Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

I don't know about you, but my list of books to read grows at an alarming rate. I should have no trouble finding a book I meant to read. How about you?

wait, there are two topics listed as #34

I've been meaning to read The Surgeon for about three years now, maybe this is the year!

I'm always glad to see this category, since of course I never get to all the books I want to! I think I'm going to slot The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. in here, since it didn't really fit into any of the other prompts.

I plan to read a book that I had planned to read for my Winter Olympics challenge, a multi-year challenge which ends in July 2020. Probably something set in China, Ukraine, or Switzerland.

I'm definitely going to use this prompt as an excuse to continue with the Outlander series! :D I've left off at Voyager

I've been meaning to keep going with it for a while but generally end up sidetracked and wanting to complete shorter books first! XD

Seeing as my 2019 challenges will be down to the wire, there isn't really any books left that I *meant* to read. But my marriage has just ended, and I could do with some bibilotherapy...so it was a choice between two. My library doesn't have How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed: A Memoir so I'm going with Heartburn

I hope you're alright Sarah. Or that you will be.

I just finished Tartufo / El avaro by Molière, and this was a book that I was hoping to read in 2019, but I couldn't, so I just read it this first week of the year.

A lot of stuff on my plate, gonna list it here so I don't lose track

Hollow Kingdom - bought in 2019
The Poppy War - checked out from the library but had to return before I got to it
Ninth House - not available at library when I tried to get it in 2019
Gideon the Ninth - ditto
The Wicked King - ditto
Worm - my best friend keeps bugging me to read this. started it in 2018(?) but couldn't really get into it but THIS IS THE YEAR
The Stone Sky - bought in 2017, was going to read last year for cli-fi but ended up reading something else

Also a couple 2019 DNFs that I might give another try: The Gutter Prayer and Blackfish City

I went with A Christmas Carol. I started it last spring but never finished it. Just finished it this morning while waiting for my daughter to get out of OT.

1.1.2020


I planned to read this for a group's series readathon but then life got busy in November and December and I, well, I didn't get to it!

I think I will read becoming by Michelle Obama for this one.

Finished The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I review audio books for Sound Commentary, and I have a backup of books to listen to! I started Hideout by Watt Key before the new year and just finished it.

Alright, assigning The Wordy Shipmates as my "meant to read in 2019."

I enjoyed the first half, but need to complete it

I wanted to read by Richa Kaul Padte. It's a quick read and I hope to finish it this month.

As my first Pop read of 2020, (hi, I’m kind of late), I’m tackling The Ruin, by Dervla McTiernan. I started it once in December, but it was a bit too bleak for the holidays, but definitely intriguing enough for a second chance.

Just finished “Three things about Elsie” I thought it was going to be a much different book. I was left feeling nothing other than sad at the end

The Last Days of Night - loved it!

I've finally read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two.


I enjoyed reading it. I'm not a fan of the plot, but didn't care it's supposed to be a play.

I meant to read Everything, Everything, but graduating grad school got in the way of it. Glad to have read it to be in the know and to possibly watch the movie, but not super crazy about it. Definitely would have enjoyed it more as a teenager as I saw my students enjoying it when they read it for their lit circles in the fall.

I finished A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I gave it 5 stars.

Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey. My library's request list for this book has been extremely long.

I'm pleased you liked A Gentleman in Moscow, Sherri! I would recommend it to anyone reading adult books.

I meant to read The Woman in the Window last year but didn't get to it until this year. When I found out the movie was coming out in May, I made sure to get it read. I really enjoyed it and will be waiting to see how the movie compares.

I read The Maze Runner

I read Heartburn by Nora Ephron, which I gravitated towards as I'm picking up the pieces after my own marriage fell apart in 2019 due to infidelity. This is often touted as a must-read for those in my position, and part of the reason is that it spreads humour in what can be a soul destroying place. So yeah - a bit of a laugh, a bit of identification...I was down for that. Unfortunately, I don't think I really got what I was looking for.

I did like the book. I felt that the story it told kept me interested, particularly as it is based closely to Ephron's own experience. But there just lacked any kind of emotional depth in the story. While there is sadness and anger it's not the heartbreaking or acid-spitting catharsis I'd expect from a woman who has been cheated on quite severely whilst also being pregnant. Rather than using humour to mask or deflect from emotions, I felt the narrator (and author) used humour as the only attempt to elevate this beyond a straight retelling of the timeline of events. And again, whilst I did enjoy her quips and observations, I didn't find this as funny as many others seem to have done. Perhaps that's more a reflection of personal taste and preference rather than quality though (should probably add a disclaimer that I've never seen any of her films. No, not even When Harry Met Sally). The culmination, for me, was the story of a woman a bit more annoyed at the turn her marriage had taken, rather than one who was devastated by it, so I just didn't connect the way I'd hoped to.

But it wasn't all bad, this is a fine book. And although I didn't find my own story in this one, I did take away something from the reading. I'll end with this quote which really got me right in the feels:

"When something like this happens, you suddenly have no sense of reality at all. You have lost a piece of your past. The infidelity itself is small potatoes compared to the low-level brain damage that results when a whole chunk of your life turns out to have been completely different from what you thought it was. It becomes impossible to look back at anything that's happened" ... "without wondering what was really going on. See the couple. See the couple with the baby. See the couple with the baby having another baby. What's wrong with this picture? Everything, as it happens."

I've been meaning to read A Black Theology of Liberation by James Cone for a few years, and finally finished it this year, so that's what I'm putting in this category.

I meant to read “My Lovely Wife”, the debut, domestic suspense novel from Samantha Downing, since it released in 2019. Just began it 3 days ago and finally finished it today

I started "China Rich Girlfriend" by Kevin Kwan right before the new year, so I counted it for this prompt.

Just finished readingBlack Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James. I don't know what all the fuss was about, it felt pretentious to me.

I had checked out The Black Prism from the library last December and returned it unread. A lot of these oldest books on my tbr I don't enjoy all that much (obviously there was a reason I hadn't gotten to it earlier), but this one surprised me. It was a kinda kooky concept, but the author played it up really well.

One book that was always on every personal list that I can think of last year was The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. I don't know what attracted it to me so much, but I finally decided to read it and I can't wait to see how I like it!

I read The Collector, I seem to always have a backlog of her books that I always want to get to but never seem to read them.

Lock Every Door Really enjoyed this urban paranoia mystery. I figured out the whydunnit and whatdunnit pretty quickly, most likely because darker mysteries are my jam. Took a bit longer to get the whodunnit. (view spoiler)[ I was thinking too much "Murder on the Orient Express" (hide spoiler)]
My BFF is now reading it, and I think we are hooked on Riley Sager.

The Butterfly Girl (Naomi Cottle #2)

One of the easiest prompts to fill (probably for a lot of us) I tackled Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone. Loved it

I read "Ravenous" by Helen Hardt.

I read Thinking, Fast and Slow for this prompt. I meant to read it last year while I was in grad school but chose shorter books for my assignments. :)