Sheri’s Comments (group member since Jul 25, 2016)

Sheri’s comments from the EPBOT Readers group.

popping in mostly for the questions:

A lot of the questions I had I pulled from the Popsugar good reads reading group, that's where I got the idea for the question of the week from since it always generated good discussions. I skipped ones that were too referential to the popsugar reading challenge, like referencing prompts or challenge progress. I tried googling questions about reading and had some success but a lot of times that brought up questions more for teachers about reading comprehension and stuff like that. Otherwise I just try to think of something interesting or ask for suggestions from the group!

I haven't been tracking or posting much outside of good reads this year just because everything has been so overwhelming this year. I haven't found a good method really! I have shelves for all the various challenges, so I can tag what challenges any book is being counted for, so if nothing else I can look back and say "oh I used this book for this challenge". Although that doesn't mark what prompt I counted it for. Sometimes it's obvious, other times not. So I guess it comes down to how much time you're willing to spend posting, and decide where your priorities are. Could always do some sort of master post and copy and paste to some degree?

Here's a suggestion post for book club, sorry i dropped the ball on that too! https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Hi all, it's time to start picking the book for the next quarter. Standard rules apply.

Please make sure you give a sentence or two why you think we should read it together, not just a list of books you're planning on reading.

If a book is recommended that you also want to recommend, you can mention it again to add support. If there's a bunch of titles, I'll just pick the ones that seem to have the most interest in the poll, if there's just a few i"ll pull them all.

This is a new selection round, so if you want to suggest a book you've suggested before, put it here again to be considered, I won't be going back to past suggestion posts.

Happy reading everyone!

Shel, i can make you a mod if you like! I can make anyone else a mod too if they want. I don't know if you actually NEED it, i think i have it open so anyone can make threads and you all are chill, i don't think I've ever had to actually mod you. And this group is small, I don't think it's ever even attracted spam posts. I also realize it's march, I should probably get a selection post going for next book club. I'm hoping life settles back down soon so I can be more active here again.

Hi all, thank you for making a post! I am alive, I have just been totally overwhelmed with life lately. I ended up going to urgent care and ER a few weekends ago due to a sudden increase in my migraines that ramped up to a horrible one that refused to respond to any of my meds or any of the migraine cocktails that they gave me. I had an MRI the other weekend, nothing was found. Seeing neurologist, trying to find some sort of preventative that will work for me. Been really sucky. Also been really swamped at work which hasn't helped. Job's been so overwhelming I've almost quit on the spot. Also have had an increasingly nasty cold for over two weeks now. (I took a covid test before my MRI just to make sure, it said not covid) This year has just been a terrible year already. Feels like it's still March 2020.

Sorry I've not been around! I've felt bad for not posting, but I just haven't had the energy. I kept bringing up good reads but then something would come up or I'd get distracted or I couldn't concentrate.

Since it's been so long since i've checked in, i've read way too much to post everything. I'll just post a vague recollection of some of what ii've read.

Noor - audio book - i really like Nnedi Okrafor's writing, but i often wish she'd write longer books. There was so much complex stuff going on with the world I felt like it needed more world building to support it. The ending moved at such a fast pace, that especially on an audio book, I felt pretty lost by the end. Extending it into a more full length novel would have given some breathing room.

The Masterharper of Pern - re read while migraining

The Chosen and the Beautiful - books and brew pick for march. Whole book club was lukewarm on this. It was a really interesting idea, a magical retelling of The Great Gatsby from the perspective of an immigrant woman living the so called American Dream. But the author stuck SO close to the story of the Great Gatsby that the there was no real life to it. Literal dialogue was lifted from the original. Her magic system was interesting, but not explained at all, it was just thrown in there. It would have been a way more interesting story if it'd just been a story about a magical Vietnamese woman trying to live the American dream, leaving the Gatsby part out of it. Or at least not clinging to it so tightly. Overall disappointing.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built - I really loved this one. Maybe not AS much as the wayfarers books, but still really fun. I wanted more though! Can't wait for the next book. Can i just be a tea monk? Or maybe I need to find one.

The Ex Hex - This was a fun romance, kind a had practical magic vibes.

How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question - I really enjoyed the audio of this. It's by the writer of The Good Place, basically breaking down everything he learned about moral philosophy while writing for the show down into terms that the general populace can put into their lives. From the perspective from someone who is by no means a moral philosopher himself. A lot of the major cast jumped in and read various lines, which was a lot of fun. the lines were usually based on the kind of character they played. So Ted Danson read most the narration sort of quotes, Kristen Bell the kind of Arizona Dirtbag sort of lines, Jameela Jamil anything that needed to be very British etc. I found it really helpful to sort of help me break down questions like "how do you handle when the creator of something you like ends up being a terrible person" or "how do you consume ethically when it seems like there's no good options?". Obviously there's no right answers, but by the end I felt like I had some good strategies for sort of breaking down how to make decisions.

Firekeeper's Daughter - books and brew pick for April. I liked it quite a bit. I like reading books set in Michigan, gives a nice sense of familiarity. Was set up north, not in SE where I am. But I still have been up there a little bit, and knew some of what was mentioned.

Day Zero - This was an interesting take on robots vs humans apocalypse, with the caregiving nanny bots being the ones who tended to side with their young charges. Sort of gave me dark calvin and hobbes vibes with a young boy and his tiger nanny.

Beyond the Black Door - interesting premise, sort of meh execution. Didn't really connect with any characters, but was a quick read, didn't drag on.

Canto: If I Only Had a Heart, Canto II: The Hollow Men, Canto III: Lionhearted, Canto and the Clockwork Fairies, Canto & the City of Giants - binge read the whole series so far, and now am sad that the next arc doesn't start until summer.


Crossover, Vol. 2: The Ten Cent Plague - very werid series

The Beautiful Ones - my favorite of her books so far, this one really just caught me. Lots of lush descriptions and I really loved Nina. And Valerie was fun to hate. Poor Luc wasn't a bad guy, just got caught up in it all.


QOTW:

Oh lots of stuff. Probably most comes to mind is Piers Anthony. I LOVED him so much growing up. As an adult I realize just how often he pairs grown men, and not just grown men as in 20 somethings but like...50+ year old men with under age girls. And often has the girls be the sexual aggressors so its "ok" because they're the ones who want it, right? It's often 14-15 year old girls too, not even "ok well she's 17, almost 18 so that's maybe just barely almost ok..." I think when I was closer to 14-15 myself I didn't see that as that weird. I mean i didn't want older men myself but I guess in the effort of wanting to be seen as basically "grown up" I figured if other girls wanted to be with grown ups that was their business. I didn't see it as predatory then.

I always forget to actually write my own reactions to the books, after I set up the questions, haha.

I don’t really feel like going through all the questions right now so i’ll just put some general thoughts down at the moment.

I didn’t super love it, I think this kind of mystery just isn’t really my jam. I guess I just never can really suspend my disbelief that the police are ever cool with civilians mucking about in their cases, especially murder cases. I know it’s presented like the club is getting one-ups on them, but it still feels like the average police would be like “No seriously, you can’t go messing with this or we WILL arrest you for interfering”. I have the same issue with the Flavia books, that an 8 year old can just go around mucking about and never get caught or in trouble.

I also thought there was a lot of kind of distracting red herring stuff going on. I get that it was trying to be a mystery but it felt more like fluff just there to purposefully confuse the issue.

I do appreciate as Susan mentioned that the older cast were all treated with dignity and like actual people. It kind of reminds me of a meme I saw pointing out that the sex and the city revival’s cast are all the ages that The Golden Girls were when that show started. Also there’s more actresses like Charlize Theron, Selma Hayek, Queen Latifa, showing that women who are getting older (by Hollywood standards anyhow) can still be in action movies. So it seems like there’s at least a general recognition that 40s-50s is no longer “whelp you’re old and your life is now over”.

I don’t regret reading it, but I doubt I’ll continue the series.

Hi all, late check in this week due to migraine brain.

Today is lovely out though, I didn’t feel up to a run but I took a nice long walk. even ended up shedding my winter coat and walking in a sweatshirt!

Don’t forget, questions are up for The Thursday Murder Club over in the book club folder.

THis week I finished:

The Atlas Six- this was pretty good, I’ll probably get the next. I was worried it wouldn’t live to hype, it was on ever single post for the booktok prompt over on popsugar, but the synopsis looked interesting so I figured I’d try. Felt kind of like the Scholomance books, but a bit more exclusive seeing as there’s only 6. But it’s got that sort of dark academia magic school with violence.

Concrete Rose - I picked this up on a kindle sale, I’d really liked The Hate You Give. I liked this too, but it stressed me out a bit to read. I knew things would be ok because I read the prequel, but there were still a lot of “oh no Mav, don’t do it!” Moments. Also had a bit of a “ahhh nooo I’m getting older” moment as I don’t think I realized in The Hate You Give how young Mav had both Seven and Starr. I was expecting the book to be set in the 70s or 80s, not 99. I was in high school myself in 99! I never had kids, so I forget that it’s entirely possible for people my age to have teenagers. Even without being teen parents, if I’d had a kid in my early 20s they would still be teens now. (Most my friend group either didn’t have kids, or only just now started having kids in their 30s so that never really sunk in before).

The Worst Best Man - randomly picked this up from the library, it looked cute. Romances aren’t my absolute favorite genre, but I like them for just wanting a nice happy ending and low stakes drama. I liked that most the conflict in this was people struggling with their own selves and ideas of what they want in life and in a partner, not due to not communicating. They actually talked a lot, and were very open. It was them each having to wrestle with the baggage of the past and their lives and expectations etc.

Currently reading:

On a comics binge, currently catching up on the Buffy comics.

QOTW:
Is there a particular author that you would like to hang out with? Why?

I feel like Seanan McGuire would be cool to hang out with. I’ve seen a lot of her twitter feeds, even though I don’t really do twitter myself. She seems funny. She also loves cats, and writes stuff I love, so seems like someone I would get along with!

That is true, I do like poe stories. Maybe it’s really collections I don’t like because I feel compelled to read them like novels and they just run together and are all over the place

Hi all,

Hope everyone's having a good week! It's slightly warmer here, which is nice. But still cold, looking forward to spring.

Book Club:

I put up a finished reading thread for The Thursday Murder club over in the book club folder! I found the official Penguin reading guide so I put some of the questions in there to help the discussion.

This week I finished:

Nettle & Bone- I really ended up loving this. I guess the root of the fairy tale was inspired by the princess and the pea, but it was a really deep inspiration. I didn't really pick it up until the authors note. but it still read like a dark twisty fairy tale, and that's right up my alley.

The Thursday Murder Club - Finished this up, managed to get it much quicker than expected. I like when that happens, so people aren't waiting on me to get the book thread going :) I liked it ok, i think it still comes down to I'm not really a mystery person.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - Finally finished the audio re-read. I still love the book, i just go in phases with audio books. Sometimes I devour them, other times I just can't focus. I've been more in a "catching up on shows i never got around to watching" mode lately.

Currently reading:

The Atlas Six - I'm not really doing reading challenges this year, but i'm still in the popsugar goodreads/facebook group/discord, and this came up in basically ever Booktok recommendation list being posted. I'd never heard of it before, but it sounded right up my alley. I'm already almost 200 pages in, and i just started yesterday, haha. Enjoying quite a bit.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe doing another audio re-read, the second book came out and i read this one long enough ago there's no way I'd follow.

QOTW:

I'll borrow from popsugar again: are you a fan of short stories, or only longer formats?

I admit i generally prefer at least novella length. I always feel like short stories I never really have quite enough time to settle into a story. There's some exceptions, but on the whole I prefer longer. I also find I'm not a fan of short story collections. Usually feels like I only end up liking a handful, the rest just feel like filler. Even when it's all an author I like, I rarely end up liking ALL the stories. I do sometimes like the short stories that sort of fill in between longer books in a series, especially if they deal with side characters that dont' get as much time in the story. My only real frustration with those, is sometimes they're hard to fine. I'm not paying basically full price for a short story, so i have to hope either they're tucked at the back of an edition I can find, or they get compiled into a collection. But then I'm not reading them in the "right order".

Hi all, this is the place for your final thoughts about The Thursday Murder Club. Spoilers allowed here, so don't read until you're finished!

Here's some questions from the official Penguin reading guide too spark discussion. Feel free to answer as many as you like, or just give your thoughts.

1. Though the book follows the four friends—Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim, and Ron—solving the murder, the only first-person POV is Joyce’s via her diary. Why do you think the author chose to show her perspective in such a way?

2. Joyce was a nurse, Elizabeth was in the secret service, Ibrahim was a psychiatrist, and Ron was a trade union leader. Who do you think was most helpful in solving the crime? What strengths did they each bring to the table? What were their weaknesses?

3. Do you think that PC Donna De Freitas and DCI Chris Hudson make a good team? Do you think Donna was smart to stay in touch with Joyce, even though it was unprofessional at times? Why or why not? What do you make of the relationship between the detectives and the septuagenarians?

4. Joyce says, “I am very happy to be overlooked and always have been. And I do think perhaps that will be helpful in this investigation.” Do you agree? What insights and advantages does she gain by not calling attention to herself, and staying under the radar?

5. Society often writes off the abilities of the elderly—assuming both body and mind are deteriorating. At the heart of The Thursday Murder Club is a lesson to never to underestimate this population. Who misjudges the residents of Coopers Chase the most? What are the consequences of underestimating the four friends?

6. One of the reoccurring themes is the gray area between the law and each character’s moral code. Do you think Penny’s husband, John, did the right thing? How about Penny?

7. At any point, did you have an idea of who might have committed the murder? Who did you suspect, and why? Were you correct?

Glad to see you back Daisy!

Jen, I only just got into her after a wizards guide to defensive baking, but I loved it! I eventually intend to get into her back catalogue. Also it took me a minute to realize you were same Jen and not new Jen with the updated profile pic 😂

Well, the good news is I don't close down discussion threads! So even if it takes a while, feel free to join in whenever you do get it :) Also mine said I was going to have to wait 13 weeks, yet here two days later I have it. So it's possible if your library has a priority copy, you might find yourself line jumping!

Hi all,
Trying to get this in early while I have a lull! Little quieter this week, although got a lot of snow yesterday. Husband and I have alternated shoveling, went out 5 times to manage it all. (we were only clearing an inch or two at a time, probably got less than 8in total).

Book Club

Since we got a late start on book selection, I decided to just call it on the poll. It didn't look like the numbers had changed since i checked it a few days ago, and The Thursday Murder Club is far enough ahead I don't see 6 people swooping in and voting for the second choice in the next couple days. I set up a pre-reading post, if anyone wants to share their thoughts before getting started. Luckily I kind of suspected this would win, my hold just came in! I will hopefully get it read shortly and get up some questions.

This week I finished:

Alkarra Awakening - I like this series, someone in discord mentioned that the author was giving away free copies of the first book. When I grabbed it, I saw the whole series was only about 5 bucks so I just grabbed it all. Good decision!

Nightbitch - I don't even know how to feel about this! I had hoped it would be funny, but it wasn't really. It kind of reminded me of Black Swan (the movie) meets The Metamorphosis. It stirred up a lot of emotions, but I have a hard time saying i LIKED it. TW: graphic animal deaths. But it did point out a lot of pitfalls of being a modern American mother, with all the rage of the unseen work women do being discounted because it doesn't come with a paycheck. Honestly it really brought up a lot of the reasons I chose to remain child free.

Bettie Page & The Curse of the Banshee #1 - slowly trying to catch up with comics in between books. This is a fun one.

The Deep - I liked this quite a bit, was a tough read at times. Was a different take on mermaids than you usually see.

Currently reading:

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - still doing audio re-read. I've not been in as much of an audio book groove lately. Kind of goes in phases for me, earlier i was tearing through them. Now I'm having to remind myself to listen.

Nettle & Bone - I won an ARC from goodreads! I started it right away, really liking it so far.

QOTW:

Do you participate in specialized reading for specialized months like Black History Month?

I personally don't do it in an intentional way. I try to diversify my reading year round, not condensed into months. My books & brew is reading The Vanishing Half for February, but I finished it in January. I happened to read the Deep this week, but that wasn't planned. I'm a mood reader, and I use the library a lot. A lot of times what I'm reading is based on "well, this is what came up in the library right now". Maybe some people are good at stacking their holds, I am not! I was concerned if I'd get The Thursday Murder club in time for book club or if Id have to try to get it in person or something, because it said I had 13 weeks to wait. It just came up for me yesterday. I can't plan around variances like that!

I'm not much for mysteries, I'll occasionally do a thriller. So I don't know anything about this, or the author! Have no idea what to expect.

The winner of the poll by quite a lot is The Thursday Murder Club!

This is where you put your thoughts before reading. Are you exited? Not? No spoilers here!

Thanks Shel, ended up being not serious but at the time he was totally non responsive for several minutes which caused me to call 911. And paramedics strongly suggested taking him to er just to make sure. Was mostly just very scary, stressful, and a long night. Didn’t get home until almost 2 am. Plus the added “er in a pandemic” stress, although apparently my area must not be too bad since there was no wait for ambulance and he st least got in a room right away. They says they were mostly dealing with injuries that night.

Hi all, Not off to a great start this year, sorry everyone! Been slammed at work, and had a hospital scare with my husband last weekend. Just really threw me off and I didn't have the bandwidth to post.

Book Club: I set up a poll, there were a lot of options so I just grabbed books mentioned by name (not suggestions of series if no specific one was mentioned). https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

I'll check results in a week or so!


The last couple weeks I finished:
Adventureman, Vol. 1: The End and Everything After - went on a comic binge, finished up this arc, was pretty good.

Babyteeth, Vol. 4 - Wrapped up the series, I liked it overall. I guess the plan was always to be 20 issues, but it felt like he maybe got carried away early on and then found himself running out of time to wrap it up. Last issue was all epilogue so it felt like the main plot got wrapped up very quickly. After all the trials and tribulations across the arc, everything just got wrapped up with a bow with very little fuss in the second to last issue. Still enjoyable, just felt very abrupt.

Avengers by Jason Aaron, Vol. 8: Enter the Phoenix - getting set up for the next arc of marvel whatever, kind of frustrated with how many major "across every book" events they keep doing. I just want to enjoy the characters I like without having to keep reading all this other stuff to not feel lost.

Basilisk, Vol. 1 - new series, interesting idea with powers based on senses

Bermuda- cute little series, new take on bermuda triangle.

The Vanishing Half - next books & brew read. This was a weird one for me. The first 3/4 dragged, and i mostly trudged through because it was a book club read. The last quarter really picked up and i had trouble putting it down. So I guess it evened out to pretty good.

Home from the Sea - re read because I dnfed two books and just fell back on something familiar.

Alkarra Awakening- second Network Series book, i'm liking the series so far.

I DNFed two books too, The God of Small Things, although this went onto Maybe Later because I could see reading it for a book club or something where I could discuss it. But it felt too all over the place and flowery for me to concentrate on. and Noir which bummed me out because I usually really like Christophere Moore and had been looking forward to this one. But i got a little suspicious when he put a disclaimer at the beginning about attitudes towards race and women because it's a "period piece". I gave it the benefit of the doubt, but then the n-word was dropped and I noped out. It's supposed to be a humor book, and there's a certain level of fantasy in most his books, so I just....don't think it was necessary. He could have hedged around using it saying the man "called him a slur" or something, there was no need to actually go there. Really disappointed, honestly.

Currently reading:

Nightbitch - I admit i mostly grabbed this off hoopla for the title. thought it might be funny. So far it's more kind of surreal and depressing. It's basically showing the aspects of motherhood that tend to get buried in our society. I'm child free, so a lot of it is just like "yes, these are all things I was afraid of happening, which is why I never wanted kids."

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - audio re-read. I'm actually kinda worried i'm goign to run out of my hoopla download for this, oops. I still love the book, just been so busy at work i haven't had the right focus level to listen while working as much, and haven't had the headsapce to listen after work/weekend as much.

QOTW:

Has being in this group or other reading groups opened you up to new genres you used to not read?

I know I've been a lot more open to nonfiction. For a while in the early days of this group, the book club went on a span of nonfiction, like The Radium Girls, Unmentionable, As You Wish, I i think maybe a couple others. I used to associate nonfiction with school and felt like with no plot it was a chore. I realized that there was plenty of nonfiction out there written in a more narrative or humorous way that was still fun to read.

Haha ok, well I guess I don’t suggest that then! I don’t really read mysteries so I’ll just see what others suggest :)

That’s weird, wonder if someone complained directly? Last I heard the mods explicitly stated spin off groups were fine and they didn’t delete posts for them. But maybe if someone actually reports it they do