EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi all, sorry I missed last week's post. Coming back from vacation + leading up to a holiday weekend made things kind of chaotic.

Hope those in the US had a nice labor day weekend though!

The last couple weeks I finished:

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) - re-read so I could read the next one for my TBR challenge. I don't think i liked it AS much the second time around, but still fun.

For We Are Many - last book for my TBR challenge, so done with that, woo! 22 books off my owned-but-not-read tbr, picked by people in my irl book club.

Ninth House - did the audio for this, I liked it pretty well. Enough to continue the series.

The Vegetarian - I think i liked this? very weird. Not really traditional horror at all, just...very strange and some upsetting content. Kind of one of those "glad I read, wouldn't read again".

The Modern Girl's Guide to Magic - read this for a discord book club. It was alright. Cute enough, easy read. But I was kinda annoyed how easy everything was. Was set up like enemies to lovers, but it felt very "ok lets skip over that and get onto the lovers part". No real consequences for many actions, no real conflicts.

Remarkably Bright Creatures - I liked this pretty well, but not as well as a lot of people seemed to. I think I'd have liked it all better if it were from Marcellus' perspective the whole time, haha. His bits were funny and I loved them. My main issue was (view spoiler)[it seemed to imply that having descendants was the only real way to be happy in your old age. Tova kept getting it pointed out to her how since her son died as a teenager, she had no children to take her in or help see to her affairs. I think it was eventually trying to come around to "let your friends help you, you're not as alone as you think". But the fact that Cameron ended up being her grandson via her teenage son getting his girlfriend she didn't even know about pregnant without knowing it just before he died, just seemed like "oh but hey she DID have a grandkid anyhow, so it's ok now". I might be overly sensitive to the subject since I'm childfree by choice. But I happen to think the idea that you should have kids JUST to help you when you're old is kinda gross. And as happened with Tova, something can happen to your child long before it gets to that point, or they could move far away, end up being disabled themselves so they need care, etc. So I just get really tired of the "but you'll die alone!" argument when being childfree is brought up. (hide spoiler)]

Currently reading:

The Archive Undying -I saw a random book ad for this and it looked fascinating. It kind of is, but at the same time the way it's written I'm having a lot of time really visualising the world that is being built, or really understanding what is going on. I keep getting the various AI's confused. I'm going to stick with it for now. Hopefully it comes together more as it gets going.

Hell Bent - audio book to continue the series.

The Tea Dragon Society - graphic novel read.

QOTW:

I'll borrow from Popsugar: Are there any books coming out in the rest of the year, or maybe came out this year that you just haven't gotten to that you're excited about?

I am super excited for the next Murderbot, as well as Starter Villain. And I just got my library copy of Thornhedge that I think came out pretty recently. I feel like there's more, but that is what is popping up in mind right now.

Happy Thursday! I am checking in from vacation! :)

Finished:
The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling - 3 stars - for Popsugar's book with a pet character. I just wanted something quick and light while I was in vacation-prep mode, and this fits the bill.

Comics & manga:
The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 1
Romantic Killer, Vol. 4
Persona 5, Vol. 8
Persona 5, Vol. 9
Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, Vol. 12
Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, Vol. 13
Shortcake Cake, Vol. 1
Shortcake Cake, Vol. 2
Shortcake Cake, Vol. 3
Shortcake Cake, Vol. 4
Shortcake Cake, Vol. 5
Shortcake Cake, Vol. 6

Currently reading:
The Brass Queen - for Popsugar's "bought secondhand" prompt. I am enjoying it, but something about it is hard for me to focus on right now. Maybe it's just my vacation vibes.

Upcoming/Planned:
Nothing at the moment...

QOTW:
I am most looking forward to:
Mammoths at the Gates
Starter Villain
Starling House
Bookshops & Bonedust
System Collapse

Mostly excited for them because they are new books from favorite authors/in favorite series.

I forgot about Bookshops & Bonedust, excited for that one too! Also Stealing from Wizards vol 3 is out in November!

Only one finish for me since last check-in (start of the school year and all that...not much brainpower for reading), Days of Blood & Starlight, which was just as good as the first in the trilogy. I plan to get to the third book soon but I have a few others I need to read first.

I'm about a third of the way through The Dragon Republic, and because my reading has been so piecemeal because of everything else this week, I'm having a hard time getting sucked into it. It's not a problem with the book, it's just my brain (or lack of brain) right now.

QOTW:
I'm excited about the new October Daye books from Seanan McGuire - one that just came out a few days ago and I totally forgot that I had pre-ordered it until you asked this question just now :) and another coming out next month. Also looking forward to Menewood, sequel to Hild (which was excellent and I probably need to re-read it before moving on to the next book).

Looking up new releases I see that Gail Carriger went and wrote a SF trilogy this year that I somehow didn't know about, so I'll definitely have to get those!

Thanks for starting the post Sheri. I have transitioned to a sabbatical from work until November but last week was crazy busy wrapping things up.

I have two finishes in the last two weeks. For neighborhood book club, I finished listening to Lady Tan's Circle of Women. Historical fiction is not my usual material but I enjoyed this. I learned a lot. Reading some of the background at the author's website, her story is much tamer and more pleasant than reality probably, but I'm okay with that. The foot binding parts still make me squeamish.

It is far better than the previous historical fiction (The Four Winds) where every possible bad thing that ever occurred to anyone happened to the main character.

The other finish I have was a quick read of The Glucose Goddess Method: The 4-Week Guide to Cutting Cravings, Getting Your Energy Back, and Feeling Amazing. I have pre-diabetes and her methods are effective and science-based. At least I'll see if they make a difference at my next doctor's appointment.

I am currently listening to The Sinister Booksellers of Bath and added some thoughts about the first book in last quarter's book thread.

I am currently reading The Brass Queen for this quarter's book club here. This is my first steampunk style novel. I'll save my thoughts for the thread when I'm done. I'm about 1/3 of the way through.

QOTW:
This question is well timed for me! I am awaiting the release of The Last Devil to Die the 4th book in The Thursday Murder Club series. It comes out next week!

I liked Lady Tan, glad you liked it too! Agreed on the foot binding though.

Lady Tan is on my list to get to sooner or later! I especially loved Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and also enjoyed Shanghai Girls and her family history On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family.

It was a very hot weekend, but at least there was a Surprisingly Delightful Sportsball Outcome on Monday.

The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening - This is a fairly slim memoir from NPR's Ari Shapiro. There's nothing earth-shattering in it, but it was sort of interesting to see how he ended up with his job and how he approaches it. Plus I learned that he was a birder as a kid and owns a calamondin tree, so I think that makes us best friends now.

The Pale Blue Eye - A young Edgar Allan Poe getting involved in a murder investigation should be my catnip, but this was a slog. I didn't really like the protagonist/first person narrator. The epistolary "reports" captured Poe's purple prose well, but while that's great for something short and macabre like "The Tell-Tale Heart", it grates sometimes even in Poe's stuff and was fairly annoying here. It's overlong, with too many "suspenseful" events that aren't really (obviously Poe can't die, and since it's set up as the narrator writing everything down afterward, he can't die either). The climactic scene is straight ridiculous. I daresay the film might be all right, because: they must have had to cut some stuff to fit it even into two hours; while there may be some voiceover while watching someone read or write, presumably most of the action is visually depicted, cutting out the annoying narration; the absurd spectacle that is the climax could at least look spectacular.

QOTW: I don't really keep abreast of new book developments, but I did preorder the next Stealing From Wizards. There are also some mysteries I've seen people from the UK talking about that are due for US publication later, but I'll have to see if the library gets them.