EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi everyone, sorry for the very late post. It certainly has been a week. I was convinced it was Thursday when it was Tuesday.

However my Christmas cards are done, in the mail, Christmas bread is in the oven, got some of my office mess cleaned up, laundry is done. So at least some progress going!

Book Club

Going to do the poll for the next book on Monday, right now I think there's just two suggestions. So if you had any others to add, now is the time!

This week I finished:

Come Tumbling Down - finished up the series for now, until the next one comes out next year. It's a fun series!

Dead Man's Hand, Wake the Dead, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Caught Dead, Dead Ringer, Dead as a Doornail - picked this series up a while ago after the facebook ad caught my eye. Pink haired necromancer who has an undead pig named Bacon? 6 bucks for all six novellas? ok, sold. All of them were in the 110 page range, nice fluffy brain candy for the end of the year.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown - was going to use this for the fresh start for next year's popsugar, but my hold came up. but i feel like that prompt's pretty easy to fill so went with reading this now. Another feel good read for the end of the year.

A Gathering of Shadows - finally got around to finishing this, doing all my christmas card stuff finally gave me time. It was good, i do not really remember reading it before even though goodreads says i did. Oh well, now I can go on to the third which I know I didn't get to.

Currently reading:

White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color this is a bit heavy for holiday reading, but I missed my hold the first time around because it came up over Thanksgiving weekend and I failed to check my mail the whole weekend. It was supposed to bump me to next, but i guess because of the whole "if libraries own the copy they get priority in the queue " thing, it meant waiting a month and a half. I didn't want to skip again. It's a good book to read as a white woman, even if it's also very hard to read.

Hogfather - re-read for the holidays, been a while. breaking up the other one with something a big lighter.

QOTW:

Since it's near the end of the year, what are your top reads of the year? However many you feel like going into.

I'd say my top fiction are:

Gideon the Ninth - loved the humor, the genre mashing, just everything about it really.

The City We Became - love Nk Jemisin's writing, this book actually left me shaking a bit when I finished. was just so good.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - As I was reading this, I just had a sense it was going to be a favorite book, and it was. I want to get a physical copy for my bookshelf now.

I had a number of other five star reads, but those are the ones that really stand out.

nonfiction:

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America - hard to say that I "enjoyed" reading it, but it really shook my whole world view. I had no idea about a lot of the history in there, and it shocked me at how white washed the history I taught was.

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots - really powerful story, reminded me a lot of Educated. In both cases hard to believe they took place in modern America, not decades ago.

Broken - Technically this isn't out until next year, but i won an arc. Loved it so much, I laughed, I cried, I cry-laughed.

Again, had other good reads, but those stood out.

The big excitement this week was that my husband bought a tablet during all the sales, so I was able to steal it for Hoopla books. It's certainly better than a phone or laptop, but I'm still considering an e-ink tablet in the probably distant future.

The first test case for it was World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments. Like most essay collections, it was variable in quality. The best entries were stories from the author's life that involved nature; the worst was basically, "I had some colorful glass bangles as a child. You know what else is colorful? Comb jellies!" Her previous works are poetry, and perhaps I should have tried those instead.

Next we have a children's picture book, The Queen and the First Christmas Tree: Queen Charlotte's Gift to England. I think I saw this on A Mighty Girl, and since I live in her namesake city and it was available on Hoopla, I had to check it out. The story is unsurprisingly simplistic, and I thought it leaned a little heavily on the "not like other girls" trope, but the illustrations are lovely. I am considering buying this as a sort of Christmas decoration.

Finally, my festive mystery for this year, Murder for Christmas. Very high marks for theme: a snow-covered countryside, a manor full of Christmas guests, a host who insists on all the traditional holiday trappings, and a murder victim dressed as Father Christmas. However, I did not appreciate the constant overwrought descriptions of the weather, the atmosphere, the highly specific looks that crossed everyone's faces ~unless it was just the protagonist's overactive imagination~ (caveat provided nearly every time)... This could easily have been 30% shorter and would have been greatly improved.

QOTW: Oh man, I am so bad at picking favorites in general, and also bad at remembering what I read earlier this year. (I don't ever bother to enter dates on here, so the little wrap-up Goodreads provided said I read eight books.) Let's see...

The End of Everything - Informative, funny, and so good at explaining things in an understandable way; recommended for anyone interested in how the universe works.

Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy - I keep coming back to this one because it's a story that should be way more known, and that unfortunately still has resonance today.

A Meditation on Murder - This book is probably not for everyone. Or maybe even many people. But it is definitely for me, a huge fan of the show and, you know, mystery novels. The target audience, it me.

Two finishes for me this week. The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky was a monster of a book, very intense and very good. Another one of those books that has so much good science in it that it makes my nerdy little heart happy! I'm still thinking about the ending.

The other was completely different - Tana French's newest mystery, The Searcher. I just LOVE her books. I'm intrigued by the mystery but it was the characters and the setting that really had me glued. I started it last night but spent many hours today finishing it.

QOTW: Is it that time of year already? I guess it is! Favorite reads of 2020:

Fiction -
The whole Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin: Totally blown away by this. The worldbuilding, the diversity of representation, the characters, the story, the science, all of it.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas: heartbreaking and real.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire: I just love her writing.

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal: alternate history of the early years of space travel. SO GOOD.

Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb: last book in a monster series and I SOBBED at the end after spending 17 books with these characters.

The Doors of Eden for all the reasons I just said above.

Nonfiction -
We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina L. Love. Every teacher should read it.

Caesar's Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us by Sam Kean. I love his books and this was just as fascinating as the others.

Becoming by Michelle Obama. Fascinating and admirable woman.

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes. Do I even need to explain? :)

Next week is my last work week of the year, so yay! I can't believe Xmas is next week. Today or tomorrow, I'm going to finish making holiday cookies, and then next week I'll prep the lasagna for dinner on Friday.

This week I finished:
The Calculating Stars, my Popsugar book about a woman in STEM. I was so riveted by this story, the pages flew by. I'm looking forward to reading the sequels soon.

Tweet Cute, my final Popsugar prompt, a book with a pun in the title. This was a cute YA romance. I liked both lead characters, and found them both relatable and three-dimensional. Lots of fun with a Twitter war between two rival restaurants and a menu item one claims was copied by the other, and the teens get embroiled in the social media of their parents' businesses.

A couple of manga finishes, too: Emma, Vol. 4 and Emma, Vol. 5. I finally finished off this series. I really enjoyed it.

Currently reading: The Faithless Hawk - I'm not too far in yet, but I loved the first book.

QOTW:
The Song of Achilles - broke my heart but in the most beautiful way. Also, ties in to my current video game obsession, Hades.

Two very different stories by T. Kingfisher: Paladin's Grace, an adult fantasy romance, and A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, a YA story. Good in different ways, but both with Kingfisher's wonderful humor and characters.

The Calculating Stars- as mentioned above, this just captivated me and I loved it.

The Fifth Season - I still need to read the sequels, which I plan to do early next year. This first book was incredible. I regret not getting into Jemisin earlier.

Queens of Geek - kind of goofy, but this hit me in the right place at exactly the right time. I was feeling kind of down about all the conventions I normally go to being cancelled due to Covid, and then I read this adorable YA romance set against the backdrop of a big sci-fi convention.

The Starless Sea - I love her lyrical writing, and I really enjoying unravelling this mystery of a story.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - I think I was even more taken with this one because of the backdrop of my hometown, New York City, which I haven't been back to in a while. It makes me want to go visit once the pandemic restrictions are over.

I finally finished Testament by Valerie J. Freireich. I have not had any attention for any of my in progress books for the last few weeks. This was really good, and the last 100 pages was amazing. Though it is the second in a series I have not read, so I expect some of the universe building from the earlier book may have explained some of the political perspectives between unaltered humans and altered humans. I'm going to have to track down the other 2 books to read.

I'm still working on Tricks of the Trade by Laura Anna Gilman and A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke

I also picked up Witches Brew by Terry Brooks.

i set aside my Supernatural novel for D: A Tale of Two Worlds, because it's a library book with a due date. of course, i have two books waiting for me at the library, but they'll end up getting finished in 2021.

my top reads of the year?
fiction:
Recursion - timey-wimey that messes with your memory and sense of time

The Gordian Protocol & The Valkyrie Protocol - because time travel is always fun

Parable of the Sower & Parable of the Talents - as if 2020 wasn't dystopian enough

non-fiction:
Raising Them: Our Adventure in Gender Creative Parenting - while i've already raised my kids, this was an insightful read!

Bunch of finishes this week, partly due to the fact I revived my old tablet specifically for e-reading, and partly due to the fact I'm picking short freebie reads I picked up through BookBub that won't interfere with the reads I've planned out for next year's challenges:

Finished The Farrier's Daughter. A bit too romance-y for my taste, but decently written. Doubtful I will pursue unless I can access the sequels at no cost. Used it to polish off the freebie prompt of the Flourish & Blotts challenge.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I deserve to turn in my Ravenclaw card for never noticing that this was the actual dictionary-style reference guide to fantastic beasts, and not just the screenplay of the movie. Enjoyed the narration by Eddie Redmayne. Used it for the "references the Harry Potter universe" prompt to finish off the Flourish & Blotts challenge. I am now officially done with reading challenges for 2020, with 4 completed!

Strange Planet, a collection of those quirky alien cartoons, divided into themes. Exactly what you would expect.

Hold that Thought: Build clarity, peace, and joy by gaining mastery over your thinking: not at all what I thought it was going to be. Turns out it's a self-help book on... lowering expectations to avoid disappointment?!? There were a couple of valid points, and a bunch I felt was absolute rubbish. I guess I'll have to just stay mad about it :)

Worth Her Weight in Gold and Taste of Marrow, a one-off and the sequel to River of Teeth. Alternate historical fiction where hippos have been introduced in the Southern US, with a Western feel and a character that uses they/them pronouns. What's not to love? I had this for the longest time on my library wish list, and the license lapsed! I requested it be reactivated, so it was the least I can do to read the darn thing :) I enjoy Sarah Gailey's writing, and they've got a new book coming out next year, so I'll be keeping an eye out for that.

30-Day Whole Foods Slow Cooker Cookbook: Irresistible Recipes That Will Help You Lose Weight, Prevent Disease, and Make You Feel Better Than Ever Before, because I was hunting for inspiration for hopefully the last grocery run of 2020. A couple of things worth trying out.

QOTW: I was pleasantly surprised by the first two novels of the Strain trilogy by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. Keeping book 3 for next year!

I am of the "wait until the hype has faded away" and/or "the entire trilogy is available" before I read type, so most of my best reads aren't new by any stretch.

Gone Girl: loved the twists and turns.

The second and third installments of the Binti trilogy. The trilogy got better and better, I felt. Will definitely look for more Nnedi Okorafor to sink my teeth into.

The Birds: Did not expect it would put the movie to shame. Yet here we are. A fabulous short read.

The Fifth Season: My first foray into our book club reads. Another trilogy I am planning to complete in the new year. Wonderful world-building.

Jurassic Park: For some odd reason, I had always thought this was a massive doorstopper. Not at all, and another one that enriches the movie experience.

Listened to all 4 Murderbot Diaries novellas, I really enjoyed them! I put book 5 on hold after checking the audiobook narrator, I didn't really mind with Pratchett but I don't think I could handle switching in the middle of this series.

Read Nine Goblins in one sitting, I liked it quite a bit more than Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, and particularly like that the ending was more nuanced than 'kill the bad guy and go home'.

QOTW:
The Starless Sea was definitely the top book this year, I bought it because I didn't want to wait for the library hold, and loved it. I spent all of book 5 nervous about what terrible thing was going to happen to the protagonist, so I keep meaning to go back and re-read now that I know the ending.

The Merciful Crow was next, really looking forward to The Faithless Hawk.

Follow Me to Ground was one I didn't expect to enjoy, 'haunting' is not really a style I usually enjoy, but this was a beautiful book.

The other top reads were The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Lie Tree, and Middlegame. I really did try to branch out this year, but, well...clearly I have a preferred genre.

I see a few of my to-read books on all your top book lists, so they've been bumped up the list for next year!

Middlegame was on my list last year :)

I bought middle game in hardcover just after it came out at powells, just assuming I’d love it. Wasn’t disappointed!

This week I've still been listening to Nemesis Games. These are very long audiobooks so you'll continue to see this for weeks to come most likely. I've been calling family and talking on my walks alone lately so this is slower going. But I'm definitely making forward progress.

I am also slowly going through Puzzlecraft: The Ultimate Guide on How to Construct Every Kind of Puzzle. It isn't the kind of book you just sit down and read. Again it will take me a while to work through it. And I'm going to put it down for a bit.

The reason is that today, finally(!) my library hold for The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue came and I picked it up! So I finally get to read it. This is now going to be my book until it is done. It also has a due date and the puzzle book we own. So, I finally get to participate in the discussion.

QOTW: I really have to review what I've read this year.

For fiction, my favorites were Clean Sweep and The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club. I really flew through those books which is not common for me.

It is hard for me to pick a favorite audiobook. Those are pretty tightly tied to either John Scalzi or The Expanse. They've all been great.

For non-fiction, this year my favorite has to be Me. I am an Elton John fan and enjoyed reading his story.

Sheri did you assume you'd love Middlegame because of the author? I just realized the most recent Tor book giveaways were by her, so now I'm even more annoyed that I wasn't paying attention and missed the first 3 of the Wayward Children series! Haven't read any of her other books but planning to now.

Sarah, yes :) I've loved or at least really enjoyed basically everything she's written that I've read, including her Mira Grant sci fi work. Also she's written a sorta spinoff fantasy using a pen name that is referenced in Middlegame, so excited to check out that one too. Over the Woodward Wall

Man, next year's reading list is getting so long! I hope I can fit them all into the Book Nerds challenge or I'm going to be in trouble. 😄

Haha, I feel like the prompts cover such a wide range, you can surely fit most stuff in without stressing too much :)

Probably--my plan is just to read and note which (harder) prompts each book covers and then midway through the year see what's left. Right now I have a lot of books I want to read without knowing which prompts they might fill unless it's related to author or cover design anyhow...