Erica’s Comments (group member since Apr 05, 2019)

Erica’s comments from the Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge group.

So yesterday it was over 20 degrees. Today we are under a winter storm watch. An epic blizzard/snow storm is headed this way. The weather is weird.

Shannon wrote: "Erica wrote: "If I Never Met You 3 stars
A good rom com that's plot is the same as a beloved hallmark movie just set in Manchester."

Do you know the name of the Hallmark movie? Those have been my ..."

The Mistletoe Promise
It's from 2016 starring Jaime King and Luke Macfarlane. It looks like it's not actually made by Hallmark. I just used that to describe the type of movie. It was filmed in Canada which always makes them more entertaining for me because they are filmed in the summer and they have to create fake snow.

Thanks @Nadine. It worked like a charm.

Title: The Kiss Quotient

Author: Helen Hoang

Would you recommend this book?
For sure. This is a pretty woman reversal. The main character fits into STEM.

Hey all what a roller coaster of a week! The weather has been unseasonably warm here too. Over 20 degrees in November is weird and I was happy to take it. Your election down south totally made me forget that Halloween happened this past week.

Finished Reading:

If I Never Met You 3 stars
A good rom com that's plot is the same as a beloved hallmark movie just set in Manchester.

The Tea Dragon Society 5 stars
Cute overload. A really lovely middle grade graphic novel with beautiful artwork.

My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises 3 stars
This was very circular/rambily and the almost 8 year old is a little unbelievable that it was a bit of a chore to read. I still enjoyed the book and will read more from this author in the future.

Black Sun 3 stars
Rebecca Roanhorse can make amazing characters and set the scene with few words. It unfortunately ended abruptly, not a cliff hanger.

Sixth Grave on the Edge 3 stars
This series always has funny little blurbs at the start of each chapter. Not the best of the series but on to the next one.

PS 2020 50/50
PS Summer 20/20
PS Fall 8/10
PS 2016 36/40
goodreads 187/200

Currently Reading:
Split Tooth

QOTW:
So my favourite series has the 7th and final book published this month: Grave War. This series started in 2010. The author had stuff going on in her life so there was a 4 year gap with nothing. Grave War was supposed to be published last spring but thanks to covid it got pushed until the end of this month. I'm also impatient for How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories that will be published this month.
I made a list at the end of last year/start of this year of books to read in 2020. There are 20 other books on the list plus the two I mentioned above. Those 20 aren't going to happen, oh well.

Drakeryn wrote: "ooh I've heard a bunch of good stuff about Elatsoe (and am a sucker for any book with dogs/wolves on the cover)

Will this do?

I'm about half done Black Sun and it's awesome epic fantasy.

Laura wrote: "Have you all seen this? Popsugar is doing Book Club Awards this year. All nominees have to be books published in 2020.

https://www.popsugar.com/entertainmen......"

Who else thinks reading one of the nominated books will be a prompt next year?

Drakeryn wrote: "Erica wrote: "(so the fonts are all weird now)"

weirdly, my fonts are fixed! maybe there's like a quota, only so many people can have the good fonts at once

Also thanks Erica/Cendaquenta for the ..."

That's sounds like a good plan to me.

Cendaquenta wrote: "Sox got put down today. Just thought you all should know, since I've been keeping you up-to-date and you've been so kind and sympathetic."

I'm so sorry you had to do that but Sox won't be suffering anymore.

Cendaquenta wrote: "Drakeryn wrote: "re: A Deadly Education: I'm in the middle of the book so I'm not going to read links due to spoilers. But so far, the racist microaggressions seem targeted against the main charact..."

That was a glaring mistake that the author and editors missed. I read A Deadly Education without knowing that there was any controversy and really enjoyed it. I've since been reading reviews to figure out what I missed. Some seem to think the main character's perspective makes sense and others see racism in many different aspects of the story. ie. how the main character groups other students by the language they speak, how secondary characters were barely created, and for insensitive word choices.

(so the fonts are all weird now)

Lynn wrote: "Here is a blurb I found regarding the initial 15 nominees for each Goodreads category:
Books published between November 18, 2019, and November 17, 2020, will be eligible for the 2021 awards. (So Ob..."

Thanks for posting that. It's still not super clear to me but whatever I just really wish they would archive all the awards.

Happy almost Halloween.
One election down one to go here. I need to look into how to vote for this second one. My candidate won, but the overall results were depressing/scary. Such is 2020, what is the future going to learn from this year?

At least I had some 5 stars reads this week. :)

Finished Reading:

Fangirl, Vol. 1: The Manga (Goodreads nominee) Fangirl 5 stars
I snapped up this graphic novel on overdrive to see if Fangirl would be worth my time. This was so awesome it was painful to wait the two days for Fangirl to come in. Both were so worth my time and very cute. However the bits of fanfic that the main character creates don't hold appeal so I'm on the fence about reading Carry On.

March: Book Three 5 stars
Now I'm finished with John Lewis' memoir. It definitely made me grateful for my voting rights and options.

A Deadly Education 5 stars (Goodreads nominee)
This book had great first and last lines. I'm very sad to have to wait for book 2. I really like that Naomi Novik is able to create different worlds, characters, and plots when I compare books of hers that I've read.

PS 2020 50/50
PS Summer 20/20
PS Fall 7/10
PS 2016 35/40
goodreads 182/200

Currently Reading:
Black Sun (Goodreads nominee)
My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises

QOTW:
I'm definitely excited for the new awards but I'm very curious how they decide the nominees. Most popular and best are not mutually exclusive but I use the nominees to find new books to read ever year. I vote in every category and I try to write-in for as much as possible even if I'm going to vote for something already nominated. I figure this helps determine author's future contracts.
I'm a little annoyed that most of the things I want to vote for are all in the same categories. I thought I had read a more varied selection this year but it seems they were published in other years.

Murderbot fans unite and vote in the Sci-fi category.

Débora wrote: "Hello you all!

Last week the libraries in my city reopen, so this week I could read books that weren't in my house! I am very happy with that, because now I have one good reason to leave my home i..."

I'm very happy for you that the libraries have reopened. I'm also impressed by you're achievement of another language.

Here I am thinking I had actually read books outside of my favourite genre only to discover that they are all published before this year. Oh well.

I haven’t noticed any changes in font.

+1 for liking “NotificationGate”

I was just noticing how nothing had changed on my feed. This is more annoying to me than no notifications.

We're getting snow up here on the Canadian prairies.

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse works

Hey happy voting season. Hint hint! (Unless you're going to vote wrong ;) )
This week it snowed for the first time so it feels like autumn is over. After my answer to last week's question I have acted completely different. I said I wasn't moving books around to fill prompts but I realized I could be finished if I moved one book so I did. Now all that's left are a few prompts for 2016's challenge and the fall challenge.

It's been a good reading week.

Finished:

The Silent Patient 4 stars
This was a good medical thriller that lived up to the hype. This accomplishes a lot of prompts fyi.

The Summer Deal 4 stars
Solid rom com that had me laughing out loud.

Heart Berries 4 stars
This has some disturbing content but it's important to listen to survivour's stories.

Leaves on the Wind Serenity: No Power in the 'Verse both 4 stars
These have been on my tbr for a long time and I needed to read a western. These take place after the movie.

Fifth Grave Past the Light 3 stars
This had good first and last lines. Also lots of snark in between.

PS 2020 50/50
PS Summer 20/20
PS Fall 7/10 (some of these are stretches so they may change)
PS 2016 35/40
goodreads 178/200

Currently Reading:
My Grandmother Sends Her Regards And Apologies
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

QOTW:
Well let's see. I joined goodreads January 2018 so there are 9 books from that day left. This is what I entered first: The Magicians. It's probably going to continue to be in one of many stacks of books in my house. Book stacks are how I decorate ;)

I have created two lists for unread items. A want to read and a maybe list, each have about 300 books. I seem to read more off the maybe list than the want to read list, which is weird. I too go through my lists and switch or purge books. However I did get 2 books off the want to read list this week.