A Not-So-Quick 2020 Summary

This has been the most exhausting year and I am so very glad it is finally over. I haven't entirely quit blogging (mostly because that also takes a certain amount of effort) so I suppose I have to record my reading stats for 2020. A look at the basics:

Books read: 124

Number of those that were audiobooks: 29

Rereads: 25

Non-fiction reads: 11

Books in translation: 8

My "best" of the year are a bit different than usual because I was choosing mostly reads that were either comforting or distracting or "easy". My once-varied library list ended the year looking quite stern and scholarly as I selectively plucked out the light and genre reads and left the heavier non-fiction and literature titles alone. My home TBR was whittled down to a few classics and some titles that have been sitting there for years and probably should just be weeded. A quick count says I read:

Mystery: 30

Sci-fi: 16

Fantasy: 39

That means 68.5 percent of my reading was genre this year which seems rather high compared to my normal numbers though I'm far too lazy to actually count past years' numbers. Still, they were the perfect choices for this year of stress and uncertainty and I really liked almost everything I read. Here are the highlights:

In non-fiction, I can highly recommend From Holmes to Sherlock by Mattias Boström to any Sherlock fans. I learned a lot of cool pieces of trivia and was surprised to find that I had read/watched most of the post-ACD Sherlock content that was mentioned. One day I'll admit that I'm a Sherlockian. Also, Nature Obscura by Kelly Brenner inspired the best thing to happen to me this year -- my hummingbird feeder! I now have a daily visitor (a male Anna's) who is just getting used to me and sometimes lets me stand on the other side of the window watching him eat and fight. Though Kelly's observations are all about Seattle animals and locations, her love of exploring urban wildlife habitats is infectious and will definitely get you out into your yard or local park. (Plus, tardigrades are literally everywhere.) Finally Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran was super fascinating. Again, it was probably more interesting to me since the author and I are the same age but a good immigrant story is always worthwhile. Honorable mention goes to How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi for being an essential read to change one's basic thought processes around race and racism. I think about it constantly.

My favorite rereads? The Starless Sea and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, all four of the Murderbot novellas by Martha Wells, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and all of Kate Milford's Bluecrowne/Greenglass books. Honorable mention goes to a couple of the gothic novels I revisited: Jane Eyre and Rebecca. All of these books will always be on my home library shelves.

Finally, new-to-me books that I loved (in the order read because I don't have the energy to rank them):

Truckers, Diggers, and Wings by Terry Pratchett were written for a younger audience but were such great escapes, made more exciting by the great escapes of the wee little characters.

The Philosopher's War by Tom Miller was an exciting sequel, quite different from the original but brilliantly detailed about nursing and war and the magic system of the world. I wish this series had more fans.

The Vanishing Stair and The Hand on the Wall were books two and three in a murdery boarding school trilogy by Maureen Johnson and I absolutely loved them.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami was just like his other books, so removed from any reality that I know that they always provide near-perfect entertainment. There were certainly some weird parts, as there always are, but I appreciate that they never seem gimmicky.

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty was apparently "fantastic" in my spreadsheet but I don't remember very much about it except for blood smears. That happens with me and audiobooks so I'll be sure to get a paper copy to reread later.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune wins the award for book that made my heart the happiest this year. It was just a lovely tale of love and found family and I adored it for it's simplicity and honesty. I gave a copy to my sister for Christmas and she better love it or else.

Even though I mentioned the other books in the series in my rereads list, I'm going to call out The Thief Knot by Kate Milford because my spreadsheet note on it is the absolute truth - she has written the fictional world I would most like to live in. As I've said before about her books, they are marketed as middle grade but are really complex and interesting enough for all ages.

The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart is a new period mystery series with two smart young women as the protagonists and I look forward to reading about more of their adventures.

One that I didn't expect to like as much as I did was A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry. I got it from the library and looked at the summary and thought "why did I possibly think this would be interesting? It's just real history with magic stuck in." It turns out that real history with magic stuck in is AWESOME.

Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Baker (Seanan McGuire) was made of everything I love. I need a copy on my shelves but am waiting and hoping that I'll be able to get a signed copy sometime next year since she's a local author.

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix made me really annoyed that I've put off reading Garth Nix until now. I loved this one with its weaving of myths and magic and London (but sadly not much actual bookselling).

And A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik makes it onto the list simply because the negativity of the narrator was such a perfect fit to this year and my mood. She was angry and cynical and moody and I absolutely felt like I had found a friend (except she didn't want friends). It was also a humorous take on magical boarding schools that was fresh and fun.

Finally, honorable mention goes to all of the American Mystery Classics that I read this year (put out by Penzler Press). They weren't all perfect but the editor chose such a wide variety of authors and types of stories that I never knew what I was going to get and had fun with all of them! Rocket to the Morgue and A Puzzle for Fools were especially good.

So, I guess that's a wrap on this crap year. At least the books were good!

In the comments, recommend one book that you loved this year.

A Long List of Gothic Novels

We're nearing the end of Witch Week and I wrote a post that went up today, Mexican Gothic and the Classic Gothic Novel. In it, I mentioned making a list of the more than 75 gothic novels and short stories I have read over the years. They may not all be pure gothic but at least contain significant gothic elements. Here, for your curiosity and edification, is that list.

Peter Ackroyd    The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein
Joan Aiken    The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

Jane Austen    Northanger Abbey

John Boyne    This House is Haunted

Octavia Butler    Fledgling

Mary Elizabeth Braddon    Lady Audley's Secret

Charlotte Brontë    Jane Eyre, Villette

Emily Brontë    Wuthering Heights

Edgar Cantero    The Supernatural Enhancements

Laura Carlin    The Wicked Cometh

Angela Carter    The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

Agatha Christie    And Then There Were None

Wilkie Collins    Armadale, The Haunted Hotel, The Moonstone, The Woman in White

Michael Cox    The Meaning of Night, The Glass of Time

Charles Dickens    A Christmas Carol, Bleak House, Dickens' Ghost Stories, Great Expectations, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Oliver Twist

Arthur Conan Doyle    The Hound of the Baskervilles

Daphne du Maurier    Don't Look Now, Jamaica Inn, My Cousin Rachel, Rebecca

Umberto Eco    The Name of the Rose

Alan Finn    Things Half in Shadow

Neil Gaiman    The Graveyard Book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Charlotte Perkins Gilman    The Yellow Wall-Paper

Elizabeth Hand    Wylding Hall

John Harwood    The Asylum, The Ghost Writer, The Seance

Nathaniel Hawthorne    Rappaccini's Daughter

Jane Healey    The Animals at Lockwood Manor

Susan Hill    The Woman in Black

Shirley Jackson    The Haunting of Hill House, The Lottery, We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Henry James    The Turn of the Screw

MR James    Short Stories

Franz Kafka    Metamorphosis

Elizabeth Kostova    The Historian

WW Jacobs    The Monkey's Paw

Sheridan Le Fanu    In A Glass Darkly, Carmilla

Harper Lee    To Kill a Mockingbird

Gaston Leroux    The Phantom of the Opera

Gregory Maguire    Lost

Erin Morgenstern    The Night Circus

Kate Morton    The Clockmaker's Daughter, The Distant Hours, The House at Riverton

Arturo Perez-Reverte    The Club Dumas

Edgar Allan Poe    The Fall of the House of Usher and more

Ann Radcliffe    The Mysteries of Udolpho

Diane Setterfield    The Thirteenth Tale

Mary Shelley    Frankenstein

Robert Louis Stephenson    The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Bram Stoker    Dracula

Horace Walpole    The Castle of Otranto

Sarah Waters    Affinity, Fingersmith, The Little Stranger

Oscar Wilde    The Picture of Dorian Gray

Cat Winters    The Uninvited

Carlos Ruiz Zafón    Labyrinth of the Spirits, Marina, The Angel's Game, The Midnight Palace, The Prince of Mist, The Prisoner of Heaven, The Shadow of the Wind, The Watcher in the Shadows

and now

Silvia Moreno-Garcia    Mexican Gothic

Closing out 2019

Well, hello there! I don't know if I'm coming back or not yet but I feel really antsy about not having a wrap-up post for 2019 because, even if I'm not blogging, I'm definitely reading. Here are some of the stats:

Books read: 139 

This was helped by audiobooks and novellas and the fact that I needed A LOT of escapist time due to things both personal and worldwide. Many of my books were genre -- mystery, fantasy, and, this year, a lot more science fiction. I've gone to space more times than I ever expected to!

Rereads: 21

This was mostly due to MarchMagics/DWJ March but I also had a couple of Jasper Fforde, William Ritter, Erin Morgenstern, Philip Pullman, Mary Shelley, and Neil Gaiman rereads throughout the year.

Library books: 60

I made really good use of my library this year. I do wish they had a few more audiobook choices but they are a great way to try books I'm not sure I want to buy. I even gave a couple of romances a whirl this year! I didn't really like any of them though. Hmm.

Books in translation: 3

This is the stat that I'm most disappointed with. I usually do much better but I only managed one German, one French, and one Japanese story this year.

Non-fiction: 19

I made up for that bad translation number though with an amazing non-fiction year! I even have two more in progress on my nightstand. The best ones of the year were Becoming by Michelle Obama, Sea People by Christina Thompson, Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, Coal Black Mornings by Brett Anderson, So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo, and The Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O'Meara. I think the key for me is definitely variety!

New-to-me authors: 59 (+ some in collections)

My favorite new-to-me authors this year? Seanan McGuire, Sarah Pinsker, and Becky Chambers. I ended up reading five books by McGuire!

I even made a Top 10 of the year list:

Bluecrowne by Kate Milford
Forest of Memory by Mary Robinette Kowal (novella)
Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker (short stories)
Six Months, Three Days, Five Others by Charlie Jane Anders (short stories)
Crosstalk by Connie Willis
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers (novella)
How Long 'Til Black Future Month by N.K. Jemisin (short stories)
Rotherweird by Andrew Caldecott

And a runners-up list:

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
The True Queen by Zen Cho
Witchmark by C.L. Polk
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Recursion by Blake Crouch
The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw
Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia

And an honorable mention:

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig ... for being the book to traumatize me the the most! I am terrified that any single thing that happened in that book could really be in America's future.

My goal for the first couple of months of this year is to read almost exclusively from my shelves (after two audiobooks that I have checked out -- The Starless Sea and Bring Down the Hawk). These beauties I got for Christmas will help keep me busy!

And finally, I have to decide what to do with the blog. At the least, I think it is time to rebrand it. When I started writing here, I was reading with my little guy, featuring picture books and chapter books along with my own reads. But Z and I haven't read together in years and so the "we" is now just "me". I also have a goal of less screen time this year so I'm not sure how blogging would fit in with that. I have started using Litsy again (kristenm) but I'm not sure if that will stick. I tend to forget it after a couple of posts and I just don't feel like it's a replacement for blogging. And finally, there's MarchMagics/DWJMarch, which I don't want to let go but also am not sure I have the time/energy to run.

So there it is -- where 2019 went and where 2020 is headed. Happy New Year, friends! I wish you each happiness and many unexpectedly good story adventures.

Promos: Stellar Kidlit and Summer Listens

Penguin Random House runs a great website called Brightly. Its purpose is to help parents get the right books into the hands of their kids, hopefully ones that will foster their love of reading. Their newest curated list is 50 Best Books for 11- and 12-Year Olds, created with the help of Rene Kirkpatrick, Children's Book Buyer at one of my lovely local indies, University Book Store. From the site --

Eleven and twelve is a time of big change for kids, both emotionally and physically. Keeping this in mind, our panel of experts selected a wide range of books that will both resonate with the complex lives of preteens as well as educate and entertain them.

The books fall into five categories, including non-fiction, and a brief paragraph explains why each category can inspire and comfort kids at this age. Since Z is 12, I was really interested to take a look at the list and see how we were doing at choosing great reads. He's already read and enjoyed three of the books and I've read some of the others and would love to get them into his hands. This really is a great collection.

You have a chance to win all 50 books from this list (or those for another age range -- The 50 Best Books for 5-and 6-Year-Olds, The 50 Best Books for 7-and 8-Year-Olds, and The 50 Best Books for 9-and 10-Year-Olds) because, in celebration, Brightly is giving away a customized collection of 50 of the best books for the kids in your life. So head over, check out the lists, and enter to win SO many good books!

If free audiobooks for teens sounds like a better fit for your kid, you'll want to check out the SYNC Audiobooks for Teens Program, sponsored by AudioFile Magazine and powered by Overdrive. This program is in its eighth year and it aims to engage teens with "new literature for their earbuds".

SYNC makes available two FREE audiobook downloads every week, to each and every registered listener, all summer. In 2017, 32 titles will be given away through the 16 week-long season. Teens, librarians, club leaders, and educators may sign up for email or text alerts and can learn more at www.audiobooksync.com.
SYNC creates weekly thematic pairings of teen-focused titles to encourage both critical listening and opportunities to make choices and develop personal tastes. During the summer of 2016, the SYNC program gave nearly 172,000 downloads to more than 31,000 participants.
Any individual may participate by downloading the OverDrive App to their device of choice and returning to the SYNC website each Thursday after 7am Eastern Time to download the new audiobook pair for the week. Each title is available for one week only, but once downloaded they can be kept forever, so the opportunity to listen can extend well beyond the term of the summer program.

There are lots of great authors and titles on this summer's list, including some of my favorites--Oscar Wilde, Douglas Adams, and Terry Pratchett.

As you and your kiddos make your summer reading plans, I hope these sources come in handy.

Prepping and planning,
K

Summer Reading!

There are just a couple days left of school and then it's time to relax, go to our favorite family-friendly yoga class, and devour as many books as possible until September! I decided to choose my possible summer reads all at once this year so here they are.

The Devil's Workshop by Alex Grecian
The Boy Who Lost Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente (planning on a whole series reread)
The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers
A Matter of Magic by Patricia Wrede
Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
Fire and Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
The Mistaken Wife by Rose Melikan
Dodger by Terry Pratchett
Resorting to Murder, edited by Martin Edwards
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (for The Estella Project)
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Envious Casca by Georgette Heyer
Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
The Martian by Andy Weir (for The Estella Project)
Angel With Two Faces by Nicola Upson
Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear
The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl
S by Doug Dorst

I also have my 100 Chapter Books Project reads for the summer and I'm going to try and get to Emma for Roof Beam Reader's Austen in August. And I just noticed that I have no non-fiction on this shelf so I have to add one or two of those!

What are you looking forward to reading this summer?

Reading all the books,
K

#amonthoffaves: 5 Fave Post Titles From This Year

The final prompt from A Month of Favorites is to share our Five Favorite (or Most Popular) Blog Posts from the year. I want to be honest with myself and all of you so I have to admit that I didn't have the best blogging year. When I did get posts up (besides a post a day for DWJ March), they were usually quick and to the point. And while I was glad to share some great books with all of you, the posts weren't the most thoughtful or imaginative of my blogging career. I *am* still amused by a couple of my post titles though so here are my ...

Five Favorite Blog Post Titles of 2014

You Said You Would Wait Until the End of the World (The Last Policeman) - 8 April

Sometimes Mere Scales Can Be Beautiful Music (Seraphina) - 10 April

Holy Hiatus, Batman! - 25 May

One Cop, Two Cop (Countdown City, The Yiddish Policemen's Union) - 30 May

A Three-Story Trip Through London (Ten Second Staircase, The Pigeon Pie Mystery, This Other London) - 3 June

I hope you've enjoyed these Favorites posts this month. It's been fun to share so many aspects of my 2014 blogging with you all and I do feel like I've gotten a bit of my blogging mojo back. So I also hope that you all decide to stick around through 2015, while I try to entertain and share even more wonderful books!

Happy New Year's Eve,

K

#amonthoffaves: 5 Hyped Books That Deserved the Hype

Five Hyped Books That Deserved the Hype

All of these books were ones that I heard (almost) nothing but love about before I picked them up. I was hesitant to grab a couple of them for just this reason. But they all turned out to be great reads and I would recommend them myself now.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken was one I somehow missed in my childhood but it still managed to be thrilling and tense when I finally picked it up last year. I still need to read the sequels.

The Supernatural Elements by Edgar Cantero was praised even before it came out for its beautiful cover. The story inside was even more amazing.

Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein was such a smart book but the kids weren't all "nerds" and they still managed to be smart even while liking things like video games. The sequel to the book is coming out soon and Z and I are both excited about it!

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman was just totally unexpected and unique. I am eagerly anticipating the sequel to this one too.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple was crazy but was really fun for a Seattle resident like me to read (it's set in this lovely city). I don't read a lot of modern fiction so it's nice when I give something a chance and end up enjoying it.

And a bonus: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern which I put off until late last year because of the hype and then, of course, loved. This year when I reread it, I loved it even more -- so it managed to outperform my own high praise and thoughts!

Did you join the adoring fandom of a well-loved book this year?

Now a believer,
K

#amonthoffaves: 5 Books I Almost Put Down and I'm Glad I Didn't

Today, I'm talking about Five Books I Almost Put Down and I’m Glad I Didn’t. I only had one DNF this year but there were a few books that I was either hesitant to read in the first place or thought about putting down after starting.

Shada - Douglas Adams and Gareth Roberts
This is the novelization of a 1980 episode of Doctor Who written by Douglas Adams. The episode never came to be due to a strike at the BBC. Though I watch Doctor Who (from the reboot) and love Douglas Adams, I was still hesitant to pick this one up when I saw it at the library. It just seemed too nerdy. BUT! It ended up being a really fun (and strangely visual) read and had some of the seeds for Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, my favorite DA book.

The Glass Sentence - S.E. Grove
This one was highly recommended around the internet but I was having trouble getting into it after the first couple of chapters. LUCKILY!, a short passage dragged me back in and I sped through the rest of the book. Now I'm impatiently waiting for the sequel.

Confessions of a Latter-Day Virgin - Nicole Hardy
I had heard of this book and wasn't super keen on reading it. Then a friend recommended it to me based on some conversations we had AND SO! I picked it up anyway. It ended up giving me a lot of food for thought. It was strange to see some parallels to my own experiences and also to have a few "this could have been my path if I hadn't veered sooner" revelations.

The Ghost in the Electric Blue Suit - Graham Joyce
This one was weird. There were some times where I didn't know what was happening or things went too far away from where I thought they should have been. BUT! this was a review copy so I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. It never ended up being what I thought it should be but it was a good book on its own.

Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder - Jo Nesbø
I really didn't want to buy this book for Z but I had a feeling he would love it. Then he wanted to read it together as his bedtime book. I was super hesitant and ready to just grimace and bear it BUT THEN! it turned out to be a really fun story with lots of adventure and some cool, unconventional friendships and a bit of Norwegian culture. I'm actually looking forward to reading the second book in the series with him this spring.

Which book were you glad you stuck with until the end?

Expanding my horizons,

K

#amonthoffaves: 5 Fave Winter Reads

Today's prompt is Five Favorite Winter Reads, taken from our reading last winter. I feel like I'm getting repetitive with my book mentions though so instead I'm going to share five of my favorite chunksters. Chunksters (which I consider to be books near or over 600 pages long) are the type of book I love reading when all of the hustle and bustle of the holidays is done, there's nothing to entice me out of the house into the frigid air, and the evenings are long and dark.

So, in increasing order of pages ...

Starting at 695 pages,

The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox

Up to 781,

The Quincunx by Charles Palliser

A nudge to 782,

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

A jump to 1024,

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Finally, a pair to top it off at 1168 pages,

Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis

Do you like reading chunksters in the winter? Which is your all time favorite?

Upping the stakes,

K

#amonthoffaves: Top 10 Books That Blew My Mind in 2014

Today's prompt is Top 10 Books That Blew My Mind in 2014. I'm taking this literally and I chose books that have a wow! factor. There were other books this year that I enjoyed but these were the most exciting, the ones I thought about for days, weeks, and months later. Here are my choices with excerpts from my reviews --

The Supernatural Elements - Edgar Cantero

As soon as I finished the book, I went to my reading spreadsheet where I usually record a couple of brief thoughts. All I could come up with was "holy crap". I tweeted this thought and the author himself found my tweet. He asked if it was the sort of crap he should retweet or not. I chuckled and said that it was absolutely the kind to retweet because I loved the book and the end was simply mind-blowing. I didn't see it coming at all. I would love a sequel that just expands the Epilogue.

The Ghost in Love - Jonathan Carroll

... it's about many things and it's hard to describe but believe me when I say that its uniqueness makes it fresh and thought-provoking and beautiful, all in an unusual way -- because this is definitely a strange book and it's not ashamed to be that at all.

The Land of Laughs - Jonathan Carroll

It has been three months since I finished this book but I can't stop thinking about it and I already want to read it again. I can't explain exactly why I loved this book so much because it's really rather strange and sometimes violent and disturbing and the relationships are very dysfunctional and it's about books that I can never read. But it's also about the magic that is in the best stories and what would happen if that magic escaped and took form and that's pretty awesome if frightening.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate - Jacqueline Kelly

I loved this book SO SO SO SO much. I honestly can’t think of a single moment when I wasn’t enjoying it completely. I wish I had marked some passages and taken notes as I read because there were so many small, wonderful parts that all added up to make this a stellar story.

The Final Solution - Michael Chabon

This was such a beautiful meditation on [Sherlock] Holmes and his legacy and his inevitable decline.

Seraphina - Rachel Hartman

I LOVED this book. I loved this book so much that I want to tell you all to read it right now. You don't have to take my word alone for it either. Ask anyone else who has read it. They'll also sing its praises because it's just that good.

Constable & Toop - Gareth P. Jones

It takes a bit of effort at the beginning to get used to switching between multiple narratives (it changes each chapter between three or four story lines) but once you learn patience, it pays off with a story where you find yourself truly caring about the fates of ghosts. Because, though Sam is the main living character of the story, I'm not sure that he's any more important than ghostly paper-pusher Lapsewood, young and transparent rogue Tanner, or the comical and clearly insane Marquis. I can't wait to give this one a reread during a future RIP season.

Murder on the Home Front - Molly Lefebure

I loved Molly and I loved this book. It turns out the the TV series is fictional and just based off of these memoirs (the lead character is called Molly Cooper, I believe) but I'm still looking forward to watching it soon. If it has half the wit of this book (something one certainly doesn't expect when reading about murders), it will be a fun show!

Jackaby - William Ritter

I loved, loved, loved this book. It has some of everything and it is all brought together in an interesting and fun way. Jackaby is smart and amusing and Abigail is brave and also intelligent. But what I loved most is that they still needed each other. Their world views are very different but they are definitely complementary. I'm so excited to see that there is a sequel to Jackaby already in the works.

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern (reread)

I loved the story just as much (if not more) as I did last year.

and, the bonus series, ...
The Last Policeman, Countdown City, and World of Trouble - Ben H. Winters

I didn't expect this series to become one of my all-time favorites but somehow it did. Between the first book (The Last Policeman), the second (Countdown City), and this one, I only spent about four days reading. I just couldn't put these books down. I can't say if it was the sense of urgency of an impending asteroid strike or the need to help Detective Henry Palace find what he was looking for or simply the morbid desire to watch the breakdown of civilized society as the end of the world approached. Whatever it was, this was an incredible ride and I'm sorry it's over.

(Pre-post edit: I already chose all of my books and wrote and scheduled this post and everything and then ... I read what is actually probably my favorite book of the year and it is so WOW! that I still have to process it. So, I'll just drop the title here and then you will have to wait a few days to see my review of it ... The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers.)

Which book blew your mind this year?

Looking forward to a mind-blowing 2015 read or two,

K

#amonthoffaves: Fave New-to-Me Author Discoveries

Today I'll tell you about my Fave New-to-Me Author Discoveries of the year --

Edgar Cantero: Author of The Supernatural Enhancements, Cantero did a great job crafting an epistolary novel where all of the bits gave essential information but none of it was boring or obvious. In fact, he crafted such an amazing NO WAY!! ending that I thought about the possibilities it raised for days. Edgar is from Barcelona (like my beloved Carlos Ruiz Zafón) and I would love to read a book by him that is set there. As this is his first novel, I will be proud to say that I loved his books from the beginning!

Jonathan Carroll: I loved Jonathan Carroll's amazing ideas so much that I ended up reading two of his books in this first year of knowing him -- The Ghost in Love and The Land of Laughs. He's a favorite of Neil Gaiman's and now mine and I look forward to delving more into his back catalog over the next year or so (as I doubt I will be able to wait too long between each book). Carroll is an American living in Vienna.

William Ritter: William Ritter lives much closer to me, in the land to the south that is called Oregon on most maps. Again, Jackaby was his first novel but I hope that he continues the series with the same strong female characters and awesome supernatural details. There was an honesty to the book that you don't always find in genre fiction.

Ben H. Winters: I can't believe that I read all of Ben's Last Policeman books this year because it seems like they've been in my mind forever now. If you've talked to me at all this year about books, I've probably recommended the series to you. I was a bit wary at first because he was the author of Android Karenina and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. I technically read him before with SS&SM but I'm not really counting that because it wasn't completely his own. But, this year, he got me completely invested in a story about an impending apocalypse and about policemen, neither of which are my favorite subjects. I hope that he surprises me again with his next work. (Indiana, if you were wondering ...)

Jo Walton: This is a weird one because I have only read Jo's book of Tor essays about other books -- What Makes This Book So Great. She is, as many surely know, a well-renowned fantasy writer (living in Canada) but I haven't picked up one of her books yet. But the way she wrote about both books I loved and others I haven't yet read, made me decide that she is simply an awesome person and I like the way she thinks. I'll be reading at least one of her own books in the coming year.

I am a little surprised to see that almost all of my choices are males but am somewhat satisfied that they are dispersed so nicely over the globe.

Singing praises,

K

#amonthoffaves: 10 Fave Book Covers

Today I'll be sharing my Ten Favorite Book Covers. These are from books I've read this year though some of them are not new.

What was your favorite book cover to see on your nightstand this year?

Visually,

K

#amonthoffaves: 5 Faves by a Theme

I didn't want to make today's prompt too easy or obvious by going with my favorite Readers Imbibing Peril (RIP) reads or my favorite DWJs from the year (which were mostly rereads anyway) so I've decided to go with ...

Five Favorite Chapter Books That I Read for the First Time in 2014

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein

The Glass Sentence by S.E. Grove

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

and

The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones and Ursula Jones

I'll also add as a bonus The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander because I read four of the five books this year and I loved the series.

Feeding the kid inside,

K

Why Do They Keep Sending Me Lists?!?

random sunset photo by k

My email inbox has recently been torturing me as list after list drops in, taunting me with my incomplete reading canon. Okay, so maybe it's not that horrifying but lists always make me reevaluate my book choices and celebrate those ones that I have already read.

First up was Book Depository's The Best Kids' Books Ever. There are 99 books, broken down into about 20 books per age group--0-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, and teen/YA. Some fabulous books are on these lists, both old and new titles and a few that I definitely want to add to my TBR (mostly from the 9-12 list).

Next, was Amazon's 100 Children's Books to Read in a Lifetime. This was the list I was most skeptical of but it's actually a beautifully-crafted list with a brief description of why each book made it to the list. I've read 74 of the books and I don't really disagree with any of them. They're good classics with a few newer ones sprinkled in. Some of the books are seemingly on the list for nostalgic reasons (ones like Hardy Boys and Pat the Bunny) but none of them are bad books either.

And finally, I got Powell's 25 Books to Read Before You Die. This is an interesting list of, not classics, but books that have "the ability to change the way you think and feel and reflects our diverse interests here at Powell's". I've only read five of these books on the list but they are definitely game-changer type books and, probably not coincidentally, five of my favorite books.

So, if you're in the mood for a book list, either to look for a great gift for a kid in your life or to broaden your own reading horizons, dive in!

Sharing the obsession,
K

Another Book List to Obsess Over: Best of the 19th Century Brits

Flavorwire posted this list of The 50 Greatest British Novels of the 19th Century last month and, since this is obviously a period and place from which I choose many of my reads, I wanted to know how I was doing on finding "the best". (Bold are the titles I've read.)

1. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
2. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
3. Middlemarch - George Eliot
4. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
5. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
6. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
7. Persuasion - Jane Austen
8. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
9. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
10. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
11. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
12. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
13. The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot
14. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
15. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
16. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
17. The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
18. Alice Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
19. Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
20. A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
21. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
22. Vivian Grey - Benjamin Disraeli
23. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Brontë
24. Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad
25. The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells
26. Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
27. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
28. Dracula - Bram Stoker
29. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
30. Wives and Daughters - Elizabeth Gaskell
31. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
32. The Light That Failed - Rudyard Kipling
33. Rob Roy - Sir Walter Scott
34. Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell
35. Agnes Grey - Anne Brontë
36. New Grub Street - George Gissing
37. Coningsby - Benjamin Disraeli
38. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
39. Emma - Jane Austen
40. Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott
41. Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson
42. The Last Days of Pompeii - Edward Bulwer-Lytton
43. Windsor Castle - William Harrison Ainsworth
44. Mary Barton - Elizabeth Gaskell
45. The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green - Cuthbert M. Bede
46. The Return of the Native - Thomas Hardy
47. Sybil, or The Two Nations - Benjamin Disraeli
48. Villette - Charlotte Brontë
49. Nicholas Nickelby - Charles Dickens
50. The Wanderer or, Female Difficulties - Fanny Burney

Okay, so I've read 22 of the 50 on this list--just under half--and have another three sitting on my TBR shelves. BUT, I am not totally loving this list. Why are there three books from Benjamin Disraeli on the list and only one from Wilkie Collins? Where is Lady Audley's Secret? Why is Wuthering Heights so much higher than Pride and Prejudice? Who is Cuthbert M. Bede?

I know I need to eventually read some Thomas Hardy but some of the others on this list are ones I probably won't ever pick up (The Last Days of Pompeii).

What do you think of this list? Can you think of any major omissions (author or novel)? Is there one of these that I haven't read that you think I should get to ASAP?

Always in the mood for a little list action,

K

My Series in Progress (or On Bookshelf)

I am currently reading so many series that I've officially lost track. Even though they are listed on LibraryThing, it's not in a format that works in my brain and they include a lot of books that aren't really what I think of as in a series. Consequently, I'm composing this list of Series in Progress and I think I'll make it a tab on the top of the blog so that I can keep it current. I'm including any series that I'm not finished with (or haven't started yet) and any that I'm caught up with but should be continuing in the future.

(Warning: Prepare to be shocked. There are 36 (!) series listed, only six of which I am caught up with. I even left off a couple that I own one book of but am not sure I will ever start.)

Erast Fandorin by Boris Akunin
Books in series: 11
Books owned: 5
Books read: 5
Remaining books: 6 (The State Counsellor, The Coronation, She Lover of Death, He Lover of Death, The Diamond Chariot, The Jade Rosary)

Sister Pelagia Mysteries by Boris Akunin
Books in series: 3
Books owned: 3
Books read: 2
Remaining books: 1 (Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel)

Flavia de Luce Mysteries by Alan Bradley
Books in series: 5
Books owned: 5 (1 ARC to replace with hardcover)
Books read: 5
Remaining books: 0

The Montmaray Journals by Michelle Cooper
Books in series: 3
Books owned: 1
Books read: 1
Remaining books: 2 (The FitzOsbornes in Exile, The FitzOsbornes at War)

The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper
Books in series: 5
Books owned: 5
Books read: 2
Remaining books: 3 (Greenwitch, The Grey King, Silver on the Tree)

Mollisan Town Quartet by Tim Davys
Books in series: 4
Books owned: 4
Books read: 3
Remaining books: 1 (Yok)

Swann Family Saga by R.F. Delderfield
Books in series: 3
Books owned: 2
Books read: 1
Remaining books: 2 (Theirs Was the Kingdom, Give Us This Day)

Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
Books in series: 3
Books owned: 3
Books read: 0
Remaining books: 3 (The Tea Rose, The Winter Rose, The Wild Rose)

Chronicles of Kazam by Jasper Fforde
Books in series: 2
Books owned: 2
Books read: 1
Remaining books: 1 (The Song of the Quarkbeast)

Nursery Crimes by Jasper Fforde
Books in series: 2
Books owned: 2
Books read: 2
Remaining books: 0

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Books in series: 1
Books owned: 1
Books read: 1
Remaining books: 0

Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde
Books in series: 7
Books owned: 7
Books read: 7
Remaining books: 0

Charles Lenox Mysteries by Charles Finch
Books in series: 6
Books owned: 5
Books read: 5
Remaining books: 1 (A Death in the Small Hours)

Bryant and May by Christopher Fowler
Books in series: 10
Books owned: 5
Books read: 0
Remaining books: 10 (Full Dark House, The Water Room, Seventy-Seven Clocks, Ten-Second Staircase, White Corridor, The Victoria Vanishes, Bryant & May on the Loose, Bryant & May Off the Rails, The Memory of Blood, Bryant & May and the Invisible Code)

Believer Columns by Nick Hornby
Books in series: 4
Books owned: 2
Books read: 0
Remaining books: 4 (The Polysyllabic Spree, Housekeeping vs. the Dirt, Shakespeare Wrote for Money, More Baths Less Talking)

Jackelian by Stephen Hunt
Books in series: 6
Books owned: 1
Books read: 0
Remaining books: 6 (The Court of the Air, The Kingdom Beyond the Waves, The Rise of the Iron Moon, Secrets of the Fire Sea, Jack Cloudie, From the Deep of the Dark)

Shades of London by Maureen Johnson
Books in series: 2
Books owned: 1
Books read: 0
Remaining books: 2 (The Name of the Star, The Madness Underneath)


Mary Russell by Laurie R. King
Books in series: 12
Books owned: 2
Books read: 0
Remaining books: 12 (The Beekeeper's Apprentice, A Monstrous Regiment of Women, A Letter of Mary, The Moor, O Jerusalem, Justice Hall, The Game, Locked Rooms, The Language of Bees, The God of the Hive, Pirate King, Garment of Shadows)


The Agency by Y.S. Lee
Books in series: 3 (4th is scheduled)
Books owned: 2
Books read: 2
Remaining books: 1 (The Traitor and the Tunnel)

The Wicked Years by Gregory Maguire
Books in series: 4
Books owned: 4
Books read: 2
Remaining books: 2 (A Lion Among Men, Out of Oz)

Newbury and Hobbes by George Mann
Books in series: 3
Books owned: 3
Books read: 0
Remaining books: 3 (The Affinity Bridge, The Osiris Ritual, The Immortality Engine)

Mary Finch by Rose Melikan
Books in series: 3
Books owned: 3
Books read: 1
Remaining books: 2 (The Counterfeit Guest, The Mistaken Wife)

Bas-Lag by China Miéville
Books in series: 3
Books owned: 2
Books read: 0
Remaining books: 3 (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council)

Zamonia by Walter Moers
Books in series: 5
Books owned: 3
Books read: 1
Remaining books: 4 (Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures, The City of Dreaming Books, The Alchemaster's Apprentice, The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books)

Porfiry Petrovich by R.N. Morris
Books in series: 4
Books owned: 4
Books read: 3
Remaining books: 1 (The Cleansing Flames)

The Adventures of Captain Alatriste by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Books in series: 6 (in English)
Books owned: 6
Books read: 3
Remaining books: 3 (The King's Gold, The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet, Pirates of the Levant)

Amelia Peabody by Elizabeth Peters
Books in series: 19
Books owned: 19
Books read: 19
Remaining books: 0

Mobile Library Mysteries by Ian Sansom
Books in series: 4
Books owned: 3
Books read: 1
Remaining books: 3 (Mr. Dixon Disappears, The Book Stops Here, The Bad Book Affair)

Books of Beginning by John Stephens
Books in series: 2
Books owned: 2
Books read: 1
Remaining books: 1 (The Fire Chronicle)

Barker & Llewellyn by Will Thomas
Books in series: 5
Books owned: 1
Books read: 0
Remaining books: 5 (Some Danger Involved, To Kingdom Come, The Limehouse Text, The Hellfire Conspiracy, The Black Hand)

Bess Crawford by Charles Todd
Books in series: 4
Books owned: 2
Books read: 0
Remaining books: 4 (A Duty to the Dead, An Impartial Witness, A Bitter Truth, An Unmarked Grave)

The Girl Who by Catherynne M. Valente
Books in series: 2
Books owned: 2
Books read: 1
Remaining books: 1 (The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There)

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Books in series: 3
Books owned: 3
Books read: 0
Remaining books: 3 (Leviathan, Behemoth, Goliath)

Oxford Time Travel by Connie Willis
Books in series: 4
Books owned: 4
Books read: 3
Remaining books: 1 (The Doomsday Book)

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Books in series: 10
Books owned: 7
Books read: 6
Remaining books: 4 (The Mapping of Love and Death, A Lesson in Secrets, Elegy for Eddie, Leaving Everything Most Loved)

The Cemetery of Forgotten Books by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Books in series: 3
Books owned: 3
Books read: 3
Remaining books: 0


Now I all of a sudden want to make a list of authors that I'm working through. My TBR is going to explode! In the meantime, I think I might have found a goal to add for this year -- catch up with more of these series.

Organize, read, repeat,
K