It's Friday! (2/2)

[ufcasey]

What have you read this week? What are you currently reading?

QOTW:
Do you celebrate Valentine's Day (in a general sense, regardless of romantic attachments)? Do you like to? Have a good Best/Worst Valentine's Day story you might want to share?

[rainbowchip]

This week I read:
Turtles All The Way Down - I gave it 3.5* but I think it was really only a 3* book.
Stars Above 5* - I love tghis series and I finally got the hold for this book! It was a bunch of novellas but still had the characters from the books so I really enjoyed it.

I'm currently reading They Both Die at the End. It's an interesting concept. I'm skeptical that I will love this book though. It's different than what I thought it was going to be.
I also picked up A Breath Of Snow and Ashes when I was waiting for my hold to come in. I've only read 2 chapters but I want to slowly work my way through it.

QOTW: my (now) husband used to work at a flower shop so he is completely jaded when it comes to Valentine's day. We almost never do anything special.

That being said, we got engaged on Valentine's day many many many years ago.

[krystee]

I read Turtles All the Way Down (3.5*), Little Fires Everywhere (4.5*) and some fluffy Debbie Macomber book--I think it was called A Bend in the Road (way overdone storyline, 2*). I am now reading The Bookshop at Water's End. Maternity leave has been great for my reading productivity! I read 10 books from Jan 1-February 1.

We do celebrate Valentine's Day a little bit--I love any reason to celebrate anything. We used to go out to dinner. With the kids, we tend to stay home and order a heart-shaped pizza. We get the kids each a Valentines Day/love-themed book as a gift, and H and I exchange cards.

[ufcasey]

Read:
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney - fiction; 3 stars; apparently this book was based on a real person and the parts that line up with that (all the flashbacks) were great, but I found the more made up parts (her walking around NY on NYE) wasn't nearly as interesting
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - non-fiction novella; 5 stars; see the book club discussion
Mercury Striking by Rebecca Zanetti - dystopian romance; 3.5 stars; interesting concept of a zombie virus plague but only with serial killers instead of zombies, but some plot holes annoyed me and the romance was nothing to write home about

Total so far for the year: 12 (I don't count books under 150 pages)

Currently Reading:
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque - classic; it's been a busy work week so I set this aside to read more 'fun' books, but I'm picking it back up now
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid - fiction/historical fiction?; I'm really really enjoying this. I'm on husband number 3 so far.

QOTW:
We're V-day skeptics and go out to dinner the day before and call that our 'celebration'. We don't do cards/presents/etc (we did for the first couple of years dating then we finally both owned up to how much we both don't care and stopped haha). But we're pretty unromantic in general - we don't do gifts for each other for birthdays or Christmas either. We do birthday cards and go on big vacations for our anniversary every year and that's pretty much it. Oh and he does buy me flowers randomly and I do love that. When I was single I hated Vday because I thought it was something I was getting left out of and it just reminded me that I was single, and I still remember that so I kind of hate the holiday on principle because I feel like it makes more people unhappy than it makes people genuinely happy, but maybe that's just me ha.

[bex]

I finished the Shadow Soul from the Dance of Dragons series, Unbelievable by Katy Tur (5 stars, this was a great read) and started Nothing to Envy - Ordinary Lives in North Korea. It's denser than I was expecting (not sure what I was expecting....ha) but fascinating. I've had it on by to-read list for years and it seemed fitting to finally get around to it now with all the North Korea talk in the news.

[monkeyfeet]

I finished We Should All Be Feminists and The Marriage Lie. I couldn’t put down The Marriage Lie, but the ending left me a little flAt.

Need to start Little Women and started Everything, Everything this am.

We don’t celebrate here. My husband buys our daughters a card.

[mpc]

It's been a few weeks. I finished:
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (3*) - This was a strange book. Pretty short, so a quick read. But strange. i guess I liked it enough because Im interested enough to read the sequel.
Troublemaker by Leah Remini (4*) - The first book I've read on Scientology so I found it fascinating
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, aka JK Rowling (5*) - I'm a sucker for a good detective story, so I enjoyed this. Perhaps a bit over-descriptive, but I forgave that by the end.

I'm currently reading A Man Called Ove. It's not what I expected. It's sweet. My mom gave it to me or else I probably wouldn't have picked it up.

I just picked up Ready Player One from the Library so that will be next.

[hurricanedrunk]

Read
Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (3*/audio) It took me awhile to get into it and I enjoyed the ending.
Tuesday with Morrie by Mitch Albom (5*) Really enjoyed this one, great message, I bawled at the end.

Currently reading
A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir - I love the first book in the series and so far the second has yet to disappoint.
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (audio)

QOTW- I like valentines candy, a lot but overall I'm meh on the holiday. We don't really celebrate but I will either make H a card or something small.

[Vespasia]

I finally gave up on the Secret Place when a bunch of other books came off my hold list. It was good but I just never found myself making the time to read. I will try again eventually.

I picked up the Girl in the Tower (sequel to Bear and the Nightingale) and I am really enjoying it. It was tad slow to start but now I am hooked. Really wish I could get away with reading at my desk.


QOTW: We don't really celebrate Valentine's Day but I may try to make a nicer than usual meal that night. Our dating anniversary is the 17th so we'll go out for a fancy dinner then.

[spedrunner]

Feb 2, 2018 10:37:44 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

What have you read this week? What are you currently reading?

QOTW:
Do you celebrate Valentine's Day (in a general sense, regardless of romantic attachments)? Do you like to? Have a good Best/Worst Valentine's Day story you might want to share?

This week I read:

The Nest (3.5/5 stars)  My mom loved and recommended this to me, I just thought it was meh, not good, not bad, just there   
The Last Mrs. Parrish (4/5 stars)  I love suspense, this held my attention

Currently reading:

Hiking Through:  finding peace and freedom along the Appalachian trail - I loved "Wild" , "A Walk in the Woods", so really am excited to be reading this one. So far its been great. About a man that lost his wife to cancer and sets out to hike the AT

Stillhouse Lake- i believe this was recommended on here. I am very early in but so far I am enjoying it

QOTD: I dont really celebrate Vday

[abs]

I'm reading If Only You Knew by Kristan Higgins. It's easy and fluffy and so far so good.

QOTW: Meh. Valentine's is not my favorite. I agree with ufcasey that there is SO much pressure put on this day that I just no longer care. My kid loves every holiday in existence though so we do celebrate as a family. This year it will probably be pizza and watch the Charlie Brown Valentine's Day special. DH and I do not exchange gifts but will probably go out to dinner at some point.

[abs]

Feb 2, 2018 13:04:51 GMT -5 @tooshort said:

Feb 2, 2018 11:28:01 GMT -5 monkeyfeet said:

I finished We Should All Be Feminists and The Marriage Lie. I couldn’t put down The Marriage Lie, but the ending left me a little flAt.

Need to start Little Women and started Everything, Everything this am.

We don’t celebrate here. My husband buys our daughters a card.

I feel the same about the marriage lie. A great book but the ended was a little.... disappointing, flat, not nearly as engaging as the rest of the book.

Totally agree with you both. I literally flew through the first 3/4 of the book and couldn't put it down but the last few chapters were a big let down.  Not bad just should have been better somehow.

[rootbeerfloat]

I'm reading Born a Crime.

I don't really care about Valentine's Day, but my husband does, so we usually go out, exchange cards, etc. I give my kids something sweet, too.

[minzy]

This week was the book club read and then Admissions - Life as a Brain Surgeon by Henry Marsh, 2.5 stars.  It's a scattered collection of events in his life, compiled as he was retiring.  Nothing really ties it together.  He seemed abrasive and flippant when describing some of his cases (for instance, saying more than once that a person in a poor country is better off if the spouse dies of a brain tumor than if she persists in a vegetative state, because the husband can remarry and have children with someone else).  Maybe that's "true" in some impartial value system, but reading it in print was squicky and gross.  I would have stopped reading but I'm stubborn and was hoping there would be a point in there somewhere.

My husband and I don't do much for Valentine's Day, maybe flowers and probably dinner at home.  The kids are really into decorations etc., and I have a little bag of goodies ready for them. 

One of my worst Valentine's Days was when I was in this long, drawn out process of having my heart broken, and my roommate got flowers from a guy other than her boyfriend.  We stuck the extra flowers (which were gorgeous and huge) in my room to hide them.  They discussed it a bit, and my friend's boyfriend found them.  The saddest part was that he correctly assumed that they weren't for me.  LOL.  Such drama!  Thank goodness those days are over. 

[litskispeciality]

I'm still chipping away at The Light Between Oceans.

QOTW: We go back and forth on doing stuff. For the most part my husband found the loophole of shopping after to save money on candy, but that backfired that he doesn't end up buying a gift until Easter. I guess one interesting year was a year in college I had a boyfriend but he had to work late so a group of friends went to a diner in town. My guy friend gave me and one other girl candy, forgot about our 3 friend so he gave her a bag of microwave popcorn (just the bag, from the box), she was so touched it almost made you sad. We had an awful experience at the diner the poor waitress was probably just overwhelmed. Overall it was fun though. Later that night my boyfriend actually had wine which we drank out of juice glasses becuase we were young and dind't have wine glasses.

[mrspez07]

I finished Heads in Beds today and I started the Alice Network earlier this week.

Not a fan of the forced and commercial holiday to show love. I prefer anniversaries and b-days. It funny though, I love Hearts, and pink and all of the pretty things, I just think the holiday sets people up for disappointment.

[travella]

I'm reading The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman. I'm 60% if the way through it. It's slow, but well written.

QOTW: I do a Valentine's scavenger hunt for the kids. A tradition that I started a long time ago that they look forward to every year. For dinner, I usually make steak and risotto and a big chocolate chip heart cookie for dessert.

[sassypants]

I've started From The Forest: A Search for the Hidden Roots of Our Fairy Tales by Sara Maitland. I like it so far. I've always been fascinated by folklore and fairy tales. DH bought this and several other books for me for this past Christmas.

QOTW: Nah, we don't really celebrate much though I often make a nice dinner. This year it falls on Ash Wednesday, so he'll be busy with church stuff.

[Nonny]

I finished The Fireman by Joe Hill which I had mixed feelings about.  The best character was the disease that caused people to burst into flames; the rest of his characters were kind of one dimensional.  The book was too long, but it had a lot of good action sequences.  There were too many pop culture references, but he also had a few sly references to his father's Dark Tower series.  So in the end I gave it three stars, and I'll give some of his other stuff a shot, because from the other reviews people it seems like this one was hit or miss for a lot of people.

I'm currently reading Moral Combat: How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics, which I need to finish in the next 10 days I think, because it's due back and I can't renew.  I'm less than a chapter in, but so far it's pretty interesting (it had a *really* long introduction).

QOTW:  My H's birthday is just a couple days after Valentine's Day, and he hates celebrating them both, so as a compromise we generally just do one combined thing, and not necessarily as just a couple.  This year he's turning 40, so we're having a small dinner party with friends that weekend.  He'll buy me grocery store flowers on Valentine's Day. 

I'd like a little more romance personally, but my H is just not the type to make those kinds of gestures, and in the end I'd rather have his consistent practicality always, than be swept off my feet sometimes.  

[ssmjlm]

I finally finished A Walk into Silence which was an old Kindle Prime freebie. It was ok, 2*. Between the detective and the story itself it was a hard to follow book because I wasn't sure if I should focus on the main character or the woman she was investigating. I feel like things should have been flushed out more by the author/editor.

Next up: We Should All be Feminists just came up on my library queue.

QOTW-we don't do anything for the holiday. E will bring home her valentines from school and tell us all about it.

[ally]

I finished A Gentleman in Moscow last night.  It was a VERY slow start, but I did enjoy the second half.  I am listening to This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, my first audio book, I do find it motivating when doing chores.  Not sure what I will start to read next.  I have read 10 books this year.

QOTW:  We cook a nicer than usual dinner and drink a nicer than usual bottle of wine.  We exchange cards, but typically not gifts.

[dorothyinAus]

Late to the party, but I'll play along.

I finished Imperial Requiem this weekend and it was very good, and really made me want to find out more about Zita of Bourbon-Parma, the last Empress of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, who died in 1989! Who knew a major player in WWI lived that long?!  Well, I'm sure some people did, but I was not one of them. Before I read this book I had never heard of Zita of Bourbon-Parma.

After that, I needed something light and fun so I began Malice at the Palace, which interestingly enough features some of the same characters as Imperial Requiem (Queen Mary of England, and her sons, David, Bertie, and George). It's just as as lift and fun as I had hoped.

QOTW:  I'm hit or miss with celebrating Valentine's Day. DH is very romantic and always plans something special for me. This year, we're delaying our celebrations because Valentine's Day is also Ash Wednesday, a day of fasting in addition to the beginning of the Lenten season of sacrifice. No real stories, but I always find it out of character that Valentine's Day is my most manly cousin's birthday -- he's a man's man kind of guy, big & burly, a former college football linebacker, grillmaster, really just the stereotypical bloke guy.