Norabelle414's Trilogy in One Part

Here, have a red panda

Hello and welcome! I'm Nora. I live in Washington DC. This is my ninth year of having my own thread in the 75ers group! I have not been reading that much for the past few years but I still love books. I also love:

animals - on the weekends I volunteer at Smithsonian's National Zoo
TV - scripted only, mostly science fiction and fantasy, especially anything based on a book
feminism
theater - I have season tickets to Arena Stage but I often go to shows elsewhere as well
podcasts - especially about books
knitting
travel

You can find me on Twitter @ norabelle414

A selection of books I have finished recently:

An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole - 4.5/5 stars
A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee - 2.5/5 stars
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan - 4.5/5 stars
Cat Person by Kristen Roupenian - 4/5 stars
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 1: Squirrel Power by Ryan North, Illustrated by Erica Henderson - 4.5/5 stars

For a full list of books I have read this year, click here: https://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=norabelle414&collection=481848

2017 Statistics

In 2017, I read 53 books.
13,980 pages, plus 4hrs and 27 minutes of audiobooks.
I averaged 22 days per book, 47 pages per day, 4 books per month.
Average book length was 269 pages.

The longest book was Crazy Rich Asians at 527 pages. The shortest was the short story Cat Person at 23 pages.

I acquired 57 books.
I bought 50 books.
I deaccessioned 29 books.

38 (72%) had female authors/artists (for graphic novels I am counting only the artist, not the author).
29 (55%) were marketed for adults, 21 (40%) for young adults, and 3 (6%) for children.
12 (23%) had authors/artists of color, and 13 (25%) had a main character of color.
11 (21%) had LGBTQ authors/artists, and 12 (23%) had an LGBTQ main character.
0 were translated from another language.

18 books (34%) were purchased by me. 33 (62%) were checked out from the library. 2 (4%) were free. 0 books were gifts and 0 were borrowed from another person.
51 books (96%) were physical books, 1 (2%) was digital, and 1 (2%) was an audiobook.

34 (64%) were prose books. 1 (2%) was a play. 17 (32%) were comics. 1 (2%) was a book of poetry.
47 books (89%) were fiction, and 6 (11%) were non-fiction.

2 books (4%) were rereads. 15 books (28%) were published in 2017. 38 books (72%) were published before 2017, and 7 (13%) were published before 2007.

My best reading month was July, in which I finished 11 books (mostly comics). My worst reading month was November, in which I finished 1 book.

My most-read genre was speculative fiction/science fiction/fantasy/horror, of which I read 20 books (38%). 13 books (25%) were adventure/mystery/thriller. 5 books (10%) were romance. 5 books (10%) were general fiction. 4 books (8%) were historical fiction/historical fantasy. 4 books (8%) were biography/memoir. 2 books (4%) were science nonfiction.

My Top Five Books of 2017:
Camp So-and-So by Mary McCoy
If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly

Honorable Mention:
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Ashes to Fire by Emily B. Martin

Dishonorable Mention:
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
A Spy in the House by Y. S. Lee

I read a lot of good books this year, and not any very bad ones.

Happy reading in 2018, Nora!

Happy New Year! I wish you to read many good books in 2018.

Hi Nora!

Hope your 2018 is filled with lots of great reads!

Happy New Year
Happy New Group here
This place is full of friends
I hope it never ends
Its brew of erudition and good cheer.

>4 norabelle414: :O You can see the future!!!!

I wish I had already managed to read 53 books this morning! ;)

Happy New Year!

Hi Nora, Happy New Year, and happy reading!

Thank you Anita, Rachel, Katie, Lori, Paul, Marie, Katherine, and Laura!!

>10 aqeeliz:, >12 _Zoe_: WHOOPS! Good catch; how did that happen??

Speaking of "how did that happen", I got you into the Threadfbook, but then didn't welcome you back or wish you a Happy New Year! So consider that done now!

>16 drneutron: I had a dream last night that I ended up with a dozen or so new threads for this year because I kept forgetting that I created one already. 2018 is off to a great start so far!

Happy New Year to you too!

Doctor Who Christmas Special thoughts:

It was just fine as an episode, but excellent as a send-off of Peter Capaldi. I like setting the precedent of having new actors play previous iterations of the Doctor, so that we can do that again. The tie-in to the Christmas Truce was lovely. Fighting a "villain" who wasn't actually doing anything wrong was great, those are my favorite type of episodes of Doctor Who. I was happy to see Clara again and Bill and Nardole one last time. I'm very excited for more.

I have been very upset at the extra-textual conversations going around regarding the Doctor "choosing" to become a woman. I try to stay away from the extra-textual stuff (interviews, behind the scenes, etc.) as much as possible to avoid this very thing. If the Doctor "chose" to be a woman this regeneration, that means that she can choose who she wants to be for every regeneration, which means that she has chosen to be a white man 13 times in a row. That's super fucked up. Either she has control of her regeneration or she doesn't, and if she does then that opens up the universe's biggest can of worms.
The Doctor's mere "Brilliant!" when she saw her reflection was the perfect amount of commentary for me, and I hope they leave it that way within the context of the show. (I also appreciated Capaldi and Bill shutting down the First Doctor's era-accurate sexism.)

For posterity, these are the books that I made significant progress on but did not finish before the end of 2017:

Cinderella, Necromancer by F. M. Boughan - started Dec 30, 2017
Authority by Jeff Vandermeer - started Oct 18, 2017
Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, a Virginia Town, a Civil Rights Battle by Kristen Green - started Aug 30, 2017
"All the Real Indians Died Off": And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz - started Nov 21, 2016
Manners & Mutiny by Gail Carriger - started Sep 29, 2016 (I probably need to restart this one. I stopped reading because there was an unfortunate event involving liquid ... thankfully I own the book)

>18 norabelle414: I felt the same way about the setting and its function as a send-off for Capaldi. Villains who aren't actually enacting an evil plan are some of my favourites. It ends up being more of a meditation on what good is and who people are, a more thoughtful story, than a lot of dashing about and blowing things up. I like a good explosion, but I tend to prefer something quieter for the Christmas stories, for some reason.

As for the idea of the Doctor "choosing" to become a woman this time...I feel the same way. I don't want to think she's chosen to be a white guy 13 times in a row. And I think it's been established plenty of times that the Doctor is not actually very good at regenerating and never has any choice in what he ends up with. I loved the "Brilliant!" first line, which seemed more like delighted surprise than any congratulation on having done what she wanted to. And all the shutting down of First Doctor era sexism from Bill and Capaldi!Doctor was great :-D

I heartily agree with your Doctor Who thoughts. I have to admit that I have found Capaldi's Doctor less and less compelling as time has gone on so I wasn't particularly emotional over this regeneration. But I am so psyched for a new Doctor and a new show runner. :)

Happy New Year and happy new thread! I'm still wayyy behind on Doctor Who, so I can't contribute to that discussion. Maybe someday I will get caught up, or maybe I will just start over with the new Doctor.

I'm 6 months or more behind in the threads so I'm just gonna disregard the gap and start fresh. Happy New Year!

>22 foggidawn: Thanks foggi! The Doctor will always be here for you if you decide to catch up.

>23 qebo: Good plan! Hi Katherine!

Murphy's Law of Library Holds strikes again! The following holds were all ready for pickup today:

One of Us Is Lying - on hold list since mid-December
Dear Martin - on hold since last week
When Dimple Met Rishi - on hold since last week
Miles Morales - on hold since this morning

I finished a book (review coming tomorrow, probably late in the day) and started One of Us Is Lying.

Yay for holds! I've heard mixed reviews on When Dimple Met Rishi. I'll be interested to see which side you come down on.

I'm looking forward to your thoughts on Dear Martin and When Dimple Met Rishi!

Hope you have had a wonderful start to 2018!

Hi Nora! It only took me 5 days to get around to the new years round ups. So HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I still have unfinished reviews and haven't even started the meme which is my favorite part of the end of the year. Here's to all of us getting back in the groove this year!

>18 norabelle414: I pretty much agree on all fronts with Doctor Who. It was a nice episode but nothing particularly amazing. I think it was pretty clever to put all the sexism shut downs in this episode as a nod to some of the bullshit that's been floating around regarding the new regeneration. I really appreciated that.

Hi, Nora. Dropping a star.



>18 norabelle414: >20 archerygirl: Nora and Kathy, I too loved the send-off for Capaldi. Having seen him play the villain in other shows, namely The Thick of It and Fortysomething (which also had Hugh Laurie and a young Benedict Cumberbatch!), I was very unsure of him playing the Doctor. However, once again I ended up loving the character he played. Even though I also loved David Tennant and Matt Smith, I thought having an older Doctor was needed, after all of the romantic goings-on. I've been a long time fan and the classic Who never had the romantic silliness that new Who sometimes has. IMO, I sort of like the Doctor to be above all that. Once again, I find myself being very unsure of what Jodie Whittaker will do with the role, but I'm sure once again I will be very pleasantly surprised. There is a small part of me, though, that wants to believe that the Tardis is rejecting her when she falls out and that Capaldi will come back. Not really, but I always hate to see the Doctor change

I do agree that the Doctor cannot choose who he regenerates into, much as I still don't think that he can steer the Tardis to a particular time and place. That rarely ever happened in classic Who, which was part of the magic. It's too convenient that he can have the Tardis go exactly where it needs to go, much as the sonic screwdriver has made it too easy. I think Peter Davison choose not to have the sonic, as he felt that it took away from the character of the Doctor because it was used too much as a crutch. I guess I'm just getting to be too much like the crotchety first Doctor, but I still love the show!! I can't wait for the new season to start!

Happy New Year, Nora.

I've been working my way through Dr. Who (currently on season 5)and I have to say David Tennant is my favorite. I haven't watched many of the Capaldi episodes though.

>26 MickyFine:, >27 _Zoe_: Me too!

>28 ChelleBearss: Thank you Chelle! I'm glad to see you around.

>29 leahbird: Hi Leah! There's such a rush of wrap-ups and new threads around the New Year that I'm kind of relieved some people are getting a late start. More time to spread the love around!

>30 rretzler: Hi Robin! I'm ready for the new season of Doctor Who as well. I liked Capaldi as The Doctor very much, though I think the writing for him was Not Good. I do not like Matt Smith at all so I might have just been relieved to see him go!

>31 BLBera: Hi Beth! I think David Tennant is my favorite, too.

1. Cinderella, Necromancer by F. M. Boughan

Ellison (Ella)'s mother died when she was a young child, and now her father has disappeared as well, leaving her and her younger brother in the hands of their stepmother and stepsisters. Ella's stepmother takes away all of her fine clothes and her comfortable bedchamber, gets rid of all the servants, and forces her to wait on them hand and foot. How will Ella survive her sinister step-family's cruel treatment? Maybe her father left some clues in the secret passageways hidden throughout the house, or with the key made of bone he pressed into her hand before leaving.

A very fun book. Some plot twists were a little unexpected! Which is a great feat for a fairytale retelling. The addition of Ella's younger brother is genius. This version of Cinderella is way too capable and intelligent to stick around with an abusive stepmother unless she has some other reason to, which a sick little brother gives her. Really clever and enjoyable, with just the right amount of mysticism.

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ (4/5)

>33 norabelle414: Yay, I'm glad to see a good review of that one! It's on my TBR list.

2. One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

Five high school students - the brain, the jock, the beauty, the criminal, and the gossip – are all in detention together when the gossip, Simon, accidentally ingests peanut oil, goes into anaphylactic shock, and dies. The other students in detention were the only people in the room, but Simon ran an app exposing the secrets of all of his classmates so everyone had a motive for wanting to shut him up. All four students are lying about something Simon knew that they didn’t want getting exposed, but who is lying about killing Simon?

I enjoyed this book so much! My only small quibble would be that I don’t know what kind of newspaper the Bayview newpaper is supposed to be, but where I come from reputable newspapers don’t publish identifying information for minors.

Huge major spoilers for the plot! Originally I was going to quibble with how Abby’s infraction was so disproportionately minor compared to the other three…but it turns out that was the whole point! Well done.

One of the things I really liked about the book was that in the end, Simon was truly a villain. He concocted this scheme because he liked the idea of a school shooting but didn’t think that would be bad enough. He is not a martyr and his suicide is not glorified. He tried to control the narrative around his death – as many teens do, especially in popular media (I’m looking at you, 13 Reasons Why!) – but failed, which was a relief to me.

This book contains the best of teen dramas/mysteries like Pretty Little Liars, 13 Reasons Why, Gossip Girl, and even Netflix’s American Vandal (although One of Us Is Lying is not strictly a satire, it does often point out the hypocrisy of parents, gossip, and media coverage of teen scandals). It contains very little of the bad aspects: the narrative isn’t a huge mess like PLL, and it’s sensitive to actual economic issues unlike Gossip Girl. However, considering it takes place in Southern California it could have used more cultural/racial diversity.

All in all, the book was extremely enjoyable and engrossing. I actually started writing down my theories as I got toward the end of the book, but even examining every possibility I could think of, I was still surprised! I highly recommend it for anyone who likes YA.

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ♥ (4.5/5)

>35 norabelle414: That sounds like fun too! Could you try to limit it to one BB per day? :P

>36 _Zoe_: Well technically I finished these books almost a week apart, but it took me awhile to review them. Sorry!

>32 norabelle414: It's funny, Nora, because when I look back at the Stephen Moffat episodes after he became the show runner, I have a hard time picking any that I really think are fantastic. Some of his year-long story arcs were pretty confusing, and only after I watched a couple of times was I able to have things come together in my mind. However, when I look at my favorite episodes from the Russell Davies show runner years, they are almost always the ones written by Stephen Moffat. Go figure!

>38 rretzler: Yes I think he's a much better writer of individual episodes (and individual monologues) than he is of the overall plot of a TV show. I enjoy Sherlock a lot but I think if it was more than 3 episodes per season it would not be nearly as good.

>33 norabelle414: Yay! That's @dk_phoenix 's book, right?

>35 norabelle414: Interesting. Breakfast Club meets murder mystery!

>40 rosylibrarian: It is! It was really good.

"Breakfast Club meets murder mystery" is definitely what One of Us Is Lying is marketed as, but it also subverts both of those genres.

>35 norabelle414: I had managed to resist it until now, but I think the book bullet for that one finally got me.

Just dropping my star on your thread.

>35 norabelle414: That looked interesting but I immediately suspected I had guessed the ending. I clicked your spoiler and found I was right :) All the same, I am sure there was a lot more to it than I could have guessed.

>42 foggidawn: I think you'll really love it! I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't like non-fantasy YA, but for people who do like YA it's fantastic.

>33 norabelle414: glad to see a good review of Faith’s book! I’d like to give it a shot some day.

>39 norabelle414: Nora, I hadn't thought that way about Sherlock (it's my favorite show), but I guess I can see that. He does have Gatiss to help out with Sherlock though. I so hope there are more seasons, but I guess I won't hold my breath.

>46 rretzler: I've read that Moffatt and Gatiss have outlined a 5th season of Sherlock, and Cumberbatch has signed on for a 5th season, so it would be up to BBC whether they want to renew the show. They'd be crazy not to! But I'm happy to wait an extra year for the next season. Much better than never getting one at all.

Nora, are you still watching The Magicians? There was an amazing nerdtastic scene in tonight's season premiere that I just had to geek over with someone!

>48 leahbird: I am watching The Magicians! But currently I am re-watching last season to get ready for this season. I only have 3 episodes left so I should be all caught up this weekend.

This weekend is a kind of mini-comicon called "DC in DC" hosted by the Newseum and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to celebrate next week's premiere of the new CW show Black Lightning, the first African-American-led superhero show. I'll be attending the following panels:

BATMAN: GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT PREMIERE SCREENING EVENT AND Q&A - cocktail reception and screening of an animated direct-to-DVD Batman movie described as "a steampunk Dark Knight hunts Jack the Ripper through the shadows of turn of the century Gotham City"

THE ART OF THE MATTER: FROM SKETCH TO SCREEN - panel discussion with Executive producers Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter (Arrow, Black Lightning, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Supergirl, upcoming Titans), DC Entertainment's Geoff Johns (Arrow, The Flash, Titans), Executive producer Salim Akil (Black Lightning), Black Lightning star Cress Williams, The Flash stars Candice Patton and Danielle Panabaker, Moderated by USA Today's Brian Truitt

THE MANY SHADES OF HEROISM: THROUGH THE AFRICAN AMERICAN LENS - panel discussion with Cress Williams, Executive producers Salim Akil & Mara Brock Akil (Black Lightning), Gotham star Chris Chalk, Supergirl star David Harewood, Candice Patton, Comic book writer/Oscar®-winning screenwriter John Ridley (12 Years a Slave), Author/comic book writer Alice Randall (The Wind Done Gone, Earth M), Dan Evans, DC Entertainment's Vice President, Creative Affairs, Black Girl Nerds editor-in-chief Jamie Broadnax

WONDER WOMEN - panel discussion with DC’s Legends of Tomorrow star Caity Lotz, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Gotham star Camren Bicondova, Sarah Schechter, DC comic book writers and artists: Julie Benson, Shawna Benson, Shea Fontana, Agnes Garbowska, Mariko Tamaki

THE PRIDE OF DC: THE ART OF LGBTQ INCLUSION - panel discussion with Greg Berlanti, Freedom Fighters: The Ray voice star Russell Tovey, DC comic book writers Marguerite Bennett (Batwoman), Steve Orlando (Midnighter and Apollo) and Mark Russell (Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles), Moderated by The New York Times' George Gustines

THE AFTERMATH: BATTLE & TRAUMA IN COMICS - panel discussion with DC comic book author and former CIA counter-terrorism operations officer Tom King (Batman, Mister Miracle), Gotham recurring guest star J.W. Cortes, a 13-year Marine combat veteran and a police officer with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority

and finally, BLACK LIGHTNING SNEAK PEEK SCREENING.

I'm very excited!!

Oh, that sounds like fun!

>50 norabelle414: My boyfriend will be so jealous. Hope you have a great time!

>51 drneutron: I think there are still (free) tickets available if you're not busy on Saturday! There are links to the Eventbrite pages here: http://www.dcindc2018.com/

I've also heard that the panels are going to be broadcast live on DCTV's Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/DCEntertainmentTV/

>47 norabelle414: I hadn't hear that yet. I know that they have all said that they'd love to keep doing the show if they can get their schedules to fit, which with Cumberbatch and Freeman being so popular these days is almost impossible.

>50 norabelle414: sounds very fun. Have a great time!

Have a great time!

3. Dear Martin by Nic Stone

Justyce McAllister is one of only a few black students attending a prestigious private high school outside of Atlanta. His life, as a young black man, involves dealing with almost daily issues of race. He is wrongfully arrested when trying to help a drunk friend, his white classmates tell him that racism is over, kids from his old neighborhood call him a sell-out for attending a mostly-white school, and he can’t decide if he should date a white girl on his debate team. Justyce tries to process these events in his life by writing letters as if he were writing to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I preface this opinion with a mention that this book is not written for me and I do not expect it to be. Any addition of diverse viewpoints to the greater cannon of YA literature is certainly welcome, but I didn’t find the plot to be very cohesive. It felt like a lot of connection and detail was missing, and this slim 208 page book could easily have been twice as long. It seemed to be a less well-plotted version of The Hate U Give. Justyce felt a lot younger than 17 or 18 and the book might have worked better as a middle-grade book. I didn’t understand how Justyce’s school has a class called “Societal Evolution” but most of the students in it are not aware that racism exists, or why the teacher of the class didn’t teach them about it. I don’t understand why two black boys would continue to be friends with a guy who wears a full authentic KKK uniform for Halloween. Justyce’s thoughts and actions don’t make sense to me (which I think would have been rectified by the book being longer). I also did not care for the writing style, where some conversations (but not all) are written like a script, “(speaker): (line)”, new paragraph, "(speaker): (line)", new paragraph, "(speaker): (line)". This very casual style might have worked if the conversations were presented as part of Justyce’s letters to Martin, but they were not.
This is the author’s first novel, so although this book didn’t speak to me I will look forward to seeing more of her work in the future.

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ (4/5)
 

4. When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Dimple Shah is surprised and pleased to get permission from her parents to attend InsomniaCon, a 6-week computer coding summer camp for college freshmen in San Francisco. As soon as she arrives on her new adventure, she is harassed by a creepy boy and finds out that her parents only allowed her to go so that she could meet this potential future husband. Turns out the boy, Rishi Patel, is not so bad to hang out with although he’s a bit of a goody-two-shoes. They are assigned to work together on the coding project and learn more about each other through the summer. Against Dimple’s rebellious instincts, sparks begin to fly.

Once again I acknowledge that this book was not written for me and that is great, and my opinions only exist within that context. I was happy to read a YA book with Indian-American protagonists, because I don’t think I’ve read anything with an Indian-American protagonist before that was not by Jhumpa Lahiri. Other than that it was mostly just a straightforward teen romance, with not a lot else going on. Dimple and Rishi each explore their relationships with their parents, as kids who are about to go off to college do. I really did not care for Dimple and Rishi’s frequent shared habit of being rude/mean to anyone who they perceived to be “cooler” than them. It’s hypocritical, and makes the world a worse place.

It’s an adequate teen romance (requiring the usual amount of unrealistic plot manipulation to increase the stakes), but I didn’t really connect with or care about either of the main characters. I was much more interested in Dimple’s roommate Celia and Rishi’s brother Ashish.

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ♥ (3.5/5)

Yay for diverse books!

So I watched the premiere of SHIELD last night (I know, I'm behind) and What the actual heck? I mean I knew they were going to space because of the teasers on TV but... I just. It seems so bananas. And the characters commenting that it's bananas does not make the bananas ok. I think I'm giving it this season and then giving up on it if it doesn't really knock my socks off this year.

>58 MickyFine: Yeah... I feel bad for rating them so low because they are filling huge gaps in the YA cannon. They are both first time authors so I hope these books do well and they write more in the future.

I don't mind this season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and I would be fine with it if it didn't come right on the heels of them all being in the Framework. Episode 5 is GREAT, if that gives you something to look forward to.

>59 norabelle414: I don't hate it. But I definitely was texting The Boyfriend while watching, which was mostly a string of "and this crazy thing happened and then this crazy thing happened." :P

>57 norabelle414:, >58 MickyFine: I always like reading comments about books I've read, even if you didn't enjoy them. I did like Dear Martin and had mixed feelings about When Dimple Met Rishi. Mostly I was annoyed that the whole coding camp premise felt like a bait-and-switch; the book was actually about a talent show and there was almost zero coding. But I decided I liked the writing well enough that I'll try her next book when it comes out later this year.

And yay for diverse books even if they're not our favourites :). I've been really impressed by the success of diverse YA recently.

>59 norabelle414: OK, I'm giving Agents of SHIELD until episode 5 and if I'm still not loving it, I might have to finally say goodbye. I loved last year's plotlines but I didn't love the season opener and I haven't managed to get back to it yet.

>61 _Zoe_: Yeah... When Dimple Met Rishi is much more a romance story than a coming-of-age story. Even when the characters "changed" they only seemed to bounce from one extreme to the other, never anything in the middle. I was very disappointed that they both seemed so convinced that Rishi could not do his art on the side while having some other job. He either had to go to school for art and get a job as an artist or he had to never even look at art again! That's not how it works for most people. I would expect that kind of attitude at the beginning of a YA book but not at the end.

>62 archerygirl: It doesn't get better after episode 5, that's just a kind of side-episode that has a better plot than the main episodes. While this is a bad season I don't think it's going to have too many long-term ramifications (unless they stay in the future forever, I guess???? but I don't think they would do that) so maybe you could just read wikipedia synopses for this season and I'll give you a heads up when it gets better :-)

I'm almost done with Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds (it's great!) and I have the following checked out from the library:
China Rich Girlfriend
Startup by Doree Shafrir
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

>64 norabelle414: Sounds like you have some good reading lined up!

5. Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds

Miles Morales is a typical Brooklyn teenager - black and Puerto Rican, with superpowers bestowed by the bite of a radioactive spider. He studies to keep his scholarship at a fancy private school, has a crush on a girl, and dismantles a centuries-old secret society. All in a day's work.

A great book! It's not very superhero-y, but I didn't mind at all. It's a really good YA book and reminded me a lot of the latest Spider-Man movie, "Spider-Man: Homecoming" combined with recent popular YA books about the modern experiences of teens of color, like The Hate U Give. Reynolds does a great job of showing that even super powers are not enough break the cycle of poverty and imprisonment in communities of color, because they still exist within a racist society. That racist society is the real antagonist of this book, because it allows villains to take advantage of the system and use disadvantaged populations however they want. It's simply GENIUS and adds an extra interesting layer to a somewhat overexposed superhero. The book is very funny, and fun to read, and Miles is a great main character (and all the other characters are great too.) I hope Reynolds writes more Spider-Man books, and I definitely plan to check out more of his work AND more Marvel YA novels. Highly recommended, especially if you enjoy YA books about racial issues, even if superheroes don't interest you.

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ (5/5)

I'm trying to avoid taking BBs as The List has suddenly crept over the 100 mark but that one is so very tempting. Nora, you evil temptress. ;)

>67 MickyFine: It's not long, so if you put it on the list and then read it you can cross it off very quickly :-)

>67 MickyFine: The List over 100? Pshaw, mine's 350, and that's just the Overdrive stuff. Go for it. 😁

>68 norabelle414: You make a good case. Enabling enabler. I'll take the hit.

>69 drneutron: Well, I went clean slate a little over a year ago to try and keep it manageable. So now I'm very picky about what goes on The List.

Yeah, I should probably do that at some point. If something's been on a list for five years or more and I haven't gotten to it yet, I'm probably not going to. 😁

ETA: Sheesh. Autocorrect.

>67 MickyFine: Over the 100 mark? Are you sure you didn't leave out a zero there? ;)

>72 _Zoe_: Nope. That clean slate is super liberating. And makes it feasible I could read most of the books on it in a year-ish. If it weren't for the whole 1 book off 2 books on trend. ;)

I have a list I call the shortlist, which is books that I want to read soon-ish but not including books I own nor books by authors I'm really into (so, books that I might forget about if I don't write them down). I keep it on a piece of paper in my wallet. I write the books down as I hear about them and then cross them off as I read them or acquire them, and every once in awhile I'll get rid of a bunch of the older ones. If they're worth reading I will hear about them again!

>74 norabelle414: Paper and pen. Very old school, Nora. ;)

6. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

Gen is the best thief in all of Sounis ... or at least he used to be. Now he's rotting away in prison. He's "rescued" by the King's advisor, who wants him to steal something very special. They set off to sneak into a foreign land and find a legendary stone that will determine the fate of three whole countries.

Somehow I had not heard of this series at all until about a year ago. It just passed me by completely. It's a good mid-90s historical-feeling fantasy, like Sabriel or Tamora Pierce's books. I really enjoyed the elements of Greek history and mythology, which were subtle and respectful. It was very odd that there were no women in the book until the last 30 pages, and even then one of the two women is repeatedly called ugly. But that's the 90s for you I suppose. I really enjoyed the book and it was easy to read, so I'll definitely read more in the series.

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ♥ (4.5/5)

>76 norabelle414: Ha! Can't hit me with that one. Foggi and Amber put it on The List last year. :P

>76 norabelle414: Yes! Glad you liked it! The books just keep getting better, too, so there's that to look forward to.

>77 MickyFine: Well then it's your turn to read it next :-P

>78 foggidawn: I'm excited to continue! Another series that I enjoy, (Woodwalker, written by a friend of mine) is heavily influenced by Turner's series so I'm going to wait until I finish that trilogy (the third book comes out in March) before picking up The Queen of Attolia.

7. Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin, illustrated by S. D. Schindler

Four little kittens are born with wings. Don't worry about why. When they are ready to leave the nest (both literal and figurative) they fly away from their big city alley home and move to the country, where life is very different but not much easier.

An extremely short children's book. I liked the concept of kittens with wings. I enjoyed the depiction of the countryside and that life there wasn't ideal. I thought the city alley was unnecessarily bleak, although the kittens' mom (a normal cat) was just fine with it. There is not much plot to speak of. However, the book is worth reading just for the gorgeous illustrations alone.

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ (4/5)

Here is my extremely optimistic reading plan for February - half books I already have out from the library and half books that Overdue Podcast will be discussing this month that I have been meaning to read anyway:

Feb 5 - Salvage the Bones (on page 50)
Feb 12 - Startup (on page 167)
Feb 12 - Americanah (audiobook)
Feb 19 - The Fifth Season
Feb 20 - Murder, Magic, and What We Wore
Feb 26 - China Rich Girlfriend

I'm something like #25 on the library waiting list for The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory, but then I saw that it's on sale at Target. Soooo I bought it.

>82 norabelle414: I just put that one on The List this week. You'll probably read it before me so I look forward to your thoughts.

>76 norabelle414: That looks like a really good series. Hopefully I'll get to it sometime.

>83 MickyFine: Now that I own it I will probably never read it.

>84 The_Hibernator: I think you would really love it!

8. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Fifteen-year-old Esch lives with her three brothers and their dad on the gulf coast of Mississippi. It's late August, 2005. Over the course of eleven days Esch spends time with her brothers and her brothers' friends and her dad. Her oldest brother is trying to get a basketball scholarship, her middle brother's champion fighting pitbull has newborn puppies, and her youngest brother generally gets into trouble. And at the end of eleven days is Hurricane Katrina.

This book was easier to get through than I expected, and I mostly enjoyed reading it. There was a lot in the middle of the book that was about dog fighting that I did not care for at all. But most of the book is about a family who loves each other basically, and realistically. They are neither too rough (not even the alcoholic dad) nor inspirationally saccharine. This is not so much a book about what happened during Hurricane Katrina, or what life was like afterward, or what recovery was like. It's about the lives people had before, and what they had to lose. While the plot didn't especially speak to me, I loved reading about this family and I would gladly do so again.

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ (4/5)

Nice review, Nora. I want to re-read that one and see if it still gets a spot in my top 10.

>87 katiekrug: Thanks Katie! If you are into podcasts, my favorite podcast Overdue (a podcast about the books you've been meaning to read) had an episode about Salvage the Bones today and it was very good.

Thanks for the link. I will check it out!

The zoo where I volunteer has a volunteer organization, and I'm on the board of that organization as the representative for my program. Recently the board ran a survey asking volunteers what kinds of activities they would like (the board organizes things like meet-ups and special tours of other museums) and one of the answers we got was "book club"

So, long story short, I am now running a book club for zoo volunteers. I've never done anything like this before (and have frequently found book clubs and similar clubs to be very frustrating, even when I'm not leading them) so we'll see how it goes....

>90 norabelle414: book club for zoo volunteers
Sounds potentially cool though. Are you suggesting books?

>91 qebo: I have a very long list of books to suggest, but mostly I'm trying to figure out when and where and how often to meet. It gets tricky because some volunteers are only available during the day on weekdays and others are available anytime except during the day on weekdays (myself included). Also, as volunteers we are not allowed to be in not-open-to-the-public areas of the zoo without an actual staff member present (at least in the building). The only public indoor space where a big group could sit down is in the Mane (Main) Restaurant, which is fine during the off-season but will be far too busy during the summer.

>90 norabelle414: Is there someplace near the zoo that you could meet? A coffee shop perhaps (If there are not a lot of people, I guess)

I tried running a book club with my co-workers but since we all work different shifts we could not meet up in person. I tried to make it online here on LT and it didn't go very well. I'd like to try again but I'm afraid it would just be a waste of my time. No one checked the website or wanted to comment. Basically they mostly wanted suggestions on what to read.

>93 ChelleBearss: There's a small Starbucks across the street from the entrance, but in the summer it will be even busier than the restaurant. There is a public library a few blocks away, but it is closed for construction and I have no idea when it is reopening. Most volunteers are outdoor volunteers (like myself) so they might not mind meeting outside when it's not very cold, but some volunteers are strictly indoors and I don't know how they would feel about that.

Does the location have to be near the zoo? Presumably they all work different days/times anyway... Maybe provide three options and have them vote? I've tried twice to organize book groups, and I find I enjoy being a member much more satisfying and enjoyable than being the leader, so um, good luck!

ETA: To be honest, I found the best way to organize was just to tell people what the deal was. Organizing by committee never works. If they are really interested in a book club, then they will prioritize it and make the effort to attend. If they aren't sincerely into it, then it won't matter how accommodating you are - they won't commit to it.

>95 katiekrug: It doesn't *have to* be near the zoo, but that is the most inclusive way I can think of to make sure everyone can get to the place where we're meeting. I know that everyone can get to the zoo easily because that's where they volunteer, and we have people coming from all over. Most volunteers I know live in Maryland, while I live in northern Virginia. The zoo is Metro-accessible, volunteers can park at the zoo for free, and everyone already knows how to get there. Also, if in the future we want to have zoo staff (like animal keepers) come and talk about the books, the easiest way to do that is to meet at the zoo. (For example, we have an Asia Trail keeper who used to work with Jane Goodall.)

I am definitely the single point of decision making for the group, but I have two interested people who are not on the board helping me out with ideas and such. However, since this is a function of the volunteer board, it is important that we at least make an effort to accommodate as many volunteers as possible. (Especially the retirees, who are the people most likely to want to attend.) We have about 400 volunteers total but for the most part the same few people come to every event. I'm hoping for about 8-15 attendees. The last thing I organized for zoo volunteers was a happy hour at a bar and we had 3 attendees, including myself.

Once we get started I will certainly try to make improvements, but it's hard just to get started!

You might notice that I am *ahead of schedule* for my extremely optimistic reading plan for February (>81 norabelle414:)!
However, some wrenches have been thrown in - first of all, I cannot renew "China Rich Girlfriend" online because even though there are 2 copies "available" in the system, there are 3 people who have the book on hold (presumably frozen). I didn't know this could happen and it's making me re-evaluate my own generous usage of the "freeze hold" function.
Secondly, "The Fifth Season" is very hard to get into. I knew this already, as this is actually the 3rd time I have attempted to read it. I'm going to keep going, but it's slow!

At the very least I will finish "Startup" soon, which will make two books finished in February, which is two more than zero!

Congrats on being ahead of schedule although bummer about the wrenches.

Hopefully the book club planning doesn't turn out to be hair-pulling-inducing!

And huzzah for 2 completed books!

>62 archerygirl: >63 norabelle414: Nooooo, don't say that about Agents of SHIELD. We haven't started watching Season 5 yet!

>80 norabelle414: I keep seeing this book - I may have to get it.

9. Startup by Doree Shafrir

Mack McAllister is a tech startup genius, poised to be the next Mark Zuckerberg. He was sleeping with one of his employees, Isabel, but lately she's been ignoring his sexts. Isabel invites her employee, Sabrina, to a dinner party hosted by her new boyfriend. Sabrina agrees to go, even though it doesn't really sound like her thing. (At 10 years older than everyone else in the company, and the only one with kids at home, she has struggled to fit in.) At the party Sabrina meets Katya, a tech news blog reporter and coworker of Sabrina's husband Dan. The two of them accidentally see explicit photos that a drunk Mack sends to Isabel, and all of their worlds blow up from there.

So nice to read a story about tech and startups that has real women in it! It's also very realistic about technology - there might be some things about modern technology that are weird or even suck pretty bad but that doesn't mean we should all go back to banging two rocks together. The men in this story are obsessed with their Venture Capitalist funding and forget that the people around them (especially the women) are real people, to their own detriment! This was a really fun book to read and an almost loving parody of startup culture, in contrast to the dour dystopia of something like Dave Eggar's The Circle.

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ♥ (4.5/5)

>100 norabelle414: Doesn't quite sound like my jam but that cover is lovely.

>101 MickyFine: I enjoyed it more than I expected to (it had many things to say that I had never read in fiction before) but no, I don't think it's your jam. The cover is super cute and in the acknowledgements the author thanks the artist/designer for making such a great cover which made me very pleased.

ETA: the jacket of this edition of Startup was designed by Lauren Harms, who has done lots of other fantastic jacket designs including Dear Fahrenheit 451

10. China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan

When Eddie Cheng introduces his aunt Eleanor to his banking client Bao Shaoyen, he thinks he's just getting two old ladies off his back. But then Mrs. Bao shows Eleanor a photo of her son and everything changes - he looks exactly like Eleanor's soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Rachel Chu. Mrs. Bao's husband is Rachel's long-lost father! Rachel and Nick, newly wed, return to Asia so that Rachel can spend time with her newfound father and half-brother. This time they are headed to Shanghai and Hong Kong, where they rub elbows with the Chinese nouveau riche - as polar opposite to Nick's Singaporean family as two groups of ridiculously rich people could be. Meanwhile, Kitty Pong, former soap opera star, suspected former porn star, now wife of Nick's obnoxious bro friend Bernard Tai, has enough money to buy anything she wants in the world except for one little thing - respect. So she sets out on a quest to rebrand herself as Mrs. Katherine Tai.

Is it possible this book is even better than the first?? This one has a little bit more of a plot, and some intrigue and a mystery toward the end. Most of the characters that did not work well in the first book are absent, and there is plenty of Astrid and Eddie. Nick and Rachel's relationship is more fleshed out. Kitty Pong makes a triumphant return and it is delightful. I really loved her plotline of an Eliza Doolittle-esque social makeover, and then her just saying "fuck it!" in the end. I hope she and Rachel spend some time together in the next book because I think they would really like each other. Carlton and Colette are great characters as well. My only complaint is that this book could have used a dramatis personae or a family tree, like the first book had. It's hard to keep track of all the characters! But really fantastic all around. I'm ready for the next one!

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ♥ (4.5/5)

Good review! I keep meaning to get to the first in this series!

>103 norabelle414: I just started Rich People Problems this week and the family tree is back (at least in my edition). :)

>104 ChelleBearss: Be careful because once you start reading them it is very very hard to stop!! It usually takes me about 1-2 weeks to read a book (I read multiple books at a time) but each of these books I devoured in 2 days.

>105 MickyFine: I do wonder if it had something to do with the edition. I read a later-edition paperback of Crazy Rich Asians, but this was a first edition hardcover of China Rich Girlfriend.

>106 norabelle414: My reading rate has not been as fast as yours for these books, Nora. All those pesky real life things interfering. ;)

And it's possible on the edition front. I read China Rich Girlfriend as an ebook and I honestly can't remember if it had the family tree or not.

Thanks to our good friend Murphy, I have checked out:
Murder, Magic, and What We Wore
The Paper Magician
All Our Wrong Todays

and the following are ready to be picked up:
Rich People Problems
Dear Fahrenheit 451

>108 norabelle414: Well at least the last one is very short. You can probably get through that in a couple hours. Looking forward to your thoughts on All Our Wrong Todays. It's been on The List since I heard it book talked in advance of its publication last year.

Happy Valentine's Day, Nora

>108 norabelle414: I look forward to your thoughts on The Paper Magician. I have mixed feelings about it but I feel like it might just be me. Didn't stop me from reading the whole series, though. ;)

>108 norabelle414: I frequently quote your Murphy's Law of Library Holds to patrons surprised that all their books have arrived at once ;)

The only ones I've read of your stack are Murder, Magic and What We Wore and Dear Fahrenheit 451. Hope you enjoy them both!

Don't be jealous, but I went to a free screening of Love, Simon yesterday and it was great and super cute and I cried a lot.

I do not know what that is, but I'm glad you liked it :D

>113 norabelle414: I might be a little jealous.

>114 katiekrug: It's a movie based on a super good book!

>115 foggidawn: :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
I might go see it again once it's actually released.

>113 norabelle414: Free movie = awesome! Glad you enjoyed it!

Yay, I'm glad to hear good things about it!

*waves* Hiya! I found you. :)

>119 saras.library: Hi Sara! I guess now that you're here I should actually update my thread!

TV I've been watching lately:

The Walking Dead - fine
Marvel's Agents of SHIELD - finally a good episode after long last!! No coincidence, it's because they're back in the real world again.
Jane the Virgin - fantastic
Gotham - delightfully bonkers!!
Atlanta - good and weird
Arrow - this season is boring as shit. Cayden James is boring. The divide between the two teams is boring.
Waco - A mini-series about the 1993 Waco Texas siege. Unlike most mini-series, this was very low on context. I learned more from the first paragraph of the wikipedia page than from this show. It also could not decide what it was trying to say. Not recommended.
A.P. Bio - a somewhat-amusing comedy about a rude, bitter, ex-philosophy professor who hits rock bottom and takes a job in his hometown teaching A.P. Biology. I like it. Highlights include Patton Oswalt as the principal and three women teachers that the main character gets advice from
Speechless - good
The Magicians - amazing, as always. Last week's episode had a section from the point of view of a Deaf character, and so the whole act was completely silent. Beautiful. This show is always 2 steps ahead of everyone else. Check it out!!
Grown-ish - cute
Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. - surprisingly good first episode. This is a miniseries that definitely knows what it's trying to say. I'll keep watching.
This Is Us - good as usual
The Mick - funny as usual
Kevin (Probably) Saves the World - the main plot is boring but Kevin's sister (played by Joanna Swisher) is the most amazing person ever and I feel like maybe the show doesn't realize that? But maybe it does.
The Flash - okay, but I'm getting tired of The Thinker and the show is depressing this season.
The Detour - weird, as usual
Black Lightning - great!!
Another Period - funny, as usual
iZombie - the season premiere was not good.
Good Girls - a new show about some desperate women who rob a bank. The women are played by Christina Hendricks, Retta, and Mae Whitman, any of whom I would watch do literally anything.
Final Space - a new animated comedy with some aliens and spacemen (almost no women). It's really awful and I won't watch more even though David Tennant does one of the voices!
DC's Legends of Tomorrow - the best DC show, at the moment. Really fantastic.
Victoria - season 2 was even better than season 1
The Tick - the second half of the first season was the same as the first. Yara Martinez is fantastic as a villain
Andi Mack - a good Disney Channel show. I enjoy the much more nuanced look at
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - I didn't like how dark this season got, but it picked up again toward the end, and I really liked the time jump.
Blackish - I recently binge-watched seasons 2 and 3 so now I am all caught up.
Supergirl - very good! But it's on break now.
The Good Place - season 2 was even better than season 1!
One Day at a Time - season 2 was even better than season 1! Rita Moreno is amazing!
Britannia - I've watched one episode of this British import / Amazon show, and it was good so I'll watch more
Vikings - I haven't enjoyed this show in awhile but I keep watching because it's always on when nothing else is
Grace and Frankie - great as usual
Marvel's The Gifted - a great show!!
Marvel's Runaways - not a great show!!

I also binge-watched seasons 2 through 4 of Black Mirror, which was exhausting. Mostly mediocre episodes, a few great ones.

The Magicians really is doing amazing stuff! The super meta scene in the forest a few episodes ago between Margo and Elliot was the one I was dying to sqeeeeeeee over with someone. And then they went and topped that with Hariet's story. I just love this show so much!

Also, that alternate timeline story with Elliot and Quentin was heartbreakingly perfect.

>122 leahbird: The Magicians has the perfect balance of a contained-episode structure and an overall plot arc. I wish it was getting so much more recognition than it is! How many other shows have a major Deaf character on them, let alone one whose story does not revolve around her deafness? And who is powerful?

I feel like I need to watch The Magicians, but I've only read the first book in the series, so I probably should read the others before watching the show. But it's been long enough since I read the first book that I would probably need to re-read...

Or maybe I should just watch the show.

I couldn't get through the book at all, but I've heard such good things about the show I might try The Magicians eventually.

I've really been enjoying This is Us, though I'm not sure I'll be able to watch at my sister's or not...

>124 foggidawn:, >125 bell7: It's totally not necessary to read the books first! I've only read the first book so I can't speak for the series as a whole, but the show does not linearly follow the plot of the first book at all. I actually think if you read the books too closely beforehand you might focus too much on what is different/the same.

>125 bell7: You're welcome to come watch This Is Us at my house if you want ;-) Or I could dramatically reenact it for you.

>124 foggidawn: >126 norabelle414: Yeah, this is a case where the books and the movie not being super alike is ok. I love and dislike the books in almost equal measure. Actually, that's not fair, I like them a lot more than that but the things I don't like about them I really don't like.

The show takes all the AMAZING elements of the books and extrapolates the real heart of that. It does use the plot of the books as it's general map but the path it takes to cover that territory is not exact. There are a few times I wished they had played it closer to the book plot but they are VASTLY overshadowed by the fun and heartrending and hilarious and powerful things they are doing instead.

Mostly, they took one of the worst, most obnoxiously used characters from the book and ended up making him my favorite character in the whole show. And that's really saying something because I LOVE this cast and the characters as they play them.

>125 bell7: I just read a great article yesterday about the thing that saved the show for the people who did not like the book is the increased agency of and focus on the women in the story. Where the books are really focused on Quentin, which makes some of the things that happen to the supporting characters much more awful and exploitative, the show basically triples down on the number of women in main roles and supporting roles. It completely changes the dynamics for the better.

>120 norabelle414: & >121 norabelle414: Yay and holy crap, that's a lot of TV! *jealous and in awe* I've seen the first episode in Season 1 of Black Mirror, the pig-loving one... o.0 Um, yeah. I'll probably try some more, but for now I'm still going, "Ewww."

>128 saras.library: I've watched that over several months! Not all at once.

Some episodes of Black Mirror are really good and some are just blah. But I kind of like that about it?

I forgot to mention that I also watched Babylon Berlin, a German show available on Netflix in the US. It's a detective/spy/mystery/thriller set in Wiemar Germany, 1929. It's gorgeous and bananas and I loved it.

I watched the first episode of Jessica Jones on the day it came out. *is proud of self* We will not discuss how long it will take me to watch the rest of it.

>131 MickyFine: You're still ahead of me! I have a few weekly shows to catch up on before I start Jessica Jones.

Btw, I think that you specifically would enjoy Kevin (Probably) Saves the World. It's goofy and sweet and Joanna Swisher and J. August Richards are the cutest in it. (And it's almost definitely going to be cancelled after this first season, as all the greatest shows are)

>132 norabelle414: It may be another week before I watch another episode so you'll probably have passed me by then.

If Kevin hits Netflix, I'll give it a whirl. I do have a soft spot for Jason Ritter (he's handsome in an adorable way).

>133 MickyFine: Then you will *definitely* like it. The showrunners are Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas, who were the showrunners for Marvel's Agent Carter. They got a few Agent Carter actors to do voiceover work in one episode, playing an English muffin (James D'Arcy, of course), a milk carton (Enver Gjokaj), and pancakes (Wynn Everett)

>134 norabelle414: *squees in delight*

>129 norabelle414: Lol, ok, good. I was gonna say...

In all your TV list I didn't see OUaT. Are you still keeping up with it or have you given up on it like me?

>137 MickyFine: Yeah, I gave up 4 or 5 episodes into this season. It was boring and didn't seem to have a clear vision. I didn't miss any of the main characters but I missed all of the background characters a lot. Now that they've announced this is the final season I'll probably watch the finale (I did the same thing with Grimm)

Agents of SHIELD, on the other hand.... I need everyone to catch up because last week's episode was amazing.

That ending 😭 I'm almost afraid to keep watching because something terrible must be about to happen to dear FitzSimmons

>139 leahbird: Well, if they have a grandson then they at least have to last a *little* bit longer...

>138 norabelle414: I was wondering how the show was doing as it had basically disappeared from my tumblr feed (although to be fair, most of the OUaT blogs I followed were Captain Swan oriented so...). I have to admit, I've been ignoring all the SHIELD episodes on my PVR. I am almost caught up on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and I've been managing to stay on top of This Is Us and The Good Fight. I was also super psyched that Timeless came back this week.

>141 MickyFine: You could skip most of the first half of this season of Agents of SHIELD, really. Watch episode 1 and episode 5, read about the rest online, and skip ahead to episode 11.
I haven't watched Timeless yet! I think I need to rewatch the end of last season.

>128 saras.library: >129 norabelle414: My husband and I really like shows that are different and thought we would like Black Mirror, but...we started with Season 1, Episode 1 and like Sara, I think it will be some time before someone convinces me to watch another. I just can't do that type of humiliation for entertainment purposes. We've been big fans of SHIELD, but I can't get my family convinced yet to watch Season 5 because we're still making our way through The Office and Parks and Rec (I may have to watch it without them on the sly!)

>142 norabelle414: I have watched the first 4 episodes of AoS so I know Fitz's back story is next. Yay for Fitz!. I would recommend rewatching the end of last season of Timeless because I spent a bit of the premiere trying to remember how much of how the season started was established in the finale.

11. The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

Essun, Syenite, and Damaya are three women living in a geologically unstable world. They are different ages and live in different "comms" (communities), but they have one thing in common - the supernatural power to control and direct the kinetic and thermal energy around them. Their kind, called orogenes, are enslaved and abused by the ruling class, forced to quell earthquakes and demolish inconvenient rocks. They are kept in line through brutality and feared by the general public, because they have the power to destroy everything. Essun is on a cross-country mission to find her husband, who killed their son and kidnapped their daughter. Syenite is paired up with the most powerful orogene in the world by their overlords and given two jobs – clear a harbor blocked with coral, and conceive a baby. Damaya is a young girl sold by her family to the official school for young orogenes, which teaches them their place in society. What will happen to the world when these three women come together?

This book is very difficult to get started, and this was the third time I’ve tried, but boy was it worth it. As soon as I got past the first section and started to tell the women apart, a whole world opened up in front of me. The writing is fantastic and the world-building is intriguing and logical. There’s not a whole lot I can say about this book except that it was so so good! The last line of the book suggests just a hint at how this world got to be this way, and left me begging for more. I’ve already ordered the next two books in the series.

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ (5/5)

12. Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks by Annie Spence

The first half of this book contains short letters that Midwestern librarian Annie Spence has written to several dozen books she’s come across in her life. Some of them are declarations of undying love, some of them are breakup letters, and all of them are very funny and sweet. They remind you how books can make you feel on every level – the excitement of recognition when you see a cover, the sweet heartache when you finish a great book and can never read it for the first time again, the sneering cynicism when you come across a far-outdated non-fiction book.

The second half of the book is fully just book recommendations. Books to read in pairs. Books to read when you don’t want to go out and socialize. Fat books. Skinny books. Books to give to people who don’t like books. At first I started writing down the ones that looked intriguing but eventually I gave up and ordered a copy of this book for myself.

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ (5/5)

13. Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan

Shang Su Yi, also known as Ah Ma, the matriarch of the Young family, is on her deathbed. Out of the woodwork come all of her relatives – royal grandchildren from Thailand, British cousins from Surrey, and of course the greedy Eddie Cheng. The grand Singaporean mansion Tyersall Park is chock full of people hoping for a piece of Ah Ma’s gigantic inheritance. Even Nicholas Young, formerly Ah Ma’s golden child but currently in self-imposed exile in NYC, returns to Singapore to say his goodbyes. Eddie, determined to keep Nick out of their grandmother’s good graces, is constantly scheming. Will Ah Ma survive her illness? Who will inherit Tyersall Park (and how will they afford the upkeep)? Can Ah Ma and Nicholas make up?

Once again, we return to the epic struggle between those who have a reputation but (relatively) little money and those who have no reputation and oodles of cash. Nothing like some inheritance drama to stir the pot! I really loved all of the parts of the plot that were about the family drama and the inheritance. Although in the last book I really liked Kitty Pong, in this book she was unnecessarily cruel (though her nemesis is worse) and I didn’t like her sections much. A few flashbacks and lots of other peeks into Ah Ma’s life during World War II give extra depth to a story that might otherwise be stale. I don’t know if there are going to be more in this series, but I’m not ready for it to be over!

Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ♥ (4.5/5)

Ooh, a string of excellent reads! I'm going to have to read The Fifth Season, aren't I?

>148 foggidawn: Yes do it! It's so good!

Few great reviews there! I keep meaning to start the Kevin Kwan series and then I forget. I'll have to put one on hold so I remember when it becomes available!

Yay for books 12 and 13! Have a great weekend, Nora!

Food for thought:

I am reading a book right now that I *hate*. I already have dozens of notes about how much and why I hate it. It's a popular book, and I have not seen many bad reviews or reviews mentioning the specific issues that I have. I'm on page 125 out of 375. How much should I read? Is it worth reading more to see if it gets better? Is it worth reading more so that I can write a detailed review about how much I hate it? Is it worth reading more so that I can count it toward my yearly books? Can I do any of those things without reading more, because I have read enough pages in it to be equal to a book? (Don't forget that last year I counted two short stories as books.)

Of course, there are no actual rules here in the 75ers anarchist commune so I will do what I want, but I'm curious what the rest of you think/do in this situation.
(While I am happy the Pearl Rule exists, and happy that it works for many other people, it does not work for me.)

I am in the same boat! I’m reading Blood Meridian and I hate it. I have zero desire to finish it. It’s an eBook and it says I’m 69% finished. I’m so close to being finished that I’m trying to force myself to finish it so I can count it as read and move on.
It’s so disappointing when I hate a book that so many people love and it’s considered a masterpiece. Makes me wonder what’s wrong with me!

>152 norabelle414: Is it a library book or one that you own? If I owned it, I would just avoid making a decision by setting it aside "for now" with the intention of returning to it later. And then when I never returned to it, oh well.

You can still write a scathing review only 125 pages in. I wish more people did that, because the reviews offer a skewed perspective if they're only written by people who enjoyed the book enough to finish it.

>152 norabelle414: I would've dumped it well before 125 pages. 😀

14. DID NOT FINISH - All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

Eventually this book is about time travel, but I didn't get that far. I read the first 125 pages, which are about all of the women the main character has slept with, and his mother. His mother gave her whole life to a genius husband who barely registered her existence, and eventually got hit by a car careening toward her husband and died. Their son has never put any effort into anything and does not even aspire to basic attempts at competence, like showing up to work at his father's company on time. He is very self-depreciating but totally deserves the depreciation, like a person with impostor syndrome who is actually completely unqualified. And yet from the stories he tells, he has either never met a woman who doesn't want to sleep with him or he does not remember any women he meets who do not sleep with him (or both). The stories include his friend who is "cold to other women" and with whom he is "just friends" but of course they sleep together, and a random girl he meets on the street when he is twelve years old and has run away from home, who keeps him in her house for five days and they "make out for hours" and are eventually discovered almost naked together in her bed. Twelve years old.

The author/book seem to be somewhat aware of the problems presented - aside from the aforementioned self-depreciation, the narrator points out his mother's unfair sacrifices, and makes a point of providing the first and last name of every woman he mentions sleeping with so that they are not just conquests. But that only makes them conquests with names. While acknowledging that the problems in this story exist is important, the author still wrote a story with all these problems in it. Before I even got to the time travel part, I hated the main character so much that I could not stand to be in his first-person head for a minute longer.

It could be argued that this book is more about world-building than the main character. The beginning of the book takes place in the present day in an alternate timeline created when an unlimited source of energy was invented in 1975. But like the main character's life, the world doesn't hold up to much scrutiny either. The world alternates between valuing science-for-the-sake-of-science and not valuing science, and between requiring funding/profits/money and not requiring funding/profits/money, about every 20 pages. There's a reason very few people write utopias, and that's because it's hard. This is not a successful one.

While I suppose it is possible that the rest of the plot involves the main character learning how to actually do a tiny amount of work, and that women are human beings with agency, I was born knowing that so I won't be sticking around to find out.

Rating: ❤ ♥ (1.5/5)

>145 norabelle414: I received The Fifth Season from SantaThing this year and it's sitting on the TBR pile next to the couch, taunting me to pick it up. Maybe I'll start it when I'm done with the chunkster that I'm currently on the midst of, The Wise Man's Fear.

>156 norabelle414: Sigh. You hate it, Foggi really liked it and that leaves me having to keep it on The List and figuring out where I fall.

>156 norabelle414: and >158 MickyFine: Yeah, I definitely liked it better than Nora did! It’s like we were reading completely different books. To each her own...

Hi Nora!

>156 norabelle414: Wow. Sorry it was that terrible!

>152 norabelle414: It's hard for me to give up on books, too. I tend to "set them aside" with the intent on picking them up again, though. However, I'm getting better on giving up.

>157 leahbird: Pick it up! I think you'll love it.

>158 MickyFine: Well, I disliked it almost immediately so it shouldn't take you long to figure out what side you're on!

>159 foggidawn: It was your review that made me hesitant to mention my dislike of the book at all. It's possible that if I had pushed through the scene-setting and gotten into the time travel part, I would have been able to overlook the beginning and enjoyed the book overall, but I decided that I didn't want that.

>160 The_Hibernator: When I give up on a book I tend to still think of it as something "to be read", when I should really just let it go. I often think that maybe if I come back to it in a different frame of mind, or later in my life, things will be different. That's one of the reasons why I decided to review this book and count it for the year. It's closure, so I won't feel like I should come back to this one later. (Of course I could always approach it later as a "reread", but it's no longer on this imaginary list of "books I have not read".)
Sometimes I set books aside because they are very long, or the subject matter is very tough, or they are do back at the library. But it's important for me to separate those situations from this one.

Speaking of things I have trouble letting go of, here's a TV update:
(I'm going to experiment with giving ratings to TV shows. ⮝ means I love it, ⮟ means I don't like it, ⮞ means it's okay and I'll keep watching)

⮞ iZombie - I liked the end of this week's episode but overall this season has not been as good as previous seasons. Everything feels very stagnant. I hated Liv on over-the-top hopeless romantic brain for two whole episodes, but I loved Major briefly on pro-wrestler brain at the end.

⮝ DC's Legends of Tomorrow - still the best DC show at the moment! So hilariously funny on every possible level, and so LGBTQ-positive! Wally is a great new addition to the cast.

⮝ The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale - kind of a Netflix-reboot of E!'s "The Soup". Joel McHale jokes mostly about things that have been on unscripted TV for the past week, and also other things. It's relaxing to watch because I don't have to pay much attention, and I feel like I'm keeping up with pop culture without actually having to watch the shows. Plus, Paul Feig produces and is on the show sometimes!

⮝ Brooklyn Nine-Nine - I've missed this show so much and I'm so glad it's back!

⮝ Atlanta - As usual, last week's episode struck the exquisite balance between surreal and hyper-real. The gang gets paid with hundred dollar bills (featuring Harriet Tubman), but because they are black and don't present as rich, no one will accept a $100 bill from them except a strip club, where they end up having to spend their whole paychecks.

⮝ The Magicians - I've been iffy on the fairy storyline overall, but last week's episode was a great payoff. Fen was especially good. The dinner scene was very reminiscent of Julia's storyline in season 1, and I appreciated the callback.

⮞ Life Sentence - A cute-ish show about a young woman who has been sick with cancer for many years and is suddenly cured. She has to deal with the rash decisions she's made (like getting married to a guy she barely knows) and discovers that her family is super messed up because they've spent so long trying to make the MC's life happy. It's not bad but I was hoping for something like "No Tomorrow" and it is not that good.

⮞ Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. - hitting the mid-arc slump in the two investigation storylines. They've done all the early scene-setting but aren't ready for any big conclusions yet. Thankfully the sensitive depictions of Tupac and Biggie can easily carry the show.

⮟ Rise - A high school English teacher becomes the director of the school musical and decides to stage "Spring Awakening" instead of something safe, and casts a bunch of troubled teens instead of the usual drama geeks.

⮟ For the People - A lawyer-y show about a group of young new defenders and prosecutors in NYC. Kind of a Grey's Anatomy-type feel to it. The pilot was pretty good but these shows aren't my kind of thing so I probably won't watch more.

⮞ Black-ish - Black-ish was recently forced to pull an episode that was perceived to be critical of the NFL. (NFL mostly airs on ESPN, which is owned by Disney, which also owns ABC). A reminder that no matter how progressive and artistic a show is, money still rules everything.

⮞ Shoot the Messenger - An import from Canada - an overzealous journalist gets involved in a murder investigation connected to gangs and/or some kind of conspiracy. A fine show which stars Elyse Levesque (Chloe on "Stargate Universe"), Lucas Bryant (Nathan Wuornos on "Haven") and Alex Kingston (literally everything) who are all A+++

⮞ Mary Kills People - Season 2 of another Canadian import - I wasn't sure about this show at the beginning of last season but it really grew on me and I appreciate the ethical conundrums.

⮞ Good Girls - Somewhat fun but wildly uneven. Can't decide when to be funny and when to be tragic.

⮞ Timeless - It's been so long since the first season of this show that I can't remember how much I liked it. The first episode of season 2 was fine, but not great.

⮞ The Royals - My favorite stupid guilty pleasure. Slightly less fun now that global politics in the real world have gone to shit .

⮝ Deception - This might be my new favorite stupid guilty pleasure?? A disgraced stage magician helps the police catch criminals and solve crimes that seem to be mimicking his famous illusions. I love seeing all

⮞ Jessica Jones - I've only watched one episode of season 2 so far. It was good.

⮟ Champions - A gay teenage boy shows up on the doorstep of his 30-something "slacker" father, who owns a gym. Unfunny and unoriginal.

I've done 2 episodes of Jessica Jones but now all TV watching is mostly paused because, of course, my holds on Dickensian and the third season of The Librarians came in at the same time.

Bookish things I've done recently:

On March 10 I went to see Jonny Sun at Politics & Prose and bought his book everyone's a aliebn when ur a aliebn too.

On March 14, Mary (bell7) and I went to the Library of Congress to see Margot Lee Shetterly talk about Hidden Figures - the book and the movie. I didn't buy anything.

Yesterday I received Creatures of Light by Emily B. Martin, which I ordered online from Fiction Addiction. This is the sequel to Ashes to Fire, which I read last year, and is the third book in the "Creatures of Light" trilogy.

Today I went to see Daniel Mallory Ortberg at Politics & Prose at the Wharf and bought his book The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror. While I was there I also bought The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin.

Coming up:

This Thursday I'm going back to Politics & Prose at the Wharf to see Mackenzi Lee and buy her new book Bygone Badass Broads: 52 Forgotten Women Who Changed the World

On Sunday I'm going to Politics & Prose to see Nell Scovell talk about her book Just the Funny Parts: My 30 Years on the Hollywood Jungle Gym. She was the showrunner of my favorite show of all time, Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

The following weekend is AwesomeCon, DC's comics/fandom convention.

In May I am leading the first meeting of a new book club for volunteers at the zoo. We're reading An Indomitable Beast by Alan Rabinowitz.

You've been doing some fun bookish things lately!
Love your TV updates. You reminded me that I forgot to set my PVR for Brooklyn nine-nine, whoops!

I haven't watched The Magicians (although I loved the first book and haven't read the rest) and I haven't heard of The Librarians. I wonder if I can get them here. I'll have to check.

>164 norabelle414: That all sounds awesome. I've had the Nell Scovell book on The List since I saw it in pre-pub alerts. I look forward to your report on that that event. :)

>165 ChelleBearss: The Magicians films in Canada so I sure hope you can watch it there! Season 1 kind of follows the plot of the books while seasons 2 and 3 go further off on their own and are, in my opinion, better. If you loved the first book then you will almost definitely love the show!
The Librarians is a show based on the series of movies of the same name, and I know for sure that one airs on the Space channel in Canada. It's just been cancelled but there are 4 seasons to watch!

>166 MickyFine: I am looking forward to it! I get a newsletter every month of all the events at that bookstore, but they have at least one, sometimes up to 4 events every day and 90% of them don't interest me. I almost skimmed over Nell Scovell but then I saw Sabrina in the description and did a double-take!

I don't remember how many of these I've mentioned before but I've seen the following movies in the theater lately:

Love, Simon (based on Simon vs. the Homo sapiens Agenda)
Marvel's Black Panther (based on characters from Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet)
Annihilation (based on Annihilation)
A Wrinkle in Time (based on A Wrinkle in Time)

They were all excellent. I'm getting very good at deciding what movies are worth seeing in theaters.

>167 norabelle414: The single independent bookstore in my town does author events but they're usually for rubbish self-published books from local peeps that I don't care about. Sigh.

>168 norabelle414: Of those, I've only gone to see Black Panther. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to see the new Pacific Rim because those movies are meant for giant movie screens. The Fiancé has been psyched about Ready Player One for months so we'll definitely be going to see that one.

>169 MickyFine: I am very spoiled for great bookstore events. Not to mention all the museums and dozens of local libraries and the Library of Congress that have events. And the book festival! If I lived closer to Politics & Prose I would probably go to every single event there. But it's about an hour on the Metro/bus (and about $3 each way) so I pick and choose.

I'm not sure if I'm going to see Ready Player One or not. I might wait until some reviews come out.
I'm also not sure about The Avengers: Infinity War. I hated The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War a lot and I expect I might not like this one either, but I do want to see all of the characters meet each other. But do I want to pay $15 to see all of the characters meet each other?

>170 norabelle414: I have scads of movie points (yay for a credit card that earns me movie points) so I haven't paid to see a movie in yonks.

>168 norabelle414: Of those, I’ve seen A Wrinkle in Time (gorgeous!) and will see Love, Simon this weekend. I’ll probably watch Ready Player One eventually. This is a big movie month for me; I usually go to the movie theatre two or three times a year!

Becky Albertalli (Simon vs the Homo sapiens Agenda) is a friend of a friend (also an author) and it's been really adorable secondhand watching her be super freaking excited about the whole process of her book becoming a big deal movie. I've not read it or seen the movie yet but both are on my Must list so I'm glad to hear so many people liking it.

I saw Mackenzi Lee tonight and she was so funny and great!



I bought her new book Bygone Badass Broads: 52 Forgotten Women Who Changed the World and refreshed my excitement for the upcoming sequel to The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

Agents of Shield: God damnit. #PeaceForFitzSimons

I really enjoyed Annihilation as well. Have you read the Southern Reach trilogy? I can't remember. Seems a few of us did a couple of years ago, but I've lost track of who.

Also, your TV ratings all show up as little squares on my Chromebook so I can tell you either love, like or hate them all ;) I still haven't decided if I'm going to watch The Magicians, and I have Firefly and The Incredible Hulk from the library at home. I did manage to catch up on This is Us and watched the finale at my parents' house Sunday.

>175 leahbird: Sigh, I know. It kind of weirded me out when Fitz proposed to her by saying that they would never be separated again. Really?? None of their separations have been a result of them not being married. A vow and a ring are not going to fix their problems.

>176 bell7: I read Annihilation a couple years ago. I started reading Authority maybe 6 months ago but I find it very boring so I haven't been reading fast. Richard assures me that the third book is better so I am going to try to power through it.

TV ratings all show up as little squares
I was afraid of that :-( It took me a long time to find symbols that even showed up on MY computer; a lot of the options were arrows so teeny tiny that I couldn't tell which way they were pointing.
Can you see the hearts I use for ratings underneath reviews? Maybe I could do ❤, X, or ~ instead of arrows.

I started a new thread! In which I review a very disappointing book.