75 Books in 2017 (Anri)

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So it's been awhile! 5 years, to be exact.
One of my New Year's resolutions was to read 75 books this year. I wasn't originally going to document it on here, but I got nostalgic and started looking through old threads, and whaddaya know here I am again.

This year, I'm also trying to read a more diverse range of books, so I've come up with 7 categories, which ideally I'd read 10 books each in (the additional 5 would be floaters AKA I know I'm going to want to reread some Diana Wynn Jones or Garth Nix).

The categories are:
Nonfiction
1. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
2. Yes Chef by Marcus Samuelsson
3. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
4. Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
5. Heat by Bill Buford
6. Unspeakable Things by Laurie Penny

Books about an LGBT+ main character or by an LGTB+ author (if it's a main character, their identity has to be explicit) (specifically, I'm really looking for some books about bi girls/women)
1. When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
2. Ash by Malinda Lo

Books about a POC main character or by a POC author
1. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
2. Underground Airlines by Ben Winters
3. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
4. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
5. Reef by Romesh Gunesekera
6. Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea

"Award-winning" - I left this one purposely vague, and I'm intending for it to mainly be award-winning contemporary fiction, but it'll also kind of just function as a flex category.
1. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
2. The Gathering by Anne Enright
3. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Mystery
1. The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
2. The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
3. In the Woods by Tana French
4. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
5. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
6. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
7. The Bee-Keeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King
8. A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King
9. A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King

Fantasy & Scifi - lol as though 5 was going to be enough for the whole year. Another semi-flex category, since I know the things I'll likely be rereading will fall into this one.
1. Clariel by Garth Nix
2. The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
3. The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett
4. Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
5. Making Money by Terry Pratchett
6. To Hold the Bridge by Garth Nix
7. Westmark by Lloyd Alexander
8. In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente

My Favs Favs - I'm not sure how well this category will work, but the idea is to ask 10 of my best friends what their favorite book is, and try to read them all. I've already gotten a couple that'll be rereads, but hopefully they'll be some good ones in here too.
1. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
2. The Foretelling by Alice Hoffman

Floaters
1. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
2. Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
3. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
4. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
5. The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild
6. Honeybee: a collection of poems about letting go by Trista Mateer
7. The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace
8. Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
9. Our Bodies and Other Fine Machines by Natalie Wee

Total: 45/75

I've already crowd-sourced Facebook for suggestions, but if anyone has some recommendations, let me know! Especially for #2 and #5, or if you have anything fantasy that fits #2 or #3!

Happy reading in 2017, Anri!

Welcome back!

>2 FAMeulstee: >3 drneutron: Thanks! Excited

1. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
First book off the year is done!
Wao is a book that I've been meaning to read since senior year of high school. On the surface, it's got all the elements to make it work perfectly for me - it's a story about diaspora and trauma and how family history is tied to cultural history, with a witty and unique style, magical realism, frequent references to nerd culture, and it uses footnotes everywhere. I love footnotes!
Unfortunately, all those elements don't end up coalescing into something more for me. I spent the final third of the book wishing I were done so I could read something else, but I'm not really sure what was wrong with it. I think some of it may have to do with the length of the novel vs. how many characters it tries to explore - I just didn't end up feeling like I was getting a lot of depth to most of them. It could also be related to how personal interactions with guys like Oscar run counter to trying to sympathize with him as a character. Or maybe it's just that I don't understand Spanish, so I spent an inordinate amount of time looking up words and sentences. I don't know though.
I did appreciate the intro into Dominican history. I'd gotten a little bit of the Haitian side of the 1937 massacre with Edwidge Danticat's The Farming of Bones, but beyond a general knowledge of Trujillo, I didn't know much. If anyone has suggestions about other books, non-fiction or fiction, about that period of time in the Dominican Republic, let me know!

2. The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
I finished this a week ago or so, but haven't had a chance to talk about it until now.
I'd read Fforde's other series, starting with The Eyre Affair before, and though I don't really remember the details of the plot, I did enjoy them. The Big Over Easy had a lot of the same elements that I remember from The Eyre Affair - a lot of references, some absurdism, a unique concept and world. The bare bones plot summary is that in this world, detectives like Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple are real. Police detectives publish accounts of their cases, and can achieve stardom. Within this is Jack Spratt, who heads the Nursery Crimes Division, and Mary Mary, his DS; the story opens with the death of Humpty Dumpty, and follows the two detectives as they try to solve his murder.

I liked this book, and I'll be reading the next one, but I'm not sure I like it as much as The Eyre Affair. The book satirizes the fact that many fictional detective stories have a least one, maybe two, times when the case seems solved - it's a trope seen in most detective TV shows as well. That means that at least three times, different suspects confess, only for their confession to end up being attempted murder, not the actual murder. It was engaging, but also slightly overwhelming.

3. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Station Eleven opens with the death of an actor named Arthur Leander onstage during a production of King Lear. That same night, a deadly and highly contagious flu-like disease begins to spread across the globe. Twenty years later, a traveling show moves between human settlements, performing Shakespeare for those who survive.
The book flips between four different characters, all connected to Arthur in some way, and their lives in the years before the flu, the immediate aftermath, and twenty years after it began.
This was a great book, but a very (emotionally) heavy read. I loved it, but I don't think I'll be reading it again anytime soon. It's one of those books that makes you think about the people you love, and what has meaning for you in life. Just a lot of emotional stuff.

4. The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
A bit of a lighter read to follow-up Station Eleven's heavy hitter; this is the second in the Nursery Crimes Division, and my opinion of it is a bit similar to the first book - lots of twists and turns and weird leads, some play with narrative conventions, etc., etc. Additionally, considering that the idea of a fourth bear doesn't get introduced until much later in the plot, it's a bit odd that the title gives it away so early.
(Also, I won't lie, the whole Ashley-Mary date subplot was very odd, and maybe a little uncomfortable?)

5. In the Woods by Tana French
I was really excited about this book. It starts with a story of three children who go into the woods in 1984; only one comes out, and he is found with blood soaked into his shoes, unable to remember anything that happened to him. Flash-forward 20 years, and he's a detective in the same area when he and his partner happen to get a case involving the killing of a dead girl, found in the same woods.
The book was well-written and creepy, hinting at just the right amount of inexplicable with the previous case; I really getting into it when Cassie and Ryan hooked up, and that was it. After that moment I ceased to care about Ryan as a character, and the rest of the book failed to live up to its initial promise. There was no closure on what happened to Ryan in the woods, and honestly, the surprise twist that the sister was a psychopath wasn't all that surprising. The final third of the book was a chore to get through - I read/watch mysteries because I like resolution, and this book unfortunately didn't give me much of that. I'm undecided on if I'll be reading the next book.

6. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
A quick read, but one that I'll be revisiting. A memoir by a neurosurgeon who was about to complete his training when he's diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. It's as heavy as it sounds, with Kalanithi spending a lot of time discussing his philosophy on life. This was probably a perfect time for me to first read this book, as I struggle to figure out what exactly I should be doing with my life.

7. Underground Airlines by Ben Winters
A great read. Set in a contemporary America, with one major exception: the Civil War was never fought, and slavery still exists in four states called the Hard Four. It follows Victor, a former slave who now works for the US Marshalls tracking down runaways as a condition of his freedom.

8. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
A short volume of poetry, split into four sections (the hurting, the loving, the breaking, the healing). I know this has been pretty hyped, and I'm not sure that it fully lived up to that. There were certain poems that I really was able to connect with, but also quite a few that didn't do much for me, particularly in the last section. It was given as a gift though, so I'm hoping that as I revisit it, it improves.

9. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
I started this one on a recommendation from the same friend who recommended Station Eleven, and I have to say I didn't love it.
The novel is centered around a main character whose name I honestly can't remember, who begins working in a 24-Hour bookstore. Of course, the bookstore has weird clientele, and a mysterious owner, and you can imagine how it spirals from there.
Unfortunately, I really didn't care about the main character, and the whole thing mostly felt like the author had based each of his characters on one of his friends? It felt very self-insert. In addition, plotwise the book also didn't cut it - it built to a big reveal and then the end result felt extremely cliche.
(honestly, I think I was hoping for something more similar in feel to the movie Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium - and that was not what this book was about. Anyone else remember that movie? I feel like it's one of those weird movies that weren't bad and were like vaguely okay, but that everyone just collectively forgets about. Like, Natalie Portman and Dustin Hoffman were in that movie, and I never see it referenced anywhere.)

10. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
A reread. This is Jasper Fforde's other main series, centered around a woman name Thursday Next. Much like in his other series, this book is set in an alternate reality in which England and Russia are still in the midst of the Crimean War, and literary crimes are a thing that are investigated by a branch of law enforcement called LiteraTecs. When someone begins stealing original manuscripts and kidnapping characters from within them, Thursday is in charge of figuring out who's behind it.
My memory wasn't wrong - I did enjoy the Thursday novels more than the Nursery Crimes ones. They're a little less frantic-feeling, and I think the literature jokes are more up my alley than the detective-trope ones were. I'm excited to continue with the series.

11. The Foretelling by Alice Hoffman
Finished this in one sitting; it's a short book. This one was a friend's pick for favorite, it's YA, and it's about a society of Amazonian-like women who ride horses and battle anyone who crosses them. I won't be reading it again, but it wasn't a bad book.

(an update: we are at 11/75 for the year after two months, which means I am a bit behind schedule, but I have a long trip coming up this next month so hopefully I will get a chance to catch up a bit then!)

12. Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson
Yes, Chef is a memoir by Marcus Samuelsson, a very successful Swedish chef who's ethnically Ethiopian and now lives in America. I first saw him on Top Chef, as a judge and a contestant on Top Chef Masters, so when I saw he had a memoir, I figured I'd give it a try.
I really enjoyed the book, especially the first two thirds, about his journey from Goteburg, Sweden to NYC and how he moved through the ranks of different restaurants. Samuelsson has a better work ethic than I could possibly dream of having, and it's amazing to read about the long hours and harsh treatment in the kitchens where he worked. Also, much as food allergies/my own innate pickiness mean that I can't/wouldn't enjoy a lot of the food he discusses, I love reading about it. The final portion of the book doesn't do a great job of delving more into some of his successes/failures later in life and fully setting the scene, and I wish there were more in-depth descriptions there.

13. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Wow. I finished this in a single sitting, and it was a lot. In a good way.
We Were Liars is told from the point of view of Candace Sinclair. The "Liars" of the title are Candace, two of her cousins, and a friend of the family, who all spend every summer until Candace is fifteen on the family island with their extended family. It largely takes place during their seventeenth summer, two years after an incident took place that left Candace with migraines and an inability to remember most of the events of summer fifteen.
I've always loved that E. Lockhart manages to create main characters who are flawed, but who I also completely identify with, and Candace is no exception. The ending was a complete surprise, and I loved it - I usually hate sad endings, but this one was so well-done, I couldn't dislike it. I look forward to re-reading it.

14. When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
When the Moon Was Ours is about Miel and Sam, both outsiders in their town - Miel, for the roses that grow out of her wrists and her mysterious arrival to town via a water tower when she was five, and Sam for the color of his skin. They are best friends and, unsurprisingly, they fall in love. But of course, what kind of story would this be if there wasn't some sort of conflict, and that conflict comes in the form of the four Bonner sisters. They're said to be witches who can make anyone fall in love with them, and they want Miel's flowers - and they'll do anything to get them.

15. Ash by Malinda Lo
Ash is a retelling of Cinderella, at its base level, but it also has fairies - sorry faeries - sprinkled throughout.

I'm still trying to piece together how I feel about both of these books. They were both good; I read them quickly, and while I was reading them, I was definitely very engaged. But for different reasons, I didn't fall in love with either one.
Stylistically, I liked the prose of When the Moon Was Ours, as well as the magical realism within the plot. However, I felt let down by the climax, and for all that there was action and forward momentum in the plot, it somehow still managed to feel very static? There was also some weirdness involved in the fact that I think the novel sometimes hinted at secrets that didn't end up being very shocking or feel like revelations, and I'm not sure the novel quite managed to weave the magical realism into a world that was believable (the scene at the high school was especially jarring for this - it felt like a passage from another iteration of the novel). Of the two though, I did ultimately think When the Moon Was Ours might warrant a reread someday.
As for Ash, I think the author just didn't succeed at blending Cinderella with the faerie elements of the story, especially since the two parts of the tale didn't really mix. To me, it seemed as though the Cinderella story was written, and the author needed a better reason why Cinderella wouldn't end up with Prince Charming, (or in this case...Huntress Charming?) besides the lesbian angle of the whole thing. I get it, you want to normalize that relationship, don't make it all, "Oh she can't be with her because she's a woman!" and that's fine, but you could still do the bait-and-switch with the Prince without making it about her being lesbian, and not include this whole weird half-romance with a "dark" faerie who never actually poses a real threat? I'm just not sure what I was supposed to get out of that relationship - as a confusion tactic so the gay part is unexpected? The book jacket literally gives this detail away!
Beyond all this, I also was extremely peeved about the single-night thing. When I read the bit about her spending a single night with him, and after he said, "Time works differently for us", AND after the story about the Huntress who aged like 10 years while rescuing the princess, I just assumed she would emerge and 5-10 years would have passed. Or she would be older. NOPE. It was literally just a single night!
I'm sorry, I just....if you're going to include faery fairies, then someone has to lose something. Ash not only lost nothing, she also kind of did nothing - like, I don't know that Ash had an actual personality in this book, beyond constantly wandering around at night. And after typing all that, I think I might need to re-evaluate my earlier statements: while I didn't love When the Moon Was Ours, I didn't realize until just now how much aspects of Ash truly bothered me.

Overall, as so often happens when I explore new fantasy, I'm just left with the urge to reread an old favorite. Since I'm in the midst of Clariel, that may mean that Sabriel is in for a reread.

I'm not sure if I'll be counting it in my final tally, but I also finished the princess saves herself in this one by Amanda Lovelace. I'm not sure why, but it feels like cheating to include too much poetry - especially since you usually have to go back through a couple times to really get something out of it. So we'll see if I revisit this one, and if so, maybe I'll end up including it in the total for the year - I'm not confident that will happen though. While I think this was a stronger collection than Milk and Honey in some ways, there fewer poems that I connected with, so it wasn't as effective.
I also read the first in the Lumberjanes series by Noelle Stevenson, which I won't be counting because of how short it was. If I get through more of the volumes, I'll likely end up adding it to the count as one.

16. Clariel by Garth Nix
A "prequel" to the Sabriel series that takes place fairly far in the past, that focuses on Clariel, a young woman whose only desire in life is to live on her own in the forest - but who is brought to Belisaere, and is thrust into a Free Magic plot.
I was disappointed by Clariel. Garth Nix's writing in the original series was so good, and I'm not sure what changed - but something clearly did.
Huge chunks of the book - especially areas that included dialogue - were a struggle to get through because they were so poorly written that it was distracting. At one point, I believe one character used the word "bitchy" and it took me so out of the book that I considered stopping right there. There were flashes of style I remember from the original series, but they were few and far between. (I'm not sure, but I think there is a distinct possibility that Nix is just not as comfortable/good at writing within society? The more egregiously bad sections tended to be whenever more than two or three characters had to interact, and were almost exclusively in Belisaere)
The second half of the book, and the familiar setting/character of Abhorsen's House/Mogget smoothed things out a little, but it was short-lived and too late.
The writing was the main issue for me, but I also do think there were other problems - the plotting wasn't very even, and Clariel herself becomes a bit repetitious with her single-minded focus on her one goal. Throughout the first half of the book, she must repeat her goal to get back to the forest at least once a chapter, and it is rarely integrated well into the flow (so again - perhaps more of an issue with writing).
All in all - I finished it because I wanted to be able to read the ending, but I don't really think I needed to.

17. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I have significantly less to say about Americanah, because I liked it significantly more. The book begins with the Ifemelu's decision to move back to Nigeria after spending a number of years in America. It tracks her experiences from her youth in Nigeria to her adult life in America, and then her return to Nigeria, framed largely through the love story of her and her high school/college sweetheart Obinze. The book is about Ifemelu's life, especially her interactions and observations regarding race/racism and privilege in America and Nigeria.
I thought the love story worked really well as a framing for the first half of the book, but lost some strength upon Ifemelu's return to Nigeria. Still, the second half of the book, with Ifemelu's attempts to readjust to Nigeria, was great.
Weirdly, I didn't love the included blog posts all the time. This is likely due to the space of the Internet I inhabit - I felt like I'd read them all before. Also, the shift in tone/style was somewhat jarring.

18. Honeybee: a collection of poems about letting go by Trista Mateer
The second part of the title is a pretty good descriptor of what it is - a poetry book, all centered around the end of one specific relationship. This is by far my favorite book of poetry I've read this year - it's the one I've connected the most with, and though the version I read was a loaned book, I will definitely be buying my own copy.

19. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
I...don't know how I felt about this book.
Flavia de Luce is a relatively privileged young girl who loves chemistry and enjoys tormenting her sisters. When a dead bird with a postage stamp on its bill shows up on the doorstep of her home, and a few days later she watches a man die, she sets out to figure out what's going on.
Overall, as mysteries go, this was an engaging one. It was a bit fantastical, and Flavia isn't really a believable character in that she makes connections that only vaguely make sense but which somehow are miraculously true (he smuggled a bird in a pie??? How was that absolutely wild guess correct? - in fact, I would go so far as to say that Flavia isn't really a good detective. I enjoyed the chemistry facts and trivia found throughout, and the characters, while sometimes over the top, were fun. I was a bit disappointed at how little chemistry she actually ended up doing throughout the book - I would have loved to see her run an experiment to solve the murder.
While I didn't love the book, I would have been willing to try another one in the series were it not for one thing: midway through the book, one of the characters is recounting a story from childhood which involves magic tricks, and, for some reason, a fabricated magician persona that is incredibly, deeply racist, including a faux-Chinese "Engrish" accent. There is no reason for this character to exist, and the racism inherent in his portrayal goes entirely unremarked and unexamined, and because of that, I won't be continuing with the series anytime soon.

In a twist that will surprise no one, I have once again fallen off the wagon and forgotten to document books (and also am behind for the year...by quite a bit)

20. The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
21. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
22. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
23. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
24. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
25. Reef by Romesh Gunesekera
26. The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett
27. Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
28. Making Money by Terry Pratchett
29. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
30. To Hold the Bridge by Garth Nix
31. Girls of Riyadh by Raja Alsanea
32. Westmark by Lloyd Alexander
33. The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild
34. Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
35. In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente

So that leaves 40 more to go in...under 4 months?? I think I could do it if I were willing to cheat and just reread Diana Wynne Jones, but failing that I'm not sure this is going to get done.

Well, graphic novels count, and I usually blow through them pretty quick. 😀

>15 drneutron: That's true, I haven't counted any graphic novels...it felt like cheating a bit

36. Heat by Bill Buford
Following Yes Chef earlier this year, I set out to find more cooking-based non-fiction. Heat did not disappoint. It's best summarized by its own title: "Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany". It provides an outsider's view of the kitchen, and since Bill Buford is an author and journalist by trade, the actual writing is just as good as the subject matter.

37. The Bee-keeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King
A return to the mystery genre. This book in many ways functions best as a set-up for the rest of the series, which is about one Mary Russell, a young girl coming of age amid World War I who becomes an apprentice to Sherlock Holmes. This book was what I wanted The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie to be. This first book spent maybe a bit too much time setting up its final major mystery/antagonist, but I'm excited to see how the rest of the series goes!

38. The Gathering by Anne Enright
Whew! It's taken a few months, but I finally sat down and made myself finish the whole thing.
When Veronica Hegarty's brother, Liam, commits suicide, the family comes together for the funeral, and Veronica must confront their history in order to make sense of his death.
The Gathering was very...award-winning-y, by which I mean it feels like a novel we would have read in English class. It was good, technically, but I don't think it was the right thing for me to read right now, if that makes sense. It's pretty bleak, and I don't think marathoning the whole thing in under 24 hours made me feel great. I'm gonna have to bounce back with something a bit lighter afterwards.

(I think I'm getting better at these short summaries, but they always feel a bit silly to me)

39. Unspeakable Things by Laurie Penny
I first read one of Laurie Penny's articles on girls a few years ago, and loved it; this is the first book of hers I've read.
The book wanders around a bit, discussing various aspects of current gender politics interspersed with some of Penny's personal stories. Ultimately, I'm not sure that it manages to go anywhere revolutionary with the observations. Maybe I'm not the intended audience though - Penny writes a lot of the book as an argument, an attempt to persuade, but I already believe most of what she's saying, so maybe that's why it feels repetitive to me. My favorite parts were the personal stories, but unfortunately there weren't a lot of them. The final section, discussing LoveTM, came closer to sparking some insights, and was probably my favorite section of the book.

40. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The novel spans the years from just before the second World War to its conclusion, and revolves around two main characters: a blind French girl and a German boy. As you'd expect of a book of this type, their lives eventually overlap.
While I definitely liked this book, it didn't feel very distinct, if that makes sense, and I find that I don't have a whole lot to say about it now that I'm done.

41. A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King
The second in what I've now realized is a long series - a follow-up to The Beekeeper's Apprentice. In this book, Mary meets and befriends a charismatic woman who's the leader of an organization called the New Temple of God. When various society women connected to the organization begin mysteriously dying, Mary begins to investigate.
Pros: I still like the style of the writing and Mary as a character, the book is gripping, and for the most part I enjoyed this mystery. Cons (which I always seem to have more of, perhaps because I'm a harsh critic): the conclusion to the main mystery wasn't very inventive in the end, and I desperately wanted there to be a little more ambiguity to what Mary saw re: Margery's injuries. However, my biggest issue was the romance between Mary and Holmes. I was hoping the series wouldn't go there, especially since he's FORTY YEARS her senior. I love a good romance, but...ugh. The age/power imbalance is way too much for me. Ugh.

42. Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
A fairly quick read. It's been awhile since I read it, so I won't summarize. Reading a teen fiction book did make me realize that there was/is a significant difference in how long it takes me to finish teen lit vs. adult - partially because of length, also partially because I think teen fiction is still just more engaging, more quickly than adult.

43. Our Bodies and Other Fine Machines by Natalie Wee
Unfortunately, this one doesn't seem to have a Touchstone, but it's a volume of self-published poetry that I've seen quotes out of, and decided to buy. It's definitely slower going than the other books of poetry I read this year, but I enjoyed it, and there's a couple that I'll be going back to.

44. A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King
The third in the Mary Russell series; in this one, an archaeologist visits Holmes and Russell and leaves them with an interesting item that could have some interesting consequences for Christianity; when she dies shortly afterwards, Holmes and Russell investigate.
Of the three, I think this was the least compelling for me, and I struggled to finish it quickly. There just wasn't enough of a sense of tension/danger, something propelling the whole thing forward. I still enjoy Mary's character, still hate the romance element, and plan on continuing to read the series.

Also, I discussed/read it earlier in the year, but I have ended up including volumes of poetry in this count so:
45. the princess saves herself in this one by Amanda Lovelace

And that wraps up 2017! I'm looking forward to continuing to log these next year; it was a great way to periodically get me re-excited about reading throughout the entire year, and I'm glad I did it (even if I did fall short of my goal of 75).