February 2026 Reading Wrap Up

19 Mar 2026 2 Comments

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I haven’t been doing as well on my reading recently. I’d like to think my struggle in February had something to do with it being a short month, but actually the month simply slipped by and I wasn’t able to focus as much on my reading as I may have liked. As I sit here in mid-March I’m still struggling to get through books, but that will be an update for a future post.

Book cover for 'The Will of the Many' by James Islington, featuring ancient Greek-style pillars and a dark blue background.
Cover of the book 'Pilgrimage' by Zenna Henderson, featuring a man in a straw hat standing near a farm house with a UFO in the sky.

These are the two books that I read in February. Both were for book club discussions, but I hadn’t finished The Will of the Many in time to make that talk. I actually didn’t finish Pilgrimage: The Book of the People, but gave up on it about halfway through (paid links). I’ll work on getting reviews of these up soon, but here are my star ratings for them:

  • The Will of the Many by James Islington – ★★★★★
  • Pilgrimage: The Book of the People by Zenna Henderson – ★★
Book cover of 'The Everlasting' by Alix E. Harrow featuring intricate floral designs and a central sword element.
Book cover for 'Grievar's Blood' by Alexander Darwin, featuring a central depiction of a humanoid figure and a blue background.
Book cover of 'An Echo in the Bone' by Diana Gabaldon featuring a dark blue background with a leaf design and text indicating it is an international bestseller.

I did make more progress on the books I had wanted to read for February, but just didn’t finish them. I’m more than halfway through The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. I decided to take a break from the Outlander saga audiobooks and listened to Grievar’s Blood by Alexander Darwin. This is book 2 in The Combat Codes series and I have finished it now, just not in February. I have already returned to book 7 of the Outlander series – I’m sitting at roughly the halfway point in An Echo in the Bone, with a little over 18 hours left to go (paid links).

Cover of the science fiction novel 'A Fire Upon The Deep' by Vernor Vinge, featuring bold text and a futuristic spaceship design.
Book cover of 'The Tainted Cup' by Robert Jackson Bennett, featuring a dark blue background with intricate gold designs, flowers, and a cup illustration.
Cover of 'The Faraway Inn' by Sarah Beth Durst, featuring a whimsical illustration of a cozy inn surrounded by flowers and mystical elements.

Looking back at the books I had planned to read for February, the only ones I didn’t get to were A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, and The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst. I’ve moved two of these onto my to-be-read list for March, but if I don’t get to them then, they’ll have to be pushed further down in my never-ending pile.

Next up are my reading plans for March where I get to pick six books!

Book cover for 'The Faraway Inn' by Sarah Beth Durst, featuring a whimsical inn surrounded by flowers and a mystical atmosphere.
Book cover of 'Seveneves' by Neal Stephenson, featuring a detailed illustration of an eye with a blue glowing element in the center.
Cover of the book 'Dreadful' by Caitlin Rozakis featuring a black castle with swirling tendrils and an open book on a stack of books in front of it, set against a red background.
Cover of the book 'The Tainted Cup' by Robert Jackson Bennett, featuring a dark background with gold illustrations of flowers and a cup, symbolizing themes of mystery and intrigue.
Book cover of 'Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil' by V.E. Schwab, featuring stylized yellow text and a dark background with floral elements.
Book cover of 'Written in My Own Heart's Blood' by Diana Gabaldon, featuring a wax seal and bold red title on a light background.

By the time I get this post published I expect that I will have started The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst. This is an ARC from Net Galley, so I need to read and review this one soon. Probably next up will be Seveneves by Neal Stephenson because it is long (872 pages), and it is for a book club discussion mid-April. If I am making good progress on that one, then I’ll probably start either Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis (another book club choice) or The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. If my reading goes spectacularly well then maybe I’ll get to the last two on this list: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab and Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon (paid links).

I’m doing well with sticking to my new book acquisition rule. Since I read five books in January, that meant that I could pick up four new ones in February. My Fairy Loot subscription book went missing (but still may turn up). I had left a spot open for it on my list and then the other three books that I acquired were:

Cover of the book 'The Tainted Cup' by Robert Jackson Bennett, featuring floral and vine illustrations with a dark blue background and gold accents.
Book cover of 'Seveneves' by Neal Stephenson featuring an eye with a blue light and the text 'SEVENEVES' and 'A Novel'.
Book cover of 'Sea of Charms' by Sarah Beth Durst, featuring a colorful garden pathway leading to the ocean with a sailboat in the background.
  • The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
  • Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
  • Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst

The publisher (Bramble) was kind enough to approve an ARC of Sea of Charms for me. I enjoyed the first book in this series – The Spellshop – by Sarah Beth Durst, but haven’t reviewed it here yet so that will be one of the next reviews that I write (paid links).

Unfortunately my new book acquisition rule means that I can only pick up one new book in March. I’ll have to choose carefully!

January 2026 Reading Wrap Up

04 Feb 2026 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The beginning of January gave me pneumonia, so while I didn’t feel well and missed work, I DID have more time to read. The second half of the month left me busier though, so I didn’t quite meet my goal of finishing 6 books for the month. These are the books I finished in January:

Since it takes me so long to get to reviews lately, I thought I’d give you a preview of what I thought by listing how many stars I gave my recent reads. Here are my ratings for what I read in January with purchase links:

When I set my reading goals for 2025, I estimated that I could read 6 books a month (72 for the year). Of course, being unrealistic about my reading goals, I then put 9 books on my to-be-read list for January. Even with that, I feel like I did well with my reading, having started 2 additional books from that list, and leaving only 2 that I haven’t started yet.

I’m currently enjoying the trade paperback edition of The Will of the Many by James Islington. I’m about 200 pages into this one. Then my audiobook journey through the Outlander saga continues with #7 – An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon (paid links). I have 26 hours left of 46, putting me around 43% of the way through the book. If I add my progress for these two books up, I think that should count as a sixth book for January.

The two from my unrealistic list that I didn’t get to were Quicksilver by Callie Hart and Alchemised by SenLinYu (paid links). I still want to read these books, so I’ll have to figure out where to squeeze them in.

I’m going to limit my list for February to only 6 books, and half of them are under 400 pages, so maybe I’ll manage to read them all? Of course I have to finish those I’m currently reading too. Here are the books I’m planning to read in February:

  • A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge – 613 pages, e-book – This is a classic science fiction novel that I received from Net Galley quite a while ago. I’m slowly catching up on my review reading.
  • The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow – 320 pages, hardcover – I have read a ton of stellar reviews for this book and am very excited to start it.
  • Grievar’s Blood by Alexander Darwin – 13 hr, 31 min, audiobook – This is the second novel in a series I started a while ago that was a mashup of fantasy and MMA.
  • The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett – 410 pages, e-book – This novel won both the 2025 Hugo and World Fantasy Awards for Best Novel. It is a selection for an upcoming book club discussion.
  • Pilgrimage: The Book of the People by Zenna Henderson – 255 pages, paperback – This is a selection for an upcoming book club discussion and is a classic published in 1961.
  • The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst – 384 pages, e-book – This is a cozy fantasy novel by the author of The Spellshop and was given to me for review by Net Galley. It will be published on March 31.

I did really well in keeping with my new rule to only buy the number of books I read in the previous month minus one. In December I read 5 books, and then for January I only acquired 4 new ones:

  • Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
  • The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
  • Pilgrimage: The Book of the People by Zenna Henderson
  • Graceless Heart by Isabel Ibanez (Fairy Loot)

You can see that there is significant overlap in my recent reading and the books I needed to obtain. I might have requested a book on Net Galley, but it hasn’t been approved, so it doesn’t count yet!

Coming up later this month on this blog are reviews of Slow Gods by Claire North, Katabasis by R.F. Kuang, and Detour by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart.

What are you reading this week? Are there any new books that you’re looking forward to reading? Let me know in the comments.

Books to Read in 2026

10 Jan 2026 4 Comments

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Every year I feel like my Goodreads to-be-read list contains many of the same books as the previous year. I tend to roll over the ones that I didn’t get to, thus producing a constantly growing pile (mostly virtual, at least). For 2026, I mercilessly pruned that list to reach a (somewhat) reasonable number. I prioritized books that I already owned as well as some stand-alones and series that I’ve already started. I have included my book club picks for at least the beginning of the year.

I also try to set my Goodreads challenge to a number that is a stretch for me, since it IS a challenge, after all. For this year, I set that to 72 books. I reached that number by thinking about how many books I can read in a month. I’m planning to average one a week and two audiobooks a month – so that is 6 books a month, or 72 for the year.

To accompany that, I was able to narrow my Goodreads to-be-read shelf down to 83 books. I KNOW that’s more that the goal of 72 books, but since all of this is fluid throughout the year, it doesn’t matter all that much. You can see all of my current picks in the graphic below:

For series that are longer than trilogies, I’m continuing to read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, and hopefully getting back to the rest of the Dune books by Frank Herbert (paid links).

Some of these are continuations of series that I’ve already started. A few are NetGalley ARCs that I’ve already received, and others are books I’ve recently acquired. That brings me to a new rule I’m making for 2026 in an attempt to further prune my to-be-read list: I cannot acquire more books than I have read in the previous month minus one. So if I read six books in January I am not allowed to buy, borrow, request, or otherwise acquire more than five in February. Ideally it will be even fewer than that.

What books am I most excited about reading in 2026?

  • The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow – I have read several reviews of this book where readers compared it to the author’s earlier work, The Ten Thousand Doors of January. I loved that book and expect this new release to be spectacular. You can pick up a copy here (paid links).
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman – I was not aware of this series until the past few months, but people seem to love it. I already picked up a copy of the first book, and you can get one here (paid link).
  • Quicksilver by Callie Hart – This book was recommended to me by a couple of friends and they keep asking if I’ve read it yet. We usually like the same types of books, so I’m excited to start this one. You can get a copy here (paid link).
  • Alchemised by SenLinYu – I wasn’t aware of the phenomenon around this book until its release, but received a gorgeous copy through my FairyLoot subscription. This is a looooong book (1040 pages), but I often love the detail and intricate storylines in such a hefty novel. Pick up a copy here (paid link).
  • The Tapestry of Fate by Shannon Chakraborty – This is the sequel to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi which was one of my favorite reads of 2023. You can find a review of that book here. The new book is due out May 12, 2026 and I ordered the prettier UK edition (cover featured above) from Waterstones, which you can also find here.
  • Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkis Reid – This is more of a mainstream book, but the main character is an astronaut, thus my interest. It has also hit the bestseller lists and I’ve never read anything by this popular author, so I figured this is a good one to jump into. You can find a copy here (paid link).
  • A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab – This is the next book in the Shades of Magic series. I recently finished the first book – A Darker Shade of Magic – and named it one of my favorites for 2025. You can get a copy of the first book here and the second one here (paid links).

What books am I reading in January?

I started Slow Gods by Claire North and An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon both in the last few days of December. Slow Gods is a science fiction stand-alone that I received for review courtesy of NetGalley, and An Echo in the Bone is the next for me in the Outlander series and is an audiobook.

I’ve been home sick all week this week and needed to jump into something lighter, so I read Swordheart by T. Kingfisher already, finishing it yesterday. Both The Will of the Many by James Islington and Exit Strategy by Martha Wells are for upcoming book club discussions. Detour by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart is another NetGalley ARC which I need to get to since it releases in a few days.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is the collection of George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg stories, which I have never read. The upcoming HBO series of the same name starts on January 18, 2026. I purchased a copy of this at New York Comic-Con because GRRM was doing a free signing and this is one of the shortest books on my list of the month.

The last two books for January are ones off my “most excited to read” list above. Somehow I ended up with nine books on this list for the month after trying to set a goal of six per month. I don’t expect I’ll get through all of them, but I’ll let you all know next month!

What reading goals do you have for 2026? Do you plan out your reading ahead of time? Or do you just start whatever book grabs you in the moment? Let me know in the comments!

2025 Reading Year in Review

27 Dec 2025 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

It’s the final day of 2025, and that means it’s time to look back on this year’s reading. I didn’t do too badly, finishing 47 books this year. I never seem to quite be able to hit 50, and despite my competitive nature, I’m not going to try to read 3 books today to hit that mark.

I also wanted to end the year by thanking all of you who read this blog! My audience here has been slowly growing, and 2025 marked the best year yet since starting this blog in 2012, with over 5,000 visitors and 7,000 views. December has been the busiest month of 2025, so I’m hoping that momentum will carry over into the new year as I post my backlog of book reviews.

Say what you will about Amazon, but I do always enjoy the statistics that Goodreads puts together with their Year in Books. From that, I discovered that the shortest book I read was The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal at 33 pages, while the longest was The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon at 1,443 pages (paid links).

Goodreads also tells me that the average book length that I read was 413 pages. This is a little shorter than last year’s average of 481 pages, but I did read more this year than in 2024. You can find my 2024 Reading Year in Review post here.

Books read in previous years:

  • 2024 = 36
  • 2023 = 48
  • 2022 = 39
  • 2021 = 43
  • 2020 = 39
  • 2019 = 43

I also looked back at my Books to Read in 2025 post to see how my reading for the year compared to what I had said I planned to read. Spoiler – it never matches up very well. Of the unrealistic list of 94 books, I read 22 of those. The remaining 25 books I finished in 2025 were added as the year went on. This happens because I have book club picks that come up, new releases I hadn’t thought about, Net Galley review ARCs, and plenty of spur of the moment reading decisions.

Without further rambling, here is a graphic of all the books I read in 2025 (in reverse chronological order):

Here are some additional statistics about what I read in 2025:

  • Science fiction or fantasy genre = 42
  • Historical fiction = 3
  • Mainstream = 2
  • Romantasy = 11
  • Cozy fantasy = 3
  • Non-fiction = 1
  • Classics = 0
  • Audiobooks = 9
  • Graphic novels = 0
  • Part of a series = 24*
  • Stand-alones (or could be read as one) = 23
  • Completed reading of a series OR kept up with the series as each book was published = 8*

* I counted individual books here.

What were the BEST books I read in 2025?

Here are my top three:

Two of these were very recent reads and I don’t know if that has left them at the forefront of my mind when I made these picks or not. They’re each different genres, with two being stand-alones and one the first book in a series.

  • The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong – COZY FANTASY / review here / purchase link here
  • Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh – SCIENCE FICTION / review coming soon / purchase link here
  • A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab – FANTASY / review coming soon / purchase link here

It’s always so hard to pick my favorites, but here are all of my other 5 star reads from 2025 (in a random order):

  • The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence – FANTASY / review here / purchase link here
  • Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald – FANTASY / review here / purchase link here
  • Recursion by Blake Crouch – SCIENCE FICTION / review here / purchase link here
  • Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros – ROMANTASY / review here / purchase link here
  • Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead – HISTORICAL FICTION / review here / purchase link here
  • Grimm Curiosities by Sharon Lynn Fisher – ROMANTASY / review here / purchase link here
  • A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas – ROMANTASY / review coming soon / purchase link here
  • Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher – FANTASY / review coming soon / purchase link here
  • The Book That Broke the World by Mark Lawrence – FANTASY / review coming soon / purchase link here
  • Orbital by Samantha Harvey – MAINSTREAM / review coming soon / purchase link here
  • The Feeding by Anthony Ryan – HORROR / review here / purchase link here
  • The Nightshade God by Hannah Whitten – ROMANTASY / review here / purchase link here
  • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab – FANTASY / review here / purchase link here

That’s it for 2025! Coming up in my next post, I’ll be looking ahead at my reading plans for 2026.

What are your favorite books you read in 2025? Let me know in the comments!

February 2025 Reading Wrap Up

05 Mar 2025 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Another month has passed and it’s time to look back at what I’ve read before delving forward into more of my unrealistic reading goals! I didn’t complete as many books this month as I did in January, but I was also busier in general, leaving me less time to read.

These are the books I read in February:

House of Blight by Maxym M. Martineau was one I reviewed for Net Galley and you can find that review here. The rest of these are in my queue to still review, so you can look for those soon. Of the books I read in February, I think my favorite was The Teller of Small Fortunes, a cozy fantasy story by Julie Leong, even though I didn’t think I’d like it from the description. Knife Children is a novella by Lois McMaster Bujold (one of my favorite authors) and was from my backlog of Net Galley books, so I’ll be getting that review up soon too (paid links).

Here are the books I’m currently reading as March has begun:

I’m back to reading the Outlander series with the audiobook of The Fiery Cross, number five in the series. I started to read Sistersong by Lucy Holland a few days ago, but was struggling to get into it (probably no fault of the book – I was tired). In an attempt to find an easy read, I spontaneously grabbed the second book in Sarah J. Maas’s ACOTAR series, A Court of Mist and Fury (paid links). Of course, I’m now realizing that it is 600+ pages and while it may be an easy read, it isn’t going to be quick.

These are some of the books I had planned to read in February, but didn’t get to:

I’ll probably take The Space Between Worlds off my list for now. The second book in this series was selected for a book club, but I already missed the discussion. I’m trying not to start new series, so I’ll wait on this one. The Wheel of Time continues to haunt me and I’m planning to start book #7 – A Crown of Swords after I finish Sistersong and ACOMAF. I would love to read Inverse and Verdant Divided because they were written by some of my critique partners, but I’ll have to see how long it takes me to get through A Crown of Swords (paid links). I don’t think I’ll actually get to the sixth Outlander book in March because they are so long that it takes me a couple of months to finish one of the audiobooks.

Here is my unrealistic list of other books I’d like to read in March:

I listed these in order of priority for me. I’m hoping to read The Book That Broke the World so I’ll be ready to start the third book when it is released on April 8. I’ve been meaning to read something by T. Kingfisher for a while and I think that Nettle & Bone is a novella. Then I want to keep going on Ed McDonald’s Redwinter series while the first book is fresh in my mind (paid links). As for the rest – they are really just wishful thinking… at least for March.

How are your reading goals going for the year so far? Are there any books that you’ve found surprising? Let’s chat in the comments.

January 2025 Reading Wrap-Up

31 Jan 2025 2 Comments

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

While having the flu in January was unfortunate for many reasons, it did give me more down time to do a lot of reading. I finished 8 books for the month, and although they weren’t quite the ones I had initially planned to read, I still completed the number I had aimed for.

Most of the books that I read in January were physical copies (actually all but Daughter of Redwinter). I have too many books on my shelves that I haven’t read, so reading some of the beautiful hardcovers that I own was a goal for me. Here is what I completed in January:

One of my goals for the early part of 2025 was to catch up on a few book reviews for Net Galley. Daughter of Redwinter was one of these books, and this review will be posting the week after next. Ancillary Justice was a book that I’ve wanted to read for a while and was chosen for one of my book clubs. Unfortunately I couldn’t make the discussion, but I’ll have a review of that one up soon also. Recursion is the pick for the next meeting of this same book club and I’m excited to discuss this one in a few days (paid links).

Of course I had to pick up Onyx Storm when it was released, and as I’m writing this post, I have a couple hundred pages left to go in it (paid link). But I’m assuming I’ll finish it by the end of January. The Art of Tommie Soule is a niche book I had been slowly working through as I have been relearning how to paint fantasy miniatures. I had put it back on my shelf, but picked it up and finished it this week.

I am also in the middle of two audiobooks, but did not finish either one in January.

I have less than ten hours to go in Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead. I had taken a break from the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon to listen to some other books. Each one is so long, but I have been making steady progress on these. I will resume book #5 – The Fiery Cross as soon as I finish Great Circle (paid links).

Other books that had been on my list for January that I didn’t get to were House of Blight by Maxym M. Martineau (an advance copy for Net Galley) and The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong (paid links). These will be the first ones I read in early February.

Looking ahead here are the other books that I have in my queue for February:

I plan to resume my read-through of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series. Book #7 (A Crown of Swords) is next. I have one more Net Galley book to review (Knife Children) that is short, and then a few stand-alones planned. Two of the books for the month are ones written by a couple of my writing critique partners (Inverse by Margot Conor and Verdant Divided by Doc Honour), and I’m excited to see the results of all their hard work. Lastly, The Space Between Worlds is for an upcoming book club discussion of the second book in this series (paid links).

Here’s hoping to a lot of time to read (but without the flu) for February!

What books are you looking forward to for the next month? Let me know in the comments.

Books to Read in 2025

17 Jan 2025 4 Comments

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Each year, I take the books that I didn’t have time to read and roll them over onto my to-be-read list for the next year. This results in a constantly growing list of books for each successive year, so some judicious trimming is always needed. I also set myself a number of books to read for the year and note that in my Goodreads Challenge.

For 2025, I had to pare down my initial list of books to read (no surprise, there). I decided to aim to read two books a week which is eight a month, multiplied out for the year equals 96 books. While I might be able to maintain that pace for one month, I know that it isn’t a realistic goal for the year. Several factors contribute to my reading speed, mainly the length of some of the fantasy books that I like. I try to space these epics out, but when I’m trying to finish something like The Wheel of Time series, I have to keep going back to these long works frequently.

After cutting several dozen out, here is my current list of 94 books I plan to read in 2025:

I know that this list will change as the year goes on. I was able to account for some upcoming releases I’m already aware of, and some book club picks, but I can’t know all of those yet. I intentionally cut out new series as much as I could manage, trying instead to focus on reading those I’ve already started.

Looking back at this same post from 2024, I had 113 books on that list and read 24 of those (and 36 books total), so I generally stick with my initial to-be-read list for 2/3 of what I read throughout the year.

I want to make sure I read a couple of “classics” this year, so I’ve included Frankenstein and The Lord of the Flies. My graphic also fails to include a few books that I already finished this year pictured below:

How do you choose which books you’re going to read? What books are you most excited about reading in 2024? Let me know in the comments (above)!

2024 Reading Year in Review

14 Jan 2025 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I’m a bit late with this post, but I still wanted to write up my annual look back at what I read for the year. First off, here is a nice graphic from Goodreads to summarize:

A few other stats that Goodreads provided were that the shortest book I read was The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente at 155 pages, while the longest was Lord of Chaos (The Wheel of Time #6) by Robert Jordan at 1,011 pages.

The average book length that I read was 481 pages, although I think this is not a terribly accurate statistic, because I don’t always put the correct edition of what I’ve read into Goodreads.

My total number of books read in 2024 is down a little compared to recent years as you can see below:

  • 2023 = 48
  • 2022 = 39
  • 2021 = 43
  • 2020 = 39
  • 2019 = 43

So what did I read in 2024? Here is a graphic of all 36 books (not quite in reverse chronological order that I read them):

Here are a few more interesting statistics about what I read in 2024:

  • Science fiction or fantasy genre = 28
  • Historical fiction = 4
  • Mainstream = 2
  • Genre fiction with some romance = 14
  • Non-fiction = 2
  • Classics = none
  • Audiobooks = 6
  • Graphic novels = 1
  • Part of a series = 25*
  • Stand-alones (or could be read as one) = 13
  • Completed reading of a series OR kept up with the series as each book was published = 5*

* I counted individual books here.

I’m counting The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo as fantasy and NOT historical fiction, because magic is a significant component of the story. The Outlander series fills out the historical fiction because although these books contain time travel, the plot mostly concerns other aspects.

I made a note that some of these books contained an element of romance, but none were pure romance novels. I often make an effort to read something considered a classic, but I think that the closest I came in 2024 was God Emperor of Dune, and that only fits under classic science fiction by its proximity to the original Dune novel.

What were the BEST books I read in 2024? Here are my top three:

You can find my reviews of each of these, as well as (paid) links if you want to pick up your own copy:

  • Yellowface by R.F. Kuang: review here, link to purchase here
  • The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune: review here, link to purchase here
  • Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros: review here, link to purchase here

Some of my other favorites from the year are below, also with links where applicable:

  • Starter Villain by John Scalzi: review here, link to purchase here
  • Outlander (series) by Diana Gabaldon: reviews (Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn), link to purchase (series) here
  • Starling House by Alix E. Harrow: review here, link to purchase here
  • The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten: review here, link to purchase here
  • The Core by Peter V. Brett: review here, link to purchase (series) here
  • Dawn by Octavia E. Butler: review coming soon, link to purchase here
  • Ever the Night Road by Michael Breen: review here, link to purchase here

Up next will be my look ahead at my reading for 2025: too many books, unrealistic goals, starting more series than I can finish, and much more!

If you are on Instagram, remember to take a look at my bookstagram account there and follow me: @ihazabookproblem

November/December 2024 Reading Wrap Up

22 Dec 2024 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

December isn’t quite over yet, but I want to leave some time to get an end-of-the-year post done. I also never got around to a November reading post, so I’m combining both months in this post for today. As with my other posts, the paid links here go to support this blog, so please click on any you’re interested in.

I’m continuing to be more distracted than I would like and have been taking longer than usual to finish what I’m reading. My Goodreads Challenge tells me that I could still make by 2024 goal if I would just read 5 books a DAY, LOL.

Books I Finished: The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera, The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart, Dawn by Octavia Butler (audiobook) (paid links). I’m still working on reviews for these – the internet ate the one I had nearly finished for The Gods Below, and I was so disheartened by that that I have yet to rewrite it.

Books I’m Still Reading But Should Finish This Month: The Boys Vol. 1 Omnibus, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence, The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness (audiobook) (paid links). I should finish The Boys today and I’m really enjoying The Book That Wouldn’t Burn. The Black Bird Oracle is a disappointment and I’ve been strugging to get through the last few hours of the audiobook.

Books I’m Reading But Won’t Finish This Month: The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon (audiobook), Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald. I took a break in my Outlander listening to get through a couple of other books. I have one more I want to read before I pick The Fiery Cross back up. I hadn’t intended to read Daughter of Redwinter until the new year, but I was stuck out of the house without a book! This was one that I received courtesy of NetGalley some time ago, the e-book was already in my Kindle app, and I had planned to start it in a few weeks anyway.

Next Up: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy (paid links). I think I’m supposed to have Ancillary Justice read by next week for a book club, so I should start that one soon! Great Circle is NOT science fiction or fantasy and is that other audiobook that I’m planning to listen to before I get back to the Outlander series. Sorcery and Small Magics looks like a lighter read than the books I’ve been consuming lately, so I’m looking forward to that.

New Books:

Oh boy – I received an email from the Science Fiction Book Club several weeks ago that made it sound like they were going to be out of business in the coming months. I had 2 credits sitting on my account and went shopping, only to find several other books also at steep discounts. Here are the ones I picked up:

I also had a few books arrive from subscription box services:

I used a couple of Audible credits to pick up Columbus Day, book #1 of the Expeditionary Force series on my brother’s recommendations. I enjoyed Alexander Darwin’s first book, The Combat Codes (review here), and want to continue the series. I usually try to stick with the same format, but I have too many books and this was available in audio, so I’ll switch it up for book #2 – Grievar’s Blood (paid links).

A Look at January: I’m starting to put together my reading plans for 2025, and like always, it’s chaos, with way too many books that I want to read, new releases, books I said I’d review, book club picks, and spur of the moment reads that sow disorder throughout my year.

I decided that for January, I’d try to focus on a few NetGalley reviews that have sat for too long. This is why Daughter of Redwinter was on my radar. I also have Knife Children by one of my favorite authors, Lois McMaster Bujold on that same list. I don’t know why I haven’t read this yet since I love all her books and already read the core series on which this story is based. House of Blight by Maxym M. Martineau isn’t out until April and is another NetGalley pick, but one I only recently received. I’ve read one of her earlier books, Kingdom of Exiles and you can find that review here (paid links).

I’m also anticipating the January 21 release of Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros, the third and final book in her ridiculously popular Empyrean series. You still have a little time to catch up with the earlier books, Fourth Wing (review here) and Iron Flame (review here) (paid links).

If I have any time left in January, I’m also going to try to read The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong and Perfectly Wicked by Lindsay Lovice, which I already mentioned earlier in this post (paid links).

Now it’s time for me to get back to reading!

May 2024 Reading Wrap Up

05 Jun 2024 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

May was not a great reading month for me. I had a lot of other things going on, as well as some travel. You’d think that I’d have more time to read while traveling, but it doesn’t always work out that way. I lose focus while reading on a plane and then at my destination, I’m often too tired to stay up reading. And while I bring my headphones, I find that I never put on my audiobook in these situations.

The month of May didn’t quite go according to plan. I only finished one book, The Fires of Heaven (Book 5 in The Wheel of Time) by Robert Jordan. I’ll have a review of this one up soon (paid links).

I read two short stories for one of my book clubs. We have pivoted to a short story format for a few months to see if we can get more people attending the discussions. These are the two stories that we recently read, and you can find them for free at these links:

I’m still listening to the audiobook of Voyager (Outlander #3) by Diana Gabaldon, and I should finish this in the next two weeks (14 hours to go). I also started to read Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros, the second book in the Empyrean series. You can find my review of the first book, Fourth Wing, here. Since I was traveling and had my Kindle with me, I started on the 6th Wheel of Time book immediately after finishing the 5th with Lord of Chaos (paid links).

For June, here are some of the books that I’m planning to read after I finish the ones above.

Let’s see how much I can read as the summer starts!

What are you planning to read next? Let me know in the comments (above).

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