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Drama-Lovers Book Club

LucianYaz
 LucianYaz:

Reading-wise, I have nothing to show for July; I made very little headway and didn't complete anything. My health was acting up and I spent most of my free time watching dramas, my version of comfort food. I have no firm reading plans for August; it's my birthday month and I want to be carefree with it.

Hi fellow readers, how are you all? I'm back after some time away from MDL. Hoping everyone is doing well and feeling the holiday spirit. And reading good books!

I read quite a bit during my self-imposed exile, though, like July above, I completed no books during the months of August and September. For the books I read in October and November, I'll use the spoiler tag to keep from overwhelming anyone who's not interested ;)

October

  1. Silent Separation by Gu Man (4/5) - My Sunshine is one of my favorite dramas so, of course, I really enjoyed the book from which it was adapted
  2. The Golden Hairpin by Qinghan CeCe  (4/5) - I read this for consolation since I may never get to see the drama
  3. A Regimental Murder by Ashley Gardner (3.5/5) - average read
  4. Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories by Michael Shermer (4/5) - a lecture series from The Great Courses
  5. Alpha Night by Nalini Singh (4/5) - a great entry in one of my all-time favorite series (PsyChangeling)
  6. Rock Hard by Nalini Singh (4/5) - a contemporary romance by one of my favorite authors

November

  1. The Innocent Behind the Scandal by Abby Green (4/5) - an emotionally satisfying romance between two people who help each move past childhood pain
  2.  The Glass House by Ashley Gardner (3/5) - average read
  3. Last Guard by Nalini Singh (4/5) - the romance in this one was not as compelling as others in the series (PsyChangeling) but I loved both characters and the continuing chaos and intrigues in the post-Silence world of the Trinity
  4. Sinister Magic by Lindsay Buroker (4/5) - fun, fast-paced urban fantasy; I wish someone would gift me with a snarky tiger like Sindari xD
  5. The Golden Slipper and Other Problems for Violet Strange by Anna Katharine Green (3.5/5) - short or long, AKG could fit in her convoluted plots anywhere
  6. The Man She Should Have Married (3/5) - this was a snooze; for all I cared, the two of them could've kept going with their separate lives and never bothered to reunite
  7. The Warden by Anthony Trollope (4/5) - I loved this character-driven look at a thorny problem which had no satisfying resolution for anyone
  8. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie (4/5) - a reread of a small favorite
  9. The Lord of Stariel by AJ Lancaster (4/5) - a low maintenance fantasy with a new-to-me premise
  10. Hate Notes by Vi Keeland & Penelope Ward (4/5) - I like hate-to-love and friends-to-lovers stories and this was a good one, though the ending was meh
  11. Dragons Don't Eat Meat by Kim McDougall (4/5) - interesting start to an urban fantasy with a strong heroine and lots of disparate species and intriguing political factions
  12. Learn To Love Reading: 365 Powerful Quotes That Will Inspire You To Read More Books (4/5) - comprised of inspirational quotes on the joys and benefits of reading
  13. Passing by Nella Larsen (4.5/5) - a short excellent work from the Harlem Renaissance; similar to how I feel about The Great Gatsby and Ethan Frome, I loved the writing and setting while remaining ambivalent about the characters
  14. Apology, Crito, Phaedo of Socrates (3.5/5) - my mind hasn't moved on from his body/soul dualism theory
  15. Past Masters by Various Authors (4/5) - this is not an actual book but a compilation of public domain short stories of the mystery/detective fiction genre
  16. The Black Death: A History From Beginning to End (3.5/5) - only 'informative' and too speculative for me but it's enough to get you interested in the subject
  17. Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie (4/5) - this was a reread; Poirot is a perennial favorite
  18. The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie (4/5) - implausible but fun and fast-paced, plus I found a new favorite character in the person of Sir Eustace Pedler :D
  19. As a Man Thinketh by James Allen (3/5) - some good in this but mostly impractical, plus I can't get over how he 'borrowed' so much from the Bible but gave no attribution 

In October I dropped As kingfishers catch fire (by Gerard Manley Hopkins) when I was just past the half-way mark; despite being about two favorite subjects (God and nature), I was too distracted to appreciate his poetry. I'm hoping to pick it up again later down the line.

I've already completed some books for December but I'll leave these for my end-of-month wrap-up.

Happy reading to everyone!

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penel VIP
 LucianYaz:
Hi fellow readers, how are you all? I'm back after some time away from MDL. Hoping everyone is doing well and feeling the holiday spirit. And reading good books!

I read quite a bit during my self-imposed exile, though, like July above, I completed no books during the months of August and September. For the books I read in October and November, I'll use the spoiler tag to keep from overwhelming anyone who's not interested ;)

Glad to see you back and hope you're okay!
Wow! You've read so many books in two months' time!

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LucianYaz
 penel:

Glad to see you back and hope you're okay!
Wow! You've read so many books in two months' time!

Thank you, I'm doing okay. The books I complete in a month may not have been started in that month. I'm a moody reader so I always have several books going at once, some of which I may eventually complete months later (if at all). Also, some of these are audiobooks or were read with a combination of audio and text.

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fiflydramalover VIP

Hey yall! This month I finished one prose book and two graphic novels. The prose book was Infinity Son by Adam Silvera. The story was pretty cool, but the writing was a bit off. I think the writer could have benefited from using a bit more subtext. 

I also dropped a c-webnovel I was reading. I'd worked really hard to find it after losing it for several years, but when I finally got the book back I realized it wasn't very good. A bit disappointing after reading something like 200+ chapters, but at least I won't be wistfully wondering what the name of this book is anymore. I really tried to stick with the book until the very end but its nearly 300 chapters, and I think I gave it a good try.

Edit: UPDATE~

So I only started rereading The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation like this past week or something so I didn't expect to finish it in time for December but I literally finished reading it today! What a great book. It's only volume 1 so I have to wait for 2 and 3. Luckily I've already read the entire webnovel version of it, so I'm not upset that i have to wait for the other volumes. But it really is a story that should be reread! There is so much depth to the words once you know the whole thing. It makes rereading super fun ^_^ I'm super grateful for having read the webnovel, and I'm super grateful that I was able to read the physical edition too! Ah :) life is good life is good.

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Mon

Yay! I finally accomplished my goal of reading 50 books! Next year I’m planning on reading 100 books.

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burhaa aadmi VIP

I still have one book to finish to complete all my challenges at The StoryGraph, but the two main ones have both been accomplished, which is nice

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LucianYaz

Free Amazon ebooks from Cornell University Press for anyone who's interested:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

(Please verify the price before you buy - I take no responsibility ;P)

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kura2ninja

On the eve of a new year, I'm hoping for a good year for all of us--reading-wise and in other aspects as well. May we all blessed with health, happiness, and contentment.

I somehow managed to finish four books in December: two Japanese crime novels, a non-fiction book about Japanese cinema, and a Soviet literary novel.

My favorite read in December was Chingiz Aitmatov's The Day Lasts More Than A Hundred Years. Aitmatov was a Soviet writer of Kirghiz ethnicity, and this novel is about an old Kazakh man who tries to bury a friend according to the old custom, as the dead man wished, which means he needs to cross the desert to a local burial ground. There's also a subplot about American-Soviet joint space program that, without meaning to, stumbles upon an extraterrestrial intelligence.

Nothing I could say about the novel could give it justice, but it's so good some parts gave me visceral pain. It talks about collective memory and history, and how modernization and the Soviet system don't always have room for them. (It's actually pretty critical of Soviet authoritarianism. But I guess it could still be published domestically because it's written in late 1970s and not earlier.) On the other hand, I truly don't understand why it needs to have the space program subplot in the first place, but it doesn't make me like the book less or anything. In fact, I think I like the novel so much I'm eager to check out other stuff written by Soviet authors of Central Asian extraction. Or just Central Asian novelists in general.

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kura2ninja
 LucianYaz:

Free Amazon ebooks from Cornell University Press for anyone who's interested:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

(Please verify the price before you buy - I take no responsibility ;P)

Thanks, @LucianYaz. I'm checking out those books as I'm writing this :D

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foxyjo
December wrap up:

somehow this month i managed to read the duology I've been wanting to read for a while now. the pacing was a bit too slow for my liking but i enjoyed it nevertheless. actually, still reading the second book but I'm hoping I'd finish by the end of the day (60 pages and 6hrs left). on that note, Happy New Year (advance/belated or whatever it is) to my beloved book lovers family ♡. wishing for nothing but best this year, most importantly stay safe!! cheers to hoping you'd stick to those 2022 resolutions. xx

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fiflydramalover VIP
 foxyjo:
December wrap up:

somehow this month i managed to read the duology I've been wanting to read for a while now. the pacing was a bit too slow for my liking but i enjoyed it nevertheless. actually, still reading the second book but I'm hoping I'd finish by the end of the day (60 pages and 6hrs left). on that note, Happy New Year (advance/belated or whatever it is) to my beloved book lovers family ♡. wishing for nothing but best this year, most importantly stay safe!! cheers to hoping you'd stick to those 2022 resolutions. xx

Oh nice! I just got We Hunt the Flame! I started it last week and I'm hoping to finish it some time in January.

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penel VIP

Happy New Year, dear drama-family!

Book Update for December:

For December, I managed to finish two books:

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, a recommendation from my daughter, which I found amusing, though not really my taste (my daughter loved it though^^)

The Emperor, C'est Moi by Hugo Horiot, an autobiography from a writer and artist with Asperger's syndrome, which I found very intriguing and an eye-opener.

This year's been a good reading year for me, since our Book Club and all your motivating posts encouraged me to start reading books again :)
For next year, I hope I'll be able to read more books and share many interesting titles with you all ❤

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WandereR

Happy New Year, fellow readers! Time really flies and it's already 2022 in my part of the world :O

December 2021 Update: Diary of a Former Covidiot: Tales of Panic Buying, Surviving and Finding Humour during the Coronavirus Pandemic

December has been a hectic month with Christmas and now New Year. A whole host of new dramas suddenly popped up while quite a number again ended their run.

I managed to squeeze in some reading time amidst all that, and got up to half of the book in currently reading. I'll be continuing this light-hearted reading through January of the new year before another festive season commences again, the lunar new year.

I just want to wish everyone all the best for the coming year and may 2022 bring us much happiness, good health and great dramas to enjoy! :)

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Ashu

So well I'm still reading 1984 and oyasumi punpun. Haven't finished them cuz i was just too busy wil my life and all but have definitely made some progress. The Novel 1984 is divided into parts, the first part was all like an introduction to the dystopian world and although it was interesting I thought the story went for too long with nothing happening but now I've reached part 2, it's finally starting to start some action. I'm looking forward to see how it all posts out. 


With oyasumi punpun, I just really pity punpun and all the characters tbh. Honestly, whenever I read this manga, it uplifts me which is strange cuz it's a totally bleak story but that's why I feel good about myself cuz atleast my life is thousand times better than pupun's lmao . So yeah that was all about books for me this year. Let's hope we all get time to read more next year. Happy new year! 

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LucianYaz

Happy New Year to everyone! Most of all, stay safe! *hugs*

I still have almost 6 hours to go but my 2021 reading journey is complete. In terms of count, I read 50 books, which is the lowest number since I started tracking my reading about 10 years ago. Our club helped get me back on track, so big thanks to everyone. Of course, now that I'm reading more, I have less time for dramas, but I'm not complaining :)

I completed 14 books in December, but I'll only list those that were the highlights of the month:

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (4.5/5) - I really loved the transformation of both children alongside the garden; really wonderful children's story.

China: A History by John Keay (4.5/5) - I'd been reading this chunkster for a while but I'm glad I stuck with it. It covers a grand scale (from the mythical Xia dynasty all the way to China's forays into capitalism), and the telling is never boring, even sometimes quite witty.  

When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka (4/5) - this one was an impulse read; it was mentioned by someone at a bookish forum I frequent and after I saw it was available at my library as a short audiobook, I picked it up and finished it in one go on Christmas day. The story is set during World War II, when persons of Japanese ancestry were forced into internment camps as enemy aliens; the book is one about one such family. I love how the story is narrated in a matter-of-fact way (sections by each family member), giving you some distance but still very heart wrenching.

Psmith in the City by P G Wodehouse (4/5) - I recently decided to give Wodehouse a try and this is the second book of his I read in December. I love satire and this book was right up my alley - I laughed so much while reading it!

God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (4.5/5) - this is a reread (first time was all the way back in 2012!). I went back to this, not for lack of choice in devotionals, but because this time around I wanted more robust reflections on Advent.  

And that's a wrap! See you guys in 2022 for another year of (we hope!) good books ...

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