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Hello everyone,

I'm a little late getting this post out this week. I hope you all had a good week.

I do not have any finishes this week. I've moved forward on my three in-progress books and hope to finish at least one of them soon.

The one I will finish soon is Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach. This one is traditional Mary Roach form and I'm enjoying it. I still think it is not quite as good as Stiff and Gulp (my personal top 2 Mary Roach books I've read). But it is interesting. This one is the soonest due back at the library.

Also from the library with limited renewal is the audiobook (on a Playaway device) is Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books. This was recommended by someone in neighborhood book club. I'm engaged in it but it's also a little off for me. Everyone is, so far, very black or white (literally and figuratively). There hasn't yet been too much nuance in characters.

When I only have my phone, then I'm listening to Bookshops & Bonedust instead. This is as much fun, so far, as Legends & Lattes. I'm not too far into it but I expect an equally good time.

QOTW:
Can/Do you read on a bus, train, plane or moving car?

I can read in a car. Some of my kids have gotten motion sickness in the way back when reading. On trains or airplanes I tend to listen to audiobooks when looking out the window or otherwise zoning out. I'm not sure why. In particular, on those trips I tend to listen to short stories that are over before the flight is over.

Bonk is a good one, but my favorite Mary Roach is Stiff! I recently read Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War, which I quite enjoyed. She's my favorite popular science writer.

Reads for this week: An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good, which I may have heard about from one of you? It was in my library's "ebooks available now" section and I loved it. Such a fun character and excellent dark humor. I definitely plan to read the second collection.

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts, another from the "ebooks available now". This one I'd not heard of at all, and now I have to look up everything else Kate Racculia has written because it was so good. The best way I can think of to describe it is that it's like an adult version of The Westing Game. Also it takes place in Boston and I always love a book set in a place I know well (and clearly the author also knows well).

Somewhere Beyond the Sea, which I've been waiting for months to get my hands on and my loan finally came in. I didn't like it quite as much as the first book but I still loved revisiting the island and reacquainting myself with the characters, especially the children (Chauncey remains my favorite).

I've just started Mr. Timothy, which caught my eye out of a list of books published in 2002 (for the book nerds prompt published in the year you turned 25). I'm not very far into it yet but so far it's good.

QotW:
I have a hard time reading in a car (motion sickness-wise), but I'm ok on a bus, train or airplane. Not sure why it's different!

Hello, all! Last week has been super busy at work again. I didn't get nearly as much reading done as I wanted to, but hopefully things should ease up this week.

Finished:
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong - 4 stars - Popsugar's book with a happily single woman protagonist. I loved this book! It was so much fun.

Comics & manga:
Chihayafuru, Vol. 28
WITCH WATCH, Vol. 10
WITCH WATCH, Vol. 11

Currently reading:
Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - Popsugar's book of interconnected short stories

The Apothecary Diaries (Light Novel): Volume 11 by Natsu Hyuuga - no prompt

Upcoming/Planned:
This Ends in Embers by Kamilah Cole - not planned for a prompt, but we'll see if it fits anywhere.

QOTW:
I used to get really motion sick reading in cars as a child, but I haven't had as many issues as an adult. I think also reading on a screen, at least for me, is less prone to issues than trying to read a physical book.

I was able to get outside to take advantage of an unseasonably warm day yesterday, so that was nice. Now it's supposed to rain a lot.

The Bangalore Detectives Club - This was a recommendation from my sister, and it was fine, but if you want a book about a female detective in 1920s India, I would probably recommend The Widows of Malabar Hill over this one.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - After years of recommendations and anti-recommendations, I finally got around to reading this one. It was very innovative, technically well done, with a writing style that really fit the mood of the book, annnnnd... I did not like it. That's mostly for personal reasons: I don't much like time loops and other temporal shenanigans, I'm not a fan of people being toyed with by superior beings (see: many Star Trek episodes), and I cannot stand the thing where a character looks at a painting that makes things clear to them but not to me, because I cannot see the painting, as this is a book! (That last one isn't nearly as significant here, but agh, why must every mystery author do this??) Anyway, I can see why lots of people liked it, and I don't regret reading it, but I am not those people.

QOTW: Like Jen, I seem to have grown out of this issue. I'm not sure whether the format makes any difference, though. It doesn't come up a lot, as I don't use much public transit and don't fly that often. (I do still have issues with the sort of opposite scenario, where I am stationary but watching a video with a lot of camera movement, or someone else playing a video game.)

Hi all,

Hosted a stitch-n-bitch over the weekend, it was a good time. Haven't had one in a long while, used to go to them weekly at a steampunk bookstore/tea shop. But once that closed, lost venue. Not willing to host every week, but going to try to host every month or so, maybe. We'll see how it goes once the weather gets nice and weekends start filling up.

This week I finished:

Service Model - I ended up really enjoying this. It was a little bleak, since it seemed to be a bit pointed at "hey, this is what we're automating ourselves into", but there was enough humor to keep it from just being depressing. I liked Uncharles a lot. He wasn't the same type of humor as Murderbot, but I think fans of one could probably get behind the other.

A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance - This is for my books & brew, tomorrow. I liked it quite a bit. I'm glad I did the audiobook, the writing is very lyrical and it lended itself well to being read aloud. I'm not sure if I'd have gotten it as well reading it to myself.

Now Is Not the Time to Panic - another tbr challenge pick. I'd picked this up a while back because i'd enjoyed Nothing to See Here. I enjoyed this one pretty well too, although it ended so abruptly I actually paged back to see if I had accidentally skipped forward somehow. but aside from that, i enjoyed it.

Currently reading:

She's Up to No Good - another tbr pick. I'm not even sure where this one came from. A first reads, possibly. I like it alright so far. Generational road trip with a Grandmother and Grandaughter, learning the family history and romance and such.

Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity - My therapist recommended I try this, and i feel both seen and called out. It's really good, but I need to take breaks to process. I know self diagnosis is seen as fully accepted within the community, due to America's medical system and how so much of what is known about Autism is centered around rich white cisgender males. But any time I mention I think i have it in addition to my ADHD and someone questions it at all, i feel a little shakey in that. I'm only a couple hours into the book, and I've seen so many of my behaviors laid out in the "nonstandard, underdiagnosed" sections. It's really both reassuring, and frustrating that it's taken THIS long to figure things out.

QOTW: I still get pretty car sick if i try to read in the car while sitting up. If i am in a situation where i can lay down, i can usually read ok. When I was a kid, we had a mini van even though there were only two kids. My brother got the back bench seat, and i got the smaller middle seat, but with the cooler tucked at the end where the door opened and i padded the whole thing out with my sleeping bag, and my pillow wedged against the door. I'd put my seatbelt on and wiggle enough room so i could lay down while still being belted in and be able to nap and read and play handheld tiger games with no problem. But if I have to sit up, and look down at my phone or book too much I can get sick, especially if we're on surface roads and it's curvy or a lot of stop and go traffic.

I dont' have problems on trains or planes though.