The County Library discussion

Here we go again! Reader's Choice has started! You can turn your ballots in at any branch or vote online if you prefer: slcolibrary.org/we-recommend/readers-...

We are still celebrating 30 years of Reader's Choice so if you haven't seen the Winner's Booklet, stop in at any branch to pick one up.

Can't wait to hear what you think!

Reader's Choice Nominees:
All the Murmuring Bones
Battle Royal
Clark and Division
Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am
The Dictionary of Lost Words
Down Range
Hairpin Bridge
The Last House on Needless Street
A Master of Djinn
Miss Lattimore's Letter
The Moonlight School
Mrs. March
The Music of Bees
A Peculiar Combination
Stranger Care
The Sweet Taste of Muscadines
Ten Low
To Sir, with Love
The Unkindness of Ravens
Winter's Orbit

Already? I feel like we just barely finished spring's.

Audrey wrote: "Already? I feel like we just barely finished spring's."

You did. The last posting on that thread was June 11, less than a month ago. Boy, if I did the Reader's Choices, that would be over half of the books I read a year!

I read A Peculiar Combination last year and really enjoyed it. The sequel was just released.

I get through more if they're on audiobook because I have fewer "commitments" planned for audio than paper books. I've still never read all the nominations.

Yay, they're all available on audio!!!!

I enjoyed Battle Royal and I loved Winter's Orbit.

Finished my first one, Clark and Division. Pretty good.

Well that's an afternoon I'll never get back. Finished Mrs. March, 1 star.

Ouch! That was a maybe book for me.

Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am was FASCINATING! I loved it.

Running list:
Mrs March- 1 star
Come Fly the World- 5 stars

Clark and Division felt like it was maybe trying to do too many things at once, but overall I did enjoy it. 3.5 stars but I always round up since half stars aren't an option lol

Running list:
Mrs March - 1 star
Come Fly the World - 5 stars
Clark and Division - 4 stars

I read The Moonlight School earlier this year. I really liked it and gave it 5 stars.

I have no idea how to rate Stranger Care. I'm not really sure I'm glad I read it.

Running list:
Mrs March - 1 star
Come Fly the World - 5 stars
Clark and Division - 4 stars
Stranger Care - read

A Peculiar Combination turned out pretty good. I am about three-fourths through All the Murmuring Bones. It's been completely unpredictable.

Finished All the Murmuring Bones. After a very dull beginning, it turned out well.

The Music of Bees is sweet and uplifting but a little slower than I wanted today. Not the book's fault.

Running list:
Mrs March - 1 star
Come Fly the World - 5 stars
Clark and Division - 4 stars
Stranger Care - read
The Music of Bees - 4 stars

Master of Djinn doesn't read like a first in the series/ standalone. Kinda annoying. Still pretty good though.

Running list:
Mrs March - 1 star
Come Fly the World - 5 stars
Clark and Division - 4 stars
Stranger Care - read
The Music of Bees - 4 stars
A Master of Djinn - 4 stars

Hairpin Bridge was.... somewhere between meh and fine. Pretty dark and the narrative style was kind of confusing. Also, the narrator kept pronouncing the "t" in "soften" (sof-ten) and that seriously drove me nuts, lol.

Almost halfway....

Running list:
Mrs March - 1 star
Come Fly the World - 5 stars
Clark and Division - 4 stars
Stranger Care - read
The Music of Bees - 4 stars
A Master of Djinn - 4 stars
Hairpin Bridge - 3 stars

The Sweet Taste of Muscadines was pretty good. Less my thing but well done. I have a feeling this one will be popular.

Running list:
Mrs March - 1 star
Come Fly the World - 5 stars
Clark and Division - 4 stars
Stranger Care - read
The Music of Bees - 4 stars
A Master of Djinn - 4 stars
Hairpin Bridge - 4 stars
The Sweet Taste of Muscadines - 4 stars

To Sir With Love is cute, but since it's literally You've Got Mail in modern (I feel so old) book form I'll stick to watching.

Running list:
Mrs March - 1 star
Come Fly the World - 5 stars
Clark and Division - 4 stars
Stranger Care - read
The Music of Bees - 4 stars
A Master of Djinn - 4 stars
Hairpin Bridge - 3 stars
The Sweet Taste of Muscadines - 4 stars
To Sir With Love - 4 stars

Britt, Book Habitue wrote: "To Sir With Love is cute, but since it's literally You've Got Mail in modern (I feel so old) book form I'll stick to watching..."

I think I enjoy every version of this that I've seen. I'd love to see just the play, as a play. 'Parfumerie' was originally written in 1937 and was a Hungarian play. And then the movie adaptions were 'Shop Around the Corner' with Jimmy Stewart, 'In the Good Ol' Summertime' with Judy Garland, and 'You've got Mail' with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, and then 'She loves Me' with Zachary Levi is the musical adaption. Love the music from it. Whenever we eat ice cream, me and my mom sing the Ice Cream song. lol.

I enjoyed the book, and her take on it. But, I'm a Lauren Layne fan from way back, so it could just be that I'm predisposed to like her.

I prefer to watch because we get the full story and resolution in less time, lol. With a book version I feel like it takes forever for them to see the utterly obvious.
I have always enjoyed You've Got Mail and Shop Around the Corner was cute. I know some of the music from She Loves Me but haven't found a movie version (is there one I'm missing?) or had a chance to see it on stage.

I've never seen You've Got Mail or any of those variations, so I guess the book will be fresh for me.

Battle Royal - cute enough as romances go. Definitely not a clean read. If that doesn't bother you and you enjoy romances and Great British Baking Show you will likely enjoy this quite a bit.

Running list:
Mrs March - 1 star
Come Fly the World - 5 stars
Clark and Division - 4 stars
Stranger Care - read
The Music of Bees - 4 stars
A Master of Djinn - 4 stars
Hairpin Bridge - 3 stars
The Sweet Taste of Muscadines - 4 stars
To Sir With Love - 4 stars
Battle Royal - 3 stars

A Peculiar Combination started a bit slow for me but I really enjoyed it. Good option if you like Anna Lee Huber's Verity Kent series.

Running list:
Mrs March - 1 star
Come Fly the World - 5 stars
Clark and Division - 4 stars
Stranger Care - read
The Music of Bees - 4 stars
A Master of Djinn - 4 stars
Hairpin Bridge - 3 stars
The Sweet Taste of Muscadines - 4 stars
To Sir With Love - 4 stars
Battle Royal - 3 stars
A Peculiar Combination - 4.5 stars

Finished Down Range. A decent thriller.

Britt, Book Habitue wrote: "I prefer to watch because we get the full story and resolution in less time, lol. With a book version I feel like it takes forever for them to see the utterly obvious.
I have always enjoyed You've ..."

They filmed 'She Loves Me' with Zachary Levi from Broadway and aired it on PBS, I think it was part of Great Performances. Sometimes it appears on PBS Passport, but it isn't always available. They also filmed the same show (although a different night) for Broadway HD. Which is a subscription service. It's literally the reason I got Broadway HD. I need to cancel. I haven't watched anything on that streaming service for a bit.

Read/Reading:
All the Murmuring Bones – 3.75 stars
Clark and Division – 3.5 stars
Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am – 4 stars
Down Range – 3 stars
Hairpin Bridge – 3.5 to 3.75 stars
The Last House on Needless Street – 4 stars
A Peculiar Combination – 3.75 stars
Ten Low – 3 to 3.5 stars
Miss Lattimore's Letter – 3.5+ stars
The Moonlight School – 3 stars
The Unkindness of Ravens – 3 stars
A Master of Djinn – 4 stars
Battle Royal – 2 stars (DNF 25%)
The Dictionary of Lost Words – 4 stars
To Sir, with Love – 3 to 3.5 stars
Winter's Orbit – 3 stars

Not read:
Mrs. March
The Music of Bees
Stranger Care
The Sweet Taste of Muscadines

Elizabeth wrote: "Britt, Book Habitue wrote: "I prefer to watch because we get the full story and resolution in less time, lol. With a book version I feel like it takes forever for them to see the utterly obvious.
I..."

Well dang, I did not know about Broadway HD and it's possible I now need yet another streaming service....

The library is my streaming service, lol.

Britt, Book Habitue wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Britt, Book Habitue wrote: "I prefer to watch because we get the full story and resolution in less time, lol. With a book version I feel like it takes forever for them to see the ..."

I have it, but I probably need to cancel, until I get in the mood to watch Musicals again. It's so easy to let Streaming services just continue to take money when I'm not using it, you know?

https://www.broadwayhd.com/categories...

Audrey wrote: "The library is my streaming service, lol."

That is 100% fair. :)

Britt, Book Habitue wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Britt, Book Habitue wrote: "I prefer to watch because we get the full story and resolution in less time, lol. With a book version I feel like it takes forever for them to see the ..."

OH! Broadway HD also has The Goes Wrong Show, both seasons, AND the Christmas Specials. It is my favorite thing ever.

For a while Amazon Prime had season 1, but I don't know if they have the rest of it either.

https://www.broadwayhd.com/series/the...

I'll have to look into it.

The Last House on Needless Street was certainly different. Some twists were completely predictable but then it went like three levels of crazy past that! I do think adding Dee's storyline in was too much, though.

Running list:
Mrs March - 1 star
Come Fly the World - 5 stars
Clark and Division - 4 stars
Stranger Care - read
The Music of Bees- 4 stars
A Master of Djinn - 4 stars
Hairpin Bridge - 3 stars
The Sweet Taste of Muscadines - 4 stars
To Sir With Love - 4 stars
Battle Royal - 3 stars
A Peculiar Combination - 4.5 stars
The Last House on Needless Street - 3 stars

Dee seemed very reckless at the end after having been super cautious and careful until then. It felt out of character to me.

Yeah her whole storyline just kind of didn't line up and pushed it into "trying to do too much" territory.

Yeah, she should have been a stable element in a story where you're guessing what's real and what's not, but she turned out to be just as unreliable, and it didn't quite fit.

The Unkindness of Ravens is a solid new cozyish mystery. I managed to finish the audio a whole 8 minutes before it was due.

Running list:
Mrs March - 1 star
Come Fly the World - 5 stars
Clark and Division - 4 stars
Stranger Care - read
The Music of Bees- 4 stars
A Master of Djinn - 4 stars
Hairpin Bridge - 3 stars
The Sweet Taste of Muscadines - 4 stars
To Sir With Love - 4 stars
Battle Royal - 3 stars
A Peculiar Combination - 4.5 stars
The Last House on Needless Street - 3 stars
The Unkindness of Ravens - 4 stars

Down Range was a reasonably solid thriller but I felt like Asadi was little more than a plot device and the kid's story deserved more than that.

Running list:
Mrs March - 1 star
Come Fly the World - 5 stars
Clark and Division- 4 stars
Stranger Care - read
The Music of Bees- 4 stars
A Master of Djinn - 4 stars
Hairpin Bridge - 3 stars
The Sweet Taste of Muscadines - 4 stars
To Sir With Love - 4 stars
Battle Royal - 3 stars
A Peculiar Combination - 4.5 stars
The Last House on Needless Street - 3 stars
The Unkindness of Ravens - 4 stars
Down Range - 3.5 stars

14 down, 6 to go

Finished Come Fly the World. Pretty fascinating.

Britt, Book Habitue wrote: "The Unkindness of Ravens is a solid new cozyish mystery. I managed to finish the audio a whole 8 minutes before it was due.

Running list:
Mrs March - 1 star
Come Fly the World - 5 stars
Clark and ..."

I can't believe you've made it though this many titles already! Excited to see your verdict for the last 6.

They were all available on audio and a lot came in pretty quickly!

Audio helps a lot!

All the Murmuring Bones seemed to meander rather a lot.

Running list:
Mrs March - 1 star
Come Fly the World - 5 stars
Clark and Division - 4 stars
Stranger Care - read
The Music of Bees-4 stars
A Master of Djinn - 4 stars
Hairpin Bridge - 3 stars
The Sweet Taste of Muscadines - 4 stars
To Sir With Love - 4 stars
Battle Royal - 3 stars
A Peculiar Combination - 4.5 stars
The Last House on Needless Street - 3 stars
The Unkindness of Ravens - 4 stars
Down Range - 3.5 stars
All the Murmuring Bones - 3 stars

The Moonlight School was a little slow starting but that was probably because I was cranky lol. Overall very interesting.

Running list:
Mrs March - 1 star
Come Fly the World - 5 stars
Clark and Division - 4 stars
Stranger Care - read
The Music of Bees-4 stars
A Master of Djinn - 4 stars
Hairpin Bridge - 3 stars
The Sweet Taste of Muscadines - 4 stars
To Sir With Love - 4 stars
Battle Royal - 3 stars
A Peculiar Combination - 4.5 stars
The Last House on Needless Street - 3 stars
The Unkindness of Ravens - 4 stars
Down Range - 3.5 stars
All the Murmuring Bones - 3 stars
The Moonlight School - 4 stars

Gah! Winter's Orbit was due at 11, not 11:09 so it was returned with 26 or so minutes left.....I had it on triple speed racing the clock. I guess I have to grab a paper copy at the library today to finish. Kiem is such a muppet.

Is there a lot of romance in that one?

There's a solid romantic sub plot but it's sweet and really surprisingly clean.