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

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

How am I only up to four cat-cover books for the year??
File M for Murder
2017 Fifth Annual Battle of the Bards Poetry Contest: Winning Entries
Shutter, Vol. 1: Wanderlost
We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Promises, Promises turned out to be pretty funny. Even more so after I joined an all-female Dungeons & Dragons group.

I also read I'm Thinking of Ending Things for this prompt. It was...interesting. Certain aspects of it were done very well, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it.

I read In The Dead of Winter for this prompt. It was an okay Christian cozy mystery.

So far I've read Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Pippi Longstocking (both recommended by my mother) and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (recommended by my brother).

Laura wrote: "My mother recommended -Wild-, which I'm using for the Oprah category. My stepmother sent me a book on being present, which I may use. My husband keeps pushing me to read -The Artist's Way-, which i..."

I went through much of The Artist's Way with my writers' group, but I dropped out when one of the frequent hosting members showed her true colors last November. I should give it another go.

Mary wrote: "I have just read His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet. This book was shortlisted for the Man Booker Award 2016 (and was the hot favorite to win). It did win the Saltire Society Literary Award..."

Wow, that sounds fascinating!

I've read several more award-winning books since my previous post:
The Color Purple
The House of Shattered Wings
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Signal to Noise
Murder in G Major
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
All the Birds in the Sky
The Book Thief
Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal
The Schwa Was Here
The Ballad of Black Tom

Cindi wrote: "I read The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez last week. It's told from a robot's pov. This is the 2nd book I've read by this author. He doesn't have any series but his books hav..."

I'll have to try some of his stuff. Sounds interesting.

Mary wrote: "I just finished Animal Farm by George Orwell."

I don't think my mental health could take an Orwell read right now. Farthing (think Gosford Park meets 1984) gave me nightmares.

I did read We Have Always Lived in the Castle, but I'm not counting it for this prompt. The ones I'm counting are The House of Shattered Wings, The Plague Court Murders, and Murder in G Major. Plague Court is a bit of a stretch because the place isn't really haunted, but it's a story-in-a-story book, and the inner story is the legend told as an actual ghost story.

Cheryl wrote: "Check this one off the list with Snarf Attack, Underfoodle, and the Secret of Life."

Is that all one book? :-)

I've also read Dragon of the Red Dawn, Alabaster Shadows, Pippi Longstocking, and Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal for this prompt.

Cheryl wrote: "It wasn't -- but that one is on my Want-to Read list because it looks like fun."

I did end up going with Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box. It was interesting to see how she used jewelry as communication.

I am surprised that I've read only one so far for the year. Agent to the Stars was John Scalzi's "tester" novel, the one he wrote just to see if he could. Of course, it's been picked up by a real publisher, but originally he published it himself. (This means that books like Wool and The Martian count for this prompt as well.)

I actually went with Murder in G Major for this one.

Any luck yet with the audiologist protagonist, Rendiru? I'm curious, what was the "audiologist" protagonist really?

I'm claiming While the Light Lasts for 2 points. This is a collection of short stories by Agatha Christie. Most of them have been collected into other volumes here in the US, but this UK collection has the original version of "Christmas Adventure." As far as I can tell, this is the only collection that has it.

This is an interesting selection of stories. As usual, I liked some better than others, but they all highlight different aspects of her early writing development. Tony Medawar's notes are a nice touch.

Mary wrote: "Wyatt Earp by Matt Braun Although Wyatt Earp didn't become sheriff (I was quite disappointed to learn), his running for sheriff of Cochise County was the main cause of what happened in this telling..."

That's a shame about the treatment of women in the story. This reminds me, somewhere I have a nonfiction book that has to do with law enforcement in the Wild West. I'll have to find it and see if it qualifies for this prompt.

I finally got around to logging my rescues so far, now that we're more than halfway through the year. Going by what's been posted to date, I'm at 11 points and Cheryl is at 4 points. Anybody else want to join in? It's certainly not too late! I'll try to update the scoreboard again before too awful long.

I'm claiming 2 points for You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life. This was recommended to me by an SAI sister.

I'm claiming 2 points for A Gathering of Shadows, which I bought at a signing event at the local library last year. I liked this just as much as the first book in the trilogy, and I'm glad I've already picked up a copy of the final book because this one ends on a cliffhanger!

I'm claiming 2 points for The Steampunk Tarot. I expect I will refer to this beautiful volume quite often, but I'm glad to have finally read it completely at least once.

I'm claiming 2 points for Promises, Promises. It started out kinda slow, but once I picked it back up it turned out to be a fun little adventure with lots of tongue-in-cheek humor.