Vettie Book Club

Started by battie
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Interesting how? I wasn't a fan of the book when in high school, but love Margot Robbie. So I'm tempted to see it
The book is def freaky. I like Margot too and she is a gorgeous, talented actress, but I feel like she is a bit too old to play Catherine who is supposed to be 17 when she marries. I don’t think her and Jacob Elordi have believable chemistry and when I see him I just get Kissing Booth vibes 😭 They also kind of change the ending. It was entertaining though and the costumes were amazing.
 
I love T. Kingfisher! She has a queer retelling of the snow queen ("the raven and the reindeer") that I absolutely recommend if you like fairy tales. It's a pretty quick read and it's my favorite from her.
I haven't read this one yet but will definitely check it out! I love her writing style. The voice is so vivid.
One of my biggest surprises last year was the kid's book Varjak Paw. I picked it up at a yard sale bc the cute cat on the cover made me nostalgic for Warriors and the plot ended up so enthralling. It reminded me a lot of another obscure crime novel about cats I own called "Felidae".
Heh, I watched the German animated film of this movie when I was in high school! Surprisingly good and disturbing story. Maybe I should read the book as well.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
I'm about two hundred pages away from the end of The Poppy War series. I didn't like the first book much but the second one was much better imo and the third is holding my attention. Very interested to see how things get wrapped up.
 
Also! If anyone is in the market for an ereader but doesn't want to support the evil amazonian overlords, I have a Kobo (Kindle competitor) and I love it! I use it p much exclusively to read ebooks I get from the library (via Libby) but you can also buy books through their store. Specifically I have the Kobo Clara BW and one of my friends has the color version and likes it a lot too.
 
Errr probably not now that I look into it more
I actually had no idea until I looked it up just now about the books being pulled from print due to the author's terrible political presence. I guess it was in 2022, honestly the last time I probably Googled them was pre-pandemic. I own both of the English translated ones (Felidae, Felidae II: On the Road). It was an interesting universe, unfortunate the horrible creator has tarnished its legacy.
 
Has anyone stumbled into AI in the indie publishing scene yet? I'm pretty sure an AI book was just recommended to me on my kindle homepage. It's getting decent reviews and has enough ratings to seem legit (600+!), but the synopsis was just off enough to make me question it. Based on their goodreads page, they started publishing in August of 2025 and have published 5 books between then and now. I can't find them on social media at all, which is so bizarre for someone who is self publishing. It's not definitive but everything seems to point to AI.

I read a ton of indie authors and I don't want to have to start interrogating every book/author to figure out whether they're real or AI. Ugh.
 
Has anyone stumbled into AI in the indie publishing scene yet? I'm pretty sure an AI book was just recommended to me on my kindle homepage. It's getting decent reviews and has enough ratings to seem legit (600+!), but the synopsis was just off enough to make me question it. Based on their goodreads page, they started publishing in August of 2025 and have published 5 books between then and now. I can't find them on social media at all, which is so bizarre for someone who is self publishing. It's not definitive but everything seems to point to AI.

I read a ton of indie authors and I don't want to have to start interrogating every book/author to figure out whether they're real or AI. Ugh.
Yes, unfortunately, it's everywhere on Kindle Unlimited. It would be nice if there were a way to get them flagged but Amazon has no motivation to do so.
And as Bats mentioned, tons of ratings are bots. I have read absolutely wretched books that have a 4.5 on the Kindle store with 200+ ratings and I'm like okay, I know I rate more harshly than most, but there is zero way hundreds of people rated this five stars. Plus some obvious slop nonsense had nearly 5 stars.
 
I actually had no idea until I looked it up just now about the books being pulled from print due to the author's terrible political presence. I guess it was in 2022, honestly the last time I probably Googled them was pre-pandemic. I own both of the English translated ones (Felidae, Felidae II: On the Road). It was an interesting universe, unfortunate the horrible creator has tarnished its legacy.
He cowrote the screenplay for the movie as well. My viewing of the film definitely predates... This. I only found out when I tried to find the books and wondered why I couldn't find them through my library.
 
Something like 2/3-3/4 of social media profiles on nearly all services are bots. So you lose like 400 of those reviews in that case :/
That makes so much sense and it's so depressing.

Yes, unfortunately, it's everywhere on Kindle Unlimited. It would be nice if there were a way to get them flagged but Amazon has no motivation to do so.
And as Bats mentioned, tons of ratings are bots. I have read absolutely wretched books that have a 4.5 on the Kindle store with 200+ ratings and I'm like okay, I know I rate more harshly than most, but there is zero way hundreds of people rated this five stars. Plus some obvious slop nonsense had nearly 5 stars.
I would love if Amazon would do something to flag them, but yeah, they probably won't. AI is everywhere and I hate it.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
One of my vet school besties is listening to it on audiobook. I’m no prude, but I don’t know if I could listen to someone narrate the heated parts of heated rivalry
Lol have you watched the show? I was kicking my feet and hiding under my blanket during the first watch 🤣 so I can't imagine the audiobook would be much different. But once I realized the immense amount of meaning the intimate scenes have, I got over it quick. You learn a lot about the characters through them.

I've read the books and watched the show and it's the best representation of a queer love story I've seen so far. No tragedy and it's clearly written and filmed by queer folks. The autism representation was very good as well. The books aren't like literary masterpieces or anything but it's a good story and they're pretty well written. I only read the Shane and Ilya ones, so Heated Rivalry and The Long Game, and I read each in a day.
 
One of my vet school besties is listening to it on audiobook. I’m no prude, but I don’t know if I could listen to someone narrate the heated parts of heated rivalry
It boggles my mind that people can listen to smutty audiobooks without cringeing or melting. I can read a LOT that is, uh, questionable, but man I would feel so weird with someone saying it in my ear.
 
It boggles my mind that people can listen to smutty audiobooks without cringeing or melting. I can read a LOT that is, uh, questionable, but man I would feel so weird with someone saying it in my ear.
I KNOW. I once was a big fan fiction reader, so I'm not put off by much when it comes to reading. But listening? Hell no, I'd turn beet red and potentially implode.
 
"The White Bone" by Barbara Gowdy is amazing! It's from the perspective of African bush elephants who are navigating a drought and increasing human encroachment on their lands. There are a few perspectives but the main one is a young cow in calf. The author did a ton of research on elephant behaviour and social dynamics and it really shows. Xenofiction is such an uncommon genre in adult literature in general that it's always exciting to read a good one.
 
I KNOW. I once was a big fan fiction reader, so I'm not put off by much when it comes to reading. But listening? Hell no, I'd turn beet red and potentially implode.
I am still an occasional fanfic reader and also a Hannibal lover so there's little that can dissuade me in text. The spoken word can easily scandalize me though.
Also, I didn't care for either of the books I just read. Womp womp. I expected both to be good and was disappointed. The Lamb by Lucy Rose has an interesting premise/style but I feel like the narrative lists for a bit until the absolutely insane final ~60 pages. The Salt Grows Heavy was just... Idk, boring? Not for me.
 
No joke, my ex medical director was a gay cowboy.
The history of cowboys is really gay!
I actually know a lot of them. like more than I can count on one hand 😅

Probably something to do with being an lgbt horse person and also LA-focuded vet student that puts me in proximity to a lot of them, but the demographic isn't as small as people would think!
 
Isn't there a song about that?

"Cowboys are frequently, secretly fond of each other..."
Country Music Cowboy GIF by Sub Pop Records

Willie Nelson was a king for that
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
I started rereading The Host the other day after deciding to watch the movie while riding my bike. This is one of my Roman Empire books where I’d love to have more of the series, I think the world building is so freaking interesting 😭like take me to all the different planets! I wants to see the bats and the ice planet and the planet of flowers! Gah!
 
I started rereading The Host the other day after deciding to watch the movie while riding my bike. This is one of my Roman Empire books where I’d love to have more of the series, I think the world building is so freaking interesting 😭like take me to all the different planets! I wants to see the bats and the ice planet and the planet of flowers! Gah!
The Host is an old favourite of mine. I reread it at least once every 1-2 years. 🙂
 
I KNOW. I once was a big fan fiction reader, so I'm not put off by much when it comes to reading. But listening? Hell no, I'd turn beet red and potentially implode.
I will read absolutely FILTHY fanfic but I would rather die than watch or listen to smut haha. I listened to the graphic audios of fourth wing and I found the sex scenes (which…aren’t super well written or spicy to begin with imo) so cringe hahaha
 
I started rereading The Host the other day after deciding to watch the movie while riding my bike. This is one of my Roman Empire books where I’d love to have more of the series, I think the world building is so freaking interesting 😭like take me to all the different planets! I wants to see the bats and the ice planet and the planet of flowers! Gah!
Omg I haven't read this in years! I'll have to reread it soon
 
I really liked The River Has Roots. It's a brief read and I don't usually like magic realism, but this one worked for me. Feels like the storytelling accomplished exactly what it wanted.
I'm now reading Crime and Punishment while also reading a gay romance-ish thing of highly questionable quality about a murderer and a mortician. As Dostoyevsky intended, I'm sure.
 
Now reading Snake-eater by T. Kingfisher and, as always, her writing is excellent.
I read an early copy of her new book Wolf Worm and it was great! I need to get to Snake-Eater soon.


Not sure if there’s any Project Hail Mary fans in here. Loved the book when it came out and was eager for the movie adaption. Happy to say it didn’t disappoint! One of the best movie theater experiences I’ve had in a while.
 
Just finished Light Bringer, the sixth book in the Red Rising series. I am emotionally wrecked and not okay.
Is the sequel trilogy good? I read the original trilogy when it first came out, and I remember it being good but a bit dense for me at times

But I need a new series to read
 
Is the sequel trilogy good? I read the original trilogy when it first came out, and I remember it being good but a bit dense for me at times

But I need a new series to read

The second trilogy definitely has mixed reviews. I personally have loved it. My husband did not.

I think part of the problem is with long series (movies, shows, books, etc.), you have the truly good books, and then the scaffolding books that allow the subsequent books to be good. And in this day and age, if the middle book or movie or episode or whatever isn't banging like the others, it's considered mid. But that's not the case; you need the set up for the subsequent iterations. I think with the current immediate feedback culture we have where we have to have satisfaction **right now**, the middle of stories get a bad rap.

The same thing happened with Avengers: Infinity War. So many people were pissed that there was literally no resolution. And I'm like, well yeah, it's a two part ending. Patience is a virtue.
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
What's funny is, I loved Infinity War and thought Endgame was awful lol.

Ok I'm glad I'm not the only one with this take! I didn't love the direction they took Endgame in at all.

I loved them together. I've watched them both in a row on a free day every now and then.

Individually, I do appreciate Infinity War more, though.
 
Also to bring myself back on this thread's topic, I feel like I just have not really resonated with any of the books I've read lately. I can't tell if I've been reading boring books (I think that's part of it) or if it's because of me being generally more exhausted and blah feeling due to some health stuff.
But I'm enjoying Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon thiis far-- definitely a book that is written to make a statement rather than just exist-- and am slogging slowly through Moby Dick. Moby Dick is surprisingly funny but I'm mainly reading it for the experience of having read it, and... Sigh. There is a lot of random topic wandering. Scatterbrained Herman.
 
What's everyone reading this summer? Some of my recents:
  • Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke - I thought this was almost unreadable, as if the author gave ChatGPT a prompt and just published it. My book club agreed, we generally hated it. I gave it ⭐️⭐️
  • Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid - I thought it was a great story, I gave ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!
  • Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe - sooooo interesting and expansive - this family is evil to the core! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune - I would have DNF'd if it wasn't a book club read. It was a sweet story but nothing happened. I gave ⭐️⭐️
  • Famesick by Lena Dunham - well-written and interesting especially for fellow millennials/fans of HBO's Girls. I listened to the audiobook which Lena narrates.
ETA: currently reading The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah - my first book by her and it's great, so engrossing!! I am excited to read more by her.