Friday Reading Thread 10/09/2020

[Vespasia]

What are you reading this week?


QOTW: Do you like to read scary books? If so, what are your favorites? 

[dontlook]

I finished The Henna Artist: 4.75 stars I really loved it but it was a little slow in the beginning.

QOTW: nope. I’m a big chicken and don’t like scary books or movies.

[meowmaps]

I finished The Holdout. It was an enjoyable crime drama/mystery. Then I read Transcendent Kingdom. I think I liked it more than some other posters but I didn’t give it five stars.

Just started Winter Counts and I’m already intrigued.

QOTW: Scary is definitely not my genre of choice. I did, however, step outside my comfort zone this year and read and enjoyed The Sun Down Motel. I liked it so much I followed up with another spooky book by the same author. I also read Mexican Gothic but I wouldn’t classify it as scary. Maybe a touch creepy?

[minzy]

I’ve been reading the news extensively this week and have made minimal progress on books.

QOTW: I generally strongly dislike horror as a genre. Some of the real world is crappy/scary enough that I don’t feel the need to inhabit another one to seek that kind of stuff out. But I do have horror on my current reading challenge so may do a Christopher Pike book since that came up earlier and I remember those from when I was a kid.

[travella]

I'm currently reading The Guest List and my son and I are reading Skullduggery Pleasant.

QOTW: No, I don't typically like horror books. I can stand tame/ghost stories, but tend to stay away from violent/slasher books.

[Vespasia]

I've been reading To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini. I am only about a quarter in but it's really, really long so that is good progress. It's really good and I am hoping to have more time to read this weekend! I've never actually read any of his Eragon books. 

dontlook, it's interesting to hear you say that The Henna Artist picked up. I ended up returning it to the library about 1/3 of the way through when it just didn't capture my attention. I didn't feel like forcing myself to read something, especially when there s a long hold list for it. I've been trying to decide whether to look up a summary (in which case I will never pick it back up again) or wait and see if I feel like reading it later. 

QOTW: I do like horror novels and tend to read them in October, hence the question! I really like Grady Hendrix's books, especially Horrorstor, but they are pretty campy. The Ritual by Adam Nevill scared the crap out of me in parts but I didn't love where it went. The Shuddering and Seed by Ania Ahlborn are both good. 

[dontlook]

Oct 9, 2020 12:33:55 GMT -5 Vespasia said:

I've been reading To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini. I am only about a quarter in but it's really, really long so that is good progress. It's really good and I am hoping to have more time to read this weekend! I've never actually read any of his Eragon books. 

dontlook, it's interesting to hear you say that The Henna Artist picked up. I ended up returning it to the library about 1/3 of the way through when it just didn't capture my attention. I didn't feel like forcing myself to read something, especially when there s a long hold list for it. I've been trying to decide whether to look up a summary (in which case I will never pick it back up again) or wait and see if I feel like reading it later. 

QOTW: I do like horror novels and tend to read them in October, hence the question! I really like Grady Hendrix's books, especially Horrorstor, but they are pretty campy. The Ritual by Adam Nevill scared the crap out of me in parts but I didn't love where it went. The Shuddering and Seed by Ania Ahlborn are both good. 

I’m in such a reading funk that I’ve been making myself read a little longer than normal before giving up. Not much is holding my attention these days so it’s hard to tell if it’s me or the book.

The Henna Artist ended up such a high note. You should give it another try if you have a book lull.

[mrspez07]

I had to give up on The black Tower by Louis Bayard. Just could not get into it.
Finished Range on audio, started Far From the Tree on audio (same narrator as the Great Alone). Like it so far.
Also started Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain and like it so far.

I generally don’t read horror per se, I read Murder mysteries on the regular, and they have to be pretty graphic to turn me away (one of the series I enjoy is a chief medical examiner, so there’s that!). I do like some of the suspenseful or psychological thrillers but in small doses. The ones I have a hard time with are apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic (even fantasy or Sci-fi based on some reality), they hit too close to home and my fears of the worst-case future. I have dabbled in Stephen Kong’s less “horror” ones like 1963 and The Dome, but have no interest in It, etc.

[meowmaps]

Vespasia dontlook

I read The Henna Artist earlier in the year and thought it was just OK. I found it formulaic but to each her own.

[charlatti]

I just started The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. I think I’ve been on the library wait list since pre-pandemic, so I’m excited to finally have it. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some decent reading time this weekend.

QOTW: I like scary books but hardly ever read them.

[tacokick]

I’m working on the new Tana French. Her books are so long.

I read a good bit already this month!

Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson

Empty by Susan Burton

Ties that Tether by Jane Abieyuwa Igharo

Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown

Just Like You by Nick Hornby

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata


QOTW: I don’t think I’ve ever really read a scary book! I don’t mind the occasional ghost book (Simone St James springs to mind) but I don’t know if I’ve ever read a real horror book.

[ssmjlm]

Currently Reading: Beach Read
I’m not that far into it, but I think I’m over any books with terrible millennial problem undertones. Like, get it together like the rest of us had to!

QOTW: I don’t think I really read anything scary. I’m trying to remember any that might have affected me in a scary way.

[meowmaps]

Oct 9, 2020 17:25:50 GMT -5 tacokick said:

I’m working on the new Tana French. Her books are so long.

I read a good bit already this month!

Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson

Empty by Susan Burton

Ties that Tether by Jane Abieyuwa Igharo

Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown

Just Like You by Nick Hornby

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata


QOTW: I don’t think I’ve ever really read a scary book! I don’t mind the occasional ghost book (Simone St James springs to mind) but I don’t know if I’ve ever read a real horror book.

How was Empty? I have that in my library stack.

[abs]

I’m reading Troubles in Paradise. I have enjoyed this series a lot and will be sad when it’s over!

QOTW: I loved scary stories as a kid (Wait Til Helen Comes, The Dollhouse Murders, Fear Street) but I don’t care for them now. Life is scary enough and my imagination goes wild.

[tacokick]

Oct 9, 2020 19:07:44 GMT -5 meowmaps said:

Oct 9, 2020 17:25:50 GMT -5 tacokick said:

I’m working on the new Tana French. Her books are so long.

I read a good bit already this month!

Let Me Hear a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson

Empty by Susan Burton

Ties that Tether by Jane Abieyuwa Igharo

Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown

Just Like You by Nick Hornby

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata


QOTW: I don’t think I’ve ever really read a scary book! I don’t mind the occasional ghost book (Simone St James springs to mind) but I don’t know if I’ve ever read a real horror book.

How was Empty? I have that in my library stack.

Eh. It wasn’t bad but it was really only about her teen and college years. I felt like it glossed over a lot. Like at one point she mentions eating an apple at a HS event and says that it was the first piece of fruit she had ever eaten?! It’s a book about her eating disorders yet she never mentions that anywhere else or explains how that was true. A lot of talking but not a lot of substance IMO.

[meowmaps]

Oct 9, 2020 21:11:19 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Oct 9, 2020 19:07:44 GMT -5 meowmaps said:

How was Empty? I have that in my library stack.

Eh. It wasn’t bad but it was really only about her teen and college years. I felt like it glossed over a lot. Like at one point she mentions eating an apple at a HS event and says that it was the first piece of fruit she had ever eaten?! It’s a book about her eating disorders yet she never mentions that anywhere else or explains how that was true. A lot of talking but not a lot of substance IMO.

Thanks for the input!  There's so much to read it helps to weed out the not worthwhile books.  

[tacokick]

Oct 9, 2020 21:13:00 GMT -5 meowmaps said:

Oct 9, 2020 21:11:19 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Eh. It wasn’t bad but it was really only about her teen and college years. I felt like it glossed over a lot. Like at one point she mentions eating an apple at a HS event and says that it was the first piece of fruit she had ever eaten?! It’s a book about her eating disorders yet she never mentions that anywhere else or explains how that was true. A lot of talking but not a lot of substance IMO.

Thanks for the input!  There's so much to read it helps to weed out the not worthwhile books.  

No problem! It wasn’t bad but I wouldn’t go out if my way to recommend it to anyone.

[moonpie]

I read Oona Out of Order this week. I bought it on a whim on the kindle.

Qotw: I loved scary stories when I was young (Goosebumps, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark). But I don’t like gory books, and it seems like most of the scary books that I have picked up as an adult are over my threshold.

[Nonny]

I keep forgetting to come over here on Fridays to post.

I'm currently reading the Queen of the Conquered (YA fantasy, but with a strong message about racism and privilege, with kind of a whodunnit murder mystery). It's a little repetitive, but it's otherwise pretty good. 

I also started the graphic novel memoir The Best We Could Do, and a non-fiction book called Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick, because the former I need to read for book club, and the later is overdue at the library.

QOTW: I do love horror/scary books, but I haven't really read any books recently because I've been largely reading books for book club that tend more towards literary fiction, or I've been reading non-fiction and YA type stuff.

Probably the last creepy thing I read that really stuck in my craw was the Left Right Game on the No Sleep subreddit. 

[Deleted]

I just finished Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn. Hated it. I found it tedious and boring. I normally would not have even finished it, but it was the only book I had on a camping trip, so I pushed through and then felt I had to finish.

Started A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum today. I have high hopes for it. I need a good book!

I do not like scary books/thrillers/mysteries, etc. Not my cup of tea at all.

[krystee]

I just finished The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue and really liked it. Earlier this week, I finished This Tender Land, which I also loved. I also read a Christina Lauren novel about a Chip and Joanne Gaines-like couple. I already forget the name. It was fine.

Next on my list is Alice Hoffman’s The Rule of Magic.

QOTW: I love scary stories! I love a good Stephen King or Dean Koontz, but always wonder how on earth they come up with these things! abs Wait Til Helen Comes was the BEST.