EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi everyone! Happy thanksgiving to fellow Americans!

Late check in today, been passed out on the couch most the afternoon.

I had a slow reading week due to working on my aunts cards in my free time. Wanted to hand them off this weekend.

I finished Fire in Her Blood this was ok. I like the idea of it, and the world. I got annoyed that I guessed the mystery a quarter through while the main character, a detective, was stumped. Also didn’t like how there were two random characters perspectives shoved in amongst the regular main character persosctive. It was jarring and messed with the flow.

Sandry's Book I liked this, but it was a bit slow to go anywhere. Also felt weird that it was called Sandrys book but if felt pretty ex’s my split between all four.

Not sure what’s up next. Probably some comics.

How’s everyone else doing?

Hello! Happy Thanksgiving to the American readers. Here in Canada, it's still the same old work week, except I'm craving pie because I keep seeing it in all my news feeds.

Last week I was partly on vacation, but didn't have as much time to read as I would have liked. I did managed to read the rest of Ham on Rye, which was, shall we say, "mercifully short." I think there is a passionate audience for this book, but it's not me. Mostly because I like a story where at least one good thing happens, there are occasionally nice people, and women aren't just objects that you try to have sex with. This books is definitely a reflection of a specific time, place, and the author's perspective--apparently this is just one book in a series of semi-autobiographical novels written by Charles Bukowski about growing up poor in the lower classes of America during the depression and the life he lived from there. I had many, "I see what you did there, and I appreciate the quality of this work" moments while reading it, but it was just too dark and sexist for my liking. Still not as bad as Fight Club, though. I still can't eat soup in a restaurant, and it's been a few months. Thanks Chuck Palahniuk.

So, now I'm on my current read: The Stone Diaries. And, it's the Last Book in my 2017 Popsugar challenge!!! I read this book waaaayyy back in about 1997 as part of a CanLit class in my undergrad. So, when I was having problems finding a prompt to fill the "book that takes place over a character's lifetime" prompt, I decided this would be a good time to re-read it. I remembered that I loved this book when I first read it, but I had forgotten just how much, and that it contains one of my favourite passages ever written in a book. The whole premise of this book is about the challenges of telling one's own autobiography as well as the ways in which women's lives are structured and the ways that they create their own stories about their lives, particularly in those times when women's choices and paths through life were very limited. The catch in this book is that the main character is aware that she's being very selective about the events of her life that she recounts and that she's putting a glossy spin on it. The author of the actual book uses this to challenge the whole genre of autobiography. Which leads me back to one of my favourite passages in literature, that you can read here if you really want to. It starts, "Maybe now is a good time to tell you that Daisy Goodwill has a little trouble getting things straight; with the truth, that is."

Okay, enough of my rambling on about this book (but seriously, have I mentioned that I love this book?!). I'll likely finish it this weekend and then move on to some non-challenge reading!

Which leads me to the question, do you have a favourite passage or two from books that just give you the shivers or make you happy/think/feel awe/etc. when you read them?

We hosted a lot of family this past week so lots of cooking and cleaning and not much reading. I am almost done with I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life. Although it is dense and very interesting it is also leaving me unsatisfied. It is quite repetitive with just slightly different takes on similar topics of the microbiome. If you are interested in the microbiome, you may like it, but it is not light reading.

I think I need something lighter now! I just put Cream of the Crop on order at my library. I thought I had done that a month ago, but apparently it got lost.

I kept meaning to answer your question, Stephanie, but I kept being on a phone and didn't want to mess with trying to copy and paste quotes! Night Circus is one of my favorite books, and it has so many great ones. But I particularly love “The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.”

also “You think, as you walk away from Le Cirque des Rêves and into the creeping dawn, that you felt more awake within the confines of the circus.
You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is the dream.”

Of course Harry Potter also has some great ones, such as Dumbledore's "Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."

But I always love the opening of Sorcerer's Stone, just because it's the start of everything. "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense."