Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

Hello bookish friends! Last weekend was so incredibly hot that I spent as much of the weekend indoors as possible (which also meant extra reading time)! We went bowling on Saturday and saw the new Spiderman movie on Sunday. School starts in less than 3 weeks, though, so I need to start gathering school supplies. And I finally enrolled my girl back in horseback riding lessons this week! She used to ride, but for various reasons we had to stop it a little over a year ago. She’s been begging to get back into it since then. She was quite sore the next day, but deliriously happy.

**Admin note: Just a quick reminder that the August group read of The Wife Between Us will start next Thursday!

Finished:

I finished SIX books this week! Five of them were audiobooks so clearly that’s been my jam lately.

The Wondering Years: How Pop Culture Helped Me Answer Life’s Biggest Questions by Knox McCoy. Knox is one of the hosts of The Popcast which is my favorite pop culture podcast. He and Jamie (the other host) have fantastic chemistry and always make me laugh. I knew I needed to read Knox’s book, and the obvious choice was to go with the audiobook (which he narrates). I enjoyed hearing the book in his voice! I'm using this for a book with "pop" in the title.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson – a charming little book involving mistaken identity, a down-on-your-luck governess, a night club singer with a soft heart and a whole host of zany characters. I remember seeing and enjoying the movie several years ago. This will be my book that takes place in a single day.

The Stepford Wives – this was a quick read. Kinda like when describing The Handmaids Tale, this is not a book I can say I enjoyed, but it’s a compelling story and I read it nearly in one sitting. This is my book that inspired a common phrase or idiom.

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny – book 3 in my reread of the Inspector Gamache series. This is my least favorite, I think, but it’s wonderful to revisit my favorite characters in the early years knowing what I know now about how they all evolve.

I Miss You When I Blink: Essays by Mary Laura Philpott – I don’t have much to say about this one. It was fine, it was good, but nothing from this book is sticking with me.

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman – very timely after Nadine’s QOTW last week. ALL my book club friends are talking about this book right now! I flew through this book in a little over a day. It's just charming and warm. I loved Nina and enjoyed the book. Nothing groundbreaking, but just cozy and fun. Also, the author was interviewed on Currently Reading Podcast episode 46.5 (labeled as a minisode).

Currently reading:

The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King. I am so excited about this book! Mr. Rogers was a touchstone of my childhood, and I can still clearly see images from his show. His words flood social media every time there is a human tragedy. "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping'." I don't know much about his personal life and am really looking forward to diving into this book. I just started it last night.

Question of the week:

What is the oldest book you've read this year, and how does it compare to other, more contemporary, books?

If you want to look at your publication dates on GR use a browser and go to “My Books”. On the left side of the page click on “Reading stats”. From here you can look at publication dates a few different ways:

1. To look at this year’s books only click on “view books from 2019” and it will only show you this year’s books. Then you can sort by date published to see the oldest (if date published isn’t showing at the top, you can add it by looking just above that and clicking “settings” to add it to your view).
2. If you want to see the oldest book you’ve read and recorded on Goodreads you can go back to your reading stats and, at the top, click “publication year”.


The oldest book I’ve read so far this year is Heidi, originally published in 1880. It did make me want to look to see the oldest book I’ve read and recorded on Goodreads. That would be The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault published in 1697. I know I’ve read older stuff like Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales and Shakespeare, but I don’t have those marked on Goodreads.

As for how older books compare to more contemporary books, I haven’t really given it a lot of thought before. I think that there are the obvious differences of language, culture and social norms. People have not always had the means to own a wide variety of books like so many of us do today. The books they had would have been very precious and read many, many times. Only the best of books could hold up over time to become our classics (well, in theory anyway). I wonder how many of our contemporary books will be available in 100 years.

I didn't even know today was Thursday. I clicked onto Goodreads and checked the notifications and I said hey, 7/25, that's today. Cool, tomorrow's Friday.

OK, now that we got that straigtened out:

I finished The White Ravenas my book about mythology. I don't recommend it. Not even at all.

I started Who Murdered Chaucer?: A Medieval Mystery as my book with a question in the title. So far I'd say it's kind of interesting, but a bit dry in places

QOTW: I'm too lazy to look up pub dates right now. But, I read Wuthering Heights for a book seen on TV and David Copperfield for reread of a favorite book. I'm not really sure how to answer about how they compare to more modern books. I love the classics, but it's apples to oranges.

Hey there! It was so hot last weekend that I dedicated a lot of time to reading; however, I'm a slow reader so only finished three books this week. I probably would have finished another if I didn't have two audio books going at once.

Finished:
The Silent Patient - I read this for a Book of the Month book club that is doing a summer reading challenge and for the Goodreads summer reading challenge. I didn't love it as much as everyone else, but I still gave it 4 stars.

The Arrangement - I had an ARC from NetGalley of this. I'm not using it for a challenge. This is about the sugar baby/sugar daddy lifestyle which isn't something I would normally read about, but it was intersting. 3.5 stars

Final Girls - I read this for my BOTM book club summer reading challenge. It was recommended by a lot of people in that group, but I didn't love it. It just moved so slow. 3 stars

Challenge Progress: no changes since last week
Regular Challenge - 34/40
Advanced Challenge - 6/10
Total Challenge - 40/50

Currently Reading:
China Rich Girlfriend - I'm listening to this, but had to take a break because I had another book become available that is due back sooner! I'll use it for prompt #11 - a book with an item of clothing or accessory on the cover.

Fangirl - this is the book that's due back sooner so I'm listening to this currently. I really like it! I'm using it for prompt #17 - a book set on a college or university campus.

Winter Flower - I got an ARC of this through BookSirens. I'm not using it for a challenge

Circe - I just started this last night. I'll be using it for prompt #12 - a book inspired by mythology, legend, or folklore.

QOTW - What is the oldest book you've read this year, and how does it compare to other, more contemporary, books?
The oldest book I read this year is 1984 which was published in 1949. I listened to the audio book which was actually published in 2007, but it's still the oldest on my list!

It's hard for me to compare this to more contemporary books because I listened to the audio book, and it was not good. I would have to read the actual book to be able to compare more, but there was definitely a different feel about it being an older story.

I was traveling for work this week and I did get some good reading time in. I only finished one book, but I got some good progress on others as well.

I finished Park Avenue Summer as my read a book during the season it is set. This was the last of my advanced prompts, so now I just need to finish the general prompts.

I am currently reading A Crown of Swords (character with a superpower), Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes (author from Asia), Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon (because of the moon landing anniversary), and The Flight of the Silvers (re-read because I can't remember what happened and I'm ready to read the sequel).

QOTW: My oldest book so far this year was Persuasion, which was published in 1817 and which was my re-read of a favorite book. The oldest book I've read since I started keeping track with goodreads is The Castle of Otranto which was published in 1764. I enjoy older books, but I can usually only do one at a time with breaks in between. Unlike modern books, where I can be reading four different books all at the same time and it's no problem.

Whilst the weather here is what I'd call hot, we're not getting the ridiculous temperatures like London. My office doesn't have air-con so I'm not sure I'd cope...

I just realised it's nearly time to do the N.E.W.Ts. part of the Magical Readathon. I'll probably spend August focusing on that and not trying to also tick off other challenge prompts as I've had a few duff books recently and I'd just like to read a few books just because.

I finished Sadie for amateur detective (and ATY GR Choice) and it was sooo good. I loved the full cast audiobook and the podcast bits were really believable as podcasts.

Finished King of Scars which, after a lot of dithering, I decided to use for set in a convent/monastery/etc. Whilst only a portion is in a convent, there's another storyline involving a monk and there is a lot about that world's religion, so it's close enough for a prompt I'm not keen on. I'm a bit annoyed that I read this out of order, I thought it just followed on from the Grisha trilogy so would be OK to read before Crooked Kingdom, but it is a sequel to both.

I'm currently listening to Warcross for LitRPG and feeling very underwhelmed. I know a few people in previous check-ins thought they might just be over YA, but I read plenty of other YA and this one just seems like it's not trying very hard. Very insubstantial and does a lot of exposition rather than letting the reader work things out. It reads a tad young for an 18-year-old character. Oh well, at least it was free from the library and it'll be finished today.

Still reading Trinity for ATY (historical figure).

PS: 36/52 | ATY: 37/52 | GR: 76/100

QOTW:
My oldest book this year is Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier (1935). I don't tend to read many pre-20th century classics. The language is fine once I get into them but a lot of the subject matter doesn't appeal to me. Maybe it's because I like reading science fiction and about STEM subjects more than contemporary stories about normal life, although I think modern writing can be more challenging of social norms, whilst in the past they had to worry about scandal.

Wow, I realized I could shuffle some things around, and I’m now at 49.967 books complete! (Just waiting for that last issue of Paper Girls, Vol. 1 to come out next week!)

Finished

Ghost Stories - Peter Washington -Two books that share the same title - not thrilled with this, but there were a few stories worth checking out.

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine -A debut novel - Loved it, loved-loved the Audible version, and now I’m embarking on a jag-read of all the titles from my “antisocial loner learns about love/friendship” thread - thanks for all the recommendations!

The Sweet Potato Recipe Book: 30 Easy Ideas for Sweet Potato -A book with SALTY, SWEET, BITTER, or SPICY in the title - I was feeling really cranky about this prompt, and looked around for something easy to read. Kindle Unlimited had this cookbook for free, so I thought why not check it out? It was dreadful, but in the most entertaining way possible. I slogged through the whole thing so I could write a snarky review.

Currently Reading

The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village - More on the theme of a lonely person finding friendship. So far so good, and the audiobook narrator is really good.

The Wild Dead - even though Bannerless now fulfills my cli-fi book, I’m keen to find out whodunnit.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - I somehow missed this as a kid, and now that the movie’s coming out, I decided to try it. The stories are pretty middling, but it’s true what they say - the artwork really sticks with you.

Last night I started Into the Drowning Deep, which seems like it might be just what I want right now - a little trashy, but atmospheric and fun.

QOTW
The oldest book this year is Pride and Prejudice, and the oldest overall is The Odyssey. They're good foils - one strikes me as completely fresh and relatable (though you have to accept the outdated sexual mores), while the other is one of the most influential stories in history, and definitely has a strong sense of the era in which it was written - it's very different from how we tell stories today.

I think Sturgeon's Law applies to all of literary history - 90% of everything is crap. It's just that stories that survive a long time tend to be higher quality, or at least have serious impact on the course of literature. So it sometimes seems like old things are better. Though I flipping hated Jane Eyre, so even venerated classics can get a lot of side-eye from me.

Challenge Progress: 38/50

Completed:
Where the Crawdads Sing: I didn't love it. Part of the problem was that I started with the audiobook. I absolutely hated the narrator's voice and her lisping characterizations of Kya. I understand that she's shy, but this was ridiculous. Things got better once I switched over to the print version.

Lock Every Door: Riley Sager does it again! I don't want to say too much, but... the twist? Yeah, I totally bought it. The Bartholomew was a haven for people of wealth and privilege, and they abused it. Yep.

The Wedding Party: I loved this one! I identified with both Maddie (perceived as bitchy, but it's mostly must for show) and Theo (sometimes pedantic and thoroughly caught up in his work) and was happy to see them build a loving and accepting relationship. It was also great to get to experience Alexa and Drew's wedding and catch up with Nik and Carlos.

20th Century Ghosts: Wonderfully diverse collection of short stories. Horrific, ghostly, unsettling, nostalgic, chilling... all of these terms can be used to describe Joe Hill's work. The only I needed more of here was MORE. Several stories were tantalizing bits that just begged to be further developed. I hope they will be. (A ghost story)

Currently Reading: 1984 (a book that inspired a common phrase or idiom), Hope Never Dies (a book that features an amateur detective), My Lovely Wife, The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth, The Farm, If I Only Had a Duke

QOTW: I'm currently reading 1984 which was published in 1949 and I've finished two books published in 1966 (Jubilee and In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash).

Certainly language and social mores are different in older novels, but classics endure because they address universal themes. Just think of Pride and Prejudice and how many times its been adapted, rewritten, and even parodied.

But think of how many novels have been lost to history. They weren't important enough, popular enough, or their themes have fallen out of favor. And it seems like there's been an explosion in publishing over the last 20 years. So many niche genres! I wonder which of our current novels will stand the test of time?

Happy Thursday! 43/50

Completed:

12.) Legend of the Knights of St. John in The Maltese Goddess by Lyn Hamilton was a nice fluffy cozy involving the Knights and quite a bit about the history of the island nation. It actually made me want to vacation there. The book was written in the 1990s and I found the plot and resolution enjoyable.

The CBS Murders by Richard Hammer was a quick e book read. It’s a true crime from the 1980s featuring embezzling and stolen diamonds. CBS staff were murdered when they wandered upon the crime in progress.

For my European reads, I really enjoyed Rex Stuart’s The Black Mountain. I’ve never read a Nero Wolfe and am really appreciating the old charm of a book written in the 1950s. Modern historical fiction just can’t do justice to the differences. I loved that I actually had to look up a definition for this book. What does that say about my reading that I had to look up a word from a pulp fiction detective novel written over 70 years ago? The word was amanuensis, a literary assistant, in particular one who takes dictation or copies manuscripts.

Beach House for Rent by Mary Alice Monroe that I picked up when there was a lag in the Interlibrary loan program. It turned out to be the book club book for a local library. I’ve never gone to an in person book club and I’m debating attending next month, since I so recently completed this one.

In Progress:

I just started The Day of the Pelicanby Katherine Paterson last night for my Serbian read.

QOTW Oldest book read this year

I love old books. I put together my notes through the week, so my commentary above on Rex Stuart’s detective novel The Black Mountain reiterates my love for the older books. I think it was harder to get published and I find the plots a bit more complex. The book has to have staying power to still be enjoyed today!
Anyhow, the oldest book I read was my music read, The Pianist: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939–45 – published in 1946. That was a hard book. Wladislaw wrote his autobiography of hiding from the Nazis in Poland. Amazing story and well written, but it was just so tragic…..

Finished
Austenland by Shannon Hale (retelling of a classic). The movie is better. I seriously have nothing else to say about this book except that I think you should watch the movie.

Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?: Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the Fight for the Right to Vote by Tina Cassidy (book with a question in the title). I'm interested in the subject matter, but the writing was dry. It's a shame such a compelling story sounded so dull.

Reading
The Testament of Loki by Joanne Harris
Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

QOTW
I've read Anna Karenina (published 1877), and I'm reading Les Miserables (published 1862) right now. Curiously, both of these books have strong political messages about social welfare. Neither Tolstoy or Hugo are subtle about it either. I read The Count of Monte Cristo (published 1844) last year. Dumas is more subtle, but there is still a theme of how the state treats individuals unjustly. In that regard, there are common themes between the classics and modern books I've read this year. Maybe because all of the classics I've read recently are translations, I haven't noticed much of a difference in the language like I do when I read English language classics.

Long and tiring week here. Going to be really glad when school starts again and the library isn’t serving as an unpaid daycare for all the kids in town...

Books read this week:

Elevated -- a YA book about a society where almost everyone gets super powers (so could work for “book about someone with a super power”). Not great, and the love triangle (or square, really) was a bit obnoxious, but entertaining enough.

This Is How You Lose the Time War -- holy freaking crow, this was such an AMAZING book! The very premise sounds like science fiction (two time-traveling soldiers in a war between two timelines fall in love with each other), but it’s written like sheer poetry, and just sings with every page. I can’t rec this one hard enough!

Starman: The Truth Behind The Legend Of Yuri Gagarin -- the biography of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. Figured I should read something space-themed, even if it’s about the USSR’s space program and not the Apollo 11 mission… Fascinating reading, if a little dry at times.

Space Dumplins -- graphic novel. I’m not sure WHAT the heck I just read -- this was a very BUSY and colorful graphic novel, but very convoluted in both plot and art. There’s a LOT of religious symbolism and social/political allegory going on, which is all probably going to fly over kids’ heads, but the potty humor and childish art and antics are probably going to turn off a lot of adults. It comes across as a graphic novel that tries to appeal to all parties involved, but doesn’t really succeed.

DNF:

Kill the Boy Band -- maybe dark comedy just isn’t my thing… but I just couldn’t get into this. It promised to be a “fandom” novel, but it seems like there’s a sizable divide between fans of fictional franchises and fans of bands. Maybe you have to be a band/musician fan to get into this book… *shrug*

Currently Reading:

Carpe Demon
Sleeping Giants
Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 1

QOTW:

The oldest book I read this year so far is Gulliver's Travels, published in 1726. I have a love-hate relationship with classics in general -- often they're fascinating to read as milestones in literature, but I have a tricky time getting through the archaic language. And with Gulliver, I also had to fight through some incredible racism, sexism, nationalism, and other vices of the times that were just uncomfortable. (Though seeing as "Gulliver's Travels" was a satire, it's hard to know how much of this was intentional...)

I suppose it's an issue with all literature, though -- it's a product of its time, and is going to reflect the attitudes of that time, for better or for worse.

Hello fellow book fans.
4 days back at work so far and feels like I have never been away. SSDD. 3 teachers quit in the first 2 days. Yeah it's a challenge but they're just kids.

Finished 2 books
All the Bright Places which was OK and was one I had to read as it was chosen for an assignment by one of my psychology students. It shows suicide from the perspective of the person and those left behind.
The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark which was one of my favourites from childhood.
Nothing for the challenge.

QOTW
The oldest book this year is On Natural Selection which is from 1859. The oldest overall since I started on GR is Utopia first published in 1516. Both were much easier to read than I was expecting and both were enjoyable. I have another 9 in the 1800s and Shakespeare from the 1600s as I have started rereading those as I want to see what they are like when they are not part of my English Lit course and I am not forced to read them if I want to pass.

Hi all- has to return to work after being off for a week. Oh well. In the past week I finished:

Storm Front. This was ok. Not as good as the I expected but I’ll try a few more.

Welcome to the Jungle. I liked this better. I read both for PS 2016 prompts of a book and its prequel.

A Closed and Common Orbit and Record of a Spaceborn Few to finish out the trilogy. I really enjoyed these books. I also used them to complete the PS 2015 list. I just couldn’t get into the last book of the trilogy I had started for that, so I traded them out.

The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir. This was an odd book. The author took a murder and the background of the person convicted, and used it as a prompt to look back at her own life. It was my audiobook of the week and was pretty good.

I am now done with POpSugar 2015 and ATY. I am at 55/56 for PS 2019 and 27/50 for PS 2016. I am still pretty much reading what I want and seeing if it fits into old prompts.

I am currently reading:

Of Ash and Spirit. I just started this today but so far I’m enjoying it (in all of the 12 pages I’ve read so far!).

Head Games which is really odd but I’m enjoying.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. Which is this weeks audiobook.

The Door which I’m enjoying but I can only read so much of at one time. And it’s slooooow reading!

QOTW

My oldest book so far this year is A Midsummer Night's Dream from 1595. What I find with it and the other older “classics” is that I have the problem I having with this weeks read of The door. I can only read them in short bursts and even in the short bursts the reading is really slow. Makes it take a long time to get through the book.

Hi all!

Pretty low key week for me as my husband was out of town on a conference and it was just too hot to get out and do anything. It's usually hot for us so we have A/C and all the things needed to keep cool so not so much of a problem for us. I read two books this week. Not quite out of my slump at all but feeling good to have at least got through two.

First, I read Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals. I had listened to Rachel Hollis' other book and actually enjoyed her voice and the majority of her advice/words despite us having some different takes on a few things. I enjoyed this one. I would have enjoyed it more at the beginning of last year when I had specific goals in mind for me to hit but overall I thought it was a decent motivational book.

And lastly, I read Minimalist Home: How to Declutter, Simplify Your Life for Better Calm and Focus. Frankly, I'm not sure why I keep reading minimalism books. I've read more than my share and I know I'm never going to be a hard core minimalist, although I have taken on aspects of it. As someone who has read multiple books on this topic, this one was boring. It read like someone just chose a trendy topic and decided to crack out a book on it. Lots of parts of it were very list like. I read "A minimalist is someone who..." so many times.

I haven't gotten around to actually marking these as finished yet or figuring out if they fit anywhere on the challenges I'm doing.

QOTW:
The oldest book I've read so far this year is Lady Chatterly's Lover which was published in 1927 and the oldest I've ever read is Pride and Prejudice which was 1813. I tend to avoid older books in general because I feel like the ones that are easier to find (which I suppose have withstood the test of time) focus much more on the writing than creating an entertaining plot. It seems like you have to read through a lot of beautiful but unrelated text to get to the plot where not too much happens (speaking more in the case of Lady Chatterly here). I guess I just like my books to be easier to get through. Not to say that there wouldn't be an older classic with beautiful writing that I couldn't appreciate and enjoy, I just prefer simpler books with a more modern language that focuses more on plot.

Good Morning,

The weather right now is so beautiful, that haven't made a ton of progress this week and spent a bit more time outside (except last weekend when it was too hot).

Finished:

In a Dark, Dark Wood for book becoming a movie in 2019. First, I'm not sure if this is actually becoming a movie this year. I saw it on a list at the end of last year but kept it because I did want to read it...*big sigh* Honestly I'm disliking this book more and more every day. I gave it two stars and I might actually be changing it to one when all is said and done. It's not scary, it's barely a mystery and I saw the "twists" coming from a mile away. Nothing in it surprised me at all and on top of it all, the main character is an idiot throughout the whole thing. I was glad when it was over.

Currently Reading:

My Best Friend's Exorcism - I'm not sure which prompt I'll fit it into yet but I'm liking this one.

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books for book set on college or university campus. This might be a little fast and loose for this prompt but they are college students and some aspects of the book take place on a university campus.

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald for novel based on a true story. I'm liking this a lot. But I will say it does make me hate F. Scott Fitzgerald. I've never really looked into their background before and I know this is from Zelda's POV but darn he's kind of crappy. So far he's not a completely horrible human being but he's not great either.

QOTW:

My oldest books so far this year is And Then There Were None which was first published in 1939. It's very different from the murder mysteries that I read that are newer but not in a bad way. I can see where current murder mysteries developed from reading books from Agatha Christie.

We're in a "cold front" in central Texas right now, which is pretty exciting. I'm about to get outside for a jog which is usually unbearable in the summer, even in the morning.

This week I finally finished My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts on kindle, which was really good. There were a few points I didn't completely agree on, but I'm interested in applying some of this knowledge through the work I do with my anti-racism groups.

I listened to A Woman Is No Man which was good, but really frustrating to listen to. I've read various books from female Muslim authors and it's just devastating what their cultures do to them. I am supportive of Muslim communities, but it's really hard to know how many of them treat women. :(

We read Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen: A Novel for another book club I'm in, and oh how we all looooved this one! The protagonist was amazing and the story was captivating. It was great to get this glimpse into this part of our country's history that isn't told as much as it should be.

I also finished Trust Exercise for the ToB summer camp competition. The first half was totally blah, but the second half was much more interesting. Still not a great book, but decent.

I'm currently reading Black Leopard, Red Wolf and Karamo: My Story of Embracing Purpose, Healing, and Hope.

QOTW: I had to read "Jane Eyre" (1847) for a book club this year and was really dreading it. Sure enough, I hated it. It's really difficult for me to get into "old" writing (I think my cutoff decade is around the 1920s?). Plus I thought the main character was annoying and the plot was boring. Oh well, I know I'm in the minority on this, and that's ok.

Feeling pretty bleah today, but hopefully that's just because I started exercising again, and I'm in that stage of moving from 'chronic illness' to 'reasonably healthy' where I feel worse before I feel better. I had a decently good reading week (despite only being able to devote 7 1/2 hours to the 24in48 readathon last weekend), and may get even more reading in this week if I don't start to feel better...

Finished Reading:
I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Five stars.

The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep A fun story with lots of literary references. Tempting to use it for 'set on university', but only a couple scenes actually were set there, and I already had a re-read lined up I knew I'd enjoy for that prompt (see below).

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 25 & Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 26 A bit less cooking than I expected in the first one (and a bit more over the top 'my clothes fall off when I eat good food' in the second one), but overall about what I expected from the continuing the Food Wars series. I have another three of these through interlibrary loan that I need to read approximately... today.

Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life While I'm not sure if I agree with everything she says, I still ending up rating this book five stars because I SO appreciated the points she made in general.

Currently Reading:
Love Is a Mix Tape This is overdue at the library, and kind of slow going the way I've been reading it while listening to the music mentioned, but I'm enjoying it too much to just return it. I'll have to check out his more karaoke centered book that someone pointed out to me in last weeks thread too! (I've never technically done real karaoke, but I've really enjoyed wii karaoke games, and renting out a private karaoke room for my last birthday.)

Gaudy Night My re-read for 'set in university'. Less Peter Wimsey than usual in this book, but getting Harriet Vane's perspective is enjoyable--it's very interesting to see how much tension around the idea of female scholars was portrayed in the book that went over my head in my early teens. This is my last book for the Popsugar challenge! (I realized I could fill the question prompt with a free choose-your-own-adventure book I read in addition to the main one for that prompt.)

The Shadow Land Not far enough in to really know what this book is about, but I'm enjoying it, and the fact that I get to check Bulgaria off my read around the world (settings) list is a nice bonus.

Also, The Perfectly Imperfect Home: How to Decorate & Live Well, which I'm browsing through, but don't have marked on goodreads yet since I don't plan to read every word to count it for my reading challenge.

DNF:

Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave I liked what she said about style, but disliked the actual look of the spaces in the pictures.

The Wanderers I might have stuck with this one through some minor annoyances about the story/characters if I'd been loving it otherwise, but even the parts I Iiked were just okay.

QOTW:
The oldest book I've read this year is The Holy War from 1682. I found it hard to read, and not in a good way, and since it was such an early representative of allegory (the first?), a lot of obvious things were over explained. On the other hand, I thought the actual content was amazingly good, and mostly worth slogging through the writing to experience.

The next oldest book I've read this year is Wives and Daughters from 1866, which is more representative of most of the classics I read: harder and slower to read than most modern books, but in a mostly satisfying and enjoyable way.

The very oldest book I've logged on goodreads is The Art of War from 500BC, which is difficult to even compare in style, because it's been translated, and is written more as a series of proverbs or statements than with narrative flow.

I only partially agree with the idea that the classics we have around are the best books from earlier times, because so much of what gets recognition and publishing space is not simply 'books people kept reading' but 'books academics decided were worth reading and teaching'. And books that are important to the history of literature are only sometimes also the books that are most enjoyable to read.

That's partly my own interest in obscure books though--I also start and DNF a number of mediocre, self published contemporary books in order to find a few amazing ones no one else has ever heard of. And for some unknown reason, my favorite classics by the famous authors are almost always their less popular/famous books.

Good morning all! It's been a while since I updated. As the year goes on, I read less books for the challenge because the prompts that are left are more difficult or specific to fill. Since my last update, I've only read 3 books for the challenge, bringing me to 40/50:

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse for recommended by a celebrity you admire (Hugh Jackman). Very good book. It has Buddhist elements but the thoughts and the journey of the character can be applied to any brand of spirituality.

Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor for A Ghost Story. This might be a bit of a stretch, but technically it is a story about ghosts. I may try to actually get a ghost story that is more keeping with the feel of this prompt sometime in October.

Bitter Harvest by Ann Rule for Bitter in the title. If anyone is having trouble with this prompt, this true crime book on audio is only about 4 hours and is pretty good!

QOTW:
The oldest book I've read this year was A Midsummer Night's Dream, but I listened to it on audio and play productions on audio don't work for me. The oldest book I read, not listened to, was Siddhartha.

The first thing that comes to mind when comparing older books to contemporary, is books published in the early 1900's or before assume their readers are somewhat intelligent and don't shy away from metaphors or big words. It feels like a lot of contemporary authors are writing to appeal to the masses so they sell more books, rather than writing for the sake of having a story to tell.

This isn't necessarily a negative thing, as some of my favorite books have been published in the last decade. And some of my favorite books were published centuries ago.

whoa it's Thursday and I haven't finished any books OOPS. Kind of a hectic transitional time at work atm; hopefully things calm down in August.

Currently reading:

Seven Blades in Black (published in 2019, superpowers) - Basically a swords-and-sorcery Kill Bill, with a lot of influence from Westerns. Pretty fun so far.


QotW:
The oldest book I've read this year is Penance, from 2009. >__>

I pretty much got my fill of classics/older books as a literature major in college. These days I almost exclusively read modern stuff. I'm not sure why classics often don't click with me...it's not just the language, although that's significant. I also tend to enjoy modern pacing/characterization more. Particularly characterization: if I'm describing a classic character for an essay or something, I can come up with things to say about their personality, but they often don't come alive to me while reading in the same way.

The oldest book I have logged on goodreads is The Journey to the West, Volume 1 (1592), which I had mixed feelings about. I LOVED Sun Wukong - everything he did was amazing and hilarious and over-the-top in the best way. But the monk was boring as mud, and the rest of the cast was severely underdeveloped, and I never cared about the pilgrimage. The best part was the (extended) opening before the pilgrimage starts and it's just The Sun Wukong Show being boisterous and screwing things up in Heaven.

Oops, it's been a few weeks since I checked in! I will just focus on what I actually read in the past week. Since I had a cross-country trip in the past week, I managed to get through a few books on the plane.

I am now at 29/50 for the challenge, mostly because I keep reading things that aren't on my list! I could probably make other things fit the prompts, but since my goal is to read some things outside of what I normally gravitate to, I am still trying to work through my planned list.

Finished

Seed to Harvest - This is actually four shorter books combined into one volume. I had previously read Wild Seed, so skipped over that one. I used Mind of my Mind to check off "character with a superpower." And then read Clay's Ark and the Patternmaster books just because they were there. This is not my favorite Octavia Butler series but I still enjoyed it.

The Overdue Life of Amy Byler - Did not use for a PS prompt. This was a fun, quick read that I read straight through on the plane. It's funny, there is a romance, and it deals with themes of parenting and family relationships.

Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions - This made a good companion piece after reading Lost Children Archive the week prior. Also not for a PS prompt.

Trust Exercise - Read for Camp ToB. Like Lauren, I did not enjoy this that much. Parts of it are very tedious and there are a lot of uncomfortable/inappropriate relationships depicted between adults and teens. The switch halfway through was interesting but not enough to make the book super enjoyable to read.

Currently Reading

Thin Air - I will probably actually finish this today. Pretty much your basic detective/private investigator mystery thriller. There are two murders (one past one present) that we're working through.

At the library waiting for me, I have Binti, for a book set in space, and American Spy, for the next Camp ToB title.

Question of the Week

This was super interesting to see how much my reading is skewed toward new fiction! I guess that is normal. My oldest book this year is To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) and my oldest logged on Goodreads is Jane Eyre (1847). The oldest I have read ever is probably the Canterbury Tales (c. 1400)?

Hello all,

Summer is usually a slower reading time for me as the garden calls louder in my head. My Tomatoes, peas, carrots and Potatoes are growing wonderfully especially with all the wetter weather we had in June and halfway through July.

I did finish the one book I have been slowly reading Harvest Song I used it for the prompt imaginary or extinct creature as it is full of fae, dragons, vampires etc...

And so I have started the last book in the series Blood Bonds I am sad the series is ending but after 21 books it has run it's course.

QOTW

The oldest book I have read this year is 1989, most of the ones I have read this year are really new.

The oldest book I have read is The Odyssey I have the The Illiad on my shelf at home but have yet to pick it up.

I always enjoy the older books, as the writing is usually so different, I always find I have to read a few pages then stop and think about it at first to wrap my head around it. I also find the conversation between characters so much richer in detail.

One older book that I just could not wrap my head around is Moby-Dick, or, the Whale even after many a try.

Happy Reading Everyone

This week I finished:

Eat the Damn Muffin: Confidence for Every Body: A friend from college wrote this and she has a lot of great ideas, so I read this book for a self-improvement prompt from a past challenge.

Bound by Family, Bound by Desire, Bound by Vengeance, and Bound by Affliction: I felt like a week of guilty pleasure reads and that is exactly what I got. I’m a sucker for a bad boy romance book. I think I was a criminal in a previous life. I am not only reading the 5th book in the series now, I PAID MONEY for this series, which is not something I generally do, and I regret nothing.

Question of the week:

What is the oldest book you've read this year, and how does it compare to other, more contemporary, books?

The oldest book I’ve read this year, according to Goodreads is Aesop's Fables. It’s hard to judge how it compares to contemporary books, because it is such a unique book. Overall, I think the most interesting thing about reading a really old book is the dialogue.

This week I finished 3 books (and DNFed one), 1 for this Challenge, so I am now 45/50.

I’ve been so focused on my upcoming vacation, and all the little chores we have to do before we leave, that I forgot about CHECK IN!

I used to tie dye shirts and other stuff every year, but I haven’t in a few years. My kids have been bugging me to get back to it, they “need” new shirts. Finallly this week was the eleventh hour, either I do it now or we don’t have any new tie dye for our annual shore vacation. I let the dyed shirts sit for two days before rinsing them - tonight is the Big Reveal! And THAT is why I forgot about check in!! It was sooo much fun to get back to dyeing, and I’m so excited to see how all my creations turn out, it’s all I’ve been thinking about.

My mother and my daughters and I are going up to Montreal this weekend, and then driving down to the NJ shore for a week and a half. This was my mother’s idea, and I’m never doing back-to-back trips like this again, it’s too stressful!

In Montreal we will definitely be visiting the planetarium and eating at least once at Juliette & Chocolat. Not sure what else we are doing. I’m kind of hoping my mom has a plan.

My library woes continue. They got Overdrive working again, which is great (but I have another Overdrive account w NYPL so that wasn’t a huge deal for me), and yesterday I was able to get the online catalog to open, but I could not access my lists of holds and books checked out. But today again the online catalog is unavailable. I’m not sure if I should just return all the library books I have checked out, or trust that I WILL be able to renew them online soon.

finished:
Sweet Little Lies by Caz Frear - this was a decent mystery but a very annoying protagonist / detective, so I did not like it. At all. But it does check off “sweet in the title” for me!

The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden - I enjoyed this, but thought it was a bit too long, with too much repetition in the actions (Vasya faces a threat, Vasya discovers a new magical ability, Vasya eliminates the threat, rinse & repeat...). It was a satisfying ending to a great series, though. Since the core of the book takes place during spring & summer, I decided not to use this for AtY’s “related to cold” category, because ...

Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North by Blair Braverman - this memoir was different, I’m not sure how I felt about it. She’s a great writer and a great person but she found herself in a lot of uncomfortable situations with absolute shit human beings, so reading it was very ... uncomfortable. This checked off “cold” for AtY.

DNF:
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell - I tried to read this for “seen being read on TV” (Joe was reading it in the miniseries You). I managed 1% of it, and decided I did not want to read this book. Joe is a snooty psychopath, after all, and maybe I don’t want to work too hard to read books he reads.

I saw someone reading The Island of Doctor Moreau in the Avengers movie, and even though I love SFF, I’ve never read a book by Wells, and it’s short, annnnd NYPL had a copy of the ebook available, so I checked that out!

(I’m very thankful that NYPL’s system has stayed up and running while my local library system crashed.)


QOTW
I don’t read many older books, I find they are often too slow and wordy for my tastes, I miss a lot of social references since I’m not a historian, and the humor is so gentle that it’s not very funny and the “adventures” are so tame that they don’t hold my interest. The oldest novel I’ve read this year is from 1940.

This year so far I’ve read:
- A book of Heraclitus fragments, which Goodreads has dated “-500” (close enough, I guess - he died in 475 BC). The big difference with this book is that no complete work of his exists, so it’s just a guess as to what he was really talking about. I’ve always liked Heraclitus, reading his stuff is like reading a book of haiku.

- Shakespeare - for the “idiom” category, I read Twelfth Night, (1601) This is also the only play I’ve read this year, so I can’t fairly compare it to any other books.

- C. P. Cavafy: Collected Poems, (1935), but this is a recent translation so I’m not sure it’s fair to call this book old. And anyway, it’s poetry, which makes it unlike 90% of what I read.

- Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler (1940). I LOVE Chandler! His writing style is so acerbic and sarcastic, back before sarcasm was common in fiction. His books were the vanguard, and all other noir is following in his footsteps. (Okay there was Hammett too, but I don’t like his writing as much.). Chandler’s books feel both modern and dated. There is some casual sexism and racism and classism that you don’t find in modern books, and the slang is quite different.

I do have Villette by Charlotte Brontë (1853) checked out, I will start this audiobook as soon as I finish my current audiobook (the VERY EXCELLENT Children of the Storm), so if you’d asked this question next month I would have a different answer!

Really busy last week and only completed one

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro how had I never read this before. Not sure where I'm slotting this in (ATY 1000 books before you die?) but it was a 5 star read for me.

Currently reading:

Oryx and Crake (probably cli-fi) but I've owned it forever. How have I not read it? So good... but slow going because I want to savor every word. Margaret Atwood can write!

QOTW: I usually read something old in the challenge but I'm not sure I have this year.

LOL, and as it turns out it was the oldest book on my entire shelf As You Like It by William Shakespeare. I've not read many of the comedies and thought I'd give some a go (for this and the ATY challange) but the comedies don't hold up as well for me as the tragedies and the historical plays because humor can be so timely and topical and if you need the joke explained...

But in general I love an old book. I love a new book. I just really love books.

"But in general I love an old book. I love a new book. I just really love books."

I am with you on that Brandy

Hi all! Not a great week in terms of reading since I have The Way of Kings going basically every waking moment. I'm trying to finish the audiobook before it's due back to the library in 5 days. Now I see why there are hundreds of holds on it--45.5 hours of audio takes DEDICATION to finish in 3 weeks!

I did manage to read:

The Thief: I picked this up because I heard the sequel is absolutely amazing. I did like this too. The worldbuilding is more detailed than in most YA, which I really appreciate.

Akata Witch: this was so fun!! I loved the juju system and Sunny and all the other characters. I'll definitely read the next one.

The Hating Game: Inhaled this one. I'm such a sucker for the enemies-to-lovers trope, but I didn't find the ending super satisfying.

Currently reading:
Codename Villanelle
Wide Sargasso Sea
The Way of Kings (audio)
Under the Pendulum Sun

QOTW: The oldest book I've read this year is Moby-Dick, or, the Whale, published in 1851. I found it soothing but not enjoyable, if that makes any sense, but that's less a judgment on books of yore than a judgment on that particular book.

The oldest book I've ever read is The Confessions of St. Augustine, which had a pub date listed sometime in the 3rd or 4th century. It skewed my publication year graph way too much though, so I took it off. The oldest book that's still on there is Candide, published in 1759.

Hello everyone! I'm at 37/50 on the challenge, so things are ticking along for me.
This week I finished:
The Moonstone--This is my second Wilkie Collins book in two years, and I loved it! Now that I've read the two most well-known ones, though, which should I do next? Any Collins experts out there who would like to advise me?
City of Heavenly Fire--welp, I finished the series. Extremely underwhelming.
My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel--fun and so silly. I don't feel a burning desire to read more choosable path books, but it was a fun experience.

Currently reading:
The Ghost Bride--I'm only 25% of the way through, and this story has already taken some unexpected turns, which is refreshing.
Cutting for Stone--Only 60 pages in, and I'm already halfway in love with it. This is exactly the meaty book I was hoping for.

QOTW: my oldest book from this year so far is Ivanhoe (1819). I very much enjoy an older book, but this one was a good example of the problems with them. The antisemitism was a lot to deal with, particularly as the narrator spent so much time congratulating themselves on being less antisemitic than Middle Ages society. No, bruh, no congratulations are earned, you're still awful.

Lauren wrote: "We're in a "cold front" in central Texas right now, which is pretty exciting. I'm about to get outside for a jog which is usually unbearable in the summer, even in the morning.

This week I finall..."

Can we send you some heat back to Texas please? We can't cope with it here in the UK!

Hi everyone. I feel like I'm melting! It's the hottest day of the year so far so of course the air con broke down at work and my train took an extra 45 minutes to get home than it normally does so I'm currently laying directly underneath my ceiling fan, trying to cool down!

This week I finished Fingersmith. Where do you even start with this book? It's hard to review without spoiling it. I will say that I connected with Maud's POV a lot more than Sue's. Sue felt a bit 2D to me *shrugs* (view spoiler)[I also felt like I couldn't detect any genuine feelings for Maud from Sue but maybe that was just because I didn't connect with the character in general? (hide spoiler)]

Currently reading: The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter because I was obsessed with Grace Darling when I was about 10 (still am a bit) and The King Must Die because I was also obsessed with Greek mythology as a kid too (also, still am). Unfortunately I am not enjoying either so they might be DNFs for me

QOTW: My oldest book this year is Les Misérables but I am technically still reading Ivanhoe (even though I haven't picked it up in two months). The latter is a lot more dated (and very racist) than the former so I think it all depends

Sarah wrote: "Lauren wrote: "We're in a "cold front" in central Texas right now, which is pretty exciting. I'm about to get outside for a jog which is usually unbearable in the summer, even in the morning.

Thi..."

Oh we're still getting our share. It was in the '60s for a minute but will continue to be in the upper '90s for the rest of the week (which is decent, for July). The sun was already starting to sizzle on my jog this morning. I think Texans are just supposed to be grateful any day it's under 103... :/

Finished

Someone to Love - I read this book for the two titles with the same name prompt. If it wasn't for the challenge I probably wouldn't have finished it. It is a story about a teenager with bulimia. I personally have never dealt with bulimia, but I have with depression and the spiral of self-loathing in this book was pretty intense for me. I can't recommend it to anyone who has issues with eating disorders, cutting, sexual assault, or depression.

The Interrupted Tale - a much lighter book from the one described above. It is the forth in the Incorrigibles series by Maryrose Wood.

Reading

Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing 'Hoax' - For the Astrology term in the title prompt.

QOTW

The oldest book read this year was The Odyssey followed by the The Tempest. I think old books give a window into a different world we can never be a part of.
The oldest book I've ever read is The Epic of Gilgamesh. It is also a favorite of mine for how different it is from other epics like The Odyssey. (view spoiler)[ For example, our protagonist is introduced as the king of Ur, a despot, rapist, and murderer. In the Odyssey, while the main character is a conman and a murder, the poem seems to excuse him for his actions. I don't feel the The Epic of Gilgamesh does that in the same way. Also, Gilgamesh fails in his quest to live forever while Odysseus succeeds in returning home and taking back his house from the suitors. (hide spoiler)]

Hi everybody! Last week I was on vacation, so I read a whole bunch and did not check in. Then of course, my husband and I caught colds on the way home and have spent the last week sleeping. So a two week check in for me, but really all of these are from last week because I accomplished a whole lot of nothing this week.

The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World: pretty good biography of a guy I knew nothing about

Hope Never Dies: Do you need a silly buddy cop spoof with Obama and Biden solving a mystery? Of course you do! Very funny, I miss them.

The Word Is Murder: This was kind of disappointing, mainly because I didn't like Anthony or Hawthorne. I'll keep an eye out for his books in the future because I really did love Magpie Murders but I'm going to skip out on this series.

Midnight at the Electric: I was worried this would be too 'YA' for me, but I found it had a lot of crossover appeal. Very thoughtful book.

Homegoing: Well dang. Y'all were right. That's a good book.

Sonnets: I got a cheap copy of Shakespeare's Sonnets at a B&N a while back with the Shakespeare prompt in mind. Finally finished them, can't say I'll ever pick it up again.

I also DNF'd a couple last week.
The Coffin Trail: I just wasn't feeling it.
Wolf Winter: Wasn't liking the writing style.
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: Flavia de Luce is one of the worst kids I have come across in a long time; how anyone can stand her I don't know. I tried, knowing how many people like this series, but I just couldn't force myself to read any more about that snotty psychopathic brat.

QOTW:

My oldest book so far this year is The Sonnets published in 1609. Oldest book ever on GR is the Tao Te Ching from like 600 BC.

Love seeing everybody's oldest books.

Books I finished:

Deceptions, Betrayals, & Rituals - I finished off the Cainsville series this week. I'm no closer to finishing PS, but this is what I felt like, and all the "easy" prompts have been filled. I still prefer Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series, but this is almost as good.

Books I made progress on:

The Kingdom of Copper
Boneyard

DNF

The Birth House - This was a Canada Reads book from previous years and I thought it was going to be like Call the Midwife, but set in Canada but it just wasn't, and I'm not going to waste my time reading something that the strongest emotion it's able to elicit is disappointment.

QOTW

The oldest book I read this year has been Northanger Abbey. I do read mostly contemporary books but I grew up reading classics and so the language doesn't stand out as much to me. I find that there are differences in language even between genres within contemporary books. There does tend to be less diversity within older books - mostly because there was less diversity within society back then.

Hello! We saw Spider-Man: Long Way From Home on opening weekend and it was amazing! No one should watch it if they haven't seen Avenger's: End Game, however. I can't assume everyone knows that because after we saw the movie I found out my parents, who were with us, hadn't seen End Game yet and so were thoroughly confused. I never would have let them watch Spider-Man if I'd known.

I finished several books this past week:
The Last Move by Mary Burton - I borrowed this in Prime Reading like a year ago and never got to it, I thought it was a good mystery and the author is new to me

Wish You Well by David Baldacci - an emotional story about siblings who are rebuilding their lives after a tragic accident, I was very invested in the characters and the outcome of their situation

BAKI:New grappler Baki No.1 by Keisuke Itagaki - read for the BR Manga prompt, I liked it; the story was easy to follow and the artwork was detailed and crisp

Just After Midnight by Catharine Ryan Hyde - a good story made stronger by the relationships that developed, I could really feel how Faith and Sarah, strangers at first, grew into friends (plus I have a soft-spot for equestrian stories)

QOTW:
My oldest book this year was Myths Of Greece And Rome - Narrated With Special Reference To Literature And Art by H. A. Guerber, published in 1893. After that it was The Hidden Staircase by Carolyn Keene, published in 1930.

Obviously older books will have different language patterns, word usage, and even culturally accepted practices that can make it harder to relate to than contemporary books. But sometimes I feel like it can be a breath of fresh air to read something older, with a less obvious agenda (perhaps books in the 1800s had agendas, but they might not be obvious or uncomfortable to us now because the situation is no longer an issue, whereas contemporary books might push agendas that we are currently dealing with personally).

The oldest book I've ever marked on Goodreads is apparently Aesop's Fables.

Hello all! Still reading for my class so I haven't read anything more for the challenge, leaving me still at 46/50.

Finished Reading:
Bliss
Chains
The Lost World
Wuthering Heights

Currently Reading:
Five Feet Apart
The Complete Persepolis
My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile

QOTW:
The oldest book I've read this year is Romeo and Juliet (first published 1595). It still is pretty timeless though I think today we use less flowery language. It blows my mind how the non-educated masses watched and enjoyed the play when I need to read along with little notes that explain what words/references mean! People in the past were smarter than we give them credit for! It's also interesting as to see how the English language has changed; for instance, the notes also inform me how words like "naughty" used to mean "wicked".

Jackie wrote: "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: Flavia de Luce is one of the worst kids I have come across in a long time; how anyone can stand her I don't know. I tried, knowing how many people like this series, but I just couldn't force myself to read any more about that snotty psychopathic brat. "

THANK YOU. I found her completely obnoxious and DNF'ed. I felt bad because so many cool people love these books!

Checking in, on actual check-in day, with two books finished this week. Could I be actually getting back on track?!

One of the books I read this week was for PS, so I'm now 28/55 (21/45, 7/10).

My PS book was for the second of the advanced prompts for two books with the same title - Motherland, by Jo McMillan. This is a touching, funny coming-of-age/mother-daughter story, with a pretty unique twist. Jess and her mum are the only communists in Tamworth, and we see their stories play out as they fight for socialism on their own turf and put down roots on the "other side" of the Berlin wall, in the GDR. Having studied the cold war from a very Western point of view, and seeing the stories of those who tried to flee East Germany when I visited Checkpoint Charlie and seeing the scars of that particular brand of socialism when I visited Budapest, I thought it was fascinating to see a story from the other perspective. With hindsight and a Western perspective, it was such a learning curve for me to see the story of those who really believed in the GDR, and the fact that they were British really added to that sense of discovering a whole new angle. The story itself is simple and the characters aren't as well fleshed out as I wish they were, but considering the subject matter perhaps that helped in keeping this a light hearted read.

The second book I read this week was for none of my five reading challenges, but one I sought this book out in my attempt to read about other women who have been where I currently am - Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation by Rachel Cusk. I'm not sure I found that identification in this book though. If I were the sort of person to highlight passages as I read, I think I'd have only underlined one or two paragraphs. But lack of connection doesn't make a book bad, and this is not a bad book. Much the same as I felt with her book on motherhood (A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother), Cusk is just too highbrow in how she expresses her emotions and interprets her situation for me to relate in any way. But that literary quality does make her a beautiful writer, with impressive ways of elevating what is sadly now a fairly normal life experience for so many into something less mundane. I did feel that this collection of observations and memories felt quite chilly, with her interpretation of the impact of her marriage breakdown on her children the only parts that felt emotionally charged. But desolation is absolutely part of the experience of heartbreak, and that she was able to portray that detachment and numbness is no doubt testament to her talent. It just left me also feeling a bit detached from the book.


QOTW - What is the oldest book you've read this year, and how does it compare to other, more contemporary, books?

This year the oldest has been 1886 (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), which I wasn't crazy about. Then 1936 (Jezebel by Irène Némirovsky) which I really liked, and then 1956 (A Taste of Honey: A Play) which again I wasn't crazy about. Over the years (not including school Shakespeare), I've read 17 pre-1900 books, the oldest being 1813 (Pride and Prejudice 4*) and 1820 (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 3*).

I don't generally think age makes a book better or worse than contemporary ones, though obviously there is the factor of them standing the test of time. But I don't doubt that some of the contemporary books I've read in recent years will also stand the test of time once they've been given the chance. What makes a book good is talent, what it says about the world, and the personal opinion of a reader.

Christine wrote: "Jackie wrote: "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: Flavia de Luce is one of the worst kids I have come across in a long time; how anyone can stand her I don't know. I tried, knowing how many pe..."

So is this the wrong time to admit that I find Flavia a very relatable character? :-) To be accurate though, it's more the concept of almost-too-smart-for-their-own-good young girls that grabs me in any story it's in--like part of me is still that 8 year old girl who reads books from the grown-ups section of the library, but has no idea how to make small talk with the librarians.

I only get bothered by the parts where she's being actively mean to her sisters, but reading between the lines, I'm pretty sure they set the tone for the relationship and she's just retaliating much better than they bargained for.

Hi everyone!

This has been something of a week, lots of last minute problems with our big renovation just when we thought we were in the home stretch.

I finished:

The Silver Metal Lover - aty book related to an element. This was alright, didn't love it as much as some of her other works. But it was still good over all.

Sex Criminals, Vol. 5: Five-Fingered Discount - I love this series in general, for all that it's kinda goofy it really touches on some serious issues of mental health and sex positive attitudes and dealing with relationships.

Big Little Lies - read for my books & brews club. I actually enjoyed this far more than I expected. I read Pretty Little Liars, and We Were Liars so I think I kind of mentally assumed it'd be more of the same, bunch of teenagers with drama. Also I really disliked The Wife Between Us which was the last thriller/mystery that was getting buzz that I read. The author did a good job at keeping all the characters pretty relatable, even the villains of the book had good qualities even if they didn't outweigh the bad. It made the situations feel more believable. Also everyone annoyed me at some point, which also felt pretty believable. I didn't see the ending coming, which was also good, I often can kind of see patterns and guess what the twist will be. I'm happy because several of the more recent reads I came in pretty "meh" about, aside from the Martian which I'd already read. I hate feeling like the negative nancy of the group!

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup - ATY book with a mostly black cover, Read Harder book of nonviolent true crime. I normally have a hard time with nonfiction. Even with subjects that interest me, I really need a narrative to keep me going. Even memoirs and biographies can lose me if they drag on or go into too many details. The author kept this one fast paced and engaging. It also left me pretty horrified. I know there's corruption in all levels of business, but I'd kind of hoped that at least when it came to medical things that most the corruption was more in the lines of charging too much and keeping patents tying things up to prevent cheaper generics being made. I find it appalling as to just how easy it was for Theranos to avoid all the normal regulations and testing and to fool inspectors to get a completely unreliable medical device into actual practice on real people. It seems like the blustered through mainly through fear and intimidation of employees, a ridiculously expensive legal team and shouting "trade secrets!" at every attempt to scrutinize the product. Makes me wonder just how many other products out there are significantly less tested and approved than the public would like to think.

Currently Reading:

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - this will be reading women book about a woman with a mental illness. Just started it so no real opinion yet.

QOTW:

My oldest book this year is Persuasion from 1817. I do find it reads different than contemporary books. It's not so much language, like you have with Shakespere or even older works, but more in terms of pacing. A lot of times it feels like classic works meander around or get bogged in details. I've been trying to stagger through The Tale of Genji for years now (admittedly haven'te touched it in the last two) but it's just SO full of random details, breaking off into poetry, wandering around, it's really hard to slog through. I like details, but i need things laid out in a way I can keep my interest going or I'll get bored and go read something else.

Jackie wrote: "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: Flavia de Luce is one of the worst kids I have come across in a long time; how anyone can stand her I don't know. I tried, knowing how many people like this series, but I just couldn't force myself to read any more about that snotty psychopathic brat. ..."


YES!! I DNF'ed that book for the same reason. Urushiol infused lip balm? that's not funny, that's terrible. I was so disappointed because it sounded like such a good book and gets such good reviews, but WOW not the book for me!! I still doubt myself and wonder what I'm missing, so it's always nice to see like-minded readers :-)



Jackie wrote: "Homegoing: Well dang. Y'all were right. That's a good book. ..."

Isn't it, though?! I LOVED this book! This is another one of those books where the hype is REAL, and it lives up to all of its hype. I cant' wait to see what she writes next!

Only two books this week:

Book set in space:

Winter by Marissa Meyer. YA. Conclusion to the series based on fairy tales. I enjoyed it.

The rest

The Black Widower: A Beautiful Doctor, Her Seemingly Perfect Husband and a Chilling Death
by Michael Fleeman. True crime that left me somewhat unsatisfied.

QOTW:

The oldest book I’ve read* is The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule (published in 1980). I’ve listened to podcasts and watched The Ted Bundy Tapes which covered a lot of what Rule does. I, however, would love to read a book about the shenanigans going on at the Aspen’s DA’s office during the time of Ted Bundy and the murder of the skier nicknamed Spider. She very briefly mentions some of it in her book but I need more.

*I’ve been in the process of reading Sense and Sensibility for months for the seen on tv prompt and I’m just having a lot of trouble getting into it.

Sheri wrote: "Big Little Lies - read for my books & brews club. I actually enjoyed this far more than I expected. ..."


I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this one too!!! I read it a few years ago for "antonym in the title" - it was so popular and looked so ... well, it didn't look like a great book for me. But I gave it a try, and was pleasantly surprised. It's finds like this that keep me doing the challenge!!! I've since read a few more of her books and enjoyed every one.

Sheri wrote: "
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup - ATY book with a mostly black cover, Read Harder book of nonviolent true crime. I normally have a hard time with nonfiction. Even with subjects that interest me, I really need a narrative to keep me going. Even memoirs and biographies can lose me if they drag on or go into too many details. The author kept this one fast paced and engaging. It also left me pretty horrified. I know there's corruption in all levels of business, but I'd kind of hoped that at least when it came to medical things that most the corruption was more in the lines of charging too much and keeping patents tying things up to prevent cheaper generics being made. I find it appalling as to just how easy it was for Theranos to avoid all the normal regulations and testing and to fool inspectors to get a completely unreliable medical device into actual practice on real people."

This is the part that really blew my mind that everyone who questioned it was shut down so quickly like the one guy whose parents and grandfather basically disowned him.

Bad Blood was a great book. Everyone should read it.

I miss being young when sitting outside in very hot weather wasn't a big deal. I went to a funeral today, and part of it was held at the graveside and I am now completely worn out from the heat. But it was a beautiful day, a beautiful service, and I was grateful to be there to support a friend.

I missed check-in last week as I hadn't finished anything, but I did get two books done this week.

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo - not for challenge; 5 stars
It's too bad that most white people will not read this book because there is a lot to learn here. I better understand my prejudices, our society's history of racism, and the difficulties of talking about race without getting defensive. It helped to counteract the racist viewpoints with which I was raised and which I thought I had left behind. But all of us have prejudices and make judgments, especially when people are different from us. The trick is to become aware of those prejudices and learn how to understand them and work to overcome them. My only quibble was that the author's original essay being expanded to a book meant a bit of repetition. Still, it was a book that will stick with me for a long time, hopefully. I don't want to forget the things I learned.

Mama's Boy: A Story from Our Americas by Dustin Lance Black - #47 share the same title (as long as I read Mama's Boy by ReShonda Tate Billingsley); 4 stars
The author is the screenwriter for the movie "Milk" and was a big part of fighting for federal marriage equality. This is a memoir about his mother who contracted polio when she was small, his struggles in accepting his own homosexuality, and his fight for LGBTQ+ rights. But it is mostly a compelling story about family.

GoodReads: 43/90
PopSugar: 24/40 regular, 4/10 advanced

QOTW:
The oldest book I've read this year is The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, published in 1922. While a lot of old books don't always hold up well, this one was completely charming and the insights into different human beings still rang true. This was a 5-star read for me. I adored it.

The oldest book I have ever read is a bit hard to determine. Aesop of Aesop's Fables lived between 620 and 564 BC, but of course it wasn't published then (although GoodReads has the publication date as -560). The next oldest is Tales from the Arabian Nights from 800 AD.

Well, I did more reading than last check in, but only because I hibernated all last weekend from the heat and read books for Christmas in July! Once back at work on Monday, I was back to reading a few pages a day...because just too busy with work.

Nothing was read for PS - but I also only have 4 or 5 left to read...I think I can manage to read those before 12/31/2019!

Finished:

Knit the Season - I'd forgotten that the Friday Night Knitters Club was based in NYC! Lovely story set through the late fall holidays - Thanksgiving, Hannukah, Christmas, New Years -- plus covers a wedding or two. Satisfying wrap up to the trilogy.

Snowflakes on Silver Cove - Holly Martin writes romances, often set at Christmas, featuring quirky, goofy characters that somehow seem more like someone you might know than the usual protagonists in these light fictions.

The Gates of Damascus - I've owned this book for years and finally read it this week for the Expand Your Horizons July Syria challenge in the PBT group. Written by an acclaimed journalist who lived with a Syrian friend in Damascus for 6 months in 1991, just after the Gulf War, you learn so much about Syrian society, religions, culture and politics. It is a household of women, Sunni Muslims, living on a street without a name in a house without a street number, behind a wall with a gate. I cannot recommend this enough. {I have found that books like this written by women journalists are to be treasured}.

Currently reading:

The Usual Santas: A Soho Crime Holiday Anthology - I'm so still in Christmas in July mode!
The Christmas Spirit - erm, as above. Plus, this is a really unusual and beautiful holiday story. If anyone needs a ghost story and does not want the usual 'scary' type...try this.
Meant to Be - got distracted by challenge reads for another GR group and am still half way. Soon. I do like it, and I need to finish it so I can read the second in the series for PS - it has the word 'challenge' in title.

On the beside table screaming for attention:

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
The Master and Margarita
Between the World and Me

Soon to join them:
Remembrance of Things Past: Volume I - Swann's Way & Within a Budding Grove - I start a Proust reading group in September....

QOTW: HOW COOL! I never look at reading stats - and I'm probably now going to play with this feature endlessly!

Oldest book read in 2019 -- Sense and Sensibility published in 1811 - and that was actually a re-read.
Oldest first time read in 2019 -- The Velveteen Rabbit published in 1922. Followed by The Sun Also Rises (1926), Cheerful Weather for the Wedding (1932), and Murder in Mesopotamia (1936).

In looking at that list - clearly Jane Austen's writing is quite different from even that of the early 20th Century. All of the other reads listed here still read 'modern' to me, not that different from today's writers.

Austen was a major influence on Georgette Heyer, the 'inventor' of the modern regency romance in the mid-20th Century, who in turn has been an influence contemporary regency writers. Hemingway and Christie absolutely influence and inspire contemporary writers, and given they are less than 100 years earlier than contemporary authors, writing styles, language and vocabulary have not changed that dramatically, unlike the 200 year difference with Austen and contemporary authors. I'm not talking here about slang, or the existence of things like cellphones vs. communicating by telegram and such. I'm talking about how the language and structure of writing evolves more slowly than one might think.

Oh, and I notice that since I've started tracking on GR (not that many years), Sense & Sensibility is the oldest book I've read. However, I've read Chanson de Roland, Canterbury Tales, The Hesiod, The Odyssey and the Illiad, myriad Ancient Greek plays, ... the list is quite long. I just don't have them on GR -- yet.

Samantha wrote: "The Arrangement - I had an ARC from NetGalley of this. I'm not using it for a challenge. This is about the sugar baby/sugar daddy lifestyle which isn't something I would normally read about, but it was intersting. 3.5 stars"

We just had a murder a few weeks ago in my area involving a girl who was active on the sugar daddy/sugar baby websites. Perhaps a dangerous world to get involved in.

Raquel wrote: "So is this the wrong time to admit that I find Flavia a very relatable character? :-) To be accurate though, it's more the concept of almost-too-smart-for-their-own-good young girls that grabs me in any story it's in . . ."

I don't hold it against you! I was a precocious/impolite little girl (asked by an adult at a neighborhood party, "Who do you belong to?" I answered with a glower, "I don't BELONG to anyone!"), but I find it hard for an author to hit the right balance when writing a fictional character in that vein. What can be true and even charming as a true story can often become strained and annoying in fiction.

Sheri wrote: "I find it appalling as to just how easy it was for Theranos to avoid all the normal regulations and testing and to fool inspectors to get a completely unreliable medical device into actual practice on real people."

I didn't realize this was about a medical device company! I work for a biotech firm right now, and my experience is that the FDA is definitely our toughest reviewer, and everyone snaps to attention for any of their requirements! Have to read this (and lend it to my whole team!).

Teri wrote: "The oldest book I've read this year is The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, published in 1922. While a lot of old books don't always hold up well, this one was completely charming and the insights into different human beings still rang true. This was a 5-star read for me. I adored it."

Isn't it just balm for the soul? I highly recommend the movie adaptation with Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent, Joan Plowright, Alfred Molina, Michael Kitchen, and Josie Lawrence (who recently played Agnes Nutter in Good Omens, which also had Richardson!)

I only finished one book this week (The 18th Abduction by James Patterson). It wasn't for the challenge so I'm still 36/50.

Currently reading:
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch

QOTW: Oldest book read so far this year was The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, originally published in 1903. Oldest book since starting GR is A Midsommer Nights Dreame, originally published in 1595. I don't really know how to compare them to contemporary books. The biggest difference is the language, but I hardly notice that anymore.

I did a bit better this week in books.

Children of Blood and Bone I snagged this off of Overdrive when I saw it was available. It was a pretty cool story.

Ghost Gone Wild was another fun ghost mystery.

A Few Green Leaves Filled with clergymen, spinsters, and anthropologists. Classic Pym.

Excellent Women is one of my favorite Pym novels. If were back in a time when Cary Grant was still alive and making movies, this would be my pick for a book that should be made into a movie. Because I can totally see Cary Grant as Rocky Napier.

QotW:

My oldest book this year is Little Women from 1868. My oldest book recorded on Goodreads is Anabasis which was from -390. A history of the Persian wars, which actually was pretty interesting reading.

Old books have their own style, so it can sometimes take a bit for me to get into them. But once I pick up their rhythm, I tend to base whether I like it or not on the plot and characters.

Nadine wrote: "Black Swan Green by David Mitchell - I tried to read this for “seen being read on TV” (Joe was reading it in the miniseries You). I managed 1% of it, and decided I did not want to read this book. Joe is a snooty psychopath, after all, and maybe I don’t want to work too hard to read books he reads."

I'm planning to read something from that show as well, so this make me LOL. I'll let you know if your theory holds.

Christine wrote: "Teri wrote: "The oldest book I've read this year is The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, published in 1922. While a lot of old books don't always hold up well, this one was completely charming and the insights into different human beings still rang true. This was a 5-star read for me. I adored it."

Isn't it just balm for the soul? I highly recommend the movie adaptation with Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent, Joan Plowright, Alfred Molina, Michael Kitchen, and Josie Lawrence (who recently played Agnes Nutter in Good Omens, which also had Richardson!)"

I watched the movie right after finishing the book and I adored it. I thought they did a fabulous job. I had my mother watch it with me, and she couldn't understand what I loved about it so much (maybe you have to read the book to get it?) but I had a smile on my face throughout the whole movie.