EPBOT Readers discussion

I just realized a few weeks ago I did a second week 22 check in and all my check in numbers have been off since then, whoops. So it's actually week 28.

Over in the book club folder, I set up a pre-reading thread for The Fifth Season, I know a lot of you already posted. My book order is now marked as "processing" instead of "pending" so hopefully I'll get my copy soon, and I can get writing some questions for those who are already started/have finished.

I hesitate to put a finished thread up until I put up some intermediary ones, just in case some people mistakenly click and get spoilers. Thank you for your patience!

This week I finished:

Gold Boy, Emerald Girl - book with gold, silver, or bronze int he title. This was meh for me. Thought it was going to be folklore or magical realism based from the description, ended up being more about lonely people. Except they weren't' really presented in a way that made me very sympathetic or relate to them. A lot of the stories ended very abruptly, without really resolving any of the things that passed for plot.

Go - popsugar set in Japan. Short coming of age story about a Korean descendant boy growing up in Japan. In Japan you don't get automatic citizenship for being born there, so there's Koreans who have lived there for generations who still have to have Korean passports and be registered as aliens. Delved into what it means to be a citizen or nationality, and dealt with prejudice, bullying, identity. I liked it pretty well.

Currently reading:

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America - popsugar book on a subject I know nothing about. sadly a lot of the things in this book were never covered in American History. Learning a lot, even if saying I "like" it isn't exactly correct. Well written, narrator is good.

The Dinner -popsugar book set in a city that hosted the olympics, set in Amsterdam. Not really feeling it, but it's not very long so I'm just dealing with it.

QOTW:

If you could vacation for two weeks into a book world, where would you go?

I'd go to the Night Circus. I could see myself as a reveur, staying until dawn, wearing all black and white with just a touch of red. Would love it if I could get invited to a Midnight Dinner.

Since time has really lost all meaning this year, you could probably say that it's week 92 and we'd all believe you. :) I didn't get around to the last check-in post until yesterday, so the only update is that I've read about ten more chapters (they're the little 3-5 page thriller chapters) of The Escape Artist, and it's definitely starting to grab me more. No overnight progress on Big Red Tequila or The End of My Heart, but now that I'm in the groove, The Escape Artist should go a lot faster.

QOTW: I would 100% do the Night Circus, too. But that might wear me out with the late nights, so I might need a week at the Shire after that to relax with my six meals a day.

I finally finished Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II yesterday. I liked it and found it interesting, and I appreciated that the author followed specific women through the events of the war and made it a more personal story. This was my Popsugar book on a subject you know nothing about.

I haven't started a new book yet. I don't want to start anything long, because I want to leave myself free to pick up Peace Talks (my Popsugar book by an author who has written more than 20 books) ASAP next Tuesday. Maybe I'll read some comics or a novella, something quick to read, in the interim.

QOTW: Ooh, that's a tough one. A lot of my favorite books (dangerous fantasy world or dystopia) don't seem like they'd terribly fun to actually exist in. I could see the Night Circus as being cool to visit. When I was younger, I used to dream about visiting Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar or the Star Wars universe.

Like a lot of people, it seems, I've finally reached the "entire future is cancelled" stage of quarantine. I did discover that my library is at least theoretically awarding summer reading prizes this year, to be picked up in "phase two" of opening (if that ever happens), so I signed up and we'll see whether I actually get a tote bag.

My "beach read" for the holiday weekend was Beach, Breeze, Bloodshed. I read Sun, Sand, Murder a few years ago, and it was fun and memorable enough for me to get around to the second book. They are very funny and well-written, and evoke the British Virgin Islands in a way that seems authentic, although I haven't been there, and the author is from Ohio, so I'm not sure. This was actually a clued mystery, or at least there was one clue, and I had to suffer through a few chapters of the characters failing to get it in return for feeling smug when my theory was correct. I would totally read another of these if the author were to write one.

I also finished The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science. This was recommended at the end of Murder on Black Swan Lane. It combines biographies of assorted figures in post-Enlightenment, pre-Victorian science with commentary on their effects on the art of the period. (By "art" I basically mean poetry, and by "poetry" I basically mean Coleridge and Shelley.) It was interesting, but I didn't love the organization: it's loosely chronological, but divided into chapters highlighting specific figures or fields, so we end up with a chapter on the ballooning craze in between two chapters on the work of astronomer William Herschel, for example. (Also I'd already read a biography of William and Caroline Herschel, so some of that was a retread.)

QOTW: Like Jennifer, my favorite genre isn't the best for vacationing. (Don't spend two weeks in an English murder village. ) Maybe the Enchanted Forest, of the eponymous chronicles?

Hello! I've spent this week working through White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, which is not easy reading, so I've not picked up anything else. It's important reading, though. Definitely given me a lot to think about.

I did finish The Lightning Thief with my kid, and we're going to start The Sea of Monsters tomorrow!

QOTW: Valdemar, please. Or Dragaera, especially if I could have a meal at Valabar's (any other Vlad Taltos fans here?).

Two finishes this week (I'm with Megan: I'll accept whatever week you say it is, because I sure have no clue!)

Karma, for the Slytherin/Bellatrix/romance prompt. Romance is very much not my genre, but this was a freebie picked up through BookBub, and just fantasy-ish enough to be palatable. The concept is brilliant; the execution, meh. It was a quick, breezy, summer/beach read, but I feel it could have been so much more. I doubt I'll read the next book, unless I find it for free too.

My hold on The Fifth Season came through in late June, so I had to jump ahead. Until we get to discussing it proper, I'll just say I enjoyed it tremendously. I shoved and coaxed it to fit into the Ravenclaw/Gray Lady/about mothers and daughters prompt.

42/60

QOTW: Night Circus does seem lovely. I tend to go for either medieval-type fantasy or dystopian futures, neither of which universes I would fare well in. I'd probably be a decent bumbling-stranger-in-a-strange-land type, like Richard in Neverwhere or Arthur in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!