Amber's (scaifea) 2022 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, turned back into Classics professor. When I'm not teaching Latin and Classical Mythology, I spend my time sewing, writing, knitting, baking, and, of course, reading.

I'm 46 going on 12 and live in Ohio with my husband, Tomm; our son, Charlie; and our two dogs: Mario the Golden Retriever and Agent Fitzsimmons the Border Collie.

This is my fifth 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. My categories are pretty much the same as last year, with a couple of small changes.

For my theme this year I'm going with favorite characters from literature (aka my literary boyfriends (and a couple of girlfriends, too)).

Currently Reading:
-Les Miserables (CAT#10: Book-A-Year Challenge)
-Killer Research (CAT#12: Mysteries)
-When He Was Wicked (CAT#13: Romance)
-Jacquard's Web (CAT#16: Books from my wishlist)
-The Devotion of Suspect X (CAT#17: Audiobooks)
-Metamorphoses (CAT#18: Books Read Aloud with Charlie at Bedtime)
-The Secret Life of Bees (CAT#19: Everything Else)
-A Court of Silver Flames (CAT#19: Everything Else)
-My Hero Academia vol 7 (CAT#19: Everything Else)
-A Face for Picasso (CAT#19: Everything Else)

BingoDOG



1. An Award Winning Book: Chimera
2. Published in a year ending 2: A Loyal Character Dancer
3. A modern retelling of an older story: A Court of Thorns and Roses
4. A book you'd love to see as a movie (maybe starring your favourite actor): Cue for Treason
5. A book that features a dog: A Fatal Grace
6. The title contains the letter Z: Lost Horizon
7. Published the year you joined LT: In the Woods (2007)
8. A book by a favourite author: Brothersong
9. A long book (long for you): The Portrait of a Lady
10. A book you received as a gift: Beat the Reaper
11. The title contains a month: Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
12. A weather word in the title: Waiting for the Flood
13. Read a CAT: Beauties, Beasts, and Enchantment
14. Contains travel or a journey: Into the Land of the Unicorns
15. A book about sisters or brothers: The Ghost Writer
16. A book club read (real or online): We Ride Upon Sticks
17. A book with flowers on the cover: Hitting the Books
18. A book in translation: The Hidden Face of Eve
19. A work of nonfiction: More Fool Me
20. A book where a character shares a name of a friend: Heartsong
21. A book set in a capital city: Mockingjay
22. A children's or YA book: Beetle & the Hollowbones
23. A book set in a country other than the one you live: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
24. A book by an LGBTQ+ author: This Book Is Gay
25. A book with silver or gold on the cover: Escape from Warsaw

KITs

AlphaKIT
January - R&H: Conan the Barbarian by Robert Howard & The Hidden Face of Eve
February - A&B: Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram & Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
March - P&S: Beyond the Pawpaw Trees & We Ride Upon Sticks
April - L&J: The Last Cuentista & Grendel by John Gardner
May - O&D: The Junior Officers' Reading Club & The Book of the Dun Cow
June - Q&C: The Greek Coffin Mystery by Ellery Queen
July - E&T: A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll & A Brief History of Time
August - M&F: Magician: Apprentice & Flambards
September - K&I: Lalani of the Distant Sea by Erin Entrada Kelly & The Parker Inheritance
October - V&N: V for Vendetta & The Serpent by Claire North
November - G&U: Go Ask Alice & Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin
December - Y&W: If You Come Softly & Spycatcher by Peter Wright
Year Long - X&Z: A Loyal Character Dancer by Qiu Xiaolong & Beauties, Beasts, and Enchantment by Jack Zipes

MysteryKIT
January - series: A Fatal Grace
February - cold case crimes: In the Woods
March - small towns, big secrets: Hitting the Books
April - noir/hard boiled: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
May - detectives in translation: The Shape of Water
June - historical fiction mysteries: Veil of Lies
July - golden age: Dumb Witness
August - technothrillers: Neuromancer
September - animal mystery: Killing Trail
October - mysteries featuring food: Assaulted Caramel
November - gothic: The Little Stranger
December - holiday mysteries: Hercule Poirot's Christmas

RandomKIT
January - Home Sweet Home: A Fatal Grace (I want to have a house in Three Pines!)
February - Read a Cat: Cat's Cradle
March - Hobby Love: We Ride Upon Sticks
April - April Showers: Waiting for the Flood
May - May Flowers: Wicked Lovely
June - Cookin' the Books: Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder
July - Dog Days of Summer: Word to the Wise
August - Canada!: Neuromancer
September - A Time to Harvest: A Court of Frost and Starlight
October - What's in a Name: V for Vendetta
November - Book with "City" or the Name of a City in the Title: Last Christmas in Paris
December - Christmas Sweets: Lethal Licorice

CAT#1: 100 Banned Books
This list comes from 100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature.
John Constantine is a chain-smoking, trenchcoat-wearing, supernatural detective/wizard/jack-of-all-trades/chaos goblin. He reminds me so much of Plautus' clever slave characters, who always seem only half a step ahead of disaster and yet somehow always make it out of every insane situation mostly unscathed. I adore him. And he'd not only approve of reading banned books - he's probably written a fair few himself.

1. The Hidden Face of Eve
2. Go Ask Alice
3. Spycatcher
4. 100 Banned Books

CAT#2: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
I've been working through the entries in this book for going on 14 years now. Whoa. I'm getting close, though...
I choose Eugenides, the hero of The Queen's Thief books, for this category both because he's a character in a MG/YA book and because his age is a huge mystery. Still, he is hands down one of my favorite characters of all time and embodies one of the absolute best literary tropes ever invented: the Odysseus/Hamlet-style, conceal-one's-crazy-good-abilities-until-the-opportune-moment trope. *happy sigh*

1. The Cave Children
2. Cue for Treason
3. Metropolis
4. The Cloven Viscount
5. Escape from Warsaw
6. Friedrich
7. Picnic at Hanging Rock
8. The Edge of the Cloud
9. After the First Death

CAT#3: 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.
Sirius Black may very well have turned a fair few people into newts...

1. Conan the Barbarian
2. Beauties, Beasts, and Enchantment
3. The Paradise War
4. Guilty Pleasures
5. Into the Land of the Unicorns
6. Beyond the Pawpaw Trees
7. The Black Gryphon
8. The Last Unicorn
9. The Prestige
10. Grendel
11. First Test
12. Changing Planes
13. Gifts
14. Peeps
15. Moon Called
16. Wicked Lovely
17. The Book of the Dun Cow
18. Magician: Apprentice
19. The First Book of Swords
20. The Infinity Concerto
21. V for Vendetta
22. Four Ways to Forgiveness

CAT#4: 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.
I love Captain Marvel. LOVE. Her.

1. Timescape
2. Titan
3. Neuromancer

CAT#5: Favorite Author Bibliographies
There are a handful of authors whom I love so much that I want to read All. The. Things. So this is where I'll catalog those. Right now the list is John Boyne, Agatha Christie, Stephen Fry, Neil Gaiman, Christopher Moore, and Maggie Stiefvater.
Crowley is from the Gaiman/Pratchett Good Omens, so he fits here pretty well, yeah? Tennant does such a fantastic job with him, too.

1. More Fool Me
2. Murder Is Easy
3. They Do It with Mirrors
4. A Caribbean Mystery
5. Dumb Witness
6. Hercule Poirot's Christmas

CAT#6: 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.
Edmund Dantes, aka The Count of Monte Cristo (and can you think of a better Timeless Classic?), instantly became one of the best characters I've ever read when I finally picked up that tome a few years ago. Infinitely clever, an overdeveloped sense of vengeance, filthy rich,... Yes. Please. And do I picture him as Benedict Cumberbatch? Yes, yes I do.

1. A Night to Remember
2. The Member of the Wedding
3. Up from Slavery
4. Ethan Frome
5. The Awakening
6. Fathers and Sons
7. A Handful of Dust
8. Lost Horizon

CAT#7: National Book Award for Fiction
This one seems clear on its own, I guess. I do love award winner lists.
Polgara the Sorceress (from David Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean series) doesn't exactly make perfect sense for this category, but I wanted to include her somewhere and honestly, that woman could make herself not only comfortable in but absolute queen of any situation in which she'd find herself.

1. Chimera
2. Paco's Story
3. Sing, Unburied, Sing
4. Trust Exercise

CAT#8: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Another awards list.
Jeeves is another modern version of Roman comedy's clever slave and therefore an immediate favorite for me. And Stephen Fry can do no wrong, so I doubly love his version. Also, Jeeves absolutely reads all the Pulitzer winners. Because of course he does.

1. The Keepers of the House

CAT#9: 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.
Death seems like a good fit here, and Gaiman's version in his Sandman comics is so full of fabulous.

1. The World of Tibetan Buddhism

CAT#10: 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.
Speaking of years, it took Odysseus ten to get back home after ten years of the Trojan War, poor dear. He's always been my favorite of the Greek heroes, and I've always pictured him as Sting. I have no logical explanation for this, it just is. Odysseus = Sting.

CAT#11: Shakespeare
I'm doing a full-on reread.
Tom Hiddleston as Henry V. Prince Hal became one of my very first literary boyfriends way back in high school. Hiddleston as Hal makes me need a fainting couch.

CAT#12: Mysteries
I love a good mystery. And the whip-smart-but-boy-does-he-have-issues Sherlock is one of my very favorite things in this world. And Cumberbatch as Sherlock? See the Hal/Hiddleston commentary above.

1. A Fatal Grace
2. A Loyal Character Dancer
3. In the Woods
4. Hitting the Books
5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
6. The Shape of Water
7. Murder Is Easy
8. They Do It with Mirrors
9. A Caribbean Mystery
10. Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder
11. Veil of Lies
12. The Greek Coffin Mystery
13. Word to the Wise
14. Killing Trail
15. Assaulted Caramel
16. Hercule Poirot's Christmas
17. Lethal Licorice
18. One for the Books

CAT#13: Romance
This is one of the few genres from which I have read virtually nothing and I want better to familiarize myself with it. And the more I read, the more I love it.
Oh, Howl. *dreamy sigh*

1. Heartsong
2. Brothersong
3. An Offer From a Gentleman
4. For Real
5. Romancing Mister Bridgerton
6. Heartstopper vol 1
7. Heartstopper vol 2
8. Heartstopper vol 3
9. Hot British Boyfriend
10. To Sir Phillip, with Love
11. To Love Jason Thorn
12. Date Me, Bryson Keller

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.
I'd happily let Elizabeth Bennet peruse my shelves any day.

1. Cat's Cradle
2. Beat the Reaper
3. The Junior Officers' Reading Club
4. The Greek Coffin Mystery
5. Mansfield Park

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.
Ronan Lynch (from the Raven Boys cycle) would fully approve of reading what you want whenever you want. (This gorgeous art is by xla-hainex and can be found on deviantart.com.)

1. One More Thing
2. Waiting for the Flood
3. Hollow
4. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
5. Cemetery Boys

CAT#16: Books from My Wishlist
Years ago I started a wishlist on Amazon as a way to keep track of books I'd someday like to read. It's now so long that it takes *forever* to scroll down to the bottom, and since the people who used to use it for gift ideas are now all folks (mostly family) amongst whom we've all agreed not to exchange gifts anymore (and instead just enjoy our holiday gatherings together gift-free - ie it's not because we now hate each other or anything), I've decided I should start whittling away at it, and so I'm going to start requesting these titles one by one from the library and I'll only actually buy the ones I love and want to keep on the shelves.
Since it's a wishlist, I thought Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold would be a good candidate here as he's so good at granting wishes...

1. The Ghost Writer
2. Stradivari's Genius
3. Kepler's Witch
4. Three Bags Full
5. Alice I Have Been
6. Crooked Letter Crooked Letter
7. The Little Stranger
8. The Linguist and the Emperor

CAT#17: Audiobooks
I listen to books while vacuuming, sewing, and driving, so I get through a fair amount in a year, generally.
My little Slytherin heart would let Professor Snape read to me all day long, folks.

1. The Paradise War
2. Guilty Pleasures
3. Heartsong
4. Brothersong
5. Into the Land of the Unicorns
6. The Black Gryphon
7. First Test
8. Fahrenheit 451
9. Changing Planes
10. Gifts
11. Peeps
12. Moon Called
13. Wicked Lovely
14. Ink Exchange
15. Fragile Eternity
16. Murder Is Easy
17. A Caribbean Mystery
18. A Night to Remember
19. The Member of the Wedding
20. Up from Slavery
21. Ethan Frome
22. The Awakening
23. Fathers and Sons
24. A Handful of Dust
25. A Kind of Spark
26. Titan
27. A Court of Wings and Ruin
28. Paco's Story
29. Atonement
30. Sing, Unburied, Sing
31. Trust Exercise
32. The Keepers of the House
33. Amal Unbound
34. Clean Getaway
35. A Good Kind of Trouble
36. Lalani of the Distant Sea
37. The Line Tender
38. The Parker Inheritance
39. Proxy
40. Life As We Knew It
41. Under the Never Sky
42. Legend
43. The Belles
44. Gearbreakers
45. The Summer Prince
46. Blasphemy
47. The Serpent
48. Go Ask Alice
49. Lost Horizon
50. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
51. Graceling
52. Alice I Have Been
53. The Unspoken Name
54. To Love Jason Thorn
55. Date Me, Bryson Keller
56. Crooked Letter Crooked Letter
57. Stay Gold
58. Last Christmas in Paris
59. Hercule Poirot's Christmas
60. If You Come Softly
61. Lethal Licorice
62. The Sound of Stars
63. New York
64. The Plot

(doubling up here because I've decided to add another CAT...)



CAT#18: Books Read Aloud with Charlie
I'll list here the books my 13-year-old and I read out loud together at night.
I've read all of the Discworld books and Sam Vimes is by far my favorite character. Charlie's read the first Discworld book and wants to read more, and we both loved the BBC show, The Watch, and are hoping for more episodes.

1. The Raven Boys



CAT#19: Everything Else
I'll list here the books that don't fit any of the above categories.
Medea doesn't really fit in any categories either. She defies all attempts to make her fit into any of the normal female tropes, and I absolutely adore her for it. Strong, fascinating, horrifying, and still with 100% human-like fragility. She is gorgeous and I will love her until the day I die. Preferably not by her hand. But still.

1. What Fresh Hell Is This?
2. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
3. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
4. Beetle & the Hollowbones
5. Mockingjay
6. Solutions and Other Problems
7. Darius the Great Deserves Better
8. Hyperbole and a Half
9. This Book Is Gay
10. We Ride Upon Sticks
11. A Court of Thorns and Roses
12. The Portrait of a Lady
13. The Last Cuentista
14. Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio
15. Red, White, and Whole
16. The Kids Are Gonna Ask
17. A Snake Falls to Earth
18. My Hero Academia Vol 1
19. The Ogress and the Orphans
20. My Hero Academia Vol 2
21. Love in Focus
22. A Court of Mist and Fury
23. A Kind of Spark
24. A Brief History of Time
25. Too Bright to See
26. Deathnote 1
27. My Hero Academia 3
28. Flambards
29. Heathen vol 1
30. Death Note vol 2
31. The Magic Mountain
32. Women: The National Geographic Image Collection
33. A Court of Frost and Starlight
34. Dragon Hoops
35. Heathen vol 2
36. My Hero Academia vol 4
37. Death Note vol 3
38. My Hero Academia vol 5
39. The Tea Dragon Society
40. Assassination Classroom vol 1
41. The Words in My Hands
42. Date Me, Bryson Keller
43. The Accidental Afterlife of Thomas Marsden
44. My Hero Academia 6
45. Assassination Classroom vol 2

Some great cats! I really like the 100 most banned books and will watch and take notes on what you read--maybe for me next year!

I love awards lists too. Hope you have a great reading year!

Excellent categories! I'm on a Shakespeare read as well - although I'm going to ease my way in by listening to them. I've not read a play since I was 16 and I'm really not sure how to go about it now.

>16 scaifea: Take care. They're a trap. Happy reading in 2022.

I love all the pop culture pics! Special sigh of agreement about Eugenides, one of my favorite fictional characters too!

Okay, I think everything's sorted up there now. Welcome - come on in!

>22 Tess_W: Thanks, Tess! I'm actually almost finished with that 100 Banned Books list - I think I have maybe 5-6 to go? I highly recommend the book, though, if you're looking for some interesting reads.

>23 NinieB: Thanks, Ninie! I've sure read a lot of things I otherwise wouldn't have because of those awards lists. Mostly that's a good thing...

>24 Helenliz: Ha! I think it's too late, Pam. *sigh*

>25 pamelad: Yay for Gen! I love him so much. Soooo much.

I am 100% here for the Cumberbatch content :D Also glad to see Alan Rickman and David Tennant back!

>28 rabbitprincess: Yay! Yes, I could live in a world in which Cumberbatch and Hiddleston play All. The. Parts.

Great to see you back for another year of Category reading, Amber. I love your choices and your reasons for each one!

>30 DeltaQueen50: Thanks so much, Judy!

Excellent categories. And thank you for the eye candy!

>32 MissWatson: Ha! Thanks - and you're most welcome!

Nice set-up, Amber!

>34 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie!

Very nice challenge setup, Amber! Good luck. I'll be lurking to enjoy the scenery!

>36 majkia: Thanks!! Enjoy the view!

Nice set up, Amber! Great pictures.

>38 VivienneR: Thanks!!

Very nice categories. And I love the pictures.

>40 hailelib: Thanks!

Looking forward to seeing how you feel these categories!

Great categories and pictures once again! I'm looking forward to following along!

>42 thornton37814: >43 MissBrangwen: Thanks, ladies! I'm getting excited for the new year to get started!

That's alotta categories!!

Happy Reading!

>45 justchris: Yup. Same as always.

>46 dudes22: Thanks!!

Amber, when I saw your thread, for some reason the song The Boys are Back in Town came into my head. *grin* Love the images you chose. And also that for you Odysseus = Sting. You know I am always going to picture Odysseus like this now, so thank you.

>48 Crazymamie: *snork!* I love that song! And yeah, it somehow seems appropriate...

Odysseus is supposed to be a redhead and as a classicist I should probably care about that but I super don't. He. Is. Sting. And you're welcome. I balked at the Troy movie casting Sean Bean as Odysseus because of course Odysseus is the only Ithacan who survives the homeward journey and everybody knows Sean Bean never makes it to the end of a story alive. *tsk*

>49 scaifea: You made me snort my tea about Sean Bean!! So true!

>50 Crazymamie: Ha! Otherwise, though, the casting in that move is pretty great. My students are generally shocked when I tell them that I kind of love that movie - they always assume I'll hate it because it's not exactly true to Homer. Meh. Myths change and that's cool. And Brian Cox as Agamemnon is perfection.

>49 scaifea: "I balked at the Troy movie casting Sean Bean as Odysseus because of course Odysseus is the only Ithacan who survives the homeward journey and everybody knows Sean Bean never makes it to the end of a story alive. *tsk*"
LOL :-))

I don't think it's such a bad movie either, and when I taught a course about heroes in literature it was even on the curriculum to make the story more accessible (the reading was a long text by Gustav Schwab which was a bit dry for most of the students).

>52 MissBrangwen: Oh, your course sounds great! I've been thinking about maybe putting a course together that traces the hero trope from its origins in Greek mythology through lit and film/TV someday...

>53 scaifea: Yes, it was one of my favorite courses to teach so far! It was definitely close to what you describe, although with a focus on German literature as it was part of a German class. It was a very good experience because the students were so interested and were able to draw a lot of parallels to their own interests and fandoms, such as Marvel etc. It was more relevant to them than a lot of other things they have to study.

>54 MissBrangwen: Yes! My myth students always seem to love making the connections between ancient myth and modern pop culture - I get "wow!"s aplenty every time I tell them that the Furies were known as avengers of kin murder and then flash a photo of Nick Fury and the Avengers on the screen...

>53 scaifea: Ohhh, that sounds good. I'd read it. In 2021 I listened to Pandora's Jar as read by the author, Natalie Haynes. That took 10 women from Greek myth and traced their story forward, including more modern literature and films along the way. Fabulously erudite, but full of wit and snark a-plenty, it was one of my three reads that rated 5 stars.

>56 Helenliz: Hey, she knows it's a jar and not a box, so I approve! Drives me kind of bananas when people get that wrong.

>57 scaifea: She spends a reasonable time explaining that too. And why we all think it is a box.

In my case, my one TV appearance (one too many, imo) was a school dance production, where we all wore leotards, tights and home made masks to represent the various evils that were released from Pandora's box. As a rather chubby child, I got to represent hunger. Less said, the better...

>58 Helenliz: Omg, that performance sounds so adorable!! I LOVE IT.

CAT#2: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up

1. The Cave Children by A. Sonnleitner (1001 Children's Books) - 7/10
Two kiddos get stuck in a mountain valley without any adults to help them, and so they need quickly to learn how to survive in the wilderness on their own.
I tend to enjoy these kinds of kid survival stories, but this one fell completely flat for me. The children aren't given personalities much at all, and the tone is bleak instead of cheering-them-on optimistic. So, blech.

Happy 2022 and good luck with your reading goals!
>13 scaifea: I've never thought of a book-a-year challenge and I love it.
>20 scaifea: It's a tragedy that Alan Rickman didn't do more audiobooks. There are parts of Return of the Native that I can listen to on repeat.

>61 madhatter22: Thanks!!

Isn't the book-a-year thing a cool idea? I also love keeping it updated - I open it up every time I finish a book to see if I want to replace that particular year's entry with the one I've just finished (for years with more than one book I list my favorite).

And yes to needing more Rickman audiobooks! I agree about Return of the Native, too. *sigh*

>61 madhatter22: I agree, Alan Rickman was made for audiobooks and it is such a shame that he didn't do more of them.

His diaries are scheduled to be published in the fall of 2022, and my only thought is who would do the audiobook? https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/21/alan-rickman-27-volumes-of-diaries...

>63 rabbitprincess: Oh, goodness. I'll have to read those in print, I suspect. I can't let anyone else try to be his voice!

>64 scaifea: I mean I wouldn't say no to Benedict Cumberbatch reading them...but he's not Alan!

>65 rabbitprincess: Oh well, Cumberbatch can read anything else he wants to me, of course, but he could maybe give me a foot rub while I read the Rickman diaries...

>63 rabbitprincess: I hadn't heard about that! Can't wait.

>67 madhatter22: Right? Me either - and me too!

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
January AlphaKIT: R

2. Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard (Green Dragon 1001 Fantasy Books) - 7/10
What to say about Conan? It's cheesy and simple, with the manly-man, noble-savage barbarian and the distressed and ditzy damosel, and plenty of opportunities for Our Hero to make good on his hero-ness. I'm glad I read it just for the simple ability to understand the references better, but I can't say that I exactly enjoyed the experience.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
BingoDOG#13: Read a CAT
Year-long AlphaKIT: Z

3. Beauties, Beasts, and Enchantment by Jack Zipes
A collection of French fairy tales. There were very few that I didn't already know, but the reread was comforting, and it's a good collection.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
CAT#17: Audiobooks

4. The Paradise War by Stephen Lawhead
Two Oxford grad students find a portal between worlds in the shape of a cairn and find themselves pulled into a world inhabited by, essentially, ancient celts, and then entangled in the warrior ranks and embroiled in a semi-mystical war that may have repercussions in the 'real' world.
This one started out promising but once it transitioned to the other world, it faltered into a big load of meh. The main character/narrator was completely lacking in any sort of personality, so I struggled to care about what happened to him, and the plot was both convoluted and dull. Disappointing. Needless to mention, but I won't be continuing with the trilogy.

CAT#19: Everything Else

5. What Fresh Hell Is This? by Heather Corinna
This is a book about perimenopause and menopause: a history of thought on the subject (this part doubles as a horror story of how medicine has been consistently shitty to women from Day One), a crash course in the biology behind the phenomenon, and a self-help guide to the options out there now to get you through it.
There were some helpful nuggets in here, but I admit to skimming large chunks, mostly because the author's tone and sense of humor were super nerve-grating. So, YMMV.

CAT#19: Everything Else
BingoDOG#23: A book set in a country other than the one you live

6. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
A reread for me, but it had been long enough that I was ready to revisit it while Charlie read it for the first time for his ELA class. It's funny how so many of these kinds of classic stories, when appropriated for movies and TV, take on a completely different life and end up looking not much at all like their originals. But it's not at all surprising is that it's the stories with such potential for carrying higher truths that get this treatment - this is what myths do (function as vehicles for every new teller's message), and in that way stories like Jekyll and Hyde are very close to belonging to a kind of mythology. So, although I like Treasure Island loads more, I still appreciate the qualities inherent in this one.

CAT#1: 100 Banned Books
January AlphaKIT: H
BingoDOG#18: Book in Translation

7. The Hidden Face of Eve by Nawal El Saadawi
A disturbing history of women in the Arab world and how they have been brutalized and mistreated in many ways throughout history up to the present day. This isn't a happy read, but would be an important one, I think, if it weren't for the frequent and sometimes incredibly blatant inaccuracies included in the text. I assume the author knows her own subject (Arab women and their mistreatment) since she is a doctor herself and has treated and interviewed many Arab women and has extensively studied the subject. But she should have stuck to what she knows; she branches out into the history of mistreatment of women in other areas of the world, including ancient Greece and Rome, and she boldly states as fact - frequently without citing sources - wildly inaccurate and untrue ideas. This, as you can probably guess, drove me absolutely bananas.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
CAT#17: Audiobooks

8. Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
Anita Blake is a reanimator and vampire hunter by trade, living and working in St. Louis. She gets a job offer that she literally can't refuse from the local vampire master to find out who's been murdering vampires in town. Things get...complicated from there on out.
And I mean ridiculously complicated, or at least it seemed to me that the plot was overly convoluted. It could just be that I couldn't ever quite manage to care enough about Anita to bother with following along in all the details. She annoyed me. To be fair, I listened to the audiobook and it could be that the narrator was the annoying part and that if I had read a print version I wouldn't have been so not taken with Blake. At any rate, I don't think I'll continue with the series. For me, there are better vampire/monster stories out there and much more interesting vampire/monster hunters.

CAT#2: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
BingoDOG#4: A Book You'd Love to See As a Movie

9. Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease
Peter, a boy from Cumberland, is forced to flee his home when he's spotted trying the hit the wicked local nobleman with a rock. This sets him up for all sorts of adventures, including joining up with a traveling theater troupe, befriending a girl-in-disguise who's also a fugitive from home, meeting and working for Marlowe and Shakespeare in Elizabeth's England, and finally becoming a spy in her majesty's service to help foil a treasonous plot against her, which takes him full circle and right back to his homeland.
There are stretches of time when I consider abandoning my goal of reading through the 1001 Children's Books list because I've found so many of them not to my taste, but then one comes along that restores my faith in the project by virtue of being such a wonderful read. This is one of those books. It's a fun and fast-paced romp from the beginning to the end, with great characters and a very enjoyable plot. I loved it.

CAT#19: Everything Else

10. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
Grenouille was born a monster, a baby without any scent whatsoever, birthed and abandoned in the most stench-filled area of 1700s Paris, a child who neither understands nor needs love, but who has a sense of smell unparalleled by any other human in the world. He uses that talent to become an apprentice to a perfumer, in his pursuit of a way to capture the scent essence of all things. When he one day smells the most beautiful, most perfect scent he's ever experienced and discovers that it's the scent of a young woman, well, things take a very dark turn and his passion and quest become darker and more monstrous as well.
Disturbing in parts but also just as equally fascinating, this story takes some interesting turns and kept me engaged all the way to the end. I usually don't go in for the darker stuff, but somehow I was pulled into this one from the beginning. I suspect it has something to do with how Suskind was able to write such a revolting character but also manage to get you to root for him as well. I feel manipulated and I love it.

CAT#2: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up

11. Metropolis by Osamu Tezuka
Meh. I'm not a huge Osamu Tezuka fan (I didn't like Astro Boy at all) and this comic sustains that feeling. *shrug* It feels silly (not in a good way) and dated.

CAT#4: Hugo, Nebula, and other SF and Fantasy Award Winners

12. Timescape by Gregory Benford
There are two timelines in this story: one in sort-of mid-apocalyptic 1998, when algae blooms and mass extinctions have triggered the beginning of the end it seems, and one in 1962, when scientists at UCLA are conducting some sort of physics experiment involving tachyons...? Anyway, the future scientists (aka those in 1998 - the book was published in 1980) figure out that they can send a message via tachyons to the 1962 scientists, warning them of the impending doom. But they don't want to make it too clear or else the Grandfather Paradox would kick in and...it...wouldn't...work? But somehow it sort of doesn't work anyway (but also sort of does), because, I'm guessing, butterfly wings and then Kennedy gets shot but not killed? Because physics! Gah. I give up. There's way too much science talk and not nearly enough make-it-make-sense-to-the-reader talk. I got confused. And then I got bored. Which I think would have happened without the confusion - it takes just this side of forever for any actual plot to be bothered to happen. So nope, this one didn't really work for me.

CAT#12: Mysteries
BingoDOG#5: A Book That Features a Dog
January MysteryKIT: Series
January RandomKIT: Home Sweet Home

13. A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny
An absolutely odious woman moves to Three Pines with her milquetoast husband and her emotionally battered young daughter and has the entire town hating her in record time, it seems. So when she is murdered in the middle of a town festival, Gamache knows he has his work cut out for him to find the killer while also trying to solve the murder of a homeless woman back in Quebec.
Lots of suspects, several red herrings, and some great twists to this one. I adore all the characters (not you, Yvette), especially Gamache, and despite the ridiculous murder rate, I so badly want to live in Three Pines.

>80 scaifea: - Amber, I too want desperately to live in Three Pines if only for the food at the bistro and to stay at the B&B. I bought my friend the book Your Guide Not to Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village for Christmas just because of the title. I'm waiting to hear if it's any good.

>81 dudes22: Oh! Tomm gave me that book for Christmas, too! I need to take it off the shelf soon.

CAT#12: Mysteries
Year-Long AlphaKIT: X
BingoDOG#2: Book Published in a Year Ending in 2

14. A Loyal Character Dancer by Qiu Xiaolong
The second book in the Inspector Chen series follows a few months after the first and finds the detective taking on the case of a gang-related murder in his favorite park and also a case of a missing woman, who is wanted by the American government as part of a plea bargain for her husband's testimony against a human trafficking trial in the states. Chen must work alongside an US Marshal and his initial frustration at the need to be her glorified tourist guide turns to something else as they begin to become friends, and possibly more than friends.
I thought the pacing in this one was a little slower than in the first book and at the same time I had trouble keeping the various details of the story sorted out in my head. Still, I like Inspector Chen and may eventually continue with the series.

CAT#19: Everything Else
BingoDOG#22: A Children's or YA Book

15. Beetle & the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne
Beetle is a young goblin hoping to be a sorceress, with a blobby little ghost who haunts the mall as her friend. When her old friend/crush, Kat, returns home from boarding school to apprentice under her aunt, things get awkward because the aunt is evil and wants to tear down the mall. Beetle must find a way to free her ghost friend and also repair her damaged friendship with Kat before it's too late.
A fun little middle grade graphic novel. I think the characters could have been fleshed out a bit more and some of the illustrations could have been clearer (I found it difficult to suss out the details of the action sometimes), but overall it's a good read.

CAT#5: Favorite Author Bibliographies
BingoDOG#19: A Work of Nonfiction

16. More Fool Me by Stephen Fry
The third installment in Fry's series of memoirs, this one covers the late 1980s through 1993. The book can be broken down into three parts; the middle bit is the actual memoir part and is just as enjoyable as the earlier two books, but the first section is a summary, essentially, of those first two books and the last part is a lightly edited reproduction of his diary entries for the last half of 1993. So it feels sort of...slipshod? Phoned in? Like maybe the publisher wanted this more than Fry wanted to write it? I dunno. Anyway. I still love him to bits even if this one was a bit disappointing.

CAT#16: Books from My Wishlist
BingoDOG#15: A Book about Sisters or Brothers

17. The Ghost Writer by John Harwood
A boy in Australia struggles under the rule of his overprotective mother but finds an outlet for his feelings in his penpal in England. As his relationship with his penpal becomes more serious through the years, his relationship with his mother becomes even more strained. When she dies, he is determined both to meet his love face-to-face and also to solve the mysteries in his mother's past. However, he's not prepared for how the two parts of his life are unexpectedly joined.
This is a strange but cool novel involving stories within stories, mysteries on every level, and a perfectly creepy gothic feel throughout. I'm still not completely clear on how some of the embedded stories relate to the whole, but overall it's a great read.

CAT#7: National Book Award for Fiction
BingoDOG#1: An Award-Winning Book

18. Chimera by John Barth
A collection of three intertwined novellas, all retellings of classical tales. I enjoyed the 1001 Nights retelling, but strangely enough, not so much the Perseus and Bellerophon ones. Or maybe it's not that strange at all; I'm fairly protective of my classical myths. Barth is clever and all in what he does with the stories, but it felt a little too...flippant for me. *shrug*

CAT#14: Unread Books from my Shelves
February RandomKIT: Read a Cat

19. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vunnegut
A man sets out to write a book about the end of the world, namely about the making of the atom bomb, but in the process of researching one of the late scientists who worked on the bomb, he stumbles across the man's dysfunctional family, get entangled in the machinations of a poor island dictatorship, converts to a religion that admits it's founded on lies, and possibly witnesses the actual end of the world.
Wonderfully weird as only Vonnegut can do wonderfully weird.

CAT#19: Everything Else
BingoDOG#21: A Book Set in a Capital City

20. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
The final installment in the Hunger Games trilogy is still my least favorite of the three, but that's not to say that it isn't still pretty excellent.

>88 scaifea: I really have to re-read Cat's Cradle. I read it in high school, so well before LT.

>90 rabbitprincess: I said to myself when I finished it, "I really need to read more Vonnegut" because I always enjoy his stuff. It's a pretty fast read so you could squeeze it in easily, I suspect.

>88 scaifea: I had planned on reading Cat's Cradle this month but changed my mind - I will have to put it back in the line-up!

>92 DeltaQueen50: I hope you enjoy it!

>80 scaifea: >81 dudes22: The murder rate in Three Pines would definitely be worth risking for that onion soup, boeuf bourguignon and all those warm croissants.

>94 madhatter22: Ha! I completely agree!

CAT#19: Everything Else
February AlphaKIT: B

21. Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
I don't know why I waited so long to give Brosh a try but I'm so glad I finally have. Her weird is exactly my favorite kind, and this volume is equal parts weirdo hilarity and emotional punches to the gut. I *adored* it.

CAT#13: Romance
CAT#17: Audiobooks
BingoDOG#20: A Book in Which a Character Shares the Name of a Friend

22. Heartsong by TJ Klune
The third book in the Green Creek series, this one focuses on the relationship between Robbie and Kelly. I can't say much more without spoilers for the first two books, so I'll just leave it at that. I will say, though, that by this third book Klune seems to have economized his writing style so most of the repetitive language is gone. The characters and their relationships are so well done in this series and the story is great, too. I'm so glad I stuck with it through the first two books, and I'm eager to get to the fourth one.

CAT#14: Unread Books from my Shelves
BingoDOG#10: A Book You Received as a Gift

23. Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell
Peter Brown started life as an orphaned kiddo being raised by his loving, Holocaust-survivor grandparents, but when they're randomly and brutally murdered in their own home, Peter sets out for revenge and ends up as a very competent hitman for the mob, then as a very competent MD intern in the Witness Protection Program. And then his past comes calling during a hospital shift from hell.
This isn't my usual fare at all, but my friend, Rob, has been wanting me to read it for years and I finally gave in. I'm so glad I did. It's fantastic even as it's also very much not what I usually go for. It's dark and downright brutal in parts, but somehow Bazell manages even so to keep it light and funny. Most of that is because of the narrator, who ticks a lot of the right boxes for me: smart, *very* good at pretty much everything he does, but also very matter-of-fact about it and with a healthy dose of self-deprecation, and chock full of charisma. The plot is great, too: lots of interesting twists as the story plays out both in the present and in flashbacks that unfold his hitman past. Definitely recommended, even if, like me, this might not be your usual jam.

CAT#15: Books from my Read Soon! Shelves

24. One More Thing by BJ Novak
A collection of short stories from the guy who was a writer, actor, director, and producer on The Office. I tend to stay away from short story collections because in general they just don't work for me. I don't have the patience for them or something. But I really like Novak so I decided to give this a go. There are some really good stories in here, some that were okay, and some I skimmed over completely. He has very clever and fun ideas but sometimes I think the execution isn't one the same level as the idea. Still, I'm not unhappy that I read through this one and if you like quirky short stories, I'd certainly recommend it.

CAT#19: Everything Else
February AlphaKIT: A

25. Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram
In this follow-up to Darius the Great Is Not Okay, we follow Darius - now back home in Portland from the family trip to Iran - as he negotiates his first job (at a tea shop), dealing with racism directed at himself and his little sister, his first experience as a team player (JV soccer), and his first relationship. He worries about his father's depression, which seems to be getting worse again, and his best friend in Iran, who seems to be holding something back.
There's some great stuff in here about teen relationships, both friendships and love interests, and it's always great to read a YA novel that gets those kinds of things right; Khorram writes convincing young characters who interact in believable and realistic ways, and he uses those characters to talk about important issues. Highly recommended, but if you haven't read the first book, I'd start there.

>99 scaifea: I feel the same about One More Thing -- lots of good ideas, some executed better than others. But a fun read overall, and I'm not generally a short story fan either.

>101 christina_reads: Agreed! I didn't *love* it but I enjoyed some of the stories and I'm happy to have supported his work.

CAT#12: Mysteries
February MysteryKIT: Cold Case Crimes
BingoDOG#7: Book Published the Year You Joined LT (2007)

26. In the Woods by Tana French
Dublin Murder Squad detective, Rob Ryan, and his partner/best friend, Cassie Maddox, set out to investigate the murder of a 12-year-old girl when her body is found at an archaeological dig. Red herrings abound, and there are so many intricate layers of possibility that Ryan and his partner quickly become bogged down and find themself on the verge of despair at ever solving the murder. The case has, from the beginning, threatened to be the undoing of Ryan, as it occurred in his own hometown, where years earlier his two best friends disappeared in the nearby wood never to be found and Ryan himself was so traumatized that he has never recovered the memory of what happened that day.
Hardcore police procedurals aren't usually my thing, but I adored this novel from Page One to the end. It took me a little while to sort out the answer to the crime, but even after I did, I was still on the edge of my seat to know how the characters themselves would react to the discovery, which says so much about French's writing. I loved the smart plot, with its interesting twists, and the characters themselves, who had their own, parallel story, which was just as fascinating and engrossing as the mysteries (both the murder and Ryan's past). This is my first French but it will most certainly not be my last.

CAT#2: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up

27. The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino
A viscount gets blown in two by cannon fire during battle but miraculously survives and returns home as literally half a man. This half is all evil, though, and spends his days terrorizing the countryside. One day his other half, which also survived the battle, arrives home and travels round to the local residents doing as much good as he possibly can, even if the results are sometimes not exactly wanted. So one is too evil and the other too good, until they finally battle one another and rediscover an equilibrium.
Meh. I've loved the other Calvino stuff I've read, but this one fell flat for me. A little too heavy handed with the parable feel, maybe, and also maybe a little too silly.

CAT#19: Everything Else

28. Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
I requested this one from the library immediately after finishing her latest book and then devoured it whole after bringing home today. Brosh is so very much my kind of weird. I laughed in some places until I was sob-laugh-wheezing. But then also? Her description of what depression can be like is just...amazing. So, so good. Important and hilarious and extremely relatable (for me, anyway).

>103 scaifea: Nice review. This book was my first Tana French novel too. Your review is reminding me that I really should get around to reading the next book in the series as I too enjoyed the first very much.

>106 mathgirl40: Thanks! I'm definitely hooked and want to get to the next one soon!

CAT#19: Everything Else
BingDOG#24: A Book by an LGBTQ+ Author

29. This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson
A fantastic guide for teens on life in the LGBTQ+ community, with lots of helpful advice on how to come out, what to do about bullies, and even how gay sex works. It's all told in a very no-nonsense, comfortable, no-big-deal way, and repeatedly stresses that all identities and orientations are valid, which is wonderful. A great read for all teens, regardless of their gender or sexuality.

CAT#13: Romance
CAT#17: Audiobooks
BingoDOG#8: A Book by a Favorite Author

30. Brothersong by TJ Klune
The last in the Green Creek series, this book follows the story of Carter, one of the brothers of the Bennett werewolf pack, as he searches for Gavin, who sacrificed his freedom to save them all.
Like the rest of the books in the series, this one is way longer than it needed to be and I stand by my belief that Klune's early stuff could really have used a much better editor, but by the time I arrived at this last book in the series, I was so in love with the story and the characters that I didn't so much care about the overly-repetitive bits. So in the end, his wordiness is worth it.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a NewtCAT#17: Audiobooks
BingoDOG#14: Contains Travel or a Journey

31. Into the Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Coville
When Cara and her grandmother are suddenly pursued by an unknown man, the grandmother gives a precious amulet to Cara and tells her to jump through a portal and into a new world, one filled with magical creatures and monsters, including dragons and unicorns. Cara sets off on a quest to take the amulet to the queen of the unicorns, and she and the friends she makes long the way must face dangers and wonders to get there.
It reads like an early outline for a fantasy novel, but one that needs a lot of work. The story idea is good, but it's told in the barest of bones way, with very little in the way of details, and the characters are completely flat.

CAT#19: Everything Else
March AlphaKIT: S
March RandomKIT: Hobby Love
BingoDOG#16: Book Club Read

32. We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
It's the fall of 1989 and the Danvers High School Field Hockey team, despite having a history of losing much more than they win, want so badly to go all the way to states this year. So these Salem-adjacent girls, true to their ancestral natures, make a pact with the Devil (aka Emilio Estevez on the cover of a notebook) and suddenly their lives will never be the same.
I loved this novel, with its clever plot and unforgettable characters. The magic is there and important but also subtle, and it takes an easy backseat to these amazing high school girls, with their massive hair and love for Janet Jackson. I was a freshman in 1989 and these characters brought so many memories rushing back - they're true to their age and the late 80s. Highly recommended!

>111 scaifea: So glad to see that you enjoyed We Ride Upon Sticks as I have had this one on my library list for some time. I am looking forward to it!

>112 DeltaQueen50: Yay! I hope you love it as much as I did, Judy!

CAT#12: Mysteries
March MysteryKIT: Small Town, Big Secrets
BingoDOG#17: A Book with Flowers on the Cover

33. Hitting the Books by Jenn McKinlay
The ninth in the Library Lover's Mystery series, this cozy sees the resident library director once again getting involved in a criminal investigation when she is witness to a Briar Creek resident being the victim of a hit-and-run. Another fun entry in the series.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
March AlphaKIT: P

34. Beyond the Pawpaw Trees by Palmer Brown
A Young girl leaves her home for the first time to pay her aunt a visit but gets caught alone in a runaway train which takes her to a magical land.
Meh. A product of its time and genre. Flat characters skipping along in a plot that is just one silly thing after another, clearly meant to entertain the very young with no real appeal to audiences older than, say, 8.

CAT#19: Everything Else
BingoDOG#3: A Modern Retelling of an Older Story

35. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
A retelling of Beauty and the Beast in which the beast is a fae lord and the beauty is a strong young human girl who hunts to keep her impoverished family from starving.
I loved the nice balance Maas achieved between staying true to the original story in the important ways but also making it her own in a nicely unique way. I was a little irritated with the ending although I can't articulate exactly why, but not enough to keep me from continuing with the series.

>116 scaifea: Taking a book bullet for this one. I love retellings of Beauty and the Beast

>117 lowelibrary: Yay! I hope you love it! This is actually the first book on my new quest to read as many B&B retellings as I can find.

>118 scaifea: I will be following your quest with great interest!

>119 christina_reads: Thanks! I guess I'd better hop to it, then!

>118 scaifea: I recommend Beauty by Robin McKinley

>121 lowelibrary: Thanks - that one's already on the list! I'm glad it's a good one.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
CAT#17: Audiobooks

36. The Black Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey
Set in a world of mages, healers, empaths, gryphons, and common soldiers, this first in a fantasy series details a massive war between two powerful mages, told through the viewpoint of a few of the people - and magical creatures - fighting on the side of the 'good' mage.
It's an interesting story with well-drawn characters, and I enjoyed it. I liked the world building, the idea behind the creatures, such as the gryphons, being created by the mage and then straining against his control while still feeling loyalty and love toward him, and I appreciated that I felt immediately drawn into the world and story, which is frequently something I struggle with when starting a new fantasy book or series.

CAT#16: Books from My Wishlist

37. Stradivari's Genius by Toby Faber
A brief biography of Stradivari and an accompanying microhistory of five of his violins and one of his cellos.
I generally love microhistories and this one sounded so fascinating. But sadly, it's...not. Instead, it's pretty dry, actually, which is disappointing.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt

38. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
The last unicorn on earth learns that she is such and decides to go searching for other unicorns to prove the statement wrong. She discovers that the key to their fate is with The Red Bull, who is the monstrous servant of King Haggard. So she sets out for Haggard's land, collecting to her in the process a not-very-skilled wizard and a member of a generic Robin Hood's not-so-merry men. They all make choices and sacrifices along the way, and although they all end up more or less with what they wanted in the end, it's not exactly the happy ending they were each hoping for.
All the required bits for a traditional fantasy story are here, and the story itself is frequently very self-aware of that fact. There's the story, and then there's the Story of the story, and I think I would have loved that if it had been handled a bit more subtly. Also, I didn't very much like any of the characters. I didn't outright *hate* them (although the unicorn was most irritating most of the time), but I didn't like them enough to root for them or much care what happened to them in the end. I was in it just to see how it ended, really, but with no emotional attachment to that ending.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt

39. The Prestige by Christopher Priest
Two stage magicians working in the late 1800s in and around London form a fierce rivalry and go to extreme lengths both to thwart each other's success and to perform the greatest feats of illusion imaginable. Both of these efforts demand supreme sacrifices from each man and inevitably lead to their downfalls.
Hoo boy, this is a humdinger of a story, extremely well told and with the craziest and most exciting twists I've read in a long while. I'm so glad that I had forgotten the details of the movie so that I could enjoy the surprises completely. Highly recommended!

CAT#19: Everything Else
BingoDOG#9: A Long Book

40. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Miss Isabel Archer, a young lady from America, goes with her aunt to visit England and then the continent. She rejects two offers of marriage in the name of trying out a life of freedom, but then irrationally accepts a third offer, much less impressive than either of the previous ones, and things go downhill from there quite quickly.
James is hit or miss for me; this one is a bit of both. For the first third of the novel I was pleasantly surprised at how much I was enjoying it, but the rest of the story was quite a slog, especially once James' trademark dreariness kicked in. I don't at all mind a sad story, but a dispassionately bleak one is certainly not my cuppa.

Sorry - wrong thread!

CAT#19: Everything Else
April AlphaKIT: L

41. The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
Sometime in the future, a comet is set to crash into Earth and a select few have been chosen to take two spaceships, filled with everything they'll need to start a new life, to a new planet. In order to get there safely and successfully, most people are put into stasis for the 300+ years the journey will take, while some people and their descendants will live out their lives on the ships taking care of those in stasis. Petra, her parents, and her younger brother Javier, have been chosen as stasis passengers for her parents' expertise in science. They want Petra to be implanted with biology knowledge to help with setting up life on the new planet, but she would rather fill her brain with as many stories as possible so that she can be a great storyteller like her grandmother. But when she wakes up from stasis, nothing is as it was supposed to be and her dream of storytelling in a new world - and a new life with her family - seems a million miles from possible.
I have a few quibbles, but the goodness of the story outweighs those. I love that this Newbery winner is a sci fi book - very few have been in the past - and I adore that it's about a young storyteller breaking ground on a new future world. Very cool.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
April AlphaKIT: J

42. Grendel by John Gardner
A retelling of Beowulf from the viewpoint of the monster.
Retellings are a tricky business, I think. You have to stay true to the spirit of the original while also making the story your own and using it for your own purposes. I know this one has received high acclaim, and while I started out with high hopes, in the end it just didn't work for me. Gardner is clearly using the tale to engage with Big Philosophical Ideas (I mean the whole thing is lousy with Sartre), and that's fine, of course, but it just feels like the story gets lost somewhere along the way and there's more interpretation and metaphor than retelling, or for that matter, telling at all. Plus, it's so very grim. It's dark without the depth of actual feeling of the original, which mean we're left with just dreariness.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
CAT#17: Audiobooks

43. First Test by Tamora Pierce
A young girl in a traditional fantasy world wants to train as a page with the boys and one day be a knight but runs into all kinds of resistance from the established patriarchy. She eventually proves her worth, of course.
Standard fare for this particular trope; it was a fun but nothing extraordinary. Perfect for if you want an easy fantasy read that doesn't require a lot of effort.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

44. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Charlie's current English assignment is to choose a book on his own, read it, and write a paper about it. He browsed my shelves for something and chose this one, and since it's one of my favorites I decided to reread it along with him, in case he wants to chat about it as he reads. It's just as wonderful as I remember it being.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
CAT#17: Audiobooks

45. Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin
A series of vignettes all based on the premise, set out in the first chapter, that inter-planal travel is possible when you're stuck in the liminal time and space of waiting in the airport for a connecting flight. Each subsequent chapter, then, is either a story set in one of the planes or a sort of ethnography of the people/species who live there.
Does what sci-fi does: uses distant times and places to lightly disguise a close examination of our own culture and times. It's a clever idea cleverly carried out, but the cleverness is somewhat lost on me because I can't ever manage to enjoy short story collections, which is very much how this reads. So take my rating with a large pinch of salt - you may very well enjoy it a lot more than I did.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
CAT#17: Audiobooks

46. Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin
Orrec and Gry are teenagers in a world in which certain families are endowed with special gifts, or abilities, passed down through the generations. Orrec's gift is Undoing, which means that members of his family can destroy with a look and a word, while Gry's ability is communication with animals, which she is expected to use during the hunt to call animals to their death. Their world is governed by the constant fear that enemy clans will attack with their gifts, and so gifts are used as weapons and threats. Within this society, Orrec and Gry make the decision not to use their gifts and both face consequences for their decisions.

The surface story here is a good one, but I also loved it for the underlying themes: the difficulties of growing up with ideas that differ from those of the traditions of your family, the burden of rule and the hard decisions that come with it, and the danger of pride and anger. Definitely recommended, and the audio version is great, too.

CAT#2: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
BingoDOG#25: A Book with Silver or Gold on the Cover

47. Escape from Warsaw by Ian Serraillier
When their parents both get taken away to the camps, a family of three children manage to survive for three years of WWII in a bombed-out cellar in Warsaw before learning that their father had escaped and sent word to them via another young war orphan to try to meet him in Switzerland. So they set out with their new young friend in tow to make the long trek to a new home, facing perils and meeting with helpful folk along the way.

This is one of the better middle grade books about children during the war within the subset of not-too-horrific, kiddos-with-gumption stories. It's not too saccharine and still hints at the horrors of the war, which makes for an easy, uncomplicated read. Recommended if you like this sort of thing (and I do).

CAT#19: Everything Else

48. Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf
A graphic novel of the 1970 protests and shootings on the Kent State campus.
I knew •of• the Kent State incident but despite living in Ohio off and on for 20+ years, I'd never known the details until now, so I'm happy to have read this to get a better sense of what happened. It's a nicely structured account, although be warned that Backderf doesn't do much to hide his opinions on who was in the wrong (I agree with him, but it still reads a little more slanted than an objective account should, so if that's what you'd rather have you won't find it here). Also, I really don't like this illustration style. It's...ugly? And maybe that's partly the point, but my brain just doesn't cotton to it.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
CAT#17: Audiobooks

49. Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
Cal moved to NYC from Texas as a wide-eyed first-year college student, lost his virginity to a pretty goth woman who turned out to be, essentially, a vampire, and now he is an asymptomatic carrier of the infection who passes it on to anyone he even so much as kisses. He works for an ancient office that tracks down Peeps (Parasite Positives), people who have been infected and very much *do* show the symptoms (i.e. they eat people and are pretty much monsters). But as he searches for Morgan - the pretty goth who infected him - he encounters an apartment building with definite issues in the basement and a tenant who is a little too nosey and a little too much his type, and his world starts to tilt once more.

I really enjoyed this take on the traditional vampire story, and I loved Cal to bits from page one. It's a unique story with great characters and a couple of cool twists. I'll most likely continue with the series.

CAT#19: Everything Else

50. Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca
Reha feels like she's growing up in two different worlds: the world of middle school in the US in the 80s and the world of her parents and their friends, immigrants from India. But things get put in stark prospective for her when her mother becomes seriously ill, and she sees the value of family and feels the support of her friends.

Written in free verse, this is a lovely little story. I feel as if the characters could have been fleshed out a bit more and some of the side stories given more detail, but overall it's a nice read.

CAT#12: Mysteries
April MysteryKIT: noir/hard boiled

51. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
A girl has been missing for 40 years in a sort of locked room mystery cold case, in which the room is an entire island essentially inhabited by one very rich family. The current patriarch of the family, who has been obsessed with the disappearance of his niece since the even occurred, hires an investigative journalist in a last-ditch effort to uncover the truth. The journalist has his own problems and mysteries to solve, as does the eponymous freelance hacker/PI who is first assigned to investigate him and then joins the search for the truth behind the missing girl.
Wow. The hype for this one is well worth it. So many mysteries to solve and secrets to uncover, and the side plots are just as fascinating as the main one. That characters are all vibrantly crafted as well. I loved every minute of it.

CAT#15: Books from my Read Soon! Shelves
BingoDOG#12: Weather Word in the Title
April RandomKIT: April Showers

52. Waiting for the Flood by Alexis Hall
Edwin, a book conservator at the Bodleian Library, lives in an area known for flooding and a lot of rain is headed that way. As he prepares his home for the onslaught, he ruminates on how his life has come to a standstill since his longtime partner left, but he doesn't seem to know how to move on. Enter an engineer and flood management expert with flaming red hair and freckles for days, like literally on his doorstep. It takes a while and some emotional resistance from Edwin, but he eventually realizes that it's time for the flood of grief to be over.
A slim little chapbook of a romance, but all the more impressive for packing such a punch in so few pages. I adored it, and Edwin and Adam of the red hair and freckles.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
CAT#17: Audiobooks

53. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
Mercy Thompson runs a mechanic's shop in Washington State. She's also a shifter (she can turn into a coyote at will) and lives in a world of werewolves and witches, vampires and other fae. That world is shifting as humans become more and more aware of the fae living among them and as the non-human element becomes more polarized as to whether it's a good idea to come out of the closet, so to speak. It all comes to a breaking point in Mercy's world when the stray werewolf she took in as a helper in her shop ends up dead on her doorstep and her neighbor, who happens to be the alpha in the area, is attacked in his own home and his daughter is kidnapped. Mercy finds herself in the middle of it all, negotiating between werewolves and vampires while also trying to keep the peace between the werewolves by whom she was raised and the ones currently in her life.
I really enjoyed this first book in the Mercy Thompson series. The world building is good, and Mercy is a nicely drawn character - she can take care of herself but also has her flaws and weaknesses. I know some readers roll their eyes at love triangles, and I'm among their number if it's not done well, but I like the way the one Mercy find herself entangled with is set up here. I will very likely continue with the series.

CAT#9: Books on Buddhism

54. The World of Tibetan Buddhism by The Dalai Lama
Essentially a transcript of a workshop the Dalai Lama gave on some of the basic tenants of Buddhism.
There's a fair amount of repetition from other of his works, so I didn't get much that's new out of this one. Still, a nice refresher.

>141 scaifea: I received this book as a SantaThing gift a few years ago. I think I will bump it up the TBR list.

>143 lowelibrary: Oh, yay! I hope you love it! I need another series to follow like I need things I don't need at all, but I'm adding this one to my list of ones to keep up with.

CAT#18: Books Read Aloud with Charlie

55. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
We finished this one a few days ago, but I've been so busy grading that I didn't have time to post it here. It's the first in one of my very favorite series ever, and I'm happy to report that Charlie seems to like it, too.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
CAT#17: Audiobooks
May RandomKIT: May Flowers

56. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
Aislinn is a normal high school senior, does well in school and stays out of trouble, obeys her grandmother (who has raised her since her mother died). Except that she can see fairies, just like her mother and her grandmother before her. It isn't the fun parlor trick it may seem, though, because fairies are *everywhere* and completely dangerous. If they should ever find out that Aislinn can see them, it would be bad. Very bad. So she lives her life pretending as best she can that she doesn't see the horror all around her all the time. It's uncomfortable, but she manages, until two of the fairies start following her, day after day. When she discovers that one of them is the Summer King and he has chosen her to be his queen, her world gets even more complicated than it is already.

I love urban-ish fantasy involving dangerous fairies, so this one was right up my street. The characters are all nicely drawn, and I like the spin on the fairy world (traditional yet also new), and I love the new take on the love triangle trope, with a nice, strong female lead who calls some pretty great shots. I'm definitely continuing with this series because I'm excited to see what comes next.

CAT#12: Mysteries
May MysteryKIT: Detectives in Translation

57. The Shape of Water Andrea Camilleri
So many folks here and elsewhere have had such good things to say about this series that I went into it 100% assuming I'd love it. I...didn't. In fact, I didn't like it at all. It was a little too...harsh? And I just couldn't feel interested in the setting or the plot, plus I didn't cotton to Montalbano at all. *shrug*

>147 scaifea: On the plus side, one less series to follow!

>147 scaifea: - I just finished book 3 and I'm still not sure whether I liked it or not. I listened to the last one as an audio and I'm still not sure.

>148 rabbitprincess: Ha! Excellent point! And I really don't need another one, especially since I just added the Wicked Lovely series to the list.

>149 dudes22: I'm disappointed because I was so excited since so many people love it. Do you think you'll keep going with it?

>150 scaifea: - At least one more book before I decide.

I'm sorry you all don't like the Montalbano series. I prefer them in audio. There was one book that wasn't read by the usual narrator--and that was not a good experience--but if Grover Gardner reads it, it's perfect! I doubt I'd like them as much in print.

>152 thornton37814: I'm glad you enjoy them, Lori! I'm the opposite, I think; I'm much less tolerant on audio than in print, so I think I would have liked it even less if I had tried to listen to it.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

58. Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr
This second book in the series shifts focus away from Aislinn, Seth, and Keenan and instead puts one of Aislinn's friends center stage as she unwittingly enters the business and awareness of the fairies when she chooses a special pattern for her first tattoo.

The problem with talking about books in a series is that you can't...talk about them without giving things away. So I'll just say that I enjoyed this one nearly as much as the first, and I particularly liked how abuse gets treated in both a read and a metaphorical way.

CAT#19: Everything Else

59. The Kids Are Gonna Ask by Gretchen Anthony
Thomas and Savannah are high school seniors, twins, living with their grandmother since their mom died a few years ago. And they've decided that now is the time to find their father, whom they've never known and whom their mom never talked about. At all. Like, they don't even know his name. They have the brilliant idea to conduct their search via podcast, thinking that the more people who know about their search, the better the odds of someone knowing who their father might be. Things don't go as smoothly and happily as they'd planned, though, as they learn a bit about the world, their parents, and themselves.
It's a neat idea for a novel and I wanted to know how everything turned out, but in the end I was fairly disappointed. Anthony drops several big foreshadows that then don't pan out to a reveal that matches the hype. So, an interesting idea but with a fizzled ending.

CAT#19: Everything Else

60. A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger
Nina is of Lipan Apache descent and wants badly to understand her people's past by translating her great-grandmother's old stories. Oli is from the world of that mythology, striking out on his own. The two meet when their worlds clash.

Meh. By all rights I should have loved this book, but instead I found it an absolute slog. I think it's because NA mythology is my least favorite? And Nina's story just didn't grab me enough to look past the folktale element that I disliked. *shrug*

CAT#19: Everything Else

61. My Hero Academia Vol. 1 by Kohei Horikoshi
Deku lives in a whole full of people with special abilities (quirks) although he himself is quirkless. Nevertheless, he dreams of becoming a hero even though it seems impossible. But when he meets the Number One Hero, he discovers that his dreams may not be completely unattainable after all.
A fun start to the series. I'm really enjoying reading the manga after having watched the anime.

CAT#14: Unread Books from my Shelves
May AlphaKIT: O

62. The Junior Officers' Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey
A British soldier recounts his time in military academy through a stint in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hm. I have mixed feelings about this one. At first I really didn't like Hennessey - he seemed arrogant and filled with admiration for his own cleverness - but then I was briefly sucked into his account of soldiering (the details of how the British train their troops was interesting), but then again I became annoyed that the book doesn't do what it says on the tin; he occasionally and very briefly mentions a book he was reading at the time some event happened, but there's no talk of an actual book club at all or even what he thought of the books he read. I was in it for the dynamics of a bunch of soldiers holding a regular book club in a war zone and how that would play out, and I didn't get that at all. In the end it just felt like a dude bragging about how well read he was and also what a cool soldier he turned out to be and isn't that a paradox? I'm such a cool paradox! Blech. But points for the possibly inadvertently interesting bits. *shrug*

CAT#17: Audiobooks

63. Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr
In this third book of the series, Seth becomes unhappy with his mortal status now that his girlfriend is a fairy queen (and being heavily courted by her king), so he seeks a solution to the problem. There is lots of upset and trouble within the triangle.

Yeah, I think I'm done with this series. There's too much love triangle angst and the same old fraught conversations are rehashed over and over and characters make frustratingly bad decisions.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
May AlphaKIT: D

64. The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin
Animal Farm, but make it high fantasy and take away the charm. Yeah, I didn't like it.

>146 scaifea:
Onto my list goes Wicked Lovely! I never thought I really liked fairy stories, but I'm finding more and more that there are some gems. The premise of not being able to let on that you see them seems great and like it'd also lend itself to some good YA metaphors.

>161 pammab: I loved that first one, although YMMV with the rest of the series. Honestly, though, the first one would work well as a stand-alone (there's not huge cliffhanger or anything).

CAT#5: Favorite Author Bibliographies
CAT#12: Mysteries
CAT#17: Audiobooks

65. Murder Is Easy by Agatha Christie
Luke Fitzwilliam shares a train carriage with a lovely, if strange, old lady as they're both on their way to London. The woman seems nice, but has a curious story: she's on her way to Scotland Yard to report a mass murderer in her small country village. Luke listens politely but mentally dismisses the possibility, until he sees in the paper the next day that the old woman was killed by a hit-and-run just near the police station. He decides to investigate her story, which now seems like a very possible one.

And so starts another Murder in a Small English Village mystery. And it's a good one. Tons of possible culprits, all with interesting motives, and a couple of excellent twists along the way. I figured out the Bad Guy *just* before they were revealed, which is exactly how I like it. Another win for Christie.

>163 scaifea: Ooh, I remember liking that one as well!

>164 christina_reads: I haven't really met a Christie mystery I didn't like yet, but this one was a particular delight.

CAT#19: Everything Else

66. The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill
The once friendly and beautiful town of Stone-in-the-Glenn started deteriorating, both physically and in the attitudes of the residents, when the library burned down. And now it's a broken-down mess with sullen and distrustful citizens. The mayor, whom they all worship unthinkingly, arrived in town as a famous dragon slayer not too long before the loss of the library, and although everyone seems to think he's amazing, somehow he manages to do nothing to improve the state of affairs. Meanwhile, an ogress lives on the outskirts of town and quietly watches and loves the citizens, delivering baked goods and the abundance of her garden on all of their doorsteps at night. In the midst of all this, the residents of the Orphan House struggle to find enough food for the table each day while also struggling to understand the misery all around them. Things will need to change soon if any of them can survive, and the answer lies in the kindness of ogres and orphans.

Folks, I LOVED this one. Barnhill has an absolute knack for shaping parables that aren't heavy handed in any way, and are a joy to read. There's just the right amount of magic, and she has a lovely way with words and storytelling. Do yourself a favor and read this one.

CAT#5: Favorite Author Bibliographies
CAT#12: Mysteries
CAT#17: Audiobooks

67. They Do It with Mirrors by Agatha Christie
Miss Marple meets up with an old school friend, who asks her to check in on her sister because she's worried that something's just not quite right. Miss Marple agrees and pays a visit to said sister, who is also an old school friend, and who now lives with her third husband at the halfway home he runs for young reforming criminal types. As it turns out, it seems that someone may be trying to poison the sister, and Miss Marple is, of course, on the case.
As usual, Christie gives us lots of red herrings and a myriad of characters and possible motives. And again, as usual, it took me nearly the whole book to suss out the culprit. Thoroughly enjoyable.

CAT#5: Favorite Author Bibliographies
CAT#12: Mysteries
CAT#17: Audiobooks

68. A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie
Miss Marple is enjoying a holiday in the Caribbean when the death of a retired military man who was staying at the same hotel strikes her as somewhat suspicious. And then there's a (second) murder and things get even more interesting.
Again, lots of characters, lots of possible murderers, all with their own motives. But Miss Marple sorts it all out, and just in time.

CAT#2: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up

69. Friedrich by Hans Peter Richter
The story of two young boys growing up as friends in Germany in the early 1930s. One of them is Jewish, and of course their lives take very different paths.

*sigh* I think my mental and emotional tolerance for Holocaust literature is overtaxed. This was a compelling read, but so stark and bleak. And of course in some ways that's only right, but that's *all* this book offered. No hint that there were people trying to help others escape, no commentary on the bleakness at all. I think that if this were a novel written for adults, I'd not have an issue with it, but as a middle school book it just seems too grim and with no payoff for it.

CAT#6: National Endowment for the Humanities Timeless Classics
CAT#17: Audiobooks

70. A Night to Remember by Walter Lord
An interesting account of the night the Titanic sank. Lord is no Simon Winchester, but it's still a fairly engaging historical narrative.

CAT#19: Everything Else

71. My Hero Academia Volume 2 by Kouhei Horikoshi
Deku tries to adjust to life in the Hero Course at UA High while also trying to get control of his new quirk. His frenemy, Kacchan, is his usual angry, shouty self, and when the two of them are pitted against each other in a training exercise, things get intense. All of that fades to the background, though, when real live villains invade the school...
I'm loving reading the manga after watching the anime. It's like revisiting old friends.

CAT#6: National Endowment for the Humanities Timeless Classics
CAT#17: Audiobooks

72. The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Twelve-year-old Frankie is a girl on the brink of moving from the innocence of childhood into the life of adults. She's led a simple and sheltered life so far it seems, but the news of her brother's engagement and approaching wedding brings about a turning point into that transition from girl into womanhood. She's made starkly aware that there is *more* out there and she very keenly feels the desire to be a part of something bigger, better, and more intimate than she's ever known.
I appreciate the qualities of the novel - it's a very well written and unique coming-of-age story - but I didn't...like it. I think, though, that I didn't enjoy it exactly *because* it's so well done: it reminds me too much of that awful, awkward feeling at that age of both wanting so desperately to be an adult but also hating the idea of growing up.

CAT#19: Everything Else

73. Love in Focus by Yoko Nogiri (manga) - 9/10
Mako starts a new life at a boarding school away from home, following her lifelong best friend and living in the same boarding house as he. Her love of photography above all else, though, gets her into some awkward situations, and she finds herself in a bit of love triangle with the BFF and another new student living in the house.
Adorable story and gorgeous art. It's simple and yes, predictable, but none of that takes away from the loveliness of it. Reading it felt like getting a big, beautifully drawn hug.

CAT#6: National Endowment for the Humanities Timeless Classics
CAT#17: Audiobooks

74. Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington
Washington chronicles his life from experiencing emancipation when he was young, to struggling to learn as much as he could while enduring a difficult life of child labor, to not only finding a school in which he became educated but also teaching there and then building his own school literally from the ground up.
An important book still, all these years later. I'm very glad I finally got round to reading it.

75. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome lives a life of constant hardship on his unproductive farm with his sickly and bitter wife. This is the story of how they came to such a miserable existence.
I admit that I came to this one dragging my feet. I had previously suffered through The Age of Innocence and didn't like it at all, but Ethan Frome took me completely by a very pleasant surprise. I was engaged in the story from the start and could hardly wait to hear what happened to the characters. It manages to be grim *and* exciting at the same time, and I really enjoyed it.

CAT#19: Everything Else

76. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

(Spoilers for Book 1 ahead)

Feyre has succeeded in completing the trials set for her by Amarantha, saved the Fae from that evil queen's reign, and died and was reborn as a powerful High Fae herself in the process. She's reunited with Tamlin and they're back in his mansion, safe for the moment, at least. But Feyre doesn't feel happy with what should be their happily ever after; she's sick with guilt at what she had to do to beat Amarantha, and even though she's now immortal, she still feels broken inside. To make things worse, Tamlin seems even more broken that she, and his reaction to their trauma is to shut her away, locked in their home in an effort to keep her safe. Her heartbreak and sorrow quickly turn to anger and desperation, and she finds herself not entirely unhappy at being taken away by the High Fae of the Night Court, Rhysand, as part of their monthly bargain. She finally decides not to go back, but instead to throw her lot in with Rhys to help him prepare to fight the old evil that's making a comeback, and she finds that Rhys is maybe not nearly as wicked as everyone says. And she herself just may be much more powerful than she ever thought she could be...

I'm really enjoying this series. I loved the unique version of the Beauty and the Beast story in the first book, and I love to twist on that relationship in this second one. The characters are all nicely fleshed out and interesting, and the world building is excellent.

CAT#12: Mysteries
June RandomKIT: Cookin' the Books

77. Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke
Hannah is a no-nonsense, single gal running a cookie shop in her small Minnesota hometown. She has a grumpy but loyal cat, a sweet and helpful employee, a sister who's a bit of a princess, a nagging mother who is constantly trying to set her up on dates, and a brother-in-law who's trying to make detective on the police force. Her life seems hectic but happy, but then her milk delivery man/friend gets murdered in the alley behind her shop and she finds herself in the thick of the investigation.

A nice first entry in this cozy series. I like the characters and I was honestly shocked by the reveal. I'll definitely be continuing with the second book.

CAT#6: National Endowment for the Humanities Timeless Classics
CAT#17: Audiobooks

78. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
A woman on summer holiday with her husband and two little boys gains the attention of the resort owner's son. This flirtation sets off a realization in her that her life could be...more. And from there she begins to balk at the constraints that the life of a wife and mother place on her. In essence, she realizes that she's unhappy and she sets about to change that.

It ends badly for her, because of course it does. The novel reads like a Greek myth in that sense: women who strive for independence, autonomy, or power of any kind generally don't make it out of the story alive. So I liked the book for its alignment with ancient myth, although in general I want my characters to get out of their heads and *do* more. It felt a bit like Madame Bovary but make it slightly less intolerable but also slightly less well written.

CAT#12: Mysteries
June MysteryKIT: Historical Fiction Mysteries

79. Veil of Lies by Jeri Westerson
Crispin Guest is a one-time knight, erstwhile traitor against Richard II, and is now known as The Tracker, making his living by finding things for people. A wealthy cloth merchant seeks his services to discover if his wife is being unfaithful and although Crispin doesn't like that kind of sordid work, he takes the job for want of money. And then the merchant gets himself murdered and things go all hooey.

I generally don't care for noir mysteries, but a medieval noir sounded just interesting enough to tempt me. I love Guest's character and the writing's pretty good, but I still don't like noir, and those elements of the story were what kept me from loving it. There's a fun twist toward the end that I didn't see coming, but overall the mystery wasn't all that seat-edgy, either. So, it was okay but not fabulous.

CAT#6: National Endowment for the Humanities Timeless Classics
CAT#17: Audiobooks

80. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
A son, fresh from school, comes home to visit his parents and brings along a revolutionary-minded friend. The friend's views instigate keen arguments, and the son's preference for his friend's views over his father's brings about a sad revelation for the latter, namely that the generational gap is creating a personal one between him and his beloved son. We also see the strained dynamic between another father and son when the friend travels on to his own parents' home, brusquely rejecting their excitement at seeing him and breaking their hearts when he leaves again after only three days. Oh, and there are a couple of love stories entwined in here, too.
I don't know much about 19th century Russian history, so I can only assume that the views of the younger generation as depicted here reflects the upheaval of the revolutionary times, but I can say that the relationships between the freshly-grown kids and their parents are beautifully drawn. It's in a lot of ways a heartbreaking read, but worth it.

CAT#12: Mysteries
CAT#14: Unread Books from my Shelves
June AlphaKIT: C+Q

81. The Greek Coffin Mystery by Ellery Queen
I won't even try to sum up the plot because there are so many elements and twists that it's bananas. But bananas in a really good way. I loved how complex the mystery was, the large cast of characters, and I thought I knew the solution just as many ties as the detectives did. Plus, Ellery Queen is an absolute hoot. He's like Sherlock Holmes' bratty-but-charming kid brother. This was my first of his mysteries but it won't be my last.

CAT#6: National Endowment for the Humanities Timeless Classics
CAT#17: Audiobooks

82. A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
Tony and Brenda Last seem to have a lovely marriage, living in the English countryside in Tony's ancestral, albeit slightly dreary, estate. But Brenda is easily bored and decides on what can only be described as a whim, to start an affair with a weasely momma's boy from London, whom no one else in society thinks worthy of any social status. The marriage doesn't survive the whim, and some of the characters suffer for it while others continue on their asinine, societal ways.
It sounds grim, and in part it is, but it's also a romp of a satire, and takes some surprising and interesting turns. I loved it, even though not many of the characters are likeable, because the plot and the writing were fantastic.

CAT#13: Romance

83. An Offer from a Gentleman by Julia Quinn
As the bastard child of an earl, Sophie Beckett leads a Cinderella life. She acts as an overworked servant in her stepmother's house, complete with two step-sisters, and wishing she could be more, or at least treated fairly even as a servant. She finally has enough and runs away, but not before sneaking into a masquerade ball thrown by the Bridgerton family and dancing with the second son, Benedict. She spends the next few years in the English countryside as a maidservant, while Benedict spends them searching for the mysterious lady he danced and fell in love with at the ball. They meet again under very different circumstances and although Sophie immediately knows who he is, Benedict doesn't recognize her. Thus begins another kind of dance between the two, and of course we all know how it will end.
That doesn't make it any less enjoyable, though, and I'm already looking forward to the next in the series.

>180 scaifea: I've read and enjoyed a couple Ellery Queens, and you've definitely convinced me to look out for this one!

>182 scaifea: Hmm, am I going to read the whole Bridgerton series now? I was so-so on The Duke and I but really enjoyed The Viscount Who Loved Me. I was going to skip ahead to Colin's story, but now I'm thinking I should maybe just read them all...

>183 christina_reads: Well, in for a penny and all that, I suppose, yeah? I mean, there aren't *that* many books in the series...

>184 scaifea: Good point...and it's not as though they take long to read...

>185 christina_reads: That's true! They're fun and easy reads, for sure.

CAT#17: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Everything Else
July AlphaKIT: E

84. A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll
An autistic girl struggles to negotiate life in her small Scottish village. She has a bully as a teacher and hardly any support in the school at all, beyond a sympathetic librarian (because librarians are The Best). When her class starts studying the local history of witch burnings, at first she feels overwhelmed with empathy for those long-ago women who unjustly lost their lives, but she decides to channel that energy into campaigning for a memorial for them instead.
This is another book that should be required reading in middle schools. It does such a great job of presenting the challenges of everyday life for autistic people in a way that shows they're not disabled but that the world is just not structured in a way that's at all accommodating for them. That they don't have 'special' needs, just slightly different ones from those most people have. That autism isn't something one *has*, it's something one *is*. I'm a firm believer in the idea that the way we can raise kinder, smarter, and more empathetic citizens is to have them read more books with characters who are inherently different from them. This book absolutely deserves a place on that reading list.

CAT#19: Everything Else

85. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
Hawking gives an eponymously brief rundown on all things time, including black holes, string theory, and whether he thinks time travel is possible.

While some things in the book I didn't understand, I'm proud of myself for the amount that I did get. Relativity boggles me, but I kind of love it and want to learn more. Hawkings writing style is perfect - a good mix of personable and informative. I'm always amazed when super-bright people are able to explain their ideas in a way that makes sense to us common folk.

CAT#16: Books from My Wishlist

86. Kepler's Witch by James A. Connor
While Johannes Kepler was breaking ground in the field of astronomy, he was also fighting to save his mother from a charge of witchcraft. This book gives an account of that struggle along with a biography of Kepler's life in general. Sounds pretty fascinating, no? Welp. Apparently not, at least as Connor tells it. Bone dry and so disappointing.

CAT#4: Hugo, Nebula, and other SF and Fantasy Award Winners
CAT#17: Audiobooks

87. Titan by John Varley
A spaceship gets, literally, swallowed whole by what the crew had thought was an undiscovered moon of Saturn. As it turns out, it's a planet-sized living creature with a penchant for Greek mythology.
Weird? Yeah, but surprisingly entertaining. There's a lot of time spent on describing the strange landscape, which I neither liked nor completely understood, but the plot is inventive and fun, and the characters are interesting, with a healthy supply of strong females who contain a refreshing amount of complexity.

CAT#13: Romance

88. For Real by Alexis Hall
A m/m bdsm romance in which an Oxford-educated doctor, who has had his heart broken and is in need of some serious mending, meets a young thing in his twenties, who is somehow full of both snark and sunshine, but also needs a few tender lessons in self-confidence and self-love.
I loved this story. The growing relationship between the two main characters is so lovely and well done, and the moments of deep, fraught truth between them is nicely balanced with bits of humor and steamy scenes.

CAT#12: Mysteries
July RandomKIT: Dog Days of Summer

89. Word to the Wise by Jenn McKinlay
Lindsey Norris is busy with her job as the director of a cozy, Connecticut town and with all the details that go into planning her wedding. But when one of her library patrons turns into a creepy stalker, then gets killed leaving Lindsay and her fiancé as prime suspects, she makes time in her schedule to track down the real murderer.
I'm still loving this cozy series. The plots are fun, the characters old friends, and I love that the small-town library and its librarians feel like my own library and coworkers.

>89 scaifea: And we had problems with a stalker in our library last year. A restraining order ended up resolving the situation.

>193 thornton37814: Ooof. Scary.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

90. A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
I can't possibly summarize this one without spoilers for the previous books in the series, so I'll just say that it's another solid entry with some good character development and a nice plot. I'm really enjoying this series.

CAT#19: Everything Else

91. Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff
Bug is just about to start middle school and is spending the summer dealing with her grief over the loss of her uncle by trying to figure out if it's his spirit haunting her and if so, what he's trying to tell her. She's also trying to suss out why the idea of wearing dresses and makeup makes her uncomfortable to the point of being nauseated. Plus, her mom is dealing with money issues and, of course, the loss of her brother. Bug's long-time frenemy isn't really helping matters, but she possibly finds a new friend in the boy who just moved to town.

I love that there are more and more middle grade books out there that give representation to people on the full spectrum of the LGBTQ+ community, both because in general that's just a very good trend, but also because I can then take comfort in the fact that there are other and better stories out there than this one. I just...didn't like it. I found Bug and her frenemy intensely annoying, and the ghost story element felt forced and somehow...off. But if the premise sounds good to you, don't be too swayed by my thoughts - this book has won several awards, including a Newbery Honor, so clearly others disagree with me.

CAT#5: Favorite Author Bibliographies
CAT#12: Mysteries
July MysteryKIT: Golden Age

92. Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
Poirot gets a long-delayed letter delivery, in which an older lady requests his help because she fears someone in her family is trying to kill her. When the famous detective finally receives the letter it's too late and the woman has died. The doctor has declared it a death by natural causes, but Poirot isn't so easily convinced.
Another excellent mystery nicely solved by the little man with the weird facial hair. Once again Christie completely fooled me and I love her for it.

CAT#19: Everything Else

93. Timaeus by Plato
*sigh* Yeah, I still don't like Plato. I didn't like him the first time I read him, I didn't like him in Greek, and I don't like him any better in translation. Blech.

CAT#7: National Book Award for Fiction
CAT#17: Audiobooks

94. Paco's Story by Larry Heinemann
Paco is a soldier in Vietnam who becomes the only survivor of his platoon when they get caught in a massive air strike. He himself barely survives and eventually makes it home to the states with his cane and his chronic pain as tokens of his service. His story - how he travels to some small Texas town because that's how much bus fare he had, finds work at a greasy spoon as a dishwasher, and has thoughts about the gal who lives down the hall from him - is told to the reader (addressed throughout as "James") by one of the other soldiers in that platoon, namely, a ghost.

I tend not to like war stories very much at all (or at least I've convinced myself that I don't, although the reality, I suspect, is that I dislike war *movies* but in fact do enjoy war *novels*). This one, then, was a pleasant surprise. I kinda loved it. Paco is an interesting character who is nicely but subtly fleshed out, and the ghost narrator trick is a nifty one that adds all sorts of complexity and complications to the story itself. Definitely recommended.

>199 scaifea: It does sound interesting.

>200 thornton37814: FYI: There's a bit of language and some violence, so be aware of that if you decide to give it a go.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

95. Atonement by Ian McEwan
When Bryony - a fanciful girl who considers herself a writer - is thirteen, she witnesses a handful of small but to her traumatic vignettes all in one day that lead her, for various reasons, to wrongfully accuse someone of a shocking crime. This awful act has all sort of consequences for many members of her family, and we watch those consequences play out during the first years of WWII.

Welp, I *loved* this novel. I have strong feelings about all the characters, both positive and negative (I love that I love the ones I love and love to hate the ones I hate), and I thought the writing and the pacing of the story was perfect. It wasn't a happy story, but somehow it didn't put me in a funk, which typically happens with darker books.

I remember enjoying Atonement until the twist near the end INFURIATED me! I felt it was cheating. But I'm glad the book worked better for you!

>203 christina_reads: Ha! I feel like that's probably exactly what makes this book so polarizing; some people hate that bit and some, like me, love it.

CAT#19: Everything Else

96. Deathnote 1 by Tsugumi Ohba

A death god drops his notebook in the human world, and when a super-intelligent high school student finds it and realizes he can kill people at will with it, he (the kid) decides to use this new-found power to rid the world of criminals. The police aren't exactly happy about the strange mass deaths of inmates and start a hunt for the mysterious mass murderer, spearheaded by an equally mysterious and smart detective-type guy. Oh, and the death god hangs out with the kid to see how all this plays out.

So far so very cool in this first manga volume. I love the story, especially the idea that the main character isn't exactly morally sound or even very likable. But he is intriguing and I just *have* to see what happens next.

CAT#7: National Book Award for Fiction
CAT#17: Audiobooks

97. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, are being raised by their mother's parents on a small farm in southern Mississippi. Their mother (Leonie) ostensibly lives with them, too, but her drug addiction and selfish ways make her an unreliable presence and a mean one at that. With the bedridden Mam (the grandmother) slowly dying of cancer and Pop (the grandfather) doing his best to teach Jojo how to be a decent grown man, Jojo is torn between acquiescing to his mother's demand that he and Kayla go with her on her road trip to pick up their father, who has just been released from prison, and doing what he really wants, which is to stay home with his grandparents. In the end, he and Kayla, whom Jojo is essentially parenting on his own, go with their mother. The resulting road trip is full of potential dangers, stupid and selfish decisions on Leonie's part, and complicated family dynamics. Along with this main story, we get parallel narratives of Pop's past experiences in the same prison farm that Jojo's dad is in, and the history of Leonie's brother, who was lynched by a group of white boys that included Jojo's father's cousin. There's also an element of the supernatural here, with the ghosts of both Leonie's brother and Pop's friend, who died at the prison farm, making themselves felt by certain inhabitants of the road trip car.

I'm wholly surprised by how much I liked this novel, since normally the genre is too bleak for me. And this one is plenty grim in its own way, but told in a manner that makes the story itself overpower that darkness. Leonie in any other story would have been enough for me to throw the (audio)book across the room and quit - I can't stand bad mothers; they make me so smad - but my need to know how Jojo's and Pop's stories ended kept me intrigued enough to just make a face at Leonie and keep listening. Her complexities help here, too - she's not just a shitty, drug-addicted parent; she's a product of her circumstances as much as of her bad choices. But even more than the story itself, the writing held me entranced. Gorgeous, gorgeous prose, even when it's Leonie's ugly thoughts we're witnessing. I'll certainly be back for more Ward.

CAT#19: Everything Else

98. My Hero Academia Vol. 3 by Kohei Horikoshi
Another fun entry in the series. I adore Tomura Shigaraki and I'm happy that he's now made his appearance in the manga.

CAT#7: National Book Award for Fiction
CAT#17: Audiobooks

99. Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
Divided into 2 parts, the first half of the novel is the story of the students in a prestigious high school drama class, their relationships with one another (mostly, pardon the pun, very dramatically played out), and with their teacher. The second half reveals that the first half is half of a novel written by one of the students years later, and the POV switches to another of the former students, who is disgruntled at the wild liberties the writer has taken with the truth. There is a reunion of sorts amongst some of the alumni of the class, in the form of a play written by their visiting British instructor, directed by one of their classmates, and performed, in one part, by the secretly disgruntled member of the class. Both sections end without really ending, make each other unreliable, and inform one another in fascinating ways. There's an additional small sort of postscript section that adds even more upheaval and uncertainty to what has come before it, and it, too, breaks off without really giving the reader a tidy conclusion.

I loved it. I love the feeling of having the rug pulled out from underneath my reader-feet multiple times, of getting almost comfortable with the idea that I've sorted out what's possibly really going on only to have that feeling dashed again. This is a cleverly constructed novel that manages to stupefy without overly confusing matters, while also delivering interesting and believable characters in an engaging, if not easily verifiable, plot. Highly recommended.

>208 scaifea: I'm so fascinated by your self-description: I love the feeling of having the rug pulled out from underneath my reader-feet multiple times, of getting almost comfortable with the idea that I've sorted out what's possibly really going on only to have that feeling dashed again. This is emphatically not me; I hate when I feel like a book is trying to trick me. But I love learning about what makes other readers tick! Now I understand why you loved Atonement and I didn't! :)

>209 christina_reads: Ha! Yep, you should probably stay clear of this one, then!

CAT#19: Everything Else

100. Flambards by K. M. Peyton
Young Christina has been an orphan since the age of five and has been shuffled from relative to relative. Now her uncle Russell has requested that she come to live with him and his two young sons at Flambards, a once impressive estate, although it is now in disrepair. All the money (and there's not much of it anymore) at Flambards goes to the stables, as horses and hunting is the only passion Russell and his eldest son, Mark, have. Christina is nervous at first to be thrust into such an unknown life, especially since she suspects her uncle's motives may have something to do with the big pile of money she will age into at 18. But she takes to riding quickly. The younger son, William, has absolutely no interest in horses, and delights in his fate - he will remain lame after a fall from his horse and will not ride anymore. Instead, he is in love with the new-fangled idea of flight. Christina finds herself growing into a young woman caught between the differing passions of not only the Flambards men, but also of a certain young stable hand as well.

I enjoyed this story, although on the whole I think it has some flaws. It starts out as a coming-of-age, overcoming-a-hard-childhood type story but then seems to shift gears - and too abruptly - into a who-will-she-chose sort of love story. So the whole thing goes through a bit of an identity crisis, it seems, but nonetheless I liked the story enough not to mind so much.

CAT#19: Everything Else

101. Heathen vol 1 by Natasha Alterici
I checked this one out on a whim when I found it in the bookdrop at work, and I'm really glad I did! It's a very cool story set within the world of Norse myths about a warrior who gets exiled from her clan for loving another woman and who sets out to save a Valkyrie from the eternal curse Odin set upon her. I'll definitely be reading the next one!

CAT#8: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
CAT#17: Audiobooks

102. The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau
This is the story of seven generations of Howlands and the plantation that they built and presided over. The entire history of the Howland family is set out in the novel, but in particular it focuses on William Howland and his granddaughter, Abigail, and their struggle against the deeply entrenched racism of their neighboring town. It's very much a story of racism and how difficult it was in the south to be even slightly differently-minded, and the dangers to those who braved stepping outside the racist mindset.

I was captivated from the start by this novel, and I'm not surprised, really, because I love a good family saga and this absolutely fits that bill. Each generation's story was fascinating and the cumulative narrative was fantastic, with some excellent intensity and suspense leading up to the ending. Definitely recommended. And I'll also say that the audio was wonderfully narrated by Anna Fields.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

103. Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
Amal struggles with her desire to stay in school and fulfill her dream to become a teacher against her need to stay at home to help with her ill mother and the new baby. When it seems that her father is against her ever going back to school at all, Amal escapes the house for an afternoon to browse the market on her own and rue her seemingly unhopeful future. So when a fancy black car bumps her to the ground on her way home, she doesn't hold back her feelings when arguing with the driver, who turns out to be the arrogant son of the village landlord. The price she pays for her courage in standing up to this bully will change her live - and the lives of others - forever.

Malala meets Beauty and the Beast = an excellent middle grade novel. It's a great story that nicely brings awareness of how women and girls are treated in Pakistan to the foreground, and it would be a great way to get kiddos talking about these issues.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

104. Clean Getaway by Nic Stone (audiobook) - 8/10
William (or Scoob, as his friends call him) is on dad-imposed house lockdown after getting into a scuffle at school, and he's chafing under the strict expectations his father has for him. So it seems like a dream come true when his G-ma shows up in a brand-new RV and tells him to grab his suitcase and hop in for an adventure, but the fun of a spontaneous trip that gets him away from his punishment quickly drains away when he realizes that not everything is okay with G-ma and he can't contact his dad because he left his phone at home.

This was more interesting than I honestly thought it would be. It's more than the sum of its road-trip/coming-of-age story parts, and I love that the characters (the adult ones in particular) are more complex and surprising than you might expect with a MG novel.

CAT#4: Hugo, Nebula, and other SF and Fantasy Award Winners
August MysteryKIT: Technothrillers
August RandomKIT: Canada!

105. Neuromancer by William Gibson
I'm going to be honest with you: I couldn't keep my attention on this book enough to know really what was going on at any given time. The main dude got in trouble somehow in his job as a master thief? And was punished by having his brain altered so he couldn't log into the matrix anymore? I think? So when we meet him he's living hand to mouth as a thief, still, and is recruited for A Big Heist of somecyberkind. I think. He gets help from a "mirror-eyed" gal and...a dead person?

Cripes. I give up. It was too much convolution and not enough interesting for me to care to try sorting it all out. I get that it's important as a forerunner to the cyberpunk genre, so I'm glad in that sense that I've experienced it, but it wasn't a fun ride for me.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
August AlphaKIT: M

106. Magician Apprentice by Raymond Feist
Pug and his friend, Tomas, are coming of age in the castle/keep of Duke Borric, and must stand for the choosing of apprentices. Tomas gets picked to be trained as a soldier, but Pug is left unchosen until the resident wizard decides to take him under his wing. And so they begin their lives as apprentices, dealing with noble bullies, a spoiled princess, and the oncoming threat of an invasion from another world.

Pug and his friends are great characters, and their adventures make for a very enjoyable read. The book nicely sets up the series, and I may even keep going with it eventually, but I have to say that Feist has cribbed *heavily* from Tolkien, so much so and so blatantly so that it passes from annoying into amusingly ridiculous. After they discover that their world is potentially under an immense threat from a strange evil race, Pug, Tomas, the wizard, and a ranger (ahem) set out on a long journey to bring the question of what should be done about it to Those in Charge. On the way, they try to cross through a mountain pass but have to backtrack because of heavy snowfall (ahem) and instead decide to take the path that leads underground and through the dwarf mines (AHEM), where they run into a giant heap of trouble from a deep and secret Evil Thing (seriously?). Meanwhile our hobbits, er, Pug and Tomas, get separated and start separate journeys, and Tomas stumbles onto a dragon hoard complete with dragon, and comes out the other side of the encounter with Magic Chainmail (oh ffs, REALLY?!). So, yeah. It's like Feist doesn't even try to cover the fact that he's cheating heavily off Tolkien's test paper. But in the end I didn't even mind because Feist's original bits are pretty darn entertaining and he at least weaves the Tolkien bits in nicely to his own story.

CAT#16: Books from My Wishlist

107. Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
A shepherd gets shanked with a shovel one night in his flock's pasture and his sheep decide to solve the mystery of who their keeper's murderer is. The flawed narrative is from the flock's point of view as they bumble through the strange events after the murder, trying to suss out what the clues all mean.

I have had this book on my list for literally *years* and I was so excited finally to read it. I wanted to - and expected to - love it. I...did not. I didn't like any of the characters, human or ovine, and the schtick of the sheep misunderstanding pretty much everything that happened all while having an accidental deep understanding of human nature, which I suspect was meant to be an absolutely clever delight to the reader throughout, was fun for the first maybe five pages and then got super old super quickly.

>218 scaifea: I didn't like it either.

>219 thornton37814: I'm glad I'm not alone!

CAT#19: Everything Else

108. Death Note vol 2 by Tsugumi Ohba
In volume 2, Kira and L seem to be getting closer to finding each other as the hunt for the mass murderer continues. The tension grows as each one waits for the other to make a fatal mistake...

I'm really enjoying this manga. I'm always impressed with an author who can make me both dislike a character but also feel compelled to root for him at the same time.

CAT#14: Unread Books from my Shelves

109. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Welp, I've found an Austen that I don't really care for. I just couldn't keep my attention on the plot, and the characters all blended together enough that I could never remember which jerky dude was which. I also just couldn't make myself like Fanny much; where exactly is her personality in here? *sigh*

CAT#19: Everything Else

110. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Guy goes up a mountain to visit his sick cousin in a sanatorium and almost never comes out again, and when he does it's just to go die in a war. In the meantime, he meets all sorts of characters there. There's lots of death. So upbeat, this one.

Yeah, no. Not my jam. Or at least not my current kind of jam. I get that there's a lot of unpacking that could be - and probably should be - done here, but I just wasn't in the mood to work for a meaning right now. Maybe if I had encountered this one at a more impressionable age? Say, when I was a college lit major? And it would have helped to have a tweed jacket wearing prof (preferably a cute one, and let's give him some sort of accent) telling me how to suss out the Hidden Truths in here. Then I would have loved it.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

111. A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée
Shayla gets nervous even thinking about trouble, and so she does her best to follow all the rules. But seventh grade brings a lot of complications involving friendships, boys, and the casual racism she feels all around her. Her two best friends and she have been the United Nations (because she's Black, Isabella is Hispanic, and Julia is Asian) since forever, but now it seems that Julia prefers to be with her Asian friends, Isabella is attracting the attention of the boy Shayla likes, and Shayla is feeling disapproval from some of her classmates - and her sister - for not having any Black friends. All of this is framed by the news story she and her family are following about the trial of a cop who shot a Black man. When the cop is found not guilty, Shayla faces her discomfort with getting into trouble and vows to stir up the good kind.

This middle grade novel would be a great way to ease younger kiddos into thinking about issues of race. It doesn't sugar-coat anything, but it manages to discuss the issues in a medium-stakes kind of way; think The Hate U Give lite.

CAT#19: Everything Else

112. Women: The National Geographic Image Collection
Gorgeous photos from the archives of the magazine curated to show a history of women as they have been represented by NG over the years, plus interviews with some of the most influential women in present times. Very, very cool. The earliest photos were, of course, almost solely taken by men, but most of the later choices were photos of women taken by women.

CAT#17: Audiobooks
September AlphaKIT: K

113. Lalani of the Distant Sea by Erin Entrada Kelly
Lalani lives on an island where the women must spend their lives mending fishing nets and fearing the deadly disease some contract from pricking themselves with the needles, while the men rule. The natural environment on the island is just as harsh: it hasn't rained in so long that crops are failing and there's not enough drinking water, and they live in the shadow of a mountain they all think is inhabited by a monster and a mountain spirit who's easily angered. Circumstances worsen, especially for young Lalani, to the point that she decides to sail for the fabled land to the north for aid on a mist-filled sea that has yet to allow anyone who has attempted the journey to return.

Not my favorite of Kelly's books, but still pretty darn good. Think Moana but slightly darker and with a slightly more intricate set of fantastical beings.

CAT#19: Everything Else
September RandomKIT: A Time to Harvest

114. A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
There's not a lot of forward movement of the plot in this one, but I think that's partly why I loved it so much. It takes time away from the action to let the characters be the characters, to explore their interactions with one another, and I love that. Sure, I think it's also setting up some tensions for whatever's coming next and I appreciate that, too, but it was great to see the characters coming to terms with what happened in the last book, and also just doing day to day things, having a dinner together, ruminating over what presents to get each other for the holiday,... It was a cozy sort of entry in the series and a bit of a breather from the intensity, and I loved it.

CAT#2: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up

115. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
A group of twenty girls and two teachers from an Australian boarding school go out for a picnic at a local natural landmark. Three of the girls and one of the teachers go missing. Only one of them is ever found, and she has no memory of what happened.

The story isn't really about the mystery of what befell the missing, though, an indeed we're never given an answer. Instead, the novel traces the consequences, both good and tragic, that the event has on many of the people involved, and it explores those rippling waves in artful ways. I've long wanted to read this one and I'm not at all disappointed in what it turned out to be.

CAT#13: Romance

116. Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Another fun entry in the Bridgerton series. This time we get Colin and Penelope's story, and it's lovely. It feels like the coziest and warmest of the bunch so far, without much angst before they get together, and I also love that there's a fair amount of hinting at what's coming up in Eloise's part of the saga.

CAT#19: Everything Else

117. Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang
A non-fiction graphic novel about a California high school basketball team trying to make it to state finals and win. It's more than that, though, too: it's a brief history of the game, including how and when both women and black players were admitted to the sport. Yang also includes back stories for the high school students on the team and the head coach, and frames it all in a narrative about his own journey as a comics writer tackling a subject he didn't really know much about all while trying to negotiate a balance between writing, teaching, and home life.

Overall I enjoyed this one, which is saying something since I don't really like sports or books about sports. The one thing that bothered me was Yang's treatment of the school's former basketball coach, who is famous both for being one of the most successful coaches in California history and for being accused of molesting a student. Yang pulls his indecision about how to deal with this in the book to the forefront, and even breaks the fourth wall to speak directly to the reader about this struggle. Even so, I don't agree with the path he took in addressing it in a too-softball kind of way, which made the accusation seem trivial at best and a wrongful blemish on a good coach's name at worst. Ick.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

118. The Line Tender by Kate Allen
12-year-old Lucy lost her marine biologist mom when she was 7, and now she's managing fairly well with the help of her rescue diver father, old Mr. Patterson next door, and her neighbor/best friend, Fred. But when she suffers another sudden loss, she needs to come to terms with both sources of grief, and she finds that the best way to do that is to help carry on her mother's research.

This one was...okay. A little slow for me, but I suspect it would be a great resource for kiddos going through a loss of their own, or for ones looking to understand the grief of others.

CAT#19: Everything Else

119. Heathen vol 2 by Natasha Alterici
A cool storyline so far and a clever use of Norse mythology. I'll be keeping up with this comic.

120. Heartstopper vol 1 by Alice Oseman
Follows the budding romance between two high schoolers, one who already knows he's gay and one who's taken by surprise by his attraction to the other. Really good and sweet so far in this first volume.

121. My Hero Academia vol 4 by Kohei Horikoshi
I'm still loving this manga as much as we love the anime. The characters are so fantastic and the story is fun.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

122. The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
After her parents get divorced, Candace and her mother move into her late grandmother's house in a different town. Over the summer she makes friends with the boy next door, and when she finds a clue to a local hidden treasure puzzle in the attic, together they try to solve the mystery while also facing casual racism from adults and bullying from other kids.

The narrative moves back and forth in time between present day and the 1950s, telling both the story of Candace's search and the origin of the hidden treasure. It's the Westing Game for this generation; in fact Raskin's book gets references here several times, and although The Westing Game is still the superior book, this one is still a good time and definitely worth a read.

CAT#13: Romance

123. Heartstopper vol. 2 by Alice Oseman
The second volume is just as warm and adorable as the first. I love it.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

124. Vanished Smile by R. A. Scotti
In the summer of 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre and the mystery went unsolved for two years before (one of) the culprit(s) confessed. To some, it was considered the greatest art heist of all time, and others are convinced that we still don't know all the facts of the crime nor all the players. This book chronicles the history of the event, along with background information on the painting itself, its painter, and the possible people in on the crime.

I love micro histories, and this one didn't disappoint. I'm not much up on art history, so I didn't even know the heist had happened, let alone that Picasso was hip deep in the controversy. A very cool incident very nicely explained.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt

125. The First Books of Swords by Fred Saberhagen
A little over a decade ago, Vulcan voluntelled some men to help him create a handful of magic swords. The process killed all of them but one, and that guy lost his arm. Vulcan gave him one of the swords as payment for his labor, though, and for years it hung on the wall of his hut. When some bad guys come to town looking for it and start a ruckus that ends in one of the man's sons dead, the other son grabs the sword and heads for the hills. Or mountains, rather. So starts Mark's adventures with his father's sword, which turns out to be wanted by a lot of powerful people for a lot of different reasons.

It started out very promising (I love the twist on the Greek gods), and I like Mark's character pretty well, but by the middle it started dragging for me some and it never really picked back up its original speed. I didn't hate it, but I don't think I'll be going on with the series.

CAT#2: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up

127. The Edge of the Cloud by K. M. Peyton (1001 Children's Books) - 7/10
The sequel to Flambards, this one follows Christine and Will as they try to find their places in the real world as adults and wait out will's father's/Christine's uncle's unwillingness to let them get married. Will finds a job as a mechanic with a flying lessons business while trying to scrape together enough money to make his own plane, and christine gets a job in a nearby hotel. Christine spends all her time on the edge of a panic attack about Will's flying, while Will seems fairly oblivious.

While Flambards was fine, this one was quite a bit worse than fine. It's clearly meant to be a romantic story about the struggles of a young couple on their way to marriage, but Christine just seems weak and desperate and not at all in touch with the idea of living for herself and not wholly for the man she thinks the loves, while Will is portrayed - or at least I think we're meant to see him - as a slightly unaware but still gallant boyfriend, when in fact he's just as unhealthily obsessed with the idea of getting his own plane and flying it as Christine is with him. Completely unhealthy relationship all round. Bah.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

126. Proxy by Alex London (audiobook) - 8/10
Syd lives in a future version of the world, in which there is an even deeper divide between the Haves (patrons) and the Have Nots (proxies). As a proxy, Syd gets punished for even indiscretion his patron, Knox, commits, until one day Knox wrecks his father's sports car, killing his date. Syd is tortured and then sentenced to 16 years in a prison camp for Knox's crime. But Syd has finally had enough and escapes, then accidentally runs into his patron, whom he has never met. Together they set off on a journey first to get Syd safely across the desert and to the relative safety of the rebel-controlled ruins of Detroit, but that goal evolves into a quest to discover if Syd really is the key to bringing down the corrupt system. Of course, they're running from The Man the entire time, and in the forefront of their pursuers is Knox's overbearing, criminal, bully of a father.

The premise is great. I generally love dystopian, running-for-their-lives type stories and characters. But this one fell a little flat for me. The pacing was too slow, maybe? I just wasn't at all on the edge of my seat where I wanted to be. The stakes seemed high enough, I guess, but the immediacy and urgency were lacking in the writing. *shrug*

CAT#17: Audiobooks

128. Life As We Knew It by Beth Pfeffer
Everyone's excited to see the meteor crash into the moon. In fact, there are block parties planned and everything. Miranda and her family are no exception, and it feels like a nice break from the normal routine of school and such. But the scientists miscalculated the force the impact would have, and the world is thrown into shock when it's apparent that the meteor knocked the moon closer to earth. First come the massive tidal waves, then the world-wide earthquakes and volcano eruptions, and then soon enough Miranda and her family lose contact with the outside world when the TV channels and radio stations become just static. Will they survive through the winter? Will things ever get back to normal?

I adore a good disaster story. And this one almost qualifies. It's a good story, for certain, and I definitely wanted to know how it all turned out for Miranda, but I want my disaster tales to have me constantly on the edge of my reading chair, and this one didn't do that for me. In fact, the middle seemed to drag a bit. Still, an interesting take on how one family deals with sudden and massive catastrophe.

CAT#12: Mysteries
September MysteryKIT: Animal Mysteries

129. Killing Trail by Margaret Mizushima
Mattie Cobb is a cop in her small, mountain hometown, and had just graduated from K-9 training school with her new partner, Robo. And a good thing, too, since a teen girl has been murdered and it seems like the new local drug trafficking problem may be involved. Mattie's rough childhood means that she plays everything close to the chest and isn't one for letting people get to know her, but she has to work closely with the town vet on this case (the murder victim's dog was shot, too), and she starts to wonder if letting her guard down with this handsome divorced dad with two young daughters might be worth the risk...

I *loved* the relationship between Mattie and Robo, and Robo is clearly the goodest cop on the force. But the mystery itself wasn't that interesting? The red herrings were maybe a little too obvious, as was the actual culprit, and the police procedural part was too much of the plot (I don't mind detective stories, but the mystery still needs to be center stage for me, and it didn't feel like it was here). I'm not sure that I'll continue with the series.

CAT#19: Everything Else

130. Death Note volume 3 by Tsugumi Ohba
Another great entry in the manga series, although now that Charlie and I are past this point in the anime, I think I'll switch to something else.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

131. Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
A Post-apocalyptic YA novel about a teen girl who has grown up in one of several pod cities, sheltered from the harsh realities of the outside world, a teen boy who has only known those harsh realities and is headed for a fight to the death with his brother for rule of their tribe, and what happens when they meet.

A pretty good story with good characters. It felt like it dragged a bit in the middle, but by the end I was eager to find out how it...ended. First in a series and I'll probably come back to it someday.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

132. Legend by Marie Lu
A dystopian YA novel set in a post-US in which no one remembers when it *was* the United States. In this new Republic, all 10-year-olds must go through The Trial, and extensive mental and physical test. Those who pass are allowed to attend college and become part of the respected citizenry. Those who don't are allegedly sent to labor camps, although they're never seen again. June in the only person ever to have earned a perfect score in the Trial and is training to be part of the Republic's military, just like her older brother. Day had grown up much less privileged than June and was told that he failed the Trial. He escaped before suffering the fate of the labor camps and has been living on the lam in the slums for the last five years, while also trying to keep an eye on his family and secretly provide for them as best he can. But when his family contract the plague, Day tries to rob a hospital for medicine and somehow in the scuffle, June's brother is killed. The hunt for Day brings the two of them together and leads to all kinds of secrets being revealed.

I enjoyed this one, although there isn't much that's new here. Corrupt government tells the populace that it knows best, precocious teens on opposite sides of the track find each other, fall in love, and fight for What's Right sort of thing. But still, it's well written and worth the time if you like this sort of thing. I think it's the first of a series, but for now I think I'm good stopping here.



CAT#13: Romance

133. Heartstopper vol. 3 by Alice Oseman
Another lovely entry in the series. Feels like a big warm gay hug and I love it.

CAT#15: Books from my Read Soon! Shelves

134. Hollow by Shannon Watters (graphic novel) - 9/10
A graphic novel version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow written by one of the authors who brought us The Lumberjanes. And it's just as awesomesauce as that sounds.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

135. The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
In a world in which nearly everyone is born grey and ugly, Camilla is a Belle. She is naturally beautiful and has the power to make others that way as well. But her power is not her own to wield; she is under the service of the Queen and also must live under the tyranny of the psychotically unhinged princess. Camilla's rebellious and stubborn streak threatens to get her into trouble, as does the handsome noble boy who seems to be near every time she turns around. Will she and her Belle sisters successfully negotiate the dangerous world of the court, or will Camilla's rebellious spirit get them all killed?

The summary for this one sounded great and I was excited to read it, but it fell a little flat for me. Camilla has no dynamic characteristics at all, the bad guys are one-dimensionally so, and the secrets aren't nearly mysterious enough. Camilla was frequently put in harm's way but I just couldn't muster the interest to be worried, let alone thrilled to the seat's edge. I won't bother with the sequel because I suspect I could guess the plot fairly accurately on my own. It's too bad, really, because it's a fun premise.

CAT#19: Everything Else

136. My Hero Academia vol 5 by Kohei Horikoshi
Another great entry in the series. I adore these characters.

CAT#12: Mysteries

137. Assaulted Caramel by Amanda Flower
Bailey is an up and coming chocolatier in NYC and is just about to be named the successor of her mentor and owner of a famous chocolate...place (chocolaterie?) when she gets a call that her grandfather is seriously ill. So, she drops everything and heads home to the middle of Amish country in Ohio. Her grandparents run a chocolate shop in a small Amish town, which sounds cozy and welcoming as heck, but then of course there's a murder, right in the chocolate shop's kitchen. And Bailey is Suspect Number One.

A good, solid start to a new (for me) cozy mystery series. Very Hallmark-like, what with the Big City Girl coming back to Small Town Midwest, needing to choose between the a-hole boyfriend she left behind in the city and the handsome and sweet small town deputy she finds here. Plus, I didn't at all guess correctly who the killer was, which is always a good sign. I'll likely continue with the series. Bonus: it's set in an area of Ohio that's nearby to me!

CAT#13: Romance

138. Hot British Boyfriend by Kristy Boyce
A high school senior decides to run away from the embarrassment of the viral video showing her throwing herself at a boy who, it turns out, doesn't like her at all, and she last-minute joins an exchange semester abroad in England. She meets new friends, enjoys some traveling, falls head over heels for the eponymous guy, and remains fairly clueless about how relationships work, really.

This one earns a big fat Meh from me. The main character is annoying at best and the plot is threadbare. She falls for the wrong guy twice before finally realizing the Right Guy is Right There (and honestly I feel bad for RG), but still I didn't see much growth from her at all. It felt like mediocre self-insert fanfic.

>247 scaifea:
The premise of Assaulted Caramel caught my eye and the fact that you liked it sealed the deal -- I'll go looking for this one! Cozy mystery with Hallmark vibes sounds like something I'd be into right now, heh.

>249 pammab: Yay! I hope you love it!

CAT#17: Audiobooks

139. Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta
Post-apocalyptic YA novel about a small group of resistance fighters living in the wastelands vs. the people in charge, who modify young people into living bots who can't feel pain and who pilot the giant mech that goes out to destroy the resistance. One of the pilot bots is a young woman who is secretly wanting to smash the system from the inside, and when she helps another young woman, who's been captured as a resistance fighter, to escape, they form an unlikely partnership to bring down the mech and the whole ruling establishment. They've been trained their whole lives to hate each other, but something stronger keeps pulling them toward one another.

A Juliet and Juliet story set amongst a group of excellent characters and an interesting plot. This one ends on a cliffhanger, so be prepared to want the second book right away.

CAT#19: Everything Else

140. The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O'Neill
A sweet graphic novel about two fairy-like girls who both find their way to a dragon tea shop and befriend the dragons and their tenders. It's warm and soothing and just the right amount of sweet, just like a good cuppa.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt

141. The Infinity Concerto by Greg Bear
In this novel, composing a certain kind of rare song will transport you to another dimension, where the Sidhe rule harshly over the humans trapped there. A young man follows the directions let to him by an older gentleman he befriended (and who happened to help write one of those rare songs) and ends up in this other dimension too. He has no idea how to get home and doesn't seem to have much luck finding anyone able or willing to help him. Instead he gets assigned to three old witch-crones who train him for he doesn't know what, and meanwhile he tries to avoid getting killed by the Sidhe and by various other nasty things.

This goes on for far too long, and so when the plot finally did pick up again, I couldn't muster the energy to care much. It's too bad; the story idea is very cool, but the execution, not so much.

>252 scaifea: The Tea Dragon Society sounds like exactly the kind of read I’ve been craving lately!

>254 rabbitprincess: Aw, yay! I think you'll really enjoy it, and I think there are more volumes, too...

CAT#17: Audiobooks

142. The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson
June lives in one of the few cities left in the world after nuclear war wiped out nearly everything, but the city she lives in is a beautiful, towering thing, run well and efficiently by a council of women, headed by a queen. As they rebuilt the city, they decided that men, who were largely responsible for the mass destruction of the war, should not be trusted with power, and so while the women rule for years and years (advances in medicine have made very long life a reality for those who want it) but kings have only one year in the 'office' and are then executed after making a mostly token gesture that marks the existing queen as the one to remain queen for the next year. But when a young, handsome, and dangerously charismatic young man from the poor depths of the city becomes the Summer King, he and June (the best artist in all of Palmares Tres) join forces to turn the establishment on its head. Can they accomplish their goals before Enki will die, and can June keep from falling for her king?

This is a great post-apocalyptic YA story. Original plot, excellent characters, and a pleasantly unpredictable ending.

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt

143. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
A mysterious man in a Guy Fawkes mask spreads anarchy and vengeance throughout a dystopian London while the corrupt members of government try their best to catch him. Along the way he rescues a desperate young woman and indoctrinates her into his belief system. He's arguably riding the nut wagon, but is his worldview any crazier than the moral and political practices of those in charge?

In this seminal comic of the 1980's Moore's talent shines as he paints a dark and grim dystopia, makes us love to hate The Man while also being fascinated, horrified, and a little in love with the man in the mask as well. I adored it and can't believe it took me so long to read it. And I love a Guy Fawkes mask.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

144. Blasphemy by Douglas Preston
The US government has poured several billions of dollars into building a supercollider out in the Arizona desert, and they're now running out of patience because the scientists trying to use it can't get it to work. Or so they say. Something fishy seems to be going on out there, so the feds send in Wyman Ford (a former FBI agent with a history with one of the scientists) to see if he can suss out what's really going on. As it turns out, what's really going on is that the scientists think they may have contacted God when they turned the machine on... Meanwhile, the Navajo people living nearby aren't happy with how their deal to let the government use the land to build this thing hasn't turned out in their favor (and why are they shocked, one has to wonder). Also, a nearby evangelical preacher teams up with a Washington televangelist (who has teamed up with a DC lobbyist, who in turn is using the televangelist to try to exploit the Navajo nation) in an attempt to destroy the newfangled machine that's trying to disprove God exists. It all ends up in a hot mess, as you may well imagine.

Kind of like the book itself. I mean, there's a *lot* going on here, and in general I like a book that gives me various sub plots that eventually all tie in together, but this one felt too disjointed and the eventual tying together seemed oversimplistic. Also, it felt like Preston couldn't decide which genre he wanting to be writing in: is this an FBI thriller? a social commentary on the corrupt nature of Christianity/religion itself (this, by the way, was the best part of the thing, in my opinion)? straight-up sci-fi? or a mystery? If you're gonna blend genres, fine, but find a way to hide the seams, or at least smooth them out enough that your readers aren't constantly tripping over them. Now, having groused about all that, I did kind of enjoy it. It's a good-enough story that at least kept me interested enough to want to know what happens, and honestly I was happily surprised at the end with how it all shook out.

CAT#17: Audiobooks
October AlphaKIT: N

145. The Serpent by Claire North
An unhappy wife of a wealthy 17th century Venetian tradesman goes with him to the Gameshouse one night, is intrigued by the games and the players, and returns frequently until she is invited to play an entirely different kind of game. One with very high payoffs and even higher stakes. She learns that playing this sort of game means playing to win at all costs, and the consequences are far-reaching. She also learns that the Gameshouse has been around for a very long time - centuries and more - as have many of the players. But will she survive this first game to find out more?

I love the idea behind this one and in general I enjoyed the book, although I think I should have read this one in actual book form instead of listening to it. There are a lot of characters that have intricate roles in the story and the game within the story, and I think I needed to pay more attention to what was going on than I maybe did. I'm intrigued by the notion of the eternal Gameshouse and the world-changing and secret games it conducts, so I'm very likely to return to the series, but I'll do it in print form next time.

CAT#19: Everything Else

146. Assassination Classroom vol 1 by Yusei Matsui
A strange octopus-like thing has destroyed a big chunk of the moon and is now threatening to do the same thing to the Earth in a year's time. In the meantime it wants to teach a classroom full of the lowest-achieving students in the school, and the government agrees as long as they can at the same time train those high school students to assassinate their teacher. And so every day the kids go to school, are taught by a weirdly-kind monster while they try over and over to kill him/it.

A weird but cool story. I'll definitely keep going with this one.

CAT#1: 100 Banned Books
CAT#17: Audiobooks
November AlphaKIT: G

147. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
A novel that was originally proclaimed to be the actual diary of a teenager, but later debunked as fiction, in which said teen stumbles into the world of heavy drug use, runaways, and all the awful things that go along with that work.

Yeah, not my jam. Too grim. Also, the main character - the diarist - was, despite going through an incredibly rough journey, completely unsympathetic and genuinely annoying. And I find it ridiculous that the author could ever pass this off as not fictional; it seems clear from the beginning to me that the diary entries are not how or what a high school girl would write.

>261 scaifea: You might like this article from The Toast, which provides commentary on some of the more obviously fake lines: https://the-toast.net/2014/04/25/fake-lines-from-go-ask-alice/

I read the book as an impressionable teenager but am not sure whether I believed it was true; I consumed books mindlessly in those days and don't remember a lot of what I read.

>262 rabbitprincess: Ha! I love that there's an article with a list of fake lines!

Yeah, I don't know that I would have caught on if I had read this as a teen, either, but reading it as an adult it's pretty obvious.

>261 scaifea: That reminds me a bit of Mutant Message Down Under which I took to be true when I read it as a teenager, but a few years later wondered how I could ever have taken it seriously. Don't get me started...

>264 MissBrangwen: Ha! I'll stay clear of that one, then.

CAT#6: National Endowment for the Humanities Timeless Classics
CAT#17: Audiobooks
BingoDOG#6: A Book with a Z in the Title

148. Lost Horizon by James Hilton
The story of three British and one American in India during the British occupation, whose plane is hijacked and then crash-landed in the unknown parts of Tibet. They are met by an resident of the Shangri-La lamasary, rescued, and taken there, but are then indefinitely put off when some of them demand to be helped back to India.

I didn't realize that this was the origin, I guess?, of the myth of Shangri-La. I assumed it was much older and...authentic? Anyway. This was an okay story, but not fabulous. I wanted more suspense and more, um, fantasy, I suppose.

CAT#15: Books from my Read Soon! Shelves
CAT#17: Audiobooks
BingoDOG#11: A Book with a Month in the Title

149. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
Susannah Calahan, a 20-something reporter for the New York Post, suddenly lost a month of her life to what seemed like a psychotic breakdown but turned out to be a very rare and rarely diagnosed form of encephalitis. Not only was the experience harrowing for her and her family, but she couldn't even call up any memories from the time leading up to her hospital stay and through most of the time she was admitted. So, in true reporter style, she set out to conduct interviews, read through medical reports, and watch security footage to put together the events that her brain would not let her remember. It's a fascinating and scary account, and well worth a read.

CAT#13: Romance

150. To Sir Phillip, with Love by Julia Quinn
This entry in the series gives us the story of how Eloise changed her mind about having a husband. Eloise is my favorite Bridgerton, and I adored her story. Looking forward to the next book!

CAT#17: Audiobooks

151. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Katsa is one of the few people in her world who was born with a Grace. Most of the Graced are feared, and Katsa especially, since hers makes her nearly unbeatable in any sort of combat. It doesn't help that her king uses her as his bully. Katsa is also part of a hidden resistance, and when the king pushes her too far, she openly rebels against his cruelty and leaves his stronghold. She's accompanied by Po, a prince of a neighboring kingdom who is also Graced, and together they try to solve the mystery of why Po's grandfather was kidnapped and by whom. But there's more to the mystery than they suspect, and more to Po than Katsa can guess.

Interesting world building and a good start to the main characters. I'll very likely continue with the series; I hope the characters get a bit more fleshed out, though, and their interactions more complex.

CAT#19: Everything Else

152. The Words in My Hands by Asphyxia
A YA novel set in a dystopian Australia in which Piper, a Deaf teen, struggles to find her place between the Deaf and hearing communities. This is made more complicated by the fact that her mother didn't allow her to learn sign language growing up, so she has a difficult time understanding both groups. That is, until she meets Marley, a handsome CODA (child of a Deaf adult) working in a bike shop, and he helps her learn to sign. He also introduces her to his mother, who grows all their own food, a rogue activity in a world dominated by food shortages and a corporation trying to regulate the food sources with their own manufactured nutrient-based 'food.' This, in turn, is a complication for Piper, whose mother was a key figure in the creation of the company's 'food' stuff. So, tensions all round as Piper learns to live in both worlds.

This one was excellent. Lots going on, but it's all fleshed out and tied together nicely. Piper is also a budding artist, and the book itself is shaped as her journal, so every page has some sort of collage-like artwork. Highly recommended.

CAT#16: Books from My Wishlist
CAT#17: Audiobooks

153. Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
An historical fiction novel that tells the story of Alice Hargreaves (the Alice of Wonderland fame) from her point of view, how her relationship, such as it was, with Charles Dodgson shaped her life.
A fascinating and well-written story that seems to stay true to what facts we have about Dodgson and Alice while also weaving a great yarn and making the characters complex and interesting. I've long been a fan of both the books and the true story behind them (I *love* that Alice's father is the Liddell of Liddell and Scott fame), and so I really enjoyed getting this mostly-fictional look into their lives. Highly recommended.

>271 scaifea: Added to the WL! I don't know much about Alice Hargreaves, but I visited some of the sites connected to her on the Alice in Wonderland Trail in Llandudno, which was interesting.

>272 MissBrangwen: Oh, very cool!

CAT#17: Audiobooks

154. The Unspoken Name by A. K. Larkwood
A young acolyte, who was chosen at an even younger age to be a ritual 'bride' sacrifice to her god, gets saved by a wizard-like dude and becomes his servant/intern/apprentice. He tells her he wants to regain the right to return home after his enemy banished him, and he's also looking for a particular relic and thinks she can help with both goals, but he's not exactly who he says he is, and she finds herself making a choice between helping him and saving a girl she meets on her quest for the relic.

Meh. I had trouble paying attention to this one. It just wasn't...exciting enough? I didn't love the characters I was supposed to love, and I didn't love to hate the ones I was supposed to love to hate. I just got annoyed at them instead. So, *shrug.*

CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt
November AlphaKIT: U

155. Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin
*sigh* LeGuin is so hit-or-miss for me, and this one was a big miss.

CAT#13: Romance
CAT#17: Audiobooks

156. To Love Jason Thorn by Ella Maise
Olive had her heart broken by her childhood crush, who was her big brother's best friend, and although it was years ago and Jason moved away when they were still kids, she still carries a torch for him. So much so, in fact, that she wrote a romance novel with a main couple that's a barely-disguised version of her and Jason. Things take a turn for the crazy when her novel gets optioned and the studio gets Jason himself (now a huge movie star) to play the male lead, and then there's an even crazier turn when he asks Olive to marry him in a PR ploy to get his rep back on trap (he's a bit of a bad boy, dontcha know). Will he actually fall in love with her so she can make her live-long love dreams a reality? Of course he will.

A pretty standard contemporary romance, I think, by which I mean it's an enjoyable, non-taxing read with some fun sexy bits thrown in. I read this one because Charlie came home with a story about one of his friends whisper-reading some parts of it to them at lunch because it was "so spicy!" and so I had to check out the spice myself. Those sweet little innocents thought it was the height of naughty scandal. Adorable.

CAT#13: Romance
CAT#17: Audiobooks

157. Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye
Bryson Keller is one of the cutest guys at Fairvale Academy and it's a mystery to all that he just...doesn't date. This leads to a bet at a party: Bryson must date a new person each week for three months and must say yes to the first person who asks him each Monday morning at school. Kai Sheridan is just trying to make it through the school day without being late to any classes and without getting demerits for his unkempt school uniform, so when a girl barrels into him trying to get to Bryson first thing on a Monday morning and spills soda all over Kai's blazer, he gets angry at the one person he thinks is ultimately to blame: Bryson Keller. His interesting, spur-of-the-moment revenge is to ask Bryson to date him. Nothing good can come of a gay kid fake-dating a straight kid, right?

Adorable and fun. Think Heartstopper, but with maybe just a few little flaws (example: there's a side plot that simply gets dropped about halfway through with no explanation or resolution).

CAT#19: Everything Else

158. A Christmas Memory, One Christmas, The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote
I suspect I have a very skewed view of Capote, since these three short stories are the only things of his I've ever read, but I absolutely adore them. Gorgeous prose with stories that will pull your heart right out of your chest and crush it to a pulp. But, you know, in a good way.

Welp, I had reviews all typed up for these and then Word went Bloop. Gah.





CAT#16: Books from My Wishlist
CAT#17: Audiobooks

159. Crooked Letter Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
A little darker than my usual fare, but I *loved* it. Great characters and excellent pacing.



CAT#19: Everything Else

160. The Accidental Afterlife of Thomas Marsden by Emma Trevayne
Cute and fun middle grade novel about family-style grave robbers, fairies in Victorianesque London, and a boy caught in the middle.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

161. Stay Gold by Tobly McSmith
Pony is starting a new school this year in an attempt at a clean slate - a place where no one knows he's trans and he can be more than just the Trans Kid, and hopefully avoid the bullying that comes with that label. Georgia is one of the most popular girls in school and a member of the cheerleading squad, but after a bad breakup over the summer, she's ready to reevaluate what's important, even though the thought of leaving cheerleading to be a journalist for the school paper scares her. On the first day of school, these two lock eyes, feel a spark, and both lives start to change.

A loose (but clever and interesting) take on The Outsiders, with an excellent treatment of what it's like to be trans in a Texas high school, how it's great to feel ready to come out but also how it's absolutely valid not to be ready, and how even the most unlikely people can change their views. Highly recommended.

CAT#16: Books from My Wishlist
November MysteryKIT: Gothic

162. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
An English village doctor is called out to Hundreds Hall, a once-glamorous, now crumbling estate where his mother used to be employed as a nursemaid, to tend to a young servant girl. From that moment he becomes entangled in the affairs of the diminishing manor and its inhabitants: the widowed older mother, the spry, spinster daughter, and the son who suffers from physical and emotional trauma after the war. But there seems that there may be another resident of Hundreds, and unseen and potentially not-that-friendly one...

Very heavy gothic vibes here, and I loved it! Somewhere between mystery and horror, the story moves along at a perfect pace, and all the characters - including the estate itself - are drawn with wonderful detail.

CAT#16: Books from My Wishlist

163. The Linguist and the Emperor by Daniel Meyerson
This microhistory follows the lives of Napoleon and Jean-Francois Champollion as they converge at the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone.

Sounds interesting? It did to me, too, but it sadly falls short of expectations. Poorly organized, the narrative seems to flit here and there, giving random details of both lives and often seeming to forget its purpose, since the Rosetta Stone barely makes an appearance. I mean, you'd think it would at least end with some treatment of how Napoleon and Champollion are explicitly tied to one another through the discovery of the Stone, but we don't really even get a treatment of Napoleon's men *finding* the Stone at all! Champollion's life seems interesting from what I can cobble together here, but the structure and the needed details are badly lacking. Also, points off for not understanding what a hapax legomenon is (he doesn't just use it incorrectly, he actually gives an incorrect definition). So, overall, disappointing.

CAT#1: 100 Banned Books

164. Spycatcher by Peter Wright
An account of Wright's time working for MI5.

Another one that sounds interesting but wasn't. This one could be on me, though, since I just couldn't keep my thoughts on what I was reading, and not necessarily because the writing was dry (I just have trouble following spy stuff). Anyway, YMMV.

165. 100 Banned Books by Nicholas J. Karolides
And with Spycatcher done, I have finally finished the 100 Banned Books list!! I've been working on it for *years* and it feels really good to cross the final book off the list! WOOT!

Congratulations, finishing a list always is an achievement!

>284 MissWatson: Thanks!! It feels amazing to cross that last book of the list!

CAT#17: Audiobooks
November RandomKIT: City Name in the Title

166. Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor
A novel in letters between a brother and sister, the sister and the brother's best friend, the sister and her best friend, among others. It tells the story of how their lives and relationships changed during the first world war.

I *love* epistolary novels, and this one doesn't disappoint. The romance is nicely balanced and interwoven with the background of the war and also the happenings at home in and around London. I can also say that the audio version is wonderfully done.



CAT#19: Everything Else

167. My Hero Academia 6 by kohei Horikoshi
Another excellent installment in the manga. I adore it.

CAT#5: Favorite Author Bibliographies
CAT#12: Mysteries
CAT#17: Audiobooks
December MysteryKIT: Holiday Mysteries

168. Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie
A nasty old invalid codger with an English country estate and lots of money calls all of his children home for Christmas, not to reconcile with them before his death, but to antagonize them for his own glee. So it's no huge surprise when he winds up murdered on Christmas Eve. Poirot is on the case, and Christie fools me again. I loved it.



CAT#17: Audiobooks
December AlphaKIT: Y

169. If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson
A gut punch of a YA interracial love story. Woodson writes beautifully, as always, and knows how to wallop you right in the feels.

>283 scaifea: Congratulations!!! How nice to end the year with this great achievement.

>288 MissBrangwen: Thank you!!

CAT#12: Mysteries
CAT#17: Audiobooks
December RandomKIT: Christmas Sweets

170. Lethal Licorice by Amanda Flower
The second installment in the Amish Candy Shop Mystery series, and a nice follow-up to the first one. Bailey has moved from NYC to her grandmother's small Amish town in Ohio to help with the fudge shop now that her grandfather has died, but not everyone is happy with a non-Amish woman competing in the local Amish candy competition. When one particularly vocal opponent is found dead and stuffed in the church organ, Bailey finds herself once again a murder suspect.
We meet some new characters and get to know the original crew a bit better here. I'll likely keep going with the series.



CAT#15: Books from My Read Soon! Shelves

171. Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
A teen trans boy in a family of brujx who are keepers of the cemetery they live in (and its spirits) is fighting for his right to be a brujo when his cousin ends up dead and missing and Yadriel bumps into the spirit of a dead boy who also doesn't know where his body is, things get complicated...
This book is so good! Very cool storyline with a nice twist, fantastic characters, nicely spooky setting,... I LOVED it.



CAT#2: 1001 Children's Books to Read Before You Grown Up

172. After the First Death by Robert Cormier
Terrorists take over a school bus full of 5 year olds on their way to a summer camp and make demands.
Cormier is a master storyteller, but his stuff is pretty dark. This one is no exception and if you even remotely think you may be troubled by it, I'd stay clear. Excellently written, but ooof, it's not full of unicorns and rainbows.



CAT#12: Mysteries

173. One for the Books by Jenn McKinlay
(Spoilers ahead for the series)

Lindsay and Sully are finally getting married, but when a body is found on Sully's parents' island (where the ceremony is supposed to take place), it looks like they may have the change their nuptial plans...
Another solid entry in the series.



CAT#17: Audiobooks

174. The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow
Post-apocalyptic US wherein aliens have taken over and are working on a vaccine that will render humans into unthinking shells to be rented out and inhabited by the aliens' consciousness...es...
Meh. I had trouble focusing on this one. There's a teen ace girl and an ace humanoid alien cyborg-like person, and they like each other and run off together to save the planet, I think. *shrug* I do like the ace representation, though, even if I didn't love the pacing and the plot.

CAT#19: Everything Else

175. Assassination Classroom vol 2 by Yusei Matsui
The second volume in this manga series is just as hilariously weird as the first. I'm not sure where the story is going, but I can't wait to find out.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

176. New York by Edward Rutherfurd
An historical novel that follows the life of NYC - and a handful of families living there down the generations - from the 1600s through the fall of the Twin Towers.

This is my first Rutherford novel, but it won't be my last. I loved it! The fictional families and their stories were great, and I love how he wove into their lives all kinds of historical details. The audio is wonderful, too.

CAT#17: Audiobooks

177. The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

A struggling author is teaching a creative writing seminar to stay afloat while trying to come up with a viable third novel, when an overly arrogant student waltzes into his office claiming to need no help with his project since he has a plot that can't fail to become a bestseller. Jake (the struggling writer/teacher) is annoyed and skeptical until the student tells him the plot, at which point Jake bitterly admits to himself that it does indeed seem foolproof. A few years pass and Jake has forgotten about the encounter when he finds out the student died just a couple of months after the class was over. It doesn't take him long to decide to write his own book using the plot that can't fail. And it works - he skyrockets to authorial fame with a bestseller and movie options and everything. But will he get away with it?

Ooooh, this one was so good! Multiple layers of twists here, and I didn't see any of them coming until just before they were revealed. A fun ride all the way and a great way to finish up my reading year.