The Kerensa 2025 Reading Spreadsheet

Happy New Year! 

At the end of the year, one of the things I start doing is preparing my reading tracker spreadsheet for the new year. I have become a spreadsheet fiend over the last few years, mostly because of reading tracking (but have I also found excuses to work more spreadsheets into my job? Well, yes, yes I have). 

Near the end of 2023, one of my friends asked if she could use my reading tracking spreadsheet to start tracking her books as well, and I said, "Of course!" and then frantically began checking over the new spreadsheet I was making for 2024 to make sure it wasn't too esoteric and tailored to me specifically.

Now it's a new year, so I made a new spreadsheet, and now that someone else has used my spreadsheet for a year with no major mishaps I thought it could be fun to share it more broadly. So if you're in the market for a reading tracker spreadsheet, please feel free to try this one!

Ranking 2024 Releases (That I've Read)

Since I'm so dreadfully behind on actually doing monthly wrap-ups this year, I thought it might be fun to branch out into some other types of content. Like, for instance, ranking all 30 of the 2024 releases I've read this year (and last year).

This list spans fantasy, sci fi, and contemporary romance (with a random YA thriller thrown in for good measure) so it may feel a little all over the place. But that's fine. Only boring people separate their ranking lists by genre!

Let's get into it.

April 2024 Wrap-Up

(Time is fake and there are no rules to review blogs, so here is my April review, which was written late and is now being post even later)

I've decided to do two separate wrap-ups for March and April, even though I'm working on them simultaneously due to how severely I've been neglecting this blog. It's fine! This way will be better for future organization...probably? 

April and March were both slow reading months for me. April is a very busy month for me at work, and I just haven't been making time for reading lately. It is what it is.

March 2024 Wrap-Up

 Pretend I posted this on time (and not 8 months late). Don't ask when the rest of my monthly wrap-ups for this year are happening, because I don't know. I may just do some kind of big combined wrap up, IF I feel like it.

Without further ado, the 3 books I read in March.

Reactor Magazine Readers (ft. Me) Pick the Most Iconic SFF Books of the 21st Century

A couple of weeks ago, Reactor released an article about the best sci fi and fantasy books of the 21st century, as decided by the Reactor staff and various SFF authors. Following this, they put out a google form where readers could nominate their own best SFF books of the 21st century - so I decided to submit mine.

And then they actually decided to feature three of my quotes in the follow-up article! 

I'm very pleased and surprised. I saved what I wrote in the form, just for my own reference, so I thought it would be fun to share my personal list of nominations in full. Disclaimer, of course, that if I were just making a list of my personal favorites, this list would be a bit different. "Iconic" is an interesting adjective to choose for lists like these, I think, because it denotes not just personal attachment but also cultural impact. As a result, while I like all of these books, some of them might be more broadly iconic than others. All of them are iconic to me.

Let's get into it!

A Feather so Black by Lyra Selene

 

Publication Date: March 12th, 2024

Read: February 2th - March 2nd

Rating: 3/5 stars

goodreads

Maybe this book and I just have different priorities.

A Feather So Black is the story of Fia, a changeling who was left in the human realm as a child, with no memories of her past. At first, her eerie resemblance to the princess she replaced made people fear and shun her, but over time...Well, they still actually shun her, but the high queen eventually warmed up to her.

Fia has been trained in various skills by her adoptive mother's druid advisor, and we meet her when she's trying to steal a captured faerie creature from a prince. This does not go incredibly well (which is foreshadowing for my experience with this book, I suppose) but she does end up running into ROGAN, childhood friend to lover to ESTRANGED AND ANGSTY CHILDHOOD FRIEND. They have a "let's kiss in a dark corner to throw off the people who are chasing us" moment in like, chapter 2. This, perhaps more than anything, sets the tone.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

 

Publication Date: July 19th, 2001

Read: March 31st - April 4th

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

goodreads

This book was...very weird. And I truly wish I could say that with more enthusiasm.