Sunday, September 1, 2019

Goodreads Postcards

3021.  GR PC May 2023
Sat. 10 June 2023
Dear Chris,  I though I was going to write here bout my love of Breq, in Ann Leckie's scifi Ancillary series ... but writing the GR PC April, about animals, I mentioned the alien Presger Translator Zeiat swallowing the pet fish and I realized I would LOVE to meet her.
Zeiat looks human, but she's not really, and everything she says is slightly ridiculous because she djust doesn't understand humans.  And then when humans try to explain things to Zeiat, it comes off sounding kind of ridiculous as Well!  That just makes me laugh, and I think we could be friends, although I'm not sure I could be as patient as Breq is with Zeiat!  :)
I also love SecUnit of the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells... The sarcasm and huge disdain for humans and augmented humans!  But I don't want to meet SecUnit because there would be too much anxiety!  *Laughs*
So exited that Ann Leckie's newest book is about the Presger translators!  Happy Day, Rift

3001.  GR PC May 2023 
Trenton, NJ 
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1813
This is a really hard topic. (Favorite protagonast)  I have many favorite characters but the ones who come to mind are strong female characters like Anne Shirley (Green gables) Meg Murry (Wrinkle in Time + Hermione from Harry Potter.  The latter two being science minded like me.  For swoon worthy, Gabriel Oak from Far From the Madding Crowd.  Sigh.  I loved him.  And for nonhumans Iorek Byrnison - the armored bear from Golden Compass.  I want an armored bear!  Happy Reading, Amy.

2079.  GR PC May 2021
Wood Ducks
Dear Chris,  Oh, I used to be such a sucker for self-help books!  Creativity and how-to-draw books and how-to-be-happy books ... and habits of productive people and hot-ot-be tidy and how-to-not procrastinate! *laughs*
     My favorite creativity-type self-help book is Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher.  I re-read this many times, and over the years I have managed to smush many of my favorite hobbies into several great projects like this one! (Nature, Photography, Computers, Writing, Reading, Mail, woohoo!)
A few years ago I read some Stephanie Bennett Vogt, and I have also taken her year-long online class for Space Clearing.  I must have done some de-cluttering during that year ... but I am back to making piles of junk, so the clearing def didn't stick!  Ha!
I'm currently reading The Power of Daily Practice.  I don't know why.  I've already got several daily practices in place.  I guess I just want to see how and why other people do it? :)
Ha - I don't think I'll ever cure the procrastination.  But ... maybe the next self help book I read...?! Happy day, Rift

2074.  GR PC June 2021
The book is ALWAYS better!  I haven't seen many books be successfully turned into movies.  And if I see the movie first, I have a hard time going back to read the book.  It's a weird thing for me.  Drives my reading friends crazy!  I'm trying to get Malibu (words obliterated by postal markings) read before the xxx starts on xxxx.

2072.  GR PC June, 2021
I just finished A Dog's Way Home by W. Bruce Cameron and last month read Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan.  I haven't seen the movies which is typical of me.  I generally think the book is better than the movie.  If I want to enjoy a movie, I try not to read the book first.  I have a friend who watches more movies than reads, so she has an opposite approach to movies/books.  Happy Reading - Jenny T.

2065.  GR PC May 5, 2021
Oak Park, Illinois
Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Museum
I live around the corner from Hemingway's birthplace.  I don't subscribe to self-help books, or read a lot of nonfiction in general, but when I do it's usually a science book a la Mary Roach.  I really liked Phallacy by Emily Willingham and Four Lost Cities by Annalee Newitz.  Hope you are well and safe.  Take care - Amanda

2045.  GRPC May 2021
11 May 2021
I loved your Amish postcard!  I am reading my 2nd book by Emma Maas.  Both were Amish based and both were good!  I'm not into self-help books either.  The only nonfiction books I read are autobiographies, books about urban legends & paranormal, and true crime books.  I too love children's books, fairy tales, and cozy mysteries.  Hope your visit with your sister was great.  Happy Reading, Sandye

2043.   GRPC April 2021
Friday 7 May 2021
I quite reading cis white male authors - for the most part - a few years ago...And now, diversity finds me!  All of my favorite series and books are authored by...
Black Women:  Xenogenesis (series starting with Dawn), The Best of All Possible Worlds, Binti (series)
Queer and Gay People:  The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (series) and The House in the Cerulean Sea.
I also support Uncanny Magazine, which gets awards on a regular basis and has a "deep investment in the diverse SciFi & Fantasy culture")
While I have read some great nonfiction, like How to Be an Antiracist and Tomorrow Will Be Different, I would definitely like to expand my reading out to some mainstream books as well.  I'm sure I've read some diverse authors by and by, but I am taking note of any books you've recommended this month for sure!
Thnks for the postcard - sounds like you found fabulous book stores!  Rift.

2023.   GR PC October 2019

2022.  GRPC October 2019
I am pretty particular when it comes to the books I read.  So I usually rate a standard book I've read at 4 stars.  If it's less great than I thought, it gets 3 stars.  I rate down for gratuitous or explicit violence and that's a 1 or 2 star book.  It just makes me sad when humans use there creativity to depict violence.
If I don't finish a book, I don't rate it, although I should...The only reason why I don't finish reading  story is because it's boring and I just abandon it!  I assume I'll come back to these books, but I rarely do.
     An amazing book - a 5 star book, a book I love - is more than just an engaging story that I can't put down.  It's also a story that I don't want to end!  It probably makes me cry at some point, and laugh out loud as well!  I want to spend time with the main characters in real life and I want to go to their world.
Happy (belated) Halloween!  Rift

2021.  Krakow, Poland - The Cloth Hall
GR PC August, 2019
This year I had a chance to read some interesting books:
Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Stiff:  The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Best regards from Poland, Elizabeth (Biker Mouse on GR) 

1990.  GR PC Sept 2019
Cooper Hawk
Dear Chris, Yay Banned Books Week!  I had wondered if the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments was over-hyped ... a resounding NO!  It was an enjoyable read, which kept me on the edge of my seat, with a satisfying ending.  *Thumbs up*
I've red at least one book from each year's top ten ... tho I've read surprisingly few of the #1 banned books from each year.  Maybe that's something I need to work on!  I've read 13 of the classics, 13 of the diverse content, 12 from the 1990s list of 100 and 17 from the 2000s list.
     From the Top 11 books of 2018, I've read #1 George, #4 The Hate U Give, and #9 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.  Because my favorite children's book is And Tango Makes Three I am very much interested in A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo.  I feel I should also read the book it was based on, in parody.  After all, the more bunny books the better!! :)  What's your favorite banned book?  Mine - To Kill a Mockingbird.  Happy Reading, Rift


1980.  GR PC August
I haven't read any good books lately but I did read one terrible book that I would like to warn you away from.  Don't read Flame in the Mist.  It's awful and a waste of time.  Have a great day!  Angie

1979.  GR PC August
Dear Chris, Yep, I've found and read some great  books this year!  From the nonfiction section:  Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men.  It's shocking and dismaying and really a book that people should read.  And I read all the James Herriot All Creatures Great and Small series, which was def a comfort read, since I watched the British TV show as a kid.  And now I'm just dipping into Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, which seems like it's going to be one of those fun, eye-opening reads!
     New author, and new genre (fantasy):  N. K. Jemisin.  I read her The Fifth Season series last year, and have no read all of her books.  And they are all page turners, I just can't put them down!  And some great scifi: Ancillary Justice series by Ann Leckie, Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, and To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers.  All of these are just WOW! 
Hope you've discovered some great books as well
Happy Day, Rift

1977.  GR PC April 2019
Dear Chris, I love beginnings!  :) 
     The Introduction, of non-fiction books always gets me excited about the thing I' going to be learning
     For fiction - maybe science fiction especially - there are those few pages at the beginning where you're all "What the heck is going on here??!"  And sometimes you have to re-read a few paragraphs to see if it makes sense yet.  But then you keep reading and everything slowly falls into place.  Very often, the books with those confusing first pages are the ones I want to go back and re-read later!
     I just re-read Ancillary Justice trilogy by Ann Leckie, because I remembered being so confused at the begtinning, and it turned out to be such a great story.  She has a very complicated universe, and ust dumps the reader into it without any prep...and I enjoy the challenge of catching up!  Rift

1954.  GR PC April 2019
Welcome back to the GoodReads Postcard Exchange!  The last time you played was in 2014?  How time flies!  I hope you'll have fun with the postcard exchange with lost of mailbox joy!  Rift

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