75 Books...More or Less! discussion
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Stacie's 2023 Challenge
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Stacie
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Dec 18, 2022 11:04AM
Looking forward to another year of reading :) I'm keeping to my goal of 75 books; that seems to be my sweet spot. I often read more than that but setting a higher official goal seems to stress me out and turn my reading into a chore, and I'm not about that- I've got enough chores, lol!
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1.
Girls of Might and Magic: Diverse Books with Magic Anthology Like with most anthologies this was a mixed bag- some really good, some pretty bad, one head scratcher, and a couple of okays. The really good ones pointed me at some new authors so it was definitely worth the read. 358 pages ***
Mod
2.
The Sixth Gun, Vol. 5: Winter Wolves Sometimes the mood for Weird West strikes, and these hit all the right spots.147 pages ****
3.
Retroverse (Comixology Originals) #1 I like Cullen Bunn so I might follow up with the next installments someday, but this was an unattractive mediocre mess so I won't be in any rush to do so. Disappointing.21 pages **
4.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents Good. Like, really good. Deeply researched, well written, excellent narration and an important topic... and it was absolutely gutting.14 hrs 26 mins *****
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Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents Good. Like, really good. Deeply researched, well written, excellent narration and ..."I bought this in hardcover last January during Amazon's 3-for-2 but I think I will enjoy it more and absorb it more via audio. I'll probably use both.
Elyse wrote: "I think I will enjoy it more and absorb it more via audio. I'll probably use both..."Robin Miles is one of my favorite narrators and she does a very good job with this. I think reading text would have been 'easier' in that it allows you to control your engagement level and there were times when it would have been a relief to kind of dial back on the emotion and engage with the material on a simply clinical, theoretical level... and it was important to me to not do that with this book, which is why I never switched formats.
5.
Mass Effect: Initiation This was actually pretty good... until it wasn't. If you've got any interest in it, when you get to Chapter 23 and Alec Ryder says "Welcome aboard, Lieutenant Harper." just pretend that it ends there and close the book. Everything after that is a rushed, illogical mess that almost feels like it was written by someone else... and instead of adding dimension to the story of the game it ties into, it merely highlights the weakness and dissatisfaction of the 'big mystery' plotline. 8 hrs 13 mins ***
7.
The Sixth Gun, Vol. 7: Not the Bullet, But the Fall Weird West, consistent art that is dynamic but easy to follow visually, dialog that is spot on for the characters and genre. This is all right up my alley (please don't fall apart in the last issue!!!).144 pages ****
8.
The Sixth Gun, Vol. 8: Hell and High Water160 pages ****
9.
The Sixth Gun, Vol. 9: Boot Hill Such a satisfying series, and ended exactly the way it needed to.128 pages ****
10.
The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265-146BC Well written, researched, and narrated but it was such a slog for me to get through and I'm not sure why. Whatever the reason, I'm more relieved to be done with it than I am happy to have read it.16 hrs 26 mins ***
13.
The Late Middle Ages Interesting and I really appreciated the segment on Spain because, for some reason, a lot of Medieval history overviews don't really address that region very well. Unfortunately the professor sounds like he's supremely bored with the material and that made staying engaged difficult at times.12 hrs 22 mins ***
14.
A Righteous Man I didn't particularly like the writing style and by the time I got to the end I was wondering wtf the purpose had been. I'm glad it was short and free. 29 pages **
15.
My Evil Mother I keep trying to like Margaret Atwood because she's such a huge, "Important" literary presence... and I just don't. I can see her mastery of the crafting, the mechanics... but she writes characters I don't care about in plots I don't care for with endings that I usually despise. Every one of her resolutions makes me want to throw the book at her head. Why isn't this a 1 star read, then? Atwood's writing is just too good for that, even if I didn't like it.32 pages **
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My Evil Mother I keep trying to like Margaret Atwood because she's such a huge, "Important" literary presence... and I just don't. I can see h..."Yeah I'm right there with you. I enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale but haven't liked anything else I've tried by her.
16.
The Screaming Staircase Enjoyable start to a series. Interesting world, properly spooky (heh) ghosts and hauntings. Characters are standard archetypes but done well enough, and with distinct enough voices, that it's not irritating and I'm interested enough to read more to see how/if they gain more depth as the series goes on. I think this would adapt well into visual media.391 pages ****
17.
Catchers I don't usually like audio dramas but this was really well done and a fun story. The only thing that kept me from finishing it in one sitting was work! (I was very nearly late because I was so involved in the story, lol)2 hrs 20 mins ****
18.
The Sixth Gun: Sons of the Gun I made the happy little discovery that there are more Sixth Gun books- stand alone prequels that flesh out the more important secondary characters and events. 133 pages ****
Mod
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents Good. Like, really good. Deeply researched, well written, excellent narration and ..."I need this now!
19.
England: From the Fall of Rome to the Norman Conquest Paxton does a good job of keeping things clear and easy to follow, which is impressive considering how many of the people covered had the same, or ridiculously similar, names.11 hrs 59 mins ****
20.
Travel by Bullet OK. Nothing spectacular, but it held my attention. I think that people who are bigger fans of noir-ish detective stories than I am would probably enjoy it more than I did. Some minor production issues (skips, repeats, etc.), but nothing terrible... except for Zachary Quinto's french accent, which was pretty bad.3 hrs 43 mins ***
22.
Subhuman Standard creature feature fare. Mostly enjoyable with some pacing problems and too large of a cast of characters for the story, but it appeals to my love of B movies.274 pages ***
23.
The Sixth Gun: Dust to Death Pretty disappointing.174 pages **
24.
The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell Well researched and the writing was clear and easy to follow... it's a shame that I found it so boring.9hrs 49 mins **
Mod
The Sixth Gun: Dust to Death Pretty disappointing.174 pages **
24. [bookcover:The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell|1180..."
Bummer on both!
25.
The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks the best thing I can say about this is that it's finally over and off of my TBR pile. I disliked the narration and the presentation never grabbed me. I kept going back to it thinking that maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind, because this looked like it should be right up my alley, but I can confidently say that, nope- I just didn't like it.
10 hrs 16 mins **
26.
Hamlet Revisiting this because after those last few I wanted something I knew I liked! I enjoy these SmartPass productions (two versions in one, a straight audio drama and one with commentary) even if the commentary is geared towards High School students. Interestingly (to me at least) the older I get the more I sympathize with Gertrude for navigating a situation that had very few options for keeping both herself and Hamlet alive.11 hrs 26 mins ****
30.
To Be Taught, If Fortunate176 pages ***
I picked up these Becky Chambers books because I kept hearing good things about them from several of my friends. They have the feel of some of Heinlein's more philosophical books, with more of a focus on wondering how living/travelling/exploring beyond Earth would work than having an overarching plot, which I really don't mind because I typically enjoy those kinds of thought experiments, but I found it frustrating the way that both stories reached a point where it felt like the author thought to herself "Ok, I've written what I'm interested in so I guess it's time to wrap it up. Hmmm, ok, throw in a random conflict, gloss over the resolution annnnnnd done."
75 Books...More or Less!
Books mentioned in this topic
To Be Taught, If Fortunate (other topics)The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (other topics)
The History of Spain: Land on a Crossroad (other topics)
Crimson Yuletide (other topics)
Hamlet: Shakespeare Appreciated (other topics)
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