Karen's 2024 Reading (karspeak)

My name is Karen (karspeak), and this will be my 6th year in CR and 12th on LT. I am a public school speech pathologist in the Florida Panhandle. I'm married with two sons, ages 14 and 17, with the eldest heading into his senior year this fall. I read a lot of genre fiction, particularly fantasy and sci-fi, plus some general/literary fiction and some nonfiction, usually science-based. Dark/depressing realistic fiction is my least favorite. I follow a lot of threads on CR religiously but rarely comment. You all provide me with most of my reading list suggestions, for which I am very grateful!

I end up skimming or ditching a lot of books because they aren't grabbing me or seem to drag on. Or I will read the first book or first few books in a series to appreciate the world building, then jump to the last book in the series and skim it to see how the plot wraps up.

Skimmed/DNF
--Defiant--4th and final book in the Skyward series, could have been a better conclusion
--A Little Too Familiar--supernatural love story, meh
--Happy Place--cute but forgettable rom-com for book club
--This Thing of Darkness (4th Fiona Griffiths)
--The Dead House: Midnight (5th Fiona Griffiths)

--The Deepest Grave (6th Fiona Griffiths)
--Charmed Life
--The Burning Witch 2
--Babel
--Within the Sanctuary of Wings (final bk in Natural History of Dragons)

--Terminal Uprising
--Terminal Peace
--Illuminations
--Yellowface
--Troubled Waters

--A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting
--Summon the Keeper
--Armed & Magical
--All Spell Breaks Loose
--Check & Mate

--Bookshops & Bonedust
--Edge of Collapse
--Marked by Magic
--Dead Witch Walking
--Finder

--Bloodring
--Calamity
--Novice

Welcome back for another year of Club Read, Karen. I wish we had gotten to know each other before I left the panhandle. We could have had a meetup at Sundog Books in Seaside!

Look forward to seeing what fantasy and science fiction titles I will catch from you this year.

I'm looking forward to following your reading in 2024!

>5 labfs39: Thanks, Lisa! I know, it's a shame! As others have mentioned, thanks for organizing our group, so that those of us living far apart can still discuss books:). I've already starred your new thread (as I do every year).

>6 markon: Thanks, Ardene! I've already starred your new thread (as I do every year).

>7 chlorine: Thanks!

Welcome back Karen. Wish you a great 2024. And good luck with college searches.

1. Talking to the Dead (LT rec)
2. Love Story, with Murders (2nd in series)
3. The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths (3rd in series)

These Fiona Griffiths books were a fun way to start the year. There are currently 6 in the series. They follow a Welsh police detective named Fiona Griffiths who also has some psych issues. Well done. In some ways Fiona reminds me of Murderbot--very logical and smarter than those around her, but trying to figure out her own emotions and what it means to be human.

>9 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan!

>10 karspeak: I'm not into crime fiction but "reminds me of Murderbot" is a nice recommentation! These sound interesting.

I like the Fiona Griffiths series too - just finished the final one in December.

>12 chlorine: These books are definitely police procedurals, so I wouldn't read them if you don't care for that genre. Even with the Murderbot comparison enticement;)

>13 wandering_star: I probably heard about them from your thread; so, thanks! I particularly appreciated her ability to see quickly and clearly through people's words and niceties to their underlying intentions.

4. A Natural History of Dragons
This was a fun read. It's almost an alternate history--it's set in a world very similar to our 1800s, except dragon species do exist. An English-ish lady longs to study dragons, but the conventions of the day are stifling her.

>15 karspeak: It is absolutely an alternate history - I don't recall if it was visible so much in the first book, but the one problem I had with the series was remembering which random name more-or-less corresponded to which actual country (as you say, there's English-ish...and India-ish and China-ish and ...). Excellent stories, though, all of them.

>15 karspeak: and >16 jjmcgaffey: I enjoyed this series a lot but every now and again I would get annoyed because she didn't really build her own world (well except for the dragon bits) she simply renamed Earth countries and cultures and it was distracting. I almost would have preferred if it was an outright alternative history.

>16 jjmcgaffey: and >17 rhian_of_oz: I skimmed the final two books in the series. I'm not sure what I thought about the ending--what did you think?

5. Terminal Alliance (LT rec)
Comedic, light, clever space opera involving a snarky AI, various alien races, and humans who can turn zombie-ish when infected with a biological weapon.

>18 karspeak: This sounds like a fun book! :) I see that some reviews compare it to Scalzi's work.
Do you often follow LT recommendations? I've had so-so luck with them so far.

>18 karspeak: I read Within the Sanctuary of Wings in May 2022 and have very little memory of it which suggests to me that I neither loved or hated it and that it likely met whatever expectations I had of it. (It might also be because that was my first semester back at uni and I likely had a lot of assessments due!)

Throughout the series we know that Lady Trent is very famous and if I'd thought about it I possibly could've predicted what her discovery would be, but these weren't books that I thought too hard about 🙂.

I've just discovered that my library has Turning Darkness into Light so I'm going to add it to the wishlist for when I want a bit of fun escapism.

>19 chlorine: Yes, I agree that it was Scalzi-ish in humor. Oh, I am probably mis-using the term "LT recommendation." I just mean that I got the idea from someone else's thread, not from the recommendations generated by the site based on my reading history (which I haven't updated in years!).

6. House of Flame and Shadow
The third and final book in the Crescent City trilogy. It did a nice job wrapping everything up, even if I didn't like it quite as much as the first two books.

7. First Lie Wins (book club selection)
This was a good pool/beach read. It reminded me somewhat of Ocean's 11, with con artists playing the short and long games. There were some minor plot flaws or holes, but still fun.

8. The Poppy War
Whoa. This is an "epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic." This is the first in a trilogy. I liked the fantasy aspects and world-building, and the incorporation of Chinese culture and history. The section of the book that mirrored the Nanjing Massacre was very horrific, as you might imagine, as were some other parts. The ending made me change from liking the main character to really disliking her, so I won't continue with the series.

9. How the World Really Works (nonfiction)
The author Vaclav Smil is a scientist and policy analyst, particularly for energy studies. Bill Gates is a huge admirer of Smil's. I read Gates' book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster a few years ago, and I realize now that the most interesting (to me) parts of it were drawn directly from Smil's work. Smil is a science and numbers guy, and he does not see a way for the world to rapidly move away from dependence on fossil fuels for what he calls "the four pillars of modern civilization": ammonia (for fertilizer), plastics, steel, and concrete. In Smil's chapter on "Understanding the Environment," he lists the nine categories of critical biospheric boundaries: climate change, ocean acidification, depletion of stratospheric ozone, atmospheric aerosols, interference in nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, freshwater use, land use changes, biodiversity loss, and various forms of chemical pollution. But then he states that he will "focus on just a few key existential parameters...--breathing, drinking, and eating." Hmm.
Smil is highly informative on the topics that he has studied for decades, namely the energy needs for a growing (or stagnating) society. He is also good at analyzing data sets. But I was hoping for much more information and insight on various issues involved with global warming and our environment. And I was really disappointed with the way he brushed by those topics, especially biodiversity loss.

>21 karspeak: Your comments on The Poppy War brought to mind the Chung Kuo series. It's alternate history/science fiction, where China rules a truly horrific world. A friend gave them to me, so I powered through the first five, but it was a chore and not one I would recommend.

>22 labfs39: I hadn't heard of that series. Good to know; it definitely doesn't sound like something I'd enjoy.

Good reading Karen. I’m intrigued by The Poppy War.

>21 karspeak: >24 dchaikin: I started The poppy war but didn't get into it enought that I wanted to finish. I do wonder if the development of the main character follows an arc of it's easier to start a revolution than to escape from the patterns of control & repression that many regimes use.

I did read and like last year's Babel: or the necessity of violence by the same author.

10. Dark Currents
Cute, light urban fantasy. Not bad, not particularly memorable.

11. The Red: First Light
Military sci-fi in the near future with a particularly interesting and believable premise. Difficulties with AI and the industrial military complex arise, affecting one spec ops soldier, in particular. This was all well done: the fight scenes, the imagined near-future technology, the ambiguity of knowing whose intel to listen to and what to do about it, and the big business interests behind battles and wars. I read lots of reviews of the second and third books in the trilogy, and it sounds like there is never a clear resolution for the main character or the broader plot, which disappointed quite a few readers. I think I'll pass (as I often do) on the rest of the series, but I'm glad I read this first one.

12. Lady Tan's Circle of Women (book club)
This historical novel is inspired by the true story of a woman physician in 15th century China. I read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan many years ago, by this same author, and I remember that I enjoyed it. But this book didn't work for me. The main character seemed to tout the Confucian party line too much and always seemed a little cold or unbelievable to me.

13. Outcast: The Grey Gates
14. Called: The Grey Gates
15. Hunted: The Grey Gates
16. Forged: The Grey Gates
17. Chosen: The Grey Gates
This was a fun 5-book urban fantasy series. Different layers and aspects of the plot were revealed across all of the books, so it kept me engaged. There was a lot of shooting and fighting the bad guys (demons, etc). The final book was a bit weak, but the series was still entertaining overall.

>27 karspeak: I read Shanghai Girls by Lisa See some time ago and haven't felt compelled to read more by her, despite owning two more of her books.

18. The Library of the Dead
"A fast-paced, future-set Edinburgh thriller. (It) mixes magical mysteries with a streetwise style of writing" (The Times). I enjoyed this, but I'm not sure I'll continue with the series.

19. An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors
“Curtis Craddock's debut is a grand tale of intrigue, adventure, and gaslight fantasy in the tradition of Alexander Dumas” (Charles Stross). It has some steampunk aspects, as well. The complex political intrigues were particularly well done.

Finally logging in my reading. I've been doing a lot of skimming, but I do have 2 books to list.

20. The Grendel Affair
Cute, fun urban fantasy. The first in the SPI Files series.
Like Men in Black but with magic instead of aliens.

21. Magic Lost, Trouble Found
Same author as the above book, but different series. This was the first in the Raine Benares series. Fun, fast-paced fantasy with some mystery solving and lots of action and good guys teaming up against the baddies. Not amazing, but fun. I skimmed #2 and #6, to see how everything wrapped up.

Heh. I've read several of the Raine Benares series - 1-4 or 5, I think. I should finish it, and check out her urban fantasy. She writes pretty well (fluff, but good fluff).

>31 jjmcgaffey: "She writes pretty well (fluff, but good fluff)"--I agree. I think there are 10 Raine Benares books out now. But #6 completes the main plot arc of books 1-6, then 7-10 follow various character/storyline offshoots. I still followed book #6 just fine even though I had skipped 3-5 (although I did read the plot summary blurbs on Amazon).

The Grendel Affair sounds like fun as I don't mind a bit of well written fluff.

22. The Women (book club selection)
This is currently #1 on Amazon's fiction charts. I was mixed on this novel about a female nurse during and after the Vietnam War. On one hand, it was very emotionally affecting. But I also felt like the author had a list of topics, issues, and historical events that she wanted to squeeze in, and it often felt forced, contrived, or overdone. My mom was a US Army nurse in Vietnam (Cam Ranh Bay), so I enjoyed talking to her about various aspects of the book after I finished reading it.

23. The Book That Wouldn't Burn
This was a very creative fantasy novel with an especially inventive plot, but it also seemed too long. It's the first in a trilogy.

24. Light from Uncommon Stars
This novel was a 2022 Hugo nominee. It's kind of a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, and it's set in present-day Los Angeles. There was one plot flaw at the end which bugged me, but otherwise I really enjoyed it. Lots of themes were explored, and it particularly highlighted the fears/struggles of a young transgender violin student.

Interesting reading. Too bad How the World Really Works didn't fully deliver.

>34 karspeak: I agree that The Book That Wouldn't Burn was long but couldn't identify what could easily be cut. Plus I was prepared to give it a pass due to it being the first book.

Light From Uncommon Stars sounds interesting so I'm adding it to my wishlist. My local library doesn't have a physical copy but there's a reasonable chance my favourite bookshop will have it.

>34 karspeak: My daughter picked up The Women, and since I'm interested in the topic, I was thinking of reading it. I didn't care for the one Kristin Hannah book I read, however, so I'm not rushing. "forced, contrived, or overdone" does not make me think I need to hurry.