Cynda Expands Reading Practice. . . . .Comments are welcomed.

[Cynda]

DivaDiane, Slaughterhouse Five I have already read, both graphic and text forms just a couple of months ago, so sorry, I am not ready to reread. . . I enjoyed it, so I hope you will too :)

[DivaDiane]

Oh, whoops! I misread and thought you were going o read them. No worries!

[Cynda]

Thanks DivaDiane. Adding Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.. I will come back to share a thought or two :)

[Stephen]

Cynda wrote: "DivaDiane, I hope to start and perhaps finish The City of Gold and Lead by the end of the year. I will start this weekend.

The Female Man by Joanna Russ w..."

I like God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.

[Cynda]

Added! Thanks Stephen.

[Cynda]

DivaDiane, I did like the City of Gold and Lead. Like you, I probably did like this book better than The White Mountains. I will hold off on having more definite opinion until I read The Pool of Fire and then review the trilogy, likely as a whole.

[Olga]

DivaDiane wrote: "My first Vonnegut was Jailbird and I loved it. It’s wacky and brilliant.

I have the graphic adaptation of Slaughterhouse-Five to read if you want to buddy read."

Me! I want to read it :) But the text version though. I think it could be interesting to BR different formats...

[DivaDiane]

Olga wrote: "DivaDiane wrote: "I have the graphic adaptation of Slaughterhouse-Five to read if you want to buddy read."

Me! I want to ... But the text version though. I think it could be interesting to BR different formats..."

Yes!

[Cynda]

Plans for Expanding Reading Practice 2025

1. Study of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
2. At least 10 SF novels, including the 6 for my Vonnegut study
3. At least 10 fantasy novels.

[Cynda]

At Least 10 SF Novels

Personal Vonnegut Study includes two nonfiction books to develop a bit deeper understanding of Vonnegut the writer.
DNR 🚀 Love as Always, Kurt: Vonnegut as I Knew Him by Loree Rackstraw Feb 02 ⭐ Quite a stretch to call this a friendship memoir.
🚀 Pity the Reader: On Writing With Style by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Aug 02 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🚀 1. Breakfast of Champions Feb 05 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
🚀 2. Timequake Mar 30 ⭐⭐⭐
🚀3. The Sirens of Titan Jun 07 ⭐⭐⭐
🚀4. Player Piano Ayg 17 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
🚀5. Bluebeard ⭐⭐⭐⭐
6. Jailbird
7. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

Other SF

🚀 8. Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield Jan 12 ⭐⭐⭐
🚀 9. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke Jan 23 ⭐⭐⭐
🚀10. The Wild Robot Protects by Peter Brown Feb 15 ⭐⭐⭐
🚀11. Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro Feb 18 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
🚀12. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury Apr 17 ⭐⭐⭐
🚀13. The Pool of Fire by John Christopher Apr 19 ⭐⭐⭐
🚀14. Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell Jul 22 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
15. The Female Man by Joanna Russ
16. Metropolis by Thea von Harbou

[Cynda]

At Least 10 Fantasy Novels

🍄 1. The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike Jan 11 ⭐⭐⭐
🍄 2. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren Mar 30 ⭐⭐⭐
🍄 3. The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes Apr 03 ⭐⭐⭐
🍄 4. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger May 17 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
🍄 5. The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike July 11 ⭐⭐⭐
🍄 6. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón July 26 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
🍄 7. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez Aug 09 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🍄 8. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende September 20 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
🍄 9. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones Oct 12 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
10. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
11. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
12. The Winter Sisters by Tim Westover
13. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
14. Green Angel by Alice Hoffman
15. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
16. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
17. Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll

[Olga]

I enjoyed The Night Circus, hope you like it as well.

[Cynda]

Thanks Olga! I have been wanting to read it and other of her books for years now. I am committed!

[Cynda]

Buddy Reads: Utopian/Dystopian Books

🐀 1. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Mar 22 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
2. Unity byv Elly Bangs

[Bobby]

Cynda is preoccupied with RL wrote: "At Least 10 Fantasy Novels
...
8. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
..."

I need to read The Princess Bride. The movie is a classic.

[Cynda]

Bobby
Yes that is why I want to read The Princess Bride. For some reason it intimidates me.

[Cynda]

Diva Diane, I did read The City of Gold and Lead by John Christopher. I thought two .things the most

1. I am double glad 😃 that the original publisher sent back the writer's first submission, saying that young people want good writing, not just something just good enough.

2. Like any good trilogy that I have read--not many--the first is evocative, the second seems a bit much sometimes but is really not, and the third part pulls it all together in a way quite satisfying and sometimes --like here--perfect.

[DivaDiane]

Oh, I’m so glad you liked the Tripod trilogy! I agree with your assessment.

[April]

Hi Cynda! I'm finally dropping by. I see I recognize some of these 2025 titles that we've either discussed or read together. Question, did you pick all these books for the challenge at the start, or have you added to the list over the year?

Also, Night Circus is on my trl. Maybe we'll have a chat on that one day too! :)

[CBRetriever]

April wrote: "Hi Cynda! I'm finally dropping by. I see I recognize some of these 2025 titles that we've either discussed or read together. Question, did you pick all these books for the challenge at the start, o..."

there was another thread where we all listed the books we wanted to Buddy Read and then we voted on them. Here it is:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Cynda]

CBRetriever sorry for late response. I am glad you found the list. Are you planning on read some of those books we selected? I would like to read some too. Are you planning to read some this year or next year?

I just have the list below that we collectively created.

[Cynda]

I like to see the list, so I posted it here:
March 2025
Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury

April 2025
Wanderground: Stories of the Hill Women by Sally Miller Gearhart

May 2025
Unityby Elly Bangs

June 2025
Island by Aldous Huxley

July 2025
Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey

August 2025
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

September 2025
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

October 2025
The Town with No Mirrors by Christina Collins

November 2025
1984 by George Orwell

December 2025
Conjunction by A.D. Zoltan

[Cynda]

CBRetriever,
I have this year read both Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury which I am discussing with our classics group.

I also read Unity by Elly Bangs.

[CBRetriever]

I've read Unity, Handmaid's Tale and 1984 and way in the past, I read Fahrenheir 451 and possibly Island way back in the 60s or 7s

[Cynda]

I have read all that list except Island which I would like to read. I alsl want to read Wanderground: Stories of the Hill Women by Sally Miller Gearhart and The Town with No Mirrors by Christina Collins after I read Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.