I usually don't like to speed up an audio book but I needed to this time. The narrator is so slow. 😑

Progress continues on the double knit patronus scarf I'm making for my Largest Child.

#AudioKnitting #KnittersofLitsy

Book 5

Asshole Main Character is a womanizing arrogant twat. He ruins his career and genitals with a whore and a plane crash and ends up running from the law to Micronesia and finds himself saving the native islanders from a rouge methodist missionary doctor. Also, men literally have food dribble from their mouths at the sight of boobs. WTF.
But then I realized this is a Bond film: Dashing pilot. Sexy ladies. Bad guys.
Ok.
Tolerable.
Barely.

Book 4

Ive slowed waaaay down this year compared to last. Having trouble finding my reading groove. 😕

Anyway. Not sure how I feel about this book. I think in more normal times when 4,000 of my country people were't dying every day and genuine fear for the collapse of the government wasn't looming I'd probably enjoy it quite a bit. As it stands, a robotic uprising killing most of the world's population hit a bit close.

Book 3, audio

Neil is not only a good author, but he's also a good audio narrator!

This is an extended version of a short story that was in M is for Magic. I liked the short, and I enjoyed getting more of Bod's growing up.

Not even a week into the new year and already behind. ?

Book 1 of the year, finished Jan 4, audio

I enjoyed this one. Lots of fun quips. A bit heavy handed on the "awkward 15 year old boy sees boobs and stares" trope, but over all very enjoyable. I'd recommend it.

Book 126, audio

I wanted something pleasant and easy. Which... Now that I type that out is probably an odd description for a murder mystery 😂. But it's a JD Robb so I knew what the plot was going before I started it, with just enough differences from the other 50 books in the series to be new to me.

Book 125, Audio

This wrapped up the tale nicely. I loved how it all came together, Jemisin has such a grasp on Humanity's short falls and can present them in a way that is blunt and stark, but also tinged with hope that we can do better.

It was a little hard to follow via Audio, it jumps between characters and viewpoints. I've bought the trilogy in paperback. I'll wait a while, but I'm already looking forward to reading it again.

Book 124, audio.

More holiday reading! I grew up on The Muppet Christmas Carol and was shocked when I finally got around to reading the actual book how closely they kept their adaptation to the original.

A seasonal re-read! (Now to watch the Muppets do their magic!)

Book 123 audio

Kicking off my holiday reading with the Hogfather.

An excellent story as ever. Each time I read it I grasp a bit more of the depth of the tale and humans need for make-believe.

Book 123, audio

Turning to Librivox again! A re-read of an older tale.

John was raised by his grandfather and spent his young adult life traveling the world and avoiding work. When his grandfather dies, his will stipulates John needs to stay in his grandfather's elaborate home in IL for one year to receive his inheritance. Locals think there's a treasure hidden in the house and are willing to kill, and it might very well be haunted. Or is it?

Book 122, eyeball

Ha! Look at me reading a book with my eyeballs for a change!

Still an old favorite. It's been a solid decade since I read this series and I'm definitely seeing things differently as an adult with a daughter Diane's age. Mostly that man, teenage girls are annoying. 😂

Kidding, kidding (mostly) but it's fun watching her powers grow and seeing her getting lovingly taken down a peg by the imortals when she needs it.

Book 120, audio

Revisiting some old friends with this book. When I first read it I was a little older than Daine is, and I related to her as a fellow animal lover and I wished I could talk to them too. Now I've got daughters who are about her age and Ms Pierce 100% captured that awkward stressful time between Woman and Girl that is a 13 year old.

Book 119, audio

OK. This may be my favorite ending to a series ever. It was suspenseful, funny, and addressed all the issues quite nicely answering all my important questions. I'd read the series again just to have a second go at this ending. Well done.

Book 118, audio

The action seemed to slow down a bit in this one. Not sure what happened but it just didn't hold my attention like the others have. Not bad, will read again, just not my favorite from the set.

Book 117 - audio

I liked this one much more the first one! I don't k ow if I was just able to get into the setting a bit more or what but this was much more enjoyable than the first. Looking forward to what happens next!

Book 116, audio

Im enjoying this! The world itself feels different than it does in the Parosol and Custard days? That's a little off putting. I try to think of it as a seperate world, but I'm also digging the childhoods of some of the characters that show up in the other series...

I like this. Definitely a pick so far as Litsy rankings go, and I'm moving on to the rest on the series. But it's probably a 4/5 or a 8.25/10 on broader scales.

Book 115 - audio

14 year old Billy has an absentee father and an unstable mother. Mom has to live within 15 min of an active bald eagle nest so is constantly moving the kids. Billy figures out his dad's address and gets a plane ticket to find him. Dad is a vigilante who goes after poachers with a drone.

All the adults are inept, the entire plot seemed like a stretch, and I don't even think my kids would like it.

Book 114 - audio

I picked this one entirely for the cover art.

When the story started and I was not so sure about my choice. It's very graphic. Sex, violence, death, language, all there, all graphic.

But I was intrigued by the mix of death and the irreverent narrator and I stuck with it.

About half way through I decided that if a female Harry Potter went to Pratchett's Assasins Guild instead of Hogwarts, this would be her story.

113, audio

Probably the most unique coming of age story I've read, but still a coming of age story.

Cute, but not as enjoyable as the last two were. Still a pick.

Book 112, audio

There was... A lot going on here. As a practicing Christian, books that criticize religion make me uncomfortable. I know this was largely about the Catholic Church during the Inquisition, not so much the modern day Church.

I will revisit this series again in 12-18 months. I'm not opposed to sitting with the discomfort so I can find out what exactly I'm struggling with, and if I need to address it in my personal faith journey.

My eleventy-first book of the year! 🎉 Audio

This was interesting as it seemed to be two distinct novels in one. The first one wrapped up at the 7 hour mark and flowed nicely into the second plot to finish out the last 5 hours of book.

Plot A was getting Rue's parents to Egypt as was discussed at the end of the Parosol books.

Plot B was a slow speed dirigible race to Lake Victoria while being perused by unknown mauraders.

Book 110 - Audio

This was supposed to be a 22 week hold and then it showed up as available 2 days later. 🤣🤣

A quick novella about Stevie and Co celebrating Christmas where a holiday decoration contest goes south quickly when the judges find the body of the caterer's French pastry chef in Stevie's hand made papier-mâché nativity scene.

Book 109 - audio

I was very excited to see that Ms Carriger extended the Parosol Protectorate universe! This one follows Prudence as she's now grown and having her own adventure. I tried to explain the plot to my husband only to realize it doesn't sum up well, it's pretty complicated, but easy enough to follow in the moment.

Gotta say, I would have been a terrible English Victorian Lady. So many damn rules about everything.

Book 108 - audio

The storyline takes a more personal turn here wirh the death of Stevie's friend rather than strangers.

Won't lie, it made me cry. Tried to watch Jepordy last night as usual and Trebec's death hit home. So I tried to swap to the book and Stevie's dog got shot including a tense scene of Doggy CPR and emergency surgery. Too many feels all at one go.

Book 107 - Audio

I got on a bit of a series binge thanks to my library having the first 4 as Always Available status.

This one gets into Stevie's tumultuous relationship with her mother. Since I have a similarly self centered mother, this was not quite as enjoyable for me personally as it probably is for others.

Im going to round it up to a Pick, but it probably hit me somewhere between Pick and So-So.

Book 106 - Audio.

I enjoyed the first book in this series and I liked the second one just as much.

A light hearted murder mystery about a street taco vendor who was drowned in his queso? Somehow it works.

Book 105, audio

Really enjoyed the character building here after the world building of the first book.

Solid pick, and I will definitely be reading it again, but my mind kept slipping. I had to rewind and relisten to some parts multiple times to get the whole picture. Though, to be frank, that could very well have been stress from the election more than the writing. I've struggled to accomplish much of anything lately.

Book 104

The Hollowpox plague is attacking Wunimals, animals with human levels of intelligence. Because Wunimals have only been accepted as having the same rights as full humans in the last generation, people are turning on them and demanding all Wunimals be locked away to keep humans safe.

This hit a bit too close in 2020, I have had to take more mental health breaks than a YA novel for 8-12 Year Olds about talking animals in should require.

Book 103, audio

A fascinating real life story about a silicon valley bio-med tech start up that rose amazingly and crashed spectacularly because the CEO couldn't tell the truth or accept help from those who knew more than she did.

This is the kind of non-fiction I like, it felt like a crazy made up story but everyone in it is real.

Why do you keep apologizing? Dreadful habit for girls to get into, you must break it at once.

It's been quite a while since I've read a paper book, usually I do audio or ebooks, but I'm getting that old familiar feeling when there seems to be entirely too much story left to fit in the number of pages remaining...

"We don't ignore bigotry, Jack. Thats how cowardly bigots turn into brave bigots."

Book 102, audio

Ha! Look at me posting right when I finish. Take that the whole rest of this year. 😅

Anyway, this is a highly enjoyable book!
Magic stopped working in the 1800s because of quantum. A shadowy and secretive US Military department is doing its best to bring back magic.
Witches, time travel, bureaucracy, Vikings sacking Walmart, this has everything!

All around excellent. Highly recommend.

October has been awful and stressful and I haven't kept up.

Time for another Mass Update!

Books 91-94
Harry Potter and the: books 4-7

Book 95
Witch Slapped by Dakota Cassidy

Book 96
Guards Guards by Terry Pratchett

Book 97
The Happy Hollisters at Seagull Beach

Book 98
The Truth by Terry Pratchett

Book 99
Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Book 100
Death in D Minor by Alexia Gordon

Book 101
Murder in G Major - Alexia Gordon

Book 90 - audio

I love this book. I can't express strongly enough how amazing it is. I love the story. I love the way its written (2nd person present tense! So unique!) I love that when I learned how the characters were connected, I gasped out loud and paused the narration to think it all through. I loved how this world fully accepts, unquestioning, trans people and romantic relationships of all kinds.

Its one of my favorite books EVER.

Book 89 - audio

Im torn on this one. I liked it, but it just didn't quite hold my fascination all the way. I kept waiting for it to wrap up the story and it just kept presenting more conflict and problems. And then it ended on a cliffhanger waiting for Book 2.

I wouldn't tell someone not to read it, but I don't think I'll be reading the sequel either. Not a bad story, just not for me.

Book 88 - eyeball

The longer this book went on the less I liked it.

The first 6 chapters are the Beauty and the Beast story I know and love. The last 2 chapters are a complex soap opera of fairy politics all written in arcane verbiage that was difficult to understand.

Book 87 - Audio

This one is my favorite of the series. I think because Harry finally meets some adults who actually care about him. I know he's met Mrs Weasley, and she becomes a mother figure, but up to this point she's still just "Ron's mum." Lupin and Serius both care for Harry like true family should.

With its illustrations and extras, this book is really a joy to read. But holy cow is it verbose.

My attention wandered off 4 times in this sentence that never ends. I walked back through it several times before getting down to want it was trying to say.

Book 86 - audio

This was... Ok. I think it was a case of the narrator hurting the story more than an issue with the story itself.

I would reccomend it, but I'd say eyeball read it before you listen to it.

Book 85 - audio

I like to pretend that Filch and Mrs Norris were lovers, and when her husband found out he cursed her into a cat shape. In the background of Harry & Co, Filch is desperately trying to learn magic to change Mrs Norris, his one true love, back to human again.

Book 84 - audio

I enjoy reading older mystery books to see where the roots are in the genre. This was enjoyable! Definitely will get on the hold list at the library for more Christie books.

As an aside, I'm behind again on my logging.

The last two books I posted are the most recent that I finished, but I'm definitely behind again. Thank goodness I go with primarily digital books these days and can easily reference back. I'm going to try to catch up 1 or 2 books a day for the next few days.

Book 83 - audio

More reading comfort food. Plus it's September which always seems to be the right time of year to kick off the annual read through.

(I know I should be boycotting Rowling and HP, but these stories are too important to me. I'm not financially supporting her anymore, but I'm also not going to get rid of books I've owned for 20 years that have had a profound impact on my life)

Book 82 - audio

This is the start Week 5 of (at least) 12 for 100% virtual learning for my 3 kids. It's a struggle for all 4 of us.

Im in need of some good reading "comfort food." This book falls into that category for me. It's cozy, I know what's going to happen, and I enjoy letting the words wash over me.

Book 81

This book is an inspirational after school special. 🙄

Poor middle school kid with an unstable homelife wasn't doing schoolwork and had poor self esteem until she was invited to debate club by the social studies teacher where she learns Moms boyfriend is emotionally abusive, and stands up for a friend who was threatened with a gun, and gets both famies out of danger.
Yay debate club!

Book 80 audio

This was as good or better than the first. I was completely crushed when I saw the 3rd book doesnt come out until October. But I bought the first two in hard cover and pre-ordered the 3rd. Shared these two with my 14 year old and had to get on her case today as she was reading in her virtual class instead of paying attention. 🤣
We may have to thumb wrestle to see who gets to read the 3rd book first.