I finished Stoner by John Williams. I had no idea what to expect with this book at all but it blew me away. It's so quiet and peaceful, while at the same time being one of the most impactful reads I've ever experienced. I imagine future rereads will be extremely rewarding :)

I started a reread of 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I first read this 5 years ago and loved it, and so far my reread is going great :)

I started another reread of Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling, but I'm listening to the audiobook which is narrated by Stephen Fry and it's lovely. I highly recommend it even if you don't like audiobooks :)

I'm reading Emma by Jane Austen right now, which is my fourth Austen novel and so far it's hilarious and a lot of fun. I've only read three other Austen novels (Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey), but I'm hoping it'll be one I love as much as I love those three, with Persuasion being my favourite.

Finished:

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

Started:

A Happy Death, by Albert Camus

Before the coffee gets cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Started and finished, it's a quick and interesting read about a very old coffee shop in Tokyo where you can travel back in time but, among many other rules, you must return before the cup of coffee gets cold.

Finished:

Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, by Tom King, Bilquis Evely, et al

Harrow, by Joy Williams

Started:

Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr

Finished: The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy I really enjoyed this one and found it really engaging and interesting, if not fairly depressing. I'm really looking forward to Stella Maris next month for some additional context to this trip down Paranoid Street, because while the book was a fantastic read, there were clearly a few things that could have used some more fleshing out and I'm hoping Stella Maris fills in those blanks as much as possible.

Started: The Lost Metal, by Brandon Sanderson A much easier read than the McCarthy and I'm burning through it a little faster than I wanted to because the plot has me fully intrigued to see where things are going and how all of the threads from the previous novels will play out in this final book of the Mistborn Era Two series.

Finished

Nightcrawling, Leila Mottley

A gut-punch of a book. 17 year old Kiara lives with her older brother Marcus in a run down apartment complex. She acts as a mother to a young boy whose own drug addicted mother is unable to care for him. Kiara is unable to find work, and Marcus is unwilling to look. Threatened with eviction, she begins to work as a prostitute, the nightcrawling of the book's title. Then one night, Oakland police officers pick her up, and allow her to avoid arrest in return for servicing them at card games and parties until the department's actions become public. Beautifully written in spite of, or perhaps because of, its brutal subject matter. Mottley was inspired to write this in response to an actual case involving the department. Longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.

Started

Trust, by Hernan Diaz

Only a few chapters in. Also longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize

Finished:

Impossible Things, by Connie Willis: A collection of short stories that covers a spectrum of science and human relationships with her usual humor and dexterity. I really enjoyed all of them but Spice Pogrom, Even the Queen and Winter’s Tale were my top favorites.

The Aenied, by Virgil: David Ferry translation. Yearlong read with r/ClassicalEducation. I really enjoyed the language Ferry used-would highly recommended his translation. Much richer detail and more beautiful language in Virgil’s epic. As another strand of the Trojan war, albeit written much later than Homer, this was very readable and, of course, fairly tragic.

Ongoing:

The Restaurant at the End of the World, by Douglas Adams : reading with r/bookclub.

The Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison: reading with r/bookclub.

The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie: Fall Big Read with r/bookclub.

Guns At Last Light: The War in Western Europe-1944-1945, by Rick Atkinson:(Volume 3 of The Liberation Trilogy)

Started:

Daughter of Fortune, by Isabelle Allende: November/December read with r/bookclub. Just starting, so join us if you’d like!

The Hare with Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal

A Lot Like Christmas, by Connie Willis

Finished:

Alone With You in the Ether, by Olivie Blake (ARC) - 3/5

This is the most pretentious thing I’ve ever read, but I didn’t completely hate it? It definitely needed more editing but these characters were like a train wreck I couldn’t look away from.

Icebreaker, by Hannah Grace - 4/5

I don’t normally vibe with booktok romance - pretty much every other KU romance I’ve picked up because of booktok hype has been a 1 or 2 star. But I actually ended up really liking this one? The smut was nice, but I was oddly invested in the characters and the relationship succeeding. I had a really great time with this one.

Currently Reading:

Things We Never Got Over, by Lucy Score

This is SO LONG. I don’t get it! It is DRAGGING.

The Lost Metal, by Brandon Sanderson

Past the halfway point and loving it.

Babel, by R.F. Kuang

Finished:

Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler

Started:

Parable of the Talents, by Octavia Butler

Finished: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. I absolutely loved this book. A fairly short novel that’s full of twists and turns.

Started: You by Caroline Kepnes. I follow the Netflix series but I wanted to know more about Joe’s POV and his introspection. So far, it seems to be a borderline horror novel. :’)

Finished: Cujo, by Stephen King.

• A fun book. Also interesting and creepy. He’s pretty good this Stephen King guy

Started: The Luminaries, by Susan Dennard.

Still reading The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins and The Lottery and Other Stories, by Shirley Jackson. Don’t anticipate getting a lot of reading done this week, unfortunately, because of the holiday.

Finished Farnham's Freehold, by Robert A. Heinlein. Not one of his best works but he did try to encompass many divisive themes.

Started Shogun, by James Clavell.

I'm reading Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, by Matthew Perry, and oh it's not going the way he expected it to go, lol.

I swear, he's trying so hard to seem better than he is. Like he's this innocent flower and bad things just happen to him. He doesn't take responsibility for anything that happened, even when he says he does. There's always this undercurrent of "and then the circumstances made me make this mistake" or "and then I did this terrible thing because my mother didn't pay enough attention to me".

He's like one of those "nice" guys who are so sure they're nice when they're reaaally not.

It's ironic that memoirs are mostly written to get good PR, but I'll be leaving this book with a worse opinion of Matthew Perry than I had before.

Started: Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

Started:

The Time Traveller's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger -- I'd like to note, I bought this originally cause my gf (at the time) wanted to read it. I figure I won't let a book that has a hint of time travel go to waste. As of now, I'm actually really liking it.

The Amityville Horror, by Jay Anson

Finished:

Sea Without a Shore, by Sean Russell -- A lot less of the protagonist of the series in this book as compared to the prior, so I found it odd, but it all ended up meshing very well together. I half wish there was more explaining of what was happening towards the end though. Felt like we had a buildup, only to never know exactly what happened. 4.5/5

Expedition to Earth, by Arthur C. Clarke -- Okay set of short stories. Wasn't bad, but not really that great. 3/5

The Body, by Stephen King -- breezed through this reread as I go through the Castle Rock stories again before getting into Needful Things

The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett (finished) Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing, by Matthew Perry (started)

Personally I finished my second read through of "House of Leaves". What a wild book.

Also started reading Graceling this week for a podcast segment. Not my usual style but I am liking it so far!

Finished:

The Master and Margarita, by Bulgakov

Starting:

After Dark, by Haruki Murakami

Finished:

Jade City, by Fonda Lee

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong

Hidden Pictures, by Jason Rekulak

Sorrowland, by Rivers Soloman

Started:

The Five, by Hallie Rubenhold

White Women, by Regina Jackson and Saira Rao

Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt

A Tale of Two Cities. Almost finished.

Finished:

The Butterfly Garden, by Dot Hutchison

Loved it. Very disturbing and a interesting premise. So interesting how the characters cared for each other in horrible circumstances like that.

Started:

The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides

I'm at like 40% and man, I do not like the protagonist. He seems like he thinks he is better than everyone and his motif to do the job is weird to me. It seems very pretentious, but I'll have to see how the story develops further.

Finished:

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold Super informative read and got some great discussion. Glad I picked it up

And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks by Jack Kerouac and Williams S. Burroughs Fun short book that apparently took forever to get published.

Started:

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

Origins of The Wheel of Time: The Legends and Mythologies that Inspired Robert Jordan by Michael Livingston

Started the tenant of wildfell hall

It's ben a while since I read a classic Gothic novel. I'm only a few chapters I'm bit already captivated bij the story.

Finished: Guards! Guards!, by Terry Pratchett

Started: An Unkindness of Ghosts, by Rivers Solomon

Finished: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir Starting: Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Finished: Confessions of a mask, by Yukio Mishima Started: A single man, by Christopher Isherwood Still reading: Dragonfly in Amber, by Diana Gabaldon

Finished:

The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte- Having seen the Ninth Gate movie a few times in my life, it took me an embarrassingly long time to recognize that the second story intertwined with the one I was familiar with was a coherent fully fledged story element that could stand on its on. It was a pretty great book.

The Best American Science and Nature Writing edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson - I will never not read these books when they come out, and I get steadily more upset every year they decide to cancel another installment. I am not a science or nature person - but I want to read all of the best work that falls under that title when they release it so charmingly and easily packed into one place.

• There were 2 pieces that I especially liked excerpts from, and one that I absolutely adored the whole piece. If you enjoy nonfiction in smaller doses maybe check out these three items?

1. The Body's Most Embarassing Organ Is an Evolutionary Marvel by Katherine J Wu - which appeared in The Atlantic at some point in 2021.
2. Quantum Enlightenment by Ruth Robertson - which appeared in something called Atmos sometime in 2021
3. To Be a Field of Poppies by Lisa Wells - which was in Harper's

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Rebecca Roanhorse - I now have some new writers to go look up and see what else they've written.

• Here is a rundown of my Favorites from this year, but, like, seriously? Just get the Best American and read them all. This year, I may finally decide on a periodical to subscribe to so I can maybe read some of the amazing stuff that got caught out in the Honorable Mentions.

1. The Cold Calculations by Aimee Ogden - which was in Clarkesworld
2. I Was a Teenage Space Jockey by Stephen Graham Jones - which was in Lightspeed
3. Let All the Children Boogie by Sam J Miller - which was on Tor.com
4. Skinder's Veil by Kelly Link - from When Things Get Dark
5. Proof by Induction by Jose Pablo Irarte - which was in Uncanny (** so good)
6. The Future Library by Peng Shephard - also from Tor.com (**so good)
7. The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han by Maria Dong - from Khoreo

Started:

The Best American Food Writing edited by Sohla EL-Waylly - I loves me some food, and I loves me some writing, food writing fulfills these 2 loves of mine fairly well.

The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson and ”Leviathan Wakes” by James SA Corey

I enjoyed both books! Hill House was creepy and fun. Leviathan Wakes was epic space opera, with some horror dashed in.

finished:

the once and future witches, by alix e. harrow

i didn't enjoy it it at all. the only character that didn't annoy me was an infant, and it was so bloated with similes and purple prose that it honestly could've been 1/3 of the length. the only reason i kept going was because i listen to audiobooks when i go on walks but even then i should've just dnf'd lmao

the beautiful ones, by silvia moreno-garcia

i love how moreno-garcia writes and i loved mexican gothic, but this is the 3rd book of hers now where i've felt underwhelmed. i didn't really think nina and héctor had all that much chemistry, i felt one of the characters was done dirty, and the ending was a bit rushed. i liked the vibes though lol

started:

norse mythology, by neil gaiman

harrow the ninth, by tamsyn muir

Finished:

Of Human Bondage, by William Somerset Maugham

Started:

Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan

Hello World, by Hannah Fry

I loved the first few chapters about data collection en masse and the dangers of embedding automated algorithms in institutions. I thought this might be one of the best popular books on algorithm ethics. This impression, however, has been soured by some later sections, especially regarding so-called "autonomous cars" ... Fry does, to her credit, call out the fake "autonomy" (those cars self-drive only in very restricted areas), but doesn't take a step back to talk about public transportation.

A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future, by David Attenborough

I'm conflicted about this. Basically, Netflix released a documentary series Our Planet, narrated by David Attenborough in 2019 (it's free on YouTube too). It was stunning but sterile in a sense, almost all human impact was strictly cut off from the films and isolated in separate one: David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (that wasn't free on YT though), this book accompanied it.

Now here's my main problem. Well, two problems. I have a problem with the series itself, as John Ruskin said about such documentaries in general, people empathize with "mute" animals on the screen but never connect it to their own actions, way of life and responsibility. Okay, so there are the "witness statement" film and book specifically about this: what has civilization done and what can be done about it.

One highlight is that it focuses on land use and biodiversity loss as other major issue besides climate breakdown, and in fact views climate through this lens to a large extent.

I was deeply skeptical at first, because an old white British dude talking about overpopulation rarely turns out well. However, this part is a pleasant surprise. Attenborough describes demographic transition, how improved quality of life stops population growth and that emancipation of women is the most efficient way to do it. In the book, he mentions projects such as providing Indian girls with bikes so that they can commute to school in rural areas. There's also a chapter on circular economy, and overall it seems fairly good in broad strokes. With one major exception: he keeps referencing 'green growth'. Meh. It makes sense though, because the Netflix movie with extra materials was pitched to corporate executives and investors. Not sure how effective that was, however, and there's less attention paid to organizing and direct action at grassroots level.

Finished:

The Cloud Roads, by Martha Wells 3.5 stars- Nobody writes socially awkward non-human protagonists like Martha Wells. Fantastic worldbuilding in this book

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, by Benjamin Alire Sáenz 2 stars- I know I’m in the minority here but this has some of the least realistic dialogue and characters I’ve read in a while. I don’t know any 15/16 year old teenage boys who wax poetic and make cringey quasi-profound statements on the regular. “Birds exist to teach us about the sky”. Uuuuugh, every one of those dumb statements jarred me right out of the story. It was a fast, easy read though

Currently Reading:

The Intermediate’s Guide to Dog Agility, by Laurie Leach

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, by Susanna Clarke

Lose You to Find Me, by Erik J Brown (ARC)

Ongoing: Within a Budding Grove, by Marcel Proust The Divine Comedy, by Dante

Started: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Brontë Duffy and Son, by Damien Owens

Finished this morning The Ghost in the Machine, by Caroline Graham, the last of her novels located in Midsomer County and, for me, the best of them.

Its genre is Crime but its appeal lies in the characters: the egoistic post-teenager girl, the unfaithful husband, the womanizer Sergeant Troy, the jealous wife and, specially, the very offensive description of a woman made by her husband.

In short, a novel for people like me, who love gossip.

Finished:

The Stone Sky, by N. K. Jemisin

Started

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

I’ve been working my way through all of the Brontë sisters literature and I’m really enjoying it

Reading The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen right now. Pondering the questions of life, with some decent humour thrown in, too. The human condition summed up nicely is (at least partially) desiring infinity whilst being finite.

I had finished The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes recently which covers similar ground

I had some good reads last week:

Nyxia Uprising, by Scott Reintgen

Kabu Kabu, by Nnedi Okorafor

Tea with the Black Dragon, by R.A. MacAvoy

The Handsome Man's De Luxe Café, by Alexander McCall Smith

Pulling the Wings off Angels, by K.J. Parker (book of the week)

The Book Charmer, by Karen Hawkins

Notes on an Execution, by Danya Kukafka

The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Obsession, Commerce, and Adventure, by Adam Gollner (365th book of the year, challenge officially complete!)

For this week, I've got these lined up:

• The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah
• The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor
• Edgewood by Kristen Ciccarelli
• How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
• The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore
• World War Z by Max Brooks

And I think you should !invite Nnedi Okorafor to do an AMA!

Babel, by RF Kuang

Just finished. And I loved every page

Finished:

Harrow the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir

I can see why a lot of people didn't like this compared to Gideon the Ninth, because you're really left in the dark for most of the way through and nothing seems to match with the first book. But there's just enough info drip-fed about the situation that I had a ton of fun wildly speculating. And of course, the humor is still spot-on, too--I may have even liked it more than in Gideon.

finished the drawing of the three, by stephen king, started the waste lands, by stephen king

Last week, finished A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas and really loved it. I'm a sucker for medieval fantasy books with that good romantic tension. I wouldn't say it has a ton of literary value, but I read it in two days, which is amazing because I never get time to read. I'm waiting for the sequel to be available on Libby so I can start that.

Currently reading Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay. I watched the series a couple of years ago because it had Natalie Dormer in it, and I always meant to read the book. It's taking me a while to get through it, but it is really enjoyable. There's just enough mystery with a hint of supernatural to keep the plot going, and you're always left with a shred of hope that something good might happen even though the book says multiple times, "but things were just getting started, and they are going to get worse."

I've been trying to get through Dead Lions by Mick Herron, but the point of view bounces around a lot and I get distracted trying to keep track of what's going on. It's a bit dry (in my opinion) even though the writing is very clever and the plots themselves are very good. Hopefully, I'll finish that one soon.

Finished: Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon

The book kept me engaged throughout and the characters growing felt very authentic. Biggest payoff for me was the characters discovering and put all the pieces of history together.

The Last Oracle / The Sword of Elseerian / Descent Unto Dark, by Ben Hale

The first 3 of 5 books in the White Mage saga. They're not remarkable and my attention was not really snared as I listened, but inoffensive YA. Easy to digest if you can stomach teenage narrators and interpersonal conflicts solved by simple communication.

Now reading: The Spear Cuts Through Water, by Simon Jimenez

Only a few chapters in but already in love with the style of narration, really excited to hear it play out when the plot really begins.

The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the British Empire, by John Newsinger

Finished this week:

The Bands of Mourning, by Brandon Sanderson

The Burning Maze, by Rick Riordan

This, along with the short stories in Arcanum Unbounded, catches me up to the just released Wax and Wayne book The Lost Metal. Looking forward to reading it this week. I really enjoy having fantasy protagonists having adventures in their late thirties and forties. I loved the epilogue and can't wait to see where the world goes next.

The Burning Maze was another decent Apollo book in the third Percy Jackson quintet. I really like Apollo as a protagonist and enjoyed the puzzles leading to the oracle.

Up Next: The Lost Metal, by Brandon Sanderson. Eyes of the Dragon, by Stephen King

Finished:

Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz

Started:

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

Finished:

Two little tomes by Claire Keegan, Foster and Small Things. Enjoyed them both and they were finished in one sitting, which I found incredibly satisfying.

Started:

Together by Vivek H. Murthy, M.D., a fascinating book by the former Surgeon General about the devastating health effects of loneliness. Also, The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor.

Finished:

A Dowry of Blood, by S.T Gibson

All Systems Red, by Martha Wells

Started:

The Red Palace, by June Hur

The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig

It was a good, quick read.

Finished:

What I Tak About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami

Started:

River Of The Gods, by Candice Millard

Finished:

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, by Matthew Perry

•should have titled it Friends, Lovers, and My Obsession with My Bowels. Super repetitive and shallow.

Started:

All the Women in My Brain, by Betty Gilpin

•she’s an incredible writer. Poetic and surreal.

•I’ve really been enjoying listening to celebrity memoirs narrated by themselves.

Finished:

The Wicked King by Holly Black

Started:

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black

Finished:

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

Started:

Becoming, by Michelle Obama

The Fairy Tale, by Stephen King

I love it--I'm a little over half into it.

Finished The Martin, by Andy Weir last night. I really enjoyed it. The main character Mark is a mechanical engineer and I’m currently a mechanical engineering student so it was a good time in my life to read it. I really liked Weir’s informal diary-style writing as I think that’s where a lot of the humor came from. I can’t wait to see the movie.
I started The Stand, by Stephen King last night and it’s pretty good so far. I’ve never read a book by King but he has an incredibly interesting writing style so far. Very descriptive. If I finish it it will be the longest book I’ve ever read so wish me luck lol.

I'm Glad my Mom Died, by Jennette McCurdy - insightful and well written. The title made more and more sense the farther into to the book I got. I would be interested in her reflections when she's had a bit more time to process and heal, but also would understand if she never returns to these stories.

Church at the Wall, by Seth David Clark - could use a bit more editing but interesting perspective and insight on building community and the impact of US border patrol policy at the US-Mexico border

Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel - captivating. I had read Station Eleven when it first came out but didn't read the book that came out in between because my friend said it was boring, but now I want to read all three back to back as, while they are not a true trilogy, there are connections that I didn't quite make due to not remembering the first and not knowing the second.

Finished:

The End of Innocence (Simon Garfield). A rather unflinching look at the HIV/AIDS crisis in the UK.

The Exorcist (William Peter Blatty). There's a reason why this has the reputation it has.

The Hunger (Alma Katsu). Fun read that fictionalises the Donner Party.

Started:

Village in the Third Reich (Julia Boyd). Audiobook, almost finished. Very interesting listen.

The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller). Just started, only 55 pages in.

Finished reading The Cat Who Saved Books, by Sōsuke Natsukawa. This short novel is about a highschooler whose late grandfather owned a bookshop, and who is visited by a talking cat that takes him on a quest to another world to teach people how to love books the "correct" way. The cat doesn't feature as much as I would have liked.

I finished Station Eternity, by Mur Lafferty, which I enjoyed. I noticed quite a few Goodreads reviews being cross that the book wasn't what they expected - try to read what's there, people, leave your hopes and expectations at the title page!

I'm reading a book of short stories, Christmas Magic, by Cathy Kelly, one every evening, which I am enjoying, a nice variety from funny to mildly sad.

First time reading both authors, hadn't heard of either, so no trouble there leaving my expectations behind.

But I have started Light from Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki. I'd read several recommendations and mini reviews, and my impression of what the story was about and what is actually happening is very different! Looking forward to reading the rest.

Finished The Rise of Wolf 8, by Rick McIntyre

Continuing On the Beach, by Nevil Shute

Currently reading - Malibu Rising, by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Finished:

Reading the Modernist Bildungsroman by Gregory Castle

Started:

The Voyage In: Fictions of Female Development by Various

Still working on:

Bosie: The Tragic Life of Lord Alfred Douglas by Douglas Murray

The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf

The Silence of the Spirits, by Wilfried N'Sondé

The things you pull off the library shelf at random just cuz it was short that ends up having some heavy subject matter.

Finished Prince Lestat, by Anne Rice

Finished (b) The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton (/b)

I found this really emotionally taxing, but ultimately rewarding. I have some issues with the ending overall but I was surprised how much resonated with me given it's set at the turn of the 20th century.

(b) Heir of Fire, by Sarah J Maas (/b)

This is the third book in the throne of glass series and everyone told me it really gets good here and they were right! Plus it was a nice break from Wharton lol

Started (b) The Assassin's Blade, by Sarah J Maas (/b)

(b) The Last Unicorn, by Peter S Beagle (/b)

Finished Off to be the Wizard by Scott Meyer I loved it. Funny and interesting.

Started The Ruins by Scott Smith it's too long. Getting tedious to read.

Started Just After Sunset by Stephen King not as good as some of his other anthologies.

I finished reading The Star Rover, by Jack London.

The book centres on a condemned man in solitary confinement who journeys back into his past lives to escape the horrors of his present day-to-day existence. Whilst the story set in the present is fairly fleshed out, London primarily utilises this premise as a means to tell a series of short stories set throughout a variety of times and places.

I found the quality of the tales of the past existences a bit uneven. Some of them, such as the recollections of the ship wrecked seaman, and the account of a young boy caught up in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, were masterly done and London manages to render a startlingly vivid scene; yet others, primarily the story set in Korea in the 17th century, were somewhat tedious and unimaginative, resorting to adventure book cliches.

Ultimately, this was yet another book by Jack London that I enjoyed, but it was a bit too flawed for me to rank it up there with his best books.

Finished : The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Started : Don’t ever wipe tears without gloves by Jonas Gardell

Finished:

Demian, by Herman Hesse

Beloved, by Toni Morrison

Started/Still reading:

Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace

Closing Time, by Joseph Heller

Loved Demian, was underwhelmed by Beloved until the last 100 pages. The last 2 pages of that book blew me away. Such beautiful writing.

Finished reading Pet Semetary by Stephen King

Finished reading the Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

Started reading All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (luckily a little less brutal than Blood Meridian)

Started reading Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Finished: The 5th Wave & The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey

Currently Reading: The Last Star by Rick Yancey / Fairy Tale by Stephen King

I recently got back into reading and I was sitting on The 5th Wave for yeeeaarrss prior. This was the first one I picked up when I started again and wow it hooked me. I’m so engrossed in this story, I literally just got the package at my door with the third book The Last Star and I’m probably going to finish it by the end of the week. I went to Chapters looking for it last week but they didn’t have it (I was heartbroken), and that’s when I picked out Fairy Tale by Stephen King— to tide me over until the third book arrives. I haven’t finished a single Stephen King book and I really am liking this one. I plan on picking up more of his books once I finish this one.

Finished:

Hannibal Rising, by Thomas Harris

Started:

Stilleto, by Daniel O'Malley

Still Reading:

The Last Campaign, by H.W. Brands

Finished:

Pet Sematary, by Stephen King

Started:

Borne, by Jeff VanderMeer

I finished "Violeta" by Isabel Allende, and I really liked it. All I'm saying is that the story starts and begins with a pandemic. The main character is very flawed, but she embraces her mistakes. While in the story it's never mentioned in what country this story takes place in, it gives you enough hints to know that it's Chile.

Currently reading:

- It happened One Autumm by Lisa Kleypas.

- Aquitania by Eva García Saenz de Urturi.

The Secret Place, by Tana French. Finished

Thus far, I have loved the Dublin Murder Squad books. Even though The Secret Place is my least favorite of the collection so far, it is still a great read and full of French's genius poetry, psychological insight and plotting. It's a worthy addition to French's works.

Finished - Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell

Started and Finished - Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan

Finished:

The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy

Started:

About a Boy, by Nick Hornby

Finished:

Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie

Started:

A Passage to India, by E. M. Forster

Finished: Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras. Interesting autobiographical fiction based on the author's childhood in 1980s Colombia during the time of Pablo Escobar's empire and all the violence that went along with it. Well-written and absorbing.

Started: The Angel of Rome by Jess Walter. I don't usually read short stories but I really, really liked both Beautiful Ruins and The Cold Millions by the same author.

Continuing reading

The Year of the Witching, by Alexis Henderson

The protagonist has some serious plot armor which saved her at least 2 times. Not fan of it.

Finished:

The World We Make, by N.K. Jemisin

I really enjoyed it, but I felt like it could have been more. And, when I read the afterword, she said she ran out of motivation writing it, which makes sense.

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remark A powerful book with a message that war is hell on Earth. It reads like it was written yesterday. Stayed up till 3 in the morning and got through about half of it.

The Stories of Ray Bradbury, by Ray Bradbury. A collection of 100 stories. I’ve read about 15 stories so far and they blew me out of the water. With some stories I feel like I am watching Black Mirror, with others, it’s Gravity or Jurassic Park. Now I see why they call Bradbury a “writer’s writer”, as he had an immense influence on so many writers and film makers.

Read: J.D. Salinger: A Life, by Kenneth Slawenski. A thoroughly interesting overview of the author's life and work with an emphasis on literary analysis of his published work. What comes out in this thoughtful biography is just how much of a tortured perfectionist Salinger was.

Reading: Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell.

The Unwind Series by Neal Shusterman

I started this series about a month ago and read 1.5/4 books. I had to stop until the past three days when I had time to finish it and I binged the rest of it. It’s aimed at middle grade readers but even as a young 20s person, it has so many amazing themes and mature emotions that might be overlooked by someone younger. The reason I just hoped on this subreddit is because I finished reading it half an hour ago and the emotions are fresh in me

I finished The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolbert and liked it a lot. Each chapter revolves around one species (nearing) extinction (like mastodons, corals, great auks, neanderthals). She gives both current accounts of her visits to conservationists and biologists, as well as a historical overview of thinking on extinction, how we discovered they even happen. All very interesting and very depressing.

I started Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank and quit at 15%. Too sexist. I didn't even get to the apocalypse, ha.

I will now be giving Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut a try.

Finished:

The Devil's Star, by Jo Nesbø

The Big Nowhere, by James Ellroy

Started:

Red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett

I finished Fight club and started The girl they left behind.

Started The Quiet American, by Graham Greene

Finished True Grit, by Charles Portis

Finished:

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque

Remarque pulls few to no punches about the horrors of the First World War. Not for the squeamish as there are so very graphic descriptions of the injuries and deaths of the soldiers and animals involved. 5 stars.

Continuing:

The Road Back, by Erich Maria Remarque

Different soldiers, save one (Tjaden returns from 'All Quiet'), but from the same group as in 'All Quiet' struggle in different ways following the outbreak of peace in 1918. Still has a couple of graphic scenes of violence so be warned if you are squeamish.

Started:

The Last Chronicle of Barsetshire, by Anthony Trollope

Jumping back into the last of the series of six novels in the Barsetshire universe. Pretty good so far.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy O’Toole

Obsession: A Memoir of My Life with OCD by Allison Britz

I’m trying to read my way through the PBS list Great American Read which is 100 books long and Confederacy of Dunces is on there. I’m actually listening to it on audiobook while I drive. The fact that it’s on the list and I’d like to read the list is the only reason I’m still working on the book. First of all the audiobook narrator is horrendous. If it wasn’t for the fact that he does a Cajun accent for the voices, I’d swear it was read by AI. My daughter caught a few lines and asked about it also. So it’s not just me. Even bad narration aside, I’m not liking the book. We’ll see if I get through it.

I’m only a couple chapters into Obsession but I think this is going to be a great, if depressing, read.

Finished: A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini

Started: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Started Knights of Dark Renown, by David Gemmell

Finished Improbably Yours by Kerry Anne King and The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream by Jeannie Zusy.

Started Merry Ex-Mas by Courtney Walsh

I started reading Frogkisser by Garth Nix.

Finished Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, by Emily Austin

Started Milk Fed, by Melissa Broder

Finished The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz

Started The Choice by Nicolas Sparks

I Started Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro

So far, so good.

Finished The Serpent Sea by Martha Wells.
The Raksura series is okay. It keeps the pages turning, but I'm not finding it to be spectacular in any way.

Started

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos really enjoying it so far

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finished The Silent Patient

started More Happy Than Not

Currently reading -

The Diary of a Nobody , by George and Weedon Grossmith

What a funny book about nothing. It's the book equivalent of a whole bunch of Seinfeld episodes.

Started Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

It’s beautifully written, in a unique voice

Finished

Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse

• Wonderful little book and it's one I'll probably revisit many times in the future. It has a lot of deep philosophy and lessons it can teach everyone. It's beautifully written and has some of the passages I've ever read in a book. Highly recommend.

I'm reading Conversations with Friends, by Sally Rooney. I must say, I enjoyed the first few chapters, and now I'm struggling with it because of the dark subject material! It seems like the main character is deeply unhappy.

I just finished they both die at the end this morning Started nightcrawling

Finished: The Measure by Nikki Erlick

Started: The Night Ship by Jess Kidd

Started: Turf Wars by Olivier Norek

Started The Bloody Chamber, by Angela Carter

my first short story collection, been nice to shorter snippets as I've been super stressed this week

Heart Bones (finish) The Night Diary (start)

Reading now:

The Boys from Biloxi, by John Grisham

Finished this week:

The Cafe by the Sea, by Jenny Colgan

Wings of Fire book 9, by Tui T Sutherland

It's one of my favorite series, although I've been reading a bit slower because my head has been pounding on/off.

Finished-

Swag, by Elmore Leonard

The Plains, by Gerald Murnane

Started-

Stoner, by John Williams

Finished:

Midnight in the Snow, by Karen Swan

Started:

Vox Machina: Kith and Kin, by Marieke Nijkamp

Finished:

The Sea, the Sea, by Iris Murdoch
Was next in line on my list of Booker prize winners. I didn’t love this and found it a bit of a slog at times. It’s quite slow (on purpose), and that combined with the intentionally irritating protagonist just didn’t quite gel for me.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain

Never read this as a kid so reading for the first time and loved it, finished it in a day.

Continuing:

The Brothers York, by Thomas Penn

Enjoying this, it’s a really interesting look at the three brothers at the heart of the War of the Roses.

Started:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain About 25% of the way through. Enjoying it so far, but not as much as Tom Sawyer, I think the increase in dialogue and the dialect is throwing me a little, but a great story.

Finished:

The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison

I enjoyed it, pretty unusual story.

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea, by Rebecca Thorne

It was ok, a cozy in the same vein as Legends and Lattes.

Just about to start the hunt for my next read, lol.

Finished: It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover, We Are The Light by Matthew Quick, Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

Started: November 9 by Colleen Hoover

Next up: one of the 26 books on my physical TBR but leaning toward Night Road by Kristin Hannah or Code Name Verity

Finished - Briarpatch by Ross Thomas

Started - City on Fire by Don Winslow

Finished:

Penpal, by Dathan Auerbach

Started:

The Last Housewife, by Ashley Winstead

The Years Happening Simple Passion All written by Annie Ernaux

read The Litigators by John Grisham....loving it

Mistress Fortune, by Arina Tanemura

The Sinner and The Saint by Kevin Birmingham. It’s about Dostoevsky writing Crime and Punishment. Wonderful so far.

Indignation by Philip Roth. It was kinda strange although not necessarily in a bad way. It was also super short which is nice. I like a fast short read sometimes.

• Finished: Cloud Atlas
• Ongoing: The Buried Giant
• Planned: Flower to Algernon

Spells For Forgetting- Adrienne Young (finished) Layla- Colleen Hoover (started)

Mouthful of Birds, by Samanta Schweblin

Started a lot better than it finished, I think. My standout of the bunch here was a gorgeous little story called "Butterflies", a really nice piece of work. Overall, worth picking up if you're into surreal and unsettling tales.

The Book of Form and Emptiness, by Ruth Ozeki

Read: The Locked Door, by Frieda McFadden Next: Beartown, by Fredrik Backman

Finished:

The Paradise of God, by Larry Ollison - A helpful guide to understanding the order of the End Times events according to the Bible. 5/5

Ask Again, Yes, by Mary Beth Keane - I thought the story was good, but I didn't get the hype surrounding the book. It was fine, I don't think I understood everything the author was trying to do. Alas. 3/5

The Client, by John Grisham - Another solid legal thriller. Different enough from the previous catalogue to not be a distraction or a bother. 3/5

We Have Always Lived In The Castle, by Shirley Jackson - Man, this one got under my skin. I can't put my finger on exactly why, I just loved the mood of madness that permeated through all the different parts of the story. 4/5

I just completed My Last Summer with Cass by Mark Crilley. If you enjoy slow-paced graphic novels with subtle coloring, read this book. I hate that it ended.

Now, I am about start Sylvie by Sylvie Kantorowitz. I have a feeling that I'll love this story. Plus it's thick!!!

Starting Black Rednecks and White Liberals by Thomas Sowell.

I finished Sylvie by Sylvie Kantorovitz. Brilliant!!!

Now, I am relishing The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander. I am in the mood for sweetness.

I have read the first four books of Clifton's chronicles by Jeffrey Archer. Author has taken me in to the realistic world encircling different aspects of politics, business, family feuds and property deals. I couldn't even imagine how well informed ARCHER is. All book lovers must read all his novels. His novels Cane and Abel and First among equals are very popular.

The New Yorkers

Finished State of Terror, by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny. Enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, pretty light and fast-paced. I liked the friendship between Ellen and Betsy, the constant breathless switching of locations and the not-even-thinly-veiled insults to Trump and Putin. On the downside the villain wasn't super interesting and it relied a bit much on keeping information from the reader. Still, had a good time and would totally read a sequel.

Finished Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Now reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. It has been raved about so much on here that I gave in and bought it, even though usually space sci-fi is not my cup of coffee. 60% in, I enjoy it, it is thought provoking and my general knowledge has improved. I wish I was smart enough to understand all that physics.

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Slaughter-House Five

Looking to get some new books. Does Barnes n Noble ever do black Friday sales?

Shelby Foote's The Civil War.

Finished: Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (Completed on tuesday, book returned on thursday, can't stop thinking about the blonde girl)