Space Station Mir

 I never got around to this survey in 2023, but unexpectedly, in 2024, I had the most prolific reading year of my adult life (checking back, I did read 89 books in 2019). Honestly, I would guess it's both because I was missing a personal laptop for parts of the year and also because there were a few weeks or months when I went mostly off social media. I'm going to enjoy basking in this glow because I don't know if it will ever happen again!  I also met most of my bookish goals for 2024 (more on that later), but for now I'd like to share the stats from the survey I've been using for over a decade (I think?!), which I modified from the discontinued book blog,  Boston Bibliophile . 2024 Reading Stats How many books read? 90 Fiction/nonfiction? 78 fiction, 8 nonfiction, 4 poetry Female/male/nonbinary author ratio? 74 female, 13 male, 1 collection with writers of multiple genders, and 1 unknown Writers of Color/Minority Writers? 13 books by writers of color, 14 Jewish wr...

Instead of a list of books I want for Hanukkah, I thought I'd make a list of my favorite Hanukkah books, because there are finally starting to be enough (at least, popularly and commercially available fiction) that I can have favorites. Most of the adult ones I find are romances, which I do enjoy, but I'm hoping it will catch fire and branch out to other genres, if you know what I mean. 😜 Happy fourth night to everyone celebrating!🕎 Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric A. Kimmel; illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman--This was my favorite as a kid, and I still love it! I would like a series of illustrated, reinterpreted Herschel of Ostropol stories! The Hanukkah Bear by Eric A. Kimmel; illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka--This one is a really sweet and funny kids' story! The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer--This was the one that turned me on to Meltzer, and now I've read all of her books! It's so relatable for anyone Jewish growing up in the U.S. who's at all religious...

Phew! It's been a minute. I didn't have a personal computer for a while there, so blogging was hard, but I sure did a lot of reading. I'll go through the lists quickly--my favorites for each month are highlighted, although I really enjoyed a lot of these. I got Kindle Unlimited and went wild on cozy romantasy and a few other genres for variety! Books Read in September Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum (Book club read) Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen (Another book club read) The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck (Yet another book club read) A Different Sky by Randie K. Berman (Rec'd by the author from a shared fb group--I loved it!) Books Read in October Ensnaring the Siren by Desirée M. Niccoli (Haven Cove #3) (LibraryThing review--and fit the romantasy kick--with mermaids!) The Orc and the Innkeeper by Cora Crane (Elderberry Falls #1)  The Gargoyle and the Songbird by Cora Crane (Elderberry Falls #2) Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate (audiobook) Party of One: Be Your Own Best ...

 The Dry by Jane Harper (Book club read)--First of a mystery series set in Australia; solid read and fit well with the setting in a drought-struck town Never Meant to Meet You by Alli Frank and Asha Youmans (Another book club read)-- Loved this Black/Jewish friendship story and they really know what they're talking about when it comes to teaching! The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow (Yet another book club read)-- Loved, loved this magical alternate history--perfect remix of history and fairytale and feminism--over 500 pages and I did not want it to stop! I actually recommended this one so I guess I really know my own taste lol! Kat Girl by Sarah Lahey (LibraryThing review)--Another one set in Australia,  this one in Melbourne. Main character is a twice-divorced architect who is definitely autism spectrum-coded. This book gets really frank and weird and there's a lot of architecture and Monopoly but definitely an interesting read. Also, the romance is definitely secon...

 Pitch It by Evie Blum-- Kind of a weirdly suspenseful romcom but I enjoyed the perspective of a woman working in Silicon Valley,  which I don't see a lot. The business jargon was on point. The author is really talented at writing physicality too; be prepared for a lot of spicy scenes.  My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Bro di Ashton, and Jodi Meadows--I'd wanted to read this for a while (Tudor history nerd, hello!), and I just saw and loved the show on Prime and finally got the book from Kindle Unlimited.  Both are so, so good! Very tongue-in-cheek, intrusive narration, and so many riffs on Shakespeare, Tudor history, and more. Plus it's a surprise fantasy world with people who turn into animals instead of Protestants vs. Catholics--totally brilliant. Can't wait to read the rest! An Improper Situation by Sydney Jane Bailey-- On Stuff-Your-Kindle romance day, I took a chance on a lot of different books. This was the first one I tried. I really enjoyed the 19th century Sp...

Dreams of Ice and Shadow by Kathryn Troy (Frostbite Trilogy, Book #2) Release Day: July 23, 2024 It's here! I've been reading this book for so long, but it's finally out!  Since I loved Troy's book, The Shadow of Theron , and the first book in this trilogy, A Vision in Crimson , I again volunteered to be part of the "street team" for social media promotion and received a review copy of the book--in the form of an e-galley and finally an e-book. It took me so long to read because I don't like reading on my computer, but once I got the e-book, I zipped through it. This is definitely one where I recommend reading in order.  Like Troy's other books, the writing is vivid, intense, and dense with literary references. This one particularly gets to some Narnian deep cuts--"If the person who possesses the stone speaks a single magical word, known only by a select few...[they will have the power to destroy the world]." We learn this, of course, from a ...

 Happy Top Ten Tuesday! Stuck writing on my phone again, so we'll see what I can do. I'm going to post covers with color/color schemes I like--mainly shades of blue and teal with other colors mixed in. These were the only images I could upload from my phone--hopefully more later.