EPBOT Readers discussion

I've been dropping the ball on check ins, apologies! Last week I took Friday off to do an early Thanksgiving with my in-laws. So Thursday was extra busy for work, and friday was spent in a car/socializing.

The last two weeks I finished:

The Sea of Monsters - audio re-read

The Women of the Copper Country - my books & brew pick, talked about it last week. Good discussion, lots of ranting about capitalism haha. Also much mocking from those who did the audio book, narrator did NOT look up how to properly say Houghton or Maciknac.

Night and Silence - finally found time to read my books I picked up in August from Powell's. Love the October Daye books

Suffer a Sea-Change - novella in the back, nice to see the events from gillian's perspective

The Unkindest Tide - i love the Ludieag, so was good to see her so much in this one.

Hope is Swift - i like raj, nice to see a story from his perspecive

Scarlet - audio re-read

The Tower of Nero - conclusion to the Trials of Apollo, i liked it pretty well. I like the idea that a god can go through trials and change as a person.

currently reading:
Cress-audio re-read

A Spindle Splintered - picked this up from the library this week. Haven't actually started, but I will at lunch. Soon as I finish, I'll try to get some questions up!

QOTW:

How do you like to wrap up your reading year? Do you have too much holiday stuff so dont read much? Read more due to bad weather? Have particular things you like to read?

I tend to find as the year winds down I just want to relax and do escapist reading. So I'll read lots of sci fi/fantasy, comics, YA, Middle grade. Whatever feels light and easy. I know plenty of fantasy and sci fi can have darker themes, but they feel more distant when it's not real-world. Unlike the Copper Country which took place in my own state, even if it was semi-fictionalized. All the truly terrible stuff actually happened. Once January gets going, I'll feel more like branching out and expanding my horizons.

I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving! November so far has felt like it's gone by really fast, like "blink and you'll miss it".

I've got a couple of finishes:
Aurora's End - I had an inkling where this was going after book 2, but it still managed to surprise me a little, and make me cry. I'd gotten attached to these silly characters. It was a good finale to their story.

The Heart Principle - This was quite a bit more serious than I normally like romance, but I really felt so much in common with Anna, the female lead. A large chunk of the book is about Anna being diagnosed with autism as an adult, and how easy it is to miss it in girls and women. And whole passages of her experience are exactly how I've felt at times.

Currently reading:
Lost in the Never Woods - I loved Thomas's Cemetery Boys earlier this year. This one feels a little less polished, but so far I'm enjoying it. It's a modern retelling of Peter Pan, set in Oregon.

QOTW: Thankfully this year, I'm done with my reading challenge; last year it took me until the middle of December to finish. Whether I read more or less has more to do with work getting busy than the holidays, though. We don't usually travel for the holidays, or host guests or go to a lot of parties, so we keep things pretty low-key. I tend to read a lot of romance and fantasy around this time of year.

Last week I read Binti: The Complete Trilogy - I guess you could count it as three books (plus a short story) but I had it from the library bound in one volume and they're not very long so I'm just counting it as one. I used it for the BIPOC author prompt and it was wonderful. Not at all what I expected but in a good way! I've read some other work by Nnedi Okorafor and I think this is my favorite of hers.

Right now I'm reading Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach, who is one of my favorite popular science authors. Her books are all really informative AND really funny. This is her newest one and so far is just as great as her others.

Still on The Ship of the Dead and The Witches with my kiddos.

QOTW: I don't have any particular routine for end of year reading, although I generally have a lot of time to read since it is school vacation week. I've only got three left on the Book Nerds challenge for the first 50 prompts, and I should be able to finish them easily (The Witches fits one - banned book - and I've got books loaded on my kindle that will fit the other two).

Also - Sheri - I love the October Daye books SO MUCH and the Luidhaeg is my favorite character :)

i finished The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, and have the next book on hold from the library. also read The Doll's House, next on my Sandman reading list, and now I'm reading Leopardstar's Honor, the latest Warriors Super Edition. yep, I'm still reading them. XD

QotW: I just keep reading. since my reading goal is more than last year, if I'm in the middle of a book on new year's eve, it's the first book I finish in the next year. to kinda quote Dory from Finding Nemo, "just keep reading, just keep reading."

I skipped last week because I was in a cabin with no Wi-Fi when the post went up and then I forgot when I got back, so I have extra stuff.

The Mysterious Benedict Society - I heard of this because of the show, and the blurb says, "you, dear listener, can test your wits right alongside [the characters]." Unfortunately that was mostly not the case, and the plot was, uh, thin and patchy, the characters a bit Roald-Dahl-ish but less funny. Would I have loved it as a kid? It's hard to say, but I think maybe not.

Empire of Ants: The Hidden World and Extraordinary Lives of Earth's Tiny Conquerors - This is basically a book of fun facts about ants. You will know whether this appeals to you (I liked it). Weirdly it was very heavy; there were a lot of photos, so the whole thing was printed on gloss paper, which must be denser.

The Word Is Murder - I have loved two out of three books I've previously read by this author. In this one he makes himself the first-person narrator character, seemingly mostly as an excuse to discuss his various writing projects (books, film, and TV). Despite the excessive self-indulgence, his plotting is so good that I will probably read the sequel.

Death of Jezebel - This one seems to get mixed reviews, with some people touting it as one of the best impossible crime mysteries, and some people unimpressed. I was more on the unimpressed side. The author seems to have a fairly cynical view of human nature, as most of the characters (including the series detective) are fairly unlikable.

The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred - I found this a little uneven. There's a good idea there about the relationship between science and social justice, but the concepts didn't seem well integrated.

QOTW: I've got at least one Christmas book lined up, but other than that it'll just depend on how busy I am. We're visiting in-laws for Thanksgiving and my parents for Christmas; for some reason I tend to read a lot at the former and less at the latter, but we might end up renting a room, so we'll see.

This week I read Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune. I liked it very much, except I finished it when I had insomnia at 430 am and it made me cry and finish instead of distracting me back to sleep. (Tend not to read books that make me cry but this was good anyway.) The author definitely seems to have a thing for starting off with one-dimensional characters that evolve through the book (in case the beginning doesn't appeal to you.) Also a beautifully written trigger warning.
Also read the Heroine Complex and excited to discover a fun new series. Pretty sure it was recommended here or at FoE. Main character is a superhero personal assistant to her BFF who gained some superpowers during an earthquake related to demon infiltration; the books start off with the demons manifesting animating things like cupcakes and high heeled shoes. Nice to find something with a sense of humor that works for me, and think there's about 6 in the series so far.
I'm in good shape to finish my overall goal for the year (slightly more than last year), as well as book nerds. Sometimes I tend to reread children's books if I need to get more to finish my goal.

Since the last check-in I finished Taste: My Life through Food for our neighborhood book club meeting this past week. We held it on zoom and it was the first one where we actually talked about the book more than 10 minutes even though some in the group were kind of meh on it. I liked it but can see their POV. I give it 4 stars. He does a lot of name dropping and a lot of his (adult) experiences are very privileged. However I also related to a lot of his story, at least his childhood and parts of his cancer journey (my husband was diagnosed with cancer when our 3rd/youngest was 6 weeks old - that was a crazy and stressful year during his treatment - he's now 22 years cancer free). I don't think I'll make (m)any of the recipes in the book although I might look into cheese rind broth as I save all my rinds from Pecorino Romano and Reggiano Parm. My husband is Sicilian so we have all the quality Italian things.

I also finished A Spindle Splintered. I did not realize it was a novella. I listened to the audiobook and it was only 3 hours long. I'll save anything more for the book club thread on it.

I am back to listening to The Thursday Murder Club. I am enjoying this a lot. I'm now 60-70% of the way through and it is a fun read so far. I'll probably suggest it again for the next book club poll as it came in a close second.

I am also reading Where the Crawdads Sing. I missed this when it was very popular but my sister just finished it and highly recommended it too and it was available on the shelf at the library so I grabbed it. I am quickly about halfway through and enjoying it. I could use a bit faster pacing but otherwise it is a very interesting story so far.

QOTW:
I have the December neighborhood book to read, which is supposed to be a fairly heavy fiction read. I also just checked out my only romance novel of the year so I guess that kind of says that I'm headed to light, fluffy and no headspace required type of reading. I haven't started either of those books so I'll save their name and report for when I start them.