December AlphaKIT : K and Q

Welcome to the last month of the 2024 AlphaKIT. Yes we're doing it again in 2025.

This is an unofficial challenge for the 2024 Category Challenge Group. Each month has two letters selected for you to use however you choose.

There are no rules. Have fun and enjoy reading. December letters are: K and Q

Maybe we'll see a lot of Kings and Queens!

and

If you like, update the AlphaKIT wiki with your reading.

I've got Quantico by Greg Bear lined up for my Q and
Boneyards - by K.K. Rusch for the K.

I am planning on reading Shadows Cast by Stars by Catherine Knutsson and Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn in December.

>1 majkia: I hadn't even thought of K and Q being together until you pointed out kings and queens!
I do have a queen lined up - The Queen's Secret - but a witch for K with Kiki's Delivery Service.

I'm planning to read The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin, which will cover both letters.

I'm planning on reading The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King and Signal Moon by Kate Quinn.

I could very well end up reading queens! Not sure yet.

The only Q I have is The Queen of Poisons by Robert Thorogood. There are possibilities for K but I will have to see what other challenges they fit.

My first book for K is a short story by Claire Keegan: So late in the day. The wikis seem to be down again.

I read Queen Victoria's Matchmaking by Deborah Cadbury.

Another K book finished is Der Kampf um Freiheit by Arnulf Krause.

I read The Girls of Lighthouse Lane: Katherine's Story by Erika Tamar.

COMPLETED:
Serpent's Point
The Killing Place
Coffin Island

all by Kate Ellis

Starting Bearly A Lady by Cassandra Khaw

For K, I reread a picture book from my childhood: Die Kinder von Bethlehem by Eva Spaeth, illustrated by Lore Hummel.

COMPLETED Bearly A Lady by Cassandra Khaw

I have completed both my Alpha Kit reads for December with Shadows Cast By Stars by Catherine Knutsson and Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn

I have finished another K book with Kaiser, Kraut und Kiberer, a collection of short stories from Habsburg Vienna.

Both letters: The Wind's Twelve Quarters, Ursula K. Le Guin.

I finished listening to The Best Worst Christmas by Kate Forster, another K book.

I read a short story by Kate Quinn - Signal Moon for my "Q" this month.

I read Outlaw Bride by Jenna Kernan for K.

I finally finished Kristen Britain's The High King's Tomb for K.

The Icepick Surgeon / Sam Kean
4 stars

This looks at various ethical issues throughout history that still advanced science in some way or another. Each chapter was a specific person or issue, including piracy, the slave trade, competition that gets out of hand, stealing bodies for research, fraud, spying, animal cruelty (this still happens, but who knew Edison was torturing dogs, horses, and cows by electrocuting them in order to discredit a competitor?), Nazi experiments, lobotomies, and probably more I’m not remembering. There is a lot going on here. And a lot of unethical (and criminal) things happened in the name of science.

This was interesting. Some stories I’d heard before (maybe just the one of the title, the “surgeon” who did lobotomies with an icepick). In the conclusion, the author looks at some things to come… and there will likely still be scientists willing to do unethical things to advance science (or, at least, their own research). I don’t think I realized the author has a podcast, so I hadn’t heard of him, but based on this one, I’d read more of his books (he has also written others).

I finished Back Across the Styx by Karalynn Lee for another K.

I was having trouble finding a Q book so I was pleased to find a book with both letters in the sub-title.

The Private Life of the Cat Who…: Tales of Koko and Yum Yum from the Journals of James Mackintosh Quilleran by Lilian Jackson Braun.

I haven’t read many of The Cat Who… books, so learning more about these two Siamese felines was all new to me and I found it delightful.

I finished a Q: Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Such a fun read!

I finished The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitself. Interesting a d nicely done space opera quest.

COMPLETED The Lemon Drop Kid by Josh Lanyon

Completed and reviewed Christmas with the Queen by Hazel Gaynor.

I finished The Women by Kristin Hannah. Still waiting in queue for The Briar Club which would give me my Q

I chose Quallenplage for my Q book, a cozy mystery set in a suburb of Kiel.

My Q book is Accomplished by Amanda Quain, a modern YA take on Pride and Prejudice from Georgiana Darcy's point of view.

Something About Sophie / Mary Kay McComas
3.5 stars

Sophie is in her 20s and was adopted as a baby. She was very loved by her adoptive parents and had no interest in finding her birth parents. But she is mysteriously called to the death bed of someone she doesn’t know, as there is something he wants to tell her. She doesn’t make it to him in time, but she is asked to attend the reading of the will, where she discovers he has left her his home. Meanwhile, in this small town, there are a few people who appear hostile to Sophie, and it’s not long before one of them turns up dead.

The first half was a bit slow-going, but it was good. It really ramped up in the second half, though, when the mystery really got going (at least the murder mystery, anyway! Well, Sophie’s mystery, too, as it’s all connected). Yes, there is a romance here, too, but for me the romance was secondary to the much more interesting mystery(ies) going on.

Finished a K: Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center.

I read A Quilt For Christmas by Sandra Dallas as my first Q book.

I read The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord for another K.

COMPLETED The Queen of Poisons by Robert Thorogood

I read The Christmas Quilt by Lenora Worth as my second Q book.

I read a couple more K books, Life Is Messy by Matthew Kelly and It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas by Julianna Keyes.

I'm going to fall 2 letters short this year - K & L. The last two months have been crazy, and I just couldn't fit them in. Oh well - On to next year.

I finished one more K: 'Twas the Knife Before Christmas by Jacqueline Frost.

Not sure I'll finish my Q before the end of the year, but I'm trying! It's a long nonfiction one. I will finish it, though, and post when I'm done, even if it's just into 2025!

Pretty Baby / Mary Kubica
4 stars

Hanna helps homeless people in her work. When she sees a young girl and a baby in the rain beside the L train a couple days in a row, she decides to help them by bringing them home. The girl tells Hanna her name is Willow and that she’s 18-years old, though Hanna is certain she is younger (but it would be illegal to not turn her in if she is younger, so Hanna just sees what she wants to see). Hanna is married to Chris and has an 11-year old daughter, Zoe. Chris works at a well-paying financial job that has him travelling a lot… often with a beautiful woman, Cassidy, whom Hanna doesn’t trust.

The book is told from three points-of-view: Hanna’s, Willow’s and Chris’s. As the story goes on, we go back in time to hear Willow’s story, as well. It’s actually pretty slow-moving through most of the book, but there are some good twists at the end, at least one I never would have guessed.