Marissa hopes to do a better job keeping track of her reads in 2026

...because she did a rotten job last year! It was a busy one, though--emptying out one house and moving things to a winter snow-bird nest in Georgia has involved a lot of backing and forthing with time to read but not formulate coherent thoughts on books. Will I do better this year? I hope so.

Currently I'm finishing Charlie Jane Anders's Lessons in Magic and Disaster--contemporary fantasy that is as much about mothers and daughters and spouses and relationships in general as it is about magic--the magic is almost a lens, or a filter--or both--to examine them. I think I prefer her previous book--All the Birds in the Sky was powerful stuff--but this is worth a look as well.

Happy new year, and happy new thread!

Happy reading and posting in 2026.

>1 Marissa_Doyle: Happy New Year and New Thread.

May I ask how you settled on Georgia for your Winter habitat? I hope you found a spot conducive to literary pursuits!

You're here! We've missed you! (Although moving house and relocating is a more than acceptable excuse for the absence.) Happy new thread!!

Happy New Year! Relocating is tough! In what part of Georgia did you settle?

Happy New Year, New Thread, New Home, New…

Bottom line, HAPPY EVERYTHING!

Happy new year, happy new thread and good luck with moving!

Happy New Everything!

>10 hfglen: I like that!

>5 clamairy: We started thinking about it a couple of years ago, when my dh was getting ready to retire (he's still consulting, so still not fully retired.) Florida was, for multiple reasons, completely off the table, as were the other Gulf of Mexico states. I'd heard of Georgia's coastal islands, so we went down to Jekyll Island for a week and fell in love. Our house is on St. Simon's Island, and it's a beautiful place--feels like Cape Cod with palmettos and the occasional alligator. Current temps are in the upper fifties to low seventies, which is about perfect as far as I'm concerned. There's a nice independent bookstore on the island, and a yarn/stitchery shop, and birdwatching from our porch--we've seen storks, lots of egrets and herons, pelicans, spoonbills, bald eagles, and other hawks (and heard owls at night.) We're driving another load of furniture/stuff down next weekend, coming back home to get our bunny, then returning for the rest of the winter.

Half-way through the first new book of the year: Automatic Noodle is cozy dystopian science fiction, and reminds me a lot of Legends and Lattes, but with robots and a noodle shop. A pleasant, comforting way to start the new year.

Happy New Year and Happy New Thread! I wish you many wonderful books 🥰

>12 Marissa_Doyle: This sounds lovely! Congratulations :)

>12 Marissa_Doyle: I'm so happy for you! That does sound heavenly. Enjoy!

I understand completely about the Gulf of Mexico States. I've also been thinking about someplace warmer for the Winter. My sister-in-law has a condo in Hilton Head, South Carolina where she spends the Winter. She pretty much sticks to the coast.

Happy 2026 thread! I hope you have lots of good reading experiences in your island nest :)

Happy New Year and new thread :)

>1 Marissa_Doyle:, >12 Marissa_Doyle:, What a big step, Marissa! Does "winter snow-bird nest in Georgia" mean that you'll divide your year between Mass. and Georgia?

>19 Meredy: Yes, exactly.

Happy new year and happy new thread! Your winter hideaway sounds idyllic! Birds, bookshop, crafting supplies ... I hope you have many, many happy winters there.

Lessons in magic and disaster is on my TBR pile. I'm looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to the many book bullets you will no doubt send my way this year!

>21 Sakerfalcon: Thank you, Claire, and to everyone!

Finished Automatic Noodle, which was cute and warm and fuzzy, but ended a little abruptly. The world-building was the best-developed part--California has seceded from the US and is recovering from the accompanying war. I can't help speculating that this was a novel that the author ran out of steam on, but licked into shape as a novella.

On to The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association. I think it will be like the previous book I read in 2025 by this author Caitlin Rozakis which I nearly put down a few times in the first 150 pages but which improved with progress.

I enjoyed Grimoire Grammar School quite a lot, more so than Dreadful although by the end of the latter I was a fan. I related better to the school/family setting of GGS.

Automatic noodle is on my wish list, but I do wish some of these novellas were full-length novels.

>22 Marissa_Doyle:, >23 Sakerfalcon: I liked Automatic Noodle, but I agree with Marissa that it ran out of steam. Iirc, I felt upon finishing it that a full-length novel would have been too dystopian for my tastes.

>24 libraryperilous: It might have been interesting as a full-length novel if the issue of full citizenship for the sentient robots as well as the trials and tribulations of running a noodle restaurant had been developed.

Finished The Grimoire Grammar School and, like her Dreadful, enjoyed it more toward the end than during the beginning and middle. I do feel her husband's behavior was a bit unfair toward her, considering the PTSD she was dealing with while trying to navigate the magical world they'd been thrust into, but maybe that's just me. An okay read, not terrible but not going to be on my best of 2026 list.

On to the thoroughly weird with a Sarah Gailey book, Spread Me, which, thus far, is indeed pretty thoroughly weird. More when I finish, but will say that despite the weirdness (it's a vaguely erotic retelling of The Thing), the writing is wonderful.

We're off to Georgia on Monday with another 20-ft. U-haul full of furniture and stuff. I wish I could read in a moving vehicle without becoming nauseated after 5 minutes, so knitting and hand-sewing will have to do.

>16 clamairy: Savannah is worth looking into, too.

>25 Marissa_Doyle: Yes, I've heard it's gorgeous!

Can you do audio books without getting nauseous? Have a safe journey!

>25 Marissa_Doyle: you can’t read but you can sew? I think that would have the same effect as reading on my body.

>27 catzteach: I know--you'd think it would, but it doesn't. I can cheerfully hem with nary a quease. Something about the eye movement, maybe??

Safely in Georgia with the truck unloaded. Now it's unpacking boxes, hanging pictures... oof.

Well, Spread Me was extremely well written and extremely weird...but while I generally enjoyed it, especially the characterization of the secondary characters, in the end it didn't quite work for me. The central premise--the main protagonist's sexual attraction to viruses was just too out there as a concept and ended up being utilized in ways that made no sense. So...three or three and a half stars?

First DNF of the year: Love at First Fright was supposed to be a slightly spooky rom-com, but has so many elements thrown in that it was a mish-mash of plot devices, kind of like a really bad jello salad. And someone please tell me who copy-edited this, because the comma splices piled up like dead roaches under the fridge and I want to throw my Fowler's Modern English Usage at their head, very hard.

>29 Marissa_Doyle: We discourage violence of any kind. (No matter how valid the complaint or what the victim might deserve to have coming to them...)

But I sympathize with the irritation you are feeling.

>30 jillmwo: I presume you mean violence against books.

>31 jjwilson61: Well, certainly we're against violence against books, That would be a basic tenet.

>32 jillmwo:
You never raised your voice against violence when @clamairy was proposing that Santa give me "...a few painful bumps..." on my head. The link is HERE.

>33 pgmcc: LOL! Someone has the memory of an elephant.

(#thereisalwaysanelephant)

>30 jillmwo: But--but--I thought it was a long, customary practice to throw the book at someone who has committed egregious crimes? It's just a slightly different book.

>34 ScoLgo: You tempt me to start telling elephant jokes...but instead I'll offer this, a song from a movie my children adored when young and which has stood the test of time remarkably well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjj_94ECUKU

Next completed: A Well-Trained Wife was an at times painful to read but beautifully written memoir of a woman who grew up as part of an evangelical mega-church and married in it at 19--then followed her husband as he slipped deeper into religious fundamentalism and mental illness before literally escaping from her home with her children and rebuilding her life/recovering from religious trauma. A truly scary picture of how the members of these various churches think and what they're striving to do to the US.

>35 Marissa_Doyle: Yes, certainly one may be permitted to throw the book at miscreants. BUT one should also be sure the volume thrown is not useful for any other purpose. One wouldn't want to throw a lovely 19th century bound text at some addlepated nincompoop if it's a good read with a happy ending. (I'm thinking of the lovely Regency fantasies you write. We wouldn't throw those.)

Only throw the book, if it would be a poor doorstop or not serve well in holding up a wobbly table. Given the current weather conditions here in the east, one might want to gauge the paper stock in a volume for its use in starting up a necessary flame in the fire place.

>37 jillmwo:
You are forever thoughtful when proposing an act of violence.

>37 jillmwo: Hmm. I think I've found a way to bail out some academic presses, inspired by your post: imagine if you will a nicely slipcovered hardcover edition of The New Fowler's Modern English Usage, which encompasses a healthy 896 pages...but the boards are made of cast iron. "Throwing the book" would combine the punishment with the prosecution, thus saving everyone time. They could call it the Justice Edition, and of course charge accordingly. College freshman English classes might be somewhat enlivened, and even earn PE credits for the nimbler students.*

At that rate, even a Justice Edition of Strunk and White might well prove fatal.

*I'm afraid my pifflation levels are high today.

>37 jillmwo: I'm reminded of Guards! Guards! (hope I have the right Discworld story), and grinning happily.

>36 Marissa_Doyle: That one sounds fascinating and thoroughly depressing. I'm glad she made it out, but I'm not sure I can handle reading about her journey. Was it similar to Under the Banner of Heaven?

>39 Marissa_Doyle: That would be a prize-winning approach, I'm sure.

Two reads to report.
Death of a Minor Character by E.X. Ferrars A mystery from a series published in the UK in the 1980s, featuring an unusual husband-and-wife team, Virginia and Felix Freer, as amateur sleuth-adjacent protagonists--unusual because they're separated, living apart yet still friendly (though I suspect he would be very happy to not be separated.) This was #4 in the series, which I picked up on sale at Barnes & Noble, and I'm not quite sure what to think of it--it's ably, yet rather drily written. I may pick up another in the series if I see it on sale. Has anyone else read these?

Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will I believe this may have been a book bullet, though I can't remember from whom. It is exactly what it says it is: an atlas of small islands all over the world. Maps, distances from other places, and a short timeline are included for each, along with a brief essay about each or tangential to each--not always historical but always quirky. I love this sort of book, so gulped it down in an hour or two over the weekend. Perfect for map lovers, geography buffs, and hoarders of obscure bits of knowledge.

>41 clamairy: I haven't read Under the Banner of Heaven, so can't really compare. But now I may need to go find a copy so that I can answer your question. Was that a sneaky sort of book bullet?

>43 Marissa_Doyle: I didn't mean for it to be! If you don't want to read the book there is a miniseries version starring Andrew Garfield that was quite good. I believe it's on HULU.

>44 clamairy: Actually, I looked it up and want to read it now (having read others of Krakauer's books.) A Well-Trained Wife is about evangelical protestantism, with a dive into an awful resurrected Calvinism.

I'm a third of the way through Secrets of the First School, the final book in the Edinburgh Nights fantasy series, and of course am thoroughly hooked. I'll be sorry to be done with these books--they're original and excellently written.

Wow, what an ending! Secrets of the First School is an explosive roller-coaster of a book with a very satisfactory ending. The series--set in a post-apocalyptic Scotland--blends Scottish history and folklore with Zimbabwean magic, and it's gorgeous. It's also funny, touching, wildly creative, and wonderfully written. Highly recommended!

On to The Queen Who Came in From the Cold, another series I've enjoyed a great deal (thank you, @Meredy, for mentioning that it was out.) QEII as a sleuth feels so happily plausible...and her depiction is even more so.

Things have been more than a little busy, but we are finally established in Georgia for the rest of the winter/early spring, just finishing up hanging pictures and little things. Our bunny Penny proved an intrepid traveler on the drive down, and is having a marvelous time exploring this new house.

The 'busy' aspect of things meant it took me a lot longer to get through The Queen Who Came in From the Cold--another excellent entry in the series. Then a shorter book on ghosts and hauntings, Ghosts Among Us, which was perfect for falling asleep over in bed the last few nights. And today I've started The White Octopus Hotel, the first twenty pages of which has drawn me in nicely. More on this contemporary fantasy with time travel elements when I'm done...

>47 Marissa_Doyle:. Well, you made it to Georgia just in time to avoid the blizzard this weekend. Clearly you are well organized and a skilled shifter of households. Congrats!!!

>48 jillmwo: Thank you! After a chilly beginning, it's been lovely weather here.

Sadly, The White Octopus Hotel did not live up to its early promise--which is why it took me forever to finish. The writing was fine, indeed quite lovely in places. But I personally found the protagonists unlikeable and difficult to relate to, the minor characters poorly realized, and the time travel elements ham-handed as well as confusing. A handful of historical howlers were the final nails in the coffin for me.

Happily, I am loving the heck out of Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter, by the author of the Emily Wilde books. Funny and charming so far, nearly halfway through.

Time to catch up!

Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter remained funny and charming--I very much enjoyed it.
Dom Com Cute, somewhat spicy romantic comedy. Fluffy fiction is very satisfying right now, for some reason.
The Wilding A book bullet from @Sakerfalcon--marvelously descriptive, and I enjoyed the fact that the antagonist wasn't exactly evil.
The Haunted House An account of a poltergeist haunting from the 1870s.
Next Level Love More fluffy romcom, very well written. Really enjoyed this one-I'm not a gamer, but my kids are so I've absorbed a lot of the terms and references that enhanced the storytelling.
The Fox Hunt In the middle of this--a (sort-of) contemporary fantasy set at a fiction English university. I'm not yet sure where it's going, so won't pass judgment just yet.

Well, more catch-up. I should be better about this...

The Fox Hunt Alas, ended up as a disappointment; the author tried to cram 2 books into one, and then it devolved into improbable YA fantasy territory.

Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver
Submerged : Adventures of America's Most Elite Underwater Archeology Team
I have no idea why I needed to read these. I got my basic SCUBA certification as a teen but haven't done much diving since...and the thought of cave diving is a hard nope. But the archaeology aspects were fascinating. I think I enjoyed Submerged more because of that, but neither book blew me away--a little too memoir-ish, when I wanted to hear more about the science.

Grey Mask
The Case is Closed The first two books in the Miss Silver mystery series from the 20s onward--nice quiet book palate cleansers, though I do hope Miss Silver herself becomes more of a character in future stories--in these two she tended to move about outside the narrative frame solving the crimes, then presenting the solutions to the protagonists. Well-constructed, though. I'll keep going.

The Regency Switch Time-travel-y body-swapping fluff. Meh.

Platform Decay (The Murderbot Diaries Book 8) Ah. Lovely as always to sink into a Murderbot.

By Any Other Name Enjoyable but flawed rom-com about a romance editor inheriting her company's biggest mega-selling author (when her boss leaves) who is not quite what they seem. Very well written, but it felt rushed and underdeveloped--it really needed another 75 pages to flesh out the romantic conflict. I'll check out the author's other rom-coms.

Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil Well, this one was interesting. I think I may have liked it a little more than others in the Pub just because of its sheer creativity, though I agree that at least Isabella could have been a bit more sympathetically drawn. And yes, the ending was rushed and somewhat cryptic. Reading it on an e-reader was infuriating, though, because of All. The. Footnotes. And they weren't Terry Pratchett or Susanna Clarke-level footnotes, either.

Play Nice Oh, this one was good! A woman coming to terms with her bizarre childhood: was her mother's house truly inhabited by a demon, or was her mother a psychologically damaged drunkard? After her mother dies and she decides to renovate and flip the house, she'll find out... The protagonist starts out somewhat unsympathetic but grows, and the reader's view of the whole mess of her family--sisters and parents and step-parents--evolves and changes. I like Rachel Harrison's books, and think this one might be the best so far that I've read.

The Incandescent This one will be on my best of 2026 list for sure. Marvelous writing and plotting, nuanced characters, a well-developed magic system, all set at an English magic school. I loved it.

Atlas of Cursed Places : A Travel Guide to Dangerous and Frightful Destinations I usually enjoy these types of books (see above Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands) but did not care for the author's writing style and (at times) attitudes.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune I enjoyed it, but it didn't bowl me over. Will wait for installments to come on sale to read on.

An English Murder Enjoyable snowed-in-at-a-country-house mystery.

There are a couple of DNFs in there and I may have forgotten a book or two--but at least I'm up to date.

>51 Marissa_Doyle: Welcome back! I remember DNFing Into the Planet a few years ago. I found the author a bit of a whiny braggart, but I don't remember if that's a fair assessment. I am too chicken to scuba dive, but I find cave diving (and free diving) fascinating.

re: Tesh, I disliked the Greenhollow duology, but this one sounds lovely!

>51 Marissa_Doyle: Welcome back! Are you back on The Cape, too?

>51 Marissa_Doyle:. Someone in my book group yesterday was talking about the Miss Silver series. I don't think I've read them (yet).

I thoroughly enjoyed Cyril Hare's An English Murder as my first introduction to his work. He's a lot of fun.

>52 libraryperilous: Yes, that's a fair assessment of Into the Planet as far as I'm concerned. I haven't read the Greenhollow duology yet, but it's moved up my TBR pile after The Incandescent.

>53 clamairy: Yes, we're back. It was fascinating to watch Spring unwind as we drove north. We'll be going down for a week in June, though, to check on the shrubs and plants we put in--camellias and a lemon tree and a Strelitzia and some crocosmia and yellow cannas and a few other things. Hard to find any natives to plant at the nurseries down there, though--it's not as much of a thing as it is in the northeast. A lot of the same natives grow both here and there, but if we wanted to put in some redbuds and sourwoods, say, we'd have to bring them there from up here.

>54 jillmwo: I'll be interested to see how the series evolves. Do you recommend Hare's other books?

>50 Marissa_Doyle:
Good to see you in the pub again.

>50 Marissa_Doyle: It's great to see you back again!

Cave diving sounds like my worst nightmare, although weirdly dry caving has always interested me. But add water - NOOOOOOO!!!!!
Isabella Nagg and the pot of basil - the titles interests me because of the play on the Bocaccio story, though the plot doesn't look like it is related. But it does sound fun.
I enjoyed The incandescent too, although Saffy's relationship with Mark Daubery didn't feel convincing to me. Saffy seemed too smart to fall for him. But I loved the resolution of the book.

>51 Marissa_Doyle: I've checked out Isabella Nagg and a Pot of Basil from the library. It's my next read. Hmmm
I put a few other of your mentions on my "for later" shelf in my library account.

>57 Sakerfalcon: I enjoy Darkshire's one-page RPG sense of humor. I'm not sure it translates to an entire novel. Perhaps a bit exhausting by page 50? For me, at least.

>51 Marissa_Doyle: Welcome back :)

I like seeing so many people reading Platform Decay! Yes!

>60 Alexandra_book_life: Oh, I always pre-purchase Murderbots so they show up immediately on my e-reader. I just hope that she doesn't get tired of writing them.

>57 Sakerfalcon:, >58 catzteach: I will be interested to hear what you think of Isabella Nagg.

And in the spirit of not letting things slide once again, I will report on A Bookish Story, which is another rom-com written around the publishing world, but shared the problems By Any Other Name had--well-written, but the endings were both rushed and somehow unsatisfactory, even though they were the expected happy one. Ah well. If I have a rom-com itch to scratch in future, I may just need to re-read Hester Browne.

On now to Carter & Lovecraft, which I guess could best be described as hard-boiled horror. Not my usual, but it's well-written and definitely keeping my attention so far.

And a public service announcement for fans of the Emily Wilde books--the next one is available for pre-order, coming out in January. I'll be curious to see where things go in it.

>64 Marissa_Doyle: Interesting! I'm curious what direction this will go. I hope she writes more in the Agnes Aubert universe as well.

>64 Marissa_Doyle: Yay! I have enjoyed these books. And Carter & Lovecraft is now on my list.

>62 Marissa_Doyle: I started Isabella but I couldn’t get into it. I find the asterisks distracting. If it’s such important information, put it in the story.

>65 libraryperilous: Yes, I do too!

>66 catzteach: The "footnotes" drove me crazy. I suppose they were meant to be funny, but mostly weren't. It was an odd little book, wasn't it?

Marissa, what a catch-up! I'm impressed. I was thinking of doing the same thing. Maybe this will give me the push.

>66 catzteach: >67 Marissa_Doyle: I haven't seen this book, but I'm wondering if it had its origin in Nabokov's Pale Fire, in which the story is actually in the footnotes. Danielewski's House of Leaves does something similar.

>68 Meredy: Nothing so literary. The footnotes were just an excuse for the author to make jokes and silly comments.

And catching up--I enjoyed Carter & Lovecraft and the twist on Lovecraftian storytelling, though the protagonists were not well fleshed out and remained rather flat. The story ends on a heck of a twist, and at some point I'll get the follow-up and read that as well. Based on the author's comments, I think these books were work-for-hire, so I doubt there will ever be more than the two. A pity, as it's an interesting premise.

I'm in the middle of How to Build a Haunted House--an examination of the haunted house in English-speaking cultural history--which I'm enjoying if not precisely galloping through. I keep getting distracted by Substack posts.

>68 Meredy:
I had three bookmarks in use as I read House of Leaves. It was quite an achievement to write it but I felt it was too long for the story it told and the level of scare involved.

Reporting in...

How to Build a Haunted House A book bullet from @Sakerfalcon, I believe? An examination of reputedly haunted houses from a socio-cultural-historical viewpoint (that was quite a string of hyphen, if I do say so myself.) Well-written and makes many excellent points (the Winchester Mystery House stands out in that regard, in my mind) about why certain houses and venues may acquire the reputation for being haunted. An interesting if not scintillating examination, though I could not help wondering why the author embarked on it if she is not particularly open to the idea that houses may actually possess ghosts. For purposes of full disclosure, yes, I do.

The Red House Mystery A.A. Milne's only foray into mystery writing was a fun read--I did like the absurdity of the amateur sleuth and his "Watson", and would have enjoyed reading a few more. Enjoyable period piece.

The Bookshop Below Deeply conflicted about this one. I both loved it and wanted to slam it closed at times (metaphorically speaking. A contemporary fantasy built around books and bookshops with ink magic thrown in there and some creative, novel ideas (pun intended) and excellent writing (the writing saved it for me--quite lovely.) But there's a romance in it that feels forced (enemies-to-lovers tropes often do), and a lot of how the magic works is left a little too unexplained. In fact, a lot of things are, which is dissatisfying indeed; I think a firmer editorial hand might have taken care of many of those issues. So--worth reading, with those warnings in mind. I shall definitely keep an eye out for her other work.

Human Rites Fabulous ending to the Her Majesty's Royal Coven series--lots of unexpected twists and turns to the very end--I spent most of yesterday reading when I should have been doing a lot of other things--and the last chapter made me laugh out loud. Love this book. Loved the whole series.

>71 Marissa_Doyle: I have good memories of The Red House Mystery, it was a nice read. Thank you for reminding me :)

>71 Marissa_Doyle: I loved the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven series!! I wonder if the author has written other things?

>71 Marissa_Doyle: Yes, How to build a haunted house was from me! I found some chapters more interesting than others, but overall I enjoyed it, and like you I thought the examination of the Winchester Mystery House was one of the best bits.

I am now seriously considering picking up How to Build A Haunted House. Should a third person here in the Pub vouch for it, I will not be able to resist.

>73 catzteach: She's written a bunch of YA fiction as well as nonfiction about LQBTQ+ issues. I'm going to read more of her.

The Murder at World's End is the first in a new planned mystery series. The setting was immensely clever--a locked room mystery plot, with the locked room being an estate on an island off Cornwall impossible to reach at high tide, owned by a viscount who is certain that Halley's Comet (it's 1911, you see) is about to kill all life on the planet as earth passes through its tail, so he completely seals his stately home--every door, window, and chimney. Fun characters--a young ex-con and an extremely salty-mouthed maiden aunt work together to solve the viscount's (and several other) murders. A nice diversion.

>76 Marissa_Doyle: I’ll have to see if my library has any of those.

>77 Marissa_Doyle: I just bought Murder at World’s End at a thrift store for $6! Hardcover. I’m glad you liked it. I’m hoping to get to it this summer.

>77 Marissa_Doyle: sound like fun. I've put in a library hold for it.

>78 catzteach:, >79 haydninvienna: I hope you enjoy it!

Strange Folk is a contemporary fantasy set in Appalachia about folk-magic and family legacies (not the nice kind.) I've enjoyed similar stories, but this one fell flat--not enough sense of the setting, poor, flat characterization, and slap-dash storytelling. A better, heavier editorial hand might have helped with some of these issues. Ah well.

Hawthorn: A Scottish Ghost Story is, so far (I'm perhaps a third of the way through) very, very good. I think it much better than The Woman in Black, but will give final comments when I'm finished.

>80 Marissa_Doyle: Oh, that one looks really good but perhaps I will save it for October.

Hawthorn: A Scottish Ghost Story did not finish as strongly as it started, mostly because the pacing in the middle of the book bogged down (literally, as a bog plays a prominent role in this book), then rushed to an end. I also had already guessed the twists and turns that I suspect were supposed to be shocking. But it is very well-written and atmospheric, though a little confusing on a few points especially concerning why Mhairi's ghost was so hostile to the narrator if she wanted him to avenge her.

Startup Hell I think I enjoyed this one more than @Sakerfalcon did. Yes, it was heavy on the corporate jargon, the very lack of real meaning in which points up the emptiness of much of the culture. And while it was funny, I appreciated how the author grappled with the morality of both corporate and individual actions...and the protagonist's struggles with them and her own insecurities and perceptions/misperceptions. I really enjoyed the plotting in this one, too--multiple threads came together very well to resolve the story. Maybe not a good one to pick up if you're looking for complete contemporary fantasy fluff, but I enjoyed it very much.

I've been reading much fluffy fiction these last couple of weeks, perhaps inspired by Penny who is STILL going through her spring shed. Except this has been some very good fluff, for the most part.

Mrs. Nash's Ashes Road trip trope meets grumpy/sunshine trope, with a terrific dollop of humor and good writing. Protagonist on a quixotic trip to bring some of her neighbor's ashes to the lost love of her neighbor's life pairs up with a grumpy acquaintance to drive from DC to Key West. Shenanigans and more true love ensues. Quite enjoyable.

Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore Cozy fantasy romance with an interesting premise (a former villain wants to become good--not an easy task as she was raised to be a villain), but I found the writing clunky and struggled to finish.

Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder More well-written, fluffy fun, with a well-defined and displayed character growth arc for the ultra-rich, spoiled protagonist who solves the murder of her (rather horrid) grandmother, head of a large luxury hotel chain, and discovers her passion for baking. I'll read the next in the series.

>83 Marissa_Doyle: Those all sound like good fun!
So do you put the shedded fluff outside for the birds?

>84 clamairy: Much of the time, yes. Also, I compost the contents of her litterbox, which makes our trees and shrubs very happy.

Dastardly Deeds at St. Bride's seemed like it would fit into my recent craving for light reading. I suppose it did, but I was not overwhelmed: I found it clunky in both writing and plotting, but mostly harmless. Then I dipped into the second in the series, Sinister Stranger at St. Bride's, and had to stop about a third of the way through because the plotting was so ridiculously unbelievable and the characters remained shallow. Not for me, I'm afraid.

On to Higher Magic, which was mentioned on @Sakerfalcon's thread and which I was pleased to see I'd already picked up on sale. Only about 10 percent of the way in, and I agree that it's atmospheric and very well written--looking forward to diving more deeply into it.

Finished Higher Magic, and I'm fairly certain it will be on my top five fiction reads for the year. Wow! Different and original, but beyond that there were specific points that raised it well out of the ordinary for me: first, that it wasn't one person saving the world (as a lot of fantasy seems to be) but a group of people working together, all vital to the outcome and doing their share. And second, the "saving the world" (actually a university campus) is about social justice--about making it a better place for everyone (particularly those with both visible and non-visible access issues.) It's also funny (my favorite character has to be Anne, who happens to be a talking skull who uses lines from late Georgian novels to communicate) with a sweet love story that doesn't overwhelm the plot. Highly recommended.

>87 Marissa_Doyle: Higher Magic sounds intriguing. Added to my TBR list.

>88 catzteach: You have a treat in store!