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Hi all,

New HVAC system is fully installed! woo! Turns out it's just as well we decided to do the AC too. The place the old AC was caused the pipes and wiring to run across the patio in a way that was NOT to code, and could not be made to BE up to code, so we had to move it. He said that now that it's moved, we shouldn't have a problem pouring a new patio like we had planned. So if our system hadn't gone out, we would have been faced with a big problem when we went to go re-do our patio and they told us "hey we can't do anything with all this piping running across here". So while I'm not exactly PLEASED it happened, I guess at least we avoided a future problem!

This week I finished:

Parachutes - Can't remember if I put this on last week's list or not, i finished it right in the edge window haha. It's about the practice of many parents in China sending their teenagers alone to America to get an education. They aren't exchange students, and they're not really immigrants because they go back to China as soon as the education is done. They often live with host families or if the family is really wealthy in apartments alone. The book was fiction, but the practice is real, based on the afterward that the author wrote. It was good, tw though for sexual assault but handled in a non-gratuitous way.

The Only Good Indians - finally got through this. Didn't end up super loving it, although it wasn't terrible. Never really quite came together into something cohesive. This is my second Stephen Graham Jones so i'm wondering if his writing style just doesn't work for me, since I know others just love him.

Terminal Uprising - Finished this on audio. I really am liking the series, a lot of fun! I like that a lot of modern sci fi is really breaking out of the whole "all members of alien races act the same" that a lot of older sci fi suffers from. This book has a lot of humor and whimsy to it ( I mean the series is called the Janitors of the post-apocalypse) but there's a lot of nuance to the actual conflicts. Factions within factions, none of the groups of monoliths. Even within the little ragtag crew, there's never perfect accord or agreement. Looking forward to the next book coming out this summer.

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within - audio re-read. Just as good the second time around!

Kill the Farm Boy - i thought this was fun, overall. I think it maybe tried a little TOO hard to channel discworld. There's a way to be funny and light hearted and pun-filled that feels effortless, and there's a way to do it that feels heavy handed, and this was more of the latter. But i still enjoyed it more or less overall. I'll probably read the next one eventually, if not immediately.

Currently reading:

How Lucky - next books & brews pick. Not very far in it yet to form an opinion. I'll admit i'm a little wary going in, considering that it appears to be an abled body man writing a book about a disabled protagonist and in the book jacket the man is described as "fiercely resilient". So I'm a
dubious about it coming off as kind of inspiration-porn-ish. but I'm trying to keep an open mind about it. I guess we'll see!

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home - audio re-read, i wanted to hear Mara Wilson's performance for it, since I read the ebook the first time around.

QOTW:

I don't have any good ideas, so i'll settle for any good plans for the weekend? we're probably just going to work in the yard/house! Maybe see if some friends are free.

Glad the installation went well, Sheri, and that the other problem was caught before it became a major issue!

Things have been pretty quiet around here, so that means more reading time. I have 3 recent finishes, which I managed to give all 5 stars too!

Fevered Star - It was very good. I do think I liked the first book a little more, and this one felt like it did a lot of moving pieces around on the board and setting up the final (?) book. Read for the Popsugar own voices SFF prompt.

Nettle & Bone - I loved this so much! I saw a review that described it as, what if all the supporting characters from the fairy tale went on the quest.

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 34 - I really wish they'd animate more of this story. This is probably one of my favorite ongoing manga.

I'm not reading anything else currently. I'm waiting to start anything long until I get the new Seanan McGuire which comes out on Tuesday, Seasonal Fears. In the meantime, I'll probably read some more comics or shorter works.

QOTW: We don't really have any plans. Saturday is errands day, and Sunday is housework/laundry day. It is the end of the hockey regular season. We'll probably watch the last game of the season for the Seattle Kraken on Sunday afternoon. My other team, the NY Rangers, is in the playoffs, so I have that to look forward to next week!

Yay for a future crisis averted!

Last week I finished The Uplift War - this is a re-read of the series, but I hadn't remembered much of the plot at all. David Brin is SO GOOD at alien cultures! They aren't just humans in weird bodies.

I needed a brain break after that so I pulled out a re-read of Soulless. Always a good time.

I managed to get Fevered Star from the library so that's what I'm on now- am almost done!

Fifth grader and I are almost finished with The Serpent's Shadow; I tried to get first grader interested in The Secret Garden but she was very meh about it so we've been re-reading favorite entries in the Princess in Black series, which are utterly delightful if you have a small person in your life and are looking for something to read to them.

QOTW: No real plans, and very much looking forward to some down time!

Sheri glad to hear your major house work is over and done. Nothing ever quite goes as planned for us either with this house. So you're not alone in that.

I forgot to mention last week that I am listening to The Kaiju Preservation Society. I am about halfway through and just loving it. To me this is the sci-fi version of light and fluffy and I can just go with it.

For neighborhood book club, I started reading House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family. Many in my book club are Jewish. I am not. I still think it is important to read and understand and empathize with what happened. Hopefully I'll be able to finish before the meeting because it is somewhat dry so far and I often fall asleep. It is a decent book otherwise.

QOTW: In an hour I leave for a local Weird Al concert tonight! Then at 6am I get up to catch a train to NYC. It is my first trip back (my company is HQ'ed in Times Sq) since before pandemic. My husband is coming with me. Sunday we see Mr. Saturday Night with Billy Crystal and Monday we have tickets to see Six.

I took the week off for my anniversary, so I didn't do much reading. We went camping for a couple nights, did some errands, had a picnic... It's been nice.

Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village - I saw this title somewhere when the book was released and it sounded awfully familiar; indeed, I confirmed I had already read the article (Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ has apparently disallowed external links, but it's on CrimeReads under the same title). The book is a slightly expanded version (now including the local manor house!) with humorous illustrations. Very silly but amusing if you've watched too much British mystery TV (it me).

QOTW: We might continue the vacation by renting a canoe at a local nature preserve, but one of the themes so far has been "failing to research things sufficiently in advance and realizing it is too late to order/book" so we'll see. Similarly I may try to obtain a cupcake, as previous attempts have been unsuccessful.

yay for new AC!

finally finished the Three Musketeers. now I've started Have You Seen Luis Velez?

QotW: working at my second/retail job. fun times. XD

Sheri-we ended up with a new furnace and AC first pandemic summer and the good news is our utility bills were about half. So hopefully anothe plus to your surprise replacement.
Been a few weeks since I checked in. Six Wakes reminded me of a classic murder in the English county home whodunit, except it was in space. Also some interesting discussion about cloning.
Comeuppance Served Cold was also something a bit different-set in 1920s Seattle with magic. It was pretty quick-I think I had too high of expectations for it.
I read Water for Elephants which my IRL book club had read before I joined. Setting was very cool-depression era circus with lots of details. Ending was kindof fun too.
I picked Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir for my IRL book club to show them I can enjoy something that isn't a mystery, fantasy, or scifi. Forgot how NSFJG she is, hope I haven't scandalized my book club.
Finished off the week with Night Shift, the last in the Midnight Texas series that I have really loved. Had a somewhat stressful end of week at work so needed a comfort read.
Next weekend I will be finishing 18bot's prom dress. Also have a date with my young neighbors (age 4, 8, 10) to go down to our city's giant pile of compost and get some for our gardens.

Hello all, I just joined the group after seeing someone mention it in the FOE FB group. I'm looking forward to reading with you all :)

My reading goal this year is 90 books which is more than previous years. So of course, my work situation ended up super busy over the last couple months, and I've started falling behind, which is a little distressing. What also didn't help was that I am reading Jim Butcher's Dresden series for the first time, and find myself getting a burned out and slowing way down even when I alternate or even put 2 other books in between installments. It is a long. long. series.

Over the last couple weeks I've finished:
The Cartographers which hit a lot of my buttons - maps and libraries and mysterious architecture and hidden towns. Quite enjoyable.

Speaking of hidden towns, I also read Pines by Blake Crouch, recommended by a friend. Non-stop page turner, for sure, but I'm not sure the payoff at the end was worth it for me.

Sea of Tranquility was just as good as you've probably heard. I love love love time travel stories, although this one is about a lot of other things besides time travel, packed into a pretty small space.

And now I'm in the first third of Butcher's Skin Game. I have a friend who's listened to the whole thing on audiobook like 3 times all the way through which seems a little insane to me, but hey. To each their own I guess :D

Welcome Beth! Always glad to get new people in the group!

And yeah, I feel you on Dresden Files. I tried doing an audio re-read and i think i sputtered out somewhere around white night? It's just long, and I wanted to listen to other books, and I kept getting stuck on library holds etc.

I have Sea of Tranquility checked out, but I need to finish Fevered Star first, and then my Book of Night hold just came in. So many good books just came out!

Welcome Beth! If your goodreads goal is stressing you out, you can change it and then change it back if you get ahead. Glad you joined us-off to see if my library has Cartographers.

Hey everyone-I started reading our book, and wanted to post a trigger warning that it might not be the best choice for people who have been in abusive/controlling relationships. I stopped reading it for another reason that I posted in the discussion.