Friday Reading November 15th

[Vespasia]

Happy Friday! What have you been reading this week?


QOTW: What was your favorite book you were assigned to read in high school?

[wawa]

both my books for the week were recs from here! Lol

Good Fortune, CK Chau - enjoyed it. Kinda just made me want to re-read the original though.
Paladin's Grace - T Kingfisher - loved it. Eagerly dove into the second one.


I'm having a hard time with this - I genuinely enjoyed a lot of books, but having a hard time remembering a standout favorite. If I'd had to read any Austen it would have been that, but it wasn't never assigned. I like Shakespeare. Also a fan of the Odyssey, which I read in both Latin class and English.  Everybody always says to Kill a Mockingbird, but to be honest it never stuck with me.  I assigned myself some Robert Heinlein in senior year for a thesis, that was fun. 

[charlatti]

I’m reading Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (sort of a crime/thriller, I guess?j and Empire of Ice and Stone by Buddy Levy — nonfiction about Arctic explorers. I’m really enjoying that one; I read one other book by this author and I like his writing style.

QOTW: we read Beloved for senior year AP English, and I really loved that.

[Vespasia]

I finished The Wonder Engine, which was fabulous. I'm actually kind of upset that I am almost out of T Kingfisher books to read! I have a hold on Swordheart and then I think all that's left is some of her older books that my library doesn't have.

I also read What Never Happened by Rachel Howzell Hall. This was a Kindle First that I picked up ages ago and finally got around to reading when I had a lot of time to kill and wanted something that didn't require much brainpower. This book was an absolute mess. There was so much going on but none of it really made sense. She also inexplicably set it during the very first days of COVID shutdown which really didn't add anything expect giving characters an excuse to say things about "that darn virus" every few pages. If she had limited this to one or two subplots and actually focused on writing a coherant narrative it might have been good but not so much. This was a very rare 1 star from me. 

Funny TMI comment:

SPOILER: Click to show

I read this shitty book while doing colonoscopy prep, which seemed fitting

Last night I started Rust in the Root but Justina Ireland but only made it a few chapters in so I don't have an opinion yet. 

QOTW: I am the type of person who tends to dislike things that I am made to read. We did have some interesting darker British books in my senior year that I remember liking including Clockwork Orange and Brighton Rock. Not sure if I would feel the same way if I read them today. 

[travella]

I finished The Escape Artist: The Man who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland,4* and started The Grandest Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

Qotw: I don't recall liking many of the assigned books in school. I did like Number the Stars which I think was assigned in elementary school.

[dearprudence]

Finished The Rom Con. It did not improve.

Started listening to Sadie on a Plate which is everything I want in a Romcom. The main character is about to appear on a cooking competition show and has a Greys Anatomy moment where she hooks up with a guy the night before, and he turns out to be a judge on the show.

Started reading Pride, another P&P retelling, this one in modern day Brooklyn. It's not as beat-by-beat as a lot of others I've read, but I'm enjoying the YAness of it.



QOTW: What was your favorite book you were assigned to read in high school?
I had some really great readings in high school, so it's hard to pick a favorite. I obviously loved Pride and Prejudice, or I wouldn't be reading all these retellings, but Kindred by Octavia Butler opened by eyes to a whole new genre, and I still have my copy of Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey which I made my mom read along with my class so we could discuss it.