Happy Friday! 3/10 reading thread

[charlatti]

What have you been reading this week?

QOTW: What is your most high-sentimental-value possession? 

[Vespasia]

I'm still reading A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon. I suspect that will be my answer next week as well. It's nearly 900 pages long so even though I feel like I am spending a lot of time reading, I am only a little over halfway through. It's good though!



QOTW: I have a 200 year old family bible that means a lot to me even though I'm agnostic (leaning atheist). 

[travella]

The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron, 2* (Not for me. I didn't realize it was a Christian Romance. I usually avoid both so I don't know how it ended up on my TBR list).

Go as a River by Shelley Read, 2* (debut novel, it was a solid 3* for me until the end when it started to drag)

Night by Elie Wiesel, 5* (WWII non-fiction; short book, but it was a difficult read)

I'm currently reading The Porcelain Moon by Janie Chang.

QOTW: I'm not a very sentimental person when it comes to objects. However, I do have a clay animal that my mom made in art class in high school. I don't know why, but I have always loved it. She gave it to me a few years back and I always carry it with me when we move because I don't want to risk it getting broke or lost.

[minzy]

I actually doubled my annual book count to four (sob that is so low!) and finished two books in the last 24 hours. It was at the expense of other things, but I digress.

New From Here - Kelly Yang (with my kids)
Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver
Hope to read more this weekend.

I have a few favorite sentimental things but two jump to mind - a little brass bell Christmas ornament my dad made for us when I got married and a quilt of my old T-shirts my grandmother put together a few years before she died.

[charlatti]

I’m reading All the Light We Cannot See — I’ve had a copy on my shelf for quite a while but only just got around to picking it up. It’s excellent and I understand why it has such good reviews.

QOTW: I’m the opposite of travella — I tend to attach way too much sentiment to things and keep things that I absolutely don’t need to keep. I do have some things that are worth it, though. At the moment, a necklace that my mom always wore is at the top of the list.

Vespasia, that’s really cool! I don’t think I’ve seen many books of that age outside of archives and museums.

[dove]

Read: Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson. Very lifetime movie-esque.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus since everyone was talking about it. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad either

Currently reading: Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. I like it so far

QOTD: honestly, nothing. I am not the sentimental type. My wedding rings would be the duh answer but if i lost them, id be disappointed, but id just go buy another set. 

minzy Demon Copperfield has been my favorite book this year. What did you think?

[tacokick]

Trying to get caught up

The Social Climber by Amanda Pellegrino (not bad!)

We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship by Will Schwalbe (the author is a real dud but his friend was interesting)

Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (blah)

Ghost Music by An Yu (good)

For Better and Worse Margot Hunt (ok)

The House on the Water by Margot Hunt (bad)

What the Neighbors Saw by Melissa Adelman (ok)

Buried Deep by Margot Hunt (not bad)

Beware the Woman by Megan Abbott (good but didn’t love the ending)

But You Have Friends by Emilia McKenzie (ok)

My Other Husband by Dorothy Koomson (ok, again eh ending)

Perfectly Nice Neighbors AKA Those People Next Door by Kia Abdullah (ok but again the ending!)


QOTW: I’m not sure! Probably my oldest Cabbage Patch Doll TBH. I was so excited to get get her and my mom and great aunt made her clothes to match mine. She hangs out on an old chair.

[mrspez07]

Just started reading Babel and still listening to the Girl from Guernica.

I’ve always thought of myself as pretty sentimental, but I don’t think I have 1 thing that stands out, so maybe I’m less sentimental than I thought. I come across things in my house and feel sentimentality, but not necessarily every time or more so than with another item.

[estrellita]

Finished The Marriage Portrait. It was slow at first, but as it picked up, it got interesting. I liked it overall.

Currently reading Georgie, All Along. I like it so far.

QOTW: This is a tough one. I'm sentimental but it's hard to pick one thing! Maybe my grandma's ring I wear a lot. She passed in 2019 and I got some of her jewelry. My favorite is an opal ring (her birthstone) with 5 diamonds (2 on one side, 3 on the other). I assume the diamonds were for her 5 kids. I also have one that seems to be birthstones, but I think it might be the grandkids (minus one that hadn't been born yet, my cousins on that side span from 50 down to 24 this year). Honestly, anything that brings back memories is great. I have some plastic bowls shaped like ice cream cones that we used at my other grandparents house. That grandma is still around, but my grandpa passed in 2021.

[sju]

Listened to The Subtle Art of not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson.  3* While some parts are good, others are questionable, and some are just bad.  And the way he describes himself, he is exactly the type of guy I stayed away from.

QOTW: I am not attached to a lot things but love the pictures I’ve collected throughout my life. 

[minzy]

Mar 10, 2023 17:32:11 GMT -5 dove said:

minzy Demon Copperfield has been my favorite book this year. What did you think?

It’s definitely in my top four! 😉 She is such a gifted author (the nonfiction Animal, Vegetable, Miracle may be my favorite of the five or so books of hers I’ve read). This was such a sweeping epic that touched on so many issues of class and trauma. I loved the heartbeat of resilience and survival and was rooting for him throughout. It felt like such a commitment at 546 pages, so I do feel a pull to appreciate it more perhaps than I would have were it only 300 pages!

[springchick32]

I am finishing up The Girls in the Garden by Lisa Jewell and next will be The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda

QOTW: I tend to be a minimalist so I don’t have many sentimental items but I treasure all the photos of my dad in them, he passed away 6 years ago

[dearprudence]

Finished Antigoddess and The Ghost Bride. When I finished Antigoddess I thought I wasn't so interested in it because I didn't want to read about warring gods, but that's basically the plot of American Gods, which I love, so I'm not sure why I wasn't into it. The Ghost Bride was great though.

Started reading Remarkably Bright Creatures and Troy. Troy is Stephen Fry's telling of the Illiad. I really wasn't into the original, but enjoyed Fry's Mythos so hoping I'll like this.

Started listening to Arrow to the Moon, which is based on Chinese mythology, but I think there's something wrong with the audio version because I swear it skipped from chapter 13 to the end. It keeps referring to things that didn't happen and they just defeated a villain who came out of nowhere, but the characters seem to know. Waiting for a library hold on the physical or ebook.


QOTW: What is your most high-sentimental-value possession?  I have a lot. Not in a hoardy way, but there's been a lot of death in my family so I have some attachment to items from relatives. I think my highest sentimental object is the teddy bear my dad made for me when my mom was pregnant with me.

[jinkies]

Jumping in!

I'm reading the Great Circle by Maggie Shipman. I had to do an audible trial and listen to the first 50 pages so that I could get past the set up. But now I'm into it.

Most sentimental item is a painting I inherited from my grandmother. She used to sell bouquets of cut flowers in the summer, and one time one of her regular customers painted her bouquet and gave it to my grandmother as a gift. I love it so much.

[Gato]

I am really late with this—I could not get it together to read hardly at all last week.

I read All the Livers in the Night by Meiko Kawakami, and give it maybe 3/5 stars. It was engaging yet depressing, since the main character was extremely lonely and without good social skills. She finally, finally puts herself out there in the last 30 pages, so there’s a less depressing ending but it was a long struggle to get there. I do love reading Japanese novels for the differences in culture and writing style.

QOTW: I have an ornament made by my grandma in the 50s and a bookmark made by my older child when they were 3. Those are the things I’d save in a fire.