EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi everyone,

This just continues to be a terrible year. My poor Teddy Pickles is in the hospital again :( Same issue as before, UTI, blockage, crystals. For now he's on another catheter, we're hoping we can avoid surgery because a whole host of complications can come with that. But i guess we'll see, and have to talk with my regular vet as well. I feel like i desperately need a vacation but between all these incredibly expensive curveballs, the cost of gas, the disaster that air travel is, and how everyone I know who has been traveling has come home with Covid I don't really know what to do about that. I could just do a staycation, but a lot of times I end up not feeling rested because I just end up doing a lot of chores/house projects to make sure I don't "waste time". Some friends might visit over labor day weekend, maybe I can take some extra time off then, and it'll feel more vacationy because we can do stuff with them that's out of the house.

Sorry to dump all of that, it was a long bad night.

Book Club Don't forget to make some suggestions in the book club suggestion thread. I saw a few in there, but I'll probably leave it up over the weekend and gather suggestions on Monday or so.

There are also some questions up for The Woman Who Could Not Be Silenced now, I finally managed to get it and finish it. Not sure if people are still reading, if people are still waiting, or if people decided it was a bit too grim/topical/depressing for right now. I will leave the thread open as usual, so if at some point in the future anyone wants to circle back, it will still be available.

this week I finished:

Honey & Spice- I ended up really liking this. It didn't end up falling into some of the tropes I was expecting and gritting my teeth over. Lots of good solid friendship moments too. Slight spoiler (view spoiler)[I also appreciated that it was a book set in college where the woman was a virgin, and the whole book wasn't about her 'finally' being ready to lose virginity. There was no pressure from the guy for her to do so, and it never happens in the course of the book, it's assumed that it'll happen in due course when she's ready, down the line. As someone who was a late bloomer in that regard, I always get kind of uncomfortable at how many books having 14 year olds totally confident in starting to have sex, much less 18, college etc. Always made me feel like there was something wrong that I so was NOT ready. It's nice to have a distinct romance where there's sexual moments but the whole point isn't about losing virginity or going "all the way". (hide spoiler)]

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age - did the audio book for this. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Good information of what sort of factors causes people to abandon cities, and what really constitutes abandonment or what makes a city "lost". For example one the the cities, I think it was Catalhoyuk, was considered lost because the French "discovered" it. But local monks were living there, and the local villages were still making pilgrimages there even if it was no longer being lived in as a full thriving city as Europeans might consider it. Lots of really interesting information and perspectives.

currently reading:

Sharks in the Time of Saviors - next books & brew read. For a cool name, i'm not really liking the book and it's taking me forever to read. It's pretty depressing really. But It's a library book and i don't want my hold to run out so I don't want to put it aside to read something happier right now.

No current audio book but i've been listening to The Call of the Void podcast which is really good. Science fiction/paranormal/horror vibes about strange occurrences in the New Orleans bayou.

QOTW:

I'm caught up on Nightvale and I think it's on hiatus right now, and I'm quickly running through this Call of the Void, so I'd like to know what people's favorite podcasts are. I'd personally like to know about favorite fictional ones, but i'm sure others might be interested of podcasts of all sorts.

I don't listen to tons, so my favorites are Welcome to Nightvale and The Call of the Void. I might try getting back into Alice isn't Dead after this, too. I did like what I listened to , and I liked the novel, I just got distracted from it.

I'm so sorry, Sheri. That sounds like an absolute nightmare to deal with. I hope he's OK.

Things have been same-old, same-old over here. Work's picked up a little, so I didn't get as much reading done this week as I'd hoped.

Finished:
What Moves the Dead - I really enjoyed this. I found it more creepy than scary, with T. Kingfisher's usual humor and charm.

Currently reading:
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy - So far it's as delightful as the first, but I'm only about 1/4 through it.

QOTW:
Here we go! I listen to a lot of fiction podcasts!

I have a few I recommend, in both full-cast (audio drama) style and audiobook (one or more narrators reading a story) style.

First, a general recommendation: Atypical Artists does many of my favorite full-cast audio fiction, highly recommend checking them out. I'm not going to list all of their shows, but I've enjoyed every single one I've listened to.

Full-cast:
The Bright Sessions - probably best described as, what if the X-men went to therapy?
In Strange Woods - OK, stick with me here. A broadway-style musical. About a fictional "true crime" story. Done up as a true crime podcast, where the narrator is a character in the story. It probably should not work and won't work for everyone, but it absolutely works for me and I love it so much.
Life With LEO(h) - sci-fi romcom about a woman and a highly-illegal sentient android
The Ballad of Anne and Mary - A musical reimagining of famous pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. If you like Our Flag Means Death, this might appeal.

Audiobook style:
Elixir - Prohibition-inspired sapphic fantasy-romance
Gods & Lies - Urban contemporary fantasy detective story, set in a world where multiple gods are real

You should absolutely take that staycation, Sheri, and don't feel the least bit guilty about not using the time productively. You wouldn't be doing house projects if you were away on an actual vacation, right? Or is there somewhere you could drive to and take a short road trip so that you're not in your house and tempted by house stuff?

I ended up getting totally sucked into Paladin's Grace after a slow start. I think my problem at first was that I couldn't figure out whether it was supposed to be serious or lighthearted - then it went into some romance tropes that annoy me. But once that was resolved I got sucked into the world and the plot and I definitely want to continue with the trilogy despite only rating the first book 3 stars.

Today I ripped through The Dreamers in one sitting. I wasn't sure how I would handle a "new mysterious contagious virus" fictional scenario, but it was different enough from our current situation that it was ok! The book itself was sort of dreamlike. I've never read any of her books before but I'd like to read more now.

QOTW:
I lean more towards nonfiction than fiction for podcasts (same for audiobooks). Probably the closest I come to fiction is that I listen to a few that recap & discuss some favorite TV series - Slayerfest '98 (Buffy) and Beyond the elements (Avatar). Oh, and if you like puzzles I really enjoy Escape this Podcast, which is sort of an audio escape room combined with tabletop RPG - some of the episodes are just one-off puzzle rooms, but several of the seasons are multi-episode story arcs that are a lot of fun. The hosts Dani and Bill (who are husband and wife) also have another podcast called Solve This Murder where Dani invents murder mysteries for Bill to solve.

My favorite nonfiction podcasts if anyone is interested:
Stuff You Should Know and Ologies both investigate totally random topics (SYSK does the research themselves, Ologies interviews experts). Oh and you should be warned Ologies has a lot of adult language if that kind of thing bothers you. Good Job Brain is a really funny trivia podcast hosted by four friends who have been playing pub trivia together for years. Getting Curious is with Jonathan Van Ness (from Queer Eye) who also interviews various experts on random topics. This Podcast Will Kill You is two epidemiologists nerding out about interesting diseases, and Killer Psyche is true crime with a retired FBI agent who looks at famous serial killers and speculates about what psychological disorders they might have had that made them do what they did.

I have more where that came from if anyone is interested. I listen to a lot of podcasts. :)

Yeah, our standard vacation lately has been cabin rental (with kitchen, shower, and WiFi, not actually roughing it) within short-ish driving range. It's good for distancing but provides a change of scenery.

The Red Death Murders - This is the debut novel from one of the people in the Golden Age mystery blogosphere (do we still say that? I'm saying it). I've appreciated some of his reviews, and the blogger I usually read proclaimed that the book was good and not just because he knows this guy. It's an homage to classic locked-room mysteries and to Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" so it sounded right up my alley. I enjoyed it; although I wasn't entirely convinced of the plausibility of the solution, the atmosphere was great, and I got reasonably close to solving one of the impossibilities. Read this if you're in the mood for people being picked off one by one in a nearly deserted creepy plague castle.

QOTW: I have extreme difficulty concentrating on audio-only narratives, so I do not regularly listen to podcasts (or audiobooks). I zone out and have to rewind and it's generally not worth it. I have persevered through a few of the Sherlock Holmes audio dramas from Big Finish that are written by Jonathan Barnes because I thought his writing style would be a good fit, which it largely was, but I really wish he just published them as written pastiches instead.

still reading Trouble with the Cursed. my brain just isn't in it properly, since we're packing up to move. someone needs to put an offer on the house though. hubby will be going to look at more houses this weekend - we'll be moving out to the Pittsburgh area from the Philadelphia area....that'll be fun, especially with all our cats.

so i just checked the library website, and was actually able to renew the book, so i now have it three more weeks! yaay! wow - it's quite rare that i do that.

QotW: i don't do podcasts.