This or That Reading Challenge discussion

This: A book with a cover that you find beautiful.
That: A book with an author that has a 3 letter first name.

Signing up with this: Sabriel by Garth Nix! I read the trilogy a long time ago, when I was 11 or 12, in a library that was beautiful back then. (They remodelled it in the meantime. Let's not talk about it.)
Let's see if the book is as captivating as I remember it!

I'm going with both options.

✅ This: A book with a cover that you find beautiful.
Et Cetera: An Illustrated Guide to Latin Phrases by Maia Lee-Chin


✅ That: A book with an author that has a 3 letter first name.
Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport

For this month's challenge I selected That: A book with an author that has a 3 letter first name, for which I read The Life and Loves of a She Devil by Fay Weldon. The novel was described as "a masterpiece about love, hate, infidelity, corrosive envy, and the best kind of revenge, a feminist classic". Ummm...not so much for me, unfortunately. There was definitely love, hate, infidelity, and envy elements, but I found the tone of the majority of the novel was more done in an absurdist manner, with so many bad behaving characters depicted, that I found myself not caring about any of it. And while there were clear feminist themes, the author alternates between highlighting and trashing various viewpoints - again, nobody comes off well in this one. There were some interesting elements, but even factoring in the year it was written (early 1980s) this one still didn't work for me. 2 3/4 stars.

I selected This and read . RUOK? by Andy Futuro
I thought the cover was beautiful in its own abstract way. Furthermore, I was interested in the stylistic format that the author wrote in... until I read it. There was no indication who was talking for the first half of the book. I cannot even remember the name of the second person. It just sucked for stylistic choice. The book plot was okay, wouldn't call it a horror. More just a thriller.

Leticia wrote: "I selected This and read . RUOK? by Andy Futuro
I thought the cover was beautiful in its own abstract way. Furthermore, I was interested in the s..."

Whoops! Sounds like both you and I got off to a rough start with our January picks. Hopefully we have better luck this month! 😁