January AlphaKIT: F, E

January AlphaKIT:

Welcome to AlphaKIT! Each month AlphaKIT selects two letters to help you select books to read. Use them in any way you choose!

January’s letters are: F, E.


"Scrabble Letter F" by Leo Reynolds is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.


"Educational Brick Letter E" by Leo Reynolds is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.

And, please do update the wiki with what you read this month: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2026_AlphaKIT#January:_Letters:_F_and_E

I love the AlphaKit! I am going to read A Painted Doom by Kate Ellis and Day of the Dead by Nicci French in January.

I am considering Death and the Brewery Queen by Frances Brody for the MysteryKIT and it would fit here as well.

One of my options for SFFKIT is "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" by Jules Verne. I could also read Ethics: A Very Short Introduction by Simon Blackburn.

I'm planning to hit both letters with Louise Erdrich's Future Home of the Living God.

I am planning to read The Autumn of Ruth Winters by Marshall Fine and I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger.

>3 Robertgreaves: I read Journey to the Center of the Earth when I was in JR. HI. in the 1950s and still a favorite book as well as most of the moves.

My tentative plan is to read North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell for E and Feuernacht by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir for F.

My goal is to read Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green for E and Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger for F.

I have Edenglassie to read so that will be E and a toe back into the water after the wheels rather fell off the wagon over the summer.

>6 mnleona: I was probably about that age when I read it as well but after all this time I can't remember whether it was an actual translation or an adaptation for children.

As usual the AlphaKit will be my primary category helper!
I'll be back with books selected.
Currently Reading
✅ completed

Diva Poaches a Bad Egg
✅ Dying to Sell by Ellery Adams
✅ Farm-Fresh and Fatal
Formal Fatality
✅ Home Fries and Alibis
In His Eyes
Kitchen Front
✅ Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife by Martin Edwards
Murder Before Evensong
Murder On A Snowy Evening
Survival of the Fritters
✅ Truffle Trouble by Amanda Flower

This will be my first year partaking in any kind of category challenge, and whilst I had initially planed this one as my stretch goal it has turned out instead to be my primary goal (something about the wrong flavour of book).

At the current moment I am planning to dig into the Earthsea Cycle, with the first in the series The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin (and possibly more, as I shall be reading via the combined version, and it feels somehow wrong to leave the book half read), but should I get time I also want to begin a re-read of the Lord of the Rings, with it's first 'book' (technically first third I guess) The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien.

I might be confusing this challenge with another one somewhere.....are the letters Q and X all year long letters?

I might be confusing this challenge with another one somewhere.....are the letters Q and X all year long letters?

>14 Tess_W: The year-long letters are X and Z. Q is treated as an ordinary letter

>15 Robertgreaves: And there is another thread set up for X and Z... let me find it and I'll link to it...

ETA: https://www.librarything.com/topic/376198#n9037308

>16 LibraryCin: I'm good! I was just wondering........ty both!

My reading year starts on Christmas Eve, so I am ahead a bit and now I read my first E book: The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng.

Just finished my E book for this month; A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin

And now my F book for the month; Super-Frog Saves Tokyo by Haruki Murakami

I read Smoke Without Fire by E.X. Ferrars that conveniently covers both letters for January as well as X (year long).
A good whodunnit mystery in the typical British style of the 1950s. I enjoyed this one, and will look for more by Ferrars.

I have finished a few F books over the holidays: Frau Helbing und die tödlichen Weihnachtsplätzchen, Das kleine Flickengespenst, Max Murks – Schwimmkurs mit Hai by Fee Krämer and Apfelstrudel-Alibi by Rita Falk.

Not sure if this counts as an "E" book: finished my annual New Year's Day re-read of 84, Charring Cross Road by Helene Hanff (the "E" in Eighty-Four).

For F, I read Fate's Bane by C.L. Clark.

My first E book this month is Die Prinzessin von Banalien by Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

I hit both letters iwth Louise Erdrich's Future Home of the Living God.

I also hit both letters with Fallen into the Pit by Ellis Peters.

I have finished The Autumn of Ruth Winters by Marshall Fine.

>29 LibraryCin: I made a note of this one. I love lighthouses and the ocean. A Library cat adds to any story.

>30 mnleona: One of my favorite nonfiction books in the last few years was The Lighthouse Stevensons by Bella Bathurst, which is a history of the Stevenson family's role in the lighthouses of Scotland.

Another F: Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

Another F book is Keep the aspidistra flying by George Orwell.

>31 kac522: Thanks. I have been to Scotland and I have Scottish in me according to my DNA.

I read The Dungeon House by Martin Edwards
Somehow this took far too long to read. It may have been because I was trying to get all the characters straight, or possibly because chapters were not identified and it took me a while to figure out whose story I was reading. Complicated plots involving the same people didn’t help. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I expected to.

The Antics of Evangeline by Madeleine D' Este

For F I read The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna

Couple of Es to start the year.
Edenglassis did not float my boat
Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife by Martin Edwards was a whole lot of fun and played around with the mystery genre in an inventive way.

I know it's a bit early, but I'm trying to get things done before my surgery on Wed. It was easiest to post today, so I don't have to worry about this until next month. :-)

Here is February's thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/377660

For F, Field Notes From an Unintentional Birder by Julia Zarankin.

Working on The Faceless Adversary by Frances and Richard Lockridge
and E. Godz by Robert Asprin and Esther Friesner

Another E read is the short story Krambambuli by Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach.

COMPLETED In Sunlight or In Shadow: Paintings Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper edited by Lawrence Block

For both letters, Funny Story by Emily Henry.

I've got one E and two Fs for the first half of the month:

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry
The Orange Tree by Carlos Fuentes,

I have completed both my January AlphaKit reads with A Painted Doom by Kate Ellis and Day of the Dead by Nicci French

I have finished Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye.

Starting "The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore" by W. B. Yeats

For E I read Entangled Life.

Also reading "Ethics: A Very Short Introduction" by Simon Blackburn

Finished another F book: Flashman and the Mountain of Light by George MacDonald Fraser

COMPLETED Ethics: A Very Short Introduction by Simon Blackburn

Starting Death and the Brewery Queen by Frances Brody.

I've finished I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger for my "E" book this month.

I read another E book, The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani.

Another F is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

An "F"

COMPLETED Death and the Brewery Queen and A Mansion for Murder, both by Frances Brody

Finished Short life in a strange world : birth to death in 42 panels by Toby Ferris for F

An "E":

Another F: Flush by Bryn Nelson

Starting "The Appleby File" by Michael Innes

More E: I finished the last two short stories in my anthology, Der gute Mond and Oversberg by Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Another E:

COMPLETED The Appleby File by Michael Innes

Starting "The Devil's Flute Murders" by Seishi Yokomizo

This was a re-read for me. I am attaching my review from 2015.

This one has an E in the author's name (middle initial) and an F in the title character's name.

I recently finished The Secret Place by Tana French.

I read Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes

Another F: Faith After Doubt by Brian McLaren

COMPLETED The Devil's Flute Murders by Seishi Yokomizo

Little Fires Everywhere

This family drama follows the picture-perfect Elena Richardson and her picture-perfect family, who reconsider everything in the light of Mia and Pearl Warren, who come into town following their own rules and befriend the family. Tensions in picture-perfect Shaker Heights are already raised regarding a custody battle between a Chinese mother and her 1-year-old daughter's rich, white, adoptive parents, until a house fire at the Richardson's gives everyone something new to talk about.

This story, unfolding in all directions from the house fire that opens the book, had me hooked from the beginning.

Finished an X to start the year strong! Glaxo by Hernán Ronsino

I also attempted an E with The Wonder by Emma Donoghue but unfortunately it was a DNF for me.

I binged the last four books in the Air Awakens series by Elise Kova for four more Es and one had an F as well:
Fire Falling
Earth's End
Water's Wrath
Crystal Crowned

My E & F books in January:

E
Letters for Literary Ladies, Maria Edgeworth (1795)

F
The Notting Hill Mystery, Charles Felix (aka Charles Warren Adams) (1863)

and currently reading and should be done in a day or two:
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays, George Orwell

For F, I read Family Secrets, Beth Farrar.

No books for F, but I did read a few for E.

Doctor Who: Evolution, by John Peel
Endurance: The Discovery of Shackleton's Legendary Ship, by John Shears and Nico Vincent
A Man and His Cat, Vol. 14, by Umi Sakurai, translated by Taylor Engel