EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi all, sorry I missed last week. It's been a very migraine-y couple weeks. All the weather fluctuating between freezing but in the 60s but no rainy no sunny no freezing again no 50s. Plus the time change, didn't help at all.

I've woken up every day thinking it really should be saturday, and been disappointed that it's not.

The good news is that the tile in our half bath is finally done! Hopefully the guys will do the finishing clean up on the drywall tomorrow, and we can prime and paint this weekend. Then we can get the new fixtures installed and have a functional bathroom again!!

This week I finished:

Stealing from Wizards: Volume 3: Kidnapping - I had preordered this for kindle and immediately skipped the rest of my library books as soon as I finished the one I was in the middle of to read it. I loved it so much, Ryan did not disappoint.

All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me - this was interesting, a book about working as a security guard for the met. Sort of a memoir of his own life and what led him to seeking out that job, especially as young as he was, and then what led him to leave it even though he really did love it. I thought it was an interesting read.

Currently reading:

The Splinter in the Sky - space opera, reminding me of The Memory Called Empire. I am liking it so far.

When Women Were Dragons - audio book, i'm liking it quite a bit. I like how they're weaving the history into the dragoning and treating it how probably the world would have treated the occurrences.

QOTW:

I am borrowing from popusgar again, how many books from the goodreads most popular books have you read? https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2...

If you read them did you like or dislike them?

I've read 35 of them. Most of them I enjoyed pretty well, some were just ok. A few were pretty high, especially Project Hail Mary, Carrie Soto Is Back, Malibu Rising,Pachinko.

I dnfed Beartown, and I probably would have dnfed A Gentleman in Moscow if if it hadn't been for book club. A few more are on my tbr, a few are on my "no interest whatsoever" and the others i'm kinda indifferent. I might read them if book club picks them or something else comes up to give me reason, but I don't have specific plans to.

I hope you're feeling better now. Good to hear about the work getting close to completion!

We went to see The Marvels yesterday afternoon. I loved it.

Finished:
Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire - 4 stars - continuing my catch-up (re)read of this series. The next book in the series is the last one I read in paperback, so after that, I'll be catching up to new (to me) content!

Comics & manga:
The Moth Keeper
Something's Wrong With Us, Vol. 16
Spy x Family, Vol. 10
Rainbow Days, Vol. 6

Currently reading:
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree - I'm about halfway through and really enjoying it.

Upcoming/Planned:
The Siren, the Song, and the Spy by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
The Future by Naomi Alderman
System Collapse by Martha Wells

QOTW:
I have read 13 of the books. The ones I really liked were Heartstopper: Volume One, Project Hail Mary, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I have a few more from that list on my to-read or maybe shelves, and a couple on my "never" list.

It's not been a very good few weeks for reading. I posted on the previous thread that I just finished The Innocent Sleep a few days ago, and I haven't picked up another yet. I did just get House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds out from the library, to read with my other GR group. I've never read any of his books and people rave about them so I'm looking forward to it.

I also have recently acquired The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science and got the author Sam Kean to sign it - he was the keynote speaker at a science education conference I was at :)

It's also been a while since I updated on my current bedtime reading with my kids. I'm halfway through The Magician's Nephew with my little one, and then have just one Narnia book left to read with her (publication order, not internal chronological order, I feel VERY STRONGLY about this). I've been working through Pern with my big guy, we're about halfway through The White Dragon right now. Some outdated attitudes towards gender roles, but it's providing good conversation fodder with my son, who can't conceive of the fact that people would ever believe that women can't do anything as well as men.

QOTW:
I've read 19 of them, and a bunch more are on my TBR list. Favorites are Project Hail Mary, Dark Matter, When Breath Becomes Air (will break your heart), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six (those are the only two I've read by Taylor Jenkins Reid so far, but I plan to read more, they're so good!).

I have not had great success paying attention to audiobooks, but after enjoying Third Eye, I listened to Wil Wheaton doing The Kaiju Preservation Society Sneak Peek while on another road trip. He seemed to be having such a great time narrating!

My other finish this week The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend. It was fine, but it seemed too long and I could have done with fewer new story arcs launched midway. I needed a translation for book nerds so I stuck with it.

QOTW: I have read 18 of them; I think 14 were chosen by my IRL book club. At least 3 or 4 more were my IRL book club picks that I DNF. I am the only one who picks genre fiction, so I am not surprised how many were on the list.

A Spoonful of Frogs - This is a picture book in which a witch with a cooking show has difficulty adding the titular ingredient to her soup. Super cute, loved it.

A Night in the Lonesome October - I finished this on the appropriate day. It was all right. I will not be making it a tradition.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon - I thought this would be seasonally appropriate but I didn't like it that much. It reminded me somehow of Dragon of the Lost Sea, which I read (mumblety) years ago as a kid, so I can't really vouch for the comparison, but that's what came into my head.

The Penguin Pool Murder - I read a later entry in this series, in which a schoolteacher assists a police detective, so I thought I'd read the first one and see how they met (plus, you know, penguins). There wasn't really much to the meeting, but it was an entertaining light read. Partway through I read some of the Goodreads reviews, and a lot of people said the murderer was obvious. I felt concerned that I hadn't figured it out, but shortly thereafter the murderer did indeed become obvious. The penguins were fun, though!

QOTW: I got 7 and a maybe (I read Heartstopper as a webcomic). Clearly I read a lot of older stuff. I massively regret having read The Goldfinch; everything else was fine.
I do appreciate this question because it made me realize I hadn't logged Project Hail Mary. I had to go back to the book club thread to check what date to put for it.

I only have one finish these past two weeks. I finished my fluff book, The Blue Bistro. It was vaguely a romance novel but not really. More just a novel with a vague undercurrent of relationships. Anyway, it was good after the books I didn't particularly enjoy.

I'm reading The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight for neighborhood book club. It is the 5th memior/bio type book in 6 months. Zzz. I'm ready for something different. It isn't terrible and I'll get through it but I'm not objective either.

I'm nearly done with the 4th Thursday murder club, The Last Devil to Die. I'm listening to it, same as I've done with all the others. Still loving everything about this series. There definitely is setup regarding the characters' growth for another book.

QOTW:
I have read 15 of them. My favorites were Project Hail Mary, Station Eleven, Dark Matter and Big Little Lies. My least favorite I read (for book club) was The Four Winds. There are two other books of Kristin's on that list and I will never choose to read them. The Four Winds turned me off her.

Rebecca, I haven't read Goldfinch and don't plan on it because I haaaaated her other book The Secret History. Everyone loves it and I don't understand.

I haven’t done the secret history or goldfinch yet because they seem so polarizing. The people who love it won’t bear a word against them and the people who hate it really hate it. And I can’t really tell which side of the fence I’d fall and they’re long.