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Happy Thursday! Welcome to October! I usually wait until October to buy pumpkins, but this year I bought some early, when I drove down to spend the day with my college student for Family Weekend weekend before last. I only got four (one for her, three for me) because I don't know if they will stay firm until Halloween. I carve pumpkins with my kids every year - there have been some years when we carved enough pumpkins to line the entire driveway! (When I was a kid, I NEVER carved a pumpkin. My parents just didn't do it. What deprivation!!)



Admin stuff:

New month means new group read! Join the group to discuss our October group read, Anxious People, for a locked room mystery:
/topic/show/...




This week I finished 2 books, none for this Challenge, so I remain 43/50.

Guillotine: Poems by Eduardo C. Corral - another book of poetry I read for Hispanic Heritage Month. I had enjoyed some of Corrals' poems that I read in an anthology a few years back, and I flagged him as a poet that I wanted to read again, but I was rather underwhelmed by this collection.

The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey- this is on my list of 21 books I must read this year. What a disappointment this book was!!! I know a lot of people loved it, but I sure didn't. It was slow and tedious. There are two timelines: one is "present day" (1921) in which Perveen Mistry solves a murder mystery. The other one is a few years earlier (1916 - 1917) and this one has NOTHING to do with the murder mystery, it's a pure momentum killer. I usually enjoy dual timeline stories, but this time it was just annoying.




Lately, I feel so stressed in weeks when I don't finish any Challenge books!! But I AM reading some that will check boxes soon.

I am currently listening to Nine Perfect Strangers, which I chose to be my locked room mystery, but then I realized that I ALREADY filled that category (with Fugitive Telemetry) - whoops! Well, it will be an enjoyable audiobook, anyway.

I am also working very very hard to finish Harlem Shuffle before Saturday, because it's due back at the library with no renewals left (yikes! and after that I have just ONE WEEK to read A Slow Fire Burning before that is due back, also!!). Not for this Challenge. I currently have enormous tension between "2021 publications that I want to read NOW!" and "the last 5 books I need for this Challenge!"

I'm reading Old Man's War for "book by a blogger" (thank you, John Scalzi, for writing a blog so that I could use your book for this Challenge category!).

I'm reading Left Out in the Rain: Poems just because it's been approximately 40 years since I read any Gary Snyder, and it was time.

And I'm slowly chipping away at my longest book, A History of the World in 100 Objects. One chapter a day! So far I've read 39 chapters, & there are 61 chapters left, but 86 days left in the year, so if I maintain my pace of one chapter a day, I WILL finish it in time. (Assuming I can keep borrowing it from my library. That's really the key.)




Question of the Week

(from Heather) - Do you ever read nonfiction books to find out more about a topic or time period mentioned in a novel?


For me, the answer is: no! But it's an intriguing idea! I have learned a lot over the years from the novels I've read, especially historical fiction (especially including historical romance, becasue they tend to include day-to-day details and society customs, and they are often accurate). And I like to read a handful of nonfiction books each year, especially history & science. But I've never sought out a book of nonfiction because of a novel I read.

When I was a kid in Scotland, we used to carve neeps (I guess most people call them swede?) for Halloween. They looked like shrunken heads! They were much harder to carve than pumpkins and I remember the whole school smelling like neeps, and to this day I can’t stand eating them. Now we’re adults, we carve one pumpkin each, but we don’t tend to have a lot of trick or treaters here.

Finished:
The Bronzed Beasts by Roshani Chokshi for ATY (ensemble cast). Final book in this historical fantasy trilogy about treasure hunters. I've enjoyed all the books though this one was a little slow in places, but I liked how it all ended.

The Last Library by Freya Sampson for "dream job". I mean, if money and job stability wasn't an issue I think I'd like to work with books somehow. This was a quick and easy read with community spirit, I thought it was reasonably realistic in what UK libraries face.

Currently reading The Forevers and listening to The Anthropocene Reviewed which will be my last two books for Popsugar!

PS: 48/50 | ATY: 44/52 | GR: 100/100

QOTW:
I certainly go look things up that I read about in novels, I’m not sure if I necessarily read a whole book, but I’ve gone down a few internet rabbit holes reading about real life events, people or things that I’ve first encountered in fiction. If I found an interesting book in that search I would put it on my wishlist, whether I would actually get round to it, is another matter!

Happy Thursday! What a whirlwind this week has been. I was at the theatre for tech on Sunday from noon til midnight (thankfully I took a vacation day on Monday from my day job so I could recuperate), and we've been steadily moving at my day job from our original facility to a larger one, and it's exhausted me the past two days (on top of rehearsals in the evenings).

Then we had a breakthrough COVID case among the cast yesterday, so a scramble for rapid tests and rearranging cast parts. Everyone else has come back negative, so fingers crossed, but we've canceled our Thursday preview for tonight and tomorrow's opening, and will (hopefully) be performing Saturday/Sunday this weekend.

In between all of that, I finished two books this week!

Queen of the Night - 5 stars. I love this series and can't wait to read more from Schaefer! Title starts with Q/X/Z
Next Year in Havana - 3 stars, a bit underwhelming but beautifully written. I think I'll like Cleeton's stuff better in print than audio.

PS 46/50

Currently:
The Historian - Starting this morning, a 26hr+ audiobook (yikes!) - On your TBR for the longest period of time
Circe - This went on pause in favor of Queen of the Night, so now I can get back to finishing it!
Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome - Borrowed from a friend, and I need to get through it quickly so I can pass it along to another friend. Fascinating so far!
Working on a Song: The Lyrics of HADESTOWN - The current Backseat Book on my coffee table, ha!

QOTW: (from Heather) - Do you ever read nonfiction books to find out more about a topic or time period mentioned in a novel?

I read a decent amount of nonfiction, and I'm sure some of it comes from wanting to know more about something mentioned in a historical fiction book, but I can't think of any examples!

I'm still working on The Far Pavilions. I'm about 2/5 through.

QOtw. I'm not sure. For nonfiction, I mostly read biographies, geographies and history, but I'm not sure if i was ever inspired to read a specific book (or specific topic) because of a novel.

I had lunch with some friends last week, one of whom is a Magisterial District Judge, and we were talking about my current discontent with a job that I normally love and my thoughts about leaving. She asked what I would be interested in doing instead of being a probation officer, and the only thing I genuinely want to do is work at the library, which in my area and with my background is not realistic for me. She suggested if what I find genuinely interesting right now is books, that maybe I should just write one instead of working with them and we talked about that for a while. Instead of changing jobs, maybe just find an outlet for the stress of a job that I really enjoy. SO......I'm going to write a book/series about a fictional juvenile probation officer (surprisingly a pretty open lane for that profession). Even just storyboarding or thinking about how to make my job into a fictional tale has made it a lot more enjoyable.

I finished:

Falling: I don't read a lot of action books, but something about the plot was screaming at me to read it. I really liked it. It is laid out in the fast-paced, relentless chaos that reminds me of my own nightmares.

Currently reading:

Follow Me: Still no progress with this one.

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law: I have about 100 pages left in this book. I love Mary Roach and most of this has been a hit for me, but there have been a few chapters that I could have done without.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life: No progress on this one this week.

This Is Why We Lie: I'm thinking about not finishing this. I'm about an hour into the audiobook and it isn't keeping my attention. Anyone else read this? Thoughts?

QOTW:
I don't know that I have ever specifically sought out a nonfiction book for this reason, but I do think my nonfiction leanings are sometimes things that I like to read about in my fiction as well, like psychics.

Ashley Marie wrote: "... Next Year in Havana - 3 stars, a bit underwhelming but beautifully written. I think I'll like Cleeton's stuff better in print than audio. ..."


Have you ever seen any of the Barbie movies? (They are surprisingly good and I recommend them to anyone looking for family-friendly movies!!) We watched a lot of them when my kids were young. I listened to the audiobook of Havana and my daughter asked if one of the women reading was the same actress who does Barbie's voice. I checked, and it's not the same woman, but WOW does she sound exactly the same!! for the rest of the book, I "saw" Barbie reading to me.

Nadine wrote: "Ashley Marie wrote: "... Next Year in Havana - 3 stars, a bit underwhelming but beautifully written. I think I'll like Cleeton's stuff better in print than audio. ..."


Have you ever seen any of t..."

Lol I haven't, but that's awesome!!

Good Morning All, I have been MIA for a couple of weeks but now I'm back. I completed 2 books for the week.
Midnight In Chernobyl : The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham. 5 stars. I read it for book club. I really enjoyed the book. I'm in awe of authors who live & breath their material & make it understandable.
Split Second (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell, #1) by David Baldacci. 3 stars. I like to have one of his series going throughout the years. I finished the John Puller series this year. 4 books & it took me 6 years to complete it. I even at one point forgot I was reading this series. I read the Camel Club series when it was new. I didn't want one of his new popular series so I chose an older series. It is what it is.
(from Heather) - Do you ever read nonfiction books to find out more about a topic or time period mentioned in a novel? I definitely read nonfiction to find out more about a topic. That is why I read Chernobyl. I don't think I have done it because I read the topic or time period in a work of fiction.

Ellie wrote: "When I was a kid in Scotland, we used to carve neeps (I guess most people call them swede?) for Halloween. They looked like shrunken heads! They were much harder to carve than pumpkins and I rememb..."

I had to look up "swede" and "neeps" lol - I've always called them rutabagas!

Shannon wrote: "I had to look up "swede" and "neeps" lol - I've always called them rutabagas!..."

That's a new word for me! It's weird how there are so many variations in words for vegetables between US English and UK English!

I flagged the comment about Google as spam, so hopefully it'll be deleted soon!

Also, I'm so annoyed because ŷ������ is STILL showing me the beta pages first, so every time I look up a book, I have to tell it to switch back. Stop trying to make the "beta" happen!

In personal news, things have been going well for me. My mental health is the best it's been in years (yay!) and we got some good work news yesterday (two new hires AND we're getting unexpected bonuses this year!), so all-in-all, I'm in a good place.

Finished:
Nothing

Currently Reading:
The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton - a genre hybrid. Hoo boy, I am so into this! I could have finished it already because it's so intriguing, but I know better than to read this in the evening. It's not scary, per se, but it's spooky. And, I don't know if this happens to anyone else, if I stay in a book for too long at one time, I end up really shaky with an almost hungover feeling. I don't know if I just get so sucked in that it takes my brain awhile to adjust back to normality or what, but it's unnerving and I don't really like it.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who struggles with this!

QOTW:
It's entirely possible that I have! I do enjoy non-fiction, and I know I've added non-fiction books to my tbr because of a fiction book (I added several books about the Napoleonic period because I was lost for a huge chunk of Vanity Fair. But I think that was a combo of lack of knowledge about the period AND the fact that his writing is...too much. If you're thinking of reading it, it is NOT worth the time.).

Right now, I can't think of specific examples, though.

Ellie wrote: "Shannon wrote: "I had to look up "swede" and "neeps" lol - I've always called them rutabagas!..."

That's a new word for me! It's weird how there are so many variations in words for vegetables betw..."

Agreed! And this poor vegetable only seemed to get really funny-sounding names.

Happy Thursday, y’all.

Not much to report, save that we're currently undergoing a massive weeding of our library's Teen and Young Adult books. I hate to get rid of books, but we have so many incoming new books that we've run out of room, so sadly the books that don't get checked out anymore have to go. As much as libraries would love to keep every book, they only have so much room.

Books read this week:

Interesting Times -- I went into this one not expecting much (it was a Kindle freebie), but I was pleasantly surprised by how well I enjoyed it. Quirky and funny urban fantasy with just the right amount of wackiness to it.

Trail of Lightning -- I liked the premise, and the fact that it centered on Navajo mythology�� but it felt like the plot was never really focused, and I rolled my eyes HARD when it started turning into a love triangle of all things.

Stories of Your Life and Others -- I didn’t like this short story collection quite as much as I did the author’s first collection, Exhalation, but it was still highly imaginative and enjoyable. One of the stories, “Story of Your Life,�� was apparently the basis for the film “Arrival,�� though I’m guessing they changed a LOT between page and screen...

The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, A Rún, Volume 1 -- manga, and while I usually don’t read a lot of manga (I find the style hard to get into), this one is eerie and mythic and awesome! I plan on continuing the series.

Currently Reading:

All Creatures Great and Small
The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick's Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption
Iron Widow
The Odd 1s Out: The First Sequel

QOTW:

Sometimes I'll go digging online to learn more about something I found in a book, but I can't recall seeking out a non-fiction book to better understand something in a fiction book.

Shannon wrote: "Ellie wrote: "When I was a kid in Scotland, we used to carve neeps (I guess most people call them swede?) for Halloween. They looked like shrunken heads! They were much harder to carve than pumpkin...


I had to look up "swede" and "neeps" lol - I've always called them rutabagas!"

I'd never heard the term neeps!

I just googled and good LORD, the Irish and the Scottish are confusing all of us. I've found sites that say neeps are turnips (which makes sense ... turNEEP, right?) AND I found sites saying they are rutabagas!!!

This article says that neeps are rutabagas:

.

Are neeps yellow or white? Rutabagas here are yellow. Turnips are white. They both have purple on the outer skin.

They are rutabagas here in NY, too. But, to add to the confusion, my family called them turnips.

I love them! But I grew up thinking I loved turnips! I actually have no idea if I like turnips or not, now hahahaha! My (Italian-American) aunt serves something at Thanksgiving that she says are turnips, but I don't know if they are actually turnips, or if they are rutabagas. The dish is a very very pale yellow, paler than rutabagas but more yellow than turnips. Whatever it is, it's got horseradish in it, and it's awesome.


I once read that in Ireland they carved "turnips," long ago, and those were the first jack o'lanterns. But my grandparents (the source of the turnip/rutabaga naming confusion) were Irish, so I always wondered if the first jack o'lanterns were actually carved rutabagas. Now Ellie says she carved rutabagas, so I'm wondering again.

I can't imagine carving rutabagas!!! Pumpkins are so much easier. I mean, they are HOLLOW!

Happy October! I love this time of year. Pumpkin patches, pumpkin pie, pumpkin carving...bring it all on!

Finished:

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle. Technically I finished this one last Friday but it still counts. Loved Loved Loved this book. I would mark this one as a book I would read again and I rarely read books more than once.

One of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus. Finished this one up last night. The edition that I had showed the first few pages of the sequel One of Us Is Next so I thought "great! now I have to read that one!" and someone on goodreads mentioned there will be a 3rd book! There is also a tv series of this book debuting on Peacock sometime this year. (view spoiler)[ the only plot hole that bugged me was that Simon's parents were hardly mentioned. If the police deemed the death murder wouldn't Simon's mother be all over trying to figure out what happened? (hide spoiler)]

Currently Reading:

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. Just started this one so I am looking forward to reading along with the monthly reading group.

I am also waiting for my copy of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency to come through the library on audiobook so I can start that one.

QOTW:

I don't read as much nonfiction as I probably should because I love learning. I usually only read nonfiction books on subjects that I am currently interested in. I finished Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America last week and that was good. But typically I just do a little online research and if I find it interesting enough I might find a book about it.

Nadine wrote: "Shannon wrote: "Ellie wrote: "When I was a kid in Scotland, we used to carve neeps (I guess most people call them swede?) for Halloween. They looked like shrunken heads! They were much harder to ca..."

These vegetables are suffering from an identity crisis!

I am all about Halloween. I love the spooky, scary, haunted everything. I love carving pumpkins, and roasting the pumpkin seeds. I love decorating the yard and house. One year I even tried to work at a haunted house, but I make a terrible scary person. But I love dressing in costume. A few years ago, during apple picking, we found out that canned "pumpkin pie" is actually a squash called Hubbard. My father in law and I started planting it, and now we make tons of homemade pie.

I have made very little progress this week towards completing anything. But this coming week I should make a dent.

QOTW: YES! Once I find a topic I like, I read anything and everything about that. Sometimes it's a little like falling down a rabbit's hole, and I find myself adding to my reading list, instead of working it down.

PopSugar Thursday
PS: 31/50
RH: 7/24
RW: 1/28
GR: 382/365
HP: 62/62
ATY: 14/52

Currently Reading:
One of Us Is Lying
The Last Garden in England
The Maidens
High-Five to the Hero: 15 Classic Tales Retold for Boys Who Dare to Be Different
The Library of the Dead
The Samurai's Garden
History Smashers: The American Revolution
The Message in the Hollow Oak
The Mystery of the Ivory Charm
The Scarlet Slipper Mystery
Cool for the Summer
All the Young Dudes

Finished:
Malibu Rising my book published in 2021
Hairpin Bridge

Allie wrote: "I am all about Halloween. I love the spooky, scary, haunted everything. I love carving pumpkins, and roasting the pumpkin seeds. I love decorating the yard and house. One year I even tried to work .. A few years ago, during apple picking, we found out that canned "pumpkin pie" is actually a squash called Hubbard. My father in law and I started planting it, and now we make tons of homemade pie. ... "


Is it Hubbard? I think it's butternut squash.

We have a lot of winter squash here in NY. I've eaten delicata, acorn, butternut, honeynut, pumpkin, hubbard, & buttercup from my CSA and the Farmer's Market. I have pretty sensitive taste buds for most things, but I cannot tell the difference between squashes! Maybe if I had an actual taste test where we cooked them all at the same time and sampled them, I could pick a favorite, but I've never done that.

You can grow your own pie pumpkins, they are easy to roast & puree. I buy them at the Farmers Market and I keep the puree in bags in my freezer.

Finished: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows We started reading these together as a family during the pandemic and finally finished all seven of them. I have to say, the last one was pretty amazing!

Started: At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails Slow-going with this one because I'm reading it to accompany Being and Nothingness, but so far, it's pretty good.

Seen and Not Heard: Why Children's Voices Matter I got to see a webinair by this author this week. Love the ideas behind this book!

The Dictionary of Lost Words Came up from my library holds, otherwise I wouldn't be reading it now. It's enjoyable, but my main focus right now is Sartre.

Qotw: I don't really do this in my own reading. But as a teacher, I designed a whole unit pairing historical fiction with non-fiction around the same time period. So I think in general, it's a good idea!

Mary wrote: "SO......I'm going to write a book/series about a fictional juvenile probation officer (surprisingly a pretty open lane for that profession). ..."

That's awesome! Good luck with that.

It’s been a tough week again. But in different ways! I have had a constant headache from Monday morning until this morning about 9AM my time. That is because I had a chiropractic adjustment at 8:45AM! The good news is that it went back into place. The bad news is that it is not going to stay. I can already tell and it is sore! So…I called on my way down to work to schedule another appointment tomorrow morning. This one is probably going to require 2-3 adjustments. That hasn’t happened to me in a very long time…but at least I know how to fix it, so there is that!

Fall is always a challenge for me due to weather change which seems to set my body off on all kinds of strange and uncomfortable sensations. This ‘in-between�� weather wreaks havoc with my body. And then I despise the really cold weather of winter, but at least it’s not fluctuating as much. It’s kinda like a ‘lose lose�� for me until late spring/early summer! But until/unless I live in a more temperate climate, I suspect this is what I will be enduring... And there are worse things! I am not a female in Afghanistan right now nor living in a country where I am persecuted and/or scared of being killed due to my 'minority' status... And I have reliable shelter and food sources and am employed. There! That should put it into a bit better perspective! 😁

ADMIN STUFF:
October’s Monthly Group Read is Anxious People by Fredrik Backman and that discussion is here in the Current Monthly Group Read folder! I read this book in April and adored it! I have yet to read anything Backman writes that doesn’t immensely impress me! Anxious to see how others feel about it��

And you can post the book(s) you’ve read to fulfill prompt #13 a locked-room mystery here!

Question of the Week:
From Heather—Do you ever read nonfiction books to find out more about a topic or time period mentioned in a novel?
I know I add nonfiction books to my TBR listing due to novels I’ve read and time periods, etc., about which I am now more curious. However, I am bad at fitting these into my actual reading schedule! Even if I own them I still don’t seem able to fit them into my reading schedule! I need to be better about that next year.

I was so impressed by Susan Casey’s writing after reading The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean, that I’ve made it a point to add her other books to my TBR listing, as well as other ‘water-related�� books about dolphins and other oceanic/seafaring animals�� Have I read any of those yet? NO!! So another goal for 2022 is to insert nonfiction books I own into reading challenge prompts as much as possible. Although several nonfiction books I planned for prompts have been pushed aside this year. Inserting nonfiction seems to be an ongoing challenge for me every year...

FINISHED:
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ was absolutely amazing! If this one interests you at all, I highly recommend it!
POPSUGAR: #1, #7-A space explorer and teacher!, #18-Operating from compassion and teaching/learning!, #21-Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction, #27, #29, #30-Russia, #34-Accepting, respecting, and appreciating those who may seem ‘alien�� to us!, #37, #47-Andy Weir is one of my favorite writers!
ATY: #1-In the beginning Grace was such a coward!, #8-Russia, #13-I read The Martian in 2020, #14-Erid at the end!, #20-Grace ended up with an unexpected future!, #23-Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction, #24-In a very subtle way, #28, #29, #31, #34, #39, #42, #50

I began reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab and was loving it, but then the workweek began and I picked up Cat & Mouse (Alex Cross #4) by James Patterson on Sunday night and read halfway through it. Schwab’s book is excellent, but proved to be more philosophical and intense than I expected so I wanted to wait until this coming weekend to finish it so I could give it my undivided attention and longer reading times! Cat & Mouse proved to be another in the series with a serial killer, but not just one, two of them…again. But I also felt Patterson’s character development went further in this installment than in the previous books which offset the ‘inside the serial killer’s head�� theme for me enough to continue with the series.
POPSUGAR: #4, #27, #29, #30-Paris, France, and Washington, D.C., #33, #34-Stopping murderers
ATY: #8-Paris, France, #20-This ends on a real cliff-hanger for the future��, #27-The Lovers, Death, Temperance, Judgement, The World, #31, #34, #40, #42, #52-In the end, Alex ‘takes the plunge��!
RHC: #13, #24

CONTINUING:
So anxious to finish The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab this weekend!
That leaves my last September buddy read, Children of the Mind (Ender’s Saga #4) by Orson Scott Card for the rest of the weekend! I get so excited about this series! And I see Card’s conclusion to both the Ender’s Saga and The Shadow series, The Last Shadow will release November 2! I had planned to start reading The Shadow series immediately following Children of the Mind and I think I will do that, then read the conclusion to both series. I’m hoping my buddy will want to do that as well, but if not, I can continue on my own. 😊
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous/Beatrice Sparks. Rereading this after 50 years for the published anonymously prompt! I picked this up thinking I could complete it during the week when I have less time to read. I am about 60% through and hope to finish it either tonight or tomorrow evening.
I desperately need/want to finish at least one of these, if possible, in October!
City of Silver: A Mystery by Annamaria Alfieri
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi.
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

PLANNED:
For my favorite used bookstore’s book club meeting in October,
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman I’ve been wanting to read this one in what feels like forever!
Only two Buddy Reads for October:
Pop Goes the Weasel (Alex Cross #5) by James Patterson
Ender's Shadow (The Shadow #1) by Orson Scott Card
One group read for October (two different groups!):
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende to fulfill the 2020 Reading Women prompt #26 A book written by Isabel Allende.
Paradise by Toni Morrison to fulfill the 2020 Reading Women prompt #25 A book written by Toni Morrison.
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

Nadine wrote: "Are neeps yellow or white? Rutabagas here are yellow. Turnips are white. They both have purple on the outer skin..."

Neeps are yellow, and in England they're called swede, just to confuse things even more. I guess in Scotland turnip can mean either type, though I'm not sure I ever saw a white turnip growing up. So turnips and neeps were just these horrid things that sheep ate and we carved once a year!

Eventually the neeps were replaced by pumpkins so kids today have a much easier time.

Hi everyone. I went on my first cinema trip since 2019 this week which was a little scary at first but soon felt normal. I haven't started any Halloween-prep yet but my nephew wants to dress as the Mandalorian and his baby sister as the child which I whole-heartedly approve of.

This week I finished The Witness for the Dead. I didn't love it as much as The Goblin Emperor but I loved being in that universe again. I'm looking forward to the next one.

I also finished Kill Your Friends which was horrible. The main character was literally the vilest person that I've ever read about. I can do deal with less pleasant characters if I care about the plot but I didn't really care about that either.

QOTW: I sometimes look tings up on Wikipedia but I don't get a whole book out unless I'm really interested in a topic

Ellie wrote: "Nadine wrote: "Are neeps yellow or white? Rutabagas here are yellow. Turnips are white. They both have purple on the outer skin..."

Neeps are yellow, and in England they're called swede, just to c..."



Wikipedia was just quite helpful in sending me down a lunchtime rabbit hole on this etymology. From Wikipedia: "Rutabaga is the common North American term for the plant. This comes from the Swedish dialectal word rotabagge, from rot (root) + bagge (lump, bunch)" Makes sense! They were originally found wild in Sweden, so that's why they are called Swedes.

So what are they called in Sweden? Again from Wikipedia: "Its common name in Sweden is kålrot (literally "cabbage/kale root"). Similarly, in Denmark it is known as kålroe and kålrabi, while in Norway it is known as kålrabi or kålrot " So, naturally, I wondered "what do they call kohlrabi & carrots in Sweden & Denmark?" because that's what those words look like to me!

In Sweden kohlrabi is kålrabbi, in Denmark it is kålrabi, according to Google Translate (which also says that the Danes call rutabaga "rutabaga" ... so, who to trust??)

In Sweden, carrots are morot, and in Denmark they are gulerod, according to Google translate.

We have had some Swedish and Danish members in our group, I don't know if they will see this, I wonder if they can confirm/deny?

It's a momentous Thursday in our house as I've just learned that I have COVID. As does my husband. We're both vaccinated and doing well, so nothing to worry about there, but it's a little surreal to have contracted it. It's affecting us strangely too. My husband, who had no reaction to the vaccine, has been in bed with a fever, coughs, aches, and loss of smell/taste for days. Me, who was laid up by the vaccine for a whole day, got what felt like a sinus infection (pressure, runny/stuffy nose, watery eyes), but after treating it with Sudafed, I'm mostly over it now. WEIRD. The biggest loss is that our daughter will miss almost 3 weeks of school due to prolonged exposure to us. Oh well. Nothing that can be done about that. Better than passing it on to more kids! She's perfectly fine, by the way. Lord willing, she'll stay that way!

Finished 40/50

Oathbringer for "book from TBR chosen at random". This was SO GOOD. Man, I love this series!!! It was long, but worth every word!

Currently Reading

Dawnshard for "book in a different format than what you normally read". This is only in e-book format and it's the next book in the series I'm reading SO....I am forced to e-book, which I dislike. Paper or nothing! Rawr.

QotW

I don't think so? I read a lot of nonfiction, but I don't think I've ever been inspired to read some based off of a novel.

Nadine wrote: "Shannon wrote: "Ellie wrote: "When I was a kid in Scotland, we used to carve neeps (I guess most people call them swede?) for Halloween. They looked like shrunken heads! They were much harder to ca..."

Okay, now you have me confused. I've always though rutabaga was another name for turnip. And yes the European ones look different, but that's just a matter of variety (like granny smith apples vs. red delicious).

Hi all! Warm sunny day here in NY. I'm not a huge Halloween fan (it's fine, just not something I get super excited about), but for some reason, I do feel a strong urge to buy pumpkins! Lol, no idea why.

I haven't finished anything, but I've made some progress on The Night Watchman. It started slow for me, but it's grown on me and I'm interested to see what happens for these characters.

I also read quite a bit of The Hunger. It's a fictionalized story of the Donner party, but with possible supernatural elements added. I'm using it for a genre hybrid. It's listed as horror, which usually isn't my thing, but so far, nothing too scary has happened. But it's weird, because I know the true story is scary enough, adding a supernatural element might be pouring it on? Or as my boyfriend said, like putting a werewolf on the Titanic. Lol.

But it relates to the QOTW. I know the basic story of the Donner party (they headed west, they got stranded, they died, they probably ate each other), but this book is making me realize that I don't know some stuff. Like was one of the members accused of being a witch? Were politics a part of the disaster? What role did Native peoples play in their journey? It is *killing* me not to go look this stuff up because I want to know, but I also don't want to risk spoiling the story. I probably won't add a nonfiction book about the Donner party to my TBR, I'll definitely have to go check wikipedia or other sites to try and see what was real and what was made up by the author. Though I'm sure I have added nonfiction books after reading fiction about things, but I think they tend to linger on my TBR and not actually get read!

Kendra wrote: "Nadine wrote: "Shannon wrote: "Ellie wrote: "When I was a kid in Scotland, we used to carve neeps (I guess most people call them swede?) for Halloween. They looked like shrunken heads! They were mu..."


Oh no, rutabagas and turnips are different, just like carrots & parsnips are different. But some people (including my own family) call rutabagas "turnips."

Alex wrote: "It's a momentous Thursday in our house as I've just learned that I have COVID. As does my husband. We're both vaccinated and doing well, so nothing to worry about there, but it's a little surreal t..."



Oh that's bad news, get well soon!

Nadine, you are cracking me up doing this in real time with the Quest for Rutabaga Info.

I can't imagine carving rutabagas, I can barely cut them for eating purposes!

Jennifer W wrote: "Nadine, you are cracking me up doing this in real time with the Quest for Rutabaga Info.

I can't imagine carving rutabagas, I can barely cut them for eating purposes!"



right?! they are really hard to cut!!! that's part of why I never cook them!

Happy Thursday. I'm busy getting read for (Canadian) Thanksgiving which is actually going to happen this year. 🤞 And then I'll get to decorate for Halloween.🎃 Plus so many people in my family (myself included) have October birthdays, so the month just ends up being one big party usually.🥳

Stats:

Popsugar: 47/50 - I have the books picked out and sitting on my nightstand, but all these new books keep coming out...😋
ATY: 49/52
ATY Rejects: 21/25

Books I finished:

The Deal of a Lifetime and Other Stories ⭐⭐⭐⭐�� - I love everything Fredrik Backman writes, but I have now officially read it all and have to wait for his next book to be published in English.

Printer's Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History ⭐⭐�� - This was a lot of fun and the authors made it really funny. But it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

When Sorrows Come ⭐⭐⭐⭐�� - Yay for the new October Daye book. And this one the MC's wedding finally happens. The last book was a little light on action for me but this one was back to form. Although now that the series is 15 books in, I kinda wish she would just put a synopsis of the series at the beginning instead of having to waste space in the main story giving recaps of the things that happened in previous books. Still, she manages to fit it in better than most.

John Keats: Poetry ⭐⭐ - This was not my cup of tea, but now it's done and I can give it back to my sister. I couldn't get into the rhythm for the poems and it just ended up being forgettable. I mean sometimes I would get to the end of a poem and I'd have to read it again because I couldn't remember how it started or what it was supposed to be about.

Books I made progress on:

The Charm Offensive

QOTW

About 20% of my reading is nonfiction, but I usually just pick up whatever catches my eye, not because of something else I read but there are exceptions. This year I read Salt to the Sea and then went and borrowed Death in the Baltic: The World War II Sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff to read about what actually happened.

Hello! It is officially baseball's postseason, and my husband's favorite team has to play their biggest rivals to advance. That series starts tomorrow, so goodbye evenings. I tried to read during last night's wild card game, and was only mildly successful. Husband thinks I was reading the wrong book for the setting. (Plus I had a headache.)

It is also now 25 days until National Novel Writing Month, and six weeks until Endwalker release and the Hugo voting deadline, and I'm not prepared for any of those things. But Tuesday, husband and I went for a hour long walk on one of the regional trails and that was nice.

Finished This Week:
Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey. One of the Hugo nominated works I need to read. Seems like I'm going to finish the Novella category first. I enjoyed it, although there's a lot left unexplained in the worldbuilding. Using for #22, Set Outdoors.

They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery. I had bought this when it came out, as I'd been following the author since he was arrested as a journalist covering the Ferguson protests. I knew he had done a year long project with the Washington Post recording every single person killed by police in that year, and thought this would count for Read Harder's Investigative Non-Fiction by an Author of Color. The book, however, is more memoir and an account of the year of protests from Ferguson to Cleveland to Baltimore and too many points in between. Very good, if tough to read. I did see it on a BLM reading list, so using for that prompt (#20).

I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life by Anne Bogel. A book about how awesome reading is, from the creator of the Modern Mrs. Darcy blog. Very short (160 pages). Very easy to read during a baseball game. Not for PS prompt, but would fit the By a Blogger prompt.

Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O'Connor. Book club pick for October. Cozy mystery set in Ireland, with the Irish set to maximum. (Seriously. She included a guide of common phrases and pronunciations.) Discovered there was something broken on the cover, which knocked out that prompt for me (#23). Would also work as Set in a Restaurant #14, as the protagonist runs a restaurant with her siblings, and that's where the dead body is found. Mystery itself was good, and I liked that while there was the making of a love triangle, she picks one of the guys by the end of the book instead of drawing it out over the series.

PS: 43/50 RH: 18/24 RW: 20/28 ATY: 48/52 GR: 146/150

Currently Reading:
Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything by B.J. Fogg. Still in the introduction, but hoping for the best. Due back to the library Sunday, but ebook version is available if I don't finish.

At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor by Gordon W. Prange. Started over, and only on page 47, but the print is tiny and the pages are big (trade paperback), so I feel more justified for using it as my longest book, even though it's *only* 897.

QotW: Do you ever read nonfiction books to find out more about a topic or time period mentioned in a novel?
Now this is exactly my kind of question. It's like you've met me before. This is the key reason for why I'm interested in the time periods I am. A driving motivation in my life is proving historical fiction. I once spent a party in college showing anyone who could be made to listen a copy of a letter that contained some lyrics from the staircase song in 1776.

To get into specifics, I became enamored with Colonial Boston because of Johnny Tremain, and ended up majoring in history in college because of that book. The number of books I've read/purchased because of Johnny Tremain is too long to list.

I read a book once that I didn't realize was about Katherine of Aragon (possibly Katharine the Virgin Widow? It was yellow), and had to go check my parents' encyclopedia to see who she and Henry VIII were when I finished (this was before Wikipedia). I think reading this book was why I ended up studying Reformation England in college, which made me a natural to pick up The Other Boleyn Girl when it came out. I also got Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn and The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England's Most Notorious Queen after reading too many Philippa Gregory books.

I read a book in high school that was historical fiction set in England in the early 1900s (Promises). It was a frustrating book, but in one section, the main character is a nurse during World War I, and comes down with the Spanish flu after the fighting is over. This was the first I'd ever heard of the Spanish flu, and I bought The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History to learn more about it. It is also one of the reasons I keep trying to learn more about World War I.

I read the teen Sunfire romance Rachel in high school (or probably before) about a girl who gets a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, and I have multiple books on the fire now (Triangle: The Fire That Changed America and The Triangle Fire). (I'm still trying to find out more about the post-Triangle labor movement.) I recently read another one in that same series, Jennie, about the Johnstown Flood, and then read David McCullough's book on it (The Johnstown Flood).

I read Gates of Fire while studying abroad in Greece, and bought Thermopylae: The Battle for the West when I got home. I read a novel about the War of 1812 in high school - 1812 - and bought The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict once I finished. My parent's friends looked at me in shock when I said I was reading it for fun, not for assigned reading for school.

I could go on, and on, but I'll stop here.

Hi all,

Been having a long week, glad it's almost over. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

This week I finished:

Exit Strategy - more murderbot re-read

The Crystal Kingdom - husband loves the adventure zone, i can't stand the podcast. the voices annoy me, and i don't really like podcasts that aren't heavily scripted narrative types. But all edited and condensed and nicely illustrated as a graphic novel? pretty fun!

Under the Whispering Door - oh man, this book started out a little slow for me, and was thinking it wasn't as good as The House on the Cerulean Sea. But by the end it was tugging all my emotions and i sobbed through the last quarter. So good <3

Neverwhere - books & brew book. I've read this one several times, plus listened to the audio book, and listened to the audio drama. But figured if we're going to talk about it, might as well read it so it's fresh! Always enjoy it. My husband's read it, so he's actually coming with me next week. I figure it's ok since it's one meeting, i'd probably be less enthused if he started trying to come to all of them ;) (he actually did ask if it was ok to come too, wanted to make sure he wasn't intruding on my solo night)

Currently reading:

Network Effect - more audio re-read. THis one is taking longer since it's the full length, combined with this week I've been putting on videos from a free Photoshop summit instead of an audio book. Most of them are geared more towards fine artists, while i'm a graphic designer, but i'm still gleaning some useful stuff. Good way to fill out a slow week.

Crazy Stupid Bromance - last book for the challenge! Dream job. Book was listed as the woman owning a cat-cafe, which is a bit misleading. It's actually a coffee shop where she brings her singular personal cat in. I'm in the "i don't dream of labor" camp, so i struggled with this prompt. I just want to be creative and write and make art and craft as my whims take me. But i keep joking i'm going to quit my job and start a cat cafe. Then I can have 10 cats around and i'm not a crazy cat lady, I'm running a business. still counting it, i couldn't find any other books with cat cafes. I'm kind of annoyed at it already. it feels like it's pretending like it's breaking tropes, while falling straight into them. Like the dudes are all "the friend zone isn't real, it's just a way for men to justify the woman not liking them back" and then turns around and the guy DOESN'T just have friendly feelings for his female best friend, he DOES want to have a relationship with her. (i don't think that's a spoiler, it's established within the first chapter). I guess they figure it's ok, because she secretly likes him too, but again...TALK TO EACH OTHER. About feelings. I think that's why i avoided this series originally. Learning how to have relationships from romance books is a terrible idea, they do dumb relationship stuff ALL THE TIME.

QOTW: Not really. I am not a big nonfiction reader in general. For me to read it, i tend to prefer nonfiction that is more narrative. Like a memoir, or something like a microhistory that tells a story about something. So I probably wouldn't read a book set in WW2 and go read an actual WW2 book, that'd bore me to tears.

Just a quick update for me this week. I finished one book. No movement on my open challenge prompts, so I'm still at 26/40 and 4/10 for this challenge, and am now at 53/100 for my overall ŷ������ Reading Challenge.

Finished:
* The Book of Delights written and narrated by Ross Gay, which I loved and thought it was a perfect choice for the 2021 One Maryland One Book theme of hope.

Currently Reading:
* Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia;
* The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey;
* Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli; and,
* Raphael, Painter in Rome by Stephanie Storey, which is my latest Giveaways win!

QotW:
(from Heather) - Do you ever read nonfiction books to find out more about a topic or time period mentioned in a novel? I've definitely thought about doing that, but can't think of a specific example of when I've sought out a nonfiction book immediately after finishing a novel to learn more about something included in the book.

I’ve been participating in the FrightFall readathon for a full week now, and for the most part I’ve really enjoyed the books I’ve read. My favorite so far has been Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow, by Christina Henry. It’s so atmospheric, and I thought it was a great read for this time of year.

Even though I am focusing most of my attention on spooky reads this month, I have managed to keep up with my reading for the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge.

POPSUGAR: 40/50
Beat the Backlist: 50/52
ŷ������: 248/200

Finished Reading:
~The Hollow Places
~The Fearsome Foursome
~Midnight at Madame Leota's
~Grim Grinning Ghosts
~Memento Mori
~Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow
~The Final Girl Support Group
~The Mysterious Affair at Styles - “a book in a different format than what you normally read��

Currently Reading:
~The Gunslinger

QOTW:
While I do read a significant amount of nonfiction, my topic choices are not really influenced by the fiction books I am reading.

Howdy all. It's been a rough week or so and I've been watching things instead of reading. It was nice to go down the YouTube rabbit hole and wind up at the playlist for Michael McIntyre's Unexpected Star of the Show segments. Awww, so many teary Nans. After this I get to catch up on Masked Singer and Alter Ego yay.

Oh and bonus, the pretty special edition of Addie Larue that I pre-ordered in APRIL arrived! The letters are sparkly.

I read what are probably my two most anticipated books this week! I gave them both four stars.

Finished:
Under the Whispering Door - Hmmm... At first the protagonist was a d*ck, so I was glad when he chilled, but was it just me or did he turn on a dime? I liked the story and how everything worked, but I never really believed he was suddenly nice.

The Apollo Murders - I was pretty excited to find that it's narrated by Ray Porter! Bonus points to him for all of the Russian. This is one of those books with an insane amount of detail, so if that's not your jam, this is your friendly notice. However, if you are interested in exactly how things work in your thrillers, like helicopters or rocket fuel, take a peek. I didn't really mind. It helps knowing that every one of those details is probably extremely accurate, since Chris was an actual test pilot and astronaut and he really knows his stuff. It was quite nice to read a book and not have to think, "You can't do that on the Moon!" because if Chris put it in there, you totally could.


Currently Reading:
And Then You're Dead: What Really Happens If You Get Swallowed by a Whale, Are Shot from a Cannon, or Go Barreling Over Niagara

Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café


QOTW:
This doesn't ring a bell so I looked through my nonfiction shelf, and I found one. I read Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 because I've loved The Twenty-One Balloons since I was a kid. Other than that, I think I'm more likely to read a fictional story involving a thing I already know about/like/am interested in than the other way around. I'm not opposed to it, though.

poshpenny wrote: "Howdy all. It's been a rough week or so and I've been watching things instead of reading. It was nice to go down the YouTube rabbit hole and wind up at the playlist for Michael McIntyre's Unexpecte..."

Sorry it's been a rough week. I would have hoped with the cooling temperatures that you would have been doing better. Other stuff must be going on, eh?

Alex wrote: "It's a momentous Thursday in our house as I've just learned that I have COVID. As does my husband. We're both vaccinated and doing well, so nothing to worry about there, but it's a little surreal t..."

Hopefully everyone is on the mend, and the little one stays healthy! It must be weird and surreal to actually have it.

Melissa wrote: "... QotW: Do you ever read nonfiction books to find out more about a topic or time period mentioned in a novel?
Now this is exactly my kind of question. It's like you've met me before. This is the key reason for why I'm interested in the time periods I am. A driving motivation in my life is proving historical fiction. I once spent a party in college showing anyone who could be made to listen a copy of a letter that contained some lyrics from the staircase song in 1776.

To get into specifics, I became enamored with Colonial Boston because of Johnny Tremain, and ended up majoring in history in college because of that book. ..."



WOW! Now that is a love of history!!! I hope you get to teach history now or something similar so you get to keep doing what you love.

Sheri wrote: "My husband's read it, so he's actually coming with me next week. I figure it's ok since it's one meeting, i'd probably be less enthused if he started trying to come to all of them ;) (he actually did ask if it was ok to come too, wanted to make sure he wasn't intruding on my solo night) ..."



That is adorable. RELATIONSHIP GOALS

Managed to get two books down for the challenge this week For the prompt A book with a black-and-white cover I read
Evansville Monsters: Weird Tales of Goblins, Ghoulies, and Ghosts by Kyle Darnell It wasn't true haunts and urban legends as hoped but a short story anthology based on the urban myths around Evansville Indiana

For the prompt A bestseller from the 1990s I read Hangman's Root by Susan Wittig Albert. It had that annoying thing they did with paperbacks in the 90s, the back cover is nothing but a picture of the author. I guess that's how you knew you'd arrived, we didn't need a blurb to tell us what the book was about. We'd buy it just for your face. eye roll. I've read others in this series but this one was just plain bad.

I also read Vinland Saga Omnibus, Vol. 11 by by Makoto Yukimura and it was enjoyable.

QOTW yes I have done this, not often but I've done it if I come across something that interests me greatly.

Megan wrote: "Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli; ..."


Is this awesome? I want this to be awesome. I was hoping that they (the surviving women, anyway) would all play a role in the audiobook, or maybe include some clips from old NPR, but it looks like it is just read by the author :-(

poshpenny wrote: "Howdy all. It's been a rough week or so and I've been watching things instead of reading. It was nice to go down the YouTube rabbit hole and wind up at the playlist for Michael McIntyre's Unexpecte..."


Sorry you're having a rough week. But I'm happy that Apollo Murders lived up to your expectations!!! I learned about that book from you and I'm excited to read it.

I pretended that I was a healthy person and went away for the weekend (one hour away). I went to a Michael Buble concert with friends, then a play "The Mousetrap" the next day, and then a movie "Shang-Chi" the following day. I had a lovely time in a beautiful hotel, and came home happy.

And then I ended up in the ER yesterday because of too much fluid buildup, which probably was a result of doing too much over the weekend. Probably still worth it.

For the concert, vaccination cards or a very recent negative COVID test result had to be shown. Lots of mad people who apparently don't read their emails. They had a COVID testing site across the street. And there were several empty seats throughout the arena, probably those that refused to follow the guidelines. I was happy to be in an arena with people I trusted. But what I was unhappy about was that they weren't allowing purses as they didn't want to check them as well as the vaccine stuff. Going to a concert without a purse? Now that's undemocratic. haha. Oh, and the concert was great. I haven't paid that much attention to Michael Buble, but he was funny and charming and a bit irreverent and put on a great show.

Finished
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare - 4 stars, not for challenge
My monthly Shakespeare. We read this in high school and had to memorize Marc Antony's "Friends Romans Countryman" speech. Over 40 years later, I can remember quite a bit of the first part. So when I got there, I read it out loud with gusto.

The Hollow by Agatha Christie - 4 stars, not for challenge
My monthly Christie. Yet again, I didn't figure out the murderer. And as always, it makes perfect sense. When I saw "Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap" over the weekend, I was surprised that I figured out the murderer and the motive very easily. I never do so with the books.

Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor - 4 stars, not for challenge
Thanks to whomever on here had suggested reading this for Banned Books Week. It is short but very powerful - letters between two friends (both Germans - one a Jew living in the United States, and the other having just moved back to Germany) just as Hitler was coming to power. It showed how easily people can be changed by propaganda, and it is quite applicable to times now as well.

In the Heights: Finding Home by Lin-Manuel Miranda - 5 stars, not for challenge
I read this companion book to the theatrical musical and the movie for National Hispanic Heritage Month. I adore anything Lin-Manuel Miranda does, and I loved this as well. I also loved the movie and hope to someday see it on stage.

Currently reading
Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism by Laura E. Gómez
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (audiobook)

Popsugar: 88/100
ŷ������: 54/55

QOTW:
I'm trying to think of examples, but I'm pretty sure I've done this a few times. Right now I'm going to read a biography of Charlotte Bronte because I just re-read Jane Eyre, so sort of the same thing.

I did read a non-fiction book In Cold Blood because of another non-fiction book Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee.

Teri wrote: "I pretended that I was a healthy person and went away for the weekend (one hour away). I went to a Michael Buble concert with friends, then a play "The Mousetrap" the next day, and then a movie "Sh..."



That sounds pretty scary. But I'm glad your weekend BEFORE the ER visit was wonderful!

Mary wrote: "I had lunch with some friends last week, one of whom is a Magisterial District Judge, and we were talking about my current discontent with a job that I normally love and my thoughts about leaving. She asked what I would be interested in doing instead of being a probation officer, and the only thing I genuinely want to do is work at the library, which in my area and with my background is not realistic for me. She suggested if what I find genuinely interesting right now is books, that maybe I should just write one instead of working with them and we talked about that for a while. Instead of changing jobs, maybe just find an outlet for the stress of a job that I really enjoy. SO......I'm going to write a book/series about a fictional juvenile probation officer (surprisingly a pretty open lane for that profession). Even just storyboarding or thinking about how to make my job into a fictional tale has made it a lot more enjoyable."

If your probation office is anything like the one I work in (adults though), you will have a lifetime of stories you can tell - names changed to protect the innocent (or not so innocent, as the case may be).

Hey all! Been a while since I checked in. A lot of turbulent things going on (got evacuated from apartment due to fire in building; city inspections revealed massive code violations unrelated to fire; now nobody can move back in, and apartment management has been wildly dishonest about the whole situation). But, y'know, books. Books are good.

Finished reading (20/50):

The Ruin of Kings (has a family tree, set in multiple countries) - This was a fun epic fantasy. Dragons! Krakens! Death cultist assassins! Demon lords! Never a dull moment, really. I picked it because reviews said it had a family tree, though the tree is in the back of the book, and rather spoilery. I wrote down my own family tree while reading and found it helped a lot to keep track of everyone, especially since a lot of characters have similar names. (Elvish naming custom is to take a first syllable from a parent's name, e.g., Teraeth, son of Terindel. This is kinda neat lore-wise but does turn into name soup after a while.)


QotW: Nope. Generally the most I'd do is google something that I was curious about.

Another long Thursday... let's see if I can get through my update quickly since my eyes are tired of looking at the screen. ;)

This week I finished:

Yearbook - I laughed out loud to this, which is what I hoped for. Would have liked to see him go deeper, but that's ok. 4 stars

Bless Me, Ultima - Since I cover New Mexico for work I want to read more local work from there. This was a great start. 4 stars

The President and the Frog - I had high expectations for this since Cantoras was one of my favorite novels of 2019 and it delivered. I love how political it was without losing the heart of the individual story. 5 stars

Krik? Krak! - I'm slowly working my way through this author's work since she's fantastic and I love learning more about Haiti and Haitian Americans. 4 stars

The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy - Mixed feelings on this. I liked some parts, others were frustrating. 3 stars

Falling - This was entertaining. I was nervous about the ending, but it worked decently well. 3.5 stars

Negotiations - Great poetry collection! 5 stars

Things I Have Withheld - Unique style and moving content. 4.5 stars

Currently reading The Woman Warrior in print and listening to Intimacies.

QOTW: I feel like this has happened a few times, but the only example that comes to mind is that I really wanted to read a book on Lolita Lebrón after reading The Night Watchman, which mentioned the 1954 Puerto Rican Nationalists protest/shooting in Congress. I haven't found one yet but am open to recommendations if anyone else has found something on her!

Alex wrote: "It's a momentous Thursday in our house as I've just learned that I have COVID. As does my husband. We're both vaccinated and doing well, so nothing to worry about there, but it's a little surreal t..."

Hope you and your husband recover soon. It's fantastic that your baby is staying healthy.