Final Friday of May! 5/31

[charlatti]

I didn’t see a thread for this week yet. What have you been reading this week and how do you like it?

QOTW: what are your best (or worst) summer vacation memories from your childhood?

[meowmaps]

I finished A Perilous Undertaking. It took me awhile to get through it. It was a little slower than I expected.

I'm halfway through my reading goal! 30/60

QOTW: Our family summer vacations mostly consisted of R&R in Miami Beach with my grandparents. We lived overseas off/on until I was 13 so that made up for not seeing them during the year. One summer my parents decided to take us to Utah and Arizona first. I don't have any memories of the trip attractions. I do remember barfing in the San Francisco airport, the rental car, and in a hotel in Utah or Arizona. I must've picked up a bug during our travels.

A good/fun memory: Another time we stopped for a few nights in San Francisco and attended a baseball game. We were coming from Bangkok where it's oppressively hot and humid so by comparison, San Francisco felt like the coldest place on earth. It was probably in the 60s but our teeth were chattering and we were huddled together for body heat. Apparently, some people in the stands felt sorry for us and lent us a blanket.

[wesleycrusher]

Read:

-Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge - 2
-Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison—Solitary Confinement, a Sham Trial, High-Stakes Diplomacy, and the Extraordinary Efforts It Took to Get Me Out by Jason Rezaian - 4
-Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou - 5
-A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas - 3
-A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas - 4
-A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas - 4
-Breath of Magic by Teresa Medeiros - 3
-Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division by Peter Hook - 4

[charlatti]

I am reading The Editor by Steven Rowley — I really like it. It’s about a writer working with (fictionalized) Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis when she worked as a book editor.

Qotw: My first trip to an ocean was around age 8 to Daytona beach in Florida. I was so excited, ran right into the water, got knocked over by a huge wave and then was too scared to go in beyond my ankles. (I’ve since recovered and would rather be in the ocean than pretty much anywhere else in the world.)

[travella]

I finished The Lies We Told by Camilla Way, 3*. I started The Children of Blood and Bone last night.

QOTW: I don't recall too many summer vacations; most of our big vacations were in the winter due to my father's job. I do have some fond memories of camping and water skiing when I was younger.

[AJL]

Never, Never by Colleen Hoover - 3.5/5* It was interesting but the resolution was a bit of a letdown.

Re-read A Court of Mist and Fury so I could keep going in the series. It had been awhile since I'd read that book. Currently reading A Court of Wings and Ruin.

QOTW: I have mostly positive memories of summer. I especially loved spending time in Amarillo (where my mom grew up. We lived in Austin) with my aunt and uncle and cousins and my grandparents. I remember just being in this pack of kids who ran around our little six square block neighborhood. It was a typical Mexican-American barrio. All the mamas and tias and abuelas looked out for all the kids. You couldn't get away with too much mischief, but you always had a place to go; you were never hungry; and you basically had free reign until the sun went down and the street lights came on.

[Vespasia]

I'm reading the Huntress by Kate Quinn and absolutely loving it. I have been totally burned out on WWII fiction so I almost skipped it and I am so glad I didn't. Currently at 84% and trying to force myself to put it down so I can get some sleep.

QOTW: Summer has always been about our cottage. To the point that I really want to move closer (we live 5 hours away now). I need more than holiday weekends!

[krystee]

I am reading The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.

My parents have a cottage on a lake, and I always loved seeing the water ski show in summers when I was a kid! We are taking our sons there this summer, and I can’t wait to relive the experience from their perspective.

[sassypants]

I am about halfway through The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir. It's being put aside now, though, because my library hold for Stephen King's Elevation came in.

QOTW: When I was 13 we took a five week vacation where we drove our truck camper to my grandmother's house in TX, then to my uncle's house in MS, then to Disney World, then back to Ohio, with other stops along the way, too (St. Louis Arch, Biloxi, Mammoth Caves). It was pretty great even though I'm not a camping fan. The Disney Campground spoiled me though. They're definitely NOT all like that.

[monkeyfeet]

I finished Children of Blood and Bone. I started The Light We Lost and am plowing through it, but not sure I like it?

QOTW: we went to Fl a lot, but as I got older, we often traveled for soccer tournaments too..

[sarahswim]

This week I finished:
Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens)-liked it but didn't really get the hype
Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban (JK Rowling)-loved it
Among the Free (Margaret Peterson Haddix)-God I'm so glad I'm finished with this series

Waiting for me on my shelf are Us Against You and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I'm still in the middle of Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of Your Fist and I just received Circe from the library so I'm moving that to the top of my list.

I don't have many summer vacation memories. During the summer, we spent all day, every day at a swim/tennis club without a care in the world. Those are some of the best memories I have.

[abs]

I finished Verity this week. 0 stars. I don’t get the good reviews at all. It was predictable and awful. Nope.

No idea what’s next.

QOTW: so many great summer memories! Non stop play with the neighborhood kids as a young child. Pool time. Then summers with my grandparents in Florida as a teen. I loved it there. My granddad had a boat so we went on that every weekend. Beach time friends. More pool time.

Summer as an adult however sucks. Why is it so hot already?!

[ssmjlm]

Finished:
An Anonymous Girl-it had such a good start, but then was too damn long. Basically a yuppie white sob story in the end. I was so over it when I finished.

Mister- This was meh. It was basically just another romance book. Nothing exciting.

Currently Reading:
Becoming- not too far in, but a slow start for me. She’s at Princeton now, so things are picking up.

QOTW: sailing camp and just being on the water.

[rainbowchip]

I finished Circe and I'm reading Restore Me (a book in the Shatter Me series. #5 maybe?)

QOTW: my favorite summer memories are just doing whatever I wanted. My friend's mom had an in home daycare and I remember hanging out there with all the little kids and helping out with them. (I loved babies and toddlers.)

My worst memory is when I was about 12 or 13 my parents made me go camping with them for a week. This was typically what we did but I was over it and they refused to let me stay home. So I spent the entire week in the camper laying on the couch or in bed reading books. I came out one day to lay in the sun but other than that I was a hermit. They never made me go again.

[msmerymac]

Finished: Smart Women by Judy Blume

Working on: Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas and (on audio) Food: A Cultural History (the great courses series)

QOTW: We had a family cottage on Lake Ontario, and when I was really young, my mom, brother and I would go up there for the whole summer, and my dad would come up on weekends. My dad lives there full time now, but it tearing it down this fall to build a bigger house.

[Nonny]

I finished Circe, and I'm still working on The View from Flyover Country.

QOTW: We always went RV camping as a kid, and my worst memories are from never sleeping while doing it because my grandmother, mom, and dad all snored like buzzsaws, and I'm an incredibly light sleeper.  Then my grandmother would be a horrific bitch to me about getting up at a "reasonable" time because by the time I finally had fallen asleep she was ready to get up for the day.  She was a nasty, terrible person in general, and was really mean to me when I was a teenager.

I have good memories from camping too, because we did do fun things on the trips, but I did spend a good 33% of the trip miserable and exhausted.

Best memory, when I was 18 it was time for the annual camping trip again and I refused to go, and even though I was living at home, since I was a legal adult and it was between my freshman and sophomore years of college, my parents didn't push the issue and I had two blissful weeks at home alone without them.  I also used that time to find a new place to live.  LOL!

[dontlook]

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou: 5 stars
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls: 5 stars

[Gato]

I read The Farm by Joanne Ramos. It was great! It was about class imbalances, as played out in this resort-like setting where young, poor women are paid to be surrogates. While there, everything about their lives is controlled and manipulated. But I liked that the woman who runs the place gets a voice, too, so what's happening is not completely black and white, good and bad.

I'm starting Trust Exercise by Susan Choi.

QOTW: There was a big field, maybe 100 acres, behind our property, with some old, abandoned cement buildings to climb around on, rolling hills, and a stream to play in.  My brother and I spent our summers out there, far from any adults most of the day.  So many wonderful memories.