EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi everyone,

Feeling super anxious this week for reasons that are probably obvious. Haven't been sleeping well, last night spent a lot of time staring at the ceiling and tossing and turning. Hope everyone else is hanging in there.

As a note, questions are up for The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue in the book club folder. I know a lot of people are on long waiting lists, but they're there for the couple people who read it already. This'll be the book through the end of the year, so no rush! We can discuss as the year wraps up if enough people are still waiting that we postpone a new book selection, or go ahead and pick one for January.

This week I read:

I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness - short read, but good to get more perspectives on intersectional feminism and race in America.

Night of the Mannequins - thought it might be a spooky Halloween read, but kinda fell flat for me. But worked as an Indigenous author for the fall reading challenge.

Pumpkinheads - picked this up on sale, felt like a good time to read the day before Halloween. It was cute, I liked it. Used it for the strong friendship in the fall reading.

Dracula, Motherf**ker! - I admit i downloaded this from Hoopla just because of the title. I thought it was a trade, turned out to be more of a first issue with bonus content. Not much to it. Oh well.

Going Postal - Been meaning to read this for ages, finally got to it for the fall challenge, a book sitting on your shelf since at least last fall. I liked it pretty well, although I don't think it's my top Pratchett like some people feel. I like books with Susan best, she's my favorite.

Sheets - one of the comic artists I love talked about this before and used it as a reference for her own graphic novel project so I figured I'd check it out from Hoopla. It was cute, lovely color palette in the art.

Quince - cute comic about a girl who gets superpowers on her Quincenera, but only gets them for the year she is 15. Interesting take on the superhero genre, I liked it.

Finished with fall challenge, yay.

Currently Reading:

Reverie - noticed that this was the library big read right now, no wait times right now. Looked interesting so thought I'd try it. I like it ok so far, kind of confusing since it's written third person limited, and perspective character has patchy memories due to an event he can't really remember. So we're in his head as he tries to piece it all together, just as confused as he is.

Low, Vol. 2: Before the Dawn Burns Us - hoopla did have this available so I thought i'd give it another try. It's ok so far, but might tap out when this one is done. It's not grabbing me strongly.

QOTW:

How's your yearly reading going? Any specific book plans for the rest of the year, such as challenges or just specific books you really want to get to?

I'm done with challenges for now, so just enjoying some free reading, being able to grab whatever catches my fancy at the moment without worrying about it fitting. I always end up feeling torn on challenges by the end of the year, haha. I like the challenge of finding books that fit prompts, but I also like being able to just read what I feel like at a given moment. So I always try to finish up early so I can get a few months of free reading at the end of the year. I think I might do some re-reads, I'd started re-reading the Hallows books earlier in the year and then put it on hold to focus on challenges. I could probably knock the rest of them out by the end of the year, and maybe see about getting American Demon.

For the last few presidential elections, I have adopted a policy of avoiding all news for the evening, which means no TV or internet. I've tried to make it cozy with tea and snacks and books, but, y'know, I still know why I'm doing it. Also I can't really keep it up for multiple days this year.

I decided to finally read the much-hyped Red, White & Royal Blue since I'd heard it was a sort of wish-fulfillment reaction to the 2016 election. I did not realize that it actually includes a scene of the characters awaiting the results of the 2020 election. Oops. It was cute, and sometimes hot, but the main character was a bit obnoxious (he does grow somewhat), and the love interest was a bit bland. I did like the supporting characters; the author should write a spinoff/sequel about one of them.

A less fraught election read was The Election Day Dilemma. I read a lot of Boxcar Children books as a kid, and my sister read even more, but apparently they are still churnin' 'em out. This one wasn't great in the mystery department, but I really enjoyed the reference to Election Day cake, which I had just learned about from Tasting History on YouTube. Bonus points as well for explaining the difference between a swamp and a marsh. Also, not really spoiler alert since it's a kids' book, both candidates have good ideas and end up agreeing to work together after the election. Sigh.

Ming Tea Murder was one of my tea-bunker reads in 2016, so this year I thought I'd keep up the tradition with the first in the series, Death by Darjeeling. This was not so great. There was a lot of backstory that wasn't really relevant; like, it's nice that the protagonist does weekly dog therapy at the senior home, but once it had already been mentioned, I didn't think there needed to be an entire chapter about it in which absolutely nothing happens. I guessed the murderer before the protagonist did (I used the process of elimination; she used "oh you are trying to murder me"). Maybe the author got better as the series progressed, or maybe I was just in a better mood four years ago.

QOTW: I think it might be comfort reads for me for the next little while. I don't do any challenges, but I have some thematically appropriate winter books on my list, so I'll make sure to get to those. The library is still doing a monthly Black Lives Matter group read, so I'll get to that one, too.

I'm glad to hear Sheri and Rebecca are hanging in there, too - it's actually been slightly less traumatic for me this time around since I don't have to listen to my coworkers' deep thoughts on the election (the presidential one, that is - we have actual work-related reasons for talking about the judicial elections within the state, in which there were a surprising number of incumbents voted out this year. All judges in Ohio are elected for 6-year terms, which are staggered by the type of court and county so all 700+ aren't up at once, so this year was some of the common pleas, probate, and juvenile, a few appellates from each distract, and two Supreme Court justices). Like you, I'm just trying to stay calm and focus on my immediate surroundings for the moment.

At last check-in, I was halfway through The Engines of God, which I finished and enjoyed. It wasn't earth-shakingly original (pun slightly intended), but it was well-written.

Once I finished that, it was time for IRL book club #2's November selection, Dear Edward. This one actually came out in 2020, so I've seen it on a few of the year-end lists (I think including Goodreads). It's...interesting. I really like the author's writing style, and would love to read something else of hers, since some aspects of this one, like creating an inner voice for a super traumatized 12 year old boy that was age-appropriate but insightful, really were well done. The structure of jumping back and forth between the flight and his recovery probably seemed like a good idea, but there wasn't enough connection between the two parts for it to work. The plane being full of stock characters didn't help with that - it would have been more effective to pick one or two people to focus on so they could be made more distinctive, or to frame the whole thing through the letters. At various points in my life (including when I was 12), I have been a very frequent passenger on full commercial flights, and I consider myself to be a fairly observant person - but at no point have I ever noticed 1% as much of what my fellow passengers were doing as everyone did on this flight. So the story as a whole just didn't gel, but the pieces were there.

That's more than I can say for IRL book club #1's pick, which I'm about 1/5 of the way though. I said once before to this group that I never needed to hear another white lady's thoughts on slavery, yet here we are with Yellow Crocus. It is SO CRINGEY that it actually makes me less critical of that other one about Sarah Grimke we read in retrospect. I have already gone back and re-read the copyright page a dozen times and even gone to the publisher's website to check that this was really published in 2011 and is not a reprint from the 1890's. It is Gone With the Wind level revisionist Mammy Myth. Like, as in the narrator actually has used the phrase peculiar institution. When I was in college, I worked as a research assistant to a professor who was working on a book about Varina Davis, and as part of that I had the dubious pleasure of visiting the rare book room to read multiple novels by her husband's side piece and her writing buddies, so unfortunately I'm more familiar with that genre than I'd like. I know the larger plot of this one is going to go in a different direction, but if you bound it in a vintage look, it could probably pass as an original. Reading it right now in the face of the real world is just extra painful, and I am really tempted to just stop - but I feel like I owe it to society to finish so I can more thoroughly assist my fellow white lady book club members in understanding why it is so deeply problematic since apparently that is not obvious to the person who selected it, at least.

(deep breath)

On the audio front, I finished Ghostsitter - A Crazy Inheritance, and started Nut Jobs: Cracking California's Strangest $10 Million Dollar Heist as I continue through my backlog of Audible freebies. It seems like it's going to be entertaining to some extent, but they somehow managed to find an author/host (since it's a podcast format) without any familiarity with agriculture or law enforcement, which is an interesting approach when the topic is an agriculture-related crime. It also hones a bit too closely to the Serial format, which I realize has become the standard for a reason - but this is to the point of the store brand products that use the branding that's just different enough from the name brand to avoid lawsuits.

QOTW: I think my Goodreads challenge is currently at 106/100, which I will freely admit is padded with multiple short Audible originals - but my main measure is that I'm keeping up with all of my book clubs, so I feel like I'm staying on schedule.

I haven't been able to focus on reading much this week, for reasons. I did decide on a last minute whim to re-read A Night in the Lonesome October for Halloween, which seemed both appropriate for a full moon Halloween and a good light-hearted distraction from the world. I just love Snuff as a narrator!

I've picked up The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep next, as it's the November read for my other GR group, but I'm having a hard time focusing on it. I am enjoying it, it's just one of those books that you really have to pay attention to and my attention span is...not what it should be right now. I actually took Monday off as a mental health day and intended to lose myself in the book, but ended up getting sucked into a jigsaw puzzle and doing that instead while listening to podcasts.

I've also finished reading Mort out loud to the kiddo - he loved it and we plan on continuing with the Death books, but first we are reading through a collection of Wings of Fire novellas that were just released as a paperback anthology, The Winglets Quartet.

QOTW: I don't really do challenges or reading goals, but I'm very pleased with my number for the year so far - I'm on track to get back to pre-kid numbers for the first time since they were born. It DOES get easier :) For the rest of the year - I imagine I'll probably do a lot of comfort re-reading. Things are really hard right now.

Rebecca wrote: "but I really enjoyed the reference to Election Day cake, which I had just learned about from Tasting History on YouTube. "

I LOVE that channel. On Monday my kitchen remodel finished to the extent that I had a stove and oven again and I immediately made the Election Cake from Tasting History. It is yummy. Nothing like a glaze made only from powdered sugar and whiskey (and a splash of vanilla, but you cannot taste that).

Oh fun! The Boxcar Children book included a recipe for a yeasted version (although not sourdough). In the story they are of course made by twelve-year-old Jessie, who is better at adulting than I am. I was impressed that either they're hiring Connecticut authors (I couldn't find any ghostwriters' names), or someone really did their research.

Still nervous, but feeling hopeful about things right now. So glad I had this week off from work, though, I tell you guys. I wouldn't have been able to focus on work.

I finished Return of the Thief, which was great, as always. Definitely not a good starting point for new readers, but a great finale and payoff for series readers.

I'm currently reading A Tale for the Time Being, which is my Popsugar book set in Japan. Well, half of it is the journals of a teen girl living in Japan, but I'm counting it anyway. It's actually a little bit depressing for my current mood, but I'm still interested enough in the story to finish.

QOTW: I'm still finishing up Popsugar. I've been mixing challenge and non-challenge reads all year, but I think I'll be able to finish by focusing on it until the end of the year. I'm to the point where I think I own all the rest of the books left on my challenge list, so I won't have to wait for library holds.

I've only been checking the news sporadically, myself. I was never much for nosy neighbors of any kind, but I am sending all my best available vibes to my American friends to navigate through the chaos peacefully and, hopefully, fairly quickly.

Just one finish this week: The Institute, which I enjoyed quite a bit. I just enjoy Stephen King's writing, no matter where the story goes.

I counted it for prompt 26 of the ATY challenge, a book from the 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards. That brings me to 50/52, so I'm well on course to finish that challenge as well.

After that, I have 5 prompts left on the 52 Book Club challenge, which will probably carry me through to the end of the year. Although I have tracked a number of other challenges, including Popsugar and Book Riot, I doubt I'll be able to fill in the remaining prompts.

In other news, I'm working on the layout for the not-explicitly-FoE related reading challenge for next year. I do hope people will enjoy it!

Looking forward to seeing your prompts!

The prompts are ready. I'm working on the graphics and a few recommendations for each prompt to get imaginations flowing!

This week I have one finish, Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors. I enjoyed it well enough but not quite as much as I had hoped. A bunch of the "errors" were bugs in software that simply are logic errors. As a software engineer, it is just part of the job and some things in the book (like the first chapter entirely on Y2K38 clock) has been known and wasn't an error but a design choice. So while many were entertaining like the woman whose DNA was tied to dozens and dozens of murders, others were not as math oriented as I would have liked.

I am still listening to The Last Emperox. It is short, about 8 hours, compared to the Expanse books and I'm about halfway through. I am enjoying it and Wil Wheaton's narration as usual. This is the 3rd and final (I assume) in The Interdepency series from John Scalzi.

Just last night I started I'd Give Anything. I am only 10 pages in so I have no opinions on it yet.

QOTW: I don't do challenges or reading goals. I guess one goal I had at the beginning of the year was to actually make the effort to keep track here on GR when I finish a book so that I can look back at the end of the year. That itself is new for me and I've mostly succeeded at it I think. If I forgot and missed one or two, I probably won't remember anyway!