February Reading Wrap Up

 

What do all my books have in common this month:  They are either about people finding themselves,  working through grief, or searching for that elusive happily ever after and realizing real life is better.  I read 8 books of which 6 were physical, 2 were ebooks, 4 were new to me authors  and a total of 2603 pages.  I enjoyed  journaling spoilery thoughts about every single one, what I liked, what I disliked, etc.   

What You Are Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama: The story was charming and revolved around books which helps the readers solve real life problems. A young girl on her own, learning how to cook and care about herself and take joy in life.  A working mother who faces all kinds of trouble after her baby is born. An accountant learning you can make a new start. An unemployed 30 year old man finally discovering what he was good at. And a retiree figuring out what he liked and enjoyed. Ordinarily I don't like books that reflect real life, but since the story involved Japanese culture and society, it made it more interesting. ****

Bookshops and Bone Dust by Travis Baldree:  Charming and entertaining, Bookshops and Bonedust is the prequel to Legends and Lattes which I haven't read yet, full of anthromorphic animals or not human, in which Viv the orc helps Fern, a rattkin, who is a walking, talking, foul mouthed rat with a pet dog who is a cross between a dog and a bird, fix up her bookstore while trying to solve the mystery of a necromancer. ****

Bonded in Death by J.D. Robb: #60 in the In Death series in which she hits it out of the ballpark.  We learn new things about Summerset and his history and those who were involved in the Urban Wars. *****

The Last Love Note by Emma Grey: A story about grief, love, loss. A story about powering through, resilience, humor, honesty, and family.  Never letting go, but moving forward, finding your way without the love of your life, and somehow falling in love again with the one was right in front of you all along.  I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more. e, ****

Starter Villain by John Scalzi:  Silly and ridiculous and entertaining with intelligent cats, foul mouthed dolphins, and a bunch of villains who try to threaten and cajole their way to a fortune after they’ve dug themselves in a hole, but the starter villain is smarter than they think. ****

You are Here by David Nichols: Some strangers, some friends begin a coast to coast walk from the Irish Sea to the North Sea of England and work through life issues in the process.  The story represented two very flawed, hurt, people not trying to get over bad relationships, until they were put together on this walk.  Was there too much angst, bitterness?  Not exactly. There was a just a right amount of humor to balance the story along with the revelations.  I liked that it didn't end with a happily ever after with all sins forgiven, but a 'let's try' together vibe.  ****

Comfort and Joy by Kristin Hannah:  Joy walks out of her own life, onto an airplane, crashes, walks away from the wreck, and has a bonding experience with a man and his child living deep in the woods. Yet, something is strange about the whole thing. Is is all real or in her imagination?  Once I finished the story, I want to read it all over again.  At the beginning it didn't seem like it, but Comfort and Joy is a charming Christmas story about hope and finding happiness.    e, ****

The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore:  Sloane, Maisey, Mateo, Greg, and Arthur. What do all these people have in common.  They've all experienced grief, or trauma in their earlier lives that have caused them to hide their true selves, burying themselves in other peoples lives, their children, their work, their books until one day Sloan decides to become involved in an angry old man's life.  From there, it snowballs, in a good way, until each one together, give each other the strength, the power to make the changes necessary to accept their pasts, and move on into the future. ****

Reading Log as of February 15th

 

J.D. Robb's 60th In Death - Bonded in Death - arrived so I dove in and she hit it out of the park with this one. I really enjoyed the heck out of this episode of Eve and Roark, and learned some new things about Summerset, and those who were involved in the Urban Wars. Fascinating and definitely a five star read. 

Another five star read was The Last Love Note by Emma Grey which was equally good. A story about grief, love, loss. A story about powering through, resilience, humor, honesty, and family.  Never letting go, but moving forward, finding your way without the love of your life, and somehow falling in love again with the one was right in front of you all along.   I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more. One of those stories I'll have to get in paperback to read again. 

Finished John Scalzi's Starter Villain which was silly and ridiculous and entertaining with intelligent typing cats, foul mouthed sentient dolphins, and a bunch of villains who threaten and cajole their way and try to steal a fortune after they've mismanaged and overspent themselves into a hole.  

I'm currently reading Naomi Novik's Black Powder War, #3 in the Temeraire series.  Was going to dive into a Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon but think will stow it on the back burner while I read Alan Moore's The Great When which James surprised me with on Valentine's Day.  

"If this London is what they call the Smoke, then that place is the Fire...

The year is 1949, the city London. Amidst the smog of the capital stumbles Dennis Knuckleyard, a hapless eighteen year-old employed by a second-hand bookshop. One day, on an errand to acquire books for sale, Dennis discovers a novel that simply does not exist. It is a fictitious book, a figment from another novel. Yet it is physically there in his hands. How?

Dennis has stumbled on a book from the Great When, a magical version of London beyond time and space, where reality blurs with fiction and concepts such as Crime and Poetry are incarnated as wondrous, terrible beings. But this other, magical London must remain a secret: if Dennis cannot find a way to return this book to where it belongs, he risks repercussions, such as his body being turned inside out (or worse).

So begins a journey delving deep into the city's occult underbelly and tarrying with an eccentric cast of sorcerers, gangsters, and murderers – some from legend, some all too real, and all with plans of their own. Soon Dennis finds himself at the centre of an explosive series of events that may alter and endanger both Londons forever..."

Les Miserables has taken a back seat to other books this week so need to let it let it ride in the front passenger seat. It's been yelling dibs for a few days. LOL! 

Reading Plans for February

 

Woot! Woot! J.D. Robb's 60th book in the In Death series - Bonded in Death - has arrived and I am fully immersed in the story, wondering how she is going to pick apart the clues and find the murderer. So good....

"His passport read Giovanni Rossi. But decades ago, during the Urban Wars, he was part of a small, secret organization called The Twelve. Responding to an urgent summons from an old compatriot, he landed in New York and eased into the waiting car. And died within minutes…"

My bedtime read is John Scalzi's Starter Villain: 

"Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place.

Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat."

I need to finish Naomi Novik's Black Powder War, #3 in the Temeraire series as well as the rest of All Star Superman because James wants me too. 

James Rollins newest release and #3 in his Moonfall series - Dragons of Blackglass arrives on February 18th so I'm looking forward to starting that one almost immediately.

I really want to dive into A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon which is a chunky one, so will how that goes. 

Les Misérables year long sip read  - I aim to read 5 pages a day which is a total of 95 pages for the month, plus complete journal notes. 

For Super Bowl Sunday, James and I are heading out for our traditionally mother-son shopping trip to Barnes and Noble as well as Game Stop and what ever else store we decide to wander in to.  Breaking my book buying ban for the day, then I promise I will go right back to being good. :)

May Reading Wrap Up

 

May Reading Wrap Up

In May I made progress on reading from my physical shelves although I did give up some reading time to binge Grey's Anatomy.  I watched the first episode and fell in like and have been watching it ever since. I only have to cover my eyes when the surgeons are slicing into people. LOL!

I read seven books of which five were physical and two were ebooks. Progress! The longest book was The Belle of Belgrave square at 421 pages and the shortest was Rendezvou with Rama at 304. No chunky books this month. 

My bedtime reads included John Scalzi's Old Man's War, the first book in a science fiction series in which the elderly are recruited, taken off planet and their consciousness is transferred in young bodies to be solders. Interesting premise.  (318) ****

Second was a reread of Arthur C Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama in which space explorers and scientist board an alien space craft traveling through our solar system, 304)  ****

Third was Derek Paul's A Machine Divine: A Young Adult Steam Punk fantasy in which college studies get involved in politics, a secret society, science experiments, and a mad man running around gassing people, 377) ****

Next was Blake Crouch's Dark Matter, a science fiction, time travel, multiverse type of story in which a man gets kidnapped and the kidnapper assumes his life. 352) ****

Our 52 Books Author of the month was Peng Shepherd and read The Cartographers. A mystery thriller, full of magical realism which had a good premise but meh delivery, 392) ***

The two ebooks I read were 

Nalini Singh's Archangel's Lineage, in the sixteenth Guild Hunter urban fantasy/romance in which Raphael and Elana and the rest of the angels have to fight to save the world on brink of destruction due to ancestors, plus Elena deals with her father's heart attack, 398, e) *****

And Mimi Matthews' historical romance, The Belle of Belgrave Square about a bookworm and ex military hero with secrets of his own, 421, E) ****