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

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

If you like the Kiera Knightly Pride and Prejudice, visually you’ll enjoy Anna Karenina.

Happy Thursday! I'm safe and healthy life is good. I only managed one book this week but it put me up to 1000 books read.

Finished:
The Huntress 3 stars
The characters were really awesome but this book would not end. The author likes a lot of detail and it stalled the plot for me.

PS 2020 39
PS 2016 27
Goodreads 88/150

Currently Reading:
Ryder They've been posting this scene by scene and it's me helping get through the lockdown
Little Women
The Girl in the Spider's Web

QOTW:
+1 for grammar and punctuation
To authors please stop dumbing down the mc to further your plot only to have them be a genius at the end. (Sookie Stackhouse)
Most of my annoyances are publisher's fault. I hate reading books by Canadians about Canadians with words spelled wrong for Americans. If you need to sell book whatever of a series to a brand new reader put a character recap section at the beginning for them. Let the writer write a new story for readers already invested in the series. Also publishers are at fault for flooding the market with the same story as much as writers.

For those that don't partake in the weekly checkins, the Murderbot series is beloved many readers in this book club.

@Kenya thanks for the recommend!

Lynn wrote: "Stacey wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Wow. I had planned to read A Gathering of Shadows in May, but bumped it back to June. Now I'm really anxious to get into it. I loved the first book!"

Aww, I'm sure that..."

So what you are saying is that you have been in lockdown with a toilet paper thief. Yikes

Ladiibbug wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Stacey wrote: "Elaine wrote: "Hi all! This week I finished A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab and started in its sequel, A Gathering of Shadows! I love this series so far. It’s one..."

I tried to start Vicious like a couple weeks ago but it required too much brain power for the lockdown. I'll have to go back at a future date.

Happy Thursday! Also early happy Mother's Day to those applicable.

Finished:
Shadow Me Reveal Me Defy Me Imagine Me 3 stars all around
I finished this series whoo. I needed to read Imagine Me for my book club this month so I've sped through this series. For a ya dystopian series it followed many tropes but had unexpected twists.

The Unhoneymooners upgraded to 5 stars
This was a comfort reread. I had originally given this 4 stars but this time round I was still laughing out loud and didn't find sections annoying like the first time through.

PS 2020 39/50
PS 2016 26/40
Goodreads 86/150

Currently reading:
Little Women very slowly
The Girl in the Spider's Web

QOTW:
So after reading everyone's posts I clearly need add to my tbr with dinosaur books. I never had a dinosaur phase but I always loved Land Before Time, We're Back, and Fantasia. That's probably why I would pick stegosaurus.

Julia wrote: "I've read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
.

Then I noticed it says during banned book week. This means September 27 - October 3.
I think I'l..."

I had to read Speak in high school but it never occurred to me that it would be worth banning. I only found out that it was banned during this lockdown when I read SHOUT and some of the poems talked about librarians not shelving it or having her presentations cancelled. SHOUT was good even though I'm not a fan of poetry.

The Girl in the Spider's Web and The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye by David Lagercrantz work for author who is a journalist. All five books in this series work because the one main character is a journalist.

Happy Thursday! Today was the first day of shorts since September, yet somehow people in my province are getting snow tonight. It was also grocery day so lots of fun. lol

Finished:

The Hazel Wood 3 stars
Very similar to Holly Black's Tithe but not as good. I'll probably continue the series. The fairy tales she created are very intriguing.

Fracture Me Unravel Me Ignite Me Restore Me 3 stars each
So this series is the dystopian ya equivalent of junk food. It's addictive and over dramatic. It's 6 books and 4 novellas. I've got book #5 and two novellas in overdrive and I'm wait listed for book 6 to read this coming week.

The Honey-Don't List 3 stars
Short rom com that had insta love which ruined it for the end.

PS 2020 38/50
PS 2016 25/40
Goodreads 81/150

Currently:
The Girl in the Spider's Web

QOTW:
I can't recall a time when I threw a book. I'm sure I have. I really wanted to throw The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires many times last week but it was an ebook… I haven't hated a book so much since The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. I hope I threw this back when I had to read it. I'm shocked that everyone who threw HP 5 waited until the end when so and so died. That book is maddening way before that happens.

Teri wrote: "Two weeks in a row of not a single book finished. My father passed away on Friday and we had a graveside service on Tuesday, so it was a pretty busy week. The weather was perfect, and the service w..."

I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope that you were able to be comforted by friends and family when following social distances rules.

Sarah wrote: "Hi everyone. It's been a pretty awful week here for my family so not much reading done I'm afraid. We found out that my baby niece who as due to be born in July no longer had a heartbeat. It's come..."

That's heartbreaking. I hope you don't feel guilty about breaking quarantine because giving your sibling space to grieve and not parent will help.

Title: A Curse So Dark and Lonely
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
What was the first line? I read this awhile back and have forgotten what it was. Also too lazy to look it up.
Would you recommend? Yes. I did not expect to like the book and it surprised me.
Have you read this author before? Nope. Got this book so I could read the sequel with my book club.

Sara wrote: "What a week. I've been staying with my parents to help care for my mom while she was in hospice. She died yesterday morning from complications of her leukemia (no COVID, thank goodness). It was a s..."

I'm so sorry for your loss. It is a really good thing that you were there for your mom and your dad.

Happy Thursday! I've had a better week for focusing but this past weekend was heartbreaking in Canada. Thank you to Global Citizen concerts on YouTube!

Finished:

Shatter Me 2 stars
This is craptactular ya, if it's not your genre stay away. I couldn't put it down and I need to continue the series. This edition had a novella at the end that was a 1 star read unfortunately.

Shade's Children 2 stars
I read this years ago and had forgotten it mostly. I ended up down grading my rating. The dystopian world and AI were great. The weird ferret monsters were not.

A Moon Made of Copper 2 stars
The cover art made me grab this from the library for my quarantine stockpile. It's a collection of poetry so it was doubtful that I would enjoy it in the first place. There were a few good poems but over all it was confusing.

Book Love 4 stars
A graphic novel about book addiction... It was awesome. I'd be confused if anyone that posts in the check ins did not enjoy this.

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires 1 Star
My expectations were high and it let me down terribly. A favourite reviewer let me down. The start of the book had promise and I pushed myself to finish this due to the about a book club prompt. At the halfway point I became angry and I'm still angry. I got sent back to the Sookie Stackhouse series where the author makes the character be stupid to make the villain better and to drag the story on.

PS 2020 37/50
PS 2016 24/40
Goodreads 75/150

Currently Reading:
Little Women this is gonna take forever for some reason

QOTW:
I don't buy books that much except from garage sales. However I have favourite authors that I'll read anything they write.
Ilona Andrews, J.K. Rowling, Chloe Neill, Holly Black to name a few.

Milena wrote: "Hi everyone. I am having a very first world problem. Ever since my library has been updated with the new Deliver Later option, I can't plan when I will get the books. A book will say the wait is 5 ..."

I don't like that new feature for overdrive either. However, a book showing up really early probably means your specific library bought the copy and gives priority to its members letting you jump the line or people have cancelled their holds.

I just finished The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires and I am very disappointed. The first bit of the book was promising but by half way I was very angry with the main character and author. I would have dnf it if not for this prompt.

by Garth Nix
Just reread this and I had totally forgot it worked for this prompt. It is dystopian sci-fi ya and a bit weird.

Josie wrote: "I’m sure this has been answered before but do novellas count for this challenge? I’m working on the Shatter Me series, which has a lot of novellas in it, and I like to know if I can count them if t..."

It's your reading challenge so make it work for you. Some people are counting reading the news for the prompt for a medical thriller.

Jenny Dahl Bakken wrote: "The Witcher books - already finished “The last wish” and have now started on “Sword of destiny”. Any tips as to where they fit?

Am also looking to place “Beloved” by Toni Morrison."

I used Blood of Elves for published in the 20th century. Sword of Destiny was first published in 1992 so you could do the same. It's a 3 word title. It has a made up language and over a 4 star rating. It probably passes the Blechdel test too.