Bryan + College Station Public Library Friends discussion

Want to join the librarians in 2017's book challenge? Visit PopSugar's Reading Challenge 2017 at the link below and download their printable checklist! We will be updating periodically with our current reads, book reviews, and more!

http://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-...

Hey members! We have decided to set up a small display in the library (Ringer) where we will put our suggestions of books that can fill certain categories in the PopSugar Challenge! Keep an eye out the next time you visit us, and pick up a paper copy of the challenge!

Does "a book recommended by a librarian" count as a free space for librarians? :D

Also, if anyone out there loves Roxane Gay as much as I do, she updated her Tumblr with a ton of recommendations that could fill the first advanced challenge book requirement of "A book recommended by an author you love." Link.

I just finished my 'Book with multiple authors!'

A Perfect Union of Contrary Things, by Maynard James Keenan, Sarah Jensen

This is a biography of Maynard James Keenan, best known as the front man for such bands as Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer. I was fascinated by this biography! One tends to form an idea of what a rock star is like - wild, alcoholic, etc. Not this one. Keenan was in the military, was accepted to West Point, attended art school, and in addition to his multiple bands also owns a vineyard in Arizona. I'm really not doing this book justice. It was a beautiful telling of a really exceptional person's life (thus far).

Jennifer wrote: "I just finished my 'Book with multiple authors!'

A Perfect Union of Contrary Things, by Maynard James Keenan, Sarah Jensen

This is a biography of Maynard James Keenan, best known as the front man..."

Whaaaat I had no idea Maynard had a book!

Ok, I finally reset my password so I could add to the conversation on Goodreads. :)

I have actually read two books recently that fit the category of "book set in 2 different time periods". The same books also qualify as "book with unreliable narrator".

The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma has a few different narrators and takes place in two different time periods. Narrators have unreliable memories, and it's not completely clear whether some of them are crazy or lying or hallucinating (also time travel vs seeing ghosts vs imagining things). Part of the book is set in "current times" with some memories of things that happened a few years back, and part of the book is set in that earlier time but it is the current time for those narrators. The ending is kind of strange, but it is an interesting read.

The Yearbook by Carol Masciola is partially set in current times and partly set in the 1920s. It is unclear during parts of the book whether the narrator is time traveling or hallucinating. It is also mentioned that her mother went crazy, and during part of the book, the narrator is put in a mental hospital. The book does resolve nicely by the end, and readers will have an answer.

These are both YA (teen) fiction.

Jennifer wrote: "I just finished my 'Book with multiple authors!'

A Perfect Union of Contrary Things, by Maynard James Keenan, Sarah Jensen

This is a biography of Maynard James Keenan, best known as the front man..."

YES! Read it! It is beautifully written and absolutely flabbergasted me as to how accomplished this man is.

I read a middle grade novel last week (which I haven't done since I read One Crazy Summer last year) called Hour of the Bees, and I'm counting it as my "A book that is a story within a story." The grandfather tells a story within the novel throughout its course that coincides with the ending of the book, and it's really well done. I think I would have connected strongly with this book if I'd read it at the age of the intended audience, but I still enjoyed it.

And I am now planning on reading A Perfect Union of Contrary Things as either my book with multiple authors or as one recommended by a librarian.

Kendra, did you prefer one of the two titles you mentioned? I'll need a title for that category at some point, and they both look interesting.

Jess wrote: "I read a middle grade novel last week (which I haven't done since I read One Crazy Summer last year) called Hour of the Bees, and I'm counting it as my "A book that i..."

I liked The Yearbook better.

Kendra wrote: "Jess wrote: "I read a middle grade novel last week (which I haven't done since I read One Crazy Summer last year) called Hour of the Bees, and I'm counting it as my "..."

Noted! I'll put it on my list.

I will have to find another one for this category because I remembered that I read this book in 2016, but if anyone wants a suggestion for "book mentioned in another book", I liked Tales of the Peculiar. We have a really pretty copy of this at the library. The outside cover and spine say that the book is by Ransom Riggs, but when you open it, it says it is by Millard Nullings, one of the characters from Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. This is a book of stories that the peculiars would share among themselves, and it is apparently mentioned in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I have not read that one yet, but this book makes me want to read the others.

Question: What are people's thoughts on omnibuses? The challenge has a category for "A book with more than 800 pages," and I'm doing another required reading challenge which includes re-reading (for me) "Things Fall Apart." My copy is in an omnibus with the other two books in the trilogy, and I haven't read the second 2 books. I'm debating whether or not I can count the omnibus as a book with more than 800 pages when it's actually 3 books bound together.

Jess wrote: "Question: What are people's thoughts on omnibuses? The challenge has a category for "A book with more than 800 pages," and I'm doing another required reading challenge which includes re-reading (fo..." I think you can count it if you read the whole omnibus (entire trilogy), and then put down the title of the omnibus version. If you are only reading one part of it and that individual part is less than 800 pages, then I don't think it would count.

Brittany Alexandria wrote: "Well, I am reading "Brooklyn" but I have decided it can't count towards a book about an interesting woman because Eilis has got to be one of the most passive characters I have ever read.

Anyways..."

I think that's a personal choice for how much time you want to devote to it. For me, the point of the challenges is to get readers to read outside their comfort zone and find some new things and hopefully enjoy the novelty. If you're getting what you want out of the challenge, then by all means make your own rules!

I'm doing a couple of different reading challenges (this plus the Book Riot Read Harder challenge), and I'm starting off only counting books once ... but if I find myself lagging near the end of the year, they may very well count towards multiple entries :)

Jess wrote: "Brittany Alexandria wrote: "Well, I am reading "Brooklyn" but I have decided it can't count towards a book about an interesting woman because Eilis has got to be one of the most passive characters ..."

Thank-you! I appreciate that logic!

P.S. - Sorry if there were multiple notifications - my original post kept messing up and I tried to edit it only to end up deleting it! Woops.

I read The Call by Peadar Ó Guilín for my book written by an author from a country I've never visited (Ireland).

For my "book of letters," I read Mariama Bâ's So Long a Letter, and loved it so much I actually pulled a quote from it for Goodreads.

Anyone read anything good lately? I just finished What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah and LOVED it. (I'm also counting it as my "book with an eccentric character.")



Currently working on Beartown and am waiting for it to pick up. Everyone tells me it's worth it, so I persevere.

Beartown was not my favorite, his writing is good, but I just didn't like it as much as his other books. It is very different from his other writing.

So I finished Beartown and am really glad I hung in there. Really interesting social commentary, and very well thought out. I enjoyed it.

Currently working on my "book set in the wilderness" with The Dead Lake by Hamid Ismailov. It takes place in Eastern Kazakhstan, and since the settlement where the protagonist lives is just two houses and a railroad track, I'm counting it as wilderness for the challenge.

Updates! I have read a lot of books since my last post here on 7/20. You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie was SO GOOD. I do recommend the audio version if you're an audiobook person - his narration was fantastic. I counted it as my "book that's been on your TBR list for way too long" because I got all psyched and added it to my wishlist when it was announced late last year.

If you like creepy/disturbing, for my Book Riot's Read Harder challenge item "book set in Central or South America, written by a Central or South American author," I read Mariana Enriquez's Things We Lost in the Fire: Stories which was so good!

I got a sneak peek at Andy Weir's new book Artemis, too, and I think people are really going to like it when it comes out in November.

Anyone else read anything good lately?