EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi all,

Been a really stressful week, looking forward to a 3 day weekend. Teddy started his radiation on Monday and it's just been exhausting. So much struggling with medication, getting him into his inflatable ring so he doesn't mess with the radiation site. Plus since he has to take a sedative medicine at night and we need to monitor his litter boxing, and make sure he fasts in the morning, I have been having him sleep with me at night. Normally i ban pets from the bedroom at night because i do NOT sleep well. I wake up at the slightest disturbance. So I pretty much haven't been sleeping this week. My husband's been sleeping in the guest room, but he's been having to do all the driving and appointments because he has a laptop so he's able to work in their office while I can't due to my desktop set up. Teddy's really getting fed up with the daily discomfort too and I can't blame him. Still several more weeks to go after this. At least Monday is a break for him too. Husband says he'll sleep with him tonight and over the weekend so I can catch up on sleep, since he has a four day weekend and won't need to be working. Sleep sounds so good.

The book club threads are open over in the book club folder for The Left-Handed Booksellers of London.

This week I finished:

A Discovery of Witches - I've had this on my shelf for years and never got around to it, it was a selection from my group's TBR challenge. I liked it pretty well, I'll probably finish the series eventually.

The Guncle - this is my books & brews pick for June, we'd wanted a lgbtq+ book that was less heartbreaking than some previous year picks. No set in the 80s during the AIDS crisis etc. There was still a lot of bittersweet moments since there were tragic events at the core of the book, but there was a lot of good wholesome humor and bonding and it was overall very sweet and cute.

Currently reading:

Yellowface - I've enjoyed everything by RF Kuang that I've read, so I've had my eye on this since I've heard about it. It sounds rather similar in idea to The Plot which I didn't like all that much, but honestly I trust her as a writer and I already like it better.

When We Were Magic - audio book, it's...interesting? kind of a bizarre start to a book and general premise, we'll see where it goes.

QOTW:
Have you ever read a book that made you laugh out loud?

Most the time if I find something funny in a book i'll just do a little amused...nose exhale? But the one time I can remember actually laughing outright to the point my husband came to see if i was ok was reading Jenny Lawson's Broken. I think it was the chapter where she was talking about something embarrassing thing she did in public and how she can never be seen there again, and then all her twitter followers were sharing THEIR stories. I was laughing so hard I couldn't even explain what was so funny, I just had to kind of wave the book in his general direction.

Poor Teddy! I hope you get some well-earned sleep this weekend, Sheri.

Our office is giving us a half-day Friday due to May being mental health awareness month, so we get some extra time to unwind. I'm so looking forward to it.

Finished:
Mika in Real Life by Emiko Jean - 4 stars - for Popsugar's celebrity book club prompt. This was a really fun romance/"chick lit" type story. I found Mika to be relatable and sympathetic, even when it was her mistakes causing issues.

Comics & manga:
Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, Vol. 2
Skip and Loafer, Vol. 7

Currently reading:
Last Canto of the Dead by Daniel José Older - not currently for a prompt. I kind of wish I'd had time to reread book 1 before diving into this sequel. It took me a little bit to get reoriented, but now I'm enjoying it.

Upcoming/Planned:
American Panda by Gloria Chao (for Popsugar's forbidden romance prompt)

QOTW:
I definitely have laughed out loud while reading a book. Usually it's at a specific joke in a book, and I'll just kind of chuckle. Maybe it's a subconscious thing on my part, but I've noticed I tend to laugh audibly more often if someone else I know (usually my partner) is in the room, and that way I can share the funny bit aloud.

We are supposed to have rain all 3 days of the weekend, but it looks like it'll be light intermittent rain instead of the previously forecast downpour, so that's slightly better.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone - This is a golden age mystery homage that is going hard for "clever". In the prologue, the narrator proclaims that he is going to be the opposite of unreliable, saying, "Everything I tell you will be the truth, or, at least, the truth as I knew it to be at the time that I thought I knew it." There is then a list of page numbers on which deaths "happen or are reported to have happened," but some of those turn out to be things that happened in the narrator's childhood, so obviously he knew about them before this reporting and the constant assertions of reliability seem rather like the narrator doth protest too much. That said, there are certainly fair play aspects. I figured several things out, especially as the reveal started and other things fell into place, but there was an important aspect I didn't get, so I feel that's pretty much what you want out of a mystery. I will revise its score from "too clever by half" to "too clever by at least 15%", and would consider recommending it to mystery fans with a high tolerance for obnoxious narration, but when I logged it here and saw it said "Ernest Cunningham #1" I really couldn't imagine myself reading another one.

QOTW: I definitely have as well, but I can't remember many specifically. Dorothy Parker has definitely gotten me, and I feel like there was something in Tristram Shandy. I know I laugh audibly more during shared experiences, like live comedy shows or even watching a movie with other people, but I haven't found that to be the case with reading, possibly because it's more of an internal experience that doesn't really extend to other people present.

Last week I finished The Left-Handed Booksellers of London - I posted my thoughts on the book club thread but the short version is that I liked but didn't love it, but I did like it well enough that I'd read the sequel if I had it handy. I used it for the "title that intrigued you" prompt.

Then I had a really crappy week and disappeared into some of my old comfort re-reads (The Oathbound and Oathbreakers), which I'm not going to count towards the reading challenge because I seriously know both books by heart.

I haven't decided what to pick up next. I'm definitely not up for something brainy.

QOTW: I'll usually give a little chuckle when something is funny, and if my spouse is nearby I'll interrupt what he's doing to read him a particularly funny phrase. Like Rebecca, it's rare that I really crack up from a book, just because it's so solitary and laughter comes more from shared experiences. Discworld books always are good for a giggle, and Gail Carriger's books are hilarious. I know there are more but I'm not thinking of them right now.