January and February: Best, Worst, and Most Mediocre

Hi everyone! Since I never seem to write normal chronological monthly wrap-ups in a timely fashion, I thought this time I would just split up what I've read so far into a few fun categories, and tell you what I think of those book as they pertain to that category.

This time, our categories are:

1. I Read it For the Discourse (or: worst reads)
2. Mid, but I Liked it For That (not to be confused with Mid, And That's an Unforgivable Crime)
3. Good Reads
   
4. I am So So Normal (or: best reads)
   

Let's begin with the worst.

The Emilie Adventures by Martha Wells: A Delight!

Ooh, she's back at it again, reading Martha Wells' reissues as ARCs. She's crazy!

Rating: 4/5 stars

Read: January 9th - January 13th

Because I'm Martha Wells #1 True Fan, I knew that she had written a YA duology, and I suspected even before it was announced that said YA duology would be republished as part of her six-book deal with Tor. But that being said, I do feel like the Emilie Adventures are bit obscure even to readers of Martha Wells' fantasy (which is obviously a bit obscure to people who have only read the Murderbot Diaries). But if you like Martha Wells' fantasy, I think you'll find a lot to like here. And actually, I also think these books will be really enjoyable for fans of T. Kingfisher, Frances Hardinge, Diana Wynne Jones, and Studio Ghibli (specifically, Castle in the Sky was the movie I thought about the most while reading. I think it was the airships).

Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman

I read somewhere* that one of the original titles that Rachel Hartman was considering for this book was Drachomachia, and I'm honestly a little sad that we didn't get that title. It would have been so cool! I've read this book and I still don't know what the actual title is meant to be referencing!

Anyway. I haven't written a review of Seraphina yet (it was one of the books I read in December; if we're lucky maybe I'll do some kind of wrap-up but I'm considering kind of abandoning wrap-ups since they're not the most fun for me to write? I already haven't written one in yay these many moons) but I finished Shadow Scale a few days ago and I've been thinking about it ever since. So here we go: my first review of the year shall be the first book I read in 2025.

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.