What Else Are You Reading in 2019? Showing 2,451-2,500 of 3,237

[HeyT]

Took a detour into non-fiction and finished Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death which was charming.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I started reading:


Best Horror of the Year Volume 10 edited by Ellen Datlow

[Jacqueline]

Started Carry On by Rainbow Rowell this morning. Just finished it. The first approximately 200 pages annoyed me. Reminded me of Harry Potter fan fiction. There was not much action and a lot of relationship stuff. Then it got better and was a 4⭐️ read by the end.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

HeyT wrote: "Took a detour into non-fiction and finished Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death which was charming."

haha "charming" is a funny adjective to read after this title. What made it charming?

RJ, how timely!

Jacqueline, woof! You are more patient than I am! 200 pages to wait for it to get good?? I'm glad it was worth it though.

[Jacqueline]

Yeah Alison a few people I am friends with on here that I usually like the same books as loved it so I thought I’d stick with it. Glad I did.

[HeyT]

Allison wrote: "haha "charming" is a funny adjective to read after this title. What made it charming?"
It's because of the way she tackles everything with humor. She states the facts in a conversational tone. It also has these amazing illustrations.

[Trike]

I just finished the colossally disappointing Emily Eternal. If you enjoy reading reviews that rip books, I gots a hot one for you right here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jacqueline]

And there goes another one....Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell. It was only about 355 pages. That didn’t take long at all. Neeeeext....

[Araych]

Time and Again by Jack Finney


New Yorker goes back to New York 1882. I like time travel stories but this one .......the method of time travel is just absurd and the story goes very slowly. Page after page of detailed descriptions of all manner of everyday 1882 life -- clothes, food, transport, decor, social mores, etc.etc. There's no bibliography so I guess we're supposed to take it on faith that it's all true and Finney did all this research. I wanted to like it but I can't recommend it.

[Jacqueline]

By the pricking of my thumbs, Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Wanted to read Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury last year for a Popsugar prompt but couldn't find a copy. Picked up a second hand one last week so I started reading it today. Between that and A Night in the Lonesome October I've got Halloween covered. I also have a few Stephen Kings (The Institute, The Shining, Doctor Sleep, Mr Mercedes, Salems Lot) and a Joe Hill (Strange Weather) in the bottom shelf of my Book Mobile (grey metal three tiered trolley thing on wheels :) ) to read over the next couple of weeks while Hubby is here. Or as many as I can get in anyway. Not that it's Halloween in Australia. It's actually Beltane but what can you do. Halloween is really at the end of April here.

[DivaDiane]

Jacqueline, I hadn’t even really thought about that, that Halloween would be a movable feast and occur during the autumnal season in the Southern Hemisphere ie in April. But what about All Soul’s Day? Surely that’s still on Oct. 31st?

[Jacqueline]

Yeah the religious All Souls Day and All Saints Day are still on the 31st of October and the 1st of November respectively but yeah the pagan sabbats are different down here. Or should be anyway. Some people do celebrate the same as the northern hemisphere but celebrating an autumn harvest thing in spring is really a bit silly lol November 1 here is Beltane and 1 May is Samhain.

People have only started getting into Halloween lately. Mostly kids who like to annoy people for lollies. There used to be nobody out and about but last year there were a lot of little kids and their parents wandering the hot streets of our Outback town. It’s 40C and they are walking the streets. But I suppose we also celebrate Yule in the middle of a 40 degree Summer with depictions of snow covered everything and a man in a fur suit. It’s all a little topsy turvy lol

[Andy]

Feels like I've read a lot of angsty, cerebral stuff this year. I heard about The Grey Bastards from Oleksandr's review, and so far it feels like a break from all that.

There are things I'm not enthralled with, and it's certainly not a light-hearted romp or anything. But after so many deep, dystopian, soul-searching stories, it's almost a relief to read about half-orcs dealing out head-thumpings.

(I'm sure there's more to it than that, but only a few chapters in—heads have been thumped.)

[Stratos]

Finished The Year of the Flood a couple of hours ago. Not as strong as Oryx and Crake but still a very enjoyable read. Lacked some "juice" and the element of surprise was absent. Kinda cool ending. Definitely gonna finish the trilogy. 3 stars...

[Jacqueline]

I loved The Grey Bastards Andy. Lots of head thumping and swearing and quite a bit of sex thrown into it. All good clean fun lol Sort of Sons of Anarchy where they ride real hogs. D&D gone hog wild 😜

[Trike]

Jacqueline wrote: "Yeah the religious All Souls Day and All Saints Day are still on the 31st of October and the 1st of November respectively but yeah the pagan sabbats are different down here. Or should be anyway. So..."

How can you move Halloween? The word literally means “All Hallows Eve,” as in the day before All Saints Day, which is November 1st.

I mean, moving Samhain I get, as that’s specifically a harvest festival. The Catholic Church coopting it and similar festivals for their celebrations aside, it was tied to seasons, which dictated the religious observance. Upside down seasons makes moving it sensible.

[Jacqueline]

Samhain is a time when the veil is at its thinnest which is why Halloween is celebrated then. Here the veil is at its thinnest on the 30th of April/1 May. It is all seasonal. Autumn going into winter and getting darker and all that. In the northern hemisphere your ghosts come and haunt you in October and here they haunt us in April.

Southern Hemisphere Wiccan here.....not practicing lately I must say but still.

[Andy]

Jacqueline wrote: "I loved The Grey Bastards Andy. Lots of head thumping and swearing and quite a bit of sex thrown into it. All good clean fun lol Sort of Sons of Anarchy where they ride real hogs. D&D gone hog wild 😜"

Glad to hear it. Looking forward to the rest.

[Anna]

Did you love The Stars Are Legion and An Unkindness of Ghosts? Check out Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden, and make sure to have a puke bucket ready.

I sort of liked The Prey of Gods, but not really, and I disliked Temper, so I was ready for this to be the one I really like, but I don't think it's going to happen. Way too disgusting for me.

But it's weird and biological, so Gabi should check it out? :D

[Kirsten]

I just finished Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny

[Gabi]

@Anna! You just made my day! Thank you so for the much need laugh (having been asked the same question 10 times in as many minutes by your getting-dementia father just makes you want to scream). I have to check it out!

[Anna]

Glad to help, Gabi :)

[Jen]

Kirsten #EndGunViolence wrote: "I just finished Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny"

Nice! What did you think? I read the first 5 books of the series last year and really enjoyed them.

[Kirsten]

I really loved the pace of the book. It was a real pageturner.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Trike wrote: "How can you move Halloween? The word literally means “All Hallows Eve,” as in the day before All Saints Day, which is November 1st."


Somewhat related, there's actually a petition to "move" Halloween to the closest Saturday, so that the 9-5 type parents don't have to worry about getting home from work or shipping their kids off to school the next day...

I feel like if they ever did a thing of that variety, they'd have to leave Halloween on Oct 31st and maybe have a "Halloween Observed" on the closest Saturday.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I've started The Mere Wife. Not very far in... don't know what I think of it yet.

[Chris]

colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "I feel like if they ever did a thing of that variety, they'd have to leave Halloween on Oct 31st and maybe have a "Halloween Observed" on the closest Saturday."

Some places have Beggars Night, which is for trick-or-treating for young kids.

[Trike]

Chris wrote: "colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "I feel like if they ever did a thing of that variety, they'd have to leave Halloween on Oct 31st and maybe have a "Halloween Observed" on the closest Saturd...

Some places have Beggars Night, which is for trick-or-treating for young kids."

Yeah, Beggars Night was usually the Saturday before Halloween in Ohio when I grew up. Moving to New Hampshire was a bit of culture shock in that trick-or-treat is always on Halloween.

I received quite a few perplexed looks the first year I lived here when I asked “When is Halloween?” Clarifying that I meant Beggars Night did NOT clarify anything. 👻

[Anna]

Anna wrote: "Did you love The Stars Are Legion and An Unkindness of Ghosts? Check out Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden, and make sure to have a puke bucket ready."

And you should also not hate young people in very, very tangled romantic situations.

I didn't know it was going to be so gory and icky. It's what I thought Stars Are Legion was going to be, when everyone kept warning everyone else about That Chapter. I had to read That Chapter several times and try to guess what people were talking about. This is literally ichor all the way through. Yuck.

[Gabi]

Whew! "young people in tangled romantic situations" probably kills it for me. I think I had enough YA stuff for this year.

[Sarah]

What don’t you like about it Anna? I had that on my list.. I’m okay with gory though if that’s the only thing.

For the romance- is this romance didguised as scifi or is the romance secondary?

[Anna]

Yeah Gabi I don't think it's for you :/ I'm not saying it's YA, but it's got that first love flailing around kind of feel.

[Karin]

colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "Trike wrote: "How can you move Halloween? The word literally means “All Hallows Eve,” as in the day before All Saints Day, which is November 1st."


Somewhat related, there's actually a petition to..."

I hope they just leave it as is. I am the "Halloween Scrooge" and am not keen on having it over more than one night--my husband and one of my kids love to give out candy, etc, but I dislike the fact that so many people drive to our neighbourhood to get candy because there's is no good (doubles or triples our cost and I don't like this much anyway) when there are so many mall ones and trunk or treat ones (some on Saturdays to boot).

[Karin]

I am now slowly reading Green Mars as even though I gave the first 3 stars (meaning I liked it but that was it) I was interested enough to read on. I'm also reading a couple of other novels in other genres.

[Gabi]

@Anna: thanks for the warning. I have faith in your assessment and save myself 9 Euro.

[Anna]

There's still two weeks left before voting starts, but if you want to look at the lists and start a mad two-week planning session, or just talk about the books, the runner-up polls are up!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

*Contented sigh* I just finished Too Like the Lightning again and found it just as interesting the second time. I thought the audio narrator did a creditable job. His accents weren't the most flawless or unique, but his Mycroft is spot on.

Also took a sojourn through Heads of the Colored People which were captivating, thoughtful short stories that I'm not sure were for me (in the sense of audience, not enjoyment), but which I'd hope would resound more with other people.

Starting my first Rushdie with Midnight's Children! This is not actually the one my friend told me to start with but it was in an Audible sale and I am weak, so here goes.

[Carolyn]

I just finished Un Lun Dun, which I absolutely adored! Now reading All Systems Red, which has a fabulous opening sentence. “I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites.”

[Anna]

Carolyn, join the Murderbot love fest in the buddy read thread!

[Carolyn]

So annoying. Spoiler tags didn’t work on my comment in Murderbot Diaries and I can’t edit. And I was in browser. @Anna, as moderator can you go in and add spoiler tags. And remind me again what the language to start spoiler tag is?

[Anna]

How to use spoiler tags:

(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]

Click on "(some html is ok)" in the top right corner of the text box (on desktop version) as you're typing your post to copy/paste the code. Or go to this help page if you're not on the desktop version.

[Anna]

Unfortunately mods can’t edit others’ comments. I can delete it if you want to copy and try again.

[Kaa]

Anna wrote: "Anna wrote: "Did you love The Stars Are Legion and An Unkindness of Ghosts? Check out Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden, and make sur..."

Now I'm intrigued... I haven't read Stars, but I like the creepiness of Hurley's work in general. Less sure about the flaily first love part, though.

[Anna]

It’s not the most lovey thing ever, and it’s got f/f, poly, trans rep.

[Kaa]

Ok, sold!

[Anna]

Check out some reviews before buying! :D

[Kaa]

I put a hold on it at my library!

[Anna]

Wow, they’re on top of new releases!

[Kaa]

Yeah, it's a big system, so they tend to get things listed for holds very quickly, often before the book is even out yet.

[Gabi]

Deadly combination: stuck in a traffic jam while listening to "The Yiddish Policemen Union" by Michael Chabon. Haven't felt that aggressive in ages ...