Narilka redacts her reading in 2024 - Part 2

It's time for a second thread for 2024!

My Rating System
- Absolutely horrible, don't bother

- Meh, I finished the book somehow but would not recommend it

- An entertaining read

- Highly enjoyable, I would probably recommend this book

- Excellent! The book may not be perfect but it was perfect for me. Possibly a new favorite.

A star is given for a book that falls between those categories.

Currently Reading


Listening To

Books Read in 2024
1. Beware of Chicken 3 by Casualfarmer
2. Dragon Heist by Alexander C. Kane
3. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
4. Baking Bad by Kim M. Watt
5. System Collapse by Martha Wells
6. The Wim Hof Method by Wim Hof
7. The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
8. Yule Be Sorry by Kim M. Watt
9. The Phantom of the Lop Ear by Andrew Seiple
10. Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
11. Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
12. The Wisdom of the Council by Sara Landon
13. A Manor of Life and Death by Kim M. Watt
14. The Case of the Felonious Faire by Drew Hayes
15. Mort by Terry Pratchett
16. Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
17. Sourcery by Terry Pratchett
18. The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien de Castell
19. Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
20. An End to All Tails by Andrew Seiple
21. Game of Scones by Kim M Watt
22. Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
23. Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman
24. Siege Tactics by Drew Hayes
25. The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook by Matt Dinniman
26. Foreigner by CJ Cherryh
27. Playing the Matrix by Mike Dooley
28. Eric by Terry Pratchett
29. The Ultimate Book of Fun Things to Do in Retirement Volume 1 by S. C. Francis

Fun Stats
Books Read: 29
Total Pages Read: 5838
Audio Book Hours: 118h 7m
Rereads: 8
TBR Challenge: 6/12

2024 Series Stats
In progress: 19
Up to date: 14
On Hold: 5
Completed: 1
Abandoned: 3

Mount TBR
Start 2024: 217
End 2024: ?

TBR Challenge

A new year, a new list - happy 2024! It's a brand new primary list with all the carry overs from last year under the secondary list. Aiming for 12 read.

6/12

Primary
1. Baking Bad by Kim M. Watt Read Jan 24
2. Dragon Heist by Alexander Kane Read Jan 12
3. The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien de Castelle Read Apr 2
4. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
5. To Die Fur by Dixie Lyle
6. The Wim Hof Method by Wim Hof Read Feb 3
7. A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow
8. Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews
9. A Dog Walks Into a Nursing Home by Sue Halpern
10. Nala's World by Dean Nicholson
11. Scythe by Neil Shusterman
12. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Secondary
1. Terciel & Elinor by Garth Nix
2. Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant
3. Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh Read May 15
4. Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
5. A Cat Named Darwin by William Jordan
6. Someone Like Me by MR Carey
7. Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
8. Thud! by Terry Pratchett
9. You Are the Placebo by Joe Dispenza
10. Swordheart by T. Kingfisher Read Feb 22
11. Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines
12. My Life in a Cat House by Gwenn Cooper

My Personal Incomplete Series Challenge
Keeping my never-ending series list going for yet another year.

Series Stats Summary
In progress: 19
Up to date: 14
On Hold: 5
Completed: 1
Abandoned: 3

In Progress
Discworld: Rincewind - 6/8
Discworld: City Watch - 6/8
Discworld: Tiffany Aching - 3/5
Discworld: Overall - 33/41
Temeraire - 2/9
Joe Ledger* - 6/10
World of the Five Gods - 2/3
Space Team* - 4/11
Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot Mysteries - 1/4
Awaken Online: Tarot* - 1/3
Of Cats and Dragons* - 1/5
Hunter - 1/3
Nathaniel Cade* - 2/3
Spells, Swords and Stealth* - 4/5
Gobbelino London, PI - 3/7
Blasphemy Online - 1/3
Valkerye Collections - 1/2
Beaufort Scales Mysteries - 4/8
Dungeon Crawler Carl* - 3/6

Up to date and waiting
The Band - 2/2 - #3 expected 2025
The Brackenford Cycle - 4/4 - #5 TBD
5-minute Sherlock* - 3/3 - #4 TBD
The Witchlands - 4/4 - #5 expected 2025
World of the Others - 3/3 - #4 TBD
Mystwick* - 2/2 - #3 TBD
The Locked Tomb - 3/3 - #4 expected 2025
Aurelia Ryder - 1/1 - #2 TBD
Innkeeper Chronicles - 5/5 - #6 TBD
The Wizard's Butler* - 1/1 - #2 TBD
Kate Daniels Wilmington Years - 2/2 - #3 TBD
The Dresden Files - 17/17 - #18 TBD
Beware of Chicken* - 3/3 - #4 expected Nov 2024
Murderbot - 7/7 - #8 TBD

Temporarily On Hold While I Try to Reduce my TBR
The Folk of the Air* - 1/3
Awaken Online* - 4/6
The Siege - 1/3
Spellslinger - 1/6
The Darkwater Legacy* - 1/2

Completed in 2024
Threadbare Pt 2* - 3/3

Abandoned in 2024
Lighthouse Library Mysteries - 2/4
The Burning - 1/2
Foreigner - 1/22

*Indicates series on audio

I am woefully behind on reviews. Some I've already written but I hate posting them out of order. Let's see how far I can catch up today :)

Hello and good luck with reviews!

>6 quondame: Thanks!

4. Baking Bad by Kim M. Watt



Baking Bad is the first in the Beaufort Scales Mysteries series by Kim M. Watt. A cozy mystery by the author of the Gobbelino London series? And with dragons?? Sign me up!

The story is set in Toot Hansel, a rural village somewhere in England, and is told from four alternating points of view:

• Detective Inspector Adams, recently from London and newly transferred to a (supposedly) less stressful post
• Alice Martin, a retired RAF Wing Commander and current chair of the local Women's Institute
• Miriam, Alice's best friend, a herbalist and a member of the WI
• Mortimer, one of the local dragons

The murder happens right away when the local vicar is discovered dead and the murder weapon appears to be a poisoned cupcake. DI Adams has no idea what she's getting into when the local Women's Institute decides to help with the investigation.

This is a cute cozy mystery. I actually don't like the dragons as much as I thought I would. Their part is what is cutesy and a tad of bit of a turn off. Also one of the main characters is quite a ditz and solved the whole thing by accident! I'm not entirely opposed to that though, sometimes I bumble through things too. I'm still going to read book two and see if this was just the series finding it's narrative legs as I do think it smoothed out and shows promise by the end.

Rating:

5. System Collapse by Martha Wells



Murderbot never fails to deliver. System Collapse has a slow start and then it hits that one point where everything happens all at once with a race to the finish. I'm glad the REDACTED thing got explained mid-way through as it was starting to get annoying hah

I am sad to be all caught up on Murderbot. Fingers crossed it's not a long wait for the next installment.

Rating:

6. The Wim Hof Method by Wim Hof



I have been practicing the breathing technique from the Wim Hof Method off and on for over two years now with great success so I have a bias heading in to reading the book. I saw the book on sale a couple months back and decided to learn the whole method.

The method itself is pretty simple and only takes up the first few chapters of the book. The remainder of the book are testimonials and stories from Wim on how the method is changing peoples lives. There is also an FAQ at the end that I found useful. I believe the method has a lot of potential to help people be healthier. I've experienced health benefits myself from only doing the breath work!

What I had not done was added the cold portion in to my routine yet. On this subject, the book is a success as I am now feeling motivated to get past my aversion to cold and try it out. 3 days in and doing OK so far. Wish me luck everyone!

Rating:

7. The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett



Reread 2024: That was enjoyable. The first half of the story is downright hilarious. This drops off for a bit as Pratchett brings story lines together for the finale. I still love Cohen the Barbarian. Original review below.

----------------

The Light Fantastic is the second in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series and picks up right where the first book left off. A red star has appeared in the sky and the Disc is heading straight for it. Only one person can save the world. Unfortunately it's the bumbling, incompetent wizard Rincewind, who was last seen falling off the edge of the world.

The book is presented in the regular Discworld format and is told as one contiguous story instead of the short story format of the first book. You can still see that Pratchett is still working on his world building as a few of what will become the regular cast are still being worked out. The style is almost to what we'll see in the rest of the series.

It took me a while to get into the book. Things started to pick up for me when Cohen the Barbarian joined the group. Who would've thought you could make an 87 year old twist of Conan be so much fun. And so useful! He definitely steals the scenes he is in and was a lot fun to read about. Also back are Twoflowers and the Luggage. Twoflowers continues to be blissfully ignorant and somehow manages to make it through his adventure ok. The Luggage, while as malevolent as ever, begins to take on a bit more depth as it starts to display some basic emotions. Not bad for an animated object. The story wraps up with a more touching the ending than I had expected.

Rating:

Happy new thread!

Happy New Thread!

I think you may have hit on what eventually discouraged me from continuing with the Foreigner series, after 5 books.

Happy New Thread!

You've read good books :)

Happy new thread!

Your reaction to Foreigner was exactly the same as mine. Bren was too whiny and I hated being in his head. Yet the book stuck in my mind, and about 10 years after the first reading I reacquired it and reread it. This time I enjoyed it a lot more and read the next 5 books, which were excellent. More intrigue and external events, less introspection. Now I have to get back into the series with book 7.

>12 haydninvienna:, >13 Karlstar:, >14 Alexandra_book_life:, >15 Sakerfalcon: Thanks everyone!

>13 Karlstar: & >15 Sakerfalcon: - I think want to check out Cherryh's other series. I liked how well she did the alien society. Perhaps a different protagonist will work better for me.

8. Yule Be Sorry by Kim M. Watt



Yule Be Sorry is the second book in the Beaufort Scales Mysteries series by Kim M. Watt. The holidays are fast approaching and Mortimer is having trouble keeping up with the demand for the dragon scale baubles he sells (with Miriam's help) in an Etsy shop. Things are going well up until a rival shop is discovered selling imitation dragon scale baubles that are nothing short of lethal and delivery trucks, with their drivers and contents, start going missing all over the Yorkshire Dales. The Women's Institute is determined to help figure out what's going on while attempting to keep the existence of dragons a secret.

I enjoyed this installment a lot more than the first book. Watt weaves a more complicated story in this one, adding parallel timelines to see what different characters are doing at the same time. I like that we're shown more varieties of folk, the name for the magical creatures that are part of our world but mostly unnoticed by humanity. We are also given insight into dragon society in a secondary plot thread. Watt wraps everything up well and gives us an exciting and action filled ending. It reminded me of an ending more in line with the Gobbelino books in the utter chaos of it all. It was glorious. I'm hoping DI Adams takes Collins' offer to transfer up to that area seriously. Seems to be the way things are leaning anyway.

Rating:

Edit to fix the touchstone.

>16 Narilka: I highly recommend the Chanur books. They made me a fan of Cherryh.

>18 Sakerfalcon: The first book is now on my Wishlist :)

Happy new thread! I am also cold averse, however I am willing to bundle up and walk on the beach in just about any kind of weather. Are you swimming in cold water? 🥶

>20 clamairy: Nope! I am doing as the book recommends and using a shot of cold water at the end of a my nice hot shower :D It says that you get health benefits in as little as 1-2 minutes of cold. The best I've done is 1m 15s. And I still have days where I'm done after 10 seconds lol

I've finally decided what to read next. For my regular read, it's Eric and on audio it's The Gate of the Feral Gods.

9. The Phantom of the Lop Ear by Andrew Seiple



Once upon a time there was a teddybear who had been kidnapped (bearnapped?) by pirates. It was supposed to be a proper princess kidnapping, but things went a bit sideways. Now Threadbare must play along in order to uncover who the mastermind is that has been working from the shadow to manipulate events and buy himself enough time for his friends to attempt a rescue.

The Phantom of the Lop Ear is the fifth book in Andrew Seiple's Threadbare series. The story has gotten complicated and follows several plot threads. Threadbare's is the most straight forward as he attempting to keep the status quo and keep the pirates from tossing him overboard. The group back in Sylvania is working frantically to find threadbare and mount a rescue. Plus there's PoV scenes from the conspirators from the first book for glimpses of what is happening in the background to cause these events to happen. Even with all that I'm still not entirely sure who the "bad guys" are though pretty confident it involves players. I'm looking forward to seeing how this all wraps up in the final book. I hope the elf is right and that they can heal two worlds.

As before, this includes characters from Small Medium but not much from Blasphemy Online yet. I assume that's still coming.

Rating:

10. Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett



Reread 2024: I can't believe my first and only time reading this one was back in 2009. I'm glad to have reread it. I had forgotten that ending. Absolutely loved Granny's sort of romance with the Arch Chancellor lol And no female wizards because of lore! Plus Headology :D As always I enjoyed Pratchett's societal commentary that pops up often in the Discworld.

Rating:

The Gate of the Feral Gods Ch 4. Woah. That was seriously fucked up. I know that they need to take out Lucia Mar at some point but, holy shit, that's going to be hard. Maybe the dungeon will take care of that for Carl and crew but I doubt it. Donut's right, Lucia is insane.

On the flip side, if they can meet up with that Aussie guy he'd be a powerful ally.

"You will not break me."

Eric @ 13% Good old million to one odds. Coming through every time! lol

I feel bad for the kid. Summoning Rincewind would be a disappointment.

@ 79% It's funny how the wishes are backfiring. King of the World was going to be a sacrifice for the Discworldian Aztecs and how the Most Beautiful Woman was the Discworldian Helen of Troy and she's merely average. Just goes to show lol "Be careful what you wish for" and all that.

Not as laugh out loud funny as the previous Rincewind books but at least it is entertaining.

And finished. My favorite part is demons learning how to be more evil from humans and creating... paperwork lol

The Gate of the Feral Gods through Ch 15 How does it get even more fucked up??? I mean, holy crap, Maggie Mai taking the brain worm race just so she can infect one of Carl's friends and have him attempt to kill Carl? And being supported by those Skull Empire idiots??? Thank god that Katya's sponsor is helping to mitigate.

I'm also glad to see a little of the original Xev showing through her conditioning.

And of course the system AI gave them the quest for the Gate just after hearing it's full back story. Sounds like a neat, game breaking artifact.

The Gate of the Feral Gods ch 19. Wow! That really changed things. Carl found a way to fight back against the system!!! And no one really knows for sure, that was so well played. I really hope to see more of this :) "You will not break me. I will break you." He seems to have a shot.

Hell, now I'm rethinking the need to kill Lucia Mar. If she wasn't insane they could possibly work together. Not that they can say or type anything as part of planning. That would be a very tough one. I could also see Carl enlisting the NPCs. Ok, Lucia still needs to go.

I had family visiting this week. As we took several longer drives to activities, I started Project Hail Mary for us to listen to. They loved it :) We got to Ch 13 and they bought a copy for themselves to read on the way home so they can find out how it all ends :D And now I need to finish it after I wrap up DCC 4 lol

For my physical book I've gone back to wrap up Pyramids. I'm still not feeling grabbed by the story. I hope it picks up for me in Part 2.

Pyramids through Part 1 - This quote made me giggle:

"Her singing always cheered him up. Life seemed so much brighter when she stopped."

I'm feeling more engaged now that the old Pharaoh has died and Teppic is picking up the mantle.