Thursday Update
Starting This Week
The Encanto’s Daughter by Melissa de la Cruz
A young woman has been hiding in the real world. She has not told her friends that she is half encanto, and she must return to the king’s court as she stands in line for the throne. The magical court is objecting to her being half-human and not full encanto.
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Olive Smith is a three-year Ph.D. student and she doesn’t believe in love until she agrees on a dare to go out with the first man she kisses. The man happens to be a hot young professor.
Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
Otto finds a note from eighty-three year old Etta. Etta has left the Saskatchewan farmhouse to walk across the country to the ocean. Etta wants the adventure she did not have before.
Continuing This Week
The Navigator of New York by Wayne Johnston
A young boy is growing up. He does not know his parents, but he is determined find out more about his father. He sets off gathering clues left behind, but also finding a place for himself in late 1800s.
Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
After his divorce, Toby Fleishman is looking for a new start in the online-dating, but when his ex-wife disappears, he begins to piece together what actually happened to his marriage.
Mystery of the Week
A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The book that introduces the characters Sherlock Holmes and Watson, the crime solving duo who will go on to many investigations, leading to stage, film and television adaptations more than 100 years later.
Posted: Thursday, March 27, 2025
Thursday Update
Starting This Week
The Odyssey by Homer
The Classical Greek story that follows the battles in The Iliad. King Odysseus returns home after 10 years in the Trojan war to find the Queen has suitors at her door. This is the return journey where he visits many lands and encounters magical and mythical beings. There are many beautiful editions with new translations. I just have the slim Dover Thrift Edition.
The Navigator of New York by Wayne Johnston
The story of an adventurer of a man who left his family in Newfoundland to obtain funding and support for his voyage to the Arctic. It is told from the point of view of his son as he grows up and begins to ask questions about his parents. It is set in the late 19th century.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
The first prequel to The Hunger Games trilogy that is told from the point of view of 18-year-old Snow. How did the villain become who he is later in life when he presides over the tournament when Katniss Everdeen joins the fight?
Continuing This Week
The Theory of Crows by David Robertson
A father dealing with mental health challenges that affects his work and family life. He struggles to have a relationship with his daughter during her teen years. There is also the role of Indigenous traditions on their family.
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
The first book of an epic fantasy adventure series that I have read I was younger and would like to revisit now that I have an genre that I read extensively as a teenager but took a break while in college.
Completed This Week
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
This is the story about how the hobbits and dwarves gather together and prepare to set out on their journey to Mordor. It takes numerous chapters to set the stage and introduce the cast of characters. Then the adventure begins at the end of the volume.
Posted: Thursday, March 20, 2025
Thursday Update
Posted Thursday, March 13, 2025
Starting This Week
Fire Season by Leyna Krow
It is 1889 at Spokane Falls. A fire has damaged a town and there are opportunists ready to take advantage of the situation for their own benefit. Barton Heydale is the manager of the only bank in town who somehow survives and Quake Auchenbaucher is a con man hired to investigate the fire. Roslyn Beck has the ability to see into the future which leads her to drink.
dandilion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew
Lily was 11 years old when her mother walked away. Fast forward a number of years and Lily is now a mother herself. She is determined to find out what happened to her mother Swee Hua. Lily grew up in a small town in British Columbia with only a handful of Asian families. Her family remains silent on the past, but an old family friend provides a clue to her mother’s disapperance.
Continuing This Week
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
Bree is mourning the death of her mother. She finds solace being part of a boarding school program for high schoolers that has a secret club that has the task of hunting magical creatures. The story was inspired by King Arthur and the Roundtable, written from the perspective of an American Black teenager.
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Time has passed since the adventures in the Hobbit, and it is time to travel again to the land of Mordor. It is a journey that Frodo takes in the company of hobbits and dwarves to confront the danger with the assistance from the power of the ring that demands a price from those who choose to wield it. This is a journey through the forests and fields to reach their destination.
Completed This Week
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Blue is a young woman living in a small town outside Baltimore. She lives with her mother and aunts who are psychics. In a ritual, Blue is warned away from the boys in town who attend a prestigious school. The book explores the social dynamic among the group of boys as wealth and status figures into their friendships. The magic is derived from astrology, Welsh mythology, and American imagery.
Monday Update
Posted Monday, March 10, 2025
Book Series I Have Started and Volumes Read
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
The Game of Thrones
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Machineries of Empire by Yoon Ha Lee
Ninefox Gambit
Red Rising Saga by Pierce Brown
Red Rising
Shadow and Bone Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo
Shadow and Bone
The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare
Clockwork Angel
The October Day Series by Seanan McGuire
Rosemary and Rue
A Local Habitation
Shadows of Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Empire in Black and Gold
Chronicles of Elantra by Michelle Sagara
Cast in Shadow
Cast in Courtight
Cast in Secret
Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas
Throne of Glass
Posted Thursday, March 6, 2025
Starting This Week
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
Alessandra Cecci is 14 years old living in Medici Florence. Her father is a cloth merchant. One day he brings a young painter to paint the walls of the family chapel. At a time when the monk Savonarola holds sway, there is something about the work of the painter that awakens desire.
The Future by Catherine Leroux
In an alternate history of the city of Detroit, a grandmother looks for clues for her missing granddaughters. Her search takes her to the Parc Rouge where the abandoned children have made their own society.
The Wars by Timothy Findley
At 19 years old, Robert Ross joins the army after the death of his older sister. He is pulled into the war that was supposed to end all wars – World War I. A beloved Canadian novel, the author received the Governor General’s Award for this book.
Completed This Week
Klee Wyck by Emily Carr
Better known for her work as a painter, Emily Carr was also an award-winning author. Klee Wyck was her first book in a series of memoirs. This one is about the time Carr spent with Indigenous communities on the West Coast, and how she was given the name Klee Wyck.
Continuing This Week
Ash and Blood by Jennifer Armentrout
The first book in a series that follows Poppy chosen as the Maiden to hold a sacred duty in a society where there is politics at play. Her goal is to find the ones responsible for the demise of her family. Raised for a certain destiny, the world she lives in might not be what it seems.
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