I'm the first one in my library to be getting a new book out!

[Karin]

It was released July 13, and I got an email this afternoon saying it's there for me. I managed to put a hold on it first!!!! I'm not sure why I'm so excited, since so far the books I've read by him have had 4 stars, but I am.

[Amy]

What's the book?

[Karin]

It shows up there in the picture and what the topic is about :). But, since I realize that might not be immediately obvious to most people (I've missed that myself in the past!!!), it's The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

[Nicole R]

Nice! I was wondering what is it too...you can't see covers or the "thread subject book" on the app.

[Amy]

I'm on the app too which I love, but there are only one or two things you can do. And I never review the books on the phone. One thing I keep forgetting you can't do, is that after you vote for the monthly tag, you can no longer go back and look at the shelves. It tells you you've already taken the survey. But you can do that on the computer. The other thing you can't do, is drag out like your personal tracking thread or prosperity challenge thread. But for the every day, it's truly wonderful.

[Book Concierge]

Amy wrote: "One thing I keep forgetting you can't do, is that after you vote for the monthly tag, you can no longer go back and look at the shelves. It tells you you've already taken the survey. But you can do that on the computer...."

Really? I have never been able to go back once taking the survey .. and I am ALWAYS on the computer. Survey Monkey won't let you enter the survey again once you've taken it. But I always write down the choice, and look them up that way.

[Nicole R]

Yeah, you shouldn't be able to see the survey again once you have voted, but if you vote on your phone then look on your computer then perhaps it isn't recognizing you as the same person?

[Amy]

Maybe. I hope that my bringing it to light doesn't somehow make the Internet gods recognize and fix my loophole. It works for me. Anyway I like the app, but I waste a lot of time that I used to spend reading.

[Cora]

Nicole R wrote: "Yeah, you shouldn't be able to see the survey again once you have voted, but if you vote on your phone then look on your computer then perhaps it isn't recognizing you as the same person?"

You can usually use a different browser on your computer or open the link in an incognito window to see it again too.

[Karin]

Nicole R wrote: "Nice! I was wondering what is it too...you can't see covers or the "thread subject book" on the app."

Thanks--good to know. I'm so old-school I'm still using PCs for online things exclusively.

[Karin]

Nicole R wrote: "Yeah, you shouldn't be able to see the survey again once you have voted, but if you vote on your phone then look on your computer then perhaps it isn't recognizing you as the same person?"

If I vote on one PC, I can't see it again on another PC, so it might have something to do with the app's software being recognized differently.

[Nicole R]

Karin wrote: "Nicole R wrote: "Yeah, you shouldn't be able to see the survey again once you have voted, but if you vote on your phone then look on your computer then perhaps it isn't recognizing you as the same ..."

I am sure there are ways around it.

[Anita]

Amy wrote: "I'm on the app too which I love, but there are only one or two things you can do. And I never review the books on the phone. One thing I keep forgetting you can't do, is that after you vote for the..."

Hi Amy,

Just a heads up, if you want to look at the shelves after the vote, you can go to:

www.goodreads.com/shelf

and then type in the name of the shelf into the search box.

[Amy]

Anita, that's a good tip, thanks...

[Book Concierge]

Thanks for that link, Anita.
I've saved it to my "Shelfari" spreadsheet so I don't have to keep looking it up!

[Karin]

Mitchell wrote: "Karin wrote: "It shows up there in the picture and what the topic is about :). But, since I realize that might not be immediately obvious to most people (I've missed that myself in the past!!!), it..."

I haven't started it yet as I'm reading Quicksilver now. I'm going to pick it up from the library later this week. It came at an awkward time!

[Nicole R]

The blurb of this one sounds so interesting! But Seveneves was so horrible that I do not know if I can ever bring myself to read another Stephenson book no matter how appealing the description sounds.

Seriously, I still feel physically ill when I hear his name.

[Karin]

Nicole R wrote: "The blurb of this one sounds so interesting! But Seveneves was so horrible that I do not know if I can ever bring myself to read another Stephenson book no matter how appealing the ..."

His novels vary, and right now I'm reading one that is NOT scifi but historical fiction that is set during the baroque area and about the transition from alchemy to modern science. I like the history of science and thought, so am going to continue, even if this is fiction. So far it's following one POV, flipping back between his younger adult years (not teen) and his elderly years, and so far we've seen both Ben Franklin and Isaac Newton as young boys (but you see them pages before you find out who they are). But it is LONG. I don't mind books with many characters, etc, having cut some of my last reading teeth on Robert Ludlum (whose novels I don't like now) because my dad read them. I've only read 40 pages, so don't know if there will be other POVs yet.

I agree, that Seveneves was horrible in many ways, particularly with the "science" and things in the story (I round it up from 3.5 to 4 stars, though, because I do tend to like his writing), but not all of his books are the same.

So, if you don't like scifi, avoid any of his scifi books. If you don't like loooong novels, avoid them all.

[Nicole R]

Karin wrote: "Nicole R wrote: "The blurb of this one sounds so interesting! But Seveneves was so horrible that I do not know if I can ever bring myself to read another Stephenson book no matter h..."

I like sci-fi and I like long books, my problem with him is his writing. I am not a fan of it. There were just so many boring and pointless details, literally pages and pages of technical descriptions of a space station, that the actual story got lost.

*shudder*

[Karin]

Nicole R wrote: "Karin wrote: "Nicole R wrote: "The blurb of this one sounds so interesting! But Seveneves was so horrible that I do not know if I can ever bring myself to read another Stephenson bo..."

True! So far none of that in Quicksilver, but it's too soon to tell if that will happen. Those were some of the parts that irritated me. I think I was reading it for some group discussion or something that got me big points. However, I read it while still on Shelfari so can't find the date finished book to remember it by. Once I got past many of those parts it wasn't so bad for me.

I found my review on LibraryThing, and I stand corrected. I did like it at 4 stars despite hating some of the "science" and the unbelievable size of what the ended up with in the second half of the book plus some of the plot devices. I think I liked it less in hindsight when I thought back on it. As for the 3.5 stars rounded up, that was probably a different dystopian scifi I read around the same time. This was all during my personal dystopian challenge as well.

My former review:
The moon blows up in the first sentence, or, more accurately, breaks into seven pieces at first. It's not long before scientists realize that the continual banging together of these pieces, which make more, are going to end up destroying earth with a hard rain that will literally burn up the air and everything at all flammable, and there are only a couple of years to do anything about it, since it will be at least 5,000 years until the earth wil be able to be inhabited again. Thus, in order to ameliorate global panic, a plan is put into act to attach pods to the International Space Station (aka "Izzy") in order to save the human race. In the meantime, at least one group of miners attempts, on the sly, to set up an underground place to live and possibly one other plan is hatched, but no spoilers here, only what you can know at the outset.

As the title predicts, the space plan will end up coming down to seven women to procreate and keep humankind alive. In a tale rife with colourful characters, escapades and various human interactions, risk takers and powermongers, the first part of the book ends with eight space survivors. The last part of the book is about their descendants, five thousand years later, who have managed to reseed the earth.

This book was four stars for me because it gripped me to the point of losing sleep at night, got me to care about at least some of the main characters, and kept me riveted even at some of the poor choices made by the Seven Eves, among others. The imagined future was fresh, fun, and while certainly not particularly believable, quite well drawn out. I'm glad I read this and have one more book to add to my best books of 2015. However, it wasn't so great that I'd give it more than a solid four stars.

Thanks to whomever it was that has recommended this book this year