This book opens with one of my favorite passages ever. It's a short story all on it's own.

“You‘ve been standing here staring at that flower shop for fifteen minutes. So is it for her birthday or anniversary, or are you making up for a fight? Because I‘ve been married for thirty-two years, and believe me, there are different bouquets for different occasions.”

(cont)

More rereads of another series I utterly adore.

It's single-point of view, which is perfect for the arc across the books. Not only does Cooper change, but you watch how he views Park change as well. In the 1st book he thinks Park is all but perfect. By the end of the 2nd, we see Cooper realize Park is also flawed, but it helps rather than hurts their relationship.

Also, we get a fantastic mental health arc.

Then Martin had turned them to a kitchen supply store and Arthur had nearly died as he wondered how many restaurant-quality pans he could fit in his luggage and how much of his 401k he could spend on knives. And how many knives could he put in his luggage before the TSA got annoyed?

The children‘s section had its own entrance, but Martin had always encouraged them to go up the marble stairs and push open the grand doors. He never wanted them in the habit of sneaking in a side door when they could go through the front.

“Do you have anyone running a Super Bowl pool up here?“ Arthur hated football but he couldn't handle another sideways promotion, even if that meant sticking his head up.

“Agent Sims used to do it, but he bashed a fax machine to death with a three-hole punch, then quit. So, that's an open position, as it were.“

I did a comfort reread to spend time with some of my favorite characters.

An ace romance that on the surface seems nothing like a romance, yet it's absolutely a romance.

“I'm sure there's a culture somewhere where silently shoving finger food at someone is an acceptable form of courting. Hobbits maybe.“
“I'm not-“
“Yes, you are and it's adorable.

“Him and Damian and the flower guy—”

“Who the f@@@ is the flower guy?” Redd says.

“I dunno—he‘s one of yours from the Burial Grounds . . . Magnolia Fred? Hyacinth Bob?”

“Forsyth Charles,” I say.

“Oh my God,” Redd says. “Your mind is a very strange place, Jimmy.”

I actually hadn't listened to the audio of this, although I'd read the book when it came out.

I must have missed So! Much! when I read it, as so much of it is the battle, and that's the kind of detail my eyes skim without my permission.

I'd also like to point out how AMAZING this cover is.

I adore Kia.

“I mute the TV—you have to stand up and turn the remote at some hypotenuse-ass angle while pressing the button eighteen million times to get it to work.“

Another slew of rereads; I can't believe this isn't available most places anymore.

Fantastic world building (half-alive guy who works for the dead), and gorgeous writing. This book has one of my favorite “throw-away scenes“ ever, a girl & her grandfather playing Uno in the background, it could be taken away with no loss to the story, but it's just delightful and tells you about the neighborhood.

The eight-year-old giggles every time her abuelo picks up a card. ... The old man fusses with his mustache, furrows his brow, and then picks a card. And then another. “Chingada madre,” he mutters as the laughter continues unabated across the table. “Mierda.” Finally, he puts down one with a sigh and the girl gets real serious, scrunches up her face, and draws a card, then slams it down, yells, “Uno!” again, and resumes laughing.

To be clear, I enjoyed this book, but there were a lot of fight scenes, and since I can't picture things in my mind, I skimmed them (Not the fault of the book.)
As with many of my favorite books, there is a good deal of history you don't normally come across, from the British opium trade in China to Chinese Labour Corps during the great war.

The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael continues as my bedtime reading. This is another favorite in that series.
I love the deep dive into theology and heresy.

The Lily Adler mysteries, narrated by Henrietta Meire.
I've listened to The Body in the Garden, Silence in the Library, and Death at the Manor, all while cleaning and wrapping gifts etc, I very much love this series, although the narrator is ... fine. Not great, but I don't hate the narration.
This series has excellent rep, with characters you don't typically find in historicals.

Comfort reread.
Impoverished lady. Secondary romance. Cursing in French. PTSD. Carriage sickness.
This book is perfect when I'm unfocused and/or unhappy.

I mistook this for a cozy mystery, not a romance, when I picked it off my TBR. (That's on me and the marketing department, not the author).
It's possible I didn't enjoy this as much because I was expecting / wanting something else, but I just didn't care about the characters.

We pick series for car trips, and since husband hadn't read Blitz, we're working our way through the Checqay series (which I've listened to several times). This series is SO GOOD though I prefer Susan Duerden's narration to Moira Quirk's.

So many parts of this series make me giggle.

My preference tends to be for working class/middle class characters, and I love books with non-WASP characters. This had both!
It also had found family, a dressmaker, and the supernatural craze that followed the death of Prince Albert.

This is another story that I wanted to love, but was mostly just ok about. For more than half the book I struggled to tell Ned and Julian apart. I literally could not keep who was who straight in my head.

Again, it was disappointing because I thought the mystery was pretty good, and I appreciated that the boinking was closed door. But I got thrown out so many times trying to remember which was the magician and which was the detective.

Like the first book in this series, I wanted to love this story but I never quite believed in the feelings the main characters had for each other. Theo finds Sheldon annoying at the start, and I never quite believe it when he is supposed to have moved past that.

Which is too bad because I like both characters very much; I just never quite felt more than a superficial attraction between them.

My bedtime reading is still Ellis Peter's The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, which is so very comforting: historical mysteries but there is always a romance (not involving Cadfael, the monk).

Cadfael as a character is one of my all-time favorites, as he remains kind and generous despite his years at war.

I've been (re)listening to Patricia Brigg's Alpha & Omega series, narrated by Holter Graham. So far: Cry Wolf, Hunting Ground, Dead Heat, and Fair Game.

I think Dead Heat is my fav of the series, with Fair Game a close second. The background story arcs of politics and the supernatural are fascinating.

I'm willing to give most stories with an ace character a chance, so despite a bunch of other tropes I don't much like, I picked this up.

My favorite character was the grandmother, and I really want to read the mystery series Cedric wrote.

But I really don't much care of stories with super rich characters and I really disliked Cedric's brother and the way he treated Vince. so the whole thing was a bit of a wash for me.

Comfort read. Hot drinks, baked goods, and people becoming more than they once were.

* Viv sighed. “I‘ve lived a long time knowing I‘m a threat walking. I‘d rather that wasn‘t the shape of it for you.” *

Romance with middle-aged protagonists!

I enjoy these books, I just wish the boinking bits were a little easier to skip. (That is a *ME* thing, not an issue with the book. But given the option, I'll always prefer books without boinking.)

Last winter we got two Kat Holloway novellas, so I'd my fingers crossed for one this winter, and snatched up this when it came out.

This series hits the sweet spot of historical with food and a savvy and smart heroine, and the novellas are a lovely nibble to tide me over until the next book.

I love the snark in this series so very much.

“And whereas in the enlightened twenty-first century the marriage of a British aristocrat to a Person of Colour is a wholly unremarkable thing that results in no hostility whatsoever, in the bad old days of the 1800s it caused quite a scandal.“

There is so much I like and enjoy about this series: the characters, the mystery, the books.

But Nora does so many really stupid things, I just want to scream at her.

So: glad I borrowed it from the library.

For comfort, I recently reread the entire Murderbot series.

I finished the last book and wanted to immediately start the first one over.

“I closed the story by reflex, like that would make it not exist. After three seconds of shock, I made myself open it again.“

“Disinformation, which is the same as lying but for some reason has a different name, is the top tactic in corporate negotiation/warfare.“

Audiobook narrated by Patricia Santomasso

Because I haven't been able to bear to listen to the news since last spring, I've been listening to a lot of audiobooks (ie books I've already read) this was fun, and although I wondered a bit at some of the accents, the narration was enjoyable, and I was reminded just how good these stories are.

The House in the Cerulean Sea was a balm when it came out, a hug in a dark time, so I had pretty high expectations of Somewhere Beyond the Sea.
Sadly, it didn't meet those expectations.
Instead of Linus on a journey of growth & discovery, the bad guys here are flat & 1-dimensional, with no possibility of redemption.
It felt like wish fulfillment: the bad guys--standing in for 2024 bad guys--existing only to be smashed down.
I missed the growth.

I meant to grab this when it came out, but blanked. When I saw it recently I snatched it up & quickly read it as a antidote to my reading slump.
It was marvelous.
Gus was a delight; I liked seeing Nightingale young & carefree (even tho from more distance than usual), & queer 1920s NY was fantastic--I squeed with every every jazz musician name drop.
Even better, he's finally made it clear Nightingale is ace, which made me love him more.

The first version has been a favorite reread for me. I adore everything about Edwin. But Marius, and Chasing the Light were a bit of a struggle for me. Marius lashes out at people, which is a trait I don't like to be around, and casual sex never works for me (it's a me thing) but eventually I finished it, and was glad I did. It was good to learn about Marius, but I don't think I want to spend more time with him.

I

Ridiculous!
Small Vices by Robert B. Parker: 4 read/4 listen (since 2004)
Grilled Cheese & Goblins by Nicole Kimberling: 5
Joy by C.S. Poe: 7

Series
Banquet of Lies (Recency London) by Michelle Diener: 7
Murderbot by Martha Wells: 2 read/3 listen
An Unseen Attraction (Sins of the Cities) KJ Charles: 5

Novella
Jericho Candelario's Gay Debut by R. Cooper: 6
And Everything Nice by Ada Maria Soto: 6
Loud & Clear by Aidan Wayne: 6

Third book in the series. Lady Helena is getting ready to come out of mourning, much happens to distract her: her nephew getting into trouble, her older sister being demanding, the death of her friend's father, the visit of a cousin, and much more.
It sounds like a lot, but most characters are familiar from previous books, as are some of the threads.

Now I must wait years for the next book.

audio book, narrated by Moira Quirk

Most of my audio listens are to books I've already read. This is a series that is perfect for an audio reread--action and adventure to keep me moving and amusement to keep me laughing.

Another reread. This is just a nice comforting cozy series. I like both main characters, the mysteries aren't bad, and I like the perspective Adam--a teacher--brings to the series.

You‘ve been gallivanting around, mixing yourself up with suicides and pox-ridden servants and adulterers and that French physician who turns out to be a duke. Your remarks about my dear boy show that this irregular life of yours is coarsening your fibers.

Two ladies came in, dressed very smart. They explained that the baby was not dead, that he was in the care of the government, and that there would be some more duties for me here at the hospital. If I took on those duties and kept it all secret, then I would receive a good deal of money and the gratitude of the nation. If I didn‘t—well, they never actually said what would happen. But I understood it wouldn‘t be nearly as nice.

“I want to leave on a high, not sneak away in shame like the Colts out of Baltimore.“

Several months ago I remembered most of this quote, but could not for the life of me remember the book. I was convinced it was an early Spenser.

I am weirdly thrilled I finally figured out what the book was.

(I enjoyed this series and wish there were more books.)

To make up for bizarre cover I just shared, here is the cover of a new book I absolutely love.

The covers in this series are all distinct, yet also clearly part of a series: black silhouette in front a washed out silhouette of a building, with a single color wash for everything & a floral border.

& I believe these are self-published, so she has made an effort.

I think it's lovely & eye-catching.

Artist: Rachel Lawston

Often when I glance at a cover thumbnail, I see something that isn't there. Sometimes I am not sure what I am supposed to be seeing.

I think the gentleman on this cover has knees that begin immediately below his chest.

“That's enough.“

This was the 2nd Talia Hibbert book I read &, and I read it prior to my own neurodiversity diagnoses.
So. Much. Highlighted. Text.
I mean
“Now she didn‘t know if she should laugh or gasp. She compromised by choking on her own spit.“
“Being around people who were supposedly ‘normal‘ made her feel abnormal.“
“She wasn‘t graceful. She was, in fact, the opposite of graceful.“

I was conflicted the first time I read this. I wanted to love it, but didn't.

The 1st issue is we didn't learn anything about the Wonder Engines, so the whole underlying plot was unfulfilling. The 2nd problem is I didn't believe all Galen & Piper's actions. Galen not telling Piper about his sleep issues? No. And the resolution to their relationship problems? I felt offended on Piper's behalf.

Which is too bad, because LIKE Piper & Galen

Check, Please! series by Ngozi Ukazu: Pie, Hockey, & allowing yourself to be who you are

The Raven Boys series by Maggie Stifevater
“Ronan Lynch—dreamer of dreams, fighter of men, skipper of classes.“
“This is what you get, Maura, for using your DNA to make a baby,”
“Adam was his son‘s friend, & so he had inherent worth.“

Frontier Magic series by Patricia C. Wrede: Eff learns her own magic & her own way & she is not cursed

I've been looking for quotations recently, & remembered one of my favorite passages that is really an ultra short story.

The page previous Carlos walked into a Mexican Bakery.

“At the only other table in the place, an ancient mustachioed man in a Yankees cap plays Uno against an eight-year-old girl with pigtails.“

I'm trying not to reread these one right after the other.

Unfortunately, I've already almost finished “Paladin's Hope“