Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf .
I don’t buy physical books nearly as much any more, but I can never seem to resist adding books to my Kindle library when I spot a good price drop.
Here are the 10 ebooks that I’ve added most recently:
Emmett by L. C. Rosen
Violeta by Isabel Allende
Little, Big by John Crowley
The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest
Island of the Lost by Joan Druett
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews
The Apology by Jimin Han
The Bookseller of Inverness by S. G. Maclean
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
What books have you added to your shelves most recently? If you wrote a TTT post, please share your link!
My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.
Life.
Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating today! As for me, I’m not — but I am enjoying the day off, and plan to have a low-key day which may (or may not) include a long walk, quiet reading time, and possibly even a movie outing.
Meanwhile (I feel like a broken record), it was a busy week and I barely had time to read. I’m still in the midst of a major work project which won’t be done for several more weeks… I need a vacation!
On the bright side, we have family in town through the end of this week, and that’s been fun — lots of dinners and silliness.
What did I read during the last week?
This Winter by Alice Oseman: A sweet novella set in the world of Heartstopper.
My Roommate Is A Vampire by Jenna Levine: A very silly romance, fun but flawed. My review is here.
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride: It’s a bit outside of my usual reading preferences, but I still appreciated the artistry of this novel. My thoughts are here.
Pop culture & TV:
Survivor wrapped up its 45th season, and it was… fine. Not especially memorable, but my son and I remained entertained throughout. Good enough.
I just started Crash Landing on You on Netflix, and honestly, it’s such a joy so far! I think I’m very late to the party on this one. Has anyone (everyone?) else watched it?
Fresh Catch:
I gave in to temptation and ordered a complete set of five signed hardcovers from Mary Robinette Kowal! I already own paperbacks of the series (The Glamourist Histories — so good!), but when I saw a post from the author mentioning that a limited number of the hardcovers were available, I couldn’t resist.
What will I be reading during the coming week?
Currently in my hands:
Emmett by L. C. Rosen: A gender-flipped LGBTQ+ retelling of Emma by a favorite author? Yes, please!
Now playing via audiobook:
The Vintage Village Bake Off by Judy Leigh: I can always count on a Judy Leigh book to brighten my day.
Ongoing reads:
My current longer-term reads:
Outlander Book Club is doing a group re-read of Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander, #2), reading and discussing two chapters per week. Coming up this week: Chapters 26 and 27 (of 49). Progress: 47%.
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot: My book group’s current classic read! We’re reading and discussing two chapters per week. Progress: 34%. (We’re taking a two-week break over the holidays, picking back up the week of January 8th.)
Title: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store Author: James McBride Publisher: Riverhead Books Publication date: August 8, 2023 Length: 385 pages Genre: Historical fiction Source: Purchased Rating: n/a
The new novel from the bestselling, National Book Award-winning, Oprah Book Club-picked, Barack Obama favourite James McBride.
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighbourhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows.
As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community-heaven and earth-that sustain us.
I was tempted to skip writing a review of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, because I simply didn’t know quite how to summarize my reading experience.
In terms of artistry, it’s an impressive achievement. Probaby 4 – 5 stars. And yet, I didn’t actually enjoy the process of reading this book all that much… so 3 stars? Rather than attach a number, I’ll just share a few thoughts, and leave it at that.
Let me start by saying that “literary fiction” isn’t especially my jam, precisely because of the sort of dilemma I’m having here. I can appreciate beautiful use of language and original, artistic storytelling — but if the plot doesn’t pull me in and make me hate to put the book down, it’s just not going to be all that fun for me.
For The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, I was intrigued by what I’d heard even before picking up the book. In brief, the book tells the story of the poor neighborhood of Chicken Hill in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. In the 1930s, Chicken Hill is where the Jewish and Black communities find a home, since the white, Protestant residents of Pottstown — including the town doctor, who dons a hood and marches with the KKK each year — don’t want them polluting the nicer areas of their town.
Here in Chicken Hill, there are jazz theaters and speakeasies, a synagogue and mikveh, and the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, run by Chona, the daughter of the man who first built the store, who was also the local rabbi. Chona’s husband Moshe runs the theater and is madly in love with Chona. Chona has a beautiful heart and welcomes the entire neighborhood to her store, where she isn’t particularly picky about who can pay and who can’t — she makes sure people have enough to eat, and sends the children on their way feeling cared for and loved.
The book opens in 1972, when a body is found in a well. We then go back 50 years to the main story of the book, which is essentially a profile of the lives of Chicken Hill’s families, showing their connections, stories, conflicts, and secrets, building up by the end to the revelation of the truth about that body.
The resolution of the mystery isn’t what drives the book, though. Instead, the book weaves in and out of people’s lives, showing their relationships, their differences, and how the people of the different communities within Chicken Hill hold themselves separate yet also come together in a crisis.
The storytelling meanders quite a bit, especially for the first third or so of the book, as we get to know the essence of the neighborhood and its people. This is probably why I didn’t have a great time reading this book — I wanted a bit more forward motion, and that’s hard to come by until later in the book.
Ultimately, the intricate interconnections between the various characters, as well as their backstories and hidden motivations, make this book a literary achievement. While the style wasn’t what I typically enjoy, I still appreciated the historical elements, the sprawling cast of characters, and the depiction of a memorable time and place.
This is just one reader’s response! The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is listed on a huge number of notable and “best of” lists for 2023, and I recommend looking into it further if you think this might be a book for you.
To read more about The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store:
Title: My Roommate Is A Vampire Author: Jenna Levine Publisher: Berkley Publication date: August 29, 2023 Length: 341 pages Genre: Contemporary romance Source: Library Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
True love is at stake in this charming, debut romantic comedy.
Cassie Greenberg loves being an artist, but it’s a tough way to make a living. On the brink of eviction, she’s desperate when she finds a too-good-to-be-true apartment in a beautiful Chicago neighborhood. Cassie knows there has to be a catch—only someone with a secret to hide would rent out a room for that price.
Of course, her new roommate Frederick J. Fitzwilliam is far from normal. He sleeps all day, is out at night on business, and talks like he walked out of a regency romance novel. He also leaves Cassie heart-melting notes around the apartment, cares about her art, and asks about her day. And he doesn’t look half bad shirtless, on the rare occasions they’re both home and awake. But when Cassie finds bags of blood in the fridge that definitely weren’t there earlier, Frederick has to come clean…
Cassie’s sexy new roommate is a vampire. And he has a proposition for her.
In My Roommate Is A Vampire, Cassie’s life is a mess — working low-paying part-time jobs instead of putting her MFA to use as an artist, and living in a terrible apartment that she can’t afford (and is about to get kicked out of). No wonder she’s desperate enough to answer a Craigslist ad that seems sketchy. How can someone possibly be offering a roommate situation in an upscale Chicago neighborhood for only $200 per month?
Despite serious misgivings, she decides to check it out, and discovers a huge luxury apartment with gorgeous views of the lake. Sure, the roommate seems odd, dressed in three-piece suit, referring to her as “Miss Greenberg”, and behaving stiffly formal at all times — but he’s also incredibly attractive, very polite, and very willing to accommodate Cassie’s every need. With nowhere else to live and no obvious reason to say no, Cassie moves in.
Frederick’s weirdness is oddly charming, as he interacts with Cassie mainly through handwritten notes (with gorgeous penmanship, fancy paper, and even wax seals). Still, Cassie just knows there’s something going on with Frederick that’s not normal, starting with when she goes to make herself food and finds that the beautiful kitchen has not a single cooking implement or utensil in it. When she asks Frederick about it, he buys out an entire store’s worth of Le Creuset on her behalf… but still. How was he eating, before Cassie arrived?
As the title of the book makes clear, Frederick is a vampire — hence the empty kitchen, odd behavior, and old-fashioned manners. After a 100-year sleep, Frederick has to learn to cope in the 21st century, and he’s hoping that Cassie will guide him through modern customs, clothing, and daily life. Plus email, internet, and Instagram.
After her initial horror at learning the truth, Cassie ultimately agrees with Frederick’s plan, and soon guides him through buying jeans and henleys (making him look even hotter), ordering complex coffee at pretentious coffee shops, and making small talk at parties. He even watches Buffy the Vampire Slayer with her (which is hilarious, even though he’s shocked by her statement that Giles is the hottest man on the show).
Obviously, there’s a romance brewing, complicated by some silly drama with Frederick’s family and a century-old betrothal. Clearly, from the tone of the book and the cover, this is a happy, upbeat story, so we know that all will end well (and it does).
I liked My Roommate Is A Vampire well enough, although there are some flaws that made me roll my eyes a little too often to consider this a great read. Among my quibbles:
There’s a lot of time spent explaining Cassie’s art, and it sounds awful. (OK, I’m no art expert, so maybe that’s just me…).
Certain plot points never get explained or followed up, especially some elements of Frederick’s history, and also Cassie’s career path.
The sex scenes are unnecessarily explicit. (Again, this maybe has more to do with my reading preferences, but then again, the details seem jarring against the overall light and fluffy tone of the book).
The whole dramatic climax of the book, involving a threat and danger and a big rescue, is utterly bland. Nothing actually happens, and it’s resolved way too easily.
Vampire books need rules! While Frederick explains a few facts of his life to Cassie, pointing out what Buffy gets right, there’s still a lot left unexplained. How does he have sex? Does he breathe or not? Why is he described as having stubble in one scene? Inquiring minds want to know.
Vampires in this book apparently have random magical abilities, and Frederick’s is… well, I’m not going to say, but it’s so oddly random and weird. Maybe it was intended to be funny (and okay, it kind of is), but it’s also something that the story doesn’t need at all, and could have been left out entirely.
I know I’m being picky (perhaps overly picky) about a book that clearly is not intended to be taken seriously in any way. But still, I need my fiction — even my light-hearted, fluffy fiction — to be a little more tied up and have stakes (ha!) that make more sense.
Still, there’s plenty of fun to be had within the pages of My Roommate Is A Vampire. Frederick’s letter, texts, and emails are very funny, and seeing him get past his ideas of propriety and social norms in the 21st century can be a total hoot.
As a silly snack in between some heavier reads, My Roommate Is A Vampire was a fun choice this week.
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is about our bookish wishes.
My holidays are already over — and while my family was very good to me, many of my bookish wishes came true because I treated myself to great sale prices! Still, I do have remaining books I’d love copies of at some point.
Here are 10 books (not including books not yet released) that I’ve recently added to my wishlist:
The House is on Fire by Rachel Beanland
The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger
Get Lucky by Katherine Center
The Star and the Strange Moon by Constance Sayers
Spells for Lost Things by Jenna Evans Welch
The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner
The Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong
The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune
Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee
What books are you wishing for? If you wrote a TTT post, please share your link!
My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.
Life.
Hanukkah has ended, but it’s not really over! We have family arriving in town over the next week, and have already promised to do a post-Hanukkah Hanukkah celebration while we’re all together. More candles! More latkes! Who could say no to that?
Work is still intense, and will continue to be through the end of my huge project, probably sometime in January. I’m hoping for a few days off before the end of the year, but on the other hand, I could really use the time to get ahead and wrap up a few things. We shall see.
What did I read during the last week?
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros: All I can say is — thank goodness I’m done. I slogged through this massive tome without much joy, and I’m relieved to have made it to the end. My review is here.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins: I read this book when it first came out (review), and after seeing the recently released movie, decided to revisit it via audiobook. The narration (by Santino Fontana) is terrific, and it was a totally enjoyable listen. Highly recommended!
Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley: A sweet holiday romance. My review is here.
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan: My book group’s pick for December. This is a beautifully written novella, which I was able to read in one sitting. Looking forward to my book group discussion later in the week!
Pop culture & TV:
Fantastic end to this season of The Amazing Race! I honestly would have been happy with any of the three final pairs winning. Such a fun show!
I’m watching the last batch of The Crown episodes — I’ve watched three of the final six so far, and really, they’re pretty dull so far. I’m hoping the last three manage to tie up the series well.
Fresh Catch:
Beautiful new anniversary special editions of books 2 and 3 in The Expanse series were just released, and naturally, I had to get them for myself! They’re really gorgeous editions, and the reverse of the dust jackets shows the cover illustrations from the original paperbacks. I hope they release the rest of the series to match!
What will I be reading during the coming week?
Currently in my hands:
This Winter by Alice Oseman: A novella set in the world of Heartstopper! I just borrowed this from the library — totally on a whim — and I plan to read it over the next day or so.
After that, it’ll be time to dive back into a full-sized novel, and here’s what I’m leaning toward (although let’s see where my mood takes me once I’m ready to start):
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride: This book seems to be included on EVERY “best of” list for 2023 — I’m looking forward to seeing what all the praise it about.
Now playing via audiobook:
My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine: Cute and funny so far — just what I needed!
Ongoing reads:
My current longer-term reads:
Outlander Book Club is doing a group re-read of Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander, #2), reading and discussing two chapters per week. Coming up this week: Chapters 24 and 25 (of 49). Progress: 45%.
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot: My book group’s current classic read! We’re reading and discussing two chapters per week. Progress: 30%.
Title: Three Holidays and a Wedding Author: Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley Publisher: G. P. Putnam’s Sons Publication date: September 23, 2023 Length: 384 pages Genre: Contemporary romance Source: Purchased Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
Three times the holiday magic. Three times the chaos.
As strangers and seatmates Maryam Aziz and Anna Gibson fly to Toronto over the holidays—Maryam to her sister’s impromptu wedding, and Anna to meet her boyfriend’s wealthy family for the first time—neither expect that severe turbulence will scare them into confessing their deepest hopes and fears to one another. At least they’ll never see each other again. And the love of Maryam’s life, Saif, wasn’t sitting two rows behind them hearing it all. Oops.
An emergency landing finds Anna, Saif, Maryam, and her sister’s entire bridal party snowbound at the quirky Snow Falls Inn in a picture-perfect town, where fate has Anna’s actor-crush filming a holiday romance. As Maryam finds the courage to open her heart to Saif, and Anna feels the magic of being snowbound with an unexpected new love—both women soon realize there’s no place they’d rather be for the holidays.
Three Holidays and a Wedding is a light, upbeat holiday read that weaves Christmas, Hanukkah, and Ramadan celebrations together into a sweet romance-filled story.
Anna is headed to Toronto to meet her boyfriend’s ultra-wealthy family for the first time, but with some nervousness. Everything has to be perfect, everything is planned to the last detail… but after only six months of a relationship, Anna isn’t ready for the engagement ring she finds in his suitcase, especially since she’s been careful to hide all the non-perfect pieces of herself away from him.
Maryam is shepherding her needy family to Toronto for her younger sister Saima’s last-minute wedding, which fell to responsible Maryam to plan. After an earlier heartbreak, Maryam has resigned herself to the box her family has put her in, always being the dutiful daughter, but she has regrets and frustrations none the less.
Seated together, Anna and Maryam initially just annoy each other on the plane, but when they hit terrifying turbulence during a blizzard, they support one another and share their deepest fears, hopes, and secrets. But Maryam’s secret crush Saif is seated just behind them and hears it all, and once they discover that the plane has been diverted to the tiny town of Snow Falls, they realize that they’ll all be stuck together for at least several days.
With Christmas, Hanukkah, and Ramadan all overlapping within the coming days, as well as wedding plans that look likely to be cancelled and pressure from Anna’s boyfriend (who seems to blame her for not making it to Toronto as planned), this could be an awful, stressful experience. And yet, once the stranded passengers settle into the local inn and start seeing what Snow Falls has to offer, this nightmarish travel interruption soon turns into a lovely retreat from the rest of the world.
Snow Falls is an idyllic small town that welcomes strangers and offers cultural and religious diversity, with everything anyone could need to celebrate the holiday of their choice, from a mosque to halal food to rugelach and a Christmas pageant. The townspeople open their doors and their hearts to the new arrivals, and everyone gets caught up in the town’s holiday preparations while waiting for the blizzard to end.
Three Holidays and a Wedding is really quite sweet, and much of the plot is driven by the friendship between Anna and Maryam. The two women are from completely different backgrounds, but are able to connect as they share their hopes and dreams, as well as their sadness and past disappointments. They each get a love story, and each love story is nice (the men are quite dreamy and special), but I found the friendship and family angles of the story to be the most engaging and moving.
I enjoyed the way the authors incorporate the traditions of different religions into the story. It never feels like the reader is being talked down to or that the authors are deliberately trying to educate — instead, we simply see how the various characters go about observing their rituals and practices in their daily lives. I learned about Ramadan experiences that I wasn’t familiar with, and appreciated seeing the Hanukkah and Christmas traditions so well represented too.
Of course, the town of Snow Falls seems much too good to be true. I mean, it’s practically perfect in every way. The townspeople are welcoming, they shower the passengers with attention and give them gifts, they welcome them into their town celebrations and even put them in charge of the holiday pageant. It’s all lovely… but definitely feels like the sort of wish fulfillment that only exists in Hallmark movies.
But — we don’t read contemporary romance for gritty reality, do we? Three Holidays and a Wedding is full of good cheer, friendship, and family, as well as two wholesome, healthy love stories. I appreciated the emphasis on Anna and Maryam’s friendship, and how they support one another in facing their own feelings and making changes in how they view their lives.
Overall, this is a warm-hearted book that’s a great fit for this time of year. It’s a fast read, and I had a lot of fun with it. Grab a cozy blanket and fluffy socks, add in a mug of hot cocoa, and enjoy!
Title: Iron Flame Series: The Empyrean, #2 Author: Rebecca Yarros Publisher: Entangled Publishing Publication date: November 7, 2023 Length: 884 pages (Kindle edition) Genre: Fantasy Source: Purchased
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 2.5 out of 5.
“The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.” —Xaden Riorson
Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.
Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders’ capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.
Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.
But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.
Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.
TL;DR version of a review: It’s Fourth Wing, but with torture!
Okay, there isn’t necessarily torture throughout the ENTIRE book, but there’s enough. And really, this book is basically the same as the first in the series, just… more.
In my review of Fourth Wing, I shared my unpopular opinion (liked, didn’t love it), and now I’m back with what I’m sure is an unpopular opinion of Iron Flame. This time around, I can’t even truly say that I liked the book.
(You’d be justified in asking why I bothered with the 2nd in a series if I didn’t love the 1st. The answer is — I was interested enough that I wanted to see what happened next… but I don’t think I’ll be repeating the experience when the 3rd book comes out).
Iron Flame picks up immediately after the events of Fourth Wing, continuing the story of Violet Sorrengail, her true love Xaden, their dragons, their war college, the evil secrets kept by their government, and a scary outside force that threatens everything. I’m not going to bother going deeper into the plot than that — there’s lots of action, lots of opaque talk about magical history, runes, wards, etc, and romantic complications that feel very unnecessary.
Violet and Xaden are madly in love in that heightened, desperate, dramatic way that’s a staple of fantasy romance, but they have some deep failures in their ability to communicate (which is ironic, considering that their dragons’ mating bond gives the two of them the ability to speak mind to mind). Violet resents Xaden keeping secrets, but he’s clearly keeping the secrets in order not to endanger other people, which is reasonable for a rebellion leader — especially since Violet is in frequent contact with someone who can read minds through touch, and can’t be guaranteed to avoid him. Yet Violet considers the secret-keeping a deal-breaker, and the couple spend much too much time holding themselves apart, feeling all sorts of tormented yearning (and unfulfilled lust).
As in Fourth Wing, this book feels mostly like YA, but with explicit sex scenes that aren’t the least bit sexy. And I’m sorry, but is the use of the word “claiming” in regard to kissing supposed to be hot? As in:
The feel of his tongue flicking against mine, then claiming, stroking, is a flame to a tinderbox, and I catch fire.
I vote no.
The writing overall is uneven, full of f-bombs and modern-speak in a way that’s jarring in a fantasy world of dragons and swords and runes. This bit made me laugh:
“… And then I’d kick his ass, partially because that’s what I do when someone challenges me, and more importantly for implying there’s any other future besides the one where you and I are endgame.”
Shouldn’t that be #endgame? The book often feels like it’s missing hashtags, or the fantasy-world equivalent of texts and TikTok.
One thing I did appreciate — there’s a point in the book where Violet and her squad are talking with gryphon riders from across the border, supposed enemies who’ve become secret allies. And it turns out in their training, if they fail… they go do something else. One of the things that irritated me no end in Fourth Wing is the acceptance that cadets trying to become dragon riders die throughout their time at the war college — death weeds out the people who aren’t strong enough to succeed. It makes no sense — surely all these talented young adults could better serve their country by joining other branches of the military, rather than dying or being killed by one another?
Maren nods, then points between Sloane and me. “And before you ask, it’s you all who are the weird ones, killing cadets on your conscription day.”
I draw back, letting her words sink in.
“Technically, they’re candidates,” Sloane mutters. “We’re only cadets once we cross.”
“Well, I guess that makes it better,” Maren quips sarcastically.
Okay, clearly, this book didn’t work for me. It’s overly long — it often feels like we’re experiencing every single day right alongside Violet, from breakfast to getting dressed to what she reads and studies.
There’s also the issue of just how much of a chosen one Violet is. She’s the most powerful rider, she has the most powerful signet (magical ability), she’s bonded with not one but two dragons, she’s in the most extremely passionate relationship with the hottest guy, she’s the only one who reads just the right archaic language to figure out the key to saving the kingdom… it goes on and on and on.
The worldbuilding continues to be inconsistent and opaque. Lots of terms and concepts get thrown around (wielding, imbuing, signets, runes, wards) but not necessarily clearly explained or used consistently, new rules seem to pop up out of nowhere for how various magical elements work, and the geopolitics remain as muddy as in the first book.
My final complaint (although yes, I could keep going) is that action sequences are not particularly well written. I found so many of the battle and adventure/quest scenes hard to follow — there always felt like pieces were missing and that the spatial relationships (especially during in-flight dragon battles) didn’t make sense.
I realized by the middle of the book that I just wasn’t enjoying it, but having made it that far, I was determined to finish. And I did, but it was quite a slog to get to the end. As with Fourth Wing, this book ends on a cliffhanger revelation… but by that point, I’d stopped caring.
I can’t see myself continuing with the series. I’m mildly curious about how it might work out, but not enough to subject myself to another 600 – 800 page tome. Maybe I’ll just wait for someone else to read it and give me a recap!
I know these books have legions of devoted fans… clearly, that doesn’t include me.
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is about our winter reading plans.
As always, there are endless options! Since next week’s topic is about new releases in 2024, this week, I’ll focus on already released books that I’m determined to read during the next few months.
My top 10 books on my winter TBR:
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
The Vintage Village Bake Off by Judy Leigh
Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley
The Guncle by Stephen Rowley
Death of an Eye by Dana Stabenow
One Girl in All the World by Kendare Blake
The Thorns Remain by J. J. A. Harwood
Emmett by L. C. Rosen
Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal
What books will be keeping you warm this winter? Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!
My Monday tradition, including a look back and a look ahead — what I read last week, what new books came my way, and what books are keeping me busy right now. Plus a smattering of other stuff too.
Life.
It’s Hanukkah! We have a few nights more to go, and my family is having oodles of fun with candle-lighting, latkes, and all-around goofiness.
We did our gift exchange on the first night, and even our kitty got in on the action:
Benji loves his bag…
On the other hand, work is intense and stressful right now, and I’ve barely had time to read. In fact, I haven’t finished a single book this week! That’s partially because both my ebook and audiobook reads are very long, but also, I just haven’t had time (or the concentration) to make much progress.
What did I read during the last week?
I’m still on the same book I started last weekend, but I did manage to post one review since then:
In Every Generation by Kendare Blake: Book 1 in a Buffyverse trilogy — here’s my review.
Pop culture & TV:
If you haven’t checked out Fisk on Netflix, now is the time to do it! It’s a quicky Australian comedy, two seasons available — lots of fun.
Somehow I got sucked into watching Dancing with the Stars this season (despite its cheesiness), and I was happy to see my favorite couple win! Here’s a peek at one of their great performances:
Fresh Catch:
A few new books arrived this week:
They all look amazing… where to start???
And — oops! I went to the library to pick up a hold request that had just come in — for ONE book — and somehow managed to come home with a whole stack!
What will I be reading during the coming week?
Currently in my hands:
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros: I’ve been reading this book for a week now, and I’ve finally gotten to 75%. This is taking FOREVER.
Now playing via audiobook:
The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins: Another longer book (15+ hours via audio) — it’s enjoyable and well-done, but it feels like I’ll never be done.
Ongoing reads:
My current longer-term reads:
Outlander Book Club is doing a group re-read of Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander, #2), reading and discussing two chapters per week. Coming up this week: Chapters 22 and 23 (of 49). Progress: 41%.
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot: My book group’s current classic read! We’re reading and discussing two chapters per week. Progress: 27%.
Bookshelf Fantasies 