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Happy Thursday! I hope everyone is enjoying their reading this week!


Admin stuff - nothing new! Our May read is ongoing of This is How It Always Is, and we do still have an opening for discussion leader of our August book, The Wife Between Us.




This week I finished 4 books, 1 for this Challenge, and I am now 37/50

An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole - this was really good, heavy on the historical context and a little light in the romance, a slow burn enemies to lovers story set during the Civil War. I love romance novels so I can't be sure, but I think this book might have appeal for the reader who is generally not a romance reader (if you're doing the Book Riot challenge and are still stuck on what to read for "historical romance by an AOC," this would fit the bill!)

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - my "set on a college campus" book, this was better than I thought it would be, but I still didn't love it.

Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises essays by Rebecca Solnit - like many collections, this one is a bit uneven, but definitely worth reading if you like Solnit.

The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo - my first completed book for AAPI Heritage Month! I ADORED this book! If you like contemporary YA and sarcastic heroines, you can't go wrong with this book :-)




Question of the Week:
(This question is from Raye) What other reading challenges are you participating in, if any?

Now that we are almost through the first half of the year, I thought some members are probably seeing a light at the end of their challenge tunnel, and perhaps looking for other reading challenges. I also know some members like to do a seasonal challenge, especially during the summer.




I also do the Around the Year reading Challenge, in addition to Popsugar, mostly because I get so excited in the fall when they brainstorm new categories, I end up with a full list of ideas by the end of the year.

And each year I make a short list of specific titles that I am finally going to read this year.

I'm also finding myself more and more interested in reading new books, so next year I might challenge myself to read a certain number of 2020 books. Is there a reading challenge for that?

Happy Thursday everyone! Checking in from rainy England.

I haven't checked in for the last couple of weeks as reading has been slow and life has been busy. But I finally finished the audiobook of Vixen by Rosie Garland. It was a compelling and enigmatic story, but just a bit overlong. I read it for a book set in a vicarage.

I've got two more actively on the go at the moment:

Music City Dreamers by Robin Nyx - a fluffy lesbian romance for a book about a hobby (singing).

Celestial Bodies by Johka Alharthi for an own voices book. The story follows several generations of an Omani family. I'm enjoying it so far.

QOTW: This is my first year doing a reading challenge and I'm sticking with just the one this year. It had inspired me to see what else is out there though. Maybe I'll double up with another one next year.

Heyhey!

Guess who's back.. Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I updated, but so much has happened. I lost one of my bunnies, my eldest, Roger, and then Endgame happened and I got crushed. Now I'm waiting for the vet to call with the results of Sølvi's (one of my cats) stool, hoping it's a parasite, because a parasite we can fight. A tumor, we can not. On top of that, one of my bunnies is currently in my room with me because she needs meds 4 times a day and we need to keep an eye on her droppings. Safe to say my mental health hasn't been the best. I'll try to keep my check in of these past weeks short, but I've never been very good at that, so I apologize beforehand.

April 18 - April 25
Catch-22 - for idiom, new favorite!
Illuminae - for unusual chapter headings/format, another new favorite!

April 26 - May 2
Red Rising on audio, for the DADA OWL. Really disliked it.
The Fault in Our Stars for the Astronomy OWL. It was alright.
Circe for the Ancient Runes OWL. Preferred The Song of Achilles, but still really loved this! For an award prompt ATY.
There There for indigenous. So glad this was over. Not for me, unfortunately.
Started Legend but have had to put it on hold for a bit. Hope to get back to it soon!

THIS WEEK
Read
The Haunting of Henry Twist recced by Cendaquenta. Read it in one go, really enjoyed it. The ending makes me lean more towards a 3,5/5 rating instead of a 4/5.
Bull on audio, absolute new favorite! Would definitely recommend. Cannot wait to own this book physically and to reread and relisten many times to come!

Currently reading
I am in a whole bunch of buddy reads, so it's quite hectic! At least it gives me lots of Stardust for Bookémon!

The Lightning Thief A group of OWL students are doing a Riordan buddy read, and I'm so excited! This is a reread for me (as will the next 7-8 books) so I am gonna use it for my prompt, reread of a favorite! Forgot how much I loved this, and how lacking the movie is in comparison.

Space Opera buddy read with Cendaquenta. Talk about a chaotic energy book. I don't even know how to describe it. Quite enjoying it so far, though! Lots of great humor.

The Hazel Wood another buddy read with a different group of OWL students (some overlapping I think ha) and man we are all enraptured by it. We have daily pages, but I'm finishing today, and two of the others aren't far behind, we're loving it that much!

Anna Karenina on audio, for several challenges including ATY and Back to the Classics, but which prompts I have forgotten and I am too lazy to look it up. It's 41 hours, and I refuse to speed it up because I want to take it in properly (Lock does such a great job!), but yeah. After 4 hours I'm only 9% in. Fingers crossed I can finish it this month and stay on track!

I have another buddy read going on, but that one lasts until the 25th so I plan to start it after this week's reads are done. A stranger (who happens to live very close to me!) gifted the book to me, and I am so grateful.

All of this brings me to the following (and honestly I should be further ahead but somehow books don't seem to fit in remaining prompts, or I can't make myself switch out a planned book):

27/50(PS) , 22/52(ATY) , 4/12(BttC) , 56/75(GR) , 23/25(30) (BTB)

I did manage to read a few owned books, so score on that! I also started a bullet reading journal and am loving it, so that is also very motivating to read more!

QOTW
Well. I think I kind of answered that already, haha! I also did the OWLs Readathon last month, which was basically a challenge as well, and will be doing the NEWTs this August. I'm also doing the Bookémon Badgeathon this month, but I'm doing it lowkey. I read, and see what fits.
Just in case the abbreviations are new to you, I'll give a quick rundown:
- PS: Popsugar. Obviously ;)
- ATY: Around the Year in 52 Books. Also very well known here!
- BttC: Back to the Classics. A challenge to read 12 classics (older than 50 years) matching twelve prompts.
- GR: The general ŷ������ challenge.
- BTB: Beat the Backlist. To read as many backlist books as you can, with a goal you set yourself.

On top of this I also have a personal goal of reading 100 comics this year and to read 20 books off my own shelves. Perhaps you could do a personal challenge like that for 2020 books, Nadine?

I finished Horse Heaven as my book with an astrological term. The horse parts were better than the people parts.

And, I have just barely started Zorroas my book by a South American author. I've literally read 6 pages, so I don't have much of an opinion on it yet

QOTW:
Nope. Last year was the first time I've done the Pop Sugar (or any) reading challenge beyond just the goal of a certain number, and I only did the main list. This will be my first year doing the full list. I've read 27 of the books so far, so it's looking good.

Hey y’all! Summer is pretty much here in NC. For now it’s good, but I give myself about 3 more weeks before I long for Fall.

Finished

Ghost Stories: Classic Tales of Horror and Suspense - Two books that share the same title - This was a mixed bag. Most of the stories I enjoyed were things I’d already read. I did really like discovering “Mrs. Zant and the Ghost,�� by Wilkie Collins - mostly because the little girl is awesome:

“Will you dine with us to-day, my dear sir, and bring your little fairy with you?�� Lucy was far from receiving this complimentary allusion in the spirit in which it had been offered. “I’m not a fairy,�� she declared. “I’m a child.��

Currently Reading

Tales from the Gas Station: Volume One - A book with a plant in the title or on the cover - I still like this a lot, but somehow I’m losing the thread. I think I need to buy the Kindle version and concentrate on this one story for a while.

But not until I finish . . .

Demiurge: The Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales of Michael Shea - A book you meant to read in 2018 - Last year Patton Oswalt started some guest appearances on the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast, talking about Michael Shea’s work. I’m finally digging into the stories myself, and they really are so, so good. It’s amazing how Shea takes fussy, snobbish Howard’s ideas and translates them perfectly to the scuzzy underbelly of 1970s San Francisco. Where HP had scholars, Shea has hookers; but it works!

QOTW

I’m sort of doing AtY, 99% because I was impatient for the PopSugar prompts to come out and AtY published theirs first.

But it is fun trying to fit books to both lists - I’m not trying to do both lists independently, don’t have THAT much reading time!

Last year when I finished the challenge, I also tried to read books I already owned, and that was nice - will probably do that again this year.

Hi all, happy Thursday!

Yesterday was our national elections. The votes have been cast, the campaigning has come to an end (finally!). I don’t think there’ll be any major surprises, but it’s just a countdown now to see what the final results are.

I missed last week’s check-in as we were away for a mini vacation to celebrate my birthday, so this is a double check-in.

Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising �� the second and third books in the Grishaverse trilogy (not for PS, but did fulfil my Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.s). The whole trilogy was a light enjoyable read for me. I did suspect most of the twists, although I did not predict the last twist at all.

The Husband's Secret (for the book with a plant on the cover prompt and the Herbology O.W.L.). This was just ok for me.

Illuminae (for the unconventional chapters prompt and the Arithmancy O.W.L). I loved the way that the book was set out, and I enjoyed the overall storyline, but I didn’t really like the writing style throughout. I was fine with the text speak of the personal messages between characters, but I guess my issue was more with the way that the ‘formal�� reports were written so informally.

Long Way Down (for the book that takes place in a single day prompt). I found this short but powerful. And I liked the way that it left the conclusion open-ended.

Before We Were Yours (for the novel based on a true story prompt). I really enjoyed this book, although I was quite horrified to read about the details of the true story that inspired it.

Lord of the Flies (for the book with more than a million ratings on ŷ������ prompt). Although I’ve never read this before, I was familiar with the premise, if not the details. I struggled a bit with how it was written. And although I’ll only give it 3 stars myself, I can see why it was so popular.

My Sister, the Serial Killer (for the author from Africa prompt). Quick enjoyable read, but wanted more.

I’m currently at 38/55 for PS (I’ve decided to split up prompt #32 and read one each for the author from Asia, Africa and South America, as well as split up prompt #40 for each of the previous years)

And I managed to get an O for the magical readathon by completing 9 O.W.L.s, which is a whole lot more than I expected to finish! ;-) This means I still have a choice of several career options, but will only decide in August after the N.E.W.T.s��

QOTW: ;)

PS is the primary one, but I’m also doubling up on ATY and BookRiot’s Read Harder challenges. Last year I just just just managed to finish PS (on the 31st Dec), but my progress is looking much better this year, so hopefully I should be able to fill the empty prompts on the other challenges after I finish PS.

Oh, and of course, I did the Magical Readathon in April and will follow up in August.

I saw an A-Z challenge as well that I’m trying to populate with books that I’ve already read (for both authors and titles), but it’s just a nice-to-have.

And I’d like to read more books from authors around the world. So not quite a challenge, but I have started keeping a country list.

This week I finished:

Never Let You Go �� I bought this one towards the beginning of the challenge, because it had been on my watch list and it was on sale, but I finally let myself read it after I finished the challenge and I enjoyed it.

Currently Reading:

The Night Olivia Fell �� I’m just starting this one, so I don’t have an opinion yet.

Us Against You �� Reading this book is like falling in love. I don’t even have words for how special this man’s books are to me, and this is only my second one. He has a very special gift.

Question of the week:
What other reading challenges are you participating in, if any?

Now that I finished Pop Sugar 2019, I decided to fill in prompts from the past years (this was my first year doing the challenge), but I’m not doing it as purposefully as I did the original challenge. I’m basically reading whatever I want and seeing where it fits.

I kind of wish I had never seen this post, because now I want to try all the challenges, of course, particularly the ATY challenge. For those who do multiple challenges, do you use the same book in different challenges, or all different books?

36/50

Finished:
The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson for a book with a zodiac sign or astrology term in title.

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge for a book recommended by a celebrity you admire (Recommended by J.K. Rowling).

QOTW:
I'm not participating in any other reading challenges.

Not much progress on Popsugar this week but I have read some fantastic books that were exactly right for my mood.

Wakenhyrst for ATY (sense of place). My favourite Michelle Paver book, I liked that much of the narrative is from the daughter's point of view and not just the rantings of the despicable lord of the manor.

I listened to The Flatshare which marks the start of my ATY rejects challenge (romantic element). This was such a great audiobook production and I loved the characters as well as the more serious elements. I don't read much commercial women's fiction these days but I adored this one.

Currently reading Girls of Paper and Fire for review (yeah, it's been out ages but the lovely UK publicist kindly went through my wishlist last month and offered to send it to me). Liking it so far, not for any prompts (unless I can find a celebrity recommendation).

Started listening to Emily Eternal. It's starts off on a university campus, even though I'm pretty sure it's going to go elsewhere so undecided whether to use it for Popsugar.

I've read a couple of chapters of Across the Void which is for review and the set in space prompt. S.K. Vaughn is apparently the pseudonym of a screenwriter and thriller writer and I'm intrigued who it is because it starts off in Bournemouth and the writing definitely seems British. Also how am I meant to track author demographics if I don't know who they are!

PS: 24/52 | ATY: 27/52 | GR: 53/100

QOTW:
I ditched Book Riot this year so I'm only doing Popsugar and Around the Year (like Nadine I also love the prompt selection process). I also have a personal ATY rejects list of prompts that didn't make it to the official list. I'm not too worried about not ticking off all my rejects though. Oh yeah, and the Magical Readathon, I'd forgotten about that already!

I did Beat the Backlist last year but I did find myself wanting to read more new releases. I think the combination of prompt based challenges pushed me to read some older stuff anyway.

I keep thinking the ŷ������ summer challenge is up because of the banner at the top of the site. I'd be interested in that considering I'm ahead with my other challenges.

I can't believe it's Thursday already. And in May no less! I only finished one book this week, but I did a lot of reading, so I should finish some more in the coming week. Overall I'm at 30/50, which I'm pretty happy about. I'm going much quicker than I expected.

This week I finished Sweet Bean Paste for the salty, sweet, bitter, spicy prompt. It was a nice book. Apparently there is a movie, because I started reading it and was talking to my mom and she had seen the movie.

I read a lot of War and Peace this week. I think I'm going to be able to finish it over the next week! Pretty excited about that! And I'm still reading The Old Drift, which I am really enjoying, but it's slow moving. I'm also still reading Tokyo Cancelled and Play It Loud: An Epic History of the Style, Sound, and Revolution of the Electric Guitar. And I've started a Harry Potter re-read so that I can listen along to a podcast. I love book podcasts, I particularly love read alongs. That's how I did Middlemarch and War and Peace and they are getting ready to do Moby Dick this summer. It's delightful.

QOTW: I'm not doing any other reading challenges right now. I feel like if I tried to do multiple, I wouldn't finish any of them. I'm just not sure I have time to read enough books and I know I wouldn't want to double up. So, my plan is to finish PS and then maybe start on ATY, depending on when I finish.

Mary wrote: "For those who do multiple challenges, do you use the same book in different challenges, or all different books? ..."

I allow myself some overlap but it really depends on the prompts and how hard they are to fill. Or sometimes the book is perfect for two prompts so I'll count it.

Wicked headache this morning, so instead of work, I'll talk books! ha!

I finished Corelli's Mandolin. Not sure where I'll use it, but I'm sure I'll find some place. I really liked the story. It was very well written. The author was able to convey the horror of WWII, but also a lot of humor, sometimes in the same breath, which is usually how life works.

I'm currently working on:

The Closer: My Story. It's an easy read, and I'm sure it'll make me nostalgic (hmmm.... if only there was a prompt for that).

I'm also listening to Burial Rites in the car, which I may use for a novel based on a real story.

I may also start At the Wolf's Table. I wasn't planning on getting to this one so soon, but my hold at the library came in earlier than expected.

QOTW:
I was previously doing the Seasonal Reading Challenge on goodreads, but even when I had time to read to my heart's content, I still couldn't even come close to finishing that one. It's over 100 books every 3 months!!

I do chip away at the 1001 books to read before you die list. I don't even think I'm over 100 books off it yet. Corelli's Mandolin is actually on that one, so yes, I'll double dip!

Good morning! It was a good reading week for me. I completed five books, but only one was for this challenge.

Challenge Progress: 30/50

Completed:
How Long 'til Black Future Month?: N. K. Jemisin is a truly gifted writer. Each story in this collection was vivdly told, with complex characters and an engaging plot. That's hard to achieve in a short story. Not every story worked for me, but that's okay. This may be the first of her work that I've read, but it won't be the last. (A book with a question in the title)

The Dispatcher: Sci-fi noir. Yeah, really. Zachary Quinto does a fantastic job reading, and I'm again impressed with John Scalzi's writing. Super fun audiobook.

If, Then: A domestic drama mixed with speculative fiction featuring alternate realities... but not really in a sci-fi way. More metaphysical and kind of Perotta-esque (like The Leftovers). Compelling. I really enjoyed this one.

Finding Dorothy: Superior historical fiction! I was fascinated by the tale of Maud Gage Baum - her life as the daughter of a prominent suffragette, the wife of L. Frank Baum, and her quest to ensure that her husband's legacy (and the innocence of Judy Garland) was protected during the filming of "The Wizard of Oz."

Fraternity: An Inside Look at a Year of College Boys Becoming Men: While I didn't find much of the information here to be entirely surprising, I appreciated Alexandra Robbins' intimate and thoughtful look at what it means to be in a fraternity - both its vices and its virtues - and what it's like to be a boy struggling to become a man.

Currently Reading: Salty Dog: Phantom Queen Book 7 - A Temple Verse Series (a book with a title that contains salty, sweet, bitter, or spicy), The Guineveres ( a book that takes place in an abbey, cloister, monastery, vicarage, or convent), There's a Word for That, Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline, and The Priory of the Orange Tree.

QOTW I'm not doing any other challenges this year. Popsugar is enough to keep me focused on reading, and I don't want to be too constrained on my reading choices.

Another week, another check-in. Focus this week has been getting the gardens in after the last of the frosts. Hard work but ultimately rewarding.

Also getting used to some new duties at work �� namely, they’ve trained a few of us librarians to be passport acceptance agents! Libraries really ARE multipurpose these days. We just announced last week that people can apply for passports here, and we’ve had a ton of positive responses from the community. Given that they had to drive half an hour to the next city for this service in the past, it really helps.

Books read this week:

Zoo Nebraska: The Dismantling of an American Dream �� boy howdy, this was a heartbreaking read. A story about how small-town politics and human ignorance and neglect ran a small zoo into the ground, it’s fascinating but also hard to read knowing the animals were the biggest victims of all.

Sleepwalk With Me and Other Painfully True Stories �� a comic memoir by a comedian whom, I confess, I’d never heard of before picking this up. Still a nice balance between great humor and some unexpectedly thoughtful and emotional stories, and makes me want to watch some of this guy’s standup at some point.

Magic of the Gargoyles �� could work for “book about an imaginary creature.�� Short book that, in all honesty, could have been a bit longer in order to better build the world and characters. On its own it’s entertaining enough, but pretty bare-bones. Cute baby gargoyles, though��

Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows �� could work for “book based on a classic,�� as it’s a mash-up of both the Sherlock Holmes stories and HP Lovecraft’s body of work. I know this isn’t the first book to mix Sherlock Holmes into the Lovecraft mythos (Neil Gaiman did it with A Study in Emerald and is probably not the only one to do that), but dang if it isn’t an entertaining crossover.

DNF:

The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop �� I hate to say it, but either I’m outgrowing kid’s fantasy books or they’re just not being written as well as they used to be�� maybe some of both?

The Opposite of Everything �� this was advertised as a comedy, but either it’s not funny or I just don’t appreciate black humor and/or completely unlikable characters.

Gravity's Rainbow �� okay, I know it’s hailed as one of the greatest novels ever written, but boy howdy this was a near-impenetrable read. Hearing it’s loaded with all kinds of squicky sexual content doesn’t help �� I’m not a prude but I hear this one gets gross��

Currently Reading:

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World
The Race
Unicorn Bowling
Inhuman Contact

QOTW:

I'm not involved in any other reading challenges. I should probably pick another one, though, seeing as I've finished this year's already...

I'm having a tired day today, as yesterday was fun but busy. Two of my sisters and I went to a couple of local art galleries (plus a local yarn store and a bit of shoe shopping for my youngest sister) and talked about our feelings about the different art pieces. I normally don't enjoy abstract art much, but it ends up being a lot of fun with my sisters because if I don't get a certain painting I can just say so, and it's fine. On the other hand, I can say whatever impressions I DO happen to get from paintings and we all compare what the painting makes us feel and what we think it looks like, and it makes me feel very cultured and artsy. :-)

Anyhoo, on the reading front it's been a decent week with a mix of great and mediocre books.

Finished Reading:
Peter Pan and Wendy This book did grow on me as I got further in and past my initial "what a weird book" reaction. Still not sure what I was supposed to think of Peter, as at his best he was great, and at his worst he was pretty disturbing.

The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York Five stars! It does have a lot of details on autopsies and the effects of poisons and such, but if you can handle that, I highly recommend this book. I think hearing about all the politics and consequences surrounding Prohibition is very thought provoking to compare with the illegality of drugs in the US.

God's Precious Love A pretty little devotional book that isn't my normal reading fare, but I do appreciate Joni Eareckson Tada's writing, and this was almost as good as some of her more seriously written books.

Qualify I really enjoyed this free kindle book, which I used for the puzzle or game prompt. It didn't have nearly as much 'game' in it as I thought it would, but since there was a little bit anyway, I decided to go with Nadine's theory that since I read it intending to fill the prompt I can count it even if it's different from what I expected.

The Bell Jar I just finished this before bed last night, so I'm still collecting my thoughts. Short version is that I can see why this is a much loved book, but I didn't love it myself.

Currently Reading:
Quantum Physics: Superstrings, Einstein & Bohr, Quantum Electrodynamics, Hidden Dimensions and Other Most Amazing Physics Theories - Ultimate Beginner's Guide This book has been languishing on my currently reading list for an embarrassingly long time, and I'm finally picking it up again. It's not even that long, I just need brainpower to process it, so I can't read it when I'm really tired or brain fogged, etc.

Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life Still enjoying this in small chunks.

Legend Audio. I think I would normally really enjoy this book, but I just finished Red Rising and Qualify so recently, and they were both similar genre but better written (which makes it annoying that Legend is the most popular of the three...) so I'm feeling kind of meh on this one. Using it for cli-fi.

And that's all I'm actively reading right now! Finally got my currently reading list down a reasonable number... though I'll start a new fun/fiction book to replace Bell Jar as my main print read very soon.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention that I also technically DNF'd The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time. I was getting bored with the introductory chapters, so I just skipped to the couple of chapters that actually interested me. Those were decently interesting though, so the book wasn't bad, just had a lot of information I didn't care about.

QOTW:
I'm doing AtY as my other main challenge this year. For that one, I'm using only owned TBR books as much as possible (there are a couple of 'pick a book from this list' prompts I may not already own a book for, but in general the prompts over there worked really for my owned book list).

I'm also dabbling in Back the Classics, but haven't focused on it much yet, since it's a shorter challenge, and I can hopefully knock it out pretty easily after I finish Popsugar.

I tried to do the OWLs challenge, but got distracted by library books being due. I should go back and see if I can retroactively fit books I read in to ANY of the prompts, even if it doesn't lead to my first choice of profession.

And, I'm doing a long term (multi-year) challenge over in The Lost Challenges group, to read a book set in every country in the world (the official challenge has several different levels and the highest one is something like read books set in at least 70 different countries, but I'm using it to track my personal goal of every country).

My current personal challenge 'rules' are that I only use a book for one prompt per challenge, but I can use the same book for as many challenges as it counts for. I also have a weird personal rule that if a book *could* count for a prompt, I always check off the prompt, even if it's not the book I planned to read. (The only exception is if I'm on the fence about whether the book actually fills the prompt.) Sometimes I carefully choose which prompt I count it for though, so I leave room for the planned books I really wanted to read. :-)

Hey All,

Back from my vacation and sadly I didn't finish any books from last Thursday till now. I'm nearly finished with The Gilded Wolves which has been fun (a very Gentleman Bastards/Lies of Locke Lamora feel) but for some reason I'm not drawn to picking it up the way I usually am. I think I'm just in a weird mood reading-wise, which I hope isn't another slump.

QOTW:

This is my second year doing a reading challenge (I only did PS last year) and this year I am doing both PS and ATY. I also have a personal ŷ������ challenge of reading 150 books over the year. The goodreads challenge has been working well. I need to read 3 books a week to hit that goal which means I can read a book for each challenge (ATY, PS, and one free read that doesn't work for any prompts). I don't always read it in that order, I'm much further along in PS than ATY but it has been helping so I don't feel stressed if there is a book I want to read that doesn't work for any of the prompts.

I do think that 150 might be on the high end of my reading limits for a year. I can easily read that much and more but the constant reminder to always be reading I think is why I'm having more trouble this year. Next year I think I'll make my GR challenge just the amount of books that I need to finish the challenges and that way at least all the non-prompt books will be extra. I think leaving the GR challenge more open ended will really take the stress off. It reminds me of when I was in high school each semester we'd have to read 1000 pages and do a report on what we read. Frankly if given the right book I can easily do that in a day but just because it was something I HAD to do I wouldn't read anything till the end of the semester.

Missed last week's check in and can't quite remember where I left off the week before but will try to recreate.

Finished:
Circe by Madeline Miller - this was the monthly read for ATY and had been on my TBR list. I liked it but didn't love it as much as many seem to have. Trying to decide if I want to try The Song of Achilles, since a lot of people said they liked that one even better. I'm just not a huge fan of books where the characters are gods (or sheep or bees as I have found out doing the challenges this year). Think I like them to be humans (although I'm ok if they turn into zombies or live in space etc. Go figure).

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins - did this for multiple POV for ATY (did another book for the same prompt for Popsugar). I actually liked it more than The Girl on the Train, which surprised me. I just liked the characters better I think.

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas - this was for speculative fiction for ATY, although given the abortion law they are trying to pass in Alabama today, I'm not sure it's so speculative!! This was good but again, I just felt that I didn't really connect with the characters

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. This was for the over a million GR ratings. I wasn't sure about this one (picked it mostly because I have read most of the other ones on the list) and didn't like it at first, but it grew on me and all in all I thought it was worth reading. I found some of the scenes a bit disturbing though and was trying to figure out if it was just dated or deliberately provocative.

Whatever Makes You Happy by William Sutcliffe. This was for a book becoming a movie in 2019 (I really struggled with that prompt since I have already read all the books I wanted to for that one). This is apparently being released on Netflix as "Otherhood" - it was supposed to be released in April I think but it's been pushed off because of the whole university scandal (Felicity Huffman is one of the stars). It was okay - had some funny bits but overall I didn't love it.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. Chose this for book recommended by celebrity you admire (Obama, not Oprah - not that I have anything against her but he wins in the admiration category). Again, I liked it but didn't love it as so many others did - and again, it's because I didn't really connect with the characters - I didn't feel like we got good insight into her, and I didn't really like him despite feeling awful about his situation.

Hmm - maybe I have been in a picky mood these past few weeks ... but I did enjoy most of them on the whole, just no WOW books.

Currently Reading:

Not sure. Trying to decide between Oxygen by Carol Cassella or The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean for the perodic element prompt for ATY. Have read a chapter of each and still on the fence. Feel like the fiction will be an easier, quick read, but I am trying not to pick books on that factor alone just to get through challenges ... so I am undecided.

QOTW - As is obvious from my recap, I am also doing ATY and trying to do it in order, which means I won't finish until the end of the year. I am trying not to overlap so between that and PopSugar, it's about 8 books a month, which is a lot for me - I have it set out by month, so I will not be one of those ones finishing PopSugar early - I pace them over the year so I am still reading up to the last week.

I am also sort of doing Book Riot and Reading Women, but less purposefully, so if I happen to fit a book that I am reading, I slot it in ... and I do let myself double count a bit for those (so for eg when I am filling prompts for ATY or PopSugar, I will try to read one by a woman to fit into RW etc.I just find it helps me broaden my reading). And like others, I have a country list and slowly tick those off over the years as I read, and also aim for 12 non-fiction over the year, so try to use non-fiction for some of the challenges.

And I also try to read all the Booker short lists for the year (still have 3 left from last year). Again, though, these can usually slot into Popsugar or ATY.

Finished:
Small Beauty A book written by a musician (fiction or nonfiction)
I recommend this one. Magical Realism.

The Winter People Two books that share the same title

Born Confused An "own voices" book [South Asian-American Woman]

Reading

The Star Wars Trilogy A book that makes you nostalgic
This is How It Always Is A book about a family
Monk's Hood A book set in an abbey, cloister, monastery, vicarage, or convent

QOTW

Originally I was only going to do the Read Harder Challenge, but I stumbled upon Popsugar's and Around the World in 52 Books.

I've finished the Read Harder Challenge for 2019 already. I'm thinking about doing Beat the Backlist as I have many books that I own that I need to get to.

I read 13 books and had one DNF bringing me to 193/365 for my goodreads challenge. I fit one into one of my remaining PopSugar prompts, bringing me to 39/50 (32/40 and 7/10)

The Witch Boy
Reconstructing Amelia
Estranged
Supernova
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
My Lovely Wife
Unf*ck Your Habitat: You're Better Than Your Mess
If, Then
Solitaire
The Woods, Vol. 1: The Arrow
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void Astrology term in the title
Roar My first DNF of the month came early!
The Becoming of Noah Shaw
The Perfect First

QOTW: Other reading challenges - I'm doing the Creating & Co book map, readathons, and my own personal challenges (my big goal is read more variety, so I'm tracking things like genre, intended audience, book size, etc). My goal is less than 50% sci-fi and fantasy (combined) for example, to encourage me to read other genres.

I've never actually posted in one of these, just kind of lurked, but I like seeing what everyone is reading. I do feel a bit abashed that everyone seems to get through their lists so quickly! I'm a fast reader, I just don't always have a ton of time for reading.

Finished this week:
Gingerbread: This was either poorly done or it just went over my head. I didn't hate it, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped to. Several reviews matched my thoughts, so I feel a bit better about it. This filled my "book about a family" slot.

Currently reading:
The Crimson Fairy Book: I have about half of the Andrew Lang collection and am slowly working my way through. I enjoy reading a story or two before bed. I haven't been counting them toward any challenges.

Austenland: I love the movie and I LOVE Shannon Hale (not just because we have the same first name!), so I'm finally going to read this. I'm a little concerned because I don't always do well reading a book after I've seen the movie, but hopefully it'll be fine. I'm hoping it takes place in the springtime so I can use it for the "read a book during the season it's set in" prompt, but I won't know until I actually start it. Even if it doesn't, I am using it as "a book in the back-list of a favorite author" prompt for the Mrs. Darcy Challenge. It should also be a good palate cleanser. Depression and anxiety have really messed with my reading habits lately--most things just don't sound good.

QOTW: I'm mostly doing PS, since, as I said above, I don't always have a ton of time to read (and I go through periods where I just don't feel like reading). I did pick up the Mrs. Darcy Challenge, but it's only 12 books, and I'm not really pushing myself to do them all if I don't have time. There were just some other books I wanted to read this year that didn't fit in PS, but I like to check off prompts haha.

I keep wanting to add other challenges, particularly ATY, but I know I'd feel overwhelmed and then hate myself for not finishing. I just really, really enjoy finding books to fit prompts! I did omit a few of the PS prompts that I knew for certain I wouldn't enjoy (like the "cli-fi" one), so I'm only doing 47 for that one--I'm at 17 so far. The only other element I've added is looking through the books I already own to fit the prompts first, and then if I don't have something that works, I'll find something on my TBR list. I haven't been super great at sticking to this plan, though...

Happy Thursday!
27/50

I just wrapped up my school year of teaching faith formation to fourth graders. It was a blast and very rewarding, but I’ll be glad to only have my one full time job for a few weeks. It’s amazing how much prep I had to do each week!

Completed:
Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist is going to lighten things up a bit after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, 9/11, the death penalty in 1820s Iceland, Tana French, and attempted Slovenian suicides. Plus this will help out my European reads by taking me to sunny Cyprus.
I was pretty busy on Saturday and missed the available hours of the library. Fortunately, I had a paperback that I had grabbed at the last minute last week. Peg Cochran’s Bought the Farm had a decent plot, but I didn’t care for the protagonist that much. Those that disagreed with the protagonist or the author were viewed as silly and, well, I hate that! I know plenty of people like outdoor barn weddings, but anytime you are limiting your guests to port-o-johns, either expect grumbling or expect people not to attend.

In Progress:

6.) The Witch Elm by Tana French. It finally, finally, finally arrived from the library! And I am finding it drags in places. Shame, since I love Tana's other works.
26.) Fiona Barton’s The Suspect �� Hoopla worked out for me for a change! I was in queue for the physical book for over a week and 2nd in 31, but, well, that could only apply to copies in my County for the first 3 months. And, then I saw it on Hoopla -- available. Whoop!

QOTWChallenges
This year, I have tasked myself with reading a book set in each of the countries in Europe. San Marino and Andorra have proven pretty challenging and some of the Eastern European options are pretty tragic. I think next year, I’m just going to set a number of classics to read. The 50 states challenge I did last year was easier.

Hello everyone.
This week has been pants for reading but I have watched a lot of movies. The personality task has just been set for psychology and each student pics their own fictional character to analyse either from a psychodynamic or humanistic perspective. This means I have to watch all the movies so I can mark their character analyses. Shame that! Only one student has chosen a book this year so I'll have to read that too.

Finished 1 book:
Life As We Knew It for Cli-Fi which was OK and a little different to most others. The moon is knocked out of orbit and sends climate crazy. It was mostly a story of family rather than adventure and survival.

Currently reading a bunch in theory but trying to finish A Spot of Bother as it is due back at the library. Would fit the family prompt but have already done that. OK so far.

Getting to the stage where random reading will not fill prompts but not really bothered since I am not racing to finish. I'd rather read what I feel like during term time and read the prompts I have to make an effort for in the holidays. So long as it is done by the end of the year I'm good.

QOTW
I'm doing GR, PS, ATY and A to Z for Title, Author 1st Name, Author last name and Object on the cover.
I have the same rules as Raquel I will use the same book in different challenges but not for more than 1 prompt in the same challenge..

I'm getting close to the end with my last five books for the reading challenge on my phone (audio books) and I'm currently listening to two of them.

This week I finished This is How It Always Is which provides some interesting perspective, and now I'm looking for books written by trans authors. 4 stars

The Funeral Party on kindle. This was interesting... I picked it up from a list of recommended Russian novels. It held my attention the whole time, and was a pretty quick read, but I'm not completely sure what "the point" was. I have an idea, but I think it could have been a little more guided. 3 stars

I'm currently listening to Salt to the Sea and The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well.

QOTW: This is my main challenge, but I also do the general ŷ������ one (I'm at 61 out of 150), and I'm doing ATY "light" by filling in the prompts, but not following the order or discussion. Now that I'm close to finishing the PS challenge I'm looking to start an A to Z one, or maybe backlist... or I'm really interested in the countries tracking one, but that will probably be an ongoing one, rather than just this year.

Jen, that sounds like such a fun assignment, for you as well as the students!

Hey there. After a week when I didn't get to post anything new, I've finally finished New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson for the 41. CliFi Advanced prompt. I liked the characters, and his version of the effects of climate change was pretty convincing. The trouble is, the writing was too dense, and it was a hard book to get through.

I've also swapped Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine from the 25. Debut prompt to 1. Becoming a film, as I've been struggling for that one, and I've discovered that the book I just started, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was Agatha Christie's debut novel, so I'm going to use that for 25.

Current totals:
Basic - 27/43
Advanced - 4/10

Other than that, the only ones I've read in the last couple of weeks were:

Deadly Quicksilver Lies for the ATY "periodic table" prompt, which I didn't really enjoy
The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling, which I did
And a couple of other mysteries: Hexes and Hemlines and Blood and Circuses


Question of the Week: What other reading challenges are you participating in, if any?

The big one I do is the the Seasonal Reading Challenge (/group/show/...)

This year, I'm also doing ATY for the first time.

Other than those, I read a lot of cozy mysteries, and the Cozy Group I'm a member of has some ad hoc reading challenges: /topic/group...

Jennifer W wrote: "Jen, that sounds like such a fun assignment, for you as well as the students!"

It is less boring than if I set the same movie or book but is also more time consuming so has to be done relatively early in the year so I can get it all marked for moderation. It does also help get to know a new side of the kids since they set me the reading/watching. Last year I got to discover Thirteen Reasons Why which I loved.
The healthy minds one at the end of the year they get a choice as time is short. The Walking Dead works best because of the character depth but they can do Suicide Squad if they don't watch TWD.

Jen wrote: "Hello everyone.
This week has been pants for reading but I have watched a lot of movies. The personality task has just been set for psychology and each student pics their own fictional character t..."

Hi Jen! What is the challenge Author 1st Name, Author Last name and Object on the cover? it sounds interesting.

Carmen wrote: "Heyhey!

Guess who's back.. Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I updated, but so much has happened. I lost one of my bunnies, my eldest, Roger, and then Endgame happened and I got crushed..."

I'm so sorry to hear about your bunny. Sending hugs. I hope your cat's diagnosis is treatable.

I started a reading bullet journal too this year. I'd love to hear what you're doing and share ideas. I've been playing with format and how I want to write about the books I read.

Sara wrote: "I can't believe it's Thursday already. And in May no less! I only finished one book this week, but I did a lot of reading, so I should finish some more in the coming week. Overall I'm at 30/50, whi..."

I'd love a question of the week on book podcasts. I've never listened to a podcast but I've been i trigued about them. Can you share the i formation about the podcasts that are read alongs. That might make me break this paralysis I have on listening to podcasts.

Afternoon!
No life news this week, wasn't able to do anything because my sleep pattern got all messed up so I was asleep during the day and only awake during the wee hours and had no spoons for anything 🙃 ... buuut I'm fine!

There is some news about my aunt's new cat, though - the one that climbed out of a bin and followed her home. A neighbour of Aunt's has just adopted two kittens from a nearby animal shelter. Those kittens are the same estimated age as Gracie and have almost exactly the same colouring + markings, so... it looks like we've found some siblings of hers! No idea what happened to mama cat, sadly.

Reading-wise, great week! Completed 8 books! (2 for Popsugar, now 31/50.)

The Fated Sky - This was decent. Solid 3 stars. However, I don't know if I'll still be interested enough to pick up the next book by the time it's published. I still recommend the series to those who like harder, meticulously-researched sci-fi which also covers themes like climate change and the civil-rights struggle.

Please Look After Mother - Didn't quite click with me unfortunately, though I liked the writing, especially in the last section.

Tin Man - This was another one with beautiful writing which just somehow I didn't quite get. I liked it, though. I already have Sarah Winman's other books on Kindle and am pretty enthused to read them now.

Lumberjanes, Vol. 10: Parents' Day
Lumberjanes, Vol. 11: Time After Crime
Lumberjanes: Bonus Tracks
Just some fun light reading. Binged these to kick off a readathon in the group "The Procrastinators Book Club". Enjoyed the new art style in the main volumes. The Bonus Tracks volume (collecting various one-shot issues) was pretty up-and-down in terms of quality.
Used vol. 10 for prompt #24, takes place in a single day.

Trail of Lightning - Really interesting post-apocalypse urban fantasy based on Native American mythology. I think my favourite thing was Coyote - evil as he is in the context of this story, nevertheless I do love a trickster god.
Used for prompt #41, cli-fi. (The apocalypse in the backstory came about because of a climate-change-induced massive flood that covered most of the USA.)

The Real Boy - Excellent middle-grade fantasy with autistic protagonist. 😁 Had been hearing about this for yonks in online diverse-book circles - in particular, Corinne Duyvis, whose Tumblr I used to follow, talked about it quite a bit. Didn't disappoint. The representation was really good, esp. for being written by a neurotypical author - there were just a couple of moments where it felt like the author was ticking off another symptom, like when Oscar's food issues come up kind of out-of-the-blue, but it wasn't intrusively obvious. The writing was fun too, had a lot of gentle snark in a Frances Hardinge-esque kind of way, and I particularly loved the setting - a village in the midst of this huge, deep woodland which is the only place in the fictional world where magic works. Plus Oscar's special interest/skill is in botany, specifically preparing herbs for healing or magic charms, which was lovely and a subject I find pretty interesting.
Oh, and also, there are the obligatory cats. Five of them. And they are all lovely.
OH AND AN UNDERGROUND MAGIC LIBRARY.
Basically this book is charming, touching, full of good things, and I loved it and would highly recommend.

Currently reading:

Space Opera - Buddy read with Carmen. This is... good lord. Douglas Adams BUT GLITTERY. OH SO GLITTERY. It's like... fireworks and rollercoasters. There is a giant blue space flamingo. This book is the closest I've ever got to mind-altering substances. How does Catherynne M Valente create this stuff? If it was all living in my brain I think I'd spontaneously combust. She's incredible.

The Silence of the Girls - This is pretty good. Greek myth retellings are something I tend to consistently... well, enjoy is the wrong word, for this one particularly, it's brutal. What's a synonym for "enjoy" but... less cheerful?

QOTW: Aside from Popsugar, I'm participating in Around The Year, Book Riot's Read Harder, Reading Women, and a smaller one called Tackle That TBR. Doing decently with all of them except maybe Read Harder, I've let that one slip a bit. (Might ditch it next year tbh...)
Currently at:
ATY 19/52
Reading Women 14/26
Read Harder 9/24
Tackle That TBR 8/12

I do use the same book in different challenges, otherwise everything I read would be for the sole purpose of fulfilling one prompt or other and that's no fun.

Finished reading (24/50):

Heart of Ice (choose your own adventure, cli-fi, superpowers) - Pretty fun! This book is set in a far-future earth where the global climate control AI has gone haywire, ushering in a new ice age. Our hero learns about an artifact of ultimate power across the Saharan ice fields, and goes on a journey to retrieve it.

It's slightly more involved than the typical CYOA book; you start out by picking four skills from a list of twelve, and decisions often depend on your skills (if a guy attacks, you can use Cunning to outwit him, or Shooting to just shoot him, but if you have neither skill, you may just want to run). It's pretty simple/streamlined and gives good replay value because things can turn out differently if you're, say, a rogue instead of a psychic.


QotW: None. I've never even completed Popsugar before; I participated the past few years but don't generally read 50 books a year. But I'm currently on track, so maybe this is the year!

Hello everybody!

Not often that I check in. Sometimes I don't feel it's worth doing because I'm such a slow reader and not much progress made within a week haha.

This past week though I have finished The Mortal Instruments series. As much as I loved the books, it felt good to finally be done with a series as I have so many to get through!

I also started with this month's book This is How It Always Is which I am really enjoying. It is the first book in a long time that has been thought provoking and induced so many opinions. It's a really good book to have a discussion about so of course I'm checking the monthly reads thread to see what other peoples opinions are on the various subjects raised.

Edit: Totally forgot about the question of the week!
Other than the usual ŷ������ challenge, the Popsugar challenge is enough to keep me good throughout the year, plus I have the 2015, 2016 and 2017 challenges to catch up with so I'm definitely kept entertained.

Elizabeth wrote: "I read 13 books and had one DNF bringing me to 193/365 for my goodreads challenge. I fit one into one of my remaining PopSugar prompts, bringing me to 39/50 (32/40 and 7/10)

[book:The Witch Boy|3..."

Creating and Co book map is new to me. Can you tell me something about that?

Hi everyone! I'm still in the onboarding phase of my new job (this is week 2) and my boss had a planned vacation this week, so all of my work hours are filled with reading scientific studies and going over a million PowerPoint presentations. So much to learn! I thought I was fairly knowledgeable about probiotics with my science background and 2 decades studying nutrition, but there is so much new research in the last decade that I know nothing.

29/50 for Popsugar
30/52 for Around the Year
7/26 for The Reading Women Challenge

Books I finished:
The Other Woman by Sandie Jones (Popsugar #11: A book with an item of clothing on the cover) This started off a little slow but picked up pretty quickly. I enjoyed it!

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (Popsugar #39: A book revolving around a puzzle or game) I didn't like this one. In fact, it took me over 2 weeks to read it, which is really slow for me! It took me almost 20% of the book to figure out what was happening, and then it just got tedious. It had an interesting premise, but I feel it was poorly executed.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou (Around the Year: A book related to an element from the Periodic Table) This was absolutely fascinating (and scary) to read. I plan to watch the HBO documentary on this over the upcoming weekend.

While You Sleep by Stephanie Merritt (Around the Year: A book included on the NY Public Library staff picks list) Another book I didn't care for. It had parts that held my attention, which is why I kept reading, but I should have DNF. I am not a fan of repetitive inner monologues or paragraphs over a page long.

Three in Death by J.D. Robb (Reading Women: A novella) This is 3 stories/novellas in the In Death series. All were good and the mystery/case in each one was very different from the other 2, but I definitely like the novels better.

I am currently reading:
The Lost Man by Jane Harper (Around the Year: A book with a strong sense of place) I am only about 15% in but I am already hooked.
City of Fortune: How Venice Won and Lost a Naval Empire by Roger Crowley (Around the Year: A book that takes place in a Mediterranean country)
Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo (Popsugar #18: A book about someone with a superpower)

QOTW: I participate in AtY and Reading Women, and this year I added Mommy Mannegren to the list. I also work on the Seasonal Reading Challenge (SRC) every 3 months, but I count all books for the SRC for one of the other challenges. That is the only time I double-up; otherwise all books are only used once.

I participate in challenges mainly because it helps me focus on reading books I already own and to decide what to read next. If I didn't have prompts to focus on, I would likely ignore all of my Kindle books that were purchased 5 years ago and got buried down the list after all of the newer, shinier titles.

Trish wrote: "Hey there. After a week when I didn't get to post anything new, I've finally finished New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson for the 41. CliFi Advanced prompt. I liked the character..."

Thanks for sharing links to the challenges. That seasonal one looks like I need a week just to understand all the rules! 😉

Happy Thursday all! I finished 3 books this week, none for the challenge, which still leaves me at 42/50.

Finished:
The Warded Man- I liked this more than I expected as the reviews were mixed. I might carry on with the series but I'm not rushing out to do so.

The Story of Ireland: A History of the Irish People- Four history books later and the history is starting to sink in! (Reading historical fiction set in Ireland is helping too). I found this book easy to read and a good overall history though I felt they skipped through the last 100 years too quickly. I wanted to know more about the IRA/UDA/Troubles stuff but that was just skimmed through.

Pride and Prejudice- Re-read. Still a great classic!

Currently Reading:
Inkheart
Strange Sweet Song
The Opal Deception

QOTW:
I'm doing two other personal challenges that are open ended for the starting/finishing date. One is my "193 Reading Challenge" where I'm reading a book by an author from every (UN recognised) country in the word. Right now I'm 35/193. The other challenge is a group read books catch up from another group I'm part of (Dragons and Jetpacks). That one is never ending since they're always reading new books that I don't always group read with them!

PopSugar Challenge-29/40
ŷ������ Challenge- 39/60

Finished This Week:
The Wolf in the Whale Story with a Ghost Not sure if this truly works for this prompt but since it has spirits I chose for it to. I really enjoyed this book. I went to Anchorage last year and went to the Native museum and it was really cool to be able to interpret this story through my memories of that trip. The story line is really good and encourage others to read this one.

Currently Reading:
Oathbringer Book with a superpower This is the third book in the trilogy and it has been a couple of years since I read the other two installments. But it is a large book over 1200 pages so I foresee listening to this audiobook for around 2 to 3 months.

Wind Rider Two worded title The third book in this trilogy. I am about 50% done with it and hope to finish in the next week. I am enjoying this book very much and curious to see where it goes. I needed a lighter year.

The House on Bloodhound Lane Choose a past prompt: Next Book in the Series I just started this last night so no opinions yet.

QOTW
I am not. I've actually not done a reading challenge that had prompts before I just do an amount or wait for a book to grab my interest.

I would also enjoy a QOTW about reading or book podcasts. My local library does a read along called Big Book Club where they read big books. Even though it's through our library, I imagine anyone could listen to the podcasts and do the read along. They did a goodreads group for this last one, as well. I think they're really fun to listen to and they are starting Moby Dick in June. I went back and did War and Peace after it was over, just with the podcasts, and it's been pretty fun. There are tons of Harry Potter read alongs. I'm listening to the Quibbler. I prefer podcasts that do more than one chapter at a time because I don't want to spend more time listening to the podcast than I spent reading the chapters. Plus, the Quibbler suits my sensibilities.

Hi everyone! I’m at 31/50 and read some good ones this week!

The Tie That Binds- book about a family. I had never read Kent Haruf before and I’m missing out. This is a quiet, emotional book about farm life in eastern Colorado that centers on two families who live on adjacent farms, and follows them through the first half of the 20th century. It’s not a long book, but it captures this world perfectly. Loved this.

Today Will Be Different this is a book that takes place in one day. Similar to Where'd You Go, Bernadette, and I didn’t like it nearly as much but still enjoyed it. If you liked Bernadette, you will likely enjoy this too.

The Bride Test a book published in 2019. The follow up to the The Kiss Quotient and I liked it as much. It is another romance featuring a person with autism. I really like this author, even though I don’t read a lot of romance. I also read The Rosie Project this month, and just like the Helen Hoang so much more!

QOTW: I’m doing one challenge at a time and I don’t overlap the books. After I finish popsugar I’m going to try the Reading Women challenge.

Cendaquenta wrote: What's a synonym for "enjoy" but... less cheerful?

Appreciate?

Hello fellow readers!

My reading has really decreased lately. I blame the Mueller report. Since it came out my news watching has increased again. Sometimes I watch 4-5 hours a day. I know I need to stop; I move from depression to rage. I just want Trump gone. I am enjoying getting to know more about the 20/20 candidates.

I only read on book this week, Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who is a favorite. I loved this book. She is such a fabulaous writer. This was for PS prompt #6 a book with a flower in the title.

Currently reading: The Farm by Joanne Ramos which is very interestung. I will probably be done by tonight.

QOTW
I started PS beacuse I thought it would help me wrangle my backlist. I haven't read much the last two years but I was still buying books. And the prompts helped. It helped me decide which books to read. Then I discover Read Harder(RH) and I loved the prompts to increase diversity. And then I discovered Reading Woman (RW) and I thought that will help make sure I'm reading women authors. And then I found Back to the Classics (B2C). and I was wanting to read more classics. So here I am with 4 challenges. I do read outside the prompts and try to fill them into the previous PS challenges since this is my first year.

My goal was to read 80% books already owned. That's taken a nose dive since I find all these great books everyine else is reading.

I'm also tracking female authors (all my RW and B2C are women authors) and authors of color and nonfiction. In my monthly summaties I note what country the book is set in.

My numbers so far:
Backlist 33/64
PS 28/55
RH 13/24
RW 13/26
B2C 4/12
Female authors 50/63
AOC 15/63
Nonfiction 19/64

Happy Thursday!

Finished:
The East End I got this from NetGalley and did not love it. I thought it would be great since it's set in the Hamptons, and I'm from Long Island originally, but it was so slow. Plus, how is a book classified as a mystery when there is absolutely no mystery at all. I was totally disappointed with this. It's not for the challenge.

The Demon Next Door this was a free Audible Original, and I'm really glad it was free. The narrator was not right for this story at all. It's not for the challenge.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone I used this for prompt #7 - a reread of a favorite book. I listened to this on Libby and really loved the narrator. I plan to listen to the others as well.

Challenge Progress:
Regular Challenge - 26 out of 40
Advanced Challenge - 5 out of 10

Currently Reading:
The Clockmaker's Daughter for prompt #36 - a ghost story

The Last Thing She Remembers - not for the challenge

The Scorpio Races for prompt #33 - a book with a zodiac sign or astrology term in the title.

QOTW - What other reading challenges are you participating in, if any?

I'm only doing this challenge, and this year is my first time doing it. I didn't want to do too many at once never doing a challenge before. I did set my goodreads goal to read 40 books this year which I already completed so that was exciting!

Hi, everyone! I hope this week is the start of getting back into my reading groove. I managed to finish a couple books that I'd been reading for a long time this week. Now I get to move on to all the books I added to my TBR while I was reading them!

Finished
Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth (salty, sweet, bitter, or spicy in the title). Ultimately, this book wasn't worth the time and effort it took me to read it. It was okay, but it almost put me into a reading slump.

A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz (favorite prompt from a past popsugar challenge: a nonfiction book). I really liked the style of this book. The author did a lot of historical research, but also traveled to the places where historical events took place and talked to people who lived there about the legacy of these events.

Girls & Boys by Dennis Kelly. This was an Audible original months ago. I tried to listen to it, but I hated the first 10 minutes. I decided to try and push through again, and I'm so glad I did. I had no idea the story was about male violence and that it would take the turns it did. It was difficult to listen to, but so good.

Reading
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

I'm going to start reading Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse this weekend. My copy has finally arrived, and I cannot wait! I loved the first book so much.

QOTW
I only do the Popsugar challenge. I've looked at other challenges, but I don't love reading from a list all the time. Popsugar is enough of a challenge all by itself.

Karen wrote: "I started a reading bullet journal too this year. I'd love to hear what you're doing and share ideas. I've been playing with format and how I want to write about the books I read."

I'd be interested in seeing what you/Carmen are doing, if you don't mind posting it. I first heard about bullet journaling from this group. It seems pretty neat; I journal (just a Word file on the computer) and I draw, but I've never tried doing a more visual journal.


Cendaquenta wrote: "There is some news about my aunt's new cat, though - the one that climbed out of a bin and followed her home. A neighbour of Aunt's has just adopted two kittens from a nearby animal shelter..."

yay kitten siblings!

@Karen Creating and Co is a sticker shop, but she has a spin-off reading group on Facebook and here as well, and has a year long challenge this year with prompts

Here is a link to the product that has the prompts

Drakeryn wrote: "Karen wrote: "I started a reading bullet journal too this year. I'd love to hear what you're doing and share ideas. I've been playing with format and how I want to write about the books I read."

I..."
Hi, Drakeryn, I can add pictures to my facebook page and send you a link. I'm terrible at adding pictures here. I will also give you a few links that I started with. It's so cool you have drawing talent, I do not so I'm playing with stencils and stickers.





Edit - pictures if you are interested.

I'm trying not to get pessimistic but life just blew up all of my reading goals for the year. I'm taking a hiatus from all of the reading challenges that I was participating in (unless a book coincidentally fits something) and I'm just going to read for fun for the indefinite future.

I lost two brothers in 3 weeks and I'm so depressed and wrapped up in grief, that I'm struggling to focus on anything too thick or difficult to read. That's why I'm only going to be reading things that make me happy for now.

I finished one book for April, which puts me way behind my overall goals, but I'm not going to let it bother me.

Finished:
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins - Don't think it fits anything. I like Suzanne Collins and I heard that I lot of people like this series better than The Hunger Games, so I figured... why not?

Currently Reading:
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things - Listening to this on Audible and have been literally laughing out loud. Definitely recommend this if anyone is feeling sad or a bit depressed. It's been helping to cheer me up!

The Kiss Quotient - I just got this as part of my most recent BotM and it just seemed fun which fits my guidelines for what I'm reading right now.

QOTW:
I was doing some challenges via the group 'Play Book Tag' and some personal ones, but I'm no longer worrying about any challenges. If I complete something, then Yay! If not... oh well.

Thanks for the links, Karen! Seems pretty neat. I'll have to try it out sometime.

I'm so sorry for your loss, Charlotte. Your grief and mental health are so much more important than a reading challenge. I hope you find comfort in books.

Oh Charlotte, how awful! Do take care of yourself! Reading should be about joy and self care most of all, so do what makes you feel happiest.

Peace and comfort to you!