek by A.C. Crispin (5/5, reread)
I love Sarek (Spock's dad) so much. He is most definitely a flawed character, but his portrayal by Mark Lenard was extremely appealing to me, and I aspire to achieve the level of serenity he showed in the movies.
Besides the title character, we get tons of Amanda (Spock's mom), Spock, Klingons, Vulcans, and Romulans thrown into the mix. The story focuses in almost equal measure on relationships and a political thriller plot.
This is one of my favorite Star Trek novels, and I picked it up in a two-book collection with Spock's World called Sand and Stars.
DNF at about 65%:
The Rising Storm by Cavan Scott
There are some good moments, ideas, and scenes, but everything seems to take forever to happen. Light of the Jedi, the previous book in The High Republic, was a solid 3 star read. What I read of The Rising Storm earned it 2 stars.
Currently reading:
The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor) by Jessica Townsend
I am quite pleased with this after two chapters, and I am hopeful that it gets even better when the protagonist dies (not a spoiler, as it is brought up in the prologue and cover copy).
Legacy of the Force: Fury by Aaron Allston (reread)
Living Memory by Christopher L. Bennett
Question of the Week:
I have kept to the prompts and their intent pretty closely with no major cheats. I have, however, come across a lot of DNFs, so I feel like a lot of my challenge reading has been unsuccessful this year.
Is anyone else getting the beta book pages here? I hate them and really hope this isn't the direction they actually go -- it looks like a shopping page. The Wizard of Oz park was quite fun, though the logistics weren't the best. Evidently the architect chose the Oz theme because the area is so green and it made him think of the Emerald City. So that's why it's in North Carolina (and it really is beautiful)! You basically walk through the movie - it starts with the farmhands dancing, Dorothy meeting Mr. Marvel then singing Over the Rainbow, and the tornado looming. You walk through Dorothy's house and a simulated tornado (which was cool--not anything crazy, but a neat set-up), and come out to Oz.
Then it's down the yellow brick road! The reason I said the logistics aren't great is that they have characters set up for people to take pictures with, but the show also keeps going, so you basically have to choose if you want pictures or to see the full show. Luckily, most of the employees were teenagers (who are typically less strict), so I asked if we could go through a second time (the website says you can't) and the guy let us lol.
If anyone decides to go, I recommend skipping the VIP passes. They were completely worthless. Also, the actors are inconsistent - the first go-round, they were great, and the second pass, it was a different group and only the scarecrow was good. None of the Dorothys were particularly good (one didn't try AT ALL, one tried too hard to always sound upset, and the third couldn't sing).
So there's my review! Our trip was really nice - we went to the Biltmore, which was incredible and educational, and spent a couple days at the beach.
Then I came back to an absolutely packed work week. I know it's supposed to be refreshing to go on vacation, but really it just makes me go "Shouldn't THIS be life? Not the work grind day-in and day-out??"
Finished (yay trips and audiobooks!):
Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts - A book your best friend would like (convenient, since my best friend is the one who chose it for our drive). The beginning of it, when we went through Maude's childhood, was very cutesy and overly sweet (even when she was describing some terrible things, Letts did it in this weird, overly-flowery way). But once we got into her adulthood and marriage, as well as the disaster that was the treatment of young Judy Garland, it got a lot better.
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie - A locked-room mystery. I'd read it before, but it had been awhile. I love Agatha Christie!
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald - A book that starts with Q, X, or Z. Hoo boy, this was HEAVY. Really good but so upsetting/frustrating/sad. So similar to Finding Dorothy -- about the same time period, strong women who marry writers, some Hollywood stuff -- but SO different in how their lives turned out.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg - A book everyone seems to have read but you. I enjoyed this but it's not my favorite Konigsburg. It didn't have as much substance as some others I've read (particularly Silent to the Bone).
Currently Reading:
Eragon by Christopher Paolini - A book you saw on someone's shelf. I put it down earlier this year because I wasn't in the right mental state for it, but I'm flying through it now! I'm still enjoying it but also sad because I know what happens to some of these characters haha.
QOTW:
Absolutely! I put Eragon on the "someone's shelf" prompt because, while I don't have a specific time in mind, I'm sure I've seen it on a shelf at some point lol. I mean, I've seen it on MY shelf, and don't I count as "someone"??
Only a few scenes of Crazy Stupid Bromance were in a restaurant, but since the female lead owned said restaurant (cafe), I counted it. And I'm not even sure what my actual longest book is, I just decided it would be the longest book on my list of books to read this year.
I've also swapped some of the prompts I had trouble finding anything for with prompts from previous years. I'm swapping out "A book by a blogger, vlogger, YouTuber, or other online personality" with "A book more than 100 years old." I already swapped "A book with a family tree" with "A book by an author you love but haven't read."
It's unlike me to these things, but this is not a year to focus on perfection.
Sorry for the hella long post!
Hello! This week was calmer after the discovery my furnace was broken of last week. The installer came on Monday, and while it took double the amount of time he claimed it would (I resisted laughing in his face when he said it would only take four hours), I have a new furnace and should be set for winter. Last night was in person book club, but it was in a friend's back yard next to a fire pit, which was actually quite nice. Fall arrived on Monday, and the evenings are quite chilly now, making the fire very welcome.Finished This Week:
I Almost Forgot About You by Terry McMillan. This was my dream job prompt, because as a kid I was going to be an eye doctor. It turns out books are not written about eye doctors. This was about a woman in her 50s looking back at her life and figuring out what needs to change for her to be happy. There were multiple references to how boring her job was and people being surprised she ended up a doctor. I did like that for her birthday, people donated toward free eye exams and glasses, and she takes a trip to Africa to give eye exams to kids. Using for PS # 7, dream job.
The Cruelty Is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump's America by Adam Serwer. A series of essays written by the author before, during and after Trump's presidency, with introductions of each written new for the book, looking back at the time when they were written and how things developed or changed (or didn't). Hard to read, both because of the subject matter and because it wasn't fluffy fiction I could skim. I found myself rereading sentences, paragraphs and sections repeatedly to make sure I got the full weight of the author's meaning. Not for PS prompt, but could be #1, published in 2021.
Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi. My food memoir by an Author of Color for Read Harder. The author grew up in the Bronx, was beated by his dad, got expelled from multiple schools, joined a gang, became a drug dealer because it paid well, and somehow got away from all of that to attend the Culinary Institute, be on Top Chef and open a fine dining restaurant in DC (that closed). His perseverance, at the very least, is to be lauded. Not for PS prompt.
PS: 40/50 RH: 16/24 RW: 19/28 ATY: 48/52 GR: 136/150
Currently Reading:
I have six books with bookmarks in them on my coffee table, plus my Kindle. I need to stop starting new ones and finish the existing ones.
A Killing Frost by Seanan McGuire. The new one arrived today, so need to finish the prior one in the series.
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski. Book club wanted to read this for this month, so I started it up again after DNF-ing it in April.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. About halfway through. Interesting so far, and trying not to dwell on who the old woman is.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents / At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor / Pride and Prejudice. Have not caved and removed bookmarks yet.
QOTW: Is there a book you read for the 2021 Popsugar challenge that you didn’t feel was a perfect representative for that prompt, but it fit well enough to serve your purposes and you used it for that prompt? What was the book and the prompt?
Oh, so very many.
I took some of the TBR prompts as a guideline rather than an only. The one I'm reading (under the current plan) for most pages on TBR list has the 8th most (At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor). My prettiest cover is a book published in 2021 that I wasn't aware of last December (The Lost Apothecary).
My bestseller from the 90s wasn't actually a bestseller IN the 90s. (One for the Money). I did read a book that made a bestseller list in 1992 (The Complete Maus, although specifically, it was Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began on the list, but that's included in the combined version), but I'm using that for seen on someone's shelf.
My Muslim American author is British (Minaret). My dark academia book had the academia part, but the dark is questionable (We Ride Upon Sticks). I took everyone's word for it that Fugitive Telemetry counted as a Locked Room Mystery. There's controversy about if Rebecca Roanhorse counts as an Indigenous author (Trail of Lightning).
The only ones of the above that actively bother me are the 90s bestseller and the Indigenous author. I have Murder on the Red River on hold at the library to cover the latter, and still searching for something that actually was on a bestseller list in the 90s that I want to read and haven't already.
EDIT 30 minutes later: Turns out Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon made the bestseller list in July 1994, so I've got that prompt covered now without qualifiers.
Shannon,Thank you for the write-up on the Wizard of Oz park. I was curious what it was like.
Also, you definitely count as "someone"!
Sheri wrote: "Hi all, Fall is here with a vengeance with cold weather, grey skies, and endless rain. Give me my summer back! I don't want to wear itchy sweaters and leggings and SOCKS. I want breezy sundresses ..."
SAME!! I *hate* socks with a fiery passion... But at least you had a nice Birthday! :)
So I am NOT posting an official update on my reading until I finish. a. book. this week. But I wanted to geek out for a minute cause I know some others here are Masked Singer fans- can you believe how they ended last night???OK, geek out over....
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..."
I tried it for a day when they first offered it, didn't like it, switched back to the "classic" format, and done. It's been a long time now that they've had that beta option, I was hoping that meant they were never going to switch over. Why do they make all these changes we don't like, but they aren't fixing the things we want them to fix????
Shannon wrote: "Is anyone else getting the beta book pages here? I hate them and really hope this isn't the direction they actually go -- it looks like a shopping page..."I still have the option to use the old version. I gave them loads of feedback about how rubbish they were when they started trialling them. I hated how it hid your friends reviews, but showed you random popular people's along with everyone's follower counts. They seemed to be missing loads of book info too. I don't want to see if they made changes in case I get stuck on it!
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Glad to hear that Oz was fun! I was wondering how they would handle that "tornado" transition. Is there a dead wicked witch under a house?
Then I came back to an absolutely packed work week. I know it's supposed to be refreshing to go on vacation, but really it just makes me go "Shouldn't THIS be life? Not the work grind day-in and day-out??"
Yep! The FIRST time I took a long vacation, I'd been at my job about a year, and I was gone for three weeks, and I was actually looking forward to getting back to work. That was a long time ago.
Now, I just wish I could go back on vacation. And there are SO MANY EMAILS. Even when I'm out for just a day, I can barely keep up with my emails. I'm starting to see why people read their emails while they're on vacation.
Hi everyone. Work has been insane lately but still managed to squeeze in some reading.This week I finished a re-read of Heidi which I haven't read for about twenty years. I really wish I was in the Swiss Alps right now! I could totally live in a little hut with goats...for a day or two at least
Currently reading: Zulu Dawn. I have no idea where this book came from or why I own it because it is not something I would normally read but it is quite interesting so far.
QOTW: I thought I'd stretched the Woman's Prize with a nominee but apparently Piranesi won it after I read it.
The Moonstone only has a chapter near the end that is sort of a locked room mystery but that was enough for me.
I might have to stretch a few of my leftover ones. I've DNF'd every magical realism I've tried this year so I might just read a full on magical book instead of struggling through.
I'll just start off by saying I wish GR would stop messing around with things! Especially with zero notice or even seeking feedback to see how it affects groups! Fortunately I moderate only 3 very small private groups on GR and members are all friended. I've had sufficient discusson on that this week!
I discovered that my PS completed list was out of wack, missing a couple of finishes. Plus realized a recent finish perfectly fit 'three generations' prompt far better than what I had there so made the switch (and how perfectly does that fit this week's prompt? That book was Black Water Sister which has as key characters a grandmother, mother, daughter. If still looking for a book for this, this was a 3 star read for me - very enjoyable and quick. All that to say I only have 9 prompts left, 3 regular for which I have books lined up to read already, and 6 in the Advanced which pull from TBR. Those are easy to fill. One is of course the longest in pages....which I have started!
Finished:
Physical Forces - last of a studly men and hunky dogs series I was reading.
X Marks the Scot - for prompt title starting with and "X" - of course! Cozy mystery set in Maine where a treasure map with an X marked on it is discovered in a painting sold at an estate sale. I kept thinking about Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ('treasure maps almost never lead to treasure and x never marks the spot') - and the author alluded to it in the book! Part of a series but works just fine as a standalone. Fun not great mystery.
The Games Lovers Play - a regency by a favorite author I started a couple of months ago and only now finished. Rather boring. It's a series transition book to a new generation that needed a better story.
Currently reading - I'm having trouble settling on one. All currently in rotation until one really grabs me:
A Suitable Boy
This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland
The Magic Circle
The Secret of Santa Vittoria
Serve 'N' Protect - I'm pretty sure this one will be finished first🤣
QOTW: Oh for sure. In fact, if I read a book later in the year that I think fits better or just a book I want to show up as having read for that prompt more than the one I used, I swap out. I don't preplan my reading - just fill as I read.
Three Generations - I had used The Country Guesthouse which had a grandmother, foster mother/guardian and child/son in it central to the story but in a suspense plot more than a family relationships one. It was fine. However I just swapped it out for Black Water Sister which has all 3 generations and their relationships and history key to story which I think fits better than one with a foster mother. Plus I just wanted that book showing up in the list!
The City We Became - afrofuturist. I'm not sure if it truly fits the definition but it does show up on lists and discussions - outside GR specifically. If I happen to read something that I think fits more straightforwardly before end of year, I'll swap it out.
Turn to Stone - locked room mystery - It's constantly described as a locked room mystery but no so much IMHO - it's not even that isolated or limited a situation in which the murder occured. It is likely I will read something that fits better my definition of locked room mystery by year end.
The Beguilement of Lady Eustacia Cavanaugh - book about art or an artist. It's fine as main character is a patron to musicians in 19th Century London --- but I have a book on my nightstand TBR that is frankly better and if I read before end of year, I will replace this choice.
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I think it's fair to say that I hate magical realism, but I LOVED Nothing to See Here. Have you tried that one? It's legit magical realism: everything is real world, except the two little kids can spontaneously catch fire. But it's a completely different feel from the usual magical realism books, which tend to be soft and dreamy and wistful.
I actually got a lot of books read this past week!Finished: Teaching Reading in Social Studies, Science, and Math: Practical Ways to Weave Comprehension Strategies into Your Content Area Teaching This book was very good, very straight-forward, had a lot of helpful ideas. I gave it a 4.
Learning to Teach Through Discussion: The Art of Turning the Soul My favorite part about this book was actually its subheading which the author stole from Plato. I didn't think much of it at the time of reading it, but since then, I've learned more about how the Common Core has changed our reading objectives, so I felt it was a useful way of fulfilling those. (More text-dependent exploration, less text-to-self connections.)
Breathing Underwater This was very good. I enjoyed the relationship between the sisters, the theme of mental illnesss, and the focus on photography and music.
Negative Math: How Mathematical Rules Can Be Positively Bent This was an exploration of how math can actually be controversial and isn't at all the austere form of knowledge it is sometimes made out to be. I love stuff like this!
Uncommon Sense Teaching: Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn You may have noticed a trend in my reading this week. This education book was only so-so. It was supposed to apply current neuroscience to education, but was super watered-down and therefore, not as helpful as it could have been.
D: A Tale of Two Worlds This one was great fun. I haven't ever read much adult fantasy, but this could easily have been a middle reader. There wasn't any inappropriate content for kids. Maybe just more bureaucracy. :)
Property of the Rebel Librarian I re-read this one. It didn't impact me as strongly as during the first read. But a good read for anyone who cares about promoting freedom of reading and Little Free Libraries!
How to Wear This Body Book of poetry. I forget how I came across this one initially. But I enjoyed it!
Started:
The Name of the Rose I've been meaning to read this one for awhile. When I first tried to read it, I was also listening to an audio version in Spanish, and that made it too hard! This time is still kind of a slog though. I like the philosophical asides, but the plot is just boring! People are dying, but we don't get to know the characters enough to care that they're dying. It feels very much like the author felt like there wasn't enough going on as a story, so he had to motivate it by sticking a killer in. I haven't read much mystery, but I hope that most of it is better than this!
Personal challenge: I've started a monthly personal challenge, now that I'm ALMOST done with the Pop Sugar challenge this year.
It includes:
An education book (Teaching Reading in Social Studies...)
A book from the Marriott Library (Learning to Teach Through Discussion)
A book of poetry (How to Wear This Body)
A biography (The Art of Asking for Help by Amanda Palmer)
A book found by browsing (D: A Tale of Two Worlds)
A book about music (Breathing Underwater)
A kid's book (Down to Earth)
I've still got A book with family, a challenge book, a philosophy book, and a re-read left. I have fulfilled all of these except challenge book, but I have specific ones in mind that I want to count. I feel like it is BECAUSE of this personal challenge that I got so much reading done this past week.
Qotw: I looked back through my fulfilled prompts and I feel like they are all on target. Maybe the stretchiest one was Eco-Socialism for black and white cover because the cover was all black with silver lettering. But I could have easily counted Antkind for the same prompt and I felt like I could count it because I might not have gotten around to reading it otherwise, so it served its purpose!
Finished 2 books this week, 5 books left!35/40
Finished
The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore⭐⭐
Prompt: #9, a book with a family tree
I was a bit disappointed. I hoped to be pulled into the story of the Romanovs, but there were too many names, there was too much politics and there were too many wars to keep track. That said, it is a nice starter to learn more about the former rulers of Russia. Personally I prefer stand-alone biographies on each czar or czarina. You really get to know them and their era better.
De poppendokter by Diane Broeckhoven⭐⭐⭐⭐
Prompt: #17, a book that has the same title as a song (there’s a Dutch children’s song with the same title)
A nice and lovely short story of a love that was lost and found again on the background of the Holocaust.
Currently reading
A Promised Land by Barack Obama
QOTW
Content Design by Sarah Richards for a book where the main character works at your current or dream job. I bend it a little, because I’m not a content designer. Content design is a small part of my job. I read the book for work purposes too, so that was win-win for me.
De opgang by Stefan Hertmans for a genre hybrid. I don’t know what exactly is meant with genre hybrid. This book is a cross-over between fiction and non-fiction.
It's autumn! My favorite time of year. If only it lasted longer than a few weeks. Time for hot tea, pumpkin spice, blankets, colored leaves, harvest moon. Lovely!Other than listening to a few disks of my audiobook, I read nothing this week. I did watch "Cinderella," "Halston," "The Queen's Gambit," and started "The Lost Symbol." Since I rarely ever watch anything but news and sports, this is obviously an attempt to avoid starting my longest (and last) book for the challenge. Will I stream or read this week? That is the question.
Currently reading
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (audiobook)
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Goodreads: 83/100
Popsugar: 45/45, 9/10
QOTW:
I only stretched a few, and not too badly. I went with a closed circle mystery instead of a locked room one (The Hunting Party). My black and white cover had the faintest of green lettering (Fugitive Telemetry), which I didn't even notice until after I read it - I'm not a visual person. And I went with my bookshelf longest book instead of my Goodreads TBR, which isn't much of a stretch.
Phew! Home from work and I'm pooped. It wasn't a great day, though I've had worse. I'm starving but keep putting off getting groceries so there aren't many choices. My roomies are becoming louder and louder. Now there's a rooster. They don't just crow in the morning. Ask me how I know. >:(I'm in they Autumn Lover camp. Summer is too hot and bright, it makes me sneeze. We've found out about water on Mars but not why bright light makes me sneeze. I thought we were sliding solidly into Fall weather but it got warm again, so I've got the cocoa and blankets on deck.
I finally went through my list again and now I am officially at 45/50! Two I have yet to get around to, and three I just haven't been feeling yet. Still lots of time, no worries.
Finished:
The Extraordinary Adventures Of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar - I listened to the first four stories and they were, OK. I stopped right before The Queen's Necklace. Then I got impatient and started watching the show. So good! The first episode is inspired by The Queen's Necklace. It was fun to finish both seasons, then go back to the book. It was much more fun to find all of the stuff they pulled out for the show. (Raoul! haha!) I have the next book on hold but it's gonna be a while. Sadly not many of them are on audio in English! Sad face.
Fever Dream - Wow, I thought last week's books were weird. I'm not sure how I feel about this.
Some picture books on audio:
Boogie Boogie, Y'all - It's like a song!
Fred Gets Dressed - cute
Who Is Ana Dalt? - OK
What the Road Said - Not for me
Cemetery Boys - This read a bit younger than I was expecting but it was good.
An Extravagant Death - The lastest in an apparently long-running series I've never read. I'd read more.
Currently Reading:
Never Look Back - Afro-Latinx retelling of Orpheus and Euridice.
Question of the Week:
I don't think so. I mean, I had to fudge the "set someplace you'd like to visit in 2021" prompt because the pandemic is still happening, people! I don't want to visit anywhere this year! I'm using A Bathroom Book for People Not Pooping or Peeing But Using the Bathroom as an Escape
I suppose I could be the discussion leader for December. This book was rather personal for me, so maybe I'm the right person for the job. Or the wrong one. We'll see. It will be good for me to re-read it.
Happy Thursday! What a whirlwind of a week for us. I've been exhausted for days just with school starting for my daughter, visits from friends, and my pleasant monthly cycle. Sigh. Anyway...Currently Reading
Oathbringer for "book from TBR chosen at random." I'm not at all as far on this as I want to be. Just did not have much reading time this week, which sucks because I love this series so much, and I just want to sit in this world and bask in it for awhile.
QotW
Technically my book for "book on TBR that you meant to read last year but didn't" was a reread. So....it wasn't actually ON my TBR, but I had been meaning to reread it since my book club had it on their list sooo............ : D
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DONE! Teri is our December group discussion leader! :-)
Managed to scrape by with one book. For the prompt A book about a subject you are passionate about I read A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them by Neil Bradbury. It's an ARC and yes I am really fascinated by poisons and forensic chemistry. This was a great book, written by a physiology professor obviously used to breaking things down to lay terms but maintaining the science.
QOTW Yes actually thanks to a serious injury and being limited to what books I could get my hands on this is the year of 'close enough'
Let's see: A book about forgetting - The Memorist by MJ Rose it was about both forgetting and remembering but more the latter
A book set in a restaurant -Murder at Hotel 1911 by Audrey Keown it's a hotel restaurant and it's more about the cook than anything else.
A book set in multiple countries Absence of Mercy by S.M. Goodwin set in two but 90% in one
If any of you are interested, PM me your email and I'll forward to you the Histpanic Heritage Month suggested reading list I just received from Barnard College. It is extensive, too big to cut/paste into a comment. It's also not yet posted on Barnard's website so no link to post -- yet -- even if I could post a link given how GR has hampered that. Just as background: at the beginning of pandemic, one of the many virtual efforts to maintain community both for students and alumnae, Barnard College started several virtual programs, including Millie's Reading List which periodically (often monthly) provides lists of suggested reading its alumnae has written, and that list is included in regular newsletters to alumnae - like me. This being Barnard, these lists are AWESOME!
This month is a special LatinX theme for Hispanic Heritgage Month.
If interested in prior lists, if you go to Barnard.edu and search for Millie's Reading Lists, you will find links. No registration or sign in necessary.
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I participated in the 2021 ATY Fall Read-a-Thon from September 11-19 and although I didn’t have as much reading time as I would have liked this past weekend, I still managed to read 1949 pages and listen to 3.25 hours of audiobooks! Not too shabby! One book was over 500 pages in length! I typically read only shorter books during a read-a-thon, but I had just started A Gathering of Shadows before the read-a-thon so I finished it. Didn’t have time to list it here, so I’ll include it next week.
Question of the Week:
Is there a book you read for the 2021 Popsugar challenge that you didn’t feel was a perfect representative for that prompt, but it fit well enough to serve your purposes and you used it for that prompt? What was the book and the prompt?
Uhm…I guess I read enough books throughout the year that I rarely have to “squeeze” a book into a prompt. Although I am sometimes pleasantly surprised by a book I hadn’t planned to fulfill a specific prompt fits perfectly! This is the result of my participating in multiple challenges and still reading self-chosen books throughout the year…
Some examples:
Although I had already fulfilled prompt #13 A locked-room mystery with Cards on the Table (Hercule Poirot #15) by Agatha Christie in January, I later realized that Fredrik Backman’s Anxious People would have fulfilled it as well when I read it in April.
I had planned to read The Central Park Five: The Untold Story Behind One of New York's Most Infamous Crimes by Sarah Burns for prompt #15 A book with a black-and-white cover, I inadvertently satisfied it with Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime by Ron Stallworth on April 12 and Of Mice and Men on September 12. But I still plan to read it for a different challenge.
Popsugar: 44/50
ATY: 48/52
RHC: 16/24
Reading Women: 12/28
FINISHED:
The Lady Matador's Hotel by Cristina García ⭐️⭐️ proved to be more enjoyable than I feared it might be, though that didn’t matter much. While I appreciated the way she interwove the characters’ lives, given the somewhat explicit sexual scene(s) and the details of the abuse of bulls by literally torturing them to death in a public event, overall didn’t appeal to me much…
POPSUGAR: #21-Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Latin America, Magical Realism, #27, #28, #34-Bullfighting is cruel and inhumane, #36-146 reviews on Goodreads, #48
ATY: #10- I would consider Suki to be a villain as a bullfighter. And then there’s Gertrudis as the criminal attorney for international infant adoptions. And finally, Aura, the ex-guerilla and murderer., #14, #16, #20-Hopefully, the future will be better…, #23-Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Latin America, Magical Realism, #26, #31, #34, #35, #39, #45-Hotel, #49, #51, #52-In the end there are many different reasons for people’s actions!
Interestingly, I didn’t notice until I was finished reading it, that Jade Green by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ was classified by many as a “horror” book. I typically would never read a ‘horror’ book, but I found this to be so obvious and rather childish as to not be truly scary for me overall. I had rather guessed the mystery’s solution but I once again enjoyed Naylor’s writing nonetheless.
POPSUGAR: NEW #6, #18-Protection of children from abuse/sexual assault, #21-Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Juvenile, Mystery, Paranormal, Young Adult, #27, #30-South Carolina, #34-Child abuse, #36-336 reviews on Goodreads, #44, #47-Naylor is one of my favorite authors!, #48
ATY: #8-South Carolina, #9-Hurricane season, #13-I reread Shiloh in 2020, #14, #19-Jade’s ghost saves Judith in the present, granting her a future!, #23-Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Juvenile, Mystery, Paranormal, Young Adult, #27-Death, Temperance, Judgment, The World, #31, #34, #43, #52-In the end the scariest thing saved her!
I found P.S. Be Eleven (Gaither Sisters #2) by Rita Williams-Garcia ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ to be just as enjoyable as the first book, One Crazy Summer! The Jackson Five! I remember getting to see them when I was about Fern/Vonetta’s age! I loved them! And I was just a white girl! I can only imagine how much more enthralled black girls might have been! I think that is one reason I connect so fully with this series, I was coming of age in this same time period.
POPSUGAR: #18-Children having a loving home and caregivers who love and guide them, #19-Dephine is the tallest girl in her 6th-grade class, #21-African-American, Family, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Juvenile, War, Young Adult, #27, #30-New York, #33, #37, #43
ATY: #1-In the beginning Delphine fantasized about Cecile and Pa getting back together, #8-New York, #15, #17-Rukia is Muslim, #19- The first book is now the past, this second book is the present, and I’m anxious to read the third and final book which is now in the future!, #23- African-American, Family, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Juvenile, War, Young Adult, #29, #31, #32, #49
RHC: #17, #19
CONTINUING:
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi.
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
PLANNED:
Our September Monthly Group Read:
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
(My copy is due to arrive tomorrow!)
September Buddy Reads:
Children of the Mind (Ender’s Saga #4) by Orson Scott Card
Cat & Mouse (Alex Cross #4) by James Patterson
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
It's Thursday - I'm so ready for the weekend to start!Here's what I read this past week:
The Reading List I have this weird thing where I'm so obsessed with books that I have exceptionally high expectations for how much I'll enjoy books about books. About half the time, I'm a little disappointed. I generally liked this one, but it felt longer than needed and I didn't really "buy" Aleisha's abrupt 180 from being a book-hating grump to a very sweet and thoughtful librarian. But nothing really wrong with it. I liked most of the books featured in it, even though it was still heavy on classics, as most books-about-books are. 3.5 stars
Butter Honey Pig Bread This was good, although it was strange to follow the one below since they had a common theme that I was slightly uncomfortable with. But I still found it very worthwhile. 4 stars
Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer Similar theme as the one above, but the writing was next level. It also touched on a theme I haven't seen in too many books that I loved. 4.5 stars
The Art of Description: World into Word This is poetry focused, and sometimes a little too heavy on "fancy" words, but I ended up marking many pieces to refer to again later, so it should end up helping my writing. 4 stars
The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War Wow, learning these details is so frustrating. What a terrible waste of money and lives. Very sad. :( 4 stars
Currently reading Everything Inside in print and listening to L.A. Weather.
QOTW: I finished the challenge a few months ago, but I think I stretched some of the prompts. I used The Resisters for "a book about forgetting," Speaking of Summer for "locked-room mystery," and Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir for "a book everyone has read but you." Fairly stretchy, but I'm fine with it. ;)
For this check-in period, I finished a book, which worked for one of my one prompts, and started two more books that will also work for open prompts (woo-hoo!). I'm now at 23/40 and 3/10 for this challenge (finally over the halfway point!), and 49/100 for my overall Goodreads Reading Challenge (so close to the halfway point!). Unrelated...I found out that I won a Goodreads Giveaway this morning (Raphael, Painter in Rome by Stephanie Storey) 😃 Is it wrong that I was even more excited about the news when I realized the title works for one of my open prompts (a book about art or an artist)?!
Finished:
* Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver, which I used for "a book by an author who shares your zodiac sign." I'd planned to read an Agatha Christie, who is a fellow Virgo, for this prompt but realized all of a sudden that I already had the perfect pick sitting in my Kindle since I own a copy of this collection!
Currently Reading:
* The Wedding Game by Meghan Quinn, which I'm using for "a book that has a heart, diamond, club, or spade on the cover." I'd also tentatively picked an Agatha Christie for this prompt...until I realized I had this sitting in my Kindle waiting for me to notice that a giant heart is the ONLY thing on the cover!; and,
* Three-Fifths by John Vercher and narrated by JD Jackson, which I'm planning to use for "a book with a black-and-white cover." I did NOT have an Agatha Christie book in mind for that prompt, but now wonder if I should have?!
QotW:
Is there a book you read for the 2021 Popsugar challenge that you didn’t feel was a perfect representative for that prompt, but it fit well enough to serve your purposes and you used it for that prompt? What was the book and the prompt? None so far, but I suspect I will panic-read something closer to the end of the year that will be a "CLOSE ENOUGH FOR ME!" to finish the challenge 😜 "The longest book (by pages) on your TBR list" is a strong candidate for this right now!
Happy check-in! I too am not a fan of beta. I gave feedback about how a website aimed at readers should not lose reading content. @Shannon I see the shopping page too and an increased emphasis on reviewing.
Finished Reading:
Monstress, Vol. 2: The Blood (2017 unreliable narrator) Monstress, Vol. 3: Haven Monstress, Vol. 4: The Chosen Monstress, Vol. 5: Warchild ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is a solid series. It is very dark and inspired by the author's grandparent's experience in China. The artwork is beautiful but gory. Volume 6 was published this week.
Dearly ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Misread a prompt so I borrowed this because I thought it was supposed to be 'by an interesting woman' when it's supposed to be 'about an interesting woman'. Oh well I really liked this and it's a quick read. This is the first thing I've read by Margaret Atwood.
Cemetery Boys ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is a cute ya book. It is pretty predictable but enjoyable none the less. Strong characters.
A Nation Worth Ranting About ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (2017 by someone I admire)
I read this the day before our election and it was crazy how his rants from fall 2008 to spring 2012 were still applicable. There was an election, Olympics, earth quake in Haiti, pandemic of swine flu, jokes at Trudeau and Kenney's expense. This was published in 2012 and it ties in with The Rick Mercer Report tv show.
The Cruelest Mercy ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was hard to put down and yet again the author killed me with the epilogue. There better be a third book!
Change Sings: A Children's Anthem ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Amanda Gorman can win two goodreads choice awards. This had lovely words and pictures.
The Pale Dreamer ⭐⭐⭐
Discovered a prequel novella on overdrive so why finish my other books when I can read this. Prequel to The Bone Season.
PS 2021 42/50
PS 2017 45/52
Goodreads 198/240
Currently Reading:
The Secret Keeper of Jaipur so far so good
Run: Book One
Green Willow And Other Japanese Fairy Tales
QOTW:
Yeah I have a few because I'm at the point where I say close enough. I've been not allowing ya books to count because I end up reading so many. That being said a bunch of the graphic novels I've used for prompts probably count as ya.
poshpenny wrote: "I don't think so. I mean, I had to fudge the "set someplace you'd like to visit in 2021" prompt because the pandemic is still happening, people! I don't want to visit anywhere this year! I'm using A Bathroom Book for People Not Pooping or Peeing But Using the Bathroom as an Escape..."This made me laugh so hard!
Happy Thursday. Fall is here, I've spent a few lovely days raking leaves and enjoying the sun. The number of books finished this week is still high from the ATY read-a-thon. I'm actually really close to finishing, but I'm having trouble filling the last few prompts - some because the books I'm reading right now just don't fit, and some because instead of reading the book I have picked out for the prompt I keep reading other things that catch my eye.My Stats;
PS - 47/50
ATY - 47/52
ATY Rejects - 20/25
Books Finished:
Me Artsy ⭐⭐⭐ - This is a collection of essays by various Indigenous artists (Musicians, Movie Directors, and Authors to name a few) about being an Indigenous artist and like any essay collection, some entries were better than others.
History Matters 2: More Stories from Saskatchewan ⭐⭐⭐ - This were little stories originally published in a local newspaper about Sask. history. They were fine and perfect for the read-a-thon. I ended up using it for the black and white cover prompt.
Firefly Original Graphic Novel: The Sting ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I love anything Firefly related, and while I loved the artwork for this one, the story wasn't quite right. It was missing the humour and as one reviewer pointed out, despite being about the female characters, all they really did was obsess about the men. So it was a little disappointing.
NeuroScience Fiction ⭐⭐⭐ - So I thought this was going to be a book looking at the science from older scifi movies and how science has proven them right (or wrong) and instead I got a book on the philosophy behind the science. Either way I enjoyed it a lot and I kept finding connections to other books I've read this year, but it wasn't the easiest read and was probably not the best choice for a read-a-thon book.
Monstress, Vol. 2: The Blood & Monstress, Vol. 3: Haven ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I'm really liking this series and am making my way through it.
Royal Weddings: A Very Peculiar History ⭐⭐⭐ - So this is a little trivia book that was clearly published to cash in on the Wedding fever when Will & Kate got engaged. It was cute and funny but not really worth it. But once again, perfect for the read-a-thon.
The Hawthorne Legacy ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I read the first book in this series and have been eagerly waiting for this to be published since then. I really enjoyed the clue hunting, and I don't mind the silly YA love triangle. But now I have to wait for book 3.😣
Books I made progress on:
Bitten in Two
QOTW
Well, I reworded the TBR prompts so they were a bit more flexible (long vs longest etc.) and I don't really count that as stretching. But the book you saw on someone's bookshelf I satisfied by reading a book, then looking on other people's Goodreads shelves until I found it. To be fair, I also saw it on the library shelf.... I also used a book that had an actual diamond on the cover instead of just the shape.
Lynn wrote: "Uhm…I guess I read enough books throughout the year that I rarely have to “squeeze” a book into a prompt. Although I am sometimes pleasantly surprised by a book I hadn’t planned to fulfill a specific prompt fits perfectly!.."Exactly! When I looked back at my list trying to answer this question, I realized that there were a lot more books that I hadn't expected to fit certain prompts so perfectly. For example, I planned to read, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer for shortest book on my list, but when I read it, I realized that no book could possibly fill the prompt of a book about forgetting better, so I moved things around, because it would have felt wrong to me to not put the book where it clearly belonged.
Christine wrote: "I’m just not up for anything “sweeping” or super literary, or (hat tip to Nadine) LONG. This year has been too challenging to make myself read books I’m not excited about!"I really FEEL this. I had so many goals about what books I was going to read this year, and it started to feel like a chore. I don't have the energy for any more chores, so I have been only reading stuff that feels like escapism to me, and I almost never read a book over 400 pages, unless its part of a series that I enjoy.
poshpenny wrote: "Summer is too hot and bright, it makes me sneeze. We've found out about water on Mars but not why bright light makes me sneeze..."Did you know it's called Autosomal Dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst syndrome known as ACHOO for short? They've got as far as finding out it's genetic.
Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Operation Cowboy: The Secret American Mission to Save the World's Most Beautiful Horses in the Last Days of World War II (other topics)The City We Became (other topics)
Yes, Chef (other topics)
Elsewhere, Home (other topics)
Waiting to Exhale (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Fredrik Backman (other topics)Gabriel García Márquez (other topics)
Mary Oliver (other topics)
John Vercher (other topics)
J.D. Jackson (other topics)
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Admin stuff
1. Goodreads is quietly messing with things again. They are terrible at communicating with us. Result currently is: sometimes the GR page won't load, some people can no longer post any external links, everyone's privacy settings were changed without notification, & now only your GR friends can send you a message via GR. (I’ve also heard that friend requests are not always going through.)
There is an easy way to change your privacy settings. For me, on Chrome, it's: Profile menu > Account Settings > Settings tab > scroll down to: "Who Can Send Me Private Messages" and choose "Anyone" I'm trying to make this change, because there are about 30,000 of you and I can't have 30,000 GR friends, so sometimes people who are not my "friend" need to send me a note. The thrilling twist to my story is: I got an ERROR message that says:
1 error prohibited this profile from being saved:
Please check the “I’m not a robot” box
but I didn't have that option! (I checked, in case I just wasn't seeing it, I searched the page for "robot" and got ONE instance of it, in that error message.) Instead, I had: "Sorry, something went wrong. Please try reloading the page" (It goes without saying that reloading the page does NOT solve the problem.)
So that's been great.
Update: it worked for me this morning. So I SHOULD be back in business and able to receive messages from any GR member.
2. Our September group read of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is ongoing here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
3. We still have an opening for a discussion leader for December (Malibu Rising)! If you can't message us, then just speak up here :-)DONE! It's Teri!!This week I finished 2 books, one was for this Challenge, so I am now 42/50. I've got a few more Challenge reads in progress, most notably I'm 30% complete with my longest book, so I'm feeling pretty good about my Challenge now.
The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore - this was my "oxymoron in the title" (a small stretch, I think, but not too bad!) and I LOVED this book! It was so funny!! It's possible that only engineers will find it funny. Also, CW for animal abuse: (view spoiler)[skip chapter 37, there are dogs killed by electrocution, and I fast-forwarded past it. (hide spoiler)]
A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark - I had pretty high expectations for this book, but it was just okay. It was too long. It would have been a stronger book with about 100 pages edited out. I think you all probably know by now that I just don't like long books. YMMV
I think I forgot to mention that I joined an online book club a few weeks ago! And our first book was Before We Were Yours, which I finished a week or two ago, although the book club isn't supposed to be finished for a few weeks yet (they broke the discussion up into a few chapters at a time). It wasn't really my kind of book, so I thought it was just okay. A lot of the other members seem to really like it, and to find it really confusing. I'm surprised that they find it confusing.
Question of the Week
Is there a book you read for the 2021 Popsugar challenge that you didn’t feel was a perfect representative for that prompt, but it fit well enough to serve your purposes and you used it for that prompt? What was the book and the prompt?
LOL yes! That would be the book I just finished: The Last Days of Night. I don't think it's really an oxymoron, but ... it's close.
I've been trying to find a true locked room mystery to listen to on audio, but the books I've considered are not available on Overdrive. I've got Nine Perfect Strangers on hold now, and I hope that turns out to be a true locked room. Otherwise, that will be my second "almost but not quite" book for this Challenge!