Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

Happy Thursday!


It's not yet dawn and there is a little orange cat yowling outside my window. I went outside and told it to go home. Do cats understand "go home"? It's still there. No, it can not come in here, my dogs would tear it apart. The weather is not too bad right now, near freezing and not currently snowing - that's "mild" for here in January. So it will be fine. I just want it to stop yowling outside my window. This must be what I heard last night, too, when I thought I was going crazy because my kids said they didn't hear anything.

New York state has continued to get hit with heavy snow, but this week - mercifully - it did not happen in the very center of the state, where I live! Phew!  (nor did it happen down in NYC)  This weekend it looks like a huge chunk of the country will be getting snow, however.  

 




 ***** Admin stuff *****

The January group read is:    Woman on the Edge  You can join the discussion here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...


The February group read will be:  Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop 
Let us know if you'd like to lead the discussions!

The final poll for March (NB & transgender) is here:  
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...

The nomination poll for April (gardening) is here:  https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...

Both polls run for one more week.

And we have a bonus book discussion opened and lead by the author, if anyone is interested, Hand of Fire is set during the Trojan War, focusing on Achilles and Briseis's roles in the conflict, and could fit "A love story that defies social boundaries" - join the discussion here:https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...








This week I finished 3 books, all of them for this Challenge, so I am now 8/50:

Gardening for a Lifetime: How to Garden Wiser as You Grow Older by Sydney Eddison - I love Sydney Eddison, and I enjoyed this book.  This was  my "gardening" book.


Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez- this was a fun contemporary romance, very enjoyable.  I read this for the "Pilates" category (she does mention having Pilates class once - barely a mention, but good enough) but to my surprise I found it would also work for "love story that defies social boundaries."  I'll move it there if I find another book that mentions Pilates before I read a love story defying boundaries.

Villain by Natalie Zina Walschots- this was my first NetGalley finish of this year, it comes out May 19th - it was a long-awaited sequel to Hench, which was published in 2020, and it was everything I wanted it to be AND MORE.  I highly recommend this series if you enjoy thoughtful speculative fiction about superheroes in our contemporary world.  This will undoubtedly be the best book I read in January.   I thought I'd be able to use this for "platonic relationship" but ... whoops!  nope!  they ... ceased to be platonic LOL.  Took me by surprise!  So, I checked off the wildcard category early ("A book you were hoping would fit into a prompt but doesn't") because I literally was hoping it would fit into the "platonic" category, but it didn't. 




Popsugar 16% 8 /50
Must Reads 0% 0 /1
2026 pub 2% 1 /50
NetGalley ratio 85%  


I'm currently reading Revolve for my "favorite Olympic sport" - it's a romance between a figure skater and a hockey player (who used to be a figure skater) - I don't watch the Olympics and I don't have a "favorite" sport, but if I had to watch something from the winter Olympics, I'd pick skating.  The book is not very good, but it's bearable, and she is, indeed, hoping to get to the Olympics, so it definitely qualifies.  (Also, they are in college, so it would work for "college." And they mention Pilates at least three times.  But I just finished my "Pilates" book. Because of course.)

I've got THIRTEEN good books waiting to be read now on NetGalley!!  I need to read like it's my job so I can catch up.  Two books are already past their publication date (not my fault!  the publisher approved them during publication week).  Usually I just read the book with the next publication date, but that doesn't matter now since there are already two "late," so I couldn't decide what to read next. So I created a "read now factor" to help me.  I assigned a value to each book for four characteristics: how excited I am about the book, how close it is to publication, page length (shorter is better in this case), and whether or not it could fill an open challenge category.  Then I multiplied all the numbers together, and voila! I'm reading the book with the largest "read now factor."  I need to refine this a bit to more properly weight the qualities that are more important to me, but for now it picked a book for me and that's all I needed.  

Thus, my next book will be:  Dolly All the Time.  I just started it.  It's great, and now I want scallops for dinner!  (the first chapter opens with them unloading fresh scallops off the dock).  It will fill the "father as primary caregiver" category.






Question of the Week
 Do you use other book tracking apps?
 



I stay with Goodreads because of the social aspect, I love the groups.   But every year they make it a little bit worse, and it's also the giant in the book-tracking world so it seems to attract the most spammers and scams.  If we all need to suddenly jump to another platform together, where should we jump?

I tried Storygraph but I was not impressed.  I know it's got it's fervent fans, but it wasn't what I wanted.  (I DID like the ability to import my entire Goodreads library, however!  And I did that.  But that was years ago so I guess I'd need to do it again.)  But Storygraph has no social aspect, no groups.

There are Facebook groups, of course, most notably the PS group, but I think we all know about Facebook's limitations.  And there are Discord discussion groups, and I have a Discord account (tho I probably can't remember my log-in LOL), but somehow I just can't get comfortable at Discord.  I use Instagram, but "Bookstagram" feels too much like Booktok, too much trendiness, not enough good group discussions, I don't feel a real community, it's more like individual people shouting into the void  (I do not have a TikTok account and I'm not going to make one.).  Reddit subs can be great for discussions, although I closely guard my anonymity over there so I can't be as personal as I am here.  And they all lack a book-tracking feature.  

I recently learned that there are A LOT of book-tracking sites & apps that I'd never heard of!!  Do any of you use any of these?  Do you know of any others?



* Bookmory
* Bookworm
* Fable
* Hardcover
* Pagebound
* Palex

I wish I could say 'Happy Thursday' or something to that effect, but I've just been dealing and processing a lot.

Last week my dog lost his life. A pack of coyotes killed him which is as tragic as it sounds. My dad just remembers seeing three sets of eyes. It was too dark to see anything else. It's been a lot to deal with especially since he was my favorite dog and now those coyotes are entering my psyche which is not a pleasant thing at all.

*****

Moving on from the sadness though, book wise things have been going great.

*****

Currently Reading:

Contact- I've read this many times before, but this is the first time I'm truly sitting with it, annotatinig it, analyzing it. In the past I've never been able to get a handle on the science. Now as I take my time I can understand it better.

When Worlds Quake: The Quest to Understand the Interior of Earth and Beyond - I'm about to hit chapter 3 on this book and I am impressed. I've learned more about seismology with this book alone than I have elsewhere so that certainly says a lot.



****

Book News:

My February TBR is set. I have 5 sections: Personal Curriculum Reads, Extension Reads, TBR Jar Picks, Fiction Reads, and New Releases, which comes out to 22 books. I figure if I could read 21 books in January, then 22 is a fairly good number. Whether I get to them all is a different story.

Now my main question for myself is how I will prioritize them from the books I want to read the most to the ones I'll push further back on my list.

****

Question of the Week
Do you use other book tracking apps?

Yes. My main one is Story Graph which I love because the charts are awesome. I also use Fable, but I'm not as consistant with it.

Sorry to hear about your poor dog, Ron.

Ron wrote: "I wish I could say 'Happy Thursday' or something to that effect, but I've just been dealing and processing a lot.

Last week my dog lost his life...."



I am sorry for your loss

Ron wrote: "I wish I could say 'Happy Thursday' or something to that effect, but I've just been dealing and processing a lot.

Last week my dog lost his life. A pack of coyotes killed him which is as tragic as..."

I'm so sorry, Ron. Sending all the hugs and good thoughts your way.

Happy Thursday all.

This week has mostly been about recalibrating after my medical procedure on Friday, and re-adjusting to school starting. The medical procedure... could have gone better. I won't go into details but the doctor was unable to complete the procedure and we meet again in February to discuss options. *sigh*

Also I've done a lot of switching around of books in my challenge planning. Some books I've DNFed, others I re-evaluated and decided "eh, I don't feel like reading it." This means scrambling to find other books to fit the prompts, but that's part of the fun of the challenge. (Yeah, I have a weird sense of fun...)

Books read this week -- man, I DNFed a LOT:

Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction - for “a book that makes you feel FOMO.” This book explores how female writers have shaped the sci-fi, horror, and weird fiction genres, and is chock-full of book recommendations. Reading this will probably make your TBR list explode if you’re a sci-fi or horror fan, haha…

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - for “a book with a character who runs a marathon.” Part memoir, part reflection about long-distance running and how it’s affected the author’s life and writing career. Probably one of the most straightforward books Haruki Murakami has ever written.

Stage Dreams -- not for the challenge, but can still be used for “sapphic graphic novel.” Rather slim but still fascinating graphic novel about a trans girl fleeing her home in Confederate Atlanta and the friendship (and perhaps more) she makes with a rebellious outlaw in the process. Includes notes at the end discussing the effect of the Civil War on the American West, trans people during this time period, and other historical details.

The Yellow Wall-Paper - for “book about postpartum.” Short but unsettling story about isolation, psychosis, and patriarchy, all wrapped up in a story about a woman driven mad by the wallpaper in her room.

Sky Daddy - for “a love story that defies social boundaries.” This was a WEIRD one, about a woman sexually attracted to airplanes and in love with one plane in particular. But it’s also a surprisingly emotional look at loneliness and isolation.

PopSugar challenge: 13/50
Extreme Book Nerd challenge: 6/50
Books read that weren’t for either challenge: 1

DNF:

Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe - very info-dumpy in a way that turned me off of the story. Looked up some reviews and sadly it doesn’t appear to get much better. Moving on…

Shaken Loose - quit reading after hitting a graphic and unnecessary scene of (view spoiler)[sexual assault involving a minor (hide spoiler)]. The bland writing didn’t help much either.

Tantrum - maybe I’m just not in the right mindset for horror, because this just upset me. Not just for the “monster baby” angle (which could have been awesome under the right circumstances) but because the main character just felt so whiny and self-hating and angry.

The Children of Men -- the writing style is BORING. I get that the main character is a historian who happens to be writing a journal, but that's no excuse for this being so dull...

Currently reading:

Fool on the Hill - for “a book about college”
One of the Girls - for “book about a bachelorette trip”
The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams - for “book about debt”
Delicate Condition - for “book about a character who navigates infertility”

QOTW:

I really only use Goodreads and the Facebook group. I also privately track my progress on a Google doc.

Nadine in NY wrote: "Villain by Natalie Zina Walschots- this was my first NetGalley finish of this year, it comes out May 19th - it was a long-awaited sequel to Hench, which was published in 2020, and it was everything I wanted it to be AND MORE."

I am SO looking forward to this book!

I am 26/50, and I'm being ridiculous about it. I planned my list way in advance this year and felt really good about my selections. In my attempts to sustain this frantic pace, I decided that I needed to switch some titles because of issues with availability. It was a horrible mistake. Almost every book I've touched this week has been terrible and most were not my first choice, so feel free to skip my post if you don't want to read my numerous complaints. Apparently, I have become so hyper-fixated on completing the challenge that I'm not as invested in enjoying it? I'm still planning to read all the books I originally intended anyways. TL;DR: I'm annoying myself.

Also, we are supposed to be getting between 14-23 inches of snow this weekend, and I better choose something great to read during that time.

This week I finished:
Murder Mystery Book Club: Book club prompt; Originally, I planned to read Undercover Bromance for this, because I enjoyed the first one in this series, but I changed my mind, because I didn't want to read a physical book. (STUBBORN). This book was a short, cozy mystery, which was fine and not great.

All Fudged Up: Michigan prompt: Originally I planned to read Beach Read for this and I even got it from the library, but the condition of the book made me unhappy, so I changed my mind. So again, I shifted to this silly mystery that was not well executed.

The Trip: Influencer prompt: In my heart of hearts, I believed this was a good switch. I was planning to read The Goldens for this prompt, but it has really bad ratings on GR. This book was a free audiobook on Kindle Unlimited with much better reviews. I love a locked room style thriller, but I did not enjoy this book at all.

The Girls in the Cabin: dad as primary caregiver: Again, I thought this would be a good switch. Originally, I planned What Kind of Paradise for this, but it is taking a long time to become available. This was another free Kindle Unlimited audiobook that has blown up all over social media. Social media seems to be obsessed with Caleb Stephens. This was my second one of his. I didn't enjoy either. I thought this was repetitive, predictable, and used gore and shock to cover a poorly executed plot.

The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself: Outside your comfort zone: My therapist recommended this book for me. It has taken me weeks to get through it, and I found parts of it to be very valuable. It really got me thinking and I love to think, so I'm not sorry I picked this one. The narrator's voice was also very pleasing to me.

Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms: Trans protagonist: This was the only switch that really worked for me. I planned to read This Is How It Always Isfor this prompt and I got the audiobook, but the narrator pronounced their S's so sharply that it was whistling in my ears and I could not tolerate that. I switched to this comic that had great reviews and I really enjoyed it. I thought it delivered a strong message about being an ally very clearly and concisely.

Ryder: zodiac prompt: This is the first in the "Scorpio Stinger MC series" to fit the prompt. I am a sucker for a good, trashy biker romance, but that is not what I got with this. It was practically intolerable and I paid actual money for it, so I felt I had to finish it. I have no one to blame but myself for that.

Baking and Entering: Granny hobby (baking): Another ridiculous switch that I made. I chose The Thursday Murder Club for this, but then suddenly the wait time for it doubled and I wanted to read something that filled the prompt in the meantime. It was short and cozy and predictable and unmemorable.

A Cowboy State of Mind: horse prompt: I hated this book. This was my original selection for this prompt and it was a terrible mistake. It has many excellent reviews and they are all horribly wrong. Both main characters were awful. The book was unrealistic and repetitive. I almost never rate things one star, but this was 100% one star for me.

Currently reading:
The Guncle: Platonic friendship
Party of Liars: Postpartum

QOTW:
I don't.

Hello, y’all.

Well, it was COLD and then we warmed up for a couple of days and now a major COLD/ICE event is predicted for the weekend with lows in the teens. This is not normal SC winter weather. The worse part is that I live in an all-electric home and power outages are expected due to ice on power lines. I do have lots of clothing and blankets to keep me warm, but no way to cook if it becomes bad. Oh, well. If the worst happens, it will be like camping inside.

Monday, at exercise, I folded. Not so much that it was visible to others. Inside, I ran out of energy. I decided that it was partly due to my lack of food prior to exercise so I bought a six-pack of Boost and drank one before Wednesday’s class. Not sure if that was what helped me keep going or not, but it didn’t hurt. I finished the full exercise routine at the big boy/girl level (my gym has a level for beginners or elderly or those who are not as fully fit AND a level for those who are not any of the others). It took me the full hour (most everyone else was done in 45 minutes) but I did it with only a few minor variations! So proud of myself!

Reading: I have been trying to read several books at a time, like I used to do, but it is a gradual failure. I am finding myself struggling to be interested enough to continue to read on some days.
I know it is allowed in some groups to read children’s books, not sure about PS. Still I am thinking that might help stimulate my reading and help me make faster progress on some of these prompts that just do not interest me.

Finished:
Burn Bright – ATY #38 (series). Next in series. Audible. 4* I was delighted to find a place in my challenges for this book. Only one or two more to go and then the series is caught up.

Bones of Betrayal – PAS, PS #23 (fits no prompt). 4* I always like to read these books by Jefferson Bass. I love forensics and science and murder…right up my alley.

Black Hotel: A Supernatural Thriller – Kindle. PAS. 3* I am not sure what I think about this story. The ghosts weren’t ghosts. The MC wasn’t sure if he was crazy or not…and, most of the time, I didn’t care. Still the story was enough to keep me going.

Currently Reading:
The Dirt from Tripp Street: Everyday Lessons About Life-Love and Loss, Sadness and Joy, and All the In-Betweens – No prompts. 81%

The White Dragon – ATY #38 (second book different genre). 54%

The Personal Librarian – PS #24 (Happily single woman - 2025), PAS. 10% I am not sure where this will fit in 2026, but the book does mention that the MC has curly hair.

The Secret to Superhuman Strength - PS? 10% Seems someone mentioned this for Pilates, but...

The Pied Piper: A Maureen Gould Legal Thriller – ATY seasonal. Kindle. 0%

Spiritual Reading:
I am reading the book of Revelation in the NAS Bible with commentary by Farmer Girl on FB! What a hoot!

On Deck:
(library)
The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul – ATY #26 (z in author name), PAS
Santa Fe Dead - PAS
Small Things Like These – ATY #2 (green cover), GR bookmark
Weyward – PAS, PS #49 (Zodiac)
For Love of Livvy – PAS
Seven Black Stones - PAS
The Way Out: A True Story of Survival - PAS
The Orchard - PAS

(owned)
True Detectives – ATY# 52 (sunset vibes - 2025)

PS 3/50
ATY 3/52, Seasonal 3/14
GR 9/200

QotW: Do you use other book tracking apps?
No. I would be lost without GR as I have no other social media (FB only) or apps for reading. AND, I would miss the social aspect of GR.

Happy Thursday! My local library branch just started a book club, so I went to the first meeting to see what kinds of books were being considered. Out of 10 the librarian (Amy) proposed I've already read eight of them. Only four people showed up for the inaugural meeting, so I'm going to join - at least for now - while the club finds its footing. Our first book is The Ministry of Time.

Reading Challenges:

52 Book Club: 13/52
52 Books Read It, Watch It: 1/12
ATY: 13/52 (ATY Winter Challenge: 9/14)
Booklist Queen: 7/52
Popsugar: 8/50
Goodreads Winter Bookmarks: 7/12

My Ever-Growing TBR: 9/230 – 3.9%

Recently Completed:

❄️ A Sea of Unspoken Things: BOTM Selection. (52 Books #26 – title in a serif font) ★★★★
❄️ The Wit and Wisdom of Bridgerton (ATY #46 – a book that is not a novel)★★★
❄️ Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen Book Club/Read with Jenna. (52 Books #12 – a genre-defining read/ATY #25 – 1001 Books to Read Before You Die/Goodreads Bookmark #7 – Star Collections) ★★★★★
❄️ All Fours (ATY Winter #11 - four calling birds/Goodreads Bookmarks #4 – Challenge Faves) ★★★★
❄️ Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine (ATY Winter #7 - eight maids a-milking/Booklist Queen #44 – published in 2016) ★★★★
❄️ King of Ashes (Booklist Queen #8 – a five-star read/Goodreads Bookmarks #6 – Lasting Reads) ★★★★★
❄️ Three Days in June (52 Books #38 – domestic fiction/ATY Winter #12 – three French hens) ★★★
❄️ Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk (ATY #3 – fits a prompt that didn’t make the list: a biography or memoir) ★★★★
❄️ The Book of Two Ways (52 Books #32 – publisher’s name starts with B: Ballantine/ATY Winter #13 - two turtledoves) ★★★
❄️ Gideon the Ninth, The Locked Tomb, #1 (52 Books #14 – a character list/ATY Winter #6 - nine ladies dancing/Goodreads Bookmarks #5 – Choice Archive) ★★★★
❄️ Vigil (52 Books #24 – an uneven number of chapters/ATY #8 – set in Australia)
❄️ The Broken Ring, Volume 1: This Marriage Will Fail Anyway (ATY #22 – Korean author/Popsugar #41 – different format than usual) ★★★★
❄️ Zazen (ATY #26 – Z in the title/Popsugar #4 – title starts with Z) ★★★
❄️ Maid for Love (52 Books #28 – from a series at least eight books long/ATY #7 – character who appears in more than one book) ★★★




QOTW: I use Goodreads and Storygraph. Like others, I love the stats and challenge tracking on Storygraph, but there's absolutely no social aspect to the platform. Facebook? Well, it's social but unwieldy. Too many people, too many questions about the same prompts, too many complaints about the books other people choose. I want this but better. Unfortunately, it seems like GR is intent on making the site worse.

Good morning, everyone! Happy Thursday!

After our last couple of snow showers, which didn’t amount to much more than a dusting, it looks like we’re actually going to get hit by something substantial. The forecast is currently calling for 4-8 inches of snow accumulation in central Ohio between Saturday and Monday, so I’ll definitely be heading to the grocery store in a few hours to pick up my prescription refills and supplies. I’m not looking forward to it, because I know the place will be insanely busy.

Despite my plans to get the master closet cleaned and organized over the weekend, it is still a work in progress. I did manage to get everything cleaned and sanitized (a process which took much longer than it should have done, thanks to the OCD), but I am still in the process of getting everything put back into the space. I decided that it made sense to do a purge of my clothes and other belongings as I went through the organization process, so it is taking a bit longer than I’d originally planned. That’s okay though, because at least one room of my house will already be done when I start my Spring cleaning in a couple of months.

I was also supposed to have my dryer vent cleaned out on Tuesday morning, but after nearly passing out several times before the technician was due to arrive, I decided to reschedule. I actually slept for most of the day on Tuesday, and still managed to get a full night’s sleep Tuesday night, so I must have needed the extra rest. I am feeling much better now, but I still have no clue what caused the problem in the first place.

Although the rest of the week didn’t go according to plan, it did end up being a pretty good reading week. I ended up reading a mix of books from my TBR and New Books lists this week, which has made for a pretty eclectic reading week. As I’ve done in previous updates, I am continuing to mark the books that were Christmas gifts with a tree emoji (🎄). Out of the 9 books I was gifted for Christmas, I currently have only 2 left to read!

I did pick up several new releases this week though, and will likely spend the rest of January getting caught up on those, since I don’t really want to end the month with a bunch of unread titles on my New Books list.

Here are my current challenge and TBR totals…

Goodreads Challenge: 14/250
Mount TBR Challenge: 8/150

📚Physical TBR: 7/462
📱Ebook TBR: 1/161
🎧Audiobook TBR: 0/1
TBR Checklist Total: 8/624 (1% complete)

TBR Books DNFed in 2026: 0

Tuesday was a huge day for new releases, so I ended up picking up several books this week, including: Graceless Heart, by Isabel Ibañez; How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days, by Jessie Sylva; The Poet Empress, by Shen Tao; Nine Goblins: A Tale of Low Fantasy and High Mischief, by T. Kingfisher; and The Way of the Househusband, Vol. 15, by Kousuke Oono.

“New” Books Bought in 2026: 9
“New” Books Read in 2026: 5
“New” Books DNFed in 2026: 0
“New” Books Checklist Total: 5/9 (55% complete)

Here are the books I finished this week…

Finished Reading (Fiction):
~The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Titanic Tragedy — This is the fifteenth book in the Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series. This book doesn’t appear to adhere to any kind of continuity with the previous books in the series, and really functions as a standalone novel. That being said, this was a very exciting story, and I really enjoyed the historical references. 📚🎄: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
~A War of Wyverns — This is the sequel to A Language of Dragons, which was one of my favorite new releases of 2025. While I did end up enjoying this book, it took me quite a while to get back into the story, and I wasn’t fully invested in it until I reached the halfway point. Even though I did not like this book as much as the previous one, I am still planning to continue this series as soon as the next book is released. Content Alert: (view spoiler)[ This book does includes references to loss and grief, as well as animal harm and animal deaths. (hide spoiler)] 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~Through Gates of Garnet and Gold — This is the eleventh book in the Wayward Children series. I thoroughly enjoyed this story, and thought it was a great continuation of the series. I’m already looking forward to reading the next book as soon as it’s released. 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
~Nine Goblins: A Tale of Low Fantasy and High Mischief — I am a huge fan of T. Kingfisher’s fantasy books, so I knew I was going to be picking up a copy of this one as soon as it was released. I’m really glad that I did, because I absolutely loved it! I really liked the characters, and thought that the story was a lot of fun. Content Alert: (view spoiler)[ This book does include references to war, animal harm, and animal deaths. (hide spoiler)] 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Finished Reading (Nonfiction):
None

Finished Reading (Manga, Comic Books, & Graphic Novels):
~The Way of the Househusband, Vol. 15 — Although my enjoyment of this series has not always been consistent from one volume to the next, I thought volume 15 was a great continuation of the series. I especially enjoyed the mix of side characters who were featured. 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Finished Reading (Poetry and Drama):
None

DNFed:
None

Currently Reading:
~NIV Audio Bible — This audiobook edition of The Bible is read by David Suchet. I currently have just over 39 hours remaining in the audiobook. 🎧
~The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien: Three-Volume Box Set — I am currently a little over halfway through the first volume of this 3-volume set, and making pretty good progress. While I am continuing to enjoy the poems, I wish I could read them without the editors’ commentary. 📚
~The Earl and the Pharaoh — I’m currently about one-third of the way through this book, and I am continuing to find it very interesting. I’m really enjoying learning more about the family that owns Highclere Castle, but I am looking forward to getting into the search for Tutankhamun’s tomb. So far the Earl’s only trip to Egypt has been as a tourist. 📚
~Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche — I've only just started this book, but I’m finding it very interesting so far. The author presents information about the attack through interviews with the survivors, which gives the reader very personal insights about what happened on the day, and the attack’s continuing impact on the lives of those who survived. 📚
~Rings of Fate — This is the first book in the Curses and Crowns series. I picked up this book up on impulse at the beginning of the year, and I’m glad that I did, because I'm really enjoying it so far. I'm currently about 20% of the way through it. 📚

QOTW:
Goodreads is the only book tracking app that I use at this point, but I also maintain a physical list of the books I’ve read, as well as a Numbers doc for each year’s TBR progress.

I have recently started hearing pretty good things about Pagebound from one of the Booktubers I follow, but I haven’t checked it out for myself yet. Has anyone given it a try?

I do belong to a few book groups on Facebook, and also follow my local libraries, but I’m not super active in those groups. I do follow a lot of content creators on Bookstagram, but I haven’t contributed much to the community since the pandemic era. I’ve also tried Discord, but really don’t like it.

Morning everyone! My life remains somewhere between sitcom and soap opera. The guy who adopted one of our kittens brought her back after a month, over what sounded like normal rowdy kitten stuff. We're torn about whether to rehome her or keep her when we already have two kittens and three adult cats. (The mama cat was supposed to go back to the neighbor, but she seems to have adopted us).

I've read 9 books so far.
Popsugar 8/50.
52 Book Club 8/52.
Booklist Queen 7/52.
This Challenge Killed the Bookworm 5/25.

Finished:

The Children of Men by PD James, for infertility. Also "The end of the world...or is it?" for TCKTBW. Set in a near future where no children have been born for 25 years. It's kinda grim.

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff. An awesome, over-the-top dark comedy where very bad men get what's coming to them. While it's not "about" debt, debt drives several crucial plot points, so I'm counting it. Also "nosy neighbor" for 52BC, "set in India" for BQ, and "fun book" for TCKTBW.

Currently reading:

Six Feet Over: Science Tackles the Afterlife for my book club. Author is Mary Roach.

Louder: We Can't Hear You (Yet!): The Political Poems of Marge Piercy for "different format than your usual." This book is only available as an audio book.

QOTW: I don't use other apps, but I track my reading in a plain old paper journal.

Ron wrote: "I wish I could say 'Happy Thursday' or something to that effect, but I've just been dealing and processing a lot.

Last week my dog lost his life. A pack of coyotes killed him which is as tragic as..."

Ron, I am so sorry! What a horrible way to lose a beloved pet!

Bea wrote: "I know it is allowed in some groups to read children’s books, not sure about PS. ..."

It's definitely allowed! The thing I love best about PS is that there are no rules, no one is checking to make sure my choices are acceptable, everything is allowed.

Ron, so sorry about your dog. That's a horrible thing to happen.

Kenya, good luck with your medical issues. I know it's emotionally and physically exhausting and stressful when things don't go as planned and have to be attempted again later.

PS: 13/40
52: 14/52
Connections: 9/21
Anti-Capitalist: 13/30

Finished: The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI The author was cautious in his claims but still ended up claiming that we ought to be careful of how we treat every living thing including insects because they may be sentient.

Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness The thing I liked best about this was its homage to a friend who was more optimistic than the author.

Against Democracy Re-read. So well written and argument so wrong.

Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative versus Participatory Democracy

Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power Good, but pretty out of date.

One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy Blamed Republicans for everything.

Started: Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence She uses the example of being addicted to romance novels which I can relate to a lot better than being addicted to substances. But I enjoyed her Masterclass more because she focused more on the theory without going into detail of the strange stories of her clients.

QotW: I use bookmory and I love it. Every time I wish it had some new feature, I am able to find it. I like that it isn't social, that it's just a private record of my reading.

Hi all! We're expecting a snow storm this weekend and I'm here for it! I can see grass in my lawn right now, this is not acceptable for NY in January. I'm geeking out to the Weather Channel... heh. But I know there's some major, major snow heading for places that aren't used to it and major ice, so I hope everyone stays safe!

We took our new kitty to get spayed the other day. After she recovered, she is still following our senior male cat everywhere! Lol. It reminds me of Linus and Sally from Peanuts (I am NOT your Sweet Babboo!)

I finished reading Ziggy, Stardust and Me. I really enjoyed it, but I definitely think there were some issues with the plot. Used it for based on a song.

I have some other books in progress, but I also want to pick up something else. Not sure what I want. I've been researching biographies of musicians from the 70s, but I haven't yet found one I want to read (or that my library has). I've been looking for Fleetwood Mac and Queen mostly.

QOTW: No, I'm just on Goodreads. I would be interested in some other option(s), but I'm never cutting edge when it comes to these things.

Happy Thursday

Normally, I'm at the office on Thursday, but today I'm WFH as no one plows streets in time for rush hour in the mornings. I am so over winter already. (My favourite new saying is "The only blizzard conditions I'm interested in are from Dairy Queen".)

I finished 2 books because I took Nadine's advice. I said I was going to only read off my TBR this year, but the Terry Fox book only took 10 minutes to "read" (a You Tube video where someone reads the book to you counts, right? It's just a audio book with pictures.) and the zombie book, maybe 30 minutes.

I will say that the Terry Fox book is honestly for preschoolers. It said that Terry was "unable to complete his run" without going into detail about how his cancer came back in his lungs and he died a month before his 23rd birthday. Kids 3-6 don't need that much detail. The zombie book is one of those kids books for adults - do not read this to your kids. Existential thoughts about to survive, you have to become so good at killing that you have to wonder if life is worth living are not for kids.

I started a cute mermaid book. I had to renew Murtagh for another 3 weeks - I'm enjoying it, but it's long. I'm also enjoying my Tolkien book, but it's dense with footnotes and an appendix. Tolkien is a good read, but not an easy read.

I finally started on my PS movie prompts. I loved Tom's Midnight Garden.

Finished:

T Is for Terry: An ABC of Courage
Popsugar prompt: A book with a character who runs a marathon
ATY prompt: can't really find one

Z Is for Zombie: An Illustrated Guide to the End of the World
Popsugar prompt: A book that starts with the letter "Z"
ATY prompt: can't really find one

Series - 0/12
Number 1s - 0/10
Nobel laureates - 0/5
Rocky Horror challenge: 0/12

PS - 3/30
ATY - 1/45
PS movies - 0/50

Currently reading:
Murtagh - 45%
The Book of Lost Tales 1 - 20%
The Tail of Emily Windsnap- 50%

PopSugar movies:
A movie where gardening or a garden is central to the plot - Tom's Midnight Garden

QOTW: I have a paper journal where I write down what I read, my series books, and any other reading challenges I had.

Ron wrote: "Last week my dog lost his life. A pack of coyotes killed him which is as tragic as..."

I'm sorry for your loss. Coyotes can be brutal.

When will it ever stop raining?! I'm really fed up of muddy dogs and damp clothes. I have a work trip next week, so I'm hoping my colleagues don't want to socialise in the evenings too much and I can go hide in my hotel room to read.

Finished:

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher. Had the vibes of The Hollow Places more than her more recent horror books. I love when I get to the author's note, I always learn something that adds a different perspective with her books. This is based on a found manuscript short story, The White People, which appears as a found manuscript in this book too.
ATY 31. A book from that same author's backlist
TCKtB 24. Beware of the woods

Currently reading Wooing the Witch Queen and listening to The Enchanted Greenhouse.

QOTW:
I do have a StoryGraph account but I don’t keep it up to date. The lack of social features doesn’t give me much reason to keep visiting the site, and I can’t be bothered tracking books in multiple locations. I do like how they implemented the reading challenge tracking though.

Jennifer W wrote: "I've been looking for Fleetwood Mac and Queen mostly."

Queen All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track is a great book that includes some biographical detail in the first part and then as they become relevant to the songs or albums.

Finished:

The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan (4/5 stars, not for a prompt)
Wrath of the Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan (3/5 stars, not for a prompt)

This trilogy has lower stakes than the original quintet. It does have some good messages, new and old characters that are fun to read about, and humor that hits about half the time. The second book is probably worth 4 stars if you have a higher tolerance for pee and pets.

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan (3/5 stars, book with a character that does Pilates or Lagree, a book about a bachelorette trip)

You get a lot of descriptions of absolutely extravagant living, dressing, and eating, plus a lot of family drama and crudity (with regards to sexual talk and acts). There are also some interesting bits about Singapore life and language in the footnotes of each chapter.

Rather than give me FOMO, this book actually achieved the opposite. It shows to a ridiculous degree how trying to "keep up with the Joneses" is impossible no matter what your wealth level is and that it does not lead to happiness. What counts is being good to those in your life and appreciating the blessings you have.

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie (3/5 stars, reread for the Agatha Christie Challenge)

The mystery and characters were pretty average, and there was a lot more gratuitous French than usual (parts were set in Paris and Nice). The usual maxim to not trust anybody or take any statement for granted definitely applies to this story.

Currently reading:

Foundation and Empire (Space Opera Fans buddy read, reread)
The Book of Lost Tales 2
Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto (book you meant to read in 2025)
Godzilla: The First 70 Years: The Official Illustrated History of the Japanese Productions (great book that I am savoring, section on Mothra vs. Godzilla is up next)
A Stitch in Time (reread on audio, just under 5 hours to go)

Question of the Week:

No. I do use a spreadsheet to keep track of what books I own. I should probably add ratings to that in case Goodreads implodes one day.

Happy Thursday, everyone! I saw No Other Choice with my sister and dad this weekend, and I really liked it. Kind of bummed it didn't pick up any Oscar noms, but looking at which films made it, it had some stiff competition especially in the international film category.

We're expecting a winter storm this weekend, so I've been stockpiling some books to get me through it. I read 3 books this past week, and they were a mixed bag.

2025 Reading Challenges
PopSugar- 9/50
ATY- 9/52; Winter- 9/14; 19/24
52 Book Club- TBA
Read Good- 4/13
Buzzword- 2/12; Cover- 3/12
GR Bookmarks- 5/12
BOTM- 6/15; Omnivoreader- 5/6; Long Hauler- 2/4; Debut Darling- 2/5

1001 Books- 1/20
TBR- 4/50

Finished
Tilda Is Visible- finally picked this up after suspending the hold on Libby for a year. I was initially drawn to it by its magical realism premise, but in the end it just read more like a corny self-help book that was heavy-handed with its messaging. I was hoping it would fulfill Pilates or granny hobby as the protagonist is over 50 and rediscovers her passions, but it didn't. ☆☆ 1/2
PS #23- a book you were hoping would fit into a prompt but doesn't
ATY #36- a book with a primary character who is a woman over 40
ATY Winter- THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
Read Good #2- a book by an Australian author
TBR #4

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text- was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. Very bleak and I felt for Frankenstein's monster. Looking forward to watching the latest movie adaptation! ☆☆☆☆
PS #16- a book less than 260 pages
ATY #24- a book that is either frothy or gothy
ATY Winter- THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
Read Good #3- a book that has an Oscar-nominated adaptation
Buzzword Cover #11- reflection
GR Bookmark- Challenge Faves
1001 Books #1

Appleseed- went browsing all the books I saved on Libby trying to find a book with a tree on the cover and this was the one I ended up choosing. Objectively, it's a good book and well-written, it just didn't captivate me in the way I wished it would. ☆☆☆
PS #38- a book with any type of fruit on the cover or in the title
ATY #48- a book with something edible in the title
ATY Winter #14- a partridge in a pear tree
Read Good #1- a book with a food in the title
Buzzword #6- one word title

Currently Reading
America Is in the Heart
Once Upon a Time in Dollywood

QOTW
I use Goodreads and Storygraph. As others have said, I like the stats and challenge trackers on Storygraph and the fact that it's not owned by Amazon. I like Goodreads for the community aspect.

Brandon wrote: "Jennifer W wrote: "I've been looking for Fleetwood Mac and Queen mostly."

Queen All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track is a great book that includes some biographical detail i..."

Thanks, I saw that one. Library doesn't have it. :/

Greetings from NYC! We actually have had several days of temps in the high teens (that's F), though today it's reaching low 40s before it descends over the weekend back into the teens. We even got a tiny amount of snow last weekend. I was out and about when it was snowing as I went to see the 25th anniversary releases of LOTR movie trilogy, extended cut (it was SUBLIME!), so I have a couple photos for you:

Central Park by my apartment building - midday Saturday


Sunday evening about 8:30 PM lower down Central Park West and Central Park.

This weekend we are supposed to get more snow but the forecast changes daily as to when it starts, ends and amount (3" to 8"). Just now it's saying rain/snow/sleet on Sunday when the brunt hits us. I'm staying in.

PS 4/52 ATY 4/52

Finished:
Winter Witness - really enjoyed - cozy mystery set in Hudson River Valley - PS prompt character with a hidden past (there are 2!) and ATY prompt woman over 40.
This Side of Paradise - PS prompt set in college - at least half the book is set in Princeton - ATY prompt - THIS in title - of course, LOL.

Currently Reading:
The Body in the Library
Murder in the Cathedral

QOTW: This seems to be the hot topic of discussion in every group I am in, even ones that don't tend to have a lot of discussion. My answer is getting pretty pat at this point.

First though, there is a book tracking app Nadine didn't mention that many in another group really like: Library Thing. I follow them on FB but have never checked out their book tracking which I believe has similarities to GR. It's not someplace for social interaction outside FB as far as I can tell.

I am sticking to GR. I only started tracking my books, reads, and writing reviews after I became active in groups - this one and one called PBT - Play Book Tag in particular. Thus it is the social interaction of the groups that's the draw, not the book tracking per se. I was a member of GR for a few years before I joined a group and during those years I barely used it. Another reason I will stay here is that I don't feel as soon as I log on that GR is marketing to and most interested in a much younger generation. In fact most of the groups I participate in or follow are an older crowd - except my IRL book club Feminerdy but it only uses GR to track the books we've read, are reading, and are considering reading in the future.

However, I am familiar with the following:

FB - I moderate a small group called Pop Sugar Brunch - friends who like to read and, at least initially, were all doing the Popsugar Challenge. Now most are just friends all over, including one in Alaska, who like to read and share what they are reading. FB is perfect for that kind of exchange. I of course also follow PS Reading Challenge group there and a few other 'public' ones. But I don't find them interactive really and certainly not to function the way GR does plus no book tracking availability as far as I know.

Storygraph - Feminerdy's primary organizer is a social media and app junky, always moving on to a new one and trying to pull Feminerdy along. While I joined Storygraph, I only use it as a backup of my GR library and I don't even check that it is completely backed up. It's not where Feminerdy discusses anything, and only one person ever even posts anything there really. (Nadine - you reminded me that I need to export my GR library over there again, it's been a while). I don't see Storygraph as a home for groups, especially groups that do periodic challenges of its own.

Discord - Feminerdy's primary home these days is there and I therefore have a modest presence. We particularly find the voice chat useful and necessary as during the winter our monthly meetings switch to virtual. We do chat on it, plan our reading, etc. but there's no library there - we keep that on GR. I've become comfortable there but have no intention of joining any other groups. Every time I open Discord, I feel as if it's entire reason for existance, and constant marketing, is geared to the young - as in college age. I'm several generations removed from that and really don't care about the latest in emojis, gifs, etc etc etc that they are now offering. I honestly don't see Discord as a good home for a completely virtual book club with a social aspect.

I will mention that when lock-in happened, Feminerdy intially set up virtually using its FB group - which we still have. It's chat feature was not reliable and it just didn't work for us. That's when we went hunting and ended up on Discord. Feminerdy originally was started at and by a local book store but that shut down when lock in happened. Those of us in the group just took it over and took it virtual. The bookstore didn't start up with us again when it finally reopened so we just have continued it on our own. We now meet in good weather in Bryant Park, behind the NYPL, and in bad weather or when most members can't attend in person for some reason, we meet virtually on Discord.

Last thing I want to mention: moving a large group from one platform to another is a massive undertaking. PBT now on GR was originally on something called Shelfari (which has Mythical Status as the perfect platform within the group), but Shelfari ceased existence around 2015 and the admins spent significant time finding a new platform, testing several out, and then transitioning over to it - over a year I think (there was extensive notice of Shelfari shutting down it seems).

Pesonally I know just how difficult it is to move an active group from one platform to another. And how much work. I admin a needlework group in NYC that started with just group emails sent around to organize our monthly stitch-ins. One of the members to the group - when it was still less than 20 people - set us up on Yahoo Groups where we stayed form many years, and it worked well for us to share project progress and organize outings and meetings. When FB came around, one of the members reserve a group for us just to make sure we secured the group name there and had a back-up location. It sat with little activity for years but it was prescient that the member had done that because 2 things happened: It started to be used more and more as members joined FB and became active on it, and it became very clear that Yahoo Groups was being phased out slowly. It took over a year for the stitching group (which had expanded to global members and counted about 150 active members at the end of Yahoo Groups) to transition fully to FB and we still lost at least a third of the members for a while. Almost all eventually rejoined. It wasn't nearly as much work to transition from Yahoo Groups to FB but it still wasn't easy. About a year after I completely closed down Metrostitchers on Yahoo Groups, that entire option was closed down.

Ron wrote: "I wish I could say 'Happy Thursday' or something to that effect, but I've just been dealing and processing a lot.

Last week my dog lost his life. A pack of coyotes killed him which is as tragic as..."

I'm so sorry. What a tragedy.

I finished The Thursday Murder Club as my book with a platonic friendship. It was OK. I'm not going to run out to read any of the rest of the series.

I've started The Forgotten Garden as my book that involves a garden.

QOTW: I use Story graph, I'm not sure why. I think a couple of years ago, I heard that Goodreads might be disappearing and I didn't want to lose my books.

PopSugar 5/50
AtY 6/50

Finished:
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis Taylor

Currently Reading:
Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters
Bad Days in History by Michael Farquhar -- These top two are for the middle of the night, when I can't get back to sleep after the dogs had me up. It's like Xanax without the prescription.
Writers & Lovers by Lily King -- I just started this. Pretty dry so far. For a book with a punctuation mark in the title, I don't remember if it's PS or AtY
The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson -- for my book club. Non-fiction, I'm not terribly crazy about it.
Ballad of The Whiskey Robber by Julian Rubinstein -- on audiobook, for my favorite Winter Olympic sport, hockey. Pretty crazy and happens to be a true story.

QOTW Goodreads has worked pretty well for me as far as keeping track of books I've read. Doesn't take a lot of work and there's no way I can remember them all. I'm old, I like it simple.

@Ron, I'm so sorry for your loss.

@Theresa, I love your pictures. Makes me miss how pretty NYC is in the snow.

Finished:
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid - 4.5 stars - for a book about women astronauts. I really enjoyed it. It felt very nostalgic to me, because I grew up in the 80s loving space stuff.

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan - 4.5 stars - for a book about a horse or with a horse on the cover. I'm really glad I finally read this series. I love Greek mythology. I would have loved it so much as a kid if it had been around then.

Comics and manga:
Pink Candy Kiss, Vol. 4

Currently reading:
Twelve Months by Jim Butcher - I found out Butcher's new wife is also an author, so now I'm using this for one of the two books written by real-life partners or spouses. This is the latest Dresden book that just came out this week.

Upcoming/Planned:
Planning to reread Witch King by Martha Wells for a book that features a platonic friendship between a man and woman, before I tackle the sequel for a different prompt.

QOTW:
I track on both Goodreads and Storygraph. I stay on Goodreads for the community features, but I want to support Storygraph because I want a book platform not owned by Amazon. I also no longer have a Facebook account because I don't care for Meta either.

Happy Thursday! I missed last week, though I kept telling myself not to forget. Oh well. I'm STOKED for the big snow. I love snow and we are due for a big one!

Finished 02/50

The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story for "book starting with Z". I had no idea this was a historical, true story and not historical fiction or just loosely based off of an event. It was really good though sobering, especially in this current political climate. If we don't learn from history, we're doomed....not just to repeat it. Just doomed.

Currently Reading

Being Bread for "book under 250 pages". This is our book club read for this weekend, and I'm hoping we'll get to meet to discuss it, though that's not looking promising with the weather.

Shadows of Self for "book featuring a character with a hidden past". I mean, most of these characters do, lol. Loving this so far.

QotW

Nope. Just Goodreads!

Happy Thursday! I missed last week, though I kept telling myself not to forget. Oh well. I'm STOKED for the big snow. I love snow and we are due for a big one!

Finished 02/50

The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story for "book starting with Z". I had no idea this was a historical, true story and not historical fiction or just loosely based off of an event. It was really good though sobering, especially in this current political climate. If we don't learn from history, we're doomed....not just to repeat it. Just doomed.

Currently Reading

Being Bread for "book under 250 pages". This is our book club read for this weekend, and I'm hoping we'll get to meet to discuss it, though that's not looking promising with the weather.

Shadows of Self for "book featuring a character with a hidden past". I mean, most of these characters do, lol. Loving this so far.

QotW

Nope. Just Goodreads!

Apparently my county had a level 3 snow alert that I found out about after I got to work. I guess 10 miles north of me it was ice everywhere. My place? it was 40. Weird. The weekend is looking bad. Guess I be inside reading.

Murder in the Ranks by Kristi Jones (ps15 A book about new beginnings) Dottie is a WAAC (Women's Army Auxiliary Corps) in Algiers. Her new beginning began when her German-born husband left her for dead and disappeared into Germany with their daughter to join the Nazi cause and she's now helping the army in one of the few ways open to women in the hopes of getting her daughter back. Unfortunately a WAAC is murdered (to look like suicide) and she joins the MP looking for the killer. One of the best (and well researched) WWII era mystery I've read in a long time.

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix (ps 22 A book about a book club). I am forced to confront the fact that I love Hendrix's blurbs but hate his work. By rights I should love everything he does. The blurbs are tailor made for my tastes but I have disliked intensely every book of his I've read and this was no better. I should have found another book club book and DNFed this (ironically my next book up DOES have book club in it. go figure)

Queen in Comics! By Emmanuel Marie (ps 37 A book about a pop star) I'll be honest I don't much care for biographies. Just not really my thing. I could have gone on a search for a fictionalized popstar. I read the one book I knew I had with that kind of character last year but then I went to the library and saw this. Okay I like Queen a lot and I honestly don't know much about any of them. It wasn't a bad graphic novel.

QOTW

Like several others the answer is no not really other than GR and Storygraph which I don't find as intuitive as I'd like (and I am no fan of this mood tagging stuff and now Netgalley has adopted it.) but I stick with it because I want to support something woman owned and isn't Amazon

Happy Thursday! I am exhausted, and I'm not sure why. Well, other than not getting enough sleep like 4 days in a row. This weekend I'm going to the SFMOMA with a friend, and hopefully checking out this really good bakery near by. If there's time, I also want to check out the SF Friends of the Library bookstore, because they always have such a big selection for so cheap!

Currently at 10/50 for the challenge, which is nice because there are a bunch of books I want to get to that won't work for any prompts, and now I don't have to be annoyed about falling behind.

Finished:
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All 1- this was a fun start to a manga series about a girl getting a crush on the cool guy at the record store and then realizing it's actually her classmate. Loved the artwork
-46 A sapphic comic

Cinder House- really liked this ghostly take on Cinderella, but I wish it had been a full length novel!
-30 A travel ghost story

Queen of Faces- my first 5 star of the year! Really loved this fantasy- such an interesting magic system, and such great characters. This was so great, better than I expected, can't wait to see what happens next in the series
-13 A book featuring a character with a hidden past

Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens- I love Eddie Izzard's standup, so this audiobook was such a fun time. It meanders a lot, maybe even too much, but if you're a fan, you'll probably have good time
-39 A book with a character who runs a marathon

Currently reading:
Flip: A Graphic Novel- an interesting take on the body swap genre
Messenger Cat Café- a netgalley book in the healing fiction genre. There's a cat on the cover, I was going to read it
The Curse of the Boyfriend Sweater: Essays on Crafting- this will be my next audiobook, for the granny hobby prompt

QotW:
Goodreads is the only app I use, and then I have my physical planner that I always use, and then a book journal I got for a present that I'm trying out this year

Hello and happy Thursday! Today’s post is coming from chick-fil-a because it’s just too cold to wait in my car for my kid to get off work. Saturday we’re supposed to be getting (maybe?) a lot of snow so I’m little anxious about that and potentially losing power. My kid is also supposed to be closing that night which is also spiking my anxiety. Can we just skip ahead to spring?

Finished:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone not for a challenge, but me and my son were listening to the new full cast audiobook from audible together. It was really fun, and I enjoyed watching my son experience the book for the first time. Well hopefully be starting the next one this weekend.

Radio Silence for the platonic friendship prompt. This was cute YA story, and I quite enjoy when romance isn’t the main plot driving the story line. I also enjoyed that there was a nod to Welcome to Night Vale, a podcast I’ve always circled back around to. If you’re familiar with Night Vale, you’ll probably pick up on the influence it had on this book.

Fairyopolis: A Flower Fairies Journal I found this in a box I was looking through and had to sit down to read it. I can’t even say this was a childhood book of mine, I’m pretty sure it was released while I was in high school. But I remember getting this for my 17th birthday because my friend knew I loved books with an interactive element, and this one has lots of scrapbook vibes. I’m surprised all the little trinkets in the envelopes were still in there. Super nostalgic, makes me want to buy more books like it lol.

Currently Reading:
The Bewitching
The Count of Monte Cristo
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Great Adventure Catholic Bible

Recently Watched:
Still nothing, still playing pokemon.

QOTW:
I think I downloaded fable and then immediately got bored lol

2025 Challenges:
Popsugar - 3/40; 0/10
Read Harder - 1/24
Classics - 0/12
European Tour - 1/10
12 Friends - 7/12
Yearly Goal - 9/180

Happy Thursday! It's been another crazy busy week. I think the holiday on Monday + the impending snow storm sent everyone into panic mode to cram as much as possible into four days of work this week. The line of cars turning into (and out of) the Walmart/Sam's Club by my house was insane when I came home from work this evening. We'll see how much we actually get!

Onto the bookish update...I finished one book since the last check-in, which worked for two of the other challenges I'm working on, but not this one...unless I use the freebie prompt (A book you were hoping would fit into a prompt but doesn't)...and it seems to early in the year to do that! I'm at 1/40 and 0/10 for this challenge, and 2/75 for my overall Goodreads Reading Challenge.

Finished:
* The Radical King by Martin Luther King Jr., edited by Cornel West, and narrated by LeVar Burton, Gabourey Sidibe, Cornel West, Mike Colter, Danny Glover, Wanda Sykes, Leslie Odom Jr., Michael K. Williams, Kevin Free, Colman Domingo, and Bahni Turpin.

Currently Reading:
* The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries edited by Michael Sims;
* All Fours by Miranda July; and,
* The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki, which I need to finish before book club on Saturday. This has been a slow read for me, so I need to kick it into high gear!

QotW:
Do you use other book tracking apps? I'm on The Storygraph, which I like for the stats, challenge tracker, mood recommendations, and the ownership. Only one of my bookish friends is using it (she completely dropped GR and moved over there at some point last year). A couple of publishers friended me but it seems like I have zero friends because I have to hunt for my friend's updates (and I miss seeing her reviews). I hardly ever post reviews over there because of that. If there was an app that merged GR and StoryGraph, I would move over there in a heartbeat. I thought about checking out Fable and Library Thing but haven't done more than think about it. The only other tracker things I do/use are Bookly (the freebie version) and a Google Docs spreadsheet, which I use to track my reads and all of my challenges in one place. I guess Libby could count too since they have a timeline feature and tags...but that's more of a passive tracker thing.

Ron wrote: "I wish I could say 'Happy Thursday' or something to that effect, but I've just been dealing and processing a lot.

Last week my dog lost his life. A pack of coyotes killed him which is as tragic as..."

Ron, so sorry for the loss of your special pet.

good reading week, 10 books, 1 for PS challenge, but all for different challenges. I have prepared for the snow storm that is to hit beginning tomorrow. Up to 6" snow expected. I have five books lined up to read the weekend.

Currently reading . Not sure yet if it fills PS prompt. It is sure bringing back memories of 9/11 though. The book is part of a three book series. I will probably try to read all three in the next couple weeks.

I tried storygraph but did not care for it. I like using GR. I also, use spreadsheets to help me with all the bookclubs and challenges I am doing this year.

Everyone stay warm and safe with this stormy weather.

@Ron: sending virtual hugs. Horrible way to lose your pet.

@Kenya: Hope the procedure turns out ok


I finished two books, sort of. One was really a short story. Getting hit with insomnia hard so it's been hard to read. It's the worst when I can neither read nor sleep

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: used for harvest season.
The Bell Jar: used for ATY 100-250 pages and The 52 spotted on tv/movie

Stats, but I'm in no hurry to finish. As long as I finish in 11 more months
PS: 3/50
52: 1/52
ATY: 1/52
Read harder: 2/24

QOTW:
I have a Storygraph account but I only use it to find challenges. I like Library Thing but haven't utilized as much as I could. Often I just use Word to track challenges

Echoing above comments:

@Ron: I am so sorry for your loss of your pet. I am still having difficulty wrapping my head around such cruel loss.

@Teresa: your pictures of NYC reminded me of visits there. Very beautiful!

Laura Ruth wrote: "The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff. An awesome, over-the-top dark comedy where very bad men get what's coming to them. While it's not "about" debt, debt drives several crucial plot points, so I'm counting it. Also "nosy neighbor" for 52BC, "set in India" for BQ, and "fun book" for TCKTBW...."



that book would also work for a sexless marriage!

Dubhease wrote: "(My favourite new saying is "The only blizzard conditions I'm interested in are from Dairy Queen".) ..."



LOL same here! But we still have to get through February!


Community College classes start on Monday for younger kid- I'm hoping for a snow day because it's not an easy drive there in the snow.

Life update: We are still. not. done. with the flipping building works. Fortunately the last outstanding thing is external; part of the brickwork needs to be repointed to avoid leaks when we have storms, as we did in the first week of January. Indoors, the painting is finished, and we had someone come to measure for carpets this morning.

Reading update: I finished six books this week:
A Meeting of Two Prophets - PS: love story that defies social boundaries; Jewish Literature: Orthodox life. Very sweet, but with some serious flaws. 3 stars.
Beholding Troyan Ceramics by Ivan D. Dobrev (thesis, not on GR) - PS: granny hobby. Beautiful photographs of ceramic pieces, and I learned a lot. 4 stars.
Ganesha's Sweet Tooth - PS: overweight MC whose story is not about losing weight. This is a children's book that I read for the gorgeous artwork and because we had the Ganesh Jayanti holiday this week. The book comments that Ganesha is chubby because of his sweet tooth, but the story is about him assisting the author of the Mahabharata. 4 stars.
In Time o' Strife - Diversity Challenge: poverty, Anti-Capitalist Inspiration: community and collective strength. This is a play in Scots, which I really enjoyed, but which felt a bit underdeveloped. 3 stars.
Mislaid in Parts Half-Known - audiobook, no prompt, next in series. This feels like it should have been published as a single volume with Lost in the Moment and Found, but apart from that, it's great. 4 stars.
Ember & Ice - audiobook, no prompt. I decided to give this a try because I enjoyed the actors' performances in Heated Rivalry, and they did not disappoint here. 5 stars.

Stats:
Popsugar: 3 this week, 9/50 total
Diversity Challenge: 1 this week, 1/14 total
Touch the Rainbow, Read the Rainbow: 0 this week, 1/13 total
Queer Reads Bracket Challenge: 0 this week, 4/7 total
Flowers for Your Shelves: 0 this week, 1/22 total
German Challenge: 0 this week, 5/10 total
Spanish Titles ABC: 0 this week, 1/26 total
French TBR: 0 this week, 1/20 total
Great Big Jewish Literature Challenge: 1 this week, 5/21 total
Anti-Capitalist Inspiration: 1 this week, 10/30 total
Reading About Writing: 0 this week, 3/40 total

All books finished this year: 6 this week, 17 total
DNF or paused this year: 0 this week, 2 total

Challenges completed this year: 0
Challenges in progress (end date in 2026): 4
Challenges in progress (no end date): 7

Currently reading:
Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear - PS: underwater civilisation
The Killing Spell - NetGalley, unsure yet whether it will fit a prompt
The Complete Mahabharata - spiritual reading, no prompt
Journey to the West (Chinese Lore podcast) - Discord book club, no prompt

QOTW: I use GR for the social features and ability to filter by star ratings, and SG for the challenge tracking, charts and greater ease of finding specific editions, among other things.

Cornerofmadness wrote: "Murder in the Ranks by Kristi Jones (ps15 A book about new beginnings) Dottie is a WAAC (Women's Army Auxiliary Corps) in Algiers....."



WWII is before my time of course, but I learned about the WAACs when I was a kid thanks to Cheap Trick's "Surrender."




Storygraph which I don't find as intuitive as I'd like (and I am no fan of this mood tagging stuff and now Netgalley has adopted it.)

It never felt intuitive for me either, and I also do not like the mood tagging. I second guess myself! ("Is that really what people mean by "emotional"? etc) Netgalley never seems to include any of the right "moods" for the books I finish. I like that I can create ANY tag I want in GR, and I'm the only one who decides if a book fits.

Sasha wrote: "The Killing Spell - NetGalley, unsure yet whether it will fit a prompt..."




Is it good? I'm always on the lookout for a new AAPI author to read. But ... It's kind of ironic that an author who wrote a book about "language magic" has a grammar mistake in her GR bio ("Her and the boy now live in Honolulu ..."). It's making me hesitant about the book.

Happy Friday! Everyone is coughing, sneezing and sniffing, so I had to be part of it this week. Snif - sneeze. I'm always afraid that my bronchitis will flare up, but luckily that doesn't seem to happen now.
Oh, and I got my review copy. Starting it tonight!

Read this year: 4
Finished this week:
Wo wir Kinder waren by Kati Naumann. A book about a family and their doll factory in Sonneberg, East Germany. The main characters are somewhat childish and over 50. It's based on the writer's own family history.
The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods. The bookish equivalent of a very bad romcom that's so comfy and just exactly what you need to feel happy again.

QOTW
I use the Dutch platform Hebban. It's funded by the national foundation of booksellers, libraries and publishers to promote books and reading. It lacks a social part, so I'm here too because of the groups.

And of course my own dear spreadsheet. I exported my GR data years ago and ever since my spreadsheet is my absolute book stats truth.

Nadine in NY wrote: "Sasha wrote: "The Killing Spell - NetGalley, unsure yet whether it will fit a prompt..."


Is it good? I'm always on the lookout for a new AAPI author to read. But ... It's kind of ironic that an..."

I'm only about 10% in, but I'm enjoying it so far. I haven't found any grammar errors as yet. There are some sentences in Hawaiian Pidgin, which has nonstandard grammar, but that's clearly deliberate (and she addresses it in her Author's Note).

Sasha wrote: "I'm only about 10% in, but I'm enjoying it so far. I haven't found any grammar errors as yet. There are some sentences in Hawaiian Pidgin, which has nonstandard grammar, but that's clearly deliberate (and she addresses it in her Author's Note)...."



Thanks, I'm adding it. Perhaps S&S editors caught any mistakes in the text, but she wrote her own GR bio. It's a common mistake - "her" and "she" are often switched, after all. And I make plenty of my own mistakes, but for some reason that one really grates on me - probably because it's so common!

Happy Thursday Friday Saturday!

We're due for the beginnings of the snowstorm to arrive later this evening, so I'm gearing up to teach the parents about the joys of the LOTR extended editions :D

For those who recall last week, the car was back in the shop again (because of course getting four things replaced wasn't enough) and *crossing fingers, toes, eyes* hasn't acted up again since. Which is encouraging with how frigging cold it's been, but I won't breathe easy for another few days yet; last time it gave me four days of peace before telling me something still wasn't right. We shall see.

Books! Lots of excellent 5-star reads this week:
Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History

Poison Ivy, Vol. 1: The Virtuous Cycle Book where gardening is central to the plot
Poison Ivy, Vol. 2: Unethical Consumption Book that explores influencer culture

The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise - a wonderfully humorous, cyclical little play. Book with a Type C character

Blood Over Bright Haven - anticolonial dark academia. Belongs on the shelf next to books like City of Stairs and Babel. Book featuring a character with a hidden past

How Girls Are Made - I finished this in twelve hours and I'm going to be thinking about it for a LONG time. Probably Mindy's darkest book, which is saying something. Book about teen angst

PS 8/50
ATY 8/52
Mount TBR 2/6

Currently:
The Butcher's Masquerade
Pride and Prejudice

Upcoming:
Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes: The Official Biography

QOTW: Do you use other book tracking apps?
I'm a Storygraph fan, and I'm gonna hold onto GR for as long as they keep groups around.

Huh. Well, I guess I’m just two days late in posting. I wasn’t sure since the past three days have been very busy and not in a good way. I am now in a boot on my left foot. (Something my left knee is very unhappy with!) I awoke Wednesday morning at 5AM unable to go back to sleep due to extreme pain in my left heel. Walking? Yeah, that was hell. I ended up taking 8 Aleve over the course of the day and seeing my D.O. who felt I may have a torn Achilles tendon. I still went to the gym and taught/worked out in the heated therapy pool that evening. (I was feeling very little pain/discomfort with all those Aleve in me!) I ended up at my orthopedic office Thursday morning to hear I have a bone spur on my left heel. So, now I’m going to need to purchase yet another ice bag since I already ice my lower back and knees every day, and now must also ice my left heel. Yikes! Might be simpler to just buy a tank, fill it with ice water and submerge myself from the waist down! LOL

Reminding myself it could always be worse! My D.O. gave me permission to keep teaching/working out in the therapy pool. (He realizes what a valuable therapeutic benefit this is for me, and I am always warning others to “modify the movements for your body,” so now it is time for me to demonstrate that instruction for others!!) Last night went well in the pool and the students were kinda amazed at some of the modifications we discovered! It felt amazing to be able to move about freely!

It is just now starting to snow here. I just hope we don’t lose electricity through all of this. And Nadine, I am really sorry for what I imagine will be yet another big dump of snow on your area!

ADMIN STUFF:
THE JANUARY 2026 MONTHLY GROUP READ SELECTION IS
Woman on the Edge by Samantha M. Bailey!!
This book could be used to fulfill Prompt #24 A book about postpartum
Celebration of Life Day is January 22!
**Please post if you are willing to lead this discussion. ** This proved to be such an interesting mystery! Questions and discussion are HERE! I'll be reading responses this weekend!

THE FEBRUARY 2026 MONTHLY GROUP READ IS Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum!
This book could be used to fulfill Prompt #22 A book about a book club
International Book Giving Day is February 14!
Looking for a “fancy facilitator” to lead this discussion!
I have a copy of this ordered and am so anxious to read it! My copy arrived!

DOUBLE THE POLLS AND DOUBLE THE FUN!!
THE MARCH MONTHLY GROUP READ FINAL SELECTION POLL IS HERE!
This book could be used to fulfill prompt #34 A book with a trans or nonbinary protagonist
Trans Day of Visibility is March 31!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...
There are three books from which to select:
Woodworking by Emily St. James
Cemetery Boys (Cemetery Boys #1) by Aiden Thomas
What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier #1) by T. Kingfisher
And we currently have a tie between two titles!! Go vote!! 😋👍

*** This poll will run from January 15 through January 27th. ***

THE APRIL MONTHLY GROUP READ NOMINATION POLL IS HERE! (Photo by Avery Thomas on Unsplash)
This book could be used to fulfill prompt #1 A book where gardening or a garden is central to the plot
National Gardening Day is April 14
https://www.calendarr.com/united-stat...

There are currently 12 titles in the running!
If you do not see the title you would like to nominate, please write it in. Please check the book's eligibility first! Only books that have NOT been discussed within the past two years (2024-present) are eligible. Remember to consult the listing of these books that are NOT eligible for this month HERE before nominating! :) There is an alphabetized listing by title as well as a chronological listing.

NOTE: This is the NOMINATION round, which is step one. We will select the top results from this round to create a new poll for a Final Vote to select ONE book for the March 2026 group read.

*** This poll will run from January 15 through January 27th. ***

********

THE LISTING OF 2026 MONTHLY GROUP READ TOPICS IS HERE!
***

QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
Do you use other book tracking apps?
Nope. Goodreads is my “bible”!!

I tried Storygraph long ago. Very UNimpressed! I do have an account on Discord for several groups, but find it very UNuser-friendly! LOL I am not trying any others. Sticking with Goodreads! (Even though I do despise the fact that Bezos owns it and I inevitably specifically blame him when it malfunctions! LOL)

2026 READING CHALLENGES:
Popsugar: 10/50
52 Book Club: 24/52

FINISHED:
*The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ for an IRL book club meeting this next Tuesday. Very poignant and yet extremely entertaining. Can’t remember the last book that made me laugh as much as this one did! It will be interesting to see who among our members also enjoyed it!
POPSUGAR: #13, #15, NEW #31
52 Book Club: #4, #18, #24, #32, #44, #49

*A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot #2) by Becky Chambers ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ was even better the second time around! What an absolutely delightfully wonderful read!! What is the meaning of living? What must we do to actually “live”?
POPSUGAR: #15, #16, NEW #34
52 Book Club: NEW #2, #4, NEW #7, #11, #12, #44

CONTINUING:
*Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt for an IRL book club meeting this coming Sunday, which has now been rescheduled to the next Sunday! This is a reread and one I am totally enjoying all over again!
*The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré I am so thankful I was not born into a society like this!!
*Salvation City by Sigrid Nunez is rather fascinating. I keep wondering exactly where/how this will end…
*Hope on the Inside by Marie Bostwick is not what I was expecting! Bostwick is so savvy at connecting titles…
*Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power by RebeccaSolnit
*East of Eden by John Steinbeck
*The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley
*The Double Life of Benson Yu by Kevin Chong for an IRL book club meeting
*The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty

PLANNED:
The Favorites by Layne Fargo for prompt #17 A book about your favorite event in the Winter Olympics.
*The Last of Her Kind by Sigrid Nunez
*What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez
*For Rouenna by Sigrid Nunez
*Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict
*The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley
*The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
*The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict

L Y N N wrote: "Huh. Well, I guess I’m just two days late in posting. I wasn’t sure since the past three days have been very busy and not in a good way. I am now in a boot on my left foot. (Something my left knee ..."



What is the treatment for a bone spur? I ask because ... I also have a bone spur on my left heel! I first learned about it when I had a bad fall at work and they x-rayed my ankle, and casually said "you know you have a bone spur" and I said "what????" It didn't hurt at all back then, but over the years it started to hurt. Some days it's bad. I've never actually asked my current doctor if there's any treatment, I assume it would be major surgery to go in there and grind down the bone and that doesn't sound fun.

A friend of mine actually snapped his Achilles tendon while snowshoeing and after that happened it's been my nightmare. (I asked him if it hurt, and he laughed and said "not after it happened" so I guess that's part of the diagnosis: if it still hurts, your tendon is still intact!!)