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What are you Reading (Part 2)?


keen23

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Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow.  I hum along to the song while I'm reading the book.

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Just finished Sara Gruen's At The Water's Edge and really enjoyed it. It's set in Scotland during WW2 and it centers on 3 Americans and the monster at Loch Ness. 

 

 

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It may have been mentioned on the previous thread, but The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I'm about 2/3 the way through. It's narrated by Death and follows a young girl and her foster family living in Germany during WWII. It's really good.

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I am reading The Phantom Tollbooth.  I am doing a reading challenge for 2016 and one of the books I need to read is a children's book.  

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6 minutes ago, Elvis Presby said:

I am reading The Phantom Tollbooth.  I am doing a reading challenge for 2016 and one of the books I need to read is a children's book.  

FYI I love the Phantom Tollbooth and I just recapped it on the FJ Blog. 

 

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1 minute ago, Maggie Mae said:

FYI I love the Phantom Tollbooth and I just recapped it on the FJ Blog. 

 

I will need to remember to check that out!  It is my first time reading it.  My 13 year old read it about a year ago and he really liked it.  I think it is fine, but I probably would have enjoyed it much more 35 years ago!

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My cousin told me I had to read the Sookie Stackhouse books. I finally got around to them and blew through them this month. They were actually really fun.

I just started Leviathan Wakes. I had started watching The Expanse but kind of lost my place, then realized it was a book (or 9), so cool! I'm liking the book better than the show.

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I finished The Martian.  Nope, haven't seen the movie.  And don't plan to for a while now that I've read the book.  Loved it by the way.

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I have taken a break from my extensive studies of ancient Greek civilization to read this year's Pulitzer novel "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr.

It has connected with my soul and brain like no other WWII historical fiction in my life. A blind girl in WWII... and the writer crafts such sorcery-lit, living, and vivid prose that I feel like I can feel her fear, smell what she experiences...

A world of radio speeches passionately reciting propaganda; indoctrinated boys invisibly teasing in her ear how all blind and crippled will be killed. Diesel fumes in the air from distant machines of war. Her fingers tracing the shapes of objects in the war-torn and fearful world.

I totally see why this was awarded a Pulitzer... Amazing literature.

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I am reading Mudbound by Hilary Jordan.  Honestly, I had low expectations, but so far it's been pretty good.  It's about a white family who owns land in Mississippi during the tail-end of WWII, and the black family who sharecrops (is that a verb?).

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I'm gonna start re-reading The Handmaid's Tale, plus I'm reading a book on forensic music therapy. It has case studies of people in high-security settings who've received music therapy, and I find it really interesting.

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Finished the 5th Wave on audio.  (which has NOTHING to do with Miss Raquel's fiction bit or the movie coming out).  

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58 minutes ago, choralcrusader8613 said:

I'm gonna start re-reading The Handmaid's Tale, plus I'm reading a book on forensic music therapy. It has case studies of people in high-security settings who've received music therapy, and I find it really interesting.

I re-read The Handmaid's Tale every so often, just to remind myself that fiction could easily become fact if we allow ourselves to become complacent.

Just finished the audio book of The Girls of Atomic City. Loved it! It was an fascinating mix of history and science interwoven with the personal stories of everyday women. Thanks to Penny Sycamore for the rec.

I also finished the audio book of Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals. Excellent book but the narration left a lot to be desired. At times I felt like I was being lectured by an old-time teacher. Very, very dry. In contrast, I'm now listening to Goodwin's Bully Pulpit, which is also excellent, narrated by the late Edward Herrmann, who really brings the material to life.

There was another FJ thread about organizing with Konmari, which I'd never heard of, so since my house is pretty much a storage facility these days, I thought I'd give the book (The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up)  a try. The narrator was very good but damn if that wasn't one weird book. The author is a little…obsessed? Neurotic? Kind of creepy actually, but there were some interesting ideas there. Not that I'm going to be talking to my socks or anything but I'll probably give some of the ideas a try. And possibly send the author a list of synonyms for the word tidying while I'm at it.

On deck audio-wise is a pre-order of The Fight to Vote by David Waldman. Still working through The Reformation on my Kindle.

Edited by sparkles
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I'm currently reading:

  • Cartoon History of the Universe by Larry Gonick (it's all coloring pages that I don't want to touch for fear of ruining them.)
  • Excel 2013 (most boring book ever. I'm on page 20 and have fallen asleep twice. I'm currently reading how to find V100)
  • Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier (that might be a different one though. I am enjoying the series)

  • Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl (in a foreign language)

  • The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (I''ll probably restart soon because it's been a while and I didn't get far

I have a spreadsheet listing the books that I have read in the last year :embarrassed: My best find in the last 6 months has been The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search by Daniel J. Boorstin. After my library book was threatening my with fines I decided to purchase a second hand copy to finish it. Once one of my other books (except Dahl, which is always replaced with Dahl) is finish it'll graduate to my bedside table.

I am impatiently waiting for my next reading challenges so I can start book planning.

33 minutes ago, sparkles said:

Konmari

there are films on how to fold your clothes that way! One day I was feeling a bit weird so I redid all my drawers like that. My clothes take up more space folded that way than they did before. But I did organize everything by color. I have a full rainbow of ankle socks and then some. So pretty.

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@clueliss I do that too. But I get points for reading certain types of books and for finding books that meet certain qualities (goodreads group). So I scorekeep in my excel spreadsheet because it's easier. It's really like getting brownie badges, but for reading

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I just finished Gone Girl, which I liked overall. Then I watched the movie on cable and liked that also. That's pretty rare for me, to like both versions!

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I'm trying out my first audiobook ever, it's called "The Stranger Beside Me".  It's nonfiction about the serial killer Ted Bundy. I wanted to try an audiobook so I can listen while I color. I don't think I will be using audio for every book, but I am enjoying it so far. 

I have read the Kon Mari book, and like some of you, I found many of her ideas to be a little out there. But I like the general premise of it, to keep things that bring you joy. And I did start folding my clothes using that method. 

@OnceUponATime I feel you for using the spreadsheet to keep track of reading challenges. I use google maps to track the settings of the books I read, because I want to make an effort to read more diverse books. I place a pin for each location, but I don't track repeats. I don't go out of my way to read books from specific places, but I guess in a few years it will be interesting to see how many countries I've read. 

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39 minutes ago, RabbitKM said:

I don't think I will be using audio for every book, but I am enjoying it so far. 

I have found that my enjoyment from audiobooks is very much determined by the reader/narrator. There are some readers that I really can't stand listening to. I have also learnt to also not listen to two audiobooks back to back read by the same narrator - not all books create nice mixed story lines. It can get a bit confusing

I don't find the spreadsheet that bad. The worst part is setting it up to give me as many auto-points as possible at the start of the season. I don't record all books on it, I first do 30 <one for each task>, and then once those are done I'll add in more if I read more, which I usually don't (well not ones that can count). Planning books to read is fun. I'm a bit weird like that.

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44 minutes ago, OnceUponATime said:

I have found that my enjoyment from audiobooks is very much determined by the reader/narrator. There are some readers that I really can't stand listening to. I have also learnt to also not listen to two audiobooks back to back read by the same narrator - not all books create nice mixed story lines. It can get a bit confusing

I don't find the spreadsheet that bad. The worst part is setting it up to give me as many auto-points as possible at the start of the season. I don't record all books on it, I first do 30 <one for each task>, and then once those are done I'll add in more if I read more, which I usually don't (well not ones that can count). Planning books to read is fun. I'm a bit weird like that.

Thanks for the audio-book tips! Do you listen to fiction on it as well? Also, I am curious what reading challenges you are participating in!

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24 minutes ago, RabbitKM said:

Thanks for the audio-book tips! Do you listen to fiction on it as well? Also, I am curious what reading challenges you are participating in!

I'm a member of Goodreads "Reading with Style" group. It's fun and they just posted one of the challenges for spring (so excited!). Since being a member I have really widened my reading (which is why I joined). I succeed in Book Riots diversity reading challenge last year without even trying because of it.

I listen to nearly anything. My access to audiobooks is a bit crap though :( Back before Scribd nerfed itself I was listening to at least a book a week if not more. Now it's a lot less. I usually get them from librivox - which is a collection of public domain books (read: older books). They are usually good quality and on the more popular books there may be a few versions(narrators) to choose between.

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I am an enabling woman. I sent a copy of How to be A Victorian, A Dawn to Dusk Guide to Victorian Life by Ruth Goodman to Lydia. Ruth Goodman is a British Historian who tackles an era (Tudor, Tudor Monastery Farm, Edwardian) full force by living as the inhabitants of the era lived. I'm 1/2 way through and it was a hard life and it was not all tea and crumpets. She and I correspond even though our ideas are far apart. 

But before I started that I read Red Clover by Florence Osmund....3.5★

I started  The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton and haven't given it enough of a chance I guess. It's kind of lurking evil kind of book. 

I have a few that I started and then said what the hell is this and just deleted off the Kindle. I did buy 2 Dr Who (10th & 11th Doctors) paperbacks. They were good. 

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7 hours ago, OnceUponATime said:

I'm a member of Goodreads "Reading with Style" group. It's fun and they just posted one of the challenges for spring (so excited!). Since being a member I have really widened my reading (which is why I joined). I succeed in Book Riots diversity reading challenge last year without even trying because of it.

Holy crap, I just checked out that group on goodreads.  That's amazing that you participate in that.  It seems so intense!  How many books do you have to read per "season"?

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@RabbitKM You don't have to read any amount of books. If you just read one or two that's fine :P To win any rewards (creating tasks for the next season)you need to have read at least 5 books (over a course of 3 months). I've achieved that twice.

I aim for getting the 10 and 20 point tasks done each season, but if I don't it's no big deal. I love planning the 15 point tasks but I usually don't get them read (this time I did though because they were all audiobooks).
Sometimes I feel like I spend more hours planning than reading. I really love the tasks because they try to make them very diverse. My biggest annoyance is that some of the tasks end up very US-based and the books can be hard to get hold of locally for me.

 

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On 2/1/2016 at 1:19 PM, unforgiving said:

It may have been mentioned on the previous thread, but The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I'm about 2/3 the way through. It's narrated by Death and follows a young girl and her foster family living in Germany during WWII. It's really good.

That's one of my favorites, it is soul-crushingly good.

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