Category Archives: books

2016 year in reading

According to Goodreads, I read 88 books in 2016. I don’t ever do a great job tracking manga/comic books in Goodreads, so that represents most of my fiction reading.

Fiction/SciFi/Mystery books I greatly enjoyed in 2016 include The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin, Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick DeWitt, Uprooted by Naomi Novak, and the Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. I read a Louise Penny book here and there, and those are always enjoyable despite all the mullioned windows references. Mullions!

YA books – I loved the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. Great world building, and thought the quasi Russian setting for this fantasy adventure was refreshing, because all too often fantasy resorts to generic middle ages in terms of settings.

Romance – I read a bunch of the Mercy Thompson series by Patrica Briggs. I also read many of Susanna Kearsley’s books, even if they start to feel a little formulaic if you read them one after another. Her sweeping stories involving time travel are great comfort reading.
I also was happy there were quite a few new releases from favorite authors like Eloisa James, Loretta Chase, and Tessa Dare.

I took a detour into celebrity autobiography and read Rob Lowe’s Stories I Only Tell My Friends and Tina Fey’s Bossypants, both were amusing.

For biggest disappointment, the Paper Magician Trilogy by Clare Hormburg started out extremely interesting, with a unique magic system and the type of spunky heroine I generally enjoy and then the writing, plot, and characterization devolved so much towards the end, I regretted reading it.

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.

 

Vacation Reading: Magnificent Devices Series

It is nice to stumble across a long, entertaining series when on vacation. The first book in the Magnificent Devices series is free, and after I finished it I promptly bought a book bundle that contained the next three books.

The Victorian setting is typical of the steampunk genre, with the British class system split between Wits and Bloods. Claire is born in a family where she is expected to make a good marriage and settle down and raise a family, however her natural interest in Engineering makes her dream of attending a university. When her family falls on hard times, Claire finds herself free to make her own way in the world, and she accidentally becomes an adoptive mother to a large group of orphans, despite her only being 17.

Claire is unfailingly intrepid, securing a mysterious weapon to defend herself and her charges, setting up a school to teach the orphans how to read and write, and running poker games and intelligently investing the proceeds so she has a means of supporting herself independently. While the first book takes place in England, the next part of the series takes a detour to North America, both the Wild West and Canada. The extended cast are all well-characterized, and while Claire is the main focus of the books, this means that some of the sequels can focus more on the orphans as they begin to grow up. There are plenty of quirky touches, like the hen that follows Claire’s adoptive family about, and her engineering prowess ensures that most of the time she just saves herself instead of waiting to be rescued whenever she gets into a threatening situation.

While there are hints of romance, for the most part the books in the series that I’ve read so far focus much more on steampunk adventure and character development. I’m finding it very relaxing to read this series while I’m on vacation, and I recommend it if you enjoy steampunk as a genre.

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!

Romancing the Duke, Confessions of a Viscount, and the Secret Diaries of Miranda Cheever

Here are some quick reviews of some romance novels that are discounted on the Kindle! The majority of my reading is now bargain-priced romance novels, I find it very restful after looking doing more technical stuff at work.

Romancing the Duke: Castles Ever After by Tessa Dare

Tessa Dare is one of those authors whose books I expect to be delightful and I am never disappointed. Romancing the Duke is extra charming, with plenty of warm humor and character development. Isolde Ophelia Goodnight is orphaned at a young age and not provided for by her feckless author father who is famous for his well-known fairytale series. Seizing a last chance at independence when she arrives at Gostley Castle to claim an inheritance from an Earl who seems to be leaving castles to all his goddaughters (instant series!). As she arrives at the castle, Izyy faces some satiric gothic horrors out of Northanger Abbey. She makes the unfortunate discovery that the castle is actually still inhabited by Ransom, the Duke of Rothbury.

If you really like the ending part of Jane Eyre, than this book is for you, because as Izzy and Ransom get to know each other, there’s a similar dynamic here. It takes a little while for Izzy to realize that Ransom is blind, wounded by a duel gone wrong. Ransom is understandably hostile yet involuntary attracted to this young woman who shows up and announces that she now owns his house. Izzy is a fun heroine, a bit insecure about her appearance and saddled with a healthy dose of Christopher Robin syndrome because the fans of her father’s works expect her to be like the precious little girl that appears in his books. The fans call themselves Moranglians after the imaginary land where her father’s stories took place, and the roam about the countryside LARPing. This was one of most amusing romance novels I’ve read in a long time, and I’m going to snap up the next book in the series, Say Yes to the Marquess when it comes out in December.

The Secret Diaries of Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn

Julia Quinn is always a reliable romance author, and she has excellent taste in coffee mugs. The Bridgerton series is one of the better sprawling romance series featuring a family that I’ve read, and it was a bit of a coincidence that I read this book featuring a psychologically damaged hero shortly after reading Romancing the Duke. Of course there are many many romance novels featuring psychologically damaged heroes, so maybe the odds were pretty good that I’d be reading similar scenarios one after the other. This is the first book in the Bevelstoke series.

Miranda has been in love with her best friend Olivia’s older brother Turner since she was a little girl. Miranda is basically brought up by Olivia’s family, as her own father is a neglectful scholar, and her headstrong friend Olivia needs a moderating influence. While some might view Miranda as a bit of a wallflower, she’s very aware of her own position in Olivia’s household and isn’t shy with expressing her opinions. Turner’s horrible wife has just died, and he and Miranda meet again at the funeral, when Turner expresses very unfuneral feelings at his wife’s grave. Turner and Miranda become reacquainted for the first time since she was 10, and he finds himself suddenly intrigued by a grown up Miranda, yet tortured at the same time because he has no desire to enter into a relationship again. Some of the plot elements in this book were a bit predictable, particularly the events that led up to the happy ending. Still, this is well worth trying if you’ve read the Bridgertons and the Two Dukes of Wyndham series and want to read more Julia Quinn. There are many witty moments, and all the characters are richly developed. I’m assuming that the next book in the series focuses on the headstrong and less than tactful Olivia, and I’m curious to read what happens to her.

Confessions of a Viscount by Shirley Karr

This book’s cover doesn’t match up very well with the contents, because the cover looks like a typical old school bodice ripper and the book actually features a LADY SPY. I absolutely adore lady spies in historical romance books. I am also a fairly uncritical consumer of lady spy romances, but this one is very good. The Viscount in the title is Alistair Moncreiffe, who is an astronomer. He makes decisions about which parties to attend purely due to whose house has a good roof for astronomical observation. The spy in question is Charlotte Parnell, who has been trained to spy by her brother. Spying was an ok occupation for a lady when the siblings were not in England, but now that they are back Charlotte’s brother wants her to give up her life of adventure for a respectable marriage.

Alistair and Charlotte meet when she uses him for cover when she’s tailing someone, sidling up to him and taking his arm and talking to him as if they’ve known each other for years. He plays along and tries to catch her name, but she manages to disappear when his attention is diverted. They meet at a party later, and Charlotte proposes a fake engagement. Later, Alastair manages to rescue Charlotte when she finds herself unexpectedly dangling off the side of a building. The couple agree to enter into a fake engagement in order to stave off Alastair’s relatives who want him married off and give Charlotte time to complete her spy mission in secret while making her brother think that she’s retired from her previous life of intrigue. The developing relationship between Alastair and Charlotte kept my interest throughout the book, because I appreciated the contrast between Alastair’s more scientific mind and Charlotte’s intelligent sneakiness. For only .99 cents right now, this is well worth picking up.

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.