Vettie Book Club

[mw1356]

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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 ⭐️⭐️

My fam got this for me for my birthday and it’s sitting on my TBR. I’ve really heard no good things about it so it’ll probably stay there for a while - I can’t read bad/boring books while I’m also taking classes :/

I read The Circle by Dave Eggers and The Bee Sting by Paul Murray this summer (+ a nonfiction book about crossword puzzles lol). I think I’d give The Circle 3.5 stars and The Bee Sting 4.5 - it took a while to get into but after around the halfway point I couldn’t stop reading it. In the middle of Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar currently and loving it so far 🙂

 

[couldhavebeenme]

My fam got this for me for my birthday and it’s sitting on my TBR. I’ve really heard no good things about it so it’ll probably stay there for a while - I can’t read bad/boring books while I’m also taking classes :/

I honestly don't know where to turn to for good book recommendations anymore because it seems half the time I read something that's really popular/highly rated on Goodreads I'm like... did we read the same book?

 

[battie]

Read "Guns, Germs, and Steel," by Jared Diamond which was great, but probably the hardest book I've read since undergrad. 4.5 stars. About the evolution of society starting 10,000 years ago.

Getting through the Hitchhikers series. Previous read a long time ago.

Read When the Wind Blows and the sequel, the Lake House by James Patterson. Read those in high school.

After Hitchhikers, going to do the Dune series

 

[potentialsheltervet]

Have been reading lots of nonfiction and lots of horror. Some excellent nonfiction, but sadly the horror has been pretty subpar. It's stuff I've seen widely talked about as being "terrifying" and I have at best been mildly creeped. At worst, I'm annoyed or bored.
Currently working through A Clockwork Orange. I didn't realize it has unique language and started reading before bed one night and thought I was losing my mind.

 

[YellowDogs]

My tbr list is long and chaotic, but i’ve been in such an awful book slump.

I think I want to read Dungeon Crawler Carl next. I keep hearing really good things about it! It seems so different than my usual, maybe I need that to get me out of this slump.

 

[battie]

My tbr list is long and chaotic, but i’ve been in such an awful book slump.

I think I want to read Dungeon Crawler Carl next. I keep hearing really good things about it! It seems so different than my usual, maybe I need that to get me out of this slump.

Ah yes, hello! I did read the first one and am on the library wait list for the second! Don't know how I missed it on my list. It was good! My husband and his bestie listened to it before it was cool and it's the best audiobook theyve ever listened to.

It is different, but the Lit RPG aspect isn't heavy. It's side details.

 

[futuredogtor614]

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.

Recently read The Dilemma with some friends. Found it interesting for the most part, but it fell off at the ending for me. Overall was a bit disappointed with that read. Currently reading Not Quite Dead Yet and In Cold Blood for different book clubs. Both have been really interesting so far! I'm also slowly reading through the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, but that's a lower priority read for me than the book club reads. I've read the first 2 books in that series so far and enjoyed them

 

[_rae_]

I honestly don't know where to turn to for good book recommendations anymore because it seems half the time I read something that's really popular/highly rated on Goodreads I'm like... did we read the same book?

I’ve found wandering a Barnes and Noble or local book store has put a lot of good options on my list; especially books where the employees write a description about it on the shelf. So far there’s only been one book that I did not finish because it was so bad in my TBR, and I haven’t disliked anything else I’ve tried.

 

[vampyrica]

I honestly don't know where to turn to for good book recommendations anymore because it seems half the time I read something that's really popular/highly rated on Goodreads I'm like... did we read the same book?

also- your local library! sometimes rating for books can be left online on the library portal, and little reviews or recommendations are on little cards or a whole section in the library

 

[ESD_2029]

Have been reading lots of nonfiction and lots of horror. Some excellent nonfiction, but sadly the horror has been pretty subpar. It's stuff I've seen widely talked about as being "terrifying" and I have at best been mildly creeped. At worst, I'm annoyed or bored.
Currently working through A Clockwork Orange. I didn't realize it has unique language and started reading before bed one night and thought I was losing my mind.

Just finished The Carrow Haunt by Darcy Coates; it was pretty good! Another one that was really good in the horror genre was Episode Thirteen (I forget the author).

 

[PrincessButterCup]

I've been rereading a lot old favorites this summer and it's been so much fun! Nostalgia, baby. love these books with my whole heart so I won't give them a rating.

- Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle series, starting with The Raven Boys. They're contemporary YA with some mystical elements, and there's a new graphic novel adaptation that out for the first and second books now.

Side note, Maggie was on a book tour this summer for the second graphic novel's release and I went to one of her events. It was my first time ever "meeting" a favorite author, but I couldn't get in line to actually meet her at the end because I couldn't make myself stop crying and it was embarrassing, but she talked and answered questions for over an hour and omg I'm still star struck. I've been reading her books for over 15 years now and it still feels insane I saw her in person.

- Megan Whalen Turner's Queens Thief series, starting with The Thief. They're YA historical fantasy (fiction mostly, but some fantastical/mythological elements) and they get more into political intrigue as the series goes on. The last book only came out a few years ago so for a long time I'd reread books 1-3 every summer, but now there's 6. I've only read the last two books once before this but I've read the first books upwards of 5 times? The first book, probably 10.

- This is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. It's futuristic and part epistolary, but it's the best book I've ever read in that format. It's so unique and the creativity behind it is just insane. It's pretty short too, so it's easy to fit in even if you don't have a lot of time to read. I just gifted it to a friend so I decided to do a reread, and it's almost a different book this time around. It's so beautiful.

 

[fauna]

Have been reading lots of nonfiction and lots of horror. Some excellent nonfiction, but sadly the horror has been pretty subpar. It's stuff I've seen widely talked about as being "terrifying" and I have at best been mildly creeped. At worst, I'm annoyed or bored.
Currently working through A Clockwork Orange. I didn't realize it has unique language and started reading before bed one night and thought I was losing my mind.

tell me about some of your non-fiction recs! I am chasing the high that was Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green.

as for horror, I feel ya. I read The Lamb (cant remember author name) and it was like… okay. Tender is the Flesh was deeply disturbing though.

 

[fauna]

i read five books this summer, the standout was Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth. so so good. queer coming of age that was so deeply personal for me.

 

[couldhavebeenme]

tell me about some of your non-fiction recs! I am chasing the high that was Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green.

You didn't ask me, but I loved Everything is TB and also these:
- No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson and Johnson by Gardiner Harris
- Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (audiobook was excellent)
- Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez
- Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

 

[fauna]

You didn't ask me, but I loved Everything is TB and also these:
- No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson and Johnson by Gardiner Harris
- Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (audiobook was excellent)
- Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez
- Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

Oh cool! I actually have another Mary Roach book on my shelf waiting to be read, I think it’s called Adventures in Anatomy, its about the history of transplants and such

 

[_rae_]

Also was not asked but The Emperor of All Maladies is one of my all time favorite non-fiction books. It’s a narrative driven history of cancer written by an oncologist. If you want something not medical related, The Last Season is about a park ranger who went missing in the Sierras and the search for him (spoiler alert: not a happy ending but a beautifully written investigation into this man’s life).

 

[fauna]

Also was not asked but The Emperor of All Maladies is one of my all time favorite non-fiction books. It’s a narrative driven history of cancer written by an oncologist. If you want something not medical related, The Last Season is about a park ranger who went missing in the Sierras and the search for him (spoiler alert: not a happy ending but a beautifully written investigation into this man’s life).

already read The Emperor of All Maladies!! Sooooo good. I have The Gene, by the same author on my shelf also waiting to be read!

I will check out The Last Season

 

[_rae_]

already read The Emperor of All Maladies!! Sooooo good. I have The Gene, by the same author on my shelf also waiting to be read!

Try The Song of the Cell first (also by Siddhartha Mukherjee). The Gene is a slog and I’ve tried it twice and haven’t been able to get through it.

 

[KCgophervet]

You didn't ask me, but I loved Everything is TB and also these:
- No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson and Johnson by Gardiner Harris
- Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (audiobook was excellent)
- Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez
- Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

The bolded book sent me into a rage so many times... my spouse would see me come home angry (audiobooks are how I read things on my commutes) and be like "you're listening to the book again aren't you". Had to take a lot of breaks because it made me so mad...

The Case of the Frozen Addicts by Jon Palfreman is a pretty good one relating how we discovered MPTP (used to induce Parkinson's like disease in animal research models).

 

[couldhavebeenme]

The bolded book sent me into a rage so many times... my spouse would see me come home angry (audiobooks are how I read things on my commutes) and be like "you're listening to the book again aren't you". Had to take a lot of breaks because it made me so mad...

The Case of the Frozen Addicts by Jon Palfreman is a pretty good one relating how we discovered MPTP (used to induce Parkinson's like disease in animal research models).

I about lost it when she talked about how they just... didn't ever crash test anything with female dummies. Cool!

 

[overcastkidjuno]

Three days ago I finished Escape! by Stephen Fishbach, who was on Survivor. I picked it up because I've been really enjoying this season of Big Brother which has 2 Survivor contestants on it. The first half of the book really did feel like watching a new generic survival reality show, it fulfilled my reality TV drama and competition cravings - I especially loved the perspective from Beck in production, I think even more than the contestants. At first I was annoyed that it was taking away time from the game but by the end I was anxiously speeding through the contestant parts so I could learn more about the drama unfolding in Beck's personal life and in which ways the producers would modify the game and torture the main characters next. The second half of the book went off the reality TV train and essentially became horror which I didn't expect at all but really kept me hooked. I do think by the end everyone on this sick and twisted island should probably be in prison lol...

(***spoiler warning below***)

I can't stop thinking about the incident with Kent getting ripped apart by the shark. The description of the abdominal wound with 87 sutures and the spreading greenish-black infection he continues ignoring continues to make me feel viscerally ill. It stands out way more in my mind still than him literally getting beat to death via multiple blows to the head and stuff a couple chapters later. Great job on the body horror Fishbach, it will take time for me to eat normally again.