We're Always Proving Who We Are...

I wasn't going to do any year-end wrap-up, but then I looked at my reading spreadsheet and it called out that it needed some closure on the Read 2021 sheet before I started up the Read 2022 sheet, so here we go!
( It was not a great year for reading...The Stats )

( Best Reads )

My summer reading list, may the world have mercy on me:

Radiant Shadows, Melissa Marr completed 5/25
*Urban Faerie Fantasy

White Cat, Holly Black completed 5/31
*Urban Con Fantasy

Perchance to Dream, Lisa Mantchev
*Theatre Fantasy

The Beastly Bride, Ellen Datlow/Terri Windling, ed. completed 5/28
*Modern Fairy Tale Anthology

Turn the Other Chick, Esther Friesner, ed.
*Warrior Woman Fantasy

Geektastic, Holly Black, ed.
*Nerd Fiction

Cat's Claw, Amber Benson
*Urban Fantasy

The Demon's Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan
*Urban Fantasy

The Demon's Covenant, Sarah Rees Brennan
*Urban Fantasy

Wizards at War, Diane Duane
*Urban Fantasy

Wizard of Mars, Diane Duane
*Urban Fantasy

Children of the Storm, Elizabeth Peters
*Historical Mystery

Guardian of the Horizon, Elizabeth Peters
*Historical Mystery

Serpent on the Crown, Elizabeth Peters
*Historical Mystery

Tomb of the Golden Bird, Elizabeth Peters
*Historical Mystery

A River in the Sky, Elizabeth Peters
*Historical Mystery

Still Flying
*Firefly Anthology

Not Yet Acquired (yes, I have all of the preceding)
Tails of Wonder and Imagination, Ellen Datlow, ed.
*Cat Fantasy

Sphinx's Princess, Esther Friesner
*Alternate History

Not Yet Published
Namaah's Curse, Jacqueline Carey (June)
*Alternate Historical Romantic Fantasy

Tongues of Serpents, Naomi Novik (July)
*Historical Fantasy

Naked Heat, Richard Castle (September)
*Mystery

Sphinx's Queen, Esther Friesner (September)
*Alternate History

You know an author's gotten deep into your head when reading her books and watching the characters make choices that you know aren't going to go well makes you physically nauseated.

So it is for Melissa Marr. I loved her first book, Wicked Lovely, though I felt that the ending was abrupt (which I later discovered was because, hah, it's a series). The second one, Ink Exchange, twisted me up badly and I almost didn't read the next one, Fragile Eternity.

Which finally came in at the library today, and I have now finished. It didn't hit me quite as hard as IE, but still, the physical reaction to the characters making bad choices is there. The longer I go on, the less I can accept the stupid decisions by characters who should know better, and the more I feel like I was misled into the series. I understand, timeline wise, why WL had to come first, but it introduced, and made me care about, a character who has since been turned more and more into a flighty can't hold her own kind of character, which I really resent. The fourth book (yet untitled) is in revisions and will, I hope, come out in the next year or so.


(This happens to me with TV shows very rarely, too. BSG did it)
In the meantime, I'm going looking for something more cheerful to read. And a fan. And maybe a popsicle or a Klondike bar.