Reading in 2024 - October!

1.  The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue, V.E. Schwab (audio) - This is easily one of my top 10 favorite books, and this is probably the third time I've read it.  (Pretty amazing since it just came out in 2020.)  I've been craving some good fall rereads, though, and this was first up on the list.  Addie will forever be a favorite character, and her story will always inspire me to think about ways in which to leave my own mark.  Funny thing....I think of this as a great fall read - something about it screams autumn to me - but it's actually set in the spring and summer.  Making this mama happy, my 21 year old asked me if I had a physical copy she could borrow.  This is a kid who never used to take recommendations from me, and it tickles me that she's decided to read my favorite book!  

2.  The Priory of the Orange Tree, Samantha Shannon - I liked it, but I didn't love it.  This has been in my potential TBR queue forever, but I hadn't picked it up because I was getting such conflicting reviews.  However, given that in the last year more and more I've been leaning towards really long, immersive fantasy, I felt it was finally time to try it.  So the good.  I did really find a lot of the characters to be engaging.  The central love story was sweet with an ending I enjoyed despite not being the typical happily ever after.  Dragons are always awesome.  The politics and central religious themes were fairly well thought out.  The overall plot was good.  The bad.  The pacing was really off.  It took forever for anything to happen, and then a lot of stuff happened really fast, and then I was trying to figure out how they were going to wrap it all up with relatively so few pages left.  It was actually kind of difficult to track how much time was passing because of that.  I could not have cared less about the bad guy(s) (who bizarrely weren't all that menacing).  There were a lot of characters thrown in kind of late in the game.  The writing got kind of repetitive.  All in all, I'm glad I finally read it - but I'm super not surprised that it took so long to read.  (Over two weeks, well beyond my normal range for a book of this length.)   

3.  The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, Sangu Mandanna - I actually had this on hold at the library, but then iBooks put it on sale, so I decided to take a risk.  It was exactly what was needed after the last book - a cozy romantasy that was as sweet as can be and was quick and easy to digest.  Found family will forever be my favorite trope, and there was just the right amount of whimsy in this book.  

4.  The Honey Witch, Sydney J. Shields - Also on sale at iBooks, I'd seen it around for a while and decided it was worth the sale price to try it.  I'd say this is a step beyond cozy fantasy because there were some high stakes at the end.  I love that it was a mash up of historical and fantasy romance.  Loved the LGBTQ+ representation.  Maybe thought the honey magic was a bit too sticky sweet at times.  (ha, ha...)  

5.  The Spellshop, Sarah Beth Durst - Another cozy fantasy, this time a recommendation from BookTok that was actually worthwhile.  Our main character is quite the prickly introvert librarian when the book starts, and so immediately I loved her and identified with her.  Perhaps it was a bit too whimsical at times...but this is exactly the sort of book I need right now, so I don't care!  

6.  Life After Life, Kate Atkinson (audio) - My second fall reread, I still love this book as much as I did when I first read it.  A child is born, and immediately dies.  And then she is born and dies again and again and again.  I love Ursula, for all that she's a different person in so many of her different iterations.  I know this book well enough to know which sections are hard to get through, where I'm waiting for her to die so that she can have a new chance, and which sections I'm rooting for her to keep going.  This book asks all sorts of questions about the delicate balance life is - and about how differently things can go with even the smallest of changes.  

7.  A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher (audio and print) - The most recent Kingfisher book, a retelling of the Brothers Grimm story, the Goose Girl.  I had preordered it because I love Kingfisher, but I'd delayed reading it because the Goose Girl isn't my favorite.  Silly me, I loved it.  Of course, I'm a sucker whenever there's a book with a middle-aged main female character/POV who's smart and fiesty. Hester is a new favorite, and I'm grateful for the way she balanced out the story.  Also, Kingfisher twisted the details from the original story enough to make it something new, which was delightful.  

8.  A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher - I'm telling you, the world is crazy enough that all I want right now is cozy fantasy.  Utterly charmed by Mona's POV.  She's smart and just the right amount of sassy and very, very 14 in all that entails.  Plenty of humor, maybe a smidge too YA (I adore YA, but this book read pretty young), higher stakes than expected, and Kingfisher's signature quality storytelling.

Unfinished: 

1. Tidal Creatures, Seanan McGuire - A rare confession - I hated this book.  Tried to read it twice, and just thought it was awful.  And I love McGuire, and faithfully read everything she's written.  This is the third book in her Alchemical Journeys series, which has honestly not been my favorite because I find it a bit overly complicated.  I get it, McGuire tries to do different things with her different series, and this is her more "literary" work.  But darn it, I should be able to follow along with the plot and she shouldn't need to constantly explain everything in order for it to kind of make sense.  Giving up on this book was a relief.  

2.  The Bright Sword, Lev Grossman - I really wanted to like this book.  A fresh take on the Arthurian legend, sounds great!  But - sigh - in what should be a surprise to no one, it's just too much of a boy book for me.  What is a boy book, you ask?  Written by a man and/or focused on male/male identifying characters and/or centered around plot devices and themes that are primarily of interest to a male audience.  Yeah.  So not my cup of tea.  I'll give it this, the writing was good and the inclusion of some LGBT themes was an interesting addition.