November 2023 Wrap-Up

I read almost everything I wanted to read this month. I didn't get around to reading The Sword's Elegy, but with another large fantasy book on the list, The Dragons of Deepwood Fen, I knew I might not get to that one. Also, I'll be posting reviews throughout December most of the books I read this month, just like I did for the October books this month.

I started out the month with a completely spontaneous read of The Girl Upstairs by Georgina Lees

 

4 of 5 stars.

I read Spirit of the Wood by Kristen Britain next.

 

4 of 5 stars. See my review here. 

Then I read the Hercule Poirot book for the month, Taken at the Flood (Hercule Poirot #26).

 

3 of 5 stars. I enjoyed most of this book, even though it isn't one of Christie's best. I was even prepared to give it 4 stars until I got to the end. Let's just say domestic violence isn't sexy, and one female character turned into a complete idiot.

After that I went back for more psychological suspense with Your Life for Mine by Karen Clarke

 

3 of 5 stars.

Next it was onto romance with The Island House (Getaway Bay #1) by Elana Johnson

 

3.5 of 5 stars.

After that I listened to the book club pick for this month Mutineer's Moon (Dahak #1) by David Weber.

 

2.5 of 5 stars.

And then I listened to the Mystery Book Club read The Survivor's by Jane Harper.

 

4 of 5 stars.

Next was The New Wife by Karen Clarke.

 

3 of 5 stars.

I do this A to Z challenge every year where I try to read a book by an author with each letter in their name. For most of them it's the first letter of their last name, but the harder ones like X and Z I'm just happy to find the letter anywhere in the name. I was looking for the last letter of the challenge, X. I decided on this book by Jaima Fixsen, The Reformer to complete that challenge.

 

2 of 5 stars.

I was still in the mood for romance so I decided to read this book, The Headmistress of Rosemere by Sarah E. Ladd, that I've had on my list for a few years.

  

3 of 5 stars.

I have a Premium Spotify account and recently they added audiobooks. This was pretty exciting for me. I get 15 hours of listening time with my account and can buy more time if I run out of hours. I have no intention of ever buying more listening time. There are a lot of books that are under 15 hours, so at least once a month I plan to take advantage of this feature. I decided to go with After the Party by Georgina Lees, since I just read a book by this author earlier in the month and liked it.

2 of 5 stars.

 

Then I finally got around to reading the Pick It For Me book for this month, The Memory Watcher by Minka Kent.

 

4 of 5 stars.

 

After finishing The Memory Watcher I decided I needed to go back and reread The Watcher Girl by Minka Kent. It's sort of a sequel to The Memory Watcher, but the story is a standalone story.

4 of 5 stars.

 

 

After reading three psychological suspense thrillers in a row, I needed something lighter and this ARC from B. E. Baker arrived just in time!

 

4 of 5 stars.

And finally, I've spent a good chunk of the month reading this book. Picking it up and reading it between most of the others. I wanted to take my time and enjoy it and not rush through it. It took a little while to really grow on me, but it eventually did.

 

I'm not quite done with this one, so no rating yet.

November 2023 Reading Challenge

 

The reading challenge for November was Library Archives. Challenge: clean up your library (or other borrowed) wish list.

I ended up getting a few of them read that were on my lists. The challenge was originally just for library books, but I've included all types of borrowed books (KU, Hoopla, Spotify, etc.).

I was already reading some of the books I read for other reasons, like book club, etc. But I did read three of them just for this challenge. They all ended up being from the mystery/psychological suspense genre.

 

The Memory Watcher by Minka Kent (Borrowed on Kindle Unlimited)

 
Your Life for Mine by Karen Clarke (Borrowed from Hoopla)

 
The Survivors by Jane Harper (Borrowed from the library)

 
The New Wife by Karen Clarke (Borrowed from Hoopla)

 

 
Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie (Borrowed from Hoopla)

 

 

After the Party by Georgina Lees (Borrowed on Spotify)

 

 

 

 

 

November 2023 Book Club: Mutineers' Moon (Dahak, #1) by David Weber

  

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-fi
Content: Strong language, see review below

 

For Lt. Commander Colin Maclntyre, it began as a routine training flight over the Moon. For Dahak, a self-aware Imperial battleship, it began millennia ago when that powerful artificial intelligence underwent a mutiny in the face of the enemy. The mutiny was never resolved--Dahak was forced to maroon not just the mutineers but the entire crew on prehistoric Earth.
Dahak has been helplessly waiting as the descendants of the loyal crew regressed while the mutineers maintained control of technology that kept them alive as the millennia passed. But now Dahak's sensors indicate that the enemy that devastated the Imperium so long ago has returned--and Earth is in their path. For the sake of the planet, Dahak must mobilize its defenses. And that it cannot do until the mutineers are put down. So Dahak has picked Colin Maclntyre to be its new captain. Now Maclntyre must mobilize humanity to destroy the mutineers once and for all--or Earth will become a cinder in the path of galactic conquest.

 

This book started out pretty enjoyable. I liked the main character and the A.I. ship Dahak was interesting. I was looking forward to some space adventure, but it eventually went a little off track from what I thought it was going to be, and turned into more of a spy-type book with political espionage. My husband said it turned into a Tom Clancy-like book. Also, right off the bat there are some pretty heavy deaths, with a whole family being found murdered. There wasn't too much detail about it though, which helped. 

I think I would have enjoyed the second half of the book a lot more if there had not been so many points of view. While listening to the audio, it was hard to keep everyone straight, and there was no warning that the book was moving onto another character's point of view. No pause, no change in tone of voice, no nothing. I eventually gave up trying to keep up with who was who. There's also a bit of a romance, or the beginnings of one, thrown in there that was very predictable and lackluster.

**A few Minor SPOILERS here** As we discussed this book during our book club meeting, we realized that different elements of this book reminded us of different movies. In the first part of the book the main character gets changed into something of a cyborg, and it reminded me a lot of wolverine. Then there is Dahak, and Dahak got compared to the deathstar from Star Wars. In fact one of our book club members compared several things in the book to Star Wars. Another, said she got some Star Trek vibes from the book, and I thought of Stargate while I was reading it. The Stargate elements were the ancient people who inhabited the bodies of humans, just in a different way from Stargate. **End of Spoilers**

 

A couple of people have already gone on to read the second book in the trilogy and said it was more like what we were expecting the first book to be like and suggested we read the next book. While I thought the book was ok, I didn't really love it enough to keep reading, even if book two might be better.

For refreshments we had Moon Pies and space rocket shaped sandwiches. FYI, these are not my photos. I stupidly forgot to take photos again this month, but I wanted to show you what the Moon Pies and sandwiches looked like that we made. These are very close to our sandwiches that we used a cookie cutter to make.

 

 

Farilane (The Rise and Fall #2) by Michael J. Sullivan

  

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Clean

 

Some truths are dangerous, certain secrets best concealed, and one story never should have been written at all.

Being an unwanted twin in the imperial line of succession, Farilane becomes a scholar, an adventurer, and—in a time when reading is forbidden—a hunter of books. Her singular obsession is finding the mythical Book of Brin, a tome not just lost but intentionally buried. Although she is respected and beloved by the Teshlor Knights, not even their legendary skills can protect her, for what she finds is more dangerous than what she sought.

 

I delayed reading this book after not loving Nolyn. That was a mistake! This book was much better than Nolyn. It had that certain magic that Sullivan is able to weave into his stories that I thought Nolyn was missing. I almost always love the characters Michael J. Sullivan includes in his books and I really loved Farilane. Just like all of his books, this one packed some real emotional punches. At the end I was in tears. The ending was so not what I was expecting. I wanted to hate it, but I couldn't, and it's what made this book so good.

I don't really have more to say about this other than if you want to read Sullivan's books, start with the Riyria Revelations, the Riyria Chronicles, Legends of the First Empire, and The Rise and the Fall, in that order. There are tons of Easter eggs and references in the books that you would miss if you read them out of order. I'll be reading the last book in this trilogy, Esrahaddon (the one I've been looking forward to reading the most from the beginning of this trilogy) sometime at the beginning of the year.

“But that’s the result of time, not understanding.” “And yet time allows for understanding, doesn’t it? A boy sees his father as a god, then grows up and realizes he’s flawed, mortal, and foolish. Then he has his own children and discovers his father isn’t foolish at all, but still isn’t a god. Understanding changes the reality of a thing—at least insofar as we perceive it—even if that thing itself doesn’t change.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Book Haul

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I bought more books this month! This time they were mostly bought online with the exception of one I found at my local used bookstore. 

These two I had on pre-order from Amazon that I received on release day. I got early ebook copies of these and read them, but I also had to have hardcover copies for my library shelves-

I found this pristine copy of The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn from a seller on ebay. I already had a book club edition, but I don't like the smaller book club editions, so this was a perfect replacement-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found the other two books in the Summoner Series by Taran Matharu-

 

The Paper Magician Series by Charlie N. Holmberg-

 

 

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson-

Two more Tracy Crosswhite books-

And of course, the Riyria Revelations hardcovers-

Book Mail!

 I was super excited today when I opened my front door and a box from Michael J. Sullivan was sitting on my porch! I had been invited to purchase limited edition hardcovers of the Riyria Revelations. There were the regular hardcovers and the fancy faux leather-bound ones to choose between. I picked the regular hardcovers because they were easier on my wallet. I think these turned out very nice!

 

 

 

Adelaide approves of the box!

 

 

The spines of the naked hardcovers. This almost makes me want to put them on my shelf without the dust covers.

 

 

 

The original covers from the self-published books are inside.

 

 

 

 

 

This was in the original books, but I had to include the dedication he puts in the last book to his wife. What a sweet tribute to her.