Karli’s Comments (group member since Feb 23, 2010)

Karli’s comments from the Busy as a Bee Books group.

I chose The Anomoly - and I requested The Book oh Essie thru Net Galley.

Hello my favorite readers!

The Bees have the opportunity to interact with the author

Abbi has recently had her book Other People's Houses chosen for the March Book of the Month selection for Contemporary Fiction. This is how I discovered her - I've sent recommendations to several friends to check out this book I loved it.

Abbi has also published another novel The Garden of Small Beginnings

Abbi said she's happy to talk to us about her work or books in general. Please welcome her to our group, and hopefully she will choose to stay awhile.

Petra - that's so true. We never lack for a book to read!

Elizabeth☮ wrote: "Amy,

I couldn’t find the thread where you mentioned being a fan of Little Women, so I am posting here. I saw this on a list from my library and knew I had to mention it to you. [bookcover:The Othe..."

This does sound amazing!!! I've added it to my TBR too. Thanks, Elizabeth!

I do love series - as a kid I started with Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden, and as an adult I've read several series. One of my favorites is the Lucas Davenport Prey series by John Sandford. I also love his Virgil Flowers series and the older Kidd series. My favorite thing about how Sandford does his series is that the characters evolve and age. I've read most of Stuart Woods Stone Barrington books, and he pretty much stays the same age - kind of like Stephanie Plum in the series by Janet Evanovich.

I do tend to binge-read series. When I discovered the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, I read 5 or 6 in a row. Then I was REALLY tired of them. I binged on Twilight, which I didn't discover until all the books were written, which was good timing on my part. :)

Books that I've had to wait for were the Harry Potter books 5 - 7, the Discovery of Witches trilogy and the Hunger Games books. I also LOVE the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning - and again, I binged until I had to wait for the next ones.

I liked it too. I will have to see if our library has her earlier works as well.

Camilla was mostly a distraction for me. I had a hard time figuring out why she was in the book at all for most of the novel.

OK - so, when I win the lottery I will sponsor Read Away Camp as well as Amy's bookstore.

It's good that we have realistic funding goals, right?

I have The Plot Against America on my real shelves...I’m pretty sure I’ve moved it at least twice. (Enter self-chastising)

Out sounds up my alley! I'm kind of enjoying thrillers so far this summer.

I am almost done with a Net Galley - . The other books I've finished were
- part of a series I LOVE. 4 Stars
- one of our Bee Books this month. I thought it was a great mystery and gave it 4 Stars
- this was one of those $1.99 Amazon buys - it was fairly good, a solid 3 Stars
- another Net Galley that I gave 4 stars...but may bump to 5. I really loved the characters and the story. It covered so much - abandonment, abuse, books, redemption, love, books, poetry...quite good!
and another 4 stars and super fun ride with Lucas Davenport!

Watching? The Santa Clarita Diet, Big Bang Theory and Blacklist - and like Petra, Forged in Fire - my husband loves it and we all giggle when the one judge says "This blade will keeeeellllll"

Reading? Mostly focusing on a Net Galley - Furyborn - but I have my BOTM stack too, and am looking forward to reading The Perfect Mother with the Bees.

Listening? Mostly podcasts ... I listen to Rachel Maddow every day to and from work. I also like Savage Lovecast and Sword and Scale when I'm going to be in the car for over an hour. I'm kind of a political junkie...

Feeling? Hopeful, and cautiously optimistic about the coming summer. Last year I lost my dad after a prolonged illness, and it was just a tough year. So far this summer is shaping up to be fairly relaxing and hopefully drama free!

Planning? This summer we are going to reconfigure my library!!!! I'm SUPER excited by this. I'm choosing new light fixtures and we will put a window-seat into the bay bump out, I have fabric for amazing curtains and cushions and will likely put in a wall of built-in shelves.

Loving? The fact that summer is here! I'm ok with winter jumping right into summer. It's my season for reading on the deck!

Eating? We are grilling a lot lately - tonight it's brats and pasta salad

Drinking? Coffee...water...Coke...wine

Needing? More vacation time from work. I chose to take a lot of leave last year to spend more time with my Dad. I don't regret it, but I usually take a day off each week in the summer, and this year that's not possible. ;(

Thinking? ...about the fact that my son graduates in just 3 years and my daughter in 5. It's coming SO FAST.

Wishing? I'm a big fan of the winning the lottery dream. Sponsor Amy's book store, read all day, go on all the vacations I want...yeah. That would be lovely!

It's good to have you back. It's amazing how many books we manage to find for each other here.

I have read The Brothers Karamozov, and it was hard, but it was good. I’ve tried to read War and Peace a few times. It didn’t work. And Moby Dick....I can’t. I’ve tried several times and it puts me to sleep.

Received this link for Bookish subscription boxes and wanted to share!

https://www.cratejoy.com/box-insider/...

I finished this book, and I did enjoy the read - I liked that there was a good amount of information given to help the reader try figure it out, but nothing was predictable.

As I read this, it seems clear this is part of a series. There were clearly backstories missing - I struggled with a few subplots, as they seemed pretty tangential until the end. It also feels like it's set up for a sequel.

Not just them, Eik, Jorgen, Bolik....just totally out of my American norm.

To be fair, if a book by an American author uses too many "old" names in their novels for young characters (one of my favorite authors, John Sanford does this. Teenagers named Bertha, Sally, Pamela, etc) and this pulls me out too. I might have a thing about names...

I've read both Ill Will and Bring Me Back - I didn't actually think either was very exciting/scary or ground breaking. Both were fun page turners, but nothing more than that.

Happy Sunday, Bees!

I finished up our Bee books The Forgotten Girls this weekend, and started a new Net Galley Ruthless Magic.

My exciting news for the weekend is that one of my summer projects is going to be updating my home library! I'm SUPER excited at this prospect, and know it will be a ton of work, but it should be very worth it in the end. :) So far the big projects will be building a window seat in the bay window and building in shelves along an entire wall. I have gorgeous fabric for curtains and am kind of trying to channel Hermione's home library.

I'm going to email Other People's Houses author Abbi Waxman tonight to see when she would like to join us for some bookish talk!

I hope everyone has an amazing week!

I like Charles Dickens, because I really can see his characters, and it makes me feel like people don't really change much. I felt that about the characters in Anna Karenina as well, but that does end up being a slog, whether it's issues with the translation or just that Dostoevsky is a little deeper than I am...