Week 7 Check In

[Sheri]

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for the late post, it's certainly been a week.

This week I finished:

Cat's Eye - I can't remember if I finished this before or after check in last week. It was pretty good, if a bit hard to read. It's the first of two books with the same title for popsugar.

The Sun Is Also a Star - This was cute, a light fun read. It's my book becoming a movie this year, and ATY's book with an astrological term in the title.

Circe - I loved this so much! I really like stories that are twists on fairy tales or myths. It's my popsugar mythology prompt, as well as the reading women one. For ATY it'll be my book with a name in the title.

Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation - My book & brew read the proper novel, i read that a few years ago though so I did the graphic novel for a refresher. Still good, i liked the book better.

Giant Days, Vol. 1, Giant Days, Vol. 2, Giant Days, Vol. 3, Giant Days, Vol. 4, Giant Days, Vol. 5, Giant Days, Vol. 6, Giant Days: Extra Credit - Kinda fell down a hole here, haha. I still have two left to finish up, but I'm counting it as the book set in a university.

Currently reading:

Ball Lightning - I like this so far, the author is keeping the science just dumbed down enough that I don't feel totally lost haha. I think i'll use it for ATY's STEM prompt. Don't think it fits anywhere else.

The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help
Still plugging away, this is the book by a musician.

QOTW:

Another question from Kathy:

Any favorite childhood library memories?

I do remember going to the library with my mom as a kid, but I don't really have specific library memories. At some point we stopped going, I think because in that era the internet wasn't really a thing and I think the interlibrary loan system was less robust. So once I had read through most the stuff I was interested in, it was slower and harder to figure out if other stuff was at other libraries, or when new stuff would come in. So I relied more on used book stores and just kind of getting piles from there and then dumping my read ones i didn't want to re-read back. Now I mostly use my digital library, which is fantastic.

[Stephanie]

Hello All,

It's been a busy week, but I managed to get some reading in, as well as some audiobooks.

Last week, I finished A Game of Thrones. We still have 3 episodes to go before husbot and I are done watching the series, so I'll hold off on the sequel for now.

I also plowed my way through Lethal White, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This is about the only mystery series I've ever liked, and I admit I'm primarily reading it for the "will they/won't they?" tension between the two main characters. This book reminds me a lot of the Outlander series: On the surface, it's a simple genre series, but once you get into it, there's so many more layers and genres going on. I really admire the work Galbraith does in this series, even though sometimes I wished he'd just get on with some of the plot.

I'm currently making my way through Never Too Late, which is a book about retirement planning at any age. It's tax season here in Canada and with contribution deadlines fast approaching, I figured it wouldn't hurt to do a bit of review on the financial planning front. The author is a well know personality with a "tell it like it is" approach. I'm really enjoying it.

For audio books, I finished Leia: Princess of Alderaan. The author set up her appearance in Star Wars: A New Hope really well. I always wondered where the bossy (read: awesome) princess came from and how anyone who is a princess would fight for a republic. This book answers that and explains a few other things. I recommend it.

I've started listening to The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help, but I don't think I'm going to finish it. It's 11 hours long and, though there are parts I truly appreciate, her excessively slow reading and (IMHO) overly emo approach to the minutiae of life just isn't jiving with me. I also find that she contradicts herself in a lot of places. Sorry Amanda Palmer--you're cool, but I think I'm going to have to let this one go.

I've been back at work at my bedroom reno this weekend, and, rather than listen to AP, I decided to go with a David Tennant narrated audiobook, so downloaded My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece. It's a bit artless in the telling, but given that it's written for kids around 8-12, I can't fault if for that. This is the story of a 10 year old boy from a home shattered by personal tragedy and whose father is extremely racist. He moves to the Lake District in the UK and finds his only friend is a muslim girl who also has an affinity for pretending to be a superhero. I'm really enjoying this book, even though it deals with some pretty tough themes and so is a bit heavier than I would usually listen to.

QOTW: I loved my childhood library! It's no longer standing as it was torn down to build a park and then relocated to a new facility. It used to be on an "island" in the middle of an intersection, so that it stood out all by itself. It had such a distinct and welcoming smell, and I used to love wandering the shelves and looking for books to read. I also spent a lot of time doing research there for projects as this was before the internet and my school library had limited resources. It was such a lovely place!

[Sheri]

Stephanie,

I get it. I'm actually a fan of Amanda Palmer and i'm still kind of "I still have 2 more hours left? sigh" . But I need it for a prompt, and since I just have it on in the background I'm soldiering through.

It feels more like someone just rambling more about their life than a coherent narrative, really. Like she's mentioned Neil so many times in every section, I have no idea what time in her life they actually met.

[Kathy]

Need some guidance. I'm halfway through Left Hand of Darkness and not enjoying it. I hate abandoning books, but I read for fun and entertainment and right now this one's neither fun nor entertaining for me. But I want to know how it ends. I'm about to hit wikipedia for a summary, but I thought I'd check here to see if someone thought it would be worthwhile to keep going.

[Sheri]

Kathy, I personally love the book but I totally get how it’s not for everyone. Are you to the ice yet? That’s where it picks up about as much as it’s going to, and you get to know the two characters better.

[Jen W.]

I'm still plugging away at both The Left Hand of Darkness and Shadow and Bone. Making more progress on the latter since it's due back sooner. I'm enjoying it so far.

I did finish quite a few manga this week! Mostly the next volumes in several series that I've been following.

The Water Dragon's Bride, Vol. 8
Takane & Hana, Vol. 6
Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 15
Noragami: Stray God, Vol. 3
In/Spectre, Vol. 1

QOTW: I didn't really start going to the library much until I was around the 7th or 8th grade, and we moved to a more walk-able distance from a public library. Neither of my parents are readers at all -- I seriously wonder how I became such a great reader sometimes -- so most of my library experience before high school was with the tiny school library in my private grade school. I was in that library as often as I could be, and I read anything that even remotely looked like sci-fi/fantasy multiple times.

[Susan]

I've been quiet for the past couple of weeks, life has been busy. Still plugging away at The Left Hand of Darkness but progress has been slow due to time and life.

I'm also listening to Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones the 2nd book in the series. It has been a fun listen so far, but I'm not very far into it, maybe an 60-90 minutes. I've been listening to the Alcatraz books from Graphic Audio and it is definitely a big difference with the sound effects. If you have a chance to listen to a book from them, give it a try.

I definitely remember going to the library a lot as a child. A very early memory was walking there with my mother before I was in kindergarten. It seemed like it was a really long distance. It was probably 1.5-1.8 miles from our house. I remember always wanting the Curious George books and having my mother read to me in the green chair in the living room. She only got rid of that chair last year! Yikes it was old (I'm mid-50s now).

[Sarah]

Susan wrote: "I've been quiet for the past couple of weeks, life has been busy. Still plugging away at The Left Hand of Darkness but progress has been slow due to time and life.

I'm also listening ..."

You've got great taste- Alcatraz is one of my absolute favorites!

[Sarah]

Still plodding through Wheel of Time here- when the books are nearly 1,000 pages each, the weekly summaries became quite brief. Got The Fires of Heaven finished this week. Yes, this is most definitely about where it stops being an action/adventure fantasy series and turns into a fantasy soap opera drama. Still fun though, when approached with the right expectations, though there are absolutely a few parts that drag.

Taking a little break before starting WOT 6. I have to travel for a work conference next week, and need something that takes up a bit less real estate in my carry-on bag. But yay- airport and in-flight reading time!!! I've started Master of Formalities. It's fun, fluffy and kind of a delightful send-up of a bunch of societal issues (generic "sports" being my running favorite). I'm about halfway through, but so far it's been a great palette cleanser.

So, uhhh, I pretty much have zero library memories as a kid, which is marvelously ironic, as I am now a librarian. The town library wasn't within waking distance and my Mom didn't have a vehicle during the day when we were little, so we rarely went. Currently however, I use it tons, and am in there at least weekly. I interned there for a summer during library school, so the staff is basically extended family to me. I route all of my city library system ILL books for pickup there, rather than the branch where I work, just so I can stop in and hang out with them!

[Cindy]

My parents weren’t readers so I didn’t know there were libraries outside of my school library until I was almost done with high school (I grew up in a rural, agricultural area so wasn’t exposed to a lot until I could drive myself around). Anyway, I’m glad I at least had books at school! And now I love my local library.

I’m currently reading 84K but I’m not loving it. It’s starting to feel like a chore. I really enjoyed a previous book by this author but this one is just a little too beyond me. The writing style and jumping around timelines has me slightly confused at times. I’m hoping the ending will be worth the effort of getting there.

I’m also reading Life Moves Pretty Fast and it has been an interesting read thus far. Kind of fun to revisit 80’s movies and look at them in a slightly different light.

[Kathy]

Coming back to answer QOTW. We had a pretty good size library about 10 minutes away; I could ride my bike there as a teenager. We would go every week, and had a five book limit set by my mom as a reasonable number to not lose each week. I remember working my way alphabetically through the kid mysteries. I plowed through those before I was ready for adult books, so my family started taking trips to the downtown Cleveland library to expand my selection. I have a distinct memory of my mom deciding I could read adult books, and heading over to the mystery section there and leaving with Crocodile on the Sandbank.