Vikzen reads some more in 2022 - #1

Hello hello everyone! I am back again for my 4th year in the 75ers! Wow! Almost hard to believe! Let's see how much reading I get done this year. I'll be studying for a Masters in Intellectual Property Law so I suspect the reading will be low but nonetheless, I press on! As always, the goal is to match or surpass what I read last year.

As usual, the ridiculous TBR pile continues to grow at an alarming rate, whereupon I have realised that collecting books and reading books are two different hobbies LOL!

A bit about me:
- Name's Vic! Vikzen is a play on words :)
- Black female, avid reader - chronic shortage of time to read all the books ever!
- Mid to late twenties at this point (it is alarming how time flies)
- Lawyer/teacher/entrepreneur - don't ask me how I manage, because I have no idea
- I live in Barbados, open to meetups if you are travelling this way! (Visit us after the pandemic!)
- I have a gazillion hobbies aside from reading, including dancing, gardening, planning, puzzling (jigsaws), diamond painting, writing and music :)
- Book choices: Fiction lover with eclectic tastes. I'll read most things but I stay away from horror generally (love a good thriller though!). Hoping to read more non-fiction books this year as well (same as last year). Cheers!

Books I've Read in 2022

Currently Reading:
Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi
Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala
Carnival by Rawi Hage
Wahala by Nikki May

Completed in 2022:
1. The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
2. Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne
3. You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria
4. Seeing Red by Sandra Brown
5. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
6. The Club by Ellery Lloyd
7. His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie
8. Verity by Colleen Hoover
9. Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

DNF

Placeholder #2

Welcome back! I hope your 2022 is a great one!

Dropping a star!

Hi Vic, love your intro. Also dropping a star :)

ed!!

Intrigued! I'll be passing through to see what goes on here in 2022.

Dropping a star here, too!

This group always helps me to read; welcome back, Vic.

Happy new year!!

Happy reading in 2022, Vic!

Happy 2022 reading!

Happy New Year! Wishing you and your family the very best in joy, friendship, health, happiness and lots of good books for 2022.

>1 vikzen: All reading counts, especially big heavy tomes like law books ;0)

Happy to see you back, Vic!

Your Masters specialty sounds fascinating. Are you doing it online?

Happy New Year, Vic. I hope 2022 is a good one for you.

Happy new year, Vic! Returning your star and looking forward to seeing what you read this year :)

Greetings, Vic, and a happy new thread to you.

>1 vikzen: I agree. Reading books and collecting books are definitely different hobbies ;-)

Happy New Year and new thread.

p.s. My household has been doing a lot of jigsaw puzzles since covid started. (We did them before, but we didn't have one on the go pretty much all the time.)

>4 drneutron: Thanks Jim!
>5 Crazymamie: Hey Mamie, thanks! Checked out your thread
>6 fairywings: Thank you! Hoping to be more active this year
>7 Berly: Starred you too!
>8 ursula: Hi Ursula! Will keep an eye on your thread as well
>9 jessibud2: Starred right back atcha!
>10 PaulCranswick: Thank you Paul; good advice!
>11 banjo123: HNY to you too!
>12 FAMeulstee: Thanks, same to you!
>13 thornton37814: Happy reading to you too!

>14 humouress: Thank you so very much! I do hope the same for you and yours this year.
>15 MickyFine: Thank you! Starred on your thread as well. I will be doing it online but it's from the university here even so. No choice but to with Covid on the rise
>16 BLBera: Thank you, thank you!
>17 curioussquared: Thanks, will keep an eye on yours!
>18 Berly: Thanks doll!
>19 richardderus: Good day to you Richard! Hope you are well
>20 ArlieS: So different! I have been doing alot of them as well! Do you have any favourite brands?

>22 vikzen: My personal favorite is White Mountain, but the household favorite is Cobble Hill.

The advantage of Cobble Hill is that you usually get a second copy of the picture, inside the box - they call it a "poster" - so two people working on the same puzzle at the same time can each have their own copy.

Some other brands do the two copy thing too; we've been buying those preferentially, because it makes sociable puzzle solving a lot more pleasant.

With White Mountain, I find they often have a good balance between interesting picture and reasonable level of difficulty, and I like many of their collections of related object puzzles.

Happy 2022, Vic! I'm mainly an online jigsaw puzzler now, in honor of the shrieks my back sends out if I do one on the table. That said, I still have a collection of art puzzles in the closet. Some day...

>23 ArlieS: Ooh! Only tried 1 White Mountain so far, a collage of vintage travel posters - enjoyed it! Can't say I've noticed the two copy poster thing either - I'm an only child so quite unlikely to be puzzling in a group!
I recently bought 1 Cobble Hill puzzle so I hope it will go well. So far in my collection I've got alot (ALOT!) of Buffalo Games and Ravensburger. I've had really great puzzle experiences also with Hardie Grant puzzles.
Ravensburger was the puzzle that got me interested in puzzles as a child - my dear aunt gifted me one which I still have about 20 years later, minus a few pieces!

>24 ffortsa: Happy New Year to you too! I have not tried an online jigsaw before, how do you like it? I've got sciatica flaring up at the moment so completely empathize with you. I usually have 1 desk available so I can sit relatively comfortably to puzzle. I used to do it on the floor which was a nightmare.

Hi Vic. I also love online puzzles since, at the moment, any other puzzle is out of the question (2 young and very curious and naughty cats being the reason for that).

I used to subscribe to www.jigzone.com but for a reason I don't understand, the daily puzzles stopped coming to my inbox so I have to go to the site. What I love about it is that you can change the number and shapes of the pieces and even upload your own photos to creates puzzles (and send them to others through email). Lots of fun!

Review #1
The Paper Palace - 1.75 stars
I can't think of a time when I have disliked a book as much as I did this one. My goodness gracious. I have so many thoughts about it, and I'm certain I won't be able to articulate them all in one post, but here goes:
- I get the sense that this book is overdone and a bit contrived, truly. It's giving 'try too hard' - I thought it was trying to be similar to Where the Crawdads Sing which I quite enjoyed, unlike whatever this is.
- Twice as long as it needed to be. I cared not for most of the characters, most heavily the protagonist!!! I could not see the point of alot of the elaboration (why are we putting in useless details still in these times?)
- Too many shocking details seemingly for the shock value alone - very few persons in this story have redeeming qualities, and while yes, terrible things do happen in real life, the character motivation seemed quite rocky at points.
- No less than 10 times I literally put down my phone and questioned my existence due to the plot. If I had a hard copy I would have thrown it at a wall in frustration.
- The only reason I am giving it a star at all, is due to the pretty prose scattered throughout. There were a few sentences where I thought it was so very nice in terms of how the author described certain things, but beyond that, nada. It's a book about a cheating wife, I don't know what else to tell you. We learn nothing about the protagonist wife *besides* her many many many traumas.

I never like when I have to give a bad review (as a writer, reviews can be scathing) but I really did not enjoy this book at all.

So sad your first was a stinker Vic.

Review #2
Second First Impressions - 4 stars
Well! This was a refreshing change of scenery! First things first - I am not a fan of romance novels generally. This tends to be the case because I can easily predict what is going to happen.
This story however had an interesting plot in my opinion. I found myself smiling and laughing along with the protagonist as she went through life. I would read more by this author if they are in the same vein.

>29 vikzen: I have that one here somewhere. Maybe I'll get to it soon.

>28 fairywings: Yeah, definitely don't recommend that book; didn't suit my tastes

>30 fairywings: It was rather enjoyable! Let me know how you like it when you get to it!

Picked up some new books late last week from my favourite dealer (aka book store guy):
• Monster in the Middle
• Blonde Roots
• Augustown
• The Lowland
Any guesses on how many years it will take me to read them? LOL
The TBR bookshelves and boxes are screaming at me to read all the other books...if I put these to the back of the queue, Lord only knows when I'd get there

Nice book haul, Vic.

Alright folks, posting a weekly check-in...
This week was pretty nuts with work (teaching) starting back online. It's always a bit of an adjustment starting back but I think it was pretty good altogether.
I went to an EPIC dance masterclass today and I am completely rinsed out! It was taught by the legendary Mary Waithe, who is the last surviving member of Pearl Primus' dance company (if you know anything about modern African-American dance and technique, you know Pearl!). Ms. Waithe is pretty invested in keeping Pearl's choreo alive if I understand correctly. It was the hardest dance class I've ever done (having done bits and pieces of both Graham and Dunham technique) and I enjoyed it to the max! Still in a bit of awe!
Haven't read much lately...working my way through You Had Me at Hola and perhaps will start back reading Atomic Habits in a piecemeal fashion later this month.

>34 vikzen: Your dance workshop sounds awesome! I did ballet as a kid but these days my dance is limited to at-home zumba classes :)

I'm also reading You Had Me at Hola right now! Interested to see your thoughts!

Catching up and wishing you a great weekend, Vic.

>34 vikzen: I tried some African dance classes with a friend when I lived in New York. It's a workout!

Well, no one can say you aren't honest in your reviews! LOL. Nicely done.

Wow, the dance class sounds awesome! I never had official dance lessons, except for one year of ballet when I was 8, but I do love to dance. I even had Prince ask me to dance once!!

Happy reading. : )

I even had Prince ask me to dance once!!

Ok, you can't just leave us hanging like that! Dish...

I was with my sister at his dance club in Minneapolis when I was a youngster and this guy asked me to dance. I love to dance and never say no, so off we went to the dance floor. It was only when his body guard came with us and I took a closer look that I realized it was Prince! I was too tongue-tied to say anything, but we did dance two songs. Man could he move!

Nice!

>40 Berly: That is such a great story!!!

>40 Berly: Yeah, yeah. So not jealous ;0)

I can't see anyone asking me to demonstrate my two-step bop.

>40 Berly: Very cool story!

Just checking in, Vic, and see you haven't been here in a week.

Hope all is well and that you'll keep dancing towards a great weekend.

>40 Berly: *concedes* That is a lovely story, though.

>33 BLBera: Thanks! Let's see if I can read them lol

>34 vikzen: It was epic! Nowadays I'm limited to doing only African classes but ballet is also my first love. Zumba is great!

>40 Berly: MA'AM! Loved that story about Prince!!! How cool! Thanks for sharing on my post (I feel honoured). Hope you're still getting your groove on!

>45 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul! I am doing well, just tired! Overall I am well. How have you been?

So I am terrible at giving updates - what else is new? LOL
With good reason...I have been very busy. The Masters programme is quite enjoyable but it is keeping me busy and thus taking up the majority of my reading time. I shall endeavour to be more intentional about my reading this year!
Getting a short break from work this weekend...of course I'll probably spend it doing work (go figure) but the intention is to have a healthy mix of both work and rest. Should be able to wrap up You Had Me at Hola by tomorrow.

>49 vikzen: I've been looking at that one, looking forward to your comments.

Reviews
#3 You Had Me at Hola - 4.25 stars
I enjoyed this romance! If you know me, you know I am not the world’s biggest romance fan. This one was done well. I liked the storyline, in terms of the acting and so on. The sex scenes are vivid but also realistic and include some things that I had not previously read before (yay for realistic sex scenes!). I would recommend it if you like romance, and if you don’t like romance, this may be a nice entry point. This is the first in a series, and I will definitely be reading the remainder of the series. A nice read.

#4 Seeing Red – 3.5 stars
This is my first Sandra Brown book – how I have managed to get so far without previously reading one is miraculous at the rate she publishes LOL. I wasn’t expecting the sex scenes in the middle of this thriller – maybe I haven’t read a thriller in a while? Who knows! At any rate, it was pretty good. I would say a solid 3.5 stars. I liked the twists as well. I would read more from this author.

Update:
Low key sad that I’ve only managed to read 4 books for the first 2 months of the year, but I’ll go easy on myself. Been reading more cases than books.
Otherwise doing alright, just tired! Hope everyone is well. :)

>52 vikzen: I suspect the cases are slightly more important. Though maybe not as much fun?

>51 vikzen: Good review. You've convinced me I need to get a copy of You Had Me at Hola.

>53 humouress: Oh definitely more important but decidedly less fun! Some of them are interesting though (thank heavens!)

>54 fairywings: Yay! I am so looking forward to hearing how you feel about it once you get it and read it! I will hopefully read book 2 in the series within the next 2 months.

>55 vikzen: I think I'll get around to the second book too, at some point. Romance isn't my genre though I've been picking up a few books in the last couple of years. (You know; 'Do you come here often?')

>56 humouress: Same here, I'm not often here for the romance but I can be swayed and I'm apparently flirting with it more often, ha!

Review
#5 The Song of Achilles - 5 stars
OOH LAWDY! Now this book is a banger!
It's full of what I affectionately call 'pretty prose' which reads so nicely. I do enjoy the retelling of the story, and the way it is done it is so easy to read while pulling at your emotions as well. So well done. The storyline itself was interesting, I did not see the twists coming at the end!

So, two and a half months later and I am back to catch up. Whoops! Wishing you a great week ahead. : )

>59 Berly: I completely understand lol I've been pretty quiet over here!

Well well...I have crawled out from under the oppressive thumb of graduate studies to revisit my book challenge. Can I tell you I completely forgot about reading for pleasure during examination time? lol
A bunch of things have happened: a) I was studying; b) working simultaneously; c) opened a physical store for my (previously) online business.
So yeah let's just say I've been a tad busy so now I can get back to my books over time!
I will be reading and puzzling my way through the next 3 months!

Congratulations! And welcome back to reading for pleasure.

>61 vikzen: It is tough, Vic, when necessity stops us from an enjoyment of one of life's great pleasures. Welcome back to reading for pleasure as Nina says. xx

You *have* been busy! I'm glad you're going to be able to get back to reading for fun again.

It sounds like you've been busy, Vic. Good luck in all your endeavors.

>61 vikzen: I remember that period of my life. It took a while to get back to reading for pleasure.

The really sad thing is that we were not even expected to read all the books we were assigned - they explicitly instructed us to read table of contents, introduction, conclusion, and mybe the introducotry and concluding paragraphs of any chapter that looked especially interesting.

Even with my much-fast-than-average reading speed, I couldn't manage to actually read everything, and once very much surprised a professor (in an oral exam), when it became obvious that I'd read and remembered the whole work she'd assigned parts of. (I'd read it before starting the degree program. ;-))

>61 vikzen: Hurray for exams being over! But you still have a ton going on. Sounds like good stuff though, so best of luck and welcome back. Happy reading! And I want to hear more about your in-person business....

>62 humouress: thank you! I am looking forward to it.

>63 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul, that is so very true

>64 drneutron: Yep! Hope you've been good!

>65 BLBera: Quite the busy bee over here but I really can't complain! :) Having fun with my little stationery shop

>66 ArlieS: It is definitely a bit of a fight for sure. On top of that, my day job requires a lot of reading so I haven't even been doing as much.
What a story! Why on earth did they insist on assigning so much reading and then to give those instructions! Good on you for reading the book before getting to the program!

>67 Berly: Yep, the good kind of busy for the most part! I started a stationery store online in the pandemic because I couldn't travel to fulfil my stationery fix and it's expensive to ship to a small island piece by piece. Fast forward to now, I have a storefront, and I am an authorised retailer of several large international brands - I'm enjoying the experience so far! :)

Life update:
Having surgery soon and will be bedbound for a little while. This spurred me to comb through my bookshelves and boxes and look for some titles to read. I also ordered a few new ones (of course, because what is self-control?); truly looking forward to reading and letting go of as many titles as I possibly can.
I also hope to be doing some diamond painting and puzzles as well - love me a good jigsaw puzzle!
What are some other recommendations of things to do while recovering? Open to suggestions. I have Netflix (some shows might be limited due to region)

Hi Vik! Glad to hear you're enjoying your new stationary venture!

I hope your surgery goes well and is uneventful! Lately I've been really enjoying cross-stitch -- I started with a few ready-made kits to get into it. I like it as a secondary activity while watching TV or listening to an audiobook, too, to occupy the other half of my brain :)

I definitely did a bunch of cross-stitch while recovering from abdominal surgery a couple years ago in addition to the expected TV watching and reading. I will say make sure any media you consume isn't too funny for at least the first couple weeks (especially if your surgery involves your abdomen) as laughing can be painful.

I hope everything goes smoothly and your recovery is quick.

>70 vikzen: I hope the surgery goes well, and recovery is uneventful.

Best of luck with the surgery and recovery and have fun reading. Have you got some diamond painting pieces ready to go?

My son asked for one with a pair of wolves a few years ago but it took him ages to do. I ended up doing most of it and found it very relaxing - but my older son saw me one day and told me to leave it for his brother, since he'd asked for it. And so it took a few more years. (Still not completed because we ran out of dots - they ended up on the floor a few times. I'll have to request more.)

Good luck with your surgery. Speedy recovery!

Latest book haul! Finally figured out how to add pictures to posts on LT :)

>71 curioussquared: Thank you! I will look into cross-stitch as well. Ready-made kits sounds good.
I like podcasts too for listening to things while doing other things!

>72 MickyFine: Oooh 2 recs for cross-stitch definitely bumps it up my list! I will see what I can find on Amazon. Got a bunch of tv shows to watch (just gonna act like the books don't exist LOL) Thanks also for your kind wishes :)

>73 ArlieS: Thank you for the kind wishes!

>74 humouress: Thanks so much for the wishes! I do have several diamond paintings at my disposal much to my delight! That sounds like perhaps you should still finish the painting after getting more diamonds, just to be full circle - it sounds like a nice family project

>75 BLBera: Thank you! :)

Thanks for the kind wishes everyone! Surgery went well, just dealing with the pain now.

>76 vikzen: Nice haul. I wish you a speedy recovery.

>78 vikzen: Well, I hope you're over the pain, soonest. Enjoy your reading!

>69 vikzen: That's amazing! Your very own store front. Look at you go.

>76 vikzen: Nice book haul, although I know none of them. LOL. I await your critiques.

>78 vikzen: So glad the surgery went well. Wishing you a speedy recovery!! Pain be gone!

>69 vikzen: I didn't register that; congratulations on having your own storefront! Is that bricks-and-mortar or online? Gosh; you have so much going on.

I was wondering how that works just today; I started card-making (just for family) and die-cutting in the pandemic but I'm finding that all the branded stuff has to ship from the US or the UK, which is exorbitantly expensive, so I was wondering how feasible it would be to act as an agent here.

>79 BLBera: thank you so much!

>80 humouress: Thank you! Haven't been reading as much, oddly enough

>81 Berly: Thank you so much dear! I am just here trying my best. Watching tv, fixing puzzles, chatting with friends, etc. I am getting pretty antsy and would like to be on my feet but soon enough.
Having a storefront is interesting...having one while being incapacitated is even more interesting but all will be well I trust, getting some help on that front.

>82 humouress: Thank you so much! It has been such an experience, in a good way. I can message you if you would like more information! Everything comes from the US right now by sea so it's alot of planning in advance. Being an authorised retailer definitely helps re better (wholesale) pricing which offsets some of it because otherwise it would be prohibitive!

Review
#6 The Club - 3.5 stars
Alrighty so I got this book as part of a nice little haul to tide me over the surgery recovery process. It seemed interesting enough. It's a murder mystery/whodunnit that revolves around a set of persons orbiting the main character (whose perspective we do not see). It was a nice summer read I'd say, solid 3-3.5 stars from me. I enjoyed it. I liked that the authors (husband and wife duo) told us up front some of the facts eg some of the persons who had died and the circumstances. I like the idea of it but was left feeling a tad bit unfulfilled at the end of the book. I can imagine what happens but I guess I was expecting more. Not bad

Waving Hi!!!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/347298#n8021913
2023 thread!