Nadine in NY’s Comments (group member since Jan 05, 2015)

Nadine in NY’s comments from the Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge group.

Jennifer W wrote: "I'd fire that thing up soon just to see if it at least starts!..."




that is a good idea!

Bea wrote: "Is it strange that I feel a bit cheated since I had separate books planned?..."



LOL not at all! Kinda like how I feel cheated when I guess the Wordle word in only one or two guesses - like, hey, where's my game?

Denise wrote: "I read 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List James Mustich

If I ever get to retire, I want to read a book a day for a year at least once."



Nina Sankovitch did that a few years ago, and then wrote a book about it. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading


I think about her often. I don't think I could sit still for long enough to read a book a day for a full year (and I'm a very sedentary person). I've never read HER book, but maybe I will someday.

Jennifer W wrote: "Glad your sink is fixed, Nadine. For future reference (and others who aren't plumbers), at least in my house, the water valves are shaped like footballs (American footballs, ovals). When the football lines up with the water line, water flows, turn it a quarter turn so the football is going across the water line, and it stops.

PS- did you ever get a new furnace?? You're going to need it sooner than later......."




LOL oh I know where the supply valves are, and I turned them. You are right, the handles are football-shaped. Mine are multi-turn straight valves. The problem was I turned them all the way CW, and water still flowed. Then I turned them all the way CCW, and water still flowed. I wish they were ball valves, those are easy to know if they are open or closed!!! I never did find out why I wasn't able to shut off the water, since as it turned out dismantling that part of the faucet did NOT require the water to be shut off.



And no, I have NOT gotten a new furnace. Once the new control panel was installed last winter, it worked fine the rest of the winter. Will it work again this year? WHO KNOWS??? It's a gamble. I'm starting to wonder if I should just get a new one installed now.

JessicaMHR wrote: "Hello everyone. Totally just realized it's Friday already, oops, oh well.

I actually had a question about the poll for Nov. The book The Way You Make me Feel is the Maureen Goo one correct?

Well,..."


Yes, it should be. Someone wrote it in to the nomination poll, but didn't use the "add book" feature so it didn't have a link, and we took a guess, since I know there's a food truck in Goo's The Way You Make Me Feel

Britany wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "but lately it's been happening to me every week! The Cosby book was especially disappointing, crushing even."

UGH - I have the physical copy of this, so this is disappointing to me too! I loved Razorblade Tears but haven't read any of his others yet. ..."



A lot of readers are giving it five stars, so you might love it!! (And if you do, please come back and explain what I was missing.)

Katy wrote: "... I almost feel like I should be ashamed that I had no idea that there was a day that books usually come out. ..."




LOL no I'm right there with you!! I have no idea. I know a lot of our members work in library and bookstores, maybe then you get to know these things.

Laura Z wrote: "I didn't like the lying in "The Truth According to Ember" either. Avery Fox is much more likable, and she actually shows growth throughout the story... learning to embrace her culture authentically and to use her fame in a positive way. ..."



Good to know!! I will forge ahead reading this book with confidence! (Just as soon as I finish the other books I'm currently reading ...)

Jackie wrote: "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: I always find something new when re-reading and on this round I'm discovering that I have very little patience for Ned. In the past I think I was more sympathetic to the fact that he is being held prisoner and he isn't getting treated as nicely as the professor, but right now I'm like "sir could you chill?". He's just so angry all the dang time.

I NEED to read this book! Every year I tell myself I should read it, and then I put it off.




QOTW:
It happens from time to time - most recently with The Spare Man. I was so excited about the premise and the setting but it didn't work for me...."

I was super disappointed in The Spare Man, too - I ended up DNFing it. But, I've had issues with MRK before, too. I just don't "vibe" with her writing. So I wasn't exactly expecting to love The Spare Man from the start, I just was hoping to find a good space tourism book.

Andrea wrote: "Happy Thursday, everyone! After seven months of our system being down, our library is finally back up and running! I’ve been busy placing holds on all the new books I missed. What a relief. ..."




I remember the agony when my library was off-line for a long time!! Congrats on being back to getting ALL THE BOOKS now :-)

Joanna wrote: "Summer is officially over: the pool at my apartment complex has been covered for the season 😢 But the weather really isn't going to be warm enough to swim from here on in, so I can't blame them. I ..."


Awwww that's always a little sad.

Acidic Quagga wrote: "I ended up picking up Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman and I haven't been able to put the book down. I'm afraid the series is going to derail me completely from my Popsugar list, as I'm already excited to read the second book in the series!..."




Everybody is reading Dungeon Crawler Carl lately!!! Why this sudden increase in popularity? Did a major publisher pick up the series maybe?

I still haven't read it, because for some reason it's not available on Libby, although my library does have the hard copies now (and yes I see the first book is 2024 from Ace, so I guess that's why it's suddenly surged in popularity). Maybe it will be a good beach book for me next year ...

Good news! My kitchen faucet has been fixed. It just needed a really big wrench to tighten the base. Fingers crossed now that it STAYS fixed.

Katy wrote: "The good thing is that I also have the opposite happen. I will read a book, probably for this challenge, that I don't expect to like (I don't necessarily expect to hate it, because there'd probably be something else to choose if that were the case) and I end up absolutely adoring it. I can't think of any example off the top of my head, but I know it's happened...."



Yes!! This happens to me often enough that I will regularly stretch and read something I wouldn't normally read, just in case it's that "hidden gem" that I end up loving. I use the library, so it's low risk for me, just my time wasted if I hated it

Laura Z wrote: "Happy Thursday! Home from New Mexico – I’m glad to be out of the heat (although it's still hot here) and dust. School has started, so it’ll just be me, Seth (33), Ewan (2.5), and Starlight at home ..."




Hello to Starlight!!!


🍎 Love Is a War Song: Native American rom-com. ★★★★★

I've got this one on deck to read next! Did you like her first book? I'm hesitant, because I did NOT like her first book, but the main thing I didn't like about it was how much the FL lied all the time. If the characters in this book are not liars, maybe I'll enjoy it.

Bea wrote: "Darla does not like rain. That includes, sprinklers that go off at 6a, just when it is time for her to rise and shine and go out!,..."

My older dog Molly won't go out in the rain either! Nor will she go out if there's thunder, or threat of thunder, or a truck beeping in reverse somewhere, or construction sounds, or gunfire echoing across the bay (oddly, she's fine with gunfire from the nearby gun range - must be a different type of gun so it sounds different to her), or a backfiring car or motorcycle, or a truck that just drove by with a loudly flapping tarp, or fireworks, or it's a time of night when she once heard fireworks or thunder, etc. She will hold it, she doesn't pee in the house, but I feel so bad for her, how can she be comfortable???

Happy Thursday!!  Welcome to September.  My raspberries have been going nuts bearing their second crop - so many berries!  I can hardly keep up. Here in NY state we've been having typical early September weather:  cool nights, warm days, lower humidity and clear skies.  The trees have been starting to turn color for the last two weeks already but it will be another month before the "big show."  Right now everything has got a golden haze over it, which is unique to September.

Yesterday my kitchen faucet turned into a fountain (only when the faucet is turned on, thankfully!).  And I haven't been able to shut off the water supply so that I can take the faucet apart, so that's embarrassing.  (I turned the valves all the way CW, water still flows.  I turned them all the way CCW, water still flows.  WTF?   I know where the main shut off is, but that seems extreme.)  So I'm being the helpless female waiting for my ex to stop by and fix it.  Today I'll be washing my big pot downstairs in the laundry tub and figuring out if I can fit everything else in the dishwasher.  At least the dishwasher still works!!




***** Admin stuff *****

August's group read was: Remarkably Bright Creatures.  You can still join the discussion here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

September's group read, which could fulfill "A Book About an Overlooked Woman in History," is:  Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail.   You can join the discussion here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The October group read, which could fill "A book containing magical creatures that aren't dragons" will be: The Fellowship of the Ring.  

The final poll for November group read  (which could fill "book about a food truck")   is here!
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/3...



This week I finished 2 books, neither for a Challenge category, so I remain 46/50:

King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby - wow this book was such a disappointment!  I LOVED the first book I read by Cosby (Blacktop Wasteland), it's one of my all-time favorite books.  I wasn't so fond of Razorblade Tears, it was a bit too gratuitously violent, but then he redeemed himself again (in my eyes) with All the Sinners Bleed.  But now this book has got me questioning everything.  It was so bad.  Clunky writing, trite metaphors, wooden dialogue, ridiculous characters, and endless (ENDLESS) gratuitous violence.  I just don't know what to think, how did one of my formerly favorite authors publish this, and why are so many people giving it five stars?

Love Walked In by Sarah Chamberlain - the publisher offered this book to me via NetGalley and I couldn't turn down a free book (I've since learned my lesson - my NG list got ridiculous because I could not say "no").  I was so-so with the author's debut romance but I figured I'd give her another try, perhaps this book would be better.  Nope.  YMMV.  This one just didn't connect with me.  It was published on Tuesday.


Popsugar 92% 46 /50
Must Reads 50% 5 /10
AtY 88% 46 /52
AtY bonus 100% 10 /10
2025 pub 82% 41 /50
NetGalley ratio 90%






Question of the Week
How often are you extremely disappointed in a book when you expected to thoroughly enjoy it?

I didn't think it was very often, maybe a few times a year, but lately it's been happening to me every week!   The Cosby book was especially disappointing, crushing even.

L Y N N wrote: "Okay, y'all! I'm going to show my total ignorance here, so get ready to chuckle and shake your head. WTH are "bookmarks"?!?😯😋 ..."



LOL! It's the revamped Goodreads Challenge. (The drop down menu under your profile has "Reading Challenges - look there.) I think it's new this year? Every month has a mini challenge, like "read a debut book from this list" (the lists are the articles they post), and if you read a qualifying book you get a pretty bookmark icon added to your Challenge page. I've mostly been ignoring this so I'm not actually the best person to explaining it, but I know I've acquired a few bookmarks just in the course of things.

L Y N N wrote: "... Oooph! Yes! The Wedding People is the most recent and memorable. Although I feel that may partially be due to the fact that I had just finished Tom Lake, a book I could relate to in so many ways and that totally resonated with me…whereas I felt Espach’s writing to be a bit choppy at times and some of her metaphors/similes were disruptive to me as I had to try to ‘get’ the connection! ...."


Wow we truly are opposites! I really loved The Wedding People, so much more than I thought I would. It was so relatable for me, and so funny, despite some of its dark themes. I'd best not read Tom Lake, I'm sure to not like it!


(And Margo's Got Money Troubles was one of my all time favorite books. LOL I bet you don't like it hahahahah)

JessicaMHR wrote: "A Snake Falls to Earth PS#5, ATY#6
I FINALLY finished this book. I had a very hard time getting through this book. But I didn’t want to find another book with a snake on the cover. This makes me not ever want to pick up Elatsoe, which is also by this author. ..."



LOL I read Elatsoe and that's the last book I'll read by this author. It was a tween book, which is fine, but it's being marketed as an adult (or maybe YA) book, so there's a major disconnect between the plot complexity I expected and the plot complexity that I got.