Karen's 2024 Reading (karspeak)

My name is Karen (karspeak), and this will be my 6th year in CR and 12th on LT. I am a public school speech pathologist in the Florida Panhandle. I'm married with two sons, ages 14 and 17, with the eldest heading into his senior year this fall. I read a lot of genre fiction, particularly fantasy and sci-fi, plus some general/literary fiction and some nonfiction, usually science-based. Dark/depressing realistic fiction is my least favorite. I follow a lot of threads on CR religiously but rarely comment. You all provide me with most of my reading list suggestions, for which I am very grateful!

I end up skimming or ditching a lot of books because they aren't grabbing me or seem to drag on. Or I will read the first book or first few books in a series to appreciate the world building, then jump to the last book in the series and skim it to see how the plot wraps up.

Skimmed/DNF
--Defiant--4th and final book in the Skyward series, could have been a better conclusion
--A Little Too Familiar--supernatural love story, meh
--Happy Place--cute but forgettable rom-com (book club)
--This Thing of Darkness (4th Fiona Griffiths)
--The Dead House: Midnight (5th Fiona Griffiths)

--The Deepest Grave (6th Fiona Griffiths)
--Charmed Life
--The Burning Witch 2
--Babel
--Within the Sanctuary of Wings (final bk in Natural History of Dragons)

--Terminal Uprising
--Terminal Peace
--Illuminations
--Yellowface
--Troubled Waters

--A Lady's Guide to Fortune Hunting
--Summon the Keeper
--Armed & Magical
--All Spell Breaks Loose
--Check & Mate

--Bookshops & Bonedust
--Edge of Collapse
--Marked by Magic
--Dead Witch Walking
--Finder

--Bloodring
--Calamity
--Novice
--The Burning Witch 3
--Saevus Corax Deals With the Dead

--Saevus Corax Captures the Castle
--Saevus Corax Gets Away With Murder
--Seafire
--Steel Tide
--Stormbreak

--Dragonsbane
--Dragon Rider
--The Red Wolf Conspiracy
--Nyxia
--The Mercy of Gods

--Valor's Choice
--The Tainted Cup
--Three Mages and a Margarita
--The Briar Club (book club)
--Things You Save in a Fire (book club)

--Starship's Mage

Welcome back for another year of Club Read, Karen. I wish we had gotten to know each other before I left the panhandle. We could have had a meetup at Sundog Books in Seaside!

Look forward to seeing what fantasy and science fiction titles I will catch from you this year.

I'm looking forward to following your reading in 2024!

>5 labfs39: Thanks, Lisa! I know, it's a shame! As others have mentioned, thanks for organizing our group, so that those of us living far apart can still discuss books:). I've already starred your new thread (as I do every year).

>6 markon: Thanks, Ardene! I've already starred your new thread (as I do every year).

>7 chlorine: Thanks!

Welcome back Karen. Wish you a great 2024. And good luck with college searches.

1. Talking to the Dead (LT rec)
2. Love Story, with Murders (2nd in series)
3. The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths (3rd in series)

These Fiona Griffiths books were a fun way to start the year. There are currently 6 in the series. They follow a Welsh police detective named Fiona Griffiths who also has some psych issues. Well done. In some ways Fiona reminds me of Murderbot--very logical and smarter than those around her, but trying to figure out her own emotions and what it means to be human.

>9 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan!

>10 karspeak: I'm not into crime fiction but "reminds me of Murderbot" is a nice recommentation! These sound interesting.

I like the Fiona Griffiths series too - just finished the final one in December.

>12 chlorine: These books are definitely police procedurals, so I wouldn't read them if you don't care for that genre. Even with the Murderbot comparison enticement;)

>13 wandering_star: I probably heard about them from your thread; so, thanks! I particularly appreciated her ability to see quickly and clearly through people's words and niceties to their underlying intentions.

4. A Natural History of Dragons
This was a fun read. It's almost an alternate history--it's set in a world very similar to our 1800s, except dragon species do exist. An English-ish lady longs to study dragons, but the conventions of the day are stifling her.

>15 karspeak: It is absolutely an alternate history - I don't recall if it was visible so much in the first book, but the one problem I had with the series was remembering which random name more-or-less corresponded to which actual country (as you say, there's English-ish...and India-ish and China-ish and ...). Excellent stories, though, all of them.

>15 karspeak: and >16 jjmcgaffey: I enjoyed this series a lot but every now and again I would get annoyed because she didn't really build her own world (well except for the dragon bits) she simply renamed Earth countries and cultures and it was distracting. I almost would have preferred if it was an outright alternative history.

>16 jjmcgaffey: and >17 rhian_of_oz: I skimmed the final two books in the series. I'm not sure what I thought about the ending--what did you think?

5. Terminal Alliance (LT rec)
Comedic, light, clever space opera involving a snarky AI, various alien races, and humans who can turn zombie-ish when infected with a biological weapon.

>18 karspeak: This sounds like a fun book! :) I see that some reviews compare it to Scalzi's work.
Do you often follow LT recommendations? I've had so-so luck with them so far.

>18 karspeak: I read Within the Sanctuary of Wings in May 2022 and have very little memory of it which suggests to me that I neither loved or hated it and that it likely met whatever expectations I had of it. (It might also be because that was my first semester back at uni and I likely had a lot of assessments due!)

Throughout the series we know that Lady Trent is very famous and if I'd thought about it I possibly could've predicted what her discovery would be, but these weren't books that I thought too hard about 🙂.

I've just discovered that my library has Turning Darkness into Light so I'm going to add it to the wishlist for when I want a bit of fun escapism.

>19 chlorine: Yes, I agree that it was Scalzi-ish in humor. Oh, I am probably mis-using the term "LT recommendation." I just mean that I got the idea from someone else's thread, not from the recommendations generated by the site based on my reading history (which I haven't updated in years!).

6. House of Flame and Shadow
The third and final book in the Crescent City trilogy. It did a nice job wrapping everything up, even if I didn't like it quite as much as the first two books.

7. First Lie Wins (book club selection)
This was a good pool/beach read. It reminded me somewhat of Ocean's 11, with con artists playing the short and long games. There were some minor plot flaws or holes, but still fun.

8. The Poppy War
Whoa. This is an "epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic." This is the first in a trilogy. I liked the fantasy aspects and world-building, and the incorporation of Chinese culture and history. The section of the book that mirrored the Nanjing Massacre was very horrific, as you might imagine, as were some other parts. The ending made me change from liking the main character to really disliking her, so I won't continue with the series.

9. How the World Really Works (nonfiction)
The author Vaclav Smil is a scientist and policy analyst, particularly for energy studies. Bill Gates is a huge admirer of Smil's. I read Gates' book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster a few years ago, and I realize now that the most interesting (to me) parts of it were drawn directly from Smil's work. Smil is a science and numbers guy, and he does not see a way for the world to rapidly move away from dependence on fossil fuels for what he calls "the four pillars of modern civilization": ammonia (for fertilizer), plastics, steel, and concrete. In Smil's chapter on "Understanding the Environment," he lists the nine categories of critical biospheric boundaries: climate change, ocean acidification, depletion of stratospheric ozone, atmospheric aerosols, interference in nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, freshwater use, land use changes, biodiversity loss, and various forms of chemical pollution. But then he states that he will "focus on just a few key existential parameters...--breathing, drinking, and eating." Hmm.
Smil is highly informative on the topics that he has studied for decades, namely the energy needs for a growing (or stagnating) society. He is also good at analyzing data sets. But I was hoping for much more information and insight on various issues involved with global warming and our environment. And I was really disappointed with the way he brushed by those topics, especially biodiversity loss.

>21 karspeak: Your comments on The Poppy War brought to mind the Chung Kuo series. It's alternate history/science fiction, where China rules a truly horrific world. A friend gave them to me, so I powered through the first five, but it was a chore and not one I would recommend.

>22 labfs39: I hadn't heard of that series. Good to know; it definitely doesn't sound like something I'd enjoy.

Good reading Karen. I’m intrigued by The Poppy War.

>21 karspeak: >24 dchaikin: I started The poppy war but didn't get into it enought that I wanted to finish. I do wonder if the development of the main character follows an arc of it's easier to start a revolution than to escape from the patterns of control & repression that many regimes use.

I did read and like last year's Babel: or the necessity of violence by the same author.

10. Dark Currents
Cute, light urban fantasy. Not bad, not particularly memorable.

11. The Red: First Light
Military sci-fi in the near future with a particularly interesting and believable premise. Difficulties with AI and the industrial military complex arise, affecting one spec ops soldier, in particular. This was all well done: the fight scenes, the imagined near-future technology, the ambiguity of knowing whose intel to listen to and what to do about it, and the big business interests behind battles and wars. I read lots of reviews of the second and third books in the trilogy, and it sounds like there is never a clear resolution for the main character or the broader plot, which disappointed quite a few readers. I think I'll pass (as I often do) on the rest of the series, but I'm glad I read this first one.

12. Lady Tan's Circle of Women (book club)
This historical novel is inspired by the true story of a woman physician in 15th century China. I read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan many years ago, by this same author, and I remember that I enjoyed it. But this book didn't work for me. The main character seemed to tout the Confucian party line too much and always seemed a little cold or unbelievable to me.

13. Outcast: The Grey Gates
14. Called: The Grey Gates
15. Hunted: The Grey Gates
16. Forged: The Grey Gates
17. Chosen: The Grey Gates
This was a fun 5-book urban fantasy series. Different layers and aspects of the plot were revealed across all of the books, so it kept me engaged. There was a lot of shooting and fighting the bad guys (demons, etc). The final book was a bit weak, but the series was still entertaining overall.

>27 karspeak: I read Shanghai Girls by Lisa See some time ago and haven't felt compelled to read more by her, despite owning two more of her books.

18. The Library of the Dead
"A fast-paced, future-set Edinburgh thriller. (It) mixes magical mysteries with a streetwise style of writing" (The Times). I enjoyed this, but I'm not sure I'll continue with the series.

19. An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors
“Curtis Craddock's debut is a grand tale of intrigue, adventure, and gaslight fantasy in the tradition of Alexander Dumas” (Charles Stross). It has some steampunk aspects, as well. The complex political intrigues were particularly well done.

Finally logging in my reading. I've been doing a lot of skimming, but I do have 2 books to list.

20. The Grendel Affair
Cute, fun urban fantasy. The first in the SPI Files series.
Like Men in Black but with magic instead of aliens.

21. Magic Lost, Trouble Found
Same author as the above book, but different series. This was the first in the Raine Benares series. Fun, fast-paced fantasy with some mystery solving and lots of action and good guys teaming up against the baddies. Not amazing, but fun. I skimmed #2 and #6, to see how everything wrapped up.

Heh. I've read several of the Raine Benares series - 1-4 or 5, I think. I should finish it, and check out her urban fantasy. She writes pretty well (fluff, but good fluff).

>31 jjmcgaffey: "She writes pretty well (fluff, but good fluff)"--I agree. I think there are 10 Raine Benares books out now. But #6 completes the main plot arc of books 1-6, then 7-10 follow various character/storyline offshoots. I still followed book #6 just fine even though I had skipped 3-5 (although I did read the plot summary blurbs on Amazon).

The Grendel Affair sounds like fun as I don't mind a bit of well written fluff.

22. The Women (book club selection)
This is currently #1 on Amazon's fiction charts. I was mixed on this novel about a female nurse during and after the Vietnam War. On one hand, it was very emotionally affecting. But I also felt like the author had a list of topics, issues, and historical events that she wanted to squeeze in, and it often felt forced, contrived, or overdone. My mom was a US Army nurse in Vietnam (Cam Ranh Bay), so I enjoyed talking to her about various aspects of the book after I finished reading it.

23. The Book That Wouldn't Burn
This was a very creative fantasy novel with an especially inventive plot, but it also seemed too long. It's the first in a trilogy.

24. Light from Uncommon Stars
This novel was a 2022 Hugo nominee. It's kind of a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, and it's set in present-day Los Angeles. There was one plot flaw at the end which bugged me, but otherwise I really enjoyed it. Lots of themes were explored, and it particularly highlighted the fears/struggles of a young transgender violin student.

Interesting reading. Too bad How the World Really Works didn't fully deliver.

>34 karspeak: I agree that The Book That Wouldn't Burn was long but couldn't identify what could easily be cut. Plus I was prepared to give it a pass due to it being the first book.

Light From Uncommon Stars sounds interesting so I'm adding it to my wishlist. My local library doesn't have a physical copy but there's a reasonable chance my favourite bookshop will have it.

>34 karspeak: My daughter picked up The Women, and since I'm interested in the topic, I was thinking of reading it. I didn't care for the one Kristin Hannah book I read, however, so I'm not rushing. "forced, contrived, or overdone" does not make me think I need to hurry.

25. Replay (book club selection)
Amazon--From the Back Cover--"Jeff Winston, forty-three, didn't know he was a replayer until he died and woke up twenty-five years younger in his college dorm room; he lived another life. And died again. And lived again and died again -- in a continuous twenty-five-year cycle -- each time starting from scratch at the age of eighteen to reclaim lost loves, remedy past mistakes, or make a fortune in the stock market. A novel of gripping adventure, romance, and fascinating speculation on the nature of time, Replay asks the question: "What if you could live your life over again?""

I didn't care for this at all, and neither did the other women in my book club. This was originally published in 1998, and it's oddly not available on Kindle. I found the main characters unlikable, and there were various times when Jeff didn't follow through on something which might have helped to explain his "replays". For example, he tries to prevent the assassination of JFK by anonymously reporting Lee Harvey Oswald to the FBI, only for a different man to then assassinate JFK instead. He decides that either he can't alter major historical events, or someone else had already been arranged to be a back-up assassin. But in his next "replay" he doesn't try to figure out which was the case. And a good explanation for the replays never was given. Which would have been fine if it really took him through a great growth arc, or something, but it was a weird mix of trying to figure out what was happening, and why, and living out various lives, with very mixed results. And the romance which the review references really seemed to be mostly a relationship born of shared circumstances rather than a meeting of souls, etc. Not recommended.

>35 chlorine: I really appreciate that Smil is a "just-the-(science)facts" person, but this article was interesting--it suggests he could use his intelligence and skills for a more productive end: https://thewalrus.ca/why-vaclav-smil-is-fed-up-with-climate-activism/
Whether the article's criticism is correct or not, (and I did get a judge-y vibe), the research/work Smil has done in his lifetime is remarkable.

>36 rhian_of_oz: I do see your point about The Book That Wouldn't Burn. I just wish the author's style was a tad more concise. But the world building and plot were so well done. I think you might enjoy Light From Uncommon Stars. The atmosphere from that one is still lingering with me a bit (in a good way).

>37 labfs39: I can be so nitpick-y, so YMMV. It's still #1 on Amazon's charts, with 4.7 stars from 109K+ ratings. I'm curious how your daughter liked it, and how you'd like it, if you did read it.

>39 karspeak: It's still #1 on Amazon's charts, with 4.7 stars from 109K+ ratings. Ha! I often think that the more popular the book the less likely I am to like it, maybe I'm just a curmudgeon. No, I haven't picked it up yet, and I'm not sure if I'll ever get to it. So many great books out there calling my name...

>40 labfs39: Same here, re: being less likely to like it.

>40 labfs39: I often think that the more popular the book the less likely I am to like it, maybe I'm just a curmudgeon.
You couldn't possibly be a curmudgeon - that's my approach too, and how could I be one?!

It's why I have never read any Harry Potter, and on and on

I read some entertaining fantasy while traveling for two weeks.

A re-read of Anne McCaffrey's Harper Hall Trilogy, which I think I originally read back in junior high. Definitely YA.
26. Dragonsong
27. Dragonsinger
28. Dragondrums

The Book of the Ancestor trilogy by Mark Lawrence. Pretty good world building and plotting, but I wasn't quite buying that a group of holy/magic nuns were the most dangerous toughs in their whole world.
29. Red Sister
30. Grey Sister
31. Holy Sister

From the Amazon blurb: "The first book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas and woven into a tale of celestial prophecies, political intrigue, and forbidden magic." This was creative, atmospheric, and emotionally intense. Well-done.
32. Black Sun

The recently-released #14 in the urban fantasy Mercy Thompson series. I like this series a lot, but this book seemed like filler and just wasn't great.
33. Winter Lost

>43 karspeak: It was a long time ago but that was my favorite sequence of the McCaffrey books.

>38 karspeak: Ouch it seems that Replay is severely lacking on several front.
It is on my wishlist as the premise is so interesting, but I won't rush to get to it now I have read your review!

>44 RBeffa: It held up well for me as a re-read, Ron.
>45 chlorine: I hope you enjoy it when you do get to it, Clémence!

34. Cult Classic (book club selection)
This novel set in NYC gave me a Sex in the City vibe. A sharp female writer is trying to decide if she should stay with her fiance, and very strange events conspire to have her run into a consistent string of exes from her past. As she encounters each one, she considers all the ways each of her relationships was faulty. The dialogue was snarky and witty, but her relationships were weird and her need for a boyfriend/husband was odd. Even though the book reached a clear plot conclusion (just like a SATC episode), she didn't really seem to have reached any deep conclusions about herself. So, some of the writing was sharp, but overall I wasn't buying her journey of self-enlightenment, or whatever it was. Still kind of fun, though.

35. The Future
Hmm. This novel is by the same author as The Power. If the world were ending, Bezos- and Gates-types would escape the consequences, right? Or is there some way that the apocalypse could be avoided if some people adjacent to Bezos- and Gates-types stepped in? How else could it be avoided? This was kind of entertaining, I guess, but I was surprised that the main issue which could save the world seemed to be habitat preservation rather than carbon emissions and global warming and decreasing economic disparity, etc. Alderman began writing this in 2018, so maybe the issues weren't as glaringly obvious then? Anyway, the handling of the tech company giants with their powers and influence and technologies seemed particularly well done, even if I didn't buy the plot resolution.

>38 karspeak: My bookclub read Replay a couple of years ago. I had read it when it was released back in the late 80s and ugh it has not aged well. Our bookclub (mixed group of genders and ages) also didn't care for it.

>43 karspeak: Dragonsong is what I consider as my first Fantasy book and so I'm quite fond of it. In fact I think I might dig it out for a reread!

>46 karspeak: My bookclub also read The Future in January this year. I said "I do recommend this book but maybe read it with a less critical eye" because it had lots of interesting ideas that weren't always well executed. Like you, I also didn't love the resolution.

36. Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
I liked but didn't love this. I liked the main character and thought the Chinese grandmother vibe was cute, but then other aspects fell short for me, such as all of the suspects being so nice. It was definitely more character driven than plot driven. It did hold my attention.

>47 rhian_of_oz: Re: The Future: "I do recommend this book but maybe read it with a less critical eye because it had lots of interesting ideas that weren't always well executed."--yes, exactly!

37. Master Assassins
I read this because of Patrick Rothfuss' high praise. It is fantasy with good world building, and not the usual knights-magicians-forests vibe, either. The pace of the action was a tad slow for my taste.

38. Agent of Change
This is a cute space opera. It was originally published in 1988. Amazon says there are 27 books set in the "Liaden Universe".

39. Building a Second Brain (non-fiction)
This book talks about systems to help capture, filter, and organize the info that we come across in our reading/scrolling/etc, so that we can access it in the future and put the information to good use (a presentation, researching what to buy, developing a plan for working out, etc). I found this quite helpful and practical. It focuses on quick, easy changes to make versus a big time commitment of sorting through all of your current saved items, which I thought was particularly useful and realistic. Apparently this book falls under the new-to-me category of PKM--Personal Knowledge Management.

>49 karspeak: Re your #38 - yes, there's a lot of Liaden books. Some - most - of them follow the characters (and their kin) that show up in Agent of Change - Miri and Val Con and that generation. There's a few prequel books - one sub-series set in another universe that explains (for very vague definitions of explains) where the Liaden came from, and specifically (though still vaguely) where Korval came from. Another sub-series set a generation before Val Con, his father and that generation. And the latest books have Val Con and Miri but most of the protagonists are the next generation - not their kid(s) (still too small) but cousins. Oh, and one more series set about the time of the older generation, with little or no overlap so far - a Terran protagonist and many Liaden strong secondary characters, but none of Korval so far.
It is an amazing tapestry of space opera, comedy (and occasionally tragedy) of manners, complex worldbuilding and multiple cultures and culture clashes... Love it, have read everything they wrote (including the non-Liaden books). Though I must admit that I'm often lost at the beginning of a book, trying to remember what happened in the last book - to the characters, often only days earlier, but for me it's a year or more. I should just plan to reread at least the last book before the newest one, but that would lead to rereading the whole thing (or at least the new book's sub-series).

>49 karspeak: Keeping found information found (and organized) is so difficult. I should look for this book. Now where to put the note so I remember... lol

>49 karspeak: and >50 jjmcgaffey: Agent of Change sounds tempting, and I found it for free on Kobo! Will probably read it soon.

>50 jjmcgaffey: It reminded me somewhat of the Miles Vorkosigan books, which I enjoy dipping into from time to time. I could see reading the Liaden books occasionally, since I usually don't mind not knowing the backstory of characters.
>51 labfs39: lol

40. Things We Do In the Dark (book club selection)
Meh. A woman is accused of murdering her famous husband. But she has a hidden past that could come to light. I didn't buy the ending at all. And the main character was likeable, but it was hard to read about the abuse she had suffered as a child. And psychologically I wasn't buying her character. Skippable.

>53 karspeak: Hmm. I like both the Liaden and the Vorkosigan books, but they don't really feel similar to me. Both good though, so enjoy!

School started back, so I am back to work. And both my sons are in high school (9th and 12th grades) this year. We also got a puppy in July, so life has been extra-extra busy, with quite a bit of sleep dep! Things are finally settling down a tiny bit.

41. The Wedding People (book club selection)
I liked but didn't love this book about a woman who goes to a swanky hotel to commit suicide but then gets swept up in a wedding party going on at the hotel.

42. Sanctuary (LT rec)
Short and entertaining urban fantasy involving slavic gods.

>56 karspeak: You do have a lot going on! Best of luck to you and the boys in the new school year.

>53 karspeak: Oh, so your thread is where I read about the Liaden universe ! I should have made a note of it but obviously didn’t. I just read Agent of Change and loved it. Not sure I see the much resemblance with the Vorkosigan books. Well, they are both character driven space operas I guess. And the characters are great, though Miles’ manic energy made me feel so tired, I didn’t continue very far into the series.

>58 FlorenceArt: I'm glad you enjoyed Agent of Change! I think it was the tone of the Vorkosigan and Liaden books, along with both being character-driven space operas, that felt similar to me--good guys vs bad guys, with quirks and humor and hijinks and relationships thrown in. But I agree they are very different in lots of other ways--I should have explained further!

>58 FlorenceArt: I gave up on Miles round about Brothers in Arms - I just could not get through that book. For the same reason you had (or similar at least) - I couldn't stand Miles and his...yeah, energy. Too much! But then she came out with Diplomatic Immunity - I _loved_ Falling Free and just had to read more about the quaddies. And...and...but...Miles was married? How? So I had to read the previous book. And the one before that, to see how he got to there. And... Got all the way back to Brothers in Arms - I still don't think much of it, but I've read it. And I've read the books after Diplomatic Immunity, in the right order. He does, sort of, for him, calm down.

I like the Liaden Universe a lot more - the characters are less wild. Though they've got their own weird quirks. It's much more of an ensemble cast - it's not _all_ Val Con and Miri, though they show up a lot. I hope you keep reading them, and continue to enjoy them.

43. The Last Word
This is #4 in the Harbinder series. I wish there had been more of Harbinder and less of the other characters--not that I dislike them, I just prefer Harbinder.
44. The New Menopause
45. The Day the World Came to Town (LT rec)
A feel-good true story in Newfoundland after 9/11.
46. We Solve Murders
This is the first in a new mystery series by the author Richard Osman, who wrote The Thursday Murder Club series. I enjoyed it, but I do think the reader was led astray intentionally/unfairly from the ultimate culprits, which is a "cheap shot" way to structure a mystery plot.
47. Alanna
Light YA that is well-written. A girl disguises herself to begin knight training.
48. In the Hand of the Goddess
Second in the series (of 4).

>57 labfs39: Thank you!
>60 jjmcgaffey: I will definitely try more Liaden books--I have 2 added to my list.

You've just started another series I love - Tortall (Alanna and related series) is _wonderful_. In a very different vein from the Liaden Universe!

Finally catching up...

49. All the Colors of the Dark (book club)
50. Service Model
I particularly enjoyed this understated sci-fi which is a "delightfully humorous tale of robotic murder".
51. Wild Magic
A cute/lovely YA fantasy.
52. Dungeon Crawler Carl Dungeon Crawler Carl #1
From Amazon description: "Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality TV show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show." This is zany and gory with good-hearted main characters. Fast paced and detailed, well thought out world building, which progresses with each book in the series.
53. Carl's Doomsday Scenario DCC #2
54. The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook DCC#3

55. The Gate of the Feral Gods (DCC #4)
56. The Butcher’s Masquerade (DCC #5)
57. The Eye of the Bedlam Bride (DCC #6)
The Dungeon Crawler Carl series continues to be quite fun. My father is hooked on them now, as is one of my sons. The plot continues to develop, building on previous seemingly minor details.

58. The Spellshop --cute, cozy "romantasy"; Amazon also describes it as "cottagecore"

59. The Anxious Generation NF
I had been putting off reading this for months, but I finally finished it. This NF book by the accomplished writer/researcher Jonathan Haidt discusses all the ways smart phones and having constant access to social media etc, as well as other societal changes, have screwed up kids in new and interesting ways. Sigh. Some parts were as bad as I expected (meaning "bad news"/depressing), some parts were not as bad as I expected, and some parts contained research and info with which I was already very familiar. Overall this book is very good and clearly well researched, and I recommend it if this topic interests you.

I work with elementary and middle school students, and I have begun seeing a few of my students who are NOT on the autism spectrum have significant social delays. I think this is because of many of the issues raised in this book, and it's a disturbing trend, to be sure.

60. The Ministry of Time
I enjoyed this near-future time travel thriller/romance which also explored themes such as the continuing impacts of British colonialism, and being a minority in a British government organization. I don't think the plot really stayed together for me, but I appreciated all the things the author was trying to do. I don't think she quite pulled it off, though. This book would make for a great discussion.

61. Fire Keeper's Daughter
I really enjoyed this novel about a Native young woman in the upper peninsula of Michigan, because the culture, setting, and her identity were SO well done. She is drawn into an undercover investigation of drugs on the Ojibwe reservation. The plot dragged a bit for me toward the end, but I really loved the main character and her relationships in this book.

62. The Village Library Demon Hunting Society--cute murder mystery with a twist

Happy new year, Karen! Although I'm interested in the topic covered by The Anxious Generation, I can't take reading that sort of thing at the moment. The title goes on my someday list.