EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi all, hope you are all doing well!

Had my Summerween party over the weekend, and it included some out of town friends staying with us for a few days. lots of fun! Peopled out! I unfortunately was so busy i didn't even take pictures, oops. I think my husband got some, but I didn't even think to take one of me in my costume. oh well.

This week I finished:

Bad Feminist - I liked this a lot, i enjoy Roxanne Gay's writing.

Severance - for my irl books & brew. We had been slated to read this for may 2020 but between the library being closed and the subject matter, it got taken off the list. (for a few months until curbside opened, all our book club picks were confined to Hoopla only since there were no waiting lists for those at the time) It's kinda eerie the similarities, big pandemic, thought to of originated in China, people masking to try to protect from spoors. I wasn't super happy to be reading it NOW, no way i would have wanted to get through it back then. I still just thought it was ok.

Currently reading:
Sorcerer to the Crown - I must have requested this a while ago from the library, it randomly showed up on my "ready to borrow" list. I like it pretty well, though it's a bit slow.

Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II - current audiobook, trying to get more nonfiction covered for the genre genius.

QOTW: What living author would you love to meet?

I'd love to meet Seanan McGuire. She has a fun social media presence, seems like a cool person. I also love her books.

Happy Thursday!

Sheri, your party sounds like a blast! I'm glad you had a good time.

Finished:
The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik - 4 stars - for Popsugar's book with a color in the title. Overall, a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. I love it when an author can make me have an, "oh no," realization right along with the main character.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli - 4 stars - for Popsugar's banned/​challenged book. This was a really cute coming out story about a closeted gay teen. Now I want to watch the movie version.

Comics & manga:
Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun Vol. 7
Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun Vol. 8
Honey and Clover, Vol. 6
My Happy Marriage, Volume 2
My Happy Marriage 03

Currently reading:
Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo - not currently for a prompt, but I might use it as my book that comes out in the second half of 2023 instead. So far, it's okay; I'm not very far in, but I'm not as gripped by it as I was by Acevedo's earlier books.

Upcoming/Planned:
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher - for Popsugar's book that comes out in the second half of 2023

QOTW:
I've met a few authors at signings (Seanan McGuire, Margaret Owen, Tamora Pierce, Jim Butcher, Naomi Novik, Leigh Bardugo, Anne Rice) but obviously at a signing you don't get more than a few minutes to chat and take a photo, and usually during that I'm fangirling and/or too shy to say much.

I'd really love to meet -- as in sit down and talk to at length -- Seanan McGuire and Margaret Owen. Just from their social media presences, they both seem like people with similar interests to mine that I'd get along with and have a lot of fun with.

I need to know what your costume was even if you didn't get pics, Sheri :)

I finished the Imperial Radch trilogy (used the last book to fill the "decision maker" prompt) and loved it.

Took a break to re-read an old favorite, Tigana - I'm not filling in any prompts, I feel like if I can recite a book by heart it shouldn't count towards a challenge!

Two other reads, both of which I ripped through in a single day (I LOVE summer vacation and both of my kids are at summer camp so I've mostly been uninterrupted):

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow ("Talk of the town: prompt) was just lovely. I know you said on the FB page that you didn't like the characters, Sheri, I didn't feel the same way (although some of their decisions did NOT make sense). It made me want to dive into more immersive computer gaming - I tend to stay away from those games because they're such a time suck, but...

The other was Moloka'i ("everything in between" prompt), which was absolutely gorgeous. I love a book that follows a character through an entire lifetime. I first learned about the book through the podcast "This Podcast Will Kill You", they did an episode about leprosy and talked about the leprosarium on Moloka'i when they went through the history of the disease. It was mentioned as a piece of fiction that accurately depicted the historical reality. I've had it on my TBR list for a few years now and finally got around to reading it. Highly recommended!

QotW: Seanan McGuire is on my list too! I'd also love to have tea with Gail Carriger. I know she would feed me well! The other author I've always thought I'd like to meet is Neil Gaiman (anyone else watching Good Omens? We finished season 2 last night and the final episode GUTTED me).

Shel, I went as a summery Bride of Frankenstein. Had a gauzy white dress, some gladiator sandals, retro white sunglasses, put my hair up in a pony tail with some white streaks in it, and made some scars along my jaw/neck/face and dramatic make up with very black eyes. It was fun!

Glad you liked the characters better than I did!

I’m watching good omens 2, only finished the second episode. Been busy and my husband isn’t a fan so only watch when he’s busy

Ooh, I'm thinking of doing a more full-on Bride for Falloween, although it might be too complicated for my skill level. Gotta get a styrofoam cone and do a hair test.

Palms, Paradise, Poison - Third in a series, which I would describe as "Death in Paradise if it were on an island of 200 people with Dwayne as the only police". I enjoyed the first two, but this one... Our protagonist follows a fugitive to Cuba, where we are treated to a fairly disparaging account of the country and introduced to the practices of santeria and palo mayombe. Related to the latter, the mystery aspect is, shall we say, entirely unsatisfactory. Or perhaps wholly absent. I might be willing to give the series another chance, but this is the last one the library has, and I'm surely not going to spend money on it now.

The Stars: A New Way to See Them - This is nonfiction from one of the creators (with his wife) of Curious George, and I saw it warmly recommended on the internet. The "new way" seems to be that rather than superimposing elaborate figures over constellations, as in planetarium shows I've seen, he has tried to find the best way to "connect the dots" into stick-figure type people and animals that relate the actual stars to the constellation names. If you are interested in learning to recognize constellations, this might be a good idea! I live in a city and can really only see the brightest stars so I'm not gonna do that.

QOTW: I'd love to meet some of the scientists who've written books about their subjects, like Katie Mack or John Marzluff. Fiction-wise, hmm... I am not a really superfan of T. Kingfisher, but I do share some interests with Ursula Vernon and probably wouldn't mind talking to her for a bit.

Yeah it was hot so my goal was “costume cool enough to keep on”. Which meant there was no way o was wearing a wig and I don’t have enough hair to attempt a real approximation with my own. Opposite of usual goal trying to get costumes warm enough 😂

I'm nearly two weeks into my three week vacation. Finished the PNW and we begin an official tour of the Canadian Rockies tomorrow. We're near Banff and there is quite a bit of smoke.

I'm still listening to Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I'm enjoying it but not blown away by it. I really disliked the trope with the professor. I'm about halfway, maybe a little more. Hard to tell exactly on the audiobook.

I'm reading a mindless paperback on vacation. I picked it up from the library because it was a paperback and pretty small. It is Steamed Open. It is apparently part of a group of books set in Maine. I'm liking the Maine references as we go there often. It is a mindless mystery, not a romance novel. But enjoyable enough.

QOTW: Probably my current living author to sit down with would be John Scalzi. Others might include Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Alton Brown if you consider them authors. They are known for other celebrity but happen to have written a few books too.