Friday 1/3/20 - what are you reading?

[ufcasey]

What are you reading this first week of the new year?

Note: Please vote for books you would like to read for our monthly book club discussions in 2020! Links here:

Debut Author
Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Fiction
Historical Fiction
Memoir
Mystery/Thriller
Young Adult

(January's book will be whatever book is the shortest in length out of the 12 winning books. In case of any ties for any of the categories, I will do new polls for run-off votes)

QOTW: have any reading related goals this year? (could be anything - number of books, expanding the genres you read, finishing up a series, seeking out a more diverse range of authors, reading a book before the movie comes out etc.)

[ufcasey]

I am currently reading:
The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman (historical fiction - pretty good but not holding my attention very well)
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (contemporary romance - I liked the epistolary-ish format of the post-it notes, but it's taken a turn and getting a little too dramatic now)

QOTW:
I am trying this year to read more new releases, finish up all the series that I started but didn't finish (that I want to continue reading), read more non-fiction/memoirs books, and try to read 100 books total (which is less than previous years but work has been getting very busy so I want to be more conservative in my goal) 

[rainbowchip]

I listened to Stonewall by Ann Bausum. It was very short but got the point crossed.

I'm still reading A Breath Of Snow and Ashes. It's starting to move along quicker now. I'm around page 350 and I was thinking how in another book I would be almost done by page 350 but this one I'm not even halfway done!

I'm listening to I'm Fine...and Other Lies by Whitney Cummings.

QOTW: My only goal is 52 books.

[meowmaps]

I'm reading The Shanghai Free Taxi: Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China. It's pretty interesting.

QOTW: My reading goal this year is 40 books. I hope I get to read more but I need to figure out how to balance my reading time with taking a class and exercising.

[wesleycrusher]

I am reading (well, listening to) Dear Girls by Ali Wong and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Secondary Phase by Douglas Adams.

QOTW: My goal is the same which is 200. Last year I tried to actually review the books I read on goodreads but only made it a few months in, so maybe I'll try to do that again. It's actually really helpful when I look back at the end of the year.

[travella]

I finished The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey, 4*. She was a new author for me last year and I have really enjoyed the series thus far.

I also finished A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum,5*. I almost didn't read this book because I hated the title. While it was a maddening book to read, I'm glad I read it.

I started So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson. It's another book that I was unsure about reading, but so far I have been enjoying it.

Qotw: I want to keep working on my TBR pile. Last year I decided to start with the books that have been in the pile the longest and work up to the most recent. I'm up to books I added 6 months ago now! I also set my Goodreads goal to 45.

[tacokick]

I just read The Wives by Tarryn Fisher and it was very bad.

QOTW: No real goals! Just tracking again for my own amusement. I read 239 books. 92% of the books I read in 2019 were written by women and 35% of my total read books were written by non-white people so I might be able to improve that a bit but I think those are pretty good stats! There wouldn’t even be that many men in my list but they wrote some non-fiction I read. I think I read 2 fiction books by men in 2019. Less than half of the male authors I read were white men.

[Vespasia]

I finished the Witches are Coming by Lindy West yesterday.  I enjoyed it a lot, though perhaps not as much as Shrill. Hoping a new book comes off my hold list soon so I don't have to pick from the old Kindle Firsts that I have been ignoring for months (or years!). 

QOTW: I set my goal at 48 books for this year. 

[ssmjlm]

Currently reading The Three Women. I'm not far enough in, but it's definitely interesting so far.

QOTW: Goal set at 100. Every year I say I'm going to read more biographies and then I get hung up on a bunch of KU books.

[dontlook]

I read The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary: 5 stars. A great book to end 2019. It was cute and different. I immediately knew how it’s going to end but enjoyed the journey. Highlight: Tiffy and Leon. These characters that will stick with me for a while. The one thing I didn’t like was the lack of Quotation marks when Leon spoke. Im still not sure why she wrote it like that.
I read 84 books and my goal was 52.

First book of the year was Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson: 5 stars. Amazingly heartbreaking book. I knew our justice system and prison systems are a mess but I didn’t understand just how bad it is. I’m not sure how we can treat anybody but especially children as badly as we do. We need reform. Bless people doing the hard work like Bryan and the EJI. The only thing I didn’t love was the layout of the book. I understand why he wrote it the way he did but I wanted to hear all about Walter and not he interrupted every chapter.

QOTW: my goal is 75 books for the year. I also want to do a better job of writing reviews of what I liked and didn’t like.

[dontlook]

Jan 3, 2020 13:27:54 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

I am currently reading:
The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman (historical fiction - pretty good but not holding my attention very well)
The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (contemporary romance - I liked the epistolary-ish format of the post-it notes, but it's taken a turn and getting a little too dramatic now)

QOTW:
I am trying this year to read more new releases, finish up all the series that I started but didn't finish (that I want to continue reading), read more non-fiction/memoirs books, and try to read 100 books total (which is less than previous years but work has been getting very busy so I want to be more conservative in my goal) 

Looking forward to your thoughts when you finish The Flatshare!

[just]

First book of the year was Trust Exercise which BLEW MY MIND! I totally need to talk about it either here or over on ML in the thread I started.

Keeping my goal at 100. Want to keep my author of color as high or higher than last year (46%) I'd like to slightly increase my non-fiction from last years 25% but not at the impact of enjoying my reading.

[just]

Jan 3, 2020 18:28:54 GMT -5 dontlook said:

First book of the year was Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson: 5 stars. Amazingly heartbreaking book. I knew our justice system and prison systems are a mess but I didn’t understand just how bad it is. I’m not sure how we can treat anybody but especially children as badly as we do. We need reform. Bless people doing the hard work like Bryan and the EJI. The only thing I didn’t love was the layout of the book. I understand why he wrote it the way he did but I wanted to hear all about Walter and not he interrupted every chapter.

When I read this book, I actually looked into quitting my job and becoming a lawyer. I made a compromise and instead got drunk, cried and made a large donation to EJI instead.

[dontlook]

Jan 3, 2020 19:00:36 GMT -5 just said:

Jan 3, 2020 18:28:54 GMT -5 dontlook said:

First book of the year was Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson: 5 stars. Amazingly heartbreaking book. I knew our justice system and prison systems are a mess but I didn’t understand just how bad it is. I’m not sure how we can treat anybody but especially children as badly as we do. We need reform. Bless people doing the hard work like Bryan and the EJI. The only thing I didn’t love was the layout of the book. I understand why he wrote it the way he did but I wanted to hear all about Walter and not he interrupted every chapter.

When I read this book, I actually looked into quitting my job and becoming a lawyer. I made a compromise and instead got drunk, cried and made a large donation to EJI instead.

I’ve done the crying and drinking part. Next up is a donation. Excellent idea!

I’m excited to read Trust Exercise. I won’t go into your ML post because of spoilers. I just checked and of course my library e-book has a 4-6 month wait. Hopefully I can get the physical book faster.

[abs]

I finished Autoboyography earlier this week. It was really cute and sweet. I want to read more by Christina Lauren now.

QOTW: My only goal is just to read more and internet less.

[mrspez07]

I started reading Fingersmith and the Audio of the Brutal Telling by Louise Penny this week. Not far enough into Finfersmith for much of an opinion.

No specific goals, maybe to be better about participating in the board’s book club. I read a few last year but didn’t chime in hardly at all.

Random: I just went thru the polls, I was surprised in some of the categories to like more than one book, and in historical fiction, which is my favorite, I was meh.

[sassypants]

I'm almost done with The Institute by Stephen King. I'm loving it a LOT, and that's saying something considering I've been kind of meh about his last couple. I only have 10% left and I hope he doesn't let me down!

QOTW: I don't really get into the reading goals thing. I just read what I want to read and I don't really need any other pressure in my life at this point. Reading is my therapy.

[charlatti]

I just started Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid — definitely has a strong beginning, so I can see why it’s getting so much buzz already. Also reading A Polar Affair, nonfiction about Antarctica and penguins.

Qotw: I set my goal at 75, which shouldn’t actually be a challenge. I like when goodreads tells me if I’m on track, but I don’t like goals that feel like work.

[krystee]

I just finished Meg and Jo (3.5 stars), and I am now reading Clutter Free to help get my decluttering resolution started and The Witches Are Coming.

My goal for the year is 45. I read 47 last year, but since I want to spend more time at the gym and decluttering this year, I decreased it a little bit.