2023 Reading Wrap Up

 



Well, this has been an interesting reading year.  According to Goodreads I completed 127 books but I know I read more than that but unfortunately lost track somewhere along the way.  The first six months I stuck to my TBR pile working my way through the books on my physical and virtual shelves.  The latter half of the year I dove into new to me authors and romance novels big time from contemporary romance to romantic suspense to multicultural romances. I also spent plenty of time enjoying comfort reads and revisiting older series written by Nora Roberts, Carrie Vaughn, Devon Monk, and Keri Arthur.  

Fantasy and science fiction stories took a close second, as well as a smattering of mystery, suspense, thrillers, literary, young adult novels, and non fiction. 

Discovered new authors along the way who tickled my reading funny bone such as Lucy Score with her humor and sensuality in her Knockmeout and Blue Moon series, or touched my heart such as Rebecca Yarros in the Last Letter with it's roller coaster of emotions. 

Made me think such as Akwaeke Emizi's You Made a Fool Out of Me With Your Beauty with it's rawness, angst, sorrow, love, and choices as well as Jodi Picoult's Mad Honey take on family, grief, love, and how it all relates to bees. 

Casey Blair's the Tea Princess Chronicles introduced me to a magical new fantasy world and the politics of princesses and dragons. 

Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis geopolitical thriller 2034 about the possibility of world war III and how technology plays a role. 

Haruki Murakami’s Novelist as a Vocation in which the man seriously doesn’t think he is a good writer, but shared his stories, his process, and so much more.

And the book that made me want to throw it across the room?  Claire North's The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August about a time traveler who committed suicide to move on to his next life. 

Stats wise, I read 

Romance 52 
Fantasy  22
Non Fiction 11
Young Adult 8
Historical 7
Series 8 
Mystery 7
Literary 4 
Science Fiction 4 
Steampunk/Gaslamp  4

Ebooks 82
Physical 48 

The majority of books I rated on goodreads were 4 stars with 17 five star reads and a few three stars.  I don't know why I didn't keep track of why I loved the book or why I rated it the way I did and resolve to do better in 2024 both here on my blog and on Goodreads. 

As for 2024, my shelves are full of both new to me authors and comfort reads to revisit, so my buying ban has officially started. I vow not to add any more new books, except for Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb Preorders to my physical stacks or download any freebies or kindle ebooks to my virtual shelf until the end of May.  I'll be tackling some of the chunky books that have been calling my name for a while now such as Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.  Plus I'm looking forward to completing my own 52 Books Bingo and Bookish Bookology.  

James M's super IDW Sonic review









 


















I'M BACK and I have a lot of catch-up to do now that I got issue 67 of IDW Sonic. I'm not gonna get into spoiler specifics, but issues 65-67 and the Halloween Special are amazingly good. I love the characterizations in each story, both stories provide so much fun, and the writing is excellent. IDW Sonic offers some fun stories to tell in the Sonic universe. And, while I kinda don't approve of SEGA making IDW canon, the comic is still fun. The Halloween issue is fitting for the season, even the ongoing arc has me intrigued silently. Mimic is a fun villain and seeing certain characters interact always provides for a good story. 9.8/10 to both. And that does it for my little review. See ya.