Friday January 10 Check-in

[wesleycrusher]

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

QOTW: Travel-related: Has reading a book ever caused you to travel somewhere new? Or did it ever influence what you saw or did on a trip?

[rainbowchip]

I finished I'm Fine...and Other Lies by Whitney Cummings. It was actually one of the better celebrity memoirs. She is much more self aware and not at all preachy.

I am currently listening to Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. I'm not a fan of the very short chapters. I didn't realize it was a poetry book.

I'm also still reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes.

QOTW: I don't think I've traveled anywhere because of a book but I have a bucket list item to do a Robert Langdon tour of Europe (based on Dan Brown's books)

[wesleycrusher]

Read:

Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, and Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong (audio)
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames
Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore
Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years by Julie Andrews Edwards (audio)

Currently reading:

The Thing with Feathers: The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human by Noah Strycker
Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

QOTW:
Not yet but it has made want to go places- Crazy Rich Asians makes me want to go to Sinagapore which I never thought about before. I read A Walk in the Woods and it didn't make me want to go hike the Appalachian trail in its entirety but there are some national Parks I'd like to visit.  ETA: Oh! I would like to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, but we're waiting until the kids get a little bit older.

[dontlook]

I read The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger: 2 stars. I almost quit this book after 30 or so pages and I kind of wished I did by the end. I’m not sure why this book is getting so much hype. It’s long and the twist wasn’t all that interesting. The characters were all pretty awful, even most of the kids.

I also read A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman: 5 stars. This book made me laugh and cry. What a ride. Ove kind of reminds me of my husband, lol.

[meowmaps]

I finished The Beekeeper of Aleppo. I started Quichotte yesterday. I'm having a hard time getting into books this year. I've started and put down several and I'm not sure I'm going to make it through Quichotte.

QOTW: I don't think I've ever gone anywhere because of a book but I really wanted to go to Barcelona after reading The Shadow of the Wind. I also enjoy reading books that are centered in places I've visited. It can be fun to look back with nostalgia while seeing it through someone else's eyes. Recently when I read The Shanghai Free Taxi, I realized I have no interest in going there. Isn't that the beauty of books - sort of traveling for free?

[litskispeciality]

I finished "Hidden Bodies", I hate the way it ended up to lead to a 3rd book. I started "Dare Me", hope it picks up, too many body image issues so far. At least it seems like a quick read.

QOTW: Not yet, but when I went to Phoenix I really wanted to hit a town nearby that's escaping me because of Stargirl. I'm embarrassed I can't remember the name. Have to get back there. I know OR is really pretty, Gayle Forman gives me OR desire. I want to go to Barcelona so I may add Shadow to my TBR list.

[tacokick]

Read:

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher

Every Wild Heart by Meg Donohue

The Other's Gold by Elizabeth Ames

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

A Song For You: My Life With Whitney Houston by Robyn Crawford

Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment

The Silence Between Us by Alison Gervais

QOTW: interesting question but no!

[pandora89]

Currently reading The Silent Patient. Read A Woman is No Man before, really liked that one.

[travella]

I finished So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson, 4*. I also finished Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris, 4*. I started My Sister the Serial Killer last night.

QOTW: Reading the Sunset Island series when I was younger gave me the idea to study abroad. I loved the idea of temporarily living in a vacation place, but didn't want be a nanny.

[mrspez07]

Currently reading Fingersmith and Listening to A Brutal Telling.

I enjoyed seeing things I’d read in books when we visited Paris specifically. Like the Louvre after Dan Brown books. We did also make it a point to specifically go to the Musee de Cluny to see the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry after reading Tracy Chevelier’s book by the same name. Excellent museum of the Middle Ages and fun to get off the main circuit of museums and neighborhoods.

[mpc]

I finished "The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters" by Balli Kaur Jaswal (author of "Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows"). It was fine, a little fun, but predictable. I liked her other book better.

Currently reading
"Early Riser" by Jasper FForde. Good but a lot of world building so it's taken a while to get really into it.
"Nature Girl" by Carl Hiaasen. This is a random hardback I have at home, so it's slow going since most of my reading is on my kindle while not at home. I find Carl Hiaasen to be a really fun writer.

QOTW: I pretty want to travel everywhere anyway. But reading "Wild" did make me want to go hike the Pacific Crest Trail.

[msmerymac]

Finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I started Something in the Water, but I had to stop. I'm not in a good headspace for crime or anything. I'm still reading Catch-22 and We Were Eight Years in Power.

QOTW: Not specifically, but I like to read things to get me in the mood when I travel. When I went to London I was reading The Duchess, about Georgianna, Duchess of Devonshire.

[minzy]

I’ve started three: How Not to Die by Michael Greger, MD (basically, eat plants); My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite; and Junkyard Planet by Adam Minter.

QOTW: I also was compelled to seek out the Appalachian Trail (but like a two mile section, not the whole thing) after reading A Walk in The Woods (and Wild). I read In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson to get in the mood for Australia, but that trip was already planned. I can’t remember if I read Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks before or after I went, but he sure made it seem fun. On the flip side, I definitely have no desire to ever go to Russia after reading Red Notice by Bill Browder.

[Vespasia]

I'm reading the Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. I am enjoying it a lot but unfortunately haven't had a lot of time to really sit down and read. Hoping to rectify that tomorrow.

QOTW: Not really. I have such a long list of places I want to visit that I don't really need any help coming up with more!

[wesleycrusher]

I have a friend who went to PEI to do an Anne of Green Gables tour. It was her and her mother and they had a great time.

[litskispeciality]

Jan 10, 2020 17:12:22 GMT -5 wesleycrusher said:

I have a friend who went to PEI to do an Anne of Green Gables tour. It was her and her mother and they had a great time.

Ok I change my answer. I went to PEI a couple of years ago, did the Green Gables thing. My whole reason for going to PEI was AOGG and Avonlea. I HIGHLY recommend everyone go there it's so beautiful. Green Gables is just like the movie, complete with meeting "Anne". I might have fan girled, even though I know she's not real/it was an actress.

[sassypants]

I just finished The Testaments by Margaret Atwood and really liked it. I think the ending lends itself to another follow up (not the epilogue-like section but the main testaments). I've just started The Witch of Willow Hall.

QOTW: I guess just WWoHP applies. Oh, I did end up reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil AFTER we went to Savannah. Does that count? I'd really love to do an Outlander-based trip.

[Gato]

I read The Water Dancer by Ta Nehisi Coates, which was excellent. I’m not sure it needed the supernatural element he put in there, since it was pretty action-packed and suspenseful already. But whatever, that was kind of interesting too. The best thing, for me, was the narrative voice and the pathos of families being separated.

QOTW: Annie Proulx settings are always so well-told. I visited Wyoming and really want to see Newfoundland because of her stories.