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Hi everyone!

Had a kind of long, slow week. News has been hard this week.

Haven't read a whole lot, my current library check out doesn't really suit my mood, but it's something I want to read so plugging away.

Finished:

The Beauty Myth - FINALLY finished. Sent it back to the library immediately. It wasn't that it was bad, so much as frustrating. There's still a lot of things that ring true, but the tone was unappealing. There was pretty much no acknowledgement of intersectionality. There also felt like she had an air of inevitability, that things HAD to be this way because they were always this way and the economy would collapse if they weren't ect, with no real call to action. I think i'd rather read something along the same lines, but updated for a modern viewpoint/era.

Home from the Sea - I needed a break so did a re-read. I really like her Elemental Masters series.

Currently reading:

Leviathan Wakes this is a bit heavier than i'm really in the mood for, but i like it anyhow. I watched the first two seasons of the show, but I had trouble keeping track of everything. It's nice filling in the gaps with the book.

How's everyone else doing?

I'm confined to the indoors today due to a rainy lunch hour and no umbrella, so I'm posting a bit early this week.

I'm sorry you're having such a tough week, Sheri! Hopefully we can distract you a bit with some book talk and virtual hugs.

I managed to get in quite a bit of reading this week due to some reluctance to fully admit that I am no longer on vacation, so I've been shirking some other chores around the house while I indulge in reading. Last week I spoilered that I had finished The Killer Angels and that it was haunting me, which turned out to be even more true as the week progressed and the news kept coming. So, I buried myself in some Margaret Atwood (hardly "sunny days" lit, but still) and finished off The Year of the Flood and then finished off the MaddAddam trilogy with, you guessed it MaddAddam. MaddAddam is my book set in two different time periods since a good part of the book is a flashback/retelling of the story of a character named Zeb and how he came to survive up to the present point in the book, while at the same time the book narrates how characters in the present are dealing with their own challenges.

Almost shockingly for an Atwood sci-fi series, these books got less gritty and difficult and more poignant and--by the end of MaddAddam-- even hopeful at they progressed. Taken separately, I found the three books in the series were very good. Read back-to-back, I thought they were superb. I know we've talked before about how Atwood can be hit or miss. For me, this trilogy as a whole really showcases her brilliance as a writer who addresses broader social themes and human relationships through literature. Also, Fun Fact(!) The Year of the Flood is based around a eco-religious group called God's Gardners, and the book contains the text of hymns they sing. Atwood worked with a composer to actually create these songs, and you can listen to the "The Year of the Flood" album on Spotify. I wish I had know this while I was reading the book--they are freaking hilarious when you listen to them (because satire) but I didn't fully register that when I was reading the book, even if they did produce a few snorts and giggles at the time.

Finally, I read Saga, Vol. 1 as my book with pictures. This book, and the remaining six volumes, are the Saga comics brought together in seven volumes, so I don't think I'll count this prompt as done until I've read them all (thank you, local Library!), and it doesn't take very long to get through a volume. I was going to re-read Watchmen (one of my favourite books!) for this prompt, but a friend gave Saga Vol. 1 to me several years ago and I've been meaning to read it, and since several of my new Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ friends have it on their Read or TBR lists, I was recently reminded to pick it up. It's definitely on the "graphic" end of "graphic novel," but I'm really enjoying it so far, and I see the series itself has outstanding critical reviews, so I look forward to getting to the library later today and getting the rest of the volumes. The basic premise is that two ex-warriors from different races (one kind of Gelfling-like and one like a Mage-Sheep) defect, have a baby, and go on the run from those who want to kill them and seize the child for themselves. I'm loving the mom character--she is a serious bada$$. The world building is pretty great so far, too, although I'm not far into it enough yet to see how all the threads/races laid out in the first volume are going to overlap.

Phew--that's a lot of text. What is everyone else reading?

Hi Stephanie,

Glad to see you again, thanks for virtual hugs :)

Looks like my library has both of the next two Mad Addam books, both currently available for check out. But I think i'm going to wait until I get through the ones I have checked out now. This Expanse book is taking me a while. The other one I have checked out is also 500+ pages long, so that one will probably also take a little while.

Does anyone else get kind of stressed out if the library books pile up too much? Like a clock is ticking. I know sometimes you can renew, or turn off wifi to extend, but it still adds an extra element of pressure to reading. I prefer it when I can string my books out a bit more, but library holds never seem to cooperate.

Also, read Saga too! I'd started it a while ago, but got interrupted and it took a while to pick it back up. I really enjoyed it. I just need to find vol 2 somewhere, I think I have the rest of the series digitally from various humble bundles. (I...might have a humble bundle problem. )

I am a big fan of renewing online, so I find that having lots library books around doesn't bother me. I've already got all the rest of my books for the main challenge checked out and waiting for me at home, except the Saga books, haha. Granted, the books I check out from the university where I work I get to keep for 4 months, so no pressure there. If anything, I have to remember to read them before I forget about them and then they're up for renewal and I have to go searching through the piles for them! The public library is only 3 weeks, but all the libraries I use have email notification for upcoming due dates and online renewal (as long as you don't have fines), so I never really feel any pressure. One thing I have had to learn to do during this challenge is read multiple books in order to "fit in" the few books I've had to place a hold on. Until now, I was pretty much a one book at a time person.

The reading challenge, on the other hand, has caused me some stress, to be honest! Sometimes I feel like I have a certain quota of reading I have to get done every week or I'll be behind. Behind on what is the question, since it's a totally voluntary activity that has already helped me to exceed by far the goal I set of expanding my reading back out to other genres, so it's kind of funny that I can stress about it. I'm a completionist, I guess!

I've heard lots of good things about Saga. Speaking of the challenge being successful, I don't think I would have gotten around to reading the whole series if not for the book with pictures prompt. :-)

Humble Bundle, you say? Tell me more of this humble bundle (In my head, I keep saying Humble Bumble and then thinking of the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer animation from way back when...)

My library is only 3 weeks too, but the last batch I got out was 5 books, and i think that was too many for 3 of them being kinda hefty subject matters. I was stressing towards the end trying to finish them. There is online renewal, but i didn't like the idea renewing all of them. Part of it is that my library is a good 15 minute drive out in a direction I don't really go often. So there's no "oh I'll just drop these finished ones off on my way to..." I have to make a special trip every time. So it's partly the timeline, partly trying to minimize trips.
Plus digital library books dropping in the middle of them and just after.

I know what you mean about the challenge, that's partly why I cruised through so fast, haha. I wanted to be able to check it off and be able to read what I wanted without feeling guilty. Which obviously makes no sense since a) I was clearly really far ahead and b) no one actually cares if I finished or not

Humble Bundle is an online store that started for games, but have branched out into books/comics. Basically you get a group of games or books, usually loosely themed, and you decide what you pay for the bundle. But there's tiers of gifting, so to get 100% of something you usually have to give a minimum of $15. Some of the money goes to charity, some goes back to the creators and publishers and such. I usually pay what i'm willing to pay for the titles I'm interested in, and consider the rest of the stuff "freebies" since I wouldn't have bought them outside the bundle. (usually around $25 or so, I don't bite on a bundle if there's not at least a handful of stuff I'm interested in)

Nothing I'm super interested in right now, but I've bought several Image comic bundles (where I got Saga), a unicorn themed bundle, ladies of sci-fi, a few other sci-fi or fantasy themed bundles. (also I totally call them Bumbles)