What I read in January

So... I joined all these reading challenges and haven't read what I intended, so I feel a bit... like a failure.

Then I went to see what I have actually read:

His Majesty's Dragon
The Unmapped Sea
The Long-Lost Home
The Prince and the Dressmaker
Girl Genius 4 first books
Norah
Daphne
The Gilded Wolves
The Prince's Captive Virgin (DNF)
Simon Thorn and the Wolf's Den (DNF)
The Missing of Clairdelune
A Room of One's Own
The Christmasaurus
Daughter of Smoke and Bone,
Days of Blood and Starlight
Dreams of Gods and Monsters
Mariel of Redwall
The Medallion
Carter and Lovecraft
A Pilgrimage of Swords


That's 5953 pages, plus Girl Genius that I didn't include and the DNFs. About 200 pages a day. Not bad.
I just wish I had read what I planned to read :-D

I was SUPPOSED to read
The Great and Terrible Beauty
Winter of the Witch
Catcher in the Rye
I Capture the Castle
The Talisman
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
Satanic Mechanic
Murder at the Grand Raj Palace (and the previous titles; The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra; The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown; The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star; and Inspector Chopra and the Million-Dollar Motor Car)
Foundrysite
The Ninth Rain
The Bitter Twins
The Poison Song
Priest of Lies
The Poppy War
The Dragon Republic
The Night Circus
The Starless Sea
Ninth House

I'm currently reading
White Fragility
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story
Anna Karenina
Beloved
After Alice
The Essex Serpent


WORST BOOKS

Now, the worst book hands down was Norah. It was even worse than the DNF books and Medallion, which was pretty bad.

What made Norah the worst was the emotional abuse Norah put Seamus through for no acceptable reason, and that was supposed to be OK, we were supposed to feel for her... One of my most hated tropes: a woman is right because she's a woman, not because she's right.

The Prince's Captive Virgin had a bit of that, too, but it was mostly: "A teen-aged woman who knows nothing about anything schools all the adults around her about proper morals, ethics, habits, values, standards, and manners, is wrong about everything and people look at her as if she was so very wise and amazing." Aka YA Mary-Sue.
I didn't wait for everyone to fall in love with her simply because she's Mary-Sue. I especially hate it when the authors makes someone else's employees fawn for this girl. For no other reason than they can see immediately what a suberb human being Mary-Sue is. She just has this air of loveliness, as if Maleficent had put a spell on her that makes everyone love her.
Probably someone was going to take liberties with her because she's just so irresistible. Because men are like that. Sex crazy.
Probably this someone has a girlfriend who is being nasty to this girl, just because she's a bitch. That the author makes her boyfriend/husband unfaithful to her has nothing to do with anything, because she should KNOW Mary-Sue is so above her and her stupid boyfriend that she has nothing to worry about, and also, if she was any good, she'd see Mary-Sue's amazing qualities and would love her. The fact that she doesn't shows just what a stupid, conceited, self-centered, evil bitch she is.
Another trope in this book that made me DNF it is the "Americans know best". We have this young college student who goes to Europe to explain how life and world works for the stupid savages degenerates. Oh, we are SOOOO grateful, oh wise USonian, let us worship the ground you walk on and change our degenerate ways. Not.

Simon Thorn and the Wolf's Den was DNF because of yet another trope hate of mine. A child thinks he knows best, adults are stupid, acts rashly, disobeys, causes plot problems, makes everything harder, and we are supposed to see him as a hero. No. I don't want asshole kids like that in my life. So DNF. Next.

The Medallion was bad because... Uh. Unbelievable plots, unlikable characters, boring story.

And then Christmasaurus. Bullying. Oversimplified solutions to problems. Someone dies and everyone's happy. What?

BEST BOOKS

Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy - that was amazing. I really loved it. There were some stupid bits, like "why the heck don't people communicate!!!", but all in all it was lovely. I even liked the ending.

His Majesty's Dragon - wonderful. I adore the relationship of the dragon and his man. And I love the dragon. Temeraire is... the best. The best dragon ever. Better than Saphira and Falcor. (Now, why did they rename Fuchur is beyond me. What's wrong with Fuchur? That's still his name in the Finnish and Swedish translation. Is it because English speakers would have pronounced the name "fucker"? They could have remedied that by naming him Foochur.)

The Prince and the Dressmaker - this one was delightful! Absolutely delightful!

Now, The Gilded Wolves and The Missing of Clairdelune were good, too. Not the best books I read in January, because The Wolves have some problems and Clairdelune is #2 in a quadrology. So, how ever good it is, it gets valued up or down depending on the last two books, and I have heard #2 is the best in the series... That kind of scares me a bit. (Now, Wolves is the first of a series as well, so it should also be judged after having read the rest of the series...)

I like the Incorrigible Children series (even though it makes me very, very sad to know Katherine Kellgren is dead, and now that will always be associated with the series and make me very, very sad every time I think about the books.) But it too has some problems that makes it not my favorite.

A Room of One's Own is, of course, in a category of one's own :-D

P.S: Best and worst couples of January 2020 :-D
Best couple: Ziri and Liraz <3 p="">Worst couple: Norah and Seamus

more reading challenges...

really, these lists are enough to choke a cow...

Now, this is not a reading challenge, though if it was, it would really be challenging, as most people do not read a book a day... but you could do a buddy read - you list these things, and then read each other's lists:

Reading challenge for beginners by Picking Daisies

• A book with a color in the title
• A book from the year that you were born
• A book turned TV show you’ve seen but haven’t read
• An award-winning book
• A book based on a true story
• A self-help book
• A coming of age book
• A dystopian book
• A book written by a deceased author
• A book with one-word title
• A book more than 600 pages
• A celebrity memoir
• A book with a number in the title
• A book written by somebody under 30
• A staff pick at your favorite bookstore
• A book with a place in the title
• A book with a person’s name in the title
• A book written by a woman and features a male protagonist
• A book published in 1995
• The first book by a favorite author

Around The Year in 52 books 2019

A book that was nominated for or won an award in a genre you enjoy
A book with one of the 5 Ws in the title (who, what, when, why, where)
A book by an author whose name contains A, T, and Y
A book with a criminal character
A book written or inspired by Shakespeare
A book with a dual timeline
Book 1 of 2 books related to the same topic, genre or theme
Book 2 of 2 books related to the same topic, genre or theme
A book from one of the top 5 money making genres (romance/erotica - crime/mystery - religious/inspirational - Scifi/fantasy - horror)
A book featuring a historical figure
A book related to one of the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig)
A book about reading, books, author/writer
A book from a New York Public Library Staff Picks list
A book with a title, subtitle, or cover related to an astronomical term
A book by an author from, or set in a Mediterranean country (Spain, Gibraltar, France, Monaco, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Cyprus, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco)
A book told from multiple perspectives
A speculative fiction
A book related to one of the elements on the periodic table of elements
A book by an author who has more than one book on your TBR
A book featuring indigenous people
A book for a suggestion from the ATY 2019 polls that was polarizing or a close call
A book with a number in the title or on the cover
Book 1 of 4 books inspired by the wedding rhyme (something old)
Book 2 of 4 books inspired by the wedding rhyme (something new)
Book 3 of 4 books inspired by the wedding rhyme (something borrowed)
Book 4 of 4 books inspired by the wedding rhyme (something blue)
A book from the 1001 books to read before you die list  (according to whom? Take any list of this kind.)
A book related to something cold
A book published before 1950
A book featuring an elderly character
A children's classic you've never read (remember, "a classic is a book the author of which have died, but it's still much read and loved today".)
A book with more than 500 pages
A book you have owned for at least a year but haven't read
A book with a person's name in the title
A psychological thriller
A book featured on an NPR Best Books of the Year list
A book set in a school or university
A book not written in traditional novel format
A book with a strong sense of place or where the author brings the location/setting to life
A book you stumbled upon
A book from the 2018 GoodReads Choice Awards
A book with a monster or monstrous character
A book related to STEM
A book related in some way to a TV show/series or movie you enjoyed
A multi-generational saga
A book with a mostly black cover
A book related to food
A National Book Award finalist or winner from any year
A book written by an author from or set in "Far East"
A book that includes a journey
A book published in 2019
A book with a weird or intriguing title

This is the 2020 list:

1. A book with a title that doesn't contain the letters A, T or Y
2. A book by an author whose last name is one syllable
3. A book that you are prompted to read because of something you read in 2019
4. A book set in a place or time that you wouldn't want to live
5. The first book in a series that you have not started
6. A book with a mode of transportation on the cover
7. A book set in the southern hemisphere
8. A book with a two-word title where the first word is "The"
9. A book that can be read in a day
10. A book that is between 400-600 pages
11. A book originally published in a year that is a prime number
(I'll have only 20th and 21st century here: 1901, 1907, 1913, 1931, 1933, 1949, 1951, 1973, 1979, 1987, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2011, 2017)
12. A book that is a collaboration between 2 or more people
13. A prompt from a previous Around the Year in 52 Books challenge
14. A book by an author on the Abe List of 100 Essential Female Writers *
15. A book set in a global city
16. A book set in a rural or sparsely populated area
17. A book with a neurodiverse character
18. A book by an author you've only read once before
19. A fantasy book
20. The 20th book [on your TBR, in a series, by an author, on a list, etc.]
21. A book related to Maximilian Hell, the noted astronomer and Jesuit Priest who was born in 1720
22. A book with the major theme of survival
23. A book featuring an LGBTQIA+ character or by an LGBTQIA+ author
24. A book with an emotion in the title
25. A book related to the arts
26. A book from the 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards
27. A history or historical fiction
28. A book by an Australian, Canadian or New Zealand author
29. An underrated book, a hidden gem or a lesser known book
30. A book from the New York Times '100 Notable Books' list for any year
31. A book inspired by a leading news story
32. A book related to the 2020 Olympic Summer Games in Japan
33. A book about a non-traditional family
34. A book from a genre or sub genre that starts with a letter in your name (Ouch... That perhaps has to be Urban Fantasy and Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs, which is on my TBR list... But dang it was hard to find genres with a letter in my name! (Except, of course, romance novels. But I'd rather read urban fantasy than romance novel. Or realistic fiction, or theological fiction. Though I like Narnia books. And Shusaku Endo's Fantastic Fool, and they are both classified as theological fiction... I hate Walter Wangerin, though)
35. A book with a geometric pattern or element on the cover
36. A book from your TBR/wishlist that you don't recognize, recall putting there, or put there on a whim
37. Two books that are related to each other as a pair of binary opposites: Book #1
38. Two books that are related to each other as a pair of binary opposites: Book #2
39. A book by an author whose real name(s) you're not quite sure how to pronounce
40. A book with a place name in the title
41. A mystery
42. A book that was nominated for one of the ‘10 Most Coveted Literary Prizes in the World’ (I don't think those are the 10 most coveted literary prizes in the world. Nobel, Booker, Pulitzer, Hugo and Neustadt, yes, but the rest... never heard of. I covet Astrid Lindgren and Hans Andersen more, and of course the Finlandia, but that I would replace with the "most know literary prize in your country". I suggest: The Folio Prize and David Cohen Prize for Literature
43. A book related to one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse [Pestilence (or Conquest), War, Famine and Death (or Plague)]
44. A book related to witches
45. A book by the same author who wrote one of your best reads in 2019 or 2018
46. A book about an event or era in history taken from the Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire"
47. A classic book you've always meant to read
48. A book published in 2020
49. A book that fits a prompt from the list of suggestions that didn't win
50. A book with a silhouette on the cover
51. A book with an "-ing" word in the title
52. A book related to time

* check out Joey's list of 51 Famous Female Authors who made the world beautiful with their writings
A wonderful list! Well worth reading these authors :-)

**2019 READING STATS**

as by Jamie the Perpetual Pageturner

Number Of Books You Read: 310
Number of Re-Reads: 24
Genre You Read The Most From: Fantasy



1. Best Book You Read In 2019?

A lot of good books, but I think Akata Witch stands out. The sequel didn't disappoint either.

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

Shadow of Night. I hated it. No love for that one from me.

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter. The premise, the idea, is so amazing, but I hate all the characters and I hate her style of writing. And I hate it more because I LOVE the idea! Even the name is amazing!

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read? 

Awakening. Definitely good way. Among the best books I read this year.

 4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?

Book of Sorrows. Unfortunately. So much hype, I was so, so happy when I realized one of my all time favorite books have a sequel, and I bought it and borrowed to my sister before I had read it and... it is awful. It is so, so aptly named. I wish I had never known about it, nor read it, and definitely I wish I had saved my sister from it.

Another book I "pushed" (I really wanted my husband to read it and was really happy when he did and liked it! But that's the amount of pushing I do :-D) was The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place. That series is one of the bright points of this year!

 5. Best series you started in 2019? Best Sequel of 2019? Best Series Ender of 2019?

A Series of Unfortunate Events. Amazing! and All The Wrong Questions, heartbreaking but still good. I really can't choose between these two...

Best sequel: Akata Warrior

Best series ender: I think I'll give that honor to Ruin and Rising. Not that it was my favorites, but it wrapped the series up pretty nicely.

Worst series:
All Souls Trilogy. Yuk. Won't finish that, don't even care what happens in the second book. The beginning of that piece of crap was so upsetting and disappointing, I'll probably never read another book of hers.

Legacy of Orisha. Blah. I read the first book, but it wasn't worth all the hype. It's not bad, but it isn't good either.
Worst sequel - I think Shadow of Night beats The Book of Sorrows, just because the Book of Sorrows at least made some sense.

 6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2019?

Oh... N.K.Jemisin.

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

Well... there really wasn't much books out of my comfort zone, I'm pretty omnivorous, but I don't usually read horror, and The Haunting of Hill House and Shirley Jackson, that was a treat.

 8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

All the Wrong Questions

 9. Book You Read In 2019 That You Would Be MOST Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

Most likely? The ones I always reread; Narnia books, Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising and Emily of the New Moon. If there's anything new I read that might become a book like that, it's Louisa May Alcott's Jack and Jill.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2019?

Pride. That cover is amazing! Unfortunately the story itself isn't.

11. Most memorable character of 2019?

Cassiowoo from The Incorrigible Children

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2019?

 The Little White Horse? No,  Odd and the Frost Giants

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2019?

The Fifth Season

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2019 to finally read?

Ystävät hämärän jälkeen has been in my bookshelf since 2010
The Mysterious Howling has been on my "want to read this" since 2009
Series of Unfortunate Events since 2002
The Wheel of Time series... my husband was reading them in the late 90s, early 00s
Sorcery and Cecilia has been on my Amazon wish list since... I created it. Late 90s
I started reading The Golden Tulip back in 1992

 15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2019?

“Being useful to others is not the same thing as being equal.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Obelisk Gate

“...she's wearing a thick brown-fur vest that hangs to her ankles. The vest sort of makes her look like a small, yet fashionable bear”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2019?

Shortest: The Door 5 pages
Longest: Atlas Shrugged 1168 pages

17. Book That Shocked You The Most

Either Book of Sorrows, Perdito Street Station or The Island of Dr Moreau

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)

Alina and Mal from The Shadow and Bone trilogy
19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

The wolf cubs and their governess in The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2019 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

Odd and Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

21. Best Book You Read In 2019 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure/Bookstagram, Etc.:

The Word for the World is Forest

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2019?

Archibald from La Passe-Miroir. I am SO SCARED he turns out to be a villain!

23. Best 2019 debut you read?

I didn't read any 2019 debuts.
The newest books I read were from 2018, The Poppy War, Children of Blood and Bone, Becoming  and Pride, and the only one I liked was Michelle Obama's Becoming :-D
Of the authors I haven't read before, I liked these:
Mary Ann Shaffer
Nnedi Okorafor
Patricia Polacco
Shirley Jackson
N.K.Jemisin
Kurt Vonnegut
John Ajvide Lindqvist


24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

The Little White Horse

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

The Mysterious Howling - but there were a couple fun books there

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2019?

The book that made me bawl was The Book of Sorrows.
And it was not a nice cry.

He killed a baby coyote. In a stampede. And the baby coyote died because he was stuck in his mothers mouth, because the mother went to rescue him and was carrying him, when the stampede killed her, and he couldn't get away, and was crushed, and the deer that crushed him killed himself because he couldn't not hear and feel the pup under his feet.
And he sacrificed this pup and his mother just to have his father/her husband forgive the main character and thus save his soul.
I hate Walter Wangerin Jr.
I hate Christian theology.

I also cried (a good cry) with the Little White Horse, Christmas Day In The Morning, Ruin and Rising  (that one made my husband glare at the book :-D), The Antelope Wife, Perdido Street Station, The Fifth Season, The Left Hand of Darkness, Of Mice and Men,  and All the Wrong Questions.

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Christmas Day in the Morning was also a jewel.

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

Book of Sorrows in a bad way, All the Wrong Questions in a good way

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2019?

In Calabria
Perdido Street Station
The Island of Doctor Moreau
The Door
The Lottery
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

The Book of Sorrows. The Goldfinch is up there as well, as is Shadow of Night.
In this case it means I didn't like them. The Book of Sorrows because it was horrible and made me feel awful and sad; Shadow of Night because it was such a huge letdown and Goldfinch because so many people praise it and it's crap.


Looking Ahead:

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2019 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2020?

Not really... The Winter of the Witch just came out, and is on my to-read list (with some 1000 other books), I'm a bit surprised of that I haven't read the Broken Earth trilogy yet, I did have a long list of books I wanted to read, but DAMNED BLOGGER ATE IT and - uh. C'est la vie.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2020 (non-debut)?

Neil Gaiman's Seven Sisters.

3. 2020 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

I'm not that informed about debut novels to be anticipating anything, but Simon Jimenez' the Vanishing Birds sounds intriguing.

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2020?

Seven sisters.

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading Life In 2020?

I hope to double my read books because I manage to read every day, and not like now, a lot in April and November and nothing much outside that :-D