Week 14 Check In

[Sheri]

Hi everyone,

Here in Michigan it's raining with nasty slush. Lots of rain this week, leading to a failed sump pump and lots of bailing water last night to prevent the basement from flooding. Luckily a plumber was already planned to come out today to deal with said sump pump, along with a new water heater and other jobs. (DIY is great for crafts, and for non-vital home improvement. Maybe should not be applied to plumbing. Unless you actually know what you're doing. Looking at you, previous home owner).

The good news with all that bailing of water, I made some progress in Feed which my library only had in audio book form. Keep running into that, which is frustrating. but in this case, it at least made it less unpleasant to be stuck in a gross little sump pump room bailing endless water. This will be my book written by an author using a pseudonym, since Mira Grant is actually Seanan MacGuire. Cool to find this out though, I love Seanan MacGuire, and i'm really liking the book so far. It's a zombie book, which is kind of overdone, but I like the take on it. It's focus is less on the zombies and more on the changes to society brought on by them.

Kind of waiting on my library to actually make available one of the four titles i'm #1 on right now. So catching up on comics otherwise.

Books I finished this week:

The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story this one was a bit of a letdown. the story was good, but there was just too much deviation and infodumping. Her narrative got lost in all the excess information. It's for sure counting as my read harder book about war, and I had planned to use it for popsugar. But then i realized popsugar specified novel, and this was nonfiction. I might just count it anyhow, unless I get ambitious and try the book thief.

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World This is my book about travel for popsugar, and a travel memoir for read harder. It was interesting, about someone looking for happiness by studying countries know for either happiness or unhappiness and trying to find out what causes it. While the subject was interesting, the tone was a little irritating. The dude's obviously a white, privileged male and would talk blithely about going to Qatar and buying an Extremely Expensive Pen just to properly embrace the extravagant life style. He kept talking about what a grump he was, and was so self deprecating I kind of wanted to shake him and say "the reason you're miserable is because you embrace it as part of your image!"

In a Dark, Dark Wood This was supposed to be my book becoming a movie in 2017. It was listed on my library's site as "books becoming a movie" and I kind of assumed it meant this year. Turns out the movie's still in development and casting hasn't even been listed on IMDB yet, much less a release date. But i was waiting for nearly 3 months for this book, and I finished it, so I'm probably counting it anyhow. It was a really fast read, I couldn't put it down. However I was kind of disappointed by the end. While almost all the characters were female, the entire plot really revolved around a particular guy and it was mostly pent up relationship drama. Felt more like a Pretty Little Liars style teen drama with thrilling aspects, rather than a legit thriller.

Dungeon Crawl this one doesn't count for anything, it was just something to tide me over while waiting for library books to be available. I'm kind of to the point in the challenge where none of the books I currently own fit into anything else, so relying on library to have stuff.

this puts me at 26/52, so half way through challenge. Woo!

also at 12/24 for read harder. also halfway, weird!

[Stephanie]

Only one book down this week, which was The Cuckoo's Calling. I realized pretty soon into it that this could count as a book in a genre I don't usually read (mystery) and a book with a person with a disability (the protagonist lost a leg, but it doesn't figure THAT strongly in the story), but I used it as my book written by an author with a pseudonym (J.K. Rowling writing as Robert Golbraith). So, there's a reason why I don't read mysteries--I don't like them! This was the first true mystery novel I've read in a while, and I'm just not very patient with a slow string of clues with all being revealed in way too much exposition in the final pages. That said, I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would toward the end--I seriously thought about quitting halfway through. But there's no denying that Rowling is an amazing writer, and her ability to illuminate the smallest details that reflect broader themes about the nature of people, society, and our relationships with each other kept me going. In fact, I might even read the next book in this series when I'm done the challenge, just because I found the development between the main character and his secretary so wonderful and not-cliched. I'd like to find out what happens there, even if it means I have to read another mystery novel, heh.

I also started reading House Rules as my book with a disabled character. It was highly recommended for this category on the Pop Sugar threads. I'm only 3 chapters in and pretty disappointed that it, too, is a mystery/sleuth style novel. I considered trying another book, but I enjoy novels written from various perspectives (so far we've had perspectives from the mother and both her sons), so I think I'll stick it out for a few more chapters and then decide. I work at a small university, and I checked this book out of the academic library, where I discovered, to my delight, a HUGE selection of novels! The library is literally above my office, so I think I'll be perusing that section a lot more in the future!

I'm now at 12/40 for the Pop Sugar challenge (TBD if I add on the extended list when I'm done the first list!)

[Madderakka]

I liked Cuckoo's Calling, but it was a very slow build up and startlingly different from the Harry Potter series. She also throws some weird things in like him falling and grabbing her breast. If you haven't read Casual Vacancy, it is an even slower build up. A great read and an amazing character building, but I did almost quit in the middle. I am extremely glad I read it, though.

[Madderakka]

I didn't mean to sound like I was complaining about the writing style being different. I was just startled but it because usually you can still feel the writer's style, even if they switched genres. I can spot a Stephen King novel a mile away, but even knowing JK wrote this book as well, I don't see similarities.

[Sheri]

I actually hated Casual Vacancy enough that I haven't bothered reading any of her non-Harry Potter work, like the golbraith stuff. I just...hated all the characters in it. The only one who seemed halfway decent was the guy who died in the first few pages.

[Madderakka]

I didn't like the characters as people, but they were amazingly in depth and well written. Her writing of the one teenage girl from the council house area was kind of hard to read, but it was insightful and true to life.

[Stephanie]

I found myself reflecting on how liberating it must have been for Rowling to write under a pseudonym because she could leave the "children's author" title behind and embrace something more gritty. But I still saw her voice. She has a particular way of critiquing elements of society with a tongue in check, slightly sly application of narrative and character action. In Harry Potter, I see it in some most overtly in the descriptions and actions of characters like Dolorous Umbridge and that character played by Kenneth Brannah in the films but I forget his name, hahah. But it's also in subtle details like the names of people (see "Dolorous Umbridge!), spells, and magical objects, as well as the school and social rules. In the Cuckoo's Calling, it was in descriptions of what characters were wearing, their misunderstandings of each other, and Robin's growing disillusionment/fading romanticism over her engagement. The opening description her newly engaged self had me laughing out loud. I actually think the boob-grabbing right after that was meant to juxtapose the two male characters and make us see Strike in a slightly negative light (i.e., through Robin's eyes). We get to know and like him better as a character through her impressions of him. Just my two cents!

[Sheri]

I haven't tried the golbriath. but my problem with Casual Vacancy wasn't the writing, or that the characters had depth. They were just all unappealing. Sure they might be well written, but I didn't root for anyone and I didn't care what happened to anyone. I barely managed to finish. It's the same problem I had with Wuthering Heights. I can't really get into a story if I don't care about anyone in it. I'm sure the actual writing and everything was fine, it just wasn't enjoyable for me.