Kaseadillla’s Comments (group member since May 04, 2016)

Kaseadillla’s comments from the EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club group.

Shá wrote: "Two years later and there are still long library waits for this book. It's also been on my reading list for two years so this is great motivation!"

Sha have you checked digital library copies? Most municipal libraries now have ebook versions you can check out and tend to be a shorter wait time!

Starting this thanks to the "Pick it for me relay" thread - thanks to this group for picking it for me!

This book was good just.... eh not my jam.

All of the parts that I was super engaged on were so short. The commentary on belief/religion, on ambition, on knowledge and society, the idea of "primitive thinking" creating a doorway to the house of knowledge... all of that was SO COOL. And yet, most of the book was descriptions of hallways and statues etc. I was bored by the description (and frankly super confused for the first 30 pages) and the parts I wanted more were unsatisfyingly short or felt like they weren't fully explored.
Also found the 'twist' to be a little predictable.

As for seeing parallels of 'real world' people in the house; many theories here.
- could be a parallel life as said by someone else in the thread
- i thought maybe a dream life? the life wanted but not lived? Something about the house feeling so ethereal / dream-like made me think the house reflected a shared consciousness of a 'better world' but still life (i.e., statues) b/c it wasn't real; a dream world
- forgotten life. there was a line somewhere about humanity "forgetting" and that forgotten knowledge getting sucked into or creating another world, i.e., the house of many rooms. Is the house a collective set of lost memories from humanity? Is that why it's pictures and statues and windows of frozen spacetime?

Anywho, curious what others think

So started this and I have to say, all I feel is SUPER CONFUSED right now.

What is going on in this book haha

For inspiration...

Goodreads is posting about the "Century of Beloved Books" - maybe we tackle some of these as a group?

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2...

I enjoyed this book! Similar to Kristina, thought it addressed some issues in interesting, less controversial ways.

The nature piece and solving problems as nature would solve problems (including Chase Andrews was super interesting). I thought I knew Kya, and then the last few pages, I REALLY got her. And so did Tate. And that made the ending so much more interesting.

Parts for me really dragged on, but overall great story, well executed.

To Cheryl struggles to catch up... LOVE the name.

In the spirit of the book club, picking a seemingly popular one that is also on my list so curious how you like it...

The Stranger by Albert Camus

For the person choosing for me...

My to-read shelf is linked here
Would appreciate a recommendation under 400 pages please =)
THANK YOU

So I read somewhere that the author wrote this book as "practice", trying to write a little bit of everything and then planning to go off and do something else... and then when everyone loved it she kept going.
I have to say I thought it was entertaining at times, but I definitely felt the "this is for practice" piece. Sometimes off on random tangents, some loose ends, sometimes really exciting and sometimes boring things. It feels semi-real because life doesn't have a "plot" per se, and it seems we're just following Claire's life, but in the end I was kind of iffy on continuing this series. I haven't yet...

I just read these books again - whipped through all 3 in 3 days.
would love to discuss if y'all decide to read

Regarding the comments on children's books... given those are usually shorter, thoughts on changing the challenge slightly and having it be a collective PAGE COUNT instead of outright BOOK COUNT?

Understandably, the edition of the book chosen can affect page numbers, but then someone who reads War and Peace or another 700+ page book gets more credit than one short book.

This way, everyone can add every book they read regardless?

Others that I thought of...

Goosebumps series - there are so many of them! Welcome to Dead House is the first, but they are all standalone books.
The Westing Game - I LOVED this one
Nancy Drew books? More mystery than horror

Have you read The Screaming Staircase? It's the first book in a 5 part series, paranormal horror/mystery series about young ghost hunters, likely around the same age as your students. It may be on the scarier side? But I thought they were very well done.

Aug 11
335 pages

Total Group Pages: 829,773

Aug 11
512 pages

Total Group Pages: 829,438

Read back through some of the commentary back when we first read this as a group in 2018. So much of it resonates with our society today that it makes me sad... have we really made no progress in the last two years?

Very curious to hear what others in the group think of this book. I thought it was powerful, well-executed, and changed my perspective in a way that automatically makes me respect the author and their work.

Thanks @Kerri!


Aug 10
192 pages

Total Group Pages: 826,283

second the stand

second atlas shrugged

Just finished!

Very quick read. Thought it was more fun than horror, but I suppose the title itself being a big spoiler made the opening chapters seem a little satire-ish and I kept that attitude throughout the book. Action-packed and fast-paced regardless.

I think my favorite part was when he actually described the science of it: the idea of visible things being a combination of absorption and reflection of light, the idea that the human body is actually see-through!!! Geeking out, cool.

Welcome everyone!

@Izzy - fellow sucker for YA fantasy =)

reading So You Want to Talk About Race with a group outside of this as well, if others are interested in discussing.

I just read this book, a year behind the group unfortunately, and I have to say I thought it deserved 5 stars because it felt powerful.

I agree with other commenters here that the memoir centered, at least how I interpreted it, around abuse. I thought it was well written, enlightened, and I guess I didn't notice the "gaps" that others perceived. The gaslighting, feelings of "whore" entangled with control... they felt so real, scary, and essential to be told from this perspective.