EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all doing well!

Book Club

The thread for suggesting books is open! There's only been one suggestion so far, so if you want to suggest something, go ahead! If everyone wants to read that one, that's fine. Just want to make sure that there's a consensus, not just people forgetting to participate. :)

This week I finished:

European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman - I liked this, don't know why it took me SO LONG to finish. Just mental fatigue I guess. Fun addition to the series, will have to get the next eventually.

The Fire Rose - fun easy re-read

Amazing Spider-Man #49 - not sure why this issue was so long, but it was also tedious. hope it's not another big marvel event, getting so tired of them.

Exorsisters, Vol. 2 - i read current comics individualy but mark them as read when I finish issues that would be in a trade volume. So been sitting on this one a while, finally read the last one in vol 2. I like the story, fun idea.

Once & Future, Vol. 2: Old English - same deal with this one, it's an interesting comic.

In an Absent Dream - Catching up on Wayward Children since tor was so nice to give away the books last week haha. i liked this, although I always am a little against prequels. It's hard to read the book in a relaxed fashion when you can see how every choice is leading to a bad outcome.

Come Tumbling Down - glad to get back to Jack and Jill, I like their story. I never really associated the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme with horror, but its' a fun juxtaposition. Good to see some of the other characters coming back, hoping Christoper gets a nice book too.

Wake the Dead - had a headache yesterday and was taking a relaxing bath to try to relax my neck muscles. I needed something light and fluff to read. Necormancers with undead pigs named Bacon work right? It's not great literature by any means, but it was a fun romp and very short.

Currently reading:

A Gathering of Shadows - still listening to audio book, i'm so slow with them ahah. I have to be in the right mood to listen and not accidentally tune it out.

Dead Man's Hand - I'd gotten six books in the series for something like 6 bucks, they're all just over 100 pages I think so figure now's a good time to just go through them. They're fun, if a bit cheesy.

QOTW:

I'll borrow from popsugar reading group again:
Do you ever notice strange coincidences when you pick stuff to read? Unexpected connections, references, etc.

I seem to pretty often! I read Life After Life for my books & brew, and then read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue shortly after. Life after Life was mentioned in Addie LaRue! Also in Come Tumbling Down there was a character named Gideon, and there also was one in Wake the Dead, i had literally just finished one and started the other. I feel like I haven't heard the name Gideon much before this year, but then Gideon the Ninth obviously has one, and Harrow the Ninth introduced another.

I've also had it happen where without thinking about it I end up hitting similar themes, like reading a book about the Moon Landing and then reading Calculating the Stars shortly after.

Hi! I finished my Mercedes Lackey marathon and am now on The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I absolutely loved Children of Time and its sequel Children of Ruin (I think I even decided Children of Ruin was my favorite book of 2019), so I'm excited to dig into this one. I haven't gotten very far yet.

I had three other library loans all come in at the same time, so I'm hopeful I can finish them all in time. Two of the three are on kindle, so I can always do the trick where I turn off the Wifi after downloading so I can keep them longer...

QOTW: Hmmm. Nothing comes to mind right now. My books often have similar themes just because I don't really plan out my reading, I just read what I'm in the mood for, so sometimes I go on a nonfiction kick, etc... if I think of something later I'll come back to share!

My exciting news for the week is that I finally finished Black Sun! I really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to the series that it's supposed to be the start of - but I really do wish I'd read it at a less busy time, because with all of the jumping around between characters and plots between chapters, it always took me a minute to remember what was happening when I got back to it. So I might need to revisit it whenever the next one comes out.

I've now started The Silent Patient for IRL Book Club #2 - I'm still in the early chapters, but it's definitely grabbed my attention - I haven't read this kind of thriller for a while, and I was a bit underwhelmed by the last few I came across, so I'm looking forward to seeing where this one goes.

I'm also still listening to Silverswift when the opportunity presents itself. I'm enjoying it, but a bit confused about the intended audience - it's clearly packaged and marketed as middle grade, and the framing story centers on an 11-year-old, but it's getting pretty deep into adult (as in grown folks, not as in p*rn) relationships to a point that I'm not sure would be interesting to the average middle grade reader. I'm about 3/4 of the way through, and I'm still not exactly sure how its going to wrap up, so I definitely recommend it...I'm just not sure to whom. :)

QOTW: Yes! And not just with books - it happens with TV shows, movies, online stuff...suddenly some random person, idea, object, etc. is everywhere for no apparent reason! Most recently (I think I might have talked about this here before), one of the IRL book clubs read A Wild and Precious Life, then Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures - then I just happened to read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which feels like Edie starring in Laura Lamont's life. Or last year, when the same book club had decided to read Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation like a year in advance, and it turned out that there was a play about the same relatively obscure, non-local event going on at the same time we were reading it. It's like there's just something in the water sometimes!

I only had one finish this week, but I think it should count as two, because there's a book within the book: Moonflower Murders, the sequel to Magpie Murders. I had read Anthony Horowitz's Sherlock Holmes novel and found it lackluster, but my favorite reviewer was so effusive about Magpie three years ago that I read it anyway and then immediately bought it for my sister for Christmas. When I saw there was a sequel, I wondered whether the author would be able to pull off the same trick twice, but reviewer said yes, and again he was right. Each book involves one of a series of mystery novels supposedly written by a fictional author who created a Poirot-like historical detective. That novel is included in its entirety within a present-day frame story involving a murder related to the author. I would absolutely read the Poirot pastiches on their own, they are superb, and then you get a bonus second mystery and a reveal of all the clues and puzzles the fake-author-but-actually-the-real-author hid in the fake-but-actually-real books. The second book might actually be slightly better than the first, but the first one should definitely be read first.

QOTW: I think I have fewer book coincidences because I generally try to mix it up so I don't read a whole string of mystery novels or three nonfiction books about birds or whatever. There was that reference to Chéri in Addie LaRue, and of course the earthquake that happened while I was reading The Fifth Season. This summer I got two books about space with blue and gold cover art, but that's probably more a trend in book design than a coincidence.

This week I finished Cocaine Blues, which I liked well enough. I had mostly figured out the culprit halfway though, but I liked Phryne as a character. I kind of want to check out the TV series they made as well. This was my Popsugar book set in the 1920s.

I also finished my audio reread of The Hallowed Hunt, my Popsugar book with a bird on the cover, at least of the audio version. I tried to separate it a little away from the other books in the series, which are two of my favorite books of all times. I also think it suffered a little from me listening to it; the narrator was fine, but it's much easier for me to get distracted from audiobooks than print books. That said, I liked it better this time than my first attempt reading it. Bujold just has this way of making truly likable, fun characters.

I'm currently reading The Calculating Stars, which will be my Popsugar book about a woman in STEM. I'm really enjoying this one so far. I empathize a lot with Elma and her anxiety.

QOTW: I can't think of any off the top of my head just now, but I've definitely had moments like that before. I think sometimes you notice things like that because they're fresher in your mind.

I would definitely recommend the Miss Fisher show. I had already seen it when I read Cocaine Blues earlier this year, and I was worried it would ruin my book experience, but I enjoyed both.

It's crunch time before the holidays in terms of work, so I didn't get all that much reading done. I did rearrange some books in the Flourish & Blotts challenge, and it turns out I only have 4 prompts left. It looks like I'll be finishing one more challenge after all!

I read House Valdis Origins: Xenobia, a short story prequel I got from BookBub, to fill the book with a moon on the cover prompt. It was all right, but I felt it could have been fleshed out more, even as an origin story to lure readers to read the novels that follow. I doubt I'll be trying the series.

I'm about halfway through The Farrier's Daughter, which will fill the book with a symbol on the cover prompt. It's another BookBub freebie. Another middle-of-the-road, can't quite commit to being a romance novel story. We'll see how it turns out, but I doubt I'll continue this series either.

That will leave me with two prompts to fill - a book that references the Harry Potter universe, and a book of my choosing. I might just listen to the audiobook of Fantastic Beasts. None of the non-JKR books suggested in the group seem particularly appealing.

Thank you to Rebecca for finding me a book to read for the "story within a story" prompt in next year's Book Nerds challenge! Magpie Murders it shall be!

QOTW: Yes! I remember it happening with Addie LaRue. It was a very specific turn of phrase, which then also appeared in the next book I read, The Relic... but I can't remember what exactly for the life of me :)

this week i finished Warriors: Darkness Within and am now reading Supernatural: Children of Anubis.

i also finished a crochet Max Scherzer for my nephew for chanukah, and a crochet Temple logo pillow for daughter's boyfriend for xmas. and that's why i don't read as many books as i used to XD

QotW: yeah, probably. i mean, i'm reading a Supernatural novel based on the Supernatural tv show. and i read similar stories, so there's bound to be overlaps. i also wrote a story (nano 2013) where my character referenced a LOT of different time travel books, tv shows, and movies, so not only do i read connected stuff, i write it too. XD

Haha, I saw that Book Nerds prompt for a story within a story and was sad that I just finished Moonflower Murders a couple weeks ago so I'll have to find something else. I think I liked Magpie Murders a little better, but I think the construct is fun and really enjoyed it.

I think I spent more time making next year's book list than reading this week! :D I did read The Merciful Crow in one sitting last weekend, I wanted to read it before the Faithless Hawk which I added to next year's list, and I loved it (obviously)!

QotW: I don't notice too many coincidences in books, but I notice them constantly in crosswords, the same word is used two days in a row so often that I secretly believe the New York Times must be doing it on purpose.

This week I finished Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. While I read non-fiction, this is my first book of essays. Each chapter was a somewhat different topic. It got better for me as I went into it more. I was unsure if I was going to bother finishing after the first few chapters, but then I kept going.

I'm listening to Expanse #5, Nemesis Games. I'm enjoying it. It is interesting because this is the first one where I haven't already seen the TV season and know where the story will end up and how. I'm 10 chapters in and I just barely have an idea of what the story is going to be. My husband has been walking with me some more lately, which is good for him and his exercise, and enjoyable company, but definitely cuts into my listen to audiobook time.

My husband and I love doing variety puzzles like in the NYT or WSJ. Last Christmas our daughter got us both a puzzle book, and a how-to-construct-puzzles that I started readying. Puzzlecraft: The Ultimate Guide on How to Construct Every Kind of Puzzle

QOTW: I could have written what Sarah wrote. I too notice repeat answers in crosswords and other puzzles that are oddball words that they stand out. I haven't had that happen that I remember in books.

Susan, are you familiar with Escape This Podcast? As a puzzle lover I am sure you will enjoy it! I just discovered it over the summer and binge-listened to all of it, now I have to wait for the weekly episodes like everyone else :)

Thank you @Shel! We will look into it as I'm sure my husband will enjoy it with me. Sadly our usual podcast listening time is on road trips which have been lacking this year. But I've saved the recommendation and will definitely listen!

I think you guys would have a good time listening together and trying to solve the puzzles as it goes along. It's basically an audio-format escape room, so it's like a combination of an escape room and a roleplaying game.

Shel, that podcast sounds cool! Is it something that can be listened to in the car, or does it require writing things down, etc.?

It depends how involved you want to be! I am usually listening in the car so I don't get super caught up in trying to solve the puzzles, I just like listening to them work through them. But if you want to solve along with them you probably want to have paper and pencil handy.

I listened to the first one last night, I didn't write anything down since I was cleaning but it was very engaging, thanks for the recommendation! 😊

Cool! Thanks for the description - I'll probably listen to one while I can focus on it, then I can listen to more while driving, etc. I appreciate the recommendation!

I'm glad you all are enjoying! The multiple-episode story arcs are REALLY fun - that's seasons 2, 4, and 6 (they alternate seasons with one-off episodes and longer arcs).