Friday Again, What Are You Reading? (Dec. 8)

[dorothyinAus]

Hello Everybody! What are you reading this weekend? Are you enjoying it?

QOTW:  What has been your favorite news story of the week? (it doesn't have to be serious news -- just what struck you as interesting and worth sharing from however you get your news -- tv, radio, newspaper, Twitter/Facebook, etc.)

[bex]

I'm reading The Deat of Expertise  (sorry, "death") by Tom Nichols. It's okay. It's an interesting concept and he raises some interesting points but its not as good as I had expected and a lot of it is just coming off as very "back in MY day, we would never....."

I'm trying to move quickly through it though because I have a few good books waiting for me on my TBR pile.

Favorite news story this week was probably the rabbit being rescued from the fire.  I also read a story about how Trump thinks Pence is low class for having pets (including a rabbit) and that kind of cracked me up too in a weird way, lol. Only trump would think having pets is "low class."

[charlatti]

I just started Year One by Nora Roberts. It’s has been a stressful (but good stuff, if that makes sense), busy week, so NR is perfect to start my weekend of chill. Finished The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey, which was extremely meh.

Qotw: a woman on Mackinac Island watched a deer come ashore on the island, shake off his frigid wet legs and wander around a bit, then hop back in the water to swim a mile (in freezing Michigan straits water, with a freight boat passing through too) to Round Island. I love the story and the fact that in northern Michigan that even is a news story. She said she watched the deer disappear into the woods on Round Island. Hopefully he found a nice woodland creatures’ campfire to warm up. 

www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/12/deer_swims_on_mackinac_island.html

[litskispeciality]

I started "Elanor and Park" this week. Didn't have a lot of time to read but I hope it's good. I've heard Rainbow Rowell is a good writer.

QOTW: Hmm, don't watch a lot of news. In New England there's been a few stories about sending children with terminal illness Christmas cards. So far they've been overwhelmed with cards from every contient. I heart those kinds of stories.

[abs]

I'm reading The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. I am really really enjoying it!! Great book so far.

QOTW: My favorite news story of the week is what I am seeing right now. Snow!! In Texas! Two inches! Memories made this morning. We all got up at 5:30 am and played all morning! It only snows once every 10-20 years here so it's amazing and I can't stop smiling.

[ufcasey]

I hit my reading goal for the year this week! 150+ books

Read:
Once Upon a Tower by Eloisa James - historical romance; 2 stars; there was a secondary character that was more interesting than the two main characters combined, so....
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier - classic?/mystery?/fiction; 4.5 stars; I freaking loved this book. I think it's even better than 'Rebecca' by the same author (which more people have read).
Master of Crows by Grace Draven - fantasy romance; 3 stars; I really don't know why this book was called that, it should be 'master of a run down estate and orange groves'. Good, but not great.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells - sci-fi; 3 stars; interesting but not enough world building to be able to rate it higher
Arcana by Jessica Leake - historical romance/fantasy; 3.5 stars; interesting combination of genres, just wished it felt a little less YA-ish

Currently Reading:
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng - fiction; really enjoying this so far
The Silent Waters by Brittainy Cherry - romance; I like this but to me there's something off-putting about a grown woman calling her mother 'Mama'. It's a small quibble but it's driving me insane.

QOTW:
*tries to think of something positive in the news* - There's only one child predator currently running for office and leading the polls in an election? Only part of California is on fire? The Senate tax bill still has to be reconciled with the House tax bill before it destroys our economy just to give corporations and millionaires more money? After the new worst mass shooting in American history the house finally passed a gun bill and it only allows more people to carry concealed weapons? I got nothing positive. Nothing.

[ufcasey]

Dec 8, 2017 9:12:47 GMT -5 litskispeciality said:

I started "Elanor and Park" this week. Didn't have a lot of time to read but I hope it's good. I've heard Rainbow Rowell is a good writer.

QOTW: Hmm, don't watch a lot of news. In New England there's been a few stories about sending children with terminal illness Christmas cards. So far they've been overwhelmed with cards from every contient. I heart those kinds of stories.

I enjoyed that book but my favorite book of hers is Landline, which I highly recommend. Also, it has a really great audiobook narrator if you want to listen to it.

[sassypants]

I'm about 3/4 of the way through Sleeping Beauties by Owen King and Stephen King. I like it a lot, and I have theories that I'm anxious to see if they pan out.

QOTW: The best news was they announced who our museum's new director will be and she's female!! We have WAY too much testosterone flowing around our board and it's encouraging to have a woman in the director's position. She's smart and competent, and I got to chat with her for a long while earlier today. She's very eager to see how things work and doesn't pretend to know better than her staff what we each do for the museum. It will be so refreshing!!!

[monkeyfeet]

I’m reading The Fiery Cross. Had no idea it was 1400 pages when I started. I’ll probably have to pause to read book club books.

Not feel good, but I listened to an npr excerpt on bitcoin yesterday and learned a bit.

[ally]

I finished Everything I Never Told You - 4.5*, really liked it and already have a hold on her next one.

Started Before The Fall by Noah Hawley, I like it so far.  Keeping my interest, I expect a twist somewhere.

QOTW: the news has been rough lately.  I was happy to read that Taylor Swift was paid her $1 court winnings - it is a token, but that was the point being made.

[Nonny]

I finished How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times this week, and the audiobook of My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry last night -- this on is cute.  It was my first foray into Fredrik Bachman, because everyone in the world seems to have read A Man Called Ove except me.  I'm still working my way through The Yiddish Policeman's Union - I think there is an interesting story buried in there somewhere underneath all of Chabon's overwrought prose.

QOTW:  Someone over on the travel board posted this article about a guy who gamed the Trip Advisor review process and made his fake backyard restaurant become the number one restaurant on Trip Advisor - www.vice.com/en_uk/article/434gqw/i-made-my-shed-the-top-rated-restaurant-on-tripadvisor 

[mrspez07]

I’m reading The Light of Paris and listening to Nurtureshock. It’s been busy, so I haven’t had a ton of reading time this week.
If you haven’t read/listened to Nurtureshock, I highly recommend it if you have kids. I’m only on chapter 4, but there are some interesting chapters on praise, sleep, race, and lying. The style reminds me of blink or tipping point, easy to digest chunks.

I am totally blanking on news right now. I love to catch up on Ask Amy about once a week. There was one this week where someone helped someone move and the person who moved gave the helper a hall tree. It’s been a few years and they are asking for it back. It’s also humorous because people comment on it in the local paper even though it’s syndicated.

[dorothyinAus]

I'm reading Sidney Chambers and the Persistence of Love, and I am enjoying it, though I spoiled it for myself when I accidentally opened the book to where I had stuck my bookmark, not where I was actually up to in reading.  So I know it's going to be sad at the end.

QOTW:  Well, the big news here was that Parliament debated and passed the Same-Sex Marriage Bill. So the feel-good story was Tim Wilson's proposal on the floor of the House Chamber, and then the great story was Thursday night's vote (I may or may not have jumped up and down during my Dance Committee Meeting when I saw the tweet announcing the result to the vote). Those were great stories and reported around the world.

Just today, I got lots of pictures of the snow in Mississippi and Louisiana and I loved those stories too.

In terms of scary, what-are-they-thinking news stories, 45's decision to recognize Jerusalem has me scratching my head and ranting to anyone who will listen to me -- WHY, just WHY wold he do something like that? Right now when there are a good number of pilgrims in Bethlehem for Christmas? WHY would you put your fellow Christians at risk like that? My husband keeps telling me I have to stop wondering what 45 was thinking, because it's obvious he's not.

[travella]

I'm reading Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. I can't help but feel like it's similar to every other YA dystopian story, especially Hunger Games. A poor girl forced by the government to be with one boy in order to survive, but has feelings for another... The girl has to bring down the evil government... It's alright, I just wish it was a little more unique. Jury is still out on whether or not I'll finish the series.

QOTW: I don't recall any feel good stories. There were a lot of emotional stories of displaced families/pets killed by the CA fires and a suicide in the parking lot of my gym.

[rainbowchip]

I'm still reading Empire of Storms. I find myself enjoying the Elide and Mannon stories better than the Aelin story. That's probably why I can't get into these books.

QOTW: my uncle passed away this week so I've kind of been in a haze with keeping up on news.
The Jerusalem thing sticks out for me probably because the consequences are going to be horrible.

The wild fires in California are just devastating. I cannot stop thinking about all the people who lost their homes.

[labbie]

Hi everyone! It's been a while, hope it's ok if I "re-join".

I'm currently reading Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. Non-fiction about a group of divers finding a submerged German Uboat off the coast of New Jersey in the 90s. I'm not into diving at all, but regardless, this read is fantastic and so well written. I'm having trouble putting it down. Highly recommended.

My favorite news story of late, is a headline I read about a local community have a mystery "pooper" leaving "gifts" on neighbors' lawns. It happened out west a while ago, so maybe it's a copycat pooper? Lol. In today's crazy world I appreciated a good laugh when skimming headlines.