library

Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch

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Started: 1/30/23
Finished: 3/31/24

I read the first book in this series in 2021 and liked it okay. I switched to the audiobooks for the rest of the series, and either they got MUCH much better or I just love the narrator THAT much. He really is incredible, and now I do love the series, but I am strictly on audiobook forever for these.

Yay magic, yay police procedurals, yay interesting characters and completely wacky side quests. I’ve read all 14 books and novellas. There’s more coming, and I’m waiting very impatiently.

Fourth Wing and Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

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Started: 8/28/23
Finished: 1/10/24

Yay dragons and fighting and conspiracies and sure, some romance while we’re at it! I had a little bit of a hard time right at the beginning, but then it started moving and it was BRUTAL. I didn’t expect the deaths (it seems like a pretty terrible way to train your military – can’t they be moved into the infantry or something?), but I suppose it helped set the tone. And we have dragons with personalities! That makes me so happy.

The second book continued the story in a satisfying way, and while I wasn’t quite as devastated by the end of it as it seems the internet was (don’t they know how second books in trilogies go?), I’m very much looking forward to the third book. More stuff about the dragons, please!

Furyborn, Kingsbane, and Lightbringer by Claire Legrand

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Started: 10/22/23
Finished: 12/15/23

YA trilogy with interesting (although often very confusing) magic, high-strung heroes, a completely insane and evil villain, and an occasionally baffling time-travel plot. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it.

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

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Started: 10/30/23
Finished: 11/2/23

As with other Grady Hendrix books, there’s at least one scene I can never un-see, but overall I enjoyed the book. I can’t decide if his books are good enough that I can overlook the horrible mental images I’ll carry around forever, or if I should put him on my don’t-put-myself-through-this-again list. It IS horror, it’s always horror, and maybe that’s reason enough to stop.

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfield

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Started: 10/17/23
Finished: 10/22/23

Yay for main characters who are actually adults (and over 30!), but otherwise this was just okay. Enjoyable enough, not great, sometimes annoying. Writer for an SNL-like show tries not to fall in love with the hot musical guest man because he’s too famous, he’s too attractive – she’s too insecure. Whatever, they work it out, and if they make a movie out of it, I’ll see it.

I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

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Started: 10/11/23
Finished: 10/19/23

A professor visits her old boarding school, runs a class about podcasting, and starts a podcast where she accuses just about everyone she knows of murdering her roommate 20 years before. It started out good and then got pretty tiresome.

From Blood and Ash, A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire, and The Crown of Gilded Bones by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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Started: 9/15/23
Finished: 10/17/23

We don’t all have the same taste in books. Obviously. Sometimes I need the reminder. And it’s okay to quit even if a friend says you should read it.

Premise: pretty interesting. Plot: not terrible. Writing: acceptable EXCEPT that for reasons unknown to me (but I can’t imagine they would be convincing), she uses “vamprys” for vampires and “wolven” for werewolves. They are the SAME. THIS IS UNNECESSARY AND ANNOYING. And yet I stuck with it through three books. No more! The stakes are high, and that’s okay. The evil-doers are evil (pretty damn evil), and that’s okay. The main character has leveled up SO much and SO quickly and her upbringing was SO sheltered that this would be more interesting if she just had a total breakdown instead of rising to the occasion.

Also, I’m hesitant to take recommendations from the people who would recommend these. (I do not recommend these.) Not terrible, but not good.

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

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Started: 9/29/23
Finished: 10/10/23

Pretty good story, pretty good narrator (for the audiobook, I mean), and the main character pretty much acted her age, which was a nice change. I mean, she still outsmarted lots of people and saved the day, but in a tolerable way. Magic and dangerous grimoires! And libraries!

Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match by Sally Thorne

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Started: 9/23/23
Gave up: 9/24/23

Sometimes quirky takes on classic literature work for me, and sometimes they really don’t. This could have been cute – Victor Frankenstein has a scientist sister who can do everything he can do, but they’re a WEIRD family, so when she realizes she can’t find love the usual way, she decides to make her perfect man. Except she reanimates a real person, and then she gaslights him every time he starts to remember his actual family. So not cool. Maybe she realizes what she’s doing is wrong, tells him the truth, and he falls in love with her anyway? Or she lets him go (because what she’s doing is wrong) and her real love turns out to be someone she already knew? I’ll never know.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

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Started: 9/15/23
Gave up: 9/16/23

I have heard so much good about this book and this series, so I started the audiobook and quit almost immediately. Main character was TOO young/immature, all of the dialogue was too misogynistic, and maybe it gets better, but I don’t want to get through this to find out. Maybe I could deal with it better if I were reading it at my own pace instead of listening. Maybe someday I’ll try again.

Babel by R.F. Kuang

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Started: 9/2/23
Finished: 9/15/23

I didn’t realize until just now that the full title of this book is “Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution”. Sounds about right. It’s an alternate history with lots to say about racism and exoticism and conspiracy. Interesting magic stuff, sometimes a bit slow, and while I don’t really want a sequel, I do want to know what happens after.

I read The Poppy War (same author’s first book, maybe?) a few years ago, and I didn’t like it at all. This is much different, much better, and makes it much more likely that I’ll read Yellowface (also acclaimed).

Planetside, Spaceside, and Colonyside by Michael Mammay

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Started: 9/1/23
Finished: 9/15/23

A trilogy of well done space military mysteries, likable main characters, really good narrator for the audiobooks. I flew through these and then emailed the author because I thought he did these so well. Dad would have liked them, I think.

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

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Started: 8/18/23
Finished: 8/31/23

Post-apocalyptic story with Little Red Riding Hood vibes. I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed it. I think the apocalypse was a plague? There were a couple of monsters, but it wasn’t a zombie-type plague. Our Red has to trek across the countryside to Grandma’s house, avoiding the government and bad guys, keeping her companions safe (when she can).

Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders

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Started: 8/25/23
Gave up: 8/27/23

I wanted to like this, but it didn’t grab me enough to push through. A teenager who never really fit in finds out she’s part (or all? I don’t remember) alien, gets picked up by hopefully the good guys (aliens), rescues some other misfits, and I assume they save the universe, but I didn’t get that far.