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Hi everyone,

We're finally getting a bit of a warm up, high 30's this week and rain instead of snow. Was getting so tired of nearly zero/below zero wind chill. Going to actually leave the house this weekend!

Book Club: Poll winner is Killers of a Certain Age by a significant amount. We'll be reading it through March, so plenty of time. I have pre-reading and final thoughts thread put up. I also never close any threads, so anyone can go back and read old books and join in at any time!

This week I finished:

The Brothers Hawthorne - This was just good fun. Sort of Knives Out but less murder-y and more YA. (Not saying NO ONE ever dies in the series, but that's not the focus. More just puzzles and games and sneaky backstories),

River Sing Me Home - this was very much a case of a really good book that I was just NOT in the mood for. Well written, great story. Wasn't even really that depressing. Just didn't really feel like reading a slavery narrative right now so I kept dragging my feet on reading it. But it's my books & brews irl book club February pick, and my hold had come up so I wanted to ahead and get it read.

All Systems Red - Read this because I didn't really want to read about slavery right before bed.

Currently reading:

The Chronology of Water - still listening to this. wishing i'd gotten this in ebook. The narrator is great, but the subject matter is something I'd rather have read so I could kind of skim over some of the more upsetting bits, or at least not have to hear them said out loud.

Womb City - this came out this week and my hold already came up. It's a bit grim so far. Hopefully it picks up.

Artificial Condition - i just need some more murder bot so I'm reading SOMETHING I actually am looking forward to.


QOTW: Borrowing from popsugar again - Do you ever buy special editions of books?

I don't go out of my way to do so, but I have on occasion. I have a special edition of Neuromancer that was the cloth and foil edition that they did of some sci fi classics a few years ago. I already had a mass market paperback of it, but the book was really pretty and it's a classic. And I got the indie book store special edition of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue with the blue cover. Generally i'll only do it if I find them in an indie bookstore while I'm traveling and I want to support the store.

Happy Friday! It's been a bit rainy and dreary this week in the Pacific Northwest. Things have been pretty quiet for me.

Finished:
Herc - 3 stars - for Popsugar's book with at least 3 POVs. As I said in last week's check in, I do appreciate that the author really did her research, but ultimately I didn't completely vibe with it. One interesting thing the author does is tell the story through all the people around Heracles/Hercules, but she never gives us his POV.

Most Ardently - 4 stars - for Popsugar's LGBTQ+ romance novel. This would also work for a fiction book by a trans or nonbinary author. A retelling of Austen's Pride & Prejudice reimagining Lizzie Bennet as a trans boy named Oliver, and Darcy as a gay man who falls in love with him.

So Let Them Burn - 4 stars - for Popsugar's book that features dragons. This just came out, so this could count for a year ending in '24 also. This is YA fantasy with an anti-colonization message, about the aftermath of a war in a fantasy world in which a smaller country rebelled against the empire that tried to dominate them with its dragons. The main character is the "chosen one" who was given the power of the gods to free her country, and now that the war is over, she isn't sure what to do with her powers. I quite liked this one, and I really need the sequel,

Lupin Leaps In: A Breaking Cat News Adventure - 4 stars - for Popsugar's "leap" in the title. A cute collection of comics from one of my favorite comic strips, Breaking Cat News. If you've ever had cats, they will probably be relatable.

Currently reading:
Killers of a Certain Age - for our book club here, as well as Popsugar's book where someone dies in the first chapter. I'm only a few chapters in, but enjoying it so far.

Upcoming/Planned:
XOXO - reread for Popsugar's book starting with 'X'
Seven Days in June for Popsugar's second-chance romance
Call Us What We Carry: Poems for Popsugar's collection of at least 24 poems
I'm hoping I can line the last two up with Black History Month in February.

QOTW:
I only buy a special physical edition if a book is a particular favorite that I know I want to own in hardcover. I have the collector's editions of both Six of Crows books (which I got signed by Leigh Bardugo a few years ago). I also have the Illumicrate editions of Margaret Owen's Little Thieves books, also signed by the author. I also have some other collector's edition hardcovers. These are usually the editions that I try to get signed by authors when I get a chance.

It was super warm yesterday but is supposed to rain again all day today and then go back to more seasonably cool temps. I had some working lunches for training that cut into my reading time.

Edison's Ghosts: The Untold Weirdness of History’s Greatest Geniuses - This is a very cheeky, sweary book about the bizarre stuff that some of the world's great thinkers got up to when not revolutionizing their various fields. I found it very entertaining at first, but then I think the schtick started wearing thin. I do agree with the idea of taking the p- out of the idea of the "genius", since being good at physics or music or whatever doesn't make one good at everything (or a "good person"). I'd probably still recommend this, but maybe read it in chunks instead of straight through.

QOTW: I don't buy many books anyway, but I've never bought a special edition of a contemporary work. I do have at least one nice edition of a public domain work (my complete Sherlock Holmes), and I'm contemplating more of those (a complete Winnie-the-Pooh, maybe a nicer Wuthering Heights), but I'm not sure that's quite the same thing.

We have a gentle snowfall happening today, maybe 3 inches but it is close to freezing so the snowflakes are giant and it is sticking to the branches giving a winter wonderland effect for now.

I finished the reread of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches for neighborhood book club. Everyone liked it and thought it was a delightful. They kept waiting for something bad to happen and it never did. And... the discussion lasted maybe 10 minutes! One woman then talked about a random book she read (that sounded soooo uninteresting to me) for about 20 minutes. I love the people and getting out but sometimes book club gets off track you could say.

I also finished The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness. The earlier 50% was interesting and I felt her frustration. Then it took a very strange left turn. I had read about that in the reviews and skipped all those chapters. It eventually returned to her illness, mostly. It was kind of strange.

In late Dec Amazon had a ton of free kindle romance novels so I downloaded a bunch. They're authors I never heard of. I finished on The Bakery on the Cove. As I was reading it I was giving it 2.5 stars. But the ending... I downgraded to 2 stars. It is a "romance" novel with older MCs (50-ish). Romance is in quotes because there was exactly one hug and one kiss. But I dropped to 2 stars because the story just ended with nothing resolved! I hate when books do that. Like it practically ended mid-sentence, it was so abrupt. It was supposed to be a cliffhanger, but it was just awful and I don't plan to read the next one.

I am still listening to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. I may pause this because I got the audiobook for both book clubs (Epbot and neighborhood) books so I'll listen to those and then go back to this one. This one is a pretty long book.

The next quickie kindle freebie read is True North. We'll see how bad that one is.

QOTW:
We rarely buy books anymore. Sometimes my husband will want an autographed version or a book as it comes out. We have a couple leather bound, gold leafed books from very early in our marriage. Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Cristie and Edgar Allan Poe.

No finishes this week, but a couple on the go.

Iron Flame - Just as enjoyable a book as Fourth Wing. Lots of high stakes situations, dragons continue to be awesome.

The Wedding Date - Listening to this on audiobook. I enjoyed the first part, with the actual "fake date" at a wedding at which the male MC was a groomsman, but the second part with the two characters flying back and forth between San Francisco and Los Angeles is a bit slow. And while there's nothing explicit in the text (it's all fade to black), the characters have a lot of sex. Also, how big are the purses that the women carry so far we have had
- a purse that had a bottle of champagne, wheel of cheese, and a box of crackers
- a purse that had 2 bottles of wine
- a purse that someone slipped a stolen hotel towel into, and the person carrying the purse didn't even notice!

QOTW: Not generally. I mostly use the library, and ignore the books I have bought or have had gifted to me ;)