Wednesday Reading Meme
How is it already Wednesday? This week is flying by. It's been a weird one so far. Today we are supposed to get a bit of a snowstorm. Not too crazy, they are predicting about 20 cm/8 inches of snow for my area, which yes is a lot if you have to shovel it or plod through it, but I went out and got everything I needed on Monday so I won't have to do either! I hope I can just sit inside in my comfy apartment and watch it come down. :)
What I Just Finished Reading: Since last week I read Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune and The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird. Reviews below.
What I'm Reading Right Now: I'm reading the 15th book in the Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh, Archangel's Resurrection, and I'm. So. Bored. I'm going to give it one more chance and see if it gets any better, because I'm having a very hard time caring about events that happened thousands of years ago.
What I'm Going To Read Next: I joined another reading challenge (I KNOW). It's based on a roll of the dice, and the number the dice land on determines the prompt I will need to read for. So I'll have to see what roll I get. I also had The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman chosen for me at another challenge, so that one is in the mix.
06. Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune
Wallace Price is a horrible human being. Then he dies and ends up at a way station with a reaper, a ferryman, and a couple of other ghosts, where he regains his humanity while learning to help others and find love.
I absolutely loved Klune’s House in the Cerulean Sea and I so wanted to love this too. It’s got similar themes of found family and personal growth. But unlike Cerulean, there was simply nothing compelling about the characters. Wallace is pretty despicable, so Hugo’s love for him is largely inexplicable. Hugo himself is painted as this ultra-patient saint of a man, when really I found him extremely passive to the point where his refusal to act actively hurt many of the people he was supposed to be helping. Overall, I think I mostly felt frustrated for a good chunk of the story!
It takes forever for the story to pick up and something to happen (I was 50% in and almost ready to give up) but when it finally does there is a lot to enjoy. I think the idea of Cameron and the other Husks is brilliant and could have been developed further. I enjoyed some of the humour. But ultimately I do think the ending is a cop-out.
Dates read: January 15 to 19, 2023
Page Count: 400
3 out of 5 stars
Around the Year in 52 Books - Prompt 04 - interracial relationship (06/52)
Lost Challenges Pyramid of Books - Task 3 - read 3 books that are tagged romance (02/03)
Lost Challenges A to Z Covers - H - House (06/26)
07. The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird
A mysterious new plague sweeps the world, killing 90% of the men and leaving women to reshape the world and keep it running.
Told through the POVs of multiple female (and one male) characters, I found the story compelling and interesting, and it certainly kept me turning the pages until late at night. The story starts at the beginning of the pandemic and continues about five or six years into it. The focuses of the women vary: keeping the government running, getting women into jobs that are mostly male-dominated, dealing with grief, keeping newborn boys safe, developing a vaccine. I didn’t like all these women, nor should I. I also think often the transitions to a women-led world were far too smooth, and the POVs were not as varied as they could have been. Almost all the women featured were white women with higher educations, and I think the book could have benefited from showing us what was going on in the trenches, so to speak. Having said that, this was definitely a page-turner that kept me wanting to know more, and I quite enjoyed it.
Dates Read: January 19 to 21, 2023
Page count: 416
4 out of 5 stars
Around the Year in 52 Books - Prompt 22 - faceless person on cover
Lost Challenges Pyramid of Books - Task 18 - read 18 books with a red, white or blue cover (02/18)
Lost Challenges A to Z Covers Challenges - S - Silhouettes
LJ Book Bingo 02 - recced by gilda_elise
.
What I Just Finished Reading: Since last week I read Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune and The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird. Reviews below.
What I'm Reading Right Now: I'm reading the 15th book in the Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh, Archangel's Resurrection, and I'm. So. Bored. I'm going to give it one more chance and see if it gets any better, because I'm having a very hard time caring about events that happened thousands of years ago.
What I'm Going To Read Next: I joined another reading challenge (I KNOW). It's based on a roll of the dice, and the number the dice land on determines the prompt I will need to read for. So I'll have to see what roll I get. I also had The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman chosen for me at another challenge, so that one is in the mix.
06. Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune
Wallace Price is a horrible human being. Then he dies and ends up at a way station with a reaper, a ferryman, and a couple of other ghosts, where he regains his humanity while learning to help others and find love.
I absolutely loved Klune’s House in the Cerulean Sea and I so wanted to love this too. It’s got similar themes of found family and personal growth. But unlike Cerulean, there was simply nothing compelling about the characters. Wallace is pretty despicable, so Hugo’s love for him is largely inexplicable. Hugo himself is painted as this ultra-patient saint of a man, when really I found him extremely passive to the point where his refusal to act actively hurt many of the people he was supposed to be helping. Overall, I think I mostly felt frustrated for a good chunk of the story!
It takes forever for the story to pick up and something to happen (I was 50% in and almost ready to give up) but when it finally does there is a lot to enjoy. I think the idea of Cameron and the other Husks is brilliant and could have been developed further. I enjoyed some of the humour. But ultimately I do think the ending is a cop-out.
Dates read: January 15 to 19, 2023
Page Count: 400
3 out of 5 stars
Around the Year in 52 Books - Prompt 04 - interracial relationship (06/52)
Lost Challenges Pyramid of Books - Task 3 - read 3 books that are tagged romance (02/03)
Lost Challenges A to Z Covers - H - House (06/26)
07. The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird
A mysterious new plague sweeps the world, killing 90% of the men and leaving women to reshape the world and keep it running.
Told through the POVs of multiple female (and one male) characters, I found the story compelling and interesting, and it certainly kept me turning the pages until late at night. The story starts at the beginning of the pandemic and continues about five or six years into it. The focuses of the women vary: keeping the government running, getting women into jobs that are mostly male-dominated, dealing with grief, keeping newborn boys safe, developing a vaccine. I didn’t like all these women, nor should I. I also think often the transitions to a women-led world were far too smooth, and the POVs were not as varied as they could have been. Almost all the women featured were white women with higher educations, and I think the book could have benefited from showing us what was going on in the trenches, so to speak. Having said that, this was definitely a page-turner that kept me wanting to know more, and I quite enjoyed it.
Dates Read: January 19 to 21, 2023
Page count: 416
4 out of 5 stars
Around the Year in 52 Books - Prompt 22 - faceless person on cover
Lost Challenges Pyramid of Books - Task 18 - read 18 books with a red, white or blue cover (02/18)
Lost Challenges A to Z Covers Challenges - S - Silhouettes
LJ Book Bingo 02 - recced by gilda_elise
.