Thought I'd share my reading year so far, sorry if i dont have any fancy images or tiers, also hope my handwriting is legible

Set in the Virgin Islands, the residents of Water Island find their lives altered when an alien race called the Ynaa settle over them. The Ynaa bring medicines and a lot of prosperity but they also act violently at the slightest provocation. The people of Water Island adjust to their personal struggles while facing the changes brought about by the Ynaa.

I liked this book fine but it wasn't one I was especially enamoured with. I liked the conflict of how the different residents viewed their newest colonizers (or settlers depending on who was talking about them) and exploring that via a sort of sci-fi lense. However it did feel like the alien part was mostly set dressing that I would have liked to see more done with. The interpersonal drama was somewhat compelling but the writing also felt a bit clumsy. Overall a worthwhile read but I don't think it will stick with me.

It took me 4 long years to be able to finally let myself read any English novels. It was miserable. But it was a decision i had to make, partly because of studies, work and now to focus on learning Japanese- to make my life here a little bit easier. But recently I just gave up , not entirely but more likely a feeling of burnout, so I decided to read English novels again lol! Would love to increase my book goal but I'm kind of in shock with the book prices. Has it been always like these? Or is it just because I am already a working adult, so i feel like every loose change counts? Also during my childhood and up until college my books are either from my mother ( classics penguin) and or printed on an A4 sheet of paper, double column, times new roman ,size 8 single line~hunger game series, divergent series etc. ( please don't judge me , we are students at that time but good old days lol!)

But yeah! guess I need to get used to the prices! Also a bit overwhelmed , seems like i have a lot of catching up to do. Currently reading Buffalo Hunter Hunter. Happy reading!

S: And then there were none- Agatha Christie / Piranesi- Susana Clarke

A: The only one left- Riley Sager

B: That's not my name- Megan Lally

C: Texas Murders- James Patterson

"Night Walk" was my first John Saul book. Certainly competently written, not exactly a horror novel, but a "thriller" or action book, I suppose. Certainly an author I would read again on a trip, but maybe not an author I would actually seek out. Otherwise, we have some standard superhero TPBs, and one "mature" graphic novel by Sarah Anderson.
I have a lot of books on my bedside table, I keep meaning to finish them, but I get tired and end up only reading superheroes to pass the time...

Just finished Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. This has to be one of those most extreme pieces of literature I’ve read. I’ve never highlighted so many passages or taken so many notes before as I have with this book. What a gruesome and harrowing journey.

It did take me a few pages to get used to his lack of quotation marks and other devices here and there. I don’t speak Spanish and there are quite a few sections with dialogue in Spanish that I want to go back to and translate.

I chose to read this book soon after finishing Lonesome Dove because I knew going in the contrast of gore and violence/extremes was going to be sobering (and it was.)

This is the first book I’ve truly read by him. I say “truly” because I read “The Road” a long time ago but I don’t think I appreciated it enough. Thus, I’m going to read it again.

I read this book for a book club meeting this week. It was fast paced and short enough for me to push through but a little too dark and gory for how my tastes run.

Bold premise here from Madame Balle. And one wonders if she knew from the start how the whole thing might unwind. Or if she is just winging it. She has been working on it now since before Covid in 2019. And we will get seven volumes presumably. She self-published this first one. In Danish. And it took four years for the translation in English to emerge. I think people in several coutries are paying attention now. And she apparently took a thirty year gap from her prior books to begin this sequence.

And it is something like Ground Hog Day written by Kazuo Ishiguro. I can’t speak for where it is headed yet but I would be hard pressed to stop now. Looks like the first five volumes have been translated. We are definitely headed somewhere interesting at this point. Woman trying to work her way out of a trap meticulously. Isolation, separation, the limits of marriage, the salvation of books – a quiet mix of all of these. Will not be in everyone’s wheelhouse. But I am in. 

Let's just say the i my Brain confused bell jar with the Bell curve, so i thought this book was about things that had historically been more difficult to acess by women, or with which women were overburdened.

When we talk about expectations, they aren’t necessarily good or bad—it’s simply a matter of anticipating something—and let’s just say I was expecting something quite different.

That said, this was one of my few 5/5 ratings. It certainly helps that the story touches on things that are very personal to me; halfway through the book, I realized that the author must have gone through these experiences herself, given the way she describes them—which makes the situation all the more "frightening," yet at the same time, it’s incredible how much things have changed, and yet how little they’ve changed.

Anniway Rant aside, i super recomend reading this.

Protagonist was shallow. Her goal was to lose weight so she could find a new man. While she did lose weight, her encounters with men were ridiculous. A mature woman would not have gone with any man within such a short time. Ending was ridiculous too. Described as hilarious, it sadly was more romance than funny. I won't read another written by Dee MacDonald. Rated 2 stars

Interesting characters, but the pacing was slow. I had the murderer figured out very early in the story, so I was disappointed by this Shirley Jackson horror novel. Ending seemed impossible with their continuing to live in the home. Rated 3 stars

Just finished "The Shining" as book 40. These are up next! Starting American Gods tonight.

tl,dr: Unless you're a HARDCORE sci-fi horror completionist, skip it.

"Dead Silence" is mostly a pastiche of well-worn genre tropes with the old proper nouns swapped out for new ones. It is the sum of it's parts. No more, no less. As soon as you sink your teeth into it, fans of the sci-fi horror sub-genre will recognize familiar ingredients cooked into a familiar dish (with few deviations.) If the book were more poorly written or the audiobook narrator were less skilled (Lauren Ezzo is a DAZZLING narrator) I absolutely would have DNFed it.

"Dead Silence" avoids many of the more egregious cliches and tropes of the genre and even manages to lampoon a few of them (which endeared it to me greatly). The big third act reveal undermines what was otherwise a promising book. I appreciate what the author was trying to do. In sci-fi horror finding something that hasn't been done to death and/or done better is a daunting challenge, and I salute Ms. Barnes for attempting it! Personally, I believe the book would have greatly benefited from taking the safer route and coining a clichéd plot a la "Dead Space"/ "Event Horizon". Again, I love and support what she attempted to do, but it just didn't work. Ultimately, the book's biggest shortfall is lack of vision. A mediocre story, told well, just serves to make the mediocrity that much more disappointing.

I stopped on the challenge because I’m struggling with depression and relapsed on personal things that are bad coping mechanisms. This challenge really helped me and I wanted to share my fave passage I read all year. I got to about 40 books and loved so many. This one really struck me because I’ve always felt this ambiguous longing.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

Currently reading The Wind in the Willows, Brave New World, and Ministry of Utmost Happiness.

Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton

Sheeeeeeeesh, this book rocked my world. I’m having trouble finding words, but the voice, concept, characters…..I felt like it was written just for me.
S.T. is the hero I never knew I needed.
Badass lexicon, fanboy love for humans and Cheetos. This book was beyond a home run for me.

Read this one and will listen to the sequel this week.
Anyone else dip into this series or others by the author?

This was my first true crime read. I’m not a true crime podcast listener or anything like that, but I wanted a thrilling book to read. I hadn’t realized that the author died before the book was published and that she never saw the killer arrested and tried. Over a pretty interesting read!

Finished Jubal Sackett by Louis L’Amour. This is the 48th by the author in my library, not counting quite a few of my grandfather’s I read as a kid. It’s been 40 years since I read a novel by L’Amour, and while I appreciate how well the author could move a plot forward and the love his books show for its heroes and the natural beauty of the American west, frankly, it’s been done better. As pure escapist fiction, it’s pretty good, but once you’ve read Hondo, Flint, and a Sackett novel or three, it’s time to move on.

Fun and fast-paced. Not really too much else to say other than it was a nice palate cleanser as I continue with some more classics.

All Systems Red-Martha Wells
Station Eleven-Emily St. John Mandel
The death of Ivan Ilyich and other stories-Tolstoy, Leo graf
Foundation-Isaac Asimov
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This-Omar El Akkad
Lonesome Dove-Larry McMurtry
Royal Assassin-Robin Hobb
We Are Legion-Dennis E. Taylor
The River of Doubt-Candice Millard
The Devils-Joe Abercrombie
In the Heart of the Sea-Nathaniel Philbrick
Madhouse at the End of the Earth-Julian Sancton
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet-Becky Chambers
The Gate of the Feral Gods (Dungeon Crawler Carl #4)-Matt Dinniman
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder-David Grann
Assassin's Apprentice-Robin Hobb
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage-Alfred Lansing
Alone on the Ice-David Roberts
The Terror-Dan Simmons
Lives-Plutarch
The Twelve Caesars-Suetonius
Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition-Owen Beattie
The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party-Daniel James Brown
Last Argument of Kings-Joe Abercrombie
Histories-Herodotus
Before They Are Hanged-Joe Abercrombie
Introducing the Ancient Greeks-Edith Hall
The Blade Itself-Joe Abercrombie
Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old-Mary Beard
Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero by James Romm-James Romm
The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 3-Matt Dinniman
The Hero of Ages-Brandon Sanderson
Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the Bloody Fight for His Empire-James Romm
Surface Detail-Iain M. Banks
Carl's Doomsday Scenario: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 2-Matt Dinniman
The Well of Ascension-Brandon Sanderson
Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 1-Matt Dinniman
Wrath (The Faithful and the Fallen Book 4)-John Gwynne
Mistborn-Brandon Sanderson
The Norman Conquest-Marc Morris
Ruin (The Faithful and the Fallen Book 3)-John Gwynne
The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England-Marc Morris
Matter-Iain M. Banks
The Doors of Eden-Adrian Tchaikovsky
Valor-John Gwynne
Look to Windward-Iain M. Banks
Malice (Book 1 of 4: The Faithful and the Fallen)-John Gwynne
Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101-Christopher R. Browning
Leviathan Wakes-by James S. A. Corey
Medieval Europe-Chris Wickham
A Scanner Darkly-Phillip K. Dick
The Greatest Knight-Thomas Asbridge
House of Suns-Alastair Reynolds
Inversions-Iain M. Banks
The Last Town-Blake Crouch
The State of the Art-Iain M. Banks
Wayward-Blake Crouch
Pines-Blake Crouch
Excession-Iain M. Banks
Robots and Empire-Isaac Asimov

My 4th year in a row of completing the 52 book challenge! My actual goal this year is 60 books, but I felt like it would be fun to make a tier list now that I hit the 52 mark.

I'm continuing to use Storygraph to track books and find new books and would strongly recommend it to anyone who reads a lot! It's helped me find books that I actually like more than other sources--the data on moods is really helpful. For example, I find that I gravitate towards books that are adventurous, emotional, and funny.

I would love recommendations on what to read next if you like the same books that I do! Obviously I am a big fan of fantasy books with queer (especially gay male) characters, but I also like sci-fi and M/M romance. This year I've branched out into some more lit-fic type books for one of my book clubs, and I'm finding I do enjoy some lit-fic and contemporary novels as long as they're funny!

As required by the mod rule, here is the written list of books & authors. Apologies for spelling errors in the author names, 52 titles/authors is a lot to write out!

• Tier 1: Couldn't put it down, so sad when it ended:
  • A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett
  • Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die by Greer Stothers
  • Father Material by Alexis Hall
  • Fruit Fly by Josh Silver
  • The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting by KJ Charles
  • The Gentleman's Guide to Vice & Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
  • The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
  • The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri (re-read)
  • Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
• Tier 2: Really good, would recommend
  • Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Go As a River by Shelley Reed
  • How to Fake it in Society by KJ Charles
  • Motheater by Linda Codega
  • Sorcery & Small Magics by Maiga Doocy
  • Take Me With You by Steven Rowley
  • The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Steven Graham Jones
  • The Everlasting by Alix Harrow
  • The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri
  • The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
  • The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan
  • The Summer War by Naomi Novik
  • The Tapestry of Fate by S.A. Chakraborty
  • We Burned So Bright by T.J. Klune
  • We Dance Upon Demons by Vaishnavi Patel
  • When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory
• Tier 3: Enjoyed it
  • A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (re-read)
  • Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky
  • Radiant Star by Ann Leckie
  • The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno Garcia
  • The Faith of Beasts by James S.A. Corey
  • The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (re-read)
  • When the Tides Held the Moon by Vanessa Vida Kelley
  • White Trash Warlock by David Slayton (re-read)
• Tier 4: Mostly enjoyed it but wish it was better
  • Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman
  • Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
  • Colin Gets Promoted & Dooms the World by Mark Waddell
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
  • Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
  • The River and the Star by Gabriela Romero Lacruz
  • The Sovereign by C.L. Clark
  • The Wolf & His King by Finn Longman
• Tier 5: It was fine
  • Hell's Hear by Alexis Hall
  • How to Lose a Goblin in Ten Days by Jessie Sylva
  • Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil by Oliver Darkshire
  • Sharshipped by Cat Sebastian
  • The Book of Love by Kelly Link
  • To Ride a Rising Storm by Moniquill Blackgoose
• Tier 6: Not for me
  • How We Named the Stars by Andrés Ordorica
  • Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera
  • Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell
• Tier 7: Forced myself to finish to learn what not to do in my own writing
  • Bromantasy by Maire Roche
  • The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch

This is one of my favorites to start off, I'm a big fan of superhero media being lampooned or joked about in a way that isn't too mean spirited or fourth wall breaking. Examples being games like Dispatch or shows like the Venture Brothers.

This book gave me vibes similar to those, full of humor but still managing to hit the emotional beats.

I felt angry with the the main character Anna and horrified at the truth of what heroics do to the world. I felt triumphant at her wins and scared at her loses. This book took me for a ride.

A lot of the side characters aren't super fleshed out but they are all entertaining. The ones who are fleshed out like Keller resonated with me in the way life sometimes takes you in a different direction than the ones you love.

The world building is also so engaging without being too mired in pointless details.

I give perfect scores to books that do everything or needs to do and this one checks that box and more. Big 5/5 and I'm looking forward to reading the next one.

This checks all the spooky season boxes.
It takes place almost entirely on Halloween, following various characters across a few families.
Mostly children.
Spooky terror ensues throughout the night.
I think it was well written, the characters were good, dialogue was good.
Even I could tell how subplots were used to shape the main characters, clearly delineating how most readers would feel about them and how the story ended for each.
My only complaint really is how much those subplots were discussed. Meaning, it was already clearly there under the surface, but we kept being reminded of them, force feed them like we would forget.
Though I guess that’s the point, it’s not just supposed to be scary, it’s supposed to be uncomfortable.