#books I've read

[deermanic]

My king, Eddie Kaspbrak in It - Stephen King

[chardwic]

Books I've Read in 2024: Bride by Ali Hazelwood

"You don’t know anything about what it’s like to find your other half, I would take anything she chose to give me—the tiniest fraction or her entire world. I would take her for a single night knowing that I’ll lose her by morning, and I would hold on to her and never let go. I would take her healthy, or sick, or tired, or angry, or strong, and it would be my fucking privilege. I would take her problems, her gifts, her moods, her passions, her jokes, her body—I would take every last thing, if she chose to give it to me."

[ellacalm]

Kathleen Glasgow, “You’d Be Home Now”

[sowhatwereyousaying]

I could spend the rest of forever with you and it still wouldn’t be enough time to finish everything I have planned for us.

Lauren Asher (Terms and Conditions)

[libraryofathousandstars]

books i’ve read: The 100 Homecoming by Kass Morgan

“Endings and beginnings are inseparable, like the moment before dawn and the moment after.”

[febookworm]

If I had a coin for every historical novel set in WWI with gay soldiers that I've read, now I would have three coins.

Which is not much, but it's quite a coincidence.

[mssarahmorgan]

Book 93 of 2024: A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

I absolutely loved The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, and even though most of the characters from the first book don't appear in this sequel, it does not disappoint. It's got all the warmth of the first book, just following a different band of weirdos on a different quest. In this one, Lovelace, the AI who evolved into Lovey in the last book, has been rebooted and downloaded into a body (and taken the name Sidra). She's living with Pepper, an engineer with her own past. We alternate between the present, where Sidra is trying to adjust to living in a body, and the past, where we see where Pepper came from. I loved it. Rich characters, fantastic worldbuilding, big questions about life. And I'm obsessed with the device where Sidra's body is programmed to give her imagery to convey the feeling food or drink might give an organic person. Amazing.

What to read next: Really different tone, but for another sci-fi with great characters and a super cool device that takes advantage of the setting, check out The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei.

[shining-dawn]

SHE'S BACK!!!! She's back she's back she's back!!! Oh my god Gideon I thought you were gone forever I thought I had lost you! Oh my god oh my god, Gideon my beloved, the Best Girl is BACK!!!

GIDEON NAV!!!

[therainebeforesunshine]

Want by anonymous, collected by Gillian Anderson

[deermanic]

It, Stephen King

[chardwic]

Books I've Read in 2024: A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen

"You are mine, Born-in-Fire. Even if only the two of us know it."

[jobazzle]

books i've read in 2025

it's! officially! a new year! and the end of the first month of 2025! so i obvs had to do this again (see my 2024 post here)

January

The Women - Kristin Hannah ★★★★½ did i start reading this in 2024 MAYBE SO did i finish this almost as soon as the new year started YUP lmaooo (oh my god i just checked and...i started reading this in OCTOBERFHJDSHKJFS...it was a really good book so i'm glad i finally finished it!!!!)

Bright Young Women - Jessica Knoll ★★★★ this was as infuriating as it was heartbreaking....and also featured one of my top 10 book betrayals of all time i hate that man I HATE HIM

How to End a Love Story - Yulin Kuang ★★★★½ this falls into one of my favorite and most exclusive categories: books where it takes me a bit to really get into it but once i'm in i start reading soooo slowly bc i never want it to end <3

February

Love and Other Words - Christina Lauren ★★★½ my expectations were so high bc of all the hype i'd seen online and yet....this was just....ok....like how is this friends to lovers (MY FAVORITE TROPE) and yet i didn't deeply love and adore it???? NOOOOOOO. however it DID make me SOB so!!!! there's that!!!! (IT GOT TOO RELATABLE)

Taming 7 - Chloe Walsh ★¾ literally what the hell was that (the review i wrote on storygraph was....so long i don't wanna get into it again lmao just know: i HATED how this entire story played out)(and whew was this a rough read for us lizzie defenders!!!!!)

The Rom-Commers - Katherine Center ★★★★★ loved this so much i literally DREAMT about finishing it and rating it five starshjgkhskjfhdsk. the yearning!!! the tension!!! the will they won't they of it all!!!! YUP YUP YUUUUP THIS WAS EVERYTHING (i have decided the theme song of this book is couldn't make it any harder by sabrina carpenter. no i will not elaborate. yes this song choice probably isn't the best or most accurate. but it feels correct ok)

Only If You're Lucky - Stacy Willingham ★★★¾ talk about an unreliable narrator DAMN i'm actually kinda sad for all parties involved like i'm sorry i was suspicious of you i was INTENTIONALLY MISLED by the pov i was reading oops </3 (i was in a theme song kick when i read this and the rom-commers so i do indeed have a theme song for this and it's if you go down (i'm goin' down too) by kelsea ballerini...that would 1000% play during the end credits of a screen adaptation for this ok)

Cross The Line - Simone Soltani ★★★★¼ see i was expecting to hate this and now i'm counting down the days for the second book in the series to release GIVE IT TO ME NOWWWWWW (i literally got up and started pacing while reading the on track racing scenes like bitch i was STRESSED)(that is also the emotion i feel while watching an actual f1 race sooooo 10/10 incredible writing good job love that it evoked the exact same emotions from me fhdsjkhfdskj)(also holy shit what an epilogue)

March

The Pumpkin Spice Café - Laurie Gilmore ★★★¼ not at all anything rly groundbreaking + had a predictable "mystery" buuuut it was cozy as hell (i really should've read this in the fall oops my bad) and idk like it was just a lighthearted, sweet, easy read!!!! i had fun!!!!

Beg, Borrow, or Steal - Sarah Adams ★★★★¾ college rivals to coworker rivals to kinda friends to lovers yeaaaah that's my type of love storyyyyyyy (the fmc is sooooo rwylm by taylor at the beginning of this ohhhhh my god). quote that ended me -> "you think you're unlovable, but i think i've never known how to love until knowing you." like???? oh!!!!! so you want to make me emotionally unstable via deeply heartfelt dialogue????? CONGRATS MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Sunrise On The Reaping - Suzanne Collins ★★★★★ i really thought i knew the whole story of haymitch's games and that nothing in this would surprise or shock me LMAOOOOOOOO (this was devastating but so perfect in every way)

Lost and Lassoed - Lyla Sage ★★★★½ sometimes a book resonates so deeply with your soul that despite any imperfections you can't help but adore it aaaand that's what this was for meeeee 🫶

[wanderingmind867]

Okay, I didn't get through my whole bookshelf yet. And it's annoying having to search through my bedroom for all my books. So let's try to make this a lightning round, listing all the books I saw in my room (specifically, all the novels i know i read):

The Guardians of Childhood by William Joyce (These were the books that first made me love reading, I think. The first novels I ever read, in Grade 1 or 2. They were turned into that movie, Rise of The Guardians. But the movie came out before he was done with the books, and the books took forever to come out. He finally finished them recently, but now I feel like it's too late. Also, I didn't like the summary when I looked it up).

Alice in Wonderland (This book is amazing. Lewis Carroll is a genius. I have a whole massive book full of his works. It's too big to bring it to school, but I've read Alice in Wonderland many times. Genius book. Fun and clever and not at all depressing. I never really got into the sequel, Through the Looking Glass, as much. But I still like Lewis Carroll. He's also a great poet.)

Sherlock Holmes (Somehow, I ended up buying a big book of Sherlock Holmes stories at a library clearance sale or something years ago. It's now too old to feel safe reading it again, but I liked it. The short stories with Sherlock Holmes were the best. Arthur Conan Doyle is one of the few mystery writers I know I like. Although the full length novel didn't hold my attention nearly as well as the short stories did. I guess I couldn't handle a full novel of detective stuff?).

Roald Dahl's books (I read most of these, including the one where he wrote about his childhood. The only one of his children's books I skipped was the one about his war service. It was boring to me. But his books were pretty good. A bit creepy and weird in some spots, but never enough to scare me into dread the way many other things do. Also, I don't want to read his adult stuff. In elementary school I had to read a crime story he wrote. It was dark and weird, and it made me uncomfortable. So he's a complicated writer).

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel (This series. God, this series. I started out really liking it. Historical figures, magic, mythology? It was amazing. But the ending. God, that ending. Time travel, time loops, immortality and more. It just became too confusing for me. I couldn't stand that last book. I did like how the book introduced me to Niccolo Machiavelli and Billy the Kid and other historical figures, though. I just really, really hated that ending).

The Seven Wonders series by Peter Lerangis (I barely remember these books. I don't think I actually ended up loving their ending, but I did somehow sit through them. So that was probably a deep disappointment to my younger self).

Fine. I have to stop again. Turns out I have at least four more book series. So I'll make a third part, then i'll probably be too burnt out to mske any more posts for an hour or two. But to think, I started making these posts hoping I could eventually use them to ask for suggestions for books for my Christmas List. But I guess that'll have to wait. sigh...

[mssarahmorgan]

Book 72 of 2024: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

I really liked Interior Chinatown, and this one hit even harder for me. There's a way Yu has of taking a metaphor that's so on the nose and just pushing through it so it's funny and pointed and then so true and moving--and in this book, the metaphor is time travel, and regret, and relationships, and how we grow apart from each other and yearn to get back, and how we get trapped in patterns, and...it's just gorgeous and mournful and also silly and, like, SO on the nose, but it just...works. Yu is some kind of genius, I can't wait to see what he does next.

What to read next: This Time Tomorrow, by Emma Straub, for another book that uses time travel to great emotional effect.

[shining-dawn]

I feel like Hraethen the antihero antagonist from Elantris has just the right mix of unconventional sex appeal and deeply problematic nature to be controversial fandom icon for the Cosmere. Maybe even a Tumblr sexyman.

For starters he's a middle aged man with inner turmoil, so he's do numbers on Tumblr right off the bat, even if he wasn't also over 6 feet tall and buff enough to wear full plate armor whenever he's in public. He canonically respects and admires women who intellectually challenge him, so he's got good taste. And literally everything about his actions and personality is the perfect breeding ground for Discourse™️, he's a manipulative bastard who serves a fascist theocracy because he genuinely believes he is saving people's lives and wants to make up for past mistakes.

I think this man could give Vriska Serkhet a run for her money.

[bookclubbing]

Storyteller - Morgan Harper Nichols