It's Friday - Book reading recap day! (8/10)

[ufcasey]

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

QOTW:
What author(s) would you read pretty much anything they write?

[rainbowchip]

I'm still reading Underground Airlines. It's an interesting concept but the characters are pretty boring. I've been prioritizing cleaning off my DVR over reading this week.

QOTW: I don't know if there's an author that I've read everything they've done but Ive read a majority of Colleen Hoover, J.R. Ward, Dan Brown, Gayle Forman, Rainbow Rowell, and Richelle Mead.

I usually make it a point to read as much of an author as possible if I really like one of their books.

[Vespasia]

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

Finished:
The Trespasser by Tana French. Had a hard time getting into this one but I ended up liking it more than her previous few. Mostly because it didn't end the way I expected based on her other books.

Still Life by Louise Penny. Really liked the characters and the writing even if the whodunnit was obvious from the beginning. Will definitely read more in the series.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire. Very short but interesting book. Looking forward to reading the next one when I get home and have wifi to download it.

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Rayburn. This was an enjoyable read even though both the characters and the plot were a bit much.

Currently reading: Song of Achilles. I just started so too early to judge.

QOTW: I can't think of a single author. They either branch into genres I don't care about or they get predictable or lazy over time.

[abs]

I'm reading All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin. It's the first book by her I've really enjoyed in a long time! I'm about half way through and am very hooked.

I read The President is Missing earlier this week. Eh. Don't recommend.

QOTW: As a kid my answer would be Christopher Pike. I didn't miss a single one of his books for years! Now I am not sure. I have read most of Kristin Hannah's books and all of Colleen Hoover's.

[travella]

I finished:
Before We Were Yours By Lisa Wingate 3*
Universal Harvester by John Darnielle 1.5*

I started All is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker.

QOTW: I used to read anything by John Grisham, but I've hated the last few books of his so I gave up on him. I'll read anything by Allen Eskens, Louise Penny, and Fredrik Backman.

[Nonny]

I finished Night Masquerade (Binti #3), which wasn't as good as the other 2 in the trilogy, but I still enjoyed it quite a lot, and a mediocre graphic novel, Kill or be Killed, Vol. 1, that's basically just a rip off combo of the TV show Dexter and the manga Death Note. 

I'm currently reading Blindness for my book club next week, but the story is literally the thing of my nightmares, and already at about 10-15% of the way in there's been a minor sexual assault and I know that it gets graphically more rapey as it progresses.  It's also written really strangely - no one has a name, they are just referred to as "the doctor" or "the first blind man" or "the woman with the glasses," and there are no breaks or punctuation for dialog, and really *hate* that style of writing, and to top it off my translation is... iffy. (There is actually a note in the back that the translator died before he finished his revisions... so... yeah.)  Basically I'm not enjoying this at all.

I'm also reading The Raven King (The Raven Cycle, #4), and this is what I'm reading before bed because I can't read Blindness before I go to sleep.  Although the stuff with Noah and Orphan Girl in this installment is also creepy, but better than the thought of randomly being struck blind.

ETA, QOTW:  I think I've read everything by JK Rowling except A Casual Vacancy, (shout out, Lethal White should be coming out next month!).  I've also ready probably >half of what Stephen King has written, but he's so prolific it's hard to keep up even when he's a favorite author, because I do like to branch out.  I'm having a hard time coming up with other authors off the top of my head.

[snshne322]

You guys. I think I might be allergic to Tolkien. I tried The Hobbit years ago and it was painful. I've tried watching the first LOTR movie at least a half dozen times and can't finish it. Lastly, I tried listening to it this week. I feel like I'm failing as a Fantasy enthusiast. I'm about 25% in and bored as can be. I think might just have to accept that I will never join that bandwagon. That's what I was listening to this and put aside.

I'm reading Autoboyography by Christina Lauren and I think it's great.

QOTW: Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews. Sarah Maas is getting up there too now.

[snshne322]

Aug 10, 2018 10:12:34 GMT -5 abs said:

I'm reading All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin. It's the first book by her I've really enjoyed in a long time! I'm about half way through and am very hooked.

I read The President is Missing earlier this week. Eh. Don't recommend.

QOTW: As a kid my answer would be Christopher Pike. I didn't miss a single one of his books for years! Now I am not sure. I have read most of Kristin Hannah's books and all of Colleen Hoover's.

Same!  I've considered going back and rereading some.  My favorites were the Remember Mes.  

[monkeyfeet]

70% finished with Us Against You.

QOTW: Rowling, used to be Stephanie Perkins (but I haven’t read her latest), Gayle Forman, Ken Follett and probably many more.

[Nonny]

Aug 10, 2018 12:57:45 GMT -5 snshne322 said:

You guys. I think I might be allergic to Tolkien. I tried The Hobbit years ago and it was painful. I've tried watching the first LOTR movie at least a half dozen times and can't finish it. Lastly, I tried listening to it this week. I feel like I'm failing as a Fantasy enthusiast. I'm about 25% in and bored as can be. I think might just have to accept that I will never join that bandwagon. That's what I was listening to this and put aside.

I love fantasy, but I am not a Tolkien fan.  LOTR is BORING AS FUCK.  Sorrynotsorry.  I can't get through it.  I got as far as the part with the pontificating tree (who I don't think is even in the movies) and I was like, WTF is this?? and stopped.  I know people love it, and I know it's considered the grandfather of fantasy ersumshit but, I just can't.  It's not worth my time or mental energy.

[snshne322]

Aug 10, 2018 13:06:26 GMT -5 Nonny said:

Aug 10, 2018 12:57:45 GMT -5 snshne322 said:

You guys. I think I might be allergic to Tolkien. I tried The Hobbit years ago and it was painful. I've tried watching the first LOTR movie at least a half dozen times and can't finish it. Lastly, I tried listening to it this week. I feel like I'm failing as a Fantasy enthusiast. I'm about 25% in and bored as can be. I think might just have to accept that I will never join that bandwagon. That's what I was listening to this and put aside.

I love fantasy, but I am not a Tolkien fan.  LOTR is BORING AS FUCK.  Sorrynotsorry.  I can't get through it.  I got as far as the part with the pontificating tree (who I don't think is even in the movies) and I was like, WTF is this?? and stopped.  I know people love it, and I know it's considered the grandfather of fantasy ersumshit but, I just can't.  It's not worth my time or mental energy.

The audiobook is something like 19 hours.  It took them like 3 1/2 to leave The Shire.

It's frustrating since it seems like it's something I should really love.  I just... don't!

[Nonny]

Aug 10, 2018 13:10:37 GMT -5 snshne322 said:

Aug 10, 2018 13:06:26 GMT -5 Nonny said:

I love fantasy, but I am not a Tolkien fan.  LOTR is BORING AS FUCK.  Sorrynotsorry.  I can't get through it.  I got as far as the part with the pontificating tree (who I don't think is even in the movies) and I was like, WTF is this?? and stopped.  I know people love it, and I know it's considered the grandfather of fantasy ersumshit but, I just can't.  It's not worth my time or mental energy.

The audiobook is something like 19 hours.  It took them like 3 1/2 to leave The Shire.

It's frustrating since it seems like it's something I should really love.  I just... don't!

Only 19?  I would have guessed longer.  

I know that I was reading it for months before I finally gave up, because I'd read like a page or two and my mind would wander, and I'd have to re-read what I'd just forgotten, and finally I was like, this is stupid, I'm not enjoying this, I'm never going to enjoy this.  I'm out.

[rootbeerfloat]

I finished Artemis this week, which was not as good as The Martian.

I just started We're Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union.

QOTW: I've read all/almost all of Rainbow Rowell, JK Rowling, Kristan Higgins. I've read a lot of books by Susanna Kearsley and Charlaine Harris, too.

[charlatti]

I finished Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan and An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim. Both fine, nothing too exciting. I am picking up my hold of The Glass Ocean by Beatriz Williams at the library this afternoon and will probably start that. I’m still struggling with attention span and will not be sorry to see this lousy summer end.

Qotw: I’ve read almost all of Barbara Kingsolver’s work and most of Sarah Beth Durst’s books. Everything by Louise Penny, but she just has the one series.

[tacokick]

I’m reading the new Megan Abbott right now. Finished the Grace Jones memoir this morning. She really told all!!


QOTW:
I’ve read a lot of authors’ complete works. If I like one book, I normally read their whole back catalogue or follow them on Amazon if that was their first book and read the subsequent ones. I’m still sad Sue Grafton died before finishing the alphabet, especially since Y was so bad. I had been reading her books since middle school!

[ssmjlm]

I finished:
Everything We Left Behind (Book 2)
End Game (Book 2)

Neither were all that. Everything we left Behind was what I was hoping to be a somewhat conclusion to book 1, Everything We Lost, but it was poorly written and the story didn't really go anywhere. The back and forth between time and narrators was annoying and could have been done better as the journal entries themselves.

Currently Reading:
Everything We Give (Book 3 b/c I'm a glutton and it's on KU)

I'm still trying to read this ARC, Lies. But it's really not good, like at all. I cannot get into it because the husband in the story is really whiny and annoying. Then I feel bad b/c they me the book for free and all.

QOTW: I'm not sure. I went through a big Sandra Brown phase a couple years ago, but didn't read everything she's written.

[spedrunner]

This week I read:

Matchmaking for Beginners

by Maddie Dawson *


4 stars - super cute book!  I really enjoyed this light , easy breezy, "magical" and sparkly read! Lots of fun 

The Matchmaker

Hilderbrand, Elin *


4 stars
Great, light read, sad but beautiful

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Tolle, Eckha
3 stars. 
meh.  Had high hopes and I think a lot of this stuff I already do, or am aware of and TRY to do, felt very repetitive and I suppose that was the purpose of it? I will revisit it when I need reminders

Currently Reading:

I Found You by Lisa Jewel

Can You Keep a Secret by Sophia Kinsella

The Castaways by Elin Hildernrand

QOTD:  I think I could and would read anything by Diane Chamberlain. She can do no wrong in my eyes <3

[dorothyinAus]

It's been a slow reading week for me, only made it through 5 chapters of Murder in the Bowery. it's enjoyable, I've just been busy and/or exhausted.

QOTW: I read all of some authors work, but only under particular pen-names - like I read Ashley Gardner's Captain Lacey series, but not Jennifer Ashley's romance series. There are a couple of other authors where I read only certain pen-names, Conrad Allen, but not Edward Martson, Kaitlyn Dunnett, but not any of her other pen-names. So it's more that I read all of particular series, not necessarily particular authors.

[AJL]

I finished reading Undress Me in The Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman. It's a memoir of her adventures backpacking through China right after college in the late 1980s. It's pretty compelling since it deals with her traveling companions very odd and scary behavior, but at the same time I think it tried to take something that seemed like it was make a good story and didn't quite fit the bill, you know? Eh, anyway, it was a quick read and different from my usual genres.


QOTW:
What author(s) would you read pretty much anything they write?

Penny Reid
Marisa Zapata
Ilona Andrews
Kristan Higgins
Diana Gabaldon

[MrsAxilla]

I’m still working on Hawaii and enjoying it.

QOTD: Stephen King, Anne Rice (like 95%) and I guess I’ll welcome Sarah J Maas to that club. I’ve read and loved everything of hers, except for Catwoman, which JUST came ut and I might pause Hawaii to read.

[sassypants]

I'm almost done with We Were The Lucky Ones. It's really good, but I definitely need something fluffy for the next book.

QOTW: There was a time when I'd have said JK Rowling, but then I read The Casual Vacancy and had to revise that statement. Generally, though, if I like an author I'll read most of what they've written.

[krystee]

I read The Escape Artist by Diane Chamberlain. I always enjoy her books, but this one was a tad far-fetched (maybe it was slightly less far-fetched when it was written and cell phones weren't a thing). I'd give it three stars. I also read The Seakeeper's Daughters by Lisa Wingate--3.5 stars.

I am now reading A Little Life.

Authors whose stuff I always read: Jodi Picoult, Jennifer Weiner (I don't love all her books, but I love HER), Kristin Hannah, Mary Higgins Clark. More recently I have started reading lots of Diane Chamberlain and Lisa Wingate (as you can see above).

[mrspez07]

I just finished Warcross today. I’ll add my 2 cents to the book discussion soon.

I haven’t read all the novellas of Diana Gabaldon, but would consider reading anything she wrote. I also like Sarah Addison Allen, Susanna Kearsley and Tana French.

I used to read a lot of Nora Roberts, Mary Higgins Clark and Danielle Steel, but my tastes have changed and I don’t read them much anymore, even though they are probably the authors I have read the most of.

[minzy]

I read Redshirts by John Scalzi, a sci-fi Hugo award winner. It was an interesting concept of people realizing they’re inadvertently on a not-well written TV show (somewhat a spoof on Star Trek) but with too many lapses in reality for my usual tastes.

I think I’ve read everything by Atul Gawande, most of Bill Bryson’s books, I’ve read some but will easily read more of Kristin Hannah’s on the strength of The Nightingale alone, I think I’m caught up with Rainbow Rowell...

[ally]

It was a long and busy week, so I did not get much reading done.  I did finish Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, 4*.  I enjoyed it, though it was not what I as expecting.  

Today I started Caught in Time, Julie McElwain - 3rd in the series and the audiobook of Dinner with Edward, Isabel Vincent.

QOTW:  I tend to stick with authors: Mary Higgins Clark, Barbara Taylor Bradford, David Baldacci, JK Rowling, Jan Karon, Dan Brown, Ann Patchett, Liane Moriarty, I am working my way through Louise Penny.  I also have several authors with books waitlisted because I have liked the one or two that I have read.

[ufcasey]

I've missed giving my updates for the past two weeks, so this a catch-up (long, sorry):

Read:
All In (#2 in series) by Emma Scott
2 stars/contemporary romance
Not nearly as emotionally impactful as the first book

The Ghostwriter by Alessandra Torre
4 stars/fiction suspense
I did not expect to like this book as much as I did. Go into this one blind, it will be better that way

Tsumiko and the Enslaved Fox by Forthright
4 stars/paranormal romance
Ilona Andrews recommended this and they did not steer me wrong!

Bright We Burn (#3 in series) by Kiersten White
3.5 stars/young adult historical fiction
I'm satisfied with this ending, but it did feel like this was dragged out a bit

All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover
4 stars/contemporary romance
Major trigger warnings for infidelity and infertility, and I kind of wanted to shake the heroine, but I surprisingly liked this!

Embers (#4 in series) by Suzanne Wright
3 stars/paranormal romance
You should just read only the first book in this series, and that's it

Home (#2 in series) by Nnedi Okorafor
4 stars/sci-fi
I just wished these books were longer! Great audiobooks btw

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
3.5 stars/fantasy
Too many unnecessary character POVs but otherwise I liked this. On par with 'Uprooted' by the same author

Born to Be Wilde (#3 in series) by Eloisa James
2.5 stars/historical romance
This author's quality has gone downhill, I will hesitate to read any new books by her now


Total so far for the year: 89


QOTW:
I will read anything by Ilona Andrews