L Y N N’s
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(group member since Nov 10, 2018)
L Y N N’s
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from the Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge group.
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This is the July Monthly Group Read discussion for The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley. This book can be used to fulfill prompt #47 A book with a holiday that’s not Christmas. You may have heard of “Christmas in July"! But this is “not Christmas in July"! :)Erica has graciously stepped forward to serve as the "bubbling bibliophile" to lead this discussion!! THANK YOU, ERICA!
Every person reads at a different pace, so please use spoiler tags if you are sharing any plot-related surprises. This allows others to decide whether this information might reveal surprising information they have not yet read.
It can also be helpful to other readers if you post the location within the book noting your progress (chapter and/or page number) with the spoiler. That way, if someone else has read that far they can go ahead and open the spoiler, but if not, they'll know to skip it for now and return later...
TO ADD SPOILER TAGS:
Use this for spoilers, just remove the spaces:
< spoiler > write your spoiler here and close with < / spoiler >
Posts here should only be contributions to discussion about this book.
Mar 18, 2023 09:51AM
JUNE #22 A book with a queer leadIn honor of “Pride Month” as declared by US Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. (Also acknowledged in a 2019 tweet by Donald Trump.) Per Wikipedia this originated to commemorate the Stonewall Riots which occurred at the end of June in 1969. June is increasingly recognized as “Pride Month” (for all LGBTQ+/non-cisgender folks) outside the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_pride
Every person reads at a different pace, so please use spoiler tags if you are sharing any plot-related surprises. This allows others to decide whether this information might reveal surprising information they have not yet read.
It can also be helpful to other readers if you post the location within the book noting your progress (chapter and/or page number) with the spoiler. That way, if someone else has read that far they can go ahead and open the spoiler, but if not, they'll know to skip it for now and return later...
TO ADD SPOILER TAGS:
Use this for spoilers, just remove the spaces:
< spoiler > write your spoiler here and close with < / spoiler >
Posts here should only be contributions to discussion about this book.
I somehow totally spaced that this is Thursday this morning!Today is my husband's birthday! He's made it through yet another year!!
Range delivered, installed, and working well! I had overlooked the fact that our stovetop had only 3 burners working, so now I have 4 burners again! Plus it’s much nicer looking! Black and stainless steel. Anything but white…which the old one was. (I didn’t buy it, my husband purchased when he first moved here over 25 years ago, so he lacked my “valuable input” at that time! LOL)
Tuesday proved to be very enjoyable overall! My book club met and we had a great discussion! Then I attended the author event in Indianapolis that evening. This event was scheduled into a different venue than has typically been used in the past 4-5 years. It is located in the heart of the Butler University campus, directly beside their largest venue, Clowes Memorial Hall. Unfortunately, I neglected to check the Clowes schedule and ended up creepy-crawling through bumper-to-bumper traffic for over 30 MINUTES to cover the last 5 blocks prior to entering the parking garage!! It was opening night for Les Miz at Clowes! A big event! Fortunately, I had allowed 35-40 minutes extra time due to the change of venue, but even so I barely had time to be seated by the start of the event. I was joking about this to one of the parking attendants directing traffic and she stopped cars still incoming to the parking garage and personally walked me across the street to the venue! She was laughing so hard about the fact that I was there to attend an author event and not the big performance of Les Miz! :) If I’d had time to spare I would have stayed and watched/listened to her for a while. She was talking to each car/driver as she directed them, although I doubt any of us heard her at the time since it was 35 degrees so all windows were basically rolled up! “No, no! Over here, Baby! Yes, that’s right! Over here!” “Oh, honey, this way, this way, please! Yes, that’s right! Good!” "Oh, Baby! Yes! You go there! Mmmmmhmmmm! Go right on ahead!” It was so much fun! She was so much fun! I want her for a friend! ;) Her light was never still! She was always moving it to stop people or redirect them or simply encourage them to “GO! Go now, Baby! Yes! Uh-huh! That’s it!”
At least I felt as if all that effort paid off as I really enjoyed Irving's presentation and our discussion about her books. I have found that in the aftermath of the pandemic, I am also typically the first person to ask a question now. Don't know why. I guess I am simply tired of no one being the first to start a discussion! :)
ADMIN STUFF
The March Monthly Group Read is The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh! You can find both February discussions in the Current Monthly Group Read folder HERE! This book can be used to fulfill prompt #7 A book with “Girl” in the title in honor of Women’s History Month in Australia, UK, and the U.S. Although no one person volunteered to lead the discussion this month, LeahS has posted some questions and I have a few resources and questions to post. I encourage anyone currently reading this or who has read it to stop by and post any comments/questions you may have. Or even if you just want to know more about the book. It is there for your pleasure and enjoyment! I found this book to be enjoyable overall, but not as compelling as other mythical retellings I've read. I think I just wasn't in the mood. The last 100 pages or so definitely picked up for me, so that was a good thing!
Speaking of which... We are currently searching for two monthly group read discussion leaders:
2) A “reading wrangler” to facilitate April’s Monthly Group Read discussion of Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes #1) by Travis Baldree! This book can be used to fulfill prompt #27 A #BookTok recommendation. In honor of April Fools! You might have thought this was still the 2022 Popsugar Challenge, but it is actually a prompt repeated from 2022 for the 2023 Challenge!! I honestly can’t wait to reread this!!
3) A "literary luminar" to lead the discussion of the May Monthly Group Read! Hmmmm...would this happen to be YOU?!? ;) Bunny by Mona Awad that can be used to fulfill prompt #24 A book with a rabbit on the cover, in honor of springtime in the Northern Hemisphere when rabbits are aplenty!
Please message either Nadine or myself to volunteer! :)
Just a reminder that the comprehensive listing of 2023 Monthly Group Reads can be found HERE
Question of the Week
Let’s talk about editing! Do you find misspellings and/or misuse of standard English grammar distracting when you read? Or do such things not bother you?
I am so very distracted by these things! Quint was an example where I had to stop and reread and make sure I read the words as printed...and then figure out what was wrong about the passage, then continue. Misspellings aren't quite as distracting to me, but grammar errors are killers for me!
One of the worst books I've ever read for this would be Purrfect Murder. It was so bad that on one page a character's vehicle would be described as a delapidated pickup truck and on the next it was a car, etc. What I would consider very obvious errors any editor should have caught...
I once had an author contact me to read and review his book and it was so bad that I refused to review it at all until he had a professional editor help him with it. While I admire people for their ambition and efforts to write, I feel as if editing a manuscript is almost as important as the creation of it.
Popsugar: 35/50
Nadine’s Q1 Mini-Challenge: 7/10
AtY: 46/52
RHC: 11/24
FINISHED:
*Quint by Dionne Irving ✶✶✶✶✶ was an intriguing and compelling read. It was interesting to hear Irving’s comments about this book. I hadn’t realized this was the first known “natural”/vaginal birth of quintuplets in the WORLD at the time AND since this was during the depression, this ‘theme park’ proved to be a major moneymaker thereby almost single-handedly salvaging the Canadian economy at the time. Wow. I will admit that I didn’t broach the subject of needed editing on this book to Irving when I spoke with her. I just couldn’t imagine a diplomatic, respectful way to speak of it since I don’t know what might have been involved in the decision to use this publisher, or who was available to edit, etc. But I will forewarn you to be prepared for some misspellings but even more than that, misuse of English grammar. It was a bit distracting for me, but fortunately, not enough to spoil my enjoyment of the story. Also, this is mostly fiction, so I would refer you to the Wikipedia article if you are interested in factual details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionne_...
POPSUGAR: #4, #6, #19-2020: prompt #33 A book with at least a 4-star rating on Goodreads-4.44, #31, #34, #48-French and English
ATY: #1- Témiscaming, #3-A book among the top 23-rated book on your Goodreads TBR shelf, #5, #8, #10, #11-epilepsy, #13, #14-Anthony Rhys Osborne, #19-they are taught to sing, dance, and entertain, #22-5 of them, #28, #37
RHC: #14-50 ratings, #24-2015: A book published by an indie press
*A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow
✶✶✶✶✶✶✶✶✶✶ was a phenomenal read! Harrow is one of my favorite authors and this was so very much more than simply a “retelling,” IMO! I adore her use of fantasy to extend the boundaries so much further than my imagination would be able to do on its own!
POPSUGAR: #5-Fairy, Prince “Charming,” varied/diverse “sleeping beauties”, #6-sapphic, NEW #14, #19-2020: prompt #1 A book published in 2021, #28, #29, #50
ATY: #2, #3-A book not set on (our) earth, #5, #18- Alternate realities/many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics/multiverses/parallel universes, #19- Storytelling—similarities across cultures/times/universes, #22, #24, #34-128 pages, #37, #45, #52
RHC: #24-2015: A book that is a retelling of a classic story-“Sleeping Beauty”
*The Islands: Stories by Dionne Irving ✶✶✶✶✶✶✶✶✶✶ was my second favorite short story collection overall! (My first being Kim Edwards’ The Secrets of a Fire King). Though comparing these two books is probably unfair, since Edwards’ stories were more fantastical while each of Irving’s stories were ‘realistic fiction’ which pulled me in immediately and left no ‘dangling threads’ at the end. In contrast, I’ve found many realistic fiction stories leave me with many unanswered questions, etc. Not so with this collection. The overall theme of this collection deals with characters straddling multiple liminal worlds such as: varied geographic origins, race/skin color, socioeconomic status, varied childhood experiences, familial roles, etc. As she stated, “People fascinate me. Each of us is so complex!”
POPSUGAR: #19-2022: prompt #1 A book published in 2022, #31
ATY: #3- A book about a “fish out of water”, #5, #14
RHC: #14-116 ratings, #21, #24-2015: A collection of short stories
*Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo ✶✶✶✶✶✶✶✶✶✶ was a reread from almost two years ago and still held up as one of my favorite books! Great fodder for discussion at book club! And now I’ve ordered A Scatter of Light which includes a follow-up of these two main characters, Lily and Kath, some 10 years later.
POPSUGAR: #2, #4, #6, #19-2022: prompt #5 A Sapphic book, #21, NEW #22, #29, #31, #34, #47-Chinese New Year, #48-Chinese and English
ATY: #3- A cultural book that depicts a place and time in that culture, #4, #5, #9-Walter Dean Myers Award Nominee for Teen (2022), #10-scary, #13-cars, #14-Deception with fake IDs, #24-Lily’s father had been a soldier and was asked to spy on friends, #26, #37, #45, #50-Stonewall: Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award (2022)
RHC: #22- The Ember Award to Malinda Lo (2022), #24-2015: A book by or about someone who identifies as LGBTQ+-both!
CONTINUING:
IRL book club March 19:
*The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams
I am enjoying this one so much! (I assumed I would…)
March Buddy Read:
*Emma by Jane Austen
Others:
*Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses by Paula McLain
*The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones
*The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed
*Festival Days by Jo Ann Beard
*Mrs. 'Arris Goes to New York (Mrs. ‘Arris #2) by Paul Gallico
*Beloved by Toni Morrison
PLANNED:
For March Buddy Reads:
*The Rising Tide (Vera Stanhope #10) by Ann Cleeves
*Hope to Die (Alex Cross #22) by James Patterson
March-April Buddy Read:
*Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (March and April)
This will be my first Wallace book. I assume I will either love it or hate it.
*Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café (Before the Coffee Gets Cold #2) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
This is now the April selection for one of my IRL book club meetings! Huzzah!
I am completing this posting now, since my time for the remainder of today and tomorrow morning must be spent cleaning. Our oven/stovetop quit on us (after 25 years!) and the parts needing replacement (control board and gas valve) are no longer available/manufactured. So…we purchased a new gas range yesterday from a local dealer and it will be delivered Friday, as in tomorrow! Hence, I am using this is a good excuse to force myself to clean! I HATE to clean. I appreciate having a clean house, but I hate doing it! Woe is me… ;) I’m just grateful we could afford to purchase a new one and they’ll be able to deliver and install it so quickly! And I am stopping to mentally note my appreciation for my life: relatively stable housing (Always needing some form of maintenance it seems, but stable nonetheless!), stable food supply, enough money to afford both of these, a non-war-zone environment, etc. That puts me ahead of what...90+% of the world's population? Yeah, I'm good. :)BTW, with regards to the above scenario, just in case it may help someone else. A good friend of mine at the gym was telling me about moving into a different house and the first time she tried to use the stovetop it wouldn’t work. It turns out that the stovetop required the use of “induction” cookware or it would not work! Unfortunately, the sellers and/or real estate agent failed to alert these buyers of that requirement. So on the morning that she wanted to cook breakfast she instead was out purchasing a whole new set of “induction” cookware so she could use the stovetop!! Hopefully, nothing like that has happened to anyone here, or…perhaps this will serve as fair warning to always double-check such things before making a purchase!! (BTW, being paranoid, I did call the dealer to check about the gas range we purchased, and as I suspected, a gas range is not so finicky! LOL)
Other than that I have ended up in either the enviable or ridiculous position of having two IRL book club meetings and one IRL author event scheduled on the exact same day! That would be next Tuesday, March 14! My own book club meets that afternoon followed by the author event that evening. I have the two books Dionne Irving has published and am halfway through the first one. I will read the novella for the one book club meeting I will miss that evening, Strange how these things can occur!
ADMIN STUFF
The March Monthly Group Read is The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh! You can find both February discussions in the Current Monthly Group Read folder HERE! This book can be used to fulfill prompt #7 A book with “Girl” in the title in honor of Women’s History Month in Australia, UK, and US. I was lucky enough to be able to purchase a copy of this on Tuesday from one of my favorite used bookstores! Although I’m not into “mythology” per se, I am finding Oh’s writing to be compelling. I plan to finish this one today. Although no one person volunteered to lead the discussion this month, LeahS has posted some questions and I have a few resources and questions to post. I encourage anyone currently reading this or who has read it to stop by and post any comments/questions you may have. Or even if you just want to know more about the book. These discussions should always be organic in that way regardless of any one person being specified as “leader”!
Speaking of which... We are currently searching for two monthly group read discussion leaders:
2) A “reading wrangler” to facilitate April’s Monthly Group Read discussion of Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes #1) by Travis Baldree! This book can be used to fulfill prompt #27 A #BookTok recommendation. In honor of April Fools! You might have thought this was still the 2022 Popsugar Challenge, but it is actually a prompt repeated from 2022 for the 2023 Challenge!!
3) A "literary luminar" to lead the discussion of the May Monthly Group Read! Hmmmm...would this happen to be YOU?!? ;) Bunny by Mona Awad that can be used to fulfill prompt #24 A book with a rabbit on the cover, in honor of springtime in the Northern Hemisphere when rabbits are aplenty!
Please message either Nadine or myself to volunteer! :)
Just a reminder that the comprehensive listing of 2023 Monthly Group Reads can be found HERE
Question of the Week
Are any of your friends or family members concerned about how much reading you do or how much time you spend on Goodreads?
Ha! Ha! Ha! My unfiltered first reaction? *Shoulder shrug* Thinking to myself, “So what if they are?” LOL
My husband is one of the very few people who knows just how much time I spend reading/on Goodreads, and I think he pretty much knows better than to say anything to me! ;) (Honestly the man probably values his life more than risking it by critiquing my time spent reading/on Goodreads! :)
Other than that, a couple of friends probably come close to realizing this, though perhaps they don’t believe my claims!
It just doesn’t matter to me what others think regarding how I spend my time. There are many harmful things I could be doing, so reading and Goodreads sound pretty tame to me! Plus it keeps me occupied and out of trouble!! Always a plus! LOL And sometimes a challenge as well! :)
Popsugar: 35/50
Nadine’s Q1 Mini-Challenge: 7/10
AtY: 46/52
RHC: 11/24
FINISHED:
*The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh ✶✶✶✶ for the March Monthly Group Read. I need to revisit our discussion. I have some additional materials to post and hopefully others have helped by posting comments/questions! Unfortunately, I think I just wasn’t in the mood for this book at this time. It definitely picked up for me in the last 100 pages but just didn’t compel me as other such retellings have done. Not sure why… It was definitely an enjoyable read for me, just as much as others have been. Interesting conundrum for Mina who must decide whether to sacrifice life as she has known it for romantic love or to stay in her home world…
POPSUGAR: #2, #4, #5, #6, #7, #19-2022: prompt #1 A book published in 2022, #31
ATY: #3-A book about the environment or nature, #5, #7, #12-the magpie, #13-Lotus blossoms, #14, NEW #23, #37, NEW #41, #42, #43, #52
RHC: #24-2020: prompt #2-Read a retelling of a classic of the canon, fairytale, or myth by an author of color
*The Darkest Evening (Vera Stanhope #9) by Ann Cleeves ✶✶✶✶✶✶✶✶✶✶ was yet another excellent read in this series! It seemed to me as if this installment included even more of Cleeves’ delightful sense of humor! Only one book to go in this series and I will definitely miss reading one in April!
POPSUGAR: #6, #17, #19-2022: prompt #38 A book featuring a party, #28, #31
ATY: #2, #3-A book involving genetics or DNA, #5, #6, #10-Related to a baby, #12-Those “birds and bees” can be deadly in the end!, #13-tire tracks and fence posts, #14, #18-forensics/genetics, #19-Mark is an actor trying to establish a country theater, #20-cover, #27, #43, #45
RHC: #23, #24-2015: A book written by someone when they were over the age of 65
*Cross My Heart (Alex Cross #21) by James Patterson ✶✶✶✶ was not a favorite in this series, nor did it make me angry I’d read it! The ending did make me angry, however! I dislike it immensely when you MUST pick up the next book immediately to know what happens. This just seemed to obviously a ploy to make a reader do exactly that! It’s obvious this series is not one of my favorites!
POPSUGAR: #2, #16, #19-2021: prompt #33 A book featuring three generations (grandparent, parent, child), #28, #31, #33-Jannie-track, #47-Easter
ATY: #2, #3-A book with a secret passage, #5, #10-scary, #14, #18-forensics/DNA/psychology, #22, #24-Carney had been a soldier, #28, #33-James, #37, #43, #45
RHC: #23, #24-2015: A book by a person whose gender is different from your own
CONTINUING:
*Quint by Dionne Irving for the author event next Tuesday
This is an unbelievable situation, at least to me. Such a miraculous event for its time and there was enough superstition for the majority to believe this poor mother was somehow evil or possessed! Otherwise, she would have never given birth to 5 (initially 6, though one died at birth) babies at the same time! This just boggles my mind. The whole thing. The father is a total idiot followed by the greedy man who legally gained custody of these five identical babies, all in the name of the Canadian government! The only bright spot in reading this is realizing that other countries have also committed atrocities all in the name of making money, not just the US! Sheesh! These poor children were literally a nationwide “side-show” attraction, much as a World’s Fair event at the time. I’m halfway through and would much prefer finishing this rather than cleaning…but priorities indicate otherwise!
*Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses by Paula McLain
*The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones
*The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed
*Festival Days by Jo Ann Beard
*Mrs. 'Arris Goes to New York (Mrs. ‘Arris #2) by Paul Gallico
*Beloved by Toni Morrison
PLANNED:
For March 14 author event:
*The Islands: Stories by Dionne Irving
For IRL book club, also on March 14 (!!!!):
*Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo-a reread
Main Street Bite-Sized Book Club on March 14: *A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow
This book club meeting is in direct conflict with the Indianapolis author event with Dionne Irving, so I will read this (Because I love Harrow’s writing and really want to read this!) and text my reaction to the facilitator. Though she already knows she can read my Goodreads review!)
For March Buddy Reads:
*The Rising Tide (Vera Stanhope #10) by Ann Cleeves
*Hope to Die (Alex Cross #22) by James Patterson
*Emma by Jane Austen
March-April Buddy Read:
*Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (March and April)
This will be my first Wallace book. I assume I will either love it or hate it.
IRL book club March 19:
*The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams
*Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café (Before the Coffee Gets Cold #2) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
This is now the April selection for one of my IRL book club meetings! Huzzah!
*Before Your Memory Fades (Before the Coffee Gets Cold #3) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Mar 03, 2023 08:37AM
Nadine in NY wrote: "Jennifer W wrote: "I realized last night that my nighttime read is perfect for Women's History Month, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War. I'm not far into it, but th..."I got to page 32 of that book and then I DNFed so hard!! I was really looking forward to reading it, it sounds so great and lots of my GR friends give it 4 and 5 stars! but I could not take that style writing."
Now I'm REALLY curious about this one!
Mar 03, 2023 08:33AM
Nadine in NY wrote: "graphic novels...or maybe the rest of the Man-Eaters series by Cain (a YA graphic novel series about girls who develop the power to transform into big cats when they get their periods)"
I had to chuckle when I read this. My immediate thought was "YES!" Kinda made me wish for the past as long as we had this transformative power!! :)
Mar 03, 2023 08:21AM
Well, better late than never! I had planned to do this much earlier, but was interrupted by phone calls, etc! My friends don’t always follow MY schedule! LOL A neighbor gave birth at midnight. All was successful and the baby is healthy. She already has one special needs child, so that is great news for all of them!For March I am in the enviable (or ridiculous) position of having 2 IRL book club meetings AND an author event on the same day, the 14th! I had to cancel on one of the book club meetings which directly conflicted with the author event. Sheesh! I wish these people took into account MY schedule! LOL
ADMIN STUFF
The March Monthly Group Read is The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh! You can find both February discussions in the Current Monthly Group Read folder HERE! This book can be used to fulfill prompt #7 A book with “Girl” in the title in honor of Women’s History Month in Australia, UK, and US. I was lucky enough to be able to purchase a copy of this on Tuesday from one of my favorite used bookstores! Although I’m not into “mythology” per se, I am finding Oh’s writing to be compelling. I plan to finish this one today. Although no one person volunteered to lead the discussion this month, LeahS has posted some questions and I have a few resources and questions to post. I encourage anyone currently reading this or who has read it to stop by and post any comments/questions you may have. Or even if you just want to know more about the book. These discussions should always be organic in that way regardless of any one person being specified as “leader”! Let the thoughtful chaos unfold! LOL :)
The February Monthly Group read was The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon!! This book can be used to fulfill prompt #43 A book that takes place entirely in one day. In honor of Groundhog Day, a North American tradition observed in the US and Canada on February 2! Katrina is the "knowledgeable navigator" who has graciously volunteered to lead this discussion! Thank you, Katrina! This discussion will be available in the Monthly Group Read folder HERE
along with the thread to list the book(s) you’ve read to fulfill this prompt for February! Many thanks and much gratitude to Katrina for enlivening the discussion!
We are currently searching for two monthly group read discussion leaders:
2) A “reading wrangler” to facilitate April’s Monthly Group Read discussion of Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes #1) by Travis Baldree! This book can be used to fulfill prompt #27 A #BookTok recommendation. In honor of April Fools! You might have thought this was still the 2022 Popsugar Challenge, but it is actually a prompt repeated from 2022 for the 2023 Challenge!!
3) A "literary luminar" to lead the discussion of the May Monthly Group Read! Hmmmm...would this happen to be YOU?!? ;) Bunny by Mona Awad that can be used to fulfill prompt #24 A book with a rabbit on the cover, in honor of springtime in the Northern Hemisphere when rabbits are aplenty!
Please message either Nadine or myself to volunteer! :)
Just a reminder that the comprehensive listing of 2023 Monthly Group Reads can be found HERE
Question of the Week
March is celebrated as Women’s History Month in Australia, the UK, and the US. Are there any books or authors you are specifically targeting to read this month or to add to your TBR? Or even better, what books/authors could you recommend to others?
I realize many of you do not plan specific books for recognition months, etc., but I always enjoy hearing recommendations of books you’ve read and enjoyed that would fit the category. This is how I have greatly increased the diversity of my “to-read” listing over the years, by adding such recommendations!
Ron actually started a thread for February & March 2023: Women’s Role in History Month (Feb) & Women’s History Month (March) HERE
And, of course Goodreads has a listing HERE!
https://www.adp.com/spark/articles/20....
This is a resource for March themes from SPARK that I thought was interesting, especially for those who are in a "workplace" environment. According to this site, the 2023 theme is “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories” and they include a history of this recognition month.
I can highly recommend
Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz by Coyne S. Sanders and Thomas Gilbert
(set in Hollywood)
Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball
(published posthumously)
Amazing what she (and Desi) both accomplished, but especially a woman who was expelled from drama school after the first semester, stating that she was wasting her time due to a lack of talent! Talk about pereseverence!
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
She wrote this specifically as an abolitionist to depict the unlimited cruelties of slavery as sanctioned by law. Quite brave for a female in 1852 to publish under her own name AND to make a political statement.
Chengli and the Silk Road Caravan by Hildi Kang
Kang is married to a Korean man and has been living in Korea for decades. She studies Korean history and works to disseminate that information, even to younger readers. This is a fascinating adventure starring an orphaned male child during the 7th Century.
The London House by Katherine Reay
A woman chooses her own life independent of marriage, etc., during the second World War.
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
A man choosing to defy his father to marry the woman he loves. A father determined to select "appropriate" (read--financially well-off/titled) mates for his children in the 19th Century.
Authors:
Paula McLain: The Paris Wife, Circling the Sun, Love and Ruin, When the Stars Go Dark, Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses
The first four are historical fiction depicting strong women dealing with misogyny and discrimination, among them Hemingway’s 1st and 3rd wives and Beryl Markham. The last is her memoir of growing up in foster care from age 4.
Stephanie Burgis’ Harwood Spellbook series: Spellswept, Snowspelled, Thornbound, Moontangled, Spellcloaked: A Harwood Spellbook Story, Frostgilded
These are fantasy and all depict feminist themes in a world where women are the ‘rational beings’ entrusted to run the world (politics) and men are more emotional and flighty, therefore relegated to be magicians… Not only are there interracial relationships, but also "inter-species"! :)
The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John
Historical fiction set in 1950s Australia depicting the personal lives of several women who work selling women’s clothing in a department store.
Ann Cleeves' Vera Stanhope series and the last 3 books in her Shetland series
Women who live life on their own terms.
Popsugar: 35/50
Nadine’s Q1 Mini-Challenge: 7/10
AtY: 44/52
RHC: 11/24
FINISHED:
My Girl 2 by Patricia Hermes ✶✶✶✶✶ was yet another wonderfully enjoyable adaptation from a movie! Very sweet and I felt very realistic coming-of-age. Also a quick read. Just a nice between-more-intense-reads book!
POPSUGAR: #3, #7, #19-2018: prompt #28 A book with song lyrics in the title, #28, #31, #42
ATY: #3-A book involving friends, family, or a found family, #5, #19-Vada writes poetry!, #26, #29, #34, #37, #45, #46-“2”, #52
RHC: #14-204 ratings, #24-2015: A YA novel
The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon ✶✶✶✶✶✶✶✶✶✶ was absolutely brilliant and adorable! I LOVED Yoon’s format and the science-y nerd that is still me so appreciated the bits of scientific trivia! Wow! Really anxious to read her other two books and now she is another author whose new releases I will want to read asap!
POPSUGAR: #4, #6, #29-2017: prompt #45 A book about an immigrant or refugee, #28, #31, NEW #43, #50
ATY: #3-A book from a genre that starts with any letter in your name—Young Adult (Lynn), #4, #5, NEW #9-Walter Dean Myers Award Nominee (2017), #10-Scary, #18-Natasha is a science nerd!, #19-Daniel writes poetry!, #37, #38, #50-John Steptoe Award for New Talent (2017)
RHC: #24-2017: prompt #5 Read a book by an immigrant or with a central immigration narrative
*Wild Fire (Shetland Island #8) by Ann Cleeves ✶✶✶✶✶ was an excellent ending to this series, IMO! It demonstrated that Jimmy was not ALWAYS “emotionally incontinent”! LOL I feel as if Cleeves definitely left room for the series to continue if she ever wants to do so in the future. A good mystery and I appreciated the theme of abuse carrying forward through generations, as, unfortunately, often occurs.
POPSUGAR: #17, #19-2018: prompt #34 A book published in 2018, #28, #29, #31
ATY: #2, #3-A book set on an island, #5, #14, #19-Helena a designer, Daniel an architect, Emma designed and sewed her own clothing, #26, #27, #28, #37, #43, #45
RHC: #23, #24-2017: prompt #12 A fantasy novel
CONTINUING:
*The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh for the March Monthly Group Read.
*Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses by Paula McLain
*The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones
*The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed
*Festival Days by Jo Ann Beard
*Mrs. 'Arris Goes to New York (Mrs. ‘Arris #2) by Paul Gallico
*Beloved by Toni Morrison
PLANNED:
February (Yes, I am well aware…it is already MARCH! LOL) Buddy Reads:
*The Darkest Evening (Vera Stanhope #9) by Ann Cleeves
*Cross My Heart (#21) by James Patterson
For March 14 author event:
*Quint by Dionne Irving
*The Islands: Stories by Dionne Irving
For IRL book club, also on March 14 (!!!!):
*Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
*Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café (Before the Coffee Gets Cold #2) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
*Before Your Memory Fades (Before the Coffee Gets Cold #3) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Mar 02, 2023 08:12AM
Erica wrote: "1. This was on my tbr before it got picked because ya fantasy is a faveourite genre of mine. I've had a bunch of people in my feed read this so it went on the tbr and then as a possibility for this prompt. I've already completed #7 so I'm going to use this for my ATY challenge prompt of 'body of water in title'."Ooohhh, yes, it definitely fits that prompt!
"2. Yes the cover helps me pick up a book or add it to the tbr. Covers and titles are picked to latch on to fanbases of popular books especially within ya fantasy. It's why I get lots of books confused too Lynn. :)
I wish I could remember the specific books that confused me, but *sigh* of course I cannot right now! :) I guess that means I've finally eliminated the confusion! LOL At least that's what I'm going with for now!
"5. Of course I hope to learn a little about Korea. Although it's a feminist retelling so you have to keep that in mind."
I can only assume that Korean society is mired in "non-feminist" beliefs, actions, and behaviors. As are most of the world's societies overall. I see feminism as a continuing battle, just as the battle continues for civil rights/equal access for anyone/any group other than white males...
Mar 02, 2023 08:01AM
Erica wrote: "I’d volunteer to lead but I’m on hold for a copy at my library and I’m not next in line. So don’t know if this will come in."Hopefully it will arrive in time for you to participate this month!
Mar 02, 2023 08:01AM
Teri wrote: "Looks like we might not have a leader for this month. No, I'm not volunteering as my health is quite poor at present and I cannot be counted on. Still, I think it would be interesting to have everyone ask questions or provide prompts as it strikes them during the reading. Just a thought."I failed to read your comment yesterday, Teri! I am sending you positive healing energy! Health is so important to enjoying life, IMO! Thank you for being willing!!
Nadine in NY wrote: "L Y N N wrote: "Ugh. Both these moms sound like my mother. ..."I am sorry. Those can't be happy memories."
Not happy, but certainly memorable! :)
I've worked hard during my adulthood to NOT be like my mother. I hope I have succeeded. It really has been my main motivation for so much! So maybe that's good? ;)
Its interesting, because when I break down and repeat a few of the meaner things she said to me as a child/teen and even adult, people's jaws usually drop and they're shocked that anyone could be so unkind, but especially my own mother! Thank goodness I am an only child, at least she didn't have the opportunity to try to make others' lives miserable! :)
Nadine in NY wrote: "Melissa wrote: "Melissa wrote: "The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel. ... I was very annoyed with the main character's mother ..."Yeah the mom was unrelentingly awful, and I didn't understand why Harmel wrote her like that. It was for almost the entire book, the mom just verbally attacking her daughter. I'm sure many people at that time at first thought things wouldn't get so bad - Maus handles that really well. But the way her mom blamed her for everything was over the top.
I have the same criticism of The Violin Conspiracy - like, dang, his mom just did NOT let up. There was no goodness at all in her, she just hated on her son, for no reason. Why did the author write her like that??"
Ugh. Both these moms sound like my mother. I guess I can just play back memories and skip reading these? LOL
Nadine in NY wrote: "Happy Thursday! Here we are staring down the end of another month. We've continued to have a very mild winter here in central New York - in fact, most of winter has felt like spring, although we did get an ice storm last night (which in itself is VERY unusual for our area - it's usually not warm enough for ice to form here, we normally just get a ton of snow). My snowdrops are up now, but that's right on schedule for me, they always pop up in January and wait for the snow to melt so they can bloom. Are you finding spring is coming earlier this year in your area?"Overall, I would say it is warmer than expected for this time of year.
"My dog is all better after last week's UTI, so that's good. My tie dyes are still happening - the shirt I hand-painted with the dragon Haku's face came out wonderfully!! (For the curious, this is my shirt: https://scontent.fagc3-1.fna.fbcdn.ne...) Now I've got a sweatshirt waiting to be washed - it's the first sweatshirt I've dyed, fingers crossed for it - and I'm getting ready to try a new fold called a "Klink.""
I love the fact that you are creative in addition to being an engineer! Yay you! The link didn't work for me, but I'm using my imagination!
"We made a daytrip down to Corning to visit the Museum of Glass (detouring into Binghamton to get my college kid, of course), and I guess my kids didn't believe me when I said it was a good museum, because they were both amazed at how much they enjoyed it."
Isn't it the best when you can show your children something you enjoy and they also enjoy it? :)
"I hope your February reading is on track and where you want it to be. Mine's not! I thought I'd get to a lot of Black History Month books this month, but I got distracted by a few new 2023 publications that came in from the library."
Ahhhh...that is a sigh of relief that I am not the only one behind!! :)
"Admin stuff
Our April MAY (ETA: somehow I totally skipped April and thought bunnies was was April instead of May!!) group read results are in, it was a tight race, and the winning book is: Bunny! I've heard this book is really weird, so naturally that makes me want to read it and discuss it with someone, this should be perfect."
I am thrilled you want to read it. I won't be doing so, since it is horror and I cannot do horror! :)
"Now we will take a little pause for a month or so on the polls so that we don't get too far ahead of ourselves.
Let us know if you would like to lead discussions for March or April or May (or any future month). March is getting close!! Let us know if you want to step up and lead the discussion of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea. I feel like somebody DID express interest, but we don't have a name written down, so maybe you weren't' sure? Or Lynn and I dropped the ball haha!"
I looks like LeahS is leading! She offered to post some questions since she read this last month and I encouraged her to do so. I hadn't really planned to read this one, but picked up a copy yesterday and have begun. I had forgotten it is a mythological retelling...
"The Shadow of Sirius poems by W.S. Merwin - I LOVED this! This year I am focusing on reading Pulitzer prize winners and former Poet Laureates, and that strategy is paying off so far! I love this so much I bought a copy for myself to keep. His poems reminded me a lot of Mary Oliver's."
Always happy for you when you enjoy a poem collection! :)
"How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones - this was okay. It was a bit messy and disjointed, I'm not sure what Jones' goal was. To my surprise, there was a love triangle so I checked that off on my Challenge. This was also on my short list of books I "must" read in 2023.
Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper - I LOVED Harper's last book (She Rides Shotgun - it was amazing, go read it if you love gritty crime novels), and I have waited years for his next one to come, so I JUMPED on this. With my hyper fervent level of anticipation, it's not really a surprise that I was a little disappointed, because seriously what could live up to the extremely high expectations I had developed? I enjoyed this. It's a solid neo-noir mystery / crime thriller. AND it's all about Hollywood!! Which I was NOT expecting. Two surprises in one week :-) SO I checked off "about Hollywood" on my Challenge list."
Love those kinds of surprises!
"Question of the Week
What other bookish social media or blogs do you use regularly?
* The Millions - twice a year, I become VERY excited about The Millions, when they release their Most Anticipated lists. https://themillions.com/2023/01/most-... Other than January and July, I'm never there. But come December and June, I start searching every day to see if they've released the new list yet."
Ugh. There went an hour reviewing these titles and adding to my already huge mountainous TBR listing! ;) Thanks! I think... :)
Mar 01, 2023 07:38AM
Elizabeth wrote: "LeahS wrote: "Does/did the cover attract you to the book and does it make you want to find out what happens in the story?How important are covers generally to you?"
Also I totally love the covers and it is definitely an important part of the book selection process for me, as I shop a lot on amazon for kindle titles. As much as you can't judge a book by it's cover, a reader sure can glean a lot of information from the cover. I could tell this one was a fantasy, Asian perspective, and featuring a female! I definitely wanted to know more.
But I'll admit, this one has been waiting for me in my wishlist for a long time along with another book with a sort of similar cover. I've gotten it really mixed up with Daughter of the Moon Goddess which I am also keen to read. I think I'm going to need a big gap of time between these books or else they're going to be forever mixed up in my memory (like Daughters of Nri and Children of Blood and Bone 😅."
This doesn't happen very often for me, but several times throughout my life I have confused two books! I find it to be confounding! I am searching for a copy of Daughters of NRI, but it seems to only be available in audiobook format. I do appreciate that it was published by Onwe Press, an independent publisher in the UK founded by two black females!
Mar 01, 2023 07:19AM
Elizabeth wrote: "LeahS wrote: "Did you intend to read this book before it was selected for the monthly read group?If so, were you going to use it to fulfill prompt 7?"
Yes, I have had this in my TBR pile since last year! I'm super excited that it was chosen for this month's read along - I haven't participated in one of these before, but since this is a book I want to read I am excited to join in. I was not going to read this book for prompt #7 (I have Girl is a Body of Water slated for that one.) I was going to read it for #14 retelling of a classic because of its folktale and mythology elements. (Maybe this is a stretch?)"
I do not consider that to be a "stretch" of the prompt at all! But I love to interpret prompts to suit me! LOL (That's one of the most fun elements of a challenge to me!) I'm so glad you are excited for this one!
"4. This is a fantasy story based on a Korean myth. I've noticed in comments that fantasy seems to be a popular topic, and mythology less so. To me, they seem much the same.
Was it the fantasy or mythology elements that appealed to you about this book?
How do you feel about those genres in general?
5. Do you hope to learn something about Korea from this book?"
I LOVE both mythology and fantasy, and a mashup of the two, particularly of Asian mythology totally appeals to me. I have read many books over the last year or so that fit these categories. I am an American born person living in Japan and I make an effort to read books from this region - whether they are written in another language and translated to English, or like this one if they are written originally in English, but still Asian #ownvoices perspective. I long to immerse myself in the literature, mythology, and culture of the region I live in, as a way to understand my friends and neighbors and my own life here.
That is so cool! What took you to Japan?
Mar 01, 2023 07:11AM
1. Did you intend to read this book before it was selected for the monthly read group?Not really!
If so, were you going to use it to fulfill prompt 7?
I always list all prompts any one book will fulfill, so yes? :)
2. Various editions of this book have pretty covers:
Does/did the cover attract you to the book and does it make you want to find out what happens in the story?
Not really. While I appreciate covers that are attractive to me, that is not an important consideration when I evaluate my interest in reading a book.
How important are covers generally to you?
While they may attract me, it is reading the synopsis and considering the genre(s) that is most important to me. I would never select a book strictly based on its cover unless it is a children's book or something similar that I could sit and read very quickly...
3. This being read for ' A book with 'girl ' in the title. In this book, the MC is a teenager, so girl seems appropriate. In other novels, girl is used in the title when the MC is a young woman, e.g. Gone Girl.
Do you object to this?
This became a topic of discussion at a book author event I attended years ago. While it may seem inappropriate to me for some books, the title doesn't really matter all that much to me.
Does the word girl in the title make you more or less keen to read a book?
It signals to me that I might expect a younger female rather than a female who is middle-aged or older... But that may or may not prove to be the case. Again, the title isn't all that important to me.
4. This is a fantasy story based on a Korean myth. I've noticed in comments that fantasy seems to be a popular topic, and mythology less so. To me, they seem much the same.
Was it the fantasy or mythology elements that appealed to you about this book?
How do you feel about those genres in general?
I have never been particularly drawn to mythology, even when I was young. (Of course there were no Rick Riordan or similar books available then. Just the original myths, which I found to be rather dull and boring...) I am attracted to fantasy, as long as there aren't many gory elements to the story, but mythology still holds little interest for me other than such retellings. I also do not wish to know much about the original myth, just the overall story arc, and then I'm good to go with the retelling. For me, it is the author's writing style that matters most.
5. Do you hope to learn something about Korea from this book?
I would hope to gain a bit more information regarding the culture overall and the peoples' expectations and attitudes regarding females as a result, but I wouldn't necessarily expect that to happen...
Mar 01, 2023 06:59AM
LeahS wrote: "Ok, here goes! These are general questions, as many people like Lynn won't have progressed too far in the story.1. Did you intend to read this book before it was selected for the monthly read gro..."
Wow. These are great lead-in/introductory questions, Leah! Thank you!
Feb 28, 2023 08:08PM
Definitely like the idea of the reading prompts, Katrina! Thank you for doing this!
Feb 28, 2023 08:07PM
I LOVED this book! My review:This is definitely a 10-star read for me! I adore this book! Although I cried quite a bit at the end, it is one of the best books I've read thus far this year. I just had a feeling from Yoon's photo that I would enjoy her writing. I rarely get such a feeling, but it was definitely well-founded in this case!
So many excellent quotes and I found the unique format to be compelling while at the same time satisfying the science-y nerd in me!! This book hits so many of my favorite reading tropes! This is definitely an author whose backlist I will seek out and whose books will be a must-buy upon release!
And just remember...you never know what kind of impact you may have on another person's life...so be nice! ;)
