What Are You Reading? pt. II

[Megan]

Emily wrote: "Me Before You, Jojo Moyes!"

Loooove that book. And I'm so excited for the movie next week!

[Naomi]

Sam~~ we cannot see the moon, and yet the waves still rise~~ wrote: "@naomi
(Because mobile doesn't have a reply button)

List of Israeli books to read in Hebrew please please please? I've been trying to find one in the US for forever, but they're always translate..."

You read Hebrew? I dont know how possible it is to get books in Hebrew in the US unless you order them from somewhere. Recently I read in Hebrew. was also really really good. I read in Hebrew also, though it's originally in Swedish (I think). All really good books.

[Dana]

Megan [I'm okay, I'm alright] wrote: "Emily wrote: "Me Before You, Jojo Moyes!"

Loooove that book. And I'm so excited for the movie next week!"

gahhhhh I want to see the movie so bad (and I think it comes out in Taiwan next week too!!)

Also I'm finally getting around to and I'm so excited aah

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

Dana wrote: "Megan [I'm okay, I'm alright] wrote: "Emily wrote: "Me Before You, Jojo Moyes!"

Loooove that book. And I'm so excited for the movie next week!"

gahhhhh I want to see the movie so bad (and I think..."

Ooh, Jellicoe Road is a lovely book! Hope you enjoy it. :) I've been meaning to re-read it.

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

Right now I'm re-reading:



And last night I also started:



Which I really like so far!

[Naomi]

I didn't really like , so I'm really hesitant to read anything else by Donna Tartt. Is it better than The Goldfinch?

[tesni]

Naomi wrote: "I didn't really like , so I'm really hesitant to read anything else by Donna Tartt. Is it better than The Goldfinch?"

Much better! I hated the Goldfinch and had to abandon it about halfway through, which was so disappointing because I had read TSH first and absolutely loved it - I raced through it in about two days. I know it's probably not for everyone (it's so pretentious! but I think that's a lot of the appeal) but I would def give it a go, at least.

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

I haven't read The Goldfinch but yeah, it looks like a lot of people like The Secret History better. I agree with Tesni that it does feel pretentious, but not really in a bad way? Because the point is kind of that all the characters are really pretentious ... It kind of reminds me of The Raven Boys in that way, haha.

[Naomi]

Ok, so maybe I'll check out The Secret History when I have the chance.
I just finished and really enjoyed it. I decided to continue with the V E Schwab theme and started , which is really good and intriguing so far. I had a hard time getting past the first two or so chapters but now I think I'm going to like it more than A Darker Shade of Magic. We shall wait and see. I also picked up again, to try to finally finish it. I had so much momentum when I first started it, I had just finished the previous book in the series, and I don't know what made me stop. But I'm a third through it and it's so good. Definitely going to finish it soon.

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

Yay! I also really enjoyed ADSoM but wasn't a huge fan of the sequel––I'll probably still read the third book when it comes out, though. Vicious looks really interesting and I've been meaning to try it.

[Stephanie]

I just finished Killer Verse. It's a collection of poems about murder and it was such a cool read. Some of the poets focused on actual murders (there was a lot of poems on Cain and Abel and Lizzie Borden) while others wrote more fictitious murders in a folk tale style. I'm not usually a big poetry reader but I really enjoyed this.

[Naomi]

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Yay! I also really enjoyed ADSoM but wasn't a huge fan of the sequel––I'll probably still read the third book when it comes out, though. Vicious looks really interesting and I've been meaning to tr..."

It's really intriguing me. And it's dark, which I always like. I'll let you know what I think when I finish.

[Naomi]

Stephanie wrote: "I just finished Killer Verse. It's a collection of poems about murder and it was such a cool read. Some of the poets focused on actual murders (there was a lot of poems on Cain and Abel and Lizzie ..."

That sounds really cool. And a little creepy. I'm not really into poetry either but maybe I'll give it a try.

[tesni]

currently .

I know that when you've read one of Eva Ibbotson's books you've read them all, and that before you've even read the first page you already know exactly how they're going to end, but I'm very fond of her anyway. It's a testament to her that I enjoy her books when they are teenage books and also about straight people.
I actually held off from reading this one for a long time because she can sometimes be...boring (I couldn't finish The Secret Countess, for instance) and because this one is at five-hundred pages her longest i worried it might be the same, but while I suspect younger me might have found The Morning Gift hard work, I'm actually really enjoying that it's a ~*~slow burn~*~ and present-day me is finding it something to savour and get properly absorbed in, so I'm glad I've waited, and I think it's going to end up one of my favourites.

Also , which is a beautiful and fascinating book. I'm enjoying the diary excerpts best of all, not only because it's such an authentic way of learning about her, but also because I see a lot of myself in Sofiya. I wish we could have met! I like to think we'd have been friends.

I've also just started . I love Oscar Wilde but I've never read any of his prose, so this is exciting. I'm surprised also by how many of the stories are already familiar to me, as well, but I don't know if that's because I actually have heard them elsewhere or if they're just written in such a timeless style, and have such timeless themes and characters etc, that I only think I know them.

[Stephanie]

@Tesni I love Eva Ibbotson! I don't read too much of her stuff anymore, but a lot of her stuff was perfect for me in middle school.

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

Tesni wrote: "currently .

I know that when you've read one of Eva Ibbotson's books you've read them all, and that before you've even read the first page you already know exact..."

I was a huge fan of Eva Ibbotson as a kid, but yeah ... after a while I realized her books were a little formulaic. :P At least from the books of hers I read, it seemed like every one of her main characters was kind of a goody-two-shoes surrounded by bratty/annoying other characters to make the protagonist seem even more angelic. Other than that her books were fun, though. :D

[Colby]

I'm about halfway through and I love it. The Raven Cycle is so good.

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

Colby wrote: "I'm about halfway through and I love it. The Raven Cycle is so good."

Yassss! :D

[Jayda]

Ugh, I want to read but I have no time! :(

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

I'm sorry, Jayda! I hate when that happens. :(

[tesni]

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Tesni wrote: "currently .

I know that when you've read one of Eva Ibbotson's books you've read them all, and that before you've even read the first page you alre..."

Stephanie wrote: "@Tesni I love Eva Ibbotson! I don't read too much of her stuff anymore, but a lot of her stuff was perfect for me in middle school."

I've only read a couple of her childrens' books (The Star of Kazan and Journey to the River Sea) but I get the impression her teenage books are much the same in that like...the characters are pretty archetypal (a word?) & it's probably best not to overthink them because otherwise you start considering/noticing their faults (or lack of them!). But she's nice to read when, you know, you don't want to think about things too seriously and just want to enjoy yourself; I also found Magic Flutes in a charity shop this week and it's the only one of her historical romances I'll have left to read after this so I feel like I can't not read it!

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

Haha I remember really hating Journey to the River Sea for some reason; I think I just really didn't like the main character. I enjoyed some of her other books as a kid though, like Island of the Aunts, Which Witch?, and The Secret of Platform 13. Those all also had kinda too-perfect main characters, but otherwise they were fun. I don't think I've ever read any of her YA books, but maybe I'll give them a try at some point. :)

[Colby]

I just finished and it was my favorite of the Raven Cycle so far, like holy cow. On to which I am so excited for!!

[Megan]

Colby wrote: "I just finished and it was my favorite of the Raven Cycle so far, like holy cow. On to which I am so excited for!!"

Aahhhhh I'm still waiting for the last book to come in to the library. It's taking forever *ugly tears*.

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

Colby wrote: "I just finished and it was my favorite of the Raven Cycle so far, like holy cow. On to which I am so excited for!!"

YAAAAY! TRK is crazy and amazing. Hope you like it! :)

[Colby]

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Colby wrote: "I just finished and it was my favorite of the Raven Cycle so far, like holy cow. On to which I am so exci..."
Out of curiosity, which of the 4 books is your favorite?

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

I think The Dream Thieves is still my favorite (probably because it's mostly about Ronan, haha). I love them all so much, though.

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

So, I just finished:



It was ... very interesting, haha. I really liked it, although I liked it more in the beginning than I did towards the end. (view spoiler)[After they killed Bunny, I feel like it went on a little too long? (hide spoiler)] It's kind of difficult to decide how I feel about it, because all the characters were like really despicable people, but that's part of what made them interesting. Also it was really well-written and the story was crazy (in a good way). I feel like it could've been a little shorter, though. Also there were a few things towards the end that bothered me. (view spoiler)[The whole incest thing was like ... just gross, and I feel like it was unnecessary. I guess it was supposed to show how strange and corrupt the characters are but ... ehh, I did not like it. I also feel like Camilla was really underdeveloped and sexualized a lot, which I thought was kinda weird coming from a female author. And I was really put off by that one part where Richard said he wanted to rape her?? Like I get that he's a shitty person but still ... umm. (hide spoiler)] But over all, it was a really addicting book and I enjoyed it!

I should now probably get back to re-reading:



But also I have from OverDrive:



So I need to finish that within the next couple weeks.

[Colby]

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "So, I just finished:



It was ... very interesting, haha. I really liked it, although I liked it more in the beginning than I did towards the end. [spoilers rem..."
Yeah, I agree on everything about TSH. (view spoiler)[The rape part really threw me because it was just stated and then moved on from? Liiiiike I feel like she's trying to remind you that Richard's a total sociopath? I mean maybe since we're in his mind he seems more easily forgiveable than, like, Henry? So maybe she wants to offset that a little or something. But it's a little disconcerting for the protagonist to just come out and say that they want to rape someone. (hide spoiler)]

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

(view spoiler)[Yeah, exactly. I think it was also like, he seemed pretty passive for most of the book so ... I don't know, it seemed weirdly out of character to me, and I just couldn't understand what the point of including it was. I get what you mean, how like you can almost forget how terrible he is because he's the main character, but ... yeah I don't know, I feel like there should've been a better way to show it than that (although, I mean, being an accomplice to killing someone already shows it pretty well). :P (hide spoiler)]

[Sam~~ we cannot see the moon, and yet the waves still rise~~]

<3

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

YASSS SAM. THAT BOOK IS AMAZING. <3

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

So yeah I've already read like a third of:



It's ... okay so far. The idea of this creepy/dystopian version of Oz is pretty cool. But the main character is kind of annoying, and the writing is not very good. At least it's fast reading though, so I can probably finish it in a day or two. :P

[Sam~~ we cannot see the moon, and yet the waves still rise~~]

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "YASSS SAM. THAT BOOK IS AMAZING. <3"

i finished it last night and it was beyond beautiful.

[Isaac]

Completely forgot I ordered and it came in today! I love it already. I don't know why I've grown so fond of Monty Python since January, but all the members are very funny and charming. I'm enjoying this.

[Megan]

First book of the summer!! (I actually still have one more final but I'm trying to ignore that fact.) This has been sitting on my shelf for probably five years and I'm finally getting around to it.

[Naomi]

@Megan I liked Water For Elephants. It was sweet.

I'm currently reading which I've heard a bunch about and saw it on sale so I had to get it. So far so good, I'm only like 3 chapters in.

[tesni]

is going well but I'm going home for the holidays today and unless I finish it in the next three hours - which I know isn't going to happen - I have to return it to the library unfinished, which means I'm probably not going to be able to get back to it until October :(((

I have however managed to finish but...it was not fun. I appreciate that it was very artful - the whole thing drawn on pencil and paper over three years or something - but it was just so boring. Maybe it's just that there's nothing goes on in Siberia (in which case the book successfully conveyed what it was perhaps meant to!), maybe it's just because I read the graphic novels Munnu and The Property recently and they were so good that this paled in comparison, I don't know, but it wasn't for me.

but it was also disappointing and it too was mostly very dry with the exception of one of the stories. Other people seem to have liked it and likened Hotschnig to Kafka etc, but perhaps it just wasn't my cup of tea. The first few stories were all pretty boring so I contemplated abandoning it, but then I got to the title story, Maybe This Time Maybe Now, and that was *so* good that I then wanted to keep going, but then all the ones after that turned out to be boring too and I wished I'd stopped it after the good one. I read it because I am an eager Peirene follower and they are truly doing the lord's work in translating fiction that wouldn't otherwise get translated, but my quest to read whichever ones I come across at the library means I have had to get through some bad ones to find the good ones, and this one was mostly for me the former.

[Naomi]

Tesni wrote: " is going well but I'm going home for the holidays today and unless I finish it in the next three hours - which I know isn't going to happen - I have to return it t..."


I really hope you got to finish because it is so good. One of my favorites books I've read so far this year.

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

@Sam - Aww yay, I'm glad you loved Aristotle and Dante! Yes, it's such a gorgeous book. The ending seriously brought tears to my eyes. (view spoiler)[When I was reading it I was terrified it was going to have a Tragic Gay Ending™ so I was just overjoyed that they got a happy ending, ahhhh. (hide spoiler)]

@Megan - It's been a long time since I read Water for Elephants and I kind of forget everything that happens in it, but I remember enjoying it at the time I read it. :D

@Tesni - Oh no, I hate when I have to return library books without finishing them! :( Glad you are enjoying Beauty Queens so far though ... I need to re-read that.

[Colby]

Wow wow I finished and honestly I feel like just staring at the wall for an hour because I have no idea what to do with myself it was so so good what an incredible series ahhhhhhh

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

Colby wrote: "Wow wow I finished and honestly I feel like just staring at the wall for an hour because I have no idea what to do with myself it was so so good what an incredib..."

RIGHT??? I was just like ... in a daze for a week after finishing it. Gahhhh.

[tesni]

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "@Sam - Aww yay, I'm glad you loved Aristotle and Dante! Yes, it's such a gorgeous book. The ending seriously brought tears to my eyes. [spoilers removed]

@Megan - It's been a long time since I rea..."

Naomi wrote: "Tesni wrote: " is going well but I'm going home for the holidays today and unless I finish it in the next three hours - which I know isn't going to happen - I have ..."

Alas, I didn't have time to finish it D: I ended up spending all morning packing because I'd left it all to the last minute and didn't get time. Oh well. I will definitely try and get back to it first thing in the autumn, though. I was curious about how I'd enjoy it because it's so different to Gemma Doyle, but I'm only really impressed at how Libba Bray can write such contrasting settings, voices etc so well. I'm also so impressed by (and envious of) how funny it is - I'm aware that my own writing must just be so serious because imo some writers are just gifted with the capacity for humour in their work & their 'writing voice' naturally and others simply aren't; I know that I'm the latter and there's nothing I can do about it, but Libba Bray is the former, and she does it so well!

[tesni]

I've just finished . I hadn't meant to start it so soon, especially when I have so many other books on the go, but I opened it the other day just to have a look at it and Singer's voice has become so familiar to me over the last year (and it's a voice I've become so fond of!) that those opening lines felt like a kind of coming home, or being welcomed by a friend, and I couldn't not then read on. After Shadows on the Hudson (which I loved, but which demanded so much of the reader) it seemed a very easy read, and I finished it in a little over a day. I worry that it can be easily misinterpreted as very 'preachy' - and it is - but that's, like...the point, and I can only be impressed by how Singer can explore the beliefs and internal struggles of this character in so much depth - especially when his own views were so different, because it's all so convincingly written.
As with all his other work, it would be great adapted for radio, as it was first serialised and the whole thing is basically a monologue. It could be me! I could write that script! - I know nobody else will.

Now, . IT'S SO GOOD. SO GOOD. This is Watership Down but on a whole other level, oh my god. I heard about it before it came out and was excited for it then, but it takes so long before most new releases actually make it to my provincial and woefully underfunded borough libraries that I'd sort of forgotten about it until I found it in the catalogue the other day but it's finally in my hands and it's everything I could have hoped for!

[Naomi]

Tesni wrote: "Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "@Sam - Aww yay, I'm glad you loved Aristotle and Dante! Yes, it's such a gorgeous book. The ending seriously brought tears to my eyes. [spoilers removed]

@Megan..."

Yeah I was also really surprised and is awe of the book because of how different it is to Gemma Doyle and The Diviners. But shes's super talented. I wish I could be that funny.

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

Tesni wrote: "Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "@Sam - Aww yay, I'm glad you loved Aristotle and Dante! Yes, it's such a gorgeous book. The ending seriously brought tears to my eyes. [spoilers removed]

@Megan..."

Oh no! Well I hope you get to finish it at some point. I also love how Libba Bray is able to shift between different styles/voices so well. And yes, she is so hilarious. :D

So I take it The Bees is actually about bees?! That sounds interesting. I love Watership Down, so maybe I should check that out. :P

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

I just finished:



It ... didn't really have an ending. *sigh* I understand that it's the first in a series, but I get kinda annoyed when a book in a series just cuts off at a random point simply for the purpose of having sequels. Part of me wants to keep reading because I want to know what happens, but also I don't know if I liked it enough to continue. Meh.

Next I'll be reading:



I'd never heard of it before, but it's a group read in another Goodreads group I'm in––I don't really know what it's about but I think it's about a dragon apocalypse?!?! So I'm hoping it's cool.

[Colby]

Finally getting back into my Harry Potter reread, on

[Stephanie]

Read A Darker Shade of Magic and it was soooooooo good! I went into the book a little skeptical that it was as good as people sad it was and I'm glad I'm wrong. Can't wait to read the second book!

[Autumn]

Colby wrote: "Finally getting back into my Harry Potter reread, on "

I, too, am reading the Half-Blood Prince.