Open Thread for Readers for November 2016
Got a book you want to talk about? Frustrated with a book or series? In love with a new one? Found a buried treasure? An issue that keeps popping up in the books you are reading? Just want to chat about stuff in general?
My digital TBR in Calibre has reached 2000+ titles and I’m paralyzed by the abundance. It’s almost easier to start with the B&N books purchased thanks to the settlement: fewer of them and they can only be read in the Nook app.
I loved ILLUMINAE and am now listening to GEMINA, which, as an epistolary novel, is rather difficult to follow. A physical copy is on its way, but has anyone else struggled with these initially unlikable characters?
@Darlynne. I feel your pain also. I just peeked at my Calibre and my TBR digital (we won’t talk about the boxes of paperbacks) is at 515. Not as bad as yours obviously but I won’t even touch a book recommendation by somebody new unless I hear raves from more than one source and a Goodreads grade of 4.0 or above. I know that sounds elitist but my reading speed is 10-12 books a month so I’m up to almost 4 years of books without buying anymore….which we all know doesn’t happen. I’ts a type of shopping addiction. I do change up genre styles to cycle through older books. So a couple of Historical’s followed by contemporary or sci-fi, paranormal, M/M. I also have no compunction about doing a DNF at the 50% mark if the book doesn’t hold my interest. That’s the best I can give you in time. And, I don’t even belong to Kindle Unlimited or anything. *sigh*
I’ve recently had a great streak of awesome book reads, two of which I found through the Daily Deals mentions on this site. Like Darlynne, I’m loving “Illuminae,” though I saw it as a DD here and picked up the ebook before reading all of the comments that said you definitely needed to read the hard copy. That’s absolutely true – the font is really small and can’t be enlarged, and not all of the formatting carries through. That said, I’m still able to read it since certain parts of the story have made my heart pound so hard I actually had to stop reading. I don’t know if I have the fortitude to read “Gemina” after the way this book has put me through the wringer.
DA also featured M.R. Carey’s “The Girl With All the Gifts” as a Daily Deal and I picked it up and loved it. It’s possibly my favourite book of the year. I recommended it to several people with the instruction not to read anything about it, not even the blurb, and they adored it too.
I also read the Wayward Pines trilogy. I’ve never seen the TV show, but the books were great and I read them in a weekend.
After reading about all this bloodshed and mayhem, I’m looking forward to Cara McKenna’s “Brutal Game,” which I’m sure will be a tender and gentle love story. ;)
@Darlynne: @Judy W.: Yes and yes. My “break even” point for continuing a book is getting shorter in terms of page count and I’m also more careful before clicking the buy button or making a request.
I liked illuminae, but not enough to want to keep reading. I enjoyed the way the book is presented, but the plot was all a bit deus ex machina for me. (Though in a way that is totally appropriate for the story.)
I’ve just – finally it’s out! – read Aaranovitch’s The Hanging Tree (book 6) and I’m on the fence about it. I felt that it somehow lacked the joie de vivre of the rest of the series. But I know sometimes before, when I’ve really anticipated a book, on the first reading I’m disappointed, but on a subsequent reread enjoy it much better. So perhaps it will grow on me.
But on first reading, I thought Tyburn was inexplicably unTyburnish, the interactions with the faceless man an anticlimax, the referencing of incidents from the graphic novels (which I haven’t read) a bit ham-fisted, and the original crime seemed to get lost in the shuffle. (Also I’m a little worried that the property damage is going to become an ongoing joke of the Stephanie Plum diminishing returns variety.)
Still. lots and lots to like about the book.
I’ve also downloaded Bujold’s latest Penric novella, but haven’t started reading it yet.
I have multiple Calibre libraries which add up to just over 3000 books. Many have been read, many have not.
I have made an effort this year not to buy new-to-me authors unless I planned to read the book right away. There have been a few good sales though where I did not stick to this rule. My main problem is that I am 99% of the time a must read in order type person. So if a book catches my eye and then I discover it is book 3 or 4 of a series, I purchase them all. Too often the books then languish in my TBR mountain as starting a new series can seem like too much of a commitment.
Last year I picked 10 books from my existing TBR that I considered MUST reads and that worked out pretty well. They were a combination of new-to-me authors and non-autobuy authors I had read before. I also picked two autobuy authors (Kat Latham and Coleen Kwan) I had fallen woefully behind on and read all of those books. I plan to do the same for next year, but will just have one autobuy author I am really behind on (Nicole Helm). I try to sprinkle these books in between my up-to-date autobuy authors and other reading goals.
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For October/early November, I enjoyed Jill Shalvis’ The Trouble with Mistletoe. I also liked One Snowy Night which came out yesterday though it was very short and I wanted more. Both are part of her new Heartbreaker Bay series.
I also liked Meg Benjamin’s Love in the Morning (Salt Box Trilogy #2), Stacy Gail’s House of Payne: Rude (House of Payne #4), and Julie Miller’s Kansas City Countdown from her long-running The Precinct mini-series. Alissa Callen’s Beneath Outback Skies (Outback Dust #1) was a book I really enjoyed even though I felt the end was somehwat lackluster.
For this month I am eagerly awaiting Shannon Stacey’s new Christmas novella, Holiday with a Twist.
I am so overwhelmed by my TBR list, I’m considering not buying any new books next year (except for The Devil in Spring, I need that one!). I have 444 on my ‘Top Priority’ TBR list. That doesn’t include library books or paperbacks. I returned a lot of library books without reading them, I’m making sure I give up on books I’m not enjoying, and I’m only buying books on my highest priority wish list when then drop to $1.99 or less. I’m still increasing my TBR list with these rules in place so that’s why I’m considering the buying (and quite possibly lending) moratorium.
As for what I’ve enjoyed lately, The Hating Game by Sally Thorne was great except for the fat-shaming of the one-note villain CEO. I’m also slowly working my way through my Sarina Bowen backlog. I loved Bittersweet and Steadfast; Rookie Move was also good, although it was my least favorite of the three.
I have my TBR list in a Word document broken down by Autobuy, Regular, and New-to-Me authors. But sometimes I turn on cover view and go “shopping” in my Calibre libraries. There’s something about looking at the covers/blurbs rather than just the titles/authors on a list that I need at times.
My God, you all make reading sound so exhausting! It sounds like a full time job keeping track of all those unread books. I get my print, ebooks and audiobooks from a variety of sources and tend to be reading something in each format at the same time, but I only buy or borrow (as opposed to downloading a sample) when I’m ready to start the book. I might miss out on a few deals but I think it makes for a more carefree reading experience. Of course it helps that I do not have a single romance autobuy author any more and I have no qualms about cherrypicking the odd title out of a series and skippojg the rest.
As for what I’ve read lately, I tried Nalini Singh for the first time and was underwhelmed by Rock Courtship (great start but then more sex than story). Loved The Soldier’s Scoundrel by Cat Sebastian (MM historical) and quite enjoyed That Eighteenth Summer by Raine O’Tierney (MM coming-of-age kind of romance written in a distinctive and very engaging teenage voice). I’m taking ages to get through Sarina Bowen’s Keepsake. It’s good enough but I keep getting distracted by other things, like the Rennie Airth historical English police procedural I borrowed today and will start reading tonight.
A “stuff in general” comment. I was an Avon Addict. I got a lot of free early books to review and reviewed quite a few of them on my blog (which had four followers.) I also copied my reviews to Goodreads where I was contacted by an author who I had consistently graded low and was asked to not review her books anymore. I felt really guilty. Apparently I was really bringing down her stats. So I started marking two star and lower books by putting “READ” as the status but no star indication. I still get credit for the book in my stats but it doesn’t affect the authors as far as I know.
Just lately however, I’m noticing that people I’m grading low have really, really high star values. No books written by any new authors I’ve read in the last six months have less than three and one half stars. This confuses me.
1. Am I the only person who didn’t like the writing, characterization, bad grammar, bad editing, the story was NOT for me, etc?
2. Was it totally WRONG to stop giving lower grades? To feel guilty that I was affecting an author on Goodreads and then stop grading low at all?
According to the stats I’ve read 553 books so far this year. 139050 pages. 139 of those books received NO rating from me. What’s going on? Is it just me? Am I freaking out over nothing?
I’m currently reading the October Daye series and loving them.
@Beret Brenckman: I think no reviewer should feel guilty about posting an honest review. A review is just one person’s opinion and as long as it doesn’t attack the author personally then they are way out of line if they try to stifle negative opinions of their books, for whatever reason.
I only post reviews on amazon (where ironically the majority of romance book reviews are worthless) and writing the review is an important part of the romance reading experience for me. In fact, the disappointment of a mediocre book can be somewhat offset by the satisfaction of getting off my chest what I didn’t like about it.
I take care to be analytical and separate technical flaws from ways in which the book just didn’t satisfy my personal preferences, but I have to say I particularly relish posting critical reviews for books that abound in 5 star ratings I feel are undeserved! I’m sure many readers have had the experience of deciding to buy a book based on the negative reviews rather than the rapturous fangirling ones. After all, one person’s wallbanger is another person’s guilty pleasure. The romance genre needs honest and thoughtful reviewers.
@Marianne mcA: I didn’t realize that was already out, Marianne. Good to know.
So, I’m feeling badly in need of smart dystopians right now. Not anything like The Hunger Games (although I liked it) but thought-provoking books more like Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler or Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Books in which the characters survive cataclysmic change. Does anyone have recommendations for me?
@oceanjasper: Thanks, oceanjasper.
@Beret Brenckman:
I review sporadically.
I have gotten better about plowing through a book that I am enjoying even if the editing/grammar/punctuation is lacking.
And I always, always, always write in the review “this would have been a 4 if the (whatever issue) wasn’t so prevalent.”
When I see all those 5-star reviews, I look for the negative reviews to FIND the ones that actually mention stuff like grammar, puerile humor, whatever. Those are the ones that are invaluable.
And I will admit I give little credence to the reviews that say “It doesn’t matter if they can’t spell and can’t punctuate.” Well, it matters to me. Nothing will rip me out of a story faster than see all the Facebook spelling abuses.
Yeah. I am fun at parties.
@Ellen: Ellen: being a former English teacher I cringe frequently. I’m not that popular at parties now that I think about it. I like the suggestion of “this would have been a “x” if…” I’ll try that a few times and see how it feels.