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Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone had a good week. We are now in March with ups and downs in weather and temperature. The last few days were nice and today is very cold and very, very windy. But the days are nicely longer now.

I only have one finish, a reread of Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal for neighborhood book club. It was very interesting because some people, even (retired) bio-tech scientists couldn't get through the "ick" factor of the book. Some people loved it. And others just couldn't get through it. All thought the information was well researched and well written and liked Mary Roach's style. The different reactions were very surprising to me.

I will have more finishes soon because I'm getting close to finish on listening to Bookshops & Bonedust. I've been getting more walking time in to listen to the audiobook. Just as cozy as Legends & Lattes.

I'm also getting close to finishing last month's free Amazon First Reads book Some Other Time. It is about a couple that was going to get divorced and they're transported (at the same time but not together) to another timeline where they never married. But both of them remember their real life in the other timeline. It is an interesting premise. The MC mother is a bit annoying to me as a helicopter parent and someone who doesn't want her child to grow up or go away from the house (said child is college-aged).

QOTW:
What are some of your favorite book-to-TV/Movie adaptations?

There are so many. I love The Princess Bride. I've never read that book but the movie was so much fun. Such a classic. I also really liked The Martian movie adaptation as well as the book.

For TV, watching The Expanse was needed for me to begin tackling the 9 novels. I very much enjoyed both. But I don't think I would have started if I didn't already enjoy the TV story and characters.

Lately we've been watching the Slow Horses series. We've watched through season 3. I have enjoyed that too, although the TV show is a bit gory for my taste. My husband is now halfway through the first book and says that the TV show is true to the book.

Happy check-in! Things at work have finally calmed down a little, which is a relief.

Finished:
A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall - 4 stars - for a book with two or more books on the cover. At first, I didn't think I would like it. It started out a little slow but after awhile, I was intrigued and interested in the worldbuilding.

Comics & manga:
Honey Lemon Soda, Vol. 2
Honey Lemon Soda, Vol. 3
Toilet-bound Hanako-kun, Vol. 21 (Volume 21)
How Do We Relationship?, Vol. 12
Queen's Quality, Vol. 21
Cat + Gamer Volume 7
Chihayafuru Vol. 33
Chihayafuru Vol. 34
Chihayafuru Vol. 35
Chihayafuru Vol. 36
Chihayafuru Vol. 37
Chihayafuru Vol. 38
Chihayafuru Vol. 39
Chihayafuru Vol. 40
Chihayafuru Vol. 41 (This series is SO good! I'm sad to be almost done with it!)

Currently reading:
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum - for a book where an adult character changes careers. The career change technically happens before the start of the book, but the book is basically all about her new job (running a bookstore) including her struggles previously and the reasons why she changed jobs, so I'm counting it.

Upcoming/Planned:
Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen - I got an ARC! I've been looking forward to this for so long. This will fill the prompt for a highly anticipated read of 2025.

It Goes Like This by Miel Moreland - for a book where music plays an integral part of the storyline. The main characters were all in the same band, so I figure the music will be important.

The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 13 - not for a prompt. More Maomao!

QOTW:
Agree on Princess Bride. I'd also add Neverending Story, or at least the first film, and Wicked, where the musical is way better than the book, which I hated.

It was kind of a long week for me, hence the delayed post. (The single finish is due more to the length of the book, though.)

The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World - This was mostly a biography of Humboldt with short-ish digressions into people he influenced (one in the middle, several at the end). I didn't realize how popular he apparently was during his lifetime, and I still don't really feel like I understand why. Part of that may be that I was just reading about his writing rather than actually reading it directly, and part of it may be that he was so influential his ideas no longer seem novel, but I'm going to have to put at least a bit of it on the author.

QOTW: Another plug for the Magpie Murders/Moonflower Murders miniseries, which changed the format of the books (frame stories wrapped around novels by one of the characters) into something that worked better for the episodic shows (incidents from the frame stories interspersed with bits of the novels' stories, with the frame protagonist occasionally interacting with an imagined version of the novels' protagonist). That's what happens when the author is also a screenwriter, I guess.