mathgirl40's 2022 category challenge

I am back for another year of the category challenge! I was pretty happy with last year's set of categories and will continue with them this year.

1. 2022 Tournament of Books
2. 2022 Evergreen and other Canadian awards
3. 1001 Books to Read Before You Die and classics
4. 2022 Hugo and Aurora Awards
5. History and Historical Fiction
6. Doorstoppers
7. Continue the series
8. BookCrossing
9. World Walking
10. Books in French
11. Nonfiction and other formats
12. Everything else

Last year, I was able to finish at least 5 books in each category. I hope to do better this year, especially with the 1001 Books category.

Category 1: The Tournament of Books



This category will include books from the 2022 Tournament of Books, held in March.

1. Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke (Jan. 2)
2. The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (Jan. 18)
3. Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart (Jan. 27)
4. Intimacies by Katie Kitamura (Feb. 6)
5. In Concrete by Anne Garréta (Feb. 18)
6. When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut (Feb. 20)
7. The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (Feb. 25)
8. Subdivision by J. Robert Lennon (Mar. 2)
9. No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (Mar. 7)
10. The Trees by Percival Everett (Mar. 10)
11. All's Well by Mona Awad (Mar. 11)
12. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (Nov. 10)
13. Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez (Dec. 22)
14. 2 A.M. in Little America by Ken Kalfus (Dec. 27)

Category 2: The Evergreen and other Canadian Awards



This category will include nominees for the 2022 Evergreen Award, given by the Ontario Library Association. The nominees are announced in February. This category will also include nominees for other 2022 Canadian literary awards.

1. Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto (Feb. 15)
2. What Strange Paradise by Omar El-Akkad (Mar. 5)
3. A Dream of a Woman by Casey Plett (Mar. 23)
4. A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson (Mar. 26)
5. Swimming Back to Trout River by Linda Rui Feng (Apr. 6)
6. The Captive by Fiona King Foster (July 31)
7. Speak Silence by Kim Echlin (Sept. 12)
8. Murder on the Inside by Catherine Fogarty (Sept. 26)

Category 3: 1001 Books



These are books listed in Peter Boxall's 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.

1. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (Jan. 22)
2. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (Feb. 9)
3. New York Trilogy by Paul Auster (Apr. 4)
4. Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (July 15)
5. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (Aug. 12)
6. Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham (Oct. 7)

Category 4: The Hugo and Aurora Awards



This category will include nominees for the 2022 Hugo and Aurora science fiction and fantasy awards. This year, I will again rejoin as a voting member for both awards and read from the voter packets.

1. The Family Trade by Charles Stross (Apr. 16)
2. The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed (Apr. 21)
3. Stormsong by C. L. Poik (Apr. 25)
4. A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (Apr. 27)
5. Red X by David Demchuk (May 4)
6. Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher (May 5)
7. Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (May 10)
8. Soulstar by C. L. Polk (May 14)
9. Quantum War by Derek Kunsken (May 20)
10. A Broken Darkness by Premee Mohamed (May 27)
11. Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (May 28)
12. The Return of the Sorceress by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (May 30)
13. These Lifeless Things by Premee Mohamed (June 4)
14. Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark (June 9)
15. Star Song by Edward Willett (June 10)
16. Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire (June 17)
17. She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan (June 25)
18. A Spindle Splintered by Alix Harrow (June 25)
19. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (June 29)
20. The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers (June 30)
21. The Serpent's Fury by Kelley Armstrong (July 3)
22. Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky (July 4)
23. Walking in Two Worlds by Wab Kinew (July 9)
24. The Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher (July 11)
25. The Past is Red by Catherynne Valente (July 12)
26. Chaos on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer (July 19)
27. A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers (July 22)

Category 5: History and Historical Fiction



1. The Year of Lear by James Shapiro (Jan. 7)
2. Death Comes to the Village by Catherine Lloyd (Mar. 20)
3. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell (Apr. 18)
4. Murder on Black Swan Lane by Andrea Penrose (Apr. 26)
5. Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munaweera (May 18)
6. Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann (Aug. 20)
7. Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin (Oct. 8)
8. Lady Macbeth by Susan Fraser King (Oct. 30)
9. A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 by James S. Shapiro (Dec. 6)

Category 6: Doorstoppers



This category is for BIG books (over 500 pages).

1. Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee (May 23)
2. Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson (June 21)
3. The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (Sept. 22)
4. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Nov. 3)
5. The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson (Dec. 19)

Category 7: Continue the Series



There are so many series I've been meaning to return to ....

1. Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey (Jan. 20)
2. Dead Souls by Ian Rankin (Jan. 30)
3. Leviathan Falls by James S. A. Corey (Mar. 19)
4. Night Frost by R. D. Wingfield (Mar. 27)
5. The Hidden Family by Charles Stross (July 5)
6. Agency by William Gibson (August 16)
7. The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold (Sept. 21)
8. Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett (Oct. 3)
9. Rupert Wong: Last Supper Before Ragnarok by Cassandra Khaw (Oct. 9)
10. White Night by Jim Butcher (Oct. 15)
11. Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire (Oct. 17)
12. Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong (Oct. 22)
13. Payment in Blood by Elizabeth George (Nov. 7)
14. Stray Bullets by Robert Rotenberg (Nov. 21)
15. Hogfather by Terry Pratchett (Dec. 30)

Category 8: BookCrossing



I signed up for a "Favourite Books of 2021" roundabout on BookCrossing, with 12 other BookCrossers. We'll be mailing the books along to one another throughout the year. This category also includes other books I release on BookCrossing.

1. For Love by Sue Miller (Jan. 4)
2. They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera (Feb. 9)
3. The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd (Mar. 16)
4. Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland (Apr. 7)
5. Suddenly a Knock on the Door by Etgar Keret (Apr. 13)
6. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré (June 3)
7. The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough (June 11)
8. Around India in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh (Sept. 30)
9. The Offing by Benjamin Myers (Oct. 14)
10. A Scurry of Squirrels by Polly Pullar (Nov. 14)
11. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (Dec. 16)

Category 9: World Walking



I've been using the World Walking app to do virtual walks around the world, and I enjoy reading books associated with places I visit.

1. The Thirst by Jo Nesbo (Apr. 12)
2. Dark Fire by C. J. Sansom (August 18)
3. The Perfect Paragon by M. C. Beaton (August 27)
4. Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers (Sept. 5)
5. The Dead of Jericho by Colin Dexter (Sept. 28)

Category 10: Books in French

  

I'm continuing my attempts to improve my reading proficiency in French. I really appreciate the built-in French-English dictionary on my e-reader!

1. The Late Monsieur Gallet by Georges Simenon (Feb. 17)
2. The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien by Georges Simenon (June 24)
3. Asterix and Cleopatra by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo (July 2)
4. Countess of Cagliostro by Maurice LeBlanc (Nov. 13)
5. A Man's Head by Georges Simenon (Nov. 24)

Category 11: Nonfiction and Other Formats



The majority of my reading consists of novels, but I hope to read more nonfiction, plays, poetry, short story anthologies, graphic novels, etc.

1. King Lear by William Shakespeare (Jan. 14)
2. October Daye short stories by Seanan McGuire (Feb. 27)
3. All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare (Mar. 15)
4. Hamlet by William Shakespeare (Apr. 24)
5. Thor & Loki: Double Trouble by Mariko Tamaki (May 14)
6. Once & Future, Volume 2 by Kieron Gillen (June 26)
7. Once & Future, Volume 3 by Kieron Gillen (July 12)
8. Monstress, Volume 6 by Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda (July 20)
9. DIE, Volume 3 by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans (August 3)
10. DIE, Volume 4 by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans (August 4)
11. Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Cawardine (August 24)
12. Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher (Oct. 21)
13. Once & Future, Volume 4 by Kieron Gillen (Oct. 23)
14. Among the Shadows by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Oct. 23)
15. On Writing by Stephen King (Nov. 26)
16. The Blythes are Quoted by L. M. Montgomery (Nov. 30)
17. Christmas with Anne by L. M. Montgomery (Dec. 18)

Category 12: Everything Else

All books that don't fit in the other categories get listed here!

1. We, Jane by Aimee Wall (Jan. 9)
2. The Lost Traveller by Antonia White (Jan. 23)
3. Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks (Feb. 4)
4. The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer (Feb. 13)
5. Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer (June 14)
6. Babel-17 by Samuel Delany (June 16)
7. The Ponson Case by Freeman Wills Croft (July 29)
8. The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (July 31)
9. Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef by Cassandra Khaw (August 8)
10. Watership Down by Richard Adams (August 10)
11. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier (August 19)
12. Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner (Sept. 15)
13. Go Hunt Me by Kelly Devos (Oct. 2)
14. The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham (Oct. 11)
15. The Vampire Knitting Club by Nancy Warren (Oct. 19)
16. Dead Man's Folly by Agatha Christie (Oct. 23)
17. Search Image by Julie Czerneda (Oct. 27)
18. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (Nov. 27)
19. Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon (Dec. 4)
20. Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen by Vicki Delany (Dec. 10)
21. Sourdough by Robin Sloan (Dec. 12)

I am a bit late in getting this thread started, but I'm finally here! I hope, over the next few days, to visit many other LT members' threads.

I've already finished by first book for the year, as it was a short one.



1. Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke (4 stars)
Category: Tournament of Books

This novel, about an office worker whose consciousness gets accidentally uploaded to Slack, is written entirely in Slack messages. I've been working from home since the beginning of the pandemic and I'm on Slack every day with my coworkers. So I totally related to this story, which is a somewhat horrifying thought! I enjoyed the humour, though some of it may be incomprehensible to those who don't spend a good deal of their day using Slack or other messaging app. I suspect I missed more than a few of the jokes myself.

Some very interesting cats! Good luck with your 2022 reading. I'm interested in the World Walking app and will check it out.

>6 mathgirl40: This one's on my radar!

Great to see you here, set-up and ready for 2022!

Great categories. I"m looking forward to how you fill them

Good luck with your categories this year.

>7 Tess_W: >8 rabbitprincess: >9 DeltaQueen50: >10 Nickelini: >11 hailelib: Thank you for stopping by! I'm also looking forward to the year ahead and hearing all about your reading as well.

Glad to see you here. I need to go look at the TOB books.

Glad to see you here. Looking forward to your comments on the TOB books. (But your link goes to 2021)

Happy to see you're back. Happy reading!

Looking forward to following your reading especially in 1001 Books and World Walking categories - and Everything Else!

>14 dudes22: Thanks for spotting that! It looks like the ToB hasn't updated this page with the 2022 information yet, but I expect they will soon. The shortlist was announced here:
https://themorningnews.org/article/the-2022-tournament-of-books-shortlist-and-ju...

There is also an LT list: https://www.librarything.com/list/43337/all/2022-Tournament-of-Books

>15 MissWatson: >16 VivienneR: Thank you for stopping by!

2. For Love by Sue Miller (3.5 stars)
Category: BookCrossing

This book was sent to me as part of a BookCrossing roundabout. I probably wouldn't have picked it up otherwise. The style is a little too introspective for my tastes, but Miller does provide a thoughtful examination of various aspects of love. It's not the sort of book I'd normally gravitate toward, but I found the main character's story quite compelling.

>17 mathgirl40: - I saw that too but wanted to look at the long list and that's how I found that. I'm always curious although I don't usually get many of them read. I like following the discussions during the actual tournament.

>19 dudes22: The discussions are usually fun reading. I also don't get many of these books read, but I do like to know what's on the lists.

Thanks for stopping by my thread mathgirl40.

>19 dudes22: >20 markon: Glad to see that there are other ToB enthusiasts here. Yes, the discussions are fun to read, and I like to see all the reader comments too. Some are very insightful.

Good luck with your 2022 reading goals! I always seem to be reading the ToB books the following year. It would be fun to read them before/during the tournament. Some year ...

>22 madhatter22: Thanks! I do try to read as many of the ToB books as I can, but they often have long waiting lists at my library, so I too frequently end up reading some of them the year after.

3. The Year of Lear by James Shapiro (4.5 stars)
Category: History and Historical Fiction

King Lear is the theme of this month's ShakespeareCAT, and as I've already read the play and seen its production a number of times, I thought I'd read this non-fiction book about Shakespeare's England in 1606 instead. It's full of fascinating facts about the events and political climate of that time, and how they influenced Shakespeare's writing. After finishing this book, I now want to reread King Lear even though I had no intention of doing so earlier!

>23 mathgirl40: - I usually do the same thing. I put The Sentence on my requests at the library and then froze it so I'll move up the list but not get it until I'm ready.

>24 mathgirl40: I am reading that one right now, and I agree - well written and so interesting.

>25 dudes22: I just started The Sentence myself and am enjoying it so far.

>26 Crazymamie: I'm happy that the ShakespeareCAT motivated me to pick up this book, as it's probably not one I would have discovered on my own.

4. We Jane by Aimee Wall
Category: Miscellaneous

This book was on the 2021 Giller Prize longlist. It provides a thoughtful look at the subject of abortion and the relationships of women from the point-of-view of a woman in her 30's uncertain about her goals and place in life. I especially liked the settings. The novel starts off in my hometown of Montreal and then moves to Newfoundland.

Hello! You are an ambitious reader! I look forward to following along.

>29 justchris: Thanks for stopping by!

5. King Lear by William Shakespeare
Category: Other Formats

I've read and watched this play many times but I was motivated to reread it because of the ShakespeareCAT and I'm glad I did. Even though I knew how the story would end, I still found it tense and gripping. I'm also glad I'd read The Year of Lear by James Shapiro before this reread, as it gave me a better understanding of the context.

>24 mathgirl40: I might have to add that one to my TBR list, but I'm not committing to it this month. In fact I might save it for a time when I want to re-read King Lear (which I've already done this month).

>24 mathgirl40: On my WL!

>32 thornton37814: Yes, it is definitely worthwhile to read the two books together.

>33 Tess_W: I hope you find it as informative and enjoyable as I did!

>31 mathgirl40: King Lear is not one I've read. Pretty much I've read what's been required in English classes. Sounds like the books together were very enjoyable and worthwhile.

>35 justchris: You're not the only one who started off reading Shakespeare because it was required in English class! When I was in high school (decades ago), Shakespeare was on the curriculum every year, but that wasn't the case for my daughters when they went through high school. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as they had exposure to many more good contemporary works than I had at the same age.

6. The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (4.5 stars)
Category: Tournament of Books

This story is about Tookie, an Indigenous woman who is haunted by a ghost in the bookstore at which she works. Erdrich's novel captures very well the emotions that many of us went through in 2020, with the pandemic and the reaction to the murder of George Floyd. (The latter event took place in the US but it had a significant effect here in Canada as well.) I loved all the quirky characters in this novel, and the appendix includes Tookie's (i.e. Erdrich's) lists of favourites books.

7. Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey (4.5 stars)
Category: Continue the Series

After watching the finale of season 6 of The Expanse, I decided to reread the first book. It was interesting to see all the (mostly minor) differences between the TV adaptation and the novel. The Expanse is one of my two favourite science fiction series, the other being Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series. I recommend it highly, especially to those interested in near-future hard science fiction.

I have a dilemma now. The 9th and final book was just published. Do I read it right away or do I reread books 2 through 8 first?

8. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (4 stars)
Category: 1001 Books

This book from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list follows a “whisky priest“ in Mexico as he runs from persecution. The story is both sad and moving, as the priest struggles with his own conscience and reflects upon the Catholic religion and his own faith. It feels quite different from the more humorous Graham Greene books I'd read in the past.

>37 mathgirl40: I'm looking forward to reading this one. I've gone ahead and bought a copy since I have yet to read a book of Erdrich's I didn't like.

>40 RidgewayGirl: I hope you enjoy it. This was my first Erdrich and I'll gladly read more.

9. The Lost Traveller by Antonia White (4 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

This is a coming-of-age novel about a 17-year-old English Catholic girl struggling to live up to the expectations of all those around her while trying to figure out her own way. I love my VMC (black cover) edition of this book!

10. Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart (3.5 stars)
Category: Tournament of Books

This book, on the 2022 Tournament of Books shortlist, is about 8 people living together at a country estate during the pandemic. The Japanese reality show Terrance House is referenced a number of times, and there are parallels between it and the story. My daughter is a huge fan of the show, so I'm somewhat familiar with it. I loved this line describing a character's obsession with it:

“How could this man without entanglements be so taken by a show where an entire thirty minutes could be spent discussing a slight rebuff over a bowl of soba noodles.“

That kind of sums up my experience with the novel. The characters spend a lot of time overanalyzing their reactions and feelings about every small event. It's surprisingly
compelling at times, but at other times, the novel really drags. In any case, I'm looking forward to hearing what the ToB panelists say about the book.

>37 mathgirl40: - I have this on hold at the library, but haven't got a notice yet that it's my turn. I like Erdrich and like Kay says, I like everything I've read by her. Luckily, I still have a few in my TBR pile.

>44 dudes22: Glad to see another fan of Erdrich here. I can't believe it's taken me so long to get around to reading one of her books.

11. Dead Souls by Ian Rankin (4.5 stars)
Category: Continue the Series

I really enjoyed this 10th book in the Inspector Rebus series. I liked the complexity of the intertwined subplots and Rankin's exploration of issues such as how to integrate murderers and pedophiles back into society. This book also revealed much more about Rebus's youth, which I found interesting.

Here's a quick January summary:
I finished 11 books, 3 of them from this year's Tournament of Books shortlist. I enjoyed most The Year of Lear by James Shapiro and my reread of Leviathan Wakes, the first book in James S. A. Corey's Expanse series.

In February, I plan to read a few more from the ToB shortlist, and I'm also excited because the Evergreen shortlist, from which I read every year, has just been announced by the Ontario Library Association:
https://forestofreading.com/evergreen-nominees/

>47 mathgirl40: - I took a look at the Evergreen shortlist and saw a few that looked interesting to me.

>48 dudes22: I like reading from this list every year because it features notable Canadian books published in the past year, but unlike most other awards lists, it covers a variety of genres.

12. Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks (4.5 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

This novel reconstructs the story of a remote community in the aftermath of an event that leaves it cut off from the rest of the world. I liked this book even more than World War Z, Brooks's earlier work. It's a bit gory in places but it's a gripping story about disaster, survival and Sasquatch. I definitely recommend the full-cast audiobook.

13. Intimacies by Katie Kitamura (4.5 stars)
Category: Tournament of Books

I liked the quiet intensity of this 2022 Tournament of Books shortlist novel about a translator working at the International Court at The Hague. The courtroom scenes, with the narrator describing her feelings and reactions to translating for a war criminal, were especially gripping. I especially liked the setting, as this was one of the last cities I visited with my family before the pandemic hit.

>37 mathgirl40: I've never gotten around to reading Louise Erdrich either, but a bookstore and a ghost sound like a good place to start!

>49 mathgirl40: Oh, super interesting. I haven't paid attention to this because I confused it with their kids awards, which I used to read when I volunteered at my daughters' elementary school library. I didn't realize there was an adult part to this. Silly me.

>37 mathgirl40: I have only read two books by Erdrich, but I loved them. This one sounds very intriguing as it is so up to date!

>46 mathgirl40: I have just finished book 8 and the next two are already on my shelf. I'm looking forward to reading more about Rebus when he was young!

>52 madhatter22: I'm quite fond of stories set in bookstores and of ghost stories as well, so this is a great combination!

>53 Nickelini: My daughters had participated in the Forest of Reading programs too, when they were young, and that's how I found out about the adult program. I'd even attended the children's awards festival a couple of times and it was wonderful to see the authors being treated like rock stars by the kids.

>54 MissBrangwen: Me too! However, I'd skipped books #7 and #9 because they weren't readily available to me, and now I'm not sure if I should go back and read them or just move on to #11.

14. They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera (3.5 stars)
Category: BookCrossing

This was sent to me via a BookCrossing roundabout. It's a young-adult book about two teenage boys who meet and spend the final day of their lives together. I found the premise of this book interesting but had a hard time relating, as the ideas and the characters' reactions seemed too far fetched at times. The author does a great job of exploring the relationship between the main characters but I would have enjoyed knowing more about the supporting characters too, as they either deal with their own "Last Day" or are affected by that of their loved ones.

15. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (3.5 stars)
Category: 1001 Books

This story, about a governess who is in charge of two children affected by the spirits of a deceased man and woman, is an atmospheric and creepy haunted-house tale. However, I was a little disappointed, as I'd expected more from such a well-known classic, especially one that's on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list.

16. The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer (4 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

In this novel, 17-year-old Penelope Creed and 29-year-old Sir Richard Wyndham meet by chance and run off together to avoid undesired marriages that their relations are pressuring them to enter. The age difference is rather disturbing by today's standards but otherwise, this novel is a fun romantic adventure that involves run-ins with criminals and the law.

I find the cover of this novel very perplexing, as the heroine "Pen" is disguised as a boy throughout the novel, and I can't actually recall any description of her in a frilly dress.

>55 mathgirl40: #7 was not my favourite, so I'd personally say skip it, but on the other hand I am a completist, so if I were you I would have to read it! I don't think this helps, haha...

>50 mathgirl40: Oh, that's good to hear! I've got this towards the top of my TBR because of the sasquatch connection :)

>58 mathgirl40: I sometimes think about replacing my ancient, brittle, yellowing Heyers from the 1970s, and I am always put off by the awful covers of the newer editions. They rarely fit the story in the book.

>61 MissWatson: I've bought a few when Kindle was offering them as Daily Deals and the covers just don't look right. But the old paperbacks are falling apart ...

>59 MissBrangwen: I used to be a completist, but now I think I'll never be able to finish all my favourite series anyhow, so I may as well jump ahead! :)

>60 whitewavedarling: Yes, that was definitely a draw for me too!

>61 MissWatson: >62 hailelib: I find that ebook covers are especially bad. The publishers seem to just grab any free image available on the Web.

17. Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto (4.5 stars)
Category: Evergreen Award

Shadow Life is a graphic novel on this year's Evergreen Award shortlist. The main character is an elderly woman trying to outrun death and to escape the ministrations of her well-meaning but oppressive children. It's not common to see a graphic novel that explores aging but this one is very well done, with many comical and touching moments.

>64 mathgirl40: I'm a fan of Hiromi Goto, so I'll look for this one. Thanks for sharing

>65 Nickelini: I've also read Half World and liked it very much. I'll have to look for more of Hiromi Goto's work myself.

18. The Late Monsieur Gallet by Georges Simenon (3.5 stars)
Category: Books in French

I'm continuing to read from the Maigret series in an attempt to improve my French reading skills. In this early installment of the series, Inspector Maigret investigates the murder of a man with a rather shady past.

My husband and I have started watching the Maigret television series with Bruno Cremer as the inspector. We also watched one of the episodes from the newer short-lived series starring Rowan Atkinson, and we both prefer Cremer in the role.

19. In Concrete by Anne Garréta
Category: Tournament of Books

There is fun and clever wordplay in this novel which appeared on the 2022 Tournament of Books shortlist, but there was not much of a plot, and some of the jokes got tiresome quickly. Fortunately, it was a short book, or else I would have bailed. The part I liked best was the translator's notes at the end which I found especially interesting.

>64 mathgirl40: Sounds worth a look and my library actually has.

20. When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut
Category: Tournament of Books

This unusual book from the 2022 Tournament of Books shortlist is an account of several real and significant scientific discoveries. However, the circumstances surrounding the discoveries and the details of the scientists' lives are fictionalized, though they are still somewhat based on known facts. I loved this novel, which straddles the line between fiction and non-fiction. The first chapter seems a mostly factual account and the story becomes more fantastical as it evolves.

21. The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (4.5 stars)
Category: Tournament of Books

Another from the 2022 Tournament of Books shortlist, this novel looks at grief and mental illness through the eyes of a woman and her son who have lost their husband and father. I loved the cast of quirky characters, which includes an artist who creates apocalyptic snow globes and a sentient book. Ozeki injects a lot of humour into the story, which makes the difficult subjects easier to consider.

22. Tybalt short stories from the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire
Category: Other Formats

I finished 15 of Seanan McGuire's stories from her October Daye series. All of these feature Tybalt, King of Cats, a long-lived shape-shifting cat/human. These provide Tybalt's back-story and are set in the early 1700's. I enjoyed these very much and am eager to get back to the main series (set in modern times) now.

Here's my February summary: I finished 11 books, most of them relatively short ones and 4 from the 2022 Tournament of Books shortlist. My favourites of the month were When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut and Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto.

In March, I'm planning to read a few more from the Tournament of Books list and then I'll go back to working on my older TBRs.

>71 mathgirl40: I'll take a BB on that one. I really enjoyed Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being and hope to read more by her.

>74 VivienneR: I loved A Tale for the Time Being too! Ozeki definitely has a distinct voice and I'm hoping to read more from her.

23. Subdivision by J. Robert Lennon (4 stars)
Category: Tournament of Books

In this novel from the 2022 Tournament of Books shortlist, an unnamed protagonist moves into a guesthouse and experiences bizarre and disturbing phenomena as she explores different places in the subdivision in which it is located.

I didn't really “get“ this very strange novel but I enjoyed the ride all the same. It felt a little bit like a dungeon-crawler video game -- enter a room, battle a monster, solve a puzzle, leave with some loot, and then tackle the next room.

24. What Strange Paradise by Omar El-Akkad (5 stars)
Category: Canadian Awards

This 2022 Canada Reads contender is an intense and gripping story about a young refugee boy who survives a shipwreck. He lands on an island and is able to survive only with the help of a local girl. On the surface, this is a fast-paced story of survival, but throughout, El Akkad offers harsh, though not unfair, commentary about the West's attitude toward refugees.

25, No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (3.5 stars)
Category: Tournament of Books

This is another entry from the 2022 Tournament of Books, one which I have mixed feelings about. The narrator shares her observations about "the portal" (the Internet) in the first half of the book and then describes the heartbreak and challenges of having a niece that suffers from Proteus Syndrome in the second half.

26. The Trees by Percival Everett (5 stars)
Category: Tournament of Books

This book is my favourite of the ones I've read from the 2022 Tournament of Books shortlist. I loved Everett's novel Telephone from last year's list and this one is even more brilliant.

In this story, two Black detectives investigate a string of bizarre murders in a predominantly White rural area. What has them stumped is that the same dead body keeps showing up next to the murder victims. The novel deals with heavy subjects: racism, lynching and serial murders. However, it is also hilariously funny and features some clever instances of wordplay.

I highly recommend this book, but be warned that there is graphic violence and language that may be disturbing to some.

I am gathering a list of books to get for my upcoming Thingaversary - and The Trees just got added!

>80 DeltaQueen50: I hope you like The Trees. This may very well end up being one of my favourites for the year! Unfortunately, it did not win the Tournament of Books this year. Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun ended up winning, and I'm not unhappy about the result, as I liked that book a lot too.

27. All's Well by Mona Awad (4.5 stars)
Category: Tournament of Books

This is the 14th and final book I finished from the Tournament of Books shortlist of 18. Awad's novel did not make it to the final rounds of the ToB and has received mixed reviews, but I liked it very much. It contains elements of All's Well That Ends Well and Macbeth mixed into a wonderfully crazy story about a high-school drama teacher suffering from chronic pain. Miranda tells her students that Shakespeare's All's Well is both a tragedy and a comedy, and that description fits Awad's novel too.

28. All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare (3.5 stars)
Category: Other Formats

Reading Mona Awad's All's Well made me want to revisit Shakespeare's play. I ended up liking Awad's novel much more than All's Well That Ends Well. There were a couple of things about the play that bothered me. First, in today's climate, Helen's forcing Bertram to marry her is rather uncomfortable, though the gender reversal is interesting. I also found it annoying that she wanted him as a husband despite his being such an ass.

29. The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd (4.5 stars)
Category: BookCrossing

I loved this speculative account of Jesus's life and death, as told by his wife Ana. Even without the context, it's an excellent piece of historical fiction, showing the challenges women faced in that time period. I found the novel well paced with some really riveting moments. I particularly liked reading the author's note at the end of the book, as it gave insight into the book and addresses some of the controversial issues that would undoubtedly arise from such a book.

>84 mathgirl40: - I gave this 5* a few years ago when I read it. I thought it was an interesting point of view.

>85 dudes22: The point-of-view was definitely interesting, and I liked Sue Monk Kidd's writing very much. I'll have to look for more of her books.

30. Leviathan Falls by James S. A. Corey (4.5 stars)
Category: Next in the Series

This 9th book in the Expanse series is a great ending to an exceptional science fiction series! I can't really say much about the story without giving things away. I'll just say that I am happy that all the storylines got resolved in a satisfactory way, and I am very sad to say goodbye to the Rocinante's crew.

There are still several novellas in this series that I've not read yet, so I'm not quite done with The Expanse, and I may rewatch the 6 seasons of the TV series sometime.

31. Death Comes to the Village by Catherine Lloyd (3.5 stars)
Category: History and Historical Fiction

A rector's daughter and a wounded veteran team up to solve a mystery set in Regency England. The mystery was a bit weak but the characters were appealing. This was a fast and entertaining read and I'd be happy to read more books in this series.

32. A Dream of a Woman by Casey Plett (4 stars)
Category: Evergreen and Other Canadian Awards

This is a collection of stories told from the viewpoint of transgender women, with some of the stories featuring recurring characters. Many of the stories are set in the Canadian prairies.

33. A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson (5 stars)
Category: Evergreen and Other Canadian Awards

This novel weaves together the lives of an elderly woman dying in a hospital, a young girl whose sister goes missing and a man trying to leave his failed marriage and big-city job behind. Lawson's writing reminds me of Alice Munro's and she explores small-town life in Northern Ontario in the same way that Munro did for Southern Ontario, though there's a little more suspense and darkness in Lawson's writing.

It's surprising to me how completely engrossed I was in the stories of very ordinary people, though perhaps these people encountered more than their fair share of misfortune. I'd also liked Lawson's earlier book, Crow Lake, very much.

34. Night Frost by R. D. Wingfield (4 stars)
Category: Continue the Series

This is the third book from the Inspector Frost series, which I discovered after watching the excellent TV adaptation. The story is a bit chaotic, with Frost struggling to juggle multiple murder cases amidst a flu outbreak, but it is an entertaining read.

March summary:

I finished 12 books in March, with several of them from the Tournament of Books shortlist. Standouts were The Trees by Percival Everett and A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson. Another highlight was the 9th and final book of the excellent Expanse series, Leviathan Falls.

I am very excited about April because the Hugo and Aurora science fiction and fantasy nominees will be announced on April 8 and 9, respectively. Every year for the past decade or so, I've joined the awards organizations as a voting member and I try to read through as many of the nominees as I can before the voting deadline. Both organizations provide voter packets which contain many of the nominated works and are well worth the cost of membership.

>79 mathgirl40: Thank you! I've added both Percival Everett books to my wishlist.

>88 mathgirl40: Glad you enjoyed Death Comes to the Village, as it's currently sitting unread on my shelves. I want to read it, but I'm hesitant to start another series right now!

I'm glad you loved The Trees, too. What an extraordinary book that is.

I have Crow Lake on my tbr and I'll keep an eye out for it as I unpack books given your review of A Town Called Solace.

>88 mathgirl40: Thanks to your recommendation I've now read Death comes to the Village and Death Comes to London. Pleasant, undemanding mysteries, nice and short.

>93 VivienneR: I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I did!

>94 christina_reads: Heh, I know exactly what you mean about starting yet another series. I've got so many on the go, as well as trilogies with the third book left to read.

>95 RidgewayGirl: I hope you like Crow Lake. It too was a 5-star read for me.

>96 pamelad: Glad to hear you liked Death Comes to London. I'm looking forward to reading that one next.

35. New York Trilogy by Paul Auster (4 stars)
Category: 1001 Books

I had never read anything by Paul Auster until now, when a BookCrossing friend sent me New York Trilogy. This early work of his consists of three novella-length stories, and each concerns a main character that becomes so obsessed with another person's life that it affects his own identity. I'm not sure I understood all the connections, but I did find the writing beautiful and the characters intriguing.

This was a good introduction to Auster for me. It's also nice to check another book off Peter Boxall's 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list.

36. Swimming Back to Trout River by Linda Rui Feng
Category: Evergreen and Other Canadian Awards

This book is one of the nominees from this year's Ontario Library Association's Evergreen Award shortlist. The story follows the paths of several people living in China during the Cultural Revolution who eventually make their way to America. There were some weaknesses in the writing, but the characters and strong storytelling, along with the interesting historical details, more than made up for the deficiencies.

37. Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland (4 stars)
Category: BookCrossing

This story, about a woman who is reunited with a son she had put up for adoption, mixes Coupland's humorous and insightful observations on society with the serious themes of loneliness and illness. Coupland has a way of making each of his characters ordinary and relatable, but also undeniably unique and memorable.

38. The Thirst by Jo Nesbo (4.5 stars)
Category: World Walking

In this 11th book of the Harry Hole series, Harry hunts a serial killer with vampiric tendencies. Parts of this novel were rather gruesome, but I liked how the tense plot was intermixed with the development of Harry's character as husband and "father" to his wife's son. Throughout the novel, I kept thinking, with respect to both the investigation and his personal life, "Please, Harry, don't mess this up again!" I listened to the audiobook version, and it was superbly narrated by John Lee.

This book is in my "World Walking" category, as I'm still working on my virtual walk through Norway!

39. Suddenly a Knock at the Door by Etgar Keret (3.5 stars)
Category: BookCrossing

This is a collection of quirky and often strange stories, incorporating elements of fantasy, by Israeli author Etgar Keret. Many of them were very brief and felt more like vignettes rather than actual stories, leaving me feeling somewhat unsatisfied at the end of each story and wanting a bit more context or resolution. Still, I liked getting impressions of the many facets of life in Israel.

>100 mathgirl40: I think I need to re-read a whole bunch of Coupland novels, including this one, which I remember really liking. I just keep re-reading Microserfs :D

>103 rabbitprincess: I've read a number of Coupland novels, but I still need to read Microserfs. I'm glad that it's worth a reread (or maybe several rereads)!

>100 mathgirl40: probably my favourite of his novels. I recommended it to several people who reminded me of how sad it was. I mostly remember the humour

>105 Nickelini: I agree. Despite the sad themes, I will likely remember this book as an uplifting one with unique characters.

40. The Family Trade by Charles Stross (3.5 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

Now that the 2022 Hugo and Aurora SFF awards nominees have been announced, I've started reading from the short lists. The Family Trade is the first book in the Merchant Princes series, nominated for a Best Series Hugo award, and it's about a journalist who travels through a portal to discover that she is part of a powerful family involved in questionable activities. The writing seemed a little sloppy, but it is one of Stross's early works (I've enjoyed several of his later ones) and I like the characters and premise enough to want to continue with the next book.

41. The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed (4 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

A 2022 Aurora Best Novella nominee, this story explores the difficult choices a teenage girl must make in an apocalyptic world ravaged by a climate disaster and a mind-altering parasite. I liked Mohamed's writing. However, there were a lot of aspects about this futuristic world that were not well explained, so I would not mind if she were to revisit it in a future work.

I'd read Mohamed's novel Beneath the Rising last year and thought it was very promising, so I'm happy to see that she has since written the sequel A Broken Darkness as well as several novellas.

42. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell (5 stars)
Category: History and Historical Fiction

I loved this beautifully written historical novel. It's an imagined account of the life and death of Shakespeare's son Hamnet, told mostly through the eyes of his wife Agnes. In the afterward, the author tells us that many of the details are speculative. However, the story manages to be entirely plausible, as well as riveting.

43. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Category: Other Formats

After reading Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, I decided to reread Shakespeare's Hamlet. What struck me is the incredible number of common English phrases that had come from this work. I did not actually read the edition pictured, but instead, I'd read the version at the Shakespeare Navigators site. This site was created by the late Dr. Philip Weller and features many of Shakespeare's plays, annotated with very useful footnotes and illustrations.

Coincidentally, Hamlet is one of the plays featured at the nearby Canadian Stratford Festival this summer. They will be doing a modern take on it, with a Black woman playing Hamlet. I'm not sure yet if I'll be seeing it. My friends and I try to take in several of the festival's plays every summer, but we're a little bit cautious because of the pandemic. Last year, they held outdoor performances but this year, they are planning to move back indoors. Also, the festival's modern retellings have been hit-or-miss over the years. I loved their version of A Midsummer Night's Dream with a dance party featuring New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle". However, The Taming of the Shrew as a spaghetti Western didn't work for me at all!

44. Stormsong by C. L. Polk (3.5 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

This is the second book in the Kingston Cycle, a historical fantasy series nominated for the 2022 Hugo Best Series award. The book didn't wow me like the first one and the main character is not all that appealing, but it's still a good mix of fantasy and romance, set in a very interesting world.

I can tell the author is Canadian (like me) because the biggest threat to humanity is a series of monster snowstorms!

45. Murder on Black Swan Lane by Andrea Penrose (3.5 stars)
Category: History and Historical Fiction

The plot of this Regency-era mystery set in London was messy and not totally plausible. However, I did like the Dickensian characters and setting. In particular, I liked very much the main character Charlotte Sloane, who takes on a rather unconventional role for that time period in order to survive.

46. A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (5 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

The first book in Arkady Martine's Teixcalaan series, A Memory Called Empire, won the 2020 Hugo Best Novel award and this second book in the series is now nominated for the 2022 award. I liked but didn't love the first book. However, this one wowed me. It has a faster-paced plot and a more interesting cast of characters and it fits the space opera genre better. I'm quite eager to read whatever Martine publishes next.

47. Red X by David Demchuk (4.5 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

This is a horror story about men mysteriously disappearing from Toronto's gay village, reflecting real-life events that happened in the city. I found this book deeply disturbing and provocative. I recommend it with reservations, as it's quite graphic and the format is unusual, but wow, Demchuk sure can write suspenseful scenes! Maybe that is not so surprising, as Demchuk is also a screenwriter for television and film.

This is one of the books nominated for this year's Aurora Best Novel novel, for Canadian SFF. It's a little bit different from the sort of books that usually get on the ballot, as it fits the horror genre more than SFF, but I think it has a good shot.

48. Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher (4 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

From the World of the White Rat Series, which was nominated for a 2022 Hugo Best Series award, this is a lighthearted fantasy story, with good characters, suspense, comedy and romance. I've enjoyed a number of other works by T. Kingfisher (a.k.a. Ursula Vernon), especially A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking.

49. Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (4.5 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

A 2022 Hugo Best Novel nominee, this is a fun and lighthearted science fiction novel that covers a wide range of themes: gender identity, music, Asian American culture and cuisine, donuts, aliens and video games. The plot is a little bit chaotic with so much going on, but I found the story enjoyable and heartwarming.

I found that I really related to the Asian violinist main characters, as I am Chinese Canadian and my daughter studied violin for 12 years and still plays. I don't play myself, but terms like "Schradieck exercises" are totally familiar to me. :)

Took a bunch of notes on books to look up!

I liked my first Ozeki, so it seems like The Book of Form and Emptiness is worth finding. Klara and the Sun has now come up in a bunch of contexts. I liked but didn't love Memory Called Empire but have been thinking of those characters and world again, so A Desolation Called Peace is calling my name. And Light From Uncommon Stars sounds just strange enough that if it works at all, I expect it must work very well...

Thanks for sharing! I seem to get all the new release excellence notifications here. ;)

>117 pammab: Thanks for your comments. I'm glad you are finding some recommendations here, as I've certainly gotten recommendations from your threads in the past! I'd be interested in hearing what you think of A Desolation Called Peace if you get around to reading it. I liked it so much more than A Memory Called Empire.

50. Thor and Loki: Double Trouble by Mariko Tamaki (3.5 stars)
Category: Other Formats

This is one of the 2022 Aurora Best Graphic Novel/Comic nominees. The story, about Norse gods Thor and Loki's complicated relationship as brothers, is lighthearted and fun, and I liked the cheerful colours of the artwork. I'm sure the story would resonate with anyone who has had to live with an annoying sibling!

51. Soulstar by C. L. Polk (4 stars)
Category: Hugo/Aurora

The third and final book of The Kingston Cycle, this novel was nominated for the 2022 Aurora Best Novel award, while the entire series was nominated for a 2022 Hugo award.

I liked this final book very much but it didn't amaze me the way Witchmark, the first book, did. I do recommend the series as a whole, especially if you like historical fantasy with a steampunk vibe.

>120 mathgirl40: I'm reading Witchmark now and liking it. Glad to know that the series is only three books; I have a chance of catching up fairly quickly :D

>121 rabbitprincess: Yes, there are only three, and unlike some other fantasy series, this one actually feels completed in a satisfying way!

52. Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munameera (4.5 stars)
Category: History and Historical Fiction

This is a hard-hitting and engrossing novel set during the Sri Lankan Civil War of the 80's and 90's. There is a lot of tragedy in this story, but joy too, and interesting descriptions of Sri Lankan culture and food.

After reading this book, I wanted to try some of the Sri Lankan dishes mentioned. However, there is no Sri Lankan restaurant in my city, though there are plenty of them about an hour away, in the Greater Toronto Area. I did, however, find a brand new dosa restaurant serving South Indian food and it will have to do for now!

>123 mathgirl40: I've had Island of a Thousand Mirrors on my library list for ages, your review encourages me to hurry up and get to it!

>124 DeltaQueen50: I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

53. Quantum War by Derek Künsken (4.5 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

This third book in the Quantum Evolution series has been nominated for a 2022 Aurora Best Novel award. This series is excellent space opera that explores the consequences of genetic engineering on human races.

I liked but didn't love the first couple of books, as I didn't care so much for the main characters and there were aspects of the world I found confusing. However, in this third book, things came together for me and it also focused more on several secondary characters I find more interesting. I hear there will be a 4th book and I'm definitely looking forward to it!

54. Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee (5 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

This third and final novel of the Green Bone Saga is a brilliant conclusion to an outstanding series. This saga of rival clans in an Asian-inspired fantasy world is a moving story of family, loyalty and forgiveness but it also features great martial arts sequences and a suspenseful plot.

Jade Legacy is nominated for the 2022 Aurora Best Novel award and the series is nominated for the 2022 Hugo Best Series award, and in my opinion, the honours are well deserved.

55. A Broken Darkness by Premee Mohamed (3 stars)
Category: Hugo/Aurora Awards

This book is one of the 2022 Aurora Best Novel nominees and is the sequel to Beneath the Rising. I found the first book to have many weaknesses but thought it was promising. However, the sequel was disappointing. The characters seemed to have a lot of potential in the first book but didn't develop in any significant way.

On a more positive note, I enjoyed much more a couple of novellas that Mohamed had written, so, though I am giving up on this particular series, I'm not giving up on the author.

56. Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhoa (5 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

Nominated for the Aurora YA, Lodestar (Hugo YA) and Andre Norton (Nebula YA) awards this year, this novel is a hard-hitting, fast-paced story that plays around with the usual YA fantasy tropes. The story is set in an Asian fantasy world where warriors fight aliens by controlling giant robots with their minds. Some readers may be put off by several brutal scenes and the questionable choices of the main character, but I really enjoyed this book. I love the gorgeous cover too!

57. The Return of the Sorceress by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (3.5 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

This short book was nominated for the 2022 Aurora Best Novella Award. I'm a fan of Silvia Moreno-Garcia and have read and enjoyed many of her works. However, though I found this story about a sorceress seeking revenge for a betrayal to be enjoyable enough, it wasn't especially memorable.

58. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré (4.5 stars)
Category: BookCrossing

I really enjoyed this story that had wonderful (as well as horrific) characters and gave me some insight into Nigerian culture and history. It's very brutal in places, but the author softens the tone with Adunni's humour and optimism.

59. These Lifeless Things by Premee Mohamed (4 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

A 2022 Aurora Best Novella nominee, this story describes the horrors encountered by survivors of an apocalyptic invasion, as seen through the research of an anthropologist 50 years later.

As mentioned earlier, I was disappointed by Mohamed's Beneath the Rising series, but, as I enjoyed this story, I've concluded that I mostly dislike the characters of the other series but not Mohamed's writing in general.

60. A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark (4 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

This steampunk historical fantasy set in 1912 Cairo is a 2022 Hugo Best Novel nominee. It's a fun read with an interesting cast of magical beings. I found the character development somewhat weak but liked how the author set a police-procedural type of mystery in this alternate-history setting.

61. Star Song by Edward Willett (4 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

This science-fiction adventure about an orphan teenager seeking the truth about his starfaring parents is a 2022 Aurora Best YA Novel nominee. I liked the characters and enjoyed the story, though the editing was somewhat sloppy. It feels a bit like the Heinlein juveniles I enjoyed when I was young, without the 1940's stereotypes.

62. The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough (3.5 stars)
Category: BookCrossing

This book was part of a BookCrossing "roundabout" that I participate in. A historical fiction novel set in Australia of the early 1900s, this story was a quick read and parts were quite enjoyable, but I found some of the characters' words and actions to be problematic.

63. Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer (5 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

I've read several of Kritzer's short stories in the past and liked them very much, so I was looking forward to trying this novel and I wasn't disappointed. I loved this page-turning YA thriller about a teenager who befriends an AI she meets in a chat room. This story is suspenseful, thought-provoking and charming all at the same time.

I've started reading Chaos on CatNet, the sequel that was nominated for this year's Lodestar (Hugo YA) award.

64. Babel-17 by Samuel Delany (4 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

This 1967 Nebula Award winner felt dated and some of the linguistic ideas went over my head. (I listened to the audiobook version and I wonder if certain scenes would have made more sense if I'd read the print book instead.) However, I can appreciate how it would have influenced later works dealing with human/alien communications such as China Mieville's Embassytown. This book was the June selection for my local science-fiction and fantasy book club and reactions to it were mixed.

65. Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire (3.5 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

Continuing my reading through the 2022 Hugo nominees, I finished this 6th book in McGuire's Wayward Children series. It is nominated for a Best Novella award and the entire series has also been nominated for an award.

The story is about a child who passes through a portal into a world containing centaurs, unicorns and other magical creatures. This is a standalone book with new characters, so it can be read out of order, but it's not nearly as good as some of the other books in the series.

66. Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson (5 stars)
Category: Doorstoppers

The Malazan Book of the Fallen series is very challenging but so very rewarding. This 5th book introduces a new cast of characters and locale. At first, I missed the familiar characters, but it didn't take me long to get totally absorbed in the story. One of the new characters, Tehol Beddict, is one of my favourites, and I hope that he reappears in the later books.

I've also seen, from other reviews, that the first 5 books could be considered "set up" (despite the fact that each one is a huge and complex tome) and that the final 5 are the "real" story!

67. The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien by Georges Simenon (3.5 stars)
Category: Books in French

This is an early Inspector Maigret novel, that I decided to read in the original French, about a group of men with a shared secret. I didn't find the mystery particularly exciting, but I was interested to find out that the plot reflected, to some extent, events that happened in Georges Simenon's own life.

68. She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan (4.5 stars)
Category: Hugo/Aurora

This alternate-history fantasy novel set in 14th-century China was nominated for the 2022 Hugo Best Novel award. It's a gripping story that explores the theme of gender identity. I appreciated the complexity of the main character, who must struggle against society expectations, her conscience as she makes morally questionable choices, and all that she has been taught about "destiny".

69. A Spindle Splintered by Alix Harrow (4.5 stars)
Category: Hugo/Aurora

This short work by Harrow was nominated for the 2022 Hugo Best Novella award. A young woman with a terminal illness enters a portal that takes her to an alternate world, where there may be a chance to save herself as well as others. This is an imaginative retelling of the Sleeping Beauty folktale, that brings in elements from many variants of the famous story.

Do you mostly read off of nomination lists? It seems like you always have some kind of exciting new SFF story and I don't believe they're all coming from the Hugo packet!

>143 pammab: I'm afraid that I've got a terrible weakness for the "new and shiny". I usually read from the Hugo (SFF), Aurora (Canadian SFF), Evergreen (Ontario Library Association's picks) and the Tournament of Books list every year. My own shelves get terribly neglected while I'm reading these!

I've finished my Hugo and Aurora reading for this year and have voted for my favourites. I'm rather behind in my reviews, though, and I hope to catch up soon.

 

70. Once & Future: Old English (3.5 stars)
71. Once & Future: The Parliament of Magpies (3.5 stars)
Category: Other Formats

The second and third volumes of the Once & Future series were fun reads, if not especially memorable. I really like the two main characters, an elderly badass monster hunter and her meeker and milder museum-curator grandson. Characters and scenarios from the Arthurian myths are woven into the story.

The third volume has been nominated for the 2022 Hugo Best Graphic Story award.

72. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (4 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

This 2022 Hugo Best Novel nominee left me with mixed feelings. I loved The Martian but this novel seemed to mix a lot of realistic science with totally implausible situations. Still, the main character's enthusiasm and optimism were very infectious! Overall, I liked the book and would recommend it but there were some parts where the writing made me cringe.

73. The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers (4 stars)
Category: Hugo and Aurora Awards

This nominee for the 2022 Hugo Best Novel award is a charming and entertaining story about a group of aliens stranded together and how they learn about one another and themselves in the process. it's a slow-paced thoughtful novel, and the cool retro cover doesn't really give a good indication of what the novel is about.

A few years back, my daughter binge-watched a Japanese reality show called "Terrace House" about six strangers who live together and get to know one another through earnest conversations. This novel felt a little bit like "Terrace House with aliens" to me.

74. Astérix et Cléopâtre by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo (4.5 stars)
Category: Books in French

I did a reread of this childhood favourite in the original French. This volume is one of the more memorable ones in the collection. I‘ve always loved this book's explanation of how the Sphinx‘s nose was broken and I was happy that, as with many other stories in this series, Obelix's little dog Dogmatix (Idéfix in the French version) plays a small but very important role.

My husband and I came back from a wonderful vacation in England, visiting my daughter and indulging in a lot of book-related tourism. However, we developed COVID symptoms on return. I'm just starting to get my energy back now and hope to catch up with both reviews and everyone's threads!

In July, I finished two novels that were nominated for the Aurora (Canadian sci-fi and fantasy) YA award:



75. The Serpent's Fury by Kelley Armstrong (4 stars)
Category: Hugo/Aurora Awards

The third book in Armstrong's A Royal Guide to Monster Slaying series was an enjoyable installment in this middle-school series about a girl who is training for her role as "Royal Monster Hunter" and her adventures with her brother and loyal companions. The next and final book came out a few months ago and I hope to get to it before too long.



76. Walking in Two Worlds by Wab Kinew (3.5 stars)
Category: Hugo/Aurora

Kinew offers great messages in this YA novel about an Indigenous gamer's real life on a reservation and her parallel life in the digital world. However, I found the plot on the weak side. Kinew is well known in Canada for his work in broadcasting and politics, and because of his treatment of important themes in the story, I really wanted to like the book more than I actually did. Still, this novel ended up winning the Aurora YA Award, so it clearly had a lot of fans!

In July, I also finished reading through the Hugo Best Novella nominees. I had read three others earlier.



77. Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky (4 stars)
Category: Hugo/Aurora Awards

This story examines the interactions between an anthropologist who has travelled to a distant planet and the local people who believe that the technology he had brought from Earth is magic. The story is a good illustration of Arthur C. Clarke's third law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."



78. The Past is Red by Catherynne Valente (4.5 stars)
Category: Hugo/Aurora Awards

Inventive, satirical and funny, this story follows the life of Tetley, a girl who grows up living on a patch of garbage floating in the ocean in a post-apocalyptic Earth. The audiobook narrated by Penelope Rawlins was great and captured Tetley's unique voice perfectly. This book had been my top choice of all the Hugo Best Novella nominees.



79. A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers (3.5 stars)
Category: Hugo/Aurora Awards

I'd liked everything that I'd read from Becky Chambers so far, but I found this story, about a wandering "tea monk" and a robot friend that he meets, quite slow and meandering. However, I listened to Becky Chambers's acceptance speech upon her winning the Hugo Best Novella Award, where she explains the motivation for the book, and now I have a better appreciation of the story, even if it still seems a little bit dull to me.

Sorry to read that you and your husband had to suffer through Covid but hopefully, you will both quickly recover and get back to normal.

>149 mathgirl40: Hope you're feeling better soon!

>149 mathgirl40: Sorry to hear you caught Covid and I hope it is proving to be a mild case.

>149 mathgirl40: Wishing you a speedy recovery.

>152 DeltaQueen50: >153 rabbitprincess: >154 MissWatson: >155 pamelad: Thank you for your good wishes! My husband and I are both feeling much better now. We're not completely back to normal yet but making progress each day.

Earlier, I'd read the following books from the Hugo Best Series nominees. The winner ended up being Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series.



80. The Hidden Family by Charles Stross (3.5 stars)
Category: Next in the Series

This is the second book in Stross's Merchant Princes series, about a journalist who finds a portal into an alternative world and discovers she is part of a powerful and ruthless family. This is a direct continuation of the first book The Family Trade (I think the two were originally published together). I found these two books weaker than other Stross stories I've read, but I did like them enough to continue the series.



81. The Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher (4 stars)
Category: Hugo/Aurora

This is a very fun steampunk adventure featuring a forger, a paladin, an assassin and a very stuffy scholar. This book from T. Kingfisher (a.k.a. Ursula Vernon) is from The World of the White Rat series. Earlier, I'd read another book set in the same world, Paladin's Grace, and I had enjoyed that one too.

82. Fire Watch by Connie Willis (3.5 stars)
Category: Other Formats

I love Connie Willis's novels, but this collection of short stories was a mixed bag. I did enjoy very much the title story, "Fire Watch", featuring her Oxford time travellers. I've now read all of Willis's books in this series, and I do wish there were more!

83. Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (4 stars)
Category: 1001 Books

I'm not sure why it had taken me so long to read one of Edith Wharton's books, but I'm glad I finally came around to it. I enjoyed most of all Wharton's depiction of New York City. What I found most interesting was the process by which the old ideas and standards slowly gave way to the new. It's hard to believe that the elite of New York City was once like this.

84. Chaos on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer (4.5 stars)
Category: Hugo/Aurora Awards

This fun and fast-paced YA thriller had been nominated for the 2022 Lodestar (Hugo YA) award, though unfortunately it didn't win. I liked it a little bit less than Catfishing on CatNet, the first book in the series which introduced us to the sentient AI who loves cat pictures and helping humans, but it was great read all the same.

85. Monstress, Volume 6: The Vow by Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda (4.5 stars)
Category: Other Formats

This sixth volume of the epic fantasy series Monstress had been nominated for a 2022 Hugo Best Graphic Story award but did not win this year. The complex storyline continues to evolve, but this volume started off with two short episodes revealing more about the characters' past. As always, the artwork is stunning.

This a series that I really need to reread in its entirety to better understand and appreciate the story.

Sorry to hear you fell to covid and I hope by now you are fully recovered. It must have been lovely to visit your daughter in England.

>159 mathgirl40: You have reminded me that my copy of Wharton's book is still sitting on the shelf. Time to dust it off and start reading.

>162 VivienneR: Thanks for your good wishes. Yes, I am almost fully recovered now and back to a normal routine.

86. The Ponson Case by Freeman Wills Crofts (3.5 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

In this Golden Age mystery, Inspector Tanner investigates the death of a wealthy man, but the obvious suspects, a son and a nephew, have solid alibis. The story started off very slowly but picked up halfway through. This was my first Freeman Wills Crofts novel, though I've read a few of his short stories before, and I liked it enough that I will certainly read more in the series.

87. The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (4.5 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

I did a reread of this book from the Vorkosigan series, one of my very favourite sci-fi series. This time around, I listened to the audiobook, superbly narrated by Grover Gardner. This is not the first book but it is a good entry point for readers new to the series, as it's the first to feature the main character of the series, Miles Vorkosigan.

My only complaint about the book is the implausible cover image. The main female character of the novel is a capable and practical soldier and not likely to wear a dress and high heels on a spaceship. So I'm wondering who is being depicted on the cover!

>165 mathgirl40: LOL about that cover! I feel like the covers for the series in general (at least the US ones) are pretty awful. But at least the books themselves are great -- I'm so glad I finally decided to read the whole series this year!

>166 christina_reads: Yes, the books are definitely worth rereading!

88. The Captive by Fiona King Foster (3 stars)
Category: Evergreen

This near-future dystopian thriller, set in an isolated and lawless rural area, was one of the nominees for the Ontario Library Association's Evergreen Award. I'm eagerly awaiting the announcement of the winner, which should come this week. (I'm rooting for Mary Lawson's A Town Called Solace.)

Unfortunately, I found this book to be the weakest of the nominees. I liked the atmospheric setting and found the main character's backstory intriguing. However, the character herself was unappealing and her actions quite implausible.

 

89. Die, Volume 3: The Great Game by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans (3.5 stars)
90. Die, Volume 4: Bleed by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans (3.5 stars)

I finished the final two volumes of the Die series, about a group of adults trapped in a world that had been created for a role-playing game in their teens. Volume 4 had been nominated for the 2022 Hugo Best Graphic Story award but did not end up winning. The story, which plays with many RPG ideas, is not easy to follow. However, the final volume explains a number of things that had me mystified in the earlier books and provides a satisfactory conclusion.

91. Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef by Cassandra Khaw (3.5 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

I liked this story by Malaysian writer Cassandra Khaw, but her writing isn't for everyone. It's great if you have the stomach for noir mysteries featuring Lovecraftian monsters and a chef who specializes in cooking human flesh!

92. Watership Down by Richard Adams (5 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

This book was chosen for our book club at work, when we chose several books for a summer "travel or epic journey" theme. It seemed that almost everyone had read this book or watched the TV adaptation except for me!

I loved the story. It's much darker and more intense than I'd expected, and Peter Capaldi's audiobook narration brought out the rabbits' personalities.

93. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (4 stars)
Category: 1001 Books

I'd read several of Hermann Hesse's other books but this one sat on my shelves for a long time. Perhaps I was avoiding it because I had found the other books somewhat difficult to get through. However, it turned out to be a quick and accessible but still very thought-provoking read. There are some beautiful passages in this story of a man's journey of spiritual discovery which spans his entire life.

94. Agency by William Gibson (4 stars)
Category: Continue the Series

This is the second book in Gibson's Jackpot trilogy and he is supposedly working on the third book right now. I loved the first, The Peripheral, for its imaginative ideas and this sequel explores those themes further, though it feels much like a "middle book".

I also started watching the new TV adaptation of The Peripheral on Amazon Prime. I enjoyed the three episodes I watched so far, though I have some mixed feelings about some differences between the adaptation and the book. My husband, who did not read the book, really likes the series, so I should probably appreciate it for its own merits!

>171 mathgirl40: I really have to watch the Netflix adaptation! So glad you liked Peter's narration. Also like the cover you chose; that's the same print edition I have :)

>174 rabbitprincess: I'd be interested in hearing what you think of the adaptation!

Yes, I did like Peter Capaldi's narration very much. I actually started off listening to the version narrated by Ralph Cosham, but I delayed in starting the audiobook and had to return it to the library. As it was no longer available, I borrowed the Capaldi version instead.

The two versions were quite different, as one might expect, but I thought both were very good in their own ways.

95. Dark Fire by C. J. Sansom (4.5 stars)
Category: World Walking

This is the second book in the Matthew Shardlake series, set in Tudor England. I'm really enjoying this series for its excellent character development and interesting historical details. This story features two suspenseful plotlines and a new assistant for Shardlake.

This book falls into my "World Walking" category, which was originally meant for virtual walks with the World Walking app. However, I was reading this book while we were vacationing in London a couple of months ago and figured I should include real walks in this category. We walked in an area very close to Chancery Lane, where Shardlake and Thomas Cromwell resided, and visited a very old pub there.

96. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier (4 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

This is not my favourite of Daphne Du Maurier's novel but it's a good one all the same. There is not only an unreliable narrator but several other unreliable characters in the story, and that greatly adds to the suspense in this gothic novel about a man who falls in love with the widow of his uncle who died unexpectedly and somewhat mysteriously.

97. Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann (4 stars)
Category: History and Historical Fiction

This book is an informative and often amusing imagining of the lives of mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss and scientist Alexander von Humboldt. Their quirky personalities are brought out in the story, but I'm not sure how accurate these portrayals are. Still, it's a fun and interesting story to read if you enjoy reading about the history of science.

98. Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Cawardine (5 stars)
Category: Nonfiction and Other Formats

I've only read Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker series and hadn't know that he had written this nonfiction book in 1990. I really loved the book, which is about his travels around the world to talk to scientists making heroic efforts to save a number of animal species that are near extinction.

I was reading this book a couple of months ago when visiting my daughter in Oxford, England. While touring the Museum of Natural History, I was thrilled to see a photo of the kakapo, a flightless parrot featured in the book. It was in the news very recently, as it was blocked from New Zealand's "Bird of the Year" contest. 🙂
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/12/new-zealand-bird-of-the-year...

99. The Perfect Paragon by M. C. Beaton (3.5 stars)
Category: World Walking

As part of our England trip at the end of the summer, my husband and I decided to book a stay in an 17th-century cottage in Blockley Village in the Cotswolds. To my delight, I discovered that the late Marion Chesney, a.k.a. M. C. Beaton, had lived there. I'd read a good number of her Hamish Macbeth books and decided I should try her Agatha Raisin series. The plot of this particular installment was not especially exciting but I did enjoy the setting and characters.

This is part of my "World Walking" category, as I did both a virtual walk through the Cotswolds on my World Walking app and a real walk through the countryside. We walked along one of the trails and ended up in a nearby village, in the pub where much of the Father Brown series is filmed. :)

>180 mathgirl40: Sounds like a great trip and I envy you. I was booked on a walking trip in the Cotswalds in 2020 and hope to get there soon, but the flight's a problem.

>181 pamelad: I too hope you make it there sometime soon. I went with my husband, daughter and niece, and we all had a lovely time. We were lucky that we had perfect weather for walking.

100. Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers (4.5 stars)
Category: World Walking

During our vacation in England, we toured the Oxford colleges, including Somerville, Dorothy Sayer‘s alma mater. That motivated me to read Gaudy Night, in which Harriet Vane investigates mysterious events at her old college. The college is called Shrewsbury in the novel but is based on Somerville.

I enjoyed this novel, both for the mystery and the depiction of life for Oxford women at that time, which I assume reflects much of Sayers's own experiences there. I also like the character of Harriet Vane more than Lord Peter Wimsey, so it was nice to read a Sayers novel where she is the central character!

101. Speak Silence by Kim Echlin (4.5 stars)
Category: Evergreen Awards

This book was on the Ontario Library Association's Evergreen list. Mary Lawson's A Town Called Solace ended up winning the award this year and was my pick for the vote, but I thought very highly of Echlin's book as well.

In the story, a journalist attends trials at The Hague for war crimes committed during the Bosnian war. She learns the stories of the women who are the principal victims of these horrific crimes. It's a powerful book but quite disturbing and difficult to read at times.

102. Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner (3 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

This novel is considered to be part of the "fantasy of manners" genre, which supposedly is a comedy of manners with fantasy elements. Swordspoint didn't seem to have many fantasy elements, other than that it takes place in a fictional society where many conflicts are solved via duels using hired swordsmen. Though there were many things I did like about this book, I just couldn't relate to the characters and their motivations, and I doubt I will read more in the series.

>180 mathgirl40: & >183 mathgirl40: How lovely that you got to visit these bookish sites. I bet this made the books all the better for being able to exerience the actual background!

>186 DeltaQueen50: Thanks! I always enjoy reading books related to my travels ... as well as reading books about places to which I'm unable to travel!

103. The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold (4 stars)
Category: Next in the Series

I did a reread of this novel from one of my favourite sci-fi series, the Vorkosigan Saga. My husband and I listened to the audiobook, superbly narrated by Grover Gardner, on a long road trip. Even though I knew how the story ended, it was still a lot of fun following Miles's adventures.

104. The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (4.5 stars)
Category: Doorstoppers

This novel, part of the Oxford Time Travellers series, has graduate student Kivrin go back in time to the 14th century, where she expresses the effects of the plague on the English people firsthand.

I'd first read this book, published in 1992, years ago. At the time, I was incredibly moved by it. On reread, I more easily saw some of the weaknesses of the book (the repetitiveness seen in some of Willis's other books, for example). However, rereading it now, after experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, also made me realize how accurately Willis described the ways governments and people respond to pandemics.

105. Murder on the Inside by Catherine Fogerty (4.5 stars)
Category: Evergreen Awards

This book relays the details of the 1971 Kingston Penitentiary riot in a gripping way and it also provides many interesting details about the history of the Canadian criminal justice system. It was one of the nominees for the 2022 Ontario Library Association's Evergreen award, though it lost to Mary Lawson's A Town Called Solace.

My husband and I passed through Kingston, Ontario recently. Unfortunately, we did not have time to tour the penitentiary, which is now a historic site very popular with tourists, instead of a working penitentiary. However, we did have a chance to stop into the Penitentiary Museum, located in the old Warden's House across the road from the penitentiary, and some of the exhibits were quite fascinating.

106. The Dead of Jericho by Colin Dexter (4 stars)
Category: World Walking

Here's a final book related to my visit to Oxford. I had walked around the Jericho area of Oxford with my daughter and we later enjoyed a drink at The Victoria, one of her favourite pubs which is located there. The next day, I walked into an Oxfam bookstore, a few blocks from Jericho and found this book. The bookseller admitted he did not like Morse books because the murders felt "too close to home". :)

I enjoyed this novel, which has Morse investigate the death of a woman he had hopes of becoming romantically involved with. As usual, the interaction between Morse and Lewis is one of the highlights of the book.

I discovered that there is a lot of love for Morse in Oxford. Many of the pubs we went to had photos from the TV show on their walls, as filming had taken place there. We also had a drink at the Morse Bar in the Randolph Hotel, where Colin Dexter did some of his writing.

107. Around India in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh (3 stars)
Category: BookCrossing

This is a travelling book sent to me by a fellow BookCrosser, which is appropriate, as it is a book about travel. I loved the premise behind the book: a train journey around India. However, I didn't care for the writing style. The descriptions were interesting enough but didn't provide much insight, and some passages felt like they were read from a travel brochure. Still, as I love train travel myself, it was nice to enjoy the journey vicariously.

108. Go Hunt Me by Kelly Devos (3.5 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

This is fast-paced horror/thriller about young filmmakers lured to a remote castle in Romania. Like Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, the characters are all in a closed setting and start getting picked off one by one. The story is rather gory but fun.

109. Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett (4.5 stars)
Category: Next in the Series

The witches, my favourite Discworld characters, go up against a family of vampires. The cover image sums up pretty well this chaotic and hilarious encounter.

110. The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham (4 stars)
Category: 1001 Books

In this classic sci-fi story, the female inhabitants of a village all get impregnated at the same time. The children born to them grow increasingly strange and show alarming powers. The story is creepy and disturbing, but Wyndham also explores ethical and philosophical issues that arise from this scenario.

After reading the story, I watched "Village of the Damned", the 1960 movie adaptation of this book. There were some differences from the book, but overall, it captured the ideas and suspense quite well.

>191 mathgirl40: That was a nice find to add to your Oxford visit. I believe I've read most of the Morse books but hope to re-read them sometime - or at least read any that have faded in my memory.

>196 VivienneR: I too have read most of the Morse books and would like to reread the series, as well as rewatch the TV adaptation. I'm sure I'll be able to fit some of the books into the SeriesCAT next year.

111. Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin (4.5 stars)
Category: Historical Fiction and History

Who knew that GRRM, the famous Game of Thrones author, had written a vampire novel? I hadn't, until one of my colleagues recommended this book for our company book club.

I really enjoyed this historical fiction novel about an old steamboat captain that finds himself travelling down the Mississippi with a group of vampires. Abner Marsh is a terrific character and I appreciated all the details about 19th-century steamboats that Martin included.

I'm one of the many impatiently waiting for book 6 of GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire series, so it was nice to read a standalone story with a satisfying ending.

112. The Last Supper Before Ragnarok by Cassandra Khaw (3.5 stars)
Category: Next in the Series

In this final installment of Khaw's cosmic-horror series, the Malaysian cannibal chef Rupert Wong and his friends go on a road trip in the US to prevent the end of the world. Gods, monsters and other strange creatures (including an embodiment of the Internet) show up everywhere.

Khaw's brand of horror isn't for everyone, but I've enjoyed this series of novellas.

113. The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham (3 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

This is the first book of the Campion series. It is not nearly as good as some of the later ones, but it's still an enjoyable English country-house mystery. It surprised me that Campion is not the main character in this novel, and he is not especially likable here.

114. The Offing by Benjamin Myers (4.5 stars)
Category: BookCrossing

This book was sent to me by a fellow BookCrosser, and I don't think I would have ever discovered it otherwise. It's a charming coming-of-age story about the friendship between a young man and an elderly woman, slow-paced but still very engaging, with some really lovely passages. Poetry is one of the themes, and it reminds me that I really ought to read more poetry.

115. White Night by Jim Butcher (4.5 stars)
Category: Next in the Series

This excellent installment in the Dresden Files series has Harry investigating serial killings, while trying to figure out what his vampire brother has been doing in secret. I listened to the audiobook narrated by James Marsters, who does a superb job with Dresden's characters (especially Bob the skull).

>200 mathgirl40: Ah, THAT's the first book in the Campion series! My mum has been getting into Margery Allingham and she asked me what the first book in the series was. She ended up borrowing the one Allingham I have, Police at the Funeral.

>203 rabbitprincess: I have that one too (in the Green Penguin edition)! If your mum reads e-books, most of the series is available on Faded Page.

116. Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire (4 stars)
Category: Next in the Series

I really liked this 6th book of the October Daye series, which has Toby working together with her allies to help find a missing teenager who could inadvertently bring about the end of the world. This is my favourite of Seanan McGuire's many series.

117. The Vampire Knitting Club by Nancy Warren (3.5 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

I normally would not have picked up this book but I was attracted by the combination of knitting and vampires, and by the fact that it was set in Oxford, which I had just visited in August. It was a rather lightweight but fun read.

118. Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher and Ardian Syaf (3.5 stars)
Category: Other Formats

In this graphic-novel prequel to the Dresden Files, animals at a Chicago zoo start going out of control and Harry is called in to investigate. It's a good story with decent artwork, but not it's not nearly as satisfying as reading a full-length Dresden Files novel.

119. Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong (4 stars)
Category: Next in the Series

It took me a while to get back to Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series, but I finally did and enjoyed this one, which features witch Paige teaming up with a sorcerer to protect her young ward Savannah.

120. Dead Man's Folly by Agatha Christie (3.5 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

Agatha Christie's mysteries are comfort reads for me. It's always reassuring that Hercule Poirot can bring order and justice to a chaotic world with his “little grey cells“. This one is not among Christie's best but it's still good and I especially like the stories featuring Ariadne Oliver.

121. Once & Future, Volume 4 by Kieron Gillen (4 stars)
Category: Other Formats

In this volume of Gillen's horror graphic novel series, our heroes continue to fight monstrous versions of characters from British folklore. The plot is quite chaotic but I love the characters.

122. Search Image by Julie Czerneda (4 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

Czerneda's background in biology contributes to fun sci-fi books exploring how different species interact. This book was enjoyable, though I felt a bit lost at times, as I'd not read the series that precedes this one. It would have helped if I'd realized ahead of time that there was a glossary of characters/names at the end of the book! 😄

123. Among the Shadows by L. M. Montgomery (3.5 stars)
Category: Other Formats

I enjoyed reading the stories in this collection, as they show a darker side of L.M. Montgomery's writing. It was interesting to encounter the more familiar details about life in early 20th century Atlantic Canada seen in her other books, but set among ghosts, haunted houses, and criminals.

124. Lady Macbeth by Susan Fraser King (4 stars)
Category: Historical Fiction and History

I liked very much this historical fiction novel about the 11th-century Queen Gruadh of Scotland, who inspired Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth. The queen's life is supposedly quite different from that in Shakespeare's story, and King portrays her as an admirable character.

Phew! I've finally completed reviews for my October reading, so I'm only a month behind in my reviews. :)

>209 mathgirl40: I liked this one, too, although Ariadne is not my favourite character.

>213 mathgirl40: This sounds really good.

>215 MissBrangwen: I do enjoy Ariadne Oliver's appearances, but there are many of Christie's characters I like better. I think Hastings is my favourite, but I may be biased by Hugh Fraser's wonderful portrayal of him.

125. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (5 stars)
Category: Doorstopper

I finally finished this classic adventure story, after working through it slowly the entire year with the book club at my workplace. I had heard that it could be a bit of a slog, but I found it very enjoyable and readable, and I loved the supporting characters.

I found the Penguin Classics Robin Buss translation to be very good. A friend of mine started with the Project Gutenberg translation and complained that a couple of passages sounded very strange. We compared the two translations to the original French and the Buss was definitely superior. I'm a big fan of PG and public domain books, but in this case, the Buss was worth paying for.

126. Payment in Blood by Elizabeth George (4 stars)
Category: Next in the Series

The cast and crew of an upcoming play are under suspicion when the playwright is murdered. This is a good installment in the Inspector Lynley series but the real star of the story is his partner Detective Sergeant Havers.

>217 mathgirl40: It's good to know which translation to look for. A bad translation can kill a book e.g. Nan Flanagan's incomprehensible translation of The Crime of Father Amaro. Fortunately, Margaret Jull Costa has done a good one.

>217 mathgirl40: Glad you enjoyed The Count of Monte Cristo! I found it a real page-turner despite the length. I think I read the Robin Buss translation as well.

>219 pamelad: I totally agree, and I'll usually seek out reviews of translations if there are more than one available.

>220 christina_reads: I too found it a page-turner, and that was definitely a pleasant surprise for me.

127. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (5 stars)
Category: Tournament of Books

Even though I loved this book, I couldn't help being (only slightly) disappointed that it didn't astound me in the same way that Station Eleven did. I suspect, however, that I will probably appreciate the book even more on a future reread, as I did on rereading Station Eleven. I especially liked how the author combines ideas about time-travel, pandemics, and settlements on the moon into this beautiful story that explores humanity and reality. There is a lot packed into this short novel.

128. The Countess of Cagliostro by Maurice Leblanc (3 stars)
Category: Books in French

The novel in the Arsène Lupin series offers the origin story of the famous thief. I had been expecting a mystery but instead, it was mostly a melodramatic adventure about two people in a very toxic relationship. Apparently, one of the later books features the return of the Countess of Cagliostro, but I'm not sure I want another encounter with this character.

129. A Scurry of Squirrels by Polly Pullar (3.5 stars)
Category: BookCrossing

This is a little known book that a fellow BookCrossing member had sent to me, all about the red squirrel. I found this book to be charming and informative, if a little repetitive. I enjoyed the stories of how the author rescued injured or abandoned animals and the process she went through to return them to the wild, and I learned more about the red squirrel and its habitat than I ever thought possible!

130. Stray Bullets by Robert Rotenberg (4.5 stars)
Category: Next in the Series

This series starts on a dreary November day, when a young child is accidentally shot in a Toronto donut shop. Coincidentally, I was reading the book on a dreary November day, right before leaving for a work conference being held just minutes away from the mystery's location! So it felt rather close to home, but fortunately, Toronto is not nearly as dangerous as this series might suggest. :)

I did enjoy this installment of the Detective Ari Greene series which combines a police procedural with courtroom drama. Rotenberg captures the diversity of Toronto especially well.

>226 mathgirl40: I'm re-reading the early books in this series before going on to later ones. I really like Rotenberg.

>227 VivienneR: I've read the first 4 now, and while I'm tempted to reread the first one, I'm also eager to get to the 5th. :)

131. A Man's Head by Georges Simenon (4 stars)
Category: Books in French

This installment of the Inspector Maigret series has the most exciting start of the ones I've read so far, with a condemned prisoner escaping from his cell, while Maigret watches unobserved.

I also watched the TV adaptation with Bruno Cremier, which was good though melodramatic. The plot featured characters from the US and they, along with Miagret, drank a lot of Manhattans in the American bar in Paris!

132. On Writing by Stephen King (4.5 stars)
Category: Nonfiction and Other Formats

I really enjoyed this memoir by Stephen King. The tips on writing are useful, but I liked even more his comments on his most well known books and his honest thoughts about his fight with alcoholism and his recovery from a near-fatal accident.

I listened to an updated audiobook edition that featured conversations with his sons Owen King and Joe Hill, who are accomplished writers themselves.. My favourite anecdote was Joe Hill relating how his father would pay his young children to record audio versions of his favourite books. It was a great way to get his kids to read widely!

133. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (4 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

One of my local book clubs selected this ghost story set in a haunted house. Everyone, including myself, said it felt very much like a classic gothic story from the 19th century, though it was written in 1983. It was suspenseful and atmospheric, and the short length was perfect. Any longer, and it may have grown tedious.

134. The Blythes are Quoted by L. M. Montgomery (3.5 stars)
Category: Nonfiction and Other Formats

This collection of short stories, poems and vignettes by L. M. Montgomery, was published posthumously. The poems are supposedly written by Anne and her son Walter, and many of the stories are about the Blythes' acquaintances, who give plenty of commentary on the Blythes themselves.

I didn't care for all the stories and there seemed to be a lot of repetition. However, I found it interesting to see LMM's exploration of themes like aging and dying, as she neared the end of her own life. The afterword by Benjamin Lefebvre refers to her battles with depression and the possibility that she may have taken her own life.

135. Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon (3.5 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

This cozy Golden Age mystery features a group of strangers trapped together in a snowed-in country house over the Christmas holidays. The plot seems a bit far-fetched but it was a fun read for the season.

136. A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 by James Shapiro (4 stars)
Category: History and Historical Fiction

This book examines several of Shakespeare's plays in the context of the time and provides many interesting details about Elizabethan England. I hadn't realized that there had been so many versions of Hamlet and that the texts commonly used are amalgamations of early ones.

137. Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen by Vicki Delany (3.5 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

This was a light and fun read for the Christmas season, and I think some of the characters could grow on me if I were to read more in the series, but I found the mystery itself a bit dull. I prefer Vicki Delany's Smith and Winters mystery series.

138. Sourdough by Robin Sloan (4 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

Sourdough is a weird and charming book about a software developer who becomes a baker after immigrant restaurant owners leave her a very unusual sourdough starter. I didn't like it quite as much as Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore but it was a fun story that included lots of interesting information about baking bread.

>233 mathgirl40: I remember enjoying the writing style of that one but feeling infuriated by the plot! The mystery hinges on people we don't meet till quite late in the story, so it seems really unfair to readers.

>237 christina_reads: Yes, that aspect annoyed me as well!

139. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (4 stars)
Category: Miscellaneous

Sent to me by a fellow BookCrossing member, this thriller follows the investigations of a woman who tries to figure out what happened the night her mother and sisters were murdered by her brother. It was a very disturbing novel to read. Yet, at the same time, I had a very hard time putting it down.

140. Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories by Lucy Maud Montgomery (4 stars)
Category: Other Formats

Almost all of these stories were about families reconciling and people helping the less fortunate, so they seemed quite repetitive. However, after the struggles of the pandemic and the political divisions of the past couple of years, as well as the terrible weather this holiday season is bringing, I'm totally OK with heartwarming stories featuring Anne and her acquaintances.

Here in Ontario, we're being hit hard with a winter storm. My own family members are all safe and cozy and only suffered a few hours' power outage. However, I felt for the train passengers who were stranded on a Via train with no food or water for 18 hours. It made me think of the "Aunt Cyrilla's Christmas Basket" story from this collection, in which Aunt Cyrilla shares all the treats in her immense Christmas basket with fellow passengers and inspires them to follow her generous ways.

141. The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson (4.5 stars)
Category: Doorstoppers

This 6th story in The Malazan Book of the Fallen series is very much a "middle story" in the series. I was originally inclined to rate it lower because, unlike the previous books, there didn't seem to be a strong story arc that dominated the book. Instead, a large number of storylines were advanced. In the end, I decided on a 4.5 star rating because some subplots, such as the escape from Y'Ghatan, completely drew me in.

By finishing this book, I've completed my 2022 goal of reading a minimum of 5 books from each of my categories! I suppose it's not surprising that the last category to be completed was the "Doorstoppers" category. :)

Congrats on reaching your 2022 goal!

>242 christina_reads: Thank you! I didn't leave too much time to spare. :)

142. Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez (4.5 stars)
Category: Tournament of Books

Now that the 2023 Tournament of Books shortlist is out, I've started reading from it. The only other book from the list that I'd read before the shortlist was announced is Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel.

The main character Olga is highly successful according to most American norms, but she struggles in dealing with the abandonment of her mother and coming to terms with her Puerto Rican roots. I really enjoyed this story, even if it was a little predictable at times. The humour and well-drawn characters made it easier to deal with some of the more disturbing themes. I hadn't known much about Puerto Rico's history and learned a lot about its complicated relationship with the rest of the US.

143. 2 A.M. in Little America by Ken Kalfus (3.5 stars)
Category: Tournament of Books

This is another book that made it onto the 2023 Tournament of Books shortlist. In Kalfus's near-future dystopian world, civil war has caused many Americans to become unwanted refugees in other lands. The novel is thought-provoking and disturbing. However, I just couldn't latch onto any of the characters and found the plot rather plodding.

144. Hogfather by Terry Pratchett (4 stars)
Category: Continue the Series

This was my final book of 2022! It was fun to finish off with a “Christmas“ story, interpreted as only Terry Pratchett could, with Death taking on the duties of the missing Hogfather. There was a lot of cutting satire here, with Pratchett poking fun at traditions, religion, academia, and adults who have no understanding of children. There were touching moments as well.

I am now done with my 2022 updates! Happy New Year to all my LibraryThing friends and see you over in the 2023 Category Challenge forum!