The County Library discussion

As Long as We Both Shall Live

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe

The Devil Aspect

The Dinner List

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good

Fogland Point

The Frangipani Tree Mystery

Ghosted

Here and Now and Then

Leave No Trace

The Military Wife

A Mind Unraveled

The Night Tiger

The Proposal

The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London

Séances are for Suckers

The Silent Patient

Song of a Captive Bird

The Things We Cannot Say

Torn

Just finished Ghosted and am interested to hear what others think. I thought the beginning was a bit clunky but once it got into it, I was intrigued. I guessed many of the storylines before they happened, but there was still a big plot twist that surprised me. Overall, a decent light read.

I read A Big Ship At The Edge Of The Universe and gave it 3.5 stars. An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good was one of my favorite reads last year because of the humorous incongruity between the cover and the mental image I have of an elderly lady (one of my grandmas), and the story.

I listened to Here and Now and Then and gave it 5 stars. I enjoy time travel stuff anyway, so I was pretty sure I was going to at least like it, but I loved it, and started “following” him on Goodreads.
Listened to A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe and liked it. Probably 3.5 stars, like Teresa said, but rounded up to 4.
Listened to most of Ghosted, and liked it well enough, but was sometimes confused as to who was talking. To me, the reader didn’t adjust her voice enough for me to sometimes tell if Eddie was talking or Sarah. Probably because I let my mind wander here and there. I gave it a solid 3 stars.
Just started listening to Seance for Suckers.
Oh, listened to As Long As We Both Shall Live and lost interest here and there. I stopped listening about halfway through, and then read the last chapter in the book to see what happened.
Dinner List - thought it was okay. Read by the author, and I just felt there wasn’t a lot of inflection in the reading, sorry.
Silent Patient. - listened to when it first came out and enjoyed it.
Song of a Captive Bird - listened to about 2/3 of it then it came due, so I recently checked out the book, and will finish soon. I’m really enjoying it, for the most part.
I listen to a lot of books - much faster for me than reading.

I previously read A Big Ship at the End of the Universe; about 3 stars for me.

I am now listening to The Silent Patient and Here and Now and Then. I have The Devil Aspect and An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good on hold.

Séances Are for Suckers was a solid start to a cozy series.
Ghosted was clever, but it dragged so bad...and I listened to it in a day. About the difficulty in telling who's speaking, earlier on I'm sure that's intentional, but yeah it could have been more clear for sure.

I finished The Silent Patient -- it's a psychological drama, but I wouldn't call it a thriller.

I finished Here and Now and Then -- it's a family drama centered around Time Travel. I think fans of Blake Crouch's Dark Matter would like it.

Caytlin wrote: "Just finished Ghosted and am interested to hear what others think. I thought the beginning was a bit clunky but once it got into it, I was intrigued. I guessed many of the storylines before they ha..."

Yes, the twist got me as well. I wasn't sure how I liked how it was resolved. I like things to go in happy ways, but I also like things to be real so I wasn't sure how I wanted things to go.

I just finished An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good, then recommended it to everyone i knew.

I was 3/4 ish through The Night Tiger when the e-audio was automatically returned... :( So I have to wait for that to be available again to finish.

The Proposal was not my style. Cute I guess, but enough language and steamy scenes to make the audio... awkward.

The Dinner List was also less my thing, but it was fine.

Night Tiger was fine. lol Similar to Dinner List in that it was less my thing and/or less what I was in the mood for.

Would someone who has read the book spoil it for me, please? t was all too much for me and I couldn't keep reading it.

Patty wrote: "Would someone who has read the book spoil it for me, please? t was all too much for me and I couldn't keep reading it."

Which one? If it's one I've read I can message you a rundown.

Ugh, sorry. I had thought ought how to word the question and still missed typing in the name. Lol "As Long As We Both Shall Live".

Patty wrote: "Ugh, sorry. I had thought ought how to word the question and still missed typing in the name. Lol "As Long As We Both Shall Live"."

Ah. I'm waiting for the audio still on that one.

Thank you for being willing. :)

I speed through The Things We Cannot Say, and The Silent Patient this weekend. i loved both of them!

I started The Devil Aspect. It has a lot of similarities to The Silent Patient so far.

Finished Leave No Trace. Didn't like it.

I read An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good. It's really cute in a dark sort of way.

Finished The Ravenmaster. There were a few times when he listed a few things that got long, but overall I enjoyed it. Really wish I had read it before I went to the Tower of London last year.

Will voting be extended or set up online somehow with the current craziness?

Britt, Book Habitue wrote: "Will voting be extended or set up online somehow with the current craziness?"

I was just wondering the same thing.

An Elderly Lady Up to No Good was.... quirky... and dark... Not in a bad way necessarily, lol.

As Long As We Both Shall Live was... messed up, lol. Well done but dang. Lots of language. Twisty plot.

Hey guys I am looking into voting and I'll let you know when I know!

Thanks everyone for your patience as we worked to figure out how to continue with Reader's Choice.
You are now able to vote online for the Spring 2020 Reader's Choice titles: https://www.slcolibrary.org/rc/rcwr/r...

Your online vote will be entered into the drawing when the libraries reopen. Please let me know if you have any questions about it!

Yay.

I'm half-way through Torn (really good) and The Devil Aspect (interesting).

Finished An Elderly Lady. That was short! Mixed feelings about it. The premise was interesting, but I really would like to understand better "why".

Torn was good. Kind of a Rebel Mechanics vibe. Really sad the next one isn't available as an ebook. :(
Military Wife was not so much my thing but still pretty good. Emotional. Lots of language though.
A Big Ship at the End of the Universe was fun.

Ellen wrote: "Thanks everyone for your patience as we worked to figure out how to continue with Reader's Choice.
You are now able to vote online for the Spring 2020 Reader's Choice titles: https://www.slcolibra..."

When will voting end? I've lost all track of when it's supposed to end but I was also wondering if it'll be extended given the circumstances.

It originally ended the end of April. As far as I know that hasn't changed.

Okay. We'll see how many of my holds on ebook copies come in in time!

Britt, Book Habitue wrote: "Ellen wrote: "Thanks everyone for your patience as we worked to figure out how to continue with Reader's Choice.
You are now able to vote online for the Spring 2020 Reader's Choice titles: https:/..."


We do NOT currently have an end date for this session of Reader's Choice. The plan is to extend this session until our branches reopen so that participants doing the paper ballots still have a chance to turn them in. Once we know when we are reopening, we'll set a firm end date but until then, it's open! So you should have time for those holds to come in!

Hooray!!

Mind Unraveled is amazing but painful. Made me SO ANGRY on his behalf.

Song of a Captive Bird was more artistic license than I'd prefer normally for a biographical fiction but well written.

Silent Patient is 100% not going where you think it's going. Wowsers that was a twist.
Well done but like many of these types of thrillers I come away unsure whether or not I'm glad I read it...
Lots of language.

JoAnn wrote: "Finished Leave No Trace. Didn't like it."

I had mixed feelings about it. I really didn't like that I felt there was a lot of advantage taking in it. I didn't like how it ended. OK, thinking about it, yes, I didn't like it either. It took the longest time to get through it because it just wasn't pulling me in either
.

Britt, Book Habitue wrote: "Silent Patient is 100% not going where you think it's going. Wowsers that was a twist.
Well done but like many of these types of thrillers I come away unsure whether or not I'm glad I read it...
L..."

I question whether a book that relies solely on a twist like that can be considered a good book. Is the shock/surprise the whole reason people like it?

I am getting nearly done with The Devil Aspect, which is a similar premise, but I like it a lot more.

This week I finished Torn and The Devil Aspect. Both were pretty good.

The Silent Patient did have several twists, but I did catch the last big one before it happened.

The Things We Cannot Say was beautiful.

With book drops opening and plans being made to reopen, do we have a new end date for Reader's Choice voting? I have 5 left to read.... trying to decide if I'll have time to finish them all. :)

When are the book drops opening? I haven't seen any news on the website.

We do not have an end date yet but it will likely be when we reopen the libraries, which is tentatively planned for late June/early July. So keep reading!

Book drops are open now and curbside pick-up starts next week. Here's the official announcement:

Salt Lake County Library Reopens with Limited Service May 26

SALT LAKE COUNTY, Utah—The County Library has begun a step-by-step reopening of its branches.

Book drops are now open for patrons to begin returning materials, including books, DVDs, and CDs. Starting May 26, patrons can arrange for curbside delivery of materials placed on hold, by reserving a pick up time at any of our branches, either online or by calling customer service. The County Library is planning to continue a phased reopening of branches for the public by early July.

“We’ve seen a huge increase in the use of our online resources and programming—from patrons reading eBooks and eMagazines, to the response to our daily Storytimes and STE[A]M activities on our social media channels,” said Jim Cooper, County Library director. “While we’ve seen a 135% increase in our online learning platforms and a 58% increase in ebook utilization, we know that isn’t the preferred format for many in our community. We’ve developed plans to make sure patrons can still access their County Library and our physical collection, but in a way that maintains safety for the community and our staff.”

Due to a Salt Lake County public health order, the County Library closed to the public on March 13. With buildings closed, staff members have been hard at work creating learning activities, increasing the availability of digital materials, and getting the buildings ready to reopen and welcome the public. Many have been redeployed to assist other Salt Lake County agencies by sewing masks, assisting local business to navigate reopening, and supporting Quarantine and Isolation Centers. Branch staff have also inventoried the entire County Library collection—almost 2 million items—a project that hasn’t happened in decades.

Curbside service will be set up to be as contactless as possible. County Library staff will wear face coverings, maintain six feet of physical distance, and maintain a heightened cleaning and disinfecting schedule to ensure safety. We encourage all Salt Lake County residents to do the same when visiting branches.

###
About Salt Lake County Library
Salt Lake County Library is committed to making a positive difference in the lives of our community by inspiring imagination, satisfying curiosity and providing a great place for everyone to visit. You belong at the County Library and your interest to read, create, learn, play, and connect is supported by our employees, programs, collection, and online resources. Early and lifelong learning, as well as equal access for all, are at the forefront of all that we do.

That's exciting! I'm eager for some fresh holds.

The Ravenmaster was really interesting. The audio is great. Unfortunately the extra material at the end just kind of rehashes the stories from the book, but it's definitely worth the read/listen overall.

With the new website, the voting link in a comment above doesn't seem to work anymore. The new link is:
https://www.slcolibrary.org/informati...

Leave No Trace was the kind of 3 star book that gets 3 more because you can't come up with a solid reason to only give it 2....

Here and Now and Then was good. At times emotional and at times wildly frustrating, but overall good. :)

Three titles to go....