It's Friday! What are you reading? (9/15)

[ufcasey]

Happy Friday! What books have you read this week? What are you currently reading? Like/Dislike any of them?


QOTW: as I am still without power thanks to Irma, what's the worst natural or non-natural disaster you've personally dealt with (or someone in your family personally dealt with if you got nothing)? What happened?

[rainbowchip]

I'm reading Crooked Kingdom. I like it so far.

QOTW: We really have been lucky with disasters in our whole family. I think the worst was a few years back when my brother had 3 vehicles, his boat, and his camper all damaged by hail. I think he might have had some damage to his house as well. PITA for sure but nothing at all serious.

[bex]

I'm reading What Happened by HRC. Loving it so far. Also have The Search (nora Roberts )and Gentleman in Moscow going, but put those on the back burner so I can focus on Hillary's book.

I live in Maryland and we really don't get that many natural disasters. A big snow storm every few years that may leave us housebound but I don't think of it as a disaster. Once in a great while hurricanes affect us but even that is rare (Sandy hit us and we closed for a day or two but the damage was minimal.)

[sarahsays]

I'm still reading ToD and a book about Emperor Augustus of Rome.

QOTW: Hugo, I guess, but I was too young to remember it. The worst disasters I remember are a massive ice storm when I was in high school that knocked our power out for 3 weeks. We also had some flood damage during Sandy, but it was minimal compared to what a lot of others dealt with.

[monkeyfeet]

I finished Dead Wake and actually thought the last half flew! I'm reading a book on Polk right now while I wait for Small Great Things to come in for book club!

QOTW--I can't remember any so I guess I've been lucky. Had some massive snowfalls in Co, but that's to be expected!

[tugsgirl]

I'm reading The Handmaid's Tale at the moment.

QOTD - Also pretty lucky that I haven't had any big disasters in my life other than snowfall? 

[sassypants]

I've just started The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King. I cannot believe I just heard about this book! I'm only a couple of pages in so far. I also just got cast in another Shakespeare play (The Tempest), so I need to start pounding those lines very soon but I'm waiting for cuts. We start rehearsals next week.

QOTW: We had a pretty wicked ice storm in Atlanta one year when I lived there, but I was very lucky because I don't even remember if I lost power, so it couldn't have been for long if I did. I had friends who had no power for a week, in the winter! I can't even imagine. Oh, and we had a tiny tornado in our yard when I was either in HS or home from college. Like a dumbass, I stood at the window trying to see what was causing the noise, but thankfully it only took out a couple of trees in our wooded area behind the house and one tree in our front yard lost limbs. They say that God watches out for idiots and children, and I was basically both that day.

[aurora]

I'm listening to The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. It's a light "read" so far.

Sort of between print books at the moment. I finished The Hate U Give earlier this week and didn't want to get captivated by anything else due to some work deadlines, so at bedtime I re-read the original Calvin and Hobbes. Finished that last night and trying to figure out what to read next.

QOTW: I've been in two floods that were bad enough to cause damage and cut off driving/access, but nothing like Harvey or Irma or Katrina. In both cases, damage to my property was minimal.

My H was caught in a flash flood in the desert once that forced him and his friends to climb the canyon walls to safety and wait there a couple of hours in the dark and rain for the torrent to die down. It was bad enough to cause his truck to sink into the sand above the axle and water/sand to get inside the cab.

That's the worst I've got, really.

[aurora]

Sept 15, 2017 13:00:47 GMT -5 sassypants said:

I've just started The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King. I cannot believe I just heard about this book! I'm only a couple of pages in so far. I also just got cast in another Shakespeare play (The Tempest), so I need to start pounding those lines very soon but I'm waiting for cuts. We start rehearsals next week.

QOTW: We had a pretty wicked ice storm in Atlanta one year when I lived there, but I was very lucky because I don't even remember if I lost power, so it couldn't have been for long if I did. I had friends who had no power for a week, in the winter! I can't even imagine. Oh, and we had a tiny tornado in our yard when I was either in HS or home from college. Like a dumbass, I stood at the window trying to see what was causing the noise, but thankfully it only took out a couple of trees in our wooded area behind the house and one tree in our front yard lost limbs. They say that God watches out for idiots and children, and I was basically both that day.

I loved this one so much that when I finished the audiobook and still had time before returning it to the library I started it again immediately.

[mrspez07]

I finished the Awakening by Kate Chopin yesterday and picked up Into The Water last night. Not far enough for an opinion.

QOTW: The most traumatic was getting caught in a big hail storm while in my car with a 1.5yo DS1. It smashed my side mirror and dented the heck out of my car. We were both crying and it was so loud. He was afraid of blustery weather and wind in the trees for a few years after that. Otherwise just being stuck at home during blizzards, luckily not out stuck in the car.

[rootbeerfloat]

I haven't read at all this week, so still working on Silence Fallen. A Man Called Ove also came up from the library.

I experienced 2 hurricanes (1981 and 1992), both fairly destructive for Hawaii, though not where I lived. There was also an earthquake here in 2006 that was worse than any I endured while living in California!

[snshne322]

I'm listening to The Problem with Forever by Jennifer Armentrout. They could have edited about 50% of the book out and not harmed the story. I'm SO READY to be done with it. The further I go, the more stars it drops.

I'm also reading Managed by Kristen Callihan. Very much like the Stage Dive books and I'm really liking them. They don't take themselves too seriously.

QOTW: As an adult it was probably the ice storm in New England in 2008. I was lucky that I only lost power for 3 days. I had friends that lost it for 3 weeks. We had some roof damage, but we were lucky it was something we could manage mostly on our own. We were even luckier that we had two wood stoves so we were able to keep our pipes warm. A lot of people I know had a lot of water damage from the storm and then frozen pipes days later.

[ally]

I finished Ahab's Wife this week - I did like it and am excited for book club tonight.  I started reading Anna and the French Kiss, it was the book that had been on my library wish list the longest.  It is easy and quick.

QOTW:  I have not been in any natural disasters like we are currently seeing.  Lots of snow and ice, but nothing too dramatic.

[minzy]

I finally finished Dreamland by Sam Quinones this week. It's about the opiate epidemic and was really interesting. I have Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie up next. It's the "One Maryland One Book" pick this year.

I've been through a few big snows and I was in Hawaii during the 6.7 earthquake (we immediately started driving inland with ultimately unfounded tsunami concerns). Otherwise, nothing too severe yet which I can probably credit to being somewhat inland in the mid-Atlantic. I hope you get power back soon, ufcasey!

[Nonny]

sassypants , The Eyes of the Dragon is my absolute favorite Stephen King book of all time. I've read it so many times that I've lost count, and it's the book I always recommend to people who want to read King, but are afraid of him because they think he only writes horror, or these giant unapproachable epics like The Stand and IT.

Edited to fix typo.

[Nonny]

I finally finished Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History, and I'm about 1/3 of the way through The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland (it's YA, so I'll probably finish it by tomorrow).

QOTW:  My worst natural disaster experience was the Hanukkah Eve windstorm.  Our neighborhood was without power for 9 days, but we bailed on day 3 and went to stay with my SIL (4 adults, 3 kids, 1 bathroom = major suckage).  They lived about 45 minutes away and we'd travel back and forth each day to check on our cats and cleanup the yard (thankfully only our shed roof took damage).  It was super stressful, but nothing like I imagine dealing with the aftermath of a hurricane and/or flooding.  The next year we were snowed in for 2 weeks and then lost power on Christmas day while snowed in, so now we have a whole house natural gas generator.

[AJL]

I finished reading The Lost Letter by Jillian Cantor. It was really good! I posted about it last Friday.  I also finished reading the second book in Ursula Vernon's Hamster Princess series that I'd been reading to DD. It's a long book! I'm totally counting it in my total-books-read column. LOL! If your child likes princesses but you want a less-princessy princess, I real encourage you to try out this series.

I'm currently reading A Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop. It's the second book in an alternate universe urban fantasy series. The premise is that a young woman who is a blood prophet (when she's cut, she sees prophecies) trying to escape her "benevolent captor" and seeks sanctuary among a group of people called terre indigine. They're shape-shifter creatures like wolves, hawks, bears, crows, etc.  The series was on a list of recommendations for fans of the All Souls trilogy. If anyone is interested in the list, I can C&P.

QOTW: I've been very lucky and have never personally been involved in a natural disaster. I have had to seek shelter during tornado warnings when I would spend summers in Amarillo with my mom's family, but we never had any touch down during my stays. 

[travella]

I am reading The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter. So far, I am really enjoying the book.

Qotw: When I was younger a tornado destroyed our house. I remember very little of it. I remember living in a trailer beside where they were building the new house and finding pieces of dishes and household goods years later. A town close by where I grew up was completely leveled by a tornado a few years ago. I had close friends lose family members due to it.

[sunbutter]

I finished The Hate U Give. Liked it and looking forward to discussion.

I started Pretend We Are Lovely by Noley Reid. Only a few pages in.

I've been fortunate. I've been stranded at home in some pretty serious snow storms. I also was living in Houston during tropical storm Allison. It didn't hit the city nearly as hard as Harvey but unlike Harvey, it hit the medical center (where I was working on my PhD) really hard. We lost most of our animals as they were housed in the basement and I had to be part of a clean up crew that wore hazmat suits and big boots to walk through the water and rescue and euthanize animals. It was pretty horrific. The center learned a lot and word is they did a great job with flood walls during Harvey and had very little damage and no loss of life.

[booknerd]

I started and finished All the Bright Places this week. I also started the 6th Harry Potter book. I'm thinking about starting Misery as well.

QOTW: I've been fortunate, nothing more than snow/ice knocking out power for a day, though with Harvey I lost power until yesterday.

[dorothyinAus]

I finished Home by Nightfall and started The Opening Night Murder.  I'm enjoying it so far, but I'm only 4 chapters in and though the murder happened in the prologue, the actual chapters have begun well before the murder so there is a bit of backtracking and I'm not sure I like that way of telling the story.

QOTW:  Well, as a Katrina survivor, I have to say the worst part is honestly the fear that comes from having lived through it. PTSD is a real thing. I spent last weekend in a panic watching Irma coverage and I'm in Australia! I woke up DH in the middle of the night absolutely terrified because we don't have a room in the house away from doors & windows.  There is guilt for being safe and out of harm's way. I watched several friends who had lost everything in Katrina lose everything again in Harvey. And unfortunately, I'm not in a position to offer anything more than thoughts and prayers, so I feel bad that I can't even help in any real, concrete, tangible way.

[abs]

I am reading Home Front by Kristin Hannah. So far I am interested but I am not sure I like the characters. Will continue to see!

QOTW: I have lived on the gulf coast my whole life so I've seen a lot of natural disasters. The worst two for me were Hurricane Ike and Harvey. Ike was bad for us because we lost power for 17 days. We had trees wrapped around power lines and it took a long time for the utility companies to be able to come in and fix things. We also came very close to having our house flood and many houses in our neighborhood either flooded or had trees bisecting them. However, at least the storm came in and then left the next day. It didn't hang around forever and ever and ever like Harvey did.

Harvey is definitely the storm that has impacted me most. We were lucky and had no damage but night after night it would pour down rain and you couldn't see where the water was and every night we thought it would be the night that we would flood. I didn't sleep for four days and then when it was over I still couldn't sleep because I kept hearing rain. Then the survivor's guilt....I still have that. I can't even adequately put into words what living through Harvey felt like.

[MrsAxilla]

What Happened by HRC. It's such a great book so far. Lots of emotions, but it's cathartic to let them out.

QOTD: we once got 15 feet of snow....

[ufcasey]

Read last week:
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey - fantasy/romance; 3.5 stars; this book is too long to recommend because I only liked it, didn't love it
The Viscount and the Vixen by Lorraine Heath - historical romance; 3 stars; the Berlin's secret is way too shocking to be forgiven in just a day by the hero
Saga Volume 4 by Brian Vaughan - graphic novel; 5 stars; if you aren't reading these, you are missing out! Check to see if your e-library has these, mine does and they are awesome, especially via the Kindle app

Currently reading:
Grave Dance by Kalayna Price - PNR; there's lots of action but I'm not particularly invested in the story
The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne - this book is a surprising mix of dry humor and serious life events
The Last Hour of Gann by R. Lee Smith - sci-fi romance; I'm undecided about this book, I might DNF
 
QOTW:
Irma has been the most damaging Hurricane I have personally been through, but I've been through several and oddly this wasn't the worst one as far as official category ratings goes, go figure.

[ufcasey]

AJL - I am sad to say that the first book in that series by Anne Bishop was my favorite and they got worse as they went along for me. Hopefully you like them better!


MrsAxilla and bex - I just got notification today that my library copy of "What Happened" is available, so I'll be starting it soon! We should discuss when we're done

[charlatti]

I'm reading Sourdough by Robin Sloan. He also wrote Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, which I adored, and this is very different but similarly quirky. I'm definitely enjoying it but Penumbra is a hard act to follow.

QOTW: Our basement always flooded after any heavy rain when I was growing up. The worst was a backup of raw sewage in our house and others around us (which, fortunately, forced the city to finally fix the drainage issues in the neighborhood, but was still a miserable experience).

[Vespasia]

I shelved Faithful Place for What Happened but I may go back and forth between the two. We have a trip coming up and I don't know if I can read What Happened in public because it keeps making my cry/laugh/scream.

QOTW: I lived through several hurricanes in Florida but none were bad or direct hits. IN MD we had back to back blizzards that shut the city down for a week but I got a husband out of that so I can't complain!

[aurora]

Sept 16, 2017 15:19:42 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

AJL - I am sad to say that the first book in that series by Anne Bishop was my favorite and they got worse as they went along for me. Hopefully you like them better!


MrsAxilla and bex - I just got notification today that my library copy of "What Happened" is available, so I'll be starting it soon! We should discuss when we're done

I just started it today! I think there will be enough people for a discussion.

[krystee]

I'm reading What Happened too. I feel like there must be another universe where sanity prevailed because I don't know how this could possibly be reality.

[ssmjlm]

I finished: The Hate U Give. It was good, but I did find it a bit slow in terms of the chronology of the book itself, but that could have been from editing to shorten the book or give the climax more prominence. I've been googling some more discussions on it.

Currently reading: Lucky Kinkaid #8 - these are my in between, books that give me a bit of a breather.

I'm not reading much at the moment b/c DH decided we should finally clear up the DVR a bit and decide what shows to keep for the fall season. We're such bad tv watchers.

QOTW- Hurricane Isabel in September 2003. I was a senior in college and lost power for 10 days. Except my college had power so they made everyone come back. Thankfully my boyfriend at the time lived on campus so I could have a hot shower and wash clothes. We were all pissed at the college's lack of empathy to so many that were displaced with the flood and power outages.