Amber's (scaifea) 2020 Category Challenge

Hey, everybody!

I'm Amber, a one-time Classics professor, turned stay-at-home parent/lady of leisure, turned part-time library assistant. I spend my time sewing, writing, knitting, baking, and, of course, reading. Oh, and I run an Etsy shop and I'm co-writing a Latin textbook with a former colleague. So I keep busy.

I'm 45 going on 12 and live in Ohio with my husband, Tomm; our son, Charlie; and our dog, Mario the Golden Retriever.

This is my third year in the Category Challenge. I won't set any particular goals for my categories again this year, but instead just list the books I read in each one and see how many I get through. I'm also taking a break from the CATs and KITs this year; I love doing them, but they also stress me out much more than they should so this year I'm going to focus on my own categories instead. I'll still keep an eye on the BingoDOG, but I won't actively work toward filling it out - I'll just see which books I read happen to fit as I go along.

For my theme this year I'm going with characters from two of my favorite shows, Supernatural and Gilmore Girls.





Currently Reading:
-The House on the Borderlands (CAT#4: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt)
-Thick as Thieves (no CAT: series reread)
-Spinning Silver (no CAT)
-Outlander (CAT#24: Romance Genre List)
-Silas Marner (CAT#23: Audiobooks)
-The Queen of Attolia (CAT#21: Books Read Aloud with Charlie at Bedtime)
-The Book Thief (no CAT)

BingoDOG

1. Book that's in a Legacy Library: Pride and Prejudice
2. Book written by an LT author: The Slow Regard of Silent Things
3. Book published in 1820 or 1920
4. Book published in the year of your birth: Figgs & Phantoms
5. Book published under a pen name or anonymously: If You're Reading This, It's Too Late
6. Book set in Asia
7. Mystery or true crime: Still Life
8. Book involving a real historical event (fiction or nonfiction): They Called Us Enemy
9. Book about books, bookstores, or libraries: Read It and Weep
10. Book with at least three letters of BINGO consecutively in order in the title: BreakING Stalin's Nose
11. Red cover, or red is prominent on the cover: Coraline
12. Title contains a pun: Snuff
13. Book about birth or death: Yarn Over Murder
14. Book with a proper name in the title: The Book of Essie
15. Book published by a small press or self-published: Family Don't End with Blood
16. Book published in 2020: Lumberjanes: Birthday Smarty
17. Epistolary novel or collection of letters
18. Book by a journalist or about journalism
19. Book not set on Earth: I Shall Wear Midnight
20. Mythology or folklore: The Wise Man's Fear
21. Weird book title: Bloodlust & Bonnets
22. Book with "library" or "thing" in the title or subtitle
23. Book with a periodic table element in the title: The GOLDen Name Day
24. Book by a woman from a country other than the US/UK: Sing Me a Story
25. Read a CAT

Crowley



CAT #1: 100 Banned Books
This list comes from 100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature.
Crowley is bad enough to get banned from most places, really. I do love a bad boy.

1. Peyton Place

Dean Forester



CAT #2: Newbery Honor Books
I'm officially (sort of) a Newbery Nut - I've read all of the Newbery Medal winners, and now I'm working through the Honor books. I started this project, oh, gosh, 12 years ago, when I was pregnant with my son, and I've loved working through these kids' books. There are some stinkers, but I've also met up with some pretty amazing books along the way, too, many that I really wish I'd read when I was little!
Aw, adorable Dean (not to be confused with Dean Winchester). Oh, the days of innocence, when girlfriends on fire on the ceiling are not even remotely a possibility... I suspect Dean/Baby Sammy read his fair share of Newbery Books as a kiddo.

1. Breaking Stalin's Nose
2. The Golden Name Day
3. Mr. Justice Holmes
4. The Corn Grows Ripe
5. Old Ramon
6. Thistle and Thyme
7. The Fearsome Inn
8. Genesis Begins Again
9. Other Words for Home
10. Our Eddie
11. Anpao
12. The Many Ways of Seeing
13. Homesick
14. Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush

Kevin Tran



CAT#3: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
List from the book of the same name. I've been working on this one for as long as the Newbery project has been going on. I'm getting there.
Kevin is the closest thing we get to a kiddo in Supernatural, I suppose. Poor thing. Good with the heavenly languages, though.

1. The White Stone
2. The Rattle Bag
3. Telephone Tales
4. Me in the Middle
5. The King of the Copper Mountains
6. Sing Me a Story
7. A Thief in the Village
8. Pit Pony
9. Two Weeks with the Queen

Charlie Bradbury



CAT#4: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
This one comes from the list curated in The Green Dragon group a few years ago and captained by Morphidae.
Charlie's the clear choice for this category. Cutest badass-nerd on the planet and I love her to bits.

John Winchester



The Presidential Challenge
There's an LT group somewhere around here for people reading biographies of all the U.S. presidents. I'm so far behind the group that I haven't really visited over there in a long time, but I'm still plugging along with the challenge.
As far as problematic authority figures go, John takes the trophy.

UPDATE: Since creating this thread, I've made a Major Life Decision: I'm abandoning this particular category/challenge. I'm so slow at it and I feel that I'm not getting out of it what I wanted to. So, I'm letting it go. (This may not seem like a Huge Thing to most normal-brained folks, but it took a lot of thinking and self-coaxing to make this decision. It is a big deal for me.) I'm keeping John here because I really don't want a blank post (*shudders*) and despite his status as a problematic dad to the Winchester boys, he's still easy on the eyes.

Chuck Shurley



CAT#5: Hugo, Nebula, and other SF and Fantasy Award Winners
My best friend and I are working through a *very* long list of sci-fi and fantasy award winners. He's the Keeper of Keys and Grounds with this one, so I couldn't even tell you all of the different awards he's included. I just know that it's LONG.
You just know Chuck keeps up with these kinds of award lists, because of course he does.

Sookie St. James



CAT#6: Agatha Christie - All The Books!
I started this challenge *years* ago (she has more than a few, dontchaknow). I *love* her stuff.
I just feel like Sookie would be a huge Christie fan. Don't you think?

Balthazar



CAT#7: Stephen Fry - All The Books!
I love Stephen Fry with a love that burns brighter than a thousand suns. I mean, JEEVES, folks. And his stuff makes me feel so very not very intelligent at times, but he has a fabulous way with language, and I just love him so much.
Like Sookie and Christie, I think Balthazar probably has a healthy appreciation for Fry.

Lane Kim


CAT#8: John Boyne - All The Books!
Boyne is one of my favorites, so I need to Read. It. All.
I can see Lane hiding out in her decked-out closet, reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and having a good cry.

Lucifer



CAT#9: Neil Gaiman - Also All The Things!
I started reading Sandman in college, as it came out each month, and just fell in love with Gaiman's sense of storytelling and his own love for mythology. So, all the things.
I can't decide which version of Lucifer I love more, Neil's or Supernatural's. It's a pickle.

Gabriel



CAT#10: Christopher Moore - One More All The Things!
Funniest stuff on paper. Love him.
Gabriel goes well with Moore, as another lovable goofball.

1. Secondhand Souls

Luke Danes



CAT#11: National Endowment for the Humanities Timeless Classics
This may well be the first book list I ever acquired. I don't remember where it came from, but I know that I got it at some point in high school, in the form of a tri-fold pamphlet. I didn't start working through it, though, until around the same time as I started the Newbery winners and the 1001 Children's Books list.
Luke is a grump most of the time, but he's also an old softie, and I just know that he would support the National Endowment for the Humanities, because he's a good guy.

1. Of Human Bondage

Jess Mariano



CAT#12: National Book Award for Fiction
This one seems clear on its own, I guess.
If any character from either show were to win the NBA, it would be Jess. I'll brook no arguments here.

Sam Winchester



CAT#13: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Another awards list.
Sammy keeps up with the Pulitzer winners, he just doesn't tell Dean that he does it.

Richard Gilmore



CAT#14: Unread Books from my Shelves
I have books on my shelves that have been there, unread, for YEARS. I need to work on that.
Richard would not approve of my shelf neglect.

1. Candyfreak
2. The Thief of Always
3. The Folio Society Book of the 100 Greatest Portraits

Dean Winchester



CAT#15: Books from my Read Soon! Shelves
I have a couple of shelves full of books that I really want to get to soon.
While reading isn't really Dean's cuppa, impulsive anything pretty much is, so he goes with the impulsive reads category.

1. Still Life
2. The Adventurous Eaters Club
3. Call Down the Hawk
4. They Called Us Enemy
5. The Wise Man's Fear
6. The Slow Regard of Silent Things
7. Pride and Prejudice
8. Shiver
9. Family Don't End with Blood
10. The Art of the English Murder
11. So Anyway...
12. Silver in the Wood

Bobby Singer



CAT#16: H. H. the 14th Dalai Lama - okay, one more All The Books
I'm a secular Buddhist, although there are days during which I'm not great at it. I'm working on getting through this bibliography, and learning tons along the way.
Bobby, the closest the Winchester boys get to a spiritual leader, seems appropriate here.

Castiel



CAT#17: Books on Buddhism
I've put together a list of recommended books on buddhism from various sources. Working on that being a good buddhist thing.
Oh, Cas. Sweet baby angel nugget. Confused little buddha in a trenchcoat.

Paris Geller



CAT#18: Book-A-Year Challenge
A couple of years ago, I made a list of books by year, just to see both how far back my reading goes and where/when there are gaps. I'm now working on filling in the gaps, so that I'll have read a book from every year for as far back I can go.
This seems like something Paris would get behind, right? Excel files and research for the best book to read for each year...

Rory Gilmore



CAT#19: Shakespeare
I'm doing a full-on reread.
Rory has read his full canon. You *know* she has. And she has a spreadsheet, detailing each one from best to least favorite, with pros and cons for each.

1. The Taming of the Shrew
2. Henry VI Part 2
3. Henry VI Part 3
4. Titus Andronicus

Death



CAT#20: Discworld
I'm working my way through the series.
Death is my favorite character in Discworld, and he's a pretty great character in Supernatural, too.

1. I Shall Wear Midnight
2. Snuff
3. Raising Steam
4. The Shepherd's Crown

And with that, I am finished with the Discworld series! Category Completed!!

The Other Crowley





CAT#21: Books Read Aloud with Charlie at Bedtime
I'll list here the books my 11-year-old and I read out loud at night.
I let Charlie pick his own character for this category. When given the choice between Supernatural and Gilmore Girls characters, he chose Crowley from Good Omens. Seems legit. I've added Charlie in his Halloween costume from last year as further explanation for his choice (he's a fan).

1. Pawn of Prophecy
2. The Terrible Two Go Wild
3. The Specter from the Magician's Museum
4. The Graveyard Book
5. The Beast Under the Wizard's Bridge
6. Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
7. The Tower at the End of the World
8. Coraline
9. Tom's Midnight Garden
10. Little House on the Prairie
11. The Thief
12. The Wild Robot

Lorelei Gilmore



CAT#22: Books I Read with My Mom
My mom and I have a few series that we're reading together. She likes cozy mysteries, so we're working through Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, Jenn McKinlay's Library Mystery series, and Maggie Sefton's Yarn Shop Mystery series.
My mom and I have a *super* close relationship, much like Lorelei and Rory. I love that about us.

1. Read It and Weep
2. Yarn Over Murder
3. On Borrowed Time

Miss Patty



23. Audiobooks
I listen to books while vacuuming, sewing, and driving, so I get through a fair amount in a year, generally.
I feel like Miss Patty would be *fantastic* at narrating audiobooks. I'd certainly listen.

1. Breaking Stalin's Nose
2. Vanity Fair
3. Agnes Grey
4. Cranford
5. Mary Barton
6. Bleak House
7. The Demon Headmaster
8. A Tale of Two Cities
9. The Mill on the Floss

Crowley, Again



24. Romance
This is one of the few genres from which I have read virtually nothing and I want better to familiarize myself with it. To that end, I have a list of romance novels recommended by a very trusted source and I'll be working my way through those.
We come full circle to Crowley again because I very much would not mind co-starring in a romance of the steamy variety with him...

1. These Old Shades
2. Winter Wonderland
3. The Duke I Tempted
4. Any Duchess Will Do
5. Potent Pleasures
6. The Shop on Blossom Street
7. Holding the Cards
8. Lord of Scoundrels
9. Indigo

Wow! I love all your categories.

I, too, am addicted to childrens/middle grade books. We are also working our way through 1001 Childrens Books.

In 2020, I have a Pulitzer Prize category - I am planning on starting at 1918 and reading forwards in order.

Stephen Fry, John Boyne and Neil Gaiman - I'm with you there!

And banned books. My hobby/job is yarn dyeing - I have an Etsy shop too. This year, my yarn club has been based on banned books. I have so enjoyed dyeing yarns to match some of the banned books I love. I could keep going forever!

I am looking forward to following your 2020 reading as I'm sure I will get many great recommendations here!

>26 scaifea: Hi, Jayne! We have tons in common it seems! Very cool.

Happy new reading year!!

Great categories, I'm looking forward to the reviews!

>29 MissWatson: Thanks!!

Good luck with your challenge!

Fun setup and I love Charlie's costume!!

>31 majkia: Thanks!

>32 LittleTaiko: Aw, thanks! I made the vest, jacket, and scarf and was really pretty pleased with how it came out!

Great set-up, Amber. Looks like you have lots of great reading planned for 2020.

My goodness, Amber! 24 Categories! that's so ambitious of you. You've got some great categories that I'm looking forward to seeing what you read.

Charlie makes an awesome Crowley! Looks like you have a great reading year ahead :D

>34 DeltaQueen50: Thanks, Judy!

>35 dudes22: Well yes, but remember, I'm not setting any actual goals for those categories; those are just the lists I'm working through at the moment. We'll see just how many books get read in each one...

>36 rabbitprincess: Aw, thanks! He makes a pretty cute Crowley, I think, but I may be biased just a bit.

Impressive! I'll look forward to following along - especially the John Boyne category. I'm a fan too.

Charlie's costume is perfect.

>38 VivienneR: Thanks! Boyne is amazing, no? Both his Middle Grade and adult books are fantastic, and I'm always impressed with an author can get both right.

You have some very interesting categories, so I'll be following your reading next year with much interest!

>38 VivienneR: & >39 scaifea: - I've never read anything by him, but do plan on reading The Heart's Invisible Furies next year. Definitely looking forward to it since you both are such fans of his work.

>41 LittleTaiko: I'm reading The Heart's Invisible Furies right now and loving it! I hope you do, too!

Nice set-up!

>43 thornton37814: Thanks, Lori!

1. Still Life by Louise Penny
CAT#15: Books from My Read Soon! Shelves
This first in the Inspector Gamache series just blew me away. It's everything one should want in a murder mystery: a cozy and uniquely quirky town, an excellent cast of well-drawn characters, a detective whom the reader immediately falls for and falls hard, and a mystery that remains elusive until the very end. There are a few characters who irked me, but in the best possible way: because they are so very believably human, and it doesn't get much more fantastic than that. I will most certainly be revisiting Three Pines, which is now one of my favorite towns, real or written.

>45 scaifea: Yay! My mum and I share a fondness for this series. I love the descriptions of food! I always have to have a snack on hand while reading these books ;)

>46 rabbitprincess: There is a ton of good-sounding food in there, isn't there?! *happy sigh*

>45 scaifea: Wow, a ringing endorsement! I'm happy you liked it, since it's on my TBR list for this year as well.

>48 christina_reads: Oh, I loved it, and I hope you do, too!

>45 scaifea: - This is also one of my most favorite series. At some point I want to go back and re-read the first book now that I'm more familiar with the characters. And I love the food mentions.

>50 dudes22: It's always nice to revisit the first in a favorite series, isn't it?

2. Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin
CAT#2: Newbery Honor Books
CAT#23: Audiobooks
A boy living in Stalin's Moscow and following the rules like a good little brainwashed kiddo idolizes his father and loves Their Leader until his father gets arrested and he starts waking up to the nightmare in which he lives.
This one seems pretty dark for a Newbery Honor Book, and certainly doesn't have what I'd call a happy ending. It's an interesting look at that time and place, though.

3. The Golden Name Day by Jennie D. Lindquist
CAT#2: Newbery Honor Book
A city girl whose mother is very ill goes to live in the country with her grandparents, and spends a spring and summer playing with her cousins and enjoying life on a farm.
This one melted into syrupy sweetness, mixed with the cloying annoyance of a sad girl complaining and getting everything she wants. So, well, kind of ew. The one saving grace here are the illustrations by Garth Williams.

I love literally everything about this list.

>54 lycomayflower:

>55 scaifea:

>56 lycomayflower: *melt* *am now puddle*

>57 scaifea: That stupid little grin/smirk....

>58 lycomayflower: YES.

4. Lumberjanes #2: Friendship to the Max by Noelle Stevenson & Grace Ellis
5. Lumberjanes #3: A Terrible Plan by Noelle Stevenson & Shannon Watters
no CAT: series read
I *love* the Lumberjanes girls. LOVE them. Also, the storyline is a hoot and the dialogue super-witty and -clever. Just all kinds of love for this series.

6. Lumberjanes #4: Out of Time by Noelle Stevenson
7. Lumberjanes #5: Band Together Noelle Stevenson
8. Lumberjanes #6: Sink or Swim Shannon Watters
9. Lumberjanes #7: A Bird's-Eye View Shannon Watters
10. Lumberjanes #8: Stone Cold Shannon Watters
11. Lumberjanes #9: On a Roll Shannon Watters
12. Lumberjanes #10: Parents' Day! Shannon Watters
13. Lumberjanes #11: Time After Crime Shannon Watters
no CAT: series reads
I love everything about this series (well, almost everything: they mistreat Greek mythology a smidge, but I'm willing to overlook it because the everything else is so, so good)!! The characters are fabulous, the stories inventive and interesting, and the low-key inclusiveness and the supportive language and atmosphere is excellent. Highly, highly recommended.

14. The Adventurous Eaters Club by Misha Collins and Vicki Collins
CAT#15: Books from My Read Soon! Shelves
I fully admit that I wanted this cookbook at first solely because I *ahem* hold Misha Collins in high esteem, first as Cas in Supernatural and now also as the goofy, sweet, full-of-kindness-for-the-world sort of person he seems to be. (Read: I. Am. A. Fan.) So, I convinced my 11-year-old son to get it for me for Christmas (no shame!), and it's the first cookbook that I've actually read cover-to-cover. And it's completely worth it. Misha and Vicki (his equally awesome partner, whom I now also love to bits) have an excellent approach to introducing possibly-reluctant kiddos to all sorts of healthy and adventurous foods. The theory and practice seems sound, and I love their openness about their own successes and failures in parenting: they're happily candid about not being or pretending to be perfect parents, and there's a lovely sense that they're not completely comfortable with writing a book about even this one aspect of parenting without stressing that they're not be-all authorities on the subject. Also, the recipes look very doable and very good - I've marked tons of them that we will definitely be trying.
Charlie has been, from an early age, a happy helper in the kitchen, but after reading this I realize that I could be even more open to food adventures and letting him have more autonomy in the kitchen (not that he'll go crazy with ingredient combinations - it's just not his style (he is a "cautious fellow," after all (his words, not mine (I swear I'm not making that up)))). It has also been a good reminder that it doesn't have to be time-consuming or difficult to cut the convenience of processed food out of the mix and out of the house. In short, highly recommended.

>62 scaifea: I have been waiting for my library to get a copy of this as I really want to check it out to see if I want to buy it. Sounds like it might be worth the purchase!

>63 JayneCM: It definitely is, especially since 100% of the proceeds go to charity!

>64 scaifea: That is great - which charity?
I had another look on Amazon - are you planning to try the Breakfast Popsicles on page 73?! I guess we always say they have to eat what we cook - it has to go both ways!

>65 JayneCM: From the website: "100% of author profits will go to charities that provide access to healthy food and the arts to underserved families, including Edible Schoolyard, The Garden School Foundation, and the Whatcom Farm to School Fund." And that sounds pretty wonderful to me.

Ha! No, I don't think we'll try that recipe! I do love that they included some of the crazy recipes their kiddos have come up with. We've let Charlie made his own recipes in the past, but at least they've all been edible (if not exactly delicious). His favorite is what he's named Charlie Water: chopped celery, carrots, and red and yellow bell peppers divided into soup bowls, then boiling water poured over them. He lets it sit for five minutes and then it's time to eat it. *sigh*

>66 scaifea: That is wonderful. We have a similar initiative here in Australia for school kitchen gardens.

His cooking can only improve! At least it doesn't actually sound disgusting to eat. And it is quick to prepare!

>67 JayneCM: That's great! I love the idea of school gardens and think it should be way more prevalent.

I do love that he loves to cook and bake. Weirdly, he's much better at baking (you'd think that would be more difficult), and he absolutely loves it.

15. The Black God's Drums by P. Djeli Clark
no CAT: Alex Award winner
Creeper is a young girl living on the streets of an alternate, steampunk, late-1800's NOLA. She makes her way as a pickpocket, but dreams of working on an airship. Her dream moves to the realm of possibility when she gets information about a scientist getting kidnapped for his knowledge of a secret and very dangerous weapon called the Black God's Drum, but she'll need to grapple with the tension between her desire to see the world and her ties to the city she loves. Oh, and she also has an orisha sort of living in her brain...
It's quite short (clocking in at just over 100 pages), but boy, this one packs a good storytelling punch. Anyone who can weave such a good yarn, create such interesting characters, build a fascinating world, and set a perfect atmospheric scene in such a few pages is clearly a talent to be watched. Highly recommended.

>69 scaifea: Ooh, that sounds good! I hope my library has it! Even though it doesn't fit any of my categories (that I can think of), I am glad it is short so I can squeeze it in.

>70 JayneCM: I hope your library has a copy, too! It's so good. And so short! So, perfect! Ha!

16. Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater
CAT#15: Books from my Read Soon! Shelves
Since this is the first in a new series containing the characters and backstory of the Raven Cycle books, I can't really talk about the plot without giving away all sorts of things about that previous series. So instead I'll just say that Stiefvater is Everything. I mean, EVERYTHING. She can craft a character like really crafty people craft really crafty things (read: she's super good at it.). Her stories are a perfect mix of real and fantasy, incorporating bits and bobs from folklore and myths seamlessly and beautifully. And her prose is devastating. Absolutely. She breaks your heart multiple times with single sentences and makes you love the pain and long for more of it. So, don't read this one if you haven't read The Raven Cycle first, and if you haven't read The Raven Cycle, what even is your life right now?! Fix that, soonish like.

17. Mr. Justice Holmes by Clara Ingram Judson
CAT#2: Newbery Honor Books
A Newbery Honor winner, this is a biography of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. aimed at Middle Grade readers. The language is slightly dated, but overall it was more engaging than I expected it to be, and I think that young history buffs would still enjoy it.

>72 scaifea: I love Stiefvater (The Scorpio Races is one of my all-time favorite books!) and liked the Raven Cycle a lot, but I wasn't nuts about Call Down the Hawk. It was too much place-setting and not enough actual things happening. I felt like the story didn't really begin until nearly the end, when all the main characters' storylines converged. That said, I loved the new perspective on Declan in this book! And now that I think about it, The Raven Boys was mostly place-setting also. So maybe I'll like CDtH more in retrospect, once I've read the whole trilogy.

>74 christina_reads: The place setting didn't bother me at all because I was so happy to be back with these characters!

>72 scaifea: Reading between the lines here, I think you're saying you like Stiefvater ;) I got The Raven Boys not long ago... I guess I need to move it up the TBR list! And The Black God's Drums looks really good too. So many books to read...

>76 antqueen: Welp, you've cracked the code. And here I thought I was being all subtle and such. But yes, do move it up the list!! I do happily recommend the Clark book, too. And agreed: so many good books. What burdensome lives we lead...

18. I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett
CAT#20: Discworld series
A few years after we last saw Tiffany Aching, she seems firmly established as the witch of the Chalk, but then whispers and rumors start to move and suddenly Witches are Bad and Tiffany becomes suspect. She brought it on herself when she kissed Winter and unknowingly woke up something else...
Another solid installment in the Discworld series. Tiffany is a wonderful character and I love spending time with her. There's even a bit of a crossover between her part of the world and the City Watch, and I may have geeked out just a bit at that.

19. The White Stone by Gunnel Linde
CAT#3: 1001 Children's Books
Two outsider children who live across the street from one another become friends and set contests for each other, the prize for which feats is the trading back and forth of a lovely white stone.
Meh, this one had potential, but didn't deliver like it could have. To be fair, it could be a problem of poor translation (the original is Swedish).

20. The Corn Grows Ripe by Dorothy Rhoads
CAT#2: Newbery Honor Books
When his father breaks a leg clearing the bush for their yearly corn plot, a young boy in the Yucatan must take over the job, and then plant and tend the corn. A coming-of-age story with a verb basic introduction to the culture. I did enjoy the tensions hinted at between belief in the old gods and the more recently adopted Christian beliefs.

21. The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir
no CAT: one of last year's Alex Award winners
17-year-old Essie has lived her entire life so far in front of cameras; her family are the stars of a reality TV show that follows them both in the huge church her father preaches to and in their daily lives. She has felt trapped and her life has been dictated entirely by her mother, but recent events have given her hope that she may be able to find a way out...
Oooof, but this is a good one. Very seat-edgy, with twists that you can sort of see coming, but hold your breath for anyway, and with a strong, well-crafted, and important message woven into the suspense and thrills. I loved the complicated characters - and loved to hate some of them. Definitely recommended.

>81 scaifea: Book of Essie tagged for an engaging YA thriller! Looks like a good fit for me too.

>82 pammab: Woot! I hope you love it!

22. Lumberjanes 12: Jackalope Springs Eternal by Shannon Watters
23. Lumberjanes 13: Indoor Recess by Shannon Watters
24. Lumberjanes: Bonus Tracks by Various Authors
25. Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass by Lilah Sturges
26. Lumberjanes: The Shape of Friendship by Lilah Sturges

And with those, I think I'm up to date on the series. I loveloveLOVE these girls and their stories.

>81 scaifea: I have this one on my list to read - I was hoping it would be good!

>84 scaifea: Well, I loved it - I hope you do, too!

27. Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker & Wendy Xu
no CAT
A young witch living with her grandmothers and helping out in their magic/book shop is reunited with her school crush and together they fight against an arch demon that's hanging out in the local woods.
I loved this one both for the story, which was excellent and well-told, and for its representation of disabilities and LGBTQ+ folks as normal and completely NBD. So good.

28. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
CAT#23: Audiobooks
I started out liking this one very much and loving Becky's no-nonsense spirit, but by halfway through I thought the story was dragging quite a bit and by the end I was long past caring about these silly characters and their goings-on. File under Classic Lit What Needed a Keen Editor.

>88 scaifea: Becky Sharp - one of the most annoying characters in classic literature! I agree, it was hard to care what happened to anyone.

>89 JayneCM: Ha! I actually kind of loved Becky! It just all the other characters and how they interact that got dull for me.

29. They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
CAT#15: Books from my Read Soon! Shelves
Takei tells the story of his family's time spent in the Japanese prison camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in this powerful graphic novel. An important story, well told. I'll certainly be passing thing one on to Charlie.

30. The Rattle Bag edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes
Cat#3: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
A collection of poems curated by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes for kiddos. Some old favorites (and for them to be favorites for me, you *know* they're *old*), some new (to me) delights, and a fair few that didn't really resonate with me. A mixed rattle bag, as it were.

31. Queen of the Sea by Dylan Meconis
No CAT: library impulse checkout
A sort of alternate history/historical fiction graphic novel loosely based on the experiences of the young Elizabeth I. I enjoyed it just fine, but it didn't knock me off my feet like I was expecting. I think, honestly, it would have worked better as a plain old novel, where details could be fleshed out more (and I don't really feel like the illustrations playing a strong enough role in the story anyway). *shrug*

32. Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell
no CAT: impulse library checkout
I love it when the plot of a story is predictable but the characters and the dialogue are *so good* that you can't even be mad, and in fact you'd be mad if it didn't turn out the way you thought it would. I *loved* this graphic novel about two teens who became friends through their yearly seasonal work at a pumpkin patch and who help each other through a last night of work before parting ways for college. I fell in love with both of them in seconds for their sweetness, badassery, and cleverness. This was my first Rowell and now I must read All. The. Things.

33. Snuff by Terry Pratchett
CAT#20: Discworld series
Sam Vimes, on the insistence of his wife, goes on holiday to the country. To relax. And spend time with his family. Only someone's gone and murdered a goblin, so there's police work to be done and justice to be served.
Only Pratchett could spin a worthy lesson about equal rights for all using a story about goblins, a hot-headed blacksmith, and a woman who writes children's books about poo. And you just can't help but love him for it, right along with loving Commander Vimes as well.

34. Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
CAT#23: Audiobooks
A young, middle-class woman in mid-1800s England gets a harsh awakening from her sheltered life when she seeks employment as a governess to two different upper-class families. Mistreated by both the snobby employers and her charges *and* the lower-class servants, she leads a snubbed and lonely life.
Slow to start (I'm still not certain what the point of the first third of the novel was, really), but once it gets going, I enjoyed Miss Grey's story. I especially enjoyed the quiet simplicity of the love story bit. It was interesting, too, how Anne tells the story of the governess life in a much different, much more realistic and everyday style than her sister, Charlotte.

35. New Kid by Jerry Craft
no CAT: this year's Newbery Medal winner

Jordan is the new kid at his middle school, and if that weren't hard enough, it's a fancy, rich-kid school and he's a non-white-skinned scholarship student. The story takes up through how Jordan negotiates this new, strange, and sometimes-frustrating space, making friends, standing up to bullies (both among the students and the staff), and making his own space within it all. It's brilliantly done. I mean, so much so that *every* kiddo should be reading it. The pictures of middle school life, and of everyday racism, drawn here are realistic and all the more brain-and soul-shaking for being undramatic. I'm so happy that Craft won the Newbery for it, and I hope it gets into as many young hands as possible.

>94 scaifea: I read my first Rowell last year and in short order I *did* read All. The. Things. With the exception of Pumpkinheads. Which I do need to rectify -- but it is very hard emotionally for me to read literally the last book remaining by an author....

Your review encourages me though.

>98 pammab: Well, I think we can hope that it won't, in fact, be the last...

>94 scaifea: I love Eleanor and Park! I have read it three times. I have not read Pumpkinheads, even though it was THE book that I kept hearing about. I will have to give it a go.

>97 scaifea: Looking forward to picking up New Kid too.

>100 JayneCM: I'm really excited to get to her other stuff - I've heard absolutely nothing but amazing reviews for all of it!

And yay for New Kid! You'll love it, I suspect.

36. Telephone Tales by Gianni Rodari
CAT#3: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
A collection of very short, very silly stories for kids, framed by the narrative that they were told by a business-traveling father over the phone to his child every night.
Meh. In the vein of Lear's Book of Nonsense; likely absolutely hilarious to little ones, but loses most of its appeal at older ages.

Just chiming in as another Rainbow Rowell fan! You've got a lot of good stuff awaiting you. :) My own personal favorite is Attachments, but I haven't yet found one I've disliked!

>103 christina_reads: Woot! Honestly, I've not heard anyone at all say, "Rowell? Yeah, I guess she's okay." Ha!

37. Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
CAT#21: Books Read Aloud with Charlie at Bedtime
This first book (this is the first read for Charlie and the nth read for me) is a little slow to get going, but it's the introduction to one of my all-time favorite fantasy series so I'm still absolutely in love with it. The characters in this series have for years informed the rubric by which I measure good character writing; they are some of my best friends and I will love them with my whole heart until my dying breath.

>37 scaifea: I really loved these books when I was in my twenties. I had a big crush on Silk and that's one charater that's stayed with me through the years. Unfortunately I think my tastes have evolved and I don't dare read them again as I fear I'll be really disappointed. It's good to hear that you still like them! :)

Also, I'm not much into comics myself but I'm writing down recommendations for my brother who is, thanks for that!

>106 chlorine: Ha! Silk was one of my first literary crushes! So clever and adorable.

>107 scaifea: He must have been also among my first literary crushes. I'm trying but can't remember who was the first. I don't crush on book characters anymore and sometimes I regret it...

>108 chlorine: Rhett Butler was my first literary crush; I was in 5th grade. And I still crush out on characters all the time!

>109 scaifea: I had more of a crush on Ashley Wilkes. :) And lucky you to still get crushes!

>110 chlorine: Ha! I was so mad at Scarlett for being infatuated with Ashley when she could have Rhett whenever she wanted!!

And maybe you're just not reading the right books for crushes...

Have you and Charlie read any of the Chris Grabenstein Mr Lemoncello books? I've just started the latest one and find them great fun.

>112 dudes22: I've read the first one myself, but we haven't read any together. That one didn't really grab me back when I read it, but I'm really glad you've reminded me of them again, because I think they'd really be up Charlie's street right now, as far as what he reads on his own. Right now he's working through The Name of This Book Is Secret series and just loving them, so I bet he'd like those as well. Thanks!

>112 dudes22: I have the first Mr Lemoncello on hold to read with my boys - cannot wait!

>113 scaifea: - I've read books 1 & 2 of the Bosch books and liked them but I like Mr Lemoncello better. Maybe cause it's books and library stuff. I finished the newest Lemoncello book on the plane. I'll be adding it to LT later.

>114 JayneCM: - I hope they like it. I think too the fact that the main character is a boy might make it more interesting to boys.

38. The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil (Alex Award) - 7/10 = C
(no CAT: Alex Award winner from last year)
Wamariya chronicles her escape, at a very young age, from Rwanda and genocide, and her struggle to adjust to living in the US and post-war-zone life in general.
I read this one because it was given an Alex Award last year, and I get that stories like Wamariya's are crucial narratives for all of us to hear, especially young people, so I feel guilty for not thinking better of it. Again, Clemantine's story is important and good for her for finding the strength to share it - you'll get no argument from me on these points - but the book could have used a better editor. She alternates snippets from her life as a child refugee running from one country to the next and her life once she arrives in the states, and I like this narrative structure in theory, but the execution here seems clunky. Also, she tries to convey her feelings of frustration and rage, and the tension between her sense of self-strength and her deep-set fears, which is an important thread throughout, but instead of tying it all together, these bits of self-description seem repetitive and eventually unnecessary and borderline-tiresome. There are also holes in her account that left me confused at best and frustrated at worst. I understand that it's *her* story and she has every right to choose what to include and what to keep out of the book, but some of those exclusion choices created the suspicion of a flawed narrator, a sense that we're not given enough to get an accurate sense of story she really is trying to tell. I'm doubly surprised at the places where this book fails because she had help writing it; how could an editor *and* a co-writer not see that this important story could be so much more?

39. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
CAT#23: Audiobooks
Life in a 19th-Century English town, one which is run almost solely according to the rules of the women who live there. I loved this book. Sweet and funny, with characters you grow to adore. Nothing much happens in this small town, but Gaskell has a knack for describing everyday events in terms of the momentous drama in which her characters perceive them and it makes for storytelling gold.

>117 scaifea: The BBC series is fabulous. Judi Dench is spot on.

>118 JayneCM: Noted! I do love Dench, so I'll have to put that on my list.

40. Best Friends by Shannon Hale
no CAT: impulse library checkout
A follow-up to Hale's autobiographical Real Friends, this middle grade graphic novel is just as sweet and interesting and well-done as the first. She tackles the minefield that is upper grade school/middle school friendships skillfully, and in a way that I think would be comforting and supportive for MG readers going through similar experiences. I know I would have loved to have read this when I was in junior high!

41. Old Ramon by Jack Schaefer
CAT#2: Newbery Honor Books
A coming-of-age story about a boy who spends a summer with a sheep flock and the old man who tends them, learning about friendship and life.
Meh. I think my Newbery Books about Boys Shepherding in the Wilderness compartment is chockablock full at this point.

42. Bloodlust & Bonnets by Emily McGovern
no CAT: impulse library checkout
A sort of strangely-and-randomly bloodthirsty gal, Lucy, teams up with a bounty hunter and, um, Lord Byron to hunt down a vampire lady, but they all have different motives for doing so. The schemes are all hairbrained, the plot twist are excellently twisty and convoluted, and the banter is fantastically witty. I. LOVED. It. Exactly what I was hoping for from the author of My Life as a Background Slytherin.

>39 scaifea: I took a BB for Cranford. I'm hoping to read more from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list this year, and this one sounds like a good one.

>123 mathgirl40: I hope you enjoy it! (I read it because it's on that list, too, but I haven't officially made it one of my challenges yet. Right now I'm just looking through and finding ones that I can get on audio from the library.)

>122 scaifea: You didn't get me with a BB for Bloodlust and Bonnets, but only because it's already on my to-read list! It sounds bonkers in a really fun way.

>125 christina_reads: "bonkers in a really fun way" is the perfect description - I hope you love it as much as I did!

43. Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett
CAT#20: Discworld series
Moist von Lipwig teams up with Commander Vimes et al. to use the newly-invented steam engine and resulting railway to get the nearly dethroned dwarf king back to his land to safe his kingdom.
Not my favorite Discworld book, but still fairly enjoyable.

44. The Terrible Two Go Wild by Mac Barnett & Jory John
CAT#21: Books Read Aloud with Charlie at Bedtime
Charlie's latest nightly read-aloud selection. I didn't love this one as much as the others in the series, but it was still a hoot.

45. If You're Reading This, It's Too Late by Pseudonymous Bosch
no CAT: Charlie Recommendation
Cas and Max-Ernest are still fighting the evil Midnight Sun forces while now trying to get themselves initiated into the Terces Society. And track down a homunculus.
A fun-enough sequel to the first book. I think I would have thought the series immensely clever as a kid (as does Charlie, who insisted I read them).

46. Me in the Middle by Ana Maria Machado
CAT#3: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
A girl finds a photo of her great-grandmother as a child and makes an invisible friend out of it.
This one was strange, and not in a good way, really. It unintentionally read like a sad story about a girl with some form of schizophrenia, and the writing was clunky at best.

47. The King of the Copper Mountains by Paul Biegel
CAT#3: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
Scheherazade for kids with a Dutch twist: a 1000-year old king is dying, so a magic doctor races to find a key ingredient for a potion that will save him, while the king's only servant and best friend, a hare, tries to keep him alive by inviting a new animal into the castle every night to tell a story.
A lovely book, with all sorts of good stories from the animals and a good overarching story to tie them all together.

It was fun catching up on your thread; and I will take BBs for the Raven Cycle.

>132 LisaMorr: Oooh, I hope you love 'em!

48. The Specter in the Magician's Museum by Brad Strickland
CAT#21: Books Read Aloud with Charlie at Bedtime
Lewis and Rose Rita visit a museum of magic and accidentally let loose a spector in spider form (because of course they do). It targets Rose Rita and it's up to Lewis and his uncle and their witchy neighbor to figure out how to save her.
Another fun entry in the series, and Charlie loved it, so I call that a chicken dinner.

49. Green by Sam Graham-Felsen
no CAT: Alex Award winner
David is starting sixth grade at a rough school in Boston, and spends the year trying to negotiate race issues as a white, Jewish kid in a sea of non-white students while he and his friends try to test into the Latin school as a ticket out of where they are.
A fantastic and (what feels like) authentic look at the struggles of starting puberty while trying to figure out how to live in a racist world. You'll love David and his friend, Mar, instantly.

50. Thistle and Thyme by Sorche Nic Leodhas
CAT #2: Newbery Honor Books
A collection of fairy tales and legends from Scotland. Nicely told, and not surprisingly so; I have long appreciated Alger for her storytelling abilities.

51. The Fearsome Inn by Isaac Bashevis Singer
CAT #2: Newbery Honor Books
A cool fairy tale about a witch and a devil, their three lovely slave girls, and the three handsome men who defeat them and save the young ladies. Excellent illustrations from Nonny Hogrogian, too.

52. These Old Shades by Georgetter Heyer
CAT#24: Romance
Historical romance about a rascal of a duke who rescues a young girl from a low, cross-dressing fate, Pygmalions her to get revenge on an old foe, then falls in love with her.
I wanted to love this, but instead I just kind of liked it. The writing - especially the dialogue - was clunky, the characters promising but ultimately cardboard cutouts, and the story was good but the telling of it could have been more interesting by at least half. I'm chalking it up to this being one of Heyer's first novels, though, and am very much willing to give her another try at some point.

>52 scaifea: That was my first Heyer too and I'm planning on giving her another try as well.

>139 LisaMorr: Lisa: I've heard so many good things about Heyer that her later stuff must be pretty good.

53. The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
CAT#15: Books from My Read Soon! Shelves
Holy buckets, this series is good. The characters are fantastic, the scope of the world and the story
epic and amazing, and the backstory mythologies phenomenal. Kvothe (despite being just a smidge too precocious for his years *Adem hand sign for huge understatement*) is one of those characters who, once introduced into your mind and heart, will take up fond residence for all and good. I both can't wait and also sadly dread the third installment of the trilogy: I need to know how this all ends, but so very much don't want it to ever.

54. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskill
CAT#23: Audiobooks
Set in mid-1800s industrial Manchester, the story is both a romance and a political commentary on the working classes vs. the wealthy owners of industry. Where the two parts of the tale meet, the potential for tragedy lives.
So much bleaker than Cranford, and therefore not quite as enjoyable for me, but still an interesting and groundbreaking novel.

55. The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss
CAT#15: Books from my Read Soon! Shelves
A slim addition to the Kingkiller Chronicles, this short novel gives us a few days in the life of Auri, and it's just as strange and sweet and mysterious as you'd expect. I loved it. Definitely recommended if you've read the first two books of the Chronicles, but ill-advised if you haven't yet.

56. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
CAT#15: Books from my Read Soon! Shelves
Welp, this one goes right onto the Absolute Favorite Novels list, most definitely. It's rare that I read a passage in a book that is so good I actually and honestly close said book, hug it to my chest, and sigh with literary happiness, but Darcy and Lizzie are so happy-sigh worthy and I'm equally in love with them both. All the characters are so excellently crafted, the story skips along at a perfect pace, and the writing is quality gorgeous. I. Loved. It.

>144 scaifea: My favorite book in all the world! Glad to see some love for it here. :)

>144 scaifea: I can't believe it has taken me so long to get to it, especially since I have a degree in English Lit...

57. Read It and Weep by Jenn McKinlay
CAT#22: Books I Read with My Mom
Lindsey gets involved in the current local theater production and *nearly* gets involved with the famous actor who comes to town for a role in the play, all while still working out her feelings for Handsome Boat Captain Who Dumped Her in the Last Book. Oh, and there's a murder.
The writing isn't great (or even good in parts) and the story is kind of silly, but I can't help it: I love cozy mysteries. So comforting and non-brain-cell-needing. I love to love the characters and the small towns they inhabit, plus this series heavily involves a small-town library. I can overlook lack of quality in some areas for the equally important value of comforting happiness it brings.

58. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
CAT#19: Shakespeare
Not my favorite of the plays, to be honest. The framing narrative seems strange, and Petruchio is sleazy instead of funny.

>148 scaifea: I really don't get the framing device in Shrew. I think it could have been safely dispensed with.

>147 scaifea: LOL at "non-brain-cell-needing"!

>149 rabbitprincess: Right?! Such a strange thing, that frame.

And ha! Well, yes. Sometimes just just need to give the old grey cells a break.

59. Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore
CAT#10: Christopher Moore - One More All the Things!
Charlie Asher lives as a resurrected soul in a miniscule meat puppet that his Buddhist nun girlfriend made for him. He used to be a Death Merchant before getting killed by one of the Morrigan, and now that his seven-year-old sailor-mouthed daughter, who happens to be "the Big D" (i.e. Death), is in danger from a new sinister, lemon-color clothed Big Bad, he needs to figure out how to get a life-sized body again so he can save her. There are also a crap-ton of ghosts stuck on/in/around the Golden Gate Bridge, with only a bridge painter and a frustrated former goth girl to help them. So, yeah.

I love Moore so much. His plots are absolute insanity, his characters perfectly weirdly human (and therefore delightfully lovable), and his dialogue is so clever and funny it makes me giddy.

60. Candyfreak by Steve Almond
CAT#14: Unread Books from My Shelves
Almond reports on his quest to tour small business candy factories and interview their owners while at the same time chronicling his own life-long obsession with candy. So it's part microhistory and part autobiography, as he narrates his childhood love of chocolate bars, his struggles with depression, and his reactions to the political happenings concurrent with his candy-tour travels.
I have mixed feelings about this one. I loved the history of candy in America and the descriptions of the factories and how the candies are made. I also really enjoyed Almond's self-deprecating and sometimes downright goofy sense of humor. What didn't work so well for me was the way he approached the topic of his own bouts of depression, his childhood (which he sometimes seems to describe as awful and lonely and at others as really not...), and his current loneliness, which he chalks up to being bad at relationships. He tries to tie the personal stuff to the candy stuff with the notion that candy was and is his one source of comfort and happiness, but the link seems awkward and forced in places; it feels like this should be two separate books, mostly because there is an inconsistency not only in the topics but in the tone as well. When he slides into talk of his own misery, the goofiness slides off the self-deprecation and everything gets...awkward.

61. Yarn Over Murder by Maggie Sefton
CAT#22: Books I Read with My Mom
Kelly et al. help their friends evacuate the mountains when a wildfire sweeps through the area surrounding Fort Connor. Oh, and there's a murder, too, of course.
Yeah. I know I've said before that I like this series despite the less-than-amazing writing, and I do; it's a no-brains-required comfy read. But this entry very nearly made me give up. The writing is, I think, even worse than in the previous volumes: the dialogue is tired and repetitive, and I know Sefton wanted this to be a tribute of sorts to the people who fought the actual fire, but she dwells on it too much and without the vocabulary strength to vary her descriptions or her praises of the people she's trying to honor. It would have been more bearable if the fire theme had taken a back seat to the actual mystery, but it was the other way round, which makes it seem as if both threads were half attempts. Even for a series into which I dive with low expectations every time, this was disappointing.

62. Henry VI Part 2 by William Shakespeare
CAT#19: Shakespeare
The histories were the last of Shakespeare's plays for me. I'd read and loved the tragedies and comedies, but was worried that I wouldn't be able to get into the histories at all. Welp, that was wrong-headed, because they're wonderful, of course. I love the intrigue and complications and, as always, the wordsmithery. It's dripping with drama, and there's even some demon summoning; something for everyone.

63. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
CAT#21: Books Read Aloud with Charlie at Bedtime
A re-read for me, the first time through for Charlie. Between readings of Gaiman, I tend to forget how he rarely comes right out and tells you anything at all, but instead hints at things and has things peak round corners at you, shows you a quarter of a smile, or half a talon. I love him for that. And I loved reading this one to Charlie and watching out of the corner of my eye as he soaked all that in, along with the fantastic story, the idea that there are so many ways to tell a thing, that some of the best of them are ways that involve not actually telling the thing at all.

64. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
CAT#15: Books from My Read Soon! Shelves
When Grace was a little girl, she was dragged from her back yard and into the woods by wolves, who nearly killed her. One of them, a wolf with yellow eyes, saved her, and from then on the two of them, girl and wolf, watched each other across the distance from her home to the woods and across the years. Grace is in high school when a classmate is killed...by wolves. And she's worried about her yellowed-eyed friend.
Yep, high school girl/werewolf love story. And I loved it. Steifvater's characters feel genuine, and her story is well-paced and fun. I will definitely be reading the rest of the series.

>156 scaifea: This is good to know! I've really enjoyed some of Stiefvater's later work (The Raven Cycle, and especially The Scorpio Races), but I've been hesitant to try her werewolf books. Glad to know they're also good!

>157 christina_reads: I will say that her writing isn't as polished in her earlier stuff. It's still really good, but the "hold up, I need to reread that last sentence about eleventy billion times because it's so brilliant" isn't quite present in her writing just yet here.

65. Family Don't End with Blood edited by Lynn S. Zubernis
CAT#15: Books from My Read Soon! Shelves
A collection of essays written by both cast members and fans on how the show has changed their lives for the better. I enjoyed the cast essays tons, and a couple of the fan ones were good, too, but in general I'm not so much interested in *how* the show changes people as *why* it does, and that's the kind of essay I was hoping for from the fan ones. Overall, though, it was a very enjoyable and comforting read, and it came at just the right time.

66. The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
CAT#14: Unread Books from My Shelves
Harvey is a 10 year old boy who is bored and tired of the cold, damp February. Until a creature comes along and promises to take him to a place where he will always be made happy, where it's spring and summer and Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas every day. He soon discovers, of course, that seeming and being are not the same and that a happiness for always isn't what's being offered at the Holiday House.
Barker's imagination is incredible and he has the writing chops to match. I loved this always-slightly-creepy-but-never-outright-terrifying story with it's interesting characters and fairy tale feel. Barker comes close to Gaiman in storytelling abilities for me, which is high praise.

67. The Art of the English Murder by Lucy Worsley
CAT#15: Books from my Read Soon! Shelves
A history of murder in the British imagination, essentially. Worsley looks at a handful of famous, actual murders in England and parallels those with an analysis of how murder mysteries, penny dreadfuls, and those beloved literary detectives developed in British literature.
I enjoyed this one in parts - especially Worsley's descriptions of the Detection Club, it's members, and their rituals - and I liked how she alternated between treatments of the actual murders' impact and the birth and growth of the murder mystery, but I would have loved more thoughts on how the two were linked in the mind of the English readers. She hints at this sort of analysis, but I wanted more; an attempt at bigger conclusions, and a glimpse, maybe, at a bigger picture.

68. This Book Is Not Good for You by Pseudonymous Bosch
no CAT: a series I'm reading along with Charlie
The evil members of The Midnight Sun are at it again, this time on the hunt for a mystical tuning fork that can create any food the taster has ever had before. Cass and her friends in the Terces Society must try to track down the fork first and prevent the bad guys from using it to create the ultimate magical chocolate.
This series is a hoot, and I love that Charlie loves it so much that he wants me to keep reading it, too. So I will, of course, comply.

69. On Borrowed Time by Jenn McKinlay
CAT#22: Books I Read with My Mom
Lindsey 's brother comes to town for a visit and brings trouble with him, in the form of a dead body in her library, and then he disappears. She of course spends the book trying to track down his kidnappers and the killer who goes along with the body, hindered every step of the way by the two handsome guys who are vying for her attention.
Another entry in another cozy series that is more cozy than quality (although this series is holding together quite a bit better than the Sefton series). The pacing is good, and I like these characters tons. Of course, the idea of a heroine who works in a small town library is very appealing as well...

>163 scaifea: I've read through #3 in that series. I need to get to the one before that one soon!

>164 thornton37814: Lori: As far as these cozies go, it's not a bad series, really.

70. Henry VI Part 3 by William Shakespeare
CAT#19: Shakespeare Re-read
Plotting and intrigue and battles and stabbings, with a pretty much full-on game of Musical Thrones. I love it. The monologues are lovely, especially the grief-stricken ones.

71. The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett
CAT#20: Discworld series
Tiffany Aching, Witch of The Chalk, suddenly finds that she has some rather intimidating shoes to fill and more work than she is sure she can handle. And then the elves decide it's time to start raiding this world again...
This is the last of the Tiffany Aching books and the last Discworld book Pratchett wrote. Pratchett's battle with Alzheimer's is pretty clear here, on more than one level. The writing is a little punchy (had he lived longer, I suspect there would have been more editing) and the story isn't as nicely architected as usual. Too, you can see a writer who is standing close to the end of his life and looking back on what living means, which translates into a few nice moments of reflection, although I do think he gets a little heavy-handed with the message of being kind to one another (a perfectly wonderful and important message, but I don't want to be beaten over the head with, well, anything, really, but especially moral lessons). So I'm a bit torn about this one. For the most part I'm happy with how his ends tied up, but it's also not, by far, my favorite of the Discworld books, which, with this one finished, I am now completely through.

72. The Beast under the Wizard's Bridge by Brad Strickland
CAT#21: Books Read Aloud with Charlie at Bedtime
A bridge over a local river is being torn down and replaced, and Lewis, Rose Rita, Uncle Jonathan, and Mrs. Zimmerman are all worried what that will mean. The bridge was more than a public works project - it was build with magic iron to keep something very evil at bay. So Lewis and Rose Rita do some sleuthing to figure out exactly what is lurking under the bridge and who is trying to set it free.
I think Stickland does a nice job of taking over this series, and this is another fun entry. Charlie certainly enjoys them and they make great bedtime read-alouds.

73. Winter Wonderland by Heidi Cullinan
CAT#24: Romance Genre List
Paul lives in a small Minnesota town and is the only one of his friends still looking for a lasting relationship. Kyle has had a crush on Paul for years and now wants to find out if Paul might be interested in him. But Paul thinks Kyle is too young for him and too twink, and Kyle is worried that Paul might freak and bail, and so break Kyle's heart. Despite the hesitations and worries, and despite also the heavy resistance from Paul's awful, ultra-conservative, super emotionally-abusive family (I mean, just UGH), they somehow make it work and end up with a lovely, Christmas-y HEA.
If not for a recommendation from a trusted source, I suspect I would never have picked this one up, but I loved it and so I'm very happy I did. The characters are great - sweet and well-rounded and believable - and I absolutely love the small-town-at-Christmas feel to it. The relationships between the male characters are particularly well done, the sex scenes are adorably steamy, and the testing of stereotypes on various levels made me very happy, too. It could have been a bit longer, maybe, the story fleshed out just a tad more perhaps, but it honestly works just fine as is.

74. The Silence Between Us by Alison Gervais
no CAT: Schneider Award list
When Maya moves from New Jersey to Colorado with her mom and little brother halfway through her senior year in high school, she was nervous about how much she would need to adjust to her new school. Maya became Deaf at 11 as a result of contracting meningitis, and she hasn't been to a hearing school since. She struggles at first to let her guard down but finally realizes that she has new friends here who are supportive of her choices (she hates the idea of cochlear implants and doesn't like it when people suggest she should get them) and love her for who she is.
I liked this one a good deal. It's wonderful - and so, so important - to have YA lit out there that addresses the right way to talk to people who aren't like you and how not to be insensitive about who they are even when you're trying to be an ally, and so for that reason I loved it. On the level of the story, though, I think it could have been fleshed out a bit more; there were several plot points that felt simply introduced and then sort of abandoned, and I think the story could have felt even more...real?...if Gervais would have spent just a bit more time on those areas.

75. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
CAT#11: National Endowment for the Humanities Timeless Classics list
Follows the life of Philip Carey from the time of his mother's death when he was very young into his early 30s, which see him settling into life as a doctor. It's a journey through Philip's early life experiences and travels, and also through his intellectual and emotional coming-of-age. Normally I'm not excited by novels that spend too much time in a character's headspace, but I love Philip to bits and enjoyed spending time with his thoughts and feelings. He makes some downright stupid decisions here and there, but Maugham writes his story in such a way that I didn't get too irritated with those choices and instead rooted for Philip the whole way. The plot is engaging and interesting, and the forays into Deep Thoughts are spaced well enough throughout and very well written so that I didn't get restless with them. This is my first Maugham, but I doubt it will be my last. Very much worth the 600+ pages, this.

76. The Duke I Tempted by Scarlett Peckham
CAT#24: Romance Genre List
Poppy is an aspiring botanist/nursery owner who wants the independence to run her business and absolutely no part in romance of any kind. The Duke of Westmead is in the market, as it were, for a bride, but only to produce an heir, as he is determined never to open his heart to anyone and he certainly will never risk revealing his taste for being whipped. So, of course, they're destined for one another.
This one started out strong and I enjoyed the characters very much, but good editing could have shaved off a 100ish pages of the will-they-won't-they bits. It's nice to be teased with the possibility that the heroes won't find each other in the end, but a little of that sort of frustration goes a long way, and there was more than a little of it here.

77. Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams
CAT#2: Newbery Honor Books
Genesis is a middle schooler who struggles with family issues including an alcoholic and unreliable father, who verbally abuses her for the darkness of her skin, and a mother and grandmother who also belittle her in various ways for the same reason. When her family is forced to move because her father doesn't pay the rent, she starts a new school and finds support among some new friends and teachers, and she begins to find her value and self worth.
This Newbery Honor Book is an important read, especially right now. It could fill a unique space in a BLM literary canon with its take on how young people of color struggle with being able to believe that their own lives matter after a steady diet of slights and abuse in all forms. I would likely give it a higher rating still if I hadn't read it during a reading slump; I had trouble focusing on it and I know that that's completely on me and no fault at all of the text itself. So I do strongly recommend it.

78. This Isn't What It Looks Like by Pseudonymous Bosch
no CAT
Max-Ernest and Cass are still on the hunt for The Secret and a way to defeat the Evil members of the Midnight Sun. This time Cas tries a little time travel as part of the search both for the secret and for her own past, while Max-Ernest frets over how to wake his friend up from her self-induced time-travel coma.
Such a fun, funny, clever, series, full of great characters and interesting plot twists and mysteries. Perfect for middle graders seeking adventure.

79. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O'Brien
CAT#21: Books Read Aloud with Charlie at Bedtime)
A widowed mouse seeks help from some surprisingly intelligent rats nearby to save her family's home from the springtime garden plow and learns their history and how her husband was connected with that past.
One of my favorite of the Newbery Medalist, and I'm so glad that Charlie loved it, too.

80. Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare
CAT#24: Romance Genre List
The Duke of Halford doesn't ever want to marry but his mother has other plans. So he makes a deal with her: if she can turn the woman of his choosing into a lady in one week, he'll relent and marry her. Of course he then tries to pick the most unlikely of candidates, a barmaid with no polish at all, and then proceeds to make a deal with her as well: do the worst possible job of learning how to become a lady and earn a thousand pounds.
Well, you can guess what happens. And it's a delight. Part Cinderella, part Pygmalion, with a healthy pinch of comedy and some nicely drawn characters.

81. Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga
CAT#2: Newbery Honor Books
A middle grade novel about a young Syrian girl who leaves her home with her mother to stay with her uncle in the States. The story, written in free verse, follows Jude through her struggle to discover who she is and where and how she fits into the world around her, all while adjusting to a new school, a new culture, a new language, and a new home.
Beautifully done. You'll be rooting for Jude from the first page, this is another middle grade book that I'd put on the list of required reading for US kiddos to learn how other lives are lived and how others eyes see and are seen.

82. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
CAT#23: Audiobooks
A long, rambling novel with tons of characters that pivots around a court case decades long. There's romance and humor and mysteries aplenty and I enjoyed it a great deal. I think I would have outright loved it, but it took me too long to get through it and details were long forgotten in the process. Entirely my own fault and not at all the fault of dear Charles.

83. The Folio Society Book of the 100 Greatest Portraits by Martin Bailey (ed.)
CAT#14: Unread Books from My Shelves
A collection of 100 portraits ranging in time from King Jean II of France (by an anonymous artist) circa 1349 to La Reproduction interdite by René Magritte in 1937. A different portrait for each double page, with a reproduction of the work on the right-hand page and on the left a description of the painting, its sitter and artist, and its historical context and significance. I loved it and learned tons in the process.

>178 scaifea: This was one I appreciated more on second reading, via Serial Reader. It was too much for me to read in one book!

>180 rabbitprincess: Well, it didn't start out life as a solid, single novel, anyway, right, so that makes sense! The length of his stories make so much more sense when you realize that he was paid by the word...

I would have liked it even more if I had stuck with it in a more timely manner, I know. Maybe someday I'll come back for a reread.

84. The Tower at the End of the World by Brad Strickland
CAT#21: Books Read Aloud with Charlie at Bedtime
Lewis, Rose Rita, Uncle Jonathan, and Mrs. Zimmerman are racing against yet another Doomsday Clock to save the world from old Isaac Izzard's son, the equally nasty Ishmael Izzard, who has set up his evil shop, so to speak, on an invisible island.
This series is so fun and I love that Charlie loves them, too. As always, just the right amount of creepy without becoming outright scary.

85. Coraline by Neil Gaiman (Charlie's bedtime book, 194 pages) - 9/10 = A
CAT#21: Books Read Aloud with Charlie at Bedtime
Coraline, whose parents are well-meaning but inattentive, finds a usually-locked door in their apartment one day unlocked, and she walks through it. If that isn't enough for you to be going on with, then mentioning that Neil Gaiman wrote it should do. And it is typical Gaiman fare: clever protagonist up against clever monsters with thinly-disguised mythological references as clever sidekicks to help in clever ways, which means that as a whole it is, in fact, quite clever and lovely and wonderful. Treads the line between delightfully creepy and downright scary with all sorts of agility. And the writing is gorgeous, because of course it is.
Second time through for me, first time for Charlie. He loved it, of course. Because of course he did.

86. Frankly in Love by David Yoon
no CAT
Frank Li is finishing up high school in California, feeling the pressure to do well on the SAT and to get into Stanford, navigating the rollercoaster of feelings brought on by teen love, all while trying to figure out his place in the world as a Korean-American who feels neither fully Korean nor American.
I enjoyed this Morris Honor Book a great deal. The characters feel accurate and real (the teenagers aren't overly precocious, even as head-of-the-class types), the dialogue is a clever hoot, and the story moves along as a good pace. Happily recommended.

87. Potent Pleasures by Eloisa James
CAT#24: Romance Genre List
Yeah, nope. This was all sorts of shady for me: A heroine who seems delightfully independent on the surface yet who keeps making questionable decisions about the dude she's in love with; meanwhile the dude she's in love with has some massive issues with anger management. But the real clincher for me was his obsession with his wife needing to be 'pure' and his conviction that if she's anything else she's automatically a worthless whore. It's a shame, really, because the writing was nice and some of the other characters were fun and lovely. But yeah, just NOPE.

NB: Despite not liking this one much at all, I will likely give James another go at some point because I have it on several good authorities that she does have some worthwhile reads out there.

88. I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly
no CAT

A young girl is convinced that there are monsters and that she can kill them with her special, homemade weapon despite the fact that this belief isolates her at school and causes problems at her already-troubled home. It also has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that her mother is dying of cancer. Nope. Just like this story will definitely not lead the reader to tears. NOPE.
I liked this graphic novel tons. Barbara is such a great character, and I lovelovelove that whether or not the monsters are real or are in Barbara's imagination or both is left open to interpretation. But the art was too...sloppy? There were many panels that I stared at for far too long trying to suss out what exactly was going on and that irritated me enough to pull me out of the story several times. A shame, really, because otherwise this would have been close to a 5-star read for me.

89. You Have to Stop This by Pseudonymous Bosch
no CAT
Cass, Max-Ernest, and Yo-Yoji get caught up in a mummy heist at the local museum, which turns out to be linked to their quest for The Secret.
A clever finish to a clever and fun series. The plot is fun and inventive, but the best thing about the series is the narrator, who inserts himself into the story frequently and adds a goofy meta-ness to the whole affair. I highly recommend the series for those who like MG-level mysteries with a touch of the supernatural.

90. The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber
CAT#24: Romance Genre List
Three women with very different lives and problems meet and become unlikely friends through a knitting class at a new local yarn shop.
Part sweet (not at all racy) romance, part girl-friends-being-strong-for-each-other feel-good story, this was a comfy, easy read and a re-read for me. I would have liked...more?...in most aspect of the book: each woman's story could have been fleshed out better, the endings all seemed a little too pat. And also in some places I would have liked a little less, mostly in the needed-more-editing department, as some of the characters' thoughts and feelings were rehashed a few times too many. I'm also not a huge fan of Christian romance themes, and although this one only skated round the hint of a God-y plot, I still balked a bit at how close one storyline came to Youth Pastor Falls for and Then Saves Poor Bad-Girl Godless Uncouth Woman. (Just, ew.) Despite all of this, I still enjoyed it, which may come down the nostalgia of a re-read. *shrug*

91. Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
CAT#21: Books Read Aloud with Charlie at Bedtime
Tom is staying with his aunt and uncle while his brother is in bed with the measles. At first he dreads it because their apartment - one of several in an old house - has no garden to play in, but he discovers that the grandfather clock in the downstairs hall chimes to its own version of time and opens the back door onto a garden of the past. He wanders that magic garden every night and there meets and befriends Hatty. Time in the garden passes differently, and Tom discovers that the magic won't last forever.
Opening a door to another, magical land is right up there on my list of excellent plot devices, and I *loved* this book when I read it a few years ago, and wish that I'd discovered it as a kid. The twist at the end is very satisfying, too. Charlie wasn't quite as enchanted with it as I am, but he still enjoyed it (or at least he humored me by saying so).

92. Our Eddie by Sulamith Ish-Kishor
CAT#2: Newbery Honor Books
Eddie is the oldest son in a Jewish family living in London (and then later NYC). He and his siblings suffer under the regime of a selfish and mentally-abusive father, and in the end that abuse causes more harm than any of them would have predicted. A good, strong story, with characters who are nicely developed (the father was so well crafted that I nearly threw the book across the room for getting so angry with his behavior). My one quibble is that it includes a framing narrative from the point of view of another character, which in itself is an okay thing, but the transition between the frame to the main narrator and then back to the frame is clunky and awkward. Otherwise, a fine read with a touching story.

93. There Will Come a Darkness by Katy Rose Pool
no CAT: Morris Honor Book from this year
Too much plot and world-building for me to have the energy to sum up, but I will say that the world is a neat riff on an AU mix of ancient Greece with some Asian influences, and the story is just unique enough in its variation on traditional fantasy themes to be good and interesting. The characters and their relationships with one another are the real stars, though. My one quibble is that it seemed really slow to take off, but that could just be me; I tend to get impatient at the beginnings of fantasy stories while the world and plot are being established.
NB: I've noticed that several of the other reviews here also mention how slow it is to get started, so I'll emphasize that it really is worth it if you can stick with it.

94. The Demon Headmaster by Gillian Cross
CAT#23: Audiobooks
A middle grade adventure about a girl with above-average smarts moving into a foster home with two boys who can't seem to stay out of trouble at their school. She's skeptical at first at their seemingly wild stories about how wicked the headmaster is, but she soon discovers the truth of it. They finally work together to discover what the evil man is up to and then try to come up with a plan to stop his insane plans.
A fun story with equally fun characters and a plot that would keep even reluctant young readers engaged. I'd definitely recommend this one to all sorts of kiddos.

95. Holding the Cards by Joey W. Hill
CAT#24: Romance Genre List
A Dom/sub romance that nicely explores the emotional complexities of such relationships while also offering up fun, steamy sexy-time scenes. I liked all the characters right away and very nearly loved them all by the end. Two quibbles: 1) the dialogue gets a little cheesy at times, and 2) I really wanted more filling-out of the back stories for the characters.The outline Hill gives for them is really promising, and if she'd fleshed them out more it would have made a good story great.

96. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
CAT#21: Books Read Aloud with Charlie at Bedtime
Laura, Mary, Pa, Ma, Baby Carrie, and their trusty dog, Jack leave the Wisconsin woods and strike out for territories west. They pick a spot, build a new house, and start a new life, only to be told they've settled in Indian Territory and must move on.
I *loved* these books as a kid, but it's been a long time since I read them and I'd forgotten about the not-so-great attitude toward Native Americans. Well, it did start some good conversations with Charlie about dated literature and how those attitudes change and how we can still appreciate a story and still be aware of its shortcomings.

>194 scaifea: I'm half-drawn-to and half-afraid-of reading the Little House series again. I have heard a lot of the tales from lots of other angles now and know more of the history, so I think it'd be interesting to see my first version of all of it again from back when I wasn't quite conscious of it being history, but I would hate to walk away unhappy from those books. I'm quite glad it went well for you and Charlie.

>195 pammab: Aw, they're still happy-making for me, at least. And you're right that knowing more of the background makes them interesting from another perspective.

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe
no CAT: Morris Award
Norris moves with his mom from Montreal to Austin, Texas and must try to survive the heat, the separation from his best friend, and most of all, navigating the Typical Texas Teenagers in his new school. It doesn't help that he's a black French Canadian or that his mouth is sometimes faster than his sense of tact.
Part YA sweet romance, part coming-of-age, part #ownvoices narrative of a black teen in the modern-day South. I enjoyed this one immensely and think it definitely deserves this year's Morris Award. The characters were very well drawn: complex in their motivations and wants/needs and all easy to empathize with and root for and love. And although that too-precocious-for-a-teen element was present in the writing, it wasn't as bothersome as it is in other YA authors.

99. So Anyway... by John Cleese
CAT#15: Books from My Read Soon! Shelves
Cleese's account of his life from childhood through the beginnings of his Monty Python fame.
I started out liking this one quite a bit, but the middle dragged some and I deeply suspect that his self-deprecating comments are actually pompous self-importance in humble clothing. So, yeah, a little disappointing.

100. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
no CAT: from a list of books I'm reading with my friend, Rob
Does just what it says on the tin: gives a crash course in human history. I enjoyed the beginning bits immensely, but the farther along it went, the less engaged I became. That may say more about me than about the text; I think I'm just exponentially more interested in Neanderthals than I am in cyborgs. At any rate, I was educated and entertained, and what more can you ask for from nonfiction?

101. Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh
CAT#15: Books from My Read Soon! Shelves
A retelling/riff on The Green Man myths. It's beautifully done, with characters I loved absolutely the instant they appeared and a well-told story. I'm looking forward to reading the second book.

102. Anpao by Jamake Highwater
CAT#2: Newbery Honor Books
Highwater collected stories of Anpao from many different Native American tribes and edited them into a flowing narrative. It's a fun and fascinating read, with all of the qualities of a good myth story. Recommended.

103. Sing Me a Story by Grace Hallworth
CAT#3: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
A collection of stories from the Caribbean, each with a song to go along with them. A nice introduction to Caribbean folklore for kids.

104. The Many Ways of Seeing by Janet Gaylord Moore
CAT #2: Newbery Honor Books
An introduction to art and how to interpret it for kids.
I admit to skimming most of this one. It's fairly awful, honestly. The text is both pompous and bone dry and would turn most adults off pursuing an interest in art appreciation, not to mention kiddos. There really must have been slim pickings in this year for the Newbery, to justify giving this an Honor.

105. Lumberjanes #15: Birthday Smarty by Shannon Watters et al.
no CAT
April goes all out (and that's saying something for her) to create the best surprise birthday party every for Jo, who is secretly not that jazzed about it. Oh, and there's a giant sea serpent. Because of course there is.
Another great entry in the series. I love these girls so much.

106. Pet by Awaeke Emezi
CAT #2: Newbery Honor Books
Jam lives in a city where, a generation ago, the "angels" (members of the community who fought for the greater good) called out and brought to justice all the "monsters" (billionaires who exploited their workers, murderers, rapists, corrupt politicians,...). Lucille is now a city free of monsters and free from the fear of them. Or so everyone thinks. But relaxing into the feeling of safety in such a utopia can be problematic, and Jam, who is just a kid, comes face to face with the reality of seeing what others do not see, and with hidden monsters.
Oooh, this is a good one, folks. A fantasy in which utopia and dystopia are on a sliding scale and you never really feel that you can get your footing, where monsters and angels are difficult to discern with your eyes, and it's all told in a beautifully strange way. I also love love love the wonderfully nonchalant way in which multiple characters represent various LGBTQ+ identities; they are intricate parts of the story, but their identities aren't the story itself. Highly recommended.

107. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
no CAT: series reread
A thief taken out of prison, a magus, a couple of apprentices, a soldier, a king and two queens, and a journey to steal something precious.
A book in which the story is just a fabulously clever and wonderful as the eponymous character, and which is even better the second (and third) time round. Gosh, but I love this series.

108. Homesick by Jean Fritz
CAT #2: Newbery Honor Books
Fritz's novelized autobiography of her childhood in China in the 1920s. Fairly interesting, and the glimpse at what was going on in China at the time through a child's eyes is well done. This Newbery Honor Book was written in the early 1980's, but I think it would still appeal to middle grade kiddos today.

<206> - Your book is linking to a Cornelia Funke book. I was going to look at the series as a possible BB.

>208 dudes22: It's fixed now.

>201 scaifea: I remember seeing Anpao around, though I don't think I have ever read it. I may have to pick it up the next time I see it on the strength of that review.

>205 scaifea: Pet sounds really good.

>207 scaifea: Also intriguing. The author who grew up in China in the 1920s -- was she a missionary's kid?

>210 pammab: I hope you come across Anpao somewhere again - I think it's old enough that it's not prevalent.

And yes, Pet is wonderful - I hope you enjoy it if you give it a go!

Fritz's father was there working for the YMCA, so essentially, yes.

109. Purl Up and Die by Maggie Sefton
CAT#22: Books I Read with My Mom
Welp. Just, yeah. I'm done. I can't anymore with this series, and I couldn't even make it to the end of this one. The writing has gotten steadily worse and so has the editing. The dialogue is stale and trite, there are entire sections where she repeats herself...repeatedly...and there are ridiculously obvious plot mistakes, for sobbing out loud. WHERE is the editor?! Yoicks. But the thing that really broke the deal for me was the subject matter in this one: the son of one of the semi-regular characters is accused of sexual assault, but of course everyone assumes he's innocent and the woman is for some unknown reason lying because he's the son of their friend, so everyone jumps into action to try to sleuth out why this evil woman is lying. There is a small nod to the idea that of course there's a *chance* that he's guilty, but it's clearly a token nod. It's insulting and insensitive, and I'm done.

>206 scaifea: I'm rereading The Thief right now! I've read (and adored) the first four books in the series, but have yet to read 5 or 6...so I'm starting again from the beginning in preparation for those final two books. The Thief is a lot more fun the second time around, now that I know about things that come later! :)

>213 christina_reads: WOOT!! It is my very favorite series ever. I think this was maybe my 4th time reading the first one? *happy sigh*

110. Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
no CAT (Alex Award)
Mike Muñoz is in his early twenties, lives with his mom and his special needs brother in a rented trailer on the res, and works a minimum-wage landscaping job. When he quits his job out of protest for mistreatment (he didn't sign on to pick up yards full of dog turds), his bleak prospects for the future get even dimmer. So he spends the book on a rollercoaster of promising job leads and rotten luck, struggling with old friends and making new ones, all the while trying to suss out who he really is, who he wants to be, and realizing his own self worth. Think Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London for a different time and a different kind of outsider.
I struggled through the first two thirds of this one, forcing myself to read on despite being annoyed at most of the characters and the dismal tone of events, but I was caught up just enough in the main character that I needed to know how things turned out for him. And I'm so glad I stuck with it, because it turned out to be one of those rare novels in which the last 100 pages turn everything around and transform the story from generally disagreeable to one of my favorite reads so far this year.

111. Giant Days Vol. 1 by John Allison
no CAT
A comic about three first-year college friends and their adventures.
I loved it. Will absolutely be tracking down the other volumes.

>215 scaifea: I have Lawn Boy on my list as Mark raved about it when he read it some time ago. You have reminded me that I want to get to this one at some point in the near future!

>217 DeltaQueen50: Judy: I hope you enjoy it, too!

112. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
no CAT
Follows the story of the town of Macondo, via several generations of the founding family.
Well, yes.
*ahem*
I really don't like it when I don't like a classic, but...I just didn't like this one. I think, maybe, it's two things: 1) I don't like it when the narrator does *everything* and there's little to no dialogue helping to move the story forward. I don't like being so far removed from the characters. 2) I think I just don't like this kind of magical realism, in which the magic is so very much an undercurrent and is never looked at directly and never explained.
So, yeah. I think I'm just not a fan. Apologies to the world of Good Literature.

Don't feel bad, Amber. Not every book works. I think I'm the only person in the world who doesn't like The Moveable Feast by Hemingway. I haven't read this one, so I can't comment. I thought I had but it was a different book of his.

>220 dudes22: Hemingway is hit-or-miss for me, too, but I did enjoy A Moveable Feast. I'm being a little tongue in cheek up there; I do believe that it's okay not to like the classics.

If we all liked the same book, think how long the library wait would be :)

>222 dudes22: *snork!* Excellent point!

113. A Thief in the Village by James Berry
CAT#3: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
A middle grade collection of stories set in Jamaica.
Meh. These were okay for me, but I always have trouble slogging through short story collections, so they'd likely work much better for other readers.

114. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
CAT#23: Audiobooks
Set during the French Revolution, the story follows a French doctor, wrongfully imprisoned for years, who reunites with his daughter and moves to London. There, they settle into a comfortable life, the daughter happily marries and starts a family, all unknowing that they will be pulled back to Paris and into the horror of the revolution.
This is Dickens at his finest, weaving various threads into such an intricate pattern and only hinting here and there at the final dramatic design, in which all the characters play a surprising part in relation to one another. Thrilling in parts and tender in others, this ticks all the right boxes for me. I loved it.

>225 scaifea: I'm not sure what it says about me that the enduring version of this book for me is the Wishbone TV series adaptation... may have to give it a second read on audio!

>226 rabbitprincess: Ha! I'm just a little too old for Wishbone to have been part of my upbringing, so I'm not familiar with that particular version.

115. Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta ChaseCAT#24: Romance Genre List
Historical romance in which a self-loathing, filthy rich, scandalous, scowling bad boy meets his match in a tiny, whip-smart, non-nonsense lady. A perfect romp, with great characters and a predictable but who-cares-because-it's-good-anyway plot. Definitely recommended if you like this sort of thing.

116. Giant Days Volume 2 by John W. Allison
no CAT
Female college antics continue and I love these girls to bits. So clever and fun.

117. Figgs & Phantoms by Ellen Raskin
CAT#2: Newbery Honor Books
Mona Lisa Figg is full of teenage angst against her village weirdo family, all except her Uncle Florence. When she realizes that she's going to lose him, things fall completely apart for her, and she decides on a desperate search for the lost island of Capri, to which the more eccentric members of her family believe they go when they die.
This one started out strange in a quirky and good way, but once Mona embarks on some strange fever dream quest, the quirky and good starts to fade and we're left with just plain strange. Disappointing, really: Westing Game this is not.

118. Pit Pony by Joyce Barkhouse
CAT#3: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
A simple, sweet, and safely sad story about a boy who loves horses but, because of his family's extreme poverty, must leave school and his trips to the horse paddocks to work in the mines. Nothing earth-shattering here, but nothing too sappy or poorly-written, either.

119. The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
no CAT: series reread
A reread, leading up to the new and final book in the series. This is, I think, my favorite series of all time. I love them so much. *happy sigh*

120. Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare
CAT#19: Shakespeare
One of my favorite Shakespeare plays for its surprisingly savage quality, its Roman setting (of course), and its homage to one of my favorite myths (Procne and Philomela). Odd to think of this bleak and brutal work as a comfort read, but for me, it hits the spot.

>232 scaifea: UGH this series is SO GOOD! I'm enjoying my re-read as well. Hoping to get to The King of Attolia in December, but we'll see.

>234 christina_reads: YAS!! I've just started The King of Attolia, which is my favorite of the series (so far; maybe the newest one will take its place!)!

>232 scaifea: - I checked this series out and I think I'll take a BB for this. Although fantasy is not my usual read, the fact that it got Newbery honors and is YA is enough to push it onto the list.

>236 dudes22: Oh, yes, do! I wouldn't say it's even close to hardcore fantasy: there are no witches or wizards or anything like that. And it's *such* a good story.

107. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
CAT#21: Books Read Aloud with Charlie at Bedtime
I am pleased to report that Charlie liked it! He's chosen the next book in the series for our next read-aloud - woot!!

>238 scaifea: I think I'll go looking for this...

>239 MissWatson: Yay! Another future fan!!

I'm enjoying your reviews of Newbery and other YA books. I used to read a lot of YA with my daughters but have been reading less now that they're adults. I need to get back to that genre and discover all the excellent new books that have come out since.

>241 mathgirl40: Thanks! I think I may actually polish off the Newbery Honor Books list next year (I only have something like 13 or 14 left), but I'll always keep up with the winners every year. MG and YA are two of my favorite genres, really.

122. The Best At It by Maulik Pancholy
no CAT
Rahul is a middle school kiddo with a ton of stress and a handful of secrets. This is the story of how he tries to navigate friendships, low-grade racism, bullies, and the dangers of dating when no one but you (and maybe not even you) know what and who you want.
There's a lot going on in here, and although at times I thought the author was maybe trying to pack in a few too many Important Issues (racism, mental illness, sexual orientation, bullying,...), in general this middle grade novel does a good job of representation, and describing both what it looks like to come out in a safe family space and the potential repercussions of not having that safe space. Overall, happily recommended.

123. The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
CAT#21: Books Read Aloud with Charlie at Bedtime
A robot accidentally gets plane-wrecked on an island and makes friends with the animal inhabitants. But then other robots come looking for it and trouble brews.
Hm. This one missed the mark for me. It may have been partly because I was worried from the beginning that it would be sad at the end so I didn't pay as much attention as I should have (Charlie was reading this one aloud)? So either I did a great job of distancing myself from the story and the characters or the book itself just wasn't that gripping. *shrug*

124. A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
no CAT: yearly reread
Gosh, but I love this one. It makes me alternately sad and near-deliriously happy, and it's so, so beautifully written. Such a treat.

ETA: I reread this one every year and it's always just as wonderful as ever.

125. Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush by Virginia Hamilton
CAT #2: Newbery Honor Books
Teenaged Tree and her brother, Dab, live together - and alone - in a shabby apartment while their mother lives and works elsewhere (it's not entirely clear where and at what) and occasionally visits to fill the fridge and cupboards for them. It's far from a perfect situation, but Tree loves her brother and seems to have contented herself with all the hard work that goes into caring for the two of them. But then she starts seeing the vision of a young man standing in the middle of the table in a back room of the apartment, and gradually comes to realize that he is the ghost of her mother's brother. He tacitly takes her through his memories, back to when she was little more than a baby, and she learns some disturbing things about her family. Her uncle has, it seems, come to her as a harbinger of soon-to-be events which will change her small family forever.
I'm not sure what to say about this one, mostly because I'm still not sure how I feel about it. It's a strange little story, disturbing in parts, both in its actual plot content and in its disjointed structure. Tree's mother is troubling on many levels, not least of which is that I can't tell if Hamilton means for the reader to be as angered at her actions as I was. It's certainly an interesting story, and definitely different than a lot of offerings in this genre, and Tree's character is well drawn and instantly one for whom you want to root.

126. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
CAT#23: Audiobooks
Follows from childhood the lives of siblings, Maggie and Tom, who grow up on the eponymous mill land in the 1840s. The novel is the story of their relationship, their fluctuating devotion to one another, through the varied fortune of their family.
My feelings toward the book are as varied as Maggie's and Tom's for one another; at times I really enjoyed its humorous depiction of stodgy, stuffy aunts and self-amused uncles, but by the end I became frustrated with the "Oh, I mustn't" "Oh, but you MUST" "Oh, but I MUSTN'T"-ness of it all. And the ending, although I understand the reasoning behind it, still felt abrupt and unsuited, and seemed (to me, at least) to make the previous plot elements pointless even while making its own sort of (overly-) dramatic Point. Also, I have a low tolerance for men being So Very Put Out because a woman doesn't behave the way he thinks she should, which happens on multiple occasions here. Gah.

127. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
no CAT - yearly reread
Yearly re-read of this lovely little story. Puts me right in the Christmas spirit, every time.

128. Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman
CAT #3: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
Colin's little brother is dying of cancer, and his parents send him from their home in Australia to stay with his aunt and uncle in London while they deal with..."things." But Colin, who has long been jealous of the attention his brother gets, is determined to turn the tables and get the appreciation from his parents he thinks he deserves: he formulates a plan to see the queen about borrowing her Top Doctor to save his brother's life.
I spent the first part of the book borderline-annoyed at Colin's attitude, and most of the rest of it worried that it was going to turn too sad and sappy. But, in the end, everything evens out, and although it *is* quite sad, it never turns maudlin or saccharine, but instead transforms into a perfectly balanced story of love and grief as experienced in childhood and beyond.

129. The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
no CAT
My favorite of the series (I think - #2 is also so, so excellent). Gosh, I love these books.

ETA after another reread: Yep, my very favorite of the series (so far, at least - we'll see what the last book holds). Goosebump-level goodness, folks. Every time.

130. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
no CAT
Welp, *that* was weird.
I think if this were a normal year, if I were in a normal headspace, I would like the weirdness more (I *loved* Kafka on the Shore when I read it years ago). But not this year and not in this ongoing mental state. I do recognize the inventiveness and the well-crafted atmosphere of the text, but it was a real struggle for me to stay the course to the end. I may try a reread someday.

131. Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton
no CAT
The first in a cozy mystery series, this book introduces Agatha Raisin as a just-retired PR corporate big shot, who decides to move to a small village in the Cotswolds, finds the quiet country life isn't as satisfying in its peacefulness as she'd hoped, and then finds it to be almost more excitement than she can survive. She decides to enter - and win (by cheating) - a baking competition as a method of worming her way into the village's closed-off-to-outsiders society, but her plan ends in disaster when the judge dies of poisoning after eating her store-bought quiche. So, of course, she decides she needs to solve the case herself, and in the process wavers between hating the village and its inhabitants and discovering that she has inadvertently grown to tolerate/like/need them both.
Hm. Well. Yes. I do love a good cozy mystery, and I did love the story and the villagers and the village. But Agatha herself, along with her former work associate/sort-of-friend, Roy, are utterly unlikeable. So I think I'll likely not go on with the series.

Wishing you and your family all the best for Christmas, Amber.

>253 DeltaQueen50: Thanks, Judy!

132. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
CAT#1: Banned Books
Details the lives of three women mainly, along with various other characters, living in a small New England town in the late 1930s-early 1940s. It was banned many times over for its sexual content, and while I suspect it was fairly salacious for its time, it's pretty tame now. That doesn't make the story any less interesting or well told, though. I enjoyed how all the characters - well drawn, to a one - interacted and influences each other's lives, and while the book is arguably not high literature, I thought it was a great read.

133. Indigo by Beverly Jenkins
CAT#24: Romance Genre List
A rescued slave, Hester Wyatt lives as a free woman in Michigan, helping others to freedom as part of the underground railroad. One night, she takes in a seriously wounded fellow member of the railroad, known as The Black Daniel, and her world will never be the same.
I enjoyed this one a fair amount, although I do have a few quibbles. Some of the prose is a bit clunky, the sex scenes are a bit repetitive and sometimes don't seem to fit smoothly into the story, and the end goes on a little too long - the climax and resolution felt like it was a tagged-on fan fic chapter. So, I liked it fine, but I think it could have been a step or two up on the engaging scale, with a few fixes here and there.

134. A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
no CAT: series reread
Just...*sigh*
I love this series so very much.