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This is a Good Book Thursday: Taking My Brain for a Walk

I have decided that I need to read more. I’ve let reading go by the way because I was coping with so much other stuff, but I think it’s like walking Johnny; it’s something I really enjoy that’s good for me. Which means that I should do it instead of sacrificing it for other things that appear more important but aren’t. I have to walk Johnny three to four times a day or he’ll explode; I think reading at least one book a week is the same thing. I need that mental stretch or my brain will corrode. When it gets really cold or stormy, Johnny and I cut those walks short, but we never miss them. I think it’s the same thing with reading, if life is too overwhelming, I can go with a short story, but my brain needs the exercise regardless.

Having said that, I didn’t read a damn thing this week. What did you read?

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

155 Responses

  1. Happy New Year, one and all. May 2026 bring us all some positive energy and resilience to deal with the inevitable shitstorm that life will bring.

    Reading has been good recently. I finished two great books just before NY – The Rose Field by Philip Pullman, and The Corner that Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner. And I started a book this morning that I am just glomming up – Never Forget You, about four young women, one real and the other three fictional, during WW2. The real character is Noor Inayat Khan, an amazing young woman who spoke fluent French and worked in the French resistance. The book is by Jamila Gavin, and I’m on page 88 already – I know what I’ll be doing today.

    I have some leadership books to read this weekend for work, and The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist about right brain/left brain interface.

  2. I’m starting off with The Year of Reading Dangerously, by Andy Miller.

    I have a goal of reading at least 50 books this year, and have so far identified 27-ish from my Kindle library. Some will be new reads, some will be finishing books I started in 2025, and some will be rereads. I expect to add several more books as the year goes on.

    My goal for 2025 was to read 50 books, and I ended up finishing 116, so I’m pretty sure I’ll overachieve again in 2026.

    1. I love The year of reading dangerously, and when I was part of the arranging committee for a literary festival, we invited him to speak, and he was the most decent guy too. No fuss, very appreciative and great fun, both as a speaker and running a writer’s workshop for non-fiction writing.

      He has a great podcast, Backlisted, where he and co-hosts and guests talk about all sorts of books. My favourite episodes were on Ballet Shoes, by Noel Streatfeild and Jilly Cooper’s Imogen.

  3. After my Christmas story rereads I revisited Eli Easton’s Men of Lancaster County series and then reread C. S. Lewis’s Narnia books. I do enjoy the worlds he creates.

  4. I’m reading The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. It’s good.

    Happy New Year!

    1. Mary, my now deceased mother introduced me to that book series, and I enjoyed it immensely. It being set in Africa made it even more intriguing.

    2. I was once lucky wnough to do a live interview with AMS, the most courteous astute gentleman. His Scotland Street series is also brilliant. Plus The Finer Points if Sausage Dogs…

      1. AMS also wrote a short book entitled “What WH Auden Can Do For You” which is wonderful. I re-listen to it often.

  5. Reading is definitely necessary for my mental health too!

    Best thing I read this week was “The Martian Contingency” by Mary Robinette Kowal (2025), about establishing a foothold on Mars. I really liked that this is a hopeful story without ignoring our ugly reality, that it deals with aging and diversity as well as the sci-fi aspects. I think this could stand alone as I don’t remember the original trilogy’s details, however all the Lady Astronaut books are worth reading. Must re-read.

    “Once There Were Wolves” by Charlotte McConaghy (2021) was a bittersweet but beautiful psychological thriller I think you’d call it, set in Scotland. Despite the trauma of gendered violence permeating the story, the sadness and the dual timeline, the beautiful bits were so good, I immediately put the author’s other books on my tbr. Bit bemused by that.

    More fun was “Gilded Cage” by KJ Charles (2019) – I ended up really liking this m/f historical second chance romance. The FMC is wonderfully competent, and I liked that they’d gotten on with their lives after their youthful romance ended, including the FMC falling in love with a woman (now deceased). I also rather like that the MMC reforms, not because he’s become convinced of the justice of Victorian England’s laws, but because he wants to be safe to love, for the FMC but also his friends. The short “(Lily)White Wedding” (2022) was a lovely topper but only if you’ve read all three books in the series.

    Happy New Year! Let’s make it a good one 🙂

    1. I’ve greatly enjoyed all the Lady Astronaut books. Since they’re set in an alternate world, the series deals with “our ugly reality” only indirectly through general deficiencies such as racism, seismic, ageism, and the rest of our sorry lot.

    3. Any Old Diamonds, the book before Guided Cage is one of my favorite books ever. Gilded Cage is great, too! Masters in the Hall, the Christmas short related to the series is also very good.

  6. I started the Shetland series by Ann Cleeves with *Raven Black.* This is the basis for the TV series Shetland, which I am not able to watch since I don’t have Britbox. The first few pages made me wonder if I would like it, but less than 100 pages in, I am definitely engaged.

      1. I watched the next season as well and thought it was pretty good, although the FMC took a while for me to warm to.

  7. S.S.D.Y. (Same SH-tuff, Different Year) Happy 2026, everyone.

    The Word Opera. Chapter 155 yesterday. I expect eight more chapters before Book 7 starts.

    The Pern Compendium of Anne McCaffrey’s works – Moretta: Dragonlady of Pern is still the active book. That’s the one with the pandemic. Publication date November 1983 decades before Covid.

    I listened to Tell Me Lies on MP3, followed by Falling Free by Bujold.

    Some of the graphic novels in progress updated, so I read those, too.

  8. I’m reading the new Travis Baldree book, Brigands & Breadknives. I have been eagerly awaiting this and I was a little worried by the lukewarm response it got from a few Arghers. It did take a while to get going, but now that I’m more than a third in, I’m really enjoying it.

    If you haven’t read the Baba Yaga series, you might enjoy it. Just saying. Or my cozy mysteries, which have lots of cute animals and take zero brain power 🙂

    Happy New Year to all!

    1. I’m one of the Arghers who wasn’t lukewarm about the new Travis Baldree – I quite liked it – so enjoy!

    5. I love the Baba Yaga books & the Riders books & Veiled Magic books.
      Even though I don’t practice the craft I have a couple of your Everyday Witch books for reference.

  9. I woke up at usual time despite late night from being keyed up for New Year’s or from hassles earlier that day. I actually missed the moment by one minute since I was both awaiting the New Year and watching the silly wingwalking/dancing finale of Flying Down to Rio (1933). Book report once I make it out of bed and downstairs.

  10. I read Finder, by Suzanne Palmer based in a rec by someone here and it was so much fun, so thanks. Just downloaded the second one in the series from Libby, so happy New Year to me!

    Also read Hoot, by Carl Hiassen, about a group of middle schoolers who band together to stop the construction of a pancake house on a Florida lot that has burrowing owls living on it. Lots of action and humor–typical Hiassen.

    And, in my own good news, I’ve been invited to a group author signing at a local bookshop because the owner read the first book in my Ice Planet Octogenarians series and loved it! Like, gave her copy to one of the clerks there and told her to read it, she’d love it. 😃

    2. Ooh, I find group signings so much more fun than solo, even as an introvert (who can fake extroversion briefly). What great news to start the new year!

  11. I read/viewed Michelle Obama’s The Look which of course is a coffee table book but still worth the read/view. She really updated the First Lady look but it was post First Lady where she really slayed. The political choice to keep her hair straightened during office was sad that she even had to make that choice – with the help of wigs and hair pieces which was news to me. Now I love seeing her natural hair and braids.

    Josh Lanyon’s Secrets and Scrabble, from the point of view of Jack, the other MC – I read the first three books. I almost enjoyed them more than the original, because of Jack’s perspective of Ellery, how attractive he is, stubborn and insightful.

    I read The Wizard’s Cat, another great read from Nathan Lowell in the Wizard’s Butler series (?). I love how he can write about completely quotidian things and lull you along in the book and then poof it’s done and hardly anything has actually happened. For those of you who have read Lowell, are there any of his sci fi books that you’d recommend? especially if they capture this particular quality of writing about nothing?

    I also read The Amazing Alpha Tau Boyfriend Project by Lisa Henry and Sarah Honey. It was fun enough that I’m now reading The Amazing Alpha Tau Self Improvement Project but then I’m done. Frat boys aren’t really my thing even if Lisa Henry is my thing.

    And still working my way through again the vicious Manna Francis Administration series.

    Best of 2026 to everyone – let’s hope for even a slightly better year.

    1. Tammy, I loved The Wizard’s Butler for that very quality you describe. The Butler’s routine and quiet efficiency were soothing to read about, set against the chaos in the present world. I’m waiting eagerly for the paperback of The Wizard’s Cat to come out.

      1. I really liked The Wizard’s Butler and only slightly less liked The Wizard’s Cat (my discussion maybe next week), but I bounced off of whichever of his sf books I tried. Maybe I hit a bad one and haven’t gotten around to trying more, or it was just a matter of taste.

          1. Tammy, I tried one of his SF books, but it was soooo ‘nothing happened’ that I couldn’t be bothered reading the next one. I did enjoy The Wizard’s Butler though.

          2. Okay I am really not going to try one of his sci fi’s now after hearing from both of you!

          3. Well, hubby snd I tried the Quarter Share series. We both loved it though zhere really doesn’t happen much. I couldn’t exactly ehat I found so enchanting, maybe the sheer competence our MC aquires on board the merchant space ship. Imo it’s completely unrealistic that the crew on board would get along so conflict free, but maybe reading about a small community where this is possible has it’s magnetism. What I loved is the focus on the sheer joy of learning the MC embodies.

            I tried to read the follow up series (the MC has completed his training planetside and starts at his first job), but it didn’t suck me in.

          5. Tammy, I guess zhe Lowell “Share” books are a bit like ASMR: if you’re in zhe mood for something like that, it’s great. For anyone else: eye roll.

    2. Tammy, is the Secrets and Srabbles from Jack’s POV one of the later ones in the series (the 4th?) or is it separate? It sounds fun. I’ve read the first three in that series.

      1. She’s written a Jack POV for the first three books in Secrets & Scrabble so far, and working on the fourth.

    3. I like the Tanyth Fairport series by Nathan Lowell – not sci-fi, but light fantasy. I especially like that Tanyth is a middle aged heroine (I think she is about 50?) and very self sufficient.

  12. Happy New year friends! I have a sleeping family, fresh clean snow, and a new year to chart my way through on good vibes and hope.

    My adult kid and I talked with a friend about books on her radio show on Monday, and Jenny Crusie came up, as well as all of you in the commentariat. And then my studio neighbor gave me a set of Deb’s oracle cards, which was fun to explain how I “knew” Deb, so it has been a bookish week.

    I have been playing this game of chronology – https://www.chronophoto.app/game.html and enjoying it a lot. The pictures are fascinating, and feel very much like people’s snapshots of their ordinary lives, from any time in the last 125 years. Some are easy to decide, but some of the military pictures of crowd pictures are very hard to place, and remind me of the ongoing humanity of, well, humans.

  13. Several items coming as fast as I get them proofread.

    •A Christmas Carol (the George C. Scott version on DVD, 1984).

    The special effects look pretty weak nowadays, but the picture of Victorian London seems authentic (although the film was actually shot in Shrewsbury), and George C Scott is effective as Scrooge—although not even he can make entirely credible Scrooge’s conversion into not merely a willing benefactor, but an unhesitating and effective one.

  14. I made the same decision about reading, Jenny. It gives me a headache, but I need it for my brain and mental health.

    I read It Takes a Psychic, which is a love story and mystery, by Jayne Castle aka Jayne Ann Krentz. I bought it because Helen recommended it and said she loved the dust bunnies. The sentient dust bunnies are a riot! There are also special crystals that figure in the story, and I collect crystals. The new world of Harmony is interesting. The two MCs have issues, of course, but are caring, unusual people.

  15. •Andrew Wareham,  Praying That We Meet Again and When Autumn Leaves Are Falling, Books 3 and 4 (both 2025) of The Cruellest War

    Further installments of Wareham’s latest WWI saga.  I reviewed books 1 and 2 earlier and would recommend starting from the beginning.  The four surviving Griffin brothers emerge from the slaughterhouse of trench warfare, two with wounds that should keep them from going back; one by transferring to the Royal Flying Corps, which keeps him out of the mud but may not do much for his life expectancy, especially as planes have started mounting machine guns; and one only temporarily.  This last brother has been recalled to Britain as part of what the novel calls the New Army and per the Wikipedia is now known at Kitchener’s Army, an effort to provide adequate training to a large newly recruited force and then (as originally planned) to commit them to battle in mid-1916 in a final push to victory.

    Wareham also devotes much attention to the Redwood wealthy banking family.  Of three daughters, the only worthwhile one is an ambulance driver in Belgium, who has taken considerable flak for adopting such an unladylike occupation, although her father is proud of her. The middle daughter has thoroughly disgraced herself by being too free with her sexual favors and is eventually packed off to South Africa.  The insipid youngest daughter has lately shown some signs of making something of herself by starting to dig up the family estate for wartime food production. Of the two Redwood sons, one is in New York, where he is living the high life but nonetheless is doing considerable good for Britain by coaxing war loans out of American bankers at the lowest possible interest rates, although he sometimes gets credit for what is really the work of his staff.  The last son was a complete wastrel, but has ended up being recruited by British intelligence as a trigger man living under cover in neutral countries. Other people set up the hits of individuals acting against Britain’s interests (plus any innocent witnesses), but then, despite being a complete amateur with next to no training, the wastrel brother goes in and does the wet work. (I wonder if things ever really worked this way.  The improvement in safety for his minders, for the drivers of the escape cars, and for other involved personnel seems only minimal and the chance of the hit man’s bungling something, greatly increased.  Much more efficient to rely on more competent and more independently working assassins needing less hand-holding, I would think.)

    I’m enjoying the series and am learning much about WWI (although I  am always a bit cautious about the accuracy of Wareham’s research), but we’re only in 1915 and the series seems to be nowhere close to resolution yet.  We could be looking at a total of 12 or more books at this rate, or at Wareham getting bored and bringing the series to an implausibly rapid close, as he has done in a few other cases.

  16. •Andrew Wareham,  Building the City of Mammon, 2025, Book 1 of ‘Twas on the China Station.

    In 1850, George Mayhew, the younger son of a prominent Calcutta merchant family and a midshipman in the Royal Navy, despite being obviously qualified for an officer’s commission, sabotages his chances by praising steam power in his captain’s hearing.  Fortunately, it’s much easier for a midshipman to resign than for an officer, and double fortunately, the offense occurs just as his ship is arriving in Calcutta. George, with money inherited from his mother,  now intends to set up as a merchant, preferably independently of the family firm where his elder brother will presumably inherit the lion’s share, although George will need help from his father to get started. As he begins his preparations, we learn much about Victorian India.

    India is still effectively ruled by the East India Company.  However, Wareham characters are often remarkably prescient about the future, and the Mayhew family has picked up the news that John Company has secretly floated a loan in Switzerland, in addition to its more normal borrowing in Britain. The Mayhews immediately apprehend that the Company is on its last legs, conclude that the glory days of the India trade are over, and make plans to shift operations out of the area. (In fact, the Company was nationalized in 1858, although it led a vestigial existence until 1873.)

    George makes preparations to set up his own business based somewhere in the Chinese periphery, probably in one of the coastal Treaty Ports run by Europeans, since the Qing dynasty (anachronistically, Wareham uses pinyin transliteration) has no love for foreigners and China is politically unstable anyhow.  As a first step, the first thing he wants is to own a large steamship for the coastal trade.  A ship cannot carry enough coal for the whole voyage of Calcutta to China,  but local Parsee shipbuilders are perfectly capable of building a large teak hull and installing a British-made steam engine for intermittent use—in harbors; when becalmed; when requiring a burst of speed to escape pirates, and so forth.  They are perfectly familiar with the concept of a “screw propellor,” but advise using paddle wheels instead, because they handle shallower water and, by reversing one of the sidewheels, permit a small turning radius. Moreover, recent advances in sail design mean that the optimum design for a large merchant vessel is now four masts with triangular sails rather than the traditional square ones, with rigging to be handled by auxiliary steam power rather than men aloft, so that a much reduced crew will suffice.  Indian artificers can also produce at an affordable price handmade reproductions of the latest Colt revolvers, and, after imports prove unsatisfactory, even small breechloading cannon firing explosive shells, improved and scaled down from a larger European model.  Merchant ships need to be armed to defend themselves from Chinese pirates.

    Preparations and preliminary voyages take up almost all the first book.  George arrives in Shanghai and while it looks like the best choice to set up shop, he immediately learns that he will exist there only at the suffrance of the local triads (organized crime, although, like the Italian Mafia, evolved from earlier revolutionary organizations), with whom George is perfectly prepared to come to an arrangement.  At about that point, the book breaks off, having reached a sort of pause but not even a temporary resolution. Fascinating stuff about times and places little known to me, although I approach the novel with my usual caution about Wareham’s accuracy.

    I’m still running a backlog but that’s probably it for today.

  18. Happy New Year, Jenny & everyone!

    I’m still rereading books from my comfort shelf because I want to read but not finding much appealing in my TBR. However I am looking forward to JAK’s new book, The Shop on Hidden Lane due out next week. She rarely disappoints.

  19. Still reading Poirot; I think I’m on #26, and still am amazed by Christie.

    Reread A Christmas Carol. And I have a rom-com to read, but it’s in the other
    room, and I have a cat on my lap

    Happy, healthy, reading-ful 2026!

  20. I’m finally out of my rereading slump!

    I read Tal Bauer (?) Home Ice Advantage, which is a bit Ted Lasso on ice (though it’s a spicy m/m romance between the new coach and the grumpy assistant coach).

    I also finished Rough Pages, the 3rd noir detective by Lev AC Rosen. I liked it better than the 2nd book, so am looking forward to the fourth.

    1. Does the Lev AC Rosen series ever produce a romance? I’ve been looking at them but haven’t committed since it doesn’t appear to be in the Two Guys Solving Cases and Falling in Love sub genre.

      1. He has a boyfriend in the second and third book. It’s not developed a lot as a romance and I don’t know how it will turn out.

          1. So far the bf is not helping solve cases, though he’s a very important part of the community the main character is joining/building

    2. Phyllis, would this be Home Ice Advantag by Ari Baran? I’ve not read a lot of Tal Bauer, but all of Ari’s books so far and love their books and style. The Penalty Box series is great. A fourth book has been announced not long ago (this time set in Edmonton, one MC a kind of rat, the other prim and not-so proper), something I very much look forward to.

      1. Yes sorry. Ari Baran. A person named Tal in a different author group I’m in said Home Ice Advantage was the best in the series, so I conflated all the names.

  21. I read Deb’s Wickedly Dangerous (Baba Yaga #1), which I very much enjoyed. I have a temporary subscription to KU, so I plan to read the others as well.

    My Iceland trip is coming to an end in a couple of days, but I got my waterfall/geothermal pool/fireworks fix, so I’m good for another year.

    Happy New Year everyone!

  22. Happy New Year Everyone!

    I read Garry Disher’s “Hell To Pay” an Australian police procedural. The cop hero (Paul Hirschhausen) is an honest cop who was demoted and banished to the hinterland after being caught up in a police corruption case. He soon finds himself investigating the murder of a teenage girl and the going is difficult. This was a very well done story and I enjoyed it — it all held together pretty well and I am now starting book 2 in this series. I am a big Jane Harper fan and this one was right up there with Harper in terms of atmosphere, description of life in a bush town and smart police work. Lian I think this was your recommendation — Thank You!!!

    1. Christina, I’m so glad you enjoyed it. I haven’t actually read the first one in the series yet, but I’m looking forward to it. I do love books where the town/bush/landscape is almost a character in its own right. I think Disher does this superbly.

  23. I wanted to reread A River Runs Through It and since I can’t easily find our paper copy (can’t bend down yet) went to Libby where I found and read Home Waters, something of a biography by John Maclean, his son. John has a somewhat similar writing style although nothing as powerful as his father but it was fascinating learning more about Norman’s life. I am also going to try a collection of Norman’s other writings —I didn’t realize he had work that eventually got published besides the three stories in that book and Young Men and Fire. Also, the description of how Paul Newman worked with Maclean to get the movie right and get his permission makes me more interested in the movie.

    I also read Blind Date with a Werewolf which was much lighter than most of her books, I thought, and fun.

    And since another of my reading interested is spying in World War II I read The Enigma Girls which followed 8 British teens in their participation in the Bletchley work. It gave a better sense of how the work flowed through Bletchley and how stunningly effective it was —thousands of intercepted messages decoded translated and sent to military headquarters in half an hour —when the codes changed each day. It also had some important moments where the decoding changed the war that I hadn’t seen elsewhere. It’s not a full picture of Bletchleys impact but it’s an important part of it well told that I haven’t seen done as well elsewhere. And it’s a reminder that these were nearly all teenagers!

    I’m also working my way through two of my presents. Balanchine’s Apprentice by John Clifford is a fascinating book by a complete egotist who has some justification for his ego ( Balanchine assigned him as a teenage newcomer to the company to make ballets for the company! ) It’s pretty clear that while he won’t say it he thinks if he had returned to NYCB Balanchine would have named him successor instead of leaving it to the Board to name Martins and Robbins. ( It’s also clear from others that he ran the company he started in LA into the ground and would fire competent administrators so I think he is wrong.) But he was at NYCB at its peak, has a great ballet eye, clearly was being groomed by Balanchine both as a dancer and a choreographer, and has wonderful stories to tell. I’ve seen internet chatter about how he is in love with Balanchine and Balanchine wasn’t really all that and as someone who watched a lot of the company in those days I can tell you Clifford is spot on. I was a paralegal working downtown and I would work two hours of overtime, so that the pay plus dinner money covered the cheapest ticket, then race uptown on the 1 just in time to get the ticket and get into a seat. I had it timed perfectly —35 minutes (the NYC subway was also that precise). One week I went to 8 performances in 7 days. (A couple not NYCB). Tip for ballet lovers; Clifford posts a lot of wonderful ballet clips from those days on his YouTube channel. Well worth checking out. He still trains companies all over the world to do Balanchine ballets which means the people who run the Balanchine trust respect his work.

    The other book I’m reading is No Ordinary Deaths by Molly Conisbee, a history of how people handled death in the British isles over time. I am finding it interesting to read in bits. There is a big focus on public executions which I think is overdone, and as someone who knows a lot of British social history I find some of the general period background a little overdone, but it is fascinating. I will note that when she lived in Southwark in I think she said the 70s she saw full traditional Victorian funerals with horse drawn hearses and paid mourners. Margery Allingham has those in More Work for the Undertaker (1948) and I always thought that was writers license to show how everyone on the street was living in the past but apparently not. Also interesting is that it’s published by https://wellcomecollection.org/.

    I also reread Bet Me. Still the best romance of this century.

    1. I have a vague idea that it was one or more firms of undertakers that found it worthwhile to keep offering horse-drawn hearses. But I was further west in Clapham Junction (from 1980), so not in my patch.

      1. Oh DH’s friend with early onset Alzheimer’s has been living in Clapham Junction for over a decade so DH knows it well and I’ve been there a fair bit. It’s a lovely part of London. (Friend’s family are taking him back to the US soon so I don’t think we will get there much any more. Such a relief not to be handling his affairs and sorting his life, and very grateful he has finally acknowledged he needs to move back. )

        I can believe it was only a few firms. I’m just amazed there were any!

    2. Per Kindle, The Enigma Girls is recommended for ages 8 to 12, so it’s not surprising that it would emphasize the youth of some of the code girls. From other books that I’ve read, a lot were in their 20s as well, and some of the few females that made it up the hierarchy to the levels where males were letting a few females join them were even older. Per books such as Lisa Mundy’s Code Girls, the American counterparts depended on recruiting female high school math teachers plus a some women grad students and faculty in mathematics and foreign languages.

      1. I liked Code Girls too. The American women were older for sure. Yes The Enigma Girls is for young folk although 8-12 seems really young. But literally most of the females at Bletchley arrived as teenagers —18, 19– although of course by the end of the war they were older. It was compulsory for women between 18 and 60 to register for war work and the British made a distinction between mobile and immobile women—it was the younger women who could be asked to go somewhere like Bletchley while most older women did local work .

        1. The Enigma Girls is noe on my tbr list, although I’ll have to read a few things first to make room.

          1. It is part of a scholastic series for middle school and high school students and it was a Sibert Honor Book for children’s nonfiction. I think it’s more like 11 to 18 ?

          3. Debbie, I decided I wanted nonfiction and borrowed Enigma Girls after all. As far I’ve gotten it’s definitely written “down” more than the Heinlein juveniles or say, Anne of Green Gables. I’m not sure I would have understood it at age 8, but maybe. I was definitely routinely reading books assuming more vocabulary and background knowledge by age 10, and some were from the Scholastic Book Club, so it wasn’t just me being precocious.

          4. It’s in a scholastic series intended for middle and high school. At least where we live middle starts in 6th grade so 11 or 12.

  24. Last night I watched the last episode of Julia season two. I knew that Julia and her husband were in the OSS during WWII but not what happened after. Apparently, her boss had worked his way over to the FBI and was coercing her to give up information on her co-workers at WGBH television station. This was about 1964, the beginning of racial equality, women’s rights, (1950’s mentality) the Vietnam war and protests (J. Edgar’s doing, he was another one with lists). He was blackmailing her with threats about her husband. What he didn’t know was that Julia was popular with her co-workers and they were having none of it after she explained what was going on. Pure Hollywood ending but I liked it. Also, there was a bit of an episode with her meeting a who’s who of a White House chef and the way he and a member of the WH staff treated her.

    There was also a scene with just Bebe Neuwirth and David Hyde Pierce, and I couldn’t help remembering when they were in Fraser years ago. Wonderful actors.

  25. Also happy new year to all! We finished the first quarter of the century and as DS pointed out we didn’t get into a world war.

      1. Actually it’s a bit over three quarters of a century since the last world war. Not even any large scale clashes directly between great powers, unlike the standing record of the 90 years or so between the Napoleonic Wars and WWI. But Putin is doing his best to drag the world into another one and Xi is not far behind. Nor, needless to say, are the orangutan, his minions in all three branches od government, and his imitators abroad helping anything.

  26. Reading: I noticed long ago that me *not* reading is a sign that I’m not in a good state.

    A big advantage of reading: it provides a safe space in difficult times – escapism galore. When politics and nasty people would drag me down, reading books with stories that remind me that people can be kind, tender, loving and that we can take care of each other up keeps me sane and hopeful.

    Not surprisingly, I’ve read more than in the last few years since I document my reading.

    This last week in 2025, I’ve mostly read books by favourite authors: currently, I’m reading Colliding Hearts by Jax Calder (the main MC is wonderfully goofy and the LI is equally endearing – no final rating possible, but the reading journey so far is really nice), and re-read Sarina Bowen’s The Last Guy on Earth (there’ll be a fourth book in the Guy series in spring and I’m soooo looking forward to this), and for the umpteenth time Heated Rivalry.
    Yes, I’m still obsessed (as is kiddo, hubby understands and kid #1 is attracted to the mainly Canadian soundtrack of the tv adaptation) – and each time loving it more (also because it’s one in a series and I can remain in RR’s universe for some time more – and this sense of community has seeped into real life with so many folks being/becoming obsessed thanks to the adaptation). It also feeds my love of learning as I’ve found a number of intersting insta accounts (eg. one by public historian yesterqueer) and a number of podcasts, eg. hockey podcasts What Chaos and Empty Netters (who’ve covered the series in a very nice way).

    Tammy had proposed a looking back on our reading – I couldn’t name one or five best books, but I’ve definitely discovered a new-to-me author, EJ Russell, whose books may not be all 5-start-material, but they are like a more cosy version of the Dresden Files. According to dataandbooks.com, I’ve read/listened to 19 of her books – wow. And I’m not through with her backlist! The stories are solid, the MCs always likeable, the formula not too obvious, and it feels very nice, staying in her universe!!

    My goals for this new year is to pause KU for some months and catch up at least a bit with my tbr Everest – there’re soooo many good books in this digital and physical shelf waiting for me, among them Jenny’s trilogies. And I’m very much looking forward to Anna – art crime is such a great topic!!

      1. I guess one can start almost anywhere, it’s not like Harry Dresden dense.
        I started with the Supernatural Selection trilogy (well, I read/listened to book 1 + 2, came back for 3 after the Fae books because the info is needed here) that comes after the Fae out of Water trilogy.

        A non paranormal standalone that I read as my intro to EJ Russell was Camera Shy.
        Silent Sin is high on my tbr – set in the early days of Hollywood and (loosely) based on the life of a gay silent movie star whose name escapes me rn.

        They have the cosy feeling of a warm hug – a bit like the Weight-of-it-All book by NR Walker .
        The paranormals are connected but not like the Dresden Files on ONE MC, so it doesn’t feel like you have to jump pnto the speed train of book 1 and better not get off until the end.
        Book 1 of the Fae trilogy is Cutie and the Beast which is a bit like Game Changer by RR – EJR got more into her style by the following books imo. I way happy with my detour of reading Single White Incubus and Vampire with Benefits first (both about two partnership arrangements between a shifter and incubus/vampire get mixed up completely). The audios are really well narrated by Greg Boudreaux.

        Does this help?

        1. It does help but probably not the way you thought – because I realized I’ve read Camera Shy and didn’t love it. A little too cozy for me. Does she write anything with more oomph than that?

          1. I’d say the paranormals have more oomph but maybe not enough for you.
            Maybe dip into the first 10% of Incubus – that’d give a good impression for most of her writing.

          2. And I looked at it and realized I’d read that one too, and didn’t love it either! I think they are too cutesy for me. Oh well, good to discuss anyway.

        1. Lian, I’d say for the paranormals, try book one of the Supernatural Selection trilogy (Single White Incubus).
          The other non paranormals are standalones. I liked Vamera Shy a lot, but usually, if I like a writer’s style, being able to stay in their univers is a plus for me.

          3. LN, I’ve long ago decided that I can read the books IN SPITE of the covers.
            Although I must confess that in some few cases the covers managed to really stopped me from even trying. Especially when I learnt that those were chosen by the (indie) authors themselves.
            EJ’s covers are certainly not great, but I’ve read books with much worse covers 😉

          4. I generally don’t go by covers but as a former ballet student I simply cannot read the romance where the ribbons on the toe shoes go nearly to the knees. You can’t dance like that.

          5. Debbie, isn’t it kind of strange that we struggle to read a book for some minor detail like the ballet ribbons when maybe the author had no say in the cover design (in my case the indie author herself chose the cover picture and raved about how well it portrayed her sports agent MC when all I could see was someone resembling a sleazy third hand car dealer or even more a pimp).

  27. Jenny, On the necessity of reading daily:  There’s an amusing scene in Glory Road, Heinlein’s generally limping attempt to write a sword and sorcery novel (or perhaps an attempted parody of one), where our hero Oscar is looking for something, anything, to read in bed (or sleeping bag) before going to sleep.  That struck home, and the strong urge to read before sleep is why I originally installed a bookcase facing my bed and in reach of myself in bed.  These days I mostly read on my phone, but the phone spends the night on a shelf in that bookcase.  (I can, however, manage without bedtime reading if I’m really tired or I lack a source of light.)  When I was able to arrange my work schedule such that I didn’t have to leave for work at the crack of dawn, I started reading in bed for a bit in the morning too.  Obviously that became easier after retirement.

    There are precious few days when I’ve limited myself to reading for work or school.  I mostly crave some fiction, or at least nonfiction that I have chosen myself, with no outside motive. 

    I’m not sure if it would spoil your walks with Johnny to listen to an ebook while you walked.  Something to perhaps consider, anyhow.  When I was walking for exercise (a practice I hope to be able to resume soon), I got through a lot of audiobooks, some in foreign languages.  There seemed to be fewer distractions outside than inside, where I had to give foreign-language material nearly full attention if I was going to understand it.

    1. If we were out longer maybe, but we only walk for half an hour or a little more, and I like to watch him and the places we’re going–he gets to choose as long as he doesn’t choose the highway–and see what he does. Also, I’m doing a lot of writing now to catch up, and it’s nice not to have words in my head on those walks. Plus I have to pay attention to ice, etc. now so that I don’t fall before the bones are all healed up. Argh. But I can see it that for a long (more than an hour) car trip. Good idea.

    2. I think Glory Road is totally a parody. That scene was when I knew Oscar was My People. If there is no electricity I will be reading (with great difficulty nowadays) by lamplight or if it’s too hot without fans to make kerosene bearable, by candlelight.

      In grad school I found it necessary to read fiction at least an hour a day, despite finding the reading I was doing for classes so fascinating I could not put it down.

  28. I did my annual re-read (in audio) of Hogfather, and now I’m alternating between Stephen Blackmoore’s Eric Carter urban fantasy (very dark) and the Beth Brower Emma Lion series (very NOT dark). Both in audio. I listened to the first Eric Carter by way of Graphic Audio (full cast & sound effects & edits to remove “he/she said”), and the second by way of regular audio. I’ve liked other Graphic Audio productions, but this one didn’t work for me. I think they removed too many of the he/she said stuff, so I could never figure out who was who. I could keep everyone straight more easily in the regular audio, and there are a LOT of secondary/minor characters to keep track of.

    I’m wondering what everyone’s looking forward to in new releases. Someone mentioned an upcoming Jayne Ann Krentz book, and we’ve got a new Murderbot (Platform Decay) on May 5. (and a second season on Apple, date TBA). What else is in the pipeline?

    1. I read an ARC of Suzanne Palmer’s “Ode to the Half-Broken” coming out this year, which was great.

      Otherwise looking forward to:

      Cat Sebastian Star Shipped (March)
      KJ Charles How to Fake It in Society (April)
      Natasha Pulley The Salt King (Aug)
      T. Kingfisher Daggerbound (Aug)

    3. Thank you for reminding me that Platform Decay actually arrive in May, not the March my optimistic fingers put in my calendar.

  29. Hi all, Happy New Year! I tried to post on WW but the Chromebook glitched and … lost it. Oh well. Suffice to say I worked.

    Herewith the last reading roundup of 2025.

    1. ‘How to be a Normal Person’ by TJ Klune. MM set in rural Oregon, funny but with some deep feelings. POV character reads as neurodivergent; his love interest is asexual. As usual with Klune, I liked this a lot.

    2. ‘Bull Riders Don’t Swoon’ by R.M. Neill. MM starring Canadian rodeo cowboys. Opens on them becoming friends in college, fast forwards ten years to a tipping point where they figure out they’re more than friends. One has been pining/sacrificing, the other oblivious. A lot of good relationship stuff happens after they finally kiss, though one could infer some love bombing by Formerly Oblivious. An interesting setting and well-handled complications.

    3. ‘A (Fake) Boyfriend for Christmas’ by Sean Ashcroft, which will go into my Christmas Shorts to Re-read queue. Novelette, supervisor/employee, loving family of the supervisor helps the employee decide to take a chance on fake to real, and then they both have big career decisions to make. Pretty spicy, this one.

    4. [re-read] my own MM novel ‘Public Offering.’

    5. two more holiday shorts by Sean Ashcroft: ‘A Christmas Tail,’ about a billionaire and the ‘merman’ performer he hires for a part, lots of caretaking & sex; and ‘Snow on the Roof,’ another workplace romance, this one feat. a COO and his new PA. Blending family elements were good, could’ve used some tightening up elsewhere.

    6. ‘Play Dead’ a Glasgow Lads novella by Avery Cockburn. Sequel to ‘Playing to Win’ and I doubt it would entirely stand alone, but if you like this world of Scots sportsmen and the men they love, recommended.

    7. ‘Moody’s Grumpy Holiday’ by Lane Hayes, who lives in California and thus should know that it’s Morro (not Moro) Bay and Monterey (not Monterrey). Enjoyed this anyway. Set in the Santa Ynez wine country near Santa Barbara, small-town, bookseller plus resort ranch investor. Both MCs have baggage but they talk everything through in between being cute and having sex.

    8. ‘The Switch’ by Beth O’Leary, chick lit in which a London management consultant facing mandatory 2-month leave of absence for burnout suggests swapping residences with her grandmother from the Yorkshire Dales; hijinks and healing ensue. I liked the grandma more than the young woman but both got what they needed in satisfying ways.

  30. Found Tin Man by Sarah Winman in my office closet. A beautiful cover with the gold waves glinting through the letters. The book is so lovely, love the torn edge pages interspersed through out. Very tactile. This will be the first read for 2026. Trying to read more this year even if it takes me a while. Next up is her novel Still Life.

  31. Reading is like breathing to me. It’s a rare week when I don’t read 4-5 books. 95% on my tablet – Libby or Open CloudLibrary (public library) or Kindle. Lots are ok but few are truly memorable. This week, I read several of Serena Bowen’s series – mostly her M/M books. I read Susan Mallory’s latest – she used to be one of my go-to authors but I find her books are a bit tired now. Possibly me.

    Best book I read in 2025 (hand’s down) was The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor.

    Fir 2926, I’m looking forward to a new Rachel Reid (to be announced this month) and a new Susan Elizabeth Phillips (out in Feb).

    1. Courtney Milan was supposed to have a book out in late 2025 so it could come any time this year.
      She apparently had a knee injury that makes it hard to sit for a long time which is slowing her down. But she also produces only when satisfied so it could be a while.

    2. That’s weird: no matter how I searched for author &/or title, Amazon UK produces no results (it tried showing me a radiator!); yet I can see Penguin published it in 2024.

        1. I hope you enjoy it. Usually not my preferred medium but the audiobook version is great.

    3. I really enjoy Courtney Milan’s newsletter. She starts out describing a tea and them moves on to something else. It’s always illuminating and I’m not a tea drinker.

  32. I always go back to reading Terry Pratchett in December ,at the moment it’s the guards books .I’ve read his books so many times yet I always find something new.Amazing writer.

  33. I’d rather read than exercise indoors in winter, which is why I listen to audiobooks when using the treadmill. My kindle is loaded with options because I hate to be without choices when I finish a book. Just set a goal of 100 books for the year on Goodreads. I’m currently rereading Goliath, the third book in Scott Westerfield’s Leviathan steampunk series. I just finished Murder on the Books, a first book in a cozy series featuring an author taking a break from writing to open a bookshop in her small hometown. The mystery is pretty good, but Charley tends to disregard common sense in her pursuit of answers. Love the cat, Poe.

  34. No new book that I tried worked for me recently, so I reverted to old favorites: Anne Bishop’s The Other series. I’m 3 books in and loving it.

  35. I’m currently reading the latest Thursday Murder Club book, The Impossible Fortune. It’s just as funny as the previous ones, and just as endearing. Perfect holiday reading. And it brings home once again that for me, a book is all about character.

    I also read Of Life and Limb, the second book in Sally Smith’s Inner Temple Courts series. Someone is delivering mummified body parts to various members of the Inner Temple, and barrister Gabriel Ward is ordered to investigate. The only thing I regret about this series is that I’m reading it as the books come out, so there is a long wait until the next one. A wonderful sense of atmosphere and the era, and a very satisfying mystery.

    Mr Collins in Love by Lee Welch was a sweet read, but not one of my favourites from her.

    Welcome to Glorious Tuga by Francesca Segal. A young zoologist takes up a fellowship on a tiny, remote island to study endangered tortoises, but she has a hidden motive for being there. This book was a delight. Very warmhearted, funny and charming. But I ended up feeling really irritated because there were some major plot points that were never resolved. Turns out it’s the first book in a trilogy, but there is no mention of this on the book itself, not from the publisher and not from the author. Why did they do this????

  36. Does anyone also tweak your reading list on Goodreads because one title is highlighted as “longest”, “highest rated” that you simply don’t want to be reminded of?

    I did it with one title that I tried to read and developped an intense dislike to. So intense that I shoved it off my list because it would have been ghe longest AND highest rated book. To me it felt like utter drivel, lacking any substance but obviously infused by loads of incomprehensible unfounded self love of the heroine/the author for said heroine.
    I know not to take GR reviews seriously, but…

        1. True, Lian!
          The Goodreads Awards were interesting in the past. Now? Boooring (and not in the Ilya kond of boring): they got rid of too many good categories (kid’s, middle graders etc).

          1. The GR awards have never reflected what I’m reading. I’ve read maybe once of the romance novels each year and didn’t like it much, typically. I’m out of step with the universe, though

          2. Phyllis, I didn’t much resonated with the GR choices in general, but usually found those categories interesting that were considered redundant. And neglecting the next generation of readers is never a good idea imo. The small things count – when your books are not included, it gives the wrong signal.

        2. Let’s not forget that Amazon owns Goodreads and Amazon is run by computers and algorithms. While that may be great for worldwide delivery of merchandise, it doesn’t do much for understanding other people’s tastes. The reason that Argh book reqs make sense is that over time we’ve learned how other people’s tastes overlap with our own and can rank their suggestions accordingly.

      2. I use it for documenting what I read. And a good friend is on GR.
        I tried to switch to storygraph, but don’t really warm up to it. Hate their AI summaries.
        Using physical notebooks is worse though…

        1. I use the library’s history of activity on my card, but that doesn’t include anything I buy. And their program keeps asking me to review everything, which I am far too lazy to do.

  37. Happy New Year everyone!

    Haven’t been reading much and it’s been a bit all over the place for the last couple of weeks.

    Kind of overdosed on Christmas novellas. The last two I read were Josh Lanyon’s Icecapade and Lone Star. Both good but I’d really read too many of hers, and too many Christmassy books by that point.

    I did enjoy AJ Demas ‘One Night in Boukos’. Liked the ancient setting and the MCs and the awful ambassador they were trying to find. Was amused by the fact that I was looking for the romance between the wrong characters 🫣

    Couldn’t settle to any audio but expecting life to get back to normal for next week.

  38. Finally read The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi, and The Assassin’s Guide to Orchid Hunting, both of which I had been looking forward to and hadn’t read yet, even though I bought both of them the first day they came out. And both were very good. And I’m looking forward to the next Assassin’s Guide book.

    I’m now reading Spilling Tea in Gretna Green by Linzi Day, which if you’re reading the Gretna Green series is not the next book in the series, that’s Half an Orange in Gretna Green which is due in a few months, but a collection of short stories and novellas that take place in between the first 6 books.

  39. Just finished The Assassin’s Guide to Orchid Hunting. Enjoyed it very much.

    Looking forward to JAK’ upcoming and, of course, Murderbot. And the next Crusie/Mayer is on pre-order.

    Now starting a Krista Davis Diva cozy because I still need something very light.

    Everyday I read at least a little bit. And walk Pixie.

  41. Six Swans a slaying Donna Andrews was the only thing i finished and that was in the week before Christmas. I Fly home on Monday and im looking forward to reading on the plane.
    I also need to finish preparing Lord Byrons Daughter which includes a visit to Bletchly. Jennie if you ever need a bets reader i will joyfully volunteer. Happy 2026. And i wish hs all wonderful reads. I have had so many great suggestions from this group.

    1. Why does Lord Byron’s Daughter involve a visit to Bletchley? Besides her creating the first computer .

  42. I have been rereading Agatha Christie and Georgette Heyer again. I had completely forgotten how wonderful the romance in The Quiet Gentleman is, and was horribly worried at first that Heyer might have picked the wrong heroine. She didn’t, of course.

    The best new thing I have read recently was The Wycherleys by Annaliese Avery, which the publisher describes as a “Jane Austen meets witches YA”. The two MCs are both clever and proactive, and the world building is fun. The FMC is cursed but doesn’t let that define her, which felt refreshing. I didn’t know going in that it will be the first in a trilogy but the second book comes out in a fortnight and I had so much fun with the first that I have preordered it on audio.

  44. I was looking back at what Hoopla and Libby said I have read this year and while I started a lot of new stuff, I didn’t finish most of it. Not sure if it is me or the books, but I also don’t recall finding a new-to-me author that I am excited about. Mostly I reread or waited for new books from trusted authors. I still enjoyed those, so maybe my dissatisfaction lies at the feet of the new books? Or maybe I am getting too picky.

    1. Or maybe you were being adventurous and making legit use of DNF in your efforts to find new authors.

  45. Happy New Year!

    I also need to get back to reading more. And, conversely, looking at my phone less. It really is a pocket computer, and I find myself doing everything on it unless I need to type a lot or look at a bigger screen. Since I have to look at a screen all day to work, need to cut down screentime somewhere.

    Outside of book club (which is tied to work), I’m trying to catch up on Kim Harrison. I’m about to wrap Demons of Good and Evil (I do know the big reveal). We’ll see if I go straight to Demon’s Bluff or start her new series with Three Kinds of Lucky. But my book on tap is The Dead Come To Stay, the second in mystery author Brandy Schillace’s series.

  46. Well thanks to this GBT my TBR is 11 books longer. (And one of my holiday presents resulted in another book too.) January is looking full.

  47. In my discussion of The Lady From Burma, I think on 12/17 or 12/18, I said that the author had, near the end, very prematurely promoted Princess Elizabeth to Queen. It just sank in that George VI’s wife was in 1946 a Queen Elizabeth, just not a queen regnant. I rechecked the passages and they are consistent with George’s wife being meant. The reference is still wrong, since by the end of A Royal Affair, Princess Elizabeth knows something of what Sparks and Bambridge have been up to while there is no evidence that her mother Queen Elizabeth does, but the error is not as glaring as I had supposed. My apologies.

    1. It took me years to realize that Dick Francis had been Queen Elizabeth’s the Queen Consort’s jockey before she became the queen mother and was never her daughter’s jockey. I read his bio recently and learned he trained horses for Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret.

      And I recently saw that Queen Elizabeth (the daughter) would ride all her race horses early in the morning at Ascot until she was quite old and that shaped her breeding decisions.

  48. DH and I discovered we have a DVD of Dick Francis movies . We tried watching In the Frame. Not sure we will even finish it. The plot has only a nugget of resemblance to the book, they created a new character to be the detective in all three movies presumably so that people will get attached to the character? The acting, script, and production values are very poor. This is your heads up.

    There is a lengthy bit of a horse race. And a horse painting.

    1. I remember when those ‘Dick Francis Mystery’ movies popped up. I looked at the descriptions, looked at the books upon which the movies were allegedly based, said “uh, that ain’t it” and noped right on out.

      Which, I have to say, Mom wanted to see the Thursday Murder Club movie because she and dad are enjoying the books, so we watched it, and she was like “that ain’t it!”

      I found it an acceptably good movie with a great cast but obviously intended to stand alone, not start a series.

About the Author

Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and co-author of twenty-three novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in Pennsylvania, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.

Find out more about Jenny’s published works by visiting JennyCrusie.com

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