L Y N N’s Comments (group member since Nov 10, 2018)

L Y N N’s comments from the Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge group.

Harmke wrote: "Covid is paying a visit to our house: my boyfriend has it. It’s like a normal cold, but he does cough like I do with my bronchitis. So he’s experiencing my colds right now and finally understands why I cancel all my meetings when I'm having a cold. I’m still negative and no symptoms, surprisingly, I’m Miss Cold normally and pick-up every cold that’s passing."
Here's hoping you can avoid COVID!

"On weather: we’re having temperatures over 30 Celsius, which is very hot over here. I so love the a/c in our bedroom."
A/C is definitely nice!

"PS: 16/40
Total 2022: 35 (really, I’m on my way to 50+ books this year!)"
Whoo! Whoo!

"Finished
All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard⭐⭐⭐⭐
Not for PS
Sniff… I finished the series and now I’m a bit sad to say farewell to the Cazalets."
It can be rather depressing to know you have read all the books in a series, can't it? I don't know why...

"Currently reading
A Gentleman in Moscow"
I love this book! Hope you enjoy it!

"QOTW
Just vacation? That little town of The House at the Edge of Night. I’d love to sit at the cafe draped with bougainvillea watching the stars…. and read of course. There are probably more places I’d would love to vacation, but this one comes to mind right now. Plus I can’t think of bookish location in the Swiss mountains where we’re heading next week."
Haven't read that one, but am definitely jealous of the Swiss mountain vacation! Enjoy!

Alex wrote: "Happy Thursday! I've got a big family wedding and a feast day coming up this weekend. Tons to do! But happy things, which is a nice change of pace. :) But it means I'm way behind in my reading schedule."
Ack! The reading will be there! Enjoy!

"QotW
I want to vacation in the lap of luxury described in Crazy Rich Asians. Ha!"
Oooohhhh...yes! I'll join you there! LOL

Doni wrote: "Finished: The Politicization of the Supreme Court This had a lot of helpful information."
This is so sad, IMO! Wish it could be undone...

"A Prayer for the Crown-Shy I enjoyed it. Maybe not as much as the first in the series, just because I knew more what to expect."
I can understand that. I'm anxious to get this one though!

"Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped You have to get past the author's hubris to get anything out of this one."
I had no idea he was an activist and writer!

"Started: Decision: How the Supreme Court Decides Cases This is too much of a deep dive into the subject matter for me."
This was first published in 1996. I wonder if the same holds true today?

"Witchlings Meh."
Made me chuckle! :)

"Qotw: I like the question. But I don't have a good answer. I was considering Fantastica from The Neverending Story, but I wouldn't be willing to trade wishes for memories, so it would be hard for me to navigate that world."
Yeah, that sounds difficult!

Jen wrote: "Work's been kind of slow for me. Not too much going on. It was hot earlier in the week, but right now it's just about perfect temperatures for me.

Last Friday, I got to see the Hamilton tour again, so that was exciting."
Ha! I would settle for once! LOL

"I am currently at 46/50 for Popsugar (37/40 and 9/10). I think I'm going to finish sometime in September this year."
Cool!

"Currently reading:
The Bear and the Nightingale - a reread for a book that takes place during your favorite season (winter). I loved this book the first time I read it, but I never got around to the sequels at the time, so I wanted to refresh my memory before reading them. I'm planning to read the rest of the series to fill other prompts, too."
I keep meaning to continue this series as well...and then don't!

"QOTW: I don't know. Leaving aside real-place settings (and dystopian ones for obvious reasons) - I've always been attracted to fantasy settings. I used to love going to the Renn Faire, although we haven't been back since Covid.

When I was younger, I used to dream of visiting Lackey's Valdemar. Of more recent reads, maybe the city from Legends & Lattes where Viv sets up her shop -- or, going sci-fi a moment, maybe Becky Chambers' ship, the Wayfarer."
Sounds as if you know where you'd like to go!

Theresa wrote: "The endless energy sapping 90+F heat and off the charts humidity has ended! Still hot and humidity but better. I also head off on vacation for a few days - a small island off the coast of Maine. No internet and almost no cell service. I plan to sleep, read, stitch, do jigsaw puzzles."
That sounds amazing!

"I'm 43/50!"
Getting close!

"Finished:
An Artist of the Floating World - beautiful! short but so complete that you swear you read a book twice as long."
Ishiguro is definitely a favorite!

"The Death of Mrs. Westaway - SO GOOD! Gothic house, surprise heir, dark family secrets yet Ware makes it fresh. Best interweaving of tarot ever."
I've read one of Ware's books and definitely plan to read more!

"Grey Mask - from 1928 and the Golden Age of Detective Mysteries - introduces Miss Silver and is great fun, clever puzzle"
I have a copy of this right next to my chair and hope to pick it up yet this month and read it! Didn't realize it was such a huge series!

"Currently reading:
The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers - seems appropriate for a vacation in Maine"
This looks like fun!

"Klara and the Sun"
Hoping to get to this one soon myself!

"Paris by the Book"
This looks to be intriguing!

"Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt"
Finally added a McCullough to my TBR listing. Does that mean I'm getting old? LOL

"QOTW: I have a whole list! Or two! The most recent additions:

Cambridge, England -- setting was the strong point of Chapter and Curse - came alive!

Snowdonia National Park in Wales - setting for the Constable Evans series by Rhys Bowen

Happy Valley in Kenya -- Circling the Sun and Chasing Cheetahs: The Race to Save Africa's Fastest Cat

Most of all - I want to take a canal trip on a narrowboat along the UK canal system -- The Narrowboat Summer"
You are well-prepared! :)

Brandon wrote: "Question of the Week:

A few ideas include Lothlorien, Booster Terrik's Star Destroyer, and the Maje-Imperator's palace from Hidden Empire."

I love how specific you were! :)

Melissa wrote: "Hello! The Hugo voting deadline is tonight, and I did not get everything read that I wanted to. (Plus I still have all the short stories and novelettes and artists to review this evening.) I got a LOT more read than last year, but I still ran out of time. I think I need to read more new releases BEFORE they're Hugo nominees. It will definitely be nice to get back to reading books for the challenge and my own whims, as there are new releases in my favorite series coming out soon. It was also nice to return my stack of Hugo books to the library yesterday and check out something for Read Harder."
You are ambitious! Good for you for participating in the Hugo Awards!

"Finished This Week:
An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo. I wanted something short to break up all the SF/F last week, and found this book of poetry by a former Poet Laureate. It's about the Trail of Tears and the experience of the Native people who were removed from their lands, and the generations after. Heavy subject matter, but it's poetry, so it's fast. Using for Read Harder's Entire Poetry Collection."
Oooph! I can only imagine some of those poems are intense!

"Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Hugo Nominee for Best Novel. All of my friends who said this was a really good book were right. I believed the characterization and the plot kept me guessing. I still think The Martian is my favorite of his, but this is certainly up there along with it. Using for ATY #34, Teacher in an Important Role."
Ooohhh...I don't know which of his books I could select as my favorite. I loved all 3 of them!

"Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao. Hugo Nominee for Best New Writer and the Lodestar Award for Best YA Book (not a Hugo). Marketed as Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale, and it absolutely is that. I enjoyed the story until I read a review mentioning how we are given zero motivation for why the MC is the way she is or why everyone seems to love her. Once I had her Mary Sue-ness pointed out, I couldn't unsee it. And then the ending went a completely different way from what I expected (except the part that was supposed to be a surprise, but I know how foreshadowing works). I'm not sure how I feel about it now. Not for prompt."
Sounds like one a reader would either love or hate...

"Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell. Hugo nominee for Best New Writer. Most of the reviews for this one are debating if it's Science Fiction with Romance, or Romance with Science Fiction, and then complaining that they felt it was more one than the other, and they were expecting the other. I enjoyed it, and that was a surprise. Some of the worldbuilding could have used some deeper explanation, like how long a week was, because if there's only three weeks to the treaty signing, and then ten days pass, and it's three days to travel to where the signing ceremony will be, why are you taking a three day trip to this other place? Aren't you rapidly running out of days? Not for PS Prompt."
That made me chuckle. Not too long ago I was counting days, etc., in a very similar fashion while reading!

"PS: 40/50 RH: 11/24 ATY: 47/52 GR: 115/100"
Great progress for only August!

"QoTW: If you could vacation in any bookish location you’ve read about, which would you choose?
I've been thinking about this all morning but hadn't caught that you specified Vacation, not Live. If I don't have to live there, and could leave, that changes my answer. (I was mostly thinking about all the fantastical settings I've read and my chances of being a peasant and dying in them were very high.)"
VISITING VS VACATIONING would make quite a difference. I hope you wouldn't be a peasant and die wherever you were! :)

"The towns in the forest of A Psalm for the Wild-Built sounded neat and I could see spending a vacation there in their tree hut things.."
Agreed! :)

Nadine in NY wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "Ugh, you guys, the new book page format has found me on Goodreads. I hate it. It's all big and blocky and looks like GR is desperately trying to copy Storygraph. If I wanted St..."

Yes, everyone is getting the new version, they are slowly rolling it out. I'm hoping this is why GR has been so buggy lately, and once they are done with this big stupid rollout, the log-outs will end."
Fingers crossed that at least I won't be logging back in every few minutes!

Jennifer W wrote: "Hi all! Still sniffling etc over here with covid. Blah... I got an injection of antibodies on Monday, I haven't noticed an improvement. The worst of it really is that no one dares babysit my kid, and I don't have the energy to play with her, so she's watching lots of TV, unfortunately."
Hopefully you'll be over the sniffling! And I can tell you...kids are resilient! She'll survive the TV overload. I found that in similar situations it helped (me at least) to discuss in the aftermath what they had watched on TV and answer questions, make comments, etc.

"finished anything this week, but made a little bit of progress in Burnt Shadows and The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls."
In all fairness, both of these books seem intense!

"QOTW: My brain is mush, but I feel like I remember being impressed with Penang in The Gift of Rain.""
Cool!

Sherri wrote: "Good Morning All, the weather is hot with afternoon showers. I read 3 books for the week. None for this challenge.
1. Pope Joan. 3 stars. A book that has been on my Kindle queue since May 2017. I'm slowly working in the queue but a lot of the time I don't feel like reading what I own."
Ah, yes! Distracted by those shiny books...over there...not here! :) I am quite familiar with that syndrome! LOL This looks to be a great nonfiction read! Added it to my TBR listing, 'cause I needed more books on there! LOL

"QOTW: I enjoyed the Wizarding World at Universal in Orlando, Fl. I would like to go back. I also want to do the Band of Brothers Tour based on Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest"
Two very different places! :)

K.L. wrote: "Happy Thursday, everyone!

I got to celebrate my birthday this week, and I had a really nice, relaxing day! I actually decided to do a tiny bit of online book shopping as a birthday present to myself…which then turned into an absolutely massive book haul."
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I LOVE massive book hauls! No better way to celebrate, IMO! LOL

"So, my TBR Checklist is somewhat out of control once again. But at least I can guarantee that I will be reading these new books as soon as they arrive in the mail. ^_^"
I think control is highly overrated, myself! LOL

"Goodreads: 384/200
TBR Checklist: 328/1058"
Amazing!

"Finished Reading:
~Call Us What We Carry"
This is on my TBR!

"Currently Reading:
~Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love, and Death in Renaissance Italy"
Oohh...added this one! That looks really interesting!

"QOTW:
I’m a massive fan of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, so I would definitely enjoy vacationing (or living full-time) in the Shire or Rivendell. I would also enjoy vacationing at Pemberley (Pride and Prejudice), or in Scotland (Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other)."
Sounds fun!

Mandy wrote: "Happy Thursday!

I’ve been home on vacation since Friday the 5th. Heavenly!"
That's great! Congrats on that time for yourself!

"I’ve also been trying to go through books.
Packed up three boxes of books to get rid of them. A lot of them were weeded books I wanted at the time, but now I can let them go. I admit I have a tendency to hoard books like a book dragon, but I’m learning the fine art of letting go."
Shhhhhh! I don't want my husband to overhear that it IS possible to reform oneself of hoarding books. I am not now, nor perhaps may I ever be, prepared to "let go" of books! Though I admit I have a small pile to take to my local used bookstore and I am trying to determine which books I might be willing to give away... But 3 boxes? Noooooooo...

"Finished:"
Wow. That is a ton of books! :)

"Planning:
Cemetery Boys"
I convinced myself this is one I could skip...

"QOTW: where wouldn’t I go! Well, as long as I had powers to protect myself because some of the those places have slavers!."
There is that... :(

Kenya wrote: "Happy Thursday.

Still gearing up for school -- it starts August 22nd. Still nervous, but I'm a little more hopeful that things will work out well. Will probably go shopping for a new computer this weekend so I'm better prepared (all my classes are online)."
I'm sure school will be great! I hope you enjoy all your course work and feel as if you are learning valuable skills! Shopping for anything is a drudgery for me, but especially electronics! Good luck with that as well!

"Books read this week:
Charlie Hernández and the League of Shadows -- it was fun learning about the various myths of Hispanic/Latino cultures throughout the years… but the story and writing felt pretty weak.
The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman -- a surprisingly good middle-grade book about a group of kids becoming friends at a national Scrabble tournament. I ended up learning a lot more about Scrabble than I ever thought possible, hehe…"
Added both to my TBR listing! They look great!

"Currently Reading:
Journey to the Center of the Earth"
I just started reading In Search of the Castaways; or the Children of Captain Grant, the first in Verne's Captain Nemo trilogy and am finding it very entertaining! The writing definitely holds up over time, at least for me it does!

"The Big Over Easy"
I own a Jasper Fforde book I've been meaning to read for several years. I am determined to read it yet this year! I think I would enjoy his writing!

"The Last House on Needless Street"
Oohh...HORROR! I'll leave that to you! LOL

"A Prayer for the Crown-Shy"
I loved the first book in the series! I'm relatively certain I will love them all! :)

"QOTW:
"Anywhere but here" is a tempting answer, haha... I'm more drawn to fantastic places than I am to real-world locations (such as Pern from the Dragonriders of Pern books and the planets of the Wayfarers series), though reading anything set in other cities makes me want to pay a visit..."
Perfect! I concur! LOL

Nadine in NY wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Nadine in NY wrote: "Happy Thursday!!

I’m in my last few days of vacation. This vacation has been all about HEAT and HUMIDITY. Even when I walk the dogs before dawn, I come back hot and sweaty. Bu...

Sorry the weather hasn't been more comfortable for you while on vacation! Ugh. I guess at least it's not raining?"

LOL funny you should say that!! Because when I finally walked the dogs on Thursday, it POURED and we got soaked!!! And then on Friday it cooled off a bit, but we got rained on AGAIN. (But then the afternoon was nice.). Today, the day we left, it was absolutely GORGEOUS weather!! Low humidity, nice breeze, sunny, mid-70s."
Oh, my! You really got hit with it all!

"LOL yeah I'm never reading that Find Me"
Yep! I'll read it for both of us! LOL

Nadine in NY wrote: "Ugh, you guys, the new book page format has found me on Goodreads. I hate it. It's all big and blocky and looks like GR is desperately trying to copy Storygraph. If I wanted Storygraph, I would be ..."
Oh no! Why do that?!? One of my IRL book club members admitted she left GR and is now on Storygraph. She showed Storygraph to me and I was all, "I don't want a graph! I want the social interaction, reviews, etc! And then I figured you might enjoy that...you know, it seemed like an "engineering" thing! LOL

So is this something that is going to be done for everyone? Eventually? Ugh. I would just appreciate it if they could maintain the program so once we were logged in that was it and we didn't have to keep logging back in repeatedly! FIX THAT! Then worry about changing things... Ah, well...another rant... :)

Katrina wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Parable of the Sower (Earthseed #1) by Octavia Butler is not anything I expected…rather brutal and yet, quite compelling. I rather assume I will read the sequel. (I am posting very late this week, so my comments will wait for next Thursday!)."

I read Parable of the Sower earlier in the year. It is an intriguing concept but I didn't enjoy it as much has I thought. I am currently reading Parable of the Talents just to complete the duology prompt. So far it is about the same. I think it is just I that I struggle with religious text."
That is soooo interesting! I didn't really consider Earthseed to be religious so much as simply spiritual. Sorry it was a struggle for you.

"I don't know if you have read Their Eyes Were Watching God before but I really enjoyed this story. It was a pretty easy read as well. I love Zora Neale Hurston."
Actually, I just started this one yesterday and I think it will be very enjoyable and much lighter perhaps than I expected... I especially appreciated the historical background in Mary Helen Washington's foreword in my edition. Fascinating to think that Alice Walker was responsible for re-introducing this book and Hurston to the world and it is now one of the most commonly read and taught books. Amazing what a difference AW made! I love it!

Ashley Marie wrote: "Happy Thursday!

It's been a quiet week on my end, and temperatures have finally cooled off a bit - makes me anticipate autumn all the more. My favorite season, thanks to birthday and Halloween. I'm feeling the pull toward writing again, which I'm pleased about because I haven't felt that way in quite a few months. Consuming so many good stories has me feeling inspired!"
How exciting! :)

"And I finished a good number of books this week:
A Plain-Dealing Villain - Lockdown, A Daniel Faust Story by Craig Schaefer - The Killing Floor Blues - 5 stars across the board here. I would love to get caught up on Schaefer's work before the end of the year, but there's a spinoff series and then a full multiverse trilogy in the midst of the Faust books, so it's an ambitious plan to say the least. I'm trying my best to hold off on blitzing all of it so one of my friends can keep up, but I'm not sure it's working!"
It is tempting at times to just blast through them all at once! LOL

"Clap When You Land - 3 stars. I've never read anything like this, and it's one of the reasons I adore Elizabeth Acevedo. Book with an onomatopoeia in the title"
I keep wanting to read this one, but it's difficult to find used copies. I guess I should break down and pay for a new one...

"Ash - 2.5 stars. I liked it, but not quite what I was expecting."
I adored Last Night at the Telegraph Club and really should read some of her other books...

"Out of the Easy - DNF. This has been on my shelf for YEARS, and I've loved all of Ruta's other books. This one just moved too slowly, with bonus slut-shaming."
Interesting. I adored Salt to the Sea and own 3 more of her books. I really need to read those! This is one of them...

"PS 39/50
Moving along fairly well!"
Definitely!

"Currently:
Dreaming the Eagle - Missing this world. Coming back as soon as I've wrapped Women in the Picture."
Oohhh...this is now on my TBR listing!

"QOTW: If you could vacation in any bookish location you’ve read about, which would you choose?
So many. The Shire or Rivendell are probably near the top of my list, their idyllic qualities are legion (and I imagine temperatures are milder/less humid than here)! I'm also quickly becoming enamored with the idea of stopping into the Tiger's Garden for a drink, were I ever inclined to vacation in Vegas."
:)

Patricia wrote: "Happy Thursday! I'm going to have a vacation this Saturday and I am so excited about that. I have a busy week like Cake Baking tutorials & Decoration, Paper Folding, Indoor Games, and Tree Planting. I watched 3 movies this week which are Bridge from Cavite, Saving Hannah from Australia West, and until dusk from Capiz. I enjoyed my week so far and it was great!"
Enjoy the vacation!

"I'm Currently Reading:
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine"
One of my favorite books. And it's a debut novel! I hope you enjoy it!

"The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise"
I thought this looked like a good one!

"And I'm planning to read Thea Stilton and the Mountain of Fire and Lost in London."
Both of those series look fun!

"Question of the Week
If you could vacation in any bookish location you’ve read about, which would you choose?
- In Eleanor Oliphant, I currently reading is I guess Scotland. In the Remarkable Journey is Florida. In the Thea Stilton is Australia. The Lost in London is London in Europe:)"
So would you vacation in all of them? I can relate to that!

"Happy Thursday and Happy Reading Everyone:D"
Happy everything to you as well! :)

Katy wrote: "I finished A Long Petal of the Sea as my book by a Latina author. I pretty much liked it. I don't think I was in the righ tmood for that particular book. Beautifully written, though."
Just curious since this is a book that I mean to read. What kind of mood?

"I read Cages: A Tale of Insurrection as my book published in 2022. Loved it."
Wow. This one looks to be quite obscure.

"Just started If Bread Could Rise to the Occasion as my book with cutlery on the cover. It's a murder mystery, but it also has ghosts. And not of the people being murdered. Apparently a part of a series. Seems OK so far, but don't know about this ghost thing."
You are too funny! I have the first book in that series on my TBR.

"QOTW: Seriously? I can't answer this question. Any book setting that doesn't take place in the desert or where there's a war going on, and I'm there. If Bread Could Rise to the Occasion takes place in a little teeny town in Missouri. I'm there. I'm very easy to please with vacations. I'll go anywerhe (except the aforementioned deserts and wars)."
:)

Ellie wrote: "They're close to declaring a drought in the UK now. We haven't had proper rain for months. This week is technically another heat wave, they've cancelled all the dog stuff at the agricultural show at the weekend because it's just too hot.

I saw that Death Valley of all places is hogging all the rain."
Unbelievable about that much rain in Death Valley and the extreme dryness in the UK! Unfortunately, scientific predictions are coming true... :(

"I haven't finished any books this week. Two Point Campus came out and I finally got my Steam Deck, plus we went out and did things at the weekend now we've recovered from covid."
Glad you could get out and about again! Well, I guess there are other ways to entertain and/or educate yourself than by reading 24/7! LOL

"QOTW:
This is technically not a book setting but the Bennett's house from the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is for sale and I was thinking it'd be cool if someone bought it to do Pride and Prejudice holidays. I'd just love to sit in their parlour reading.

If anyone's got a spare £6 million:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/propertie..."
That's just a teensy-weensy bit more than I have in savings at the moment! LOL ;)