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I've got like four different books currently in progress, so I imagine 2023 will get off to a fast start.
113. Barcelona by Gary McDonogh and Sergi Martinez-Rigol. 3. Competent enough history of the city. They use maps to orient each chapter, which sometimes makes things more clear and sometimes more muddled, but generally a good intro to the region.
114. History of Spain: A Captivating Guide to Spanish History, Starting from Roman Hispania through the Visigoths, the Spanish Empire, the Bourbons, and the War of Spanish Independence to the Present by Captivating History. 2. Ugh, I'd vaguely remembered that I'd read a Captivating History book before, but forgotten that they're basically a random series of Wikipedia articles with terrible pacing. (In my defense, I was reading this on the plane to Spain on a trip I'd planned with a week's notice, and had not done the research I'd usually do.) Like a quarter of the book is the Roman history, with incredibly needlessly detailed descriptions of individual battles of the Punic Wars. Then a mad rush through a lot of the Moorish/Medieval history. Wikipedia is cheaper and probably better organized.
115. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree. 4. Low stakes cozy fantasy in which an orc opens a coffee shop. Are you looking for sweeping adventure? Not happening. Are you looking for problem solving around the logistics of baked goods while building found family, with just enough conflict to keep things moving? This cinnamon bun of a book about cinnamon buns is your cup of...coffee.
116. The Bride Test by Helen Hoang. 4. Another charming romance from Hoang that features neurodivergent protagonists respectfully. Khai is an autistic American protagonist whose mom tries to mail order him a bride from Vietnam. Esme's willing to go along for a free get-to-know-you trip to the US so she can track down her father. Despite a million potential landmines, Hoang threads the needle deftly and sweetly.
117. Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes. 3.5. I appreciate how the messed up protagonists (he's a major league pitcher whose slump destroyed his career, she was about to leave her golden boy husband the night he died and is having trouble processing being a non-grieving widow) don't actually save each other. They have to save themselves before they can make things work.
118. Jolene by Mercedes Lackey. 3.5. Retelling of the Dolly Parton song as a fantasy Sixteen Tons in which Jolene may be an eldritch abomination? Why not?
119. To the Stars by George Takei. 3.5. Autobiography includes the sad but fascinating details of the actor's childhood in a relocation camp as well as a lot of the behind-the-scenes Star Trek info you'd expect. But it's from 1994, before he was out, so I imagine there's an entire parallel track of info we would get if this was written today that's entirely missing.
120. Closer to Home by Mercedes Lackey. 3. The Herald Spy books have somewhat better pacing than the Collegium Chronicles. If you haven't read Lackey, her earlier stuff is better, but I continue to find these comfort reads. I did appreciate that this had a few wrinkles I didn't predict from the obvious Romeo and Juliet set up.
121. Closer to the Heart by Mercedes Lackey. 3. Somewhat more complicated plotting, although I felt like Amily's roof running lessons were going to go somewhere but never did.
122. Closer to the Chest by Mercedes Lackey. 3. I feel like the titles between this and Closer to the Heart should have been swapped, TBH. Fun for Valdemar stans (which ok, I still am), repetitive for everyone else.
123. John Dies at the End by David Wong. 2.5. I think this one may have just been Not For Me. The combination of absurdist gross out horror sounded like I might enjoy it, but the climactic sequence finally brought home the degree to which body horror and penis jokes were just not landing for me.
124. What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher. 4.5. Incredibly creepy and effective retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher. Intense body horror done right. (You don't HAVE to read the Poe to appreciate it, but it helps. And the Poe is a novella in public domain, go pull it up on your phone.)
125. Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. 4. This is an odd interstitial book in the Enchanted Forest chronicles, but the blue floating donkey alone is worth the price of admission.
126. All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. 5. Budding witch Patricia and shiny new mad scientist Laurence are the kind of friends you get when outcasts are shoved together in elementary school. But their thorny friendship into adulthood threatens to tear apart or repair the universe.
127. Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Anthology ed. by S.B. Divya and Mur Lafferty. 4. A collection of short stories from the podcast, featuring some of the best authors in fantasy and SF at the moment. I enjoyed the vast majority. A warning, though - as much of good SF can and should be, some of these are ANGRY.
128. Afterparty by Daryl Gregory. 5. A scientist who destroyed her life tries to keep the designer drug that makes you think you see God from hitting the market. Incredibly twisty and densely plotted, with some particularly clever tricks.
129. Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis. 3.5. You can think something is very well done and not actually enjoy it very much. This sequel about a semi-disastrous first contact in Bush era America is pretty devastating. The author was in a black place in her life when she wrote it, and it's pretty much Major Depression, The Book.
130. Wendy, Darling by A.C. Wise. 4. An adult Wendy tries to recover her daughter when Peter drags her unwilling to Neverland. I love the flashbacks to the asylum Wendy spends her early adulthood in (because where else do you put a girl who insists she went to a magic island in that time period?) as well as Neverland through the eyes of people who are less willing to put themselves under a bratty boy's spell.
131. Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher. 5. While the opening promises somewhat more horror than the rest of the book supports, this adult fantasy about a quest to destroy an evil king and save the protagonist's sister includes goblin markets, tentative romance, and a demon chicken. Also, how refreshing is it for the protagonist to be in her 30s and kind of frumpy instead of a dewy-eyed 18 who doesn't know she's beautiful (that's what makes her beautiful)?
132. Mash Up ed. by Gardner Dozois. 4.5. This anthology has each story begin with a famous line from another book. Even the ones I didn't like at first, I liked by the end.
133. The Lights of Prague by Nicole Jarvis. 4. Solid vampire hunter tale set in 1800s Prague. I should have seen the ending coming, but didn't, and was delighted.
134. The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher. 5. For a book with relatively little gore, this is incredibly creepy while also being surprisingly funny. But I think I particularly appreciated how well the author handles the usual questions (why doesn't she call for help? Why doesn't she leave the haunted house?), while keeping her narrator genre-aware in retrospect.
135. The Stars We Steal by Alexa Donne. 3.5. This loose science fiction retelling of Persuasion is fun YA fluff, although I was terribly disappointed the little sister didn't leap and demand to be caught on the spacewalk.
136. The Councillor by E.J. Beaton. 5. Dark and broody political fantasy with some excellent twists, although I'm not sure the addiction thread really pays off in any particular way.
113. Barcelona by Gary McDonogh and Sergi Martinez-Rigol. 3. Competent enough history of the city. They use maps to orient each chapter, which sometimes makes things more clear and sometimes more muddled, but generally a good intro to the region.
114. History of Spain: A Captivating Guide to Spanish History, Starting from Roman Hispania through the Visigoths, the Spanish Empire, the Bourbons, and the War of Spanish Independence to the Present by Captivating History. 2. Ugh, I'd vaguely remembered that I'd read a Captivating History book before, but forgotten that they're basically a random series of Wikipedia articles with terrible pacing. (In my defense, I was reading this on the plane to Spain on a trip I'd planned with a week's notice, and had not done the research I'd usually do.) Like a quarter of the book is the Roman history, with incredibly needlessly detailed descriptions of individual battles of the Punic Wars. Then a mad rush through a lot of the Moorish/Medieval history. Wikipedia is cheaper and probably better organized.
115. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree. 4. Low stakes cozy fantasy in which an orc opens a coffee shop. Are you looking for sweeping adventure? Not happening. Are you looking for problem solving around the logistics of baked goods while building found family, with just enough conflict to keep things moving? This cinnamon bun of a book about cinnamon buns is your cup of...coffee.
116. The Bride Test by Helen Hoang. 4. Another charming romance from Hoang that features neurodivergent protagonists respectfully. Khai is an autistic American protagonist whose mom tries to mail order him a bride from Vietnam. Esme's willing to go along for a free get-to-know-you trip to the US so she can track down her father. Despite a million potential landmines, Hoang threads the needle deftly and sweetly.
117. Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes. 3.5. I appreciate how the messed up protagonists (he's a major league pitcher whose slump destroyed his career, she was about to leave her golden boy husband the night he died and is having trouble processing being a non-grieving widow) don't actually save each other. They have to save themselves before they can make things work.
118. Jolene by Mercedes Lackey. 3.5. Retelling of the Dolly Parton song as a fantasy Sixteen Tons in which Jolene may be an eldritch abomination? Why not?
119. To the Stars by George Takei. 3.5. Autobiography includes the sad but fascinating details of the actor's childhood in a relocation camp as well as a lot of the behind-the-scenes Star Trek info you'd expect. But it's from 1994, before he was out, so I imagine there's an entire parallel track of info we would get if this was written today that's entirely missing.
120. Closer to Home by Mercedes Lackey. 3. The Herald Spy books have somewhat better pacing than the Collegium Chronicles. If you haven't read Lackey, her earlier stuff is better, but I continue to find these comfort reads. I did appreciate that this had a few wrinkles I didn't predict from the obvious Romeo and Juliet set up.
121. Closer to the Heart by Mercedes Lackey. 3. Somewhat more complicated plotting, although I felt like Amily's roof running lessons were going to go somewhere but never did.
122. Closer to the Chest by Mercedes Lackey. 3. I feel like the titles between this and Closer to the Heart should have been swapped, TBH. Fun for Valdemar stans (which ok, I still am), repetitive for everyone else.
123. John Dies at the End by David Wong. 2.5. I think this one may have just been Not For Me. The combination of absurdist gross out horror sounded like I might enjoy it, but the climactic sequence finally brought home the degree to which body horror and penis jokes were just not landing for me.
124. What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher. 4.5. Incredibly creepy and effective retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher. Intense body horror done right. (You don't HAVE to read the Poe to appreciate it, but it helps. And the Poe is a novella in public domain, go pull it up on your phone.)
125. Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. 4. This is an odd interstitial book in the Enchanted Forest chronicles, but the blue floating donkey alone is worth the price of admission.
126. All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. 5. Budding witch Patricia and shiny new mad scientist Laurence are the kind of friends you get when outcasts are shoved together in elementary school. But their thorny friendship into adulthood threatens to tear apart or repair the universe.
127. Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Anthology ed. by S.B. Divya and Mur Lafferty. 4. A collection of short stories from the podcast, featuring some of the best authors in fantasy and SF at the moment. I enjoyed the vast majority. A warning, though - as much of good SF can and should be, some of these are ANGRY.
128. Afterparty by Daryl Gregory. 5. A scientist who destroyed her life tries to keep the designer drug that makes you think you see God from hitting the market. Incredibly twisty and densely plotted, with some particularly clever tricks.
129. Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis. 3.5. You can think something is very well done and not actually enjoy it very much. This sequel about a semi-disastrous first contact in Bush era America is pretty devastating. The author was in a black place in her life when she wrote it, and it's pretty much Major Depression, The Book.
130. Wendy, Darling by A.C. Wise. 4. An adult Wendy tries to recover her daughter when Peter drags her unwilling to Neverland. I love the flashbacks to the asylum Wendy spends her early adulthood in (because where else do you put a girl who insists she went to a magic island in that time period?) as well as Neverland through the eyes of people who are less willing to put themselves under a bratty boy's spell.
131. Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher. 5. While the opening promises somewhat more horror than the rest of the book supports, this adult fantasy about a quest to destroy an evil king and save the protagonist's sister includes goblin markets, tentative romance, and a demon chicken. Also, how refreshing is it for the protagonist to be in her 30s and kind of frumpy instead of a dewy-eyed 18 who doesn't know she's beautiful (that's what makes her beautiful)?
132. Mash Up ed. by Gardner Dozois. 4.5. This anthology has each story begin with a famous line from another book. Even the ones I didn't like at first, I liked by the end.
133. The Lights of Prague by Nicole Jarvis. 4. Solid vampire hunter tale set in 1800s Prague. I should have seen the ending coming, but didn't, and was delighted.
134. The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher. 5. For a book with relatively little gore, this is incredibly creepy while also being surprisingly funny. But I think I particularly appreciated how well the author handles the usual questions (why doesn't she call for help? Why doesn't she leave the haunted house?), while keeping her narrator genre-aware in retrospect.
135. The Stars We Steal by Alexa Donne. 3.5. This loose science fiction retelling of Persuasion is fun YA fluff, although I was terribly disappointed the little sister didn't leap and demand to be caught on the spacewalk.
136. The Councillor by E.J. Beaton. 5. Dark and broody political fantasy with some excellent twists, although I'm not sure the addiction thread really pays off in any particular way.
