It's Friday! (6/22)

[ufcasey]

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

Reminder: Book club discussion is this coming Wednesday, we'll be talking about "Little Fires Everywhere"

QOTW: What was the worst job you ever had? (If you never had a bad one, what job could you not be paid to do?)

[snshne322]

I finished the first book in the spinoff series to Falling Kingdoms, A Book of Spirit and Thieves. It was just meh. I was so excited for it. I don't think I'll continue.  I found it to be nothing like Falling Kingdoms.

I'm currently reading Dan Pfeiffer's new book Yes We (Still) Can. It's been an easy read so far and his voice really comes through in it.

I'm listening to A Conjuring of Light by VE Schwab. Honestly, this series has just been OK for me, but since it was a trilogy, I felt like I needed to read it. I want more out of characters instead of just action, there's no emotion.

QOTW: The worst job I had was as a landscaper. I had just dropped out of college and was more emotionally unstable than I was able admit at the time and I worked with some really toxic people. Bosses, coworkers, everything. The type where everyone set you up to fail and you had no support. I fucking hate those people. I still have anxiety surrounding certain experiences I had with them almost 20 years later. Fuck those people. While I have some responsibility for some of the scenarios I was in, they took advantage of a naive 19 year old.

That was a little cathartic.

[bex]

I didn't finish any books this week. I'm still reading The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates (its fine, I just don't really care about it, lol) and then I started Yes We (Still) Can by Dan Pfeiffer.


My first job was in a swimsuit store and while it wasn't completely bad, there were some elements to it that I think hurt me in terms of what I expect from jobs. Like it was run by a husband and wife, who had run the store for 50 years, and they did what they wanted and talked to the staff how they wanted and set up the schedules how they wanted (once the wife tried to make everyone do 1.5 hour shifts and didn't understand why people were annoyed at that.) So basically even now I think I have a good job if the boss doesn't make me - or any other employee - cry on a weekly basis.

[ufcasey]

Read:
Full Tilt by Emma Scott
4 stars/romance
This is a 'sad' romance, but not sad enough to actually make me cry

Us Against You (#2 in series) by Fredrik Backman
5 stars/fiction
Best book I have read in 2018 so far. If you liked Beartown, pick this sequel up. If you didn't like it, don't haha. If you haven't read Beartown, you should give it a try!

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
3.5 stars/sci-fi
Good, just wish it was a full length book instead of a novella


Total so far for the year: 69 (not including books under 150 pages or graphic novels)

Did Not Finish
A Reaper at the Gates (#3 in series) by Sabaa Tahir - ya/fantasy; I rated the first two books highly but this one was boring me. But ya books in general have been annoying me lately so it might have just been me.

Currently Reading:
The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook - steampunk; this is my very first steampunk book. I am not sure what to think of it!
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck  -  classic; surprising good

QOTW:
My first job ever was working at the concession stand of a movie theater. I always came home smelling like popcorn and to this day I do not like eating popcorn.

[abs]

I’m reading Us Against You right now. It’s so good!! Better than Beartown IMO and that was great! I should finish this weekend.

QOTW: I was a department manager for a department store right after college. Long hours, very low pay.

[travella]

I finished

Now That You Mention It by Kristan Higgins 2*

The Life We Bury by Allen Eskins 5*
(I had this book sitting on my want to read list for years. I just happened to see it for sale on the library's used book shelf on my way out of the library one day and picked it up. I'm glad I did!)

I just started I Am Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon. I have looked forward to this book since we read The Romanov Sisters.

QOTW: Walking beans. I hated being out in the sun/heat all day. Plus, my shoes would have pounds of mud on the bottom of them by the end of the day and my hands would be cut up/sore.
Thankfully I discovered that I am allergic to corn tassels, so I never had to detassel.

[litskispeciality]

I'm slowly chipping away at Little Fires Everywhere, so far really good just not enough time to read.

QOTW: I worked at a for-profit online (read diploma mill) for 2 years, I compared it to a layer of hell. Bad management, you could lose money if you didn't enroll enough students. No vacation time and long days. I was thankful to get laid off in the long run because I probably wouldn' thave left otherwise.

[rainbowchip]

I'm reading The Visitors by Catherine Burns. I won it through a goodreads giveaway. It's one of those books that everyone is horrible people so it's not holding my attention.

QOTW: I was a CNA at a nursing home for about 3 months. I worked nights and there were 4 of us to handle 80+ residents. It was next to impossible to give good care and I was super stressed the whole time I worked there.

The silver lining was it made me realize I wasn't cut out for a job in the medical field so I pivoted into an entry level position at the company I am still at (15 years in November) and it is a much better fit for me to be doing data analytics and SQL programming.

[spedrunner]

This week I read

I will always right back how one letter changed two lives
5*’s

The husband hour by Jamie Brenner
3*’s

Currently reading

 Breaking the silence by Diane Chamberlain 


I started the immortalists but I could not get into it so I put it down maybe I will pick it up again one day heading to the library to get another book shortly😍

qotd
probably bartending when I was younger. Bartending was great but having to clean the bathrooms after my shift was not (and mandatory!)
i don’t think you could pay me enough to work with very small children ,preschool, lol I teach middle school now
also anything in the service industry requiring late nights!

[krystee]

I have not done much reading this week since I've been binge-watching Queer Eye Season 2 (love).

Anne With an E Season 2 is out July 6! Happy birthday to me! (My birthday is 7/7.)

I am currently reading Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance. On track to be 4.5* book!

Worst job: I was hired to be a cashier at a minor league baseball stadium, only they WAY overhired and there was literally nothing for me to do. They told me to stand by an oven and watch cookies bake. (The oven had a timer and no one needed to watch it.) I walked out and happily worked at the library for the next two years!

[msmerymac]

I've been reading Crazy Rich Asians and enjoying it.

Worst job? Call centers when I was in college. I'm not a people person, really, which is ironic since I work directly with several clients at my current job and I love it.

[charlatti]

I finished The Book of M by Peng Shepherd, which was very weird and amazingly good. Currently reading American Street by Ibi Zoboi, a YA book about a girl from Haiti trying to adjust to life with cousins in Detroit while her mother is detained by immigration. Very good and particularly poignant right now.

Qotw: I worked in a bagel shop for about a week. Food service plus the earliest morning shift is not for me, though it seemed like a good idea when I signed on. Oh wait, worse than that: I worked for this horrible snobby woman in her consignment shop. The work was fine but she was a miserable, judgemental human being. I quit after she went around spraying Lysol everywhere and complaining about a smell from this sweet elderly lady who had just left (I did not perceive any smell).

[secretlyevil]

I finished Made for Love by Alissa Nutting - it was terrible and I do not recommend it to anyone. The entire time I could not wrap my head around the absurdity of the plot line. If you delved deeply, it's about low-self esteem and mentally/emotionally abusive relationships but that part was wrapped into a ridiculous story. 

Listening to book six of HP

Currently reading Crave - it's ok.

I finished Campaign Widows by Aimee Agresti - it was FANTASTIC and I highly recommend it, especially for a vacay or poolside read.

[dorothyinAus]

I'm reading The Sirens Sang of Murder, the third in Sarah Caudwell's Hilary Tamar series of mysteries. I bought the whole 4-book series years ago based solely on the Edward Gorey prints on the covers. But when I enjoyed the visits with the characters in the first two books, I held off on reading the last two because I hated the idea of such a brief visit with friends. I've decided it's time to have another visit with the characters.

QOTW: Wendy's. My worst job was working at Wendy's, back in the late 80's/early 90's when there was still a SuperBar. I hated taking care of the bar. I hated coming home smelling like onions and mustard. It took weeks to get the mustard & onion smell out of my fingernails! And UGHHH!! people at the bar are so messy and demanding.

[dorothyinAus]

Jun 22, 2018 9:33:22 GMT -5 travella said:

QOTW: Walking beans. I hated being out in the sun/heat all day. Plus, my shoes would have pounds of mud on the bottom of them by the end of the day and my hands would be cut up/sore. 
Thankfully I discovered that I am allergic to corn tassels, so I never had to detassel.

My job at Wendy's was were I discovered I was allergic to beets. It took a long time for my mother to recognize that the redness on my hands was not from being dyed by the beets, but actually an allergic reaction to them. She really did not believe for a long time that anyone could be allergic to beets. (I know it's a contact allergy but since then I have not eaten them so I don't know what would happen if I did - could be nothing, could be serious. I don't want to try.)

[mrspez07]

I finished reading The Flight Attendant earlier this week and finished listening to Yes Please by Amy Poehler.
I’m almost done with The Wedding Date and enjoying it a lot.

I probably wouldn’t want to be in childcare or sales. I’ve watched how amazing my kids teachers and caretakers have been with my boys, it takes a special kind of person to work with kids, I’m not that person.

[sassypants]

I'm working on memorizing a monologue for an audition on Sunday so that's cutting into my reading. I'm about 70 pages from the end of The World of All Souls, though.

QOTW: That's a tough one! Burger King was sucky for the fact that I smelled terrible afterwards and that they'd never let me work register even though I was better at it than most of their regulars. I was relegated to the prep stations because I was quick and accurate. That's when I should have learned the life lesson that the better you are at a job the less likely you are to get any kind of promotion because they don't want to train someone new who might not do as well. That still seems to hold true even 25 years and two degrees later.

[ssmjlm]

Finished: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, 3 stars

I feel like the author wanted you to feel bad for Evelyn and understand why she was such a horrible person. Nope she was just a classic narcissist. Another book with an un-needed twist and side stories that added nothing.

Just started: The Wife Between Us

QOTW: my last job was toxic. I had a horrible boss who didn’t understand the work we did or how to move the program into the next century. Add on long hours and low wages and I was glad to leave.

[MrsAxilla]

Before We Were Yours - 5 ⭐️
A Court of Frost and Starlight - 5 ⭐️ (suck it!)

Just started Little Fires Everywhere

QOTD: hmmm this is hard! What’s the criteria? Right after I was fired (#metoo) I got a contract gig and when they ran out of substantive work they gave me busy work, like cleaning out files. I could almost see my old office from the window near the cube next to the recycling bin . THAT really sucked, but it may have been my state of mind at the time -lol. (I’ve actually been working for that guy for eight years now. In retrospect, he was doing me a favor by stretching my work).

Right after college I landed my “dream job” as a staff archaeologist. It sounds like fun and occasionally we did cool things, but really I spent most of my time surveying desert in the middle of summer or extracting artifacts from packrat middens (don’t ask). All for $9.50/hr. So that was probably the worst job.

[dorothyinAus]

Jun 22, 2018 19:55:04 GMT -5 sassypants said:

I'm working on memorizing a monologue for an audition on Sunday so that's cutting into my reading. I'm about 70 pages from the end of The World of All Souls, though.

QOTW: That's a tough one! Burger King was sucky for the fact that I smelled terrible afterwards and that they'd never let me work register even though I was better at it than most of their regulars. I was relegated to the prep stations because I was quick and accurate. That's when I should have learned the life lesson that the better you are at a job the less likely you are to get any kind of promotion because they don't want to train someone new who might not do as well. That still seems to hold true even 25 years and two degrees later.

When I was working at Wendy's, I was still in high school and the law at the time was you had to be 18 to handle cash. Based on personal experience, I do not think that is still the case, but I would have much rather worked the register than made sandwiches or handled the SuperBar.

[monkeyfeet]

I finished both Crazy Rich Asians and Now That You Mention It while on vacation. They were good beach reads. Just picked up 11/22/63.

QOTW: I was a manager at Target and had to work every other week and every weekend from Thanksgiving thru Christmas. At the time my husband worked one weekend/month and our weekends never lined up. I also couldn’t imagine never going to visit family for Christmas once we had kids. I learned a lot though and was impressed with their processes.

[sassypants]

Jun 22, 2018 21:04:47 GMT -5 dorothyinAus said:

Jun 22, 2018 19:55:04 GMT -5 sassypants said:

I'm working on memorizing a monologue for an audition on Sunday so that's cutting into my reading. I'm about 70 pages from the end of The World of All Souls, though.

QOTW: That's a tough one! Burger King was sucky for the fact that I smelled terrible afterwards and that they'd never let me work register even though I was better at it than most of their regulars. I was relegated to the prep stations because I was quick and accurate. That's when I should have learned the life lesson that the better you are at a job the less likely you are to get any kind of promotion because they don't want to train someone new who might not do as well. That still seems to hold true even 25 years and two degrees later.

When I was working at Wendy's, I was still in high school and the law at the time was you had to be 18 to handle cash. Based on personal experience, I do not think that is still the case, but I would have much rather worked the register than made sandwiches or handled the SuperBar.

I don't think it was the law in Ohio in the 90s, but if it was, they flagrantly ignored it because other contemporaries of mine were on register all the time.

[Nonny]

I finished Eartha, the graphic novel I found only so-so, but it actually had a good ending, so it redeemed itself there.  I also finished The Buried Giant, which was absolutely awful and I want my reading time back. (Stupid book club pick - I only didn't bail on it because I bailed on reading the previous months book, and I didn't want to bail on books 2 months in a row.)


I've since moved on to Counting Backwards: A Doctor's Notes on Anesthesia, and a new graphic novel series called The Beauty, where beauty is passed along as a sexually transmitted disease (according to the description it is a horror/crime novel - I'm not very far in, but the premise is intriguing).