Week 45: 11/4 - 11/10

[Britany]

I finally finished it!!!! I was really stuck on Eve, and the Read me table, and the rivers. Some of these books I had never heard of, but this was really fun. I agree that I wish it was more frequent. :)

Thanks Ellie for sharing.

[Ron]

Planning to add She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement to my nonfiction reads this month. I read a year back (or this past year, I can't remember) and I remember being so impressed by it. Now a movie is coming out this week of it and I'm anxious to see it.

[Nadine in NY]

Milena wrote: "I still have the apple one and confidential, in case anyone wants to give additional clues."


Heather pretty much covered it, I think. My clues are kind of her clues in different words!

the clues that helped me with the apple:
clue 1: (view spoiler)[ what is the outer part of the apple? (hide spoiler)]
clue 2: (view spoiler)[it's a legal thriller (hide spoiler)]

For confidential
clue 1: that word is Greek, the first letter is iota, second letter is sigma, and the fifth letter is rho. I think a lot of English-speakers are seeing the wrong letters there. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%BC...
clue 2: (view spoiler)[ you need to find synonyms for "confidential" and the Greek word istoria, in that order. (hide spoiler)]
clue 3: (view spoiler)[the original art was going to include a rabbit peeking through the window (hide spoiler)]

[Milena]

Thank you, everyone! That was very fun and satisfying.

[Nadine in NY]

Just an FYI for all of you - we have no idea when the new list is coming, but it could be any time in the next few weeks. Many of you probably remember that Goodreads ANNOYINGLY limits us to three new posts each day. So Lynn and I are creating blank posts now for the 2023 challenge that we can go back and edit when we actually get the list. We have no inside information, this is just me being nervous!!

[Theresa]

Nadine in NY wrote: "Just an FYI for all of you - we have no idea when the new list is coming, but it could be any time in the next few weeks. Many of you probably remember that Goodreads ANNOYINGLY limits us to three ..."

Yes, that restriction is incredibly annoying when you are setting something up for a group....

[Heather L]

Nadine in NY wrote: "Just an FYI for all of you - we have no idea when the new list is coming, but it could be any time in the next few weeks. Many of you probably remember that Goodreads ANNOYINGLY limits us to three ..."


Thanks for the update, Nadine! I’m itching to start setting up my 2023 reading journal and planning the first couple months of reading. I’m growing anxious to see he new list, though I know it usually doesn’t appear until late November/early December.

Oh, and I know your frustration in setting up new topics. Been there many times myself. I mean, I get why they instituted the restriction, and it does help combat spam, but it’s annoying when you’re a group moderator.

[Ron]

Nadine in NY wrote: "Just an FYI for all of you - we have no idea when the new list is coming, but it could be any time in the next few weeks. Many of you probably remember that Goodreads ANNOYINGLY limits us to three ..."

Thanks for the heads up. I am looking forward to the new list as well. I'm in no rush. Even if I don't complete this year entirely I'm just happy I got in a lot more than I anticipated. So in terms of the new list, I'm more than satisfied waiting so I can catch up on other books and book challenge projects.

[Sheri]

Hi all.

Been having busy Thursdays/Fridays lately so i keep missing check ins, and I don't tend to be on the computer on the weekends so I don't get around to posting. Then I keep saying "oh I'll just wait for the next post" and then get busy again. So I'm just going ahead and posting on a Monday. Because who knows, I will probably be busy again.

I completed my yearly Goodreads challenge of 150 books...last week I think? I set it a bit lower than usual, because last year 175 seemed like a strain although I did exceed it in the end. I wanted to be able to read longer books without feeling pressured. Feels like 150 is a good number for me to keep on track with, without either blowing by it in June, or being constantly behind all year and feeling stressed by it.

The last few weeks I read:

The Bone Orchard - i really loved this. Such a fascinating story, I don't know if I'd read anything quite like it before. I'd say it was kind of a blend of science fiction and fantasy with some horror elements, but very mildly. Mostly some mild necromancy but it was a little unclear how much was magic vs science. Sort of science aided by magic maybe? Or aided by psychic power anyhow, which could be considered mind magic perhaps. Anyhow I liked it a lot.

The Yellow House - finally finished this, it took FOREVER. It was my books & brew book club pick. I was unimpressed. It was an important story to tell, but the writing style just did NOT work for me. It was dry and dusty and I every time I started reading it I just wanted to be reading literally anything else. I've read plenty of books about challenging subjects before, books that made me angry, books that made me cry, that were still GOOD. This one just didn't work at all for me.

A Mirror Mended - wanted a nice fast read after all that, and this fit the bill. I liked it. Not a super in depth story, and i feel like it it's kinda similar to some other fiction running around right now, but that doesn't really make it less fun. Not everything has to be amazingly original to be enjoyable.

Reserved for the Cat - also been having a bunch of migraine flare ups, so this was my migraine on off reread.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - one of the ladies at book club suggested this to me, saying it was a warm hug of a book. And it so was! It strongly reminded me of The House on the Cerulean Sea, although maybe skewed a little more adult. There were still children being taken care of, but the romance was a bit more to the forefront and there was some swearing, innuendo, a bit of steaminess. I tore through it in two days.

The Slow Regard of Silent Things - mentioned this to someone else and realized I hadn't read it in years, so decided to fix that. Still charming. I love Auri.

The Winter of the Witch - Finished audio re-read.

Currently reading:

The Kingdom of Gods - library must have just got this, didn't remember putting it on hold recently but i think i did recommend them to buy it a few years ago when i started the series.
It's good so far.

A Snake Falls to Earth - this is part of my libary's big read (not sure if it's a state wide thing or national thing). One of the other people in book club was reading it and said it was really good, so I grabbed the audio book. I like it so far.

QOTW:

I try to read diversely through the whole year. Due to relying heavily on the library, I don't tend to specifically time my reads for particular months a whole lot because that just leads to frustration. But the library is doing A Snake falls to Earth for the Big Library Read right now and that's by an Indigenous author, and due to it being a big library read there was no hold time. So that worked out at least.

[Erica]

@Sheri A Snake Falls To Earth is the big library read on overdrive for me too.

[Sheri]

Erica- oh cool, so must be national to some degree :) I am liking it

[Erica]

I’m in Canada so I’m curious if there are other countries involved.

[Milena]

Sheri wrote: "Erica- oh cool, so must be national to some degree :) I am liking it"

Yes, it was my Library Big Read on Libby also.

[Jennifer W]

I just checked my library ebooks and saw (bolds mine):

Big Library Read connects readers around the world with the same book at the same time. Borrow A Snake Falls to Earth today through 16 November without any waitlists or holds.

[Sheri]

Oh cool, i just grabbed it without reading closely clearly haha. Well for anyone interested, it's pretty charming so far. I'm not quite half through. :)

[JessicaMHR]

Nadine in NY wrote: "JessicaMHR wrote: "There was one thing about this book that just kind of… irked me, I guess. She constantly used this phrase “For serious” that mostly the daughter and her friends used but, is this a thing? Are people saying this somewhere?

What year is this book set in? I feel like the phrase "for serious" may have been used in the early 80s - Because it sounds familiar, but I can't quite pinpoint it. Maybe it was said like "for certain serious" - anyone else remember that? "For real" was more popular and I think it's still used today (I say it, anyway!). My kids are teens they NEVER say this, so it's certainly not used by teens in NY today."

I think it was set in present time or maybe it was one of those that never really said when it was set.
I know personally I will say "For real" or "Seriously" but NEVER For serious it just sounds stupid.