The year is coming to a close and I am nearing my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal number of 185 books read this year. (I am at 179.) I don't set a goal to push myself or compete with previous year's numbers, but as one way of noting my reading habits. When a goal is set, Goodreads keeps track of both the number of books and the specific titles read for the year. If I were just to mark books "read" as I finish, it would not be as straightforward to revisit the year's reading. I find this to be the most valuable feature of Goodreads for my reading life.
It has been two weeks since one of these posts because the holiday and some reading ennui kept me from making progress or jumping into anything new.
Read:
- I finished Playing for the Ashes the 6th installment in the Inspector Lynley series by Elizabeth George (elibrary book). I do need to take a break on these for a bit as I think I met my limited of intrigue for a while with this one. I will say that I don't think the quality of this book was less than others I have read, but I did enjoy it less. Perhaps because I am just burned out on murder mysteries. But I found it difficult to care as much as I have with others. I'll wait until after the new year to read another of hers.
- 25 Days 'Til Christmas by Poppy Alexander is a 2019 Christmas novel. There were zero surprises in this story, but I didn't mind. I needed something to get my reading muscles moving again and this worked. This was not a saccharine romance without strife or sadness, but it had a predictably happy ending after the usual ups and downs of romance. My favorite character was Kate's son Jack, a quirky 6 year old who was a realistically drawn kid with issues and challenges separate from his mother.
- I mentioned a few weeks back, after being delighted by Garth Nix's The Left-Handed Booksellers of London that I was seeking more of his work via the public library. The first of my holds came through this week, Newt's Emerald. Its initial attraction for me was as a stand-alone work. I am saving Nix's The Old Kingdom series for cozy winter reading. (It has only just recently turned winter cold in Washington, DC and I am looking forward to using the gas fireplace in this new apartment. It has been 7 years since I had regular access to fire.) Reading this after the previous romance was probably just the formula I needed to get out of my reading funk. I was reminded of the Regency romances à la Georgette Heyer and by golly I was right. The author's note verified her works had been some of his inspiration. A lovely heiress whose magical emerald is stolen, mixed with a masquerade ball, and a passel of well-meaning but mainly ineffective cousins and I was charmed. I am 4th on the holds list for Angel Mage.
Reading:
- Way back, two weeks ago I started Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch (elibrary book) I have stalled in my reading just a few pages in. This one may just have to wait while I read titles I feel more drawn to.
- I also began the recently published volume 5 of Monstress (independent bookstore purchase) the comic book by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. I have read about half of this and am savoring it.
- I read The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow when I was in Florida in April. I think many of the books I read back when I naively believed the COVID isolation period would be short will stick with me because they were of comfort or engagement when we were trying to figure out how to modify our lives to be safe. I began reading Harrow's recently published The Once and Future Witches (egalley) last evening. I am so far intrigued by the three witch sisters who have been reunited after years of separation.
- I am planning to read Holly Black's How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories this week too.
Listening:
- I have been listening to A Promised Land by President Barack Obama (purchased from Audible) for the past two weeks. It is taking time because I did not listen at all over the Thanksgiving weekend and because it is a loooooong audiobook. 29 hours and 10 minutes. I have about 16 hours left. I like listening to President Obama read his own work. He has a soothing voice that keeps my irritation levels down when he talks about how slowly decisions are made and the reasons why some of his legislation met with opposition. The book is detailed and thorough as he explores the many different elements of his Presidency from lawmaking to family life to overseas travel. In the segment I just heard on a morning errand he discussed his nomination of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.
What have you read? What are you reading and listening to?
**A note on the picture. I always use an image from the Prints and Photographs collections of the Library of Congress. I like these because they are interesting, and freely available because they are in the public domain. I mainly choose images of people reading. If you click the image in any of my posts you will be able to see the Library's bibliographic record which includes whatever they know about the image including its creator. There are also usually links to other similar items or to the collection the image is a part of.***
