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Hello Everyone,

I hope you're all having a good week and getting all the reading time you want!

I have two finishes this week. On my kindle I finished Going Solo as one of the free books. It was okay. In what is a broken record, I finished it but it was just meh. I haven't started another kindle read yet.

On audiobook I finished a short story from the Obsession collection The Mosquito. That was only about an hour long and was engaging for that time. I like these collections.

I started a normal length book on audiobook. I'm listening to Replay. So far it is very interesting and has a good premise. A 40-ish YO man dies and wakes up as his 18 year old self but with all memories intact.

QOTW:
What are books that everyone seems to love that you did not like?

There is quite a long list of recent books that fit this for me:
Lessons in Chemistry had so many irritating aspects and so unrealistic for the time period. MC was not likable.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow ugh. These people aged decades and still behaved like they were 12. And the "have to sleep with my professor" trope was such a turn off.
A Man Called Ove. The MC is 58! He behaves and is portrayed as if he's 85. I'm older than him and no one in my peer group is even remotely like this.
Ready Player One I'm from the 1980s and all the references were meant for my demographic. But it took me 3 separate attempts before I was able to get through the book.

Happy Thursday!

I am finally replacing my terrible 10-year-old, slow laptop that I use for traveling. I got another older model, but it's much more recent and has an SSD, so it should be faster.

Finished:
Blood Justice by Terry J. Benton-Walker - 4 stars - not for a challenge. This got a lot darker than the first book.

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller - 4 stars - for PopSugar's book recommended by a librarian/Robot Librarian's Newbery Medal winner. I went into this blind and was not expecting it, but this made me cry.

Currently reading:
The Marquis Who Mustn't by Courtney Milan - for PopSugar's book by a self-published author. I hadn't planned on reading this right now, but I needed a break from the heavy emotions after the end of When You Trap a Tiger before tackling another potentially sad book, so I went with some romance. Milan is pretty reliable for me in the romance department.

Upcoming/Planned:
Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - for PopSugar's book set in a travel destination on your bucket list

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson - Robot Librarian's essay collection

The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo - Robot Librarian's book from your favorite genre written by a BIPOC author

The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean - not currently for a prompt

QOTW:
I actually have an "everyone loves it but me" shelf. Among the high(low?)lights:

The Dead Romantics - A poorly masked Reylo fanfic trying too hard to be cute and quirky.

A Game of Thrones - I know everyone loves this series, and the first book wasn't bad, I'd just rather read fantasy with less sexual violence and better-written women.

The Lord of the Rings - I know I've mentioned it before, but I just can't. I love fantasy, and I wanted to love this. I am just not interested in any of the characters.

Outlander - I didn't find it romantic in the slightest, and in fact found it disturbing we're supposed to find some of this romantic.

I've been feeling sort of brain-dead lately, so spent the last week and a half re-reading Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos series, which is an old favorite. I finally felt up to something new as long as it's not too taxing, so I just picked up A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab (I read the first book of the trilogy a few years ago and have been meaning to continue).

QOTW:
The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I finished it but I hated it. I thought it was pretentious and full of unlikeable characters. If I were picking it up today, I probably wouldn't have finished it, but that was back when I made myself finish every book I started.

Pretty much any of the popular thrillers, they're just not my thing.

I had a pretty good vacation. It did rain but we mostly managed to be indoors when necessary. Not a ton of reading time on this one, though.

The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos - This turned out to be less pop-sci than I expected, and more... philosophical, I guess. It's about our ideas about and search for extra-terrestrial life through the lenses of history, culture, and science, and what all that says about us. There's probably as much summarizing of books and Star Trek episodes as there is discussion of scientific research. It was OK, but I'm not sure I came away with much new understanding or ideas.

QOTW: I will mention two that are top of mind because I keep getting ads for the touring Broadway productions that I will absolutely not be seeing.
The Kite Runner - A melodramatic plot driven by the most improbable coincidences and a cartoonishly horrible villain. The protagonist is sort of haplessly carried along rather than showing any agency.
Life of Pi - I read this around the same time as a friend, and we were both like, "I don't get it. Did I miss something?" I'm still not sure what I was supposed to make of it. I think it completely lost me at the (view spoiler)[carnivorous island of meerkats (hide spoiler)] and I wouldn't be surprised if they left that out of the play.