lycomayflower reads books? books. in 2022

Discussie75 Books Challenge for 2022

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lycomayflower reads books? books. in 2022

1lycomayflower
Bewerkt: jan 16, 2023, 2:41 pm



Welcome to my 2022 reading thread! Click here to go to my introduction post.

This first post contains an on-going list of the books I've read this year, with the most recent reads at the top. Click on the book title to go to the book's post within the thread, where you will find a review. Numbers in parentheses are page counts for each book. Click here to visit my 2021 thread.

Total Pages: 13,210

60.) A Christmas Carol (136)
59.) How the Grinch Stole Christmas
58.) The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree
57.) Once Upon a Wardrobe (278)
56.) MM Scrooge (201)
55.) Little Red Sleigh
54.) The Secret History of Christmas (audio)
53.) The Lincoln Highway (576)
52.) The Christmas Crocodile
51.) The Mouse in the Hammock

50.) The Bureau volume 1 (198)
49.) Winter Lullaby
48.) The Anthropocene Reviewed (audio)
47.) Some By Virtue Fall (146)
46.) Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (435)
45.) The Nineties (340)
44.) Trouble in Paradise (324)
43.) I Kissed Shara Wheeler (358)

42.) The Anomaly (391)
41.) Pet Human
40.) Stuck in the Middle with You (280)

39.) Bury Your Dead (371)
38.) Pack of Lies (348)
37.) Self-Made Boys (304)
36.) The Taste of Desert Green (273)

35.) Are We Lost Yet?(~100)
34.) The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
33.) A Psalm for the Wild-Built (147)
32.) The Cat in the Hat

31.) Heartstopper vol. 2 (322)
30.) Blackwater (301)
29.) The Butter Battle Book
28.) Legendborn (502)
27.) Heartstopper vol. 1 (236)
26.) Thidwick the Big-hearted Moose
25.) Wild Things (278)
24.) The Enchanted Hour (222)
23.) Gender Queer (256)

22.) Boyfriend Material (425)
21.) The Brutal Telling (372)
20.) Miss Memory Lane (249)

--

19.) The Subs Club (237)
18.) Deep Desire (216)
17.) The Cartographers (391)
16.) I'm Looking Through You (267)
15.) Conundrum (197)
14.) The Naturalist (367)
13.) Washington Black (384)

12.) The Boy with a Bird in His Chest (308)
11.) Perfectly Pegasus
10.) Rescued by the Alpha (157)
9.) All That's Left in the World (338)
8.) The Moon by Night (270)
7.) Black Love Matters (235)

6.) The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (430)
5.) We Are Okay (234)

4.) Homecoming (402)
3.) Matrix (257)
2.) Monster and the Beast vol. 1 (~100)
1.) The Apothecary's Garden (191)

2lycomayflower
Bewerkt: jan 16, 2023, 2:22 pm

Hello! My name is Laura, and this is the fifteenth year I've kept an LT thread tracking and reviewing my reading. I read pretty widely, but I'm most likely to read romance, memoir, mysteries, YA, sci-fi, fantasy, and literary fiction. I'm in my early-forties, work as an editor, am married to a fellow reader, and carry on living in the south (it's been the majority of my adult life now) despite constantly missing winter and wanting to move back north (I grew up in north-east Pennsylvania). When I'm not reading, I like to do photography, write, crochet, swim, and watch TV. I also keep a bookish blog at https://wonderatsix.blogspot.com/ (currently on indefinite hiatus). Please feel free to talk to me here on LT. I love a good bookish conversation!

Fav Reads in 2021

When All the World Sleeps
Mary Jane
The Hate U Give
Red, White & Royal Blue
The Lights on Knockbridge Lane
Murder at Mallowan Hall

Reads That Were Not My Cuppa in 2021

Touch Me Gently
Kink
Lights Out in Lincolnwood
Book Girl
The Ghost Clause
The Island

3lycomayflower
Bewerkt: dec 31, 2021, 11:45 pm

A pupper, what sometimes abandons her duties as staircase warden to sit with me while I read:

4thornton37814
dec 31, 2021, 11:59 pm

Happy 2022 reading!

5PaulCranswick
jan 1, 2022, 4:15 am



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

6FAMeulstee
jan 1, 2022, 4:54 am

Happy reading in 2022, Laura!

>3 lycomayflower: A perfect place to watch over.

7drneutron
jan 1, 2022, 8:37 am

Welcome back!

8MickyFine
jan 1, 2022, 11:42 am

Happy new year, Laura! Happy to see you back again.

9laytonwoman3rd
jan 1, 2022, 11:55 am

>2 lycomayflower: Your mother takes exception to one of those statements, and I'll bet you know which one.

10Berly
jan 1, 2022, 3:07 pm



Happy reading!

11alcottacre
jan 1, 2022, 3:16 pm

Missed you completely in 2021, Laura, so I am hoping to get better track this year. Happy New Year!

12ffortsa
jan 2, 2022, 10:42 am

Happy 2022, Laura. I'm sure great reading lies ahead.

13lycomayflower
jan 3, 2022, 9:49 am

Thank you, everyone, for the good wishes!

14lycomayflower
jan 3, 2022, 9:50 am

Happy birthday to JRR Tolkien!

*raises glass* The professor!

15scaifea
jan 3, 2022, 10:37 am

16lycomayflower
Bewerkt: jan 3, 2022, 11:48 am

17foggidawn
jan 3, 2022, 4:22 pm

Happy New Year and happy new thread!

*clink* The Professor!

18lycomayflower
jan 5, 2022, 12:54 pm

It's the thing! You know, the thing!

Describe yourself: Book Girl

Describe how you feel: Tender with a Twist

Describe where you currently live: Hardly Haunted

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Once Upon a River

Your favorite form of transportation is: Books Promiscuously Read

Your favorite food is: Zachary and the Great Potato Catastrophe

Your favorite time of day is: Black Moon

Your best friend is: Good Talk

You and your friends are: Something Wicked This Way Comes

What’s the weather like: The Cruelest Month

You fear: The Hate U Give

What is the best advice you have to give: Some Things I Still Can't Tell You

Thought for the day: The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks

What is life for you: Guilty Pleasures

How you would like to die: When All the World Sleeps

Your soul’s present condition: Skunk and Badger

What was 2021 like for you? The Ghost Clause

What do you want from 2022? Dauntless

19foggidawn
jan 5, 2022, 1:33 pm

>18 lycomayflower: I love the thing! Great answers!

20MickyFine
jan 5, 2022, 4:04 pm

>18 lycomayflower: I haven't decided if I want to do the thing but I love your answers!

21Berly
jan 18, 2022, 4:26 pm

OMG! Some of those answers really had me laughing! Thanks for sharing.

22thornton37814
jan 18, 2022, 8:10 pm

>18 lycomayflower: I'm behind, but I enjoyed your meme answers.

23lycomayflower
jan 22, 2022, 4:53 pm

>20 MickyFine:, >21 Berly:, >22 thornton37814: Thanks, all! Glad it brought a little joy.

24lycomayflower
jan 22, 2022, 5:00 pm

1.) The Apothecary's Garden Julie Bozza ***1/2

I loved the writing in this May/December m/m romance, and I thought much of the story was just lovely. But in the end I didn't quite feel like I knew the characters well enough, and--and this is the real thing that knocked this out of hovering-near-five-stars territory--I wasn't convinced that this 65-year-old-man and this 23-year-old man really had the foundation for a relationship. I don't really need convinced about May/December romances--as long as everyone is consenting and adult and there's no weird power imbalance, I'm in. (I might be in if there *is* a weird power imbalance, too, provided it's explored adequately and so on.) But I wasn't convinced about these two, regardless. We never get Tom's (May's) point of view, and that was certainly part of it. And Hilary (December) just seemed... infatuated, I guess? (He also seemed way older than 65. He called Tom "my dear," constantly (honestly that repetition may have been too much even if the endearment itself didn't ring false) and almost doddering. People age differently, but he felt a good twenty years older than he was.) I dunno. Ultimately it just didn't quite work, and I think it's down to not getting enough of them as people on the page. But I am intrigued, based on the writing, to try more by Bozza.

25lycomayflower
jan 24, 2022, 3:16 pm

2.) Monster and the Beast vol. 1, Renji **1/2

This first volume in a boys' love manga series follows Liam, a middle-aged gentleman, as he is saved from an attack by a beast named Cavo. Liam is kind of a monster, in that he seems to care mostly only for himself, and Cavo, the beast, is innocent and sweet and loving--and he's falling in love with Liam. *shrug* This didn't do a whole lot for me, I'm afraid. Cavo is super neat-looking, but behind that I wasn't too taken with the art, and the story felt slow to start. And I kind of want to flick Liam over a cliff. I've read some manga I've enjoyed, but it's not firmly in my wheelhouse, so YMMV.

26Berly
jan 26, 2022, 1:27 am

Popping in to say Hi! I think I am going to pass on those two...

27PaulCranswick
feb 5, 2022, 10:44 am

Wishing you a great weekend, Laura.

28lycomayflower
mrt 20, 2022, 10:21 pm

I'm not doing so hot keeping up with reviews thus far this year. Hopefully I'll get some up between now and the end of the month to keep from getting *massively* behind. In the meantime, the list in my top post of the thread *is* up to date with what I've read.

29lycomayflower
mrt 30, 2022, 12:55 pm

3.) Matrix, Lauren Groff ****

This story of the life of a 12th century nun was both strange and deeply compelling. The sentence-level writing is a treat, as is getting to watch Marie take a life that was thrust upon her essentially as punishment and make it into something marvelous to behold. The most surprising thing for me in reading this was the way images would not necessarily strike me during my reading but would later percolate up and stick with me for days.

30laytonwoman3rd
mrt 30, 2022, 12:56 pm

31lycomayflower
mrt 30, 2022, 12:59 pm

32lycomayflower
mrt 30, 2022, 1:03 pm

4.) Homecoming, Cynthia Voigt *****

An old favorite from my teen years, Homecoming tells the story of four children suddenly abandoned by their mother in a mall parking lot, how they survive a long journey on foot to family members they have never met, and what they learn about each other and the world on the way. The story is from eldest sister Dicey's point of view, and she's a wonderful character to hang out with. Characterization and mundane but fascinating details are what make this novel a favorite, and the end is perfect and satisfying without being too neat or pat.

33foggidawn
mrt 30, 2022, 1:15 pm

>32 lycomayflower: That's an old favorite of mine, too.

34lycomayflower
Bewerkt: mrt 30, 2022, 1:27 pm

>32 lycomayflower: S2 It's SO GOOD.

35lycomayflower
mrt 30, 2022, 2:10 pm

5.) We Are Okay, Nina LaCour ****

This YA novel takes place over Marin's Winter Break between her first two semesters at college and explores grief, memory, and friendship. I enjoyed maybe the feel of this book and the movement of the writing more than the plot/the book as a whole. Some of the best bits were the way LaCour captured the feeling of being on an empty college campus. I suspect I'll check out more by LaCour.

36lauralkeet
mrt 30, 2022, 2:13 pm

>29 lycomayflower: Interesting comment about the images from Matrix, Laura. The book lingered with me for a while, too.

>30 laytonwoman3rd: May I suggest you turn that contemplation into action, Linda?

37lycomayflower
mrt 30, 2022, 2:16 pm

6.) The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Stuart Turton ****

An inventive murder mystery in which the protagonist keeps jumping from one body to another and must try to solve a murder using the skills and talents of whichever body he's inhabiting at the moment. I was slightly let down by the end of this one (to do more with the answer to "What is going on?" than to do with the murder itself), but the book kept me turning pages and guessing and interested for the whole thing, so ultimately I am glad I read it. And it lead to a really stellar conversation with a friend who also read it afterwards, and that is always a joy.

38lycomayflower
mrt 30, 2022, 2:19 pm

>36 lauralkeet: I enjoyed *reading* it, but I think I got the most out of that lingering.

39MickyFine
mrt 30, 2022, 4:00 pm

>37 lycomayflower: I liked this one but there were so many comparisons to Agatha Christie lurking out there in the world and it decidedly didn't have Christie's sparkle so I was less pleased with it than I expected. But I am delighted to see you got excellent conversations out of it.

40lycomayflower
Bewerkt: mrt 30, 2022, 5:39 pm

7.) Black Love Matters, edited by Jessica P. Pryde ****

This collection of essays centered around Black romance novels and Black love was wonderful. I learned a lot, nodded a lot, considered a lot, and added a TON of books to my TBR. Absolutely recommended for varied insights into the genre, the history of the treatment of Black romance authors, and the importance of HEAs for Black characters.

41lycomayflower
Bewerkt: mrt 30, 2022, 6:00 pm

8.) The Moon By Night, Madeleine L'Engle ****

I might have enjoyed this second book in the Austin Family Chronicles even more than the first. The Austins are about to move to New York City, but first they are taking a cross-country camping trip to see the country and visit friends and relatives. The story comes through the perspective of Vicky, second oldest of the Austin children as she begins to itch a bit at the confines of family, begins to have interest in boys, and discovers more about who she is. Sometimes slightly dated in some attitudes, but not enough to be terribly bothersome, though of course that is YMMV. More annoying is the boy who won't leave Vicky alone. We're supposed to think he's kind of okay despite being... not all that okay, and that was the hardest thing to sit with for me.

42lycomayflower
Bewerkt: mrt 30, 2022, 9:25 pm

9.) All That's Left in the World, Erik J. Brown ****

Heads-up that I am spoiling, in a general way, this book throughout my whole review.

CA: global pandemic, homophobic language, violent homophobia

This post-apocalyptic YA novel features two queer teens as its heroes, it has a happy-for-now ending, and love pretty much wins. I don't think I can overstate how important those last two bits are. The boys are in love, and THEY MAKE IT. They do have to go through a lot to get there, and I overestimated my readiness to read a book about a post-pandemic world. (The pandemic here is not Covid. It's a flu. Close enough for nightmares.) I read most of this through my fingers and only carried on because I was so very hoping it was going to be okay in the end. And it is, pretty much. So this was both very not for me and kind of really for me. If you like post-apocalyptic fiction and are ready for a fictional world that's been devastated by a global pandemic, recommended. I'm both glad I read it and deeply relieved that it's over.

43lycomayflower
mrt 30, 2022, 9:37 pm

10.) Rescued by the Alpha, M.M. Wilde ***1/2

This wolf shifter m/m romance fell a little flat for me. It's an mpreg story, which is a trope I am indifferent to (it neither squicks me nor makes me squee). Maybe what didn't quite work for me here stemmed from that indifference, but I felt like as soon as the human-turned-werewolf character ended up pregnant, all he *was* was pregnant. He no longer felt like he had any personality beyond caring for and carrying the baby. *shrug* I just had a sense that the whole story could have been more fleshed out, that there was a bit of a rush to get to the bit with the pregnancy. Again, maybe this just isn't really *for* me. On the other hand, I found the world building around the shifters and the hints of their lore pretty cool, and I *am* kind of interested in reading the rest of the trilogy.

44lycomayflower
mrt 30, 2022, 9:42 pm

>39 MickyFine: Aw, comping this to Agatha Christie was a disservice. Aside from "house party, someone murdered, someone did it," this is nothing like Christie at all. No wonder you didn't like it as much as you thought you would if you went in having been given the idea it would be Christie-ish.

45lycomayflower
mrt 30, 2022, 9:58 pm

11.) Perfectly Pegasus, Jessie Sima *****

I read Sima's children's books purely for myself, not sort of on-spec for the littles I know, and while I enjoy reading children's books, theirs are among the very few I read solely because *I* want to. Like Not Quite Narwhal and Hardly Haunted, Perfectly Pegasus feels thematically queer without being demonstrably queer at all. In this one, a Pegasus wants to wish for a friend but loses the shooting star she wanted to wish on. In the course of her search for the star, she meets many folks who help her. When she returns home still without having found her star, she realizes that she got her wish after all. All those folks who helped her? They are friends. Sima's illustrations are bright and colorful and wonderful, the text simple and to the point. I hope they keep on writing these lovely, slightly fantastical anthropomorphic tales of finding one's people, one's place, one's found family. I will read them all.

46lycomayflower
Bewerkt: mrt 30, 2022, 10:24 pm

12.) The Boy with a Bird in His Chest, Emme Lund ****1/2

CA: homophobia, homophobic language, homophobic violence, suicidal ideation, mild depictions of teenage sex and alcohol and drug use

A few days after he was born, Owen Tanner developed a hole in his chest, and in the hole is a bird. Her name is Gail. Owen's mom is terrified of what the "Army of Acronyms" (doctors, social workers, and so on) will do to Owen if they discover that Owen has a bird in his chest, so she tells Owen that no one must ever know. Thus begins Owen's life of hiding who he is to stay safe. Over time he discovers things about the world and about himself. He makes friends. He falls in love. But he plans, always, to leave home at seventeen and jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. He does not do that, and seeing him get to that point, to where he fully embraces the bird in his chest, and does not hide who he is, and loves the boy he loves, and uses his voice was a delight. This is a hard book, sometimes, but it is never grim. The writing is lovely. The characters are real but also somehow just slightly hazy. It felt affirming. I loved it. I recommend it. I hope we see much more from Lund.

47lycomayflower
mrt 30, 2022, 10:31 pm

Right. I'm caught up on reviews now. Sheesh.

48lycomayflower
Bewerkt: apr 8, 2022, 3:15 pm

13.) Washington Black, Esi Edugyan ****

CA: slavery and all the brutality and violence thereof, suicide, violence, mild body horror, execution, period-appropriate racist language

This tale of a young enslaved boy in Barbados who is taken in and educated by the brother of the man enslaving him was by turns fascinating and... not as fascinating. The first half of the book or so had me completely engaged--the setting was vivid and the strange almost-friendship between Wash and Titch was compelling. But at the half-way point, when Titch disappears, leaving Wash to wonder what happened to him and to search for him, sometimes consciously and sometimes not, for years, the story just got duller--both in terms of the interest I had in it and in the words, the telling. This was, I guess, half a five-star read and half a three-star read, and if the halves had been reversed, I probably would have been thrilled with the book. As it was, it was a slight letdown, but still something I'm still glad I read. Some of the sentence-level writing is simply gorgeous, and Edugyan has hit on a balance between not shying away from the brutality of her subject and keeping the depiction of that brutality bearable enough to read the work and gain something from the telling.

49lycomayflower
Bewerkt: apr 18, 2022, 8:41 pm

14.) The Naturalist, Andrew Mayne ***1/2

This murder mystery follows a biologist who specializes in using computers to track patterns in the natural world as he tries to solve the murder of a former graduate student who at first appears to have been attacked by a bear. I enjoyed the first two-thirds of the story immensely, as we followed Theo Cray as he puzzled things out using science and patterns. But once he really got on the track of the killer, things got pretty over-the-top and violent, and I started having a hard time believing characters' motivations. I kind of want to read more of the series based on how much I enjoyed the beginning of this one, but that desire also annoys me.

50lycomayflower
Bewerkt: apr 20, 2022, 9:19 pm

15.) Conundrum, Jan Morris ****

Morris's classic memoir of her life and her transition from male to female in midlife was a joy to read. Her observations are fascinating and the glimpse into her world is poignant. Some of her attitudes (and language) feel dated now, and I sometimes wondered at her propensity to generalize about how men and women think, but she also draws some attention to those generalizations and speculates that she may be wrong or that the time and place where one grew up may have a significant effect on how one sees the world as male or female. Stuff to think on here, and I'm glad I read it.

51laytonwoman3rd
apr 19, 2022, 11:17 am

You're doing some really fine reading lately, aincha, despite some minor quibbles.

52lycomayflower
apr 20, 2022, 9:19 pm

I am! It's been a pretty good reading year so far. *spits*

53lycomayflower
apr 20, 2022, 9:49 pm

16.) I'm Looking Through You: Growing Up Haunted, Jennifer Finney Boylan ****1/2

Jennifer Finney Boylan's memoir of childhood, adolescence, and some bits beyond centers around the Coffin House (named after people who once lived there, of course), the house where she grew up and which she always felt was haunted. This is a memoir of family and of self (whether there were or were not any actual ghosts in the house is left an open question; the real haunting here was of Jenny haunting herself), and Jenny's hopes and confusions around gender and love as a trans person trying to figure out life and friends and partners and herself are a strong thread throughout. The memoir is masterfully done, with early reflections echoing down the pages to come back stronger, more revealing, chapters later. The sentence-level writing is often a wonder, and Boylan is *funny*, in that slightly off-center way that should be familiar to members of the sorts of families that are proud of their shared, idiosyncratic inside jokes. I felt like I was in the hands of a fair and assured storyteller from page one. Recommended.

54laytonwoman3rd
apr 20, 2022, 10:36 pm

>53 lycomayflower: " Boylan is *funny*, in that slightly off-center way that should be familiar to members of the sorts of families that are proud of their shared, idiosyncratic inside jokes" Really...don't you want to believe she's one of our clan?

55lycomayflower
apr 23, 2022, 10:14 pm

>54 laytonwoman3rd: I would certainly happily claim her.

56lycomayflower
apr 23, 2022, 10:23 pm

17.) The Cartographers, Peng Shepherd ***1/2

This literary thriller deals with mysterious deaths and lost maps, and on paper it should have been an absolute slam dunk for me. I loved the premise (which I'm not going to go into detail about because it's spoilery, but let's say if you love books and wonder and maps, you'll probably love it too), but the book has no red herrings at all? There are a ton of reveals and know that I am not exaggerating (nor am I overly prone to figuring out plots in mysteries and thrillers) when I say that I had every. one. of them sorted beforehand. This made the read rather pedestrian, and it was all the more annoying since I *was* so fascinated by the premise. You know that story about how, as a boy, Tolkien read Macbeth and was so disappointed when Birnam Woods coming to Dunsinane turned out to be just dudes camouflaging themselves with branches and whatnot? That. That's how I felt reading this book. All that magic and it wasn't really Ents at all, just some guy with a stick.

57lycomayflower
apr 24, 2022, 11:21 pm

18. ) Deep Desire, Z.A. Maxfield ****

An M/M vampire romance in which a scholar specializing in historical erotica gets in over his head when he finds a journal of love letters and erotic drawings that belonged to a vampire--a vampire who wants his journal back. The story is by turns lush and exciting, with world building that sucks (ha!) you in. The backstory for Donte (our vampire) adds dimension to the story, and the supporting characters flesh the whole thing out nicely. If you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you'll like.

58lycomayflower
apr 27, 2022, 4:36 pm

19.) The Subs Club, J.A. Rock ****1/2

CA: accidental death during breath play (on-page in snippets and references throughout), medical kink references, knife play references

When David's friend dies accidentally during a BDSM scene, David and the rest of his friend group are left wondering how to deal with their changed feelings toward their lifestyle--both as members of the community and as individuals still seeking fitting partners. The story is told from David's point of view, and we follow him as he embarks on a new relationship and tries to find a way to make subs safer and give them a stronger voice in his local community. This was a great exploration of BDSM as well as a wonderful romance story and depiction of male friendship.

59lycomayflower
Bewerkt: jun 11, 2022, 5:08 pm

I'm behind on reviews. Only by one though! In the meantime, here's a pile of my current reads.

60Berly
jul 15, 2022, 9:26 pm

Only behind by one review, huh? That was then...what about now!! LOL Hope you are having fun with the new book haul.

61lycomayflower
jul 24, 2022, 5:43 pm

>60 Berly:

*sigh* It's six now.

62lycomayflower
Bewerkt: aug 1, 2022, 9:39 am

20.) Miss Memory Lane, Colton Haynes ****

CA: child sexual assault, substance abuse, suicidal ideation

Actor and model Haynes's memoir of his childhood and early adulthood is harrowing but affirming. His voice shines through, and his revelations and introspection about his childhood abuse, his substance abuse, and his sexuality feel true and honest. Page-turnery but not gossipy. Reads like a memoir that happened to be written by a celebrity, not a celebrity memoir.

63lycomayflower
aug 1, 2022, 9:38 am

21.) The Brutal Telling, Louise Penny ****

This installment in the Three Pines series was a good read but also frustrating in that it's conclusions feels... incomplete. Gently poking of the internet suggests the next book may provide some more closure. I hope so, cause otherwise this one would feel like a strangely hollow entry in the series.

64lycomayflower
aug 1, 2022, 9:42 am

22.) Boyfriend Material, Alexis Hall ****1/2

A fake dating romcom, Boyfriend Material ranges from gently amusing to laugh-out-loud funny, and the characters are a delight. I loved every second I spent with this book, and even as a major fan of Hall's work, I was surprised and impressed by how well he tenderly subverted several romance tropes while still somehow letting the reader enjoy the tropes anyway. Recommended.

65lycomayflower
aug 1, 2022, 9:51 am

23.) Gender Queer: A Memoir, Maia Kobabe *****

CA: snakes, brief nudity

Kobabe's graphic memoir explores their experience with and confusion about gender from early childhood through adulthood, and it is *amazing*. Just stunningly crafted, gentle, and honest. I wasn't going to read this (in a quiet sort of "I'm probably good; I can pass that one up" way), and then a chucklehead from my adopted stated decided to sue a (single) Barnes and Noble store for making the book available to children (read: carried it in the store; B&N (of course?) doesn't restrict any of it's material; literally everything in there is available to everyone), and then I had to buy and read it in support of the author, the book, and bookstores. And it was a perfect reading experience. Thank you, Streisand effect. Seriously, though. The book is so good. Recommended.

66laytonwoman3rd
aug 1, 2022, 10:00 am

>63 lycomayflower: That right there is why I gave up on Louise Penny. I don't mind some dangling threads in a series, as with relationships among the recurring characters, but I do NOT want the main mystery to be ambiguous at the end of a book. Seems like a cheap trick to me.

67lycomayflower
aug 1, 2022, 10:36 am

24.) The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction, Meghan Cox Gurdon ***1/2

This was a very enjoyable read, that is, I had a good time reading it and was entertained and pulled along throughout. And while I think Gurdon does a good job laying out an argument for reading aloud (especially to children, though to anyone, really), her discussion often felt unnuanced, both in its seeming complete disavowal of screens (from reading Enchanted Hour you'd be forgiven feeling that Gurdon has never fallen in love with a movie or TV show or ever had an experience of sharing in an imaginative world that came from *anywhere else* than a book) and in the way it ignores real barriers to reading aloud (is she talking only to college-educated, middle-class, (white?) folks here? it seems like maybe she is. which, eh.). I also found myself wondering repeatedly if she had investigated whether reading aloud continued to work its magic with people who previously didn't like reading. Do parents who don't read themselves enjoy reading to their kids? Do their kids enjoy the read alouds? Do adults who don't like to read enjoy being read aloud to? So many questions unanswered. A nice read, and it makes it pretty clear that reading aloud is good for development and familial bonding, but there's so much work the book could have done that it doesn't that it's hard to recommend.

68lycomayflower
aug 1, 2022, 11:57 am

25.) Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult, Bruce Handy ****

A little bit history of (selected) children's lit and a little bit explication of its subtitle, Wild Things was entertaining and pleasing. I'm not sure it would convince anyone who *didn't* want to read children's lit as an adult to do so, but I'm also not sure it was trying to. (This feels like the kind of book that is preaching to the choir and knows it and doesn't mind and the choir doesn't mind either.) And I think that's part of what made it good--it wasn't trying to make an argument, really, but rather was just setting down, nice and neat, what's cool and worthwhile (in other words, why we like it) about a certain kind of reading. And it's inspired me to try to revisit some Dr. Seuss and the Ramona Quimby books. Recommended, especially to readers who like books about books.

69lycomayflower
aug 1, 2022, 12:57 pm

26.) Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, Dr. Seuss ****

The first in my Dr. Seuss rereads. I bet I haven't touched a Dr. Seuss book since I was a kiddo. The rhyme, meter, and wordplay is just off-the-charts awesome. (I know, I know, I'm discovering America here.) The end of this one though. Ooof. A little harsh. (But maybe not if you're six?)

70lycomayflower
aug 1, 2022, 12:59 pm

27.) Heartstopper vol. 1, Alice Oseman ***1/2

A reread after watching the first half of the show based on this webcomic. I love the show. The comic is fine. It just doesn't quite zing for me (and the show *does*). But I was inspired this time to actually keep going with the comic, so clearly I've found something in it. It is... nice, in the best way.

71lycomayflower
aug 1, 2022, 1:17 pm

28.) Legendborn, Tracy Deonn ****

This YA fantasy novel is a little bit King Arthur retelling, a little bit Supernatural, and a dash of the feel of Kindred. I cannot express strongly enough how much I love the premise of this book and the way Arthuriana and magical traditions born out of West Africa and developed by enslaved people in North America clash and interrogate one another here. And the reveal that our Black teenaged girl protagonist, because she is the descendent of two lines through the rape of an enslaved women, is the descendent of Arthur who will inherit his power, thereby bringing together the power of the mythologies of the colonizers and enslavers with the enslaved because she is descended from both lines is just. I think I was chanting "yes!" at the book as it was coming together. (Don't miss the Author's Note, where Deonn talks a bit about this theme.) That being said, I found the writing and the characterization a little flat. I sometimes felt like everything in the story was given equal weight, which can be tedious and plodding. I also thought that the bits where Bree interacted with her family and learned about her heritage were much more "alive" than her forays into the Arthurian secret society, and I wish there had been even more of that aspect of the story. I love love love that this book is out there and hope it is striking a chord with a lot of teens, but I'm undecided about whether I'll keep going with the series.

72lycomayflower
aug 1, 2022, 1:24 pm

29.) The Butter Battle Book, Dr. Seuss ****

I might have been even more impressed by the wordplay of this one than the last Seuss I reread. His talent for making up names for things that don't exist is astonishing. I'd completely forgotten (this one wasn't a childhood favorite) that the story ends without a resolution, and I was a bit surprised that the two factions are posed forever inches from mutually assured destruction. But in hindsight, how else would you end this story, this metaphor for the cold war?

73lycomayflower
aug 1, 2022, 1:31 pm

30.) Blackwater, Jeannette Arroyo and Ren Graham ***

Graphic novel treatment of "weird shit is going on in the woods" with nice casual (trans, queer, disabled, and poc) rep. What you think is going on is what is going on, and the romance you think might be percolating is, in fact, percolating. It was fine. Just lacking the spark that really makes a work come alive for me. YMMV.

74lycomayflower
aug 1, 2022, 1:35 pm

31.) Heartstopper vol. 2, Alice Oseman ***1/2

Like the first volume, tender and nice. Good exploration of a teen questioning his sexuality. I just like the show, which is a little more... filled in, I guess, more.

75WhiteRaven.17
aug 1, 2022, 9:11 pm

>62 lycomayflower:, >64 lycomayflower:, & >65 lycomayflower: Looks like a lot of good reads lately and I'm making note of at least these three.

>70 lycomayflower: & >74 lycomayflower: I recently read these comics too after watching and loving the show. I am in complete agreeance, the comics are nice, sweet, and simple. There just seems to be a lot more depth or world-building to the tv show.

76lycomayflower
aug 26, 2022, 5:41 pm

32.) The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss ***1/2

A classic, of course, but not one of my favorites from childhood. And that holds on this reread as an adult. It's certainly clever and inventive, but somehow it doesn't hold me like some of the others.

77lycomayflower
aug 26, 2022, 5:49 pm

33.) A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Becky Chambers *****

What an absolute delight of a wonder of a book! Never twee and always kind and affirming, the story follows Dex, who is attempting to find their purpose in a world that has successfully rebuilt after hinted-at climate destruction *and* the ascendance of robots into sentience. When Dex takes off into the wilderness in search of crickets (and understanding), they meet a robot, and the two learn about one another and their respective cultures. Full of tenderness and careful consideration of character, setting, and life. Recommended.

78lycomayflower
Bewerkt: okt 1, 2022, 5:09 pm

34.) The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, Dr. Seuss ***1/2

Of the two, I remember The Cat in the Hat Comes Back much better from childhood readings. Something about the illustrations of that pink stain and the way it just keeps getting transferred from one thing to another--and getting bigger and bigger--has stuck with me, almost sharply. And then it finally gets taken care of through a kind of magical absurdity. I find this slightly unsettling now, and I suspect/half remember that I did as a kid too. The idea of a problem that resists efforts to fix it and just gets worse when you try *and* which the story doesn't tell you how to deal with in any kind of replicable way--look, I know it's a fun, silly kid's book designed to reinforce the alphabet and aid early reading, but it's kind of anxiety making, I have to say.

79lycomayflower
Bewerkt: okt 1, 2022, 5:09 pm

35.) Are We Lost Yet?, Will Henry ****

As always, this Wallace the Brave collection is excellent. I love Henry's art style, and his humor often sneaks up on me and makes me laugh right out loud, which is most appreciated these days. I also love Wallace's attitudes toward his peers--he seems to welcome everyone into all of his adventures without prejudice--and his parents' attitudes toward fun.

80FlamingRabbit
sep 4, 2022, 3:32 pm

>79 lycomayflower: What about Spud? We love Spud!

81Berly
sep 14, 2022, 9:03 pm

>78 lycomayflower: How did I never even hear of this one? LOL. Someday, if I ever have grandkids, I'll make sure to find this one. : )

82lycomayflower
okt 1, 2022, 5:09 pm

>80 FlamingRabbit: We DO! Lots of good Spud stuff in this one too.

>81 Berly: If I remember right, this one was published well after the first. And it might be a good deal less well known?

83lycomayflower
okt 2, 2022, 1:58 pm

36.) The Taste of Desert Green, Kim Fielding ****

CA: violence; set during the Covid-19 pandemic

A man running from a bad relationship and a man stuck in his family's past meet, rescue one another, and fall in love. A tender romance novel with a nice sense of place. This was a lovely read and a good, gentle entry into reading fiction set during the pandemic, as the realities of this time are present but not horrific within the context of the novel.

84lycomayflower
okt 2, 2022, 2:07 pm

37.) Self-Made Boys, Anne-Marie McLemore ****

A YA queer, trans retelling of The Great Gatsby. As this novel ends well for the characters, I suppose that some might argue that it kind of misses out what tGG was trying to say, but that's part of the point of retellings, no? "What if it were this way?" Anyway, I enjoyed it immensely and was cheering through the final chapters.

85lycomayflower
okt 2, 2022, 2:12 pm

38.) Pack of Lies, Charlie Adhara ****

A m/m shifter romance mystery. Entertaining. Nice romance, and fair amount of action stemming from the mystery elements. Enjoyable banter between the heroes. This is a bit of a spin-off from a previous series by Adhara. I have not read that one and had no problem following this.

86lycomayflower
okt 2, 2022, 2:17 pm

39.) Bury Your Dead, Louise Penny ****

None of Penny's Gamache novels are stand-alones, but this one is particularly dependent on the volume that precedes it, as one of its story threads revisits the central mystery of The Brutal Telling. I enjoyed this one a good deal, especially the bits that followed Gamache as he tried to unravel a historical mystery in Quebec City.

87lycomayflower
Bewerkt: okt 31, 2022, 9:36 pm

40.) Stuck in the Middle with You, Jennifer Finney Boylan ***1/2

Finney Boylan's memoir of parenting as a trans woman who transitioned when her sons were children. Worth reading, of course, because Finney Boylan is very good, but I liked her I'm Looking Through You better. Not sure I could say why, exactly, except that it had more of that something that grabs one about a book. I suppose it may have resonated with me more, as that one was about growing up (which I did--oi! you in the back! stop snickering) and this one is about having children (which I did not do).

88lycomayflower
okt 31, 2022, 9:43 pm

41.) Pet Human, David Guy Levy and Alex Heywood ****

A graphic novel about a planet inhabited by beings who keep humans for pets. The human we follow seems maybe a little perplexed but also very happy as a pet, and he forms strong bonds with his owners. The art is bright and lush and lovely, and the story will get your thoughts thinking (not unpleasantly, I found) about pets and pet ownership.

89lycomayflower
Bewerkt: okt 31, 2022, 11:35 pm

42.) The Anomaly, Herve Le Tellier **1/2

I'm not sure how to talk about this in any useful way without spoilers, so this is your warning that the whole review is spoilery.

An airplane flies into a storm and calls for help. When they land, it becomes clear that this is the same plane that flew into a storm three months before and landed safely. The plane and all the people on board have been duplicated. The book explores what happens next by following the government agents tasked with dealing with this event and the pairs of people from the plane and their doppelgangers. In the hands of someone else, I suppose I might have really enjoyed this. If it had been a story that pulled the science fiction elements to the fore, I might have been really intrigued. Le Tellier offers some possible answers about what happened to duplicate the plane, but nothing definitive. And if the story had really made me care about the passengers as individuals, I might have been deeply invested. Le Tellier tries, but he never made me care about any of them. I wanted a book that made choices, and I think Le Tellier was interested in looking at many possibilities. (There *is* one really choice bit where he imagines a set of one of the duplicates being interviewed by Stephen Colbert--Le Tellier masterfully captures Colbert, his mannerisms, his bits of business, in that extended scene.) And the end annoyed me. A *third* version of the plane appears, the US president has it shot down, and this... ends the world? I guess? Sure, Herve. Whatever. The book was saved from being tossed hardily across the room by the fact other mammals in the house were already asleep when I finished it. Feh.

90laytonwoman3rd
nov 1, 2022, 8:17 am

>89 lycomayflower: Glad to see you entered that review on the book page, 'cause I just HAD to thumb it.

>87 lycomayflower: And I was not snickering. There was cat hair up my nose.

91PaulCranswick
nov 24, 2022, 7:56 am



Thank you as always for books, thank you for this group and thanks for you. Have a lovely day, Laura.

92lycomayflower
Bewerkt: nov 25, 2022, 1:40 pm

93lycomayflower
nov 25, 2022, 1:53 pm

43.) I Kissed Shara Wheeler, Casey McQuiston ****1/2

In this YA novel, Shara Wheeler, the perfect and beloved daughter of a private school principal, disappears during prom. No one seems terribly concerned, least of all her father, but Chloe Green can't get Shara and her disappearance out of her mind--especially since Shara cornered her in a school elevator and kissed her the day before she disappeared. Chloe considers Shara her nemesis (among other reasons, because they are competing to be class valedictorian), and when she starts finding notes Shara left for her and two other classmates, the hunt is on. The book is a little bit mystery/puzzle, but the real concern is with identity and learning how to recognize who you really are and how to be that person, despite influences from the outside. It's about being queer in high school, it's about hypocrisy, it's about the South, it's about Christianity, it's about Christianity in the South. It's delightfully snarky and wonderfully honest. It's sharp and tender. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

94lycomayflower
Bewerkt: nov 25, 2022, 2:13 pm

44.) Trouble in Paradise Robert B. Parker ****

The second book in Parker's Jesse Stone series. There's bad guys with a plot afoot, and we get to watch as they put their plan in motion and Jesse quietly figures out what they're up to. The most fun here is watching Jesse be Jesse--he's an alcoholic, he's taciturn, he could so easily be a character you hate and yet he is not, and his books are almost character studies rather than police procedurals. There's also a bad guy you might just be sort of routing for, and well. I won't spoil how that comes out. A fantastic, fast read that is the height of entertaining while all the while feeling substantive as well. Hard to go wrong with Parker, really.

95laytonwoman3rd
nov 25, 2022, 2:45 pm

96lycomayflower
Bewerkt: nov 25, 2022, 4:05 pm

45.) The Nineties, Chuck Klosterman ***1/2

I've seen so much love for this, Klosterman's retrospective on and attempt to put in perspective the nineties as a decade, but for me it fell a little flat. I enjoyed the factual information he presents, especially as much of it was about events I only sort of remember (I was nine through nineteen in the nineties) or only remember with a limited perspective. But his analysis tended to leave me wanting more... something. Depth, perhaps? I dunno. In some ways I think I was just the wrong age in the nineties for this book (written by a Gen Xer who is about ten years older than me) to land now. Some of his conclusions felt obvious--maybe because I was young enough that some of the nineties just... was the way the world *was* for me for a time?--and some felt... wrong. Maybe because as a pre-teen and teen I necessarily saw the world *very* differently than a twenty-something would have. One of the things that most stands out now, a bit after I've finished it, was his discussion of Friends. I just kept muttering things like "Was it?" or "Did we?" when he would say something about the show or how people reacted to it. And I think Friends as a phenomenon is an example of this age-gap thing I'm trying to get at. Friends was HUGE in my age group, but it was not FOR us. It was for (and ostensibly about) Gen X. Those of us who were obsessed with this show when we were fourteen or fifteen in the mid-nineties could not *possibly* have the same relationship to it (or the same sense of what it "meant" in and for the culture of the nineties and beyond) as someone who was obsessed with it when they were twenty-four or twenty-five at the same time. Ultimately I don't think there's anything wrong with The Nineties. I just don't think it's really for people who are *just* my age (the microgeneration sometimes referred to as Xennials, or, alternately and revoltingly, geriatric millennials). If you experienced any part of the nineties in your twenties or older (or, in the other direction, if you missed it entirely), I think this book may have a decent bit to offer about what it was like. For me, the book was just left of yep.

97lycomayflower
Bewerkt: nov 25, 2022, 4:27 pm

46.) Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, Kate Beaton ****

CA: rape, sexual harassment, racism

Beaton's graphic memoir of the two years in her early twenties when she worked in the oil sands in Alberta to pay down her student loans. I learned so much about Canada from this book, most of it sort of eye-opening. (I think a lot of USians have this notion that Canada is the US with socialism and without all the ugly stuff that plagues us down here (racism, student debt, misogyny, etc), and even though I KNOW (and have become increasingly aware over the last few years) that that's at best reductionist and at worst flat-out false, seeing it illustrated (ha!) here was another piece in the puzzle of getting a better grip on the country we share such a massive border with. If you're familiar with Beaton's humorous comics, you'll recognize her art style here, but otherwise this memoir is very different from her previous work. It has its amusing moments, but mostly it's a bit heavy and somewhat melancholy. I found it went on just a touch long for my interest (and some of the background characters sort of blurred together), but your mileage may vary on that and I think it's well worth the read anyway.

98MickyFine
nov 25, 2022, 8:39 pm

>97 lycomayflower: I'm glad it was such a rewarding read for you. If you want recommendations on other nonfiction Canadiana to read, I can probably put together some suggestions.

99laytonwoman3rd
nov 25, 2022, 9:34 pm

>98 MickyFine: If she doesn't (but she will), I do!

100lycomayflower
nov 25, 2022, 9:44 pm

>98 MickyFine: Suggest away.

101lycomayflower
nov 25, 2022, 9:50 pm

47.) Some By Virtue Fall, Alexandra Rowland ***1/2

A fantasy novella about an acting troupe struggling with a rival troupe and a contentious patron. This was pleasant and entertaining (the fact that all men have been banished from the stage in this world because they were getting into too many fights is a really nice touch), with a nearly all-female cast and nice casual queer representation. I felt a little like I'd been dropped into a world I was supposed to already know something about (not lost, exactly, just maybe a little turned around), and I'm not sure if there are other books set in the same world I could have read first. In any case, a nice enough couple of reading hours.

102MickyFine
Bewerkt: nov 25, 2022, 11:53 pm

>99 laytonwoman3rd: >100 lycomayflower: If you're looking for narrative nonfiction Canadian history, Pierre Berton is your man. He wrote tons of books spanning from The War of 1812 to The Last Spike to Vimy. It's not all big historical moments either, his book about the Dionne quintuplets (The Dionne Years) was a fascinating read. While they're older and a bit tricky to find in print (ebooks are pretty readily available though), they're still a solid outline for a range of major events in Canadian history.

The Summary Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a hard but vital read for understanding residential schools in Canada and the massive impact they've had on First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people in Canada.

There are tons of great memoirs I could recommend. We Have Always Been Here is a memoir from Samra Habib, a queer, Muslim Canadian woman that won both Canada Reads and a Lambda award. The Skin We're In is a memoir from Desmond Cole, a Black Canadian who protested systemic racism within the Toronto Police service. Life in the City of Dirty Water is Clayton Thomas-Muller's memoir of growing up dealing with intergenerational trauma from residential schools, becoming a drug dealer, and ultimately through connecting with his Cree spirituality becoming an environmental activist. Sarah Polley is a well-known actress (she was a child star on the highly-beloved Canadian show Road to Avonlea) turned director whose memoir in essays, Run Towards the Danger, has been really big this year.

If you're interested in women's history, One Hundred Years of Struggle is a great overview of the suffrage movement in Canada. It's part of a larger series that covers suffrage in different regions of Canada but the nationwide overview in this volume is probably good for your purposes.

That's probably more than you wanted. Ordering nonfiction for a Canadian public library means I can spew titles at you for ages...

103foggidawn
nov 28, 2022, 9:49 am

>96 lycomayflower: Sounds like I am the same age as you, so I'll probably skip that one. I never got into Friends -- I watched an episode here and there, but I've never seen the whole thing. I was aware of it as a cultural phenomenon, but I didn't have any close friends who were obsessed with it either, so it kind of went over my head. So '90s nostalgia that relies heavily on that specific phenomenon leaves me cold.

104lycomayflower
nov 29, 2022, 9:37 pm

>102 MickyFine: Thanks, Micky.

>103 foggidawn: Well, Klosterman only spent a few pages on Friends, so I wouldn't steer you away from the book on that basis alone. But, yeah, I still just don't think it is FOR us.

105lycomayflower
nov 29, 2022, 9:45 pm

48.) The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green, read by the author ****1/2

CA: references to child death and SIDS, the Covid-19 pandemic, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation

A collection of essays in which Green reviews various aspects of the anthropocene (that's the time period in which humans have been the dominant influence on Earth). Sometimes the topic is lighthearted (or seems so), like the essay on Dr. Pepper, and sometimes you know from the get-go you're in for something a bit weighty, like the essay about our capacity for wonder. Whatever the topic, the essay will have Green's signature ability to bring poignancy, humor, and a lot of facts into the mix. I enjoyed this thoroughly, and I recommend the audiobook, especially if you are accustomed to hearing Green speak (through his podcasts or online videos). If you know Green's cadences, you're gonna hear him in your head anyway, so you might as well let him read the essays to you. I think there's probably more nuance that way, though I'm sure reading the book yourself is a just fine experience as well.

106lycomayflower
Bewerkt: nov 29, 2022, 9:53 pm

49.) Winter Lullaby, Diane White and Ramona Kaulitzki ****

A picture book in which the rhyming text takes the form of a mama bear trying to convince her cub that it's time to hibernate for winter. The cub doesn't want to go to sleep and points out all the other animals that seem to still be up and about. The mother explains how they are all settling in for winter, too, and the illustrations (which are what I would call realism-tinged cartoonish) show all the various burrow, nests, and hidey-holes of the various animals. The text is fine, but the illustrations are just lovely. This will be heading off to my youngest niece for Christmas.

107lycomayflower
Bewerkt: nov 29, 2022, 11:00 pm

50.) The Bureau volume 1, Kim Fielding ****

CA: violence, period-appropriate ableism, mild horror elements, open-door romance

A collection of the first three short novellas in Fielding's Bureau of Trans-Species Affairs series. In mid-twentieth century America, monsters are real, and the agents of the Bureau keep people safe from them, generally by killing them. Each novella involves a case where a man is on the trail of a particular monster who turns out not to be so monstrous after all. These are m/m romance novellas, so there's falling in love, of course, but each story is really about exploring what "monster" means and when and why we assign that designation. I liked the first (Corruption) and last (Creature) novellas best, with the middle one hitting me as just okay. Creature, in particular, did some nice subverting of its inspiration, Frankenstein.

108MickyFine
nov 29, 2022, 10:53 pm

>105 lycomayflower: I read it in print first and then re-read it as an audio and found both experiences great.

109lauralkeet
nov 30, 2022, 6:54 am

>105 lycomayflower: Great review, Laura. For some reason I didn't pay close attention to this when it was released. But my daughter (huge John Green fan) just mentioned it last weekend and now here's your review. I think it's a sign. On the list it goes!

110foggidawn
nov 30, 2022, 9:36 am

>48 lycomayflower: I've been meaning to get to that one, but I do want to listen to the audiobook, so I've been kind of waiting for a big chunk of listening time (like a solo car trip or something).

111lycomayflower
dec 1, 2022, 9:46 pm

>109 lauralkeet:, >110 foggidawn: I hope you both enjoy them when you get to them!

112lycomayflower
dec 1, 2022, 9:58 pm

51.) The Mouse in the Hammock: A Christmas Tale, Bethany Brevard and Marcin Piwowarski ***

A picture book about a small stuffed mouse who sleeps in a hammock in a family's Christmas tree and sneaks out at night to do the "small" work that needs to happen before Christmas, like mending the Christmas stockings and refilling the cookie jar. The illustrations are okay, but the story just didn't quite work for me. It's meant to encourage little kids to help around the house at Christmas in order to participate in making the holiday happen, which is fine. But it felt "elf on the shelf"-y in ways that I just didn't love. And even for a story for young children it felt like it had holes. Why does the mouse come alive? (Apparently it's only at Christmas, but there's no real suggestion of it being the magic of the season.) Do any of other Christmas things he is packed away with the rest of the year come alive? (I guess not.) Why does the mouse sleep in a hammock in the tree? Where'd the hammock come from? (There's an author's note at the end that explains that the inspiration for the story comes from a mouse ornament in a hammock that's always been on her tree.) And the prose feels a bit stilted and choppy, which is *especially* annoying since there is a version of the story at the end in the style of The Night Before Christmas, and it has all the cleverness, charm, and rhyme that the story as presented throughout the book lacks. I feel like maybe I'm being a little harsh, but the book just didn't quite work for me. This was supposed to be a present for my littlest niece. I think I'm back to the drawing board on her Christmas book for this year.

113lycomayflower
dec 3, 2022, 3:13 pm

52.) The Christmas Crocodile, Bonny Becker and David Small ****

A little girl finds a crocodile under the tree on Christmas Eve, and he doesn't *mean* to be bad, but he keeps eating everything he can find. All the family members have ideas about what to do with him, but in the meantime he's banished to the basement. And, again, he doesn't *mean* to bad... The crocodile keeps getting into mischief, but eventually the family can't bear to let him be alone on Christmas Eve in the basement, so they all keep him company through the night. But in the morning, he doesn't *mean* to be bad... This is a delightful picture book with beautiful and hilarious illustrations showing all the chaos the crocodile gets up to. In the end he finds a more appropriate home, but is the family really rid of the chaos he brought? I loved this (just my kind of whimsy), and the illustrations are inviting and detailed enough that I think it would reward repeat reading. A present for the nieces.

114foggidawn
dec 3, 2022, 4:01 pm

>113 lycomayflower: Glad you had a good one after the dud in your last review.

115lycomayflower
dec 8, 2022, 9:02 pm

>114 foggidawn: Thanks! It's always nice when, if there's gonna be a dud, it's followed by a goodie!

116lycomayflower
dec 8, 2022, 9:12 pm

53.) The Lincoln Highway, Amor Towles ***1/2

CA: violence (mostly minor), suicide, period-appropriate racist language

I was looking forward to this one since I enjoyed The Gentleman in Moscow, but for me Lincoln Highway was just... fine. It follows a number of characters in 1954 America, all connected to Emmett and Billy Watson, two brothers setting off to see if they can trace their mother, who ran off years before, in California. They start out heading the wrong way, through the machinations of two other young men Emmett knew in a boys' work camp he was sent to as sentence for accidentally killing a boy the year before with a badly placed punch. It's clear pretty early on that Emmett and Billy will never make it to California (or at least, they won't within the book's pages), and their journey is a kind of odyssey (yeah, like the Homeric one), where they run into obstacle after adventure after obstacle. And it's... fine. I didn't feel like I knew the characters as well as I'd have liked (and some of the most interesting characters seemed to get the least page time), and, weirdly, the settings never fully came alive for me. The end comes together, in it's own way, but I had this sense that it was all meant to mean *something*, but somehow didn't. *shrug* It was fine.

117lycomayflower
dec 8, 2022, 9:25 pm

54.) The Secret History of Christmas, Bill Bryson, read by Bill Bryson ****

An audible original written and read by Bryson, this is a quick (~three and a half hours) history of Christmas, largely focusing on customs and traditions surrounding the holiday and why and how those customs and traditions came about. If you like Bryson, you will probably like this--it has his usual blend of facts and strange tidbits and humor. Once or twice I had a "are you sure about that, Bill?" moment, but not enough (nor was I all that certain of the facts myself, really) to hamper enjoyment. Perhaps a trifle disjointed in a spot or two, but again, that's a quibble. The only real ding against was that I thought he got a little ethnocentric at the very end, in a way I found a hair unpleasant. Not ugly, exactly, just eyebrow-raise-y. "Our" Santa is the best... because he's real? Was that a sop to the kids who might be listening? I dunno. In any case, a mostly quite enjoyable companion the last week or so to the odd Christmas chore around the house.

118lycomayflower
Bewerkt: dec 9, 2022, 7:48 pm

55.) Little Red Sleigh, Erin Guendelsberger and Elizaveta Tretyakova ****

In this picture book, a little red sleigh has big dreams--she wants to grow up to be Santa's sleigh. She sets off on a journey to the North Pole, but she is unable to make it there in time for Christmas Eve. But she *does* bring delight and joy to a group of children who spend a happy afternoon riding her down a hill. And on Christmas morning she has a lovely note from Santa himself thanking her for helping him spread joy to children
and inviting her to the North Pole next Christmas. Nice message about having dreams while also not overlooking the parts of your dream you may already have. Lovely illustrations. For my littlest niece.

119lycomayflower
Bewerkt: dec 12, 2022, 8:44 pm

56.) MM Scrooge, Lee Colgin ***1/2

CA: dubcon, under-negotiated kink, humiliation play

Max Masters Scrooge is a jerk. He cares about money and himself, often at the expense of those around him, even--or especially--his boyfriends and romantic partners. Shortly after an intense and lovely steamy encounter with a new client in the showers at the gym where he works, Max is visited by the Bogeyman, who has Christmas Eve off from scaring children and has agreed to use his night off to scare Max right. This involves learning lessons (through kink) at the hands of three men he wronged in the past, and when Max is successfully terrified, shamed, and guided into trying to be a better person, the Bogeyman gives him the gift of returning him to reality before he screwed things up with his shower encounter. And then a romance brews.

I enjoyed that Colgin didn't try to stick too firmly to a retelling of A Christmas Carol and instead just used the basic supernatural redemption plus three encounters idea. The book feels maybe a little weirdly divided into two--the "ghosts bit" and the "romance bit"--and Max and Daniel fall in love just a little too fast, but I quibble. It was a fun read.

120lycomayflower
Bewerkt: dec 12, 2022, 11:02 pm

57.) Once Upon a Wardrobe, Patti Callahan ***1/2

CA: sick child, child death

This novel tells the story of elements of C.S. Lewis's life that may have been relevant to the creation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe through the frame of a young Oxford student having meetings with Lewis in order to bring stories back to her little brother, who is both obsessed with Narnia and dying of a heart condition. Flirts with tweeness the whole way through but manages to avoid slipping over the line. A pretty good illustration of the power and meaningfulness of stories while also being a decent biofiction of parts of Lewis's life. The relationship between Megs and her brother is nicely drawn, as is the light romance Megs gets drawn into with a fellow Oxford student.

121lycomayflower
dec 16, 2022, 10:10 pm

58.) The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree, Gloria Houston and Barbara Cooney ****

A picture book set in the Blue Ridge in North Carolina during WWI, The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree is the story of a young girl named Ruthie, whose family's turn it is to provide the community Christmas tree for the village church. She goes into the mountains with her father in the spring to mark a balsam tree to be cut down just before Christmas, but when he is called to war over the summer, the family's Christmas and their ability to provide the church with the perfect tree are thrown into jeopardy. This is a nice tale, pleasantly and pleasingly predictable (I won't spoil the particulars, but all turns out well, largely through the efforts of Ruthie's hardworking and resourceful mother), and the illustrations and small details about life in rural Appalachian North Carolina in the early twentieth century make the story special.

122PaulCranswick
dec 26, 2022, 3:30 pm



Malaysia's branch of the 75er's wishes you and yours a happy holiday season, Laura.

123lycomayflower
dec 28, 2022, 9:21 am

59.) How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Dr. Seuss ****

A delight, of course, especially the language and the illustrations, though I'll admit that I do like the original animated TV special better.

124lycomayflower
dec 28, 2022, 9:27 am

60.) A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens *****

Sentimental, of course, but in the best way. And the language and descriptions! Top notch. I read this every years for decades, but I skipped a few years recently because I had the story so nearly memorized that I found it hard to really read it anymore. This year I subscribed to a newsletter that sent a little snippet of the story each day from 1 December through Christmas Day. The person doing it divided it up masterfully, and it was wonderful to revisit the book again in this way.

125PaulCranswick
dec 28, 2022, 8:42 pm

>124 lycomayflower: Yes difficult to go wrong with that one, Laura.

126Berly
dec 29, 2022, 12:13 am

>124 lycomayflower: The daily snippets sounds fun!

127lycomayflower
Bewerkt: jan 16, 2023, 2:47 pm

Here's my wrap-up for 2022. As per usual, some of my math seems suspect. I'm good with it.

Total books read: 60
Total pages read: 13,210
Average length: 220 pages
Average length of primarily print eyeball books: ~330 pages

(Plus 2,944,823 words of fanfic. Sooo, ~7,362 pages? Or... ~22 books worth of fanfic.)

Print: 58
Audio: 2
E-book: 0
Graphic: 5
Comics: 3
Picture books: 10

Fiction: 48
Nonfiction: 11
Poetry: 0

Male authors: 22
Female authors: 37
Non-binary authors: 3

BIPOC authors: 7
Queer authors: 20
Translated works: 1

Favorite Reads of 2022:
The Boy with a Bird in His Chest
I'm Looking Through You
Miss Memory Lane
Boyfriend Material
I Kissed Shara Wheeler

Misses:
The Apothecary's Garden
Monster and the Beast vol. 1
The Naturalist
The Cartographers
The Anomaly

I will be trying something different in 2023 (see the new thread for more), and I will be doing it here.

128lycomayflower
Bewerkt: jan 16, 2023, 3:05 pm

A link to 2023 thread not buried in the wrap-up:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/347789