Books of 2019- Installment #21

101. 1222 by Anne Holt
This book was described as a locked room mystery and it is of a sort. It's more like one of those mysteries where everyone is trapped in a big old mansion and people start dying. But what I liked about this book is the main character is a former police detective that was paralyzed in the line of duty and solves the mystery from her wheelchair. I also liked that it is a Norwegian book that was translated into English even though the translator clearly doesn't know the difference between snuff and chew!

102. The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand
I devoured this book!! It's A Christmas Carol. The main character, Holly Chase, gets visited by her own Jacob Marley and the three Christmas ghosts- Past, Present, and Future, all in an attempt to save her.What ensues was a delight!!

103. The Beadworkers by Beth Piatote
This book such a long time coming to me off the hold list at the library that I no longer know how it made it's way into my ken, but I'm so happy that it did. Beth Piatote is Nez Perce and enrolled in the Colville Confederated tribes. I used to live in Spokane very close to the Colville Reservation, and so many things she mentioned or talked about just touched me! Julyamsh! Jim Boyd! Jingle dresses! This story collection is beautiful, fascinating, and poignant! She touches on so many important aspects of our lives: love, sorrow, death, family, women's lives, indigenous lives, modernity, passage of time. It's a wonderful read!

104. Lanny by Max Porter
This book took forever to come off the holds list, but it is so good! I really enjoyed it. I had read Grief is the Thing with Feathers. I wasn't really sure what to expect of this book, but I loved it and was freaked out by it! Lanny, the titular character, is this amazing little boy that seems to have this extra special relationship with nature. As this book is less than 200 pages, I don't want to say more.

105. The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World by Shelley Emling
This nonfiction book is about Mary Anning (1799-1847) who discovered some of the most important fossil finds ever. Her discoveries led to the theory of evolution, to the rethinking in the Western world of the time the Earth has existed, and a deeper understanding of our world. So have you heard of her? Well, I hadn't- that's for sure! So I had to read this book and learn more!

I've read 105 books so far and 79 were by woman, 25 by men, 1 book by a female and male author, and 3 anthologies with both female and male authors- two of which were mostly female authors. My year of reading lots of women is still going strong!!!

Books of 2019- Installment #20

96. This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
I was so excited to read this novella. The two main characters are on opposite sides of a time war and their interactions with each other. Being drawn to each because of their skill/talents and needing to not be seen interacting leads to some crazy escapades.

97. The Border Keeper by Kerstin Hall
A man shows up at the Border Keeper's door. He wants something, but he doesn't say what. What follows is the journey to learn what he wants and how they are connected.

98. The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
This is a romance where a countess and an astronomer meet and fall in love. It's a little bit novel for a romance. But I think what made me love this book was that for the most part the obstacles that these two lovers face are not the typical romance novel obstacles where they take half the book realizing that they actually do like each other. These women face the challenges of being a woman together and thrive. So that made me very happy.

99. Ormeshadow by Priya Sharma
I'm not really sure what to say about this novella. A family falls on hard times and has to move in with a brother. They go from city life to farm life. And the son learns of a family legacy.

100. The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon
This is my second Jennifer McMahon (both this year!!) and this one scared the bejesus out of me!! A farmhouse in rural Vermont haunted by its past and its present- literally and metaphorically.

I've read 100 books so far and 72 were by woman, 24 by men, 1 book by a female and male author, and 3 anthologies with both female and male authors- two of which were mostly female authors. My year of reading lots of women is still going strong!!!

Books of 2019- Installment #19

91. The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson
I heard about this book right after I got back from my trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls. It is set in Niagara Falls. This book was good, but I will say I was expecting something lighter so it didn't match my mood at all. The ending was really fulfilling and I am happy I read it, but it was much darker than I was expecting.

92. A House at the Bottom of a Lake by Josh Malerman
This is my third book by Josh Malerman. I've loved them all. This one was a sweet romance with a little creepy danger.

93. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
This book is as fascinating as it is haunting. It isn't clear when it is exactly set, but it felt like the 70s to me. But an archeology professor takes some students on a trip to northern England/southern Scotland(?) to experience iron age Briton. Somehow a bus driver takes his vacation with them. It's clear pretty earlier on that this bus driver is a pretty abusive father and husband. As they spend time out in the "wild" things take an even darker turn. The history woven into the story is fascinating. The interplay between the characters is compelling. I really couldn't look away from this story despite how deeply uncomfortable it made me.

94. The Family Plot by Cherie Priest
My work bookclub might not meet anymore. There's a lot of job insecurity right now, so we talked about having one last book. Nobody really wanted to be the one to pick it, so I said I have a bunch of library books right now on my Kindle. I could share the list and then you could pick from that. And so we did, and the winner was The Family Plot. After all it's October- what's better than a haunted house story! This book really grabbed me and held on tight! YAY!!!

95. Finder by Suzanne Palmer
This book is about an Earth man who finds and retrieves items. It sounds kind of mild-mannered or low-key, but it is not. He goes about locating a stolen ship and finds himself in the middle of all kinds of chaos!

I've read 95 books so far and 68 were by woman, 24 by men, and 3 anthologies with both female and male authors- two of which were mostly female authors. My year of reading lots of women is still going strong!!!

Books of 2019- Installment #18

86. The Changeling by Victor LaValle
This book wasn't even on my radar until a "pen pal" of mine mentioned she had just finished reading it, and it was amazing! Well, I just finished it, and it is amazing! It's haunting and gripping and devastating. It is a fairy tale. It's about fairy tales. It's an examination of fairy tales. It's beautiful and gruesome just like a fairy tale. It's about monsters and glamours. It's about parenthood. It's about marriage. It's about being a black man in America. It's about New York. It hurt to read this. It was beautiful.

87. Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
Listen, I've been a long-time fan of Pop Culture Happy Hour and so of course had to read this!! And it was awesome!! I laughed! I cried!! I love this story!! But I will confess... Every time Andy spoke I heard Stephen Thompson's voice. Sorry! I read the acknowledgements- I know it's not based on your friendship.... and yet!!

88. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
This is my third book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Signal to Noise & Certain Dark Things). I loved the premises of all of these books, but perhaps my expectations were too high fort he first two. I liked them but wanted to love them. This book is by far my favorite of hers. My friend was stationed in Merida, Mexico for a time, and I visited her twice while she was there. Since this book takes place in part there, I was pretty jazzed. The fact that it draws on Mayan mythology thrilled me.

89. Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
I heard about this book on the podcast All the Books and knew it was one I had to check out. I love, love, love reading stories with non-human narrators!!!!! But man, is it way more awesome than I thought! I looooooooooooooooooooove this book!! It's sooooooo good!! I had a terrible time choosing which quote to pick. I settled on this one because I think it ties in nicely to the idea of having a non-human narrator. It's sooooooooooooo goood!! Read this book! Not to be bossy but omg!! So goood!!!!

90. The Archive of Alternate Endings by Lindsay Drager
I love novellas and I think that's why I got this book. It's an oddly nice companion piece to Hollow Kingdom. While I don't want to give anything away, I will say there's a little through line that dovetails nicely. At first blush it seems like it's going to be a collection of alternate endings to the folktales collected by the brothers Grimm. But well, it's a novella, and you'll just have to see for yourself!

I've read 90 books so far and 65 were by woman, 22 by men, and 3 anthologies with both female and male authors- two of which were mostly female authors. My year of reading lots of women is still going strong!!!

Books of 2019- Installment #17

81. The Drowning Eyes by Emily Foster
I'm not gonna lie. I totally wanted to read this book because of the gorgeous cover!! The fact that it's a super short novella didn't hurt!! This book really reminded me of the world that Truthwitch by Susan Dennard is set in.

82. Recursion by Blake Crouch
I loved Dark Matter but not the Wayward Pines series, so I didn't know if this book would be for me. But it was!!! It was an incredible ride that I did not know what to expect from. The premise is there is this incredibly smart scientist whose mother has Alzheimer's, and she wants to find a way to preserve her mother's (and other Alzheimer's sufferers') memories for her/them. She invents something but what that ends up being used for is not Alzheimer's! Amazing!!

83. Of Sorrow and Such by Angela Slatter
I can't think of any other Australian fantasy that I've ever read before and I really enjoyed this novella. It has a lot of familiar elements but also ones that were novel- hello! Wonderful! This is about a little rural town and the witches that live in it. Well, you know how women and witches are treated...

84. Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian
I'm not super into English stories. So many!! I don't really need more! I really don't want to read any more WWII stories! OMG! I don't remember where I heard about this book, but I put it on hold at the library and was a little like, "Oh, English countryside... sigh..." But I was actually surprised to find this book is set after WWII and found that really interesting. So there's a murder in an English town and a British spy is sent to investigate because the murder took place in the house of an important military/businessman (cuz he's landed gentry and that's what they do?) living there. The inhabitants of this town are interesting, and there's some really interesting character development related to the psychic wounds inflicted on soldiers. I quite liked it.

85. Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh
I don't know what inspired this book, but it feels like the author said, what if the British Empire had developed a space agency? What if the Soviets/Russians, Americans, and Brits were on more equal footing during the space race? It's the year 2012 and the Brits are sending a ship on a 23-year journey to Earth 2 aka Terra-Two. It's part alternate history, part space adventure, and part colonization story with great character development.

I've read 85 books so far and 61 were by woman, 21 by men, and 3 anthologies with both female and male authors- two of which were mostly female authors. My year of reading lots of women is still going strong!!!

Books of 2019- Installment #16

76. The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene
I read gobs and gobs of Nancy Drews as a child, but I never revisited them. And I never would have quiet frankly if it were my book club's pick for this month. It's short and easy to read. She is a great empowered teen (18! I didn't remember her age at all), and that's fantastic. But I see Phryne Fisher as the grown-up version and much prefer that. Still, I think it was great I had Nancy all those years ago as young girl.

77. Her Halloween Treat by Tiffany Reisz
I heard about this book on Get Booked and just had to get it! And my ever-so beautiful library had it and I devoured this book!! So if you like very subtle romance novels, walk away- this one isn't for you! If you like steamy consensual sex with lots of uses of the f-word then this book is for you! I mean one sex scene crossed chapters! But what I really liked about this one was the resolution of the problems, her humor, and her strength.

78. Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith 
I heard about this book on Get Booked and was super interested! This is a YA book (not my usually thing) set in Kansas where the narrator is navigating high school. She's got a great, loving family, but she's still the new kid, and she's native in a fairly white school district. So while she's got a pretty wonderful life in many ways, she's still got to handle dating and finding the people she wants to be with. I loved all the Wizard of Oz stuff in this book, and like the characters in this book, I have a pretty complicated relationship with Oz and Baum, so I appreciated the discussion in this book about that.

79. Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water by Vylar Kaftan
When I started this novella, I had flashbacks to The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling because this story begins with a woman cave climbing. It quickly becomes clear it's not like that story, but it has a mystery at its heart too. And unraveling that mystery with the narrator is awesome! I definitely enjoyed this book for reasons that I feel will give too much away to state here... but there is a question of identity and trust in here that were fascinating to me.

80. Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson
I've been on a Tor.com novella kick, and it's a time-travel, so I had to read this one! It took me a bit to get into this one, which I can't explain why. I certainly enjoyed the contrast between the distant future and the distant past. My favorite part was the ethics of time travel part.

I've read 80 books so far and 57 were by woman, 20 by men, and 3 anthologies with both female and male authors- two of which were mostly female authors. My year of reading lots of women is still going strong!!!

Books of 2019- Installment #15

71. The Test by Sylvain Neuvel
Gruesome and brutal. And absolutely apropos for our times. A traumatizing citizen test that has lasting effects, which should freak us all out.

72. A Christmas Tartan by Paige Shelton
Scottish time travel with ghosts- sign me up!! Was this one? I'm not sure, but it definitely had ghosts! I love this world Paige Shelton has created and this short, little romp was a delight!!

73. The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell
This book was sold to me as a gothic supernatural thriller. While I really like it, I would not characterize it that way. It's definitely suspenseful and it's set in Victorian times, but supernatural? Nope. It's a bit gruesome in the beginning and my life is a mess at the moment which made it hard to take. I need sweet at the moment. So while this is fascinating, it also was hard for me to read.

74. The Loch Ness Papers by Paige Shelton
I really needed something delightful after The Poison Thread, and this was exactly what I needed! My favorite Scottish bookshop, the Loch Ness Monster, and a wedding! C'est magnifique!! 非常好!

75. The Black God's Drums by P. Djeli Clark

I've read a couple of P. Djeli Clark's works before and find his writing such an exciting read! I never know where he's going to take me, but it is always exciting. This story is set in an alternative New Orleans (well, really whole world but set in New Orleans) where it is a free state and the Civil War didn't end the way it did in real life. I don't want to say more because this is a novella, and you should check it out for yourself!

I've read 75 books so far and 52 were by woman, 20 by men, and 3 anthologies with both female and male authors- two of which were mostly female authors. My year of reading lots of women is still going strong!!!