It's Friday! 3/16

[dorothyinAus]

Are you reading anything interesting this weekend?

QOTW: Do you have plans for St. Patrick's Day -- wearing green, drinking green beer, making corned beef & cabbage, having a full Irish breakfast with 4 different types of potato dishes?

[charlatti]

I am finishing Force of Nature by Jane Harper. I’ve enjoyed it; it’s a solid mystery/detective story that’s interesting but not too taxing. I’ll be starting either The Immortalists or Children of Blood and Bone.

Qotw: I did buy corned beef to make for tomorrow, but we don’t normally do any of the traditions. I am zero percent Irish.

[bex]

I finished the Alice Network by Kate Quinn - so good!

Currently reading Dead Wake by Erik Larsen. I don't love his books but somehow I keep finding myself reading them, lol. I have three other library books on my kindle so I need to hurry up and move through them, ha.

[minzy]

I read two more books for the Read Harder 2018 reading challenge this week - I’m in a group that’s trying to complete the whole thing by the end of March. I would not have picked up either of these on my own: a sci-fi called Borderline by Mishell Baker (2.5*) and the first folk tale in a young adult trilogy, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (3.5*) by Grace Lin. I am only a tiny bit in to Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke.

QOTW: I’m a quarter Irish. I’m running a St. Patrick’s Day race tomorrow. My kids will wear homemade shamrock dresses my MIL made. We have some decorations up in the house. That’s about it.

[rainbowchip]

I'm still reading Little Women and What Happened.
Is it normal to be crying through almost the whole book (What Happened)? It's making it really hard to read!

QOTW: There's actually a forum for all the democratic gubernatorial candidates in my town tomorrow that I want to go to. We have quite a few and I know very little about them. I mean, it probably doesn't matter because any one of them will get my vote over Walker.

[abs]

I'm reading The Bear and the Nightingale. It's a book I like when I am reading it but when I put it down I forget about it and have to force myself to start reading again. I'm only 20% into it...hopefully it will pick up.

QOTW: I could not care less about St. Patrick's Day.

[snshne322]

I finished Thunderhead last night. It started slow, but ended with a bang.

I'm also listening to Murder House by James Patterson. It's my first Patterson and I think I may not be cut out for the Who Done It? style books. I'm enjoying it and I'm looking forward to finishing it, but I'm not meant for all the machinations and plot turns. I'm exhausted reading it. I don't think I'm meant for stimulating reads, lol.

QOTW: My Sister and SIL are going out tomorrow night and got a room (No kids/husband, woohoo!). We planned a night and it just happened to be tomorrow that worked so we'll do the beer thing. I don't own anything green other than shoes so that's what I wore today.

[sassypants]

I'm reading Kiss Carlo still. I was at a conference earlier this week so my reading time was minimal, but I did knock out Viola in Reel Life during my drive to and from Norfolk, so there's that. That one is definitely young YA, but it was cute and easy to follow while I was navigating.

QOTW: I make my own corned beef (as in I brine it for 10 days) and I actually remembered to start it on time this year! Tomorrow I'm going to help with set building in the morning but we're having a friend over for dinner that night.

[mrspez07]

I finished Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane earlier this week. I started Little Fires Everywhere and just downloaded Still Life by Louise Penny.

Our elementary school is the leprechauns and have been marching in the St Patrick’s day parade for years. We’re celebrating our 50th school birthday so it’s an extra big deal. So the whole family will be doing that tomorrow.

[ufcasey]

Read:
The Dry by Jane Harper - mystery; 4 stars; I rather enjoyed this because I didn't solve the mystery and the audiobook had Australian accents (book is set in Australia)
Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah Remini - non-fiction; 4 stars; she doesn't once mention any of the alien stuff and still manages to make Scientology out to be creepy. The audiobook is very entertaining because she narrates it.
Naked in Death by J.D. Robb - romantic suspense; 3 stars; I'm late to this series, since this is the first one and there's 46 of them already. I liked it minus a couple of things but I assume they get better since there are so many published.

Total so far for the year: 30

Currently Reading:
The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson - non-fiction; I think the author found himself with a book that was too short and so he had to add filler. So parts of it are very interesting and then other parts are only kind of tangentially related and boring I'm sad to say.
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate - historical ficiton; this isn't the book for book club this month but it came available at the library first before Radium Girls, so I'm reading it now ahead of time. Anyways one character is set in some kind of backwater hick area and the way they talk is killing me, it's like nails on a chalkboard for me. But that's just a weird quirk/reading personal pet peeve of mine, other people probably won't even notice/care about it so you can probably ignore me. But seriously, it's driving me crazy.

QOTW:
No plans, we already went to a St. Patrick's Day parade so we'll probably just go to Disney or something unrelated to the holiday.

[abs]

ufcasey, Troublemaker was fascinating. I couldn’t put it down.

[tacokick]

I finished The Woman in the Window. I liked it even though I figured it out like 75 pages in. My mom and dad both read it so they peer pressured me into reading it too lol.

Now I’m in between books. I had a bunch from the library i couldn’t get into.

I might make cloak and dagger sandwiches since corned beef and cabbage is so cheap. I don’t really do the boiled dinner. I also made Irish Potatoes (candy).

[ally]

This week I finished The Firebird and A Wrinkle in Time (for my IRL book club tonight).  I enjoyed both, though they were very different.  I am halfway through Station Eleven, but my library loan ended, I have it on hold to finish  I like it, I just find it hard to find time for audiobooks.

QOTW: A colleague/friend is hosting a St. Patrick's day party, she goes all out, starting at 11:00.  We will go to that.  Not sure if it will be an all day thing or just a few hours.

[ssmjlm]

@tooshort I’m still reading Lie to Me. It’s so bad that I end up falling asleep. I hope to finish it this weekend. I cannot figure out this book and I’m more than halfway through.

QOTW: DH and I are going to a St. Patrick’s Day party tomorrow and my parents are babysitting!

[rainbowchip]

Mar 16, 2018 9:59:33 GMT -5 abs said:

ufcasey, Troublemaker was fascinating. I couldn’t put it down.

Have either of you seen her show? Is there more in the book than the show?

[litskispeciality]

I'm going super slow through And We Stay. I should be done by now just haven't had time to really sit down and read.

I loved Troublemaker too, haven't seen much of the show.

For those that have read The Woman in the Window, without spoiling anything, does this follow the same pattern as The Girl on the Train and the Woman in Cabin 10? I've heard great things about Window, but I feel like I need some time so I'm not frustrating by reading the same plot again (ala every Nicolas Sparks book).

QOTW: No specific plans. My dad and I are going out to dinner tomorrow but will try to avoid Irish places because of the rush.

[ssmjlm]

rainbowchip, I have not watched her show, but my mom does and the stories on the show are even more unbelievable than her book (which I loved). I keep meaning to watch it, but I am terrible about watching tv outside of what's on the DVR.

[Vespasia]

I'm on vacation so I have read more this week than I normally do in a month!

Finished:
American War. I have such mixed feelings about this book. It was very well written and really stuck with me. However it was so damn bleak that I did not enjoy reading it. The depressing future described in the book is all too believable.

Daughters of Palatine Hill - enjoyable, fairly light Roman historical fiction

Currently reading:
The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian I am about 2/3 of the way through and it's definitely engrossing

QOTW: We're on a French island so probably no St. Paddy's Day for us.

[tacokick]

Mar 16, 2018 11:31:50 GMT -5 litskispeciality said:

I'm going super slow through And We Stay. I should be done by now just haven't had time to really sit down and read.

I loved Troublemaker too, haven't seen much of the show.

For those that have read The Woman in the Window, without spoiling anything, does this follow the same pattern as The Girl on the Train and the Woman in Cabin 10? I've heard great things about Window, but I feel like I need some time so I'm not frustrating by reading the same plot again (ala every Nicolas Sparks book).

QOTW: No specific plans. My dad and I are going out to dinner tomorrow but will try to avoid Irish places because of the rush.

Not exactly. It is more like Rear Window if Jimmy Stewart was a heavy drinker.


I would say it is better written too by quite a bit. More like a novel with a mystery than a “thriller”.

[AJL]

Read:

Welcome to Temptation (Dempseys #1) by Jennifer Crusie, 3.5/5* - I enjoyed it! It's chick lit/romance so nothing very intellectually stimulating, but to be completely fair and honest, I read to escape. lol!  

I have a few more books by her on my Kindle that I'm making my way through. 

QOTW: This week was my kids' Spring Break and I have taken them somewhere fun every single day (the movies, SXSW free music event, the rodeo, hiking at a state park, the medieval/ren faire.) I'm so pooped! So this weekend I plan to take it easy.  I think DH and I may try to go out tomorrow night if we can find a babysit, but other than that, we really have no plans.

[spedrunner]

This weekend I am reading:

Killman's Creek by Rachel Caine

Final Girls by Riley Sager

anddddddddd catching up on my blog reads

Killmans creek is a bit slow for me, Final girls has my attention

QOTD:  nothing planned for St Patricks Day! I do not really celebrate holidays anymore, I kind of enjoy my weekend and if something pops up Ill go to it, just remembering I was invited to a st patricks day brunch  OOPS, im beat and wiped from the week (annual review and IEP season fellow Special Ed teacher!)

[ssmjlm]

Mar 16, 2018 19:24:18 GMT -5 @tooshort said:

Mar 16, 2018 11:01:29 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

@tooshort I’m still reading Lie to Me. It’s so bad that I end up falling asleep. I hope to finish it this weekend. I cannot figure out this book and I’m more than halfway through.

QOTW: DH and I are going to a St. Patrick’s Day party tomorrow and my parents are babysitting!

You likely won’t figure it out before the book is ready to reveal. It’s one of those books that holds back important info so you can’t figure it out.

The ending better be amazing because I feel like this is the ultimate book of first world problems. I mean it makes Gone Girl look good.

I’m overinvested now obviously!

[krystee]

I have started a few things (On Second Thought by Kristan Higgins is the one I'm furthest into), but nothing is grabbing me. I also read Of Mess and Moxie by Jen Hatmaker. I liked her chapter on raising teens.

I went to an Irish bar tonight for dinner and wore light-up shamrock earrings. Tomorrow night my mom invited us over for corned beef and cabbage. She also bought matching St. Patrick's Day PJs for the boys. She is really into being Irish.

[dorothyinAus]

I'm still reading The Rubber Band, last week I had the title wrong -- it's a 2-in-1 volume and I keep forgetting which is the first book in the volume. It's very good and I am enjoying the mystery, and I love the interaction of Wolfe and Archie with all the other regular characters. It's great fun and I'm torn between wanting to speed through it and wanting to savor it.

QOTW: No real St. Patrick's Day plans, I have a committee meeting in the morning and then DH and I are going out for a book brunch at our favorite local cafe. I'm getting my standard brunch order (poached eggs on toast with sautéed spinach and potato rostii and the house English Breakfast blend). I do have plans on Monday for St. Joseph's Day - I'm making anise cookies and taking them to a take & share luncheon with the Migrant English class at DH's education center. I'm really excited about that, but worried too because it's my first time making the traditional anise cookies.

[ally]

Mar 16, 2018 9:11:44 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

Read:
Naked in Death by J.D. Robb - romantic suspense; 3 stars; I'm late to this series, since this is the first one and there's 46 of them already. I liked it minus a couple of things but I assume they get better since there are so many published.

I have a read a few in the series.  I think of them as a quick, easy read, with characters I know.  Considering how many there are, I will be reading the series forever!

[monkeyfeet]

Reading Princess about a Saudi Arabian princess for my irl book club. It was written in 1992 and the reviews from native Saudian Arabians are pretty awful so I’m not putting a lot of belief in it. I just started The Tea Girl if Hummingbird Lane, but it’s too early to have an opinion.

QOTW-my kids have a birthday party tonight which I’m not excited about as we usually have friends over to have Reuben casserole . I’m still making it and guess I’ll freeze for later.

[travella]

I am very close to finishing Tea Girl of hummingbird Lane. I tried to finish it last night, but I was too tired to push through to the end.

Qotw: No real plans today besides taking my son to his karate test this afternoon. I forgot about St Patrick's day until a couple days ago when my son came home with an assignment to make a leprechaun trap for school.

[ssmjlm]

Ok @tooshort I finished it finally! I figured out who was the bad guy before the end. I wasn’t completely sure of the relation, but it was obvious it had to do with her past bc she wouldn’t talk about it. The whole last chapter was odd too. Like Sutton was the epitome of narcissistic so I don’t get why it wouldn’t be assumed she would know.

It was very Gone Girl but worse for me. I don’t want to give too much more away in case others read.

I thought it was interesting the author said she originally wanted to write a book about the two Americans murdered in Paris and that story. I thought that would have been better.

[Nonny]

I finished The Girl Who Wrote in Silk (meh, too much white saviorism and convenient coincidences, not enough actual history), and Y: The Last Man, Vol. 7 this week, and now I'm working on the Wool Omnibus (I'm through Holston and Proper Gauge).

QOTW:  Past years we've gone to my SIL's for corned beef and cabbage, which I hate, because corned beef is disgusting and so all I end up doing is eating potatoes and getting drunk on Irish Cream (which is kind of fun, I guess, but I really need protein with my meals and I end up feeling really yucky with all the carbs and sugar).  But as far as I know we aren't doing that this year, but I do think we are going to go shoe shopping for my H in a little bit.

[aurora]

I just finished my re-read of Towers of Midnight (book 13 of the Wheel of Time series). It was good to hear me escape from reality, which I needed. Haven't figured out what to pick up next yet.

I'm next on hold for 3 audiobooks at the moment so I picked up a random available one that I hadn't read since childhood: Anne of Green Gables . It's amusing in a memory-inducing kind of way.

QOTW: we didn't do anything special, partly because I forgot and partly because we don't celebrate many holidays.