Cheryl’s Comments (group member since Nov 29, 2022)

Cheryl’s comments from the Beyond Reality group.

Started. Cover looks light, prologue felt darker... not sure where we're going with this.

Btw, I recently read the author's A Fine and Private Place which is also both light and dark, funny and serious. I guess to reflect real life?

Just finished The Wild Robot trilogy. Not outstanding, but if you have a 'tween kid I do highly recommend you both read at least the first. Adventure, heart, themes, animals, and a sapient robot!

None end on a cliffhanger (and in fact there may be another in the works but it's not necessary).

Rereading Project Hail Mary right now. Works very well for this, but often bothers me.

A short thread with more of my comments can be found here:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Seems I did not note a least favorite.

I too, enjoyed AitDoF. So much so that I made enough notes on it to constitute practically a whole review:

Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom:

"We like the idea that there's always someone responsible for any given event, because that helps us make sense of the world. We like that so much that sometimes we blame ourselves, just so there's someone to blame. But not everything is under our control, or even anyone's control."

"We've all made mistakes.... But there's a difference between accepting responsibility for our actions and taking the blame for random misfortunes."

"If Vinessa hadn't gotten her act together by now, it was her own fault, not Dana's."

"... if you act compassionately in this branch, that's still meaningful, because it has an effect on the branches that will split off in the future. The more often you make compassionate choices, the less likely it is that you'll make selfish choices in the future, even in the branches where you're having a bad day."

"If the same thing happened in branches where you acted differently, then you aren't the cause."

Basically it's pretty much the same theme hammered home in multiple ways ... but we all either are, or know, people who need to understand that concept! :)

Oh, yes, Asimov's androids - esp. RDO.

I love these questions, but usually have trouble coming up with answers.

This week's, um, I'm sure there are some, but any good examples, can't recall. The best books hold up to rereading well, like The Hobbit, The Martian, and Becky Chambers' stories. So, a book with a surprise ending might work? I'll think further, and hope others' responses prompt my memory.

As far as BotM, I'd participate more if my taste/interests happened to match the majority. But it's nbd to me to skip the ones I'm not interested in. I'm still enjoying the group!

Possibly have theme months? Perhaps, sometimes, to correspond to some of the more extensively answered Questions of the Week? I mean, if we do get enough answers to this question, we could have a month when we nominate from the titles listed here.

Or possibly a month when we read what we each choose a book or two from a given theme, then share. Might work best if the theme is made fairly narrow. For example, one month we could all talk about various sapient pets/sidekicks, and another month about androids who are people, rather than a month that broadly talks about non-human people.

(Sorry for poor grammar etc. Rough night; festival in town kept me awake and woke me early.)

Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos would be more interesting if it were about the title, but really it's about the subtitle, and somewhat about the author herself. Nonetheless I'm enjoying it.

Not sure so far about Just One Damned Thing After Another. The foolhardiness of the MC and the quirky humor are not my usual thing, but it's for the Time Travel group read so I'll keep trying for a bit.

Hm. I wish more ppl would chime in. I'd love to read books set in a wonderful city.

Oh, they're some of my favorite people! I've got lists and no time to post, so I'll just state two the most obvious - all of them in the books by Becky Chambers and most of them in the Star Trek universe (first three series, anyway) (I don't like the depiction/development of the Ferengi).

The Word for World Is Forest. I don't actually recall if it's very hot there, but it reminds me of what we learned about the steaming jungles of Vietnam during that war.

I'm just drawing a blank. Maybe the one that Bookshops & Bonedust takes place in?

My second read was just in May, for another group. I often enjoy short stories, especially ones like these.

Sometimes off-topic posts are worthwhile - you gave us just the amount of information for me to feel enlightened but not overwhelmed.

Ok.

I don't remember this very well, but my review says that I was insufficiently impressed. Maybe my expectations were too high.

I have a question in my review that it's possible you could answer:

I'm still bothered by the tea leaf embedded in the doorknob. It'd be very cool, but what the heck does a tea leaf look like? Is it a leaf from a peppermint plant, or oolong, or Da Hong Pao, or what?

Aww....

Apparently I read this before I joined this group. I guess there's a spoiler thread I should use for my remaining question....

Maybe the Semiosis trilogy should be a series read for us?

A picture-book for ages 5 to 105, Bag in the Wind by the poet Ted Kooser, illustrated by Barry Root, What happens to a plastic bag when it escapes a landfill? Whose lives are revealed by its encounters with them? Includes author's note about litter, its impact on wildlife, plastic, and inadequacy of recycling.

Well, I read a lot of non-fiction about animals. A wonderful series for youth (and interested adults), https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1..., includes such books as Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot and The Hyena Scientist, for example.

For adults (and interested teens), I highly recommend Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World and Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard.

Speculative fiction gets a bit harder. Much of Digger: The Complete Omnibus is spent outdoors (and it's a great book).