Friday, January 3, 2025

January 2024 Reading List

I've got 7 books on the list for January, plus the PIFM book which hasn't been chosen yet. We're resuming our buddy read of The Foreigner Series by C.J. Cherryh this month, and also my reread/buddy read of The Dragonlance books. This is one that I'm on the fence about rereading so we'll see if I actually end up reading it again. I'm also looking forward to starting a couple of new series this month, both are relatively short series so they won't be ones I'm reading all year long. I had to reign myself in with the buddy reads. There were more I wanted to participate in.


Reading with my book club-

 

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt 


For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.

 

 

Reading at Fantasy Buddy Reads-

 

The Second Generation (Dragonlance: The New Generation) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

Years have passed since the end of the War of the Lance. The people of Ansalon have rebuilt their lives, their houses, their families. The Companions of the Lance, too, have returned to their homes, raising children and putting the days of their heroic deeds behind them.

But peace on Krynn comes at a price. The forces of darkness are ever vigilant, searching for ways to erode the balance of power and take control. When subtle changes begin to permeate the fragile peace, new lives are drawn into the web of fate woven around all the races. The time has come to pass the sword -- or the staff -- to the children of the Lance.

They are the Second Generation.



 

Destroyer (Foreigner #7) by C.J. Cherryh 


The seventh novel in Cherryh’s  Foreigner space opera series, a groundbreaking tale of first contact and its consequences…

It has been two years since the starship Phoenix left Alpha Station on a rescue mission where over four thousand human spacers were under attack by a hostile alien race. Now, exhausted from their journey, the crew of the Phoenix yearns for home. But when the ship makes the jump into atevi space and contacts Alpha, they learn the that supplies to the station have been cut off; that civil war has broken out on the atevi mainland; that the powerful Western Association has been overthrown; and that Tabini-aiji, Bren Cameron's primary supporter and Ilisidi's grandson and ally, is missing and may be dead.

With no one left to lead the Western Association, Ilisidi and Bren know that the survival of their allies lies in their hands. And with the atevi world at war, the only safe landing strip lies on the human colony at Mospheira. Although there are many dangers inherent in bringing a powerful atevi leader such as Ilisidi onto human lands, Bren realizes they have no other choice.

But even if they safely survive their landing, will Bren and Ilisidi together prove strong enough to muster the remaining shards of the Western Association and regain control of their planet?

The long-running Foreigner series can also be enjoyed by more casual genre readers in sub-trilogy installments. Destroyer is the 7th Foreigner novel, and the 1st book in the third subtrilogy.

 

 

 

Kingdom of Bones (The Echoes Saga #5) by Philip C. Quaintrell

 

THE WORLD HAS FALLEN INTO RUIN. MYTH AND LEGEND HAVE PROVEN TRUE. MONSTERS HAVE RETURNED TO ILLIAN.

Orcs, an ancient fiend thought lost to history, have risen from The Under Realm. Their hunger for total dominance has plunged Illian into war, pushing the survivors to Namdhor, the last refuge of man at the top of the world.

For those who stand up to this foe, they do so in darkness. Ash clouds smother the skies, blocking out the sun as the orcs rampage across the land.

Behind it all, manipulating from the shadows, The Black Hand fuels the war on both sides. The Crow, the one who was promised, has seen the future and works in the depths of The Bastion to forge a new weapon, a weapon that can stand against the dark at all costs.

Gideon Thorn is adrift, his order decimated, and his oath to protect the realm meaningless. The Master Dragorn faces his greatest test yet, balancing his duty to the people and his duty to his order.

Inara Galfrey has a choice to make as the realm’s darkest hour approaches. Malliath and Asher cannot be ignored but holding fast to her courage could save the world. It could also spell her end.

Doran Heavybelly finds himself at the throne of his father. There are realms of hell he would rather visit than the halls of his ancestors. Shackled and bound, however, the dwarf has no choice but to face his past…

 

 

Reading with The Mystery Book Club-

Silenced Girls (Agent Tori Hunter #1) by Roger Stelljes

She moved far away to try and forget her past. A past that would seep back in when she least expected it and crushed her soul over and over. She tried to keep the evidence packed away in boxes high up on a closet shelf like carefully packing away a tragic part of her life. As if sealing the boxes, was sealing away a time in her life she desperately wanted to go back and change. Until one day a mysterious letter arrives from an unknown sender that unravels everything.

FBI Special Agent Tori Hunter returns to her hometown of Manchester, Minnesota for the first time in twenty years to investigate the disappearance of a woman who is gone without a trace. She is desperate to solve a case that will cause her to confront her own painful past and question the motives of friends she thought she knew and trusted. It will plunge her and the other detectives into the crosshairs of a dangerous killer while in search of the truth. 


 

The Maid's Diary by Loreth Anne White

Kit Darling is a maid with a snooping problem. She’s the “invisible girl,” compelled to poke into her wealthy clients’ closely guarded lives. It’s a harmless hobby until Kit sees something she can’t unsee in the home of her brand-new clients: a secret so dark it could destroy the privileged couple expecting their first child. This makes Kit dangerous to the couple. In turn, it makes the couple—who might kill to keep their secret—dangerous to Kit.

When homicide cop Mallory Van Alst is called to a scene at a luxury waterfront home known as the Glass House, she’s confronted with evidence of a violent attack so bloody it’s improbable the victim is alive. But there’s no body. The homeowners are gone. And their maid is missing. The only witness is the elderly woman next door, who woke to screams in the night. The neighbor was also the last person to see Kit Darling alive.

As Mal begins to uncover the secret that has sent the lives of everyone involved on a devious and inescapable collision course, she realizes that nothing is quite as it seems.

And no one escapes their past.

 

 

56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

No one knew they'd moved in together. Now one of them is dead. Could this be the perfect murder?

56 DAYS AGO
Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket queue in Dublin the same week Covid-19 reaches Irish shores.

35 DAYS AGO
When lockdown threatens to keep them apart, Oliver suggests that Ciara move in with him. She sees a unique opportunity for a new relationship to flourish without the pressure of scrutiny of family and friends. He sees it as an opportunity to hide who - and what - he really is.

TODAY
Detectives arrive at Oliver's apartment to discover a decomposing body inside.

Will they be able to determine what really happened, or has lockdown provided someone with the opportunity to commit the perfect crime?

 

 

 PIFM Book-

To be determined.






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