EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi everyone!

Warm and sunny here in Michigan, lovely!

Hope everyone is doing well.


This week I finished:

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - popsugar book with sweet in the title, Read Harder cozy mystery. It was fine, nothing amazing.

The Mars Room - i know this is getting a lot of hype, don't see the big deal. I read it for my books & brew, I seem to be striking out lately on their selections. But the next one is The Martian, which while I've read before, I really enjoyed. Also counts for ATY for something, I forget. Either national book award or new york library picks.

Currently Reading:

Jane Eyre - this counts for popsugar book being read in a movie or tv series. I can't honestly remember which one, I found it in a thread for the topic and it was something I recalled seeing previously even if I didn't recall the reference. I like it alright, better than some classics I've attempted.

QOTW:

Running a little dry on questions right now so here's a general one: Any fun plans for the summer? the weekend? In general?

This weekend I'm off to Cedar Point on Sunday, and later in July we're headed out to Portland. Should be fun!

This week, I finished:

The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan, a fun historical romance. One thing I enjoy about all the books/novellas I've read so far by Courtney Milan: she has deep characters and interesting stories going on around the central love story. Even in the novellas, you get a great sense of character and situations. This one was about a pair of characters she introduced earlier, and I was eagerly awaiting learning more about them.

The Flowers of Vashnoi by Lois McMaster Bujold, a novella in one of my favorite series. I loved getting to go back and visit old friends and see what they're up to.

I just hit my 50 book goal for the year, although many of those were comics/manga and novellas, so... maybe I should set that a little higher next year. :)

Currently reading:

Horizon by Fran Wilde. I read and enjoyed the first two books last year, but I think either I overdid it and tried to read the series too quickly, or something came up, because I never made it through the first 100 pages of book 3 the first time around. I decided to start over and give it another try, about a year later. So far, enjoying it, so maybe I just needed a little distance.

QOTW: Actually, not really anything for the summer or the immediate future. We sometimes go on a road trip down the Oregon coast in September. But we're waiting anxiously to hear dates and specifics on next year's Star Wars Celebration, which is supposed to be in Anaheim sometime in 2020. If it's feasible for us to go, we might just skip the road trip this year, and save up our money for that trip next year.

Ooh, will you be visiting Powell’s when you’re in Portland?

I’m still reading Searching for Sylvie Lee. I like what I’ve read so far.

I recently discovered how to listen to audiobooks through my library and am looking forward to exploring the options.

Likely! It’s always on my want to do list :) I don’t really have convenient physical bookstores nearby, so Powell’s is where I splurge.

I only commented on last week's thread 4 days ago. So my only accomplishments are listening a bit more to Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens.

I have caught a nasty cold so I've been reading the quite dry book Applied Anatomy of Aerial Arts: An Illustrated Guide to Strength, Flexibility, Training, and Injury Prevention. It is written at a higher level and assumes more anatomy and physiology knowledge than I have. But it helps me fall asleep with this cold. Maybe later chapters will be more aerial and less anatomy.

I'm headed on vacation next weekend so I'm going to go look for a couple fluff romance novels I think. I have some on my GR TBR list that I've collected. To the library we go this week. That is a family reunion on a lake in northern NY so super relaxing. Fishing and hanging out with family that lives 400-800 miles away. It is an important week! We'll also celebrate my mom's 90th birthday while there since we're all together with just going out to dinner since she is adamant "No Party" because everyone she knows who has a 90th party then takes turn for bad health. We cannot convince her that it really doesn't work that way.

However, I want in on the question discussion! We have another vacation planned in July to visit Portland and Bend, Oregon. I definitely want to put Powell's on my list. We have about 2.5 days in Portland. We have some extended family on my husband's side that lives about 8-10 miles SW of Portland so we want to see them for sure. Our son moved to Bend so that is why we're going there too. I've never been to the PNW so looking forward to it.

When are you goin to Portland? It’s a fun town! Our might-as-well-be-brother lives out there so we generally go 1-2 times a year.

QOTW first, since it's the same every summer and easy to answer! We go to our cottage about four weeks of the school summer - not consecutively, but one week, then home for a bit, two weeks, then home for a bit, then the last week before school starts. Our cottage is about a three and a half hour drive away. We live a bit north of Toronto and our cottage is much closer to Ottawa. Before kids we did weekend trips, but it's a lot of effort for just two days now, lol! I love reading by the lake in the early morning hours, wrapped in a blanket and listening to the loons.

My reading times seem to be pretty sporadic these days, but I have finished A Wizard Of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin. I wasn't a fan of Onyx And Ivory (I, er, didn't finish that one) but I did enjoy A Wizard Of Earthsea. Her writing is interesting, the way her words ebb and flow had me feel like I was in a dream sequence the whole time.

I've also recently finished Brokedown Cowboy by Maisey Yates (I'm a sucker for modern western romances), Wild Hunger by Chloe Neill, and The Dragon heir by Cinda Williams Chima.

I commented late last week too, so all I have to report is still working on Knife of Dreams. I'm about halfway though. I've got a bunch of random stuff on hold with the library that should be arriving later this week, so next week's report should be a bit more diverse.

Sheri- hope you had fun at Cedar Point! My family used to go every other summer while visiting our grandparents' in Cleveland. It's one of my absolute favorite places on earth, and I have sooooo many good memories!

QOTW: laying low for the summer. We've got some pretty major work regarding clearing out a late family member's estate, so that will keep hubs and I busy. Plus, we're in bigtime saving mode, both in terms of money and time off work, for a big trip in December (Florida!!!!), so nothing too extravagant beyond that will be happening any time remotely soon. Hopefully we can get some camping or weekend getaways in though- summer in Alaska is something to truly be savored!

I did have fun at cedar point! We have season passes so I generally go about once a month and then a weekend trip for Halloweekends :)

I grew up in Buffalo and went to Cedar Point several times as a teenager. We now live about a 12 hour drive away but still go every couple of years for one of the Halloweekends. So much fun! Our now adult kids try to go if they can too.

We love roller coasters in general and CP does that best! This post just reminded me of a book review in the WSJ I read a couple weeks ago. I just put it on hold in my library. It is The Amusement Park: 900 Years of Thrills and Spills, and the Dreamers and Schemers Who Built Them.

In another thread here someone mentioned Half Upon A Time, and it peaked my interest. I borrowed it the other day and I just finished reading it. It was a fun book to read. Thanks!