Karen (karspeak) is keen to read in 2022

Hi, I'm Karen from the Florida panhandle. I've been part of CR since 2019, and I think I've been on LT for about 10 years. I read mostly speculative fiction (sci-fi/fantasy), as well as mystery, general and literary fiction, and nonfiction, especially about climate change and life sciences. I'm married with a middle schooler and high schooler, and I work for the local school system. I get most of my reading list from CR, so I am particularly grateful to this group!

January
1. Stranger Diaries
2. Termination Shock
3. The Postscript Murders
4. The Crossing Places
5. American Canopy

February
6. The Lost Fleet: Dauntless
7. The Lost Fleet: Fearless
8. The Lost Fleet: Courageous
9. The Lost Fleet: Valiant
10. The Lost Fleet: Relentless
11. The Lost Fleet: Victorious
12. The Last Anniversary

March
13. Wakers
14. Matrix
15. A Study in Scarlet Women (Lady Sherlock #1)
16. A Conspiracy in Belgravia (Lady Sherlock #2)
17. The Hollow of Fear (Lady Sherlock #3)
18. Crescent City
19. House of Sky and Breath
20. The Echo Chamber
21. Maus I
22. Maus II
23. The Price You Pay for College
24. One by One

April
25. Vanguard
26. The Trees
27. Throne of Glass

May
28. The Book of Jhereg
29. Bird Box
30. Far From the Light of Heaven
31. Sing, Unburied, Sing
32. Sunshine
33. The Blue Sword

June
34. The Hero and the Crown
35. Chalice
36. The Cartographers
37. Amongst Our Weapons
38. The Thursday Murder Club
39. The Man Who Died Twice
40. The Candy House
41. My Luck

July
42. Burn for Me
43. Artemis
44. Spinning Silver
45. A Deadly Education
46. The Last Graduate
47. One Way
48. No Way
49. Equations of Life
50. Ship Breaker
51. The Secret Countess
52. Upgrade
53. Prison Healer

August
54. Primitives
55. Part of Your World
56. Death at Whitewater Church
57. Treacherous Strand
58. The Well of Ice
59. Murder at Greysbridge
60. Death of a Gossip
61. Death of an Outsider

September
62. The Nightingale
63. The Haunting of Tram Car 015
64. Peter 2.0: Human Cyborg
65. In Plain Sight
66. Ghost of a Chance
67. The Long Chain
68. Mind Games
69. Limelight
70. Soul Taken
71. How the World Really Works

October
72. The Bullet That Missed
73. The Golden Enclaves
74. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
75. Fool's Assassin
76. Fool's Quest
77. Assassin's Fate

November
78. The Body Falls
79. Fated
80. Cursed
81. Rules of Redemption
82. Age of Deception
83. Threshold of Annihilation
84. Facets of Revolution
85. Her Royal Spyness
86. A Royal Pain
87. Dragon Ridden

December
88. Mickey 7
89. Book Lovers
90. The Seventh Bride
91. Swordheart
92. Sweep of the Heart

Hi Karen. Nice to see you back.

>2 dchaikin: Thanks! I'm heading out for a round of starring...

>3 karspeak: I just dropped a star here and looked back at your Project Hail Mary comments on your prior thread. I just enjoyed it as an adventure story. We were on the same page.

Looking forward to some good books this year.

Yay, another scifi/fantasy fan! Thanks for stopping by my thread.

Nice to see you back :) And what >5 markon: said - we need more Speculative fiction fans! (but I always think so anyway)

Dropping a star to follow along with your reading again this year.

Adding a star, Karen. I look forward to see what you are up to this year.

>4 RBeffa: >5 markon: >6 AnnieMod: >7 stretch: >8 NanaCC: Thanks, all, for dropping by!

1. Stranger Diaries (LT rec from Ron)
A fun and above average mystery. It kept me entertained while running errands. I'm already reading the next one.

2. Termination Shock
This is a cli-fi from Neal Stephenson set in the very near future. I have really enjoyed some of Stephenson's books and really disliked some of his books. Liked: Zodiac, The Big U, Cryptonomicon, Seveneves, Snow Crash, Diamond Age. Really disliked: Anathem, Reamde. Termination Shock falls somewhere in the middle for me. Stephenson is known for cleverly, and sometimes presciently, imagining the future. For example, in his book Snow Crash, he popularized the term "avatar" and developed the idea of a multiverse. He has been hired as a "futurist" by several different business ventures over the years. In Termination Shock he takes on climate change and the idea of geoengineering. He doesn't present much new about geoengineering, he just makes it easy to imagine it happening soon in our world.

In Termination Shock I found some of his tropes such as the lone male hero saving the damsel in distress, albeit a strong and intelligent damsel, quite annoying. And many of his characters seemed indistinguishable from those of previous books. And the plot has a ridiculous number of coincidences. One does NOT read Stephenson for his characterization or his plotting; one reads him for his ideas. And that is part of the fun of this book--the Sikh religion, Sikh martial arts, the Line of Control, Papua New Guinean separatism, and the 9-kilometer-long Oosterscheldekering are just some of the topics discussed. Apparently Stephenson is considered a maximalist. Wikipedia describes literary maximalism as when "digression, reference, and elaboration of detail occupy a great fraction of the text." I think Kim Stanley Robinson, whose cli-fi The Ministry for the Future I read last year, might also be classified as a maximalist by this definition. And I read somewhere that Liu Cixin could also be considered to be one.

>10 karspeak: Interesting about Stephenson. I loved Cryptonomicon, and really liked Anathem and Reamde, but not Snow Crash. I have The rise and fall of D.O.D.O on the shelf. I thought parts of Cryptonomicon were very funny. Anathem was hard to get through with my limited knowledge of math, but I still liked it. I think I'll pass on Termination Shock though. Climate disasters are too much for me right now.

I haven't read any Stephenson, though he seems like someone I might like.

>10 karspeak: and >11 labfs39: I read Snow Crash years ago and then again recently (last couple of years) for bookclub. There are some really neat ideas in it, interrupted by these frustratingly long info dumps. I liked Seveneves but thought it should've been expanded/split up into three or four books. I have Cryptonomicon on the TBR pile - I tried to read it years ago but didn't give it consistent attention which I think it probably needs.

>10 karspeak: you have read a lot of Stephenson. I adored Snow Crash. It's a 1992 vision of the internet, and information (and dystopia)...he just caught a great technologically optimistic-yet-equivocal moment. But I have Anathem and Quicksilver collecting dust. I can't decide how much I really want to read them. Enjoyed your Termination Shock review.

>10 karspeak: I'm a Stephenson lover. I like some of his books more than others, of course. All of them, however, have been imaginative and interesting in concept. I'll happily keep reading him.

>10 karspeak: I am glad that Stranger Diaries worked for you. I picked up Postscript from the library and am looking forward to it. Elly is currently writing a third standalone Detective Kaur at present.

>11 labfs39: >12 lisapeet: >13 rhian_of_oz: >14 dchaikin: >15 majkia: It is fun reading everyone's Stephenson comments, and seeing how much people's preferences within his canon vary. Cryptonomicon was my overall favorite. My sister and I still talk sometimes about the parking lot grid to divvy up the inherited furniture, and the discussion of the perfect ratio of milk to cereal pieces. My sister, who appreciates philosophical and academic esoterica much more than I do, raved about Anathem, but it just never worked for me.

3. The Postscript Murders
This is the sequel to Stranger Diaries. The mystery just didn't work for me, although I liked the characters and the writing enough to still enjoy this.

>18 karspeak: This is good to know. I have it from the library and it is due back very soon and I still have not started. I'm just not in a mystery mood at the moment and a weak mystery would not please me!

On Stephenson I'm not a big fan. The first one of his I tried, Anathem when it was new, I got to about page 200 and bailed. I can scarcely recall now why but I think I was bored. I did like Seveneves well enough, but even that one bugged me with the end. I have Zodiac, Snow Crash and the Diamond Age in the bookcase if I care to tackle him again. Some people seem to really like him.

>18 karspeak: I think I also liked The Stranger Diaries better than this one, but I liked this well enough to continue when another comes out. I can’t remember, have you read her Ruth Galloway series? I love that one.

>17 karspeak: My sister and I still talk sometimes about the parking lot grid to divvy up the inherited furniture

That has to be one of the funniest scenes I've ever read. I still talk about it too.

>17 karspeak: Your comments have inspired me to bump Cryptonomicon up the TBR list. It may even by my next chunkster once I finish David Copperfield.

Looking forward to stopping by from time to time to see what you are reading. The only Stephenson I have read was The Diamond Age which I liked well enough (so long ago now).

>20 NanaCC: I just finished it, actually!

4. The Crossing Places
I enjoyed this first mystery in the Ruth Galloway series, except that I guessed who the killer was as soon as that person appeared in the story, which was annoying. But the writing, setting, characterization, and other plotting were quite good, so I still enjoyed it overall and will eventually continue with the series.

5. American Canopy
This nonfiction book looks at American (US) history through the lens of its trees. This could have been gimmicky, but the author made a very strong case that America's vast forests played a huge and vital role in its geographical, cultural, and economic growth. I was already familiar with some of the episodes highlighted in the book, such as the chestnut blight, and Aldo Leopold's role in protecting wilderness. But the broader historical context was very helpful, particularly in understanding the importance of wood for various industries and products through the 1950's. However, it was also heartbreaking to read about the deforestation of America's vast, old growth forests, from New England to Florida, and from the East Coast to the West Coast. I had to force myself to keep reading at times.

>24 karspeak: American Canopy
Oh this looks interesting.

>24 karspeak: American Canopy looks really good, and that intersection of natural and American histories is definitely an interest of mine. Noted!

>24 karspeak: - what qebo and lisepeet said. Definitely noting this as I' curious especially about the impact of settlement on these early forests.

>24 karspeak: The Ruth Galloway series is one of my favorite series! I love the setting and the characters so much. I did not guess the killer, but I almost never do.

>25 qebo: >26 lisapeet: >27 dchaikin: Wow, that ended up being quite the book bullet! I did hate reading the parts about the destruction of America's great forests, but that is part of history, of course.

>28 MissBrangwen: For the past few years I have enjoyed reading mysteries by Anthony Horowitz, such as Magpie Murders, and the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series, such as The Beekeeper's Apprentice. It is nice to now add Elly Griffiths in the mix. I'm curious to see which direction the Ruth Galloway series heads, since there seem to be only so many bodies that can be found in her marsh...

6. The Lost Fleet: Dauntless (LT rec)
7. The Lost Fleet: Fearless
8. The Lost Fleet: Courageous
9. The Lost Fleet: Valiant
10. The Lost Fleet: Relentless
11. The Lost Fleet: Victorious

Well, I tore through this series last weekend. It became quite addictive. I'm not sure how this space opera series had escaped my notice up until now. The author is a retired U.S. Naval officer, and it reads like Hornblower but with a space fleet of ships. The strength of this series is an exciting and constantly sustained fast-paced plot that relies on the main character almost constantly outwitting the alien space fleet. I was actually glad when it ended so I could return to my real-life responsibilities.

>30 karspeak: I almost hate to tell you but Victorious isn't the end. Admittedly the next one Dreadnaught has been on my TBR pile for almost 10 years so you could probably stop where you have. Unless you're a completeist, then I'm sorry.

>31 rhian_of_oz: Lol, I did notice that the series continues on, and he also did a prequel series. But Victorious seemed to finish the author's original plot arc, so I am fine with stopping there for now. I plan to save the prequel series for a long plane flight.

I haven't posted in a while. Let's see what I can remember about these books...

12. The Last Anniversary (book club)
My book club picked this as a light read after several heavier previous selections. It was cute, light, set in Australia, and not particularly memorable.

13. Wakers
This is the first in a new sci-fi trilogy by Orson Scott Card. It was just released last month, and it caught my eye. The sci-fi aspect was decent, I guess, but the bulk of the book focused on the love-hate-dislike relationship between two teens, which was annoying and never really made sense. Definitely skippable.

14. Matrix (LT rec)
This novel about a convent of 12th century nuns kept reminding me of two other novels I have read--Pope Joan and Year of Wonders.

15. A Study in Scarlet Women (LT rec, Lady Sherlock #1)
16. A Conspiracy in Belgravia (Lady Sherlock #2)
17. The Hollow of Fear (Lady Sherlock #3)
This series on audiobook has been a fun diversion while driving to my son's soccer tournaments. Sherlock Holmes is retold and remade with a female protagonist, in the straight-laced Victorian era. The writing and the mysteries are well done, although the romance aspect (which features more in the third book) makes me roll my eyes a bit.

Quite a variety in your recent reading, Karen.

>32 karspeak: The Last Anniversary is probably my least favourite of Liane Moriarty's books. I suspect if this had been the first one I read I probably wouldn't have read any of the others.

I read A Study in Scarlet Women in January so I think it's time to request the next one from the library. That's one of the benefits of coming to a series "late" - not so long a wait between instalments.

>34 rhian_of_oz: Good to know, I'll give her another try, then.

18. Crescent City (LT rec)
The first in a fun demons/angels/fairies/shapeshifters/etc trilogy. Decent plotting, good pacing, and a definite college and post-college friends-group vibe. Entertaining.
19. House of Sky and Breath
The second in the trilogy. The third one hasn't been released yet, alas.
20. The Echo Chamber (book club selection)
Many reviews describe this as "Hogarthian," so I had to look up that term. As many of you probably know, William Hogarth was a well-known English pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist from the 1700s. Anyway, this book is a satire on the craziness of social media, including cancel culture, being "woke" to a ridiculous extreme, and the inanity and hollowness of much of our current culture. I think the author was successful, but I didn't think this was quite as clever as many other reviewers did. My main issues were that several characters were annoyingly inconsistent. Also, the characters were all fairly unlikable, so I didn't really care what happened to them. I was quite concerned about the tortoise, however.
21. Maus I (book club selection)
Very well done, and a different way to read about the Holocaust. I'm having my 12 year old read it.
22. Maus II
I had to finish his father's story, of course.
23. The Price You Pay for College
This is a well-done NF book by NYT columnist Ron Lieber about the intricacies of the cost, value, and potential financial aid from US colleges/universities. My oldest son is a 9th grader, so we need to begin thinking about such decisions. I skipped various chapters that don't apply to my family. But some chapters were very enlightening. The main thing that I learned is that colleges and universities now have computer algorithms which calculate merit-based financial aid (which can be somewhat or completely different from need-based financial aid). Just like the cost of a plane ticket can vary day-to-day based on how full the flight is, how far in advance you book the ticket, how popular that flight usually is, etc, the amount of merit-based aid that any given college might offer can vary greatly, even among students who have the same finances, grades, and test scores, based on a variety of shifting factors.
24. One by One (LT rec)
An entertaining, modern re-telling of Agatha Christie, although I thought one character was quite inconsistent, which felt like cheating by the author when it came time to for the "bad guy" reveal... Still, it was definitely entertaining.

I also wanted to mention the 1:1 reading I've been doing with two of my middle school students at work. This isn't something I usually get to focus on as a speech-language therapist, so it's been fun. One particular male student seemed to be very bored with school, and craving excitement, so we have been reading the Jack Stalwart series, which he has really enjoyed. It is more of an early-mid elementary book, but it is a good fit for him. I have also been reading The Bad Guys series in Spanish with a female student who recently immigrated from Mexico. That comic series is really cute. My sons told me the series is not as good after book 7 or so, though.

25. Vanguard
This was not as good as the author's Lost Fleet series. He is at his best when doing spaceship battles (think Lord Hornblower), and there wasn't much of that in this book.

26. The Trees (LT rec)
This was a well-done and pitch perfect novel about racism and the racial history of the US.

27. Throne of Glass
This is the first in a 7-book YA fantasy series. Entertaining enough, but I didn't want to read the whole series. So I then skipped to the final book and skimmed it. A bit too YA for me.

>38 karspeak: I do keep seeing The Trees recommended around here. I'll have to move it up my list.

>39 japaul22: I'm curious to hear your thoughts. It's unusual.

28. The Book of Jhereg
Fairly entertaining fantasy-assassin book, but I didn't like it enough to continue with the series.

29. Bird Box
This suspenseful dystopic novel was gripping, and listening to the audiobook was a great distraction while I did some unpleasant weeding.

>40 karspeak: I saw the movie Bird Box with Sandra Bullock. It was okay, but I was frustrated that the cause was never explained. Does the book?

>41 labfs39: The book strongly implies that it is some type of creature from outer space, and people go insane and then kill themselves after they see one. The creatures turn up in Russia first, and then gradually spread. There are several hypotheses for why this might be, but people who were already insane don't seem to be further affected by seeing the creatures. Dogs are affected, although the reader doesn't learn if any other animals can be affected. And even watching a video recording of the creature can make a person go insane. The pacing of the novel was good, so that the unspooling of the plot and the building of the suspense happened steadily.

>30 karspeak: I'm addicted to this series too. No idea why it is so, but it is!

>42 karspeak: Ah, interesting. Thank you

>43 majkia: Now my 15-year old is addicted. He's on #3.

30. Far From the Light of Heaven
An atmospheric sci-fi mystery. Passengers are killed aboard a spaceship, but who was the murderer? It involves humans, AI, alien species, and robots. It seemed to jump the shark at the end, a bit. It was quite different, with an odd vibe that is hard to explain. Overall I enjoyed it.

31. Sing, Unburied, Sing (book club selection)
A history of experienced and witnessed racial hate crimes haunts a family, both figuratively and literally. This was well-written and sad.

School is out for the summer! So I binged some Robin McKinley books as my mind relaxer. Young adult but still tolerable for this adult, entertaining and fun, they all involve a female heroine who has some special ability that enables them to save the day. Per McKinley's Wikipedia entry, McKinley's biographer Marilyn H. Karrenbrock said/wrote, "McKinley's females do not simper; they do not betray their own nature to win a man's approval. But neither do they take love lightly or put their own desires before anything else. In McKinley's books, the romance, like the adventure, is based upon ideals of faithfulness, duty, and honor." Her world building is very well-done, and varies completely among the below books, besides #33 and #34, which are a duology.

32. Sunshine
I read this urban fantasy years ago, but I could remember hardly any of it. Maybe I can begin re-reading books now from my teens and twenties, and they will all seem new to me? I'll have to start making a list of potential "new" re-reads. This book was clearly set up for a sequel, but she has never written one.

33. The Blue Sword
This is my overall favorite of hers.

34. The Hero and the Crown
A Newbery Medal winner.

35. Chalice
This fantasy was my only new McKinley read. Not my favorite but still enjoyable.

Home for a week between summer trips, so catching up on books read.

36. The Cartographers
Disappointing. It wanted to be a clever thriller about maps and clues and reality not being what it seems, but it fell short.

37. Amongst Our Weapons
The latest book (#9) in the Rivers of London series. It was enjoyable and well done. The Rivers of London is a clever and fun urban fantasy series with a British cop who is also a magician. The series is so well done.

38. The Thursday Murder Club
Ooh, this was fun. Very witty and entertaining mystery that is solved by 4 friends in a retirement home. Apparently Spielberg is making it into a movie?

39. The Man Who Died Twice
The sequel to Thursday Murder Club and also very fun. I'm looking forward to #3 in the series, which comes out in September.

40. The Candy House
A sequel-ish to A Visit from the Goon Squad. I loved Goon Squad, but this fell short of my expectations.

41. My Luck and other books in the Twisted Luck series
Light urban fantasy.

42. Burn for Me and other books in the Hidden Legacy series
Fast-paced romantic urban fantasy.

43. Artemis
A techno-thriller set on the lunar colony, by the author of The Martian. Enjoyable, and, as usual, the author made an amazing amount of science fit into an exciting story.

44. Spinning Silver
A fully realized, complex story based on a fairytale. Very good storytelling, with some feminist overtones.

>48 karspeak: If you liked Weir's first two books, wait until you read Project Hail Mary. I liked it even more. It was excellent

>50 labfs39: I enjoyed that one, as well, but I think The Martian is my favorite of the three. Hail Mary was my husband's favorite, though.

45. A Deadly Education
This was fun! It is like Hogwarts meets the Hunger Games.

46. The Last Graduate
The sequel to A Deadly Education, this was also fun. The next in the series is due out 9/27.

47. One Way (LT rec)
This was fun, like The Martian but with more characters and a murderer. Very impressive suspense building.

48. No Way
The sequel (and final book in this duology) to One Way. Also very suspenseful, but the last part of the book wasn't quite up to snuff. I've had a nice run of really entertaining books.

49. Equations of Life
This is by the same author as One Way, but it was not good. The plot, characters, and pacing were a hot mess. The post-apocalyptic setting was well done, though.

I read or skimmed a lot of books while traveling to Michigan and Chicago, all of which were fairly forgettable. Here are the ones I think I read (mostly) in their entirety.

50. Ship Breaker
The first in a post-apocalyptic trilogy. Great setting, okay plot. I skimmed the last 2 books in the series.

51. The Secret Countess
A cute and sweet period romance, sort of a romantic version of A Little Princess.

52. Upgrade
A genetic engineering thriller, fast-paced but not particularly memorable.

53. Prison Healer
The first in an entertaining YA fantasy trilogy. It was quite YA, with some OTT relational drama. I skimmed the second and third books.

54. Primitives
A post-apocalyptic page turner with lots of credulity stretching. I won't continue with the series.

55. Part of Your World
Cute, light romance.

56. Death at Whitewater Church (LT rec)
I really enjoyed this modern-day mystery series set in the Inishowen Peninsula of Ireland. The main character is a female lawyer who is sharp and can't help but try to figure things out. The setting, mystery, and characters were all well done. The fifth book in the series is due out Nov 1.
57. Treacherous Strand
58. The Well of Ice
59. Murder at Greysbridge

60. Death of a Gossip (LT rec)
This is the first in the Hamish Macbeth cozy mystery series, set in the Scottish Highlands. The characters are quirky and the setting was lovely. It is fairly light, with maybe a touch of Wodehouse humor?
61. Death of an Outsider
The third in the Hamish Macbeth series, and not as enjoyable, since Macbeth is sent to a town which is not very scenic and full of unlikeable residents.

62. The Nightingale
A tearjerker about two French sisters during WWII.

63. The Haunting of Tram Car 015
A steampunk alternate history novella set in Cairo in 1912. Well done.

64. Peter 2.0: Human Cyborg
Peter Scott-Morgan's memoir about his very creative and futuristic approach to battling his ALS. And it's also a wonderful account of his love story with his husband.

>54 karspeak: I had not heard of Peter Scott-Morgan before. Fascinating. Have you seen the documentary?

>55 labfs39: I have not, but I did look at his website a bit, which has "him" "talking". There were really two life-extension-for-ALS ideas in the book: proactive, often considered "radical," medical procedures, such as having an early gastrostomy and colostomy, and using AI and VR, etc, to extend one's existence as a unique cognitive being. He died this year (he was diagnosed in 2017), but I haven't been able to find anywhere on the web that states specifically what his medical cause of death was, which I'm quite curious about, given his plan for extending his life.

65. In Plain Sight (LT rec?)
This first in the Arcane Casebook series. An early 1930's noir detective story set in NYC, but it's also urban fantasy. Lots of fun. It keeps the gumshoe noir flavor and the flavor of 1930's NYC, but adds in magic, alchemy, etc. There are 9 books in the series thus far, which is heading into WWII, but I've only read the next 4, below.
66. Ghost of a Chance
67. The Long Chain
68. Mind Games
69. Limelight

70. Soul Taken
The latest in the Mercy Thompson series (very above average urban fantasy with werewolves, witches, etc). Well done and entertaining.

71. How the World Really Works (Bill Gates rec)
This is an analysis of the modern science and technology that makes our twenty-first century lives possible, and it's also a discussion of how feasible it currently would be to transition the mainstays of our global economy to renewable energy (hint, not very). He particularly focuses on the production of steel, plastics, cement, and ammonia (for fertilizer). I found parts of this fascinating and parts boring, but overall I'm quite glad I read it.

October
72. The Bullet That Missed
The third and most recent mystery in the Thursday Murder Club series. Maybe not quite as good as the first two, but still lots of fun.

73. The Golden Enclaves
The third and final book in the Scholomance series, which I had previously described as "Hogwarts meets the Hunger Games". A good ending to the series, with a well-thought out plot arc and closure on the most important things.

74. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (book club)
This novel tells the story of a beloved Hollywood starlet (Evelyn Hugo) from the 1950's Golden Age of Hollywood. While her career flourishes through cold and clear-eyed calculation, Hugo goes through a variety of marriages for a variety of reasons. The story is a fun one, and it does give the feel of a juicy tell-all by a major Hollywood star. The author Taylor Jenkins Reid was inspired to write this after reading a juicy book about Ava Gardner. She included aspects from other stars' stories, as well, such as Elizabeth Taylor.

I've read a previous book by Reid, called Daisy Jones and the Six, which is loosely based on Fleetwood Mac and feels like an MTV special on the band. Reid seems to excel at re-creating (appropriating?) the vibe of a person or group from a particular era. I'd like to read the actual tell-all book on Ava Gardner, to see if she was as smart and calculating as Evelyn Hugo was.

75. Fool's Assassin (LT rec)
76. Fool's Quest
77. Assassin's Fate

I was completely immersed in the Fitz and the Fool Trilogy. The books are fantasy, but they're also very good novels in their own right. I was emotionally wrung out by the end. The following blurb describes the series well:
“Hobb knows the complicated workings of the wayward human heart, and she takes time to depict them in her tale, to tell her story sweetly, insistently, compellingly. . . . A book meant to be inhabited rather than run through.”—The Seattle Times

78. The Body Falls
The fifth book in the Inishowen Mystery series. I'll continue with this series.

79. Fated
80. Cursed
These are the first two books in the Alex Verus series, which is an urban fantasy set in modern day London. Decent but not amazing.

I tried several new-to-me fun, light series over the Thanksgiving break. These are all spec fic by T.A. White, except for #85 and #86, which are murder mysteries set in Britain in the 1920s.

The Firebird Chronicles
81. Rules of Redemption
82. Age of Deception
83. Threshold of Annihilation
84. Facets of Revolution

Her Royal Spyness Series
85. Her Royal Spyness
86. A Royal Pain

The Dragon Ridden Chronicles
87. Dragon Ridden

>60 karspeak: thanks, didn’t know there was a 5th book.

88. Mickey 7
What if you are cloned since they think you have died, but then you turn up very much alive? This was fun for a while, but then it got campy, and the ending was formulaic.

89. Book Lovers (book club selection)
My book club wanted a light, fun book for the holidays, and this certainly fit the bill. It's a rom-com, with the enemies-to-frenemies-to-lovers happening between an editor and a literary agent. Cute, with witty repartee, but definitely OTT in a variety of ways.

90. The Seventh Bride
A creative, novel fairy tale. Technically YA, I guess, but it was entertaining and not too juvenile.

91. Swordheart
A cute fantasy rom-com. I've been reading very light fare the last few months, since life has been a bit crazy.

92. Sweep of the Heart
This is the recently-released 6th book in the fantasy series, the Innkeeper Chronicles. Fun, fast-paced, and well-done, as expected.

After lots of baking this month--chocolate cherry cheesecake, pumpkin cheesecake, reindeer chocolate cookies, cherry pie, bananas foster, lemon pancakes with blueberry syrup, monkey bread, and many pans of lemon bars, made with lemons from our lemon tree--I'm looking forward to a few weeks of relaxation before heading back to work.

I've read more books than usual this year, but also much lighter fare than usual. My two favorite mystery series were the Thursday Murder Club series and the Inishowen Mystery series. Most addictive series was the Lost Fleet (sci-fi). Favorite fantasy series was the Golden Enclaves trilogy. Best fairy-tale-like novel was Spinning Silver. Three nonfiction books that I learned from were American Canopy, The Price You Pay for College, and How the World Really Works.

I always enjoy following your thread! I also really liked the first book of the Thursday Murder Club series and I even gifted it to my mom, who just moved into an upscale retirement home!

I also have American Canopy on my list, likely from your review. I love reading about trees!

>67 japaul22: Same here, Jennifer, and I also gave my mom a copy of Thursday Murder Club for Christmas, ha!

My 2023 thread is posted here.