Heena’s Comments (group member since Oct 13, 2014)

Heena’s comments from the RMFAO (Reading My Frigging A** Off) group.

Tina wrote: "Hey, everyone! I'm Tina. I'm 25 in my head, lol. If you need/want friends, feel free to add me. I have always been a reader. I'm that kid that teachers always yelled at to put away the book and pay..."

Hey, Tina (sorry I think I missed your comment earlier.) Welcome to the group. I can feel what you said as even I got punished in college for reading fiction instead of my engineering books. Lol. My husband is also a non-nerdy guy. The only thing he loves reading is the newspaper!
I love reading too and spend 80% of my time reading or writing fiction, so you're at the right place as we all just LOVE books!
Do have a look around and participate in the reading challenges. They're really fun! We also have buddy reads so keep an eye out for the next year's book names.
Looking forward to seeing you around :)

Marjorie wrote: "They are a lot of fun. She also does a good job with Sherlock. She keeps very true to Doyle's vision of Holmes while keeping him a secondary character. "

I'll give this series a try. Thanks a ton :)

Dominic wrote: "Thanks"

Pleasure!

Dominic wrote: "Okay, I have been reading raves for Night Circus here for a month, so which Night Circus (i.e. author)? I have found 4 books with that title. I'm not digging Caraval at all. I just started Chapter 5 and don't know how much longer I'm going to stick with it. Maybe I'll put Caraval down and pick up Night Circus."

Yes, you really need to read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. It is this one - The Night Circus
We had it for a buddy read for last year's fantasy month (December) and we all loved it! It is definitely a thousand times better than Caraval.

Okay so after going thorugh the recommendations by Dagny (more than 3/4th), Cheryl and Mere and Peter from the other threads, here's how my Classics list for 2019 looks so far:

1) Widdershins and with it The Beckoning Fair One
2) The Grey Woman
3) Afterward
4) The Way It Came
5) The Beast with Five Fingers
6) The Return of the Soul
7) Black Spirits and White - A Book of Ghost StoriesThe Circular Staircase
8) Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls
9) The Great Gatsby
10) The Odyssey
11) The Iliad
12) The Aeneid
13) The Leavenworth Case (I'll first read this one and then decide if I want to read others in this series. If yes, then I'll count this one for the Series Challenge too.)
14) The Circular Staircase

I'm planning so much because I always fail to read good classics and miss out on so much they have to offer. I'm going to make sure to read these first and then add any other (if I get more recs.)
Thank you everyone for the recommendations! Especially Dagny :)

Marjorie wrote: "I really enjoy the Mary Russel books by Laurie King. They are a fun mystery series following Mary Russel whom marries Sherlock Holmes after he "retires". "

I've heard so much about Laurie King, but had no idea she had a character who was Sherlock Holmes' wife. Sounds interesting and somethign I might want to read. Thanks for sharing!

#4 Caraval - 3/5

Overall it was an entertaining book, but I felt that the characterization was too weak. I have mixed feelings about this book as it had some good things and some bad, but I'm glad I read it. I am confused about whether to go for the next part of this series or not, so I'll take some more time to see if I feel like reading Legendary.

Dagny wrote: "I was well into my 40s before I got around to reading The Great Gatsby. All through the book I kept wondering what was so great about it. It wasn't until I finished and it all had time to soak in a bit that I agreed - it was a great book and I loved it. Have reread it once and that's unusual for me."

I haven't read the book, but for some reason absolutely love the movie. I've watched it more than a dozen times and keep on doing so everytime it comes on TV. I think this would be a great fit for me for the Classics challenge for 2019 :)

Mere wrote: "Heena wrote: "Mere wrote: "I read Tom Sawyer in middle school, and that was pretty much it. I'm in the same boat with you about how the writing falls out. Some of them I can do, but anything Heming..."

I guess we have the same kind of reading tastes, at least in Classics! I loved the The Great Gatsby movie and have always thought of reading the book. Now I'm really tempted to read it.
I'll give these titles a go. I have a feeling I might be able to enjoy them. Thanks for sharing these.

Dagny: OMG! Thanks a lot, Dagny!! They all sound so much fun and I can't wait to read them!! I have no idea why I never ventured into Cozy Mysteries before. I think they'll balance out Horror for me perfectly being light and cozy.
I'm adding all these books for now, but will set the preference once I get the time to read them all and will prepare a list year accordingly so that I have all in one list :)
Thanks a unch again. I really, really appreciate it!

Peter wrote: "For cosy mysteries, let me recommend Josephine Tey. Her Inspector Alan Grant mysteries (6 books) would make an excellent series for this challenge. Her two standalone mysteries (Miss Pym Disposes a..."

I checked them and they sound very interesting. I'm adding them to my list. Thanks a lot, Peter. Appreciate it.

Nova wrote: "Hi everyone! I'm Nova, 38, from Austin, TX. I'm a mom (1 3 yo boy, 1 neurotic border collie), a gardener, used to be a chef (now I just try to make food my preschooler will eat-ha!) I've always lov..."

Hello Nove, welcome to RMFAO! You're a chef? Wow! I love cooking and baking and ocassionally blog about food. So good to meet you! Do let us know about the genres you'd like to explore so that we all can share some recoemmnedations. Also, I think our Genre Challenge might be a great fit for you. Tehre we read a different genre every month (sometimes two). Right now we're reading Fantasy and Adventure for December and January would be Science Fiction.
We also have a Audiobook Challenge. These are great as we have super crazy nerd discussions about books and our to-read lists and share tons and tons of recs.
Have fun reading and looking forward to seeign you around!

Maz wrote: "Hi all. I'm Maz
21. I read and occasional write short stories and poetry for fun. I love all things fiction and I adore cats. Anime is life. And i'm currently doing my annual re-read of Harry potte..."

Hello Maz, welcome to the group.
It's good to know you. I am also a cats lover (and a mommy to two gorgeous cats) and love watching movies (I watch at least 2 new releases every week!) Fiction reading and writing are not only my bread and butter but also oxygen and water too!
What kind of genres do you like? Also, we have a lot of reading challenges and love hosting buddy reads so feel free to look around and participate in whatever you like. The moderators here are really awesome, jsut like other group members and we all love sharing book recommendations, so do join in the conversations in the various challenge threads.
Happy reading!

Cheryl wrote: "Ok, Heena. Here is one I've recently read that can be found on Project Gutenberg:
Black Spirits and White: A Book of Ghost Stories
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show......"

Thanks, Cheryl. I totally forgot you're a classics pro too! I'm adding all these books to my list (Dagny's recs and the two you mentioned), but please keep addign to this list when you get some free time. I'll be reading horror all throughout the year so I can do with more recs.

Dagny wrote: "More on the classic horror available for Heena and anyone else interested.

There are short stories galore at both PG and LibriVox, so if you're looking for anything along those lines there are ple..."


Thanks a bunch, Dagny. They all sound spooky and perfect for me. I'll create my list and add all these to it so that they all stay at one place where I can easily find them. Thanks, again! You're the best.
And yes! I'm sure Cheryl will also have some good reccomendations. I'll be sure to take her picks as well :)

Fran wrote: "I did have a question about this challenge. Is there a way to track our progress for this challenge?"

As Cheryl said, we keep on listing the books we read here adding the number with them. That way we know how mnay books (and which ones) we read for the challenge.
Though if you want, you can create a new shelf named 'RMFAO Audiobooks Challenge' and add the ones you read for this there. I tried doing this 2 years ago (I planned to do separate shelves for each year) but that would have made my shelves-list too long (and it is very long already) so I didn't continue it.

Another way is the oldschool way fo keeping a diary. I do this. I keep a track of all my books I read for these chapllenges and to-read lists in one diary. It is not conventional but it works for me as I anyway make a BuJo.

Frankly, listing the books here the way Cheryl descrobed works best for most of the members and is the easiest one. So I'd personally recommend it.

Dagny wrote: "Most of the ones I listen to aren't actually from my local library. They do have some audio cassettes and CDs, but no digital ones for computers/phones, etc. However I am able to access them because I'm a member at my local library. It is a statewide system which means we have a much greater selection than any small library could afford. It might even be nationwide here in the U.S. I know some other states have it. I'm very grateful for it!"

That's a really good system and very convenient for the readers too. I hope this kind of system come here soon.

Mere wrote: "I read Tom Sawyer in middle school, and that was pretty much it. I'm in the same boat with you about how the writing falls out. Some of them I can do, but anything Hemingway, Steinbeck, Twain...not my thing at all! I might have to give it a go so I can read the story!"

I read Shakespere in the 6th grade and I guess that really put me off classics and unredable exposition. I've read a couple of works by Mark Twain and Hemingway in school but like you, it did not bode well with my reading taste, so I try to stay away from anything that comes close to these. I can't even finish Jules Venrne's short works that's how much I'm repulsed by unnecessary descriptions. Though I do love 2 classics more than anything else - Lord Of The Flies and Wuthering Heights (both because of their dark themes.) You have any favourites?
In case if you go for this Manga, then do check out Count Of Monte Christo as well because the original book is way too long for any mortal. Manga is the best way to read Count Of Monte Christo as well.

Marjorie wrote: "I do not know about anyone else, but by the time I was have way through the book I was really over Scarlett. I just did not like this whinny child. She is so worried about escaping her father throu..."

You're described it so well. That is exactly how Scarlette came across. Half of the book I was like 'seriously?'
The character arc is literally non-exsistent and it totally ruined what otherwise could have been a really good story.

Marjorie wrote: "I did not notice butter so much as I did ribbon and buttons."

Oh, yes! Buttons too. Lol.