EPBOT Readers discussion

Hello!

I am getting this out reasonably close to the end of the week this time. It has been a good week for me because my daughter from Seattle has been visiting us all week (we live in MA so it is very far away). I've really enjoyed having her company and doing things with her. She used to live 3 hours away, now 3000 miles.

I only have one finish this week While My Sister Sleeps. I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. It was my first time reading this author. I used it for the "White" prompt for Book Nerds because most of it takes place in a hospital and that just is my mental image. Some reviews said it reminds them a little of My Sister's Keeper which I have not read. So I cannot speak to that.

I am about 2/3 of the way listening to The Bullet That Missed. I am thoroughly enjoying this book too. I just love The Thursday Murder Club. The author does such a great job with older people.

I'm about to start Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty. This is for a town non-fiction book club that started a couple months ago. Someday I might even make it to a meeting! So far I've missed the first two.

QOTW:
Would you rather live for a week in the past or the future?

For me this is really easy. I would rather live a week in the future. I think seeing where society, technology, science and knowledge go in the future would be really interesting. When I think about how much it has changed just during my life or my 93 YO mother's life, it is amazing.

Bunch of recent finishes:

Man's Search for Meaning, which had come widely recommended. It wasn't what I expected - I think I expected more philosophy and less psychotherapy. Still a worthwhile read, but not necessarily what I would consider enjoyable. I used it for the Book Nerds .author with 3+ names/initials" prompt.

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter, which was fortunately short. Once you get beyond the tiutlar concept in the broadest terms, the author's advice basically boils down to "just do it", as though her neat freak, minimalist tendencies were universal, which is frustrating to no end as someone with executive dysfunction around housekeeping in general. I used it for the Silent Generation author prompt - I'm guessing a bit because she only specifies her age as "between 80 and 100" in this book published in 2017. Judging by her photos, she's in the lower half of that range, so I think it's a safe bet.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, which had been on my TBR list for ages. A lovely story, and I look forward to reading more. Used for the Book Nerds B&W cover prompt.

Oddly enough, the next book I picked up was The House in the Cerulean Sea. I had no clue I was choosing another book about children with odd powers in a group home! This one had a delightful fairy tale quality to it, where everyone lives happily ever after, and you just sort of breathe a contented sigh when you reach the end. I used it for the Book Nerds "The family you choose" prompt.

Crazy Is My Superpower: How I Triumphed by Breaking Bones, Breaking Hearts, and Breaking the Rules. I loved the author's writing voice. Mind you, I was already a huge fan of her work in the WWE, but it was lovely to hear the person behind the character. I used it for the Book Nerds memoir/biography prompt.

That puts me at 35 books read for the year, filling 30 prompts. Still failing spectacularly but I'll have done better than last year!

QOTW: In general terms, the future for me too. Unless we're talking about the short-term past where you could reconnect with people who have since passed, in which case I'm sure I could be tempted backwards.

Oops, I think I missed last week's check-in! Sorry about that! I'm doing NaNoWriMo this month with my partner, so we've been spending a lot of time planning and writing.

Finished:
The Ones We're Meant to Find - 4 stars - This wasn't what I expected it to be, but it was still really engaging and an interesting look at what it means to be human.

Into the Riverlands - 5 stars - I love these novellas. Short, fast-paced, clever, funny and insightful.

Broken - 4 stars - I don't think I liked this quite as much as her earlier books, but I still really enjoyed it, and I connected with a lot of what she was saying about mental health. The open letter to her health insurance was just excellent.

Over the Woodward Wall - 4.5 stars - Excellent and fun middle grade.

The Spare Man- 4 stars - A fun murder mystery in space. I enjoyed it, and I didn't guess the murderer at all.

A Very Merry Bromance - 4 stars - This series had a bit of a rough start, but the last three books have just been a lot of wacky romcom fun, with a good emotional core. I just really needed something light and fun.

Comics and manga:
Something's Wrong With Us, Vol. 11
Cat + Gamer, Volume 1
A Man and His Cat, Vol. 7
Toilet-bound Hanako-kun, Vol. 16

Currently reading:
The World We Make - I've not too far in yet, but I've been really looking forward to this one, since I loved The City We Became.

Planned:
Ocean's Echo
Even Though I Knew the End
Cursed

QotW:
I agree, I would also choose the future. If for no other reason than I would want to see how technology and society advances.

To answer last week's question, too, about what animal I would be - I have always loved wolves, so that would have to be my choice.

It took me a while to get into it, but it eventually grabbed me and I finished The Sunbearer Trials - will pop over to the book club thread shortly and share some thoughts there, but the short version is that I liked but didn't love it. I did like it enough that I will probably read the sequel when it's published.

Next I'm going to re-read The Tombs of Atuan for my other GR group, which is doing a series read of the Earthsea books. I couldn't find my copy of A Wizard of Earthsea to read, but I remember it well enough to discuss and I've got the rest of the series handy.

QOTW: I'm going to buck the trend here and choose past. Specifically I want to see what all of this country looked like before it was all developed - to see the old forests and the great prairies and get my inner Laura Ingalls Wilder on :)

In-laws were here over the weekend, so that was nice.

The Halloween Moon - Thanks to Sheri for mentioning this. It was perfect for reading on Halloween after I prematurely finished my other spooky books. I thought it was a good depiction of being thirteen.

Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation - This was interesting and well researched. I did think it suffered a tiny bit from overstating the thesis, and a slightly larger bit from insufficient copy-editing (the author did mention at the end that after the Pulse shooting, more people decided they were willing to share their stories, so there were some late additions after other parts of the book had been written, so maybe that's part of it). The details of the fire are pretty harrowing, so, content warning for that.

QOTW: Do we get to pick when and where we visit? If so, I think I would also visit the past. I could experience some of my favorite book settings (Victorian London, maybe?) or see some dinosaurs or something.