YA Addicted Book Club discussion
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What are you reading in 2022?
Brittany wrote: "Gord which new releases did you decide to purge? Also I think you are due for a break from them and library due dates! Sorry work is crazy right now. Still looked like good books you were reading"I only purged two of them.
Brittany wrote: "Thanks for the book thoughts Elena! Still loving those cozy mysteries eh? I haven't been reading a ton lately, will hopefully get some more done soon. I feel like my listen of..."Yep! Which is strange for me, usually I tend to switch between genres more often.
Btw once I also had the same issue with audiobooks and spent a couple of days not listening to anything books or book-ish (even podcasts) and it helped.
Started
over the bank holiday weekend, I just wasn't really feeling Gallant which is a shame because I usually love Schwab but I was 7 chapters in and not much had really happened and it just wasn't holding my attention. Hopefully this one will go better!
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Liliana wrote: "I really enjoyed that one, Jo! I hope you do too! The mystery was so well written!"I really enjoyed A Good Girl's Guide To Murder so I have high hopes! I've been meaning to read it for ages but just haven't got around and then the other day I was talking to my friend about mysteries and it just got me in the mystery mood (plus I was in London over the bank holiday weekend here in the UK and didn't have space in my bag for a hardback, so it had to be a paperback I took with me!).
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the setting and myth elements are beautiful but I did not overly enjoy the romance and felt it detracted from the story more than it added anything
just finished We Were Liars! anyone else read it before?
Mackenzie, I have finished reading We Were Liars awhile ago. It was pretty good. Loved the twist!
Mackenzie :) wrote: "just finished We Were Liars! anyone else read it before?"I read it last year. Wasn't a massive fan overall, but the twist was very good!
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Read my 2nd MG book of the year! I haven't read a Rick Riordan book in a while! In fact, I am quite behind on the PJO universe 😅 But I was excited to read something new from him, and I ended up enjoying it! The world and tech was really interesting!
I really enjoyed My Lady Jane! This type of book is not usually something I would read, but I kept seeing it around and it just sounded like so much fun. And it was! It was ridiculous and I loved it!
It's been a while since I read anything steampunk-related, but I'm really enjoying this series! love the steampunk technology and the characters, but I'm not gonna lie, I HATE the love triangle 🙄 Love triangles are the worst lol. But aside from that, I'm enjoying the series.
I've had Project Paper Dolls on my TBR for a looong time, but I finally started it and I'm loving it! The story's interesting, I like the characters, and the romance is super cute! Ariane has gone through some rally awful things, so you really feel for her. (Also, she's an alien/human hybrid, which is really cool! Lol)
A bit of a smaller update as it's been crazy in real life here for me.
-3 StarsThis is going to be a long one so I'm hiding it. If you want to read it, bring some snacks and some hydration, you will need it. Oh and I won't be censoring any spoilers.
(view spoiler)
-3 StarsI originally requested the novel version of this story through the ILL services at my library but ended up with the manga. I was a fan of this franchise way back in the early 2000's but upon rereading this it hasn't aged well at all. Maybe it's medium, maybe it's the technology in the story, maybe it's the fact that I already know the story so it doesn't have the same twists or scares.
-3 StarsThis was a fun little story about an over the top French master thief. I'm going to keep reading the series to see where it goes.
On audio I'm still listening to
For novels I'm currently reading
which has taken an unexpected and pleasant turn. After that I'm not really sure. I have a stack of things to read and I'm not sure what to start next.
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loved being back with Toby. Jumping right into
Another busy week at work has impacted my reading time but I still got some stuff done.
-4 StarsThis was another sleeper hit for me. If it was not for the new release challenge I would probably have never even looked at this book. So as per the title and the synopsis this book is about a cold case or at least most of the book is. There was an unexpected twist and I'll get to here in a bit. This book is divided into two time lines essentially. In one story line you have the history of a local heiress, Beth Greer, and her involvement in a pair of murders in late 1977. She was acquitted and retreated into obscurity. The other story line is set in modern times and follows a cold case blogger. One day at work she recognizes Beth and asks for an interview. After some consideration Beth agrees to this interview. The only interview she has given in 40 years. Over the course of the book you begin to peel back all the layers and discover what has happened. One of the big things that I loved was the shifting question during the book. Normally in a mystery novel it boils down to one big overarching question. Who did it/did they do it? This book had a shifting overarching question starting with the classical did they do it? Then it became why and then what comes next. This shifting story kept me super invested and as more and more revelations came in I really began to sympathize with Beth. I really wont say much more because of spoilers and all that.
Oh and the twist, the added little something extra. Now I'm not sure if this is a normal thing for the author or not so spoiler wall. (view spoiler)
-5 StarsI also finished this audiobook this week and I'm really enjoying my time listening to this series. This is the seventh book in the series but technically takes place between books four and five of the series so I always read them in the chronological order. In this one Eric is taken hostage in the desert country of Arida and the Araluens have to negotiate his release. It's an interesting book where we get to see Will's doubts before becoming a full Ranger. It also has some more world building for the series with this Middle Eastern inspired country getting added into the world of the series.
-3 StarsThis book was read for a challenge and it was alright. There was some interesting ideas but overall it just felt kind of predictable. It's a middle grade sci-fi about an alien invasion that happened in the past. The aliens invaded, mind controlled everyone except the kids who they can't for some reason, set up these cities where children could be raised properly until adulthood and where they could be controlled. Our young MC is suddenly has the truth thrust upon him and he must deal with it. Of course he has unbeknownst skills that make him a superstar in the world of the resistance and blah blah blah. I'll be honest I'll probably forget about this one before long.
-3 StarsThis was yet another one of those comics that I snagged from the library on a whim. It's an interesting start to a series and one I might continue if another book comes out.
-4 StarsThis is just some feel good sappy romantic stuff here. Two supernatural creatures, an elf and a beastman, find a human baby in the woods. They immediately don't get along but end up raising the child together. As they spend more time together they get to know each other better blah blah blah. Listen you know the story but it's still fun to read.
Now for the big question, what to read next? Both of my audio series that I am listening to have hold queues at the library. I'm waiting to see what this weeks challenge tasks are and I have my monthly genre challenge to finish up as well. I think my short list for this week will be:
I've finally finished When Women Were Dragons and so glad to be done with it! Granted part of the reason it's taken longer than I thought is that I've not had any shifts at work this month and so that's been my commute listening time taken out, but it was also just such a slow dull read. I never thought I could be bored with something with dragons in it, but apparently I could!Moving swiftly on to my next audiobook,
which I'm really excited for, I loved Laura Bates' last book and I'm sure this one will be just as powerful and engaging.
Several days ago I finished 2 books and was too busy to read more for the past 2 weeks.
- I'm loving the series, one of my favourite cozy mystery and themed coffee... tasty! Though I can't drink too much coffee, it's still great to read books with coffee theme :D
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That's disappointing to hear. It sounded so interesting.
Brittany wrote: "Jo wrote: "I've finally finished When Women Were Dragons and so glad to be done with it! Granted part of the reason it's taken longer than I thought is that I've not had any shifts at work this mon..."Yeah sadly it did not live up to promise of the concept.
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while not my absolute favourite I still loved it. And had to go to the bookstore to buy the next one. Went in to buy 1 book walked out with 6... oops? There was a buy 3 for $10 for 3 of them though so really, how could I not!Starting
Reading Wrath of Poseidon first then reading War of the Witches
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Brittany wrote: "Finished while not my absolute favourite I still loved it. And had to go to the bookstore to buy the next one. Went in to buy 1 book walked out with 6... oops..."Oh yeah, it's always like that 🤣
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The 1st 3 were for $10
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This has been an interesting week of reading to say the least.
-3 StarsI dip in and out of this series at random when the mood strikes me. It's been a hot minute or two since the last book so my memories of the events of the previous book were a bit fuzzy. Overall this book was alright. It felt like it was more posturing between the two main political powers in this universe and set up for the next big story arc. This book did have one of my all time favorite tropes. The trope where the bad guy does something monumentally stupid that when the good guys find out they will stomp the bad guys into the ground. The rest of the book after this point is a simple waiting game. You wait for the good guys to find out, track down the baddies, and then dish out an monumental amount of justice. There is always that moment where your reaction is something along the line of "Oh. Oh no. Oh you dumb idiots. Oh this is not going to end well for you at all".
-3 StarsThis was a random snag from the library and I really had no expectations heading into this book. This book takes place in small town in Japan that only has one bookstore left in town. The owner dies suddenly and the store is forced to close. They open for final week allowing patrons to come in and express their condolences and what not. Each chapter is kind of like a short story focused around the experiences of a patron of the store. I was not prepared for the emotions this book made me experience especially with the first couple chapters. After the first couple chapters they start to connect together into a bigger story about the last owner of the store. Maybe it's because I'm a book nerd and I can really relate to a lot of the memories that this book talks about. That important book that got you into reading. That book that connects to you on a deep personal level. The joy of a local bookstore and the sadness of losing it. This book had some really emotional moments that just wasn't expecting and I enjoyed it for that experience.
-3 StarsNormally this is where I'd make a general statement of this being yet another Deathlands book and move on to something else. This time I have a couple things I want to talk about. First, this was the first time I listened to one of these as an audiobook and it was a Graphic Audio one (basically a radio drama) and that was an experience. On one hand I've spent a lot of time with these characters and kind of have my own established idea of them in my head. It was weird to see someone else's interpretation of them. On the other hand it was an interesting experience to listen to this book in this format. All the extra sounds, the voice acting, etc. Though I did wish that the background noises were turned down a wee bit at times. There were also times were the sounds used did not match what was being described. For instance, early in the book Doc uses his LeMat shotgun which should be a single massive black powder shot and what we got were four smaller sounding shots.
The other thing I want to talk about is the change of authors. This series is published under a house name that has numerous authors writing under name. Similar in nature to series like Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew. Now the first 33 books were all written by the same author and had a certain formula/feel to them. This book shook things up a bit. I noticed it pretty early on when the characters excited the transporter and were immediately in a war wag driving down the road. I thought the audiobook had cut out a massive section of stuff as we normally get a section were they explore the facility that they teleported into. I even went so far as to grab my physical copy and double check things but nope that is how the book was. This book also felt like it was setting up some stuff for further down the road instead of just having an episode of the week feel.
Overall both of these experiences made this feel like a new experience while still feeling like a Deathlands novel to me. I'll probably go back to reading to them instead of listening to them for now but it's a great back up option if I don't have a particular volume.
-3 StarsI've watched a few episodes of the anime and was more or less aware of this franchise through reputation. There was a rerelease of the novels and it so happened that this worked for my weekly challenge that I am working on. Overall I thought that the book was pretty good and I like the character of Lina. There was one scene though where the humor did not age well and was rather cringe. Our MC is 15 years old and the villains are threatening to... uhm... do some very bad stuff to her. This then gave the other villains a chance to say no and use their reason for not doing it as a punchline. Listen, I'm a pretty hardened reader and there isn't much that I won't read but this just sat wrong with me. The entire situation being used as a set up for a series of jokes just feels incredibly tasteless in my opinion. Even if nothing actually happened it still just feels ick. I do plan to keep reading though and hopefully there won't be any more scenes like this.
For once I am nearly caught up on my library pile so for the next I'm taking it for some me time. I plan to finish the Toriko manga series primarily this week. After that I've got a couple of options and I'll see what I am in the mood for. As for audio both the series I am working on have long wait lines (like so many other things I want to read currently) so I'm thinking of starting a reread of the Song of the Lioness series.
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it was alright. I enjoyed the atmosphere but didnt really care about the characters a ton. I found I wasn't really listening a lot, not completely sure if it was the book or just lack of audio time but I was reading this one for awhile.
Finished
, and I enjoyed it, though I do think her previous book was better. Moving onto
as my next audiobook, I watched the BBC adaptation earlier this month and I really enjoyed it, so I'm interested to see how the book compares.
It was yet another extremely busy week. I've read some short stories.
- I don't even know why I picked those strange books. Didn't enjoy at all.
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Jo glad you enjoyed it even if it wasnt as good as her last book.
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Brittany wrote: "Sucks you didnt enjoy them at all Elena. They don't look all that interesting to me either.Jo glad you enjoyed it even if it wasnt as good as her last book."
I think my biggest problem was just that a lot of it was stuff I already knew about systemic issues in various institutions, so it just didn't feel massively fresh to me, I think people who are maybe new to feminism or men who don't really understand the issues that women face would probably get more out of it than I did, even though it's a well written and well argued book.
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Yes!! So much potential for greatness too. I'd try another one by the author though and see
This has been a pretty good week of reading for me and I only see the good times continuing for a bit.
-4 StarsI've been meaning to get to this book for a long time but my book life has been stupid busy for a while now. This book is essentially the season finale of season one of the anime and I was excited to finally read the source material. This book revolves around a large in game event where guilds are battling it over five days for points. I'm not going to get into the technical details of the event but there was one simple reason for my hype. Maple. She had gained some serious power ups before heading into this event and I was waiting for her to cut loose. I love how the guild handled the event, how they revealed her new abilities, etc. This was just an entertaining read and I can't wait to get to new material in the next book.
-5 StarsI found myself in this odd position where everything that I wanted to read/listen to this week had a queue to it. Since I was in a "reading for myself" mood this week I decided to start another fantasy series reread that I've been pondering for a while now. This book was just so good. I found myself wanting to listen to it any spare minute I had this week and what was supposed to last me all week was over in a couple of days. It's a hard thing to explain but I love this series and especially the main character of Alanna. It's just an engaging story that keeps you engaged the whole way through.
-5 StarsI've been waiting for this book to come in for a while and it picked the perfect week to arrive. What can I say? I loved this book, the characters, and the series in general. This was one of the more high stakes ones that just flies along at a blistering pace. A perfect start to long weekend of reading.
-5 StarsWhile I did read this to knock out a particularly annoying challenge this was a full on me read. I have been meaning to read the final book in this series for some time now but something always got in my way. Some challenge that needed to be dealt with, some library book that needed to be dealt with, etc. First and foremost, Conlan is bloody adorable and I need to see more of him. Outside of that this book was a solid and satisfactory ending to the series while leaving the door wide open to more content happening in the world that it is set in.
This was the bog project I was working on this week and now I can say that I am finished with this series. Overall I really enjoyed this series. I loved the world building that this series had with it's food themes. Now I will admit that I did have some issues with this series and these books were the peak problems I had but it's understandable what it happened. This was one of those manga series that was more popular outside of Japan. In Japan this series did not do well and it led to the series getting cancelled. The author was allowed to finish the series but it was done at a blistering pace and that is where my issues started. I was noticing a bit of an acceleration in the pace after the time skip when they visited the first island in the Gourmet World. At the time I didn't think to much about it as this was only the first arc in the new story line. The same happened in the next area that they visited and I was started to get a little frustrated. It was about this time, Volume 36ish, the story strapped on the rocket pack and the plot seriously accelerated. There was no longer any real story telling it was just bouncing from plot point to plot point as fast as possible. It even dropped a tournament arc half way into the very first battle. The last several books just felt like a nonstop barrage of exposition and plot points as it tried to get to end point as fast as possible. The last fight was really jarring where it was basically a couple of attacks, random power up, a couple more attacks, more random power ups, some more attacks, yet another power point. There was even a plot point thrown into the final fight that was never set up, never explained, and then never resolved. There was just a character that showed up and was there. This made these last few books a real drain to read. It was just a barrage of stuff getting flung at you instead of the story unfolding and taking its time. I understand why it happened and I'm glad that the story got it's resolution but man was that ending a rough one.
For audiobooks I'm currently listening to
and then I'll be starting
For books I'm planning to revisit a childhood favorite for a challenge with
and then another challenge book with a reread of
.For manga I'm starting
over and planning to start
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Also looks like it was a great week
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it was alright, an easy listen with a good narrator.Going to start
since the audio is out now
I'm slowly getting back on track with reading and this week managed to read several books.
- that was not good.
- those were better but not good either. And I've remembered why I decided to read the books. I thought it's going to be romantic and cozy (like The Tourist Attraction) but how wrong I was! It's... not good.
- honestly I expected more and it was just meh.Not the best reading week for me :D
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Hope the next books are better for you
@Brittany Sometimes I do it, read the books I don't like. I don't know why I keep reading, probably just to finish and be done with them. Though I don't mind DNFing some books too.
This has been an interesting week of reading or mostly rereading.
-4 StarsThis was one of three books I read this week for my monthly genre challenge which is "Classics" this month. Before I get to the book itself I feel I need to address the elephant in the room or Tantor using the lingo of the book. This book has many problematic elements when judged by the standards of today. Basically this book is a power fantasy for the superiority of the white male over everything and anything that is not a white male. This is a super simplified summary of the problems with this book but I feel it covers things nicely. Now the big thing to keep in mind is that this book was originally published in 1912. Views on things were different back then. I'm not making excuses for the book but I keep that in mind while reading it. My view on this book would probably be much different if it was published this year.
With that aside lets get into this book. I have a lot of history with this book and a lot of my opinions of things are probably tinted heavily by the old nostalgia glasses. I read this book and others in the series several times as a young man and it probably helped shaped my reading interest. I love this book as an adventure pulp novel and I'll always take the novel over the numerous movies especially you Disney. I'll admit that as a young man I might have beat my chest while letting out a Tarzan cry or two. Or daydreamed about running around in the woods fighting bears with my bare hands. It's all traced back to this book. I'm sure most people know of the general story by now. An English Lord and Lady are abandoned in the wilds of Africa by a mutinous crew. Before passing away they have a son. That son is adopted by Kala the mighty she ape who raises and loves it as her own. That young person becomes the mighty Tarzan, Lord of the African jungle. Several years later we are introduced to Jane Porter and crew who find themselves in similar circumstances as a certain Lord and Lady of years past. No, there was no "me Tarzan, you Jane" in the book. There are French officers, cannibals, a long hike to civilization, Tarzan renouncing his title for the one he loves. It's just a fun pulp read and I love it.
-5 StarsI am addicted to this series something bad. Normally a five hour audiobook would last me all week as I would listen it to once a day on my hour walk to work. With this series I'd find any excuse possible to listen. I'm not doing anything for a few minutes, listen to my audiobook. Updating challenges, listen to my book. I ripped through this in a couple of days and loved every minute of it. I would be on to the third one but I had and have other library responsibilities.
-4 StarsAnother one of the "Classics" I read this week. I still haven't watched the movie but there is just this innocent charm to this book that I love. It's such a shame that none of the other books in the series has ever got a translation and probably never will. If you have never read this book and are looking for a good children/middle grade book then give this a shot.
-5 StarAnother audiobook that I just chewed through this week that is part of a series that I just love. This was the first book in a two book arc involving a poisoned Lords, invading enemies, a castle in the middle of no where, and a potential sorcerer.
-3 StarsThe third "Classics" book this week and a return to Tarzan. The other books don't have the charm of the first but they are solid pulp adventure novels. They do have the same problems that I mentioned in the first book but this was only published a year after the first book.
-3 StarsTime for another nostalgic blast from the past. This book was read for a Buffy challenge I am working on and the book was done in the Choose Your Adventure novel style. In elementary school I loved these books and I've read several in my time but it's not something I've read in a very long time. Unfortunately this is probably a style of book best left in the past with fond memories of it. As an adult this style of book just never clicked with me. I didn't like the whole bouncing around the book to get my story. The story just felt disjointed and not as engaging. Plus I felt that many of the "decisions" in the book had little affect on anything. I could go to the page 208 or 210 for instance. Going to page 208 gets me a couple of extra pages of story before sending me onward to page 210 and there were multiple times where stuff like this happened. Or you would get to end of a section and you would have an action to perform and that action was simply to turn to the next page. Why put that there? Why not just keep telling the story? Honestly this got three stars for nostalgia. If I didn't have that it would have probably only been a two star.
On audiobook this week I'll be starting
and then move on to
I have to check my weekly challenge but I think my short list this week will be
and
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YA Addicted Book Club
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I haven't been reading a ton lately, will hopefully get some more done soon. I feel like my listen of