Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Hi Everyone!

Sorry I'm late again. Been having a kind of rough week, I apologize!

I have been having some off reading time so don't have a lot to report.

I finished Spinning Silver which I really enjoyed. It was a retelling of Rumplestiltskin, but with the fae, and looking at women's rights and Jewish rights of Russia in that era. Really enjoyed it.

I started Girl on a Wire but having trouble getting into it.

So instead i've been reading a bunch of comics. I read indivual issues mostly, but i don't add them to goodreads until I hit a volume. Among what I've been reading:

Domino, Vol. 1: Killer Instinct
Elsewhere, Vol. 2
The Wicked + the Divine, Vol. 7: Mothering Invention
Invader ZIM Vol. 7
Rat Queens, Vol. 4: High Fantasies
Isola, Vol. 1

I also re-read Single White Vampire just for something bookish to read, and am re-reading By the Sword again because i'm having trouble settling on something to read.

QOTW:

What do you do when you're in a reading funk?

I can't just not read, so I tend to fall back on comics and re-read. At least with re-reads if I'm not paying attention I don't really miss details because I've read it plenty of times. And if I lose interest or find another book, No big deal, already read it before.

Finished since the last update:

Divergent for the Book Riot "first book in a new-to-you YA series" prompt. Harry Potter's sorting hat meets the Hunger Games. Hatstalls = chaos. Now I'll be curious to see the movie.

Pashmina for the Book Riot "comic written or illustrated by a person of color" prompt. Underwhelmed.

River of Teeth for the ATY "alternate history" prompt. This premise held such promise, but sadly, didn't live up to it in my opinion.

So I have 2 prompts left for the Book Riot challenge, and 2 for ATY.

Then, in the Hogwarts Running Club's House Cup challenge, I saw someone post about the "alphabet soup" challenge, where you have to read books whose titles start with every letter of the alphabet. After looking over my list, I found I was only missing 4: E, K, X, and Z. So I read Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time to knock off the E.

QOTW: Funks mean comfortable rereads for me too. The Belgariad, Harry Potter, the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy... catching up with old friends.

I was away on a business trip/off-site meeting most of this week so I was up late interacting with co-workers several nights.

I am still listening to Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe whenever I walk alone. Just keep chugging along on this. I am enjoying it and LMM's narration. So you'll be seeing me note this for however long it takes!

I am still reading The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul also. I am in the middle section of the book where a bunch of specific people who were thought to be killed from poison are re-evaluated with modern techniques. This book is really a great follow-on for me from Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them because there is a lot of overlap between the plagues in the one book and the filthy living conditions and amazingly deadly cosmetics people used in the Middle Ages. I like the author's writing style in Get Well Soon a bit better, it is more chatty and a bit snarky at times but entertaining. I'll continue to work my way through this one too.

Sheri: if you want an interesting book on the circus, you might try Queen of the Air: A True Story of Love and Tragedy at the Circus. It is a non-fiction and the very interesting life of Lillian Leitzel. There are even some very old movies of her performing that you can find on YouTube.

QOTW: Usually I fall back to romance novels. But I don't like mindless ones. Something like a Nora Roberts trilogy series is the right level of realism and romance that requires nothing of me.

Susan, I did read that one last year! I think you recommended it for my sports prompt. I liked it!

Also Lin Manuel did such a good job on reading Dante and Aristotle!

Sheri - ah yes I remember that now! Circus arts are definitely very athletic so it totally works for a sports prompt.