BookLizard tries for 75 in 18

Welcome to my thread! Took me long enough to start it, but better late than never.

About me: I like Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Historical Romance, Young Adult Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Juvenile Fiction, and some Graphic Novels, Memoirs, Nonfiction, and plain old Fiction.

This year I have read:

1. Canto Bight by Saladin Ahmed
   
2. Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff
   
3. Relentless: A Memoir by Julian Edelman
   
4. Romancing the Werewolf by Gail Carriger
   
5. The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi by Phil Szostak
   
6. Burn Bright by Patricia Briggs
   
7. The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition by Jason Fry
   
8. Dear Fahrenheit 451 by Annie Spence
   
9. All-American Murder by James Patterson, etc.
   
10. Iron Gold: by Pierce Brown
    
11. Scourged by Kevin Hearne
    
12. Blood Fury by J. R. Ward
    
13. Behind the Throne by K. B. Wagers
    
14. Dearest Ivie by J. R. Ward
    
15. Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas
    
16. A Higher Loyalty by James Comey
    
17. Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View
    
18. The Thief by J. R. Ward
    
19. High Voltage by Karen Marie Moning
    
20. A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah Maas
    
21. The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth
    
22. Dune by Frank Herbert
    
23. Twice Bitten by Lynsay Sands
    
24. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
    
25. Summer Hours at the Robbers Library: A Novel by Sue Halpern
    
26. Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon
    
27. Wicked and the Wallflower by Sarah MacLean
    
28. Decluttering at the Speed of Life by Dana K. White
    
29. Last Shot by Daniel Jose Older
    
30. War Storm by Victoria Aveyard
    
31. Lending a Paw by Laurie Cass
    
32. Tailing a Tabby by Laurie Cass
    
33. Borrowed Crime by Laurie Cass
    
34. Pouncing on Murder by Laurie Cass
    
35. Cat with a Clue by Laurie Cass
    
36. Wrong Side of the Paw by Laurie Cass
    
37. Brief Cases by Jim Butcher
    
38. The Highlander's Promise by Lynsay Sands
    
39. Jedi Search by Kevin Anderson
    
40. Dark Apprentice by Kevin Anderson
    
41. Champions of the Force by Kevin Anderson
    
42. Brightest Embers by Jeaniene Frost
    
43. Serpentine by Laurell K. Hamilton
    
44. After the Crown by K. B. Wagers
    
45. Blood Kissed by Keri Arthur
    
46. Marked (An Alex Verus Novel) by Benedict Jacka
    
47. Smoke and Iron by Rachel Caine
    
48. The Wrong Highlander by Lynsay Sands
    
49. Pride by Ibi Zoboi
    
50. Someone I Used to Know by Patty Blount
    
51. Kill the Farm Boy by Kevin Hearne
    
52. Wildcard by Marie Lu
    
53. Betrayal by Aaron Allston
    
54. Bloodlines by Karen Traviss
    
55. Tempest by Troy Denning
    
56. Thrawn: Alliances by Timothy Zahn
    
57. Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
    
58. Hell's Bell by Keri Arthur
    
59. The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton
    
60. The Truth About Aaron by Jonathan Hernandez
    
61. Unnecessary Roughness by Jose Baez
    
62. All-American Murder by James Patterson (reread)
    
63. Lessons: My Path to a Meaningful Life by Gisele Bundchen
    
64. Presumed Guilty: Casey Anthony: The Inside Story by Jose Baez
    
65. There Before the Chaos by K. B. Wagers
    
66. An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris
    
67. Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man by Lynn Vincent
    
68. Marry Me By Sundown by Johanna Lindsey
    
69. Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro by Rachel Slade
    
70. Red Fox Clan by John Flanagan
    
71. The Other Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
    
72. Summoned to Thirteenth Grave by Darynda Jones
    
73. That's Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger
    
74. Vampires Like It Hot by Lynsay Sands
    
75. The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
    
76. The Library Book by Susan Orlean
    
77. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
    
    

I blame Amazon Prime and their Sudoku app for disrupting my reading. I usually read on my Kindle Paperwhite (which I love and highly recommend), but I also have a regular old Kindle which I sometimes use to read graphic novels or other books with color pictures. I've become addicted to the Sudoku app on it. I've discovered the only way I can get things done is to not recharge the Kindle when the battery gets low. (Which is how I managed to get online and finally start my thread for this year.)

I'm hoping I already read an ARC or two this year that I can add to my list. I'm currently reading Iron Gold by Pierce Brown. It's part of the Red Rising series. It's good but there are too many characters - some of them new - to follow.

Yay! I remembered an ARC I read.

Burn Bright by Patricia Briggs.
I loved this book. Could just be because it's what I needed right now - a fast-paced book that drew me in so completely, I read it in one night/day. It's part of the Alpha and Omega series, a spin-off of the Mercy Watson series (which I loved so much when I first read it, I kept forgetting it wasn't about vampires).

Welcome back! Better late than never. 😀

Woohoo! I checked the threadbook 3 days ago and you weren't on it. We are on a brain wave together. Glad you are back. Although, I could just PM you. ;-)

I need to read the Briggs book.

4> Thanks!

5>I've been hibernating and not reading enough, but I'm trying to get back in the saddle, so to speak. I've got the new Iron Druid Chronicles book lined up for this month. I'll let you know how it is.

Welcome back! Hope you have a great year reading.

I managed to read a few books this past month.

Iron Gold: got better towards the end . . . then it ended. Ugh! I suppose I will eventually pick up the next book in the series when it eventually gets published, even though I will have forgotten all about most of these characters by then.

Dear Fahrenheit 451 could be enjoyed by most book lovers, but only a librarian, or maybe someone working in a public library, can truly appreciate the humor.

All-American Murder - crapola. Poorly written.

Scourged was a suitable ending to a really good series. Sad to see it end.

The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition - let's just say, the expansion didn't seem to add much. I'm going to have to reread it since I've seen the movie like a dozen times, but one part in the book makes no sense, whatsoever. I'm going to have to go and reread it just to make sure that it really said that because there's NO WAY that could be true and it doesn't make any sense in either the book or the movie. Unless I completely misread it, in the book, Luke was planning to leave the island with Rey until he walked in on her touching hands with Kylo Ren. So then why would he change his mind??? In the movie, Luke tells her not to go to Kylo Ren - she offers Luke his lightsaber - if he was planning to leave with her anyway, he should just take it and go! Instead, he refuses and so she says that Kylo may be their last hope and (stupidly, but awesomely) goes to him. Why would Luke change his mind and NOT go if he had decided TO go? Makes no sense.

Blood Fury by J. R. Ward - part of the Black Dagger Legacy series.



Behind the Throne by K. B. Wagers - first book in a space opera trilogy. After her sisters and niece are murdered, gunrunner Hail is tracked down and brought home to take her place as heir to the empire of Indrana. Although she doesn't want to rule, she does want to find and punish those responsible for killing her family. Fast-paced with likable characters. First Book Bullet I've been hit with in a while.

I intended to start right in on the next book in the series, After the Crown, but then I happened to open another book on my Kindle and the first sentence was: "Punting the prairie dog into the library was a mistake." Yeah, I had to check and make sure I'd read that correctly, then of course I had to keep on reading because how could I not? So I've started Gold Fame Citrus by Clare Vaye Watkins.

A quick hello my friend.

Wow, I knew I hadn't posted in a while, but I didn't realize it's been THAT long. I have been reading fairly consistently, but haven't been reporting on the books read. Right now my reading is taking me to England.

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield, the author of The Thirteenth Tale. A real storyteller's story. Everyone has a story, whether it's a story they heard from someone else, a story they've shared with others, or a story they tell themselves. This story focuses on a young child found drowned in the river and brought to the inn where she miraculously comes back to life. Everyone at the inn that evening is profoundly affected by the incident and feels a sense of ownership over the story, even as 3 different families come forward believing the child belongs to them. The child is mute, so she cannot tell them her own story, but her arrival stirs up secrets and stories that had been buried. Can the truth of her past ever be uncovered, and does it even matter, because after all, what is the truth compared to a good story?

It's not a book you race through to find out what happens. There are 6 different main storylines - the 3 families that lay claim to the child, the family that runs the inn, the man who found her in the river, and the nurse who was with the child when she came back to life. Of course, the individuals in the families have stories that belong only to themselves, and all of these stories, both past and present, intersect in some surprising ways. But the stories themselves aren't as important as the telling of the stories, and Setterfield does a masterful job of inviting the reader to pause for a moment and just enjoy a good story, and another, and another . . .

The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton. An archivist makes a startling discovery in an old box buried in a closet at work. In the box is a bag containing the sketchbook of an artist who was painting a masterpiece before a tragic incident that led to the disappearance of the painting along with a priceless family diamond, and the ruin of the man and his career. What is startling is that the sketchbook contains a drawing of a house the woman recognizes from a family story her mother used to tell. Is the house real, and if so, what is her family's connection to it? Who is the beautiful woman in the photograph that was found in the same bag as the sketchbook? What is the connection between her and the artist and the person who had possession of the bag?

The mystery is gradually revealed to the reader through the stories of different characters, both past and present, living and not. Morton paints a picture for the reader, sometimes revealing things that are significant to the reader but not the characters themselves. The house, located on a bend of the Thames, comes alive for the reader through the voice of the ghost who now haunts it. Although all the mysteries are revealed to the reader, the ending still seems a bit abrupt. I think it's because closing the book is like having the door to the house shut in your face - it's time to go, but you don't want to leave.

I'm about halfway through Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch, part of the Peter Grant/Rivers of London Series. I really want to visit London now, but my friend is insisting we go someplace warm on our next vacation.

The Clockmaker's Daughter sounds great! Onto the list it goes...

I hope you like it.

Yay! I went over 75 without even realizing it.

Happy New Year!

Congratulations on reaching 75!

Congrats!

15> Thanks!

It's time for the end of the year meme!

Describe yourself: Someone I Used to Know
Describe how you feel: Scourged
Describe where you currently live: There Before the Chaos
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Once Upon a River
Your favorite form of transportation: The Library Book
Your best friend is: Iron Gold
You and your friends are: The Brightest Embers
What’s the weather like: A Court of Frost and Starlight
You fear: All-American Murder
What is the best advice you have to give: Burn Bright
Thought for the day: That's Not What Happened
How I would like to die: An Easy Death
My soul’s present condition: Fates Divide

Happy New Year BL!

>17 BookLizard: As a librarian, I really like your transportation form.

>19 thornton37814: thornton37814, As a librarian myself, that's probably my all-time favorite answer for these memes. I'm glad there wasn't a more "obvious" answer to that question (like the obvious answer for How I would like to die was An Easy Death).