Week 14 Check In

[Sheri]

Hi Everyone!

Been glad to see some spring like weather return after a gross snowy weekend.

In case you didn't get the message I sent out, Onyx and Ivory was selected as the next book to read for the book club! It looks interesting. For those who have access to Hoopla, the audiobook is available on it. Stephanie has kindly agreed to run the discussion again, since she did such a great job last time. Thank you Stephanie!

This week I finished:

On Both Banks - this was one of my bookflood books. I enjoyed it, very interesting! The author is a FoE which is pretty cool, as well. It counted for Read Harder's book published before jan 19 with fewer than 100 ratings.

The Beekeeper's Lament: How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed America - this is my read harder business book. I got it free through amazon prime reading. It was interesting enough, about the beekeeping industry and how it affects and is affected by the agricultural industry. I love honey and appreciate bees, so it was about as interesting as a business book is going to be for me. Still a bit dry and slow to get through.

Immortal Ever After - re-read just to break up the beekeeping book, i need some plot to keep me going.

Man-Eaters, Vol. 1 - The plot in this is taking a bit to get going, but i just love the premise and all he fake ads they fill the book in.

Hacktivist - trying to clear off my ipad, this was just ok. The premise is interesting but the writing and art were just alright, nothing terribly compelling.

Currently reading:

I started The Girl in the Tower which I've been looking forward to, but I found it's been too long since I read the first one. I was getting it conflated with Spinning Silver. So I put it down and am now re-reading The Bear and the Nightingale to refresh my memory. Hopefully I can get the next one quicker!

QOTW:

Any books you're looking forward to this year? Doesn't have to be a new release, could be your bookflood books or something your library finally got in that you've been waiting on.

I'm excited for Fall, or Dodge in Hell, I love Neal Stephanson, and I really enjoyed Reamde which involved Dodge. Looks like a fun read!

[Jen]

Last week I read a bunch of manga that needed to go back to the library: Takane & Hana, Vol. 7, The Promised Neverland, Vol. 8, Skip Beat!, Vol. 42, Noragami: Stray God, Vol. 4, and Fruits Basket Collector's Edition, Vol. 6

Currently reading Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo. I think I'm about halfway through - it's hard to tell with the eBook. The last one surprised me with the end of the book at about 60% on my Kindle app, with the rest taken up by two excerpts from other books at the end.

QOTW: The book that I am really, really looking forward to is Middlegame by Seanan McGuire.

[Sheri]

Ohh I hadn't seen Middlegame yet, that looks awesome. i love Seanan McGuire!

[Jen]

Sheri, tor.com has been posting previews from it. It's different from her other work, but I'm intrigued so far.

https://www.tor.com/2019/04/01/excerp...

[Megan]

**Warning that I’m still reading the same NSFJG title I was last check-in, so don’t read this if you don’t want to know**

Since I checked in so late last week, I haven’t gotten very far since then! I’m a little bit further into Faggots, and it’s definitely getting better - a plot and distinctions between the characters are finally starting to emerge from the barrage of body parts and substances, which is a welcome relief. In case you missed my last update, this is the current pick for IRL book club #3, so it’s pretty far outside anything I ever would have selected for myself. I don’t think it’s going to be featured on my list of all-time favorites anytime soon, but I’m starting to at least feel like I might be able to finish it!

**End (for now) of discussion of that book**

QOTW:
I’m always looking forward to a bunch of new releases, but I rarely seem to get around to reading them until they’ve been out for a while! I’m definitely looking forward to starting Onyx and Ivory soon, and also The Crowns of Croswald for IRL book club #1 later in the month. And a few of the soon to be released that I’m looking forward to include:
The Starless Sea
Mobituaries
Rise
Children of Virtue and Vengeance
Wild Savage Stars
The Jean Harlow Bombshell
Spin the Dawn
The Scent of Murder
Cheshire Crossing
Ninth House

[Stephanie]

Hello All,

I'm STILL reading The Shadow of What Was Lost. Meh. I was hoping to finish it up this morning, but my eReader died, and I've been on and off with Kobo support all day trying to get a good deal on a replacement. I had reached an agreement with them (in writing, no less) when they came back and tried to say they made a mistake and offered something much lower. Still working on it!

In the meantime, I continue to listen to Neverwhere. I think it's the lovely spring air and the fact that all the birds are singing, but I find that I'm getting distracted easily when I'm listening to this on my way back and forth to work. I have a feeling I might give up on it (as much as I love NG's narrations!) and just check the book out. I definitely want to take in the story, but maybe the audio version just isn't the right genre for me on this one.

Megan - I am adding Faggots to my to read list! Between your comments and some research I did on it, it looks like a really interesting read!

QOTW: I *think* the next outlander book is coming out this year, so I'll be looking forward to that. Otherwise, I don't tend to keep up with new releases.

[Jennifer]

I haven't been reading as much this year as I would like. We've had a long run of the usual winter kid illnesses, family events, and crazy schedules so by the time I *can* spend some time reading, my brain isn't in the right mood.

So, I'm still working on Alexander Hamilton, which I started late last year. But since then I've read The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson (loved it) and Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare (I'm amazed at how much she was able to wrap up in one book without it feeling too forced).

I'm about to start Onyx and Ivory. I had a bit of trouble getting the download from my library to place nice with my computer, but it's working now. I'm very much looking forward to this, and then I think I might make myself buckle down and finish Hamilton. I've really enjoyed Hamilton, it's just so long that I needed a break for a bit.

QOTW: I always have a million books I'm looking forward to reading, but I've read the two that I was most excited for (mentioned above). I made a list of the ones I want to get read this year, but I think I might need to adjust it as I've gotten some new ones in (like Circe).

[Megan]

Stephanie, definitely add Faggots to your list if you’re OK with that level of graphic detail - the second half was amazing and made that first part totally worth it - I’m so glad I stuck with it!!

Stephanie wrote: "Hello All,

I'm STILL reading The Shadow of What Was Lost. Meh. I was hoping to finish it up this morning, but my eReader died, and I've been on and off with Kobo support all day tr..."

[Susan]

Hi! It has been a few weeks since I last checked in. I don't remember what I talked about so I'll go with what I read while on and since a recent vacation.

I am listening to Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia on audiobook. This is the 3rd Alcatraz book. I've only really just started it. This will be my "walk alone" book for however long it takes.

On the flight home from vacation I listened to The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles Behind the World's Most Disruptive Company. Mostly I chose it because its length almost exactly matched the length of the flight. How's that for selection criteria! As someone working in tech at a company that both works with and competes against Amazon (in the technical space, not retail) it was very interesting. I did reflect on things my own company does that are similar to the principles the author writes about.

I am currently reading my bookflood book, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. I had this on my TRB list and the person chose it from there. I am loving it. My daughter is also on FoE and showed me her bookflood book and once we're both done we'll swap. Her's is also a non-fiction.

QOTW:
A couple hours ago I would've answered differently, but I just got an email from GatesNotes and I'm very much looking forward to Melinda Gates' new book being released on April 23, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World. I saw Bill and Melinda Gates when I was in the audience for a taping of the Stephen Colbert show on a trip in NYC and I have so much respect for them and how they're changing the world yet they're so realistic and down to earth.

[Sarah]

Retreat week is over! I love the event, but I am in charge of registration and housing at the camp we use, so it pretty well takes over my life for the week or two leading up. You can guess what the effect is on my reading time.

Lord of Chaos has 150 more pages, and it had better get done this week, as there are readable goodies piling up behind it, and Wheel of Time book 7 still awaits in the shadows. I really enjoy the series, but we have definitely reached the point of SO MUCH DRAMA.

QOTW: I calendar out and countdown to book releases the way many other people do for movies. I have also been known to take release day off from work to binge read, although it is something I only do rarely (Oathbringer was the most recent one to enjoy this privilege). So, yes, I definitely have an "eagerly awaited" list for the year. At the top of the list is Brent Week's conclusion to the Lightbringer series: The Burning White, in October. Weeks left off book four in an extremely "impolite" place, so I'm itching for the finale. The Arc of a Scythe series also finishes up later this fall with The Toll, and No Country for Old Gnomes (the sequel to the hilarious Kill the Farm Boy) comes out later this month.

[Alexa]

Have any of you read a book that you wish was annotated or you were taking as part of a class so someone would explain to you what you just read? I read The Day the Sun Died and I really feel like I missed things because I don't know enough about Chinese culture and current Chinese politics. Yan Lianke had parts where he would write the sentence three times in a row but some of the adjectives would change in the repetition. Is this common in Chinese literature?
It's about a night where a whole village starts sleepwalking (the translator explained that dreamwalking was a better fit, so he used that term more) and they go about their lives but without filters for one night. It was interesting but I really think I missed bits!

A coworker recommended Her Body and Other Parties. This is a collection of short stories that are not for the faint-hearted (some very adult themes). Well written and engaging but not something I'm going to reread.

In lighter fare, I have been doing a quick Tamora Pierce reread of Wild Magic and Wolf-Speaker. The only thing that might be a problem is that Onyx and Ivory also has a young woman who has wild magic to talk to animals ;-)

QOTW: I've been disappointed by some of the books that I had previously been really looking forward to recently (Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series and Michelle Sagara's Elantra), so I'm trying to not get too excited about new releases right now but instead am trying different recommendations.

[Megan]

Alexa wrote: "Have any of you read a book that you wish was annotated or you were taking as part of a class so someone would explain to you what you just read? I read The Day the Sun Died and I r..."

I definitely wish there were more annotations/readers guides/etc. for books like that - I haven’t personally read that one, but I don’t like when there are so many terms left undefined or concepts left undescribed that you can’t get into the story!

And I was definitely meh on Her Body and Other Parties, too - good writing, like you said, but so repetitive!