Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Hi everyone!

Missed Thursday but at least I'm getting this up on Friday!

Still been crazy with house renovation stuff. So looking forward to the room being done!

This week I finished:

The Poppy War - book with Pop, Sugar, or Challenge in the title. This was good, not what I expected at all! I can't really go into what was so surprising without spoilers. But it was great.

A Study in Scarlet - book that inspired an idiom or common phrase. The game's afoot! and Elementary, my dear Watson both come to mind, even if neither were in the actual novels.

Fingersmith - book with a wedding. Wasn't much of a wedding, but it was there! this was really good, actually managed to keep me guessing as to what is going to happen. Lots of twists and turns. My only real qualm is somewhere around page 300 it started feeling long. But it picked up in time for the end.

Currently reading:

They Both Die at the End - this will be my book that takes place in one day. It's interesting so far. I read a ton of sci fi/fantasy so i'm more distracted by the whole concept of a death notice and how it worked and whether or not knowing you are going to die is what leads to your death. I'm guessing the story's more about the relationship between two strangers spending their last day together more than exploring the actual method of the system.

Onyx and Ivory - still plugging awya, i keep forgetting to listen, whoops!

QOTW:

I know the saying goes "Don't judge a book by it's cover", but do you do it anyhow?

I was in Detroit the other weekend and went to a small independent bookstore. I saw this glorious book and I had to buy it, regardless of what it was about. It had gold embossing, and red velvet and colored illumination on the chapter heads! Turns out the book is sort of hogwarts for basketball? I haven't read it yet, but i'm hoping to get to it soon. The owner of the bookstore was glowing in her reviews of it so I'm optimistic! The Wizenard Series: Training Camp is the book. I'll let you all know how it turns out!

Nothing new finished this week, but hoping to complete Onyx and Ivory early next week. I'm really enjoying it so far!

I had an unexpected bounty come to me from the library *lol* and I now have three new ebook holds ready and waiting for me. I think my next read is going to be Clockwork Boys, just because I've been really looking forward to it since reading the blurb.

QOTW: I used to go to book stores all the time and discover new books by picking up anything with an interesting title or cover art and scanning the blurb.

But I think I judge books less often by their covers now in the age of ebooks. I mean, personally, I'm buying a lot less physical books right now due to space restraints with our current living arrangements. But Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ/social media is my primary book discovery method now, and here it's mostly the blurbs and reviews that catch my interest.

Due to a whole bunch of schedule juggling and changes at work, my reading fell by the wayside. I had a couple of days off work in April, and I ended up bingeing 3 books, then falling back into the rut of slow reading. Hopefully I can eke out some regular reading time again soon!

In the meantime, here's what's been taking up space next to my bed or on my tablet.
Around the World in 80 Dates. A lighthearted nonfiction romp that was very obviously written when the "chick lit" genre was at its peak. The author (a travel writer) decides to tap her social network and have them set up 80 first dates for her in locations all around the world. There are several spots in the early chapters where chick lit tropes were awkwardly and obviously inserted, but once the editor steps back and lets the author have her voice, it gets a lot more interesting. Spoiler alert: she finds love a little over 1/2 way through her journey. Several reviewers complained that the book lost steam for them after this, but I found it to be just the opposite. What was dragging along suddenly got a whole lot more interesting. Her writing got a lot less flippant, and turned introspective. It felt like the maturity level jumped by about a decade, and the stakes were a lot more engaging. I had been about to set it aside, but stuck it out to the satisfying end.

Witchblade: Demons. A really dreadful media tie in to the successful early 2000s comic book series. Once you get past all the pin-up art, the Witchblade series had some interesting supernatural threads, and a decent bit of girl power. This book stripped all but the most basic level of supernatural intrigue, and read like an amateur police procedural. Yawn.

Typical American. A literary take on the Chinese immigrant experience in America shortly after WWII. Being literature, things were a bit more bleak and dreary than I prefer in my fiction, but it was still a well-told story with lots of thought-provoking scenes.

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water. I got this on audio because it's a monster of a book (and 28 hours on audio!). Being a mostly native Arizonan, I have a strong interest in water issues, and this is the book that brought the West's water woes to a wide audience. It's a bit dated now, but there were 3 updated sections added to the end of the audiobook that filled in the gaps and brought the reader up to speed with the state of affairs as of 2018. Fascinating, but not for someone who likes a quick, snappy read.

A Discovery of Witches. Took a looooooong while to get started, then ended on a cliffhanger (that I saw coming, so wasn't truly left hanging), but overall a decent read. I'm curious to see where she takes things in the sequel. I couldn't help drawing comparisons between this and Twilight, and given my general dislike of Twilight, I'm not sure what that says about my feelings on Discovery. Guess I'll wait til book 2 to decide :)

Currently reading:
The Buried Pyramid. I had high hopes for this one, but it's a bit of a slog. It should be an adventurous romp down the Nile in search of legends, but so far it's a lot of stuffy drawing-room discussions and background information. I just passed the 1/2 way mark, and it's just good enough to keep reading, but I'm not terribly invested in the outcome.

Nature Noir: A Park Ranger's Patrol in the Sierra. Another nonfiction story about a park ranger's time patrolling the Sierras in California. I'm only a couple of chapters in so far, but it's really good!

Next in queue: Uprooted and Anansi Boys.

After the last check-in, I finished Reaching Dustin, which was a perfectly fine middle grade book, but I still have no idea why someone selected it for an adult book club (and I’m someone who loves a good YA that’s written Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhoodwell) - hopefully that mystery will be solved by someone who was around at the time it was discussed!

I’m continuing my journey through those early book club picks that I missed with The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion. I’m enjoying it much more than I expected, despite the super short chapters and jumping back and forth between past and present, It is VERY similar to Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, which is one of my favorites, so I’m sure that’s part of it. I’m just over halfway through and I really don’t know yet how everything is going to come together, so that’s a good sign!

QOTW: I will freely admit to judging books by their covers - I’ve been wrong many times, though, so that’s not my primary consideration. Even in eBook form, there are certain elements of a cover that draw me in - similarity to covers of other books I’ve enjoyed, a contemporary font, etc.

I have been lurking more than posting the last few weeks but wanted to thank everybody (especially Sheri) who keeps us going.

Based on my current age and reading rate, I am estimating that I have about only 4000 books left to read. (Most people I mention that too says it seems like a lot-not me :) ). I have been trying to work my way through my personal library and purge if I'm not going to read it again.

Several times there have been books I have read awhile ago and they either just don't hold up or there is other stuff that I just like better. One surprise that made the keep list was Space by James Michener. I read it in my 20s and liked it, but was still trying to figure out what I like to read as a grownup. I still enjoyed it 25ish years later-it's a historical fiction of how the space program developed and follows several main characters from the 1930s to 1980s. There is a religion vs. science element toward the end that was still pretty relevant for today.

My other reread was Ready Player One and still really enjoyed it. Originally I didn't think I would like it because I am not a gamer, but I am a child of the 80s and all the pop culture references were movies I was seeing in the theater and songs I was hearing on the radio. My dad was an early programmer, so sometimes he would bring home a "printer terminal", so I did play Adventure, one of the first computer games. And we had one of the first TRS-80 computers. In addition, I read it the first time before joining FoE, so I was able to pick up more references after hanging with FoEs a few years.

I use OverDrive Media Console to read most of my books (I love paperbacks, but I'm terrible at returning physical books on time 😬) and I'm trying to go through my backlog of borrowed books that have expired before I borrow more. That said, as I finish one in a series, I end up borrowing the next and the next, which doesn't really decrease the number of books I see on my screen bookshelf!

This past week I finished:
Any Day Now, by Robyn Carr
What We Find, by Robyn Carr
The Family Gathering, by Robyn Carr
Origin, by Jack Kilborn

I'm currently reading The Wizard Heir, by Cinda Williams Chima.

Up next I've got Fight For Power, by Eric Walters (part of the Rule Of 3 series).

This week I finished listening to Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia. I've already downloaded the fourth book. It is enjoyable to listen to while walking. This is my first series by Brandon Sanderson.

I'm still working my way through Onyx and Ivory. Are there any questions or discussion on chapters 19+? I only see 1-10 and 11-18. Am I missing it somewhere?

Today Bill Gates shared his summer reading list and I added 3 of them to my TBR list. I also just ordered Melinda Gates' new book from my library.

Been a busy week for me, and will be for the next few. I'll be completely off grid next week at a camp in rural western Alaska, and likely won't get much reading in while I'm there- bummer, but it will be a really fun week.

Finished Becoming Mrs. Lewis. This one left me super conflicted, as I found myself disliking Joy more and more as they story unfolded. The author weaves a lovely story, but as a historical fiction, I'm wondering just how fictionalized the details of Joy's life, personality, and motivations are, and if she was as radically outside of her time as was portrayed. So in the end, am I truly frustrated by the author, or by the subject? I plan to do a bit more research on Joy Davidman's life, at the very least.

Knocked off Winter's Heart. There comes a point in this series where you pretty much need a flowchart to keep all of the various relationships straight- it was complicated before, but Winter's Heart is definitely the tipping point. I'm always amazed at how much detail Jordan includes, and how insanely consistent he is at keeping it all straight.

Speaking of Robert Jordan, I finally got my hands on New Spring: The Graphic Novel. Not only was it lovely to see how Jordan visualizes all of his settings and characters, but the whole chapter of letters at the end was super fun; it's basically Jordan grousing to the writers and illustrators where each detail wasn't perfect or consistent with the book. Exactly my kind of geekery, right there!

Also read the book that I picked up from a local author at Arctic ComicCon a few weeks ago: Janitor 51: Saving the World, From Midnight to Eight, about a pair of janitors at Area 51 who get to deal with chaos breaking loose while they clean during the night shift. I'm usually pretty jaded about self-published fiction (I've read waaaay too much of it that's absolutely awful), but aside from desperately needing an editor, this was quite well written and tons of fun. It leaned on too many cliches, but it was a perspective in sci-fi that I've rarely seen, as a pair of average blue-collar workers, who would be background extras in any other story, use their brains and wits to end up as the heroes.

My copy of Onyx and Ivory is en route, so that will be my next book.

Yep, against all logic and training as a librarian, I definitely judge books by their cover. I think there's a good bit of human nature to it, rather than people just being shallow with a first impression though. However, I've read many many "ugly" books that I had looked past before, and been very glad I did, so I do try hard to work past an initial judgement of a book's appearance. That said, I've had training as a graphic designer, so a unique and well-designed cover will definitely get my attention faster than it probably has a right to.

I was trying to read The Quintland Sisters about the Dionne quintuplets, but it was too slow moving for me. I’ve given up.

I’m still making my way through 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement and really enjoying it. History and food—what’s not to like?

And just yesterday I received Searching for Sylvie Lee from a goodreads giveaway. I was interested because I’d read a previous book by her. Hopefully I like this one.