EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi all,

Busy time of year! Hopefully in the new year things will settle down a bit and I can be more consistent with posts.

Book Club Don't forget the finished reading thread is open over in the book club folder!

I might wait a bit into January before starting the next selection. This one started a little late, and I know it wasn't fully available world wide yet. That'll give people some time to get ahold of it. Luckily it's short, so even people who couldn't get it right away should be able to get through it quickly!

This week (s) I finished:

Skin of the Sea- This was really good, retelling of the Little Mermaid based on West African mythology. Used for ATY's book set in a country on or below the Tropic of Cancer. It was kind of nebulously set, no specific countries mentioned, just villages. but most of West Africa is on or below Tropic of Cancer so I counted it. Also used for Book Nerds Retelling.

Cress - finished audio re-read

Over the Woodward Wall - this was good, gave me a lot of Alice in Wonderland/Wizard of Oz vibes. used for book nerds penname, it's a new pen name for Seanan McGuire (based off a character in Middlegame, she's essentially writing the books referenced in that book. You don't need to have read Middlegame to get it though, they're stand alone in that sense).

White Smoke - used for book with a color in the title. I was disappointed in this, personally. I thought it sounded great, but it fell flat. It seemed like the author couldn't quite decide what to focus on. Beginning felt like it dragged on forever, but then the ending didn't feel like an ending at all. I don't really like cliffhangers, but as far as I can tell this is meant to be a stand alone so it's not even that. It felt, to me, like the author just got tired of writing it so called it done and published it.

Currently reading:

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek - my books and brew pick for next week. It's a weird one, very mixed feelings. On one hand there's parts of the story that are very compelling. On the other hand, the author seems bound and determined to equate a white person having a blood condition that turns their skin blue to being a Black person in the 1930s in the US. I get that the kind of people who would judge based on race would probably also look poorly on OTHER skin colors too, but that doesn't make it the SAME. It just feels weird and kind of cringey. and SO MUCH of the book seems focused on her blue-ness. Also there's a LOT of violence that happens to this poor woman, makes it hard to read, too. Oh well, almost done. Usually the mixed-bag reactions create the best discussions, so if nothing else there's that.

Midnight Blue-Light Special - started this while kindle was charging. I'm planning on reordering some prompts, this will be the new companion to one of the October Daye books for two books about the same topic/genre etc. They're both different types of urban fantasy, still counting it. Going to move Night and Silence to the NSC in the title prompt, and then The House on the Cerulean Sea to the place I want to live.

I got JUST close enough to finishing the challenge that i now feel compelled to actually finish it haha.

QOTW:

Do you make goals at the end of one year for the next reading year? Or are you more free form? I know some people make lists of books that they MUST read for the next year and things like that.

I personally just set a general reading goal because goodreads prompts it. Usually i also pick the first few books for reading challenges, but for next year I decided to take a break from reading challenges. I might passively check in once in a while to see if I'm filling any in with casual reading, but I need a break. I've done multiple challenges at a time for the last 5 years or so. I need some free reading time where I can just not worry about where a book fits. Didn't stop me from looking at all the new lists though, haha. I've also made a bunch of suggestions in various groups to help others fill them, even if I'm not doing it myself.

I have a few finishes since the last check-in:

The Nobleman's Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks - an interesting finale for the series. I liked Adrian, and his anxiety issues rang true to me. It was fantastic to see the older characters from previous books again, too.

The Insiders - a middle grade about a boy who stumbles into a mysterious interdimensional room in his new school that only appears when he needs it (kind of like the Room of Requirement in HP). He's being bullied for being the new kid and being gay in the more conservative area his parents moved to. Mostly it's a story about fitting in and being true to yourself. I really liked it.

Well Matched - Fluffy romance in and around a local Renn Faire. I really liked that the heroine was in her 40s, with a kid heading off to college. Her love interest was a slightly younger man in his 30s. It's not a usual type of romance, and I appreciated that.

Currently reading:
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within - I love Becky Chambers' soft sci-fi, and I am loving this so far.

QOTW: I usually set a general reading goal. This coming year, I'm probably going to do Popsugar again, but that's the only reading challenge. Mostly because I can fit a bunch of books I wanted to read anyway into it.

I'm currently doing a little Goodreads clean-up side project. Since I have over 2000 books on my to-read list, and I'm adding new ones almost every day, I decided to go back to the earliest on my shelf and reevaluate them. If I don't recognize why I added something, I skim at the blurb and reviews, and delete if it's not something I'm interested in anymore. It'll probably take me awhile to finish, but it's something I can do while watching TV or in the background.

I heard Becky Chambers referred to as Cozy Sci Fi which I thought was a cute name. I want more of it!

Sheri, cozy sci-fi is a great name for it! :)

One from over the holiday, and then two books for which I paid Actual Money!

The Armchair Birder Goes Coastal: The Secret Lives of Birds of the Southeastern Shore - This was my book for while we were at the beach for Thanksgiving. It was fun but not as good as the first book, largely because it abandons the "birds you can see without really trying" conceit. (Even if you are my in-laws and live at the beach: they are in a busy area and don't get the rarer sandpipers and stuff.) The author made specific trips for several of the birds.

A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching: Getting to Know the World's Most Misunderstood Bird - I bought this in support of Rosemary Mosco, whose work I like. A quick read with some facts about pigeon history, and then lists of pigeon markings with their genetics and some behaviors to watch, all with cute illustrations. The pigeons near me tend to hang out in specific locations, not just all over the sidewalks or anything, so I'll have to go on an expedition at some point to apply my new knowledge.

The Smart Woman's Guide to Murder - This tied for my favorite reviewer's favorite book of 2020, but the library still does not have it, so I finally got around to shelling out a whopping $2.99 for the Kindle edition. I would describe it as what would happen if Shirley Jackson wrote a British country house mystery: there's the house-as-character/possibly malevolent entity thing, and a shakily reliable narrator, but plot-wise it's the standard snowed-in-at-a-mansion. I wasn't wowed by the solution, and there was at least one running gag that outran its welcome, but the writing and atmosphere were fun. There's a sequel, but I don't know if I could handle the rather unlikable characters a second time in a different setting.

QOTW: I don't do goals or challenges or anything, so my must-read books for the new year are those that are coming into the public domain, particularly those I can't currently find for free. This year I will be looking for the second Charlie Chan book. I have also been trying to save the earlier Agatha Christie books for when they become public: there should be at least one a year for the next several decades, although I've already read some of them.

Three finishes for me since we last checked in.

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law (prompt: related to Earth) - just as wonderful as Mary Roach's other books. She's a favorite nonfiction writer of mine and as usual, I come out of her books with all sorts of random fascinating facts.

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots - this was quite the romp! The protagonist has signed up with a temp agency...for supervillain staff. She's essentially a data analyst who ends up tracking stats for her villainous boss and discovers that the superheroes maybe aren't as heroic as they seem. It's a ton of fun. And I just realized I didn't assign it to a prompt yet, so I think I'll use it for basket case/social outcast.

Leviathan Falls (author with pen name) - the ninth and final book in the Expanse series and I'm thoroughly satisfied with the ending. I know that monster series are not everyone's cup of tea, but this is one of the best I've read.

Just started A Beautiful Poison, which I'll use for a book set before I was born and close out the first 50 of the book nerds challenge. I never thought I'd get to all 100 so I'm cool with that!

QOTW: I don't set reading goals. This was the first year I tried a book challenge, and it was fun so I'll probably do it again, but mostly I just want to read as many good books as I can manage :)

Goodness, it's been a while! My last couple of finishes are mainly for a project I'm working on for 2022, but I did slot them into my reading challenges as well. I'm failing all my challenges this year in rather spectacular fashion, and it's ok :)

Fledgling Very squicky in parts, but the start to what could have been a super interesting vampire universe. Used it for the Book Nerds BIPOC author prompt.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World. Definitely learned some things, but there's something about how the author swerved from science to anthropomorphizing trees that didn't quite sit well with me. Used for Book Nerds book in translation

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, a great look at what sleep does and why it's important, by a sleep researcher. Highly recommend. Used for Book Nerds 3-word title prompt.

My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired, which I picked up as a follow-up to Why We Sleep. A collection of morning routines, mostly from intense early birds, with a couple throwaways lines geared to those who dare to sleep in until... nine! *gasp* Interesting, but not my crowd, to say the least! Used it for Book Nerds Book that makes you think prompt.

That puts me at 29/100 books for the year. I should get a few more in, particularly audiobooks as we travel to the in-laws for Xmas.

QOTW: I am putting the last touches on the 2022 Book Nerds With No Shelf Control challenge. Reveal coming this week on the Book Nerds Facebook page!

since last check-in, i finished: Season of Mists, A Game of You, Fables & Reflections (Neil Gaimam); A Closed and Common Orbit (Becky Chambers); and One of Us Is Lying (Karen M McManus)

i'm currently reading Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers, and i also like the "Cozy SciFi" moniker

QotW: nope. the only goal i set is next year i want to read more than this year. and as I'm reading book #64 for this year, it'll be a rough act to follow

Trystan wrote: "since last check-in, i finished: Season of Mists, A Game of You, Fables & Reflections (Neil Gaimam); A Closed and Common Orbit (Becky Chambers); and One of Us Is Lying (Karen M McManus)

i'm curren..."

Are you reading the Sandman books for the first time? I just love them :). I always warn people because I don't want it to happen to anyone else like it happened to me - I'm not sure which edition you have, but in mine the foreword to book 9 (The Kindly Ones) has a MAJOR spoiler that had me throwing the book across the room. Do yourself a favor and wait to read it until AFTER you finish.

Shel, for the first 8 Sandman, its a reread, the last four are new for me. I also don't read forwards or intros ;)

I have a lot of finishes since last time because I was close to finishing at that time.

I finished The Thursday Murder Club on audiobook. I really enjoyed that and will suggest it again for FOE book club in January and also for my IRL neighborhood book club. I started the audiobook of its sequel The Man Who Died Twice. But I have put that on hold to listen to something else.

That something else is the final Expanse book, Leviathan Falls. I am about 1/3 of the way through. My husband is reading the e-book on his tablet at the same time. We're pacing each other.

For my neighborhood book club I finished The Four Winds. This was strange one for me. I gave it two stars. It is very well written and well researched. However it was the most horribly depressing book I've read in a long time. The author took every possible bad thing that happened to anyone during the depression and dust bowl and had that happen to the main character. And equating unions and workers to communism or espousing communism was not my cup of tea either. I am unlikely to read more from this author. It was so depressing it was an unpleasant story even if it was well written.

I also finished Screwdrivered because I needed a bit of mindless reading in my life a few weeks ago.

I finished All Systems Red. The books were recommended on the sci-fi slack channel at work and I was on board when I saw how short they were (150 pages). I got it from the library and flew through it. I will probably get the next one soon. They're easy reads and the sort of story I would not have picked up on my own.

I went back to a book I have when I ran out of physical books to read at bedtime. It is A Daughter's Inheritance. It is set in the Thousand Islands of NY. I have spent a lot of time in that area each summer and have a friend who actually owns an island in the Thousand Islands so I'm reading it for the geo-familiarity. That was paused for All Systems Red, but I'll go back to it now that I finished that.

QOTW: I had no specific goal other than to make the effort to comment in the categories of the Book Nerd FB photos. Many books hit multiple categories but I only commented on one per book. I don't know if there's an easy way to find out how many comments I made on the different prompts. I was not keeping track on a personal spreadsheet, so other than counting here on GR I don't know.

However I did enjoy the prompts and will probably do something similar next year where I read mostly what I want and see where it fits. The "mostly" part is that I joined the IRL book club and so I'm reading things I would not otherwise choose to read sometimes.

Daniele wrote: "Goodness, it's been a while! My last couple of finishes are mainly for a project I'm working on for 2022, but I did slot them into my reading challenges as well. I'm failing all my challenges this ..."

Yay, I was hoping you were going to have an encore! Please share to the main page too. (I spend so much time on main FoE page I try to resist the subgroups.) Have really enjoyed the BN challenge this year.

Pretty wide range of finishes for me since Thanksgiving. I reread What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, which is written by the scientist author of the Xkcd comic strip. If there was a category for most hilarious use of citations, this might be win it.
For my audiobook for the book nerds, I gave up on full-length books and found the shortest thing available from Libby that caught my interest, which turned out to be Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Fun to hear Eddy Remayne narrate.
For my IRL bookclub, we read Firekeeper's Daughter, which turns out to be Goodreads YA book of the year. I liked it, particularly all of the good information about Native Americans (the author is Native American), and it was set in Michigan where I live. I am usually fine with YA books, but this one was a a little in-your-face YA with the angstiness. And there were two things that had me saying "No, that's not how that works" which distracted me from the better parts of the story.
Last one was A Psalm for the Wild-Built, which looks to be a new series by Becky Chambers. Short and sweet. Main character has the delightful avocation of tea monk; they travel from city to city and serves the perfect type of tea to accompany them listening to your problems. Happy to see it tagged as the first in a series when I came here to log it.
I am almost done with my last of 100 books for book nerds, and have 5 more for yearly goal; I was aiming for a few more than last years goal of 104. Most are books I would have read without the challenge, but about 16 I wouldn't have read without it. That seems like a good balance between reading what I like and trying a few new things. Thank you Daniele for putting it together!

A few finishes for me since last check in - Sorry I Missed You, which was just a nice, easy, read with a bit of a silly ghost mystery mixed in. Alright, but nothing too special. Finally got around to reading The Martian, and enjoyed that. It ended rather abruptly though - I really think there should be a warning when the last section of the book is not actually the book! This edition had a preview of Artemis at the back. Also finished Sabriel, which I used for the 'reread of a favourite' Book Nerds prompt, which finishes off my goal of doing the first 50 of that list.

Currently reading Lirael to carry on the reread, and listening to Record of a Spaceborn Few with my partner, both very enjoyable.

QOTW: I don't usually do any sort of planned reading at all. This year was my first time doing a challenge, and I did enjoy it, but I still didn't really plan things out, just tried to pick things that fit a prompt on a book by book basis.

got a few books on the go ATM.
still slogging my way through Fiery Cross - Diana Gabaldon.
cruising through a spider-man novel by Jim Butcher.
but I'm SLAMMING (for me) through the first book of Witcher short stories.
Was astounded to find, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella and Runplestitskin references and inspiration of varying degrees littered through them. I started the book two days ago, I'll finish tomorrow which at this time of year with so much going on is pretty fast for me.
I enjoy the writing and having seen the show isn't detracting at all.
Can recommend.