Stina’s Comments (group member since Dec 11, 2016)

Stina’s comments from the Challenges from Exploding Steamboats group.

I read End of the Road, a geeky thriller set in boonies of Kansas.

If you're looking for a winter read and like Christian cozies, you might like In The Dead of Winter.

Mary wrote: "I have just read "Life Among the Qallunaat" by Mini Aodla Freeman and totally recommend it. Mini was born in 1936 in St. James Bay and she is Inuit. Her world has changed completely during her life..."

Wow, that sounds amazing!

I counted Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience for this prompt, but I did also read Mapping the Interior. They're both great, but they are such completely different reading experiences! I expect I will finish reading The Marrow Thieves sometime next month for GenreLand.

Mary wrote: "I have chosen "The Story of the Treasure Seekers" by E. Nesbit. I found it on a list of books which JK Rowling loves. Pleasant book classed as a children's story, but with plenty there for the adul..."

That sounds interesting, so thanks for the heads-up about the spoilers!

I still haven't finished Karen Memory, and I feel bad about that. I was enjoying it. And now it's buried in a stack. I will have to go on an expedition soon to excavate it.

In the meantime, I read Owl Dance. Owls. Steampunk owls. How awesome is that? Pretty dang awesome.

I went with Madam, Will You Talk?. Because I wanted it to be good for *something*. Gah, I still get angry just thinking about it.

I went with Six Wakes. I liked a lot of things about it, but after all the hype, it was a little disappointing in many ways as well.

Cheryl wrote: "I crossed this one off the list with The Maltese Goddess by Lyn Hamilton, the second book in her archaeological mystery series featuring Lara McClintoch."

I can't remember if I've read that one. I know I read the first book in the series, and I remember liking it well enough to look for the second book. I'll have to check and see if I ever found a copy.

Mary wrote: "Hollow City by Ransom Riggs, sequel to Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children"

That was a contender for me, but I ended up going with my girl Flavia in The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag.

I went with Dandelion Wine for this one. It's in Bradbury's Green Town series and is more of a nostalgia trip than anything. I don't recommend it if you're looking for sf/f, but it's an interesting glimpse of the author's young life in early 20th-century Illinois.

Someone at a GenreLand meeting read The Little Lion King aloud to us all for the "cat on the cover" month. Running commentary was provided by fans of the movie. This book was not well received.

I read Howl's Moving Castle for this prompt as well as for The Book Was Better Book Club. And we watched the movie. The book was definitely better.

I still haven't read Colorado Hope, so Dad and Me in the Morning won this prompt. I sought it out in the library's online search engine to fulfill a prompt in a different reading challenge.

Laura wrote: "So I finished Gaiman's Trigger Warning and just loved it. I'm an unabashed fangirl of his, though, so that's not super surprising."

I still haven't started that one because I feel like I need to read American Gods first.

For this prompt, I read The Fabulous Saga of Alexander Botts and the Earthworm Tractor on a rare fiction recommendation from my father. It was a delight.

I did start reading The Conjure Woman, but it's really slow going because of the heavy use of dialect. I ended up finishing My Cousin Rachel first. I think I like it better than Rebecca.

My summer reading was apparently cowardly, as this is the one prompt here I did not complete. So it goes onto next year's summer reading challenge as my priority read.

Mary wrote: "I read "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. Le Guin. Despite having read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy when I was younger, I had never read any of her books. This was an easy read, as her writing style dr..."

I think that's on a book club list for next year for me. I've tried reading one of her books before, but I just couldn't get into it. I don't know if it was the audiobook narrator or the story itself, but maybe it will be different with this one.

Laura wrote: "I read The Martian Chronicles for this and, as it is my second Bradbury book, I have come to accept he is not the author for me. Even despite his misogyny, I still prefer Heinlein."

I ended up reading Dandelion Wine for this prompt. It's Bradbury, but it isn't sf or even fantasy. I read one review that called it magical realism, but even that's a real stretch. I liked it, but not without some reservations. I think I was fonder of Bradbury when I was younger. Now he seems like an old fart in a lot of ways. (And he's a dead old fart, so it's not like he cares what I think.) But I still like the lushness of the language he used. Use ALL the adjectives!!

I frickin' hated Skipping Christmas.

It's been a few years since I read Annihilation. I appreciated enough about it that I'm interested in finishing the trilogy. The movie...it was just as freaky, but in some very different ways. I kinda wondered how they'd adapt that story, and, well, now I know. I think I liked the movie better.

I've actually not read Starship Troopers before. Or any Heinlein, for that matter. I'm not sure what I think of the movie. I don't remember much about it. But I like that the director purposefully treated it as satire when Heinlein had pretty much zero satirical intent.