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Sorry for the late checkin, rough week last week at work combined with a migraine towards the end of the week.

A Spindle Splintered won the poll for the FoE Book club! I put up a thread for pre-reading thoughts.

This week I finished:

Cinder - was an audio re-read. Pretty good narrator, still holds up.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - i wasn't a fan of this, it was pretty meh. I guessed what happened pretty early on. Didn't really like the writing style, narrator annoyed me. I thought it was listed as a thriller, but it wasn't very thrilling at all.

That Inevitable Victorian Thing - this was interesting, but left me pretty conflicted. On one hand, it had some good representation of things I don't see that often in YA. On the other, the premise is that the British Empire never fell. There was genetic testing that people used to make ideal matches. Somehow this was regarded as a good thing, and not eugenics. Also there were references to how they weren't "bad"colonizers anymore, which is kinda problematic. It just felt like too much of a rosy utopia without really examining colonization, genetic privacy, etc. The author DID acknowledge this in the authors note, saying that what she was trying to do was imagine a future where the voices of "Hey, maybe this is bad" actually got listened to. So treaties with the Indigenous people were honored, slavery got disbanded, etc. I'd possibly consider reading another if it becomes a series, just to see if she examines the world and the hidden problems within it more.

Currently reading:

Beauty and the Werewolf - migraine reading, wanted something i didn't have to think about.

The Women of the Copper Country - didn't get far yet, i needed something i didn't have to think about. Will get back to it once if finish up my comfort read.

The Sea of Monsters - audio re-read

QOTW:

Did anyone do anything fun for halloween?

I did a halloween dance workout on Saturday, wore my Tali from Mass Effect hoodie and leggings. No one got it but it made me happy. Yesterday my husband and I dressed as Michael and Janet from The Good Place to give out candy. I was spooky janet with a black dress and white blouse with black bats all over it. It was fun :) even if no one got it, because I'm guessing most children didn't watch the show. Didn't have nearly the trick or treaters I expected, even though the weather was lovely. I'm guessing maybe with the pandemic, some people still are keeping kids home/ are sticking closer to home. Which is understandable, i just have a LOT of full size candy bars left haha.

I hope you're feeling better, Sheri!

I've finished a few since the last check in (aside from a ton of manga that I'm not going to list):

The House in the Cerulean Sea - I loved this so much more than I expected to. I liked the understated romance, and Linus's character growth was so good.

Some Faraway Place - This is supposed to be the last story in the Bright Sessions universe, and I have sort of mixed feelings about it. I enjoyed it overall and liked the main character, Rose, but it felt like a character from previous stories/the podcast sort of swooped in halfway through and took over Rose's story.

Little Thieves - I have been talking my partner's ear off trying to get him to read this because I loved it so much. Maybe this was a case of right reader/right mood, but it hit me in just about the perfect spot. It's a loose retelling of the Goose Girl fairy tale, but from the point of view of the maid who tricks the princess in the original story. The main character starts off as unlikable but sympathetic, which is hard to pull off well, but I loved her and her growth by the end.

Currently reading:

Haunted Heroine - A new book in this series dropped so I wanted to get caught up on the previous book, which I somehow haven't gotten around to reading yet. I just started reading it so it's too soon for me to have an opinion.

QOTW:

Not for Halloween specifically, but last night we went to our first hockey game at the new Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. My hometown team, the NY Rangers, were in town to play my "new" team, the Seattle Kraken. It was weird going to a sporting event where I'm a fan of both teams, but it was so much fun. Someday I want to go to another Kraken game when they're not playing my main team, so I can cheer for them wholeheartedly.

Two finishes for me last week. I finished reading The Hammer of Thor to my ten year old and we started The Ship of the Dead.

I also read and loved Day Zero - which is apparently a prequel to Sea of Rust, which I haven't read but now I want to.

My six year old is finally ready for chapter books at bedtime, so this week I started a seasonally inspired favorite with her, The Witches. I haven't read it since I was a kid so I'm excited! I don't remember much, just that I loved it!

QOTW: My spouse took the kids trick-or-treating (a fairy princess and a snake) and I stayed home to hand out candy. We just got a portable firepit, so I set it up at the end of the driveway, made a fire, and sat outside to give candy to the neighborhood kids. It was a relatively mild temperature for Halloween in New England, so it was lovely to sit out there (even when it rained on me a tiny bit).

My middle school makes a big deal out of Halloween and all of the teachers dress up, often with fun group costumes. This year my team decided to all dress as our Civics teacher, who pretty much is always wearing a wacky button down shirt, khakis rolled at the bottom, and shoes with no socks. We all dressed accordingly and pasted his photo on our name badges. Our eighth graders were amused.

Finn Family Moomintroll - I had never read any of this series, but references kept popping up, and I figured I should try one. One of the blurbs compared it to Winnie the Pooh, and I see it in the "large cast of characters having fairly low-stakes adventures" sense, but it didn't have the charm of Milne's language, though this may be due to the translation. There was a character list in the front that had some that didn't appear in this book, including the one mentioned in the author bio as having been her favorite, so I feel a little cheated but I'm not sure I'll bother reading another one.

How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America - I had heard really good things about this but still ended up being pleasantly surprised. The author is a poet, so there were a lot of lovely descriptions of the places he visited. It got maybe a little excessive when he described everyone's shirts, but mostly it felt like I was there with him sharing his experience of the sites. Recommend!

QOTW; Well we went for our afternoon walk in a cemetery and saw a black cat, so that seemed appropriate. Our building doesn't get trick-or-treaters, so the evening was just dinner with Halloween music and pumpkin beer.

This was a kid book week for me. I read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix because Harry, Sirius, and Dumbledore all frustrate me in that one (for book nerds). I also read Anne of Green Gables. I don't understand how I couldn't have read it is as a kid, because I read everything, but a Canadian friend kept dropping references to it and I decided that maybe I didn't. So had a copy on my kindle I started when unexpectedly waiting somewhere without a book. I liked it but not sure if I will make it through all 8 of them.
I was excited to have cute trick or treaters again. I needed a last-minute costume for helping with a pre-trick-or-treating event and went with a mashup. I have a Mary Poppins costume, but didn't want to wear a skirt because it was getting chilly. So I work pants and boots and slung my parrot parasol through my belt to be Pirate Poppins.

since the last check-in, i finally finished the Alienist, and read the first part of the Dune graphic novel - there's three parts, with part 2 out in the spring.

I'm now currently reading the first book in the latest Dune prequel series, Dune: The Duke of Caladan

QotW: I set up a table out in my yard near the sidewalk, and had two cauldrons - one with candy and one with little Halloween themed toys - bubble wands, spider rings, monster fingers, stuff like that. lots of kids took one of each! one girl was really excited and thanked me for having non-candy because her little nephew (?) couldn't have candy, and so she was excited that someone else was offering alternatives. i also had craft pumpkins on the table, one orange and one teal - the teal pumpkin to indicate I had non-candy treats :D

I do the teal pumpkin too, little flashy LED toys that kids seem to love :)

ah very cool, Sheri! :)

I am still reading, but close to finishing, Adam Savage's memoir Every Tool's a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It. It is about his life as a maker, it contains very little about Mythbusters. I am enjoying it well enough and will recommend that my husband and (adult) kids all read it as they all make things in some form or another. I'm not super into the Maker space so for me it is only okay.

I am listening to The Thursday Murder Club. It is very enjoyable so far. It was a close 2nd in the book club poll so I'll probably suggest it again. But alas I need to put it aside for now in order to listen to the book for my neighborhood book club.

The book I need to start of my neighborhood is Stanley Tucci's memoir, Taste: My Life Through Food. I am something like #80 for 46 copies at the library. So I'll never get it in time in print. So I'm just starting this. I love his show and he is the narrator. Will report back on this soon.

I have ordered A Spindle Splintered from the library. It seems to be available so I should have it soon.

QOTW: We traveled to visit my 92 YO mother this past weekend. It is also the 5th anniversary of my dad passing, on Nov 1. So we visited his grave too. But we had a great visit with my mom who still lives independently in her own condo. We had good food and played lots of card games and did a lot of crossword puzzles with her. We also helped her schedule her booster shot and winterize her windows. All good things!