EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi all, sorry for the gap in posting. Lots of end of year stuff, getting Christmas cards made and out, cleaning for holidays, getting my work squared away for end of year. Hopefully next week I can get back on track with fewer gaps!

Book CLub Don’t forget there’s a discussion post up for A Spindle Splintered! I don’t think many, if any, have posted.

Are people having trouble getting the book? I didn’t realize until after we picked it that it was new enough to not be available world wide yet. I’m wondering if I should go ahead and start the selection for the next book next week, or give it a couple weeks to let people get ahold of this one and comment. Thoughts?

I lost track where I was when I posted last, so here’s a selection of what I’ve read semi recently:

Fairest - audio re-read

Termination Shock- I like Neal Stephenson a lot, but this one was a challenge for me. Took 17 days to read, which for me is abnormally slow. It’s not so much that it wasn’t good, as it was too realistic. Usually his stuff is very speculative romps, this was very “…ok dude I can see this happening, stop.” I’m certainly not ready for casual references to COVID and masking and social distancing for something set several decades into the future. Ad grim climate speculations to that, it wasn’t really a fun read. Used for book nerds author with same initials. Technically we only share one, but I’m fine with that.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate- audio reread

Norse Mythology: A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation - listened to the radio drama. It was decent, didn’t love it it as much as other productions.

Ever After - re-read, used for book nerds book by a local author, Kim lives in Ann Arbor, MI right now.

Harold and the Purple Crayon - used for the book nerds children’s classic. I don’t think i ever actually read this. It was cute

Currently reading:

Her Body and Other Parties: Stories - will be my book nerds banned book. I am not too far yet, one and a half stories in. It;’s short though, hoping I can’t Irish by tomorrow night and then that finishes the whole 100 prompt challenge for me!

QOTW:

Now that it’s the last week of the year, what were your favorite books? However many you feel like posting.

Some of my tops were
Black Sun
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
The House in the Cerulean Sea

For book club, I think I need to re-read A Spindle Splintered. It was so short, I kind of zoomed through it while on a day trip, forgot to jot my thoughts down right away, and now I don't remember enough to make any coherent remarks.

I'd be fine with beginning selection for the new book soon. If nothing else, it takes a little bit to nominate and vote.

Since last check-in, I've finished:
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within - I loved this. I'm sad it's supposed to be the last book in this series, but also looking forward to what Chambers does next.

A Summoning of Demons - Another one where I'm sad it's going to be the last of a series, since there are so many more potential stories she could tell in this setting and with these characters. It's a little like Leverage with magical powers, in a fantasy setting reminiscent of Renaissance Italy.

To close out the year, I've been reading Lois McMaster Bujold's Penric and Desdemona novellas in chronological (vs. publication) order. These are set in her World of the Five Gods fantasy novels. I've been loving these so far. Bujold's characters are always fantastic, and I love both Penric and Desdemona. All of the novellas are around 100 - 150 pages, so very quick reads.

Penric's Demon
Penric and the Shaman
Penric's Fox
Masquerade in Lodi

And a ton of manga I'm not going to list all of.

Currently reading:
The next novella, Penric’s Mission

QOTW:
My favorites of the year:
Little Thieves
The House in the Cerulean Sea
Cemetery Boys
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
Paladin's Strength
Paladin's Hope

I also read A Spindle Splintered long enough ago that my memory is a bit vague - but I will go and post some thoughts after I finish writing this!

Recent reads -
A Beautiful Poison (book set before I was born - closed out the first 50 book nerds prompts, yay!), which I didn't like quite as much as the other Lydia Kang books I've read, but it was still an engaging page-turner.

The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest (short stories) - I really love the anthologies that Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling edit. I loved most of the stories in this one (I skipped the poems...I'm not really a poetry gal).

The Midnight Library (book within a book) - I liked but didn't love this one. It was a lovely idea, but I found it fairly predictable and a little heavy-handed with the capital M Message. Too much telling instead of showing. I'm glad I read it, but also glad I got it from the library instead of buying.

Finished reading Matilda (made into a movie/musical/series, which I've never seen) to my first grader and now the movie is in our family movie night queue :)

Ombria in Shadow (book with magic), just as gorgeously written as all of her other work. I loved the ending.

My Sweet Girl (book I didn't remember adding to my TBR) - someone somewhere must have told me about this book and I added it to my library holds - it showed up and I've got absolutely no memory of requesting it. I figured something must have intrigued me about it so I picked it up this morning and ripped through the whole thing in a day. Definitely a page-turner, though I predicted a major plot point within the first few chapters.

QOTW: Hard to narrow down to a few, but here are some highlights-
The entire Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy
We Are Satellites
The Once and Future Witches
The House in the Cerulean Sea
Leviathan Falls
The Priory of the Orange Tree
First three books of the Books of Babel series - the fourth and last one was recently published and I'm waiting on a library hold to read it.
Recursion

I'll try to condense and combine some things.

Envious Casca/The Santa Klaus Murder - This year's requisite "murder at a country house Christmas party" books. They were both fine, not particularly remarkable.

Letters from Father Christmas - This was charming. Letters and drawings Tolkien made for his kids annually over decades, starting out rather Winnie-the-Pooh-like (and roughly contemporary), eventually adding goblins, elves, and conlang.

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus/A Kidnapped Santa Claus - My first L. Frank Baum, started out OK but didn't really feel very cohesive. The latter book is basically a short story and worked better, although it does take for granted a bit of the lore established in the first.

Stealing from Wizards Volume 1: Pickpocketing - Finally read the official Epbot recommendation. I only read the first two Potter books, but this seemed like a good supplement/replacement for wizard school fans. I'll get around to the second, and then we'll see if I make it farther than in HP.

Oddball - The latest Sarah's Scribbles collection; I've probably already seen all the comics online, but it was on Hoopla, so I read through and laughed again.

Teacup Magic: The First Collection - Three novellas set in a magical, Regency-inspired, slightly more progressive but still patriarchal society. Seemed to be aiming for more of a whimsical tone than Mary Robinette Kowal's glamourist series, but the writing was not as good.

The Calculating Stars - Speaking of MRK, I had this free from Tor from a while ago and decided to go for it. I would not have made that decision had I realized it is basically a disaster book. It's the "lady astronaut" series, but the entire beginning of the book is death and destruction, no astronauts at all for quite a while, and no lady astronauts until the end. That said, I did not stop reading it, and I think I would really have appreciated it at a different time. I will probably read the sequel someday.

QOTW: I feel like nothing really wowed me this year, which is probably partly chance, partly my personal state of mind, and partly the perception of time that makes the year feel like it happened both yesterday and a decade ago. I am looking at my year-end list to pull out a few.
Boyfriend Material - I saw on the "most anticipated" list that there is a sequel coming out, and I seem to remember liking it enough that I will anticipate that at least mildly.
Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl - Weird owls and weird Russians, a nonfiction romp.
The Magical Unicorn Society Official Handbook - There's not much to it, but I have been referring back to it when I just need to pretend unicorns exist for a minute.

Just finished my last book of the year with 4 hours to spare to meet my yearly goal! I picked up A Spindle Splintered from the library today and was excited to see it was short enough to be my last book to squeeze in. Loved it and made my somewhat boring NYE a bit more fun (chaperoning 18bot's friends and waiting for husbot to finish watching football.)
Other things I finished up this month were Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces. I do DEI stuff at work, and get the author's weekly email of tips for inclusive workplaces (strongly recommend), so wanted to try her book. I read another Raine Benares, All Spell Breaks Loose, who seems to be my go to author for a palate cleanser when I need something fun, as the next one usually seems to be available on Libby. Billed as "snarky fantasy" by someone at FoE.
On the bookshelf weeding front, I read Renowned Be Thy Grave: Or the Murderous Miss Mooney which I liked but decided to donate. Set of short stories about an actress set in post Civil War who solves mysteries involving famous people of the time, would recommend if you like historical fiction.
Last finish was A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking which I really enjoyed. Several lines made me laugh out loud.
Favorite standalones were Project Hail Mary and The Left-Handed Booksellers of London. Also enjoyed the next installments in the Parasolverse (Ambush or Adore), Wayfarer's series, Murderbot, the Dispatcher, and the Gunnie Rose series.

since last check-in, i finished Record of a Spaceborn Few, as well as
One of Us Is Next, Several People Are Typing, Wish You Were Here, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within; and You'll Be the Death of Me.

i read 69 books this year and enjoyed all of them. and that's also my answer for the QotW! :D