EPBOT Readers discussion
Reading Challenges 2018
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Week 7 Check In
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I don't have too much to "report" on this week. My reading pace continues to be slow as I just have about 20 minutes in the morning to squeeze in a chapter or two of Little Women. I'm about 70% through now and hope to finish it up over the weekend as it's a long weekend in Ontario this week! I'm kind of enjoying Little Women. I did the math and realized the last time I read it was about 27 years ago, so there's enough in it that I don't remember that it feels like I'm truly rediscovering the book. Still, I'm looking forward to finishing it so that I can move on to my next reading choice. It's a long book and it feels like it's taking me forever (if forever is actually only 2 weeks!) to get through it.
For my audiobook, I finished up Leviathan last week and, based on more FoE recommendations, started The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. So, I'll preface my next comment by saying I'm really enjoying this book, but, jeez, is it just me or is Flavia a little brat? I mean, I admire her spunk and how she doesn't fit into traditional society, but she does seem like kind of a jerk. I feel like this book could fit the anithero prompt pretty well! Still, she's a pretty fantastic character and I regularly chuckle out loud when I'm walking back and forth to work listening to this. The narrator is also fantastic. She's the same woman who read the part of Lyra in Lyra's Oxford, which I listened to back in January. As for Leviathan, it was probably one of my favourite audiobooks so far, and I'm sad that my library doesn't have the other two in this format. I might just end up buying them so I can finish up the series listening to Alan Cummings' wonderful narration.
Sheri, do you *really* want me to answer your questions? (grins evilly). Sheri and I have a running joke that I don't tend to love books she recommends to me, although to be fair, she often recommends books that are highly rated and loved by many people and that I truly think I'm going to really like. Kushiel's Dart is a good example of this. Like Sheri, I'm going to continue the series just because there was one character that I really liked that was left with a huge cliffhanger, and I want to find out what happens to him. But, overall, I didn't like the main premise of the book or care much for the main character.
I will say that I was really surprised at Beartown. Knowing that some people have DNF and that others have raved about it, and having already read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry and not loving it like a lot of people did (I was middle of the pack on it), I expected Beartown to just be an "okay" read and possibly disappointing, but I was completely blown away by it (see my raving about it in last week's check in).
Finally, just a little promo for The Wheel of Time Series. Tor is giving away digital copies of the first book in the series, The Eye of the World this month! I really love this series: the world building is fantastic, the system of "magic" is very well-developed, and there are so many great female characters who wield some serious power and influence in these novels--particularly after the first couple of books, as one of the main plot points in the book is that men have lost the ability to wield magic and so in many ways women hold the balance of power in many situations. You can pick it up here!
I finally finished reading The Well of Ascension, the second of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. I've enjoyed them both, but have come to the conclusion that I don't like my epic fantasies quite so epic in length. I'm a fast reader but that took a couple weeks; I usually read one book at a time but had to take some breaks. Probably more than half my reading list in the past year has been recommendations from FoE or Jen's book reviews. I have had a very high success rate of loving a lot of the stuff I've read. There are a few authors I enjoyed but have decided not to continue (Butcher's Dresden files, and Terry Pratchett), mostly because there are so many authors I really liked that I have ahead of them in line.
The two books everyone else seems to like that I didn't were Outlanders and A Discovery of Witches. Both of them just dragged on for me, and then had unsatisfying endings. I thought they had too many scenes that were the authors showing off how much historical stuff they knew. There was an also a scene in Outlanders I found completely implausible (wolf) and almost made me abandon it. Everytime I see these recommended on FoE I want to warn people that not everybody liked them, because these two were so disappointing since I had such a good track record with other FoE recommendations.
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The question of the week and my reading this week go perfectly together! Every book I read this week was something recommended on FoE.First was my bookflood book, Qualify. I feel bad for my flooder because I've read A LOT, and she had trouble finding something that I hadn't already read. This book needed some mad editing skilz applied to it. It felt self-published. The base idea was decent, (Earth is about to be destroyed and an ancient race of humans who escaped the last world-destroying event have come from space to help rescue those that qualify, a la hunger games style) but it rambled where it was boring and was abrupt in the exciting parts.
Next up was The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I enjoyed this, even though it wasn't what I was expecting. I kept waiting for something huge and adventurous to happen, but the book was about the journey, not the action.
And last for the week was A Darker Shade of Magic. Again, not what I was expecting, mainly because I thought it was going to take place in modern London, not the early 1800s. The book felt choppy and abrupt to me and I didn't really feel like the characters became real people until right at the end.
I'm usually pretty hesitant to read things that come recommended by the masses. If a book has gotten rave reviews by everyone, I find I don't like it. For example, I couldn't get past the first chapter or so of The Name of the Wind even though soooooo many people love that series.
On the other hand, my sister is always recommending books to me that don't seem like ones I would like, and then I end up really enjoying them. But she was an English major and editor, so she gets what a good book really is. I should stop doubting her recommendations.
Oh, and I feel the same on the Outlander thing. Another one I didn't get past the first chapter or so. I was rolling my eyes and laughing at it. So not my thing. :)
I am happy, nay, delighted, thrilled to report that I finally got through Moby-Dick or, The Whale. Melville is a gifted writer, but I hated how he pulled us out of the story to go off on educational tangents about whale anatomy. Ok, we get it, you've done your research. So that's my Popsugar #25 - a book set at sea.Then I grabbed at my city library a biography of Jean-Claude Langlois, a local businessman and philanthropist whose claim to fame is inventing the word search puzzle in Quebec (pretty much simultaneously to its first appearance in English and Spanish in North America). It was written by a journalist for our local paper (which the man founded and still owns) and read very much like a long report. It could have used a heavy dose of storytelling. I'm counting that as my #20 - a book by a local author.
Not certain what's next. Fiction for sure. I just joined BookBub and downloaded a bunch of promising ebooks.
As for recommendations, I can't say I really get a lot or rely on them much. I read more than most of my circle of family and friends, and I don't really bother with reviews. That said, I've enjoyed most books I've received as gifts. I guess those might count as recommendations :)
Just joined today! I’m not reading in any particular order just trying to tick things of the list. I’ve just finished Naked in Death by J.D. Robb for my female under a males name book. Meh... it was ok. I had a hard time finishing it. I’m reading Green River, Running Red for my True Crime book currently. It’s been pretty good so far. I read Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare for my next book in a series you are reading. I also read Jim Butcher’s Storm Front (Dresden Files) for my weather element book. I liked it a lot. I’d like to keep reading in that series when I’m done with this. Thanks for letting me join! 💚
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But while visiting my daughter she gave me A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form which I finished quickly. I don't particularly agree with it about cheating students out of math education. It felt a bit whiny and repetitive to me. It complained a lot but really didn't offer much in practical solutions. We will have to talk about it next time we talk, and I'm sure my opinion will differ from hers.
I take a lot of stock in the descriptions and reviews here. I like to try to find varied things, particularly in non-fiction. However, I also have found several that I didn't really get into that others raved about (Ready Player One and Agnes Nutter are two). I only got about 40% through Agnes Nutter before it was due back at the library. I just wasn't getting pulled into it. Not sure why. RPO took two reads to finish. The second time I only got through for the Epbot book club last year. But I often add random books mentioned here to my GoodReads "Want to Read" list. I'm using that more and more lately to keep track of ideas.
And thank you Sheri for finding random questions to ask here and generate discussion each week!
Mod
FYI, if you want to link to the book, just above the comment box is "add book/author". That pops up a dialog box and lets you search for the right book and it will insert the link. It is actually pretty quick and easy.
Mod
Susan, no problem! I like encouraging discussions :)
Glad everyone is enjoying the group and reading!
This wasn't my best reading week. Husbot and I fell back into the "watch TV after getting the kids to bed" habit, which always cuts down my reading (and makes me less happy to boot!) but we didn't last night, and I got a good start into A Discovery of Witches, which just came up on Overdrive at the library. It was good timing because after finishing my last book I wasn't quite ready to drop into something completely new, so I re-read Catching Fire. As soon as I finished that, Discovery of Witches came up!
As for reviews, I have found that I often don't like things that others rave about. I guess I'm fairly picky and like to stay in my genre. For instance, I feel like I SHOULD like classic sci fi. I love sci fi shows and movies, for instance, but every time I try one I wind up putting it down again because I just can't get into it without some fantasy element. (With a few exceptions like The Martian, Ready Player One, etc.) I guess maybe I just don't like Space Opera?
EPBOT Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
Catching Fire (other topics)A Discovery of Witches (other topics)
A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form (other topics)
Moby-Dick or, The Whale (other topics)
A Darker Shade of Magic (other topics)
More...
Had a pretty good reading week this week, although a lot of my finishes were short.
Britt-Marie Was Here - my book on sports. After my Beartown DNF i was a little concerned about reading another Backman sports novel. But I gave it a try since I loved My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry and Britt-Marie is from that book. I'm glad I gave it a shot, I really loved the book and the humor in it. Also I didn't love Britt-Marie as a character in the other book, but she was great in this. She really gets developed and treated with gentle humor and compassion. this also counts for my ATY book with a title that is a complete sentence and Read Harder's book with a female protagonist over 60.
Girl in the Blue Coat - ATY's Edgar Award winner (best YA mystery). I really enjoyed this, although it was pretty sad. Not really sure you can have a book set during WW2 and NOT be sad, though. I liked it because it didn't really draw lines as villains and heroes. It showed that people in a war are still complex. The same people can be both petty and heroic.
Practical Magic - book of a movie i've seen. This was just ok for me. I like the movie ok, but it's not one of my favorites, so I guess I shouldn't be shocked that I didn't love the book. For all that it was pretty short, it still felt like it took forever to get to the point. Also counting it for my ATY ghost story.
The Island of Dr. Moreau - My book mentioned in another book . Stretching this a bit, since The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter was a mash up, so characters from Dr Moreau were in it. I hadn't read this one, so fixed that now. I have hard time with older classics, the pacing and language style is just so different from what we expect now. Also counting it for Read Harder's classic of genre fiction.
The Lathe of Heaven - book that was made into a play or musical. I was reading about Ursula K Le Guin after her death and found an article that had mentioned this was adapted into a play a few years ago. I knew The Left Hand of Darkness had been, but I'd read that before. Was pleased to fit some of her work into the challenge that I had not read.
Currently reading:
Rich People Problems - I don't know if this'll fit into the challenges anywhere but it came up in my library holds after months of waiting so I'm reading it.
I know we do a lot of book recommendations around here. Has anyone been surprised by a recommendation? Either that you thought for sure you wouldn't like it but gave it a try, or that you expected to love it but it ended up not being your jam?
Most recently i can think of the Clean Room, Vol. 1: Immaculate Conception series. Friend recommended it because Gail Simone wrote it, and while her writing is excellent, I'm more dubious about really weird horror stuff. But I actually really loved the story, and even managed to appreciate the super creepy art.
A friend recommended Sandman Slim and that one ended up being a bit of a disappointment. It's urban fantasy, which I usually love. But I didn't particularly care for the main character. I still might continue the series later to see if it gets better, but I don't have high hopes.