I did the ol‘ flop-n-read this afternoon with my daily short story (a disappointing UF offering from Tor.com‘s first five years), the end of PEKING OPERA, and the start of BATTLE ROYAL. I generally like Lucy Parker a lot, but I‘m not sure I‘m in the right mood for this one. We‘ll see how it pans out.

Good news: I really like BODY AND SOUL FOOD so far! I think I prefer Abby Collette when she focuses on the community side of her cozy mysteries, and she does a lot of that here. I‘ve enjoyed meeting Keaton and Koby‘s extended family and friend group.

Time for a new book! BODY AND SOUL FOOD is my Abby Collette tiebreaker. Will I enjoy it as much as A DEADLY INSIDE SCOOP, or will I find it choppy and random like A GAME OF CONES? Stay tuned to find out!

I WILL say it‘s off to a promising start, and I love the setup. It follows twins, separated in infancy and recently reunited, who open a café bookstore together.

I made a good start on A MARVELLOUS LIGHT over soup and a lunchtime bike ride, and I think I‘m gonna like it a lot.

It‘s very snowy and very cold and I‘m very sad about it, so I‘m gonna put on my onesie and do the book & beer thing. Based on her body of work, Jackie Lau is a big beer geek, so I figure it‘s a good pairing. I‘m enjoying this IPA way more than I usually enjoy IPAs, too. Whee!

Anchee Min‘s first memoir, RED AZALEA, got me curious about Chinese operatic traditions, and this book has filled in a fair few gaps for me. The translation‘s pretty choppy, but most of the concepts still scan well enough that I feel like I‘m gaining a beginner‘s grasp on Peking opera. Next, I‘ll see if I can find any performances on YouTube.

(I also recommend the Hong Kong film PAINTED FACES, which is about a Peking opera school.)

I woke up super early and made some crumpet bread while I finished my fifth #NewYearWhoDis title. It was another good ‘un with great tension, psychological depth, and lots of period detail. (Possibly a bit too much, when it came to the fashions. I love a good outfit description, but Verity can‘t move without giving one for herself, her fellow houseguests, the person with a gun trained on her…) I‘ll look for the rest of the series. #audiobaking

I found a Tim Hortons reference for @Lindy and anyone else who collects them!

This book is great so far. Lots of funny bits; lots of relatable bits; lots of deep bits. It‘s also convinced me I need to order gourmet doughnuts from my local shop before the end of the month. (Alas, Tim Hortons does good Timbits but disappointing regular doughnuts. They never have enough icing or filling for their size.)

I knew I wanted to read fantasy next, but I went back and forth on whether I felt like a contemporary or an historical feel. Looks like contemporary won.

I‘ve reached the end of HONEY AND CLOVER. It was such a beautiful series. I‘m gonna miss it so much. 😭😭😭

I started my fourth #NewYearWhoDis book this morning! It feels mighty nice to have a goodly stack of mysteries to look forward to. I‘ve read relatively few of them these last couple years.

I finished BOMBSHELL while put in some more work on Fox Face Mitten #2! (This is the palm, which I don‘t think I‘ve shown y‘all before.) I had a great time with this story of early Victorian society women who‘ve teamed up to see justice done in situations where the law is disinclined to act. #audioknitting #NewYearWhoDis

1. I made butternut squash soup! Flavour‘s great (I used coconut milk and green curry paste), but it needs another trip through the blender before my next bowl.

2. I‘m a fair ways into BOMBSHELL, my third #NewYearWhoDis book! I really like the story, but I‘m glad I have it on audio because there‘s something about Sarah MacLean‘s prose that doesn‘t quite click for me. I recognize the technical skill, but I find it a little… breathy? #audiocooking

The Wheel of Time is far from perfect. It‘s full of stereotypes, offputting gender dynamics, and so much padding that Jordan‘s original 3-book vision turned into a 14-book behemoth.

It‘s also packed with stellar characters, intricate worldbuilding, cool magic, and intense action. And it ends SO BLOODY WELL.

I love it differently than I did when I discovered it at 12, but I DO love it. I love it very, very much.

5 stars for the epic conclusion.

Sometimes you forget to resuspend your holds and you end up with four more novels than you intended to borrow. Thank goodness I no longer have a TBR so I can actually hope to get through all the non-renewables before the due date.

I AM excited about this lot, especially the final two vols of HONEY AND CLOVER and the two books from @Laughterhp ‘s #NewYearWhoDis list (tagged and COFFIN ROAD).

The Canada Reads Longlist is out! WASHINGTON BLACK is the only one I‘ve read, but I now have all the others on hold. Here‘s hoping none of the ones with 100+ people ahead of me make the final cut.

The HONEY AND CLOVER characters use the same hiccup-busting method my grandma taught me! (NB: it‘s never actually WORKED for me, but I did it all through my childhood.)

First purchase of 2022! This has been on my wishlist for ages, but it‘s expensive and it‘s the only early book in the series that‘s not in any subscription services. (Classic indie marketing technique, that.) Luckily, Kobo gave me a 50% off coupon just as I finished the last book on my library stack, so I was able to save a chunk of money AND do the get-book-read-book thing.

Pain day reading plans. I‘d love to finish A DESOLATION CALLED PEACE today, but I‘m not sure if I‘ll feel enough of a drive to read all 175 remaining pages in such a short stretch of time. I find I‘m really into the cultural stuff and the characters‘ perspectives but I‘m less engaged with the military side of the plot.

I ate some cranberry cake while I started another volume of HONEY AND CLOVER. I‘m gonna miss this series when I finish it. It‘s such a great dive into these young people‘s lives as students, job-seekers, and friends.

I made Nigella‘s cranberry upside down cake to use up some more cranberries and get some more time with A MEMORY OF LIGHT. 42-hour audiobooks take forever when you can‘t go for long-ass walks with them.

This cake always stymies me. It‘s delicious, but the cranberries WILL NOT stay where they‘re put. They always float up into the batter. I guess Canadian cranberries must be more buoyant than British cranberries or something. #audiobaking

I don‘t quite love A DESOLATION CALLED PEACE so far, but I do like it an awful lot. All the characters are so INTERESTED in everything. It makes them a joy to read about.

One content warning: Martine uses “spook” in the British sense, to mean “spy.” I understand it‘s considered a vile racial slur in the US, so the Americans among you may want to brace yourselves going in. There are a lot of spies in this book.

I crept a bit further into A MEMORY OF LIGHT while I worked on the cuff for Fox Mitten #2. I‘ve still got over half the book left, but it feels weird to think of how close I am to the end of this reread. It‘s been a journey for sure.

It‘s also been really interesting to listen to the books this time around. Jordan‘s got a lot of names that LOOK different but SOUND really similar, with Domani and damane being the most glaring. #audioknitting

And this morning, little Casimir helped me start A DESOLATION CALLED PEACE. I hope I can find the time to really sink into it today.

Tonight‘s plan: read comics. Pat Casey. Try to forget how much longer this horrible, soul-destroying winter is bound to drag on.

I wasn‘t prepared for how aggressively ALL THE FEELS lives up to its title. It‘s all about two people who learn to recognize what truly matters, invest in themselves, and defend their positions, individually and as a team. I squeed and I cried and I cannot frickin wait for Olivia Dade‘s next book. 4.5 stars

I started ALL THE FEELS last night and I‘m already halfway through! It feels mighty good to read something short(ish) and punchy again.

I got through a fair chunk while I waited for this crumpet bread to rise and bake. The recipe wasn‘t a complete success (I think I need to cut down on the flour next time), but the flavour‘s good and it made an excellent canvas for a Montreal smoked meat sandwich.

First book acquisition of 2022! The publisher kindly provided me with an ARC of QUEER SQUARE MILE, an anthology of 46 queer stories from Wales. I‘m excited to dive in.

This has a lot to recommend it, including great characters, a large variety of meaty relationships, some intense action sequences, and a cool setting. I loveloveLOVED about 300 of its 800 pages, and in the end that was enough to let me love it overall.

That said, it‘s HEAVILY padded. I get the sense Maas loves her characters and their world so much that she wants to tell the reader EVERYTHING about them. The story would‘ve flowed much better ⬇️

In case I haven‘t made it clear by now, I sometimes have uneven reactions to Maas‘s books—but I consistently love how she thanks her dog all her acknowledgments. Dogs are super important.

(Oh, and I had an unexpected block of free time this afternoon, so I DID finish the book. Full review coming soon.) #NewYearWhoDis

I finished my TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT reread yesterday while I completed the hand part of Fox Mitten #1 and started on the thumb. This book packed in the excitement, y‘all, and when I first read it in 2015 it gave me some scenes I‘d waited nineteen long years for. It‘ll always hold a special place in my heart for that. #audioknitting

I probably won‘t finish HOEAB today, but I‘m on track for tomorrow! It‘s weird; y‘all know I‘ve struggled with some aspects of it, but there were about 150 pages where I was absolutely in book-love. Alas, I‘m now back in regular old book-like, with the strong feeling this would‘ve been a fabulous 350-pager.

Also of note: I keep picturing Syrinx as Casey with a lion‘s tail, pointy ears, and a more obviously Pekingese face.

My latest attempt to use up all the cranberries took me to Nigella‘s cranberry jam recipe from FEAST. It was super simple, it‘ll keep awhile, and it left me with 50% fewer cranberries than I had when I started out. Win!

Another poorly-lit breakfast with my daily short story. I‘m on the final F&SF back issue in my stash (the Nov/Dec 2014 issue; it‘s not in Litsy‘s database), and I‘ve gotta say, the last few issues have reminded me of another reason I let these linger unread for so long: then-editor Gordon Van Gelder chose a lot of humourous SFF that punches down. It‘s cruel more often than it‘s entertaining, and it‘s often pretty durned dated to boot. Sigh.

I‘m far enough into HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD that I‘m invested in the story and the characters have grown on me, but y‘all? I really think this is a 350-400 page book trapped inside an 800-page book. I get the sense Maas has reached the popularity threshold where her editors don‘t rein her in as often as they would with a newer author or one with a smaller fanbase. So many infodumps. So much unnecessary repetition. #unpopularopinion #NewYearWhoDis

I made cranberry & white chocolate scones for breakfast. It was a durned good life choice.

I‘m finally within spitting distance of TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT‘s end, too! With any luck, I‘ll scrounge enough listening time to finish it tomorrow. (Maybe I should bake more cranberry-based stuff…) If not, it‘ll happen on Thursday. I‘m excited to reread the grande finale. #audiobaking

I‘m heading back into HONEY AND CLOVER this afternoon, with green tea and leftover vegetable curry on the side. I hope I can concentrate on it. I had my booster shot yesterday and I‘ve got some pretty thick brain fog today. Words are hard.

I‘m 100 pages into my second #NewYearWhoDis book, and while I think I‘ll like the STORY, I‘m frustrated with all the infodumps. I don‘t remember them being this extreme in Maas‘s earlier books, but maybe that‘s because she had more fish-out-of-water characters before. Here, everyone‘s lived in this world since birth, so there‘s no reason for huge explanations.

Oh, how I adored this book! Allison Montclair imbues her post-WWII mystery with pathos and psychological depth, plus top notch banter between characters you absolutely cannot wait to read more about. You‘d better bet I‘ll continue the series. #NewYearWhoDis

That‘s another reading year done. I don‘t set reading goals, but I‘m mighty glad I sailed on past my TBR reduction goal and destroyed the thing once and for all. Now I can read whatever the hell I want.

I want to keep reading diversely in 2022, and I hope I can stick to reading purchases (and freebies, and ARCs) as soon as they come in. That‘s it. No other goals.

I‘ve made a good start on THE RIGHT SORT OF MAN, my first #NewYearWhoDis pick courtesy of @Laughterhp , and it‘s great so far! I hope I get time to wallow in it today.

My NYE plans include this cool book and this pretty beer (a Ransack the Universe IPA from Collective Arts Brewing).

While I‘m enjoying the book, I AM frustrated with Lebovitz‘s assumption that all his readers are American. (Please don‘t do this, USians.) Still, he‘s had some good adventures and I‘d very much like to try several of the recipes he includes at the end of each chapter. His neighbour‘s chocolate cake sounds especially tasty.

I made it 20% into my TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT reread while I set up my reading journal for next year. I‘m excited to keep going. I remember this as the volume where a couple things I‘d waited twenty years for finally came to pass.

Today‘s goal: finish my BONE reread! I don‘t love the series the way I did fifteen years ago, it I do like it an awful lot.

My dad tested negative! I can go out among the people again!

I trundled out this morning for my last library haul of 2021: Olivia Dade‘s latest and the first two arrivals from @Laughterhp ‘s #NewYearWhoDis list. There‘re a couple more in transit for me, too; something to look forward to in early 2022.

Todays beer is a Landshark Lager from Margarita International Brewing Co. It‘s a bit thinner than most of what I drink, but I think it should go down pretty easy.

I could probably finish THE BURNING STONE tonight, but I haven‘t found it as gripping as the first two. (Maybe because it‘s 200 pages longer.) I‘m deeply invested in Liath and Alain, but I‘m also frustrated with the large number of characters who use religion to deny others‘ humanity.

Throwback to last night, when I listened to a goodly chunk of THE GATHERING STORM and made ginger cookies with marshmallow crème.

I finished it today, and wow. I didn‘t enjoy the first half quite as much this time, but it gets SO EXCITING as the end approaches! My head‘s a giant gush-fest over big stuff like Verin‘s pivotal moment and Egwene‘s badassery and over small stuff like Mat‘s detailed backstories for his secret mission. #audiobaking

I started keeping a journal on January 1, 1997. I‘ve written in it every damned day since then, aside from maybe four or five days when I forgot. As of tonight, I‘ve filled 23,000 total pages. And on December 31, 2021, I‘m gonna quit.

25 years is long enough to do a thing, I think. I‘m glad I hit a sorta significant milestone on the way out, but y‘all? It‘s time.

(Seriously, do you KNOW how much space all those frickin notebooks take up?)

I‘m finally halfway through THE BURNING STONE! I‘d love to finish it by the end of the year, but I can‘t seem to just sit and READ today. Poop. Hopefully I can make up some ground over the next few days.

Allie Therin creates fabulous characters who bounce off each other like nobody‘s business, and this jerk/marshmallow spinoff from her Magic In Manhattan series is a stellar showcase for her talent. Wesley and Sebastian are dynamic, lemme-see-more-of-you people on their own, and once they meet the book becomes impossible to put down. I loved it and dearly hope she‘ll return to this setting, and her wider cast of characters, again.