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This is a Good Book Thursday: More Anna

This week I read Arresting Anna over and over and over again, trying to seal up all the leaks and rewrite the weaks. Next up: Getting Carter. That’s half the length, so I should just breeze through that. Argh.

So what did you read this week?

150 Responses

  1. I read Pack Up the Moon by Kristan Higgins, thanks to a recommendation here. It was beautiful, even though the story line made it sound grim – it is about a man whose wife dies of a rare disease. A man “on the spectrum” learning to be more normal/sociable with his interactions with others by his involvement with is wife. His story is told going forward and Hers going backward, which might put some off. Wonderful characters and a really uplifting read. Thanks to whoever recommended it. Sadly no more books by this author in the library.

    Cherry Pie by Hollie McNish. So many excellent poems, two recipes, and a load of artworks by others. Some of the poems are angry, sexy, sad, but all are truthful and often funny. Love this poet.

    I also had a number of DF’s – think it might be my mood, but also because I’m just not getting into them so…glad the library is there!

    1. I love Kristan Higgins’ romance and women’s fiction. Pack up the moon is the only one I haven’t read. Thank you for your summary, I am considering it.

  2. Life is very stressful at the moment and though I try to get some reading time in (because that’s me time), I didn’t succeed much.
    But I picked up On Your Six by Eleonora Larsen again last weekend. Bad idea to do at a Sunday evening around 10 pm when I really should have gone to sleep!! I started at 20% and couldn’t put the story down until about 67%. Got back to it and for once was glad I had a loooong commute on Monday. Got some more pages in and had myself force to stop (well, I had to get out at the right station eventually).
    It’s not a short book. I’m not a fast reader. I got sucked into (in spite of the typos and occasional missing word). I don’t even like military heroes!
    But I like slow burn and not making it too easy for the characters.
    Two guys at a special training (3 months) fall for each other, but assignments to the East /West coast respectively make it highly unlikely they ever get a real chance together. And they try to move on. Find each other again eventually but I really liked that they didn’t just keep pining for each other. When miscommunicating there were reasons.
    It wasn’t perfect, could have been slightly more polished but for a DEBUT??? Really amazing. I’ll watch out for book 2 for sure (it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, but there’s still a lot of story to tell – I appreciate a lot tht it didn’t end on a HEA via sugary epilogue!

    So since Monday I’m running on far too little sleep – couldn’t catch up thanks to family and lots of work and overtime. Which means I have to/can take time off to go along with ds up North.
    I really hope for the trains to run on time and for my flight back not being cancelled as my colleagues flight yesterday was due to some problem in UK air traffic it seems. She’s stranded in Manchester until SUNDAY! With only her personal item (not enough change of clothes for sure).

    1. I hope life gets less stressful for you, Dodo, and that you get some sleep. Losing sleep while stressed which makes you more stressed…it’s a vicious cycle for sure.

      1. Life will likely get easier by mid November, sigh.
        And I’m not home often enough to enjoy the oxytocin flood brought on by the purring kitty who has fallen deeply in love with our daughter.

  3. •Robert Jackson, The Sergeant Pilot, 2026, (revised from former title The Battle of Britain, 1990).

    A historical novel about aspects of Britain ‘s air war of 1940. Neither the original title nor the revised one is entirely accurate. The original title suggests something with a broader sweep than this account of one fighter squadron stationed in Yorkshire, and the new title suggests a tighter focus on one pilot, Ben Thorne, than the novel really mantains. In fact the most of the first chapter is about Ben’s future girlfriend, the daughter of a prosperous local farmer. Later chapters spend much time on the viewpoints of other local women and other pilots, and sometimes even of their German opponents.

    In WWII, the US Army Army Air Forces used only officers to pilot fighters (“flying sergeants” did fly other kinds of aircraft but were all promoted to warrant officer in 1942), so for a long time I was unaware of how many sergeant pilots there had been in the RAF. In Britain, there may have been a class distinction, an unwillingness to make officers of those who did not hail from “the right sort.”  However, many RAF sergeant pilots were commissioned later in the war and the use of noncommissioned pilots was discontinued postwar in 1950. Ben does seem to have better accommodations at his home station than typical for sergeants in general and does not seem to chafe much under the distinction.

    Not compellingly well written and a little clichéd, but readable.  I may try other of Jackson’s many other historical novels.

  4. That’s the only reportable thing that I finished, although a couple of other novels are almost read through and I DNFed several more. I’m also making progress on nonfiction.

    I’m looking forward to Arresting Anna.

  5. Best thing I read this week was “From Lukov with Love” by Mariana Zapata (2019), slow burn m/f contemporary about antagonistic skaters teaming up to compete in pairs – not just enemies to lovers, but trash talk as love language. Really liked the portrayal of exactly how much work is involved in a competitive elite sport, sometimes for not much reward. Plus really enjoyed the couple dynamic. Thanks to Chacha1 for the recc 🙂

    “After the War Is Over” by Jennifer Robson (2015) is a rather nice m/f romance in a 1919 historical fiction wrapper. Good all-around and I loved how excited the FMC is at receiving her postal vote in a time with limited female suffrage.

    “Cadenza” by Stella Riley (2018) is a Georgian set m/f historical romance. The identity swap set-up is TSTL but I loved what she did with it. I thought the romance with the kind-hearted composer turned earl was the stronger of the two, and the scenes with Rockcliffe were LOL delightful.

    Lanyon is always solidly enjoyable and I liked “44.1644° North” (2023) which features a true crime podcaster. I really liked how respectfully she handled both the true crime fans and that such crimes really happen and affect real people. Plus fun m/m banter so all good.

    … And I’ve started a Murderbot re-read and am four books in – well novellas. Trying to be good and space them out a little but they’re just so enticing!

        1. I really enjoyed “The Wall of Winnipeg and Me” earlier this year as well. Any others either of you would particularly recommend?

          1. I really like Wait for it and Under Locke. They are not sports centred, they about ordinary people but I really like the heroines.
            Dear Aaron is about one of the sisters of the heroine of Lukov and is very sweet.
            Kulti is a sports focussed one but I don’t find the portrayal of the European footballer hero very convincing even though the heroine is great. In my opinion, all of Zapata’s heroines are great: strong and competent in their own varied ways.

  6. I feel like I read more, but I dont think I did…

    I finished the exempt of Slow Fall that Bob had in the back of Phoebe and Shane vs the Assassins.
    It’s a Horror. I don’t want to read the whole story because with the whole “AI can exterminate humanity in a decade” announcement, is it going to help, or add to, my anxiety on the issue? But it’s a Horror, and I can’t leave Horror stories unfinished or I get nightmares. But if it doesn’t have a resolution that is like, oh, haha, everything is fine, then I’m f#cked either way.
    I’m about to buy property in an undisclosed, remote location and stockpile.
    So, thanks, Bob. Really.

    On a lighter note, I’m rereading Trust Me on This. It came off my bookcase, and looks read, and it’s a Crusie so I know I’ve read it.
    I remember reading all the other ones I’ve reread, bit this one? I dont remember any of it. At all.
    So it’s like discovering a new Crusie, I guess, which isn’t a bad thing!

  7. The highlight of the week for me was finishing Full Moon Frenzy. Once the mmc decided to let go of his past hurt and get on board it was really sweet. I especially liked that ‘true love’ didn’t solve all their problems. They were still two very flawed people, but they decided to work on it together.

    I’m listening to another Kristen Ashley, one of the avenging angels series and it’s ok. Better than Lacybourne Manor, but everyone is too nice to each other. This happened in Nalini Singh’s rugby series for me. Everyone communicated well, set boundaries, etc., which is something I should like, but somehow there just wasn’t enough edge to the stories.

    Last, I have been reading about how there is a major push right now to label romance with sex in it and sweet or closed door romance as clean. It’s disturbing me as it feels like an offshoot of the tradwife movement, which is an offshoot of Maga. By all means, read what you like and what suits you, but there is room for all levels without disparaging other offshoots. It feels like romance is starting to get villainized again when it really was coming into it’s own as a genre that we were open about reading, not embarrassed by or dismissive of. Worrisome. I’m thinking about what to do with my little used book space in response.

    Last, I am glad I didn’t hurry to see Practical Magic 2 as the reviews confirm my fears from the trailers. I’m disappointed, but not surprised. On the other hand, I am very interested to see Wicker when it comes out. Olivia Coleman as a female romantic lead with Alexander Skarsgard? And Peter Dinklige? What’s not to love.

      1. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this “movement” is nothing but a few influencers being handed talking points and promotional dollars by the christian nationalist & white supremacist conspiracy (what else can it be called, at this point? it’s infiltrated the military, most federal agencies, Congress, every fucking thing).

        It’s closely related to the secretary of war’s pet preacher who thinks women shouldn’t have the vote and Black people were happier as slaves. (Yes, he’s that horrible.)

        Also related to the attempts to revive anti-porn laws, deny & extinguish trans existence, nationally ban same-sex marriage & abortion, and give christians the legal right to deny service to anyone they please because “religious freedom” (please note, this applies *only* to christians).

        Sorry, I’m a little mad about it. 🙁

        3. This is exactly what it is. Hopefully it dies off quickly, but the propaganda mind games are worrisome. It may not even be paid influencers anymore, just bots spreading the word. I am going to come out of this paranoid, I swear.

        4. Extinction burst. I am praying this is extinction burst.

          And really looking forward to the midterms (please, please, please let them change things).

  8. I have had a very stressful summer at work but I have now taken voluntary redundancy and as Elsa says in the French version of Frozen, I am “libérée, délivrée” so hopefully by next week I’ll have some interesting recs or I’ll just keep chiming on people’s posts.

    At the moment, I am just binge reading Catherine Cloud and that is very soothing. Guys pine after each other, play hockey, eat food, pet the pets (and the occasional horse or cow) and get together in the end.
    No misunderstandings arising from miscommunication to advance the relationship, no forced outings, a few dramatic moments but not too many. That’ll do me for now.

    2. I echo Frozen’s exhortation and I am jealous that you’re binge eating Catherine cloud. I realize that’s a typo but I’m leaving it in because I think it’s accurate.

    3. LN, From your reaction this sounds like early retirement rather than just a payoff to give you time to find a more agreeable job. If so, congratulations and I hope it goes well.

      1. Yes! I am old enough to qualify for early retirement and young enough to fully enjoy.

        This is something I promised myself I would do, leave early enough to have a meaningful second chapter in my life.

          1. I have seen the Bayeux twice, both times in Bayeux itself!
            Once as a child with my parents, once as a parent with my children when they were young.
            I wouldn’t mind seeing it again when it is back in Bayeux as Bayeux is a lovely town, well worth a visit in itself.

          2. I’m thinking Bayeux is probably the place to see it. The crowds in London sound horrendous, and I daresay the price is extortionate.

      1. Well, if not enough people had taken the chance to run, they would have moved to compulsory redundancies. Thankfully, enough of us did to avoid that.

      2. My workplace recently offered voluntary redundancy. Salt I wasn’t eligible or I might have been tempted by 20+ weeks payout! Hope yours was worked too!

  9. I’m on holiday and keep picking up books in campsites and hostels to supplement those I brought with me and I have been reading a lot especially in bad weather.

    First up was Atmosphere Taylor Jenkins Reid. I really enjoyed the novel with MCs among the first American women astronauts in the 1980s. Lots of gratitude space and astronaut training stuff and an FF love story. Nicely done, a fairly straightforward and very enjoyable book.

    Next I read a couple of Dick Francis, copies of his novels seem to hang around in book exchanges.
    Enquiry is one of his earlier ones (late 1960s), focused very much on the detail of racing and a fixed Enquiry with the MC trying to prove his innocence.
    High Stakes is later (mid 1970s) and has a more complex plot and good action. An owner finds his trainer has been cheating him and takes his horses.

    I’ve read all the Dick Francis but I hadn’t read these two in a long time so they were like new to me. Plots good, the MCs stoical, brave and intelligent (as are all Dick Francis heros) but likeable. The love interest are what date the books most but it is fun reading the fashions and descriptions of the beautiful women form rose eras, because of course they re all beautiful and intelligent and brave, but not too independent. Anyway it’s been very enjoyable catching up with Dick Francis again.
    Finally, very excitingly as I am on a remote Scottish island (Berneray) in the Western Isles (Outer Hebrides) I have found ‘Bet Me’ on the shelves in the hostel!! That will be my afternoon reading as I sit out a storm. Looking forward to it.

    Interested to see the cover has ‘Jenny’ rather than ‘Jennifer’. I thought it was usually Jennifer. Not a great cover though. pink with a high heel shoe and that’s it.

    2. And it is interesting to note that Dick’s wife was quite an intelligent and capable woman, who actually co-wrote with him. It apparently always bugged him that she didn’t get more credit, but the “ex-jockey” hook was important to his publishers, and they (the publisher) figured everyone would think it was all her if they acknowledged her participation! The biography by Graham Lord was about both of them, as he said the author “Dick Francis” *was* both of them. Quite a nice book itself, and $2.99 kindle

      1. That’s really interesting. I knew that she apparently did a lot of the research, and I’d heard rumors that she was involved with the writing, but I didn’t realize that she co-wrote. That would explain why he co-wrote with his son after she died.

    3. Huh. Must be a foreign (as in Non-American) pub. I’m okay with having Jenny on the cover although I don’t think that’s ever happened before.

      Speaking of Non-American and other America-centric phrases, did you see that they’ve changed the title of South Park to South America? I love those guys.

    5. Ooh – somehow I missed that you are on the Outer Hebrides!! I’ve always wanted to go since I read a book in highschool that mentioned them. How are you enjoying the trip?

  10. I discovered a new to me Regency author, Christina Dudley, some time last month and I have been back-to-back going through her series of novel, each one focusing on the romance of one of the brothers or sisters or governesses of a community.
    These are very readable as they contain all the plot incidents and obstacles and misunderstandings to keep the story moving and it is easy to get fond of the characters. A few dastardly villains as well.

    1. I heard Christina Dudley recced recently, but haven’t gotten to them yet. I don’t read much regency or m/f right now, so it’s back burnered for the moment. I’m glad for a second rec. Just have to figure out where to start!

    2. A little research confirmed that Christina Dudley and Christina Hwang Dudley the same person. I suppose that either she wanted to distinguish her contemporaries (only one so far) from her historicals or wanted to get her maiden name in for a novel with an Asian-American protagonist. I haven’t read her but will put her on my huge TBR list.

      1. Yes, I faced my preconceptions, if that’s the word I want, when I saw the author’s photo and it was an Asian woman writing English Regency. And why not?! She does it quite nicely.

        1. There’s also Courtney Milan and probably other Asian authors of Regencies or other European historicals. No reason why not. Even snobbish Georgette Heyer had a Russian Jewish grandfather whose ancestors during the Regency never would have been admitted to polite society. A cat can look at a king, to say nothing of a mere duke.

          1. Sherry Thomas is another Asian woman who has written some excellent regencies. What amazes me is that English is not her first language.

    3. Debbie, There a quite a number of authors for whom English is a second language, and how impressive that is depends on how late they learned it. (Sherry Thomas’s site provides no details.) Even Asimov’s first language was Yiddish. But some, like Ali Hazelwood, did learn English as adults. And I once ran across a scholar (although not a fiction writer) who immigrated from Italy and had learned English as an adult but who not only spoke English totally fluently but with no trace of a foreign accent. But that was exceptional. I went to high school with a guy whose family had emigrated from Germany when he was very young and who spoke English fluently but still with an accent. But one of my teachers had emigrated from Austria as late as age 12 and had no foreign accent. It varies.

      1. Speaking of accents, another odd situation was a Quebeqois exchange student who was in Moscow when I was there, back when. His accent in English was absolutely North American standard, so I take it that he had learned English early, but he seemingly hadn’t used the language much recently, and every so often he fell at a loss for a word in an oddly non-native way that seemed to conflict with his perfect accent.

      2. Sherry Thomas came from China to the US at 13 with no English.
        My dad came to the US from Germany at the end of 1939 just before he turned 15 and I couldn’t detect an accent; my husband says he had the same sound for v and w.
        He also collected great English phrases and words and used them in every day speech. We didn’t have a compost pile; we had a midden.
        But Chinese is so different from
        English that writing fiction in it when it’s your second language seems amazing to me.

        1. Debbie, Yes, 13 is impressively late to learn English well enough to write fiction in it, if you start from Chinese. I’m interested where you found the additional biographical information, since it wasn’t on Thomas’s website that I could find.

        2. My own father had trouble with the Th sound (he could say it, but evidently had to think about it and often it defaulted to T). I never thought anything in particular of that quirk, but a high school friend thought it was Irish after meeting him. My paternal grandparents were born in the US, but perhaps speech patterns survived from their immigrant ancestors. My grandmother (who died before I was born) had French Canadian ancestry, so lack of Th could have come from there as well as from my grandfather. Perhaps more likely from there, since evidently there was a community actively using French in my father’s home town when he was very young. (His old brother had used it a lot more than survived by my father’s time.)

  11. I reread Welcome to Temptation and Faking it for 3rd or 4th time. Still loved them and laughed out loud in certain sections.

    I just picked up 10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall. I’ve only just started it but I think I’m going to like it. I loved the London trilogy and even turned my d-i-l onto it.

    1. 10 Things That Never Happened starts a little rough, in my opinion, with a big lie, but it ends up very sweet. One of the few Christmas books I like.

  12. I’m reading the new T. Kingfisher, Daggerbound, and really loving it.

    On the Kindle I’m reading Too Much Crime on My Hands by Mary Frame. She’s a new author to me (indie, I think) and this is the second in her Castle Cove Mystery series, which says it is a cozy romantic comedy. I’m really enjoying them (she warns that the first two books end on cliffhangers, and offers a three-book set for people who hate that, which I appreciate), although I’m not sure how “comedy” they are. But something Crusie folks would like, I think. Apparently she has other series too.

  13. I also read T. Kingfisher’s newest, Daggerbound, and I think I liked it even better than Swordheart! I loved Dervish, the sword guy, with his vanity and his initial attempt to be ruthless. And I love how he falls for the dorky ex monk and hears him maunder off about insects and other obscure things and realizes he’s actually interested enough to listen to his maunderings. Now that’s love.

    AJ Lancaster published a short story: How to Marry A Winged King: A Gorgeous Cinderella Retelling. Loved it. That story never gets old.

    And yes, for those who would LIKE TO KNOW, I am reading the Maud book in Ilona Andrews’ Innkeeper series and liking it very much so far. So there. She says with a sniff.

    2. I agree, Tammy. I didn’t think I could like anything better than Swordheart, which was my previous favorite of hers, but I’m having to force myself to put down Daggerbound every morning and got on with my day.

      1. I spend last Sunday reading it at the cottage and wouldn’t talk to anybody. I was on the deck though.

    3. Yay! I won’t pester you about Nikoles. It was fine, but again with a bit of a weird pacing issue. All talking and relationship building at the beginning, all stabby stabby fight fight at the end. Sorry LN!

      1. Oh you can pester me if you like. I grew up in a family where pestering and teasing people was a sign of love (albeit with some dysfunctional elements to be sure) and I still can only regard it as that.

  14. I’m still plowing through the Plantagenets history. I’m up to Edward III, who came to the throne at a young age when the barons didn’t like his dad Edward II. His mom, Queen Isabella and her lover basically took over, and imprisoned the old king, who conveniently died a little bit later. EIII spent a couple of years as a figurehead before taking over (and moving mom out of the way, and removing the lover). So far, Edward III is the epitome of the medieval king – lots of tourneys and jousting, wars and conquest. We also have the arrival of the plague.

    I’m getting toward the end of this books (as the author has a separate tome on the Wars of the Roses). I’m learning a lot. But my next book will be lighter in tone! Thanks for providing all the recs!

  15. Still reading at high speed.

    1. ‘Best Men’ by Sidney Karger, debut MM from a longtime screenwriter. NYC setting. The POV character is mid-thirties, works in HR in a huge advertising agency, BFF of an aspiring Broadway writer who is now engaged and want wants him to be her best man. Her fiance’s brother is to be the *other* best man; the brother is gay; the POV guy hooked up with him once (it didn’t go well), but worst of all, the BFF seems to be transferring BFF-ness to the brother. Meanwhile, POV guy is having to lay off people at work, which he hates to do. This is slow burn and high conflict, very funny at times, but also dealing with some real emotion all around which was handled well. I will say, the amount of drinking I’m seeing in books set in NYC is alarming.

    2. ‘The Creative Act: A Way of Being’ by Rick Rubin, founder of Def Jam Records (!). My sibling gave me this and it’s a great book for those who occasionally need to be reminded that being creative is worth doing for its own sake.

    3. ‘Attack of the Theater People’ by Mark Acito, a follow-up to his roman-a-clef ‘How I Paid for College.’ A farcical year in the life of an aspiring actor who’s been booted out of Juilliard. Very funny but set in 1980s New York and quite blunt about how that looked for a young gay man at the time.

    4. [re-read] ‘Crazy for You’ by Jennifer Crusie. Girl, this is a scary motherfucking book!! I’d forgotten just how bad things got. Talk about a hard-won happy ending.

    5. ‘Handle with Care’ by Hayden Stone. MM set in England. POV character is a Canadian aspiring curator who’s won a three-month museum internship and arrives on first day only to find they’ve got a second intern, with whom he will be competing for the one permanent job opening. Rivals-to-lovers, slow burn, very well done. My one real complaint was that a missing-exhibit subplot gets wrapped up much too swiftly (how, when, and by whose hands the exhibits got temporarily lost: not answered at all!) given the importance of that subplot to the career & romantic plots.

    6. [re-read] my own MM novella ‘Eternal Summer,’ the scenes from a lifetime love one featuring a Broadway writer and his favorite leading man.

    7. ‘Darius the Great Deserves Better’ by Adib Khorram. Sequel to ‘Darius the Great is Not Okay.’ In this one, Darius is back home in Portland, OR with his family, now on the varsity soccer team, and has a boyfriend. But the bf is pressuring him for sex, he’s still living with depression, still subject to daily micro (and not so micro) aggressions, his grandfather is slowly dying back in Iran, and his parents are struggling with money. It’s overall a hopeful book, things are looking up at the end, deeply observed and sympathetic.

    8. ‘King’s Legacy’ by L.C. Rosen. Second book featuring Tennessee Russo, a gay teenage Indiana Jones who’s a bit famous thanks to the artifact-hunting series he makes with his father. Their new adventure involves a quest for the lyre supposedly given by biblical David to Jonathan. Action packed with a mild degree of mayhem, some bad guys drown, lots of clever clues & traps, plus dealing with commercialization and how to remain true to yourself despite pressure to sell out. Lots of fun.

    9. ‘Husband of the Year’ by M.A. Wardell. Sequel to ‘Teacher of the Year.’ Cute, sweet, very horny wrap up to the Maine Teachers cycle, this is a bit reminiscent of Alexis Hall’s ‘Husband Material’ in that the prospective wedding is a major source of stress. Chucking one vision of it in favor of a much simplified version helps the men find time and energy for more important things.

    1. It took me a few minutes to work out that a “Canadian aspiring curator” was not a curator who was aspiring to be Canadian. Which was kinda disappointing.

      1. I know a guy who was an aspiring Canadian years ago, and who traveled there frequently, but this was just after Canadian immigration laws tightened in the 1970s, and evidently he couldn’t find a job that would qualify him as a landed immigrant. Or at least not one that paid comparably with his US one. (I didn’t know him well enough to get the full story.)

        I heard mostly at second hand of another guy who was an aspiring Australian, and actually did get a job offer in his rather specialized field. But the difference in salaries dissuaded him. (Possibly mistakenly, since in those days Oz had a lower cost of living.)

      2. I aspire to be Canadian. I’m just too tired to do the work to move. Also, I kind feel like I need to stay here and hold the line. May regret that later.

        1. Immigration tap has also been temporarily (?) turned off here. Without a lot of fuss and no untrained militant idiots running around going power mad with guns and tasers.

          So you wouldn’t be able to move here too easily anyway. Perhaps that will make you feel less obligated to do the work?

          3. I had been thinking that in the name change from South Park to South America it could have been easily changed to South North America.

          4. Lupe, Mountie Overlords sounds kind of naughty. Did you mean it that way? Or were you referring to them in a ‘clean’ way?

  16. Inspired by Dodo’s experience with Rachel Reid’s “The Shots you Take” I decided to try this one again. My first try ended in a DNF. Well, it just goes to show that WHEN you read a book matters a lot: I LOVED it this time around. In fact, I don’t see how I could have DNF’d it! What was I thinking? It’s an M/M second chance romance between two former hockey players after they’ve retired. There is angst, there is pining, there is regret but also there is maturity and romance. I loved it. Thanks for inspiring me to try it again Dodo!
    I then reread “Anyone but You” for the bazillionth time: such a great story. All the laughs and all the feels.

    1. You’re welcome, Christina!
      I’m glad you had the same experience 🙂
      And it really is sooo true that WHEN we read a book matters so much.
      The best book cannot woo me over if it’s not the right time.
      Which is why so many book assignments for school fell flat – no chance to decide for myself what I wanted to read when. Of course, good teachers then could make me fall for some stories anyway.

      1. The two of you are inspiring me. Will have to give it another shot. Yep, I did say that. You can groan.

      2. I read it twice already and I definitely liked it way more the second time round. I think it is because by the end, I felt much more sympathetic towards the hockey star so I remembered that when I reread it.

  17. I’m taking another stab at reading at least some of the hundreds of books stockpiled in my kindle library, and the best thing I’ve dug out of the stash recently is Cocaine Blues, the first Phryne Fisher mystery. I’ve been sitting on it for years because I needed enough distance from the very good TV show to be able to enjoy it on its own merit—and I did enjoy it! She’s such a great writer.

    Otherwise, I, too, am obsessively rereading my own books—have been giving the two first books in the series a refresh in anticipation of the third coming out… soonish. Maybe before the end of the year. Maybe early 2027. The revision process has been so interesting because I’m doing a lot of research into what everyday life might look like in 100 years. Trying to make a series I started writing like 15 years ago sound reasonably futuristic. The original versions don’t even sound current for 2026 at this point…

    Looking forward to digging into the reading recommendations here as I need to plan my reading for the trip we have coming up on the 20th! Most important travel planning item after tickets, passport, and a change of clothes…

    1. Yes, although Kerry Greenwood was reportedly fairly happy with the TV series, it departs from the books in many ways and one would not like to get them confused.

  18. I started EH Lupton’s Dionysus in Wisconsin on Friday, and what with the long weekend, I’m in the middle of book 4 of the series. The first three are set in 1969/70 and about an archivist/rare books nerd named Dionysus (who goes by Sam) and Ulysses, a grad student in Magic Studies who runs around the city helping people with ghost and curse problems, but should be deciding what to write his dissertation on.

    So there’s magic and curses and ancient gods and it’s m/m (the sex is open door, but not extremely explicit). Book 4 is the pov of Ulysses’ brother Lazarus who was a pilot in Vietnam and a nice neurologist. And curses and portals and monsters.

    I think there’s only one more book after this with possibly more planned.

  19. I finished the Rainshadow books by Jayne Castle. The setting is an island with a scary psi-island in its center. More dust bunnies and more competent women and men do their thing. I have one more Castle book coming, and then I can move on to other things. For some reason, these do not “rez” with me the way the ones on the continent do. They are still good, though.

    The eye surgeon threw some more tasks at me to complete before the surgery. He did this just a week ahead of the date. I don’t think insurance people or doctors realize how many AI barriers have been erected for patients, now. I spent hours on the phone trying to get the record of an EKG I had in June sent to him, and it still may not get to him in time. I paid out of pocket for that, and it was “fine” according to the cardiologist, so I really don’t want to pay out of pocket for another, unnecessary, one. I did get to talk to a real person who was very helpful. That is such a rare thing, now. AI does not give the necessary choices of buttons to click on, and it does not know the answers to the difficult questions. The sooner that goes away, the better. It feels like they are conspiring to keep us from actually interacting with a person. I’m sure AI is much cheaper.

    1. Jan, It’s stupidly frustrating. Dialing O or saying “agent” sometimes works. There are websites that list what you have to do on a specific site to contact a human being. Oddly enough, I have sometimes found that if the organization has a chat window on their website, that will link you to a human faster than the phone will.

      1. Thanks, Patrick. I haven’t tried that. I do know all the tricks about dialing zero or saying representative or agent.

      2. I have found that just shouting at the AI ‘let me talk to a human’ can work. I hate the whole thing so much. My bank went from a perfectly reasonable automated list of options which were really easy to work through to an AI that sends you around in circles.

    2. AI is still in its infancy, I hate the waste of our time it creates. On the phone, I just hang up and call again insisting on “representative”! Makes me feel better. I do whatever possible to support customer service by humans. Go to a human checkout at grocery stores, call to make appointments etc. insist on talking to my doctors not an app. Just for my mental comfort.
      Hope all goes well for you Jan!

      1. Thanks, Margaret. I think I will do that from now on, too. Some of those AI instructions after calling go on and on.

    3. Before AI, when it was an automated directory, I found that swearing (a lot) got me put through to a human pretty quickly. I don’t know if it would still work.

    4. You reminded me that I had to call my immunologist’s office—thank you! Fortunately, a real person answers the phone there, once you listen to the menu a few times…

  20. I read and enjoyed a contemporary M/F romance, “For the Record,” by Emma Lord.

    Also, I’ve been reading Suzanne Enoch’s recent Regency romances. Stayed up late last night to finish “Better Than a Duke.” Earlier, I read “A Duke Never Tells.” Something I’ve not seen before–the cover features a portrait-like image of the main male character, just head and upper chest, fully clothed, with a smirk or a knowing look. No beefcake, no ripped bodices.

    1. In looking up author Emma Lord, I discovered that that is also the name of the protagonist of an oldish mystery series by Mary Daheim. I had enjoyed even older books by Daheim, so I put both on my huge TBR list. Also the Enoch.

    2. I didn’t know Suzanne Enoch was still writing regencies. I remember loving “England’s Perfect Hero” (2009 or so) and then I lost track of her. Will check out “Better than a Duke”!

      1. I loved that book too and read it a bunch of times. Enoch is a bit hit and miss for me, but when she’s good, she’s great.

  21. I read and enjoyed Daggerbound, and then didn’t have anything I really wanted to read but happened to have access to the dramatized adaptation versions of Murderbot audiobooks, so I started to listen to the first novella.

    I tend to NOT like multi-narrator audiobooks, BUT I’ve liked dramatized adaptations of some books (i.e., Ilona Andrews’s Kate Daniels series — the guy playing the hero is fab), so I went into it with as open a mind as I could, given how much I adore Kevin R. Free’s version of the audiobooks. So, caveat that this could just me being biased, but OMG, I did NOT like the dramatized version. And I think with good reason, not just resistance to something different.

    Biggest reason is that I think the casting is totally wrong. Mensah sounds like a child. Okay, I exaggerate, but she sounds really young, not a confident, mature woman. Sort of related to that, it’s a fairly large cast for such a short book, so we’ve got three or four women in a lot of scenes (Mensah, Pin-Lee, Arada, and sometimes Baradwaj), and they all sounded young and largely indistinguishable, especially since most of the time their dialogue consisted of less than ten words at a time. Once you strip out the “he/she/it said,” I couldn’t tell who was talking. And that was DESPITE my having read the books so often, I practically have them memorized. I can’t help thinking that someone new to the books would be totally lost.

    I also had some peeves that may be more about me and my preferences than big problems with the production. The person doing Ratthi adopted some sort of accent, and I have no idea what it was supposed to be. It did help to tell the difference between Ratthi and Gurathin when they spoke, but it was so odd (to my ears) that it kept kicking me out of the story.

    And the final straw for me was when the narrator pronounced “unrequited” as if it rhymed with “kitted.” Okay, so I’m one of those folks who had read so far above grade level in school that I mispronounced words that I’d only ever read and not heard, and unrequited not really a word that’s spoken a whole lot (except among romance readers, I suppose), so I’m sympathetic to that. BUT, presumably there was a proof-listener, so someone really should have caught that. I blame the overall production more than the narrator. Same for the odd accent for Ratthi. Someone should have nixed that. And the casting of female voices that were too similar.

    Anyway, I hated it so much, but I also know that I love the Kevin R. Free version so much that I may have gone into it subconsciously biased. I swear that I was aware of the bias and consciously set my expectations to hearing a different angle on the story, something that was sui generis, not a comparison, much as I view the tv version of Murderbot as its own thing, different but standing on its own merit, not in competition with the books. I’d love to know if anyone else has tried the dramatized adaptation and what you think of it.

    2. I was also a kid who mispronounced words I’d only ever read. I remember saying “alien” as two syllables, like “a lean.” But I don’t recall ever getting “unrequited” wrong. My experience with dramatized versions is limited, but I’ve noticed tons of mispronunciations in audiobooks, and I don’t think their budgets normally allow for many corrections or recasting when voices turn out too similar.

      1. The first time I said the word ‘hectares’ out loud I used three syllables – someone started singing it back to me to the tune of Volare.

        1. Given the US metric backwardness, I’m not sure I’ve *ever* said “hectares” out loud except for myself, although I’ve written it for other folks to read. I have heard it enough to know how to pronounce it, though.

          1. Weird fact: A hundredth of a hectare is an are, but in Russian real estate ads (and possibly those of other countries), so used are people to thinking of a hectare as a unit, that they use “hundredth” (сотая), generally with hectare just implied, instead.

    3. I dislike multiple narrators as well, but I confess, with how many dramatized versions have come out, I assumed I was in the minority.

      I find them very jarring to listen to and most of the time I am listening to help me do other tasks, so pace and vibe is critical.

      1. Some of the dramatized versions are really good. In particular, I had access to both the regular audio of the Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels series and the dramatized version, and after trying both, I preferred the dramatized version. They kept the sound effects to a minimum, and the guy who did Curran’s voice was perfect for the role.

        I’ve heard him in some other books too, and liked him there as well, but they were only small parts. I had to look up his name — Michael Glenn. He’s done a bunch of the Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody books as a recurring character (but I haven’t listened to them).

    4. I’m with you in preferring single readers, without dramatization. Plus I dislike it when they add music. I like Kevin R. Free, Kobna Holdbrook Smith, Grover Gardner (on occasion)… recommendations?

      1. Totally agree about Kevin R Free and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. Don’t recognize the other name.

        The voice actor for Sherry Thomas’s Lady Sherlock Series (Kate Reading) is very good, and she’s done lots of other authors’ books too, and is always good.

        The guy who does Dungeon Crawler Carl is absolutely amazing. Jeff Hays. I’m not sure if I’d like him so much in a lower-key story, but he does over-the-top incredibly well!

        I liked the person who did the Thursday Murder Club series, but can’t recall her name.

        I’m blanking on any others. Usually, I just give narrators a sort of pass/fail rating, and only remember the few truly stellar ones.

        1. Jeff Hays is completely amazing. Hard to believe all the characters he gives life to, even the ones making a relatively short appearance.

      2. Kevin R. Free and Kobna Holdbrook Smith are two of my favorites also! Adjoa Andoh is another (I loved her narration for Ann Leckie’s Ancillary books). I agree that Kate Reading is great too.

    5. Oh yeah. I think the main problem with it is that 99% of the book is Murderbot’s thoughts, so having all the other voice actors is extraneous. I listened to the dramatization of book 1 one time and didn’t go looking for the others because it was pointless.

      I’m just hoping they got Kevin R Free to play ART in the new season of the show. Or to play anyone, really.

      1. Oh, me too (Kevin R. Free for ART)! It would be such a perfect shout-out to all of us who love his performance in the audiobook, without taking away from the uniqueness of the tv adaptation!

  22. I am in the middle of SEPhillips’ and the crowd went wild. Not sure, …I am not in the mood. I guess.
    I re read Eloisa James’ A kiss at midnight, one of my favorite of hers. It is one of her fairytale retellings. Cinderella in this case.

    1. I gave up on “The Crowd Went Wild”. I find I no longer enjoy stories that have the FMC humiliating herself spectacularly and then having to recover from it. I found the whole story annoying as a result. Maybe it was a mood thing with me as well.

      1. Same. It has become shorthand for character growth, without really being the same thing and I don’t like wincing at my fmc’s behavior, even early in the book.

  23. I’ve been listening to The House in the Cerulean Sea, which I’m pretty sure I heard about here. I’m really enjoying it and Raven is really enjoying the extra walking time.

  24. Dodo, you made me laugh with “a HEA via sugary epilogue” – I don’t hate epilogues as our hostess does, but you nailed what is wrong with the ones I do hate!

    I read “The Bookish Life of Nina Hill” by Abbi Waxman, which comes before “Adult Assembly Required” which I had read previously. Glad I read them in this order, as I would have been less likely to buy more if I had read the Nina one first. I am also stuck on her “I Was Told Things Would Get Easier”, but that may just be because the mother/teen miscommunication is really not doing it for me. Had I been reading while lolling on a couch on vacation, I would probably have kept going and perhaps been fine with it…… if anyone else has read it I would be interested in hearing your reaction.

    Also read “Half Share” which is the sequel to Nathan Lowell’s “Quarter Share”. Again, liked the first one better – not book of the year, but a moderately satisfying coming of age on a space ship. The second one continued the crew members trading arc, which was what I ended up liking best. The explosion of sexual attraction/main dude turning into chick magnet didn’t gel for me, and I doubt I will read the next one.

    Now rereading “Grilled Cheese and Goblins” by Nicole Kimberling. Not as good as “Happy Snack” but then, that one is outstanding…… may have just triggered a re-read of that too.

    1. LOL!
      Jennifer, I find epilogues tricky. far too often, authors succumb to the temptation if a forever HEA. Like a couple after eg 20 years would behave exactly as stupidly in love as in their first few months. Ni, my brlly isn’t fill of butterflies anymore at the sight of my crinkly wrinkly husband who lioks so incredibly cute on older photos. But he’s my guy, he’s the ine who gets me. Something like that would feel better to this reader than the disbetes inducing HEA fantasy of too many romances.
      Or give me an epilogue only a couple of months into the future (like in On Your Six).

    2. Speaking of Nathan Lowell, where is Gary? He was [one of?] the one who recommended Lowell’s books here several years ago. I hope he, his basement apartment and his indoor garden are all okay.

      1. Yes it’s been a while since we heard from Gary. Gary, if you’re lurking, we want to hear from you.

  25. Eloisa James’s Hardly a Gentleman was a delightful historical romance. The characters were sympathetic (both liked reading), the story charming, and the author’s humor even reconciled me with the overwhelming emphasis on smut. No historical accuracy to speak of, but then I didn’t want to read a historical novel. I wanted a fluffy and fanciful tale – an escape into unreality – and the author delivered.
    I couldn’t resist the quote below – it is exactly how I feel about my favorite books:
    Clara opened to the first page with a satisfied sigh. Was there anything better than reading a beloved novel for the eighth time? Or perhaps it was the fifteenth? Who cared how many times she had read it?
    Gil McNeil’s Divas don’t Knit was a DNF – too boring, but that is not the point. I don’t often comment here about the books I don’t finish, but I wanted to mention this book because it has 2 titles. The fist one, Divas don’t Knit, was the original title under which it was published in Great Britain. Later, when it was published in America, it acquired a different title – The Beach Street Knitting Society And Yarn Club. Why?
    I don’t understand the publishers’ practice to change book titles depending on the country. It makes for readers’ confusion – never a good thing. Besides, the title Divas don’t Knit is much catchier than the long and boring The Beach Street Knitting Society And Yarn Club. Maybe in America, they wanted the title to be as boring as the book itself? A better match?
    Sorry for being snarky, but this custom of changing book titles really bothers me.

    1. I can see altering titles either because in the first country it didn’t sell all that well or for cultural reasons. (The American publisher of the first Harry Potter book thought, possibly correctly, that on the whole the American book buyers wouldn’t know what the philosopher’s stone was. As Menken said, no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.) The change here makes more sense when you consider that it starts a series about a knitting club and has nothing whatever to do with divas on a stage, although I wonder if it’s optimal. (I haven’t read the series and am going by what I could quickly find out online.)

  26. I just started Unwrap My Heart, which I *think* is a parody YA supernatural romance, written by two male comedians (Alex Falcone, who I love, and Ezra Fox). Sounds kinda weird, but the reviews are great, with some saying the novel actually asks some really good questions about YA romance and female agency. They also say it’s really funny and sweet, which I could use right now. I’m really looking forward to jumping into it.

  27. I reread The Thursday Murder Club, which continues to be utterly delightful and funny, with some of my favourite fictional characters ever.

    Now reading Alistair Reynolds’ Halcyon Years, a space opera about Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, who was frozen after his death and brought back to life hundreds of years later on a long voyage to another solar system. He has made himself a life as a private detective, and is trying to solve the murders of two of the most powerful families on board. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but the story is growing on me.

  28. I’m having trouble finishing things lately. My To Be Read pile is getting unusually large. But I don’t feel like reading any of them, or reading more of the ones I’ve started, right now.

    The one thing I did read was a reread of Hot Money by Dick Francis. One of my three favorite Dick Francis books, and the first one I read actually. The other two are Banker and Proof. Hot Money was just as satisfying as ever.

    I really need to do a Terry Pratchett reread.

    1. There’s a guy on Bluesky (@rincewind.run) who posts a Discworld snippet every day. I don’t always recognize them, which makes me think it’s time for a reread.

      There’s also a murderbot bot (@murderbotbot) that posts a line from that series a few times a day, and those I DO recognize, so I know I’ve read them much more recently!

    2. Gary, I would imagine that it may be a while until you want to read new books. When I have had periods of grief, I’ve only been able to re-read and only the least stimulating kinds of books.

    3. I was never much of a tv person, preferring movies when I did sit down to watch something, but I have found tv shows to be a big comfort in recent years when my brain keeps sliding off everything like warm jello.

      I think tv changed with streaming, becoming less episodic and more long-form story telling and I really like the limited series format when they know how they are going to end the story from the start of the thing. An hour or two a night, with a craft to keep my hands busy is pretty much what kept me going this year and about all my battered brain could handle.

      Schitt’s Creek, Ted Lasso, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel all come to mind, plus a lot of Kdramas, but most of the good ones have subtitles and you have to read and thus I couldn’t doodle or fidget as much.

      And if you are anything like me, you will also beat yourself up for struggling and not getting better as fast as you think you should. But our bodies will not be rushed, so please be kind with yourself. This will pass, but only in it’s own time.

  29. This week I finished The Talisman Ring by Heyer and loved the wacky, romantic romp. Delightful characters and witty banter.

    I also finished Rhys Bowen’s The Castle in the Glen, a very intriguing and complex story of a book within a book in that young writer Emma is tasked with finishing aging best-selling author Iris’s final book in her detective series. Iris’s manuscript forms the main part of the first half, and it’s totally absorbing, but unfinished. Then Emma must go to the isle of Skye to research the area in order to figure out how to finish the book because Iris can’t remember what she meant to do. Anyway, the book gave off Mary Stewart vibes rather like her The Ivy Tree for how the past influences the present, and the setting is hauntingly beautiful.

    I’m currently reading Kingfisher’s novella, Nine Goblins, while waiting for Daggerbound and the latest Marlow Murders book.

  30. I started reading Dungeon Crawler Carl. I understand the question of will these characters arc or is it just a different battle scene after another. I like it while I’m reading it, but I have found myself jumping ahead at times. I also can put it down and will not pick it up because I’m not in the mood for violence. That all said, I love Princess Donut.

    I’m also reading this blog. I failed to read the 12 days of Anna as they posted so I’m going through them now. It has made me wonder at what point do comments get cut off. I’m reading not just the posts but the comments as well as they hold fun nuggets of story and ideas. I have wished at times I had read it was posting was open so I could contribute. I’m very much looking forward to the book being published!

    BTW, any chance of publishing Nina on your own?

  31. I’m heading towards the half way point with my novel. After decades of writing I finally figured out I’m a pure discovery writer, not a plotter (I’ve always tried so hard and wanted this so bad and failed so many miserable times at this…so sad), and not a plantser. After acceptance has been the figuring out my process and learning to lean in to the weird and trust that the winds will catch me, or at least soften the drop… I too really appreciated the 12 Days of Anna… I enjoyed and learned a lot from each day-thanks for sharing the journey.

    I too have been enjoying Dungeon Crawler Carl…I have yet to figure out why I’m so hooked (I’m half-way through book 5 right now) It’s like sitting down with a Nked bag of Cheeto puffs…you just can’t put them down. I’ve also been enjoying: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Lanterns, The Ark, and Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, oh, and Landscape Artist of the Year…I’ll hit the current Portrait Artist of the Year next.

  32. I started reading White Nights, by Dostoevsky and even though it is pretty short (somewhere between short story and novella), I couldn’t get past the second night because I wanted to smack the narrator. So I downloaded Thank You, Jeeves, the first full Jeeves novel – and oops, I’d forgotten that PG Wodehouse was very much a product of his time and discovered much to my queasiness, prolific reference to a jazz band visiting the UK from the US which included the n-word. The story is great, Bertie and Jeeves are witty and amusing as ever, but I can’t work out how this passed me by on previous reads. Maybe, I’ve just totally blanked it from my mind, or perhaps later editors have deftly extracted the offensive language because I really don’t remember it. But then, I think the last time I read this, it was over 40 years ago and I must have been about 13 or 14 and had also recently glommed up Gone with the Wind, which I now find unreadable.

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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