Anri (fredanria) reads in 2019: 10 years later, still trucking

Hello! My name is Anri, 25 and living in Chicago. I'm currently on my 10th anniversary on LT, which is crazy, and I'm once again trying to hit 75 books - a feat which I have not managed to come close to since the rise of Netflix. Not that that's gonna stop me from trying once more!

I tend to like fantasy, YA, mysteries, nonfiction, and female-focused adult contemporary. For the past few years, and continuing on into this year, I've been trying to increase the amount of non-white/non-heterosexual stories I read, and so far it's led to some great books.

Some of my favorite books from last year:
What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

This year my main goal is to not rack up so much in library fines that I can't renew books online, which happened at least twice last year I'm ashamed to admit.

Currently Reading
Electric Arches by Eve Ewing
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
Make It Scream, Make It Burn by Leslie Jamieson

Books of 2019
1. Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
2. The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
3. Shame is an Ocean I Swim Across by Mary Lambert
4. How to Be Alone: If You Want To and Even If You Don't by Lane Moore
5. Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape by Peggy Orenstein
6. Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke
7. Evicted by Matthew Desmond
8. Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
9. Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
10. The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson
11. The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
12. The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
13. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
14. Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher
15. Sea of Strangers by Lang Leav
16. Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden
17. The Color Master by Aimee Bender
18. Uprooted by Naomi Novik
19. Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski
20. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
21. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
22. Claudia and the Phantom Phone Call by Ann M. Martin
23. Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief by Wendelin Van Draanen
24. To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
25. Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man by Wendelin Van Draanen
26. Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy by Wendelin Van Draanen
27. Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf by Wendelin Van Draanen
28. Sammy Keyes and the Curse of Moustache Mary by Wendelin Van Draanen
29. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
30. Gnomon by Nick Harkaway
31. An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
32. Frogkisser! by Garth Nix
33. Sammy Keyes and Hollywood Mummy
34. Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes
35. Sammy Keyes and the Art of Deception
36. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
37. Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen
38. Sammy Keyes and the Dead Giveaway
39. Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things
40. Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
41. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
42. Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash
43. Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher
44. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
45. The Meek by Der-Shing Helmer
46 All Systems Red by Martha Wells
47. America Is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo
48. Sammy Keyes and the Power of Justice Jack
49. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
50. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

1. Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
Reread this one yesterday, initially for the two chapters she has on depression, but I ended up rereading the entire thing because it's ridiculously funny. "God of Cake" still has the capacity to make me laugh out loud.

Welcome back!

>3 drneutron: Thanks Jim!

*waves* Hiya, Anri! I saw your post on the introduction thread, and it looks like we have some reading tastes in common. Looking forward to seeing what you read this year!

Hi Anri. I also saw your post on the intros thread and thought we had some tastes in common so I'm dropping off a star. :)

>2 fredanria: I love so many of her comics.

I also saw your post on the intros thread! Dropping off a star. My favorite Hyperbole and a Half comic will always be the one about Simple Dog and Helper Dog.

Happy reading in 2019, Anri!

>5 lycomayflower: Hi Laura! It looks like we have some of my faves in common from fantasy, so I'm excited to see what you're reading!

>6 MickyFine: She's so funny!

>7 curioussquared: All of her comics about the Helper Dog crack me up - my parents' dog isn't quite as bad, but he's got some very similar tendencies.

>8 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita!

I went into Barnes & Noble yesterday while I was trying to kill time, which I knew was playing with fire, but their website said they had The Empathy Exams in stock. Unfortunately, neither myself nor the store worker could find any copies of the book, which was disappointing - but don't worry, I still ended up leaving with slightly less money and How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don't by Lane Moore. I heard her speak on a podcast recently, and was interested in what she had to say on the subject of loneliness, and OBVIOUSLY I can't walk out of a bookstore empty-handed so, I'm adding that one to my TBR pile.

Also, just went back and edited my initial post so it reflects what I'm currently reading and my books of 2019! Completely forgot to add that in earlier.

Happy 2019
A year full of books
A year full of friends
A year full of all your wishes realised

I look forward to keeping up with you, Anri, this year.

>11 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul!

2. The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
The second in a trilogy that I'm very excited to continue reading! They're historical fantasy, set in Russia during the 1300's. I've really been enjoying the setting for these books. Typically when I read fantasy that draws on folklore/fairy tales, the story basis is fairly familiar, which can be fun in seeing how the author chooses to twist some of the details, but makes surprises a bit more difficult. For this, I have very little knowledge about the base for both the historical side and the folklore, and it's been fun to explore those new areas.

>13 fredanria: Glad to see you're enjoying these! I have the first one waiting on my Kindle. I plan to get to it... someday...

>14 curioussquared: Yes, highly recommend! Also, I didn't know it, but it turns out now was the perfect time to start reading these because the third book only just came out yesterday

>15 fredanria: Ooh, good to know!

3. Shame Is an Ocean I Swim Across by Mary Lambert
A collection of poems by Mary Lambert (yes, the same woman who wrote "Same Love" with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis). Was definitely influenced by the cover and by the title when I bought this:

I'm just a sucker for lavender.
Anyway, a good collection of poems. I always find it a bit difficult to review poetry because it ends up really depending on my connection to the emotions and experiences in the poems; in this case, while I enjoyed most of it, I didn't connect to them a lot. Still, maybe I'll revisit someday and see if that's changed.

4. How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don't by Lane Moore
Oof.
This book almost became my first DNF of the year. From the beginning I would swing between, "Wow! Yes! I really connect with what you're saying!" and "....yikes", but in general I didn't have too many of the latter. By the last two chapters, I was purely reading to finish it - and because, you know those books that you disagree with parts so strongly, that you feel like you have to finish them in order to make sure that your complaints are valid?
How to Be Alone is kind of a memoir, focused primarily on what it means to be alone in the sense of not really having a family. In Moore's case, this is due to some neglect/abuse that she doesn't fully expand on, but which she is very clear about the effects of, both on her upbringing and then later on how she approaches friendships and relationships.
Unfortunately, the book often feels like it could have used a bit more editing and clarity in messaging. Often Moore would write contradictory statements back-to-back, leaving me confused about where she was going with her point. It felt like when you meet someone who's going through the stage of processing where they can now vocalize all the things that happened to them and how it makes them feel, but hasn't found a way to healthily deal with those feelings. Honestly, I read one review that said they felt like they should send her a therapy bill, and I'm inclined to agree.
Also, it's very hard to read over 200 pages of a conventionally-attractive white woman talking about the "...unacknowledged privilege that comes with having a loving, supportive family who makes you feel safe," but who never once acknowledges the way she benefits from privilege in her life, and who also makes it seem like she's the only person who has ever had a family that wasn't those things? (an actual quote: "There wasn't anyone like me in the world, just like I thought. Cool. Love it." This sentiment is never pushed back on!!! She just leaves it, unexamined!!!)

Whew. Okay. Anyway, I think I'm so disappointed because I think there are interesting things to say about being alone - about the value we place on certain kinds of relationships (romantic vs. familial vs. friends), and how we've oriented society around that, and the problems with the things we say to people whose relationships don't fit into the standard narrative for these things, and I was really hoping this book would talk a little about it. Alas, I continue searching.

This weekend I visited my sister in Seattle, and the plane was prime time to make some progress on some books (as well as watch the new Fyre documentary on Netflix).

5. Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape by Peggy Orenstein
Orenstein went around the country, talking to different girls/women (high school to college age) about their experiences/feelings on sex and relationships. As someone who fairly recently exited those phases of life, and who spent the last few years trying to figure out how I felt about those things, there's a lot Orenstein does well here. The people she's talking about are limited in some ways - for example, she's mostly talking about college-bound (read: middle to upper middle class) straight women - but for what it does focus on, I think the book does a pretty good job of exploring the nuances and contradictions within its subjects.

6. Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke
This was a quick, fun read. A YA novel that focuses on a girl who participates in an amateur reality show while attending community college.

>18 fredanria: Well, I think you've just saved me the price of that book. I was interested as I liked Olivia Laing's book which touches on similar themes (but without the sense that she needed therapy!).

ETA and hello!

>20 charl08: Ohhh I've heard a lot of conflicting opinions on The Lonely City - that one was a polarizing book among my friends who read it, but I think that had to do with the art focus iirc. I've been meaning to check it out myself!

>21 fredanria: I really liked the art bits - but I could see if you are not a fan, there's a lot about art!

7. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
I originally saw this on Stasia's thread, and wowowowow what a great book.
Like the title suggests, this book uses eviction as a centerpoint to talk about the larger issue of poverty in cities in America. Desmond focuses on several families/people in the Milwaukee area - both tenants and landlords - and weaves their stories together to capture a picture of what life looks like in extreme poverty in America.
The book has a crazy amount of fieldwork and additional studies/research that Desmond did, and it's incredibly clear when you're reading it that he has put in that work. He approaches the subject with empathy, but without making anyone featured into a saint. Definitely HIGHLY recommend.
(also, ETA that I finished Evicted during Polar Vortex 2.0 that happened yesterday and Wednesday, so some of the stories that talk about no heat gain an entirely different depth to them - esp. with the number of deaths being reported)

>23 fredanria: This has been on my list for a while and I recently bought a discounted Kindle copy! Hoping to get to it soon.

>24 curioussquared: It's great! Definitely heavy subject matter though. I was reading it for most of yesterday, and it took longer than I would've thought just because I needed to take breaks every once in a while.

>25 fredanria: Good to know!

Finished two books this weekend, and got the chance to visit one of the newer branches of the CPL - it was a little bit of a trek, but the interior is beautiful with lots of comfortable seating. I'll be going back, though I might wait for some slightly nicer weather, since the journey does involve a 15-minute walk to the train station.

8. Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
Boy Novak has always had a complicated relationship with mirrors and her own reflection. After escaping her abusive father, the rat catcher, Boy ends up in a small Massachusetts town, where she marries a local widower with a daughter - Snow, fair as can be. When Boy gives birth to Bird, secrets begin to come to light, and ~~nothing will ever be the same~~ woOOooOo
(I always feel compelled to write a summary, but I also always feel very silly when the ones I write inevitably sound like a parody of a movie trailer that's way too melodramatic)
This is the first book I've read by Helen Oyeyemi, but she's a friend's favorite author, and I will definitely be reading more. She has a unique way of weaving in elements of familiar fairy tales, while also clearly telling a different story, which makes me feel like I should be talking about it in a book club or class discussion. Highly recommend!

9. Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
I saw this pop up on someone's thread recently, and after finishing Evicted and looking at what I had left checked out from the library, I just needed something I knew would be a quick read. Remote boarding school, creepy murder poems, and Maureen Johnson? Yup, seems like it'll fit the bill! Truly Devious did not disappoint, and I am very glad I picked up the sequel while I was at the library because the first book ends on something a bit like a cliffhanger.

Good reading start Anri. I believe that this may be the year to break 75 despite the tempting alluse of Netflix!

>28 PaulCranswick: I hope so! It's always really hard for me to judge how well I'll do until a couple months in - I seem to get really busy in waves, and I'm always more dedicated in January than June.

10. The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson
Sequel to Truly Devious. While I'm satisfied by the progress made in the plotlines, I also can't wait for the third!! I want all the mysteries solved!

(Fortunately, The Winter of the Witch just came in for me off hold, so at the very least I'll have a chance to finish that series!)

11. The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
A murder mystery with an interesting twist: our main character lives the same day over eight times, trying to solve the murder of the titular Evelyn Hardcastle. Each day, he inhabits a different person, connected in some way to the murder.
The book was quick-paced, and engaging, and I thought the concept was really interesting. I finished it in under 24 hours, and kept reading it despite the fact that I knew I would end up having trouble sleeping that night.
I will say, I think there were a couple times when the book didn't quite follow its own internal world logic, there was some weird treatment of weight/rape that felt off, and the ending lost me a little - so while I didn't want to put it down, I don't know that I'd revisit it again except to more closely track some of those issues (that says a lot about who I am as a person, doesn't it?)

12. The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
Rebecca Solnit begins the book by talking about decaying apricots and from there explores themes of empathy, myth, art, and illness, weaving in stories from her own life and topics ranging from Mary Shelley and Iceland to Che Guevara and leper colonies. It's a book that meanders a bit, but there's always a purpose to the wanderings. I ended up taking quite a few photos of the pages to remember the quotes for later; my favorite of those is:

"We divide up the world as though there were real borders rather than delicately shaded degrees between the crazy and the sane, the good and the destructive, and I think of cannibalism as also a matter of degree. To what extent, in which ways, are you a cannibal, and how careful are you about who you consume? We consume each other in a thousand ways, some of them joys, some of them crimes and nightmares"

13. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
!!!!! I just finished this a couple days ago, and like so many on here, I loved it. I think I said with Katherine Arden's Bear and Nightingale books that it'd been a long time since I read new fantasy I really loved, so to have two back to back is making me think that maybe I've just been doing a very bad job finding fantasy to read over the last couple years. Novik does such a good job of fleshing out all her characters and building their worlds - I'll definitely be purchasing this one to keep.

>32 fredanria: Glad to see you loved that one. I really enjoyed it.

If you're looking for suggestions, I think the fantasy books I've loved most in the last couple years were the Shades of Magic trilogy from V.E. Schwab, which starts with A Darker Shade of Magic.

>33 MickyFine: I've been seeing those discussed on a couple different threads here! I'll bump it up the every-lengthening TBR list I have

14. Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher
It required a little bit of waiting, but I finally got ahold of a copy of one of T. Kingfisher's books! I've seen her mentioned on a couple different threads I think, and I enjoyed this - easy to read, light, a perfect on-the-road adventure story.

15. Sea of Strangers by Leav Lang
Another book of poetry - another case of me picking out a book by its cover. I did enjoy a couple of the poems, but overall I wasn't blown away.

>35 fredanria: I've seen Clockwork Boys floating around the threads, too, and it keeps catching my eye. Probably time to add it to the list!

>36 curioussquared: It's such a shame it was such a pain to get any of her books from a library, because I could definitely see myself going through them pretty quickly. Unfortunately my Kindle is old and a pretty annoying experience to use, so ebooks are really an extremely last resort :/

16. Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden - officially finished this awhile ago, but it's been a busy busy month, so I'm just tracking it now. A good, satisfying finish to the series! It does seem like she left it a little open for some continuation, so I'll be keeping my eye out for that.

--
Additionally - it's been a couple weeks since I made any progress on any books, so I'm going to be trying to buckle back down into that again, and catch up on some threads, which I've gotten pretty behind on!

Hope you get your reading mojo back, Anri.

Have a lovely Sunday.

>39 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul!

17. The Color Master by Aimee Bender
A collection of short stories - a quick read, and generally well-written stylistically, but I think it's pretty telling that I paused midway through over a month ago and hadn't made any progress until I finished it in one afternoon this week. I really enjoyed the titular story, which references the tale of Donkeyskin and had more fantastical/fairy tale elements to it than some of the others, but other than that I can't remember a single story from the first half.

18. Uprooted by Naomi Novik
I believe someone mentioned on another thread that this was good, but not as strong as Spinning Silver and I'm inclined to agree. I think in both cases Novik tries to weave together a couple different stories, and she just doesn't succeed quite as well in this one - the switch from when Nieshka is in the valley/tower to the parts in the crown city was jarring and felt a bit like two slightly different genres of fantasy books had collided. That said, if I hadn't been coming off the high of Spinning Silver I don't know that I would have had any issues, as it's a very solid story!
(Also, a side note: was I the only one who thought the friendship with Nieshka/Kasia would have 100% been a perfect romantic set-up?)

19. Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski
Nonfiction - a book about some of the science around sex. What about that science? Honestly, thinking back, I'm not sure? It begins by talking a little about the actual anatomy of it all, and then from there talks about what turns us on, and how and why that process happens. It focuses mainly on women, though some of what it's saying does apply to men.
It was a somewhat interesting book in places, but it did feel as though it was probably meant for someone in a long-term relationship. It felt more like "self-help using science" than straight science a lot of the time.

20. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
A group of friends and I are trying to start a book club*, and this was the first pick. I really enjoyed it - so much so that I couldn't wait for my library hold to come through, and I just found a nearby suburb that had it in stock and sat there for four hours reading it!
I think as a result I may have read it too fast - I don't have a great memory of all the events of the ending - so I'm planning on going back over it again. All in all though, a very good retelling. Miller does a great job of mimicking the storytelling of a myth, while also creating a clear sense of place and character - two things that, from what I remember of the Iliad**, I didn't feel connected to in the original.

*emphasis on trying - unclear how long this'll last
**We read samples of the Iliad in high school, so....I don't remember a lot

21. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
A short and sweet little mystery book, that doesn't really read a whole lot like a mystery - more like a series of vignettes and a story about Botswana and its culture in general during the time period. It was interesting, but I don't think I'll be picking up the next one - not quite enough mystery for me.

In addition, I have been making quite a bit of headway on Gnomon - I was just on a trip, which meant I had plenty of time for reading! I'm very excited to finish it so I can go out and read some analysis of it!

22. Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls by Ann M. Martin
23. Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief by Wendelin Van Draanen
24. To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Two rereads, plus a new one - though I'd seen the movie, so most of the plot and even some of the dialogue was familiar. TAtBILB was almost certainly my favorite movie of last year, and reading the book really put me back in that frame of mind - it's a good old-fashioned Sarah Dessen-esque YA romance, but with a mixed main character who I really connected with.

--
I finally downloaded an ebook app to my phone (Libby, Overdrive's successor), and it's been extremely dangerous. So far I've stuck to books that are easy to read quickly, since when it's on my phone I tend to do short little 5-20 minutes bursts, and I feel like i wouldn't make any progress if I tried a more difficult novel in that format. I'm trying out Sharp Objects and Devil in the White City on it as well though, so we'll see how those go.

>45 fredanria: I also really liked TAtBILB -- the rest of the series is also a lot of fun. I didn't enjoy Han's other series starting with The Summer I Turned Pretty, though.

I LOVE Libby. I use it mostly to listen to audiobooks or check out/put holds on ebooks -- typically I read my ebooks on my Kindle or via the Kindle phone app, because they sync.

>46 curioussquared: Glad to hear the rest of the series is good as well! I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue - I read the synopsis for all of them back when I first saw the movie because I was trying to figure out some of the elements of the film, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue based off what I found, so good to hear that it stays fun!

25 - 28 - All Sammy Keyes, and all still great despite the fact that I do remember most of the solutions to the mysteries. Sammy Keyes and the Curse of Moustache Mary is the first book I'd read in the series way back in the day, and the first one I owned - and what a good intro into the series it was! One thing I especially appreciate now I think is that the series doesn't shy away from tackling big concepts from Sammy's perspective.

29. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
I just finished this one, so I'm still processing it, but I will say, I flew through it and I'll eventually try to get around to watching the series - though it might be a little ways off, given that I never even finished the Big Little Lies adaptation.

I didn't realize how long it'd been since I updated on here! I thought all I had to add was the books I finished while on my trip - but it turns out I was missing a couple weeks before that as well!

30. Gnomon by Nick Harkaway
I think this book did a really great job of delivering on a pretty ambitious premise. There were times when it became a little tough to follow, but when that happened I mostly just pushed through and tried to get to an easier section again - so I'm not sure I got all the details he worked in, but I had enough to follow.
I am super interested to know if there are any reviews/guides out there to some of the symbols and imagery he returns to - as well as curious as to whether the numbers at the start of the book can actually be used to decode anything.

31. An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
This was one of those books it felt simultaneously very hard to put down, but also a bit hard to continue on with. I think the author did a great job here of creating characters and a world that felt deep and fully-formed, and I constantly wanted to keep reading to discover more about both, but at the same time there is some pretty tough subject matter in it. Would certainly recommend, but with some warnings about content.

32. Frogkisser! by Garth Nix
An elementary read that was quick and fun; most of the plot runs along in a fairly predictable manner, but it was enjoyable, and had some fun fantasy/fairy tale nods, which I always love.

33. Sammy Keyes and Hollywood Mummy
34. Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes
35. Sammy Keyes and the Art of Deception
36. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
A couple continuations of Sammy Keyes + my (now fully established) traditional reading of the Attolia series.

Nice to see your update Anri.

Have a splendid weekend.

>49 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul!

38 - 40 More Sammy Keyes! Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash, Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen, and Sammy Keyes and the Dead Giveaway (not necessarily in that order exactly)

41. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Enjoyed this Booker Prize winner from a couple years ago. I wasn't sure how I felt when the novel first begins to use primary sources to describe the Lincoln's party, mostly because that first section goes on for awhile and I was concerned all the historical interludes would be that long, but luckily most were quite short. It also helped that I gave up on reading who the quotes were from - that bit did interrupt the flow of things when I first started reading.
Overall, I think I appreciated it, but I'm not sure how much the novel managed to move me or make an impression - I have a feeling it's one I'll look back on in a couple years and go, "Oh yeah, I did read that I guess."

42 / 43 - Still Sammy; Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things and Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher (Wild Things was actually way earlier, but I completely lost track of it)

I also reread Spinning Silver for a refresher before a book club this week, which I am very excited for!

Aaaaand in general life update news, I'm thinking about going back for a masters and becoming a librarian? This is something I had rolling in my head a couple years ago, but at the time I shrugged it off as being a result of my unhappiness with my job at the time. I've been in a new role for a the last year and a half that's better, but three or four months ago I did some more serious research about it again and I think it is what I want to do! I do think some credit is due to this group/site - I've been fairly in and out for the past several years, but in returning with a little more commitment, I've been reminded of just how much I love talking all of this - talking about books, reading recommendations, just being in a more literary-focused world. So thanks to all of you! And also if anyone who's a librarian is willing to talk a little about what they do, I'm still trying to figure out where I might want to focus and would love to talk!

>51 fredanria: I must make the effort and take Lincoln in the Bardo off the shelves, Katie.

Have a great Sunday.

Phew! Some catch-up to do!
44. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
My first Christie, which didn't impress a whole lot? I did know the "twist" going in, but the whole format of the book wasn't very satisfactory to me - just one interview after another, with absolutely no action after the initial set-up. It was extremely quick to get through though, so I'm not too bothered.

45. The Meek by Der-Shing Helmer
The graphic novel version of a webcomic that I used to read. I absolutely adore the art style of this creator, and I love the initial set-up of the world. My main quibble is that this is just the first volume, and since she's independently publishing all of the series, I'm not sure when the rest will be put out there - the online version goes a bit further than the end of this first volume, but not much. I am a little concerned that, like many long-form story webcomics, this one will eventually putter out without a conclusion, which would truly be sad considering the potential.

46 All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Finally got this one off hold, and it was great - quick, engaging, and funny. I have some trouble tracking what's going on with all the technology, but I appreciate that I don't really have to - Wells does a good job of including the "so what" in her explanations. Excitedly continuing the series.

47. America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo
Our current book club book, which is in the category of literature that I think of as "Joy Luck Club adjacent" - dealing with themes of immigration and family and exploring some of the history of a particular country (The Sympathizer, Pachinko, Middlesex, and Americanah are all also books I think of as working within this genre). In this case, it's the Philippines.
There is so much to cover here, and I didn't know most of it honestly - the Philippines have so many different ethnic groups and languages, and I know so little about their history. Castillo manages to cover the range of Filipino and Filipino American experiences and cultures, while also creating such believable characters and a lovely story - I am honestly so impressed at how she manages it all. I was scared going into this book that it'd feel very much like one of the above books But The Philippines, and it did not at all. Definitely recommend.
(Also, a sidenote that this is maybe one of the only times I've ever seen eczema represented to this degree in any kind of media, and that's really been sticking with me)

48. Sammy Keyes and the Power of Justice Jack
I have been running a little low on Sammy, and starting to read some other books, as you can see - but I'm getting close to the end of the series!

49. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
A good follow-up to the first novel, which expands the universe a bit.

Okay! So I have a bunch of additional books!

50. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
51. Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
Finished up the series, which I really enjoyed! It made me excited to read more scifi - for as much as I love fantasy, I don't read a lot of its sister-genre.

52. Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones
53. P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han
When I read these, I think I was in the middle of some longer and heavier books - these two were nice, easy reads for when I needed a break. Also, I have to note that while I flew through P.S., and I still love the movie, it definitely has some questionable bits to it around who's at fault for things and what sorts of apologies are necessary.

54. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
I was pretty disappointed by this one, which in some ways might be my own fault. As much as I love romance in my books, I don't actually read romance novels very often. Even so, I was expecting a lot more from a book that I'd heard so much about - it felt like it leaned into some tropes that I wasn't very into (possessiveness. I'm talking about possessiveness here), and also....the male lead was Asian but was the female lead?? I genuinely could not tell. I think in the future I'll approach similar high-hype romance with a bit more wariness.

55. The Likeness by Tana French
A year or two ago, I read the first in the Dublin Murder Squad series and wasn't sure how I felt about it - it was engrossing, but I was a little annoyed by the ending. I had no such issues with this second installment - gripping, just enough creepiness, and I love the way she described Cassie going undercover.

....and the rest:
56. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Shorter than I expected, which was good because I'm not sure how much more I would've gotten through. It was somewhat interesting, but again - I have that feeling of, I'll forget I ever read this in a couple years.

57. Eat Up by Ruby Tandoh
Ruby was on the Great British Bake-Off, and I've been trying to get my hands on this book for awhile. We share similar ideas about food, and how we can position our relationship to it in a healthy way, so while nothing in the book felt like a new or revolutionary idea, I still really appreciated it. She moves between musings on the food industry to our the way food interacts with our human relationships, through diet culture - and then throughout there are short recipes. I think my favorite part was that she doesn't shy away from the part of food that we might think of as "ugly" or "low" - there's an acknowledgement that sometimes, you get fast food because you don't have the time or energy to cook, and that's okay.

58. The Recovering by Leslie Jamieson
Leslie Jamieson continues to be one of my favorite authors, even when it's on a topic that I know very little about - both alcoholism and also a lot of the literature she discusses. There were times when it was harder to read through the descriptions of artists/authors who struggled with addiction, primarily because I wasn't familiar with them and kept getting their stories confused, but her descriptions of her own life were always engaging. I got Make It Scream, Make It Burn out and I'm excited to continue reading her.

59. Circe by Madeline Miller
I think I enjoyed this more than The Song of Achilles - it played with many of the same themes, but the ending was more of a surprise for me. As with TSoA, Miller hews fairly close to the standard legends, but adds depth with personality and clearer motivations. Her portrayal of Odysseus in particular really stuck with me - I can remember writing journals in high school about how much I deeply disliked him, and I think she does a good job of reflecting a lot of the complicated feelings I was trying to convey.

60. What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
Our latest book club book! Some of these stories really worked for me, some fell a little short. A few people said that they felt like this was the first book where their opinion and understanding of it really deepened after we discussed it, which I'm inclined to agree with.

(Also, I'm starting another book list down here because the one up top has started to get hard to manage!)
51. Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
52. Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones
53. P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han
54. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
55. The Likeness by Tana French
56. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
57. Eat Up by Ruby Tandoh
58. The Recovering by Leslie Jamison
59. Circe by Madeline Miller
60. What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
61. Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake
62. Speak by Laurie Halse Andersen
63. Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
64. The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Weijun Wang
65. Faithful Place by Tana French
66. Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J Ryan Stradal
67. Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl
68. Life of the Party by Olivia Gatwood
69. Broken Harbor by Tana French
70. Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino