What I read - January 2026

Explanation: I have a very long Holds list at the library, so I'm trying to whittle that down. It's an impossible task, as I keep adding things. However, Two years ago my library was hacked and the website was down for like 4 or 5 months. So, I've got some breathing room because I couldn't place holds between October 2023 and March 2024, and books expire off the holds list after 2 years (by default. So, I don't have any holds that are expiring between now and March, and I'm using this "free" time to read all the things that have very few copies available in the system (having been burned before by there only being one copy, and it going missing). And, when that's done, I'm trying to read the sequels that are on the list, before I've forgotten what I liked about the series.

"The God of the Woods" by Liz Moore. Hard copy. Office book club selection. I was #455 on the waitlist and yet got the book within a week. And it didn't take a week to read, either. I spent a lot of time thinking about who the bad guy is. Alice? She had the least satisfying resolution definitely. What, are you all just going to let her go along drugging herself and not remembering all the bad things she did?

"World of Wonders" by Robertson Davies. Hard copy. Good for travelling as it was small, also a sequel, so now I've finished the series. Go me! This was a shockingly dense, slow read, but maybe that's just compared to the previous book which took like 45 seconds per page.

LHC #309: "The Manual of Detection" by Jedediah Berry. Hard copy. Only 2 copies in the TPL. It was really well plotted but I didn't connect much with the main character.

LHC #310: "Assassin of Reality" by by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko. Translated by Julia Meitov Hersey. eBook. Sequel to Vita Nostra, which I read back in March of 2024, so I guess I'm on schedule for this one, 22 months later? I remember the verbs in the first one driving me crazy, and this one too. Makes sense somehow, considering the themes. I put the final volume on my list.

LHC #311: "The Sun, the moon, and the stars" by Steven Brust. Hard copy. Only 2 copies in the TPL. I realized about 3 chapters in that the sections were named after famous paintings, so I did what any normal person would do and started googling them and taking a look as I read the chapter. Like, what was he going for with that choice? Hmmmph. And then I realized, this book was published in 1987. People who read this when it came out couldn't do that. Did they get to know these paintings?

What I read -- October 2025

"The Moomins and the Great Flood" by Tove Jansson. eBook. I read this because Marissa Lingen loves them. It was fine? This was the first one in the series and the only one available online; maybe the later ones are better. Maybe they're better if you read them as a child. "The Relentless Moon" by Mary Robinette Kowal. Hard copy. Read it because Ed had the whole series out of the library. It took a long time to get going, and sometimes I find MRK exhausting. Her white main characters all seem oddly aware of the Black experience. "The Martian Contingency" by Mary Robinette Kowal. Hard copy. Read it because Ed had the whole series out of the library. I don't often read subsequent books in a series in quick succession, and my reaction to this one is a lot of why: I found Alma's voice too similar to Nicole's -- sure, Nicole obsessed about food much more, but they both went on and on about "must support black guy in management" an...

What I read: September 2025

LHC #295: "The Last to Leave the Room" by Caitlin Starling. Audiobook. Workplace horror? Loved it. "Careless People" by Sarah Wynn-Williams. Hard copy, for office Data Ethics book club. The stories about Sheryl Sandberg really made me like my boss better. LHC #296: "The Fated Sky" by Mary Robinette Kowal. Hard copy. This got moved up the list because Ed had read book 1 in the series and got the rest out of the library. Loved it. He's got the next one in the series upstairs, I suppose I'll read it when he's done. LHC #297: "Bluegrass: A History" by Neil V. Rosenberg. Hard copy. No idea why it was on my list, I don't care that much about bluegrass. Nevertheless, the second half was interesting. I guess the first half was necessary, as it described in great length the way people came and went in Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys band, and also how technology and social pressures affect how music is made and performed. LHC #298: ...

In progress - January 2026

Wind/Water/Salt Chapters 39-51: Nothing Persephone (probably not its real name): NOthing Vinterlys: Worked on Chapter 2 some more. Critted 4 Got back 1 Submissions 0 Out there 0 Rejects 0 Knitting Georgia (Norah Gaughan). Started the month with one sleeve and half a front to go. Finished. Love this sweater. Aberlady (AS Celtic Collection). Did a few rows while listening to podcasts. Summer in Tokyo (Isager): Started. I was looking at the pictures and the charts, and the pattern as written is not what is in the pictures! So odd. I am going to finish up two cones of yarn with this project! Pretty exciting. I hope I don't run out of light blue. I was working along on it, and if you go and look at the sweater, it's knit bottom-up, and I was at the part where I only had two colors, about 5" maybe. And I was thinking, "wow, this is pretty ugly! Maybe I should stop...

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