Week 1 Check In

[Sheri]

Hi Everyone

Happy New Year! Hope everyone made it through the end of year ok, and is having a good start to the year.

Book Club I am going to make a book suggestion thread after this. So start thinking about what you want to read!

This week I finished:

Strange the Dreamer - I was really enjoying this up until the ending. The ending made me mad enough that I don't think I'm going to continue reading and I took off a start. It literally had "to be continued" written in it. That's just unacceptable for me. Either write one book and accept it's long, or finish your thought and wrap the book up properly. There was a spot 50 some pages earlier that would have been a good ending point, if sad. Barreling right on past it ruined the poignancy of the moment, and just made me angry. I went ahead and read a summary of the next book and it just sounds rambling and confusing anyhow so I'm just done. It was technically my first book of the year because I was only 60% done on new Years Eve, so I finished New Years Day. I never like when that happens, i like a nice clean start for the new year. oh well.

Starling House - I'd borrowed this from the library a couple weeks ago but then kept getting distracted and not reading it. So finally sat down and got to it and loved it. So dark and creepy and fairy tale like. I've enjoyed most everything Alix E Harrow has written.

Currently reading:

A Killing Frost - back to october daye, no longer re-reading! Now i'm to reading new to catch up to current. This one I had from the Seanan McGuire humble bundle last year, does mean I have to read it on my phone though because I didn't realize it was kobo-only until after I bought it. (it was confusingly written. It mentioned Kobo, but it also said could be read on all devices which I interpreted as "also my kindle" but that was not the case. at least not without messing with some sort of file converter and I'm not feeling like messing with that right now)

Nettle & Bone - doing an audio re read for my books & brew book club. It's a delightful dark fairy tale, still enjoying it the second time around.

QOTW:
Do you have any reading goals for the year? Doesn't have to be anything concrete like a challenge or specific numbers.

I kind of accidentally wandered my way into a bunch of reading challenges last year and finished them all without really straining too hard. I was all set to do something similar this year, but I'm just not really feeling it yet this year. Nothing I want to read this second is slotting into prompts nicely. So this year my reading goal is to just take it easy and read what I want, and not feel like i HAVE to do challenges just because I have done them before. Except my book club TBR challenge because that's a communal group one with friends, and it's always nice to clear books I actually bought off my tbr list. I did cut it down from 22 books last year to 14 this year. I'll probably read more than that out of my owned books, but they'll be ones I choose myself.

[Jen W.]

Happy new year!

Finished:
The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman - 4 stars - for Popsugar's book featuring a 42-year-old character. I quite enjoyed this, and I hope there's a sequel coming.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang - 4 stars - for Popsugar's book about a writer. Sharp satire of the publishing world. A little like watching a train wreck, as the main character makes worse and worse decisions.

Currently reading:
Babel by R.F. Kuang - for Popsugar's one-word title.

Upcoming/Planned:
Herc - for Popsugar's book with at least 3 POVs

QOTW:
This year, I set my starter Goodreads goal at 50 books, and plan to do the Popsugar challenge. I am also seeing if I can fill the prompts in another challenge called the Robot Librarian challenge, which was started by someone in the Popsugar group. I'm probably not going to finish all the prompts there, but there are some fun and different ones, plus an entire section of nonfiction, which I should probably read more of.

[Susan]

Happy New Year everyone!

Spilling over from last year, on our trip we listened to and completed A Very Scalzi Christmas and The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. That was a cute, short Poirot mystery. We started A Lot Like Christmas and will restart that next year on our travels as it was good so far.

We all agreed to DNF Skipping Christmas by John Grisham. We got about 25% of the way done and it was awful. It was so over the top busybody-ness and just not pleasant. Don't bother with it.

I also listened and completed The Mystery of the Spanish Chest: a Hercule Poirot Short Story, a short story as my final book of 2023.

In 2024, I am continuing System Collapse because I put it on hold while I read a holiday themed book. I am almost done with it.

I am listening to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. It is long but I'm enjoying it so far.

Next up is a re-read/quick skim through one of my faves from 2023, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches because it is my next neighborhood book club pick.

QOTW:
Last year I had a goal of 40 books and hit 50. So this year I set 50 as a goal. I want to do the Book Nerds challenge but I'm terrible about filling out the spreadsheet. I think I might go for just topic/book/author because I find the dates and number of pages very tedious to fill out.

[Rebecca]

Started off the year here with my husband having covid. He hasn't felt too bad, and I haven't gotten it so far, but it's been a bit stressful trying to keep it that way.

Anyway, since last update:

Greenglass House - I thought I got this from someone here, but the group discussion search doesn't seem to be working properly, so I can't check. It's what I would call "children's Gothic" but on the more cheerful side. It does take place at Christmas but felt more wintry than festive. It wasn't my particular jam but I can see how it could work for someone else.

A Christmas Murder of Crows: A Dunderdale Mystery - Selected for the title, this was a fine but unremarkable Golden Age pastiche. (I was initially concerned because the cover shows a jackdaw, but those are in fact the corvids relevant to the story; it's just that some of the characters are not ornithologically particular and refer to them as crows, so that's fine.)

The Nine Tailors - I didn't read a Dorothy Sayers for over a year, because I learned in early 2023 that the next one was set on New Year's Eve. Turns out that's less than a quarter of the book, and then it jumps forward to Easter and finally concludes the next Christmas. Oh well. It wasn't her best plot but gosh I love her writing. I treated all the stuff about bell-ringing the same way I do cricket in mystery novels, which is to say that I saw that the words were there.

I'm a Unicorn - In this picture book, a one-horned calf claims to be a unicorn, but they can't seem to poop rainbows, they don't sparkle, and their tears don't turn into lollipops, so... maybe they're not a unicorn? The affirming conclusion involves some real unicorns and mild toilet humor. It was great.

QOTW: I've been doing fine without goals and I intend to continue.

[Kathy]

Happy New Year! Just knocked my first finish of the year, Ambush or Adore, reread of one of Gail Carriger's shorter ones from the parasol protectorate. I was off in December after surgery (everything's fine) and read a lot of mostly short books (19) to reach my goal of 100. Somehow I was able to finish the Book Nerds challenge reading what I wanted without too many specific books selected for a particular prompt. One exception was To Kill a Mockingbird, which I had never read so chose for the Classic prompt. I see why it is still around..
I'm aiming for 104 (2 a week) this year, and also doing the Book Nerds Challenge-thanks to the organizers for another great list.

[Lindsay]

Hi all! I’ve been a lurker here for awhile, so this is my first weekly update.

I was really happy this week to finish both my audiobook (Vortex), and physical book (A Thousand Splendid Suns) on New Year’s Eve, so I had a nice fresh start to the year.

Last night I finished reading The Slippery Slope, book 10 of A Series of Unfortunate Events, with my son. He’s 13, and I think is kind of growing out of me reading to him at bedtime, but he does want to finish up the series.

I’m currently reading Bookshops & Bonedust in physical form, and One of Our Thursdays is Missing on audiobook. Both are really enjoyable. I also try and read at least one longish book every year, a bit each day mixed in with other reading. This year that book is Les Miserables, which I was delighted to find in a little free library a few months ago.

One of my book goals this year is to finish some series that I’ve previously started. I also want my reading to not be stressful, so even though I’m tracking various book challenges, I’m not going to worry if I don’t complete them, or read something that doesn’t for.

[Kathy]

Lindsay wrote: "Hi all! I’ve been a lurker here for awhile, so this is my first weekly update.

I was really happy this week to finish both my audiobook (Vortex), and physical book (A Thousand Splendid Suns) on N..."
Welcome to posting, Lindsay! Youngest is now a 20bot, so please savor bedtime reading as long as he wants to. I miss it.

[Susan]

@lindsay Welcome!!
With my youngest (now 25) we probably read together until she was 14. We were reading the entire Anne of Green Gables series together. It was more about bonding than anything else.

[Sheri]

Welcome to posting Lindsay! Reading with parents is special! I remember reading with my mom. I don’t know exactly when it stopped but I still remember fondly.