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Hi all,

Sorry again for lack of posting. Super chaotic end of year! Been all over the place, and have had trouble finding time to type up a post. Hope everyone is hanging in there for the end of the year! Whether you're celebrating holidays or just trying to make it through to the end of the year.

Also start thinking of book club selections, I think i'll start it back up in the new year. Sorry, I just haven't had a chance to set up a new poll and it seemed like not many people read the last one (and I didn't really have time to get to it myself).

The last couple weeks I read:

Iron Flame - This was good, but I didn't like it as much as Fourth Wing. Too much bickering and hiding things and not communicating. I also didn't love the ending. However I'll still read the next when it comes out just to see where it goes.

A Red-Rose Chain, Once Broken Faith - more october daye re-reads,

The Last White Man - books & brew read. Pretty much one of us liked this one much. It had an interesting idea, but it wasn't really well thought out and was pretty superficial. Didn't really go anywhere.

Bookshops & Bonedust - finally got my hold from my library! I loved it as much as I loved Legends & Lattes. So good. It was nice seeing Viv as a younger, more rash Orc, and I liked the epilogue tying the two together.

Currently reading:

The Brightest Fell - continuing more October. Two books after this and I'll be caught up to where I left off! Then I'll start on catching up to current.

QOTW:

Will borrow from popsugar again: Do you ever read the ending of the book first?

I try not to. Sometimes with physical books I'll catch accidental glimpses when trying to see page count. I hate when that happens, I always try to keep eyes up on the corner!

Hi all!

Things have been pretty quiet here. Work is, thankfully, slowing down for the holidays. So more time to read!

Finished:
Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison - 3 stars - This was pretty good. I hadn't read any of the referenced works, but the examples were still relevent, and it's interesting from a reader's perspective as well as a writer's.

The Weaver and the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec - 4 stars - I loved this.

Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee - 4 stars - A beautiful, bittersweet little novella.

Comics & manga:
Ruined
The Apothecary Diaries 10

Currently reading:
Paladin's Faith by T. Kingfisher - So far, so good.

Upcoming/Planned:
The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman - the library provided me with my first book for a 2024 challenge, so I will probably start reading it after Xmas to finish in January.

QOTW:
I try not to. I have gotten accidentally spoiled while flipping through physical books before, but I try not to look at the ending.

End of the year is always much chaos! I have one more week of school after this one...the last week before break is always completely insane.

Recent reads:

Ink Blood Sister Scribe was EXCELLENT. I've read a lot in the "books about books" genre but this was a unique take and it's hard to believe it was a debut novel. I really look forward to more from Emma Törzs - hope she writes more someday!

Trowbridge Road - middle grade fiction. I borrowed this one from the ELA teacher that I work with so I could have a book to keep in my classroom. We have half an hour of independent reading daily, and usually I'm working while the kids are reading (always too much to do! ...she says as she goofs around on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ during reading time), but my team decided that once a week the teachers will read too, to set a good example. Not that my arm has to be twisted to read! Anyway, this was very good. Dark, for a middle grade novel - CW for parental death, abuse, mental illness.

I also finished reading The White Dragon to my 7th grader last night. I haven't read the Pern books in years so it's fun to revisit them with him.

QOTW: No, never! I hate being spoiled :) The only time I'll flip ahead and read an ending is if I'm not enjoying the book and know that I probably won't finish it, but I'm curious enough about how it ends.

I am on vacation until next year, woo!

As the Crow Dies - My sister got this as a "blind date with a book" at Malaprop's in Asheville - as did most of the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ reviewers, and which is name-dropped in the book - and then passed it to me because it has crows in it. It was reasonably entertaining, more of a thriller than a mystery, sort of like a smaller-scale James Bond where someone wants the Improbable Tech for Nefarious Plans. The writing was not amazing, and there were a lot of unnecessary commas. Buy if you're at Malaprop's, I guess.

Ben's Bakery and the Hanukkah Miracle - This was both festive and an introduction to the hockey romance, which I am still surprised is a genre. It was all right. The climactic conflict is basically just one of the guys being a jerk, but there are pastries and unexpectedly wholesome youth hockey players. In hindsight, I'm not sure what the titular miracle is supposed to have been; love?

What Fresh Hell Is This?: Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You - I slogged through most of this and will probably finish it before it's due. The author wrote it in the midst of a worse than average perimenopause, and it's very commiseratey and ragey against the patriarchy and the unfairness of it all, which would maybe be reassuring if one were in similar circumstances, but for advance knowledge of things to look out for and options for dealing with them, it was not great. Author is nonbinary and it's very inclusive and intersectional, so it might be good for people who don't feel seen in most "women's health" stuff. I will probably try again later with a different book.

QOTW: I don't think I'd ever read the end first. I remember reading the ending a few times as a kid when I had gotten some of the way in and just couldn't take the suspense. I've been tempted as an adult in similar situations (generally when I am reading, big surprise, suspense) and I think I might have tried it with The Chocolate Cobweb, but it can be hard to find the specific information I want to know. Usually one can guess the big stuff, like "does the protagonist die?" or whatever, and often the question is something too broad like "what happens?" and you just kind of have to read the book for that.

I have been MIA the last few weeks as we have traveled a bunch to for work and pleasure and leave again in 3 days for Christmas travel.

In the last couple of weeks I finished listening to Falling. It was better as it went on. I'm not sure if I'll read the next one (similar but not related I believe). I've been with people so much that I haven't even started any other audiobook since finishing this.

We may be looking for an audiobook that is Christmas related for our long car ride that engages my husband, my 25YO and me. We have about 18-20 hours of driving, combined both ways.

I also finished the Murderbot I had missed Network Effect. I then immediately started System Collapse. That has helped keep the universe and content in my head.

For a seasonal fluff read, I started Season of Wonder. I got it from my sister when we visited and it is filling exactly its niche for me.

QOTW:
I'm exactly like Shel in that I've only done that when I'm not finishing the book. Although if the book is so bad that I'm not finishing then I likely don't even care about the ending. So even the thought process is very rare for me.

Susan, if you haven't already read it, may I recommend Hogfather as a fun seasonal book to listen to? It's one of my favorite Discworld books.

My Christmas-related reads are generally murder mysteries, but if that appeals, there's a newish collection of Agatha Christie short stories called Midwinter Murder that's available in audio (looks like it's 10 hours), though they're not all specifically Christmas. I also remember The Santa Klaus Murder being pretty Christmasy, and I see that one has an audiobook, too (8 hr).

Thank you for those recommendations! We'll look into them.