Week 7 Check In

[Susan]

Hello everyone,

This was an average week so I'm able to get a post out on time this week. I hope everyone in the path of the winter storm that went across North America this week fared well.

This week I finishedThe Reading List. I enjoyed this. Last week I was super close to finishing. It was a sweet read and held my interest the whole book. I haven't read any of the books on the list itself.

I also finished One Day in December. I was mostly indifferent to this book. The guy-of-interest was often a complete jerk and I had not emotional connection. And the timespan of ten years before they resolved this kind of dragged for me.

I started The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. I am only a few chapters into this but so far this seems to be a fun read.

I just finished The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter on audiobook. I read it on 1.5x speed since I'd read it a few years ago and needed to remember details. Now I can look at the Final Thoughts posting from Sheri to add a comment.

I don't know what I'll listen to next. I have one more Scalzi Old Man's War book so that is a likely candidate. I also may have to pause my book when I get to borrow one from a neighbor for my IRL book club.

QOTW:
How do you choose from your TBR list? How big is your TBR list?

Mostly for me it is a "what do I feel like" with a heavy dose of recency bias. The "feeling" generally drives fiction/non-fiction or genre but not typically the actual book. Sometimes the availability at the library helps pick the actual title. I have well over 200 books on my GR TBR list.

[Rebecca]

It was a short week, but I had two short books.

The Order of Time - This is by a physicist, but it was more of a philosophy book. He quotes a lot of ancient Greeks, German philosophers, Buddhist sages, etc. I was mostly familiar with the physics discussed, and then a lot of the book is the author's speculations about the origins of our experience of time in the brain and such, which is fine and all but I trust a physicist with that about as much as I'd trust a philosopher to explain the physics; I'm sure you're smart and did your research, and you may well be correct, but you're not the expert here.

Sherlock's Secretary - I believe this is best described as "a romp". The titular character is employed by a bank that owns the 221B Baker Street address, and his job is to answer the letters that are sent to Sherlock Holmes. After two masked men steal some of the letters, his true crime podcaster crush shows up on his doorstep, and they are off on an investigation with the help of his flatmates. It was very silly but short enough that it was still fun.

QOTW: I have 90 on my to-read here, and probably a few more favorited on Hoopla or the library that I didn't add. A lot of those are things the library doesn't have that I'll eventually have to decide to buy or remove. What to read next is primarily driven by what's available at the library, followed by what I feel like, any thematic considerations (holidays, upcoming life events), and an attempt to rotate between mystery, other fiction, and nonfiction.

[Jen W.]

Hello, everyone! I don't have too much to report this week. Work's been keeping me a little busy, and today's my birthday, but we're not really doing anything special for it. We went out for good pizza for lunch, and we have some cake for later.

Finished:
Just some comics & manga (not for prompts):
Noragami: Stray God, Vol. 25
Kaiu Shirai x Posuka Demizu: Beyond The Promised Neverland
Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 1
Given, Vol. 7
Fruits Basket Another, Vol. 4

Currently reading:
The Afterward - This is an interesting fantasy story about what happens to the adventurers once the big world-saving Quest is done. Most of the main characters are women of color. This will be my book with a queer lead for Popsugar - the two main POV characters are a lesbian and a bisexual woman.

Planned:
Nick and Charlie: A Heartstopper Novella
The Wicked Bargain

QOTW:
I have a ridiculous number of books on my Goodreads to-read shelf - over 2000. I really need to pare that down.

Mostly, I'm a mood reader, but it also depends on what I have out from the library and when it's due back.

[Shel]

I finished The Other Wind, which was a satisfying conclusion to the Earthsea books. It's an interesting series, since the first three books were written in the 60s/70s, then book 4 in the 90s and books 5 and 6 in the early 2000s. You can definitely see Ursula K. Le Guin's evolution as a writer over that time span. It's a lovely series and worth reading if you haven't yet.

I also zipped through Rogue Protocol, the third Murderbot novella. I just adore Murderbot.

Now I'm just starting Songs of Earth and Power by Greg Bear, for my other GR group. I read it once, many years ago, but don't remember much about it except that it took the main character to the realm of the sidhe.

QOTW: I am almost completely driven by whim when it's time to pick up the next book. I say almost because I do try to get to the books that my various book clubs are reading, but I don't always get to them right on time, or I'll skip one if it doesn't appeal for some reason. And sometimes my whims are moderated by library availability.

[Daniele]

Just one finish for me this week: Rosemary's Baby, as I slowly make my way through the classics of the horror genre. I find myself comparing it to The Amityville Horror (just because I have both in very pre-loved trade paperback from the decade before I was born) and it definitely comes out on top in terms of writing. I used it for the Book Nerds "Birth" prompt. 14/100

About halfway through the audiobook of Children of Blood and Bone. This Black History Month has been dominated by Nigerian accents in my audiobooks, and I'm here for it. An enjoyable tale so far.

QOTW: Unless I have something specific in mind to fill a difficult prompt at the start of the year, I'm usually a mood reader. I've started using Libby holds to make choices for future me. Right now, I've just started The Book Eaters thanks to past me. The only other parameter sometimes can be when I need an audiobook for a long drive, then it's just what's available that piques my interest.