Quests & Challenges

I finally hit up my local library again and grabbed a few books the other day! Just got a cute new bookmark during an outing to an aviation museum yesterday too. The book I'm currently reading is 'The House on Vesper Sands' by Paraic O'Donnell. It's an interesting read so far! The initial chapter was beautifully written to keep interest and make you want to see the whole thing through immediately! Not super far into it yet but thoroughly curious on how the story will play out!

---

Tell us the latest 5 star book you've read

And here is my shame where I mention I don't read as much as I should wheeze. I tend to constantly re-read my favorite book, which is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I finished re-reading it again last week during some scout events! I'm a massive sucker for taking nebulous concepts and surrealism and putting them in silly packages. It will always be a 5 star book for me! I also just re-read Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass again!

Such a creative event oh my gosh! Love this :)

I'm currently reading "History of the World in Six Glasses" by Tom Standage. It's a nonfiction, historical book that wanders through the cultural, political, and economic impacts of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola. It's been really interesting so far, I've learned a lot about historical things that I had brushed against in my education but never fully delved into. Turns out the movement of alcohol and caffeine items in ancient and relatively modern times has a lot of impact on the world, more than you might think. My only complaint about it so far is that it's very Western-perspective-centered, so perhaps it might better be called "History of the [Western] World in Six Glasses."

After this, I've got "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver lined up, then "Yellowface" by R.F Kuang. I'm very excited to read both of them!

---

Question: Tell us the last 5 star book you read!

It's been a bit since I've read a book I've rated 5 stars - I'm a little stubborn on that one, but I'd love to tell you about the best book I read recently. (which got 4.5 stars out of me!) It's called "The Bullet Swallower" by Elizabeth Gonzalez James, coming out just a few months ago. It's a magical realism western, which follows two timelines of a grandfather and his grandson, one set along the Mexico-Texan border in 1895 and the other, in Mexico City in 1964. In one timeline, we have Antonio Sonoro, a bandido down on his luck who attempts to pull off a train heist that goes wrong. In the other, Jaime Sonoro, a performer who is suddenly confronted with his family history and the question of whether or not evil is a choice.

This book deals with a lot, from colonialism, generational trauma, religion, revenge, destiny vs self-determination, etc. Additionally, the author's imagery is stunning. I mean seriously, you'll feel like you're right there in the book. She also, IMO, has a great grasp on characterization. It's a fantastic book and I'd recommend it to anyone, especially someone who is looking for something maybe a little different. It's fairly short as well, only 250 pages.

did readings for class on how refugee status and identity is created, defined, and challenged

also read a bit of Dragonsteel Prime by Brandon Sanderson - just over 2/3 done, i believe. the dragons (scant as they may be) are the best part so far

daily question: latest 5 star read . . . i don't give books ratings but last week i read Trevor Noah's Born a Crime and really enjoyed it. quick pacing, engaging writing style, both comedic and sobering, and the ending hit like a sack of bricks walloped at my head

[quote name="Valoria" date="2024-04-14 14:55:40" ] After this, I've got "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver lined up, then "Yellowface" by R.F Kuang. I'm very excited to read both of them! [/quote] oooh im always meaning to pick up more of kingsolver's works. only ever read an article by her in high school!

[quote name="Rattification" date="2024-04-14 13:40:40" ] Daily Question: The last 5 star book I read was Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. I am sooooo glad I picked up the Gideon the Ninth series, because both Gideon and Nona were INCREDIBLE books!!! In Nona the Ninth, I especially loved Nona's pov and the way others interact with her. The people of the world felt so kind, even with some pretty awful things going on in the background. I think Nona will be one of my favorite characters, and Nona the Ninth will be one of my favorite books, for a very long time. [/quote] MOOD tho. nona my BELOVED (weeping)

Oh wow, this is a super original idea for an event, kudos! Just a question: does fanfiction count? As a kid I used to read 2-3 books a week, but then as I grew older and my executive functioning utterly nope'd out and my ADHD set up shop that just gradually ground to a halt. Fanfic is the only kind of fiction I've truly been able to keep up, I suppose because I don't have to learn about the characters and their universe from scratch. I couldn't imagine getting started on Tolkien's work today, and my very first tattoo was a Sindarin one, lol. Just to give an indication of how huge a fan I am.

Trevor Noah's Born A Crime, through audiobook, which really elevates it in my opinion as he reads it himself and thus brings a ton of both humour and poignancy to it. I'm a big fan of him, so there's a lot of stories in there that I'm sort of familiar with through his stand-up. My biggest takeaway at the end of it all was what a complete and utter BAMF his mother is.

I already knew this to an extent--again, the stand-up--but there is so much he gets into about her life, and eventually his during apartheid, the way she raised him, and how much he credits her for him having become who he is today. Most of those stories I couldn't recount properly without FR censoring a bunch of stuff, so instead I'll share sth that really stuck with me.

Paraphrased: many people in South Africa are given names that can be translated from one of the South African languages and have meanings such as 'fighter' 'hope' 'ambition', all that. The things the parents want for their child.

Yet she didn't want that. She didn't want him to have expectations placed upon him as soon as he was born, so she named him Trevor, which doesn't really mean anything at all, so he would be capable of pursuing whatever he wanted. And I think that's powerful as hell.

OH and forgot the 'what'd you read today?' part of things, lol. Like I said, executive dysfunction and ADHD :')

I listened to 'The Raven' as read by Christopher Lee today. I must've listened to that version over a hundred times by now, I love it so much. I've even got a physical copy of Poe's collective work.

And I know The Raven is low-hanging fruit as far as poetry goes, but pfsh, gatekeepers gonna gatekeep :') doesn't make it less of a masterpiece.

Last 5 star book i read was 'sickened' by julie gregory and i have not stopped thinking about it since <3. i think a lot of autobiographical-type novels go wrong in narrating their younger years by either making them too worldly to feel believably childlike, or too simplistic to actually be interesting, but she does a very neat job of it; you witness events through her eyes in such a way that you as the reader can understand what they're building towards, but without making herself sound neither omniscient or like she's missing out on something obvious. it's a very pleasant and easy to read style of writing for a book with deeply, deeply unpleasant subject matter :3 i burned through it in one sitting and i spent the rest of the night thinking "now how on earth did i survive all that"