I'm planning on listening to this book for the Winter read-along. There are 2 versions on Spotify, one narrated by Aimee Lou Wood and Kristin Atherson and another version narrated by Billie Fulford-Brown. Does anyone here have any experience with these editions and can recommend a narrator?

I feel like I'm learning so much more from this book about this time period than I ever did in school. Most of what I remember of American history of this time is solely focused on The Great Depression and the first and second world wars. Topics like Jim Crow or sharecropping were more of a footnote rather than something that got a lot of focus.

It's a bit frustrating that as an adult I have to go back and fill in these gaps of history. And it makes me wonder how different our society might be if this history was more thoroughly taught. Would less people have the mindset of "it's not that deep" or "all lives matter."

I’d like help crowd sourcing a list of books that make good holiday gifts. As I’m writing this, I think I need one for different groups.

What brought this up was I finished “An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good” and that’s the sort of light read my elderly mother would enjoy—or at least get a laugh out of the title.

But let’s work on some lists so we can all support local bookstores and spend less time worrying

Hey Everyone, Happy Friday! I don't really have anything to discuss. I've been in a Mood all week and could use a positive distraction. SO what's everyone reading this Weekend and what do you like about it? I'm currently Babylonia by Costanza Casati. I like historical fictions that focus on histories and cultures I know pretty much nothing about. Also, I just love the cover art and how it mimics the art style of that period.

Like. Okay. I have a small habit of buying too many books. So to cut back on that, I have started to change from just buying the books I want to read, and focus my energy into saving up to buy special editions and hardcovers of the series that I know I absolutely adore as like an actual collection.

I'm thinking of making more use with libraries, the internet archive, etc for reading itself.

I will admit there is no actual question, I just want other people's thoughts about this and maybe some recs on other places to get the books I'm interested in.

What’s everyone’s philosophies about DNFing? I have to admit it’s something I’ve found really difficult. Even if I’m not interested at all in the book and find it a slog or I’m just not connecting to the material, I feel this immense guilt about not ever picking it up again. I’d rather not read at all than not finish. The one time I’ve DNFed a book with almost no intention of ever picking it up again was Passage by Connie Willis, and it still took me half the book to tell myself I’d made enough of an effort to justify stopping.