EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi everyone!

Can't believe it's approaching December already. Hope everyone had a good reading week!

Since it was Thanksgiving here, I actually didn't have a ton of reading time, in spite of the long weekend. Was running around seeing a lot of family, and decorating the house for Christmas, and trying to do the final yard work for pick up.

I finished Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend which are two books in the crazy rich series. I liked them, although very soap-opera like with the drama. I still had a good time with them. Kind of relieved to take a break before the third though, they got pretty over the top.

Currently I'm reading The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror, just in time for the holidays. just started it so no real opinion yet, but I like Christopher Moore.

How's everyone's reading going?

It took a few weeks but I finished I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life. I only rated it 3 stars because it was poorly structured and a bit repetitive. The information itself was very interesting. But the book/topic organization was lacking. However if you're interested in a current status of the microbiome area, this is worthwhile. But it is not light reading.

My last 3 books the past several weeks are the one above, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry and If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?: My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating.

After all that dense, science-related non-fiction it is time for a good fluffy romance novel. It arrived at my library and I just started Cream of the Crop. It is book 2 in the Hudson Valley series. Time for some non-thinking to go on! I took out two more from the recent romance thread on FoE, but I don't remember what they are as they're upstairs in my bedroom. I'll list them in the next week or two when I start them!

I can't believe it's December already!

Last week I finished Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency. It was decent. I was dreading this book as I'm not usually a fan of heavy politics in books, but there was a lot of interesting information. I didn't know much about Reagan before this book and now I do, so that's a win.

This week I finished The Sun Also Rises as my book I haven't read since high school. It was just as dreadful as I remembered it. I don't like the storyline, the characters, or the writing style. The main characters spend the whole time drinking, everyone falls for the same terrible woman, and there are long passages of uninteresting, drunken back-and-forth dialogue. Bleck. For me this was a difficult prompt. Anything that I remember reading in high school that was good, I've read again since then. This was literally the only book I remember reading in high school and not again. After this go-around I can say with certainty that I won't read it again. Only 2 prompts left!

With the holiday travel, I also finished a few audiobooks: Armada, Dorothy Must Die, and Seven Up. Armada was narrated by Wil Wheaton. I liked it - cheesy, sci-fi, young adult reading with plenty of 80's nostalgia. Plus, there were lots of Star Trek references, which when narrated by Wil Wheaton amused me to no end. I'd probably recommend Cline's Ready Player One before Armada, but it made the car trip go by quickly. Dorothy Must Die was OK. In the book, another girl from Kansas gets sent to Oz via tornado and learns that Dorothy is destroying Oz. After not much convincing from the inhabitants of Oz, she sets out to kill Dorothy. I liked the premise of the book quite a lot, but something was amiss for me. We didn't need to hear as much of the main character's internal dialogue/thought process. The book was also a big set-up for the next book in the series. Unfortunately, the first book didn't grab me enough. Not sure that I'll continue with the rest of the series.

I'm late posting this week--I'm in a bit of a work crunch and parents were visiting this weekend. All this means not a lot of time for reading, but I do have a couple of books on the go.

Last time I checked in, I had just finished the Popsugar challenge, so I found myself actually wondering what the heck to read next, like an indoor cat just let out of the house who suddenly freezes with all the choices and space, heh. I decided to check out some "vampire smut," as my "just going to bed" ereading. Turns out this genre is very popular at my local library with the ereader crowd, as there wasn't much to choose from, but I settled on Bound by Night. It's terrible. And not just in the very-enjoyable-but-terrible way we love to love these books. Just...bad. No sense of continuity or logic, which I could overlook except that it's not even really that smutty! I am seriously considering making it a DNF, which I never do, but I only have an hour of reading left on it, so I might as well soldier on and finish it.

I'm also reading La Belle Sauvage and am about half way through it. His Dark Materials is one of my favourite series of all time, so I'm excited to delve back into that world. I'm enjoying it, but it's been so long since I read His Dark Materials that I feel I should have done a re-read first, as I sense I'm missing some details that would make the experience of reading La Belle Savage more enjoyable. Still, I heart Philip Pullman, and he's definitely found a way to make this new series relevant to what's going on in the world today.

Which leads me to the question: What are some of your favourite series?

Oh, I forgot to add--Susan, I'm glad you're enjoying that Hudson Valley Series so much!

I have so many series I love! Mercedeys Lackey's Valedemar series, her 500 Kingdoms, the Elemental Masters books. Anne McCaffery's dragonriders series. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. Simon R Green's Nightside. Patricia Brigg's Mercedes Thompson books. Seanan McGuire's October Daye books. I could go on =p

I generally enjoy most of the Nora Roberts trilogies. I often like them better than her stand-alone novels actually. As a teen I read a lot of John Jakes, the North & South series (and watched the TV adaptations with a young Patrick Swayze as the lead - swoon!!) and the Kent Family Chronicles which were written near the time of the Bicentennial. I read those books long ago while listening to my "Abba's Greatest Hits" LP album over and over. My parents must've been going crazy. I recall I listened so much while reading that the lyrics were morphing and making sense in the American History context I was reading. Also I've read both Thomas Covenant series from Stephen R Donaldson and the two from Mirror of Her Dreams.

I may reread The Mirror of Her Dreams sometime because it had a big impact on me when I was in my mid-20s. I even befriended someone over the internet over that book (late 1980s) and am still FB friends with him today. It had a profound effect at the time on both of us. I wonder if I'd still like it today.