Friday 6/18 reading

[charlatti]

What have you been reading this week?

QOTW: How do you feel about books set in places you have lived or know well? Do you have a preference for real-life settings or imagined settings? 

[meowmaps]

I finished The Other Black Girl last night. Really liked it. Just started The Bombay Prince, the latest Perveen Mistry mystery.

QOTW: I’m open to any setting but I can’t say I’ve ever been disappointed to read a book in a place I’ve lived or visited. I actually think it enhances the reading experience.

[tacokick]

Loved and Wanted: A Memoir of Choice, Children, and Womanhood by Christa Parravani

The Disappearing Act by Catherine Steadman

House of Sticks by Ly Tran

Good Company by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Sandcastle by Frederik Peeters and Pierre Oscar Lévy

QOTW: I like books set places I’ve been! Some times though they make little mistakes and it annoys me. I just read Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau and it unexpectedly took place here. The author doesn’t seem to be from here and called snowballs sno-cones which is such a little thing but no one from here would ever call them a sno-cone! They are a huge part of summer culture here so it really stood out.

I did find it annoying that The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley was clearly and admittedly based on Smith Island, Md down to the stores and the famous cake yet she made up a name for the island. Why do that? Just have it take place there.

In the Laura Lippman books she often notes that she tweaks locations a bit and that’s fine with me.

[travella]

I've been on vacation so I haven't had much time to read. I'm still reading The Rose Code.

QOTW: I don't mind it as long as it is accurate.

[ssmjlm]

Finished:

The Last Thing He Told Me- this book was terrible and I don’t know how Reese’s book club thought it was good. The characters were awful, there was no chronology, and a weird twist that made no sense.

Talk Bookish to Me - I’m really conflicted on this one. I didn’t like the “event,” but I did like the story. I don’t know.

Just started - Mr. Garcia because I needed a book by an author I knew would be a good easy read.


QOTW - it doesn’t bother me if they get it right. Lucy Score has a whole series of books in MD and they have all these cookouts and no one ever has crabs. I’m sorry, but every Marylander grows up on crabs because everywhere is near water. That annoyed me.

[charlatti]

I finished The End of Men, which was not great, and just started The Guncle by Steven Rowley. I loved his first two books so I’m expecting good things.

QOTW: I think I over analyze too much when I’m familiar with the setting (wait, that can’t have happened on that street….). I’d rather have settings I don’t know well, but I won’t rule out a book just for that.

[mrspez07]

I’m still Chipping away at the audio of Promised Land, we’re on vacation, so any audio books have been a group kid-book.
I am currently reading Midnight Library and just finished The Space Vetween Worlds. Lots of “if you’d made a different choice, what would you life be like?!” kind of thoughts running thru my head!!

Every book I’ve read that included the city area I live in has only enhanced things. I’ve also found that a story taking place somewhere I’ve visited has helped me orient myself, Eve historic settings of say, London. I want to visit Bew York I part so I can visualize books better.

[Vespasia]

I finally finished Katherine by Anya Seton late last night. Allegedly this book was only 500 pages but I read for hours every night and seemed to make little progress. It was good though!

QOTW: I am more likely to pick up a book based where I have lived or visited. It still has to be something that would appeal to me otherwise though.

[minzy]

My kids and I finished Three Keys by Kelly Yang, a book for kids ages 8-12. I also finished Under A White Sky - The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert. It was good, with many stories of environmental decisions and their unintended consequences, but, like many books on climate, it’s really sobering. Waah.

QOTW: I like books set where I’ve been (or am going), it’s like going on an Easter egg hunt.

[estrellita]

I recently finished Libertie. I hate to say it, but I didn't really like it. I didn't feel connected to the characters and while there were interesting parts, it just didn't do it for me.

Just started Malibu Rising. Only a couple chapters in, so no opinion really yet.

I'm trying to think if I've read books set in places I know well enough to know if they've made a mistake or not. I think it's fun when it's mentioned though. This Tender Land is set in MN and I loved reading about the areas I know. My state/general area isn't usually the subject in many books so it's nice when we get noticed, haha. I feel like it would bother me if they portrayed it incorrectly though, mostly because it's not that hard to look at a map or Google the landscape in the area instead of totally making things up.

[aurora]

I just finished Uprooted by Naomi Novik. I really liked it.

Am listening to The Girl in the Tower, which is the sequel to the Near and the Nightingale that we discussed here a while back.

QOTW: usually I like it - it makes it easier to connect. However, it might have been a mistake to read the chapter of The Shadow of Kilimanjaro in which the hiker gets eaten by a leopard while camping at the very site where it happened. (I did not realize there was such a chapter until reading it.)