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Hey everyone! Welcome to another week of reading check-ins! We are finally getting a lovely taste of autumn weather here. Temperatures have been in the upper 60¡¯s to 70¡¯s which is just perfect. And I¡¯ve managed to wear a sweater and some boots on the cooler days. Fabulous :)

Yesterday I opened a thread to discuss ways to improve the group. You can go here to visit the thread and share in the discussion (it's been moved, so this link is the new location): /topic/show/...

Also, I¡¯m going to implement one of the requests that has already been made. To assist those who want to use library books for group reads, we will start the selection process for our group reads earlier than we are now. I will be opening nomination threads for both November and December monthly group reads by the end of this week. As soon as the 2018 list is released I will start a quarterly nomination session to select the next three reads. This should give everyone a little more time to get their books in. The first quarter of the year may have a little less time since we have to wait for the list to appear, but after that you should have a few months to plan and acquire them.

On to reading updates!

I haven¡¯t finished any books this week, but I¡¯m getting close to finishing a couple

Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory. I am slowly working my way through this for a book with a family member term in the title.

The Three Lives of Thomasina by Paul Gallico. I haven¡¯t read much this week as I¡¯ve been mostly reading the next book, but I¡¯m over halfway through. This is my book with a cat on the cover.

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery. Loving this one so far!

Question of the week:

From Juanita ¨C Have you ever read a book that changed how you view the world?

I think this question can be interpreted in different ways. Here¡¯s how I see it:

A book (fiction or nonfiction) that lets you see how people live in other parts of the world or brings history to the forefront. You can experience what others must have gone through during turbulent periods in history.
Examples:
Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur
Winter Garden or The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom by Corrie Ten Boom
Night by Elie Wiesel
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

A book that helps you to empathize with people who face different challenges that you do
Examples
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

Books that stick with you and incorporate themselves into your everyday life. Characters or events that just stay in your brain at all times. (i.e. real life events make you say ¡°oh, that¡¯s just like in Harry Potter when blah, blah blah happens! Please tell me I¡¯m not the only one who does this!)
Outlander series
Harry Potter series

It cannot be Thursday already!!! Omg I got no reading finished this week! It's actually starting to get likely I may not finish all prompts but I will hit my personal reading goal. I just haven't been sticking to my prompt reads lately.
I'm working on the Snow Child and the woman in cabin 10. Hopefully will have more to mention next week!
My husband got a new job so he'll be home more!

QOTW
a lot of books about other cultures and history have really changed how I see things and just my understanding and empathy.
But one that really changed my perspective in online discourse was So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson. It was so incredibly eye opening about how masses of people will see a perceived wrong doing and decide that person needs to pay. So often we as a mass ruin lives for relatively minor offences or completely over stated ones. Sometimes the details aren't even true! It's crazy. But it makes me think about every clickbait rage story I see and try to look at other angles.

Tara wrote: "But one that really changed my perspective in online discourse was So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson. It was so incredibly eye opening about how masses of people will see a perceived wrong doing and decide that person needs to pay. So often we as a mass ruin lives for relatively minor offences or completely over stated ones."

This book is on my TBR. I picked it up at the library earlier this year but didn't get around to reading it.

Good morning!

I am so excited because this week I finally finished A Game of Thrones!! I'm using it as my book over 800 pages. I really liked the story and am excited to read the rest of the series but I need to take a break because it was just so dense!

I have started 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers for my book about a difficult subject. I have decide that this is a read at home only book as I can already tell it's going to be quite emotional.

I am still really struggling with a book for steampunk fiction. The library I work at actually has a display set up with a bunch of different books that would fit this prompt but none of them interest me! Does anyone have any suggestions for books they really LOVED in this category? I hate wasting time on books I aren't "worthy".

QOTW:
I'm sure there are some books I have read that changed how I view the world but I can't think of any right now. The only thing that comes to mind are some of the travel memoirs I wrote. Some people go to really interesting places that I would never think to travel myself so it just makes the world a little bigger and opens my mind a little. One book that really did this was It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War, not because I want to go where she has been but because it showed the war fought there a little differently. It wasn't just us against them and good against bad, it's a little more complicated than that. It was a great read and I would highly recommend to just about anyone.

I actually ticked off one prompt-the wilderness prompt with

The Trees by Ali Shaw. It¡¯s about a group of survivors on a journey after trees suddenly burst through the earth and shatter buildings and roads and reroute rivers. I enjoyed it quite a bit as a riff on a post-apocalyptic novel

I also read

The Dry by Jane Harper. Mystery set in Australia. Quick enjoyable read. Would read future books.

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel. I¡¯m fascinated by this story but I was very unsure what rating to give it as the focus of the story didn¡¯t seem to want to be the focus of the story and the author would not leave him alone.

The Long and Farway Gone by Lou Berney. Mystery set in Oklahoma. I¡¯m using it for the Read Harder 100 miles prompt. Another book I enjoyed quite a bit. It was actually a good reading week for me.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Someone mentioned last week that they were the last woman to read it in North America but they weren¡¯t because I finally got around to it Sunday. And I loved it. It was delightful and I can¡¯t wait for the movie.

QOTW:
So many that were already mentioned but I read Night with my juniors because I think it¡¯s a super important book. I push Wonder on basically everyone because everyone needs to Choose Kind. A Little Life emotionally devastated me and I¡¯ll probably think of a ton more books later.

Taylor wrote: I am still really struggling with a book for steampunk fiction. The library I work at actually has a display set up with a bunch of different books that would fit this prompt but none of them interest me! Does anyone have any suggestions for books they really LOVED in this category? I hate wasting time on books I aren't "worthy". "

This was a hard prompt for me as I had already read a couple of the Parasol Protectorate series and didn't love it.

If you like romance, I enjoyed The Iron Duke by Meljean Brooks.

The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare would work for this prompt. This one is YA and a spinoff of her Mortal Instruments series.

I don't think either of these are necessarily great books but they are great entertainment.

I finished three things, which I'm surprised looking back because I didn't think I read that much this week - I watched a lot of football (college and pro) and watched a lot of the 9/11 documentaries. Although, looking at it now, I finished The Raven Boys and I read the majority of that for last weeks check-in. I enjoyed it and went out to the library for hardback copies of the rest of the series since the eBook versions all have a hefty wait-list. Using this for my mythology book since google told me this deals with Welsh Mythology and that's good enough for me!

I also finished The Princess Saves Herself in this One. This was very short "poetry" (If you count this as poetry, which I don't and it seems other goodreads reviewers don't either.) Doesn't count for popsugar for me, sadly.

I finished The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian for my book I got at a used book sale. This reminded me a lot of Wonder. I don't know if its because it felt middle grade - although talked about topics that (IMO) are not middle grade... *shrugs*. It was an ok read for me.

Finally started Heartless but I'm only 7% in because I keep falling asleep! Hopefully this weekend I can dedicate a lot of time to it. It'll be my library recommends book.

I'm at 34/40 and 10/12!

QOTW Its hard to come up with something that changed my view on the world. Maybe The Hate U Give...

Hello everyone! It has been absolutely beautiful in Dallas this week, with high temps in the mid-80¡¯s and overnight getting down to 60. I love it! Unfortunately we are back to summer today and for at least the next 10 days. Ugh.

A friend of mine posted something on Facebook this week about how many days until Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and 2018. She posted it out of excitement, but all it did was stress me out! I made a promise to myself that I am going to read a book for a Popsugar prompt next week. It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to read the books for the remaining prompts; I just get distracted easily by other books that happen to not fill a prompt. *sigh*

This week I finished:
I Let You Go by Claire Mackintosh. I like the writing of this author. I have added her to my list to explore. This is about a woman trying to cope with a deadly car accident and the 2 detectives that are on the hit-and-run case.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. The best book I¡¯ve read this year. I can¡¯t say enough about this one. It was eye-opening, heart-wrenching and made me feel more than a book has in a long time.

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks. This was an ARC, and I tore through it. Anyone who likes psychological thrillers or books that keep you guessing should read this when it comes out next January. Try to go in blind¡­.it is better to not know anything about the book when you read it.

Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick. I thought this was just okay. I¡¯m sure I would have liked it better if I listened to it via audiobook, but in general, unless something truly miraculous has happened before 30, some of these Hollywood ¡°memoirs¡± would be a lot better if they were written later in life. It was a nice break, though, after the 3 heavier reads this week.


I am currently reading:
Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002 by David Sedaris. Still plugging along¡­
Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens by Eddie Izzard. Listen to this on audio instead of reading the book, if possible¡ªespecially if you are a fan of his standup. Eddie Izzard always makes me laugh.
A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab. This is book #2 in the Shades of Magic series.

QOTW: Well, The Hate U Give immediately comes to mind since I just finished it. I didn't know how much I didn't know about African-American culture until I read this. It really puts the reader in the situations, and I'll never be the same. I would also say the same for nearly all of the WWII historical fiction I've read. The things everyone went through, the lack of basic necessities, having to do unthinkable things just to survive....I have no problems compared to them.

Hello from Cleveland! We were supposed to get the remnants of Irma starting last night, but so far it's just been a little rain and a lot of gloominess.

No books finished for Popsugar this week. I was too anxious a lot of this week to focus on a print book, and my audiobooks were for other challenges. I have a whole stack of books for the challenge that I need to get too! I hope this weekend I can get through a couple.

QOTW: I've read lots of books that taught me a lot and helped expand my mind, but I'm not sure if any have fundamentally altered the way I view the world. Anything I've read for my Around the World challenge has been interesting, and I think it's so important to remember people are still people, no matter where you live.

Chrandra wrote: "The Long and Farway Gone by Lou Berney. Mystery set in Oklahoma. I¡¯m using it for the Read Harder 100 miles prompt."

I hadn't heard of this book, so I looked it up & saw that it was set in OKC. I'm also within 100 miles, so we must be pretty close! :) I added the book to my TBR, because it sounds really interesting. I don't remember either of those events happening, but I was only nine that year, so maybe I was shielded from them.

Chrandra wrote: "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Someone mentioned last week that they were the last woman to read it in North America but they weren¡¯t because I finally got around to it Sunday. And I loved it. It was delightful and I can¡¯t wait for the movie."

I just read it this week, also (I'll get to that in my check-in in a few minutes), so you weren't the last to read it, either. I had no idea they were going to make it into a movie. I can't wait! I hope they don't mess it up, though. I have so many pictures and faces in my mind that I think it is good I didn't read the book right before the movie came out so that the memories have a chance to recede a bit. :)

Happy Thursday! (OMG IT'S THURSDAY HOW DID IT GET TO BE THURSDAY ALREADY????)

Finished

- What Looks LIke Crazy On an Ordinary Day - I read this for Around the Year's prompt of "a book with a long title." This was very good! Now at 36/52 for this challenge.
- Money Can Buy Happiness: How to Spend to Get the Life You Want - I didn't use this for a challenge prompt, but it would work for "a book with career advice." Overall, I enjoyed it, though I also found it quite frustrating.

In-Progress

- Daughters of a Nation: A Black Suffragette Historical Romance Anthology - I've finished the first two stories of this collection and am working on the third. Honestly, I've been only somewhat impressed so far.
- Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism - Reading this slowly - it's so interesting to read a really foundational work and see where the field has gone since it was written.

QOTW

I'll go with Bodies and Pleasures: Foucault and the Politics of Sexual Normalization and pretty much anything I read as part of my disability studies work - those books completely reoriented how I saw the world and how I thought about how that world is set up.

I haven't been doing much (book) reading and when I have it has been only parts of them, like one nonfiction book about Vlad Dracula, the historical person, and Dracula, the vampire. I am listening to two audiobooks, both from library and ones I didn't manage to finish earlier before they were returned. Another one is about the relationship between a teacher and a student and all the goings on in the teachers' room etc. and another is a more fantastical and humorous story about two men but they are being watched over by God and his angels. It all started because God decided to make some organisational changes in Heaven.

QOTW: The only time I remember something really influencing my view of the world was around the time I was about 10. There were probably books involved but they were just general history books. Basically I realised then that USA and the USSR had been on the same side in WWII, which taught me "realpolitik" and made me more sceptical and even cynical about people (and politicians and countries etc.) and what they are saying and I started to pay more attention to what they are doing. "Fighting for democracy" has sounded fake ever since.


Taylor wrote: "because it showed the war fought there a little differently. It wasn't just us against them and good against bad, it's a little more complicated than that."

Most wars are like that...

Taylor wrote: "One book that really did this was It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War, not because I want to go where she has been but because it showed the war fought there a little differently..."

I thought this was a fantastic book, too! Very eye-opening, very well written, and really drew me in. Also, you asked about a steampunk book: I read the The Invisible Library and enjoyed it. I had been dreading the category and finally gave this one a try. I didn't love it, but I enjoyed it.

No books completed this week. Working my way through a few:

Three Sister, Three Queens for the family member prompt
Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe with my daughter for book with a cat on the cover
Dracula for Book of Letters
Rising Strong. No prompt but listening to it on audiobook while driving to work

QOTW:
I can't think of any

Good morning, everyone! I have been loving the weather the past couple weeks with highs in the low- to mid-80s and lows in the mid-50s, but now we're going to be back in the 90s & upper 80s for the next week or so and it makes me sad. Come on, fall! I'm so ready to not shave my legs every day, plus things like sweaters & boots & brightly colored leaves and crisp autumn air.

Anyway, on to the great news - I finished the challenge this week! I have read books for all 52 books, and I'm finished. Hooray!!! Thank you to those who responded last week about continuing the weekly check-ins after finishing the challenge versus stopping the check-ins. I think I'll continue checking in & see how that goes. If nothing else, it will keep me motivated to read so that I can talk about whatever I finished that week.

Finished:
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows for my final prompt #3, a book of letters. I loved, loved, loved this book! As I'm sure many people say when they finish this book, I just want to travel to Guernsey & become a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The characters were fantastic, and the plot was quite moving. I just can't say enough about this book.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling. My son & I finished this on on Sunday night and I still think it is my favorite HP book, or at least in the running. We still have the last four books to get through, so I'll be able to make a definitive order once we've finished the series (again for me, first time for him).

Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out of This Wild and Glorious Life by Jen Hatmaker. A close friend of mine was on the launch team for this book, and even got to go to Jen's house for a big gathering right before it was released. I have been woefully behind on getting to this book, but once I did, I managed to get it read in a few short days, and it was pretty good. As usual with Jen's books, I tore through many chapters, while a few had me skimming, but overall, a lovely book.

Currently Reading:

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. My son is insistent that we continue moving through the HP books at breakneck pace, and I can't say that I argue about it. I feel like he may be a little young for the last four books (he's a young 10), but he wants to keep reading the series, and I figure we'll stick with it until/unless he gets disturbed by them. I love them so much that I'm thrilled to continue with them at this time, and I love that I've created a little HP monster to read with me.

Rescued: What Second-Chance Dogs Teach Us about Living with Purpose, Loving with Abandon, and Finding Joy in the Little Things by Peter Zheutlin. I got this as an ARC from NetGalley, and am just about 10% into it at this point. It seems fairly interesting, but the formatting (sent to my Kindle) is not quite right, so some pages are a bit more of a challenge to read than others.

The Silent Corner by Dean Koontz. I just started this last night briefly before bed, so I'm only on page 11 of 452! I haven't read any Dean Koontz in years, although I used to read his books quite regularly. I actually only grabbed this one now because I requested an ARC of The Whispering Room from NetGalley & was granted permission almost immediately. It wasn't until after I downloaded it to my Kindle that I realized it was a sequel to The Silent Corner. Oops! So, I jumped online, reserved The Silent Corner at my library, got it after work, and now need to hurry through it so that I can read my ARC. It seems interesting so far, but not very Dean Koontz-ish, so we'll have to see if his genre has changed with this series, or if I'm just not far enough in to get the full feel of the story yet.

Week 37 - 40/40 & 12/12 (52/52)

QOTW
Okay, if you couldn't tell by this post, I would have to say that the Harry Potter series has profoundly affected my life. I know some people say they are "children's stories" and some people say they're just stories about wizards and mythical stuff, but they are so much more than that. They are about good versus evil, they are about friendship, loyalty, racism, sexism, classism, making the right choices even if they are the hard choices, truth, justice, honor, being willing to sacrifice for the good of all versus the good of self, and so much more. They may be "children's books," but I daresay that anyone who doesn't learn life lessons from the books, whether as a 10-year-old or a 40-year-old or a 90-year-old, wasn't reading very closely. I have read other books that have had a lasting effect on me, but none that so thoroughly continue to have an effect on me years after I've read them as the HP series.

Good morning, everyone!

Finally, a week with a few finishes! I had a lot of reading time this past week and took advantage of it. I'm at 35/40 on the regular list and 10/12 on the advanced.

Finishes

The Futilitarians: Our Year of Thinking, Drinking, Grieving, and Reading. I used this for a book about a difficult topic (grief). In an effort to cope with the suicides of her twin sisters, her father's death, and the devastation of her hometown in Hurricane Katrina, the author formed a reading group to help learn how to handle life's crises. Each chapter of the book delves into the readings and discussions that took place, but the author weaves her personal story throughout. It was this personal story that I liked most -- Giselson's prose is so lovely that from the stories of her own experience I got a sense of how deeply grief can permeate and how, years later, it can unexpectedly bring pain.

The Underground Railroad. This fulfills the prompt for a bestseller from 2016, though it meets several others, too (difficult topic, author of color, involving travel, and probably more). Wow! I read this for my book club and was glad I had an external push to finish it because it was really painful to read -- but so worth it!

Sourdough. This doesn't fulfill any prompt I still have open, but it just came out and I loved the author's previous book (Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore) and couldn't wait to read this one. I liked it, it was fun, but I didn't think it was nearly as good as Penumbra.

Question of the Week

The first time I remember that a book really changed how I see the world was when I read Cry, the Beloved Country in high school. I remember almost nothing specific about the book, but I do remember a few images and the walloping impact it had. A few years later I read Night and had a similar experience. The more I read, the bigger and more complicated the world gets! More recently the books that have made me see the world from a different perspective have been Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, Between the World and Me, and The Underground Railroad.

Good Morning,

It's pretty foggy this morning in my neck of the woods which made for an interesting drive into work.

I finished three books this week. Two I had been working on for awhile and one I started on Saturday (read half of it) and finished on Sunday.

Finished:

The Shining for a book set in a hotel. I listened to this on audio and it was over 15 hours long, so it took some time to get through. I enjoyed the experience and now I need to actually watch the movie.

A Man Called Ove for a book with a cat on the cover. I loved this. I've had the book for a few years and have been meaning to read it. I had to have tissues handy for a number of parts of this book.

Saints and Misfits for a book where the main character is a different ethnicity than you. I heard about this on a podcast and decided to put it into this slot since I didn't know when I would be getting the book I had in this spot originally. I loved it. I thought the characters and its take on a Muslim community in American were interesting.

Currently Reading:

When Dimple Met Rishi for no challenge, I finally got it from my library. It's pretty darn adorable so far.

A Wrinkle in Time for a book set in two different time periods. I'm listening to this on audio while I drive to and from work. I'm not too far into it yet but it's really interesting. I actually never read the book back in elementary school.

And still reading World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War for a book of letters.

QOTW:

I can remember reading Angela's Ashes as a high schooler and being completely moved by it and everything that the family went through.

Bonjour.

Today it's summer again. All week really, I can't complain since we didn't really have a sunny summer.

I am now at 35/40 with all the rest of the prompts planned except for the book I bought on a trip. I have no plan of travelling nor did I go anywhere during the year. I'll se if I change it to something else.

I finished 11/22/63 for the month in the title's prompt. I really liked that book and will try to see if I can watch the mini-serie.

I am now reading Astrophysics for People in a Hurry for the written by someone you admire prompt.

QOTW:

I'll say that Guy Delisle travelogues are a good way to open my eyes to the world. I didn't know anything about Myanmar or even J¨¦rusalem.

Good morning! It's a beautiful day in DC so far -- fingers crossed it stays this way for the weekend!

Finished:

- Finally finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell for a book with more than 800 pages. While it started off pretty slow, the second half of the book really picks up the pace, and I found myself wanting to constantly be reading it. I really enjoyed it. A family friend recommended it to me (and even gave me her copy) after I mentioned how much I had enjoyed The Night Circus last year. Glad I'll finally be able to return the book to her when I see her next month.

- Also finished Escape for a book set in a hotel. I started reading this book thinking it wouldn't fit any of the prompts, but a large chunk of it takes place in the Red Fox Inn, so I think that it counts. I thought I would enjoy this, since I'm a lawyer in my first year of practice and the main character is also a lawyer, but I think there was too much going on for it to truly be enjoyable. There's also a lot of inner thought and rambling about the same things over-and-over. I wasn't the biggest fan, but I'm glad it counts for something.

Currently Reading:

- Sins of the 7th Sister - I started this on the morning on the metro for the book you got from a used book sale prompt, so I haven't dug into it too deep, but it definitely hooks you from the very beginning (or at least it's hooked me). Should be interesting.

QOTW:

I could relate really well to the story in The Namesake -- it really resonated with me and has made me appreciate my immigrant parents tremendously.

I haven't checked in for SO SO long. This was the worst summer of reading for me- EVER. Summer was just go go go and never stop. My husband actually said he was jealous of how much I talk about how behind I am in my reading goals and how much I love reading. I had to work on our relationship for awhile- I think we are good now and FINALLY school has started for all the kids. Do you ever have a time when people are jealous of how much you love to read? Or they don't understand how reading is like air for you?

Basically I am so behind that any way to catch up would be to read mostly YA/kids books and get further behind on house work. But I just wanted to say I am still alive.

Currently just rereading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for my sanity and fits prompt #26.
So far: 26/52

Good morning! Mine has been off to a rocky start as Maddie has thrown a fit because I won't feed her cat treats and then a second because I won't let her pinch me while she nurses. I'm fairly certain she's teething but it's clearly going to be a looooong day.

Last week I read two books by Edith Wharton - Ethan Frome because it was on a list of short classics to read and I thought a short book that I read quickly might help me continue out of my reading slump and The House of Mirth because Roxane Gay said it was one of her favourite books. That finishes off the advanced challenge for me, though I have ten books left on the regular challenge.

Last night I read about half of Exit West when I meant to just read a chapter before bed. I'm fairly sure I'll be done by the end of today and I'm putting it into Book Riot's prompt about an immigrant/refugee, which will finish off that list for me so I can focus on the remaining PS prompts next.

QOTW: Ramona Quimby has been a helpful character when I was teaching and now as I raise my kids. She reminds me that children think differently and can be hurt by things we wouldn't even consider. She reminds me to try and put myself into the shoes of children. The Whole Woman by Germaine Greer was a huge part of my feminist education - I signed up for a women's studies class as an elective after reading it and joined a bulletin board on the MS magazine website and I'm still friends twenty years later with some of those women (and a couple of men.)Please Look After Mom was a read that really hit me, because it was often hard to remember how devestating the Korean War had been and also how recent. All those halmonis (grandmothers) who I interacted with in my neighbourhood had been through an incredibly difficult time and somehow it was this particular book that really drove that home to me.

Hello from a cool Columbus. I forgot it was Thursday! I actually got some reading done this week! I've finished all but one prompt from the main list, I've yet to leave my town this year so maybe a book bought on a trip will have to be a book bought on a trip to a bookstore on the other side of town lol.

Commonwealth was my book that takes place over a characters life span. I saw it recommended for this prompt and it mostly fit, it followed a family for like 50 years or so. I might find another that's more of a full life but we'll see. I really liked this book! Ngl I mostly wanted to read it because I love the cover, but I can see why so many people enjoyed this book.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis was my bestseller from 2016 pick. And boy, did this dredge up a lot of feelings. I didn't know what it was going into it, so I didn't realize it takes place mostly in Ohio and him going to the same college as me. While my family isn't Appalachian hillbilly, my dad's side moved to Akron for factory work from rural-ass Pennsylvania and Akron suffered a similar fate to Middletown. My mom's side is also poor, uneducated, manual laborers who have a hard time finding work. Both sides of my family have been impacted by the addiction crisis prevalent across the Midwest. So I related to so much of this book. It touches a lot of issues I don't think many of my suburban, educated, white collar friends and classmates are aware of, or quite frankly cares about.

Career of Evil - I guess I can throw this one alongside The Silkworm in the author I admire category. I just couldn't wait to dive right into this one so I went ahead and knocked it out in two days. I love these books, and I can't wait for the 4th to come out. JKR slays as always.

QOTW: I've read a lot of non-fiction pieces that informed me on world happenings and showed me a side of humanity I wish didn't exist (The Pianist: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939¨C45 comes to mind). But I think my love of fiction has made me a more empathetic person. Especially since I gravitate toward fiction that has a sadder note to it. I feel like Harry Potter made me a kinder person, I'm glad I had access to those books as I came into my own person.

Hello everybody from Muenster in Germany, where fall has set in heavily this week.

I haven't finished any books this week, as I was a little sick for a few days and didn't really feel like reading much.

In your posts I've already gotten new ideas for what to read.

Still reading:

Couchsurfing in Russland: Wie ich fast zum Putin-Versteher wurde which is a really good description of the author's trip to Russia and his stay with different couchsurfing hosts. He manages to get across a good idea of what the places and the people are like. I have already read his first book of the same Kind (Couchsurfing in Iran) and this proves to be as good as the first one. I only read it 'on the side' as a non-fiction so it takes some time to get finished even though it is good.
Doesn't really fit a prompt, even though one could argue it is a different kind of 'hotel' if you stay with hosts that offer a free bed and hospitality. I might acutally take it for that prompt since that seems to be one of the hardest for me. I'll see.

On the way back from work I listen to Der Fall Jane Eyre (in English it's 'The Eyre Affair'. It proves to become better and sometimes I laugh out loud at the names and ideas. But I am not sure I understand all of the goings on. The plot is very complicated, I have the feeling even more so when listening to it.
I might use it for the unknown genre (quantum fiction)

But I am also reading Changeless which I could use for the prompt as well (mannerpunk). It is an easy read, which es great for me right now since there is a lot to do at work, but neither much to think about.

QOTW:
I feel that a lot of the books I've read when I was still a teenager stay with me somehow. Especially books by or about holocaust-survivors. Still those kinds of books stay with me.

Also I have started to write a reading journal which inludes quotes I come along while reading a book that I think are memorable. I have only started this this year and feel it makes me think about a book I've read more after I have finished it. I seem to find at least one memorable or important or funny or typical quote in each and every book I read.

This year Black Mamba Boy stuck with me for quite a while since it makes obvious the struggles of immigrants/ emigrants by showing us the life of one boy/man. Especially since the situation for immigrants in Europe is harsh nowadays it just got to my heart.
Also Die Menschheit hat den Verstand verloren: Tageb¨¹cher 1939-1945 which are Astrid Lindgren's diary entries from the time of the Second World War. I was amazed at her insight on the one hand and also learned a lot about Sweden. And I keep mentioning it to others as well.

Of course the Harry Potter series, which I have read more times than any other book (in English, in German, and on audiobook).

Dani wrote: "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis was my bestseller from 2016 pick. And boy, did this dredge up a lot of feelings. I didn't know what it was going into it, so I didn't realize it takes place mostly in Ohio and him going to the same college as me. While my family isn't Appalachian hillbilly, my dad's side moved to Akron for factory work from rural-ass Pennsylvania and Akron suffered a similar fate to Middletown. My mom's side is also poor, uneducated, manual laborers who have a hard time finding work. Both sides of my family have been impacted by the addiction crisis prevalent across the Midwest. So I related to so much of this book. It touches a lot of issues I don't think many of my suburban, educated, white collar friends and classmates is aware of, or quite frankly cares about..."

I've wondered about how this book is received by people similar to his family. I read it late last year, and I found it quite eye opening. I come from a more middle to almost upper-middle class background. Both my parents are college educated (though I think they were both first generation college graduates in their families). It's a book that I felt a lot of people would benefit from reading.

Ol¨¢, from Portugal. This week don't finished any book, only working in the same 2, but started another:A Morte de Ivan Ilitch.
QOTW: I think that, all the books from Saramago.

Emanuel wrote: "
QOTW: I think that, all the books from Saramago."

Emanuel, I have read only one of his books, Caim, and it was incredible. I will have to read more.

Good afternoon everybody! We're having some nice weather in Chicago, and I'm hoping it stays this way for a good long while yet. It'll be cold far too soon I'm sure. I got three books done this week, though all of them are pretty short.

Here: This is a graphic novel? Kind of? It's told through a series of pictures showing the same corner of a room at various points in history. It's hard to describe, but it was pretty cool.

Building Stories: Ugh, this had so much potential. It's a box full of different documents of varying print formats that tell the story of a woman (ostensibly its about all the people who live in an apartment building, but the rest are clearly just side characters). I had two problems with it: one, the print medium had lots of variety, but the content was always the same comic book style, so there really wasn't any point to having the different mediums. Second problem: the story was tedious and boring, and the main character was kind of pathetic and uninteresting.

The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well: I had seen reviews saying this book is stupid and useless, but of course that didn't stop me. Hygge (hoo-gah) for those who have not seen the various magazine articles and blog posts is a lifestyle aesthetic centered around rustic homemade coziness. Think big fireplaces, lots of candles, homemade bread, etc. I kind of knew this book would be a cash grab attempt at spurring the New Big Trend, and it totally was. I just hoped it would have more content in it, and it really was mostly vague nonsense repeated over and over to pad out the equivalent of like 3 blog posts.

I'm currently reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo; I'm like 1/3 of the way in and it's...ok. It's a bit melodramatic for my taste, so I keep reading like a chapter and then abandoning it in favor something else. It'll probably be a 2 or 3 star for me.

Can someone please explain to me how we're halfway through September already? It's not okay.

Finished:
American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land. This was an interesting and well-researched story but she lost be a little at the end with a shoehorned section about the decline of rural America which felt forced (as if a publisher requested it after Hillbilly Elegy was so popular).

Crazy Little Thing Called Love. A cute little piece of chick lit that was much more family drama-oriented than I expected. Only con, really, is that the author shifted perspectives without warning so you could lose track of whose head you're in.

Not My Father's Son. Hello, book with a family member term in the title! Alan Cumming writes unflinchingly about an upbringing with an abusive father and a strange month in 2010 where old and new family mysteries are solved.

This brings me to 41/52!

Currently reading:
Where'd You Go, Bernadette. A book that's been on my shelf for more than a year but I did not realize was a book of letters, so thanks, group!

QOTW: I would agree with the people who have said The Hate U Give. As I read it, I realized I had NEVER read something from this perspective and with this voice before. It was completely new to me and I want more of stuff like this from Angie Thomas.

Sara wrote: "Hey everyone! Welcome to another week of reading check-ins! We are finally getting a lovely taste of autumn weather here. Temperatures have been in the upper 60¡¯s to 70¡¯s which is just perfect. And..."

I read The Blue Castle last year and adored it. I love Valancy so much!

Hi everyone!

Hectic day today, since I'm leaving on a small vacation as soon as I'm done with work. I work from home, so today's been admittedly running around using my "step breaks" for squeezing in last minute chores and packing. I hate leaving a dirty house behind, so I have been rather frantic. I also have a bunch of stuff for work I needed to get done so frazzled all around. I think I'm finally catching up though.

Finished this week:

The Obelisk Gate - this was the second book of the Broken Earth series. It was really good. NK Jemson has a really amazing ability to create new worlds, and complex mythologies within those worlds.

The Stone Sky - Last book of the Broken Earth series. I think this was my favorite overall. It was just so powerful, I couldn't put it down. In the author's note, she mentioned she was losing her mother as she wrote it, and you can really feel anger and anguish coming through the writing.

Magic Steps - Finally coming back to this after putting it down while I read library books. I'm counting it as read, because I've got probably 30 pages left so will for sure finish by end of day. I'll just be on a plane so I can't update later.

Not sure what i'll read next, probably just whatever's currently on my kindle, or comics on my ipad.

QOTW: Harry Potter, for fiction. I keep reading them, watching movies, going to parks, throwing themed parties etc. The Night Circus, it makes me feel inspired and dreamy any time I read it. Wonder was fantastic, really gave me perspective and empathy for those who look visibly different. I'm sure there are others, but I'm just tired and frazzled.

Miriam wrote: "Hello everybody from Muenster in Germany, where fall has set in heavily this week.

I haven't finished any books this week, as I was a little sick for a few days and didn't really feel like reading..."

You're not alone Miriam. I often had no idea what was going on in The Eyre Affair when I read it!

Nicole wrote: "I just read it this week, also (I'll get to that in my check-in in a few minutes), so you weren't the last to read it, either. I had no idea they were going to make it into a movie. I can't wait! I hope they don't mess it up, though. "

I was in the middle of it when I thought it would make a really nice period movie and googled it. The cast looks pretty good and Matthew Goode is in it and I love him...

Hi everyone. Hope everyone stayed safe in the crazy weather last week.

No finishes this week for me but I am about three quarters of the way through A Pair of Blue Eyes which will be my final challenge book. I am just getting to the part where everything is coming to what it has been building up to and for once I have no clue what is going to happen.

QOTW: This is a hard one! Maybe The Beach? It was the first "grown-up" book I read outside of school and it opened my eyes. There were people out there who were travelling around the world full time? Just regular people? Sign me up for that! I probably got the travel bug because of that book.

I had a great challenge reading week! Finished 3 challenge books, putting me at 50/52 read: 39/40 and 11/12!

Finished 3 great reads for challenge:

The Book of Emma Reyes: A Memoir - run and get this book immediately! What a gorgeous exceptional read this was - and it's a miracle that the book even exists. Emma Reyes was illegitimate, raised in extreme poverty and hardship in Colombia, yet survived and became a painter and writer who associated with Diego Rivera and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Written as a series of letter covering her childhood, this is a short fast and incredibly uplifting reading experience (only about 170 pages). I read this as my book by a person of color but it fits a host of categories: book of letters, interesting woman, country you have never visited, etc. NOTE: do read first the short introduction written by the translator - it helps not hinders the reading experience.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - my book of letters. LOVED LOVED LOVED this book! I laughed out loud, cried real tears, and want to meet every single one of the characters. Cannot believe I let it sit in my TBR pile so long (I have a hardcover from when it was first published!).

The Haunted Lady - my used book sale read - an original Dell map back paperback, thank you very much! I had originally picked something else to read as my used book sale read, but spotted this on my bookshelves the other day and it won. Classic Rinehart 'had I but known' and 'locked room' mystery, with typical cast of characters upstairs and downstairs, a young (and older) set of star-crossed lovers, and a puzzle that keeps you guessing for most of it. If you have never read a Mary Roberts Rinehart mystery, it's time you did.

That leaves me only 2 more books to complete the challenge - a story within a story (I'm waiting on a NYPL ebook hold unless something else appeals before my number comes up) and the 800 pager which I've started.

I also read this week The Polar Bear Killing to complete the Scandinavia House Nordic Summer Reading Challenge - my book set in Iceland. Really enjoyed it and will seek others out in the series.

Currently reading The Nightingale which has long been in my TBR pile. It might fit the story within a story prompt but too soon to tell. I'm seeing a friend in a couple of weeks who wants to discuss it so it's on the current reading agenda.

QOTW: So many! Just this week both The Book of Emma Reyes: A Memoir and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Anne in Persuasion. The characters in Frederica and Venetia. The house and its cat in A Discovery of Witches. The Sellout has me rethinking the entire way all of us talk and think about race. Personal History - brought new perspective on both the business of journalism, and the historic events The Washington Post helped shape. Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, Sexual Politics, and The Women's Room had a huge influence on my political thinking.

Greetings from the Pacific Northwest, where things are still on fire but at least now I can breathe.

I've made some progress and am now at 24/40 - 31/52.
I could check off a few more, because I've read some books that fit but they aren't the books I intended for those prompts. I figure I still have time to get to them, but if not I could slot in the alternates later.

Finished this week:

Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi - I enjoyed Redshirts more than expected earlier in the year, so I grabbed a couple more of his books when they were cheap. This one was a lighthearted story about the first aliens to find and want to meet us, but know us well enough that they hire an agent to figure out a way to make them less scary to humans.

The Refugees was on sale at Audible, so I grabbed it for the prompt and just started listening. Imagine my surprise when he started talking about where I grew up! I basically grew up in Little Saigon. (Then it was about half white, lots of Hispanic, Filipino, and many other flavors of people. Like Baskin Robins.) I guess it was just so normal to me that I didn't connect it with the kind of story I was expecting from this prompt. Just goes to show that you might think refugees are unimaginably different from you, but really they are the people you went to high school with.

None of the food books was tempting me, so when Sourdough dropped, I grabbed it. Not as fun as Penumbra, but a nice book to listen to in the evenings. I enjoyed it.

I finally finished my difficult topic with The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, which is also my answer to the QOTW. Published in 2012, it is both painfully eye-opening and sadly a bit outdated. Whenever she talks about how racism is less overt and changed largely to coded language, I get so depressed. I mean, the whole thing is depressing, but knowing that there are now white supremacists with torches yelling about genocide in the streets, that one of the legal protections she mentions was being revoked as I was reading that chapter... UGH! The whole book made me sad and angry. Very, very angry.


Currently Reading:

Still working on The Sisters Brothers a bit at a time as I grab chapters on the bus. Notorious RBG I will only read at home so as to not mess up the lovely hardback, but it wound up under a pile of fresh acquisitions and it's been a while since I picked it up. I started listening to Code Name Verity.


Edit: OH and hey, I'm not sure where to share this, but in honor of the end of the Cassini mission, which ends in a glowing ball of melted spacecraft in about 13 hours, NASA/JPL have released a free ebook

Hi all,

Gorgeous and sunny in Vancouver.... and slightly cooler than before.

I'm at 32/40 and 2/12.

Still chugging along with The Bourne Identity for the espionage book. It is very fast paced, might have kept me up for a while last night!

QOTW: Books that have changed how I view the world. I really changed when I read Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West. I knew about North Korea, however, this was an incredible read. Very very eye opening! This year, I read Nujeen: One Girl's Incredible Journey from War-torn Syria in a Wheelchair in early January. I think she challenged and changed my views on refugees - it made me more empathetic. This book was also for the prompt, a book by someone with a disability. Nujeen is in a wheelchair.

It was very nice and cool but this weekend when I have two festivals to go to it'll be hot and humid. I'm not particularly amused by that.

I didn't get a lot of reading done for the challenge but then again I'm nearly done with it. I did finish Haunted Oregon: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Beaver State for a book I bought on vacation (when I was in Portland). Honestly this should have been called 'supernatural' rather than haunted as it had way too many Bigfoot stories.

I also finished The No. 2 Feline Detective Agency for a non-human perspective. Honestly this wasn't good. If the library had any Spencer Quinn stuff available I would have read that but I was aiming to try something new. This wasn't for me.

I really enjoyed my book recommended by another author (in this case Maggie Stiefvater) The Book of Three which is a reread from 30 odd years ago. I'm chuffed to find out I still love it.

I finished a lot of manga just for fun ÎĺÀ¥¹¥È¥ì¥¤¥É¥Ã¥°¥¹ 3 Bung¨­ Stray Dogs 3 , A Certain Scientific Accelerator 1, Çà¤ÎìðħŽŸ 17 Ao no Futsumashi 17 & Fish Girl which were all fun.

I'm still trudging away on my bestseller in a genre I don't normally read, Antisocial and for an author using a pseudonym I have Echoes in Death which I THINK are the last two I need (need to check my list).

QOTW - I'm sure some have but honestly I tend not to think in those terms. I've never sat down and thought 'this has changed my life.' Literally never. Sure some have worked their way into my subconsicous (LoTR, Harry Potter etc) but none that I'm consciously aware of have shifted my world view.

Sara wrote: "Dani wrote: "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis was my bestseller from 2016 pick. And boy, did this dredge up a lot of feelings. I didn't know what it was going into it, so..."

My dad ended up moving to Columbus from Akron because he saw how it was falling apart and wanted more opportunities. He was still a mechanic, but he did very well in his work and we lived a much better life than we would have if he had stayed in Akron. So I got the education, the comforts a solid middle class upbringing offers, and an all around more supportive environment. I'm glad I have a foot in both worlds, its most definitely an issue that needs more attention.

While I only finished one book for this challenge this week, I also made progress on the other challenge I'm working on, so yea! I finished:
* At Bertram's Hotel, which I'm using for "A book set in a hotel";
* Modern Romance, which worked for the other challenge I'm working on; and,
* Glass Houses, which I started yesterday and finished this afternoon -- so good!!! (thank goodness I'm on a staycation this week...it would've been torture waiting to read this until after work (and probably would've resulted in me staying up too late reading "just one more chapter") or until over the weekend!)

I'm now at 33/40 and 11/12. Just 8 more to go!

I haven't started anything new yet since I just finished the last pages of Glass Houses about an hour ago. I needed some time to process the ending before I thought about what I wanted to pick up next. I knew I couldn't even attempt to read anything else at the same time, so I made myself finish up the other two books I had already started before I cracked this one open, and left everything else in my TBR stacks.

QotW:
While I've read many books that changed how I viewed the world, three that stick out are:
* The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings;
* Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama; and,
* Born a Crime.

Hey ppl, greetings from sunny Austin, Texas!

There were at least two books I thought I could finish this week; eventually, I finished neither but I was able to read a book I had planned to read for quite a while. Actually, I read it twice and a half, all of this today! Well, it is a play, hence somewhat short.

?6. A book with one of the four seasons in the title: Frank Wedekind, Spring's Awakening , transl. from german by Francis Ziegler, Project Gutenberg, 2011 (first pub. 1910 for the translation, German original 1893).

So, why the 2 1/2 readings? To begin with, this is a play I wanted to read for a while: my best friend, who taught it to her German language students, had told me quite a lot about it, which made me curious. While I'm busy refreshing my German these days, I didn't feel up to the task to read the German version, and I couldn't lay my hand on a French translation before leaving for Texas this summer.

Then it so happened this morning that, when trying to close my Audible account (audiobooks are really not for me, way too slow!), I realized I had one credit left. So I looked up a version of that play, downloaded it and started to listen to it while doing my morning stretching session. And it struck me that it had very little to do with what I had been told... Turns out it is a recent "adaptation" which only has a few chararacters and some plot elements in common with the original play. Utter drivel! Much closer to the musical of the same name than to the play, I guess. What irks me is that it is sold as a "new translation" of Wedekind's play...

I listenend to the whole of it but I was so frustrated I looked up and found a public domain ebook version of an English translation of the play - rather old and probably not very good, but at least tolerably faithful to the German text; also on Project Gutenberg, I found the original German text. Thus I read the English translation, going back to the original text from time to time.

Hence the 2 1/2 readings: one audition of the crappy audiobook, one full reading of the 1910 English version, and about half the original German text as a complement!

Happy Thursday! This has been a long week, and I get to cap it off with a 7 am - 9 pm work day tomorrow. (It is back-to-school night at school.)

I finished 2 this week, neither for a PS goal.
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon was excellent, and I'm not sure why it isn't better known in the US. It's set in Brazil, has wonderful characters, and the story was never boring. Took me most of the week, since it was over 500 pages I think.
The Eternaut is a graphic novel from Argentina that is a classic of science fiction but only recently translated into English. I think fans of 50's sci-fi (alien invasion, nuclear war, heroic technophiles, etc.) would like it, but it was only OK to me.

QOTW: I read a lot of books on purpose to learn about cultures and experiences outside my own. But, the book that jumped out when I read this question was The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. It has permanently changed how I view any news or commentary about crime, prisons, and criminal justice.

Oh my goodness I completely forgot what day it was yesterday!! I missed a Thursday check-in!

In the past week I finished four books, one of them was my last challenge book, so I am now FINISHED!

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George- this was my book for having a day of the week in the title - this was SO MUCH FUN!! I highly recommend this if you are looking for something fun and silly for this category, or if you have a tweenager in the house who needs book recommendations, or if you like to read books to your kids. It reminded me a little bit of Cornelia Funke's Igraine the Brave.

Non-challenge books:
Tampa by Alissa Nutting - this was THE most outrageous book I've ever read. I can picture the author having a few glasses of wine with friends and accepting a dare to write a book about a completely reprehensible monster of a woman who preys on adolescent boys, AND to make it funny and entertaining. And, somehow, Nutting pulled it off.

Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enr¨ªquez - a book of horror-tinged short stories from Argentinian author Enriquez, this book suffered from "not what I expected." It was good, it was really good, but I expected something completely different, so I didn't enjoy it. (For starters, I didn't realize it was a book of SHORT STORIES - I kept waiting for the stories to seem linked in some way, I was so confused.) Also, I don't really like horror. If you like magical realism, horror, and short stories, then check this one out.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro - I DNF'ed this book years ago, and decided to give it another try, since it is recommended to me so often. Yeah, I still hated it. I guess it should be reassuring to know that I have good judgment when it comes to deciding when to DNF?

QOTW - I'm sure there are books that changed me! But ... I can't think of any right now. I will mull this one over.

Megan wrote: "Finally started Heartless but I'm only 7% in because I keep falling asleep! Hopefully this weekend I can dedicate a lot of time to it. It'll be my library recommends book...."

Oh I have weeks like that!! Sometimes it's the book, sometime I'm just really tired. Right now, I've been slooooooowly working my way through Broken Angels, my bed time read, and I'm only getting a few pages read before I fall asleep. (In this case, I think a lot of the problem is the book.)

back to the QOTW

books that I read when I was young and didn't know much about the world or about books:
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin - I had no idea a book could be like this! I'd never read a book that played with gender before.
The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe - this book series blew my teenage mind
Foundation - turned me into a lifelong Isaac Asimov fan
Ariel by Sylvia Plath - showed me that depression is something a lot of people deal with
The Early Diary of Ana?s Nin, Vol. 1: 1914-1920 = this was her childhood, and it was both very different from mine and also similar in small ways
The Autobiography of Malcolm X - I learned A LOT
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - this may have been the first book I read written by an African author
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde - I had no idea a book could be like this!

books that I've read in the last few years that have stuck with me:
The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman - a fresh and personal pov of WWII
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor - haunting
What Lies Between Us by Nayomi Munaweera - haunting
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas - one of the few books to actually make me cry
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood - heartbreaking and hopeful and unforgettable
A Study in Scarlet - I had no idea a book written in the 1800s could be so fun and fresh and modern-feeling! I finally understood all the fuss about Sherlock :-)
Cosmos by Carl Sagan - I realized I still want to read about science

Taylor wrote: "Good morning!

I am so excited because this week I finally finished A Game of Thrones!! I'm using it as my book over 800 pages. I really liked the story and am excited to read the rest..."

Congrats on finishing GOT! Take your time reading the next in series cause otherwise you will be like the rest of us waiting for GRRM to finish the penultimate one! [For the record I don' t really mind given it takes time to write something that good and complicated.]

Steampunk - consider a true classic 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Theresa wrote: "Taylor wrote: "Good morning!

I am so excited because this week I finally finished A Game of Thrones!! I'm using it as my book over 800 pages. I really liked the story and am excited t..."

Look, not to start anything, but 20000 Leagues is not steampunk, it's science fiction. Part of what makes steampunk unique is that it is a blend of science fiction (and/or fantasy) and alternative history. Jules Verne was writing contemporary science fiction; while his books do involve some steam-powered technology, there's no "punk" aspect because he was writing about the tech known in his time period. It's a great book and I love it, but it's not steampunk.

Nicole wrote: "Good morning, everyone! ....."Come on, fall! I'm so ready to not shave my legs every day, plus things like sweaters & boots & brightly colored leaves and crisp autumn air.

I am with you! I yearn for cold!

I'm with Jackie - HG Wells and Jules Verne are not steampunk, they are classic sci-fi. There isnt really any "classic steampunk" since it's still a new and emerging genre, unless you want to call something like The Difference Engine (Gibson/Sterling, 1990) a "classic." (I dnf'ed that one, so I'm not exactly recommending it.)

If you like romance, look at Meljean Brooks
If you like lighter fare, look at Gail Carriger (I recommend this option if you're dreading this category - her books are fast reads, and they make good audiobooks too.)
If you want something slightly literary, try Cherie Priest's Boneshaker
If you want a fictionalized biography in graphic novel form, try The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage.

I finished one book this week for "Book recommended by a librarian"

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

QOTW: the book I read for this year's challenge "book written by someone you admire" was the The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World and that even months after finishing still resonates with me in a lot of ways.

Nadine wrote: "I'm with Jackie - HG Wells and Jules Verne are not steampunk, they are classic sci-fi. There isnt really any "classic steampunk" since it's still a new and emerging genre, unless you want to call s..."

Another graphic novel option that would be super quick to read if you just want to knock this category out: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1. It's chock full of classic lit references which might appeal to you if that's your jam (though you don't need to get them to enjoy the story).