Category Archives: reading list

2015 Year in Reading

I need to post about my reading adventures for last year before January gets away from me! I read (or at least managed to track on goodreads) 77 books last year. Highlights include:

The Raven Boys series by Maggie Stiefvater – So much more creative than most YA fiction out there, and so well-written.

Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny – I’ve been meaning to start reading this series for a long time and blew through around 5 volumes in short order.

The Winter Sea by Suzanna Kearsley – Nice historical time travel cozy book.

Magnificent Devices Series by Shelley Adina – Non-annoying steampunk romance series. I’ve only read the first four or so, but they feature an unconventional heroine with a yen for science who inadvertently finds herself in charge of a gang of child thieves.

 

Books Read, February, March, and April

I am doing such a poor job keeping track of my reading on this blog, but I have been better at updating Goodreads, so at least I have my reading lists saved somewhere:

On the YA front I’ve recently read:

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld
A Time To Dance by Padma Venkatraman
Scarlet and Cress by Melissa Meyer
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater


On the romance novel front I’ve read:

Bound by Flames by Jeanne Frost
Lady Windermere’s Lover, The Importance of Being Wicked, The Ruin of a Rogue, The Duke of Dark Desires by Miranda Neville
Duke of Midnight by Elizabeth Hoyt
Staying at Daisies, Millie’s Fling, An Offer You Can’t Refuse By Jill Mansell
Truely by Ruthie Knox – this was one of the more memorable books I read, in that I can actually still remember the plot and characters! Midwestern girl meets emotionally distant New York Chef. It was a really good contemporary romance.
Cold Iron by D.L. McDermott
Wanted: Wife by Gwen Jones
It Started with a Scandal by Julie Anne Long
Royally Ever After by Loretta Chase
No Rest for the Wicked by Cresley Cole


Non-Fiction:

Using Open Refine by Ruben Verborgh

Comics and Graphic Novels (non-manga)

Saga Volume 3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Ms Marvel Volume 1: by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona
Captain Marvel Vol. 1: Pursuit of Flight by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios

Books Read, January 2015

I’m trying to do a better job of tracking my reading this year! This is what I read this month:

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater – For some reason it took me a couple attempts to get into this book, I think because during my first attempt I was a little bit distracted and Stiefvater’s prose and world building really deserve a reader’s full attention. But this was a wonderful book, and I’m only holding off on devouring the rest of the series because I want to savor the rest of it.

Say Yes to the Marquess by Tessa Dare – This was slightly less whimsical than the first book in this series, but it still has the combination of cleverness and humor that I tend to enjoy in historical romance novels.

With this Kiss and Once Upon a Tower by Eloisa James– Eloisa James tends to be one of those authors I turn to when I am feeling a bit stressed. With this Kiss as a set of novellas was a little disjointed, but that can only be expected. Once Upon a Tower is one of several volumes in James’ fairytale series, focusing on Rapunzel of course.

Trade Me by Courtney Milan – A new Courtney Milan is always an automatic buy for me, and I was interested to check out her first contemporary book. Some of the plot resolutions involved a bit too much suspension of disbelief, but I thought she was tackling a variety of important issues in the book, and portraying characters that are often not the focus of a romance novel in an interesting way.

Partial Year in Review for Reading

I was mega busy this year! So busy, I did a much poorer job of tracking my reading habits. I totally forgot to log anything in Goodreads until July. So I read 62 books, including a few scattered manga and graphic novels. I suspect that my total of non-comic books for the year would be more around the 80ish range if I was keeping better track. I also reread a ton of books that aren’t popping up in my Goodreads list, like a ton of the Dark Hunters series, the Vampire Academy series, the first two books in the Divergent series (I couldn’t remember what happened before starting the third), some Paul Zindel books, and the Alanna series.

Some of my favorite things I read this year (that I remember):

I finally read Rainbow Rowell, and enjoyed Eleanore and Park, Fangirl, and Attachments.

In terms of contemporary paranormal romance, the Charley Davidson series by Darynda Jones was a standout. It was both hilarious and suspenseful! I read most of this series when I was on summer vacation, and it is great vacation reading.

For non-romance genre fiction, I continue to wait really impatiently for the conclusion of the Passage trilogy, but I was happy to read the middle book in the series, The Twelve.

On the traditional fantasy side, I read the Lies of Locke Lamora. I really enjoyed the world building, but I haven’t read the other books in the series yet.

The greatest proportion of my reading tends to be historical romances. So this year I enjoyed reading newer books by Courtney Milan, Kristen Calihan, and Julie Ann Long. My favorite reads in this category include the Rules of Scoundrels series by Sarah MacLean and My Beautiful Enemy by Sherry Thomas.

The book I hated the most was Allegiant. I thought the first couple books in this series were slight, but at least somewhat diverting. As the series dragged on, all the logical problems with the world building and character development became more and more annoying. I think that this is one of those books where the movie adaptation is actually better than the source material.

Right now I’m reading The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater and rereading the Shadow of Night.

I hope to do a better job at keeping track of my reading in the coming year!

Books Read in August

For my YA Book Club meeting later this month I read:

The Song of the Lioness Quartet (rereads)
and Defy by Sara Larson

We picked these books due to the plot similarity because both involve heroines masquerading as knights and falling in love with princes.

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell – I enjoyed this, as I’ve enjoyed Rowell’s other books.
Talk Sweetly To Me – by Courtney Milan – any new Milan is an automatic buy for me.

Currently I’m rereading in a slightly skimming sort of way A Discovery of Witches – I started the third book in the series and realized that I’d forgotten what happened in the earlier books.

For last month’s book club we accidentally picked Code of Silence, which is a Christian YA book. It was honestly pretty horrible, as the central messages of the book that were repeated over and over again were “don’t lie” and “trust the police”. To which I say, bleh.

What I read in July

I have been a MEGA slacker with this blog, but I still manage to post semi-regularly on Manga Report and contribute to some of the weekly features on Manga Bookshelf. Anyway, I hope to post a bit more here, even if it is a bit dusty. Maybe I will cover a bit of knitting progress, books I’ve been reading, and one of these days I want to finish out my posts on Amethyst Princess of Gemworld by outlining some of the references to her in Legion of Super-Heroes.

Along with lapsing in blogging, I stopped updating goodreads very often, so I lost my reliable metrics about what I’ve been reading. I’ve been trying to do a much better job though, so this is what I was reading in July. I actually had a vacation in July so I was able to breeze through many many books.

Rereads – Vast portions of the Dark Hunter Series. I bought this bundle when it was on sale for the low low price of $20:

I started wading through this in June, then my interest petered out in July after finishing Acheron.

I read books 1-6 of the Charley Davidson (haha) series:

This was a good, clever paranormal series, even if some of the mysteries explored in the books end up a bit obvious. Great and engaging cast of characters.

Historical Romances:

I read a couple of Eloisa James’ fairy tale series, The Ugly Duchess and The Duke is Mine. James is really up there with Loretta Chase and Courtney Milan as my favorite romance authors. These books were witty, with memorable characters. It is always interesting to see how James interprets the fairy tale inspiration of the plots, set in a non-magical historical setting.

I read the Suffragette Scandal, by Courtney Milan, a book that should be celebrated for many reasons, not the least is the phrase “puppy cannon”. I also read Proof By Seduction and Trial by Desire.

I also read the Lion’s Lady by Julie Garwood, Scotsmen Prefer Blonds by Sara Ramsey and a couple linked books by Lorraine Heath, In Bed by the Devil and Between the Devil and Desire. The Heath books were a bit different from the typical historical romance, since they were a bit inspired by Dickens’ Artful Dodger and his band of thieves.

For contemporary romance, I read Sarah Morgan’s Sleigh Bells in the Snow, which is really a great example of a contemporary Harlequin done well.

I also read Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire, which I had to force myself to finish. It was clever, but it was clever in exactly the same way to a degree that reading it became a bit grating. Also, the heroine interrupted the main flow of the story so many times to digress about thinks like her Great Aunt Myrtle’s adventures in dragon hunting, I realized the book was 85% asides and 15% actual plot and character development.

YA

My book group was reading Paul Zindel, so I read the classic The Pigman. It is very odd but nice going back and reading books that I had practically memorized when I was 14 years old (oh so very long ago)

That’s what I finished reading!

On the horizon for August:

Book club book Code of Silence
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Book of Live by Deborah Harkness

Recent Reading for January, February, and March

I’ve been less rigorous about tracking my reading. I used to be really good about logging everything in GoodReads, but I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t even managed to do that! But I want to have a record somewhere, so here are some of the things I’ve been reading for the past few months.

For whatever reason in addition to my usual diet of manga, I read VERY LONG Books.

Lies of Locke Lamora – amusing fantasy novel about a gang of con artists. Would appeal to people that like the Vlad Taltos series by Brust. Great worldbuilding, but sometimes gets bogged down a bit with the descriptions.
The Twelve by Justin Cronin – This is one of those series that is so much better than the plot makes it sound! I love the shifting points of view and the way the narrative all comes together between characters scattered across a post apocalyptic America.

Romance Novels

I’m forgetting some of what I read here, but I did finish up:

It Happened One Midnight by Julie Ann Long
Heiress Without a Cause by Sara Ramsey
Heart of Iron and Kiss of Steel by Bec McMaster


Young Adult Books

I’ve been on a big YA reread binge recently. The Vampire Academy sale on the Kindle happened to match up with a work trip I was taking, so I reread the entire series. They are the perfect airplane books, easy to read but engrossing enough that I almost forgot that I was crammed on a plane for untold hours.

I reread the first two books of Divergent, and read the final book Allegiant. I enjoyed the first book if I didn’t think about it too hard, but as the series develops there’s just so much that makes no logical sense, and I found myself getting really sick of the characters to the point where I was delighted when they started to die off. I actually think these books might be better served by the movie adaptations, because at least then the audience would be spared the whiny self-indulgent first person narration that I found so annoying in the last book of the trilogy. Also the charisma of the actors might cause the audience to not thing so very hard about the abundant plot holes.

I also read Eleanor and Park and Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, both of which were excellent!

Hideous Love: The Story of hte Girl who Wrote Frankenstein was my YA book club pick for the month, and it was an interesting blend of fictionalized biography and blank verse.

Graphic Novels

There was a Johnathan Hickman sale on Comixology! I finally picked up some of his work on Fantastic Four and really enjoyed the first couple volumes. Hickman really did an effective job of balancing the cosmic themes and family problems that I’d expect to see in a FF title. I plan on picking up more of these collections soon.

I also did a fair amount of Captain America rereading in preparation for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

First Quarter Reading Update

I’ve been slacking on doing my reading lists, which I do find useful when I want to look back and see what I’ve read over the year. This is a partial list of what I’ve read from January 2013-May 2013:

YA
The Giver and Messenger Lois Lowry – We are reading a ton of Lois Lowery for my YA book club this month.
Graceling and Fire Kristin Cashore – Throughly enjoyed the first book in the series, but the switch to a different country in the same world with a complicated and detailed backstory left me a little bit unenthused by the second volume. Both were well-written, and I probably will check out the third volume in the series at some point.
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight Jennifer E. Smith – This was cute, but in terms of young romance in a foreign country, I much preferred Anna and the French Kiss. The timeline here in the characters getting to know each other was so compressed, I didn’t feel like I got a very full picture of their personalities.

Romance
Something About You Julie James
Irresistible (Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, #3) Mary Balogh
The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae (The Cynster Sisters Trilogy #3) Stephanie Laurens
Twice Tempted (Night Prince, #2) Jeaniene Frost
The Inconvenient Duchess (The Radwells #1) Christine Merrill
The Other Side of Us Sarah Mayberry
Temptation and Surrender (Cynster, #15) Stephanie Laurens
Potent Pleasures (Pleasures, #1) Eloisa James
Winterblaze (Darkest London, #3) Kristen Callihan – This was a fun historical paranormal romance series. Looking forward to the next book!
Firelight (Darkest London, #1) Kristen Callihan
Moonglow (Darkest London, #2) Kristen Callihan
If I Fall (The Blue Raven, #4) Kate Noble
Revealed (The Blue Raven, #1) Kate Noble
The Taste of Night (Signs of the Zodiac, #2) Vicki Pettersson
The Scent of Shadows (Signs of the Zodiac, #1) Vicki Pettersson
The Promise in a Kiss (Cynster Prequel) Stephanie Laurens
Devil’s Bride (Cynster, #1) Stephanie Laurens
The Ideal Bride (Cynster, #11) Stephanie Laurens
Skies of Fire (The Ether Chronicles, #1) Zoe Archer
The Forbidden Lord (Lord Trilogy, #2) Sabrina Jeffries
The Pirate Lord (Lord Trilogy, #1) Sabrina Jeffries
The Dangerous Lord (Lord Trilogy, #3) Sabrina Jeffries
Spiders Bite (Elemental Assassin Series #1) Jennifer Estep

Manga
The Story of Saiunkoku, Vol. 9 Kairi Yura
Crimson Empire Vol 1: Circumstances to Serve a Noble QuinRose
Tiger & Bunny, Vol. 1 Mizuki Sakakibara
Pepita: Takehiko Inoue Meets Gaudi Takehiko Inoue
Kare First Love, Volume 1-6 Kaho Miyasaka
Otomen, Vol. 15 (Otomen, #15) Aya Kanno
Dengeki Daisy 12 (Dengeki Daisy, #12) Kyousuke Motomi
Mobile Suit Gundam: THE ORIGIN volume 1: Activation Yoshiyuki Tomino
Paradise Kiss, Part 2 Ai Yazawa
Demon Love Spell, Vol. 2 Mayu Shinjo
Vagabond, Vol. 10 (VIZBIG Edition) Takehiko Inoue
Please Save My Earth, 1- 6 Saki Hiwatari
Kekkaishi, Vol. 14 (Kekkaishi, #14) Yellow Tanabe
Kekkaishi, Vol. 17 (Kekkaishi, #17) Yellow Tanabe
Barrage, Vol. 2 Kouhei Horikoshi
Barrage, Vol. 1 Kouhei Horikoshi
Jiu Jiu, Vol. 4 Touya Tobina
Oresama Teacher , Vol. 13 Izumi Tsubaki
Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 12 Julietta Suzuki
Skip Beat!, Vol. 30 Yoshiki Nakamura
Strobe Edge Vol. 2 – 4 Io Sakisaka
Paradise Kiss, Part 3 Ai Yazawa
Library Wars: Love and War #9 Kiiro Yumi

2012 Year in Reading

Well, it took me a bit to get all the metadata in my Goodreads account in order to get some decent numbers but I fixed the issues. The irony of a librarian having insufficient Goodreads metadata is not lost on me. So, for 2012, I read 167 total volumes counting both books and manga/graphic novels. I’m going to round up that a bit to account for manga ebooks (from Jmanga) that aren’t listed on Goodreads, so it was probably closer to 175-180, really. I read roughly 75 volumes of manga. I’m estimated roughly 90-100 books, and the reason why that total is so high is due to the high percentage of fluffy romance series that I can tear through in a very short amount of time. I’ve also been reading more and more ebooks, which I think I tend to read a bit faster than print.

Favorite book I read this year:

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick Dewitt – This Cohen Brothersesque novel about two assassins during the Gold Rush was so good, it totally spoiled me for reading for a long time because absolutely nothing else could measure up to it. The dialog and use of language was spectacular, and the combination of violence, humor, and unlikely adventure gave it the feeling of an unlikely epic.

Best Manga I should have read a long time ago

Co-hosting the Takehiko Inoue manga moveable feast was great, because I finally got around to reading parts of Slam Dunk and Real. Inoue’s sports manga is just as fantastic as Vagabond.

Quirkiest manga:

Working Kentauros by Est Em – God bless Jmanga for translating Est Em’s slice of life book about centaur salarymen.

Favorite graphic novel:

As much as I enjoyed Saga, reading the first couple volumes of Mark Waid’s Daredevil was such a fresh take on the character, I’m going to have to go with this, both in visual execution and the fun of seeing Daredevil not act like the Marvel Universe’s Prince of Gloom.

Most Underwhelming Comic Reboot:

I wouldn’t expect that a new Amethyst of Princess of Gemworld series would leave me largely indifferent but after looking forward to it with guarded optimism, I was just generally disappointed by the Amethyst reboot. The occasional cute character moments and humor don’t really make up for the rapes as narrative device and shuffled reenvisioning of the Gemworld.

Notable Romance novels

This was the year I read most of Courtney Milan’s books. I also enjoyed reading Thea Harrison’s Elder Races series and Tessa Dare’s Spindle Cove series.

Favorite YA

John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars and Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races were my favorite YA reads.

Books Read, November and December 2012

I got a Paperwhite for Hanukkah! So I have been tearing through some ebooks recently.

Books

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – This was a standout recent read. I am kicking myself for not reading this earlier. Who knew that a book about teens with cancer could be so intelligently quirky and hilarious and epic at the same time.
The Dark Highlander (Highlander, #5) by Karen Marie Moning
The Immortal Highlander (Highlander, #6) by Karen Marie Moning
Iced by Karen Marie Moning
A Kiss For Midwinter (Brothers Sinister, #1.5) by Courtney Milan
The Duchess War (Brothers Sinister, #1) by Courtney Milan
Season for Surrender (Seasons, #2) by Theresa Romain
A Week to Be Wicked (Spindle Cove, #2) by Tessa Dare
A Lady by Midnight (Spindle Cove, #3) by Tessa Dare
When You Give a Duke a Diamond (Jewels of the Ton, #1) by Shana Galen
The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation, #6) by Lauren Willig
The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2) by Richelle Mead – There was just way too much exposition in this book for the second volume of a continuing series. It bogged the book down for me quite a bit.
The English Witch by Loretta Chase
Knave’s Wager by Loretta Chase
Viscount Vagabond by Loretta Chase

Manga and Graphic Novels

Recently I’ve been working my way through some volumes of Kekkaishi due to the current Viz Digital Sale. I’ll have to pick up a few more volumes before the sale ends on the 8th.

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan – Nice to see that the hype about this series was justified!
Captain America and Bucky: Old Wounds
Kamisama Kiss 11
A Devil and Her Love Song 6
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon 5
?07 Ghost 1
Strobe Edge 1
Oresama Teacher 11 and 12
Kimi ni Todoke: From me to You 15
Story of Saiunkoku 8
Give My Regards to Black Jack 1-4