Friday Reading November 8th

[Vespasia]

It's finally Friday. What have you been reading this week?


QOTW: Do you read more or less when you're stressed out?

[charlatti]

I’m reading Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend by MJ Wassmer — darkly comic apocalypse story. Fits the week pretty well.

QOTW: usually much less when I’m stressed. It’s harder to stay focused.

[Vespasia]

I read Clockwork Boys and then started The Wonder Engine, books in a duology by T. Kingfisher. I don't usually read the next book in a series immediately but I really enjoyed the characters and found it comforting. Despite the overall dark theme of a suicide machine to stop martial monstrosities.   wawa these take place before the Paladin books in the same universe but they're mostly separate stories. 



QOTW: It depends but if I can find the right escapist book (see above) I will read more. I have definitely quit books that I likely would have otherwise liked because I just wasn't in the right headspace for them. 

[wawa]

Vespasia I've read those already!  Makes sense they're in the same world from the whole Paladin with no god thing.  I'm excited. 

this week's books:
The Good and the Green, Amy Yorke - I think this was a random kindle unlimited pickup?  it's been on my backlist for a minute.  It was a cute cozy fantasy romance. Nothing special.
The Other Man, Farhad Dadyburjor - I have no idea where this book came from, but it was on my kindle so I read it.  It was cute enough.  Rich gay indian guy finally comes out after getting engaged to please his mom and not being able to go through with it.  It felt...a little unrealistic, but was cute enough.  Gay man in india is a new perspective for me at least!  so that was fun. 

QOTW - I retreat to escapist books when stressed and read a lot more.  Especially because I stop sleeping well.  This is why I just re-read the entire temeraire series and why I just went ahead and bought the entire set of the Paladin books. Comfort reads ahoy!  I will DNF the fuck out of harder books when I'm already stressed.  Like I tried to read both Station 11 and Salt to the Sea in the thick of lockdown in 2020 and had to nope right out.  I came back to Salt to the Sea when things had calmed down a bit. Station 11 I haven't come back to yet.  But when I put those down I picked up other books immediately.  A nice re-read of a lovely looooong series I can really sink into is my go-to move when I'm losing my shit. 

[travella]

I have been reading Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Qotw:I read less because I don't sleep well and therefore don't stay up as long reading

[dearprudence]

Finished Good Fortune. It was fine. I liked how they changed the plot to "looking for good jobs" instead of "looking for husbands" which made it more relatable.

Read Emma of 83rd Street which is (no surprise) an Emma retelling where she lives on the upper west side of Manhattan. It's definitely got some Clueless vibes, but slightly older characters and a little more true to the original.

Started The Rom Con and I'm thinking it might not be the right time for it because it's feeling a little too real. It's about a woman who finds her grandmother's list of how to catch a man from the 50s and decides to use them on the owner of a misogynistic men's magazine to write a story. But it just feels like the message is going to be these type of behaviors work. I hope I'm wrong.

QOTW: Do you read more or less when you're stressed out? More, because i can't sleep so I read. Like I woke up at 2am this morning with so much anxiety, which is when I started The Rom Con. It did not help with the anxiety.

[waverly]

Finished Mexican Gothic.

I've been reading more because soccer season is over with (yay!), and I am feeling stressed, so that might be part of it also.  I will say I read less during pandemic stress because I could not concentrate, but I eventually moved to lite books to counteract that.