Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

Happy Thursday!  This week FLEW by for me, I can't believe it's almost over, I swear it was just yesterday that June started.

The basil that I planted in containers on my back deck has been doing quite well, almost ready to be pinched off to prevent flowering!  So that, if nothing else, ought to remind me that it is indeed almost July.

We've got air quality warnings again, with the index over 100 - I'm not sure what's going on there, but maybe I won't be able to mow my lawn today. Darn ;-)



Admin stuff
June's group read of Red, White & Royal Blue is finishing up, but you can join in the discussion any time here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

July's group read will be The Hunting Party.

And October's group read has been chosen:   The Complete Maus! Jennifer will be leading our discussion in October!



This week I finished 3 books
Bunny by Mona Awad - just a month late for our group read, and that's a shame because when I finished I had QUESTIONS and I really wanted to talk to someone about it!!  It's a weird book, not usually my sort of thing, but I liked it a lot.  Of course, I checked off "rabbit on the cover" with this one!

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield - this was very very weird and it leaves a lot of unanswered questions, AND it left me feeling very sad.  Those last two things usually will kill a book for me, but I loved this book!!   It's got fives words in the title, so I checked off that category in our old bonus winter challenge.

Hidden Systems: Water, Electricity, the Internet, and the Secrets Behind the Systems We Use Every Day graphic novel written & drawn by Dan Nott - deeply disappointing, the title and blurb are lies, this was not about how the systems work at all, it was about how our infrastructure was designed to benefit the rich and leave the poor in the literal dark.  I support the message, but it wasn't what I wanted from this book.  Nice crisp art and this would be a nice addition to any classroom.  If you know going in that this is about social justice, not engineering, you will have a better time of it than I did.



Popsugar: 33/50  
Winter mini-challenge:  6/10   
AtY: 30/52   
2023 must-reads: 6/12 





Question of the Week
How many Nobel prize winning authors have you read?


Sort of a spin-off of our earlier discussion about Kazuo Ishiguro.  

I thought my answer would be "just one, Ishiguro" but I looked up the list and I've read a few more, plus there are two or three authors I may or may not have read back when I was in my teens / early 20s.  Not counting them since I'm not sure, I've read seven authors, including two poets:  Louise Glück & T.S. Eliot, plus Ishiguro, William Golding, Pearl S. Buck, John Steinbeck, and Gabriel García Márquez.

Happy Thursday!

With all the Canadian wildfire smoke drifting south, yesterday was rough. Today is a bit better. We're supposed to see Shania Twain in concert tomorrow for our fifth wedding anniversary, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was canceled - Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were supposed to play the same venue last night and it was canceled, and Shania has Lyme disease on top of all this mess. However it shakes out, I just want her to stay safe.

Theatre-wise, I'm seeing Love's Labour's Lost tonight with a dear friend from out of town (likely masking, as it's another outdoor venue) and then our first read-through for Twelfth Night is on Sunday (blessedly indoors). I’m looking forward to working on this with so many friends; perhaps Shakespeare’s most perfect comedy. Since I posted so late for last week I’m only covering a few days here, but I still got through a couple more books already!

Monday was another day of false starts on books I had thought I wanted to read. Gideon's Sword is off the TBR after less than 10% of the audio, it’s too far-fetched and Gary Stu-ish, and Thunderstruck is back on the pile for when I’m in the proper mood for something so detailed.

Meanwhile, finished:
Killers of a Certain Age - 4.5 stars. This was delightfully entertaining, and my definition of a ‘summer beach read’. Light, fast, and fun. Bought in an independent bookstore

Gender Queer: A Memoir - 5 stars. Incredibly moving. A book you think your best friend would like

PS 30/50
ATY 35/52
Mount TBR 27/60

Currently:
Jade City - reread
Gideon the Ninth
You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight

QOTW: How many Nobel prize winning authors have you read?
I looked up the Encyclopedia Britannica's list of Nobel Literature winners to put this together:

Authors I've read: Kipling, GB Shaw, Luigi Pirandello, William Faulkner, Hemingway, Albert Camus, John Steinbeck, Samuel Beckett, Golding, Toni Morrison, Seamus Heaney, Ishiguro

Authors I want to read:
Tagore, Yeats, Neruda, Marquez (maybe), Svetlana Alexievich, Olga Tokarczuk

Happy Thursday, everyone!

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to go to a local Scottish Festival, which was fantastic! I had a great time listening to bagpipes as I walked around the fairgrounds, and I loved seeing the highland dance competition and watching the sheepherding demonstration. I’ll definitely be going to more events like this in the future!

Tomorrow is the final day of the SciFi Summer Readathon! This readathon has gone so quickly, and it has been a lot of fun. I’ve managed to check off quite a few SciFi titles from my TBR list, and I’ve made a lot of progress toward my goal of reading 40% of the books on my TBR before the end of the year.

Here are my current challenge and TBR totals…

Goodreads Challenge: 543/400 (Challenge Complete!)
Mount TBR Challenge: 150/150 (Challenge Complete!)

📚Physical TBR: 253/634
📱Ebook TBR: 7/236
🎧Audiobook TBR: 11/13
TBR Checklist Total: 271/883 (30.6% complete)

Despite my plans to not buy any books this week, I did end up getting a couple. I ordered a copy of Foxes in Love Volume 3, by Toivo Kaartinen; as well as Star Trek 12, by James Blish and J.A. Lawrence. I’m really looking forward to reading both of these titles as soon as they arrive in the mail.

Starting on Saturday, I will be taking the first half of July to focus exclusively on reading titles from my “New Books” list. My primary goal is to get caught up on my new manga during this time, but I would also like to read some novels as well.

I also want to have read 95% of the titles on my “New Books” list by the end of July. It is a lot of books, but I think it’s do-able (especially since there is a ton of manga on my list right now).

To increase my chances of success, I am going to be enforcing a self-imposed book buying ban until I reach 95% list completion, or until the end of July, whichever comes first.

“New” Books Bought in 2023: 318
“New” Books Read in 2023: 265/318 (83.3% complete)

Here are the books I finished this week…

Finished Reading (Fiction):
This week I finished reading my collection of Doctor Who novels! I really had a fun time reading this series! I was not able to finish the series as a whole, because I am missing several books, but I plan to pick up those missing titles at some point so that I can finish the series. I’ll probably save that for the next SciFi Summer Readathon, however, since I currently have so many other books on my shelves that need to be read.

The books I read this week featured the 12th Doctor and Clara. They include…
~Doctor Who: The Blood Cell — 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~Doctor Who: Royal Blood — 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~Doctor Who: Deep Time — 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~Doctor Who: The Crawling Terror — Content Alert: (view spoiler)[This book includes a ton of really big insects and arachnids. (hide spoiler)] 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This week I also started to get caught up on my pile of unread Star Trek books. The books I read this week are short story adaptations of episodes from the original Star Trek series. I was able to finish the following titles…
~Star Trek 1 — 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~Star Trek 2 — 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~Star Trek 3 — 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~Star Trek 4 — 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~Star Trek 5 — 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~Star Trek 6 — 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~Star Trek 7 — 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~Star Trek 8 — 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~Star Trek 9 — 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Finished Reading (Nonfiction):
None

Finished Reading (Manga, Comic Books, & Graphic Novels):
None

Finished Reading (Poetry and Drama):
None

DNFed:
None

Currently Reading:
~Star Trek 10 — I’ve really been enjoying this book so far. I should finish it this afternoon. 📚

QOTW:
The Nobel Prize winning authors I’ve read include Toni Morrison, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, and Rudyard Kipling. While I did enjoy reading Kipling’s The Jungle Book, most of the books I’ve read by these authors were assigned reading in either high school or college, and I have to confess that they weren’t favorites.

Totally agree with everyone who thinks Quebec needs to get their act together about the wildfires. This is ruining summer for a lot of people - people can't go for walks, or bike rides, or use pools on days when we have "air quality advisories". Kids were having indoor recess some days in June.

I have one more June book to go. In HIMYM, Ted Mosby said Pablo Neruda was his favourite poet. I think now this was a writer's joke to show how pretentious he is. I am not enjoying this book. I did think his earlier work was better than his later odes to artichokes and lemons.

Started a July book early, which is good because it's pretty thick. Excited about "The Hunting Party", since I'm mostly a mystery/thriller girl.

Finished:

The Bride Wore Size 12
ATY prompt: A book with a faceless person on the cover
Popsugar prompt: A romance with a fat lead
Summer challenge: Book is set in the Northern Hemisphere

Series - 9/15
Series Completed: - Lying Games, Bronwyn the Witch, Divergent, Millenium, Heather Wells

Nobel laureates - 3/7
Random books - 3/7

ATY - 24/40
PS - 23/30
Nadine's 23 challenge - 10/10 -Completed!
Summer challenge: 3/12
Around the year in 52 movies - 25/52

24. A character that might be called a Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, or Spy - Spy Hard

Currently reading:

Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda - 85% done
The Starless Sea- 10% done
The Hunting Party - picking it up from the library today

Buddy Reads:
God in My Everything: How an Ancient Rhythm Helps Busy People Enjoy God - 10/15 chapters
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - 11/37 chapters
A Light in the Window - 1/21 chapters

QOTW: Haha. I'm on a quest to read more Nobel laureates. I'm currently reading Pablo Neruda.

I've read 15 of them:

Sully Prudhomme (1901), Theodor Mommsen (1902), Rudyard Kipling (1907), Anatole France (21), George Bernard Shaw (25), William Faulkner (49), Albert Camus (57), Jean-Paul Sartre (64), Samuel Beckett (69), Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (70), Gabriel García Márquez (82), Toni Morrison (93), Kenzaburo Oe (94), Seamus Heaney (95), and Kazuo Ishiguro (2017)

This week has flown by for me too, so much so I haven't finished anything. I'm currently reading The Sentence which is very slow and not my normal sort of thing.

I did get to 80% feedback ratio on NetGalley this week though. I've been on there since 2011 and I think that's the first time I've been so up-to-date!

We had a bit of rain last night, hurrah, but the ground is still far too dry.

QOTW:
I don't tend to read the kind of books that are deemed worthy of Nobel prizes but I've read four: Rudyard Kipling, John Steinbeck, José Saramago and Kazuo Ishiguro. I'm interested in reading Svetlana Alexievich but the time has never been right.

Ellie wrote: "I don't tend to read the kind of books that are deemed worthy of Nobel prizes but I've read four: Rudyard Kipling, John Steinbeck, José Saramago and Kazuo Ishiguro. I'm interested in reading Svetlana Alexievich but the time has never been right..."

What did you read or do you recommend from José Saramago?

Dubhease wrote: "What did you read or do you recommend from José Saramago?..."

I've only read Blindness which I couldn't help comparing to Day of the Triffids which is one of my favourite books. I seem to recall that he doesn't use quotation marks for speech, which I've gotten used to over the years but at the time I found it frustrating.

Happy Thursday! Our air quality in Cleveland is a bit better than what it was yesterday. Last weekend was busy with selfcare. I got my hair done and a pedicure and took myself to brunch on Sunday. Then I hung out with a friend and we colored in our adult coloring books and caught up a bit.

I finished Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl I'm going to use that for Prompt #7 A book with "girl" in the title. I could have used this for book I read over 10 years ago as well. This book made me grateful that I don't have to endure harassment or rape from any white man that wants to do those things to me. Harriet dealt with so much while she was trying to get free.

I DNF'd Marriage of a Thousand Lies at 21% I couldn't get into it and the person that was reading it in the audio version wasn't interesting. I think they should have used a native speaker.

QOTW: How many Nobel prize winning authors have you read?
So far I've only read Toni Morrison and Rupyard Kipling.

Happy Thursday.

Not much to report on my end. Just the same stuff as always.

Can you believe that it's already been half a year?! Crazy that in a couple of days, we'll be in July.

How have your personal reading goals been going?

I'm not sure if I've updated my stats here on GR, but I keep track of them on Storygraph and Google docs. My reading goal was 25. I like to keep it at a small number because I don't know how life will turn out and whether I'll have time to read.

Thankfully (and unfortunately) life is pretty much the same so I keep surpassing my goal. I've currently read 51 books so that's a little victory for me. Don't have any set goals after this, but at least I'm over by half so that's nice.

*****

There are so many paperback versions of the books I already own that are coming out in September so I am super excited for those. It takes away my hardbacks on my lower tall shelves and allows me to place regular-sized books on my general shelves which is why I don't mind having both. Plus as much as I love the hb's, the pb's are way easier to annotate.


*****
QOTW:

I'll have to go through a list of Nobel Prize winners to see if I've read any.

I finished Murder at Marble House as my book with a love triangle.

I read Pearl in the Sand as my book recommended by a friend.

I read The Beverly Hillbillies and cheated to use it for a book based on a movie. I don't approve of the category:) I hate novelizations of movies.

I'm reading The Prophets of Eternal Fjord as my historical fiction book. It just took a turn for the weird.

QOTW: I've read The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, EAst of Eden, and The Red Pony by John Steinbeck, The Sound and the fury by William Faulkner, the Good Earth by Pearl Buck and Kim and The Jungle Book by Rudyad Kipling.

Happy Thursday!

Finished:
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin - 3.5 stars - for a book that takes place in the decade I was born. I loved the PBS series that came out back in the 90s. This is written in a fast, breezy style, but I felt a lot less connected to the characters reading the book.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - 4.5 stars - for a book your friend recommended. I think I got the recommendation from someone in this group, and I loved it. I love books like this with a slowly unravelling mystery and lots of clues.

Comics & manga:
Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, Vol. 4
Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, Vol. 3
Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon Vol. 4
Run on Your New Legs, Vol. 1
Run on Your New Legs, Vol. 2
Something's Wrong With Us, Vol. 15

Currently reading:
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo - for a book about a holiday that's not Christmas. I don't think I'm going to finish this before Friday, the last day of June, but this will still count as part of my Pride reading.

I am currently at 34/50 for Popsugar (28/40 and 6/10)

Upcoming/Planned:
Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert - for a book about an athlete/sport. The male lead is an ex-rugby player, so that counts as an athlete to me. :)

QOTW:
I looked up the list of Nobel winners on WIkipedia, figuring probably very few. Most if not all of them I read for classes in high school or college:

Rudyard Kipling, William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Eugene O'Neill, T. S. Eliot, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway

Jen wrote: "Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert - for a book about an athlete/sport. The male lead is an ex-rugby player, so that counts as an athlete to me. :)"

#DrRugbae! This book was so much fun lol

Reading stats, same as last time.

Finished: Why We Forget and How To Remember Better: The Science Behind Memory Seemed like a fairly reliable source, but not very memorable. (Hah!)

Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything Didn't like this nearly as well as Ian Bogost's books, one of the ontologists.

The Treehouse Library I'm sorry, but I like books, even books in a series, to follow a narrative arc. This did not.

Before The Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe and What Lies Beyond I've been reading many books on this topic and so far, this was my favorite! Written by a physicist from Albania, she combines her newfound academic freedom with what used to be non-mainstream views on physics (read the multiverse.) She does a good job of explaining the math and the ideas, so that you have some sense of what she's talking about.

Started:Dancing With God Through the Storm
The Sun and the Star: A Nico di Angelo Adventure Ah, missed Riordan's sarcasm in the spinoffs!

QotW: I've read 22, my favorite of which are Herman Hesse, Toni Morrison, Jean-Paul Sartre, & Wislawa Szymborska.

Ashley Marie wrote: "Jen wrote: "Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert - for a book about an athlete/sport. The male lead is an ex-rugby player, so that counts as an athlete to me. :)"

#DrRugbae! This book was so much fun lol"

I'm glad to hear that! I'm looking forward to it!

Hi all! Feeling kinda crummy today. Not sure if I'm getting a cold or if it's from smoke. It's not as bad as last time, but I have lost my view again. I had told the kiddo we would go to the playground today because it's been raining all week. Not gonna happen. I heard on the Weather Channel yesterday that Canada has had more fires so far this year than they usually do in a fire season and techinically, fire season hasn't even started yet! Yikes. I have a sleep study tonight, I'm excited for it. I wanna see my brain waves on a chart! Also, if it helps me get better rest so I'm not so exhausted all the time, I would love that, too!

I finished 2 books this week! OK, they're both graphic novels, but whatever.
Flamer, best book of the year so far! Loved it! The kids were realistic and the emotions and questions of a first crush and sexuality rang true. I used it for a book set on vacation
Bone, Vol. 1: Out from Boneville Cute! It ended on a cliffhanger, though, so I guess I'll have to get book 2. Using it for a self-published book.

QOTW: More than I would have thought!
Kipling
Mann
Lewis
Hesse
TS Eliot
Hemingway
Pasternak
Andric
Sartre
Solzhenitsyn
Marquez
Golding
Gordimer
Morrison
Pamuk

Nadine in NY wrote: "And October's group read has been chosen: The Complete Maus!"

Ooh! I'll lead this one!! I love Maus, I think it's the best book I've ever read on the Holocaust.

Last week I taught in a STEM camp for 30 ten year olds...career two is me being a college professor and neither career taught me one thing about dealing with 10 year olds other than a brief cycle in pediatrics in career one. YIKES. It was exhausting and I missed last week's check in as a result. That's okay I had no spoons leftover for reading anyhow.

I thought I was going to read The Joy Machine by James E. Gunn & Theodore Sturgeon for the prompt A book about a vacation as Timshel was a vacation planet for the Federation and Captain Kirk was beaming down to see what had gone wrong with it. Yeah no vacation and frankly no joy in this lackluster Star Trek book.

Instead for that prompt I read Death on the Danube: A New Year's Murder in Budapest by Jennifer S. Alderson It was a fun mystery read (though it was pretty easy to solve) about a tour guide amateur sleuth (She was formerly an investigative reporter so it's an easy to accept sleuth at least)

I also read An Unforgiving Place by Claire Kells for A book you bought secondhand. It's one of my many library book sale buys. It was a good mystery set in one of Alaska's national parks (again solved the mystery before the investigator did)

QOTW Huh, you know I never thought about it as it's not something I actively attempt to do so curious now I went looking. Here's the ones I've read:
Rudyard Kipling, William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Sinclair Lewis, Eugene O'Neill, Pearl Buck, Hermann Hesse, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Albert Camus, Boris Pasternak, John Steinbeck, Jean-Paul Sartre, Pablo Neruda, Gabriel García Márquez, William Golding, Toni Morrison, Bob Dylan (well listened to at any rate) & Kazuo Ishiguro

Okay color me shocked there are so many. A lot of which I read in my high school lit classes (also one of my degrees is in English, sort of kind of, long story). What also shocked me were the two women winners in the 1920s but what wasn't shocking is my 80s era high school teachers never bothered to include them in important authors to read. Sigh.

Jen wrote: "Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert - for a book about an athlete/sport. The male lead is an ex-rugby player, so that counts as an athlete to me. :)..."




oh that book definitely counts!! part of the plot is the he volunteers in a group that coaches kids, so rugby gets mentioned a good bit.

Jennifer W wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "And October's group read has been chosen: The Complete Maus!"

Ooh! I'll lead this one!! I love Maus, I think it's the best book I've ever read on the Holocaust."



Awesome!!

Yes it's a great book. I'm glad to see it won.

It's been a week of weather more typical of the autumn hurricane season in NYC -- high humidity making it necessary to run A/C even though the temps are quite comfortable - just in the high 70Fs. Now the Canadian wildfire bad air is back for another visit...and all continues for another week it seems. I suspect I will be staying in to catch up on work and read.

Progress on challenges this week! PS 36/50 ATY - 49/52 (I think I will finish ATY really soon! PS - still have longest book and one published in 2nd half to slow that finish down).

Finished a lot this week:
Murder in Greenwich Village
Ru - for ATY asian diaspora author - vietnamese/canadian
They Do It With Mirrors - set in my birth decade - 1950s
The Satapur Moonstone - ATY set in tropics - south India

Currently Reading:
Nona the Ninth - had to pick this back up as Feminerdy BC coming up where it will be discussed. Was supposed to be for June but we pushed it off as we were all floundering and several were not able to attend. It's reading much more easily and enjoyable now - I was not in the right headspace for it a month ago.
Kitchen Essays

QOTW:


I have though I never set out to read a Nobel winner for any prize, let alone any specific winner of a literary Nobel. I'm pretty sure I've read a few works by those who have won the Nobel Peace Prize for example. But solely looking at the list of Nobel for Literature winners, I have read Ishiguro, Bob Dylan (given my age that's a 'DUH!'), Alice Munro, Orhan Pamuk, Harold Pinter, Saul Bellow, Samuel Beckett, John Steinbeck, Jean-Paul Sartre, Boris Pasternak, Albert Camus, Francois Mauriac, Hemingway, Faulkner, Andre Gide, Herman Hesse, Eugene O'Neill, Sigrid Undset, Thomas Mann, Sinclair Lewis, Henri Bergson, George Bernard Shaw, Yeats, Maeterlink, Kipling. Many others on the list are familiar names whose works I recognize but can't say I've actually read - and some are on my TBR like Toni Morrison. Oh, and all those French winners I've listed as read? I read them all in French - as a french literature major in college plus during high school.

Hi Everyone, it's hazy here too. I read 2 books for the week.
1. Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy. 5 stars. Not for this challenge.
2. Sharks in the Time of Saviors. 5 stars. Not for this challenge. I fouled myself up with this book. I thought the book had something to do with a vacation. It didn't. I really didn't like the characters in the book but the magical realism & writing made the book for me.
QOTW : I've read more than I thought
1. Alice Munro
2. Orhan Pamuk
3. Toni Morrison
4. John Steinbeck
5. Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
6. Ernest Hemingway
7. Pearl Buck
8. Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Happy Thursday.

Is it just me or are the Goodreads Notifications not working?

I have a week off of SRP. I never do the week of the 4th. I did it once. Never again. Had 2 kids. Not that this has been a problem this year. I've only had 6 again this week. Sigh.

The weather is going to turn nasty soon too. We've been sailing through June with the most lovely of temps. high 70s to mid 80s. The end of this week will see our first 90s. WAH!!!!! I don't want it! But, that is the norm for here. It's better than the 100s we got last year at this time.

Other than that, it's been pretty nice. My sister came down to see us and I got baby and toddler time (and 3 dogs the size of horses time too! but i love them!)

I can't believe the baby is now eating baby food and is 7 months old! Time has gone so fast. She's such a cute little mite. all smiles and curious except when she is hangry. Oh lordy, that girl gets so cranky when it comes to her bottle time.

We switched over to the new system. I'm not sure I like it. I cannot run a report for the information i want. It was some much simpler with the other system.

Popsugar:12/50
Finished:
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 5 ps 23 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Touya is now Grand Duke of Brunhild, a tiny country that is between Belfast and Regulus Empire. People have come to populate the fledgling country, many of which Touya has met on his earlier adventures. The kings of those countries have also gathered to have a play day and brought their wives and children. Touya has, of course, created things from Earth to amaze them.

Soon envoys from Ramissh Theocracy have come. They believe in a god of light and anything different is persecuted. The envoy is basically an arrogant jerk. Somehow or another, God comes down and says howdy. This caused the other envoy to be called a heretic and is sentenced to death. Touya then has to clean up God's mess by saving not only the envoy, but the Pope and the entire country as well!

Reading:

Aty:10/52
Finished:None

Reading: None

Goodreads Challenge 415/400
Finished:

A Girl & Her Guard Dog, Vol. 1
A Girl and Her Guard Dog, Vol. 2
A Girl and Her Guard Dog, Vol. 3
A Girl & Her Guard Dog, Vol. 4
A Girl and Her Guard Dog, Vol. 5
A Girl & Her Guard Dog, Vol. 6
A Girl and Her Guard Dog, Vol. 7
A Girl & Her Guard Dog, Vol. 8
With the Sheikh in His Harem, Vol. 1
The Prince's Romance Gambit, Vol. 1
The Prince's Romance Gambit, Vol. 2
The Prince's Romance Gambit, Vol. 3
The Prince's Romance Gambit, Vol. 4
The Prince's Romance Gambit, Vol. 5
The Prince's Romance Gambit, Vol. 6
The Prince's Romance Gambit, Vol. 7
The Prince's Romance Gambit, Vol. 8
The Prince's Romance Gambit Vol. 9
The Prince's Romance Gambit Vol. 10
The Prince's Romance Gambit Vol. 11
The Prince's Romance Gambit Vol. 12
Sweet Sweet Revenge, Vol. 1
Sweet Sweet Revenge Vol. 2
I Belong to the Baddest Girl at School Volume 01
Lightning and Romance, Vol. 1
Lightning and Romance, Vol. 2
Lightning and Romance Vol. 3
Lightning and Romance, Vol. 4
Love's Reach
Love's Reach Vol. 2
Love's Reach Vol. 3
Love's Reach Vol. 4
Love's Reach Vol. 5
Love's Reach Vol. 6
Love's Reach Vol. 7
Love's Reach Vol. 8
Love's Reach Vol. 9
Love's Reach Vol. 10
Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, Vol. 3
Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, Vol. 4
Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, Vol. 5
Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, Vol. 6
Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, Vol. 7
Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, Vol. 8
Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, Vol. 9
Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, Vol. 10
Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, Vol. 11
Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight, Vol. 12
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 5


Reading:
Prince of Thorns & Nightmares
The Princess’ Smile: The Body-Double Bride Searches for Happiness with the Reclusive Prince
With the Sheikh in His Harem, Vol. 2

Nadine's Mini Challenge 7/10
Finished:None

Reading: None

Mount TBR:
33/150 Ebook
22/150 Physical

QOTW:

I've read Pygmalion. I'm actually surprised that i've read a Nobel Prize winner.

Yes, I know. I haven't checked in in ages. It's incredible how busy life can be. Seth (adult son with autism) still needs his weekly trip to the movies and daily walks of 2+ miles, Eli (5yo grandson) is doing kindergarten readiness work and playing outside whenever he gets a chance, and Ewan (8mo grandson) has figured out crawling, so it's a constant battle to keep the floors picked up!

Challenge Progress: 35/50

Recently Completed:
The Night Ship (PS1 - a book you meant to read in 2022) ★★★
The Embroidered Book (PS49 - the longest book on your TBR list) ★★★★
The Lioness ★★★
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece ★★★★
Not Funny: Essays on Life, Comedy, Culture, Et Cetera ★★★★★
Holding the Note: Profiles in Popular Music ★★★★
Looking for Alaska ★★★
The House in the Pines ★★★



Currently Reading:
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi
The Cartographers
Queen Charlotte
The Hacienda (PS41 - a book written during NaNoWriMo)
The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World
All the Missing Girls (PS7 - a book with girl in the title)
I Have Some Questions for You

QOTW: I read John Steinbeck, Pearl S. Buck, Eugene O'Neill, and George Bernard Shaw for school many, many years ago. I also read Louise Gluck for a book club as well as Ernest Hemingway for a different book club (I hated it!) and Kazuo Ishiguro for pleasure (I loved it!).

Hello, Thursday!

My garden is struggling under the days of rain and now heat (90s).
The blueberries are done. I enjoyed picking and sharing them with neighbors. I shared part of my most recent picking with a neighbor, who recently had a steroid injection in his spine. (He has enjoyed picking and eating them during June.)

I went to AAA to ask questions and get ideas for my hoped for Scotland trip next year. Came away with lots of ideas and so much to decide! I did find locally IRN BRU which is a Scottish soda drink. Got one bottle in case I did not like it. Well, it was different, kinda citrusy. Checked ingredients: caffeine, quinine, aspartame…not exactly healthy. But, as I drank it over a hot afternoon…and then was wide awake when it was time to sleep…not buzzed just awake, I decided that it is more of an energy drink and should only be consumed during the morning hours. Of course, when I get to Scotland, it might help me have energy to hike some of that country!

I am also doing two language courses through Duolingo: Spanish and Scottish Gaelic. Enjoying both, although I have done Spanish before so it is mostly recall that is being tested rather than new learning.

Oh, and the baby shower! I ended up giving Kala a library for the little one. Three Sandra Boynton books, a couple of Hungry Catepillar books, and three or four others! Oh, and a Dr. Seuss plushy. I also got a Pooh story book for the older sister and a book for the Kala, which was a big hit after Grandma went home...Go the F**k to Sleep! My friend, Kala's mom, even ordered her own copy off of Ebay. Thanks to all who made me such a success!

Finished:

French Milk – GN. Memoir of a trip to Paris. 3*

The Haunted Hotel – PS #28 . 3*(bought second hand). Actually I obtained this book from a free library; but since I seldom buy books, I am counting it for this prompt. Most of the book was about family relationships and building the characters of each member. Yes, there was a death overseas, but only the end of the book dealt with what turned out to be two deaths. And the ending did finally resolve all the questions. Still not my usual mystery where the whole story is involved in the who dun it.

The Lake House Secret – Kindle. ATY #23. 4* Tangled emotions by the protagonist. Questions of what crime was done and who was involved. Friends…family…all intermingled. I liked this book.

A Nail Through the Heart – Ebook. 4* Wow! What a bleak story set in Bangkok and dealing with horrible crime and abuse! This book raises the question of when is the bad guy good and is it right to punish crime when it is victim against abuser. I thought I knew the answers to those kind of questionsl but by the end, I was not sure.

In Dublin's Fair City – Other challenge. 4* Next installment of a mystery series that I am reading one book each month. Had to remind myself as I was reading that Molly had to survive and return to US! The series requires it.
Blankets – GN. 4* Quite a huge graphic novel but easy reading. Enjoyed the first teen love interest and the conflict with normal puberty issues vs. strict religious upbringing.

So Lucky – 5* PS #22 (queer lead) . Oh, my. This author is a favorite of mine and easily has introduced me to LGBTQ+ fiction. However, I suspect that much of this story bordered on her own life and feelings as she has MS like the protagonist. Suspenseful. Horrific in that I could feel and experience her fears and thoughts…learned a lot about MS from inside a person with it…and so very glad the ending was on an up note with the bad guys caught.

Currently Reading:

Dreams and Shadows –Kindle. 13%. Weird book. Still on hold.

The Beginner's Photography Guide: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Manual for Getting the Most from Your Digital Camera – PS #2. 8%. On hold.

Making All Things New: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life – PS #38. Plan to read today.

Six of Crows – PAS, RwS. 28%

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands – RwS. GN. 47%

Unleashed - Audiobook.

On deck:

Bone Deep – Old challenge.

Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII - ATY

The Widows of Malabar Hill - ATY

PS 23/50 and 6/10 for Nadine’s Challenge
ATY 23/52 and 11/12 for Q1 Challenge, 4/12 for Q2 Challenge, 5/12 for Summer Challenge
GR 144/200
RwS starting a new season: 20/30

QotW: How many Nobel prize winning authors have you read?
I don't know. I seldom look to see if this author has won awards. From the lists that proceed my post, I suspect quite a few. I will check and edit once I get a chance.

So proud of myself! I talked to my manager about my issue. She understood my problem and stimulated me to think a step further than I did. Such a relief! And another step forward in my learning path to listen more to my heart. It really works when you listen to your heart. Now my heart and head are working together on this issue.

Weather is back to normal here. Last weekend was sticky hot and I was completely done with summer already. Now it’s clouds and rain and a bit of sun. Dutch summer.

PS: 28/50
Total 2023: 33

Finished
About People by Juli Zeh ⭐⭐⭐⭐
#36, a book you think your best friend would like
Literature about covid-19 and polarisation. I love the way Zeh peels it off to a very small story about Dora moving to the countryside by the start of the pandemic. I love small stories and so I did this one. It’s really good ‘pandemic literature’.

Currently reading
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
Oranje tegen de Zonnekoning: de strijd van Willem III en Lodewijk XIV om Europa by Luc Panhuysen

QOTW
I had to look up a list because I honestly don't know who they are. I’ve read 4: Thomas Mann, Boris Pasternak, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Orhan Pamuk.

Bea wrote: "Hello, Thursday!

My garden is struggling under the days of rain and now heat (90s).
The blueberries are done. I enjoyed picking and sharing them with neighbors. I shared part of my most recent p..."

Ah, I should hunt around and see if I can find any IRN BRU in my area. Good idea, Bea! I haven't done much with the Duo Scottish Gaelic course in a few years, thanks to being mostly wrapped up in the Irish course - they're so very similar, until they're not! And I just started Spanish this week because the director for my new show is a native speaker and I think if English is his second language and Spanish is (one of) mine, we might be able to help each other out a bit.

Picked up a new book today:

The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America

I've seen this recommended by a guy I follow on TikTok so I figured I'd give it a try. It's not exactly in my wheelhouse when it comes to nonfiction, but all the more reason to give it a go. Trying something different and all of that.

Upside, I had not gone to the bookstore in 2 weeks and I only bought one book so that's progress.

Happy Thursday everyone! Stay safe, especially if you're in a zone getting a ton of wildfire smoke.

My big news this week is that a game that I love is getting a remake and re-release after sitting in limbo for 27 years. Super Mario RPG is finally out of legal limbo! Apparently Nintendo and Square Enix finally sat down and figured out a deal...

Books read this week:

The Sorcery Trial -- an okay but not great read about a version of “The Amazing Race” that takes place in the world of Faerie. Self-published authors, proofread your work! I kept finding typos…

Obsidio -- final book in the Illuminae trilogy. I loved this entire trilogy! The format was fascinating and I loved the characters.

Hell Followed With Us -- another Pride Month read. This was a gorgeously brutal read, especially after the comparatively softer Dear Mothman (my other Pride Month read), and manages to blend post-apocalyptic horror with a powerful story about dysphoria and self-acceptance.

Whittington -- a warm and gentle story reminiscent of Charlotte's Web, about a boy struggling to read and the farm animals -- including a wise cat -- who help him.

DNF:

Our Wives Under the Sea -- gave up partly because it felt a little “too soon” to be reading this during and after the Titan submarine disaster, but partly because it felt like NOTHING was happening. The characters aren’t interesting, the pacing is way too slow, and the pretty writing isn’t enough to save it.

The Boy Who Talked to Dogs -- the cruelty to animals and dogs turned me off, even if it was (supposedly) based on a true story.

Currently Reading:

Bumfuzzle - Just out looking for Pirates
Clockwork Boys
A Home for Goddesses and Dogs
The Vanished Birds

QOTW:

I looked over the list of Nobel laureates for literature, and the only ones I've read are Rudyard Kipling, Hermann Hesse, John Steinbeck, and William Golding. Can I count Bob Dylan because I've listened to his music? Haha...

Kenya wrote: "Can I count Bob Dylan because I've listened to his music? ..."

Actually, yes you can because he was awarded it for his lyrics written over an amazing lifetime.

Happy Thursday! I've been enjoying the weirdly overcast June we've been having, but it looks like we're heading for warmer weather soon- going to have to move my walks to first thing in the morning!

Finished:
The Ghost Bride- I thought this was interesting, definitely didn't go in the direction I was expecting. I thought the description of the afterlife/spirit world was interesting, but I didn't love it. I'm glad I read it, it's been on my shelf for a while, but I'll probably pass it on to a friend
-34 A historical-fiction book

Gods of Want: Stories- short stories that are surreal and weird, reminds me a little of Bliss Montage. I love the way the author writes even when I don't love all the stories in this collection.
-no prompt


Currently reading:
I've started both Symphony of Secrets and When We Rise: My Life in the Movement, but I'm feeling very unmotivated, so let's see if I stick to them

QotW:
I went through a phase right after college where I was trying to read a lot of the pulitzer prize and nobel prize winners. Now it's not something I actively seek out- a few too many books I deeply disliked.

But I do like Svetlana Alexievich, Svetlana Alexievich and Svetlana Alexievich- but I read them before knowing they'd won the award.

I cannot stand J.M. Coetzee. One of the big reasons for deciding to stop focusing on award winners.

It's almost 1am so I am quickly checking in, knowing I'll forget to do so tomorrow otherwise, and I've been doing so well so far!

Mickey's doing loads better! He's even started eating his pellets again! We are so proud of him. I just wish this didn't have the side effect of having to bring Mia back to the shelter. I'm putting off emailing said shelter because I am not ready to actually schedule it yet.

The weekend in the Ardennes was lots of fun! Late start, as I forgot my passport (not like me at all). I switched things over to a different bag and ... I just left it in there. It's not a huge deal, as we can cross borders without problems, but it is the law to carry it, so we went back to get it. Luckily we realized right after leaving my friend's place, so it wasn't hours lost. On Saturday we went to Luxembourg City and I really want to go back and see it properly. I am very much a 'plan what I want to do and see before going' kinda gal, but these trips are just going somewhere and deciding on the spot. So I feel like we hardly saw anything, haha! Loved walking on the bridge underneath the bridge though! The valley is so stunning, wow.

Sunday was a chill day. I decided to walk in Luxembourg instead of using my wheelchair so I really needed it. All we did was go down in the village we were staying at to look at the lake and then went up to see a castle, which turned out to be private property xD

Monday was La Roche en Ardenne day! Mystery Walk day! IT WAS SO HARD, but I was so glad we ended up doing this on Monday because Sunday was 31C and would have killed us. Stupid hills/mountains xD Absolutely fucking stunning there. 1000/10 would recommend. (This did mean no Liège/Luik which is sad, but that's easy enough for us to get to)

I'll have to go back one day because there are two different cave sites I want to visit and an absolutely beautiful spot of nature that sadly was too far a drive for my friend on the Sunday. Also, the ghost of the La Roche castle appears nightly during Summer and we were too early for that (also, we had to go home jhksd) so *shrugs* more Ardennes in my future!

Today we (parents, me, and sis) went to a city across province (which is only 45 minutes btw) to do an Escape Room, and WE ESCAPED! 4th time's the charm! (for me. for dad it was his 3rd time, and mom & sis were their 2nd) We got 5 minutes extra cuz we were so close but I'm counting it. Absolutely loved it, as always. Will definitely return there; much closer than Amsterdam, where we first visited this company, haha! Then we went bowling. First game I came in 2nd, second and third games I won, and the fourth game is when my body went NOPE TOO MUCH and I was coming in dead last before our time was up, haha! Sad, though. It was the final turns for mom and dad when it cut us off. SO CLOSE. Ohwell.

Foot's been majorly bothering me, so I'm hoping the foot support thingies that I'm finally getting tomorrow will be helpful. I miss the walks I went on!

...I can't believe this turned out so long again. I have issues, man.

Read
Nothing but fanfiction! What a surprise! Still very happy in my Ted Lasso trashcan. Ordered Funkos of my 3 faves the second they were available for me to order. And I did so in Australia. Woops.

I do really need to listen to The Little Mermaid soon. I figured 2 months of Storytel would be great, given I was reading again. Those two months are almost up (less than a week) so I just need to schedule 30 minutes to just listen to it ajsdhks

QOTW
Not on purpose, or consciously, but I've seen Steinbeck mentioned, and I read Grapes of Wrath. Same goes for Kipling.

Nothing finished since the last check in but I started another book because why not?! Also, because a Libby hold came in sooner than expected and I didn't want to delay delivery 🙃 I'm still at 29/40 and 4/10 for this challenge, and 64/75 for my overall Goodreads Reading Challenge.

Finished:
* nada

Currently Reading:
* The Buenos Aires Quintet by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, which I continue to not actually read;
* The Case of the Reincarnated Client by Tarquin Hall, which I'd like to finish this weekend since its original due date was Saturday (it auto-renewed today since no one's on the waiting list for it); and,
* Hula by Jasmin Iolani Hakes, which I am loving so far.

Question of the Week:
How many Nobel prize winning authors have you read? I have to admit that I had no idea, so I had to look at the list of Nobel Laureates for Literature. I was surprised to see how many Nobel winning authors I've read! Here's my baker's dozen:
* Gabriela Mistral
* Herman Hesse
* William Falkner
* Ernest Hemingway
* Albert Camus
* John Steinbeck
* Miguel Ángel Asturias
* Pablo Neruda
* Gabriel García Márquez
* William Golding
* Octavio Paz
* Toni Morrison
* Mario Vargas Llosa (who I had the pleasure of meeting at the National Book Festival a few years back!!)

Mandy wrote: "Happy Thursday.

Is it just me or are the Goodreads Notifications not working? ..."


they have had a huge lag time for me, eventually the notification shows up though.

Bea wrote: "The blueberries are done. ..."



DONE???? Blueberries haven't even STARTED where I live!! We are just finishing up strawberry season here!


You keep so busy!! Have fun planning your trip to Scotland. The planning can be just as fun as the trip.

Kenya wrote: "Our Wives Under the Sea -- gave up partly because it felt a little “too soon” to be reading this during and after the Titan submarine disaster, but partly because it felt like NOTHING was happening. The characters aren’t interesting, the pacing is way too slow, and the pretty writing isn’t enough to save it. ..."




What a coincidence, I was reading this last week too!! And, yeah, it was a weird time to be reading a book like that. I wonder how current events changed my experience of this book, but I can't really tell if I would have liked it more or less if submersibles were not in the news.

I'm usually the first one to be complaining a book is too slow and I don't care about the pretty writing, but somehow this book just CLICKED for me and sucked me in and I loved it and gave it five stars. It's absolutely not the kind of book I usually enjoy.

Happy check-in! Minorly smokey here too. Part of the reason the fires in Canada are so bad already is warmer weather and changing climate patterns paired with elected governments not doing fire prevention. To be fair it's been hot and dry for a few years so preventative burns could not take place. Another huge problem in fighting these fires is that we depend on volunteer firefighters and the amount of them has decreased.
Anyways had lots of visiting with family over the weekend and got to dote on my cousin's almost one year old. He's so cute! :)
I did read a bunch of things but nothing for the challenge this week. Oh well.

Finished Reading:

The Foxglove King ⭐⭐⭐
Ya fantasy with death magic users vs. the church. Started off confusing and was a bit too slow to get to the point.

Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 6 ⭐⭐⭐
Good horror series.

Anger Bang ⭐⭐⭐
It had a dinosaur in a dress on the cover. The humour was fun.

Sera and the Royal Stars Vol. 2 ⭐⭐⭐
I like the artwork more than the story.

Coffee: 100 Everyday Recipes
I haven't rated this yet because I don't rate cookbooks until I've made a few things out of them. Had to compare this to another one of my cookbooks because 3 recipes looked familiar. They were the same because they came from the same publisher.

The Traitor Queen ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The one character's story seems to be wrapped up and the next book in the series follows someone new.

PS 40/50
ATY 41/52
Nadine's 10/10
Goodreads 144/250

QOTW:
I've read three: Bernard Shaw, Steinback, T.S. Eliot. Three short little books. :)

@Dubhease looking forward to discussing The Hunting Party with you.

Nadine in NY wrote: "Mandy wrote: "Happy Thursday.

Is it just me or are the Goodreads Notifications not working? ..."


they have had a huge lag time for me, eventually the notification shows up though."
I haven’t gotten a notification alert since the blow up the other day. I’ve contacted help already. I literally have to go to the group pages to see if a new message has registered.

I saw the movie "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" this week. I might be too old for how fast that movie was. Got the basic idea, but I need to see it again to get the details. Looking forward to the new Indiana Jones movie - might be more my speed.

Finished
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee - 3 stars; PS #6 forbidden romance
This was a very interesting historical fiction novel set in 1895 in Atlanta, Georgia. Treatment of blacks is a story that is covered a lot, but the story of the Chinese immigrants isn't often mentioned. It was the beginning of the Jim Crow laws, but it wasn't apparent how to apply those to the Chinese - are they white? are they colored? Confusing time for everyone. While the romance aspect isn't the main storyline, there was enough for me to count it for the prompt.

Goodreads: 47/90
Popsugar: 37/50

QOTW:
Interesting question! I love ones that make me research.
Looks like I've read Rudyard Kipling, Sinclair Lewis, Pearl S. Buck, Hermann Hesse, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Gabriel García Márquez, William Golding, Toni Morrison, and José Saramago. And now I've been reminded of a few authors I've meant to read someday.

Dubhease wrote: "What did you read or do you recommend from José Saramago?"

Jumping in here - I've read Death with Interruptions, and I loved it. I still think about it frequently. If less than usual punctuation annoys you, though, this may not be your book. But I think it is great and thought-provoking and kind of fun for a book about death.

Nadine in NY wrote: "Kenya wrote: "Our Wives Under the Sea -- gave up partly because it felt a little “too soon” to be reading this during and after the Titan submarine disaster, but partly because it felt like NOTHING..."

I read this earlier this year as part of a modern gothics written by women discussion group. I cannot imagine reading it just as the Titan disaster happened, though I did think of this book when the news broke! I have excerpted part my review posted on GR below so you see my thoughts. There were 8 women in the discussion - one adored it, one really disliked it, the rest of us liked it with similar reservations. It provoked a lengthy, deep, wide-ranging discussion. In the end, we all agreed that the author had truly taken the gothic to a new generation.

Excerpt from my review: "The story is told in alternating chapters from Miri after Leah has come home, and Leah's from her diary during the expedition, all broken into 4 sections named for the 4 sections of the ocean's depths. It's hard to describe this deeply emotional exploration of love and letting go, of loss and heartbreak and coping with the missing, the fantastical and horrorific without spoiling the experience. It's a journey of wonder and discovery, leaving this reader heartbroken but yet deeply touched at the depths of love revealed. It is often disturbing, tapping into some basic even instinctual personal fears, so I can't say I liked it, but it will live with me in a positive way."

All these months later, the depth of that love story still resonates.

Cornerofmadness wrote: "What also shocked me were the two women winners in the 1920s but what wasn't shocking is my 80s era high school teachers never bothered to include them in important authors to read. Sigh.

reply | flag..."

Tell me about it - high school in the early 70s did not include any women authors. However, I attended Barnard College where I studied french literature and took a lot of other lit or similar courses. Being a women's college in NYC in the mid-70s, many women writers on the syllabi - especially in the 20th Century french lit classes. Basically set me on my future reading path.

Theresa wrote: "Cornerofmadness wrote: "What also shocked me were the two women winners in the 1920s but what wasn't shocking is my 80s era high school teachers never bothered to include them in important authors ..."

That's cool at least. My university did no better and that's why I said kinda sort of for the degree (I technically finished it elsewhere but never applied for the actual paperwork) the classes I had to finish were strictly male books only like boys coming of age.

Cornerofmadness wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Cornerofmadness wrote: "What also shocked me were the two women winners in the 1920s but what wasn't shocking is my 80s era high school teachers never bothered to include them in im..."

I can say that the few lit courses I did take at Columbia College* were, in the mid-1970s, all male authors - dead white males though the Beckett seminar was considered pretty edgy for the times.

*Barnard College was all women and Columbia College at that time all male, both undergraduate colleges part of Columbia Un8versity. A reciprocal agreement between the 2 undergraduate colleges makes all classes at both colleges available for degree credit to all undergraduate students. That continues to this day even though Columbia College went coed in 1980. It provide a real wealth of scholarly access.

Theresa wrote: "Cornerofmadness wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Cornerofmadness wrote: "What also shocked me were the two women winners in the 1920s but what wasn't shocking is my 80s era high school teachers never bother..."

that was neat at least. Mine was a hidebound, religious small rural college (also not really my choice in spite of what my parents claim) so dead white men was as good as it was going to get

I was very fortunate - a dairy farmer's daughter from a small rural town in upstate NY who happened to have in high school a really good guidance counselor that encouraged me to reach high. I was also fearless and independent enough to do it. It was done on scholarship, student loans, and work-study and summer jobs. Best decision I ever made - and I had my parents' blessing -- well my mother who strongly believed we all needed to go to college and we did. My dad was more old-fashioned but still proud of us. Neither of my parents had the opportunity to go to school beyond 8th grade. My dad had been farming our farm with his brothers since he was a teen, and did not feel the lack. He read a lot though. My mother did feel the lack as she had wanted to be a teacher.

So my siblings and I were raised to understand we not only were going to college, but the best school we could get into and pay for. We did too, though I was the only one that ended up at an ivy league school. Under no circumstances were any of us tobecome farmers. None did.

Sometimes you just have the right people at the right time planting seeds and pushing you along, and you find yourself receptive.

Sometimes I actually do like the NYT book section, every now and then it surprises me.

Discovered this book, The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet , which is being released July 11th so I went and pre-ordered it.

It's a book on climate change/global warming and I'm always on the lookout for that kind of stuff. The article from the NYT captured my attention.

Hi all, I totally forgot yesterday was Thursday. Or at least that it was Thursday enough to update. I at least made it to my thursday workout class.

Been a weird week full of haze and bad air from the fires. Been masking any time I go out for a walk. I can't believe how many people are still running or mowing in this, or having kids playing in it. The air quality is being marked as "unhealthy for everyone" not just people in sensitive groups. It's been giving me a migraine all week, just from being mostly indoors.

This week i finished:

Notes on an Execution - next books & brew read. I liked it, it was an interesting take on the whole obsession with serial killer stories. But this centered the victims, and those who were connected to the victims, the police detective who caught him, his mother, etc. There were still bits in his perspective, but they more served as a counter to how HE thought vs what everyone else thought about him.

Fractal Noise - I listened to the audio book of this mostly because I love Jennifer Hale. She did a fantastic job, and in general the quality of the book was great. I liked the music cues and the thumping noise they used for the pulse, added atmosphere. However the actual plot was kinda meh for me. Dealt way too much with the narrator's grief, and not really in an interesting way, for me. I wanted to know more about the planet and the hole. Lots of petty bickering and squabbling and weird religious rants too.

The World We Make - conclusion to the duology. I liked it a lot, NK Jemison is so good. I can see why she needed to trim it down to a duology though, she said in the afterward that reality was getting too close to what she wrote and she actually had to change plot points for this one because her plot actually happened, in real life. She only managed to get through this one because she didn't want to leave the readers hanging with an incomplete arc. I still think things wrapped up well, and I'm satisfied with it.

Currently reading:

Witch King- can't resist a new Martha Wells, even if it's not Murderbot. Really liking it so far. Was sad to hear about her health issues, I really hope she gets treated and caught things early.

Rolling in the Deep - listening to the audio book, it's good. Just haven't had a lot of time to listen or I'd be done already.

QOTW:

I've read a few, I don't really go out of my way to read them. Toni Morrison , Olga Tokarczuk, and Kazuo Ishiguro are the only ones I read on purpose. I had to read some John Steinbeck, and i think some T.S. Eliot, and some Hemmingway in school. And I've listened to some Dylan, but i'm not a fan.

Happy Friday!

Finished:
All Creatures Great and Small
The Crystal Cave Really good, will definitely be continuing with the series.
Warrior Girl Unearthed
The Guest

Currently reading:
Pride and Prejudice Loving it, and it is reading so much easier than I feared.
Love Medicine
Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone

QOTW:
Ooh, I love lists. Much more than I thought:
Sinclair Lewis
Hermann Hesse
Ernest Hemingway
Albert Camus
Boris Pasternak
Jonn Steinbeck
Yasunari Kawabata
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
William Golding
Naguib Mahfouz
Toni Morrison
Gunter Grass
J.M. Coetzee
Orhan Pamuk
Svetlana Alexievich
Kazuo Ishiguro
Olga Tokarczuk
Such a male dominated list.

Teri wrote: "I saw the movie "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" this week. I might be too old for how fast that movie was. Got the basic idea, but I need to see it again to get the details. ..."



I know I missed a lot too. I definitely want to watch it again, on DVD, where I can pause and rewind as needed!!