What are you reading? Book recommendations please! šŸ“šļø

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  • MissMarple
    MissMarple Community Member Posts: 441 Empowering

    I'm a huge fan of Jackson Galaxy @Rag_793 I learnt so much about cats from his videos.

  • Mary_Scope
    Mary_Scope Posts: 5,186 Scope Online Community Children and Family Specialists

    Exciting @MissMarple! Is her second book a similar genre/theme to You'd Look Better As A Ghost?

    Thank you for sharing that @SmellyBin, have you read her books before?

  • SmellyBin
    SmellyBin Community Member Posts: 593 Empowering

    Wow @Rag_793 you're taking this very seriously. Please share your cat somewhere here online when the time has come, I would love to see it =^.^=

  • SmellyBin
    SmellyBin Community Member Posts: 593 Empowering

    Nope @Mary_Scope I haven't even heard of her before this discussion, but her book Dead Friend Mystery (can't think of the exact title) sounded intriguing.

    And the reviews on Netgalley only have two demands @MissMarple ā€¦ a minimum number of words which I don't know exactly, but it isn't very high; and you only have to review 80% of the books you received and ARC for. This works perfectly for me, as I still get to quit the books I don't like, and I have no intention of writing the most beautiful review you've ever come across on Goodreads :)
    Mostly mine are one or two paragraphs. So far no one has complained and a few weeks ago I even got an invitation to become a paid reviewer. Huh? Yeah, for real. But I decided not to go ahead with that. I wasn't sure about what books they would send me, the pay was 5 dollars which is not what I want to get my knickers in a twist for if I don't like the book, and besidesā€¦ getting paid for a review? It feels a bit uncomfortable.

  • MissMarple
    MissMarple Community Member Posts: 441 Empowering

    In the second book, Dead Friend Project a school mum investigates the death of her friend @Mary_Scope I would say it's a different vibe. But Claire, the serial killer returns in the third book.

    @SmellyBin I think the issue with Netgalley and paid reviews arises when a reviewer feels they can't give a bad review, because they may not get books offered in the future.

  • Mary_Scope
    Mary_Scope Posts: 5,186 Scope Online Community Children and Family Specialists

    I'll have to put them on my list @MissMarple. I finished You'd Look Better As A Ghost last night and I did not see the twist coming at all so I was pleasantly surprised with the endingšŸ˜„

    Charity shops are brilliant for books @Rag_793, I find so many are still in such good condition for nowhere near the full pricešŸ˜Š

  • Rag_793
    Rag_793 Community Member Posts: 57 Contributor
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1137012#Comment_1137012

    He is an incredible and humble man that does amazing things for cats, his programme Cats From Hell was brilliant, may have to dig it out.

  • MissMarple
    MissMarple Community Member Posts: 441 Empowering

    I couldn't guess the ending either @Mary_Scope I'd like to reread the book to see what hints I missed.

  • SmellyBin
    SmellyBin Community Member Posts: 593 Empowering

    Oh My Gnat @Mary_Scope I am reading Lost Lambs! What a book! Only fifty pages to go, I don't want it to end, all that weirdness :)

  • Mary_Scope
    Mary_Scope Posts: 5,186 Scope Online Community Children and Family Specialists

    Isn't it amazing @SmellyBin!! I didn't want it to end! Nothing like I expected at all but in the best wayšŸ˜‚Do you have a favourite character in there? Mine has to be one of the sisters I thinkšŸ˜‚

  • SmellyBin
    SmellyBin Community Member Posts: 593 Empowering

    Yeah, @Mary_Scope I love books that are silly and/or fit the description 'there is no such thing as normal,' this one had both. And there were some snide remarks about women in mags looking sad, being too thin, women generally being a B.

    My fav would be Perry for her crying over the G (four letter word, but I don't want to spoil it for others).

    Weirdly, the book's rating is less than 4 starsā€¦

  • Mary_Scope
    Mary_Scope Posts: 5,186 Scope Online Community Children and Family Specialists

    My favourite type of book are those that are affectionally called "weird women books" or "weird girl lit" and this definitely fell into it @SmellyBin!

    I thought the whole G plot was so funny and so cleveršŸ¤£

    I wonder why it's rated so low?! That feels quite undeserved. I'm really looking forward for Madeline Cash's next book. What do you plan on reading after Lost Lambs?

  • SmellyBin
    SmellyBin Community Member Posts: 593 Empowering

    Oooh, I need a list of 'weird women books,' @Mary_Scope Any suggestions?

    Right now I am reading Becky Chamber's upcoming book Break the Shell about humans on a different planet building a colony and trying to grow carrots (well, the description will be a bit different on Goodreads). I am a fan of her books for the characters beingā€¦ other than average, in a good way. I don't have the bandwidth right now to come up with the right words.

    And what have you started?

  • Mary_Scope
    Mary_Scope Posts: 5,186 Scope Online Community Children and Family Specialists
    edited July 13

    My top 5 would beā€¦

    My Husband - Maud Ventura
    I Who Have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman
    Big Swiss - Jen Beagin (Jodie Comer is rumoured to direct/produce this as well as play Big Swiss!)
    Sky Daddy - Kate Folk
    Boy Parts - Eliza Clark

    I've just read the blurb for that book @SmellyBin, it looks very intriguing! I am a fan of alternative timelines or dual timelines in a book, how are you finding it?

    I started Selfish Girls by Abigail Bergstrom on Friday, I'm only 20something pages in so far but finding it a bit difficult to get into!

  • SmellyBin
    SmellyBin Community Member Posts: 593 Empowering

    I'll be looking into those, thanks @Mary_Scope And I've got two more to add: The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden (Johan Johansson?) and Watching over Her (Jean Baptiste Andrea). And it seems there is this list on Goodreads.

    But I do wonder about lovely, weird women characters that are also labelled or suggested to be neurodivergent or something along those linesā€¦ would it still be okay to breezily talk about them as 'weird women?'

  • MissMarple
    MissMarple Community Member Posts: 441 Empowering

    Currently reading My Husband and Other Rats by Shelley Klein. Not sure if it fits the "weird women" category, but the main character is certainly an interesting woman and very funny.

  • Mary_Scope
    Mary_Scope Posts: 5,186 Scope Online Community Children and Family Specialists

    I've read quite a few of the books on that list @SmellyBin. That's an excellent point, there a few books on there like Convenience Store Woman where the character is really suggested to be neurodivergent. Have you read that one?

    I just read the blurb for that online @MissMarple and sounds like another book I'll be adding to the list. I haven't heard of that author before so thank you! What do you give it out of 10?

    I'm still reading Selfish Girls by Abigail Bergstrom, I haven't really read much over the past week or so but hoping to make a proper dent in it soon!

  • NoShame
    NoShame Community Member Posts: 16 Connected

    Iā€™m a geek who reads a lot and itā€™s probably about 80% physics. Currently on Claudia de Rahmā€™s ā€œThe Beauty of fallingā€. A beautifully written book about gravity. I did read a few music books last week - 2 on disco and Kim Gordon from Sonic Youthā€™s autobiography. Alas itā€™s been a couple of years since i read any fiction

  • NoShame
    NoShame Community Member Posts: 16 Connected
    https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1138101#Comment_1138101

    just read A City On Mars by the Weiner Smiths (ages a biologist, heā€™s a cartoonist). A very readable book about how we can (or canā€™t really) settle Mars. Very funny in places

  • SmellyBin
    SmellyBin Community Member Posts: 593 Empowering

    I like the description of A City On Mars @NoShame, on my to read list :) As is the rat book @MissMarple mentioned.

    @Mary_Scope Well, the description of weird women made me think of Life Hacks for a Little Alien which was really a cute book, I am definitely gonna re-read that one. But she was neurodivergent and it made me uncomfortable to use the label on the one hand even though I can also see the fun of it being a bit rebellious on the other.

    Btw, I never got back to you about Becky Chambersā€¦ read one of the Wayfarers series or her books about the Monk and the Robot, all of which I really appreciated for it being broadminded about differences between beings. This one Break the Shell is not one I would recommend though.

    Oh, and I finished Wonder by R.J. Palacio a few days ago - a wonderful story about being different, but also about kindness. I am so glad I bumped into that one.

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