scaifea's 2023 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, turned back to librarian. When I'm not at the library, I spend my time sewing, writing, knitting, baking, and, of course, reading.

I'm 47 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 sixth 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 characters in masks and/or uniforms because why not.

Currently Reading:
-Light from Uncommon Stars (CAT#2: YALSA Award Winners + November RandomKIT)
-Deryni Rising (CAT#3: 1001 Fantasy Books You Must Read Before You Turn Into a Newt)
-My Hero Academia vol 14 (CAT#4: Manga)
-N or M? (CAT#5: Mysteries + CAT#11: Favorite Author Bibliographies)
-Katherine (CAT#6: Romance)
-Practical Magic (CAT#7: Books from My Wishlist)
-Fangirl (CAT#7: Books from My Wishlist + CAT#8: Audiobooks)
-Lair of the Lion (CAT#9: Beauty and the Beast Retellings)
-Linger (CAT#11: Favorite Author Bibliographies)
-The Prince and the Dressmaker (CAT#18: Books from My Read Soon! Shelves)
-Snow (CAT#20: Everything Else)

BingoDOG



1: Features music or a musician: Drums along the Mohawk
2: Features or is set in an Inn or Hotel: So Cold the River
3: Features a member of the cat family (as big a cat as you like): Heartless
4: The next book in a series you've started: Heartstopper vol 4
5: A book by an author that shares your sign of the zodiac: The Call of Cthulhu
6: A memoir: A Face for Picasso
7: A bestselling book from 20 years ago: Bad Feminist
8: Book with a plant in the title or on the cover: Wildwood
9: A book with switched or stolen identities: I Am Not Esther
10: A book that taught you something: Still Alice
11: A book with a book on the cover: Forgotten Bookmarks
12: Features something art or craft related: Summer Bird Blue
13: Read a CAT: The Devotion of Suspect X
14: A book with a small town or rural setting: Shuna's Journey
15: A book on a SETM topic (Science Technology, Engineering or Maths): Jacquard's Web
16: A book with an LT rating of 4 or more: A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns
17: A book by a local or regional author: Premeditated Peppermint
18: A book involving an accident: Elatsoe
19: A book featuring a journalist or about journalism: A Heartbeat Away
20: A popular author's first book: The Thief of Time
21: A book on a topic you don't usually read: Kon Tiki
22: A book with a number or quantity in the title: A Parcel of Patterns
23: A book by an author under 30: The Great Gatsby
24: A book set on a plane, train or ship: The Day the World Came to Town
25: A book in >1000 libraries on LT: When He Was Wicked

AlphaKIT
January - I S: I Am Not Esther & Spider Sparrow
February - J F: The Joy Luck Club & Taken at the Flood
March - G A: The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy & Almost Flying
April - W D: The Woman in White & The Ghost Drum
May - U C: Destination Unknown & The Changeover
June - B K: They Came to Baghdad & Kon Tiki
July - O P: Ordeal by Innocence & Notes on a Nervous Planet
August - M Q: The Moving Finger & Queen Charlotte
September - V E: The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne & Evil Under the Sun
October - N H: Nick and Charlie & The Hollow
November - T L: They Both Die at the End & A Land More Kind Than Home
December - R Y: The Reader & The Boy Detective: A New York Childhood
Yearlong X and Z: Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix & The Storied Life of A J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

RandomKIT
January - Hidden Gems: Jacquard's Web
February - Second or Two: A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns
March - Water Water Everywhere: Almost Flying
April - The Seven Ages of Man: Two Nights in Lisbon
May - Royal Names: Hollow Kingdom
June - Walls: The Darkness Outside Us
July - The Muppets: Wildwood
August - Tell Me Something Good: The Agathas
September - Wild Wild West: Tiger Lily
October - Treats not Tricks: Nick and Charlie
November - A Little Light: Why Buddhism Is True
December - Oh Christmas Tree: In the Event of Love

CAT#1: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
I've been working through the entries in this book for going on 15 years now, but I'm fairly sure I'll finish it this year.

1. A Parcel of Patterns
2. Spider Sparrow
3. I Am Not Esther
4. Strange Objects
5. The Ghost Drum
6. The Changeover

ETA: Finished!!

CAT#2: YALSA Award Winners
I've been reading the Young Adult Library Services award winners for years now, and I love it. It takes me about a year to get through all of them from the previous announcements, so it works out well.

1. A Face for Picasso (Schneider Honor Book)
2. Last Night at the Telegraph Club (Stonewall Award + Printz Honor Book)
3. Almost Flying (Stonewall Honor Book)
4. Freewater (Newbery Medal)
5. The Darkness Outside Us (Stonewall Honor Book)
6. Firekeeper's Daughter (Printz Award)
7. Concrete Rose (Printz Honor Book)
8. I'm Glad My Mom Died (Alex Award)

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.

1. Lest Darkness Fall
2. Silverlock

CAT#4: Manga
This past year Charlie has gotten interested in manga, and so have I!

1. Shuna's Journey
2. My Hero Academia vol 7
3. Assassination Classroom vol 3
4. My Hero Academia vol 8
5. Given vol 1
6. Assassination Classroom vol 4
7. My Hero Academia vol 9
8. Given vol 2
9. My Hero Academia vol 10
10. Assassination Classroom vol 5
11. My Hero Academia vol 11
12. Assassination Classroom vol 6
13. My Hero Academia vol 12
14. Beastars vol 1
15. My Hero Academia vol 13
16. Black Butler vol 1

CAT#5: Mysteries
I love a good mystery.

1. Taken at the Flood
2. Killer Research
3. Destination Unknown
4. The Plot and the Pendulum
5. They Came to Baghdad
6. Premeditated Peppermint
7. Ordeal by Innocence
8. Toxic Toffee
9. The Moving Finger
10. Marshmallow Malice
11. Evil Under the Sun
12. The Hollow

CAT#6: 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.

1. Heartstopper vol 4
2. When He Was Wicked
3. It's in His Kiss
4. On the Way to the Wedding
5. Queen Charlotte
6. The Ugly Duchess
7. Glitterland
8. Let It Snow
9. You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince

CAT#7: 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.

1. The Devotion of Suspect X
2. Still Alice
3. A Heartbeat Away
4. Jacquard's Web
5. The Day the World Came to Town
6. So Cold the River
7. Sarah's Key
8. Ape House
9. The World Without Us
10. The Woman in White
11. A Gentleman in Moscow
12. Pi: A Biography
13. The Strain
14. Blizzard of Glass
15. The Night Strangers
16. Lunatics
17. The Things That Keep Us Here
18. The White Devil
19. When She Woke
20. Sin in the Second City
21. The Tiger: A Story of Vengeance and Survival
22. The Lodger
23. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher
24. Wrapped
25. Eleanor & Park
26. The Farm
27. Z for Zachariah
28. Towing Jehovah
29. Bird Box
30. Thirteen Reasons Why
31. They Both Die at the End
32. A Land More Kind Than Home
33. Why Buddhism Is True
34. The Reader
35. The Boy Detective: A New York Childhood
36. The Mind's Eye

CAT#8: Audiobooks
I listen to books while vacuuming, sewing, and driving, so I get through a fair amount in a year, generally.
(Come on, you knew Hiddleston was gonna make the list.)

1. The Devotion of Suspect X
2. Elatsoe
3. Still Alice
4. Summer Bird Blue
5. A Heartbeat Away
6. Radio Silence
7. The Day the World Came to Town
8. Tarnished Are the Stars
9. In the Ravenous Dark
10. So Cold the River
11. The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy
12. Sophie Go's Lonely Hearts Club
13. Sarah's Key
14. The Cat Who Saved Books
15. The Weird Sisters
16. Heartless
17. Ape House
18. The Screwtape Letters
19. Two Nights in Lisbon
20. The World Without Us
21. The Woman in White
22. Bad Feminist
23. Destination Unknown
24. The Strain
25. The Young Elites
26. Blizzard of Glass
27. The Witches
28. The Night Strangers
29. Ash
30. Lunatics
31. Avalon High
32. The Things That Keep Us Here
33. The Coming of the Dragon
34. The White Devil
35. The Jumbies
36. The Martian
37. The Looking Glass Wars
38. When She Woke
39. The Lost Sun
40. Sin in the Second City
41. The Snow Child
42. The Tiger: A Story of Vengeance and Survival
43. The Star-Touched Queen
44. The Agathas
45. The Lodger
46. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher
47. Tiger Lily
48. The Ugly Duchess
49. Wrapped
50. The Deep
51. Eleanor & Park
52. Promise Boys
53. Boy Meets Boy
54. The Farm
55. Ghost Wood Song
56. Z for Zachariah
57. Cinderella Is Dead
58. Bird Box
59. Jay's Gay Agenda
60. Thirteen Reasons Why
61. Of Fire and Stars
62. The Getaway
63. They Both Die at the End
64. A Land More Kind Than Home
65. Why Buddhism Is True
66. The Downstairs Girl
67. The Reader
68. The Boy Detective: A New York Childhood
69. The Mind's Eye
70. In the Event of Love
71. How to Excavate a Heart
72. Kiss Her Once for Me
73. A Child's Christmas in Wales
74. Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection
75. The Silent Patient

CAT#9: Beauty and the Beast Retellings
So sometime last year I decided, for reasons I can't recall, that I should read through all the B&B retellings I can find. Yep.
(When I was in high school I was *obsessed* with this TV movie version of The Phantom of the Opera.)

1. A Court of Silver Flames
2. The Beauty and the Beast
3. Beauty and the Werewolf
4. Making Faces
5. East

CAT#10: Books Read Aloud with the Family at Night
I'll list here the books my husband, my 14-year-old, and I read out loud together at night.

CAT#11: 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.

1. Taken at the Flood (Agatha Christie)
2. Mrs. Stephen Fry's Diary (Stephen Fry)
3. Destination Unknown (Agatha Christie)
4. They Came to Baghdad (Agatha Christie)
5. Snow, Glass, Apples (Neil Gaiman)
6. The Thief of Time (John Boyne)
7. Greywaren (Maggie Stiefvater)
8. The Moving Finger (Agatha Christie)
9. The Neil Gaiman Reader (Neil Gaiman)
10. Evil Under the Sun (Agatha Christie)
11. The Hollow (Agatha Christie)
12. Shakespeare for Squirrels (Christopher Moore)

CAT#12: 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.

1. Drums along the Mohawk
2. Kon Tiki
3. The Mysterious Island

CAT#13: National Book Award for Fiction
This one seems clear on its own, I guess. I do love award winner lists.

CAT#14: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Another award list.

CAT#15: Book-a-Year Challenge
A few 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.

1. Les Miserables (1862)

CAT#16: Shakespeare
I'm doing a full-on reread.

CAT#17: Unread Books from My Shelves
I have books on my shelves that have been there, unread, for YEARS. I need to work on that.

1. The Joy Luck Club
2. The Secret Life of Bees
3. Wildwood
4. Forgotten Bookmarks
5. The Great Gatsby

CAT#18: Books from My Read Soon! Shelves
I have a couple of shelves full of books that I really want to get to soon.

1. Hollow Kingdom
2. Notes on a Nervous Planet
3. Throne of Glass
4. Nick and Charlie
5. The Girl from the Sea

CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists
Yeah, I may have a problem with collecting more lists when I already have too many.

1. Elatsoe (23 Books Featuring Asexual Representation You Should Read)
2. Summer Bird Blue (23 Books Featuring Asexual Representation You Should Read)
3. Radio Silence (23 Books Featuring Asexual Representation You Should Read)
4. Tarnished Are the Stars (23 Books Featuring Asexual Representation You Should Read)
5. In the Ravenous Dark (23 Books Featuring Asexual Representation You Should Read)
6. The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy (23 Books Featuring Asexual Representation You Should Read))
7. Sophie Go's Lonely Hearts Club (20 Must-Read Cozy Fantasy Books)
8. The Cat Who Loved Books (20 Must-Read Cozy Fantasy Books)
9. Heartless (20 Books for Slytherins)
10. The Screwtape Letters (20 Books for Slytherins)
11. Bad Feminist (20 Books for Slytherins)
12. The Young Elites (20 Books for Slytherins)
13. The Witches (20 Books for Slytherins)
14. Ash (100 Must-Read Retellings of Myths, Folklore, and Classics)
15. Avalon High (100 Must-Read Retellings of Myths, Folklore, and Classics)
16. The Coming of the Dragon (100 Must-Read Retellings of Myths, Folklore, and Classics)
17. The Jumbies (100 Must-Read Retellings of Myths, Folklore, and Classics)
18. The Looking Glass Wars (100 Must-Read Retellings of Myths, Folklore, and Classics)
19. The Lost Sun (100 Must-Read Retellings of Myths, Folklore, and Classics)
20. The Snow Child (100 Must-Read Retellings of Myths, Folklore, and Classics)
21. The Star-Touched Queen (100 Must-Read Retellings of Myths, Folklore, and Classics)
22. Tiger Lily (100 Must-Read Retellings of Myths, Folklore, and Classics)
23. The Ugly Duchess (100 Must-Read Retellings of Myths, Folklore, and Classics)
24. The Deep (All the Queer Fantasy Books: 28 of the Best Reads)
25. Boy Meets Boy (A-Z Queer Recommendations for Pride)
26. Ghost Wood Song (A-Z Queer Recommendations for Pride)
27. Cinderella Is Dead (A-Z Queer Recommendations for Pride)
28. Jay's Gay Agenda (A-Z Queer Recommendations for Pride)
29. Of Fire and Stars (A-Z Queer Recommendations for Pride)
30. The Downstairs Girl (8 Enchanting Books Like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society)
31. In the Event of Love (LGBTQ Holiday Romances)
32. How to Excavate a Heart (LGBTQ Holiday Romances)
33. Kiss Her Once for Me (LGBTQ Holiday Romances)
34. You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince (LGBTQ Holiday Romances)

CAT#20: Everything Else
I'll list here the books that don't fit any of the above categories.

1. On the Road
2. Mother May I
3. The Hawkline Monster
4. Floodland
5. The Lost Library
6. The Halloween Tree
7. A House with Good Bones
8. A Christmas Carol

Wow! Those graphics are cool.Good luck with your reading in 2023.

I will be back to follow the Beauty and the Beast retellings. I love them and read all I can find. I may just return for all the eye candy , swoons at Bucky and Dean.

I'm dropping a star, Amber, and wishing you a great 2023!

I love seeing what you and Charlie are reading, so looking forward to more BBs in 2023!

>22 scaifea: Bucky! My poor heart!!!
I miss Snape and Benedict already, but this idea is very neat. I‘m looking forward to following along!

Great CATS! Good luck with your 2023 reading.

Awesome categories! Happy reading!

Looking forward to catching some BBs from your interesting reading!

Looking forward to another year of being peppered by book bullets.

>9 scaifea: is one of my favourite films.
>8 scaifea: Just makes me smile - used to love Scooby Doo!
>18 scaifea: Stig! I'm going to be working my way backwards in time again this year. Looking forward to nicking ideas from your list!

Great idea to have a category to whittle down the Amazon wishlist! I'll also be interested to see what manga you read; I've gotten into it myself this year.

>24 LadyoftheLodge: Thanks so much! Good luck with your reading, too!

>25 lowelibrary: I started the B&B thing last year, but I've only read one so far because I got sucked into its series and am still working on it - it's so good! (A Court of Thorn and Roses).

Bucky and Dean (and Sammy) are very swoon-worthy. It's a pity to have that mask on Bucky's pretty face, honestly.

>26 DeltaQueen50: Thanks, Judy! Wishing you the same!

>27 JayneCM: Our family reading has been really slow this last year now that Charlie's into school extracurriculars, but we're still hanging in there.

>28 MissBrangwen: Yes! Bucky!!

And yes, it was a tough thing to let Snape and Cumberbuttons go. I'll have to come up with a theme that will include them next time again.

>29 Tess_W: >30 MissWatson: >31 NinieB: Thanks!!

>32 Helenliz: The Princess Bride is an absolute classic and gets quoted in our house pretty much on a daily basis. And yay for Scooby Doo!

The Stig is the best, isn't he? I got a bit bogged down in my books-a-year thing this year because I'm reading Les Mis for it and taking my sweet time about it. I'm loving it, though!

Hope you have a good year reading. Although I read differently than you, you still usually get me with a couple of BBs every year.

>41 dudes22: Ha! For some reason that made me think of The Shakiest Gun in the West. I loved that movie as a kid...

>40 scaifea: Same here - Have fun storming the castle in 2023!

>43 JayneCM: Yes!!

Fabulous graphics! Have fun whittling down your lists in 2023. I'll be following along.

>45 VivienneR: Thanks, Vivienne!

Fun pics! Good luck with the challenge!

>47 majkia: Thanks!

>12 scaifea: I'll be especially interested to see what you read for Beauty & the Beast.

>49 markon: Thanks! Right now I'm working through Sarah J Maas's A Court of Thorn and Roses series, the first of which is a very cool retelling of B&B. Highly recommend it!

Stopping by with best wishes for your 2023 reading.

>51 lkernagh: Thank you! Happy Holidays!

Hope you have a great year of reading!

>53 thornton37814: Thanks, Lori - same to you!

>12 scaifea:, >35 scaifea: May I suggest Beauty by Robin McKinley and The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey

>55 lowelibrary: Thanks - those are already on the list!

I liked The Fire Rose well enough to reread it and it’s still on my shelves.

Have fun with your reading this year.

Happy New Year and many good books, Amber!

>57 hailelib: I'm glad you enjoyed it!

>58 MissBrangwen: Thanks!

CAT#2: YALSA Award Winners
BingoDOG#6: Memoir

1. A Face for Picasso by Ariel Henley
A memoir that recounts the author's childhood through her college years as she and her twin sister struggled through myriad surgeries to 'correct' their faces, which were misshapen as a result of being born with Crouzon syndrome.

I generally enjoy this type of middle grade/teen (this one's more on the teen side) book for how they expose readers to lives that are very likely different from their own - and for how they represent other readers who can find themselves in their pages. This one, though, felt a little counterproductive on that front. I hesitate to criticize memoirs on any level, because I think their authors are a particular kind of brave and should be praised for having the stamina and courage to open up their lives to others in such a way. So I don't say this lightly and I'm also not claiming that there isn't value in the book in a lot of respects. It just didn't quite work for me overall. Henley seems to focus too heavily on her struggles for it to be an inspirational story; I was left wondering who this story was intended for. Also, the parallels Henley tries to draw between herself and Picasso are strained and in places trite, and in the end it reads like a forced comparison in a first year composition paper.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks
BingoDOG#13: Read a CAT

2. The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
Yasuko, a single mother working in a lunchbox shop, is unpleasantly surprised by a sudden reappearance of her deadbeat, abusive ex-husband. When he immediately starts back up with his old, manipulative ways, things get out of hand and Yasuko finds herself and her daughter in their apartment with a dead body. Enter their next-door neighbor Ishigami, a quiet math teacher who is secretly in love with Yasuko. He quickly takes over and handles all the details of covering up the murder, and his brilliance has the detectives on the case baffled. However, an old college friend of Ishigami is just as much of a genius, or maybe more. Will Detective Galileo be able to crack the case or will the lengths Ishigami is willing to go to protect Yasuko be more than anyone can imagine?

This mystery is a cool twist on the usual layout of the reader trying to figure out the murderer along with the detectives. Instead, we witness the murder first and follow along as the police struggle toward the resolution. The real mystery is something else entirely, and its result is clever and surprising. I loved it. The story is inventive and great, and the characters have an emotional depth you don't see that often in this kind of procedural story. Definitely recommended.

CAT#6: Romance
BingoDOG#4: The next book in a series you've started

3. Heartstopper vol 4 by Alice Oseman
More adventures in the romance between Nick and Charlie. This volume delves into the issue of Charlie's eating disorder and brings up some excellent points about how loved ones can and can't help. Such an excellent series, this.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists
BingoDOG#18: A book involving an accident

4. Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Elatsoe (Ellie, for short) lives in an alternate US where monsters exist (vampires, coyote people, ghosts) and certain people have hereditary magic of various kinds. Ellie, like her grandmothers and mother before her, can raises ghost animals (but never people) and is always accompanied by her ghost-dog, Kirby. When her cousin dies in what is reported as a car crash, he comes to her in a dream to explain that it was actually murder and even tells her who the culprit is. But the murderer is a respected and highly successful doctor in a small Texas town, and the townspeople don't like Ellie and her family sniffing around...

I loved the story and the characters here, plus the mystery of who the bad doctor really is and what's actually going on in that creepy town is inventive and cool.

>62 scaifea: I have this one from the library! Such a good series.

>64 rabbitprincess: Yay! Have you watched the show? It's also excellent.

CAT#9: Beauty and the Beast Retellings

5. A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
Another great entry in this series, and I hope it's not the last. What started out as an inventive retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story has evolved into an intricate epic with excellent world building, characters that you can't help but adore, and a wonderful overall story arc. It's easily one of my all-time favorite series now.



CAT#4: Manga
BingoDOG#14: A book with a small town or rural setting

6. Shuna's Journey by Hayao Miyazaki
Miyazaki (of Studio Ghibli fame) treats us to a sweet and lovely retelling of a Tibetan folktale in which a boy sets out from his destitute village to find the source of the desperately-needed healthy grain seeds and finds himself on a long journey with sometimes dangerous and generally magical adventures. I loved it.

>61 scaifea:
The Devotion of Suspect Xsounds good and my library actually has it.

I would also like to try Shuna's Journey but that would have to come from a bookstore.

>67 hailelib: Yay! I hope you enjoy the Higashino! I'm sorry your library doesn't have the Miyazaki, though.

Happy reading in 2023.

I also liked The Devotion of Suspect X. I think the translation was clumsy, but the story was so good it made up for it.

>69 pamelad: I liked the story enough that I wasn't even paying attention to notion of translation.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks
BingoDOG#10: A book that taught you something

7. Still Alice by Lisa Genova
A novel about Alice, a successful Harvard linguistics professor who, at the age of fifty, begins to show signs of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. The story follows her descent into the disease and the effect it has on both her and her family. Told from her point of view, the reader gets a heartbreaking and terrifying look at what it's like to lose yourself bit by bit to this condition. Recommended.

CAT#4: Manga

8. My Hero Academia vol 7 by Kohei Horikoshi
We get to see the UA High gang meet up with Stain - a very bad guy - and we get some background on Bakugo in this one. I love this series.

CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists
CAT#8: Audiobooks
BingoDOG#12: Features something art or craft related

9. Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman
A teen girl loses her sister in a car accident and is sent to Hawaii to stay with her aunt while her mother deals with the loss of her youngest daughter. Rumi works through her grief and anger while making new friends and trying to find her own voice as he redefines her life without her best friend and sister.

It's a little slow to get going - the first third is a bit heavy on Rumi's angst, although that's also understandable, I guess - but it deals well with responding to loss as such a young age. Overall I enjoyed it.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

10. A Heartbeat Away by Michael Palmer
During the State of the Union address a terrorist group known as Genesis remotely detonates several vials of a deadly and very contagious virus hidden in the bags of various members of congress. The president orders the building put on lockdown, and so the countdown for an antidote begins. And the only person knowledgeable enough to create such a thing has been in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison for the last 8 months.

Does what it says on the tin. For the most part. The plot is interesting and has some nice twists, but I could have used a bit more seat-edginess. As far as thrillers go, it needs more thrills. Still, not a bad read.



CAT#1: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up

11. A Parcel of Patterns by Jill Patton Walsh
A fictional account of how the plague laid waste to the English town of Eyam in 1665-1666. With a tame little love story thrown in for good measure.

It was okay, although the middle dragged a bit and some of the actions of the main character were frustrating in a not-good way. As far as stories go, it was pretty good, but as far as plague narratives go, it wasn't my favorite.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
January RandomKIT: Hidden Gems
BingoDOG#15: STEM

12. Jacquard's Web by James Essinger
An account of how the invention of a weaving machine led to the birth of computers.

Welp. Chalk this one up on the list of books on fascinating subjects that are poorly written. So disappointing. It reads like an amateurish dissertation, with lots of unnecessary rehashing and arguments made too forcefully (ex: Essinger, in a discussion of an image he shares of an invoice for Charles Babbage's purchase of one of Jacquard's woven portraits, says both that, "This clearly shows the sum he paid - 200 francs," and then later on the same page, "It seems quite clear that Babbage kept the invoice as a record of having purchased the woven portrait and of how much it cost him." I...could not possibly care less how much Mr. Babbage paid for the thing, for sobbing out loud. And dude, just let the thing speak for itself - I'm not an idiot; I can read the invoice. Move on, maybe. And there were moments like this throughout. It made me feel like I was supposed to be grading it as a student paper instead of enjoying a published work on an interesting topic. Gah.

>75 scaifea: - That's too bad, Amber. It could have been an interesting topic. Do you think it was a case of not having enough information for a whole book?

>76 dudes22: No, I think he had plenty to talk about. It was just...poorly done.

Hi Amber, just suggesting The Beauty of the Wolf by Wray Delaney (Sally Gardner) for your Beauty & Beast retellings.

>78 avatiakh: I may have to add that one to my TBR list as well!

>78 avatiakh: Thanks!

CAT#1: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
January AlphaKIT: S

13. Spider Sparrow by Dick King-Smith
Between the world wars somewhere in the English countryside, a shepherd finds a baby left amongst his lambing ewes and takes it home to his wife. They've never been able to have their own children, so they adopt him and raise him as their own. But Spider Sparrow is different from the local children. He's 'slow' and isn't allowed in school, but he also has an uncanny relationship to all animals; they instinctively trust him and he loves them all in return. This comes in handy several times on The Mister's farm-estate, from comforting ewes in labor to gentling wild broncos.

This is a quiet story, in which not much happens but that doesn't take away from the enjoyment of it. It's cozy without being saccharine, bittersweet without being maudlin. A perfect read for a snowy day with some tea by your side.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

14. Radio Silence by Alice Oseman
Frances is Head Girl at her school, has the highest grades of her class, and is determined to get into Oxbridge and become successful. At least, that's who she is on the outside. But on the inside she feels much less dull, and much less the nerdy/shy girl. And on the inside she's obsessed with a youtube show called Universe City, whose creator is a complete mystery to the entire fandom. When she finds out that the creator is actually Aled, the quiet, studious best friend of her frenemy/the Head Boy, they become close friends and start collaborating on the show together. But they both have secrets that they keep not only from the fans but from themselves, and when those secrets come out, their friendship - and Aled's mental health - is at stake.

This clinches it: Alice Oseman is one of my new very favorite authors. This novel was brilliant in so many ways. It's darker than Heartstopper but the characters still make you want to hug them all and be a part of their lives. It also shows gender and sexuality on a broad spectrum and all in a fabulously positive light. It's about friendship and trust and the importance of mental health. Opening one of Oseman's books feels like entering a safe space, and I love her for that.

CAT#1: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
BingoDOG#9: Lost or Stolen Identities
January AlphaKIT: I

15. I Am Not Esther by Fleur Beale
Kirby has always taken care of her mother more than her mother has taken care of her: she does all the bill paying and grocery shopping, and keeps her mom on a budget as best she can. But just before Christmas her mom starts acting strange and nervous, and then suddenly they're packing their belongings and leaving town, with no real explanation. Her mother leaves Kirby with the family she's never met and who belong to a strict Christian cult the lives by The Rule. She's renamed Esther, forced to live by the cult's oppressive ways, and finds herself slowly losing her identity even as she fights to maintain it. Will she be able to escape and find her mother? Will she ever be Kirby again?

A good story that keeps the tension without getting too dark, and gives a good look into how harmful such sects can be both physically and mentally. Nicely drawn characters and good pacing.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks
BingoDOG#24: Set on a Plane, Train, or Ship

When the planes hit the towers on 9/11, the ripple effects were everywhere. An obvious one, of course, was that, because air traffic was then shut down all the planes already in the air and heading to the US had to land somewhere else. One of the less obvious effects of the tragedy, though, was that many planes that day were rerouted to the small town of Gander, Newfoundland, and that the residents there stepped up to the challenge in amazing and wonderful ways.

As interesting as it was uplifting. I loved learning about both the logistics of such a small place figuring out how to accommodate so many people so swiftly and the bonds of friendship that grew between the passengers and their Canadian hosts. Definitely recommended.

>84 scaifea: - I've been trying to get to this for a number of years now. Maybe I'll try it as an audio.

>85 dudes22: The audio was very good!

CAT#6: Romance
BingoDOG#25: A book in >1000 libraries on LT

17. When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn
Francesca, her husband John, and John's cousin Michael are a nearly inseparable trio, but when John dies unexpectedly everything seems to crumble. Instead of staying to comfort Francesca and be comforted by their friendship in turn, Michael runs away to India to try to escape his secret love for her. Four years later he returns to take up his responsibilities as the new earl and finds that Francesca is in the market for a new husband...

A handful of books into the series and I'm still loving it. The characters are great, the stories comfortable, and the Bridgertons feel like the fancy yet inviting family next door.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

18. Tarnished Are the Stars by Rosiee Thor
Many years ago humans ruined earth with their technology, or so the stories go. So now on Earth 2 tech is forbidden while some people live in 'civilized' city, governed by the Commissioner and following the laws against tech while they try to determine how to make the world safe for wholesale inhabitation, and other folks live in a secret encampment where tech is not only made and used but necessary for survival. Anna is proof of that need - she has a clockwork heart. She's also known as The Technician; she smuggles tech into the city for those who are willing to break the rules. When the Commissioner's son, Nathaniel, who also secretly has a Ticker for a heart, decides to try for his father's approval by tracking down the Technician himself, he finds more than he expected in Anna. And then Eliza, Nathaniel's betrothed, arrives from the space station where the elite live and wait for the new world to be habitable for them, both he *and* Anna are in for a mess of surprises.

This was a fun one. Slightly different from most YA post-apocalyptic novels, it stays clear of overly-fraught love triangles and too-angsty teens. There's also really good representation of LGBTQ+ people, including ace/aro. Recommended.

February RandomKIT: Second or Two
BingoDOG#16: A book with an LT rating of 4 or more

19. A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara G. Walker
Okay, so I'm cheating just a bit with this one since I mostly skimmed it. It's filled with all sorts of swatch samples for various patterns to knit into a project. I took note of several to save for later possibly projects.

>89 scaifea: I think most of us do that with pattern books and even with recipe books. We know some we'll never use, but others intrigue us, and we pay closer attention to those.

>90 thornton37814: Oh, agreed, but I usually don't count pattern and cookbooks toward my reading totals just for that reason.

CAT#4: Manga

20. Assassination Classroom vol 3 by Yusei Matsui
The third volume in the manga series about an alien teacher who claims he will destroy the world at the end of the year if his junior high students can't assassinate him before then, all the while being an excellent and thoughtful teacher for them. It's...weird, but mostly in a good and fun way. It's keeping me engaged enough that I'm still willing to read the next volume.

Listening Update:
I'm calling it quits on Angelology. It's just not holding my interest at all. Moving on to In the Ravenous Dark for my audiobook.

CAT#12: NEH list
BingoDOG#1: Features Music or a Musician

21. Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter D. Edmunds
A pair of newlyweds head out to the New York wilderness to start a new life together, but with the Revolutionary War comes trouble and hardship. Plus, Indians.

Yeah, not my cuppa, I suppose. Just not...interesting enough? Which is too bad because it really could have been.

CAT#4: Manga

22. My Hero Academia vol 8 by Kohei Horikoshi
The UA first years take their semester finals and then head off to summer camp. Also, Deku has a run-in at the mall with my boyfriend Tomura Shigaraki.

I love this manga. That is all.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

23. In the Ravenous Dark by A. M. Strickland
Rovan has hidden her magic ever since her father was taken from her and her mother in order to escape that same fate. But when she wakes up massively hungover on a roof with another girl, she accidentally uses her powers to save that girl from falling to her death, and then the authorities haul her off to the palace, where she's bound to a spirit and forced to become a blood mage. As she plots her escape she struggles to know whom to trust and whom to let herself love, including two other royal blood mages and the ghost she's bound to.

I loved this cool fantasy both for its plot and characters and for its fantastic LGBTQ+ representation (Rovan is pansexual, and there are lesbian, ace, and nonbinary characters as well). It's so well written that I'll definitely be looking for more of Strickland's work.

CAT#9: Beauty and the Beast Retellings

24. The Beauty and the Beast by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de VIlleneuve
It was fun to revisit one of the oldest versions of this story we have extant. I had forgotten how different it is from more current versions, and I admit to getting a little lost in which king was married to which fairy and whose daughter was half fairy and so on. But overall I love it.

>97 scaifea: I had never read that until last year. I was shocked at how different it was from the story I knew and loved.

>97 scaifea: I have never heard of this! If it is old it must be available somewhere in the public domain? *off to dive down a rabbit hole*

>98 lowelibrary: It's a lot different in the details, isn't it? I love that sort of thing - see how a story evolves over time.

>99 MissWatson: I would think so, yes. If you succeed, let us know!

So, we've decided that it's time to call it quits on reading aloud at night. Charlie is getting to the age where he has lots of extracurriculars and homework and such, and I can tell he's just not enjoying it all that much anymore. I'm a bit heartbroken, but I didn't let on last night when we discussed it (I didn't want him to feel guilty about wanting to stop). I feel like it's one of those heartbreaks that parents just have to go through when the kiddos are growing up. S'okay. It's what I signed up for, after all, this parenting thing. And we've been doing it for 14+ years now (the reading aloud at night; we'll the parenting too, I guess) and it's had the desired result: he's definitely a reader. We now recommend books to each other and excitedly discuss them, so our family reading has just...evolved. But still. End of a mini era. And I *love* reading aloud. I guess I could just read aloud to myself when no one's around...

Anyway, all this to say that my Category #10 will remain blank this year but I'm keeping it up there both because I don't really want to mess around with changing the Cat numbers and because I love that picture.

>102 scaifea: - You should really be proud of all the years of reading you've done with him, Amber. "Making" a reader is the best! It's something he'll always have and remember. And hopefully, pass along to his kids.

>99 MissWatson: >101 scaifea: Found the rabbit hole here
>100 scaifea: It was beautiful in its own way, and the backstory was heartbreaking.

>104 lowelibrary: Oh, that looks like a fabulous site!
I tracked down the French original on Gallica, in a collection called "le cabinet des fées" which also has a fairy tale by Rousseau. Digitised from an 18th century copy with ancient spelling and typography. This is going to be a bit challenging, but fun.

>103 dudes22: Thanks for that - I really appreciate it!

>104 lowelibrary: That link is taking me to a pdf of a very abridged version?

>105 MissWatson: Oooh, very cool! Just at first glance, though, it looks like that may be the Beaumont version? Which, I think, is an abridged version of de Villeneuve's.

ETA: Even so, I may read through it, too, to see how my Olde Frenche is holding up...

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

25. So Cold the River by Michael Koryta
A filmmaker who failed to make it big in Hollywood now makes retrospective movies for parties and funerals in the Chicago area. When he gets a lucrative offer to make a film about a woman's father-in-law and his life in his hometown of French Lick, Eric decides to take the long drive to southern Indiana. He's also intrigued to get the story behind bottle of snake oil mineral water the woman gives him as a clue to the man's past. It feels unnaturally cold, and after he's spent only a few hours in the small town, it's so cold that it's frosted over. But Eric soon realizes that there are more mysteries here than a physics-defying bottle, and that it may be dangerous to solve them.

I really enjoyed this supernatural mystery/thriller. The characters are all great, the story is neat, and the pacing is excellent. It was fun reading a story set in an area I'm familiar with, too, having gone to school in southern-ish Indiana.

CAT#17: Unread Books from My Shelves
January AlphaKIT: J

26. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
This novel weaves together the stories of several women who immigrated from China to San Francisco, along with the stories of their daughters, who were born in the states and have a very different view of how life should be. It's lovely and at times heartbreaking, while at other times inspiring. A fantastic tribute to the strength of women all over the world.

I loved it. I occasionally became confused about which mother went with which daughter, but I think that's more the fault of my attention span than any lack of clarity in the book.

>108 scaifea: I haven't started yet, so I can't comment yet.
>104 lowelibrary: Looks like that PDF is a stranded file, the site itself has gone and the domain is for sale.

>111 MissWatson: It's certainly much too short to be the full original version, but I still think it would be fun to read in French. I've got the tab open and eventually I'll try to muddle through it myself!

>112 scaifea: Incidentally, I saw a digitised version of the Leprince de Beaumont story which expressly says that she rewrote Villeneuve's book.

>113 MissWatson: Yep, rewrote and abridged, I think.

CAT#5: Mysteries
CAT#11: Favorite Author Bibliographies
February AlphaKIT: F

27. Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie
Another banger from the Dame. Multiple deaths, lots of suspects, and a sort of double love triangle. Excellent stuff.

CAT#17: Unread Books from My Shelves

28. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Lily Owens lives with her father, T-Ray, on his peach farm, and Lily has grown up believing that she killed her mother, since that's what T-Ray has always told her. She only has vague memories of her mother hurriedly packing a bag and telling Lily to be quick to get ready to leave, then her father entering the room, some shouting, a gun, and a loud blast as it goes off. Her stand-in mother, Rosaleen, the black woman who comes into clean house for T-Ray, decides one day to walk into town and register to vote. This goes over about as well as you think it would in 1960s South Carolina. Rosaleen and Lily both end up in jail, and when T-Ray bails out only Lily, she fears both for her own safety and Rosaleen's, breaks her friend/surrogate momma out of the clink, and they both hit the road south. With only an old sticker of a black virgin Mary to guide her, Lily heads to a town she's convinced her mother knew in search of answers. What she finds is a new if unconventional family, one that helps her work through more questions than she knew she had.

On the surface I loved the story and the characters. And the writing is gorgeous. But the more I think about it, the more issues I see. Lily's age doesn't seem well defined, for one; we learn at some point that she's 14, but she really doesn't seem that old in her thoughts and actions, which makes her relationship with Zach - a high school boy - seem off. But more importantly, the black sisters with whom Lily and Rosaleen stay (and Rosaleen herself), although it seems obvious that we're meant to see them as Strong Black Women in a time when SBW were not safe in the South, come off more as a modern version of the Noble Savage, glorified caricatures of the Mammy type, old, wise for their hardships, but still safely quirky and living at the margins of Real Society. So in the end I both loved and kinda loathed the novel. It has lovely moments, but ultimately the main character is a white girl benefiting from nurturing of black women while not really understanding them or their lives.

>102 scaifea: I'm sure at some point in his life he'll look back with fondness on all the time you all spent reading together.

>117 thornton37814: Thanks, Lori. I hope so.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

29. The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee
The sequel to A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, this novel follows Monty's sister, Felicity, as she desperately tries to make her dreams of becoming a doctor a reality. But the medical field is run by the Old Men's Club and they are gatekeeping her at every turn. When she discovers that her childhood frenemy is getting married to Felicity's idol, Dr. Platt, she runs off to Europe with a suspected pirate to crash the wedding. Things don't go at all as she plans, though, and she finds herself entangled in another adventure bigger and more dangerous than she could have imagined.

I don't know why it took me so long to get to this sequel when I loved the first one so much. The adventure is a fun one, and the characters are like old friends, with some new ones along for the ride as well. Definitely recommended. You don't have to have read the first one to read this one, but why wouldn't you?

CAT#4: Manga

30. Given Vol 1 by Natsuki Kizu
4 young men (2 high school age and 2 college kids) form a band and explore life and relationships.

Charlie and I watched the anime of this series and we both fell in love with it, so now we're reading the manga. I just don't want to let go of these characters, like, ever.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

31. Sophie Go's Lonely Hearts Club by Roselle Lim
Sophie has just returned to her hometown of Toronto after attending matchmaking school - a gift she was born with - and is ready to start her career. However, her overbearing mother and her lack of an actual diploma threatens to keep her dream from coming true, and she's worried that she won't be able to get her client list up and running and prosperous enough to keep her new apartment before she runs out of savings. Her saving grace may just be the Old Ducks Club - a group of older single men living in her building and who have bonded over their lack of SOs. Can she convince them all to let her be their matchmaker and can she successfully match them all before time runs out?

Adorable, this one. Fun and cozy, with lots of great characters.

CAT#2: YALSA Award Winners

32. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Lily Hu is a high school girl growing up in San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1950s. Her parents have worries about the McCarthy atmosphere, and meanwhile Lily is trying to come to terms with her new and strange feelings surrounding Tommy Andrews, sneaking out to the lesbian bar Andrews performs at, and Kath, the girl she sneaks out at night to go to the bar with. When the Telegraph Club gets raided one night while Lily and Kath are there, Lily faces the consequences of being Asian and gay in the '50s.

A fantastic read. The chilly, damp setting of San Francisco in January seeks into your bones, much like Lily's anxiety over her growing awareness of her sexuality. It's not the sunshiny-est book out there, but it's also not without hope and love, and in fact, it balances the two nicely. Definitely recommended.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

33. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Julia is an American expatriate living in Paris and working as a journalist. She's given an assignment on the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup in 1942, in which French authorities helped the Nazis by raiding Jewish homes and forcing the inhabitants to stay in horrid conditions in a stadium before being taken to the camps and slaughtered. When she discovers that the apartment that she, her husband, and her daughter are getting ready to move into, which belonged to her grandmother-in-law, was owned by one of the Jewish families taken away that day, she becomes obsessed with discovering what happened to the little girl who lived there. Julia's story is told in alternating chapters with Sarah's - the little girl. There are equal parts horror and sadness, strength and hope in both women's stories, and together they make for a powerful read.

I think it's easy to get burned out on these kinds of novels, but this one is very well done and balances the heavy stuff with the good. And it's excellently told. Definitely recommended.

CAT#2: YALSA Award Winners
March AlphaKIT: A
March RandomKIT: Water Water Everywhere

34. Almost Flying by Jake Maia Arlow
13 year-old Dalia's world is turned upside down when her father tells her, out of the blue, that he's got a girlfriend and then in short measure adds that they're getting married. And that his fiancee has a college-aged daughter. It seems like hate at first sight for Dalia and Alexa (the college daughter), but when Alexa wants to go on a week-long trip to ride rollercoasters in several states, Dalia, who wants to do that very thing, decides to go along. And she brings her new friend, Rani, too.

Dalia goes through a *lot* of emotions on the trip while she figures out her feelings for Alexa and for Rani. And sometimes it feels like too much fret and angst, although the story is a good one. Maybe it's a case of me not being a middle grader; they may relate much better to such hormonal turmoil. Overall, though, I enjoyed it very much.

>123 scaifea: I read that one a few years ago and remember liking it.

>125 thornton37814: I'm glad you enjoyed it, Lori.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

35. The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa
An introverted teen lives with his grandfather above their modest but cozy used bookshop. When the grandfather dies, RIntaro finds it difficult to come to terms with the idea of leaving behind the shop and its books to live with an aunt he barely knows. Meanwhile, a strange talking cat comes to visit the shop and takes Rintaro on magical quests to rescue books from people who are mistreating them, and Rintaro discovers along the way that he just may need rescuing, too.

I can't praise this one enough. Quiet and cozy, just like the bookshop detailed in its pages, this story is one that speaks to the heart of any book lover. The tagline could be: Zen and the Art of Enjoying a Simple Life of Friendship and Reading. Do yourself a favor and read it. Nowish.

CAT#4: Manga

36. Assassination Classroom vol 4 by Yusei Matsui
The students of Class E are still trying to assassinate their teacher and still aren't getting very far with the assignment.

Four volumes in and it's still weird. I'm still enjoying it, though, so I'll keep going.

CAT#5: Mysteries

37. Killer Research by Jenn McKinlay
Ms. Cole is running for mayor and the current person in the position isn't too happy about not running unopposed. So when the dead body of Ms. Cole's old flame shows up in the trunk of her car, the current mayor makes full use of the situation to try to discredit her as a candidate. Could the straightlaced librarian really have committed murder? Or is Mayor Henson the culprit in an attempt to frame his opponent? Library director Lindsey has her hands full trying to clear her colleague and friend's name while trying to find out who the real killer is.

I love visiting Briar Creek and its library, despite the ridiculously high murder rate. The characters feel like old friends and the cozy series is still going strong.

>127 scaifea: I received this book for Christmas. Bumping it up the TBR.

>127 scaifea: That's a very lovely cover, too.

>130 lowelibrary: I hope you love it as much as I did!

>131 MissWatson: Isn't it, though?

>132 scaifea: If that edition had been lying around at my usual bookstore, I would have snapped it up.

>133 MissWatson: Same! I am a sucker for a lovely cover.

>129 scaifea: I can't remember where I am in that series, but I should have another one on my BINGO card--or if not, I'll be grabbing the next soon.

>129 scaifea: That sounds lovely!

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

38. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
Three daughters of a Shakespeare professor come back home as adults when their mother is diagnosed with breast cancer. Living in the small Ohio college town and under the same roof again after so many years isn't not difficult, and all of their secrets start leaking out.

From the start I suspected that the imaginary small Ohio town was based on Gambier (home of Kenyon College), and lo, I was (half) right! The author has been quoted as saying that she based the town and the college within it on a mix of Kenyon and Oberlin! That made the book extra-fun for me, but it's also just a great read. The relationships between the sisters ring true, as do each of their own struggles and triumphs. The myriad nods to Shakespeare's plays throughout are a fantastic touch, too. Definitely recommended.

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

39. Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp
In 1938 an ancient historian/archaeologist is visiting Rome when he's struck by lightning and somehow sent back to 535 AD. He has absolutely no qualms about changing the future because he decides to 'invent' the printing press and a bunch of other should-be-anachronistic devices. He also decides to make sure that the Dark Ages don't happen.

I dunno. I feel like I should have adored this story, and I really super didn't. I mean, who hasn't daydreamed about going back in time and trying to decide how you would live in a past society (as a woman, though, these daydreams tend to end in a disturbingly nightmarish way for me). And yeah, it would be totally fun to act the non-modern day Prometheus (minus the monster, hopefully), but something about this version of the daydream seems off to me. Just because you know the printing press exists doesn't mean you could make one yourself (or am I just helplessly ignorant of such things? Does everyone know how to create something like that from essentially nothing?), and the main character has no problem doing just that and also creating so many other things without the benefit of Ikea-like instructions. (I mean, a telescope? Come on. I get the general concept, but actually *making* one?!) And he gets arrested a time or two, but has no real problem wriggling out of trouble, it seems. How was he not condemned for witchcraft?! (A TELESCOPE, FFS. AND CANONS.) It was also not...interesting? That period of Roman history has never been my favorite, but it's certainly not dull. But it seemed so here. Anyway, a big miss for me, sorry to say.

BingoDOG #5: Zodiac

40. The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft
Hoo boy. Lovecraft was a big old ball of crap, of course, and lo, his writing matches his personality. Cripes almighty, was this bad. The story is silly (not in a good way), and the language is so flowery and overwrought. It reads like someone gave a goth high school kid a thesaurus, told them every noun is better with at least one adjective and verbs are useless without two adverbs, and send them on their way with a creative writing assignment. (My apologies to goth kiddos everywhere - you deserve better than this association, you adorable weirdos.) Reading this has only confirmed my loathing for all things Lovecraft. Call of Cthulhu? More like call of the trash can.

NB: I read this in the original English alongside a Latin translation written by a friend who wanted me to edit it for him, and as much as I dislike the original, I can easily say that he did a fantastic job translating it.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists
BingoDOG#3: Features a member of the cat family

41. Heartless by Marissa Meyer
A retelling of Alice in Wonderland, of sorts, in which we get the tragic backstory of the Queen of Hearts.

(Warning: Sort of spoilers ahead, but also sort of not, if you know the original tale.)

Okay. So. I loved it. And I also completely loathed it. It's well imagined and just as well written. But the love story is also incredibly angsty and frustrated and frustrating. But hating the ending is sort of on me because knowing what the Queen of Hearts is like in the original and knowing this is her back story should have clued me into the fact that this book wasn't going to end happy at all and yet here we are with me absolutely fuming because I have to be sad that the love kiddos didn't actually end up beating the odds but honestly why not rewrite the story and make it happy, Marissa? Who hurt you, Meyer? Why are you like this?! This will likely be my last of her work because my poor little heart can't take it.

CAT#4: Manga

42. My Hero Academia vol 9 by Kohei Horikoshi
Another great entry in the manga series. I adore these characters.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

43. Ape House by Sara Gruen
Isabell deeply cares for the bonobos she is studying and teaching to use sign language to communicate. John, a reporter who is getting frustrated with how he's treated at work, is doing a story on Isabell and her primates. When someone attacks the lab, nearly killing Isabell and letting loose the monkeys, who are soon secretly sold to a TV producer who makes a reality show out of them, both Isabell and John find their lives turned upside down.

I'm not sure how this one got onto my TBR, but I'm glad it did. It's not my usual fare, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The characters are interesting, and although the story isn't exactly complex, it's fun, and the bonobos are a delight.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

44. The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
A famous piece of moral/religious satire. I'm glad I read it just to now have knowledge of it beyond the title, but it's really not my thing.

CAT#1: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up

45. Strange Objects by Gary Crew
An Australian teen makes a grisly discovery on a class field trip (an ancient pot, a mummified hand, and a ring), which seems either to unhinge him mentally or suck him into a cycle of supernaturally psychotic behavior. His narrative alternates with the account of a shipwrecked Dutch trader and his own encounter with the maybe-magical ring. Lots of unknowns are left unanswered, and it's frustrating in all the best ways. Recommended if you like this sort of thing.

CAT#8: Audiobooks

46. Two Night in Lisbon by Chris Pavone
A woman accompanies her husband of 3 months to Lisbon on a business trip. Then he gets kidnapped. She has tons of trust issues for various reasons, so can she believe that the local police and/or the CIA will help her when they don't seem to believe her story? And can she trust her new husband?

I read this one on the glowing recommendation of a patron, who claims it's the best book he's read in a long time. It was...okay. For me it wasn't the page-turner that it was for my patron, but it was still enjoyable, I suppose. My issues with it: the main character spills over into annoyingly paranoid fairly quickly. I also had the twist sussed out more quickly than was fun, which may be why I didn't turn the pages as urgently as the recommender. So, for me, an average thriller.

A quick review catch-up before I head out to Charlie's track meet:



CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

47. The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
Examines from several different viewpoints what the world would look like and how it would adjust if all humankind were to vanish. Hint: it wouldn't miss us much. A good and fascinating read.



48. Mrs. Stephen Fry's Diary by Stephen Fry

CAT#11: Favorite Author Bibliographies

A silly entry in the Fry corpus. Silly but fun.



49. Given vol 2 by Natsuki Kizu

CAT#4: Manga

Four high school and college kids are in a band together and they navigate their friendships and relationships to one another, along with their musicianship. I adore this series and these characters so much.



50. On the Road by Jack Kerouac

CAT#20: Everything Else

Meh. I knew going in that this genre isn't really my thing, but I've always wanted to know what the book was. So, not I've read it. I'm glad I did, since I can now see how its influence has vined out into all sorts of works, both literary and otherwise, but I can't say I enjoyed it much. Sal/Jack et al. seem so self-indulgent and self-serious. Blech.

CAT#1: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up

51. The Ghost Drum by Susan Price
A very cool and interesting children's/YA fantasy book that uses elements of Russian folklore. Evil Czars, a prince locked in a tower, a story-telling cat, good witches, and bad shamans. Think Howl's Moving Castle but make it Siberia and darker. I loved it.

CAT#6: Romance

52. It's in His Kiss by Julia Quinn
This entry in the series sees Hyacinth get her HEA, plus two mysteries to solve: who her future FIL really is, and where did her fiancé’s grandmother hide her diamonds. Probably my second favorite of the bunch so far - I loved it.

>148 scaifea: Ooh, what's your other fave? So far I've had mixed feelings about the Bridgerton books, with The Viscount Who Loved Me being my clear favorite thus far.

>149 christina_reads: This first one is my favorite. I adore Daphne.

>139 scaifea: I don't dislike Lovecraft's works (though Lovecraft the man certainly seems despicable enough) but I also don't get all the love for them either. I guess it's his influence on other creators that's important. Certainly, there are Lovecraftian works (including an Arkham Horror card game) that I enjoy much more than the originals!

>151 mathgirl40: Very true! Gaiman has a Lovecraftian take on Sherlock Holmes that I adore, so...

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks
April AlphaKIT: W

53. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
This one's been on my TBR for years, and it did not disappoint. Mysterious, possibly bananas, women walking around at night and just in the out-of-doors in general saying enigmatic and quirky things, drawing tutors falling for their students, possibly-evil-but-maybe-not? men, shady pasts filled with secrets, and strong women with strong sisterhoods. Excellently written and paced, and nicely twisty. I loved it.

CAT#7: Books from My Wishlist

54. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Yeah, so I'm DNF-ing this one. It's just not working for me. I did read enough of it, though, that I feel justified as counting it toward the year's total.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists
BingoDOG#7: A bestselling book from 20 years ago:

55. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
A collection of essays on women's rights, issues of race, and the harsh truths of Scrabble tournaments.

At times hilarious, at others gut-punching, but always sharp and insightful and important. Before I was even halfway through the audiobook, I had already ordered a print copy to add to Charlie's summer reading stack. I don't often tell him what to read, but he *will* read this, as I think everyone should.

CAT#5: Mysteries
CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#11: Favorite Author Bibliographies
May AlphaKIT: U

56. Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie
One woman's husband is missing and she insists she doesn't know where he has gone; another woman's husband has left her and she thinks she has no more reason to live. Their paths cross in the midst of an investigation into missing scientists, secret identities, and treason.

This entry in Christie's bibliography is different from anything else I've read by her. No whip-smart detectives, not locked room murder mysteries; instead it reads more like a wartime spy novel. There are still plenty of Christie-like twists, and I enjoyed it a great deal.

>156 scaifea: I think Agatha Christie's thrillers (well, at least some of them) are underrated. They Came to Baghdad is another good one, in my opinion.

>157 christina_reads: I can't remember if I've read that one yet or not. I agree that she's just as good at thrillers as she is at locked-room mysteries!

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist

57. Pi: A Biography by Alfred S. Posamentier
Disappointing. It isn't at all well written, and there are factual errors on topics that I *do* know about (for example, in the details of Archimedes' life), which makes me wonder about the rest of it. Also, it's dry when it could have - and should have - been fascinating.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

58. The Strain by Guillermo del Toro
A plane lands at JFK and immediately goes dead in every sense of the word. And so begins a plague of the vampiric kind, and also the race against the clock to stop it. This task is up to a group of people made up of a couple of CDC doctors, a Holocaust camp survivor who has spent his life chasing this monster, and a NYC rat catcher.

I have to say that I expected a more interesting and quirkier story from Guillermo del Toro than what I found here. It's a mediocre vampire story and nothing more. I won't go on with the series.

CAT#2: YALSA Award Winners

59. Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
This year's Newbery medalist tells the story of Freewater, a refuge for escaped slaves in the antebellum south. Two children run away from their plantation and are saved by the inhabitants of Freewater. They come to know what it means to be free, and go back to rescue their mother and friends.

A gripping narrative with great characters, I loved that this story was based on the actual existence of such communities in the swamps. I can easily see the book becoming a favorite for middle graders for its story and then leading them to learn more about slavery and the ways black people resisted it. Definitely recommended.



CAT#4: Manga

60. My Hero Academia Vol 10 by Kohei Horikoshi
Not much to say about this one besides the fact that I still adore the series.



CAT#4: Manga

61. Assassination Classroom Vol 5 by Yusei Matsui
I'm five deep in the series and I'm still not sure I love it. But, I'm invested enough to keep going, for now.



CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

62. The Young Elites by Marie Lu
A decade or so ago a virus swept through the land, killing the adults who contacted it and turning the surviving children into malfettos, ones with scars but also special abilities. These malfettos are now adolescents and are, in general, shunned by the rest of society. A few of them have formed a rogue company set on assassinating the king and taking over, so that their kind can live safely and in peace. Adelina is a malfetto who has long been mistreated by her father until one day she flees, is chased down by him, and accidentally uses her powers to kill him. The Young Elites save her from execution and proceed to groom her into becoming a member of their team. But there is darkness in Adelina that no one counted on or can tame.

A good story and I enjoyed the characters, but not enough, really, to continue with the series, I think. At least not for now.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

63. Blizzard of Glass by Sally Walker
A nonfiction book on the 1917 Halifax explosion, geared toward middle grade.
An interesting account of the event, and although I would have liked a bit more detail, I think it is perfectly done for its intended audience.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

64. The Witches by Stacy Schiff
A thorough and thoroughly interesting look at the Salem witch trials and the possible motives behind the frenzied turns it took. It's well-written and just as nicely researched. Recommended, if you're looking to read about the event, this is a great option.



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

65. Silverlock by John Myers Myers
A man who survives a shipwreck is saved by someone who becomes his guide through the Commonwealth of Letters, where they wash ashore and where they encounter all sorts of characters from mythology and literature.
Meh. Interesting idea, but not carried out very well. The main character is in no way likable, nor are many of the others. And I think the interpretation of the literary and mythological nods could have been more clever/inventive, too.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

66. The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian
A pilot, who is one of the few survivors of one of his flights, moves with his family to a rambling, old Victorian house in a small, Northern New Hampshire town in an attempt to reset and recuperate from the accident. But the town is filled with strange folk who seem to love herb gardening more than is customary, and the house is either haunted or it's all in the pilot's head. It certainly doesn't help the creep factor that the townsfolk seem overly interested in his twin daughters...

The Shining meets Rosemary's Baby. Excellently creepy atmosphere, and nicely told in such a way that keeps you guessing for a good long while if the monsters are real or not. A supernatural thriller that doesn't get too scary. I loved it.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

67. Ash by Malinda Lo
A queer retelling of Cinderella in which the fairy godmother is sort of a combo of Ash's dead witch mother and a fae dude with the hots for her. There is a prince and a ball and hidden identities, but there's also a lady royal hunter, and Ash has some choices to make.
Fabulous retelling - I loved the twists put into the original tale, and except for the ending feeling a bit rushed and a little too pat, I really enjoyed it.



CAT#1: 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
May AlphaKIT: C

68. The Changeover by Margaret Mahy
A teen girl takes her toddler brother to visit a new curio shop in town, and the creepy old man owner puts his curse mark on the boy, which enables him slowly to drain the life out of him. Laura enlists the help of the cute but strange neighborhood boy - also a prefect at her school - to help, which is good because he's a witch.
Weird, but not necessarily in a bad way. The love story aspect felt a little stodgy and forced, but an okay plot overall.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

69. Lunatics by Dave Barry
A Prius-driving, volunteer ref for youth soccer, pet shop owner and all-round nice guy clashes with the d-bag idiot father of one of the soccer players over one of his calls. And then the next day they clash again over a fat joke aimed toward a kid and a stolen lemur. And it only gets weirder and wilder from there, until they find themselves wanted terrorists/world heroes.

A fun and funny romp, as only Barry can deliver. Recommended if you like his ridiculous sense of humor.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

70. Avalon High by Meg Cabot
Slight spoilers ahead:

A modern retelling of the Arthur legend, set in a Maryland high school. I enjoyed this one, but I think I would have liked it more if it had been simply a modern retelling. Instead, it seems to do a quick turn into fantasy, as the characters are revealed as actual reincarnations of Arthur and his Camelot crew.

CAT#18: Books from My Read Soon! Shelves
May RandomKIT: Royal Names

71. Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
The zombie apocalypse has come, and we get the story of what comes next from the viewpoint of a crow named Shit Turd, who ventures out with his best friend, Dennis the bloodhound, on a quest first to find a cure for his owner, Big Jim, and then to save the domestics stuck behind lock doors.
Hilarious and intense and terrifying and beautifully written. I loved it until I hated it. Dennis doesn't make it and I HATE it when the dog dies. Just, WHY? Why is that always necessary?! ARRGH. But I only hated that one thing, although I hate it deeply and forever. So yeah. Mixed emotions here, but I respect the accomplishment.

CAT#2: YALSA Award Winners

72. The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer
Two young men, each from one of the last two countries left on Earth, are sent on a mission to rescue another astronaut (who happens to be the sister of one of them), who has sent a distress call from Titan. Ambrose wakes up shaky and with no memory of the launch, and he can't seem to get any answers about it from the OS. Kodiak, the other member of the mission, is mostly unresponsive to Ambrose's attempts to befriend him or get answers from him. But when the two of them start to doubt the motives of the OS and the mission in general, they start investigating what's really going on, and the answers they find are not at all what they expected, nor is the growing feelings between them.

It's difficult to do this one any justice without spoilers, but believe me when I say that it's a doozie, and in all kinds of good ways. Interesting twists, a HAL-like OS, and an intense yet sweet love story. It was fantastic.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

73. The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley
A strain of the bird flu hits the US and kills half the population. The story follows one family, told mostly from the viewpoint of the mother, as they try to avoid both the virus and the other dangers of a crumbling society.
Written in 2010 but reads like it was written post-Covid, for all the eerie similarities. To further the creep factor for me, it's set in Columbus, Ohio. I don't think I could have made it through the book a couple of years ago, but I found it an interested read now that we seem to be out of the thick of our own pandemic.

CAT#5: Mysteries

74. The Plot and the Pendulum by Jenn McKinlay
Lindsey is called to a local mansion to claim a lovely collection of rare books for the public library, and she enlists the help of her friends to box them up and haul them away. But strange things start happening in the sort of spooky house, which meshes nicely with the prodigal son's return to usher his dementia-toting mother into full-time care. And then they find a secret room and it's deceased resident. Creepier and creepier...
This Halloween-themed entry in the series is a little weaker than the others, but I still enjoyed trying to solve the mystery and catching up with the characters. I'll keep going with the series when the next one comes out.



CAT#4: Manga

75. My Hero Academia vol 11 by Kohei Horikoshi
Things are looking grim for UA High, what with All Might not being so all-mighty anymore and then potential mole in their midst. Still, the teachers somehow convince parents to let their students start staying in the newly-build dorms. And the kids love it, decorating their rooms and hanging out even more as friends.
Not much plot pushing in this one, but I adore the dorm room competition storyline.



CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

76. The Coming of the Dragon by Rebecca Barnhouse
A retelling of the death of Beowulf and the warrior who takes his place as king.
Very nicely imagined and written. Recommended if you enjoy retellings like this. (And the audio is excellent, too.)



CAT#9: Beauty and the Beast Retellings

77. Beauty and the Werewolf by Mercedes Lackey
A Beauty and the Beast retelling in which the Beast is a, well, you know.
Some nice twists on the original story here, and I really enjoyed the description of how magic works in this world. It dragged a bit in the middle, but picked up and finished strong.

>171 scaifea: I love the retellings in the Five Kingdoms series.

>171 scaifea: You got me with the Beauty and the Beast retelling. Taking a BB for Beauty and the Werewolf.

>172 hailelib: This is the only FK book I've read so far, but I wouldn't be against reading more at some point.

>173 lowelibrary: Yay!! I hope you love it!

CAT#20: Everything Else

78. Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson
Bree pretty much has the perfect life - married to a rich lawyer who loves her dearly, mother to three happy and healthy children - until she turns her away from her baby boy's car seat for just one second and the next, he's gone. To get him back she'll have to follow the kidnapper's instructions carefully, and those instructions just may land her in prison. Enter Marshall, Bree's best friend's widow, who happens to be a former cop and would do just about anything for Bree. Together they work frantically to track down the culprit and a way to get Bree's son back. But the answers for why this is all happening may not be welcome news, and Bree may find out things about her husband she doesn't want to know.

Wooof, this one was a seat-edger for certain. I think some of the relationships between characters could have been made a bit more complex and interesting, but overall the story and the pacing was good, with some nice twists and reveals along the way.

CAT#5: Mysteries
CAT#11: Favorite Author Bibliographies
June AlphaKIT: B

79. They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie
Victoria Jones gets sacked from her shorthand secretary job, both for mocking the boss behind his back and for being rubbish at shorthand and typing, then she goes to the park for a life-contemplative lunch, meets a cute dude, learns he's headed to Baghdad the next day, then decides to chase after him. This not-at-all-stupid decision lands her in a foreign country with no money, no job, no prospects, and the difficult tasks of finding a man when she only knows his first name. I mean, honestly. And then she gets pulled into some serious international intrigue, gets herself kidnapped, and plays a significant role in helping to take down the Big Bad Men.

A different Christie plot than I'm used to, but still fairly fun. I think I prefer a simple locked room murder, though.

>176 scaifea: LOL, I enjoy this book, but Victoria really does make some stunningly bad decisions, doesn't she?

>177 christina_reads: She really does. But I do love the complexity in her character - she's a great mix of Boss-Ass Bitch and Bag o' Bad Decisions.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

80. The White Devil by Justin Evans
A teen from the states is sent by his parents to a British boarding school as a last result - he's been kicked out of schools back home. Almost as soon as he arrives at his new school, he witnesses a ghost kill one of his dorm mates. When the teacher in charge of the school play discovered that Andrew is the spitting image of Lord Byron, who is the focus of that year's play, and who graduated from the school, it begins to become clear who the murdering ghost is and why he is infecting more and more students with the disease that killed him long ago.

This one was...okay. Nice creep factor, and a good atmosphere, but the plot didn't flow very well and the ending was abrupt and kind of unsatisfying. Still, I enjoy stuff about Byron so I'm not mad I read it.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

81. The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste
A retelling of The Magic Orange Tree story for, I think?, a middle grade audience? At any rate, it was a fun, quick read.

Just saying "hi" here. I've commented elsewhere.

CAT#8: Audiobooks

82. The Martian by Andy Weir
A reread for me, but the first time through for Charlie and Tomm - we listened to this on our trip to WI. Loved it just as much this time as I did the first time.

CAT#12: National Endowment for the Humanities Timeless Classics
June AlphaKIT: K
BingoDOG#21: A Book on a Topic You Don’t Usually Read

83. Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl
Guy who’s afraid of boats and can’t swim devices to prove that ancient settlers of Polynesian islands came from South America, and he does so by recreating the journey they may have made on the kind of craft they would have used. Impressive, but apparently the account of such a journey is not my jam. I just could get interested in it.



CAT#4: Manga

84. Assassination Classroom vol 6 by Yusei Matsui
Yeah, I’m giving up after this one. I can’t keep the characters straight and they alien teacher thing has just tipped over into too-annoying for me.



CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

85. The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
A retelling, of sorts, of Lewis Carroll’s books about Wonderland, only here the stories are based on fact and Alice is angry at Carroll for making them into silly near fairy tales when she, in fact, escaped to this world when Red revolted, killed Alice’s mother (the White Queen of Hearts), and took the throne. Hatter searches this world for Alice for 13 years, finds, her, and takes her back to fight for her throne.
I really wanted to love this one because I adore the originals and generally love the idea of creative retellings. But this one fell a little short of the mark for me and I don’t think I’ll go on with the series.



CAT#11: Favorite Author Bibliographies

86. Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman
A retelling of Snow White through the viewpoint of the Queen.
Like All Things Gaiman, this was wonderful. Such an imaginative twist on the old story, and so beautifully told.

>183 scaifea: That is a fabulous cover on the Gaiman book!

>184 MissWatson: Isn’t it, though? I should have mentioned that the illustrations are lovely, too.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

87. When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
A modern re-imagining of The Scarlet Letter, in which people who are convicted of crimes have their skin modified to be tinted a color that correlates to the kind of crime they committed. For Hannah, who was caught just after having an abortion, it means her skin is red, the color for murder. She refuses to name the father, who is a famous evangelist and recent appointee to a religious post in the federal government, and she must navigate a society that is completely hostile to her all while struggling to with the notion that her conservative Christian upbringing may not have been an accurate outlook on the world.

A great tribute to Hawthorne while also being a bit terrifying for how close to the current state of things it gets. Excellently strong, feminist ending as well. Recommended.



CAT#20: Everything Else

88. The Hawkline Monster by Richard Brautigan
In early 1900s Wild West, two partners who specialize in assassinations are approached by a Native American woman named Magic Child with a job proposition. A certain Miss Hawkline, who lives in the middle of the Oregon plains, would like to hire the two men to kill the monster living under her mansion.

I picked this one up off a colleague’s book display: Weird West. And hoo boy, it was both a western (“A Gothic Western” as its tag line indicates) and very weird. I loved it.

CAT#5: Mysteries
BingoDOG#17: A book by a local or regional author

89. Premeditated Peppermint by Amanda Flower
It’s Christmas in Holmes County, Ohio, and Bailey is hard at work in her grandmother’s candy shop preparing chocolates for the Amish Christmas Market. Her ex shows up from NYC with an entire tv crew, hoping to convince Bailey both to do a show with him and get back together. Meanwhile the town deputy and Bailey are still dancing around the idea of dating while said deputy’s pig-toting mother is spreading rumors round town that they’re already engaged. Oh, and there’s a murder. Because of course.

A solid entry in the series. I’m enjoying the Amish setting with a non-Amish main character, and I’m interested to see where things go in the next few volumes.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

90. The Lost Sun by Tessa Gratton
Set in an AU where the Norse gods are real and living among us in an altered United States, the story follows Soren and Astrid set off to find the missing god, Baldur, while Soren fights his birthright as a berserker and tries and fails to keep from falling in love with Astrid.

An interesting take on the Norse stories. I enjoyed the couple of twists at the end and I liked the main characters (Baldur is nicely portrayed as well), but I didn’t love it enough to continue on with the series.

CAT#17: Unread Books from My Shelves
BingoDOG#8: Book with a plant in the title or on the cover
July RandomKIT: The Muppets

91. Wildwood by Colin Meloy
A young girl is out for a stroll with her baby b rother when she witnesses him ‘napped by a murder of crows and carried away into the Wildwood – an impassible and possibly magical forest adjacent to her hometown of Portland. So, she decides to pass into the impassible wilderness to rescue him, and is unwillingly accompanied by a boy her age who wants to be her friend. They quickly get separated once in the Wildwood and each have their own adventures while hunting for the tot.

I think if I could have read this as a kid I would have adored it, as I was obsessed with All Things Narnia, and this book is clearly *heavily* influenced by Lewis’ Chronicles. But as an adult, it’s hard not to be distracted by just how much Meloy has borrowed from Lewis. But, if you know any middle graders who are bananas for Narnia, I’d definitely recommend recommending this one to them.

CAT#5: Mysteries
July AlphaKIT: O

92. Ordeal By Innocence by Agatha Christie
Two years ago a man was found guilty of killing his mother, sent to prison, then died while incarcerated. Now a man has come forward with solid evidence to clear the son’s name, but he doesn’t at all get the reaction from the family that he expected. Because now, of course, the case is once again wide open, and any of them could be the murderer…

I think this is likely my least favorite of Christie’s novels I’ve read so far. It’s an interesting premise, and by the end I was interested to see who’d dunnit, but the beginning and middle seemed really to drag along at a snail’s pace, and then when the killer was revealed, I was disappointed that the answer wasn’t more clever. *shrug*



CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

93. Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott
A microhistory of the Levee District and its famous brothels in Chicago in the early 1900s, in particular the establishment run by the Everleigh Sisters.

Interesting and well-written. I learned quite a lot (including the origin of the phrase “to get laid’) and had fun in the process. I do adore a good microhistory.



CAT#18: Books from My Read Soon! Shelves

94. Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig
Haig gives his reader various musings on dealing with anxiety, especially in today’s technological and fast-moving world.

Not really my cuppa, I think. His descriptions of what it’s like having anxiety were too on the nose for me and made me…anxious myself. And his thoughts on technology and what it’s doing to the world seemed like nothing that hasn’t been said before and elsewhere? I dunno. Just…nothing earth-shattering here for me, but it may be amusing and worthwhile for others.

CAT#6: Romance

95. On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn
Gregory, the youngest of the Bridgerton clan, thinks he’s fallen in love at first sight. But she thinks she’s in love with someone else (and is not), and her best friend is *definitely* not falling for Gregory (she is), and then Hermione (the one Gregory thinks he’s in love with and isn’t) falls for a third dude, and then Gregory doesn’t seem to mind, but then falls for the best friend, who also falls for him. But she’s already engaged to someone else, whom she doesn’t love and who certainly doesn’t love her. For…reasons.

With all that going on you’d think this one would be an absolute romp. But it isn’t. I mean, it’s okay, but it does seem to take its sweet time about things. Needs a bit more editing, I think. In the end I enjoyed it just fine, but it just took a little too long to get going.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

96. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
A retelling of The Snow Maiden set in the 1920’s Alaskan frontier. An older couple, Jack and Mabel, were never able to have children and it haunts their relationship, even as they left their comfortable lifestyle back east for the wilds of Alaska. Until one day when they surprise themselves by playing in the evening snowfall and making a snow child, which then seems to come to life, as they begin to have strange experiences with a little girl who appears to them from out of the woods. She gradually becomes like a daughter to them throughout the years, although she never fully takes to civilized life, never staying with them in their cabin and always disappearing through the spring and summer and returning only with the snowfall. When something happens that ties her even more closely with the ‘real’ world, will she stick around, or will she suffer the fate of the Snow Child in the story, as Mabel fears she may?

A solid retelling of the original story. I think I would have liked more from the snow girl’s perspective, and the other characters could have been fleshed out a bit more, but overall it was an enjoyable story nicely told. I appreciate that the details of the girl’s existence are left mostly unexplained and up to the imagination of the reader.

>187 scaifea: I thought that one was on my BINGO board for the year but it isn't. I'm going to look to see if the audiobook is available at the library because I might be able to get it listened to this month.

ETA: It was!

>193 thornton37814: Woot!

CAT#2: YALSA Award Winners

97. Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Daunis is 18 and on the fence in so many aspects of her life: her mother is from a rich, white family and her father was Ojibwe; she’s between high school and the start of college; her ice hockey career is over, but her friends and her brother are still very much a part of that world; she’s still gun-shy from a bad break-up and yet she feels something happening between her and the new guy on the hockey team… Amongst all this, she is also dealing with the grief of her uncle’s suspicious death and the toll that meth is having on her community and peers. When she’s pulled into an investigation into who exactly is supplying meth in the area, all these areas of her life come crashing together, and she needs to find the strength to stay true to her own special identity while also fighting for her family, her culture, and her friends.

A little slow to start (for me), but once it got going, this one was a barnburner. I loved it. Boulley’s love for her hometown and her Ojibwe culture shines through so clearly, and that, along with her ability to write a plot with some excellent turns, make this a gorgeous read.



CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

98. The Tiger: A Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant
A nonfiction story of a series of tiger attacks in eastern Russia, the investigative team that tracked the tiger, and the culture surrounding the hunting and worship of tigers throughout history in the area.

I enjoyed it, but I think the balance between the story at hand and the historical and cultural background information was a little off, or maybe just not quite structured well. Overall, though, a good read and a really interesting topic.

>195 scaifea: I borrowed Firekeeper’s Daughter a while back but ran out of time and had to return it. I really need to get it back and read it!

CAT#4: Manga

99. My Hero Academia Volume 12 by Kohei Horikoshi
The students of UA High’s Hero 1-A class are taking their provisional hero license exam and the test turns out to be more than they expected.

I’m still loving this manga series.



CAT#17: Unread Books from My Shelves
BingoDOG#11: A Book with a Book on the Cover

100. Forgotten Bookmarks by Michael Popek
A bookseller curates a collection of interesting things he’s found used as bookmarks in the old books he buys and sells, and this is a coffee table-type book cataloging some of those finds.

Interesting enough for an afternoon’s worth of reading through it.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

101. The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
An Indian princess is set up by her father as a sacrifice to save the kingdom from war, but at the last minute she is saved by a mysterious suitor who takes her away to another realm entirely. He remains cagey about who he is and insists that she only need wait until the new moon before learning everything, including why she belongs as queen by his side. She…doesn’t wait, though. Because of course she doesn’t. And so there’s trouble.

This one is touted as a retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth, which is why I chose it, but I’m not convinced that there aren’t similar tales in India as well, so I’m hesitant to say that’s actually the case. At any rate, it’s a good little story, nicely told.

CAT#18: Books from My Read Soon! Shelves

102. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Teen girl with a Tragic Back Story and Badass Abilities is up against the world/The Man. There’s a love triangle. And lots of danger. And she’s involved in a high-stakes competition. And she lives in a fantasy/magics-type world. So. It’s a YA fantasy novel. And I’m good with that because I love those. This one isn’t my favorite, though. I like the main character alright, but I don’t *love* her, and I didn’t really feel any chemistry between any of the triangle members. And the high stakes didn’t really feel all that…high? I dunno. I adored Maas’s Court of Thorns and Roses series, so it’s very likely I’ll keep going with this series, and I suspect it’ll get better as it goes along.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
August RandomKIT: Tell Me Something Good

103. The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow
Two high school students are thrown together in an unlikely partnership: Alice is one of the Rich Kids. Last year when basketball star boyfriend broke up with her for her best friend, she disappeared, launching a massive hunt for her, and becoming a notorious sensation when she showed up completely fine and refusing to talk about it five days later. Iris lives on the other side of the tracks and tries her best to stay under the radar. She’s a good student, keeps to herself, and doesn’t mind that no one seems to notice her, since that makes it easier to keep her abusive father a secret. These two are forced to start hanging out together when the school counselor assigns Iris to be Alice’s tutor. When Alice’s former best friend goes missing and then her ex-boyfriend is accused of murdering her, Iris and Alice start poking around to find out what really happened.

A solid YA mystery with all sorts of great references to Christie and her books. I figured out the culprit before the end, but still enjoyed the process immensely.

CAT#11: Favorite Author Bibliographies
BingoDOG#20: A popular author's first book

104. The Thief of Time by John Boyne
aging in his 50s. The story vacillates between different parts of his past and the plot line in the present, in which he runs a successful television studio and looks after his (great-great-great-…) nephew, which is a TV star and a drug addict.

I generally adore Boyne’s work, but this one was really slow to get going for me, and I felt like the bouncing back and forth in the timeline was more obtrusive than anything else. I never really discovered the point of the story, but I’m sure that’s just me being obtuse. I stuck with it, though, and in the end it was a fair enough read.



CAT#5: Mysteries

105. Toxic Toffee by Amanda Flower
The fourth installment in the Amish Candy Shop Mystery series, and now someone’s been poisoned in the town square and it’s up to Bailey and her cop boyfriend to solve it. There’s also a giant toffee rabbit involved.

Hm. I liked it well enough, but I’m not sure that the series is aging well. I’ll give it another volume, but I may very well be nearly done with this one.



CAT#6: Romance
August AlphaKIT: Q

106. Queen Charlotte by Julia Quinn
A prequel to the Bridgerton books, this one tells the story of how Charlotte became queen and the struggles she faced, especially early on in the marriage.

My least favorite of the series, but that’s mostly because I don’t really like the character of the queen, especially in the show.

CAT#9: Beauty and the Beast Retellings

107. Making Faces by Amy Harmon
Fern – the ‘homely’ girl at school, who spends her time with her best friend/wheelchair-bound cousin – is in love with the handsome wrestling star, Ambrose, but of course he barely knows she exists and instead is dating Fern’s friend, Rita. Then they all graduate and Ambrose and his buddies go off to fight in the war in Iraq, but they’re all in a roadside bombing and only Ambrose comes home alive, and significantly disfigured. He now falls for Fern, but she still has to convince him to date her because he’s hung up on how ‘ugly’ he is now.

Ugh. Honestly, I’m a little angry with myself even for finishing this one. It’s so sappy and uninteresting, and there is absolutely no chemistry between the leads. At all. But there’s plenty of Big Man Needs to Feel Macho and It’s Up to the Little Lady to Provide Damosel-in-Distress-ness so He Can Feel Needed and Big and Macho. Ick. And an even bigger ick: lots of barely veiled God Works in Mysterious Ways malarky. Just…ew. Oh, and the only reason I read the book was because it showed up on a Beauty and the Beast retellings list, but beyond the idea that the dude gets some shrapnel scars, I don’t see it. Gah.

>202 scaifea: Thought I was going to get a BB with the Beauty and the Beast retelling, but thanks to your review I have dodged that bullet.

I just picked up a new Beauty and the Beast retelling at my used bookstore today. I am going to try reading Beast by Donna Jo Napoli next month.

>203 lowelibrary: Yeah, I'd say give it a pass. I hope the one you've found is much better!

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

108. The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes
Mr. and Mrs. Bunting, after years of working in service, put their savings into running a lodging house. But things haven’t worked out as profitably as they’d like, and they find themselves very near to starvation when one day the perfect lodger knocks on their door. He wants to rent out all the rooms – he claims he needs peace and quiet for his work – and pays a large sum up front. At first the Buntings are ecstatic, but their eccentric lodger’s arrival in their lives coincides with the beginning of a string of murders near their London neighborhood, and Mrs. Bunting begins to suspect that it may not be a coincidence at all.

Inspired by the theory that Jack the Ripper was himself a lodger of this kind, the story does a great job of exploring the gamut of emotions and thoughts and fears that someone in Mrs. Bunting’s position might experience. Lowndes strikes a nice balance of good story and eerie atmosphere as well.

CAT#11: Favorite Author Bibliographies

109. Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater
Greywaren is the last book in the Dreamers trilogy and the finale for the story arc that started in The Raven Boys. I loved this ending for the plot and the characters so much that I don’t even know, really, how to talk about it. Plus, it’s nearly impossible to do so without lots and lots of spoilers. Such good twists and reveals here, and the story is just as wild as ever. Stiefvater remains one of my absolute favorite authors. I adore her stories and her style.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

110. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale
An account of the murder of a 4-year-old boy in his English countryside home in the 1860. The book tells the story of the murder, the detective who worked the case and nearly lost his reputation because of it, and the inspiration both the case and the detective had on the murder mystery genre. Summerscale strikes a really nice balance between all the elements of her account, and does justice to a fascinating subject.



CAT#2: YALSA Award Winners

111. Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas
A prequel to The Hate U Give, this YA novel follow’s Starr’s father as a 17-year-old trying to figure out his life between school, wanting to leave the King Lords gang, and new fatherhood. Like THUG, Concrete Rose is so wonderfully written and also powerful and important. It’s another one for the list of books that all high school students should read – and a lot of adults, too.

CAT#17: Unread Books from My Shelves
BingoDOG#23: Author under 30

112. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I still can’t quite believe that I somehow graduated high school and earned a BA in English lit without ever being assigned this novel. And why it took me so long to read it on my own, I’ll never really understand either. But it was worth the wait. The plot itself wasn’t all that riveting to me, but the writing was gorgeous.

CAT#15: Book-a-Year Challenge

113. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Long, but worth it. I’ve known the plot for years, but it was great to sink into the language and enjoy it as it slowly unfolded.



CAT#4: Manga

114. Beastars vol 1 by Paru Itagaki
Meh. Weird (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), but also not very well written (probably not a good thing). So I won’t continue with this one.

CAT#5: Mysteries
CAT#11: Favorite Author Bibliographies
August AlphaKIT: M

115. The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie
A brother comes to a small country village with his sister to recover from a flying accident, seeking peace and quiet, but finds a town where all is astir from a batch of anonymous hate mail going around. It seems silly to the siblings at first, but when first one then another villager dies, things get serious.

Oh, this is a good one. Told from the point of view of the brother, I didn’t realize it was going to be a Miss Marple mystery until almost the end, when she gets called in by an old friend to help solve the case. I was fumbling around with guesses right up until the end.

>210 scaifea: One of my favorite Agatha Christies!

>211 christina_reads: Mine too now!

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists
September RandomKIT: Wild Wild West

116. Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
An interesting and inventive retelling of Peter Pan from Tinkerbell’s point of view, and with Tiger Lily as the main character. I really enjoyed this one for its unique twist on the original story and for the depth of Tiger Lily’s and Pan’s characters.

CAT#20: Everything Else

117. Floodland by Marcus Sedgwick
A middle-grade short novel about a post-global-warming world in which much of what was England is now under water. Ten-year-old Zoe and her parents struggle to survive in Norwich, now an island, until the last supply ship is set to take them away. But Zoe gets separated from her parents and misses the boat. Months later she finds a small boat and sets out to try to find them.

Meh. S’okay. It felt like it could have been fleshed out much more than it was; honestly it reads more like an outline of a story rather than the finished product.

CAT#11: Favorite Author Bibliographies

118. The Neil Gaiman Reader by Neil Gaiman
This collection of short stories and excerpts from some larger works of fiction was just as wonderful as I knew it would be. If there is any such thing as real magic in the world, Gaiman knows it and deals in it deftly. I mean, is it really possible for someone to write like he does without the use, at some point in his life, of pixie dust, or a talisman he found in a steamer chest in his grandfather’s attic, or a wish given by a djinn and wisely used? Honestly. At the very least, reading his stories always gets me as close to the magic of other possible worlds as I’ll likely ever get, and for that I’m grateful.

CAT#6: Romance
CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

119. The Ugly Duchess by Eloisa James
A regency romance retelling of The Ugly Duckling.
I made it through this one, but only barely. I’m generally willing to look the other way at a bit of misogyny here and there in the genre, but I draw the line at writing toxic possessive behavior as romantic. The heroine is put forth as one who rises from trauma to make herself into a strong and independent woman, but all that character growth is abandoned when she gives in to the hero’s (who, of course, caused the trauma in the first place) gaslighting and sexist behavior. Gross.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

120. Wrapped by Jennifer Bradbury
A YA mystery/romance with regency vibes, spies, Napoleon, and mummies. I mean, what more could you possibly want? It’s light on the romance and there’s virtually no teen angst, and the plot is unique and fun. Definitely recommended.

CAT#6: Romance

121. Glitterland by Alexis Hall
A bipolar Oxbridge writer type pulls an Essex-bred glitter pirate at a club and, despite himself, falls in love. And then massively screws it up, as he knew he would. If he can manage to stop the self-loathing long enough, he may be able to salvage things with an apology and work his way to believing it possible that someone could love him when he has trouble liking himself.

A sweet story, sometimes funny, sometimes quite steamy, and always teasing out complex emotions in the reader (or, at least this one).

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

122. The Deep by Rivers Solomon
Yetu is the Historian for the underwater tribe descended from African women thrown overboard from slave ships. She holds the collective memory for the entire tribe, for all of their history, so that the rest of her people need not suffer the trauma of remembering their violent past. But those memories are slowly killing Yetu, and she flees from that burden and her people. On her journey, she meets one of the two-legs and learns about the world above and what her tribe must do to survive.

Strange but powerful. I love the neo-mythic feel to the story, and I think it’s an important read. It goes on my list of books that should be required reads for high school, and could spark come great conversations.

CAT#5: Mysteries

123. Marshmallow Malice by Amanda Flower
Bailey, the chocolatier helping her grandmother run the family candy shop in Amish country, Ohio, struggles with the absurdity that is the bridesmaid’s dress her boyfriend’s mom has her wearing, worries about her Hot Cop boyfriend’s potentially psycho high school sweetheart, and of course, stumbles upon another dead body. Again she finds herself as a mediator between the police and the Amish community as she works to help Hot Cop find the killer.
The series is starting the flag, I think, but I like the characters juuuuust enough to stick with it for at least another book. It’s starting to show the shoddy signs of too-long running cozies, though: repetitive writing, sloppy/clunky phrasings, overexplainings. *sigh*

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

124. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Eleanor is the new girl at school, who’s quiet and who dresses weird and whom everyone calls Big Red because of her hair and her weight. Park is a fairly popular kid with a fairly normal life. Their two very different worlds come together when Park scoots over to make room for Eleanor on the bus one morning. They slowly become sort-of friends, and then more-than friends. But Eleanor is difficult to get close to, because her home life is awful: shitty mom, shitty dad, and even shittier stepdad. Because of them, she doesn’t even have a toothbrush, not to mention the capacity to believe in the good in other people. When Eleanor can hardly believe that Park could possibly like her, and when Park feels much the same about her, how can such a relationship be anything but doomed?

It was…okay. I think my reading of it suffered from hearing so much hype about it for so long. I was expecting miraculous and instead got a good, but not exceptionally so, YA romance. Yes, Eleanor’s story is important representation, and yes, I suspect that if I had read it when I was in junior high I would have had heart eyes for it, but now the romance bit was just too heavy handed for me. So, I think it’s probably spot on for its intended audience, but it’s not a YA that carries over well to older audiences (or at least this particular member of said audience).

>221 scaifea: I read this book when it first came out and remember loving it, but I've never reread it. Would be interesting to see what I'd think of it now! I do love Rowell's romance for adults, Attachments, which I've reread several times.

>222 christina_reads: I'm not giving up on Rowell; I'll definitely visit some of her other stuff.

CAT#2: YALSA Award Winners

125. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
I’m too old for the show and Charlie is too young, so I don’t really have any experience with iCarly nor did I know who Jennette McCurdy was until I picked up this book. Nevertheless, I loved her story and the drollness she brings to a fairly horrific upbringing and young adulthood. I may not know anything about her acting credits, but I am not a huge fan of the woman herself, her strength, her resilience, and her sense of humor. Highly recommended.



CAT#4: Manga

126. My Hero Academia vol 13 by Kohei Horikoshi
Another great entry in the manga series.

CAT#8: Audiobooks

127. Promise Boys by Nick Brooks
Urban Promise Prep charter school in DC gets all the praise for being a place where underprivileged boys are given a chance at success and learning self-worth. But when the principle (and founder) of the school is murdered in the building and three students are the prime suspects, the truth about the toxic culture in the school begins to leak out.

A solid YA mystery with Dark Academia vibes. I enjoyed how the pieces of the solution were slowly unfolded from the viewpoints of several characters, including the three suspected students. And the final reveal was nicely satisfying, if not as twisty and shocking as I’d have liked.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

128. Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
YA m/m romance in which, well, boy meets boy, boy has some questionable interactions with his ex-boy and so causes new-boy sadly to bolt, then boy makes romantic gestures to get new-boy back. On the surface it sounds…not great, and if it weren’t for the excellent characters that make up boy’s friends and the fun/funny takes on high school vibes, it would have been. But those good things are really good and make it not only a tolerable read, but a good one. I was recommending it to Charlie by describing it as a story that feels like it happens in the halls of Glee’s high school.



CAT#5: Mysteries
CAT#11: Favorite Author Bibliographies
September AlphaKIT: E

129. Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
Another banger from the master of the red herring and the impossible-to-guess ending. I loved it.

CAT#12: National Endowment for the Humanities Timeless Classics
September AlphaKIT: V

130. The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
Five civil war POWs escape their incarceration in, of all things, a hot air balloon, only to get caught up in a massive storm and blown off somewhere in the pacific. They find themselves stranded on an unknown island, which they proceed to make their home for as long as needed. They have run-ins with pirates, befriend an orangutan, and get help from a mysterious benefactor, who turns out to be a crossover hero from another of Verne’s tales.

A fun-enough story, although a little long in the tooth in several places. Plus, well, casual racism. And not a female character in sight. All in all, a very male-centric playing-out of the Could You Survive on a Desert Island fantasy, which may be why, ultimately I didn’t love it – it was certainly not written with me in mind.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

131. The Farm by Tom Rob Smith
Daniel believes that his parents are happily enjoying retired life in Sweden until the day he gets a call from his father telling him his mother has had a mental breakdown, been admitted to a mental hospital, and escaped. And then his mother calls him, telling him that everything his father has told him is a lie and to meet her at the airport. And so begins his mother’s struggle to convince him of a town-wide cover-up of the murder of a teen girl and a conspiracy against her for trying to uncover the truth.

A really well-done plot with great pacing and some clever twists. Tilda’s story is at all times equal parts convincing and suspicious, and it keeps you guessing right up to the end.

CAT#20: Everything Else

132. The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead
Told in turns by a ghost librarian, a cat who fancies himself the Guardian of the Books, and a young boy turned detective, this is the story of a library that was lost and how a new little (free) library ignited the spark that led to the solving of an old mystery.

Rebecca Stead is one of those authors who, in my world, can do no wrong. This book is further proof of that fact. So lovingly told, it’s a sweet and wonderful story (but one that is never in danger of becoming saccharine) with humor and pathos and a cool little mystery at its heart. And there’s a lot of heart here. One thousand percent recommended.

>229 scaifea: > taking a BB for this

>229 scaifea: - I read her books When You Reach Me and The List of Things That Will Not Change and liked them a lot. I think I'll add this to my BB list.

>230 lowelibrary: Woot!

>231 dudes22: She is consistently wonderful, isn't she?

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

133. Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters
Shady Grove wants nothing more than to be a good enough musician to play in a bluegrass band with her friends, and she wishes her daddy’s fiddle hadn’t drown in the lake with him 5 years ago. It was a special instrument that, when played just right, could call the dead, and there’s a good chance Shady would be able to use it since she already can sense the ghosts all around her in her daddy’s childhood home and in the woods surrounding it. That seems an impossible dream, though, until her stepdad is murdered and her brother is blamed. It’s then that the ghosts start calling her to find her daddy’s fiddle, and she’s determined to do just that so she can use it to find out who really committed the crime. But there’s a reason her family hid the fiddle and lied to her about it – the cost of playing it is higher than she can imagine…

This YA novel has it all: bisexual bluegrass-playing teens, multiple murder mysteries, a fiddle that can raise the dead, and spooky atmosphere for miles. What more could you possibly need in a fall read?! I adored it.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

134. Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien
A teen girl lives on her own on her family’s farm in a protected valley, and in fact thinks she’s possibly the only person left alive after the nuclear attacks until a man in a radiation suit enters the valley. She had both hoped for and feared this event, and it soon becomes clear to her that fear is the proper response…

An interesting little thriller, although the main character’s choices sometimes irked me, and that says, probably, a lot more about me than about the book; she yielded way too much ground to the dangerous and violent macho bullshit of Radiation Suit Man. So while it’s a good read in most respects, I was too frustrated by her actions and the resolution to love it.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist

135. Towing Jehovah by James Morrow
God is dead and his corpse is floating somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The angels choose a disgraced ship captain to lead a disparate crew on a secret mission to tow the holy vessel to a final resting place in the arctic circle. Weirdness ensues.

It started out good – the writing is pretty great and the weird was a good weird. But then is just…stayed…weird…with no real dynamics. And the characters were more annoying than eccentric. So, in the end, sort of disappointing.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

136. Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
Sophia lives in a world where Cinderella is much more than a story. The princess and her Prince Charming were real, and they changed the course of history for the land they ruled over. But Cinderella has been dead over 100 years, and now her story is used by the present king to keep women and girls everywhere submission and powerless. Sophia, on the eve of her mandatory debut at the king’s yearly ball, has absolutely no desire to find her own prince Charming, and instead would much rather run away with the princess. Her resistance leads to her discovering the real truth behind the Cinderella tale, but will that knowledge be enough to change the system?

An imaginative retelling that feels like Cinderella has been plopped down in the middle of A Handmaid’s Tale. In other words, it’s fabulous. Strong female characters some cool and unexpected twists, and an author who clearly understands what myths and fairy tales are for: holding up a mirror to society and asking if we like what we see.



CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

137. Bird Box by Josh Malerman
An apocalyptic story in which the disaster comes in a form that no one can look at without going murderously mad, which leads the few survivors to hid indoors and only venture out with blindfolds firmly secured.

Like all good apocalyptic fiction, this one gives the thrills of the horror at hand while also delving into the terrors humans inflict on themselves when things get dire. I loved it, although I still think I’ll pass on the movie – I can handle this sort of story on the page much better than I can on the screen. *shudders*



CAT#20: Everything Else

138. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
A gaggle of boys celebrate Halloween in a small town by decking themselves out in costumes and running off to visit the local abandoned house. What they find there is much more than they bargained for, and they spend the evening zipping through time, accompanied by a ghoulish escort in the form of Mr. Moundshroud, who teaches them the origins and meanings behind autumn celebrations like Halloween.

This one starts out strong, with Bradbury’s customary mastery of wordsmithery, but I felt like the story was a little weaker than the other works of his I’ve read. Possibly because it very much seems to be intended for a younger audience? I think middle grade kiddos would love it.



CAT#18: Books from My Read Soon! Shelves
October RandomKIT
October AlphaKIT: N

139. Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman
As Nick faces his first year away at college and Charlie is dreading Year 13 left behind and alone, the couple struggle to figure out if their relationship will survive a long-distance stint, and they also have trouble communicating their worried to each other.

Not my favorite entry in the Heartstopper world, but I still adore Nick and Charlie and the whole gang.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

140. Jay's Gay Agenda by Jason June
Jay moves from a small, backwoods town to Seattle and experiences life as a gay teen in a much more gay-friendly city.

It started out fine, but I kept waiting for more substance to the story and it never arrived. Meh.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

141. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

A few days after a high school girl kills herself, one of her classmates gets a package in the mail. It contains 7 cassette tapes, on which are recorded 13 stories, narrated as if from beyond the grave, of how 13 different people at her school played a part in her decision to commit suicide. We follow both the stories on the tapes and Clay’s thoughts as he listens to them.

An interesting story with an interesting method of storytelling. I appreciated how nearly every character, including the deceased narrator, is complex – both flawed and with saving graces or understandable reasons for their flaws. No one and everyone here is to blame for a myriad of minute events that lead up to one big one. Overall, a good read.

CAT#5: Mysteries
CAT#11: Favorite Author Bibliographies
October AlphaKIT: H

142. The Hollow by Agatha Christie

While staying at a vacation home, Poirot is invited to lunch at the manor house up the road. But when he arrives, one of the other guests has just been shot and the new widow is holding a gun…

Whew. Christie never disappoints. Everyone has a motive but none of the leads pan out, and even Poirot seems baffled up until the very end.

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

143. Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst
Denna has long been betrothed to a prince from another kingdom, and she’s been raised and trained to fulfill the role of future queen, but when she arrives in her new home, despite her royal fiancé being perfectly lovely to her, her secret magical abilities, which she’s fought hard to master and conceal, start getting out of her control. It possibly has something to do with her soon-to-be sister-in-law, Mare, who is the mistress of the stables and a dab hand at fighting as well. When there’s a murder in the castle, Denna and Mare team up to find out who the culprit is, and they both must deal with their feelings toward one another.

This one had so much potential and I was excited to read it, but boy, did it disappoint. I wanted to love it, but it’s just…boring. The characters are never developed – and the author *tells* us everything about their personalities without ever once *showing* us that those traits are there – and the plot is just as bland as the people inhabiting it. It’s a great idea for a story, but the execution is, sadly, sloppy and lazy.

CAT#8: Audiobooks

144. The Getaway by Lamar Giles
Set inside a Disneyesque amusement park and told from the point of view of a handful of teens who work and live within its walls, this apocalyptic YA novel describes what happens when the 1% plot the destruction and rebuilding of the world, press the start button, and then hide behind the walls of a luxury resort to wait out the destruction. Spoiler: things get bad.

The idea for the plot is interesting, and at first the build-up was too, but somewhere about halfway through, it seemed to fall off into Bland Land, and the climax wasn’t as tense or thrilling as it could have been. I needed to be more invested in the characters, too.



CAT#11: Favorite Author Bibliographies

145. Shakespeare for Squirrels by Christopher Moore
Pocket of Dog Snogging finds himself shipwrecked on the shores of Sort-Of-Not-Really-Athens in the middle of yet another Shakespeare play, and he skillfully muddles through the even-more-convoluted-than-Shakespeare-made-it plot, as he usually does.

I adore this character (I have such a soft spot for tricksters), and I adore Moore’s style. He completely dismantles AMND and scotch tapes it back together, but in the best way possible.

CAT#4: Manga

146. Black Butler vol 1 by Yana Toboso
The head of the Phantomhive family – owners of a massively successful British toy company – is just a boy, but no worries because he has a rather skilled butler…

Ooof, I’m hooked. Sebastian the very special butler has a new seat on the Literary Boyfriends Couch, and I will most certainly be continuing with the series.



CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists
November AlphaKIT: T

147. They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
Matteo and Rufus are two teens living very different lives in a NYC in which you get a Deathcast call around midnight on the day you will die. They meet each other for the first time on their death day, after matching up on a Last Friend app, and they spend the day together getting to know each other while they make the best of the few hours they have left.

A very cool premise, nicely done. It’s touching and sweet, affirming and gut-punching, all without being too saccharine or maudlin. Recommended.

CAT#5: Mysteries

148. Lemon Drop Dead by Amanda Flower
Another murder in the small Amish town in Ohio, and again, Bailey the Chocolatier finds herself in the thick of it. This one involves her chocolate shop employee, Emily, since it’s the woman who adopted Emily’s secret Amish love child (I swear I’m not making this up) who’s turned up very murdered in the next-door pretzel shop.

Yeah, I’m done with this series after this one. The writing is getting bad and I just don’t care enough about the characters to overlook the lack of quality.

>1 scaifea: hey! I'm finally reading and ENJOYING Viking Saga, which you recommended to me about four years ago.

>244 fuzzi: Ha! Yay! (Iiiii don't even remember reading it now, but that's pretty normal for my brain.)

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks
November AlphaKIT: L

149. A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
A small southern town, an evangelical nutjob of a preacher with control issues, a marriage on the decline, an aging midwife and a sheriff who see that trouble may be coming, and two young boys who get caught up in the impending tragedy.

A little darker than my usual fare, but I loved this novel for its excellent writing and its commentary on the abuses of fanatical religion. Great character studies, too. If I come across more of Cash’s stuff, I’ll very likely pick it up.



CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks
November RandomKIT: A Little Light

150. Why Buddhism Is True by Robert Wright
An apology for the usefulness of western Buddhism in the modern world.

Not really anything new here for me, but an interesting read nonetheless.

CAT#6: Romance

151. Let It Snow by Heidi Cullinan
Frankie’s worst nightmares seem to be coming to life when he’s on his way home to Minneapolis and gets lost in a snowstorm in small-town Minnesota, home of – he assumes – redneck gay-haters. But when the three lumberjacks who take him in turn out to be just as gay as he is, Frankie says relax. And he sort of does, but the biggest of the three bears is an uber-grump, and he’s worried that he’ll never get the dude to like him.

A cute grumpy/sunshine m/m romance, although it could have used some paring down in some places (one conversation on a topic is enough; four to five rehashings are way too many) and some fleshing out in others (a couple of characters are introduced for the sole purpose of calling Frankie a f*g and then they’re dropped completely, when they had the potential to be the two most interesting characters in the book). Still, a fun, popcorn-y read with some spice.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks
Year AlphaKIT: Z

152. The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
AJ Fikry is a curmudgeon of a bookshop owner, a widower and lit snob who lives alone above his store, eats a diet made up solely of frozen Indian food, and almost – but not quite – hates life in general. Then someone steals his extremely rare and valuable copy of Poe’s Tamerlane. And *then* someone leaves a baby in his store. These two things change his life pretty much completely, and for the better.

On the surface this novel doesn’t…do much, but I’m okay with that. Fikry’s character grows, sure. We get little life moments throughout, with a smattering of slightly larger ones, and they cumulate into, well, a storied life. There’s a come-full-circle-ness to it at the end that I think works well, and I really enjoyed how the small mysteries here and there come together in an interesting way. I don’t have too much to complain about here at all, beyond the ending veering a little too close to Sappytown, and if its intent is to be Literary Fiction, I think it tries a little too hard and therefore fails. But in that same vein, I kind of love that Fikry himself, who hates everything that’s not LF, would have very likely turned his nose up at the novel in which he’s the MC. And that’s delightfully fitting in a ton of ways.



CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks
Year AlphaKIT: X

153. Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix
Amy works in an IKEA-type knock-off store, hates her coworkers, hates her boss, and hates the job in general. She only takes the weird extra shift offered by her boss, which involves spending the night in the store with two other employees to try to catch the serial vandal haunting the store, for the overtime hours. As it turns out, the culprit isn’t so much a vandal as a haunting. And Amy finds out what it means for all hell to bust lose.

A haunted house story, but set in an IKEA with the underlying metaphor that Retail Is Hell. A fun read – it felt like, essentially, reading the script of a slasher horror movie.

CAT#20: Everything Else

154. A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
After a dig opportunity is put on hold, Sam, an archaeoentomologist, goes to stay with her mother for a while. Sam’s brother has mentioned that their mom seems off, and it doesn’t take long for Sam to see what he means: their usually free-spirited mother has repainted her once-brightly-colored home all in shades of ecru, and their grandmother’s weird old racist paintings are back up on the walls. She also doesn’t seem to want to hear anything at all critical about said grandmother, and in fact gets noticeably nervous at such talk. The house used to be Grand Mae’s, and it seems to Sam that, years after her dead, the nasty old bag is strangely present again, at least in her mom’s mind. She soon discovers that it may not be all in her mother’s head, though, when strange and scary things start happening to Sam, too.

An interesting twist on the haunted house genre. The plot is interesting and original, but what really makes it a great read for me is that character of Sam herself. She’s very well drawn, very believable, and has a fantastic 1st person voice.





155. The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag
A middle grade graphic novel about a Morgan, who feels out of place in her small island town, and who falls for the eponymous girl, who in turn changes both their lives.

Sweet and fun and sad and very well written/drawn. Definitely recommended.

>249 scaifea: Taking a BB for A House with Good Bones.

>250 lowelibrary: Oh yay! I hope you enjoy it!

CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

156. The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee
Jo and Old Jim (the man who took her in as a baby when her parents abandoned her) secretly live in the basement of a newspaper print shop. During the day they both work for the same family – Old Jim as a stable hand, and Jo as a lady’s maid to the family’s daughter. But after working hours, Jo starts writing an advice column for the upstairs paper and manages to keep the secret of her identity along with her residence. The revelation of either one would be ruinous, since the people of Atlanta would hardly stand to be given advice by a young Chinese woman. As she is stirring up the public with her opinions on freedoms for women (including the right to vote and to ride a bicycle), she also sets out on another secret mission: to unfold the mystery of the old letter she’s found among Old Jim’s things, which may lead her to discovering just who her parents were and why they left her.

An engaging-enough story, and the characters are interesting, but the ending is way too pat and rushed, and that took away from the overall goodness. I did enjoy the way bits of the advice column are interspersed with the narrative in a way that mirrors what’s going on in the plot.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks
December AlphaKIT: R

157. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
A teen boy stumbles into an affair with an older woman, who acts secretive throughout the relationship before simply vanishing one day. A couple of years later their paths cross again when he, as part of a school course, attends the trial of a group of Nazi soldiers and finds that she is one of the defendants. He struggles between being horrified and feeling sympathy for her.

This one didn’t really work for me, and I wonder if it at least partly is a cultural thing. Then again, I generally just don’t care for novels that are mostly character studies with little plot, and rarely enjoy stories with zero likeable characters. So.



CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks
December AlphaKIT: Y

158. The Boy Detective: A New York Childhood by Roger Rosenblatt
A memoir that straddles the author’s childhood in NYC, roaming the streets pretending to be a detective, and his ‘current,’ adulthood walking of the same streets, now as a writing professor after his evening class has finished.

I know Rosenblatt gets All The Praise for his “memoirs that read like poetry,” but I just…don’t see it. It feels like he’s trying too hard to be lyrical and clever, so much so that it distracts from the narrative he’s trying so hard to make seem effortless. And the narrative itself is scattered all over the place; he hops from one left-field reference to the next without much connection. If you’re looking for a naturally effortless, lyrical memoir, try Stephen Fry, and if you crave an impressive amount of trivia that seems hodgepodge but is seamlessly woven together, try Bill Bryson. As for me, I found neither here.

CAT#9: Beauty and the Beast Retellings

159. East by Edith Pattou
Beauty and the Beast but make it Scandinavian.

The premise was good (and, well, that’s the Beauty and the Beast part, honestly), but the method was…not. It dragged. It was a slog. And I think it wouldn’t have felt so overly-long if the characters had been given any amount of personality. I mean, any at all. They feel like cardboard people flatly carrying out the action of the plot, which, in itself, had no real zest to it, plodding along with a ‘this happened and then this and then this’ vibe. No tension, no surprising elements, no depth to be found anywhere. Blech.

>253 scaifea: A lot of people on LT really liked The Reader, but I agree with your review. I had no sympathy for anyone.

>255 pamelad: It sort of feels like one that we're *supposed* to like because it's artsy or something. *sigh* I'm glad I'm not the only one.

CAT#7: Books from my Wishlist
CAT#8: Audiobooks

160. The Mind's Eye by Oliver Sacks
An interesting look into the connection between the eyes and the brain, and what can happen when that connection goes on the blink, so to speak.

I enjoyed this one up to a certain point, but then it began to feel like one case history anecdote after another, with not a lot of substance-like fleshing out.



CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

161. In the Event of Love by Courtney Kae
An event planner takes a job in her home town, which she left in a hurry to go to college after a split with her bff/crush years ago. Old almost-flame is still there (along with EP’s other besties), working the family tree farm. The job she’s taken is – you guessed it – for the tree farm. Romance ensues.

A good-enough (f/f) love story, with a modest amount of steam.



CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

162. How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow
Another f/f holiday romance, but this time one of them is an intern for the holiday season at the Smithsonian and the other is the daughter of a local news channel weatherman.

This one was okay, but I think I was getting burned out on the holiday romances at this point. Still, it was cute and very readable.



CAT#8: Audiobooks
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

163. Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun
A woman with a real talent for art/web comics, but who has no belief in her abilities, is down on her luck and working at a coffee shop when the owner of the building asks her to fake-marry him for 200K. She accepts, agrees to spend the holidays with his family in their swanky mansion/cabin, only to discover once they get there that his sister is the woman she had a one-night-stand with (and with whom she had immediately fallen for and gotten her heart smashed by and so hasn’t seen since that night) *last* Christmas.

A bit of a comedy of errors in a sweet and lovely way. Definitely my favorite of the holiday romances I read this year.



CAT#20: Everything Else

164. A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas
An annual read. I adore it.



CAT#8: Audiobooks

165. Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection edited by Stephen Fry
Fry curates and then reads a collection of excellent classic ghost stories here, including Sleepy Hollow, an excellent tale from Poe about a scary doppelganger, a super-creepy Robert Louis Stevenson story about grave robbers, and even a haunted house one by Bram Stoker. And, of course, Fry narrating them is half the delight.



CAT#6: Romance
CAT#19: Books from My Stack of Book Riot Book Lists

166. You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky
A spoiled rich boy (think David Rose vibes) is forced to spend the holidays in the middle of nowhere with his less-than-glamourous grandparents. And to make things worse, they have a scholarship-kid college boy living in their basement, who takes an instant dislike to Spoiled Rich Boy. The feeling is mutual. At first.

I liked this one pretty well, although I get tired of the 3rd-act breakup thing.



CAT#20: Everything Else

167. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Again, a yearly thing. So, so good.



CAT#8: Audiobooks

168. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
For most of this one I was moderately interested in the moderately interesting murder mystery plot (and slightly less so in the MC’s marriage is on the rocks side plot), but wow, that ending packs a *punch* that really turns the whole thing around and into a solid read. Also, I do love how Euripides’ Alcestis is interwoven throughout in such a clever way.