Friday 2/26 - Reading recap!

[ufcasey]

What are your reads/ratings/opinions this week?

QOTW:
What book/series do you wish you could remove from your mind so that you could re-read it again for the first time? (it's ok if you have more than one, just pick the first one off the top of your head)

[meowmaps]

I read A Good Marriage earlier in the week. I thought it was a well-done thriller. I look forward to seeing what Amazon does with it.

Now I'm about halfway through The Office of Historical Corrections. I'm really enjoying it so far.

QOTW: This is a good question! I'd probably want to read something that I read/loved as a much younger person and experience it through new, more seasoned eyes. Maybe something like The Count of Monte Cristo. I've been meaning to re-read it for years now. Maybe I wouldn't enjoy it as much or maybe I'd enjoy it more.

[charlatti]

I finished The Art of Theft by Sherry Thomas, which was very good — I love when I find an entertaining mystery series that is also smart. Now reading The Smash Up by Ali Benjamin. It’s an update of Ethan Frome, which I will start teaching next week. So far I like it a lot despite finding the characters to be miserable people (that’s true for the original too!).

Qotw: That’s hard, because I really love rereading — I always notice and appreciate new things on repeat reads. I’ll have to think about that.

[Deleted]

The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott. 4/5. Highly enjoyable, and remarkable how little some things have changed with regards to the expectations for women.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Im about halfway through and absolutely love it. I identify with her more than I'd like to admit.

QOTW-This is a good one! Probably Shantaram, one of the only books ive read more than once.

[mrspez07]

Reading Discovery of Witches, it’s dense so I don’t feel like I’m making progress.
Listened a bit to Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee but very little so far.

QOTW: Outlander. I love the books, and they have done an incredible job with the series, and I was so excited when it came out, but it’s hard to “under” them and the scenes of the show. I actually haven’t re-read any of it since I started watching. That makes me sad.
ETA: Whoops, misunderstood the question. I’ll think on the actual question and come back if I come up with anything.

[Vespasia]

In direct contradiction to my answer last week, I am currently reading two books. One is fiction, one is non-fiction.

The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America by Lawrence T. Brown
I really looking forward to this but this week has not been conducive to heavy reading.

A Splendid Ruin by Megan Chance
I haven't made much headway with this one either but it's an easy read and interesting so far.

QOTW: I don't really know. A few years ago I might have said Harry Potter but the author is such a shitpig that I couldn't enjoy it now without the nostalgia.

[minzy]

I read Nature’s Best Hope - A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard by Douglas W. Tallamy. It seems so obvious to do what he says - plant native trees and shrubs to promote biodiversity, instead of tending to these big lifeless lawns - that I’m kind of embarrassed the thought has only now sunk in.

And then No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox. I wanted to like this book more than I did.

QOTW: I don’t know about rereads, I’m not usually big on those.

[aurora]

I'm reading The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and finding it not great. The premise is interesting, and in general I'm good at suspending disbelief, but the writing alternates between confusing and hit-you-with-a-sledgehammer bluntness. I also find that I don't actually care about any of the characters.

I'm listening to The Guest List, which I'm enjoying quite a bit more.

QOTW: not sure. Maybe Outlander? I re-read books frequently and especially like re-reading series so I can pick up more clues/insights into the future, so erasing my memory isn't really necessary.

[dontlook]

Hidden Valley Road: 5 stars

QOTW: I wish I would have slowed down and waited to read Harry Potter with DD. We read the first 2 together and then she wanted to read something else and I kept going.

[rainbowchip]

I finished Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn. I really didn't like or understand the parts about what the MC did for a job. And I that maybe led to why I didn't really get what her and Reid were doing for the first half of the book. I enjoyed the last 25% more though.

I also read Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan. I was expecting it to be funnier than it was. It was sort of set up as a book of essays but each essay didn't wrap. They just kind of ended and I didn't get the point he was trying to make.

QOTW: I'd want to wipe books that had some sort of plot twist from my brain to reread so the first one that comes to mind is Gone Girl.

[ssmjlm]

rainbowchip, I'm sorry to hear you didn't like the book, I loved it, but I have a background in marketing/design so I was familiar with Mel's job as a calligrapher and designer. Basically instead of doing wedding invites and programs she shifted into the planner/bullet journal market. So she was basically going around the city to get ideas for fonts and type settings.

Finished: Crazy Stupid Bromance (Bromance Book Club, #3) which was pretty good. I think I like Book 2 the best so far, but I'm intrigued by the write-up for book 4 to be published this summer.

DNF: Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella, I think I've just outgrown her. We're all past the Shopaholic style writing, but the last 2 books of hers I could not get through.

Currently Reading: The Duke and I, Bridgerton Book 1. Mostly just want to see how it differs from the show. I had to wait a while through the library system.

QOTW: I would probably want to not have read the Divergent series just because the ending was so bad. I'm not sure I would re-read them!

[ufcasey]

I read last week:

Kane's Hell by Elizabeth Finn - contemporary romance (re-read); wasn't as great as I remembered but still good.
Rising / Reckoning by Jessica Ruben - contemporary romance; first book was really good, the second book was so disappointing that I decided to stop there in the trilogy
Nobody Will Tell You This But Me by Bess Kalb - non-fiction; kind of weird to write a non-fiction book about your grandmother, from the viewpoint of your grandmother as if she was speaking to you after she died. 
A Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong - historical fiction/romance; there's time travel, there's romance, I enjoyed it!

QOTW:
I wish I could re-read some of my all time favorite 'comfort' series reads like basically anything by Ilona Andrews. It would be nice to "start" a whole series I love to start and have lots/all of the books in the series already written.

[ufcasey]

Feb 28, 2021 10:57:00 GMT -5 dontlook said:

Hidden Valley Road: 5 stars

QOTW: I wish I would have slowed down and waited to read Harry Potter with DD. We read the first 2 together and then she wanted to read something else and I kept going.

This book was such an interesting read! I still think about this book and that entire family.

[tacokick]

I guess I forgot!

Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused by Melissa Maerz

At the End of the World, Turn Left by Zhanna Slor

Dancing at the Pity Party: A Dead Mom Graphic Memoir by Tyler Feder

Learning to Swim by Sara J Henry

After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Passing by Nella Larsen

QOTW: I really don’t know! I read a lot but I really don’t have favorites.