Deedledee reads in the 50th year

Hi folks,

I'm Dee, a librarian in rural Nova Scotia turning 50!!! this year. I live with two evil cats in a house that looks like it might be a craft store.

This year I'm only going to set one reading goal to complete the Booklist Queen's 2024 Reading Challenge.

You can also follow more of my reading at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mytwofavouritelibrarians

The Booklist Queen Reading Challenge 2024
*1. You Meant to Read Last Year - House of Ash and Bone by Joel A. Sutherland (May 4)
*2. Goodreads Winner in 2023 - The Woman in Me by Britney Spears (May 9)
*3. About Mental Health - The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer (July 6)
*4. Five-Star Read - Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (May 20)
*5. An Audiobook - Bad Cree by Jessica Johns (Mar 15)
*6. Set in the 1950s - The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams (Aug 16)
*7. Unreliable Narrator - Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham (Apr 4)
*8. Book Becoming Movie in 2024 - Black Flies by Shannon Burke (May 18)
*9. With an Epilogue - Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone (Jan 18)
*10. About Starting Over - The Hunger by Alma Katsu (Jan 21)
*11. Author You Love - Withered + Sere by TJ Klune (Aug 1)
*12. Flowers on the Cover - Princess Princess Ever After by Katie O'Neill (Feb 8)
*13. Title Starts with “B” - Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey (Jan 11)
*14. Published in 2014 - Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix (Apr 6)
*15. Purple Cover - Martin Peters by Patrick Allaby (Jun 19)
*16. Historical Mystery - Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (Aug 14)
*17. With Multiple Points of View - The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes (Jan 1)
*18. A Book You Couldn’t Put Down - VenCo by Cherie Dimaline (Jun 25)
*19. One Word Title - Beloved by Toni Morrison (Feb 14)
*20. Debut Author - The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters (Feb 17)
*21. 2023 Bestseller - Nineteen Steps by Millie Bobby Brown with Kathleen McGurl (June 30)
*22. Intriguing Premise - Annie Bot by Sierra Greer (July 7)
*23. A Friend’s Favorite Book - Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver (Aug 5)
*24. Author from the Southern Hemisphere - Homecoming by Kate Morton (Apr 20)
*25. About Secrets - The Future by Catherine Leroux (May 1)
*26. Bottom of Your To-Read List - Having Faith in the Polar Girls' Prison by Cathleen With (Oct 19)
*27. Your Favorite Genre - Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay (July 13)
*28. Character Who is an Actor - Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (Mar 19)
*29. Recommended on a Podcast - The Charmed Wife by Olga Grushin (Mar 12)
*30. Set in Paris - Adèle by Leila Slimani (Jan 2)
*31. Ugly Cover - The Sound of Settling by Tara Dublin (Mar 23)
*32. Set in a Small Town - Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King (Jan 14)
*33. Three Books by the Same Author (1) - Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (June 30)
*34. Three Books by the Same Author (2) - Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (July 24)
*35. Three Books by the Same Author (3) - Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire (Aug 12)
*36. A Quick Read - Francine Poulet Meets the Ghost Raccoon by Kate DiCamillo (Feb 17)
*37. Set During Autumn - The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager (Aug 17)
*38. Classic by a Female Author - Passing by Nella Larsen (Jan 20)
*39. Memoir by a Person You Admire -In the Form of a Question: the Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life by Amy Schneider (Aug 8)
*40. About a Historical Event - The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez (May 28)
*41. Written Under a Pseudonym - The Only One Left by Riley Sager (May 4)
*42. Legal Thriller - Confessions of an Innocent Man by David R. Dow (June 11)
*43. Fantasy Book - Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor (Mar 14)
*44. Popular Book You’ve Never Read - Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins (May 14)
*45. Inspiring Nonfiction - Pantsdrunk by Miska Rantanen (Aug 22)
*46. 2024 New Release - Come & Get It by Kiley Reid (Apr 26)
*47. Genre You Don’t Usually Read - Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James (Jan 20)
*48. You Own But Haven’t Read - Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield (Jan 26)
*49. Book About Books - Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (Feb 12)
*50. Book Everyone Is Talking About -Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune (Mar 3)
*51. With a Place in the Title - Trails of Halifax Regional Municipality by Michael Haynes (Feb 18)
*52. Reread a Favorite - My Secret compiled by Frank Warren (Aug 6)

FINISHED!

January
1. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes (read by Joshua Boone, Dani Cervone, Peter Ganim, Dan Green, Jenna Hellmuth, Khristine Hvam - Libby)
2. Adèle by Leila Slimani
3. Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey (read by Peter Ganim - hoopla)
4. Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King, illustrated by Bernie Wrightson
5. Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone (read by January Lavoy - CD)
6. Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James (ebook - hoopla)
7. Passing by Nella Larsen
8. The Hunger by Alma Katsu
9. Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield
February
10. Princess Princess Ever After by Katie O'Neill (JGN)
11. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (read by Helen Laser - hoopla)
12. Beloved by Toni Morrison (read by Toni Morrison - CD)
13. The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
14. Francine Poulet Meets the Ghost Raccoon by Kate DiCamillo
15. Trails of Halifax Regional Municipality by Michael Haynes
March
16. Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune
17. The Charmed Wife by Olga Grushin
18. Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor (read by Steve West - CD)
19. Bad Cree by Jessica Johns (read by Tanis Parenteau - hoopla)
20. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (ebook - hoopla)
21. The Sound of Settling: A Rock & Roll Love Story by Tara Dublin
April
22. Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham (read by Karissa Vacker - CD)
23. Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix (read by Tai Sammons & Bronson Pinchot - hoopla)
24. Homecoming by Kate Morton
25. Come & Get It by Kiley Reid (read by Nicole Lewis - CD)
May
26. The Future by Catherine Leroux translated by Susan Ouriou (read by Karie Richards - hoopla)
27. The Only One Left by Riley Sager
28. House of Ash and Bone by Joel A. Sutherland
29. The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
30. Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins
31. Black Flies by Shannon Burke
32. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
33. The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez (read by Robin Miles - CD)
June
34. The Orenda by Joseph Boyden (read by Ali Ahn, Edoardo Ballerini, Graham Rowat - hoopla)
35. The Guest by B.A. Paris (read by Emily Joyce - CD)
36. Confessions of an Innocent Man by David R. Dow
37. Shut Up You're Pretty by Téa Mutonji
38. Martin Peters by Patrick Allaby (AGN)
39. VenCo by Cherie Dimaline
40. Nineteen Steps by Millie Bobby Brown with Kathleen McGurl
41. Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
July
42. Denison Avenue by Christina Wong, illustrated by Daniel Innes
43. The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer (read by Jennifer Pickens - Libby)
44. Annie Bot by Sierra Greer (read by Jennifer Araya - CD)
45. Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
46. Unicorn vs. Goblins: Phoebe and Her Unicorn #3 by Dana Simpson
47. Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner (read by Laura Kirman - CD)
48. Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
49. Waco: A Survivor's Story by David Thibodeau and Leon Whiteson (read by Robert Fass - hoopla)
August
50. Withered + Sere by TJ Klune
51. The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne
52. Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
53. My Secret compiled by Frank Warren
54. In the Form of a Question: the Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life by Amy Schneider
55. Home for Erring and Outcast Girls by Julie Kibler (read by Karissa Vacker - CD)
56. Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire
57. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
58. Death & Other Inconveniences by Lesley Crewe
59. The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
60. The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
61. Pantsdrunk (Kalsarikanni): The Finnish Path to Relaxation by Miska Rantanen (read by Richardson Ann - hoopla)
September
62. Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
63. Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History by Alex von Tunzelmann (read by Kristen Atherton - hoopla)
64. Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making History by Philipa Gregory (read by Philipa Gregory - CD)
65. The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
66. The Only Survivors by Megan Miranda (read by Alexandra Allwine, Andre Bellido, Inés del Castillo, Michael Crouch, and Erin Moon - Libby)
67. End of Story by AJ Finn (read by Helen Laser - CD)
October
68. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes
69. Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold
70. Having Faith in the Polar Girls' Prison by Cathleen With
November
71. You Like it Darker by Stephen King (read by Will Patton and Stephen King - CD)
72. You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters by Kate Murphy (read by Kate Murphy - Libby)
73. Natasha And Other Stories by David Bezmozgis
74. Scaredy Squirrel: Scared Silly by Melanie Watt
75. Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls (read by Jeannette Walls - CD)
December
76. The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman
77. All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson
78. The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen Flynn
79. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
80. Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell (read by Rebecca Lowman - CD)
81. Scaredy Squirrel: Gets Festive by Mélanie Watt
82. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson (read by Juliet Stevenson - CD)

Book 1
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
A super creepy thriller in which a serial killer travels through time via a house in Chicago. In this house he finds the names of women he must kill.
I know it sounds odd but it is very atmospheric and dark.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: With Multiple Points of View

Hiyah, Dee! Glad you made it over to the new group!

>1 Deedledee: Greetings, Dee, and a very happy holiday season. I'm Richard, and my fist visit is occasioned by your thread title: I thought reading in the 50th year was a reference to how long you'd been in the group.

My excuse is that I haven't had any coffee yet today.

Happy half-century from fourteen years up the road.

Just a youngun'! Good luck with your 2024 reading.

Happy New Year, Dee. I hope 2024 is a good year for you. I look forward to following your reading.

Happy reading in 2024, Dee!

Book 2.
Adèle by Leila Slimani
Although it's a short novel it took me over a month to finish. Everyone in this book is reprehensible.
Adele is a 35 year old woman, married to a surgeon with a small child, and working at a newspaper in Paris. But she has a dark secret. She feels compelled to have sex. Sometimes it's a tryst with a coworker, sometimes a stranger she has just met. She hides this from her husband with lies, living a double life.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Set in Paris

Book 3
Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey
In the deep edges of space a veteran with PTSD operates a beacon (a lighthouse of sorts) to ensure space ships don't hit debris. This unnamed protagonist completely alone out there, per his wishes, because of his severe psychological trauma.
It sounds dark, and does have some dark parts, but you see him slowly heal. And the level of sarcasm does help.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Title Starts with “B”

Book 4
Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King, illustrated by Bernie Wrightson
Going though the year, this novella focuses on the full moon each month when the werewolf came to take a victim.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Set in a Small Town

Book 5
Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone

Ariel wakes up in a Portugal hotel room alone. Her new husband John is nowhere to be found. Although it's still early she knows that something is wrong. She starts by talking to hotel security, then the local police and the US Embassy.
No one takes her concerns seriously at first but then the ransom demand comes.
In the investigation Ariel is asked questions she has a hard time answering — Why is John here in Portugal? Why did she come with him? Which clients is he meeting with? They've known each other for less than a year and there is lots she doesn't know about him.
While the book had a lot of twists and turns and an ending I wasn't expecting, it just felt overly long. I think it could have been more impactful with less length.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: With an Epilogue

Book 6
Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James
Why oh why did I do this to myself?
Last month my friend and I did a buddy read of Twilight after watching a very amusing review by Dominic Noble.
Then another friend suggested we should read Fifty Shades together. And I agreed. Even though I know this is the only book I've ever punched.
Somehow it wasn't as terrible this time around, likely because I knew others were suffering through it with me and we were complaining to each other about the book.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Genre You Don’t Usually Read

Book 7
Passing by Nella Larsen
Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry were childhood friends but haven't seen each other in over 12 years, when a chance encounter brings them back into each other's lives.
Irene lives in Harlem, part of the affluent black community, with her husband and two boys. She is very light skinned and can "pass". Clare, meanwhile, has been "passing" for years. She's married to a very rich, racist man, who does not realize that she is black.
Set in the 1920s during the height of the Harlem Renaissance and when strict racial segregation was enforced, this short novel explores what it is to fit in with a community and race relations.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Classic by a Female Author

Book 8
The Hunger by Alma Katsu
We've all heard about the tragedy of the Donner Party and how their trip to California to seek their fortune ended with more than half of the group's death. The Donner party, made up of many families, has nothing but misfortune on the way. There is a drought, a shortage of food, and in the midst of this they take a path that is supposed to be a "shortcut". Winter hits them hard and they are trapped in the mountains.
In this novel, Katsu explores a different reason for the deaths of so many. It is that there was a type of monster hunting them, something like a wendigo. These monsters are hungry for human flesh.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: About Starting Over

Book 9
Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield
I bought this from the library book sale last summer and it's been sitting on my shelf languishing since then.
I finished this book yesterday and I'm still not sure what I think about it.
We follow William Bellman from the age of 10. He is out playing with his friends and hits and kills a rook with his catapult. This childish act will cast a shadow over his whole life. As a young man, William seems to have everything he could want, he is handsome, charming and, a hit with the ladies. When his uncle decides to take him under his wing he becomes very successful at the family mill. Later when tragedy strikes, he throws himself even more strongly into work, until it is all that he does and is.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: You Own But Haven’t Read

Book 10
Princess Princess Ever After by Katie O'Neill
I'm reading some challenged books in advance of Freedom to Read week (https://www.freedomtoread.ca). This book was challenged at a Canadian public library in 2022 because the complainant felt it was too advanced for 5-year-old and shouldn't expose children to same-sex relationships between women.
Sadie is trapped in a tower by her evil sister. She's rescued by the Princess Amira. They go on an adventure. In the end, the two princess get married (there's stuff in the middle but I'm not going to ruin it). It's very cute. And chaste.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Flowers on the Cover

Book 11
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
June Hayward's writing career is going nowhere. She's published one book that didn't do very well and she's working tutoring kids on the SAT. While her friend Athena Liu is doing really well. She's had a huge cross-over literary hit. One of her novel's has been optioned by Netflix. She's big and only getting bigger.
When June and Athena (mostly Athena) are celebrating tragedy strikes and Athena dies. June does what any distraught friend would do - she steals the unfinished work of her friend whose dead body is being carried away by paramedics. Then she makes major edits to the work and publishes it as her own.
What follows is an insane story of her defending herself from stealing the work, an insider view of the publishing industry, and cancel culture.
Every character in this book was loathsome. They were all just absolutely terrible. But June Hayward, or she becomes known, Juniper Song, is the worst. Being inside her thoughts is awful. Toward the end of the book I was yelling at her.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Book About Books

Book 12
Beloved by Toni Morrison
I last read this book back in university and I'm glad I revisited it. This powerful book examines the psychological impacts of slavery.
The main story of the novel is Sethe's murder of her baby. She did this because a slave catcher has come to bring her and her children back to "Sweet Home", Kentucky. Sethe won't go back but she especially won't let her children be taken to that life.
Later, the house that Sethe lives in is haunted by the ghost of her dead child. When a girl shows up the question is, is she the embodiment of the baby ghost?

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: One Word Title

Book 13
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

Joe has spent his life dealing with the disappearance of his little sister. She went missing when she was 4 and their family was in Maine to pick berries as they did every year. Joe was only 6 but he felt responsible for Ruthie's disappearance.
Norma has been plagued by dreams of a family that was not hers. Dreams her overprotective mother told her to forget. When she discovers very late in life that she was kidnapped as a child she tries to find her biological family.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Debut Author

Book 14
Francine Poulet Meets the Ghost Raccoon by Kate DiCamillo
I'm reading some challenged books in advance of Freedom to Read week (https://www.freedomtoread.ca). This book was challenged at a Canadian public library in 2022 because of ableist language - specifically the use of the term "nut job".
Francine Poulet comes from a long line of Animal Control Officers. She is fearless and unflappable. She's won 47 awards. When Mrs. Bissinger calls her to catch a ghostly raccoon haunting her roof, Francine has no doubts that she can do it. But this raccoon is different. This raccoon actually scares her. Will Francine be able to recover her self-confidence and catch the raccoon?

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: A Quick Read

Book 15
Trails of Halifax Regional Municipality by Michael Haynes
Love this overview of trails in Halifax. I've walked some of these and plan to try a few new ones out.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: With a Place in the Title

Book 16.
Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune
This is not what I was expecting from a Canada Reads book, it was a pretty straightforward contemporary romance.
Fern meets Will and they spend one perfect day in Toronto. Both are young and trying to figure out what to do with their lives. They make a pact to meet in a year .... and Will doesn't show up. Fast forward 10 years and Fern grieving the loss of her mother runs into Will again. This time as a consultant trying to turn around her mom's resort business.
Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Book Everyone Is Talking About

Book 17
The Charmed Wife by Olga Grushin
This is not your regular fairytale re-telling. We start with Cinderella 13 years and two children into her marriage with Prince Charming (aka Roland). She's quite unhappy. The prince turns out to have a wandering eye. Living in the castle is not all that she thought it would be.
But as we move along in the story we find out that Cinderella isn't who we think she is, she's not really a fairytale princess.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Recommended on a Podcast

Book 18
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
Lazlo Strange grows up as an orphan in a monastery and then becomes a lowly librarian. He's obsessed with a lost and mythical city that one of the monk's told him stories about as a child, and has searched the library to find any mention of it.
When a delegation shows up from the mythical city asking for help, Lazlo jumps at the chance to finally go and see it.
But all is not well, the city has lost its name and is now known as Weep. There is a strange citadel stationed over top of it. And the people have been traumatized.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Fantasy Book

Book 19
Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
One of the contenders for this year's Canada Reads, Bad Cree is the story of Mackenzie and her family as they battle something evil.
Mackenzie has been living in Vancouver for a few years and hasn't gone back to visit her family, not even after the death of her older sister. She's been trying to avoid her grief after the death of her Kokum. But then she starts having some very strange dreams and realizes that the only way to make them stop is to go to her family.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: An Audiobook

Book 20
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett is just amazing. This book is another fantastic story.
Lara's daughters, all young women, return home to the cherry orchard in Michigan in the Spring of 2020. The world is at a standstill and they have paused in their various lives.
While they help their parents with the cherry harvest they ask their mom about her time in summer stock at Tom Lake and her relationship with a man who later on became a famous actor.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Character Who is an Actor

Book 21.
The Sound of Settling: A Rock & Roll Love Story by Tara Dublin

This is 1000% Foo Fighters fan fiction and initially I wasn't mad about that. I read the first half of the book in one day, but the second half... that took a week. Also, the font is TERRIBLE.
Lila is a huge fan of Case Closed. She's very active on their fan forum, mainly because her real life is terrible. When she wins a contest to see Case Closed at a small bar in LA she can't wait to go. She doesn't know what's waiting for her and how much her life is about to change.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Ugly Cover

>28 Deedledee: I am a big Patchett fan, and NEED to get to this book!

Book 22
Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham
Margot went through her first year in university in a daze. She lost her best friend in the summer after high school. But then Lucy comes into her life. Lucy is charismatic and pulls Margot into her orbit.
Lucy, Margot, Sloane, and Nicole move into an off campus house right next to a fraternity. They become friends with their neighbours. When Lucy disappears and one of the fraternity members turns up dead attention turns to Margot.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Unreliable Narrator

Book 23
Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
The premise - an IKEA knock-off store named Orsk is built on the haunted grounds of a former prison. Orsk employees have noticed problems since the store opened that are only increasing. Basil, a floor manager, asks two staff to stay with him on an all night vigil to catch the supposed intruders who are doing the damage. And all of them get way more than they bargained for.
Be prepared for some gross out horror.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Published in 2014

Book 24
Homecoming by Kate Morton
I guessed some of the twist ending but not everything.
A thriller that moves between 2018 Sydney and 1959 Adelaide Hills.
Jess Turner-Bridges is a journalist living in London, is suddenly called home to Sydney because her beloved aging grandmother Nora has taken a fall and is in hospital.
While Jess is trying to figure out why her grandmother would have been climbing up into the attic, she finds a book about the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve 1959. Part of her family history that she had never been told about.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Author from the Southern Hemisphere

Book 25.
Come & Get It by Kiley Reid
It is clear that each of the characters in this novel are about to make terrible decisions. As the reader, you can see the problems coming but the characters are oblivious.
It's 2017 and Millie is back at the University of Arkansas to finish her senior year. She's taken a bit of time off and so is a bit older than the other students around her. Working as a Residence Assistant, she has a floor of young women to take care of in addition to her classes. Then she meets Agatha Paul.
Agatha is a professor at the U of A for a one year teaching and researching position. She's a successful academic and author. In the course of her research she meets Millie and becomes entangled in her life and in the lives of the students that live around her.
A very character driven story about money, privilege, power, and race.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: 2024 New Release

Book 26.
The Future by Catherine Leroux (translated by Susan Ouriou)

Winner of this year’s Canada Reads.

Set in a sort of alternate timeline Detroit, in which the city remained part of Canada. But it’s also a dystopian hellscape where racism, substance use disorders, and social class keep people down.
Gloria shows up to find her granddaughters after learning of her daughter’s death. What she finds is a tightknit community of primarily older adults who have tried to keep the neighbourhood together despite the city and the police giving up.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: About Secrets

Book 27.
The Only One Left by Riley Sager
Lots of twists and turns - in the end, too many to be believed.

Kit McDeere is desperate for work. She's been suspended for 6 months while under investigation as one of her caregiving clients has died of an overdose and there is thought that she administered it. While she's been cleared there is still a lot of suspicion in the community.

The agency gives her an assignment that no one else wants, to care for 71 year old, Lenora Hope, who in 1929, was accused of killing both her parents and her sister in their palatial cliffside home. Lenora is partially paralyzed and non-verbal.

The last caregiver left in the middle of the night telling no one and leaving all of her personal possessions behind. What happened to her? Is there something ominous in the house?

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Written Under a Pseudonym

Book 28.
House of Ash and Bone by Joel A. Sutherland

I had high hopes for this book but in the end it just didn't appeal to me.

Josephine and her family are going to stay for a few days at a house they inherited from a great-aunt that none of them knew. The house is gigantic and isolated and just happens to be filled with all the things the people in the family love the best, books, musical instruments, art supplies, etc. (Just an aside here but the Mom seems to only love her family and have nothing for herself).
However, Josephine has a psychic gift that the others don't know about and is able to see the evil presence in the house. Can she save her family before it is too late?

The pacing was really slow with this novel until the last 50 or so pages. The majority of the sisters felt superfluous. Some of the plot points really didn't make sense. Overall pretty uneven.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: You Meant to Read Last Year

Book 29.
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
This memoir made me sad. Like many childhood celebrities, Spears became a commodity to her family. Her hard work bought them houses, and cars, and all manner of luxuries, meanwhile she had no say over her life.
The thing that resonated with me the most was her statement that if she was so mentally ill and incapable, then why was she still doing hundreds of concerts a year and other appearances. You would think if you were really worried about your child's wellness you would put in effort to make her better, not make you richer.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Goodreads Winner in 2023

Book 30.
Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins
My friend and I have a local radio show where we talk books. You can find old episodes here, if you're interested: https://www.cumberlandpubliclibraries.ca/my-two-favourite-librarians-2/

We got on the subject of Hollywood Wives, which neither of us had read, and so decided to do a buddy read. Wow, this was some kind of book!

First of all, the cast of characters is huge. Sometimes a character's name would come up and I'd need to really think about who they were.

I read this in paperback so can't do a word search on tits, but that word must appear at least 500 times. It's insane. It's like it was the only word that Collins knew for breasts.

This book is all sex and gossip.

Anyway, we're going to discuss this on the radio in June, so that'll be fun. Oh, and we're going to watch the 1985 miniseries.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Popular Book You’ve Never Read

Book 31.
Black Flies by Shannon Burke
Ollie Cross didn't score high enough on the MCAT to get into medical school, so decides to become a paramedic to get some experience and try again. He chooses to start in Harlem. In the mid-1990s Harlem was very rough, with rampant drug problems, no investment in infrastructure, and terrible crime.
Ollie is partnered with a medic with 18 years experience who was also a veteran. This dude is hard as nails.
It reads sort of like a diary of a medic's first year on the job. Despite it's being fiction, I assume a lot of it came from the author's own life.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Book Becoming Movie in 2024

Book 32.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
I started reading this electronically but had to switch to an actual book. Books I read digitally are for dipping into a minute at a time, like when I'm waiting in line. This book needs to have your whole attention.
Damon aka Demon grows up in the heart of coal mining Virginia. He has some hard knocks, his mother struggles with addiction issues, his father died before his birth, and he has no other family. He lives next door to the Peggot family and they become like family to him.
Set in the opioid addiction crisis, we see the path that many of the characters are headed for. Can Demon save himself and the others around him.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Five-Star Read

Great reading! I loved Tom Lake and Demon Copperhead. Some of the others are on my WL.

Book 33.
The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez
To be frank, I don't know much about the Panama Canal or it's construction. But that's the beauty of historical fiction, you can learn a little bit while in enjoying a story.

Henriquez doesn't so much write about the building of the canal as much as provide stories about characters connected to its building. There's Omar, a young Panamanian man who is working on the canal, much to his father's dismay. Ada, a stowaway from Barbados who goes to Panama to earn money for a surgery her sister needs to live. John and Marian Oswald, an American couple who find tragedy. And Valentina, a woman who is determined to fight for her town.
Some of these characters interact and some don't but all show the primary divide is in race and wealth.
An interesting read but I would have preferred if she had focused more on fewer characters.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: About a Historical Event

Book 34.
The Orenda by Joseph Boyden
I'm reading this series in the complete wrong order. I started with the second book Through Black Spruce, then moved on to this one, the third installment.
Taking place in the early 1600s, this novel mainly focuses on Bird, a Wendat warrior, Christophe, a French missionary, and Snow Falls, a Haudenosaunee girl whose family is killed by Bird and then later adopted by him.
Starting when Bird kills Snow Falls family and takes Christophe with him to his village. Over the proceeding years, we see Snow Falls become part of the Wendat and Christophe learn the language and the ways of the Huron people (although he still refers to them as Sauvage).

Book 35.
The Guest by B.A. Paris
WTH was that ending??? I can't describe it at all because it would ruin the story for others but ....
Suddenly Iris and Gabriel suddenly have a lot occurring in their lives. Gabriel finds a young man who has had a terrible accident and hears the young man's last words, leaving Gabriel with a terrible burden. This burden affects him greatly. Then their friend Laure, from Paris, arrives and moves in after telling them that Pierre, her husband informed her that he had fathered a child with another woman. They tell Laure that she can stay as long as she needs, but she soon becomes a tad bit annoying. Laure begins wearing Iris' clothing, following her around and asking questions about the young man's death. Then there are the new young neighbors and a handsome gardener thrown into the mix.

Book 36.
Confessions of an Innocent Man by David R. Dow
Rafael Zhettah has it all, a successful restaurant, a wonderful (and rich) wife, the ability to travel and experience the world around him. And then one day, his wife is murdered. He's the prime suspect. Of course, the partner is always the prime suspect, but then he's also 15 years younger than his wife and he stands to inherit a lot of money with her death. He's innocent but he can't convince a jury of that.
Zhettah spends 6 years on death row in Texas, release only with new evidence. What would you do after all that time in prison? Would you start your life over or would you seek revenge?

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Legal Thriller

Book 37.
Shut Up You're Pretty by Téa Mutonji
One of this year's Canada Reads contenders.
This is a short story collection but reads more like a novel. Told from the perspective of Loli, a young Black Congolese woman growing up in the Galloway neighbourhood of Scarborough.

Book 38.
Martin Peters by Patrick Allaby

This graphic novel is hard to describe. It's fiction but reads like non-fiction. It's about Diabetes. It's about the author, but also about a person he met in a support group. It tells the story of first love, sort of.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Purple Cover

Book 39.
VenCo by Cherie Dimaline
I've really been enjoying Dimaline's books. I picked this one up because it has to do with witches. I loved the story and strong women characters.
I do quibble with the "witches being burnt at the stake" stuff. That was not a thing that happened in Salem. But I don't think this book was really about historical accuracy so I'm giving it a pass.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: A Book You Couldn’t Put Down

Book 40.
Nineteen Steps by Millie Bobby Brown with Kathleen McGurl
Okay, I have opinions.
I picked this book up because I was interested in the Bethnal Green tragedy. When I was in London I saw the monument (uncharacteristically I was going to see a library). I had never heard of this event.
The book was ... okay. I wasn't really into the love story aspect. The writing was fine.
My issue is whether Brown should get credit for this book. My understanding is that she did research and that some of the information comes from family history, but that all the actual writing was done by McGurl. Jack Edwards did an interesting video on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6mGnXnSVo8

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: 2023 Bestseller

Book 41.
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
The first book in the Wayward Children series.
Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is the place where children go when they come back after slipping through the back of a wardrobe, or being taken up by a tornado, or sliding down a rabbit hole. The Home is part boarding school, part therapy, and part a place for the children to hide from the world.
When Nancy arrives, after spending time in an underworld, and other students start to die it's obvious who the killer is, but she swears she's innocent.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Three Books by the Same Author (1)

Book 42.
Denison Avenue by Christina Wong, illustrated by Daniel Innes
One of the 2024 Canada Reads contenders.
I didn't love reading this book but the message is one that resonates. Wong Cho Sum's husband is killed in a hit and run when he's out running errands. She is an immigrant to Canada and does not speak very much English. First we have to deal with her heartache, and then her ongoing grief. In the midst of this she describes how her neighbourhood is gentrifying around her. Businesses closing, predominantly those owned by immigrants, and buildings being razzed to build skyscrapers and chain stores.
I do wish that the illustrations had been peppered throughout the book rather than a chunk at the end.

Book 43.
The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer

Clover is a death doula in New York City. She helps people die with dignity and is no stranger to grief, having lost both her parents at a young age and more recently, her grandfather, who raised Clover after her parents died. But Clover has spent so much of her life helping others at the end of theirs that she’s ignored her own.

When she meets Sebastian at a Death Cafe he asks if she can be with his grandmother, Claudia, a 91 year old former photojournalist. Claudia touches Clover in a way that none of her past clients have and sends her on a path of self-discovery.

I found Clover's behaviour to be fairly contradictory. She's caring and helpful with her clients but socially awkward and sheltered to the point of naivete in her own life. She's traveled the world as a student doing research and volunteering in other countries but doesn't have any friends and has never had a romantic relationship.

The parts of the book about grief and dying were very interesting but the main character was a miss for me.


Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: About Mental Health

Book 44.
Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

Wow, that was quite a ride! This was both a science fiction exploration of AI and a look at relationships and autonomy.
Annie Bot is an AI "cuddle bunny". She is a sex robot that looks like a real human, and learns like one thanks to artificial intelligence. She was made to please Doug, her owner. Everything she does is for him. But as Annie learns and becomes more human-like in her behaviour, she begins to question certain aspects of her existence.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Intriguing Premise

Book 45.
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
This really took a turn. It's not so much a twist ending as one I didn't anticipate. Also, super creepy.
In 1993, a small group made a low budget horror film. Of them, the only surviving member is the “Thin Kid”, we never learn his real name.
This movie has a cult following, despite it’s only having 3 scenes released. Now a Hollywood producer is looking to remake it.
The story goes back and forth from the script of the original film, to the filming, to "Thin Kid" in the present making the film again.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Your Favorite Genre

>55 Deedledee: That one’s on my to-read list. I hope to get to it soon!

Book 46.
Unicorn vs. Goblins: Phoebe and Her Unicorn #3 by Dana Simpson
A nice little palate cleanser. I was reminded of this series when my coworker and I were recording our weekly radio show so decided to pick one up.
These graphic novels are delightful. Phoebe is kind of a nerdy weird kid and Marigold Heavenly Nostrils is just the most conceited. In this volume Phoebe goes to camp and makes a new friend, Dakota's magic hair gets her in trouble with goblins, and Marigold sees her sister.

Book 47.
Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner
Helen & Daniel, Serena & Rory, they'd been friends since Cambridge. The two couples living an ideal life in an upscale neighbourhood of London. Then Rachel comes into their lives. Helen meets Rachel at a prenatal class. Serena decided to go to a different class and Daniel gets caught up at work so Rachel partners up with Helen. But Rachel is not what she seems. She's always around - and then even moves in with Helen and Daniel. Who is Rachel and what does she want with them?

Book 48.
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
The 2nd book in the Wayward Children series, this one focuses on Jack and Jill.

Jacqueline and Jillian were brought up by parents obsessed with order and appearance. Everything has to be just so, including their children. They have complete, unchangeable images in their minds of what their twin daughters must be like, and force the girls into these narrow boxes.
One rainy afternoon the girls go exploring in the attic and find a secret staircase in an old trunk and end up in a word of horrific monsters – vampires, werewolves, gargoyles, and more. And this is the first time in their lives that they both feel they've found their place in the world.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Three Books by the Same Author (2)

>51 Deedledee: This strikes me as interesting. Onto the wishlist it goes.
>53 Deedledee: Another hit!

Book 49.
Waco: A Survivor's Story by David Thibodeau and Leon Whiteson

I remember the siege on the Branch Davidian compound in the early 90s, at the beginning of the 24 hour constant news cycle. They showed the outside of the building on and on for days. And I remember reading a bit about it at the time. This book gives me a totally different perspective.
Do I agree with everything Thibodeau says, absolutely not. He obviously turned a blind eye to Koresh's sexual relations (rape) of underage girls and that is reprehensible. But I do believe that the ATF, the FBI, and other law enforcement could have handled the whole situation better and there did not have to be such a horrific loss of life.

Book 50.
Withered + Sere by TJ Klune
This is one of those instances when reading an earlier work by an author shows you how he came up with a later book. In Withered + Sere, Klune is already playing around with the ideas that you see in In the Lives of Puppets, with the sentient robot and the Pinocchio references.

Cavalo is just trying to get by in the post-apocalyptic world. He's undergone some personal tragedies and has tried to cut himself off from people as much as possible. When out hunting in an area known as the Deadlands, he comes across a man who is part of the Dead Rabbits, a group of cannibalistic scavengers. He should kill this man but can't bring himself to do it. And that's when the trouble really begins.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Author You Love

Book 51.
The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne
The Red House Mystery is a "locked room" whodunnit by A. A. Milne - you might know that name as the creator of Winnie the Pooh. This was published in 1922 before Winnie the Pooh came into the scene. It was Milne's only mystery novel.
Just moments after Mark Ablett's n'er do well brother, Robert arrives at the Red House after spending years in Australia, a shot is heard and his dead body is found in the office. And Mark is missing.
Tony Gillingham happens along just as Mark's cousin is trying to break into the office to figure out what has happened. And unwittingly becomes a detective with the help of his friend, a house guest of Mark's, Bill Beverley.

Book 52.
Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
This book is not for the faint of heart - 3 words, Serial Killer Romance.
Sloane and Rowan meet when they're going after the same target, a serial killer. They are serial killers that kill other serial killers. And through this they find love.

I did enjoy the banter between them, and there were some funny scenes but mostly this was not my cup of tea.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: A Friend’s Favorite Book

Book 53.
My Secret compiled by Frank Warren
I love these books.
Started as a community art project in 2004 that encouraged folks to send a secret on a decorated postcard. Now 20 years later I still read the books and look at the website. I think other people's secrets can make us feel less alone.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Reread a Favorite

Book 54.
In the Form of a Question: the Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life by Amy Schneider
I cannot imagine the difficulty of living in the wrong body and then finally coming to the decision to change this and I very much admire Schneider for this. She does not hide anything in this memoir, talking openly about her sexuality, drug use, late ADD diagnosis, relationship with her family, and more.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Memoir by a Person You Admire

Book 55.
Home for Erring and Outcast Girls by Julie Kibler

I did not realized until the author's note at the end, that the Berachah Industrial Home for Erring Girls was a real place. It provided an additional level of interest to the subject matter.

The Berachah Home provided a safe haven for "fallen" women, particularly those who had a child. It not only gave them a place to live but taught them a trade so they could support themselves when they left. In the early 1900s this was a very uncommon approach.

This novel has two timelines, one in the early 1900s when Lizzie and Maddie meet at the Berachah Home after having had terrible lives. They become lifelong friends. The other story is set in 2017, Cate is a librarian working at the archives of the University of Texas in Arlington. She becomes obsessed with learning about the Berachah Home after coming across the graveyard. She also befriends Laurel, a student assistant, who seems to be living a bit rough. The two stories have a fair amount of overlap, showing that while women have come a long way we're still not completely equal.

I found the historical story much more compelling than the one set in the present but it was overall a good book.

I was a little disappointed by The Great Divide as well. I enjoyed the setting, but I think you are right; there were too many characters that were not developed that well. I would have liked to know more about the protests, for example. It just seemed superficial.

Book 56.
Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire
The 3rd book in the Wayward Children series. In this iteration, Rini literally falls from the sky into the pond near Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. She's come from another reality/world/door in search of her mother who went to school there. One problem, her mother, Sumi is dead. And Rini is in a race against time before she disappears from existence.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Three Books by the Same Author (3)

>61 Deedledee: It is fascinating to read a thorough account of something that the news covers so relentlessly but so superficially! I found that when I read Five Days at Memorial, which was a mind-blowing experience for me.

Book 57.
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Winner of the Giller Prize in 1996, and I'm pretty sure I read it that year, but as that is almost 20 years ago I had forgotten basically everything about it.
Grace Marks was a real historical figure that Atwood used as the basis of her novel.
Grace and James McDermott were both servants in the house of Thomas Kinnear and were convicted of his death and of the death of Nancy Montgomery that occurred in 1843. In this fictionalized account, a young doctor, Simon Jordan, who is planning to open an asylum and is doing research on the criminally insane, comes to meet with Grace. She tells him her story starting with her immigration from Ireland to Canada and other events leading up to the murder, of which she claims to be innocent.
Dr. Jordan becomes not only invested in Grace's story, but becomes entangled in the lives of several people in the small town of Kingston.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Historical Mystery

Book 58.
Death & Other Inconveniences by Lesley Crewe
A book about losing your husband and the ensuing issues does not sound like light reading, but Crewe has made it into a romp.
Margo's husband of 10 years dies by choking on a ham sandwich (not a spoiler, you find this out on the first page), so now what should she do? She finds out that not only is her husband gone but he left her up to her eyeballs in debt. With nothing left to do she moves in with her kids but they have their own drama in their lives to sort out.
Throughout it all, Margo learns that she can stand on her own two feet and becomes a stronger person.
And while that sounds like a depressing book there are lots and lots of laugh out loud moments.

Book 59.
The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams
In the summer of 1951, 17 year old Miranda is on Winthrop Island because her mother is about to marry Hugh Fisher. Ensconced in his gigantic summer home, she meets both her new sister, Isobel, and a local boy Joseph. As the summer progresses she falls more and more in love with Joseph but as he is the son of a fisherman and lighthouse keeper and she is now part of the elite this is frowned on.
Later, the very famous movie star Miranda comes back to the island and we learn about the repercussions of that fateful summer.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Set in the 1950s

Book 60.
The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
Very Rear Window-esque, the main character even references the movie at one point.
Although I'm generally a fan of a supernatural twist, I could have done without it this time.
Casey is grieving the loss of her husband by drowning herself in a bottle. Her mom has sent her out to the family lakehouse to keep her out of the public eye and maybe get her to dry out a bit.
One day she sees someone drowning in the lake and rushes out in her boat to save them. It is Katherine, a former model and wife to a famous IT innovator. This starts Casey spying on their house, right across the lake from hers, and what she sees looks like murder.

61. Pantsdrunk (Kalsarikanni): The Finnish Path to Relaxation by Miska Rantanen
A fun, tongue-in-cheek guide to drinking at home in your underwear.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Inspiring Nonfiction

Book 62.
Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist (aka - Let the Right One In)
I'm trying to figure out a way to explain this vampire tale that gets across the atmosphere created by Ajvide Lindqvist. Its depressing and isolationist. Reading it I could picture the grey apartment building blocks. The lack of colour and vibrancy. In this environment a bullied boy meets a girl who is nice to him. The girl only ever comes out at night. And suddenly there are a lot of killings happening in the area.

Book 63.
Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History by Alex von Tunzelmann
This was a fascinating look at history through the individuals that were deemed, at least at one time, as being worthy of being memorialized as a statue.
von Tunzelmann gives a background on each person represented and why those in modern times have chosen to destroy their statue; many were dictators, tyrants or colonial invaders. She also talks about the difficulties in capturing history and how statues of "great men" can be problematic.
An engaging read.

Book 64.
Normal Women: Nine Hundred Years of Making History by Philipa Gregory

For over 900 years men have dictated what women do, don't do, are allowed to have, are allowed to make, are allowed to wear, are allowed to enjoy. So essentially, this book was almost 700 pages of rage for me.

>76 Deedledee: One of my favorites! The movie is pretty good too - the original, not so much the American remake.

>79 drneutron:
I've only seen the American version. I should really seek out the Swedish original.

Book 65.
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
I want to complain about some of the structure of the book - but it's spoilers.
So I'll just say, women in late 19th century England who generally did very little to be accused of a crime were often sentenced with "transport". That usually meant after months in prison they spent months on a ship and eventually ended up in what is now known as Australia.

Book 66.
The Only Survivors by Megan Miranda
Well, that took a turn that I didn't anticipate.
Ten years ago, on a school trip, a group of high school seniors find themselves in a dangerous situation when their vans go off the road in a storm. Of the 21 on the trip, only 9 survive. They pledge to get together each year on the anniversary of the accident for a week. But the danger isn't just years behind them. Everyone has a secret about that night. What will they do to keep it?

Book 67.
End of Story by AJ Finn
I might need to go back and skim some of the beginning because the twist at the end did not read right to me.
Nicky Hunter is invited by the famous novelist Sebastian Trapp to stay with him and write up a sort of memory book for his family and friends. Sebastian only has a matter of months to live. While he became famous for his writing, he became infamous on New Year's Eve 1999 when his wife and son disappeared. They've never been found - alive or dead. Nicky hopes to get to the bottom of this mystery.

Book 68.
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes
This book was just lovely. It was heartwarming how much Elwes seemed to have loved making this movie and working with everyone in it. A must read for fans of The Princess Bride. Which makes me think, it's time for a re-watch.

Book 69.
Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold
Bisou is embarrassed that she started her period while out parking in the woods with her boyfriend, so much so that she gets out of the car and runs away. While out in the woods she is pursued by a wolf, but this is no ordinary wolf - it's a man turned into a wolf.
An interesting story and a parable of the way some men can be with women. Lots of trigger warnings for rape, assault, and domestic violence.

Book 70.
Having Faith in the Polar Girls' Prison by Cathleen With
This book has been on my list to read since December 2008, so it was about time to read it.
Trista is a young Inuvialuk girl, only 15 years old, her whole life should be in front of her but she's in a youth detention centre waiting to be tried. She has her newborn baby with her until she can be placed in care. It's a distressing story of abuse and substance use issues.

Booklist Queen Reading Challenge: Bottom of Your To-Read List

Book 71.
You Like it Darker by Stephen King
I think King's short stories are some of his best writing. In this collection he brings back a character from Cujo, examines what happens when you try to break open the door to other realities, and some other other disturbing little gems.

Book 72.
You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters by Kate Murphy
This was a really interesting book and I picked up a few tips that I'm trying to implement.

>71 Deedledee: I read this last year, and can't say it resonated with me that much, I wish I had known at the time of reading that it followed a real life story. I think I would have read up on that to round out the book foe me.

>78 Deedledee: my current read! And now that you mention it, I am incensed by the universal subjugation of women from the beginning to blimmin time, it seems.
The periods when women had relative freedom seem only to be when all the men were dead from war or famine and we were needed.

Book 73.
Natasha And Other Stories by David Bezmozgis
This book was contender for Canada Reads 2007.
The stories are related, about an Russian Jewish immigrant family trying to settle into life in Toronto.

Book 74.
Scaredy Squirrel: Scared Silly by Melanie Watt
I love the Scaredy Squirrel books. They are a really great way to talk to kids about their anxieties and they're funny.
In Scared Silly, Scaredy Squirrel has fears around Hallowe'en. He's afraid of monsters and other things that go bump in the night, to prepare for this he has garlic, lights, non-scary music, and an emergency fanny pack. I really like that his friends are there for him and don't make fun of his anxieties.

Book 75.
Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls
It's early 1920s in a small town in Virginia and whiskey rules the land. The "Duke" is the unofficial leader of Clairborne County and has his fingers into rumrunning, land holdings, running the local store, and even picking the sheriff.
His daughter, Sallie, who has been banished for 9 years, is brought home to care for her younger half brother after his mother's death... and then things get wild.
So much happens in a scant 3 years that it boggles the mind. People die, children are born out of wedlock, scandals, wars between whiskey makers, religious zealots, it's a lot. But a nice fast plot.

Congrats on hitting the goal!

Book 76.
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman
I last read this book almost 20 years ago and thought it was time for a re-read. It was especially interesting after reading Cary Elwes' book about the filming of the Princess Bride movie.
Buttercup is beautiful but doesn't really care about that. The "Farm Boy" is someone she overlooks and bosses around, until one day she realizes she loves him.
Fast forward several years, Farm Boy (aka Westley) has gone off to seek his fortune and is presumed to be lost at sea. Buttercup has caught the attention of the prince, and although she doesn't want to is going to become the queen. And then she's kidnapped and the whole adventure begins.

Book 77.
All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson
I picked up this book because it was one that's been banned in a lot of places. I can see why certain groups would want to ban it, but I really don't agree with that.
Johnson's memoir is about growing up black and queer in America. And I think he has some important points, especially to younger queer folks. A lot about having representation, about having people to talk to about your experiences, hearing about other's mistakes so you don't make them as well.

Book 78.
The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen Flynn
Rachel is a doctor who has spent her career traveling to dangerous disaster zones to help. Liam is an actor and a scholar. Together they're trained on all the intricacies of Regency England so they can go back in time and save an unfinished manuscript by Jane Austen. They're also tasked with getting her letters, and maybe seeing if they can figure out the ailment that sent her to an early grave.
I almost DNF'd this book halfway through because Liam and Rachel (going by the names William and Mary and pretending to be siblings) would talk to each other in their regular voices - not their uppercrust English accents. In a house with 6 servants hanging about it's such a stupid idea. They did other dumb things too. But I persisted because I wanted to know how it ended. And it was disappointing.
This book is great until about halfway through and the end really didn't do it for me.

Congratulations on surpassing 75!

Book 79.
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Just before Christmas in 1985, Bill Furlong is hard at work delivering coal and wood. A trip to the convent to stock their coal shed leads to a surprise and forces Bill to make a decision that he knows is going to rock his life and that of his family.

Thinking of you at this time, Dee.

Book 80.
Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell
Shiloh and Cary were best friends in high school. Everyone thought they would end up together. Now, 14 years later, they meet again at a friend's wedding. Shiloh is a divorced mother of two. Cary is a naval officer. Can these two get past their issues and be with each other?

Book 81.
Scaredy Squirrel Gets Festive by Mélanie Watt
I love these books. In this juvenile graphic novel takes us through Scaredy Squirrel's preparations for the holiday. His friends are so lovely. They want to help him in their own ways.