Fair! And a few of the other authors I like are self-pubbed as well,and I’d believe that.

I just finished The Mimicking of Known Successes and immediately preordered the sequel. Very good and thinky, in the ways I like my sf to be, with interesting characters and plot to boot.

Nice. I've had a sample of that sitting in my TBR for months but I keep getting distracted and reading something else. Maybe it will actually float to the top, now!

I've been listening to Demon Copperhead in the car. I am enjoying the voice a lot, but worry that it is going to be too depressing. Kid is damn resilient, but I will be most unhappy if the ending sucks. I am enjoying the narrative though so I'll stick with it.

Just finished Mercy by Jodi Picoult for book club. I just didn't believe any of the main characters. The minor characters were fine. I only endured it.

I did post on the condo community board asking if there was interest in a book club and had 6 responses! I thought that was great so on with the organizing. We have a couple of social rooms so we don't have to go to each other's places, which I think is more trouble for all.

Turns out the audiobook for Mimicking of Known Successes is free or included in a subscription or something so that is now Up Next

Did anybody read The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker (author of Dietland) ?

I did, and I am so mad at this book. I can't even throw it against the wall because it's on my Kindle.

Short version: Theme worthy, plot did not pay off on several levels, and writing was insanely basic to the point of laziness, and missed a kajillion opportunities for both introspection on the character's part and scene-painting description on the author's.

Short short version: BAH.

Oh, and the reason I read it was because of the glowing! fucking reviews from authors who should surely know better.

That would anger me as well, Amy. I've decided that I have to drop books that don't seem worth the time much earlier than I used to as there are too many in the TBR list.

That’s a bummer, Amy. Coincidentally, I am currently reading Everyone On This Train is a Suspect and authors blurbing each other (and why) is a plot point

Also, now that I have listened to The Mimicking of Known Successes I think I remember deciding to wait to read it until the second book was out (The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, these titles are so good!) but at this point it’s only a wait of a couple of weeks so that has worked out well for me

Amy, I read it, but I kind of adored it. Sorry.

I'm currently reading Fourth Wing, which I'm both loving and hating. On the plus side, it has a kick ass disabled main character, but on the negative side the writing is just so so bad.

I haven’t read the second 4th wing book yet but the first one the end was rather predictable. But it wasn’t any worse than a lot of the stuff I read, so…