Friday, November 15

[sassypants]

What have you been reading this week? How is it?

QOTW: There are some interesting movies that have either just come out or are coming out soon. Is there anything you're looking forward to seeing before the end of the year?

[sassypants]

I'm reading City of Girls. It's good but her asides to her audience, which were fine in the beginning, are becoming repetitive at the 1/3 way mark.

QOTW: I'm excited for Dr. Sleep and Star Wars. We don't get to the movies often but those are two we'll see in theatres.

[meowmaps]

I finished The Most Fun We Ever Had yesterday. It was really good, if a bit long. I started Say Nothing today. It's fascinating so far.

QOTW: I'm looking forward to Knives Out and the new Jumanji movie. We saw Parasite last weekend and that was really thought-provoking.

[rainbowchip]

I'm reading Night House by Leigh Bardugo. It's kind of confusing and I'm having trouble following.

I'm listening to Troublemaker by Leah Remini. I watched her show and I thought this would be similar to the show but it gets into a lot more of her personal story details. I really like it.

QOTW: My daughter and I are excited for Frozen 2. I have tickets and we are all set!

I'm also really excited about the Christmas Prince 3 movie on Netflix. Cheesy Christmas movies are my jam lately!

[travella]

I finished Ask Me Again, Yes by Mary Keane, 3.5*. While I wanted to love this book, it just didn't pull me in. It was good, but it didn't live up to the hype in my opinion. I started Girls Like Us by Cristina Alger.

QOTW: I cannot think of any movies I'm excited to see personally. However, my kids cannot wait until Scoob comes out. Unfortunately, it doesn't come out until May.

[minzy]

Since I’ve last checked in I’ve finished:
The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger, based on recs here. Those parents were bananas! One of my kids is in a similar class, but the application process for us was thankfully way more laid back than how it is portrayed in the book. I tore through this one anyway, and found it entertaining.

Talking to Strangers - What We Should Know About People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell. It jumped around a bit and almost seemed better suited to a series of essays. I appreciated that most of the events discussed were relatively current, though some were hard to read, like the death of Sandra Bland, and the creepiness of Jerry Sandusky and Larry Nassar. Basically, most of us should trust others so society can function, but a few should be skeptical to catch the wrongdoers among us. But the trusting ones misread situations a lot of the time, and the skeptical ones do too, and the consequences of either can be incredibly damaging.

Haben - The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma. She relays some of her life experiences, and is an awesome advocate for making technology more accessible for people with disabilities.

And it’s a kids book, but Sofia Valdez, Future Prez by Andrea Beaty, who we got to meet last week! This is the fourth installment in the Iggy Peck/Rosie Revere class. In a few ways, it mirrors my own life this year, so I really just loved it. It would make a great Christmas gift for kids if you need one!

QOTW: The movie I most want to see is A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (with Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers). Our family will probably also watch both Star Wars and Frozen 2.

[charlatti]

I’m reading The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. I think if you liked The Night Circus, you will like this one too.

Qotw: I’m excited for the Mr. Rogers movie and Frozen 2. Kiddo is 11 and not so excited, but she’s agreed to go with me anyway.

[krystee]

I just finished Me by Elton John (loved it!) and An Inconvenient Life by Kristan Higgins (enjoyed it). I am now reading When Less Becomes More by Emily Ley and The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates is next.

QOTW: I want to see the Mr. Rogers movie. I am taking my 4YO son to see Frozen 2 next weekend as well.

[fernweh]

Currently reading A Lion Among Men. It’s part of the Wicked serious. I was gifted the whole series over the years and have never read any of the books. I finished books 1 and 2 recently and am hoping to finish the rest of the series before the end of the year.

QOTW: there is nothing I am dying to see. I would like to see the Mr Rogers movie but will most likely wait until I can rent it.

[Nonny]

I finished a middle grade book, When You Reach Me, for a library challenge. It was really cute.  I'm also reading The Godfather, but it's really long, and I need to start Moloka'i soon for my book club in a couple of weeks. 

I do want to read Moloka'i, but I'm actually feeling rather grouchy about it when I realized last night that it's published as part of Macmillan subsidiary, and Macmillan is on my shitlist because of the whole library ebook embargo. 


QOTW: I have no idea what movies are even coming out, so nothing in the theater really.  My H is looking forward to watching Us when it comes to HBO in a couple of weeks, and at some point I'd like to see Hobbes and Shaw.

[Gato]

I read Evvie Drake Starts Over, which was cute and more engaging than I imagined it would be. I very much thought the author should have set it in the Midwest, not Maine, since the characters were SO NOT Mainers. There were a lot of off moments in that regard.

I also read Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout, which was so VERY Maine. Loved it.

I am now reading The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells. Great, another super-depressing book like the one I just read about death, but it's an important read.

QOTW: I'm really looking forward to A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

[wildrice]

Last week I finished The Last Romantics, by Tara Conklin. I thought it started kind of slow but ended up being really good.

I also just finished The Water Dancer by Ta-Nihisi Coates on Saturday, which I thought was very good too. I feel like I read it in a weird way (I was rushing to finish it before my library rental expired, failed, and then bought it and finished it slowly) so I almost feel like I need to re-read because I forgot some stuff. I should know better than to try to read quickly, I just don't absorb properly. Anyway I guess I own it now so a re-read will be possible!

I just started the Testaments by Margaret Atwood. So far it's fine but I'm like 2 chapters in. I'm also listening to "the President is Missing" but 2 hours in I am still struggling to really get into it.

QOTW: I really pay no attention to movies so I honestly have no idea what is coming out.

[susiebw]

Late to this game, but I want to play.

I just finished I'm Not Dying With You Tonight by Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal, which is about two girls from different backgrounds that getthrown together to survive a riot. I posted in the other thread about it, but overall, it was good, but not great.

I also just finished The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian, which was also good, but not great. This is about an alcoholic flight attendant who wakes up after a blackout in a luxury hotel room with a dead man and zero recollection of how that happened. The ending was sort of thrown together and took away from the book.

I'm now reading Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, and I feel like I might be the last one to read this? I know next to nothing about it other than with over 140K GR ratings, it averages 4.3 stars, and is some kind of an epic saga. So far (at 8% in), the writing is wonderful and I'm enjoying it.

QOTW: I still want to see Ad Astra in theaters. I'm not sure what else is out now.

[msmerymac]

I just started Something in the Water.

QOTW: I always see all of the Oscar best picture nominees, and I start by seeing things that are getting Oscar buzz well before the nominations. Honestly, nothing really excites me at the moment. I missed The Farewell in theaters. I would like to see Parasite, but I think it's gone from my theater already. I'm sure I'll see Star Wars over Christmas.

ETA: I will see Little Women and Motherless Brooklyn, but those are the only two I'm really going to seek out.

[tacokick]

What Is a Girl Worth?: My Story of Breaking the Silence and Exposing the Truth about Larry Nassar and USA Gymnastics by Rachael Denhollander

The Hot Young Widows Club: Lessons on Survival from the Front Lines of Grief by Nora McInerny

It’s Okay to Laugh (Crying is Cool Too): A Memoir by Nora McInerny Purmort

Mister Death’s Blue-Eyed Girls by Mary Downing Hahn

The Doll in the Garden by Mary Downing Hahn

Summer of ‘69 by Elin Hilderbrand

Took: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn

Once More We Saw Stars:A Memoir by Jayson Green

One for Sorrow: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn

This week was all over the place. I don’t know why I requested all of Nora McInerny’s books. I re-read and read for the first time a lot of Mary Downing Hahn books—Mister Death’s Blue-Eyed Girls was YA and really good! Summer of ‘69 really read like it was written at that time—very soapy.

QOTW: I want to see Knives Out and Hobbes and Shaw