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Hi Everyone! Hope your reading has been going well!

Weather keeps alternating between lovely and rainy here in Michigan, so I keep alternating between "extremely busy" and reading a lot.

This week I finished:

The Golem and the Jinni - I ended up picking this based on it being pretty with blue edging on the pages. Luckily it was really good, and worked for two challenges! I counted it for Popsugar's previous year prompt, nonhuman perspective. Also for ATY's past monthly goodreads pick. (april 2013 for those curious). I really liked this, lovely story. It was a little slow, but in a good way. I still couldn't put it down.

The Serpent's Shadow - reread that i've been poking at for a month or so when I need a break before bed. It's one of my favorite Lackey books.

Childhood's End - I didn't think this counted for anything, but I just googled the cover for it. Almost all iterations of it have really terrible covers, so there I go. I'd read it because I'd recommended it to the library digitally years ago, and they finally got it, and I got up on the list. This can also count for Read Harder's cover I hate. Hate's a strong word, but most versions are pretty bad.

Currently reading:

The Halloween Tree - this will be my book set on Halloween. I mostly picked it because I like Bradbury in general, it was short, and my library had it available digitally for immediate check out. It's fine so far, nothing I'm going to remember forever.

What is your favorite fictional villain (or antagonist)? What makes you like a villain?

The first one that pops to mind isn't actually in a book, it's Killmonger from Black Panther. (I haven't actually read the comic). He's not so much a villain as an antagonist, and I think that's why I like him. He has distinct motivations and and a clear point of view, instead of just being evil because...well..he's evil ok?

For books I rather liked Uprooted, where the Forest itself was the antagonist. I don't want to go into what all happened with it, because spoilers, but I found it really interesting.

Happy reading everyone!

Hello All,

I finished two books this week, one of which I just finished this morning, when I should have been working from home, but I just couldn't put it down!

The first was Turtles All the Way Down, which was the May group read for a book about mental health. Last week, I said I was reluctant to start reading this as I wanted something lighter, but I ended up really, really enjoying it. It was far enough removed from my own experiences with mental health in my family that it didn't really upset me when reading it. I really liked the main character and her story. I found this to be a much better-written depiction of a story focused on a character with a mental disability than Jodi Picoult's House Rules. I read that last year for a similar prompt and it was a terrible book.

The second book I read, which I finished today, was The Marrow Thieves. This was *really* not a light read, but it seemed to go well after reading Turtles, since it's also a YA book and deals with difficult issues. In this case, it's the story of a small group of Indigenous people hiding from non-indigenous peoples who want to harvest their marrow to restore the ability to dream in a dystopian future where everyone but those with Indigenous bloodlines can't dream anymore. This book was POWERFUL. I heard an interview with the author on the CBC where she talked about wanting to write a book that would help youth understand the legacy of the residential school system in Canada, but without it having to be "historical," so she wrote this book as a futuristic tale where the government had come back full circle to policies that reflected this time in Canada's history. I really can't recommend this book enough if you're interested in this topic. Not only was it powerfully written, but the characters, particularly the main character, are interesting and complex, and it's the right level of reading for a YA-read. This was my book with twins in it, since there are twin brothers in the small group of people the book follows.

Villains we love to hate, hmmm, let's see. I would say Jamie Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire. Any villain that I'm drawn to is usually a more tragic character that gets a reputation for being terrible (and may actually be terrible in some ways) but has some redemptive elements in their backstory. Because of this, Jamie Lannister's got one of the best story arcs I've ever read, IMHO.

Only one finish this week: Riders of the Purple Sage, for the favourite colour in the title prompt. Not at all in my usual wheelhouse, but I've known about Zane Grey since my days of watching M*A*S*H as a kid.

I started the audiobook of The Wind in the Willows for the weather element prompt, but the guy's accent just wasn't holding my attention in the car.

QOTW: Maybe it's my decades-long fascination with pro wrestling, but I love me a good villain, even those without the redemption arcs. It's about the strength of their convictions and the depth of the reaction they elicit. Whether that reaction is positive or negative is almost inconsequential.

I agree that Killmonger was absolutely fabulous in the movie (I don't really know the books either). I can't wait to see Venom.

I also agree that George R. R. Martin writes wonderful villains/antagonists, although I'm always fearful of getting too attached to anyone in his books. I mean, Tywin, Joffrey, and Ramsay was quite the trifecta.

Other greats: Misery, the Grinch, Negan, Magneto... wait, is Hans Gruber any good in the book?

Daniele, did you like Riders of the Purple Sage? I'm not familiar with Zane Grey, but I need to read a western for Read Harder and I did consider that one. I don't super love westerns so I really need it to be super engaging.

Danielle, I also have Riders of the Purple Sage earmarked for the favourite colour prompt and would love to hear more of your thoughts on it!

Riders of the Purple Sage was my first western, so I don't have anything to compare it to within the genre.

That said, it has a female lead who isn't a complete wallflower, which is precisely what gets her into trouble in her Mormon community in the first place. In that sense, it almost has that "alien that doesn't really fit in" feel of the sci-fi I'm used to.

One warning: If you are the type that doesn't care about anyone's survival in a book/movie except for the dog, there is one chapter you will find difficult.

Overall, I enjoyed it. Will I run out and read everything by Zane Grey? Probably not, but I thought it was a worthwhile read.

Thanks, Daniele!

Sheri, I also recommend The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman as a Western. It’s a genre bender, for sure, but will fit. It melds Western with Steampunk, Fantasy, Gothic, and Alternative History and has a good female lead.

Ohh thanks I’ll look into it!

Hello all! I finally finished Cringeworthy: A Theory of Awkwardness. It did get better. I enjoyed the chapter on awkwardness in the workplace and its connection to askamanager.com and some of the strange questions that have been asked there.

I'm still working through An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth. While I like the content it is getting a bit repetitive. I think he's got good things to say but could have used a better editor to tighten it up. But then it probably wouldn't have been long enough.

I want to finish that because next in my pile is The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women for FoE book club. I might just start it and swap between Chris Hadfield.

I cannot think of a villian. I read so much non-fiction that I don't retain too many. One that comes to mind might be Snape who was a villian until he wasn't!

I've been terribly remiss about posting lately. I had the tragic circumstance of a digitally checked out book getting taken off my Kindle when I was only halfway done! Shadow of Night is so long, that I hit the 14 day mark (in fairness, I started reading it three or four days into the 14 days, but still). I didn't want to wait another three months to finish it, and I didn't want to spend $15 on it, so I checked out the dead tree version and I'm finally nearly done. I'm counting it as my book with a time of day in the title.

I also started reading Cinder again when I knew I would be on an hour long train ride downtown and back, and didn't have Shadow of Night yet. I don't think it will count for any of the challenges though.

Hmm, I do like a good villain. Jamie Lannister is definitely a good one. I also really liked Steelheart in the book Steelheart. You don't learn much about him, but I find the weakness angle fascinating.

Haha Cara, I've so been there. But I usually cheat and turn my wifi off :D (although that does rely on you being aware that it's about to finish, and planning ahead. )