EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi all, sorry I missed a post for last week. Was a rough week for me, my grandma passed that Monday, and then I had a migraine Christmas Eve through that Saturday. And of course ran out of meds while the pharmacy was closed. Hope everyone else had a better holiday, if they celebrate.

Here's hoping new years goes better. Posting today because I don't know if I'll be on the computer at all tomorrow and I don't want to skip two in a row.

This week(s) I finished:

White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color - not exactly fluffy reading for holiday time which is usually how I roll but it was a good important read. It's hard to say enjoyable, but think it's a great book to look at how white feminism impacts the entire world.

Hogfather - finished up the Hogfather reread for some attempt at feeling holidayish.

Dare Me - this is my books & brew read for January. It was...not good. To the point that i'm kinda baffled the librarian picked it. There's plenty of choices that aren't what i would read, or dont' super enjoy, but i can usually see why others might like them, or understand that the writing was good even if I didn't like it. This one was just BAD. even the writing was bad. Lots of inconsistent details, weird adjective choices. Also in general, i have trouble with edgy teen books. I was hardly a perfect kid, and it's not like I did everything my parents said. But I can't ever figure out where the parents are in these kind of books. There's "lying to your parents" and there's "parents completely checked out and not paying ANY attention or setting ANY boundaries across an entire friend group". Not a single angry parent call demanding to know where their teen is? No parents wondering why teens are partying at their coach's house and being served enough alcohol that they need rides home? I was seriously just furiously skimming by the end so it'd be over.

Transcendent Kingdom - I really enjoyed this, much more than I liked Homegoing. I liked all the intersections of reconciling religious upbringing with science and how the science and religion are related to the traumas in her life.

Cinderella Is Dead - this is a fun retelling/continuation of Cinderella with a bit of a dystopian edge. I liked it, would read more by the author.

Currently reading:

A Conjuring of Light - finishing up the trilogy. we'll see how fast I read, I like to start the year with a fresh book. But 626 pages is a bit steep even for me haha.

QOTW:

Last week of the year! What do you have lined up for next year? Finishing something up to start fresh? continuing with what you're reading? Avoiding reading until the new year?

As I mentioned I'm trying to finish my current book, though that might be a tall ask. Then I'll dive into the rest of my library books to try to get my queue back under control haha. I have a Tom Waits biography, Mediocre, and How To Lose The Time War, and a Deadly Education all on deck. Plus I want to start IQ84 soon, since that's 1300 ish pages and I don't want that hanging on my head. (For Popsugar's longest book on your tbr list prompt).

Sheri, I'm so sorry about your grandmother - it's tough to lose someone anytime, but especially around Christmas with all the songs and shows about family bombarding you. I hope you're feeling better from your headache at least, and that you'll get to relax a bit this weekend.

I think I missed a week of checking in as well - I finished The Silent Patient in time for IRL book club #2's virtual meetup last night, and while I wasn't as amazed by the ending as everyone else, I still thought it was a well done thriller.

I also finished listening to Silverswift, which I really enjoyed. As I said before, I'm not entirely sure who it is intended for since there is so much time spent on interpersonal things between the adults (which seems like it would not have been interesting to me when I was the age for middle grade), but as an adult who enjoys fairy tale type audiobooks, it was perfect.

I'm currently reading The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories for IRL book club #3, and it is exactly what the title says it is. I like that there is a little blurb before each story about the context in which it was written, which is particularly helpful for all of the stories from the same time period as the original, since the satiric aspects aren't always super obvious 130 years later. I'm about 1/4 of the way through, and looking forward to getting to the part with more contemporary authors.

I'm also listening to Skyward in the limited time I'm spending in the car. I believe I picked it up when I had an audible credit to use, since it's an audible exclusive. I'm only about an hour in, so I'm holding off on a final judgement. It has some very strong Hunger Games/Red Rising/Divergent vibes at the outset, but I just got to a part where it seems like there might be a twist, so I'm looking forward to seeing where that goes. I have a feeling it's going to take me a few months to get through it, since it's much longer than all of the freebies I've been working through!

QOTW: I'm planning to continue with all of my book clubs in the new year, so I'm sure they'll continue to give me a good variety. I appreciate having these check-ins, since they get me thinking more about the patterns in what I'm reading, and I really appreciate the work you put into posting them every week, Sheri. Here's to another (hopefully better!) year of reading together!

Thanks Megan, appreciate it. I at least have enough meds now if I do get another one, but hopefully I’m good for a while. No real plans but looking forward to 4 days of not working in a row

Sheri so very sorry to hear about your grandmother, please don't apologize for missing a week, it's been a heck of a year! There were quite a lot of difficult events for my extended family this year beyond covid, so after I found out my cousin passed away on Christmas I told my husband he wasn't allowed to leave the house until the new year, and I was kind of not joking! So with the generally terrible end to the year I am ready to set fire to 2020 and slam the door behind me on the way out.

Reading: Discount Armageddon, honestly I was expecting more based on Middlegame, but (*checks author bibliography*) it's one of her early novels, she wrote almost 30(!) between this one and Middlemarch. Anyhow it's silly and over the top and requires no thinking, which is exactly what's needed right now.

QOTW:
Haha, I'm glad I'm not the only person avoiding starting something new! Usually I don't divide books between years, but this coming year I'm doing the Book Nerds challenge and my own personal NPR book concierge challenge, so along with other 'starting new for 2021' things like distance running challenges I'm looking forward to starting 2021 with all new books.

Sarah, I enjoyed Discount Armageddon but yeah, it’s fluff. I still want to continue in the series though, when I get around to finding more of them. I like her writing in part because she has such a good range :)

Also thanks for the well wishes and I’m so sorry to hear about your cousin. Rough year all around.

So sorry to hear of everyone's losses. What a crappy holiday season this is. I hope a good book can be a distraction.

Just one finish for me, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, finally. I absolutely loved it. I've since started something COMPLETELY different, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Our professional development at my school this year is centering on anti-racism, and we've all been asked to choose a book or movie from a menu of choices. This was my choice (though I'd already read some of the others on the list, like Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption and White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism). I'm not very far into it - it's not an easy read and I'm kinda brain fried these days so it's hard to make myself pick it up when I could play mindless phone games or work on a jigsaw puzzle instead. But it's an important read so I'll keep with it.

Continuing to read Stardust with my fourth grader. I'd forgotten some of the sexual content so let's just say I'm skimming over a few passages. We're very open about the facts of life in our family so he knows about it, but he doesn't need details right now!

QOTW: I don't have anything specific lined up, just an intention to continue reading whatever this group and my other group votes on if they look interesting. I'll also plan to join in on the FB group challenge when appropriate. I think the one book that I'm most looking forward to - that is SUPPOSED to be published in 2021 - is Leviathan Falls, final book of the Expanse series. I also hope to read more V.E. Schwab, because I loved Addie LaRue so much.

I feel like the last two weeks of the year might as well be one week, anyway. (But also an entire month, somehow.)

I finished up Turcaret, précédé de Crispin Rival de Son Maitre from the college stack. Once again I don't feel I was in the best position to appreciate these plays; I don't have any understanding of how tax collection worked in 18th-century France, for example. There was a table converting the various sums of money mentioned into 1999 francs and euros, so not super helpful in 2020 in the USA.

Christmas week I reread A Christmas Carol. I also read another picture book, Santa's Husband. It was better than I expected for being based on a Twitter joke - Rudolph's special diet coming from "Pole Foods Organic Market" was particularly cute - but I don't think it quite achieved actual legit children's book status.

The library had Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America as their December Black Lives Matter pick, and after some hold postponements it snuck in under the wire. I liked this one more than I expected. I was skeptical about its church service format, but it ended up working well with the author's voice (he's a minister). I feel like I might end up recommending this one to people who won't read it.

QOTW: I don't really have anything intentionally lined up. I have a couple things on hold (including the book club), and I ordered myself a couple birthday books, but I have been trying to use a local bookstore so I don't know when I'll get those. I do have one I bought a while ago but decided to save in case I missed paper books, and I need to get to that by February so I can regift it for my cousin's birthday.

I'm sorry for your losses, Sheri and Sarah. I know things aren't going to magically be better on January 1, but I am looking forward to the end of 2020.

Since the last check-in, I finished The Faithless Hawk. I really enjoyed it. I'm very glad the author chose to make this a duology. The story ends on a nice note and it never felt to me like she was stretching to fill a trilogy, the way second books can sometimes feel.

I also finished a lot of library manga and comics this week. I've actually had some of these for months due to the lockdowns. I want to clean them out so I can get some new ones out.

Magus of the Library, Vol. 2, Magus of the Library, Vol. 3, Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, Star Wars: The Legends of Luke Skywalker: The Manga, Takane & Hana, Vol. 14, A Man and His Cat, Vol. 2, Hatsu*Haru, Vol. 5, Hatsu*Haru, Vol. 6, Hatsu*Haru, Vol. 7

I'm currently reading Ten Thousand Skies Above You. I was hoping to finish this series before the end of the year, but even though it's a fast read, I don't think that's going to happen.

QOTW:
I think the first things I read in 2021 will be finishing the last two books of the trilogy I'm currently reading. That's really the only thing I have lined up right now.

As part of my plan for reading challenges next year, I'm trying to clear out my current library eBook hold list (so I can add more to it - I'm constantly at the limit). I'm also trying to finish off series I started last year (or earlier) and work those into my challenge prompts.

{{hugs to everyone who needs and wants them}}

i did finish D: A Tale of Two Worlds, and now i'm working my way through Defending the Galaxy! i love Maria Snyder!

QotW - so i'll get back to my Supernatural novel (Children of Anubis) eventually - i've got You checked out right now, and then Hidden Bodies, and hopefully You Love Me when it comes out in April.

i have more Maria V Snyder - The City of Zirdai and book 3, The King of Koraha. i also have Ready Player Two, Fortune and Glory, The Once and Future Witches, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Million Dollar Demon, Leave the World Behind, and some Warriors: A Shadow in RiverClan, The Place of No Stars, and book 6 in the Broken Code series. maybe there'll be some Sherrilyn McQueen (fmr Kenyon) this coming year too!

between library books, i'll also have my Sidney Sheldon reread as well. and then we'll go from there - i have the Han Solo Trilogy; Ilium and Olympos; Harry Potter; and Sue Grafton* on my re-read list... eventually. XD
(*A-X is a reread. then i read Y.)

Rebecca, I was a fan of the Santa's Husband concept before the book came out from all the social media stuff, and the year it came out I ended up in the hospital right before Christmas. All of the staff at the hospital where I was wear color coded scrubs so you know what they're there for, and the blood drawing people, of course, wear red. The guy who came to take my blood the most often was an older plus-sized black dude with a white beard - he looked EXACTLY like Santa's husband, and he was the friendliest of all of the blood people. So to this day, I think of him whenever I think about Santa's Husband, and I skim back over it from time to time in memory of that experience. Therefore, I've never been able to really evaluate it objectively as a children's book - but I definitely see your point!

Somehow I missed one of my reads from last week - A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, which was EXCELLENT. A really impressive debut! Sequel should be out in '21 so I'm looking forward to that.

Sheri, I'll add my thoughts with everyone else's for you and your family. It has been, what, 5 or more years that you've been doing these weekly check-ins. I remember when it was mostly you, me and Stephanie only, participating. Maybe others were reading. So I will continue to thank you for posting these every week. It is great to have so many different people participating regularly! THANK YOU SHERI!

I have no finishes this week. I am on part 5 (of 6) of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. So I expect to finish that this weekend. Like most everyone, I am enjoying it and it is going fast. I need to go read/post on the parts 3&4 thread.

I am also still listening to Nemesis Games. Although I am apparently about halfway through (chapter 24 of 51), it still feels like the story is just getting going. But it is building up and I'm sure there are going to be some big things happening. My husband and I are pacing ourselves in watching Season 5 so that it doesn't spoil my book.

QOTW: I'm looking forward to trying out the Book Nerds challenge. I have November 9 already so that is up next. I will probably read the next in the series of a couple that I loved this year (Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews and The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club).

Thanks all :) and thanks everyone for posting and being a great group! I’m glad the group of regular posters has grown. Happy new year everyone!

Happy New Year everyone! And thank you Sheri for keeping us on track :)

Once I finished the achievable challenges, I free-read among the freebie ebooks I picked up through BookBub. For the most part, I got my money's worth XD

Better Watch Out and The Bird. Do yourself a favor and just read Daphne du Maurier's fabulous The Birds. I was frustrated by bird descriptions that were inconsistent and just plain impossible.

The Influencer and Kellie's Diary #1, which were zombie and zombie-adjacent stories. A few decent moments, but very average overall.

Forgiven: One Man's Journey from Self-Glorification to Sanctification, a hardcover I picked up at a book fair. I knew it was completed after the author became born again, but I didn't think it would be so grating. God has also done little to assuage his misogyny and macho sexist posturing. Ugh.

Getting a Head. I don't usually pick up books in a series other than #1, but this one must've slipped by me. Other than a few references to other adventures, this one was ok enough in terms of of storytelling, and worth a few laugh-out-loud moments.

QOTW: See above :) I finished my last read on the morning of the 31st so I could start fresh in the new year. I'm tracking a total of 7 challenges, with the ultimate goal to complete the Book Nerds 100.

Daniele, you’re better prepared than me haha. I LIKE to do it that way. But my library must have done an end of year buying spree, 4 books dropped into my ready to check out that weren’t in my actual holds queue. One works for sure, was just waiting for the library to get it. The others were all “uh I requested these years ago” haha. I know I could skip them but that’s been hit or miss, sometimes it ends up taking months to get again.

I wonder whether their budget wraps up on Dec. 31 - that has explained many a shopping spree in businesses where I worked! I have a hold that came in too, for one of last years prompts, so I'm trying to find it a new spot now...

I meant to reply before the year ended but this week has been interesting so far. I had such a hard time commiting to titles this month. I ended up finishing up the year not with the titles I was in the middle of, but with a bunch of Virgin River books and graphic novels. despite my wanting to read sci fi I found comfort in contemporary romance. so, since my last check in I have read the following books.

Tis the Season by Robyn Carr
Wild Man Creek by Robyn Carr
Witches' Brew by Terry Brooks
Redwood Bend by Robyn Carr
Lunch Witch 2 Knee Deep in Niceness by Deb Lucke
Moonlight Road by Robyn Carr

I did not hit my goal of 150 books this year making 2020 the second year in a row I have missed my goal. I am planning on attempting 150 books again this year's.

Also, I am going into 2021 with four books still in progress

Tricks of the Trade by Laura Anne Gilman
A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke
Lost Truth by Dawn Cook
A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (audiobook)

Haha if I hadn't gotten bombarded with library holds I'm trying to keep up with, I probably would have just finished the year reading comics. So I think that's totally fine.