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Hi Everyone!

How's the reading going?

This week I finished:

The Shining for my book set in a hotel. I hadn't read or watched the movie before, it was interesting going into it with only pop culture knowledge. Also feel kind of dumb for how long it took me to get what REDRUM was. I do want to watch the movie now, at some point.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe for my audiobook. It was read by Lin Manuel Miranda, which was cool. I really liked the book, it was a great coming of age story as well as a book of self discovery. It would be a good book for any Read Harder participants for the LGBTQ romance, too. I'm using it for my Read Harder challenge also, for the "book where a person of color takes a spiritual journey". The main character is a Mexican American, and the book is about him coming to terms with his family life, his social life, and how he fits into the world.

The Princess Diarist which won't count for a challenge, but was a quick read. It was ok, I liked the parts where Carrie talked about her life. But a good chunk of the middle were passages of her old diary, and it was kind of painful to get through. It's like trying to read someone else's live journal.

Songs of Insurrection for my book from a genre/subgenre I've never heard of. I did some googling for it and came across wuxia, which is fiction based on Chinese martial history. Most of the older examples of it seemed a bit too meaty and daunting for me, but I did some googling for "wuxia novels in english" and came across this series. I think it would be modern wuxia fantasy, which also came up in googling about the genre. It was decent, an interesting story. Some of the action was a little predictable, and some of the interactions felt a bit stilted and weird. Overall it was enjoyable, I might finish the series at some point.

Lizard Radio which is for Read Harder, my YA novel written by an LGBTQ author. I really liked it. It was kind of dystopian, followed a lot of the tropes of the genre. It was not exactly science fiction. In one review it was described as being a love letter to those who don't fit in, which after reading I would agree with.

Currently reading:

Wuthering Heights which I'll count as my book mentioned in another book. It was mentioned in We Were Liars which I read a couple weeks ago. I think it's also been mentioned in other books, but that was the most recent example. Kinda funny I started it this week, considering the qotw.

The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story I started the audio book for this yesterday. I don't really love audiobooks, but it wasn't available at the library in ebook format. I don't like war books, but this one caught my interest. It will count for both Popsugar and Read Harder for the book about war. At least I figured out I can kind of do audiobooks if I am painting/drawing. I need just the right amount of something to keep me from zoning out and daydreaming, yet not so involving that I tune the audio book out completely.

This puts me at 22/52 for pop sugar (and 9/24 for read harder).

Last week I finished up reading The Illegal by Lawrence Hill as by book by an author of colour. I've read a few things by him, including the Book of Negros, which I think is one of those books that most people should read, particularly if you live anywhere in North America. I was hoping for a similar experience with The Illegal, but it was just kind of meh. The plot was all a bit to coincidental and wrapped up all too neat and tidy. I certainly don't regret reading it and there were parts that I really, really enjoyed, but it lacked some of the gritty realism that I think it needed to be a truly phenomenal book. Still, I would recommend it.

I also read Casino Royale as my spy/espionage novel, chosen because my husband had a copy sitting on the bookshelf and he loves Bond movies, so I thought it would be nice to talk about it with him. Reading this book was a thoroughly unpleasant experience! I knew it was going to be misogynistic based on the era it in which it was written and what I've seen from the movies, but I wasn't quite prepared for just how incredibly misogynistic is was, and it was made all the more disagreeable by poor writing. English usage shifts over the course of time, but lack of proper comma usage leading to difficult to interpret ideas is never okay, heh. Needless to say, I will not be reading any more books in this series; however, I may watch the movie as I'm curious to see how it was updated for a modern audience and, well, Daniel Craig. :-)

I'm still working on Lemons to Lemonade: Resolving Problems in Meetings, Workshops, and Plcs and I Could Pee on This And Other Poems by Cats. The former I'm reading bits and pieces of at work, so it will take me a while to get through. The latter I'm reading a few poems a day a couple days a week on the fly, just for a good laugh. If you like cats, it's worth picking this book up on sale somewhere. I keep it on the coffee table and we've had some company over who flip through it and usually read their favourites out loud to the room.

My new novel for this week (which I'm picking up from the library after work tonight) is Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, which I picked up from the Reading Challenge thread for a book written by multiple authors. I don't know much about it, but I've been wanting to read a Gaiman book for a long time now, and it looked hilarious, so I thought I'd (literally) check it out.

So, I'm now at 10/52. I'm waiting to see how fast I get through the 52 before I decide if I want to do the read harder challenge!

Stephanie wrote: "My new novel for this week (which I'm picking up from the library after work tonight) is Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, which I picked up from the Reading Challenge thread for a book written by multiple authors. I don't know much about it, but I've been wanting to read a Gaiman book for a long time now, and it looked hilarious, so I thought I'd (literally) check it out. "

I personally really like Good Omens! Although my husband, and some of my friends had a really hard time getting through it. I think some of it is that it's a little dated at this point. Just some of the computer references and technology references aren't modern any longer. Even if you don't love it, I'd still recommend reading other Gaiman. Neverwhere is a good one to start with. Not entirely sure where it'd fit into the challenge, maybe the eccentric character one? Almost everyone in it except the actual protagonist could fit that bill.

Sheri wrote: "I personally really like Good Omens! Although my husband, and some of my friends had a really hard time getting through it. I think some of it is that it's a little dated at this point. Just some of the computer references and technology references aren't modern any longer."

Thanks, Sherri! Mostly what I know of him is that he wrote "The Doctor's Wife" episode of Doctor Who. He's been on my radar ever since, but I've always been, "I don't have time to read right now." This challenge has certainly changed that! It's amazing the little bits of time that I find to cover a chapter here or there. I'm excited about how this challenge has made reading a priority for me again.

Also, I saw that you're reading Wuthering Heights. Is it your first time? I love that book--I'm also a little jealous that you're experiencing it for the first time. I must have read it 4 or 5 times now. :-) It's definitely my favourite of the Bronte books.

Stephanie wrote: "Also, I saw that you're reading Wuthering Heights. Is it your first time? I love that book--I'm also a little jealous that you're experiencing it for the first time. I must have read it 4 or 5 times now. :-) It's definitely my favourite of the Bronte books. "

Yes, it's my first time reading it. I'm not too far yet, just 9%. (Kindle book, obviously haha). It's a little confusing so far, trying to keep everyone straight. I think it's probably too early to say if I like it or not. I kind of have trouble with classics, I've been trying to read more but I a lot of times find them tedious. Never tried any Bronte before though, so maybe it'll go better :)