EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi Everyone,

This is a little late but not horribly. We had a fun time in Maine with some of my adult children. Great weather and Maine is just so beautiful. I got a bunch of reading time done.

I only have one finish and a few new starts though. I finished Malibu Rising. I enjoyed the book and the story. It was engaging.

I started Remarkably Bright Creatures on audiobook. I'm about 1/3 of the way through and enjoying it so far. The different storylines are just beginning to come together a little bit so it will be interesting to see where it goes.

On kindle I'm reading Sisters One, Two, Three. I'm only meh on this at the moment. It jumps back and forth from the character's present to the past and keeping a big family secret and having a truly rude, dysfunctional teenager that I don't like. So I put it aside recently.

A book from the library came in for me that I started. It was one I saw in the Lavalands Visitor's Center called The Last Empty Places: A Journey Through Blank Spots on the American Map. My trip to Oregon and the southeastern corner we visited is one of the 4 empty places in the book. I've been to 3 of the 4 places he discusses (northern Maine, SE Oregon, western PA and somewhere in NM). I've not been to NM. I'm only on the first section (Maine) so far. We'll see how I like this.

QOTW:
How do you learn about new books?

I learn a lot from all of you. There are a few newspaper "new books for fall" type lists that I'll glance through. I also get new material each month from Amazon prime. That isn't necessarily high quality stuff, but it is new stuff.

Hello, all!

Finished:
The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton - 3 stars - no prompt. This was just okay. I liked it, it had some good moments, but didn't blow me away.

The Apothecary Diaries (Light Novel): Volume 6 by Natsu Hyuuga - 4 stars - no prompt. This felt like a transition, mopping up loose ends from the previous novel.

Valor's Choice by Tanya Huff - 4 stars - for Popsugar's book that was published 24 years ago (2000) and Robot Librarian's book about/taking place during a war that is not WWI or WWII. Fun military sci-fi.

Comics & manga:
Chihayafuru, Vol. 4

Currently reading:
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan - for Popsugar's book that was turned into a musical and Robot Librarian's book that has been adapted into a TV show or streaming series. I never read the whole series, so starting with a reread of book 1.

The Apothecary Diaries (Light Novel): Volume 7 by Natsu Hyuuga - no prompt.

Upcoming/Planned:
Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca - no prompt. I enjoyed this author's Renn Faire romances, so willing to give her a shot on a ghost story romance.

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross - no prompt. I was going to use this for Robot Librarian's book of letters or written in epistolary format prompt, but now that I got it from the library and took a peek inside, it doesn't actually seem to be written in letters despite people adding it to lists of epistolary novels, so... oh, well. I can always reread Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot.

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan - no prompt. The library is being generous with me!

QOTW:
I am subscribed to a few publisher newsletters (FierceReads, Orbit, Tor) and follow several authors on social media. Between that and friends on Goodreads, that's how I find out about most books.

It's a long weekend of watching Paralympics here.

Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide - Recommended by my sister, written by the man who brought us "Escape (The Piña Colada Song" and the Edwin Drood musical, this combines the rooting-for-murderers aspect of something like Killers of a Certain Age with the secret, remote pedagogical setting of a wizard school. It was funny but not entirely my cup of tea.

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men - Largely what it says on the tin; has sections on daily life, the workplace, design, and medicine. It was interesting but I got a bit sick of it by the end.

The Reading List - This was reasonably entertaining but not, I thought, very deep. We can learn things from books; who knew? It was obvious pretty early who had written the list. I have read 7 of the 8 books on the list and strongly disliked 2, so maybe I am not the right audience.

QOTW: Well, occasionally my sister, but also here and other social media. I am in a Facebook group about classic mysteries, although that doesn't work as well as one might think since a lot of the members are buying old out-of-print stuff. NPR does author interviews that are sometimes helpful. I don't rate stuff here so Goodreads doesn't give me personal recommendations, but I get a fair number of ideas from the "because you read" box. Sometimes "authors who blurbed the thing I just read" has been fruitful, although not so much lately.

Rebecca,
I have Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men on my TBR list. It has high ratings. As a woman in menopause, turning 60 in a few weeks, I am well into the "invisible" stage of life. Some subreddits I'm on talk about it too. Not quite in the same context as data bias but society level.