Moneypenny's 2017 Challenge

Hi all!

I successfully completed the 2016 challenge in November, and will most likely have hit 85 books by the time New Year's Eve rolls around. I don't expect that to happen again this year, but I loved tracking my reading and writing mini-reviews so here I am!

I'm a cybersecurity professional who's living in the Midwest with an amazing fiancée (HB). We're getting married in July and I can't overstate how excited I am for it! HB is a car salesman, which leaves me with a fair amount of hours to fill and reading is my preferred method. We have the most adorable French bulldog and a fairly idyllic life at this point, which is most welcome after the turbulence of 2016.

Just like last year, I'm not planning out what books to read in advance. But I'm going to try a new restriction: no purchasing of books this year at all! I can read what's already on my shelf or borrow from the library, but there's to be no new addition to our collection at all. HB is an avid reader of all genres and book collector, and between the two of us we have enough books to start a small public library. While this is a grand problem to have, I sadly do not have Belle's library and so the book buying must stop. Also, support of one's public library system is an excellent thing.

Last year I don't think I commented on a single person's thread :blush: so my goal for this year is to follow at least three different threads and be more of an active participant here.

Happy 2017 everyone!

Welcome back!

Welcome back, and happy reading in 2017!
I am familiar with placing myself on a book buying restriction, as that was my goal for my thread a few years ago. I think it lasted a full week. ; ) Better luck to you!

drneutron Thank you! This is my favorite challenge here!

mstrust you're so right! Not even thirty minutes after I posted this thread, I texted HB with a list of new-release books we should think about buying this year lol! His response was "So much for your New Year's resolution already, huh?"

>5 Miss_Moneypenny: You can still buy books THIS year if you aren't buying books NEXT year ;-)

Resolutions are clearly made to be broken - would seem to be a resolution of the Group in fact.

Normally though in fairness they are not broken before the year has actually begun!

Welcome back.

Welcome back!

Welcome back! I'm looking forward to following along with your thread to see what you read and how the book buying ban goes. I'll also be looking forward to wedding planning details!

I am part of the group.
I love being part of the group.
I love the friendships bestowed upon my by dint of my membership of this wonderful fellowship.
I love that race and creed and gender and age and sexuality and nationality make absolutely no difference to our being a valued member of the group.

Thank you for also being part of the group.

January



Kicking off 2017!

1. We Love You, Charlie Freeman by Kaitln Greenidge: Excellent, super quick read.
Four stars

2. Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton: An excellent recommendation from HB. Our tradition on Sundays is to spend the afternoon with a marathon of movies we've already seen and loved while we read on the sofa. As we prepped everything for today, I was lamenting the lack of good historical fiction novels that I haven't read. He whipped out a super old, super tattered copy of this book from our bookshelf, announced it as one of his favorites, and demanded that I read it today. I'm so glad I listened to him because this book was great.
Four stars

3. Congo by Michael Crichton: I had to finish out today's marathon with another Crichton classic. This is probably the fourth or fifth time I've read this one, and it just gets better each time. Crichton is definitely one of my "comfort food" authors :D

I can't believe that January is almost over! Where is time going?!

February



February already! Sheer craziness.

4. The Starlight Crystal by Christopher Pike: HB and I were going through boxes that we've been carting around for the last couple moves and I found this book, which was a gift from my lovely mother for my birthday in 1996. Needless to say, I plopped down and read it straightaway. But lord, time was not kind to this book and I guess it just goes to show how much your reading tastes can change over 20 years, lol!
Two stars

5. Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler: Brushing up on the basics of natural family planning for the Pre-Cana course I'm helping teach this month at my local church. This book desperately needs an updating for today's technology in cycle tracking (Kindara, My Fertility Friend, etc), but the science is sound and remains an integral reference work for anyone considering Natural Family Planning.
Five stars

6. Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey: I've decided to focus this year on finishing up trilogies/series that have been languishing on my to-read list and this was at the top. The first time I read through this book, I finished it in a weekend (not an easy feat considering that there's over 900 pages in it!). This time, it took me the better part of two weeks. Still, a very unique fantasy setting, sex-positive-ish culture, and a compelling heroine make this one of my favorite fantasy books. On to the next one!
Five stars

7. A Game of You by Neil Gaiman
Five stars

8. Fables and Reflections by Neil Gaiman
Five stars

9. Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman
Five stars

10. World's End by Neil Gaiman
Five stars

11. The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman
Five stars

12. The Wake by Neil Gaiman
Five stars

13. Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman
Five stars

I'm going through my regular re-read of Sandman. These books just get better with every read and I discover new aspects every time. Love, love, love.

A happy elephant from Disneyland's Jungle Cruise? Sweet!
Too bad about the Pike not holding up. I'd never heard of that one, but I've been going through his Spooksville series lately. It must be hard to write a modern kids' mystery what with cell phones that can call for help and record everything. ; )

mstrust, Right?! Which is why I have so much appreciate for well-written mysteries/sci fi these days.

March



And here we are in March. I need to kick up the pace if I'm going to hit this challenge! I'm anticipating a busy fall: between getting married and applying to graduate school, I think that July through November will be fairly packed. So I need to definitely front load my reading now!

14. The Gunslinger by Steven King: The Dark Tower series is one of my father's favorites, and I read this book first back in 2012. But with news of the movie (starring Idris Elba no less!) I had to read it and see what all the fuss was about. Daddy warned me that this one isn't the best, so it was necessary to plough through it. I'm glad I did and I'm eagerly awaiting my library notification that they have the next one pulled aside for me!
Three stars

15. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher: The second in the Harry Dresden series. These books are like cotton candy: enjoyable, but not long lasting. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant way to pass an evening waiting for HB to come home.
Three stars

16. Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke: Oh this book. I've never read a cozy mystery before and I do believe this will be my last. It was poorly plotted, slow paced, and chock full of casual misogyny. No thank you.
Two stars

17. Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris: I picked this up by mistake, thinking I was grabbing a copy of Gentlemen and Players by the same author. World War II is not my favorite time period, but I enjoyed this enough.
Three stars

18. Victoria by Daisy Goodwin: I've been meaning to catch the Masterpiece Theater miniseries based on this book but haven't been able to. All I can say is that I hope the tv series is better! This read more like a YA novel than an adult historic fiction novel, and Victoria was an entirely unsympathetic character. Normally that wouldn't bother me, so maybe I was just in a pique while I read it. Not recommended.
Two stars

19. Cradle and All by James Patterson: Ugh. I remember reading a lot of James Patterson when I was younger (my parents kept almost no tabs on what I was reading after 8 or so, and often gave me murder mysteries by Patterson, Kellerman, and Koontz after they had finished them) and loving them. But this was just hokey and poorly written. It doesn't help that as an actual practicing Catholic, it raises my hackles when writers rely on the "scary and repressive Church" trope and this one was chock full of it.
Two stars

20. Chocolat by Joanne Harris: I've never seen the movie this was based on, so I came into it fresh and loved it. It was a simple story, but absolutely captivating and a pleasure to read. I liked this and Five Quarters of the Orange enough to continue my Joanne Harris streak and start Gentlemen and Players next.
Four stars

21. Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris: This was a super taught, tense read and I loved it. Thrillers are typically my preferred genre but I was into this in a big way. My reading has picked up pace since I've started forcing myself to take an actual lunch at work away from my desk and read during it, so this was also a super fast read over the course of three days. It looks like there are two more in this series (loosely anyway) and they're definitely going on my to be read list.
Four stars

Also: big shout out to my local library for having the best interlibrary loan program I've ever seen. Without it, I would have totally caved on my resolution to not buy any new books. Don't forget to support your libraries!

You've been doing a lot of reading. I agree with your comments for the Fluke. I tried one or two, since they're so popular, and ended up just flipping through for the recipes. The writing seemed amateurish when compared to Christie or Marsh. My sister loves Fluke and has read them all as soon as they come out, and tried some of the recipes and says they're very good.

April



Holy cow. How is it already mid-April?! The days are long for sure but the weeks and months are slipping away from me. I've recently starting walking an hour in the morning before work and I think I'm going to start utilizing our Audible account to "read" while I walk.

22. The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan: This was a reread for me. Finishing Wheel of Time has been on my yearly goals list since 2011, but I just can't seem to get there. The books are so dense, and honestly they could have used a much stronger editing hand. But this one moves much faster than later books, and it's one of my favorites in this series.
Three stars

23. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter is my favorite book series of all time, hands down, and it's has had such an influence on my life and my brother and sister's lives that we're designing a matching Deathly Hallows tattoo for all three of us. But I realized as I was cleaning out our book room (have I mentioned that both my husband and I are book hoarders/avid readers?) that I haven't done a proper book 1-7 read through of HP in at least four years. Unacceptable! So here we go :)
Five stars

24. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance: This one has been on my to-read list since it was published in 2016. I come from an incredibly privileged background (white, cisgender, heterosexual, upper class, intelligent, able-bodied, and fairly attractive) but only realized it recently. I was fairly blind to the issues of social justice until a few years ago so I feel like I'm making up for lost time and educating myself as fast as I can. Hillbilly Elegy is my first foray into understanding this particular population and it was a doozy. Very well written, intriguing, and never dry, this is one I'll recommend to others for sure.
Four stars

25. Modern Calligraphy by Molly Suber Thorpe: I've been doing dip pen calligraphy for about a year now (and will be opening my own shop soon), but have only just gotten around to reading this classic. Suber Thorpe gives excellent instruction to beginners and intermediate calligraphers alike, and her advice is practical and helpful. Highly recommended!
Four stars

26. Remade for Happiness by Fulton Sheen: Out of all the many books on Catholicism that I have on my shelves, this is far and away my favorite. It's written in an engaging and friendly way and absolutely packed with insightful ways to relate to my faith. This is a yearly Lent/Easter re-read for me, and I'm always happy to see it again.
Five stars

May



Beautiful May! Or at least it would be beautiful if it would ever stop raining and being chilly here in Central Ohio D: Nevertheless, time continues to march on. I'm coming into the busy season at work and will be making an effort to keep my lunch/reading hour sacred. This should help both keep me on track for the challenge as well as keep my stress level more manageable.

27. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling: Of all the Potter books, this one is my least favorite. I still love it, don't get me wrong, but I think this is only maybe my third re-read of this one since it was released? The pacing is off, there's a lot that feels extraneous (like the Death Day party), and it just doesn't thrill me like Prisoner of Azkaban or the Half Blood Prince. Still, a less than stellar Potter book is still better than a lot I've read.
Five stars

28. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K Rowling: Yes, finally! This is my favorite of the entire series. I remember reading it when it was first released and just inhaling it and then panicking because what if Rowling didn't finish it?! (My father was reading Wheel of Time that year and was regularly grousing about how it seemed like Robert Jordan was never going to finish the series, so that might have had something to do with my panic). Start to finish, this is my favorite Potter book.

I'm on track to hit 75 again this year! If I can bump it up to a book and a half a week, I'll definitely make it by New Year's Eve. Work is still difficult and my husband's schedule changed again (more evening and Saturday hours, boo), so the dog and I have settled into a nice routine of walking and then reading after I get home in the afternoons. I tihnk If I can keep this up that a book and a half a week is definitely doable!

29. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz: Good lord this book wrecked me in the best possible way. It reminds me a lot of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude but different and I loved it. I don't know how I managed to put off reading this book for so long! The minute I finished it I wanted to go back to page one and start again, which is something that very rarely happens to me: the last time it did was Dexter Palmer's Version Control, which was tied for my favorite read of 2016. Love, love, love this book and can't wait to see what else Diaz has written.
Five stars

It's been almost a week since I finished Oscar Wao and it's spoiled me for everything else! I just want to go back and reread it from the beginning. So to combat that, I browsed my library today and came away with the following:
Black Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin: A thriller that looks very promising! Hopefully it's not too gory.

Every Anxious Wave by Mo Daviau: I was reading this last summer and was about halfway through when our neighbor's house burnt down. We shared a wall (townhouse living) and there was significant smoke and water damage to our house and nearly all of our belongings. This book didn't make it out of the fire but I'd like to see how it ends. Hopefully I can get through it this time without something else going disastrously wrong!

The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenoliera: Recommended by my librarian sister as the sweetest book she's ever read.

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty: I really loved Big Little Lies and so I figured I would give Moriarty's earlier works a try. I would have preferred What Alice Knew but alas, it was not in stock.

Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos: Another sister recommendation!

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: I'm trying to make a pointed effort and read more books by authors of color and female authors. I've heard nothing but good things about this book and about Adichie's work, so this is a good place to start.

Wish me luck! I'm hopeful that one of these can break me out of my post-Oscar Wao slump.

30. Black Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin: Surprisingly good! I was afraid it would be too gory based on the blurb (a young Texas girl is found in a grave with a recently dead girl and various other bones; then as an adult her would-be killer comes back to haunt her), but there was no gore and very little explicit violence. Instead, it was filled with haunting prose and really chilling psychological suspense. I loved the characters and found this to be really well done, with one glaring exception: the main characters don't use contractions when speaking. It took me out of the story every time! It seems like a small thing and maybe I was just cranky while reading it, but it was enough for me to knock this down to four stars. Other than that, this is highly recommended!
Four stars

31. Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos: I have pretty mixed feelings about this book. It was beautifully written and so evocative. I really felt like I saw this story, as weird as that sounds. It was a neat premise (30 something Cornelia meets a man and falls almost in love, finds out he has a daughter who he has no relationship with, the daughter's mother goes missing, and Cornelia falls in love with the girl and wants to adopt her), and I really enjoyed seeing familial love and relationships being prized and extended beyond the biologic ties (my husband was adopted out of the foster system as a 5 year old, so adoption stories are close to my heart). But. She falls in love with this child and wants to adopt her and decides (once the mother comes back) to move in with the mother and raise the little girl together. But then all it takes is a quick conversation with her sister's husband and she realizes she's in love with him and then she just up and leaves this little girl? I have a major problem with that. Up until the last probably 30 pages, I was willing to go along with the author, but the ending just wrecked it for me.
Three stars

Three cheers for the public library system! Last weekend when I was browsing for new books to read, I put requested around 20 books. Lo and behold, when I went this morning 8 of them were ready for me! I still have a backlog from last week to read but what a lovely problem to have :D

32. The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenoliera: Loved this one! I kind of "UGGGH"'d my way through the first bits, because Pride and Prejudice really isn't my thing. I don't like the original and I really have a hard time with all the copy cats. But this was a recommendation from my sister and she gushed over it, so I perservered and am so glad I did. This is a sweet, touching book filled with lovely sentiments about the Catholic faith. Loved, although I do wish that there had been more about the letters that the main character sends back and forth to the San Ireneo townspeople.
Four stars

33. Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth Jr and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey: I requested this on a total whim and was so charmed by the depiction of large family life. So adorable and now I want to watch the movie!
Four stars

34. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett: While babysitting this weekend, the littlest girls asked if I would read to them from this book. Their father has been reading it to them before bed each night, and so I happily obliged as this was one of my favorite books as a child. So naturally, I had to come home and read it start to finish.
Five stars

35. I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Ian Reid: Yowza. This book had my heart racing. I'm such a weenie and I usually stay away from horror books, but I was drawn to this and couldn't put it down. I raced through it in less than two hours and I'm still thinking about it. It was shocking and sad and masterfully written. The unnamed narrator has a wonderful stream of conscious voice and it didn't feel pretentious at all. I wish the end had been a little more drawn out because it did feel like the book was just plodding along and then in the span of less than 30 pages EVERYTHING happened. But upon further reflection, even that was true to the story and felt authentic. I think this one deserves another read now that I know how it ended. I think that will probably bump my review up to five stars, but for now,
Four stars

36. Every Anxious Wave by Mo Daviau: Oh man I loved this book. Love, love, loved. At only 30, the 90s indie rock references went right over my head but I was too engrossed in the story to stop and google. This book ticked all my boxes: time travel, (mostly) believable science fiction, an unconventional and sweet romance, speedy storytelling, and a lot of heart. I teared up at the end, and just loved this from start to finish. This is definitely one of my favorites from this year.
Five stars

Man, I am on a roll right now :D Everything I've checked out of the library recently has been just gripping.

37. The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey: I mentioned upthread that I'm not a huge horror fan, and zombie stories especially are not my jam. But was really, really well written and I shockingly really liked it. It was a very different take on the zombie apocalypse and I loved the ending.
Five stars

38. The Longest Night by Andria Williams: A very quick and interesting read centered around the nuclear reactor incident in Idaho Falls in 1961 that killed 3 people. This had multiple narrators but none of them really gripped me, especially Nat. I kept shaking my head at her and kind of racing through her parts to advance the story. Really, who can justify what she did as "just friends"? It was clearly an emotional affair and her insistence on everything being above board was just grating. Still, I learned a lot and that's always welcome.
Three stars

June



What a lovely month to be in! The never-ending rain of May finally made way for the prettiest June I've seen in a long time. I'm still slightly in shock that it's June: this year has just flown by and I can't believe we're at the halfway point. At this rate, it'll be Halloween before I even know it.

I read a TON in May: between long work hours for my husband and being successful in my efforts at reading both at lunch and for an hour before making dinner at night, I read 12 books! I'd like to hit 12 again this month or possibly even beat it, so we'll see if I can make it happen. It also really helps that I live within walking distance of a super fabulous library with an even better interlibrary loan. Every Saturday in May, the pup and I walked over to the library and picked up a new batch of books. The librarians love her and we always leave with (too many) awesome finds. I'm pleased to report that I've been successful so far at not buying any books at all this year and utilizing only what's already on my shelf or the library. I have been keeping a list of books to buy eventually, but this has been a really good exercise in forcing me to pare down my husband and my out of control collection of books. I'm also thinking more critically about the future book purchases, because a lot of what I've read this year has been decent but not good enough for me to purchase. Previously, if a book sounded good it would just hop in my Amazon cart and languish on the bookshelves. Out of the 40 books I've read so far this year, only 5 of them have impressed me enough to be added to our library: The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, The Awakening of Miss Prim, Every Anxious Wave, and the first two listed here. It's also shocking how much money we've saved. So three cheers for public libraries!

39. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende: Wow! This was one of my favorite movies as a child, but my younger sister was so afraid of the wolf that I was rarely allowed to watch it and eventually we sold our copy. I didn't know that it was based on a book until last year. I borrowed it from the library and devoured it in less than a day. This is one of the best fantasy novels I've ever read! It's layered with meaning and is fascinating. What child (or adult for that matter) hasn't wished that she was brave and attractive and fearless? What person hasn't struggled with feeling disconnected from the people they love? I can't put into words how much I loved this book: it's totally eclipsed my love for the movie, predictably. Love, love, love, and I can't wait to read this to my children one day.
Five stars

40. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle: This book has been on my to-read list forever, but it always was bumped for another, flashier book. But this was such a good followup to The Neverending Story, a kind of fantasy double feature if you will. Another beautiful, incredibly imagined, and emotionally touching story. Whenever someone tells me next that fantasy books lack heart, these two will be my main rebuttal points. This is another book I'll be purchasing once my book buying ban is over.
Five stars

41. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie: Between the upcoming movie and the fact that this is one of my husband's favorite books, I pretty much had to read this and I'm so glad I did! It was engaging and wonderfully written. I see why people wax rhapsodic about Agatha Christie.
Four stars

42. Little Deaths by Emma Flint: This was a decent read, and not a bad way to pass an afternoon but I never really connected with any of the characters. I didn't particularly care who abducted and murdered the children, and I definitely didn't understand the reporter's infatuation with the mother. The ending was a surprise and one that I didn't see coming, and I liked the last page or so where Ruth chooses to go on living. But all in all, just kind of a "meh" read.
Two stars

43. Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis and
44. Perelandra by C.S. Lewis: I really love Lewis's books by and large. The Screwtape Letters and Till We Have Faces are on my "absolute favorites" list and, putting aside the his handling of Susan at the end of the Chronicles of Narnia, would go so far as to say that Lewis is on my favorite authors list. I'm not sure how reading the Space Trilogy escaped me for so long, but my hopes were high. And then, eh. Neither of these books grabbed me in the way that Lewis's other works have. I mostly read them just to be done with them, which is a sad feeling.
Three stars for each

45. That Hideous Strength: by C.S. Lewis: I mostly read this one to be able to say that I read the entire trilogy. I liked it more than the previous two, but again was just not super enthused about it. I'm wondering maybe (due to my love of other Lewis books) maybe the problem with these is me? I've been feeling out of sorts for a week or so now and that might be spilling over into my reading. Something to think about, and if so that might be enough to tempt me into a re-read of at least this one.
Three stars

46. Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist: I picked this book up on a whim because orange is one of my favorite colors and who couldn't use a little more celebration in their life? 2016 was a horrendously difficult year for my husband and me; seriously every week there was another giant, life derailing disaster. Around the time of the house fire, we made a solemn promise to ourselves and each other that we would celebrate each and every day and not take anything for granted. It's a promise that I'm glad to say we've kept, and so with that in mind I started this book. It was uneven even for a first time author and I would have cut at least 25% of these essays to make it a stronger collection. I'm particularly over the "vulnerable" genre (Brene Brown, Glennon Doyle, apparently Mrs. Niequist, etc) because I feel by and large the last thing our society needs more of is FEELINGS *jazz hands*. Having said that, I'd be interested in reading her later works (particularly Bittersweet) to see if her skills as an author have increased at all.
Three stars

47. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simison: I thoroughly enjoyed this! Romance novels are generally not my bag, but this was a very unconventional take on the genre and I was just delighted with it. Having a first person narration by a man (presumably somewhere on the autism spectrum) was a really neat choice. I loved Don's realization that his brain was just wired differently, that that didn't doom him to a life of loneliness, and that the most wonderful surprise of all is finding someone who accepts your different brain and loves you for it. Loved it. This is going straight on my recommended reads list.
Four stars

48. The Year We Turned Forty by Liz Felton and Lisa Steinke: This was an impromptu grab at the library this Saturday. The back blurb reminded me of Lionel Shriver's The Post Birthday World or even the late 90s move "Sliding Doors." Sadly, it didn't live up to either of those but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless. I wasn't entirely grabbed by any of the three main characters and I felt that the ending was a little too pat.
Three stars

49. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty: Despite not loving Moriarty's later/more popular books, I took a chance on this one. I'm a sucker for a good amnesiac plot (I spent a lot of time as a child watching soap operas with my mother, lol) and this one was pretty good. Moriarty did a great job of differentiating between young Alice's and old Alice's voices as the story progressed and it was definitely an entertaining read. But I was not prepared at all for the subplot with Alice's sister Elisabeth. Elisabeth suffers through multiple miscarriages and it was excruciating for me to read (I'm still working through losing my twins last year). It was scarily accurate, and I can see myself in Elisabeth. If I had known about this subplot, I probably wouldn't have read the book. So overall,
Three stars

50. The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King: After the previous book, I needed something soothing and so I turned to one of the first young adult books I ever read (at the tender age of 7) and one of my favorite "mom recommendations" ever. I remember being absolutely entranced with this book the first time I read it and just giddy with suspense to see how it would end. I've read it multiple times and while I don't get that same rush (being neither a new read nor 7 years old), it's a comforting and soothing read that never fails to lift my spirits.
Five stars

51. Thinner by Stephen King: The Eyes of the Dragon started something of a Stephen King kick. On my weekly library run this morning I picked this up at random and put in requests for three other King books. This was a super quick, super gripping read. I dislike the characterization of the gypsies, but the main character was excellently written (I despised him, lol). And that ending, Jesus. Excellent Saturday afternoon read.
Three stars

52. Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen: I was definitely not the _target audience for this book. It was very well written, and I'm sure that if I was older I'd rate it higher. But I just can't relate to this author, and especially her dismissal of the Catholic faith. Overall, another white woman navel gazing about her privileged life, hard pass from this girl.
Two stars

53. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman: This trilogy has been in my top 5 ever since the first time I read it. Alternate history, slightly steampunk, fantasy, a daring quest, and it's just so smartly written. There is literally nothing I would change about this book, nothing that I skip over when I re-read it. I would definitely change the movie, but that's a different story entirely. And in honor of the new series coming out this fall (!!!!), I figured it was high time for another read of this excellent series.
Five stars

I just recently read The Neverending Story for the first time, too, and enjoyed it. I'm happy to see how much you loved it! I did so love the movie as a kid and want to show it to my 8-year-old soon...

scaifea I think that a childhood without The Neverending Story is incomplete! To this day I'm a still a little bitter that my sister was so afraid of it that I couldn't watch it, lol!

July



Holy. COW. How is it July?! 2017 is halfway done, and I feel like I still haven't been able to catch my breath. Work continues to be crazy and is only ramping up: for some reason (and I don't know if this is a business/large corporation thing or a tech-specific thing) everyone slacks off for the beginning of the year and then the end of June rolls around like some big surprise. "We've only got July through October to get this stuff done guys! Between next year's budget and planning and end of year reviews and holidays, we've got to GET STARTED!!!!" Every year, I swear. Maybe next year I won't be so surprised by it.

Anyway, reading during June went phenomenally well! I read 14 books, which is a 2 book increase over last month :D I don't think that increasing it anymore is feasible, but I did make a third quarter goal to completely cut out all Facebook and Twitter and limit myself to only 10 minutes of Instagram per day so we'll see if I'm right or not. I've noticed that Facebook and Twitter particularly have become pretty detrimental to my mental health (largely due to American politics), and honestly they weren't adding anything other than righteous indignation and outrage to my life. Everyone I truly care about I either connect with in real, face to face life or over FaceTime and texting (we live in Ohio, my husband's family lives in Indiana, and my family lives in Colorado). Instagram is more soothing since my feed is highly curated for family/friends and French bulldogs, lol, but I still need to get out of the habit of mindless scrolling. So I'm hopeful for another 14 books this month, and will be delighted if I manage to hit 15.

54. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp: This book. I wanted to love it, I truly did. The message is phenomenal: how to live a life of true and specific thanksgiving to God even in the face of unimaginable pain and anguish. 2016 was the worst year of my life and I'm ashamed to say that instead of turning to God, I shut him out. I couldn't reconcile a good and loving God with what was happening in my life (particularly the loss of my precious babies). But now that the worst of the grief is gone and I'm starting to reknit my spiritual life, I've been on the lookout for books that attempt to address "the problem of pain" (CS Lewis's A Grief Observed is on the list as well), and the message of this book was wonderful. But. It took me over two weeks to read it because the author's voice and way of writing was just nails-on-a-chalkboard grating. The only way I can describe it is if the twee-est of teenage girls wrote this book and decided to write in the most flowery, incomplete, and baffling way possible. Just please stop. And the syntax of her sentences was just bizarre: run on sentences followed by incomplete sentences, SO MUCH italicizing, using words incorrectly. I'm honestly not sure how this book got published. And she referred to her husband and children by nicknames: The Farmer, Farmer Husband, Tall Girl, Almost-Man. Give me a break, lady. All this to say: the gist of the content was a 5, but the delivery and experience of reading it was a 1, so this evens out to three stars. And if anyone has suggestions for books on this subject (grief, thanksgiving, living your faith), please recommend them!
Three stars

55. Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? by Alyssa Mastromonaco: This was a super quick, fascinating read. Mastromonaco was the Deputy Chief of Staff for President Obama and the youngest woman to ever hold that position. She was shockingly honest and open about a lot of things: being a woman in the White House, being young, trying to date/have a social life while working in this incredible position, etc. I wish that the book had been a little less breezy and gone more in-depth about her time in the White House (who knew they didn't have a tampon dispenser in the West Wing bathrooms until 2009?!) and could have largely done without the sections dealing with her life before and after working for Obama. All in all, a solid read and one that I'm glad I picked up.
Three stars

56. The Nesting Place by Myquillyn Smith: I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about homemaking. We've been married for almost six months now and I'm not sure when we'll be making the jump to home owning. My parents have never purchased a house in their entire adult lives, preferring to rent as my father's job necessitated moving every 12-18 months. My husband says I have a gypsy soul as a result, but I'm thinking maybe it's time for us to put down roots and for me that means (at least for now) decorating our current apartment. One of the librarians recommended this to me on Saturday and it was a decent starting place. The author recommends starting out by overcoming fears by nailing pictures to the wall. I'm not afraid of that, but I am afraid to paint: before reading this book, it had honestly never occurred to me that there are people who paint a rental apartment. I don't know if I'm that brave, but it was helpful to hear decorating philosophy from someone who's mostly only rented as an adult.
Three stars

57. Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead: I have an inordinate fondness for movies and books about ballet. I took ballet classes for a long time, but only recreational and never even approaching the professional level due to my body type. After last year's disappointing Girl Through Glass I had high hopes for this one and it mostly lived up to my expectations. Joan is a professional ballerina who knows that she'll never advance beyond the core, and when she turns up unexpectedly pregnant she's (somewhat) relieved to leave her ballet career behind. But her choices have far-reaching consequences that become more apparent as her son becomes a ballet prodigy. The "twist" was apparent from the first 10 pages of the book, but overall it was an enjoyable look at the toll that art and passion have on a person. I wish that there had been a little more emphasis on the ballet part and less on the interpersonal drama but the characters were engaging and well drawn.
Three stars

58. Sea Swept by Nora Roberts
59. Rising Tides by Nora Roberts
60. Inner Harbor by Nora Roberts
61. Chesapeake Blue by Nora Roberts
My librarian sister recently pointed out to me that I have a somewhat snotty attitude when it comes to the chick lit and romance genres. She's right, so I asked her to set me up with a handful of recommendations to give these genres a fair shake. It turns out, they're not all bad. These four are a series that follows the Quinn family, and all were a sweet read. I had a some issues with them: overblown purple prose (particularly when describing physical attributes of the characters), sex scenes that I found fairly cringe worthy, and sprinklings of casual misogyny that made my eyebrows shoot off my forehead (like when a main character is nearly raped and her romantic partner blames HER for the event, WHAT?). But overall, the story was sweet, and since my husband was adopted out of foster care when he was 4 I have a soft spot for family sagas that involve rescuing troubled little boys I was willing to overlook the more problematic points. The hubby bought me a Kindle Paperwhite for my birthday last week and it definitely helps that the romance/chick lit ebook section at our library has much less of a waiting list than non-genre fiction, so I'll probably wind up trying a few more romance novels and maybe even some chick lit before this year is out.
Three stars for each

62. Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler: I should have listened to my gut on this one. I've been passing up this book at my library all year (and the bookstores last year) and I'm not sure what tempted me this time. But I succumbed and am the worse for it. For me, this book was kind of a mess: the story telling was uneven and jumpy, the characters were completely unlikable to a fault, and I was just bored with the whole thing. I couldn't find a reason to care about this girl or her adventures in the restaurant scene, which is a deal breaker for me.
Two stars

63. Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead: After really enjoying Shipstead's Astonish Me, I figured I'd give her debut novel a try. Centered around the patriarch of a WASPy AF family, the story takes place over the long weekend of the eldest Van Meter daughter's wedding. The father is contemplating an affair with his daughter's friend, the youngest daughter has just had an abortion and been dumped by her boyfriend, the mother is unfulfilled, and their various friends and relations round out the cast of characters. I felt like anyone beyond the youngest daughter and father were cardboard cutout props though. The Egyptian friend who's known the Van Meters since high school but rejected their cultural norms, the alcoholic and four-times divorced aunt, the Fenn family father: these could have been fascinating characters and instead they were just flat. And the book just kind of ended out of nowhere. There was some plot and tension and then it was just over. I don't feel any sense of resolution, to the point where I wondered if maybe there was a sequel. All in all, this was a miss for me.
Two stars

August



Only 10 books for July, what a pity! I was hopeful that I could hit 14 but, as it often does, life got in the way.

My husband decided to go back to school: despite being one of the smartest people I've ever met, he never went to college and has instead been selling cars since he left high school. Eight years later, our finances were finally in a position to let him start school and I couldn't be more proud of him. I got a promotion at work (quite unexpectedly, as our promotions are typically only done in January) and with that came a large increase in both pay and work to be completed. My days are busier but more challenging and I'm happier with work than I've been in a long time.

All of that to say: reading time in July was scarce. I don't see the pace of life slowing down any between now and the end of October (my department basically shuts down before Thanksgiving and doesn't start back up again until after Martin Luther King Jr Day) but I think 10 books a month is still a good and manageable goal. We'll see what happens!

64. The Rook by Daniel O'Malley: Goodness but I loved this book. It was funny (I even laughed out loud in a few places, which is rare for me), it was completely engrossing, and despite the length it was a super quick read. My librarian sister described this to me as "British Xmen meets the X-Files, with more bureaucracy" and she was right. Love, love, love, and I've already requested the sequel. This one is shooting straight to the top of my "must purchase" list once January rolls around.
Five stars

65. Dance Upon the Air by Nora Roberts
66. Heaven and Earth by Nora Roberts
67. Face the Fire by Nora Roberts: Following up on my sister's challenge to read more romance/chick lit, I picked a trilogy by the prolific Ms. Roberts mostly due to it being in my wheelhouse (magic, sisters, witches, and island living). This group was much better than the previous 4 I read, thank goodness. It was a light, breezy read that was surprisingly atmospheric and very enjoyable. Good end of summer lakeside read.
Three stars

68. Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan: I thought I would really enjoy this: I like multigenerational stories, I like books about big, messy families. But this just didn't connect with me. Likeable characters aren't a must for me, but they do have to be interesting and I think that's where this fell flat for me: all four of the main characters bored me to tears. Alice (the grandmother) was shrill and after the fortieth description of how her (kind of deserved) guilt at her sister's death wrecked her emotionally, I just started rolling my eyes. Kathleen (the daughter) was basically a copy of Alice but with an extra veneer of *~*spirituality*~*. The sister-in-law, Anne Marie, didn't feel like a fully fleshed out character but rather just a pastiche of weird personality traits. And the daughter, Maggie, was a total loser and I basically napped through her chapters. Boredom is a cardinal sin for me as a reader, and so this one gets the boot.
Two stars

69. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen: A sweet little romance chock full with magical realism and Southern Gothic touches. This was wildly uneven but sweet and a fun read. It reminded me a lot of a Practical Magic knock off (magic sisters with no family but elderly aunts, the youngest sister runs away, small children with too much knowledge, and even the domestic violence) but for the most part it stands on it's own. Not a bad way to spend a lazy afternoon at home.
Three stars

70. Summer Sisters by Judy Blume: Back in the fall of my junior year, my own summer sister recommended this to me. I devoured it, but when I found it today at the library I had no recollection of the plot. It was a decent read (the only Judy Blume book I've ever read), quick and engrossing, but one I'm glad I didn't purchase. Still, the trip down memory lane remembering that time with K was sweet and worth it.
Three stars

I can't believe I'm almost at 75 and we're only halfway through August! I didn't finish last year until the end of November, so I'm incredibly excited to be so close to completion at this point.

71. The Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder: My husband and I have been going through our childhood favorites to see what we should send to my sister-in-law and her new baby boy. The Little House books were at the very top of my list throughout my childhood, and so I figured it was high time to revisit them. I forgot just how engaging these books are. Even as an adult, the idea of living as a pioneer completely captured my imagination and sucked me right in. As a child, Laura was my favorite but on this reread I'm captivated by Ma. She left what sounded like a very comfortable life back east (Laura mentions that Ma had many dresses made by a professional dressmaker) to marry Pa and traverse the country as a pioneer. I'm off to learn more about Caroline Ingalls while I wait for the next Little House book to come in.
Five stars

72. The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger: I really love epistolary stories. I think they've got an extra level of fun and they dispense with a lot of (what I think is unnecessary) details. This was a genius idea with excellent execution: a wealthy couple going through a divorce as seen through the mountains of paper that results from a typical divorce. Sometimes authors who attempt this style aren't able to fully differentiate the different voices of their characters. Rieger didn't have this problem and the whole story was super engaging. I will admit to being frustrated with the main lawyer, Sophie, because really, at 30 you need to let your childhood demons die or be exorcised (says the woman in weekly therapy). Those emails she sent to her boss had me absolutely cringing. But on the whole, a shockingly good read.
Four stars

73. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch: Oh wow. This book! I will admit to renting this one three times before actually digging in and finishing it, but now I deeply regret not reading it sooner. This was flat out phenomenal. Jason Dessen is a mediocre physics professor at a mediocre college in Chicago but at one time he was one of physic's brightest upcoming stars. At a critical juncture in his career, he chose to get married and have a child which effectively derails his career. Jason is happy...but wonders what might have been if he had made a different choice. Then one night, he's abducted and wakes up in a parallel universe where he did make that different choice, and the plot just goes full steam from there. This book was completely engrossing and explores a lot of different themes: identity, how the choices we make and don't make define us, the nature of love, and of course the physics of it all. Love, love, loved this book and have already recommended it to multiple people. This one was so good, it's on my "to buy" list once 2018 hits.
Five stars

74. The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer: Following up the tense previous read with something much lighter. I was ambivalent about this. Heyer modeled her writing after Jane Austen, and I've been pretty vocal about my dislike of Austen (although maybe I need to try something other than Pride and Prejudice to start with?). But surprisingly I enjoyed this one. Horry, who convinces the Earl of Rule to marry her instead of Horry's oldest sister (so that the sister can be free to marry her love) and also support Horry's family (who are in genteel poverty due to the eldest brother's gambling addiction), was a firecracker of a character and I really loved the Count. Our apartment lost power yesterday for nearly 12 hours and it was wonderful to read this by candlelight, which definitely added to the appeal of the story. All in all, a fun little read.
Three stars

One more book and I'll have completed the challenge for this year! I can't even believe it. Let's see if we can crank this thing up to 100.

75. Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George: I'm a total sucker for reimagined fairy tales, and the Twelve Dancing Princesses is one of my favorite fairy tales. The romance was sweet, the setting was enchanting, there's really nothing more that I could have asked for. This was a lovely little book, a perfect way to spend a Friday afternoon while the husband gamed.
Four stars

CHALLENGE COMPLETE :D :D :D

76. Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George: The second in George's princess trilogy was not quite as enchanting as the first. Based on the Cinderella fairy tale, it follows another of the original 12 princesses in the thinly-veiled England. Poppy was more spunky than her sister Rose but the love story fell flat and the villain wasn't as intriguing as the King Under Stone from the first book.
Three stars

77. Princess of the Silver Woods by Jessica Day George: This was the final installment in George's trilogy and sadly my least favorite. It was supposedly based on Red Riding Hood and Robin Hood, but past the first few chapters these were mostly tossed to the wayside in favor of wrapping up the storyline in the first book. Petunia, the youngest of the princesses, and I was disappointed that rather than have a new villain, the King Under Stone was recycled (in a way). Disappointing.
Two stars

78. Drown: A Twisted Take on the Classic Fairy Tale by Esther Dalseno: Continuing on my kick of reimagined fairy tales, I absolutely blew through this version of the Little Mermaid. Based on the Hans Christian Anderson version rather than the Disney one, this truly was a twisted take and I loved it. The sea witch is given an expanded and compelling back story while still remaining a true villain, and the merpeople world is depicted as alien and emotionless. Reading the little mermaid's struggle to understand the human world and convince the prince to fall in love with her was compelling and even though I knew the ending, I was still a little shocked (even muttering "Oh, shit!" under my breath and prompting my husband to ask what the heck I was reading). This is definitely going on my "Moneypenny Recommends" list.
Four stars

79. On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder: Unfortunately, I'm having to read the Little House series out of order. I've switched entirely to ebooks (seriously, the Kindle is life changing for me) and sadly it feels like the entire library's ebook collection is checked out at once. No big deal for these though, as I know the basic story and each book is fairly self-contained. This was my favorite Little House book growing up and it definitely stood the test of time. Engaging, captivating, and a picture into a truly fascinating time in our history.
Four stars

80. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick: This is one of my sister's favorite books. I read it for the first time in 2012, but mostly skimmed it and didn't really take in the story or the atmosphere Goolrick sets. This time, I took my time and was much more favorable towards it. The writing was very good, and the homage to Gothic horror was spot on. The characters were really well written and their anguish really just drips off the page. I thought about this book and it's themes of redemption and hope a shocking amount. Usually, I read a book, talk about it with my husband over dinner, and then move on. But I keep going back to this story and turning it over in my mind. Overall, I'm really glad I took the time to re-read this with the attention it deserved.
Four stars

81. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver: Man, this book wrecked me. It's been on my to-read list forever, but I always put it aside for something more flashy. But when I realized I had read everything else on my Kindle (due to my no-buy for 2017, I'm at the mercy of my library's digital collection), it was time to dig in and now I'm kicking myself for waiting for so long. This book! The Price women follow their patriarch to the Belgian Congo in 1960 to evangelize the natives. The Congo is not at all what they expected, and things immediately start to go wrong for them. This is only scratching the surface of the plot, but I can't give anymore away. The writing was absolutely incredible and each of the women had a completely distinct voice in a way that I've never read before. I was absolutely enthralled with this story and stayed up way too long each night to read just one more chapter. I laughed at the oldest and younger sister's malapropisms and cried and railed when things just kept getting worse for the Price women. I (shamefully) knew next to nothing about the history of the Congo and so was educated as well as entertained. This book made history feel very real to me and absolutely shook me. Highly, highly recommended and is definitely going on my "favorites of 2017" list.
Five stars

82. The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman: My mother taught me to read using weekly Xmen comic books when I was 4 and so I've had a lifelong appreciation of this medium. As such, I was prepared to really love Maus and I did. This was such a powerful story and the graphic novel medium made it even more of a gut punch.
Four stars

September



And now we're getting into my favorite time of year. Like a true basic bitch, fall is when I come alive: the cool weather, the beautifully golden afternoon sunlight, the crispness of the morning, the colors, the food, the promise of the holidays and winter to come, it all makes me want to wax rhapsodic. I find the most promise and hope in this time of year, and I definitely need it now.

August was a topsy turvy month for sure. Between my husband starting school and my new position at work, life was hectic and crazy but somehow, I managed to eke out 19 books. I think that might be a new monthly record for me! And I completed the challenge! I'm at 82 books for the year and that is just mind blowing to me. I'm gunning hard to hit 100 and I think it's doable. September and October will be the final push for this business year and so if I can keep my lunch hour sacred, I think I can hit 10 this month again.

83. Godmother by Carolyn Turgeon: I absolutely loved The Fairest of Them All when I read it in 2014 and so I was super excited when this landed in my library ebook queue. But it was SUCH a disappointment. The story follows Lil, a disgraced fairy who was supposed to get Cinderella and her prince together but when Lil fell in love with the prince instead, she's banished to the mortal realm. Centuries pass, but Lil thinks her salvation and return to the fairy world comes in the form of a bookstore owner and a hairdresser and their potential love. There was a twist at the end that I felt was truly unnecessary and cheapened the entire story. It's difficult to craft a story that will lull the reader into suspending their disbelief, so why on earth would you throw that suspension away and for no plot payoff at all? Aside from that, the plot was thin and I never connected with any of the characters. It's worth mentioning, I think, that when Turgeon describes a character as having hair the color of a russet potato, I snorted out loud and put the book down. This is a story about fairy godmothers and magic and true love at first sight; the color palette at the author's disposal is literally limitless and she chose to go with russet potato brown? This took me out of the story entirely and I don't think my reading of it ever recovered.
Two stars

84. This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki: Last month I came across NPR's 100 most influential graphic novels list and proceeded to put a ton of of their recommendations on my library's hold list. This was the first one that came in and it was a super quick read. Rose is a pre-teen whose family has been going to this beach every summer since she was five, but this summer is different: her mother is depressed and recovering from a traumatic miscarriage, her parents are fighting, and she's got a crush on an older local boy who got his teenage girlfriend pregnant. The story was sparsely told and the artwork (done in all blue tones) was absolutely beautiful.
Three stars

85. Vision Vol 1: Little Worse Than a Man by Tom King: Like I mentioned in my August log, my mother taught me to read using Xmen weekly comics. I read the weekly issues until I graduated from college and didn't have the time to keep up. But I'm starting to get back into it, and this was a great issue to get started with. Vision has created a family, but things are more complicated than they seemed to be. This was a great start to this title, and I'm excited to see what King has in store for the Visions.
Four stars

86. Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda: How did I miss this one when it was released in 2016?! This is a fresh, phenomenal, and beautifully illustrated new series and I am HERE FOR IT. Magic, monsters, prophecies, steampunk, female centered story, plus some of the coolest cats I've ever read. Monstress is right up my alley and if you like comics/graphic novels at all, this needs to be on your list.
Four stars

87. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: This is my third re-read of this excellent book. I remember being very small and hearing my mom and all of her sisters passing the first four books back and forth and absolutely gushing about it. I finally picked this first book up in 2001 and was instantly enamored. When they announced plans to turn it into a series on Starz, I was thrilled but told my husband I needed to reread at least the first book before we started the show. Now that I've finally finished it, we're starting the series tonight! As always, this is a favorite and a story I come back to time and time again.
Five stars

88. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro: The plot sounds boring: a butler in the midst of changing employers (from a traditional English gentleman to a retired American congressman) decides to take a road trip across the English countryside. But this book is so much more than that. It's a character study of Stevens, the butler, but also a study of the English people. Stevens examines dignity, finding meaning in one's life, exploring loss and human emotion, and looking toward the unknowable future. I really enjoyed this, almost as much as I enjoyed Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.
Four stars

89. Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley: Reimagined fairy tales are my favorite subgenre. I think there's a lot of wisdom and significance about the human condition to be found in traditional fairy tales (one of my most prized possessions is a beautiful hardbound copy of The Brothers Grimm fairy tales given to me by my mother), and I love seeing their evolution into modern storytelling. Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite tales and I think that this retelling is one of the best I've ever read. The changes to the tale (the sisters loving each other deeply rather than competing, the importance of Beauty's talents and kind nature, and the explanation for the Beast's curse, among others) were brilliant and the actual storytelling was wonderful. The lyrical quality of the descriptions made me want to stop and read it aloud. Love, highly recommended, and I look forward to reading more by McKinley.
Four stars

90. The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder: I'm having to read these out of order, unfortunately. It's shocking to me how much different my reading of this book, an account of Laura's first four years of marriage to Almanzo Wilder, as an adult is. I don't remember the baby who died and I'm shocked at how depressing their lives seemed. Four years of failed crops and crushing debt, three different relocations due to the debt, a bout of diphtheria that left her weak for months and paralyzed her husband, two difficult pregnancies, and a dead two week old infant? Laura's early adulthood was hard, and I'm shocked that I had remembered it as a happy book.
Three stars

91. Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett: I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it's really well written and I think deserving of the Pulitzer nomination. But on the other, it was deeply painful for me to read. The basic premise is that Margaret marries John despite his deep and debilitating depression. His condition remains mostly in remission for their marriage and they're happy enough with their three children. But eventually it catches up to him, and John commits suicide a quarter of the way through the book. The rest of the story is spent chronicling the ways this event reverberates throughout their family and the effect of their eldest son's even more debilitating depression and anxiety on the family as a whole as well as each member individually. A lot of time is spent examining the idea that mental illness is treated as a moral/character/social failing rather than a biological disease, as well as asking just how far family and loved ones are realistically expected to go to support the one who is ill. All of that to say: as someone who not only suffers greatly from depression but who also has a long and storied family history of mental illness, this book triggered me. While it certainly wasn't hopeless (Celia and Alec both turn out to have fairly well-adjusted and happy lives), it was lacking in hope and optimism. If I can view this book without my personal lens, it would easily be a 4: it tells an important story and asks important questions, and the whole thing is really well done. But I can't put my personal experiences aside with this one, and so for that, it gets
Two stars

92. Beauty by Robin McKinley: By now, we've established that re-imagined fairy tales are my jam. If a book is in this genre, I only give the blurb on the back the briefest of glances before adding it to my TBR pile. So after the really well done Rose Daughter I figured I'd be safe with McKinley's first retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story. Wrong. Rose Daughter is far superior to this one: more evocative, more lyrical in it's prose, more romantic, more lush, and the changes she made to the familiar beats of the story were better. This was a more tentative re-tellling of the story that marries the Disney version (the servants, the curse, the paintings, the magic mirror, Beauty's love of reading/learning) to the original fairy tale (the nightly marriage proposal). And on a more superficial level, I was irrationally annoyed that three quarters of the book is spent detailing how plain Beauty is and how everyone in her life agrees that her nickname doesn't fit her, only to have every character in the book do a complete about-face and start detailing her beauty near the end. Was it the Beast's curse that turned her beautiful? Why couldn't she have stayed plain? Ugh.
Two stars

93. Swamp Thing by Alan Moore: Moore's Watchmen is far and away one of my favorite graphic novels, so when the first volume of Swamp Thing was displayed at my local library (in a spooky reading challenge, natch) I snatched it up. Sadly, I'm mostly indifferent to this one. Horror comics aren't really my thing, and I really REALLY hated the way ST talked ("Abby...you must...run back to...the swamp.") I'm glad I read it if only to say that I have, but I won't be seeking the subsequent volumes out.
Three stars

94. How To Be a Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Tudor Life by Ruth Goodman: This was such a fun book! The author takes the reader through a typical day in Tudor England and covers all aspects of normal living. It was meticulously researched and the author actually tried living like she was in this time period in various movies/shows/projects. It wasn't dry at all and so fascinating. Highly recommended!
Four stars

95. Deerskin by Robin McKinley: This book was so hard to read but at the same time I couldn't put it down. Lissar is the daughter of a beautiful king and queen who had a fairytale courtship, but rather than being cherished as the product of this union she's mostly ignored. Her mother dies, but not before having a portrait commissioned and extracting a promise from the king that he will only marry someone more beautiful than she was. During the mourning period, Lissar is given a puppy, Ash, by a prince from a neighboring kingdom and finally experiences love (both giving and receiving) and manages to be content enjoying Ash and the freedom of being ignored. But on her seventeenth birthday, her father announces his intention to marry Lissar, since she resembles her beautiful dead mother. Lissar refuses, but her father violently beats and horrifically rapes her, almost killing both her and Ash. This kicks off the rest of the story, which has less to do with traditional fairy tale love and quests and much, much more to do with the limits of the human spirit and how to overcome deep tragedy and violence so that you can trust and love again. It's written in a dreamlike fashion, and the first third of the book gave me true anxiety. I've never read a book that conveyed a character's almost subliminal sense of dread and horror and fear so clearly. This wasn't an easy read by any means, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who was sensitive to the subject matter, but I did truly love it. Lissar was a wonderful character and I was so invested in her journey of self-forgiveness and healing that I couldn't put the book down. Four stars

96. Lirael by Garth Nix: I read the first book in this series when I was 8 years old and I instantly fell in love with it. I read it every year or every other year until I found this, the second book in the series. I devoured it and love it just as much as the first. Even now as an adult, the themes of the Abhorsen series ring true for me: self-sacrifice, responsibility, and the importance of free will. Love, love, love.
Five stars

>24 Miss_Moneypenny: Congratulations on reaching 75!
I am sure you can get to 100.

FAMeulstee thank you so much! I'm pretty excited: I've never been able to hit anything over 85 so it'll be a challenge :)

Congrats on blowing past 75!

drneutron Thank you! And thank you for running the challenge!

October



Finally! October is my favorite month and I intend to make it an especially good one this year. I've got a week-long trip to Colorado for a family visit planned near the end of the month, my husband and I have plans to go apple picking and pumpkin picking, and I've already started sketching out ideas for pumpkin carving.

And in the best news, I've finished 97 books this year. It's blowing my mind how much I've been able to read just by stepping away from social media/most of the internet. Earlier this year, I made a conscious decision to severely curtail my Internet time and limit myself to 5 minutes of Instagram with my morning coffee and news. I realized that mindless (and sometimes endless) scrolling through the internet was negatively affecting my disposition and outlook on life. Now, instead of scrolling through my phone at the grocery store checkout line or on my lunch break or while in waiting rooms, I whip out my Kindle. It's been more positively impactful on me than I can even describe :)

97. Abhorsen by Garth Nix: The deeply satisfying conclusion to Nix's Old Kingdom trilogy. Love, love, love; and no matter how many times I read this book, I always cry at the end.
Five stars

98. Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane: I vaguely remember seeing this movie when it came out in 2007, but after really Shutter Island and Mystic River I figured I had to read this one as well. Kenzie and Gennaro are back (although I had no idea this was a series) and are asked by a grieving aunt to find her missing niece. The girl's mother is a junkie and a neglectful mother, and despite their misgivings they take the case. Another easy, fast paced, very detailed read that I enjoyed even if the idea of child abduction makes me a little queasy.
Four stars

99. Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder: I'm having to read the Little House books out of order sadly and this is the third to last book. Laura is starting to grow up and resolves to become a teacher in order to send Mary to a school for the blind. But the Ingalls family lives mostly in town for this book, and reading the description of pioneer social life was absolutely fascinating. However, reading it as an adult was a different story. The religious revival scene was uncomfortable. And worst of all, there's an entire scene devoted to Pa and other town elders dressing up in blackface and putting on a minstrel show. I know, context is important. And as a child I had no idea how racist this scene was: I thought they painted their faces to hide their identities from the other townspeople so it would be a surprise. But man, I just cannot imagine reading this chapter out loud to any child I know. If that chapter hadn't been included, this would have received 4 stars but as it stands
Three stars

SO. CLOSE. :D

100. Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam: I have mixed feelings about this book. The actual writing style was lovely and almost lyrical. The author used a lot of run-on sentences so it kind of read like stream-of-consciousness. But on the other hand, not a lot happened. The plot just kind of floated along, so I guess you could consider it more of a character study than an actual plot-based story. And the male author writes female voices shockingly well, but the jig was up when he described childbirth and the aftermath of that process on the body. No way dude, try again. All in all, not a bad read.
Three stars

100 books read! And with so much year left to go! Let's see just how far we can crank this thing up :D

101. By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder: This is the fifth Little House book; I remember not really liking this one as a child but absolutely loved it as a grown-up. Not much happened in this book: Pa takes a job with a railroad company as a bookkeeper, and the family moves from Minnesota to what will eventually be South Dakota. This book lacks the big events of the other books in the series, which is why I didn't like it as a child, but it does have absolutely lush and lyrical descriptions of what the prairies were like before settlers moved in. It was hypnotic and really charming.
Four stars

102. The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman: His next book in this universe (The Book of Dust) is set to be released next Thursday October 19, so I'm trying to finish the His Dark Materials trilogy before then. This is a worthy successor to The Golden Compass and builds on the world and plot wonderfully. I adore this book.
Five stars

103. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: I first read this book on January 1 of 2012, during one of the worst cold fronts in the area's history. I was living with my family at the time, and on New Year's Eve our heat went out completely and we had a gas leak. We spent the first week of the year in a hotel (all 5 of us, complete with 2 standard poodles and 3 cats) and it was crazy. This was one of the books I had been given for Christmas, and I cracked it open in the weak afternoon sunshine overlooking the cute downtown buildings. I read it in something insane like 2 hours because I just couldn't put it down. I was completely entranced and in love with this world. After that first reading, I immediately tossed it to my mother, who finished it that night and immediately handed it to my father. By the next day, he was finished with it and gave it to my sister who finished it in less than 2 days. My brother refused to read it, and it came back to me. I re-read it again and took my time with it so that I could really savor the story and the beautiful prose. All of that to say is that this book, about a magical circus and love and sacrifice and finding family, is one of my favorites and holds a vaunted position on my family's communal shelf. In keeping with tradition, I should have waited to read this until January, but I couldn't help myself on this beautiful and chilly fall Friday.
Five stars

104. Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder: This was an entrancing look at a family much, much more well off than Laura's family: her eventual husband is a 9 year old living on his family's farm in upstate New York and takes us through a year in the life of a farm boy. I loved this one almost as much as I loved Little House in the Big Woods because I'm a sucker for the details of how Americans used to live.
Four stars

105. Goldenhand by Garth Nix: Man, I was so incredibly disappointed with this book. The original three books in the Old Kingdom series are among my most favorite books ever, and so when I heard that Nix was releasing more books with Clariel and this, I immediately requested them from my library's ebook collection. This one came in first and I didn't like it so much that I've canceled my request for Clariel. Over half the book is focused on a new character who's traveling to the Clayr with an important message for Lirael. But she's wooden and not well written, and I found myself speed reading through her chapters. The rest of the story is focused on Lirael as she deals with the traumatic events of the preceding two novels and her new-found romantic feelings for Nicholas Sayre. None of this rang true, especially the romance with Nicholas (who's character just irritated me every time he was on the page). I've recently reread the original 3 books and still found them to be excellently written/engaging, so I don't think that this is a case of rose-colored nostalgia for the originals.
Two stars

106. Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon: If I hadn't read the vastly superior Drown before this one, I would have rated this higher. It was a decent read, but I wanted more: more description of the mermaid's world, more explanation of why both the main characters would fall in love with a prince who was not interesting at all (and who's eyes were described as 'the same yellow-green as weeds' at least 15 times), more interaction between the mermaid and the princess, something. About a third of the way through, I was convinced that somehow the princess and mermaid would swap bodies or places. Both characters spent pages detailing their desire for the other's way of life and I was so excited because that would have been a great twist on the original story. But no. I was disappointed in this, overall.
Two stars

107. The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder: I grew up in the wilds of Wyoming and have seen my fair share of blizzards and extreme winter weather but this story was horrifying. The Ingalls family moves into Pa's store to ride out what they think will be a rough winter, only to slowly starve to the brink of death. I'll agree with other reviewers in that it was repetitive to read about the endless cycle of up, twist hay, warm hands, twist hay, warm hands, eat, bed, but I think that's the whole point: it was repetitive and mind numbing and terrifying and really evocative.
Four stars

108. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari: This was a super quick read detailing the changes technology has made to our quest for love. I was pleasantly surprised by how much actual science was is in this, and while I can't really stand Ansari's stand up or acting, his writing style was funny. Not bad at all.
Three stars

109. These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder: I remember liking this book well enough as a child but greatly preferring On the Banks of Plum Creek. Color me shocked when I had a tear in my eye at the end of this! Laura is all grown up and teaching her first class and navigating a blossoming romance with Almanzo Wilder. The last half of the book especially had me all verklempt reading about Laura's transition into a married adult and how things change. Having gone through some rather radical changes in the last year myself, it struck a chord with me (never minding the fact that at 31 I'm over a decade older than Laura was when she made her first home!). I do believe that this has eclipsed Plum Creek as my favorite Little House book.
Five stars

I finally managed to clear my work schedule enough for an actual vacation, and last week I headed out to one of the most beautiful places in this country: Colorado! My parents have lived there for nearly 12 years now, and it's the place I think of most clearly as home. I was thrilled to spend a week relaxing at my parents' house in their enormous backyard with stunning mountain views and breathing in the mountain air. I didn't get as much reading done as I had hoped, but that's probably a sign of a good vacation! I did manage to read the following however.

110. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie: After reading and loving Murder on the Orient Express earlier this year, I figured I was ready for Christie's masterpiece. I've been reading murder mysteries since I was a wee bairn (very high reading levels/comprehension + parents who are voracious readers themselves = nearly no parental supervision over baby Moneypenny's reading habits) and this shocked me at how good it was. It wasn't gory, the pacing was tight and suspenseful, and I was so into it I didn't even try to guess who the murderer was. Love and highly recommend.
Four stars

111. Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi: While on vacation, my sister mentioned that this cookbook revitalized her desserts. My sister is a phenomenal cook and an even better baker, so naturally I had to read it. This was surprisingly informative and filled with delicious desserts. If I'm being honest, I won't make 75% of these because I simply don't have time. But the ones that I will make sound truly excellent and I really appreciate all the depth of explanation in the first third of the book: what ingredients to splurge on, what to skimp on, and a deep explanation of why certain techniques or ingredients are either critical or not worth your time. For the record, the cornflake chocolate chip marshmallow cookies and cereal milk are to die for and were true crowd pleasers.
Four stars

112. The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi: Man, I wanted to love this book so much. Reimagined myths and fairy tales are my favorite, and I especially love when they're set in cultures different from my own. So when I heard this described as the Persephone myth set in India, I was sold. But sadly, I was completely underwhelmed. The writing was weirdly hurried and also slow at the same time and it felt disjointed throughout. Maya is a princess with a death-filled horoscope who is shunned by her family and the palace at large. She marries the king of death but manages almost completely destroy all life by freeing a sorceress locked within her husband's realms. The main character's decisions made very little sense and seemed contradictory to her characterization. Her love interest had practically no characterization and was wooden throughout. I also didn't buy their insta-love or their reunion at the end simply because he was so not fleshed out. And the realm of the dead and Maya's sudden powers? Not explained enough, to the point where I was putting the book down every 5 pages out of frustration. The villain was also very cookie cutter and there was nothing in here to make me root for Maya or for her to win. This is one of the times where I'm very glad for my "no book buying in 2017" resolution.
Two stars

113. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman: I received my pre-ordered copy of The Book of Dust, the first in the prequel series to His Dark Materials, the day before leaving for Colorado and so chose this as the first vacation book in an effort to prep for the new trilogy. I've loved the HDM trilogy since I first read them in sixth grade, and this final volume never fails to make me cry. As an adult, the anti-religion plot is a little heavy handed, but the rest of the beautiful story and message manage to make me overlook the preachiness. I'm shocked every time I reread this trilogy that material this deep and thoughtful is marketed as strictly YA. I think that despite the ages of the main protagonists it's much more adult in it's scope, theme, and execution than many recent fantasy novels I've read. And that ending wrecks me every single time. I can't think of a more tragic ending to a love story than this. Highly, highly recommended.
Five stars

114. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell: I read a lot, which I think is evident by my numbers here. Reading fulfills me in a way that music or film media doesn't and is by far my favorite hobby. And for the most part, the novels I read are serviceable. They're entertaining while I'm reading, they make for good dinner conversation with my husband and family, and make me think about the world in a new way. Sometimes, the books I read are magnificent and change me and the way I view the world and humanity: The Poisonwood Bible and The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are two examples from this year. But even more rarely, I read a book that completely stops me in my tracks. The Sparrow is one of these. I started it on a whim yesterday morning and immediately became completely engrossed to the point where I holed up on my corner of the sofa and ignored literally everything and everyone until I finished it, bleary eyed and crying from the beauty and tragedy of the story, at 1:30 am. (As an aside, thank God for a husband who also has a reading habit and understands when I get sucked in like this. Love you, HB!) I don't even know if I have the words to review this. A Jesuit priest and his lay friends receive radio transmission of music from a neighboring galaxy, and the Society of Jesus funds their trip into space to make contact with these singing aliens. The trip tests the limits of everyone on board and is a tragedy in every sense of the word. God, religious belief, atheism, philosophy, the problem of pain, the unintentional pain and tragedy that happens when two alien cultures clash, personal culpability, grief, romantic love, the deep and enduring love of chosen family bonds, how language informs consciousness and the opposite: everything was in this book. It's a beautifully told universal story that made me cry so hard I could hardly see my Kindle. This is one of the most rambling reviews I've ever left here, but this book just wrecked me in the best possible way. I'll come back and amend this when I can get a little more clarity around my feelings for this, but for now if you have any interest in speculative fiction, first contact stories, sci fi, religion, or philosophy, read this book.
Five stars

115. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder: This was never my favorite of the series but even so I'm surprised by how much I didn't like it on this read through.
Two stars

116. Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova: I've been making it a point to read more books by female and minority authors. This one ticked off enough of my boxes (magic, witches, a unique culture, strong family ties) that I was willing to overlook the YA designation and give it a try. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon! Alejandra is a bruja (witch) whose powers have finally manifested, but instead of celebrating this momentous occasion, she's terrified and works to banish her powers. This banishment has unintended consequences, and winds up dragging her entire family down to Los Lagos. Alex has to fight her way through this underworld to save them. I really, really love that the main love interest was another girl. Admittedly, I'm not the _target YA audience, but I honestly don't remember the last time I read a YA book with a homosexual love interest. In that vein, I wish that there hadn't also been a heterosexual love interest. It felt shoehorned in and not as authentic as the relationship that develops between Alex and her friend Rishi. I was also bothered by the half-assed hinting at something bigger and beyond the scope of this book: the aunt's murder, the father's disappearance. But the world building was excellent and vivid, the characters were nicely fleshed out, and I'd gladly take a trip back to Alex's world for book two.
Three stars

November



I've hit a new personal record: 20 books read in October! I credit it entirely to my Kindle and ebooks. The Kindle is light weight enough that I can hold it for as long as I need to (I've got arthritis in both wrists that makes holding things for long periods of time difficult) and I carry it with me everywhere. The 2-5 minute snippets during waiting that I used to spend mindlessly scrolling are now spent paging through whatever I've got on deck in the Kindle. And while it might not seem like a lot, between how fast I read and how often I spend waiting it really adds up. And a big shout out to the Ohio public library system! Thanks to their truly excellent digital library, I've been able to check out a ton of books and things that I would normally never have read (there's a significant wait time for a lot of the ebooks and utilizing the recommend feature on the website has led to some true gems). At this point, I'm reading only ebooks and am seriously thinking of converting at least my favorites shelf to ebooks.

And now that we're in November (seriously, how? I feel like Thanksgiving 2016 was just yesterday) work has slowed down considerably, leaving much more time for walking the pup, hanging out with the husband, and life generally just being great. I have a lot to be thankful for this year :)

117. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan: As I mentioned in October's post, I've been making an effort to read more works by female and/or minority authors. As such, Amy Tan was definitely high on that list and I've had a hold on this book since July! I finally got a copy over the weekend and devoured it in less than a day. Stories that have alternating narrators and view points are my favorite and this one really made that writing technique shine.
Three stars

118. Children of God by Mary Doria Russell: The first book in this duology by Russell, The Sparrow absolutely wrecked me. I couldn't read anything else for days after and thought about it and it's themes constantly. But because I had such a visceral reaction to it, I hesitated on starting the sequel. What if it didn't live up to the original? What if the author completely invalidated all of the themes from the first one? If I hated it, would that hatred also extend toward the first book? I'm happy to report that none of this came true, but I have to be honest and confess that I didn't like this one as much as the first book. While Sparrow is tightly focused on the human crew and what happens to them while on Rakhat, Children of God takes a much more expansive view and looks at the consequences of the humans' arrival on the two species. There was less theology and more meditation on forgiveness, moving past trauma, the nature of consciousness, what it means to have a destiny, fate, and political/sociological musings. This book also made me seriously consider going vegetarian, no small feat for this meat and potatoes girl. The priests and other crew members were not as fleshed out this go round: where as in Sparrow, I had a visceral feel for every member on board the ship, I had trouble telling the priests apart this go round. This one read much slower and wasn't as much of a page turner as the first; I got so bogged down in the middle that I had to put it down and take a walk. But the ending was deeply satisfying (a few other reviewers have criticized the spiritual reveal at the end as being ham fisted and out of nowhere, but I feel that's unfair) and I was thrilled to find that Emilio found happiness and contentment at last.
Four stars

119. Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones: I live in Ohio and have seen firsthand the effects of widespread opiate addiction here in America's heartland. This book was recommended to me as a way to understand how and why this came to be. This was a sad, sobering book that was hard to read at times. Recommended for anyone who's concerned about this epidemic.
Four stars

120. The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond: This was a recommendation from my boss, who loves Drummond's Pioneer Woman website. It was...not good. I'd even go so far as to say it was pretty bad. Drummond comes off as completely self-absorbed, vapid, and flighty. She runs over (what she herself describes as) her beloved childhood dog and then mere hours later goes out on a date. Excuse me? Three years ago, my aunt accidentally ran over my sister's cat. Let me tell you: no one in our house was able to think straight for the rest of the week, much less able to drive for an hour and flirt and be cute. Also, she doesn't tell the reader her husband's name, calling him instead Marlboro Man (excuse me while I go vomit). Google is a thing, so please for the love of all that's holy, stop it with the cutesy nicknames; if privacy is really that important to these folks, they wouldn't splash pictures and deeply intimate stories of their family life on their blogs, so just share their given names already. The endless description of her husband was cute at first, but quickly became grating. Her parents are in the midst of what is obviously a painful divorce, and Drummond just hopes it won't interrupt her wedding festivities. I think she meant to portray herself as "real" and cutely flawed, but she just comes across as tone-deaf and awful (picking a fight with her husband after they spend all night fighting a devastating prairie fire and then letting him be the one to smooth things over? Come on). The one thing I can't hate on, however, is their quick courtship and marriage. I knew that I would marry my husband on our first date; we said "I love you's" only two weeks after we met; we were engaged within 3 months of meeting; and we married a year and a half after our first date. I also come from a long line of "love at first sight" life-long relationships: my mother and father and both maternal and paternal grandparents all reported love at first sight/quick marriages that lasted until death in all cases. So for me at least, that aspect was believable and cute. But overall, I can't recommend this and it's definitely going on my "worst of 2018" list.
One star

121. The Forest House by Marion Zimmer Bradley
122. Lady of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Mists of Avalon is one of my all time favorite books. Due to my crazy advanced reading skills, my parents (for better or worse) pretty much stopped monitoring my reading by fourth grade and my mother gave me Mists to read the summer I turned 10. Pretty inappropriate, although most of the questionable content went right over my head. It didn't matter though because I was completely and totally entranced with Bradley's Avalon and have read this book so many times I had to buy a new copy. I was shocked when I found out that not only is there one prequel but a whole bunch of them detailing the founding of Avalon! Then imagine my surprise when I found they aren't anywhere near as good as the original :( Don't get me wrong, both of these are completely fine on their own and are decent historical fiction with a healthy dollop of romance. But they didn't capture the magic that Mists still holds for me, even after all this time.
3 stars a piece

123. The Martian by Andy Weir: HB and I saw this movie when it was first in theaters in 2015 and absolutely loved it. We bought it on Blu Ray (a true rarity for us) and have seen it at least 5 times now (even more rare!). I'm not sure how it took me this long to read the book but I'm glad it finally made it's way into my ebook queue. I did get a little bogged down about 70% of the way through by the pages and pages of mechanical and science explanation and wished for more plot. But it was almost as entertaining as the movie even if this is a rare instance of my preferring the movie to the book.
Four stars

124. A Magical Christmas by Heather Graham: Way the heck back in the late fall of 1996, I was home sick with pneumonia. I hadn't been to school in a week and a half and so had read every book in our house: I was bored out of my mind and driving my mother crazy. She escaped to go to the grocery store and returned bearing this book for me in the hopes of getting me out of her hair. I absolutely devoured it, loved it, and read it over and over that holiday season and the next until the book actually fell apart. I always remembered the Christmas story that had enchanted me but couldn't remember the title or the author, but then on Friday this exact book popped up on my library's digital book website. Again, I devoured it but sadly (and maybe predictably) it was not anywhere near as good as I remembered. Instead of being a magical story with ghosts and love, it was just a predictable romance with worrying amounts of misogyny. So four stars for nostalgia and baby Moneypenny, but only two stars for today.
Two stars

125. The Courtesan Duchess by Joanna Shupe: Earlier this year, my librarian sister challenged me to read more romance/chick lit novels in an attempt to cure me of my snotty attitude toward this genre. I'm willing to admit at this point that not all romance novels are trash, but this one surely was. The pacing was decent, but the characters weren't fully developed and had whiplash extreme reactions that were eyerollingly out of proportion. Maybe I'm just hanging out with the wrong people, but I've never known actual humans to react like characters like these. Also, this was eyewateringly explicit. I'm not a prude, but this shocked me.
Two stars

126. Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman: Practical Magic is one of my all-time favorite movies, but I've never read the book it's based on. So when I realized that Hoffman had written a prequel, I jumped at the chance to read it. Hoffman is an excellent writer and this book completely sucked me in. Franny, Jet, and Vincent are siblings growing up in the 60s in New York City, and they also happen to be witches. This is the story of how they learned to love despite fear and pain and became truly themselves and I loved every minute of it. Now off to pour through Hoffman's back catalogue!
Four stars

127. 1st to Die by James Patterson: My father is a huge Patterson fan and recommended these as a quick way to spend this rainy, chilly afternoon. Nothing like a little murder and suspense! This was a serviceable read and I'll definitely read the next one.
Three stars

128. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler: I'm love big, sprawling family saga books, but this one mostly left me cold. Tyler has a great ear for dialogue and I enjoyed the middle bit examining Junior's take on his circumstances (reminding me somewhat of Wally Lamb's I Know This Much is True, but then it just kind of ended. I wanted more: what was Denny running from, and what made him want to go back? What was up with Nora and her overall weirdness? Why was Stem the way he was? I felt like the characters were mostly underdeveloped with the exception of Abby and Junior. I'd probably recommend this, but won't be reading Tyler's back catalogue.
Three stars

129. The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black: A few months ago, I said that I gave up reading YA because of the continual disappointment: love triangles, Mary Sue main characters, and endless sequels (among other things). I'm beyond happy to report that this book has none of those issues. There's a town on the edge of a forest, and in that forest a beautiful boy with horns growing out of his head lies sleeping in a glass coffin. Hazel and her brother Ben have spent their whole lives playing around this coffin and plotting how to rescue the horned boy. But then one day he does, and everything changes. Hazel is great: smart, funny, flawed, believable. The story has terrific pacing and moves quickly. The other characters are fleshed out and true to life (one is gay, which is sadly still too rare in YA fiction so I was happy to see it here presented in such a nonchalant, non-problematic manner). The ending is perfect, and I just loved it. Highly recommended.
Four stars

130. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng: Motherhood has been on my mind a lot lately. My husband and I finally feel recovered enough from the devastating miscarriage of our twin girls to try to have a baby. At the same time, my husband's sister recently lost custody of her biracial infant son and his family has asked us to strongly consider adopting him. It was with this swirling around in my head that I read this book, dealing with heavy issues of surrogacy, recurrent miscarriage and infertility, motherhood, nature versus nurture, the pitfalls and perils of trans-racial adoption, abortion, and what truly makes a mother and a family. I was unprepared to deal with these topics when I opened the book, but I'm glad I stuck it out because this was a really excellent and unbiased narrative. Top notch.
Four stars

131. The Angel's Share by J.R. Ward: In 2015, I read The Bourbon Kings and didn't hate it, so I figured the inevitable sequel was a safe bet as something fun to read during Thanksgiving break. Wrong. I usually enjoy reading about rich people behaving badly, but this was just tiresome and unnecessarily convoluted and boring. Ninety-five percent of the plot could have been avoided if the characters had just talked to each other. I sincerely despise this plot device (see: all of the Wheel of Time books, which is a large part of why I haven't finished the series) and so this is a solid "skip" from me.
Two stars

132. The Arrangement by Sarah Dunn: I followed up the previous disappointing book with this, an entertaining story about a husband and wife who feel flattened by the responsibilities and sameness of their life with their autistic son and so decide to open their marriage to other sexual partners for six months. They decide on ground rules and that at the end of the six months, everything will go back to normal. What on earth? I will never understand the idea that opening your marriage and being intimate with other people will fix whatever is wrong with your current marriage. That idea just does not make sense to me. Having said that, this book was well written and funny and a pleasant way to pass an afternoon.
Three stars

133. The Borrowers by Mary Norton: An old childhood favorite that I found on the library's website this afternoon. Just as cute as I remembered.
Three stars

134. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: This is so short I really shouldn't include it, but it's too powerful not too. A very quick, very engaging look at modern feminism from the viewpoint of a Nigerian woman, this book should be required reading for all baby feminists.
Five stars

135. Shrill by Lindy West: Women's issues, social justice, and intersectional feminism are near and dear to my heart. I work really hard to be part of the solution and am happy to say that the people in my life are more often than not also feminists. So this book was definitely preaching to the choir but it was incredibly refreshing and surprisingly funny. West writes in a really relatable way and several chapters broke my heart. There are a lot of triggers in this book (death, abortion, rape) but I think it's worth powering through. Loved and highly recommended.
Four stars

December



Every month I say this, but it still holds true: time is really flying by. I can't believe we're in December and that in four short weeks, 2017 will be over and done with. By and large, it's been a good year for the Moneypenny house: we got married, we both wound up with new jobs, Mr. Moneypenny went back to school, and we have the sweetest puppy in the world. I'm hopeful that 2018 will be just as kind to us.

I'm also hopeful that I can hit 150 books read! I hit 19 read in November (still not sure how I did that, as work has me absolutely begging for mercy) and if I can read another 15 I'll hit my never-gonna-happen goal of 150. Mr. Moneypenny and I make it a point to keep our holidays as relaxed as possible: between our far-flung families and general homebody natures, we're trying to really soak up the just-us holiday time before we start having kids. So I think 150 books read is reachable!

136. 2nd Chance by James Patterson: Ugh. I liked the first one well enough to continue the series but this one was just not great. It's very obvious that a man wrote these female characters and that no one on their writing team even thought about researching early pregnancy or miscarriage. Overall, it was boring which is a cardinal sin for this reader. I'll give this series one more chance with the third book, but this gets only
Two stars

137. The Vegetarian by Han Kang: This book was a mind trip. I've never read any Kafka and definitely don't have any plans to now (most reviews of this call it "Kafkaesque"). This was a deeply disturbing, violent, dreamlike novella layered with themes: control (particularly control of women's bodies), rape, the thin line between mental illness and sanity, the cost of living in society and what it means for you and those around you to ignore society's rules, art, the seeming permanence of violence, I could go on and on. This book was very dark and despairing and absurdist, and I wouldn't say that I enjoyed reading it. I definitely wouldn't read it again and I'd hesitate to recommend it. But I do appreciate it and I'm glad I read it if only for the intense dinner conversation it sparked last night.
Four stars

138. Caroline: Little House, Revisited by Sarah Miller: I have loved the Little House books since I was a little girl and wanted nothing more than to be like Ma when I grew up. My family moved frequently and the leaving scene at the beginning of Little House on the Prairie made me cry every time because it reminded me of saving goodbye to my aunts and uncles. Now that I'm a grown up who's adult life has also been fairly peripatetic, reading Little House from Ma's perspective immediately enchanted me. I flew through this book and loved every second of it. Caroline's description of leaving her family and everything dear and familiar to her absolutely made my eyes tear up. I feel that way every time I leave my family's home and it never gets easier. I really loved this, and highly recommend it.
Four stars

139. 3rd Degree by James Patterson: Ugh. This third entry in the Women's Murder Club series was also not super great. At this point, there are too many good books that I'm excited to read to waste time on these subpar ones.
Two stars

140. Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston: This is apparently a retelling of "Winter's Tale" by Shakespeare, but I'm not familiar enough with that story to have pieced it together on my own (thanks, reviewers of LibraryThing!). What it is, is an excellently told story of Hermione, Canadian high school cheerleader who is raped at the end of her last high school cheerleading camp and how she and those who love her handle that fact. This book is incredibly optimistic: Hermione has a phenomenal support system in her parents and friends, and her larger community handles the entire episode remarkably sensitively. Victim blaming is brought up only a few times and each time it's roundly stamped out. It was a really well done story and I'm glad to see this topic being handled so well in YA fiction. Also, it was really refreshing to read a Canadian setting.
Four stars

141. A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis: For the most part, Lewis's fiction works leave me cold. But his apologetics set my soul on fire. This deeply moving memoir of moving through the grief of losing a beloved wife absolutely touched me. I'm still a new bride, not even married for a year, but since it took Mr. Moneypenny and I so long to find each other I feel extra appreciative that we're together now and make it a point to praise him whenever I can. I get a no small amount of flack from friends for cherishing him so publicly and declining the unspoken invitations to criticize him. (As an aside, women of the world: can we please find other ways of bonding besides uniting ourselves in criticism?) This book, with it's fresh rivers of love and grief comingled, let me see that I'm on the right track and that one day far in the future (please God), I'll be glad for this gratitude.
Four stars

142. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas: Sometimes I'm reluctant to read books or watch movies that have a lot of hype for fear that I'll hate it just to be contrary (for example: my reaction to last winter's movie La La Land and the most recent Star Wars). But with my goal to read more books by women and minorities, I figured I had to at least try this one. And holy cow, am I glad I did. Starr Carter is a normal 16 year old girl who splits her time between the projects and her upper class, mostly white school. But then when her childhood best friend is murdered by a police officer in front her, she has to make a decision about who she is and what she stands for. I absolutely LOVED this book. It's written so well and so engaging and the characters absolutely fly off the page into your face. Thomas pulls no punches, makes no fairy tale ending concessions, and lets her anger and desire for justice absolutely crystal clear. This is a raw and hopeful and important book, and I will sing it's praises to everyone I know.
Five stars

143. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare: An old childhood favorite that I had forgotten about. This one hasn't lost any of it's luster, although as an Old I'm less enchanted with heroines who break the rules and put themselves and their families in danger because teenage!rebellion.
Four stars

144. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: I really liked Ng's Little Fires Everywhere last month so I figured this one would be a safe bet. But mostly it left me cold. As I stand on the threshold between being a mother and not, I think for my own sanity I need to stay away from books that deal with troubled mothers, broken families, and the endless amount of horrible things that can happen to a family. That's my own personal bugaboo right now though and this was written really well and was gripping. It was just too much for me at this point.
Three stars

145. When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon: I'm not the typical YA reader. Even when I met the age range for YA books I preferred adult novels. But thanks to the influence of my librarian sister, I've found some definite gems within this genre. Sadly, I don't think this one is on that list. Dimple is headed to a web development camp where she plans to make waves and set up her future as an app developer. Her parents have decided that Rishi is a potential future husband for Dimple, and the two meet for the first time at the camp. I loved getting to know the two Indian American characters and their lens on what it means to be young and brown in America with parents still firmly set on Indian values and paths. Their story was believable and sweet without the insta-love that permeates so many YA books and I was really rooting for the both of them. The author definitely needed more research and direction on what exactly being in the tech world is like. As a tech professional, I've helped host my fair share of coding camps and a talent competition has never been on the agenda for any of them. If I view this as a book based on a Bollywood movie, I can see it a little better but for the most part it was pretty cringe-worthy. So overall,
Three stars

146. Dune by Frank Herbert: This book. I was 17 the first time I read this and I will never forget that weekend: it was Easter in a still-cold tiny Wyoming town. On Good Friday, my mother turned my siblings and I loose at the bookstore to pick out books for each others' baskets (have I mentioned we're a family of big-time readers?) and before she left she plucked this out of a display and tossed it to me, saying that it was one of her all-time favorites. I kept it in my pile and when we got home, I sat at our dining room table to page through it. Sci-fi epic about a teenage boy who loses everything and becomes the prophet who will save the natives? I was hooked. I was so entranced by this story that I didn't put it down for the entire weekend. Easter Sunday was spent on the playground basketball court sidelines in the weak springtime sun and ferociously cold wind, watching my father and brother and sister play while I furiously whipped through the pages to see what happened to Paul Muad-Dib. I finished right before my mother served Easter dinner, and it was all I wanted to talk about for the rest of the night. I still have that copy 14 years later, dogeared and highlighted and generally wrecked, and I make it a point to read it every other year or so. This one is a classic for a reason, and to this day is one of my all-time favorites.
Five stars

147. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi: This was a shockingly accessible and poignant read about the importance of living well and dying well. Loved and highly recommended.
Four stars

148. Under the Skin by Michael Faber: Yowza this was a creepy read. Aliens are among us, hunting humans for food to send back to their home planet. This was a gripping and fascinating read, but I definitely won't be reading it again as I'm a horror weenie.
Three stars

149. White Oleander by Janet Fitch: This was another long-overdue reread. Fitch's story of a young girl who finds herself in a series of horrifying foster care homes after her mother commits murder is searing and haunting. There are multiple passages highlighted in my paper copy that just beg to be read out loud. Definitely recommended, and I'm looking forward to reading Fitch's new novel The Revolution of Marina M.
Four stars

So close! Only one away from ending 2017 with 150 books. But as the ever-sweet Mr. Moneypenny pointed out, I plowed through 3 of 4 goals (75, 100, and 125) so all in all, a good showing! Stay tuned for my best and worst picks of 2017 :D

So as not to end this thread on a sour note, let's get the worst out of the way first.

4. Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale by Carolyn Turgeon: This one wasn't truly terrible, but it's on my worst list since it was a wasted opportunity.

3. The Women's Murder Club series by James Patterson: I liked the first one well enough when I finished it, but after reflection, I'm so irritated with myself that I wasted time and library book checkouts on these. They just weren't good and life is too short (and my TBR pile too big) to waste on bad books.

2. The Pioneer Woman: From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond: This was a recommendation from my boss and it's definitely the last one I'll take from her. This was just trashy and callous. Do not recommend at all.

1. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp: Man oh man. The message of this book could have been so good: learning to find true thanksgiving and gratitude in daily living. But it was just completely ruined by Voskamp's really horrible writing style and lack of editing. Ugh. This was the worst of the worst for me this year.

And now, the best of the best!

From re-reads, the best definitely include the Abhorsen trilogy, the first three Harry Potter books (with 4-7 on deck for 2018), His Dark Materials trilogy, Dune, and Outlander. There was a lot of comfort re-reading going on this year and I'm grateful for these faithful standbys.

I was surprised by how many "new read" favorites I had this year. And not only that, but I found four new all-time favorites that I'll be purchasing paper copies of to keep on my shelves.

8. The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey: I typically don't like horror books, but this was just so well done and such a neat take on the zombie apocalypse genre that it totally surprised me and snuck on to this list.

7. Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder: I read these as a little girl and was obsessed with them. When I started rereading them this year, I wasn't really expecting them to hold up but they totally did! I was totally entranced by them and was so surprised as how well they read even now.

6. The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera: This charming little book was a wonder. I hate Pride and Prejudice type stories where two characters are diametrically opposed at the beginning but fall madly in love despite their differences. But this book was lovely and really just charmed the pants off me. It also helped that there was a really sweet and touching depiction of Catholicism and faith in general that overlaid everything. So sweet.

5. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch: A super quick, super fascinating love story refracted through the multiverse theory. Loved it so much, I bought it for my sister's boyfriend and two work team mates.

4. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz: When I finished this back in May, I thought for sure that this would be the number 1, can't beat it book of 2017. And here it is at only number 4! This book was a wild, magical ride and I absolutely loved every page of it.

3. The Rook by Daniel O'Malley: Oh man, I laughed out loud at so many different points in this book. This was just a rocking good time and I can't wait to read the next one.

2. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver: The only thing wrong with this book is that I've been putting off reading it since it first came out. If I knew then what I knew now, I would have bought the hard copy and done a yearly re-read of it. What an amazing story!

1. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell: But out of all the books from 2017, this was the one. It belongs on it's own list entirely. This is not only the best book I read this year, but it's in my top 10 of all time. It completely wrecked me, and even now three months out I still think about it regularly.

And that, ladies and gents, is a wrap on 2017! Goals for next year include hitting 75 books, changing my no-buy to a low-buy (no more than $15 or 5 books a month, whichever comes first), and focusing on quality reads over quantity. I'm also going to give myself permission to quit reading books that don't thrill me. Thanks for following along, and happy New Year!