Joanna’s Comments (group member since Dec 27, 2013)

Joanna’s comments from the CPL's Book a Week Challenge group.

April is wrapping up this week. Come talk about your final thoughts on your local read on April's Online Book Club thread. Join us in May for Book to Screen - read a book that was turned into a movie or television show!

What is everyone reading this week? Finally out in the States, I picked up The Binding by Bridget Collins and am almost done with it. I'm really enjoying it so far, despite the fact that it's not quite what I was expecting. I thought it would focus more on the binding aspect (in this world, people can bind people's memories to books, causing them to forget); instead it's more about Emmett and his personal journey/uncovering. Also the romance. But it's still a great book.

After I'm done with that, I have one of the newer Star Wars books, Queen's Shadow, to read.

Tell us what you are reading this week!

What were your final thoughts on your local read? Love it? Like it? It was okay? Would you recommend the book? Why or why not?

I actually quite enjoyed The Staff of Moses. While not a perfect book by any means, it was entertaining and I do love a good action adventure story with supernatural elements. I'm hoping to read the rest of the series at some point this year.

Tell us your thoughts about your local read!

May's Online Book Club theme has been posted - read a book that they later turned into a movie or television show. I'm looking forward to seeing what you all pick and of course, your opinions on its screen adaption.

Happy Earth Day, everyone! Are you doing anything special to celebrate today or do you celebrate every day?

It being Earth Day made me think of my favorite nonfiction category - nature/sciences. I've always gravitated towards those sorts of books. I especially love reading books about whales and dinosaurs. Some of my favorites are The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs, The Tyrannosaur Chronicles, War of the Whales, and Of Orcas and Men.

Do you have a favorite nature/science/environment book?

If that's not really your section, what is your favorite area of nonfiction?

We are officially heading into blockbuster season, which means movies galore are appearing at the box office. And you know some of them are based off of books!

For this month's Online Book Club read a book that they later turned into a movie or television show.

Julia wrote: "I absolutely adore the Strand Bookstore in NYC, and I love the National Public Library in D.C. as well! I've always wanted to visit the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris."

Hopefully you will get a chance to visit Shakespeare and Company. I got a chance to visit last year. It is such a cool bookstore.

Julia wrote: "Just started reading Murder on the Orient Express for #3 and God of Small Things for #4!"

Murder on the Orient Express is perfect for #3! I hope you love it. :)

Think about the characters in the book you picked. Do you find them convincing? Are they believable? Compelling? Are they fully developed as complex, emotional human beings--or are they one-dimensional?

I really enjoyed the two main characters in The Staff of Moses - Oliver and Diana. I thought they were pretty well rounded, even if Oliver was a bit of the stereotypical tomb raider. I can't say the other characters in the book were as well-rounded. They fell more easily into their respected tropes, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing as they are only part of this book and won't be making more appearances.

Thank you all for your lovely descriptions of your hometown libraries and the other libraries you've visited! It's always so much fun to discover new bookish places.

What is everyone reading this week? I finished The Staff of Moses over the weekend; I really enjoyed this local author read. There are a couple more books in the series so once I finish all the other library books I have checked out, I'm planning to read them. This week I have A Court of Thorns and Roses and then maybe finish my Lord of the Rings reread with The Return of the King.

Tell us what you are reading this week!

Tell us about the setting of the book you picked. Does it work for the story's narrative? If not this area, is it some place you would want to visit? If the book is set in the 757, do you think the author accurately portrayed this area? Why or why not?

(I haven't started my book so I can't answer this yet, but based on what I know, it's not set here)

Did everyone enjoy the nice weather this weekend (or at least on Sunday)? I hope you all were able to go out and do something fun!

What is everyone reading this week? As predicted, I read nothing on my whirlwind trip. So I still have all of last week's books to conquer. Though I did finish The Magnificent Nine over the weekend.

Speaking of my whirlwind trip, I went to New York City to see the Tolkien exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum. It was absolutely amazing (I cried).

While we were there, though, we also stopped by the public library! We went to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building where the lion statues and the Rose Reading room are located. Such a beautiful building. We were lucky enough to just sit in the reading room for an hour, while waiting for another event to start. We even visited the actual public library part (it's a temporary home while they renovate the building across the street). The staff thought we were lost; we told them we worked a library back home and that we just wanted to see what theirs was like. I think they might have thought we were weird, lol.

Public libraries- a home away from home.

Do you like to visit libraries when you go out of town? Or bookstores? Do you have a favorite? Tell us about your favorite out-of-town libraries and bookstore memories!

Happy April!! April's Take It or Leave It challenges are posted. Check them out here.

Our theme for this month's online book club is Read Local. Pick a book written by or about someone from the 757 area. Need help finding a book? Central Library has a Local Author display. Come check it out.

It may be April 1st but I feel like the weather is playing an April Fool's Day joke on us all. Brrr. But I think it's supposed to be warmer by the end of the week; maybe it will last this time!

What is everyone reading this week? I'm driving up to NYC so I'm hoping to have some car ride time to read. I've got The Return of the King, A Court of Thorns and Roses, The Staff of Moses (my local author read), Firefly: The Magnificent Nine, and parts 2 and 3 of the Arcana series. And wow that's a lot of books I think I can read on a 6 hour car ride where I'm going to be driving for part of it. But I am nothing if not ambitious in my reading attempts! Lol

This month's theme is Read Local - pick a book written by or about someone from the 757 area.

What book have you all chosen? I went browsing in our Local Author section and grabbed Andrew Linke's The Staff of Moses. Mr. Linke is one of my regular vendors at FantaSci so I figured he would be a good choice for my local author. The book is an Indiana Jone-ish adventure story with a dose of the supernatural. Right up my alley.

Tell us what book you found!

April's Take It or Leave It challenges are below. Do one, do all, do none! It's totally up to you.

1. "I'm a poet and I didn't event know it" - Read a book of poetry to celebrate National Poetry Month

2. Bam! Pow! Smash! - Read a graphic novel (it doesn't have to be a superhero one)

3. Who done it? - Read a mystery novel

*Bonus points! Earn 2 points by stopping by Central Library on April 23rd at 5:30 to discuss your mystery novel read at our Off the Cuff book club. *

4. Spring is in the air - Read a book with flowers on the cover

5. Easter eggs - Read a book with a pink or orange or yellow cover OR a book with eggs on it

6. Inspirational - Read a book that inspires you

7. Try something new - Read a book by an author you have never read

8. We match! - Read a book with a character that shares your name

April's Online Book Club theme is Read Locally! Read a book set in or written by someone from Hampton Roads.

Need help finding a book? Come check out Central Library's Local Author section!

Wrapping up, what did you all think of Citizen? Did it speak to you? What lessons did you pull from it?

Tell us your thoughts!

Susan wrote: "1. Spoken from the Heart by Laura Bush

2. Gay Girl, Good God: The story of Who I was, and Who God Has Always Been by Jackie Hill Perry

3. The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy E. Reichert

4. A..."

Such a great list! What did you think of Fangirl? I love that book so much.

April is almost upon us which means a new book for our online book club. April's theme is Read Locally. Find a book set in or written by someone from Hampton Roads. Need help finding one? Come check out our Local Author section at the Central Library.

If you are anything like me, you read reviews on Goodreads before picking up a book (or even after reading a book). Something I've noticed is the acronym "DNF" in some people's reviews. It took me forever to figure it out. DNF stands for "Did Not Finish." You usually can find at least one for any book.

What is your DNF list like? Do you even have one? Do you push through even if you dislike a book? Do you see if it catches you in a certain amount of pages and if not, you stop reading? What books have you not finished?

I used to be the sort of person who would finish a book no matter what. Hate it or love it, I would finish. Now, I find that I'm a bit more willing to put a book back. Sometimes it's because I really don't like it. Sometimes it's because I'm just not in the right mood. I still struggle though because I feel like I have to finish everything I start. But there are too many books out there that I want to read for me to be stuck reading a book I hate.

*Discussion question courtesy of NEA Big Read Reader Resources*

Rankine addresses "you" throughout the book. Where do you recognize yourself in the encounters described in Citizen, if at all? What perspectives or angles of experience were you surprised to inhabit, and why?

Susan wrote: "I’m way ahead in this years challenge thanks to the Take it Or Leave it stuff! It’s been super fun to find new books that fit each month and pushing me to read even more. I’m on my 31st book! "

That's so great! I'm glad you have been able to use Take It or Leave It to conquer the challenge.

How are we already halfway through March? Where exactly is time going? How are you all doing on the challenge so far? Meeting goals? Behind? Ahead? Let us know!

What is everyone reading this week? I'm almost done with Wicked King and still working on The Count of Monte Cristo and Outlander (I know, I know, that was February's book club book; I am really behind). Not sure what I'm going to read afterwards, but I have a good 20 library books checked out so I'm sure I will find something. Lol