In Which I List The Books I Read This Year
Greetings, let’s talk about books.
Go.
This year I challenged myself to read the grand total of 20 books. I did not reach that goal.
Yeah, yeah, writers need to be avid readers, I should be reading more. However, dyslexia generally caused me to have to talk long breaks between books. It can’t be helped. I read as much as I can. Audio books, help a great deal, however, I don’t always want to listen to audio books.
Here are the rules:
Books that I read aren’t chosen if they were published this year. I’m usually many years behind and choose books based on what I discover, what I want to read, and what I can get a hold of.
I do not rank books by how well they are written. We do not do that here. My ability to gauge what is well-written is greatly biased by if I can digest it. I just want to be entertained or informed. Did I enjoy what I was reading or not. Now, writing style does come into play. However, it’s one of those things if I noticed it, it’s usually a bad thing. Sometimes its a good thing. But usually it’s a bad thing.
Let’s start with non-fiction. Because Non-fiction is for knowledge.
I read Two books this year.
Ordinary Heroes: A Memoir of 9/11 by Joseph Pfeifer
Bring Columbia Home: The Untold Story of a Lost Space Shuttle and her Crew by Michal D. Leinbacj and Jonathan H. Ward
Last year and earlier this year and a part of last year, I was on a 9/11 deep dive. I felt like it was time for me to dive into it. One of the documentaries I watched was Nation Geographic’s documentary, One Day in America: 9/11. I then discovered that Joseph Pfeifer, the first firefighter interviewed wrote a memoir, I jumped to reading it.
I do like memoirs, however, they can’t be about celebrities. And I know most people associate them with celebrities, but there are hosts of ordinary people who write them. And a New York firefighter, is up my alley. I like people because it is a good window into people. Which honestly is why I like reading non-fiction, it’s a good window into people. I find that very helpful when writing fantasy.
As for Bringing Columbia Home. I just wanted to know more about it. The Challenger disaster is one of those things that happened that I was far too young to even acknowledge that happen, but it’s a fascination. As was at the time of Columbia breaking up in the atmosphere.
However, between both these book. Ordinary Heroes was more fascinating read for me. Bring Columbia Home makes you feel those days searching for space shuttle parts by how much it drags on. Interesting, but not the best non-fiction book I read. Maybe one day, I’ll search for another writer tackling the subject.
Now we shall go on to fiction and the actual book of the year:
Of Deeds most Valiant by Sarah K.L. Wilson is the book I wished there was more book, but sadly this appears to be a standalone. This novel was brought to my attention by my hubby who thought I would be interested. He was most correct. It is a book about paladins that I personally always wanted. You know, paladins doing paladin things in the way I imagined it and wasn’t like one of the other books I read this year.
For this book, though, I’m going to use the word “dark” in that…well…have you read Agatha Christie’s book, And Then There Were None? Yeah, it’s kind of like that. Well, in the middle. Not so much the end. Just characters being picked off one after another.
The book that almost made it:
I am a Martha Wells fan. Granted, the Books of the Raksura??? Whatever the series is called is what I know her writing. The Murderbot Diaries has been long on my list and I read the first book while being in the throes of pneumonia. Which is a nice way to spend two days when having pneumonia. I will be reading the rest of the series. But I want hard copies, and I’m waiting for the brand-new edition to come out next year.
Now to the books I liked, not in the order I read them but in the order of liking.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
This was a hesitation read because I found out that books that are considered “cozy” often aren’t what I imagine cozy should be. I will get into this more later. However, it was also recommended as a romantasy. I decided to just jump into reading this one. As well as it’s sequel:
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands.
My biggest question, why is this considered romantasy? This is a fantasy novel with a relationship in the making. The second novel has a bit more but, I’m so confused. Don’t get me wrong, this is a delightful series and I will be staring at my calendar making morose howls patiently waiting for the 3rd book to come out. However, maybe I just have a different view on what is and isn’t romantasy. I don’t understand why. The second book I can see it. However the first book? It begs the question, how much romance makes something a fantasy romance? However, I suppose for a cozy fantasy, which I knew this series to originally be, the romance amount makes sense.
And of course, what’s a year without reading something by Brandon Sanderson. (One day I will run out of books to read by him)
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter and Defiant (Skyward book 4).
The Skyward series has been a joy to read. If I were a young adult again, this would be my favorite series ever. As for Yumi…I don’t have a lot to say about it other than I really enjoyed it. It’s kind of a book you have to read because my explaining it will make little sense as I can’t compare it to anything. The world is very unique. It was my biggest, “WTF is going on here…oh….ohhhh!!!” this year.
The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss.
I did enjoy this novella. I never read the original version short story version of this novella, so it was new to me. I’m not going to complain about Rothfuss here. And there is a reason for it, The Brotherhood Achieve would not exist if not for Patrick Rothfuss. I just hope one day, he can conclude his series. Preferably before I conclude mine.
Murtagh by Chistopher Paolini
I like Eragon. I will not deny it. This was continuing on my collection of the series. Though there is a reason why it is last on this list. It’s just the last act of this book. I just, don’t like torture. It always makes me iky to read it. It make sense for the book in terms of tone, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Now we get on to the disappointment squad. The stories I finished but had issues with:
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Beck Chambers
Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingisher
Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey
Breaking the Dark: A Jessica Jones Marvel Crime Novel by Lisa Jewel
Minus the last one, those three books were recommendations for cozy fantasy and they all suffer from issues that made me grow a dislike to cozy fantasy. Or rather, the direction of it.
A Long Way suffers from an allergy to tension. In that, conflict is introduced and then it’s resolved in the quickest and most unsatisfying manner every single time. It felt so shallow to me. Just things happening in a journey that really didn’t feel that changed things. It was acknowledged and everything moved on. The ending happened. I’m just, it scratches that itch for a story you want to read with a ships crew, but I feel there might be better choices out there.
Paladin’s Grace had some interesting concepts but in the end the conflict and the resolutions of those conflict fell flat. A conflict that was unresolved and an undercurrent in I assume in the other books, while intriguing, doesn’t make me want to read the entire series. It’s very typical feeling in terms of the romance that basically wasn’t a unique enough experience for me. And this is the other paladin book that didn’t do it for me as mentioned above. I just didn’t feel the paladin in the paladin’s in this book.
I like Mercedes Lackey, just not this book, Arrows of the Queen. It’s not because it’s an older style of fantasy. There were parts I like it just, the conclusion of the story kind of falls flat because the book doesn’t have a great deal of focus on what it’s about. Certainly, the main character growing into a stronger person. However, there are things that happen in this novel that doen’t have a lot of impact. The main one being the main character is a targeted by those who rather her dead. It’s comes up, and then is forgotten until the end where she is told a resolution has been made, then the book ends. It had a nice solid start it just made me go, “So what was the point of this?”
The Jessica Jones novel was another pick of my hubby and probably one of the most unnecessarily convoluted novels I’ve read. I don’t blame the author so much for this. They give writers basically guidelines to follow and the writer fills the gaps. Now, by saying this novel is convoluted, I don’t mean complex. It’s just convoluted in the “Why do superhero stories gotta be like this sometime?” The onion layers in this case were not necessary. For a mystery, it’s mid. I’ve read better mysteries. In fact, I want to start back into mystery novel. I might have a reason why. Anyway, the title makes little sense. No dark is broken in this novel. Well if you mean dark as confusion.
Let’s talk about DNF
Can’t Spell Treason without Tea by Rebecca Thorne
This book didn’t do it for me. I mean at all. I made myself read it until I couldn’t anymore. I was tired of it. To start, there are two characters and two different POVs. There wasn’t much to distinguish them from one another. There wasn’t even the smallest amount of flavor there. It didn’t help they were in close quaters a lot without a lot happening. While I do not need big epic plots, but I find two characters staring a tea shop hard to keep my attention. It’s not very engaging. In fact, it was dull. And it takes a lot for me to call a novel dull.
When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker.
Never have I DNFed a book so quickly. Look, I’m not a fan of dark fantasy. I’m not a fan of female character that embodies certain toxic traits of certain kinds male characters that I already don’t like. Vengeful main character without anything endering about the is a just a big no for me. This was basically a mis-buy.
And the DNF I didn’t want to:
The Lost Plot (Invisible Library book 4) by Genevieve Cogman
I really wanted to like this series. I wanted to continue reading it. But I always felt disconnected to the characters. I don’t mind a logical MC. In fact, one can make a comparison to Emily Wilde and Irene, the main heroine of the Invisible library. Heck, the series are a bit similar. Except the Invisible Library feels like it does too much while doing too little at the same time. All the elements are there, but the world doesn’t feel fully realized and neither do the characters. Overall, I just lost interest and couldn’t read another book. So yeah, I pretty much DNFed an entire series. I don’t feel like reading the next two books.
Current reads that I’m likely not going to finish before the year is up:
Brain Boy by Austin McConnell
If you don’t know who Austin McConnell, he’s a Youtuber who talks about stuff. Useless information if you will. However, he go bored one day and decided to make his own superhero universe out of superheros from the public domain. It’s a multi-media thing and he’s published two books. One being Spider Queen and now we have Brain Boy.
Am I reading this book for any other reson than pure entertainment? No. See I can shut my brain off. I just have problem shitting my brain off when people over hype something and tell me it’s great and praise it like its the best thing ever. And since my brain isn’t poluted with a bunch of opinions, this is probably how I end my year.
Also with this:
What will I read next year? Well I still have my TBR pile staring at me in my face.
What do I want to learn about? I’m leaning into Pan Am Flight 103. And if you don’t know what that is, On December 21, 1988, a Pan Am flight traveling from Germany to America, broke apart mid-flight from a bomb placed in suitcase. Basically it was blasted out of the sky.
Now there are a few angles one can take from thing. The investigation itself, and details about terriost group responsible for the bombing. I’m not certain if I can find a book that would cover all of it or what books are aviliable for me to find. I might have to switch to something else.
As for new fiction releases. With the exception of the next Emily Wilde book, there are none. I usually don’t pay attention to new releases anymore. I’m so far behind that I just try to find the books that I want to read. I can’t read everything, so I don’t try. I just find books. New or old.
I do want to insert a few mystery books the mix. Maybe, we will see.
Also, my new fiction: Claws of Ice, Wings of Fire is set to release 1/14/2025. I will post another post related to that Thursday when I figure out what it is I want to post.