Mount TBR 2016 discussion

I really think reading challenges are really interesting and help me when it seems like there's nothing around for me to read (which is really false). This is my first TBR challenge, and a nice high, round number should keep me motivated. Being lazy, I think I'll add my books in chunks as I read them or plan to read them. Happy reading, everyone!

Welcome, Lenore! Happy reading to you too!

Bev wrote: "Welcome, Lenore! Happy reading to you too!"
Thanks!

1. Trigger Warning - Neil Gaiman - Started January 1, 2016. Finished January 2, 2016. I pre-ordered this, and I really love his work, but somehow this slipped into my TBR, what with all my library books that I kept picking up. I really enjoyed it - I liked the update on Shadow, as well as the standalone stuff.

2. Cold Days - Jim Butcher - Started January 4, 2016. Finished January 5, 2016. This one I didn't pre-order, but I got it pretty much as soon as it was hardcover-available. I love the series (I'm hesitant to get into his other stuff, but I don't know why). I read Changes and then I kind of forgot about the series. I read somewhere that the author plans this apocalyptic blowout for the end of the series, and I think I heard it was coming up to the next three books or something. I may have been trying to ration myself. I think I'll definitely go back a few books and re-read, because the gap was too long and I need a refresher.

3. Skin Game - Jim Butcher - Started January 8, 2016. Finished January 10, 2016. Again, I got this pretty soon after it was hardcover-available. I really enjoyed it and I think it's funny how my TBR pile kind of warps my perception of time. I keep thinking that things haven't been on it for very long, and then I look at them and try to remember when and where I got them, and it shocks me that it's been that long.

4. Chimera - Mira Grant - Preorder. Started Janurary 10, 2016. Finished January 11, 2016. I discovered Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant with the Incryptid series and I really like the biologicals aspect she incorporates into her stuff. It's a thing I always really like in Lois McMaster Bujold's SF stuff, where she really gets into the biologicals of other planets, both of colonizing and of scientific development. You get the sense that none of the world-building is because it's cool, it's there because it seems like it could happen/exist or it would be a likely response to something that exists. I found the parasites an interesting take on a dystopian fiction, and I liked that it captured some of what's interesting about zombies and end-of-civilization fiction without tired and overexposed ideas.

5. The Gospel Of Loki - Joanne Harris. Started January 14, 2016. Finished January 16, 2016. I got this with Motel Of The Mysteries & Horrorstor in 2014. I read Motel of the Mysteries before this challenge started, but Horrorstor is also on this list of inexplicably unread books of mine. I really enoyed The Gospel Of Loki. I like thinking of the different ways accounts from different sources are unreliable, and of re-interpreting something familiar.

6. The Virgin Cure - Ami McKay. Started January 21, 2016. Finished January 22, 2016. I got this with The Birth House, also by Ami McKay. I read that 3 years ago, but for whatever reason I kept getting distracted from starting this. I saw the title, and there wasn't a blurb on the back, so I thought it followed a main character who was a victim of that myth. It wasn't, although that and other forms of sexual violence are part of the environment and worries that she grows up in. This book had 2 instances of Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon for me (the thing where you learn about something and then start seeing it everywhere). 1 was the Virgin Cure myth, which I 1st found out about in The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton, and then noticed in World War Z by Max Brooks (Brooks envisioned a change where he thought this would re-appear in his version of an infectious zombie apocalypse). The 2nd was the oysters. I read Mark Kurlansky's The Big Oyster, and if I hadn't, I think I would've thought the part where Mae takes Moth for oysters was kind of odd. To me, oysters are just another seafood, and in that scene, it's not like carnival or bar food, where you could get poutine or a pretzel or a hot dog or something, it's all oysters and everybody knows about all the different kinds. It's more like going to a specialty shop where everyone who goes there is into that thing.

7. The Crook Factory - Dan Simmons. Started February 14, 2016. Finished February 20, 2016. I've been picking up Dan Simmons books whenever I see them for a good price, but now I have a bunch of them on my TBR list. I prefer the books with elements of the supernatural or SF, but I also really like the historical detail (or with the SF ones set in the future, the world-building). I'm kinda meh about Ernest Hemingway, so it was interesting to read him as a character because often in these fictionalized accounts of authors or historical figures, I have very strong ideas. With this, I have a feeling of him not really being in fashion at the moment, and... I don't know... overexposed? I mean, I'm very interested when someone writes about unexpected weird stuff going on in history. I think Hemingway definitely had a reputation and it wasn't unexpected, so before this he was filed away in my brain as "machismo, annoying people talk way too much about him". This book kind of made him interesting to me when he wasn't before.

8. Rogues - edited by George R. R. Martin & Gardner Dozois. Started February 16, 2016. Finished July 19, 2016. (note: definitely going to finish this one, just reading other things at the moment). Right now, I'm reading a story, then reading other things, then I come back to this. It's an interesting way to read an anthology for me. Usually I read them really fast, all at once. Update: Finally got around back to this one. Liked it.

9. Penhallow - Georgette Heyer. Started February 20, 2016. I got this at a thrift shop three years ago. I find Georgette Heyer absolutely hilarious, but it can be really jarring to read her with these casual instances of anti-Semitism or something. Also, her work is littered with stuff that modern readers might consider really well-worn tropes, often even clichés, so you kind of have to be in the right mood to read her.
I've only ever read Georgette Heyer's Regencies, so Penhallow (a mystery) was an interesting change. I found the most compelling characters to be Vivian, Raymond & Charmion. I think the portrayal of gender norms and the range of sexuality was definitely a product of its time - very stereotyped - but I think the characters were 3-dimensional anyway. I also liked the exploration of how 1 event could be a catalyst for so many unexpected, far-reaching things.

10. Fires Of Eden - Dan Simmons. Started February 25, 2016. Finished February 25, 2016. I was really anticipating this because I had read Summer Of Night, A Winter Haunting, and the excerpt online. I've also read Children Of The Night, so this was the last in that loosely-connected series. It was nice to read more about Cordie, and compare her as an adult to her as a child. Most of the other Dan Simmons books weren't too hard for me to find. I found them in bargain areas in bookstores, but Fires Of Eden I found used online and I was specifically looking for it. I got it about a year ago.

11. Simon The Coldheart - Georgette Heyer. Started February 25, 2016. Finished February 27, 2016. Like Fires Of Eden, I found this used online, trying to complete the set. Like Penhallow, this was a bit different because I'd mostly read her Regencies before this. I didn't find myself as emotionally attached to these characters as in Penhallow. At first, the language style was a bit jarring, and by the end I was very used to it. If it had gone on any longer, I might have started using "thee", "thou", and "forsooth" in conversation.

12. Flashback - Dan Simmons. Started February 25, 2016. Finished February 29, 2016. This was pretty weird to read because it seemed like it was taken from the nightmares of the people who give super-conservative Americans a bad name. Then a character named Henry talked about how all empires fall, and I was reassured because when you know someone's taking that into account, you can take them seriously.
Update: At the end of reading Flashback, I was back to feeling like this was all pretty Donald Trump-ish (that is not a compliment, in my opinion). It actually described Canadian First Nations and Inuit peoples as "pampered".

13. Dodger - Terry Pratchett. Started February 29, 2016. Finished March 3, 2016. I got this when it came out but didn't start it. I sometimes don't want to start a new book because they don't have many marks and they look so nice. It's not a huge barrier for me but if there's lots of other books to distract me it can keep me from starting it for a long time.

14. Somewhere In France - Jennifer Robson. Started March 2, 2016. Finished March 2, 2016. I got this at this amazing annual library fundraising sale where you pay by weight 2 years ago. It sat in my TBR pile because I felt it was a little fluffy (I stand by that description) and I had so many books where my enthusiasm might honestly have been a little creepy. I started this one because it was picked for my book club. It was nice - I'm a sucker for historical fiction. Also horror, and fantasy, and SF. Being more specific, I'm also a sucker for zombies, ridiculous humour, characters being trapped somewhere (whether by a siege or by a snowstorm) and a really long list of other things that I'm too lazy to type right now.

15. Darwin's Blade - Dan Simmons. Started March 3, 2016. Finished March 5, 2016. I picked this up in a used bookstore in August of 2015. If I hadn't liked Terror & The Abominable so much, I probably wouldn't have gotten into Dan Simmons so much. Certainly if I'd read Flashback first, I probably would have never read anything by him ever again. Carrion Comfort looks like a really interesting concept, but it's all in the execution, really. This was just kind of a "meh" book for me. The 2 best parts about Dan Simmons for me (besides the 2-time writing about being trapped in the snow) is the historical detail/world building and the slight tendency to have supernatural/SF aspects. This was just a suspense novel. Also, mentioning brand names and products is good in that it helps establish more realism, but this verged a little on name-dropping. It reminded me of how beginning fanfic authors sometimes go on and on about clothes (making it a wish-fulfillment fantasy). Also, it has a little bit of similarity to beginning fanfic authors in the main character, as well. I've read somewhere that if Batman were a woman, he'd be dismissed as a Mary Sue, that guys can get away with a bit more as characters. Darwin Minor seems like he's a fantasy of how some guys would like to see themselves.

16. Brothers In Arms - Lois McMaster Bujold. Started March 4, 2016. Finished March 4, 2016. I've kind of been reading Lois McMaster Bujold kind of wonky order, at least on the SF side. At least there's the comfort that she wrote the Vorkosigan Saga out of chronological order. Curse of Chalion and the 2 connected to it are kind of loosely a series, so it doesn't matter so much, The Sharing Knife series I tried and disliked pretty fast, while The Spirit Ring and Dreamweaver's Dilemma have been hard for me to find. I really like most of her stuff, though. I loved this book. I especially loved one scene where Miles is interrogated. It's horrible for him, of course, but it is an incredible scene. I also love the introduction of Mark and Duv, as well as the parts Elli and Ivan play.

17. Shards Of Honor - Lois McMaster Bujold. Started March 7, 2016. I've read some of the ones set after this one. There's also another one that is about Miles' parents. It's nice to read these because I love the characters & I like how it makes the series really fleshed out and the world-building is great. I also love reading how Cordelia experiences culture shock on this planet & the Barrayarans experience culture shock talking to her.

18. Barrayar - Lois McMaster Bujold. Started March 8, 2016. Finished March 9, 2016. I really liked how this dealt with the complexities of perception and emotion during a really turbulent time.

19. Memory - Lois McMaster Bujold. Started March 10, 2016. Finished March 10, 2016. This is one of my favourite books in this series.

20. The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter. Started March 26, 2016. Finished March 27, 2016. As I read this, I'm wondering about the title. There's all kinds of references to folk songs in these books. Google returns the name of an album with the search term "the hangman's beautiful daughter song". It could be a song made up for this book, or a reference to a historical person who is actually a fictional part of this book. There's no reference yet to executions in the book. update: So the title never really tied into the content of the book very well. However, it was a good, eerie mystery and the title fits into the style of the whole series, which is all about the past of Appalachia meeting what was (at the time of writing) the present.

21. The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman. Started March 27, 2016. Finished March 28, 2016. This was really interesting. One of the best things about Neil Gaiman is that he has a great sense of what needs to be explained and what doesn't. He scatters information here and there, as it comes up, very casually, and never over-explains. That's what I hate most about the stuff that tries too hard to be Tolkien. They try to categorize everything and have a name for everything. When it's not in the hands of someone who loves and is good at world-building (a& there are other ways to world-build), it ends up seeming like learning a list at school.

22. To Say Nothing Of The Dog - Connie Willis. Started April 1, 2016. Finished April 2, 2016. I was waiting to read this one and Blackout until an ILL library book that's listed as first in the series (Doomsday Book) came. I don't always get the chance to read a series in order, but there were other things to read so I could do it in that situation. I love Connie Willis' style of humour, and I got some great recommendations from this.

23. The Strain - Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan. Started April 3, 2016. Finished April 4, 2016. I have had this series on my to-read list for awhile. Although there's a lot of supernatural-as-biological things out there now and sometimes writers aren't bringing new and interesting things, I think this one works. I liked that in this case, it was very gross, because vampires can be overly glamourized. Although, I kept thinking that they weren't taking proper precautions. I know that in a fight, it can be confused and difficult, but I wanted them to stop somewhere and get stuff to protect themselves, like goggles and stuff.

24. The Fall - Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan. Started April 4, 2016. Finished April 6, 2016. I liked how in this one, Gus was reunited with Abraham. I wonder if the Neeva character and the Luss kids are going to continue to be absent in The Night Eternal. Maybe we are just supposed to wonder what happened to them - did they leave the city, were they attacked and killed by vampires - probably Joan - did they die in the fallout, or something else? That gives a touch of realism, since in reality, we don't always know everything in a disaster - or everyday life, for that matter.

25. The Night Eternal - Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan. Started April 6, 2016. Finished April 16, 2016. I think this trilogy had a satisfying ending. With the religious connection it would have felt weird if it had been longer. It reminded me of "The Stand" by Stephen King with that. I am pretty impatient with the religious elements in both.

26. A Poisoned Season - Tasha Alexander. Started April 7, 2016. Finished April 8, 2016. I read the 1st of the series very soon after buying it, but the second I kept neglecting. I really liked it, but there were a lot of things from my favourite authors to read, & I wasn't in a historical mystery mood.

27. Black Knight - Christopher Pike. Started April 8, 2016. Finished April 8, 2016. I read the 1st of this series awhile ago, so I was a little lost at first, but then it came back to me. I bought this book in December 2015 along with a bunch of other books - Strange Girl, also by Christopher Pike, Bazaar Of Bad Dreams by Stephen King, & a bunch of Attack On Titan books.

28. Powder & Patch - Georgette Heyer. Started April 9, 2016. Finished April 9, 2016. I liked this, but it's definitely an example of how I wouldn't recommend certain books to impressionable people. There's a lot of uncomfortable attitudes and opinions in Georgette Heyer books.

29. Deadline - Mira Grant. Started April 9, 2016. Finished April 10, 2016. I think this was interesting, because I didn't feel I knew Shaun as well as a character, & now here was his perspective.

30. The Bazaar Of Bad Dreams - Stephen King. Started April 16, 2016. Finished April 16, 2016. I was glad to read this one, because I've been waiting to read a few of the stories for a long time. I had started "Ur" on audiobook awhile ago, but audio isn't good for me & I didn't finish it that way.

31. The Murder Of Mary Russell - Laurie R. King (pre-order). Started April 23, 2016. Finished April 24, 2016. I've tried to avoid summaries and reviews of this book because I've managed to read this series in order, which can be unusual for me - I can be pretty impatient. I had it pre-ordered for me as a gift because I really like this series. This one was interesting to dig into the backstory of the series and characters.

32. The River King - Alice Hoffman. Started April 28, 2016. Finished April 29, 2016. The only thing I've ever read by this author is Practical Magic, which I liked. I've only just started, but elements seem similar, the way the town and the buildings seem almost alive at times, inducing feelings in the characters and trying to get them to act a certain way. Also, there's the plant lore and beliefs. Well, this one turned out to be interesting.

33. Gentleman Jole & The Red Queen - Lois McMaster Bujold (pre-order). Started April 29, 2016. Finished April 30, 2016. So far, this is kind of meandering (which is not a bad thing, since I love the humour of the different viewpoints). Update: It kept on being mostly meandering, more of a quiet update on the characters, which I really liked, because Miles has had way more novels than Cordelia, and they're the only characters in the series that have had more than one (where they're the focus, I mean). I love that after all this time, Cordelia still baffles people & is baffled. It reminds me of the TV show Farscape, where John Crichton (from Earth) gets to know technology and customs after years living with (to him) aliens. Even after all that, however, there are major moments where something new will trip him up or he'll just take a moment to be surprised by something he already knows. Also, the other characters mostly get to know about Earth from him, but they still get confused or misinterpret things.

34. Wickett's Remedy - Myla Goldberg. Started May 4, 2016. Finished May 5, 2016. I picked this up secondhand because I liked the cover. I really like old-fashioned advertisements, sometimes they can be pretty crazy. I didn't read the blurb, so I didn't know the subject matter. It was an interesting book. I liked the side notes from the dead.

35. Blue Diary - Alice Hoffman. Started May 7, 2016. Finished May 7, 2016. This had the same tone as many of her books - dreamy magical realism - but I'm glad it didn't "pair the spares" - pair everyone up romantically - because it wouldn't suit the nature of the book. The book's optimism comes from not following everyone along in their lives, so that we can envision good things.

36. Funerals To Die For - Kathy Benjamin. Started May 13, 2016. Finished May 14, 2016. Another pre-order. I read Cracked, one of the sites she writes for, & she is one of the highlight contributors for me. I found the book very funny and interesting.

37. Blackbird House - Alice Hoffman. Started May 17, 2016. Finished May 18, 2016. I have had this stack of some Alice Hoffman books around forever, & I never looked at the book jackets. This one being a series of interlocking stories surprised me, but it still has a very familiar "Alice Hoffman" feel.

38. The Dovekeepers - Alice Hoffman. Started May 29, 2016. Finished June 2, 2016. I got this awhile after it came out - I didn't even think this author was still writing. The setting was pretty different from a lot of her stuff, but it was very good.

39. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut. Started June 2, 2016. Finished June 5, 2016. I've been meaning to read this for a ridiculous amount of time. I had heard things about it, and had built it up into my head as something very different than it was. Interesting read.

40. Hokas Pokas! - Poul Anderson & Gordon R. Dickson. Started June 10, 2016. Finished June 10, 2016. I think this is the second collection, that Hoka! Hoka! Hoka! is the earlier collection. However, these were written to be accessible because they were serialized in magazines, so I don't think it did me too much harm.

41. Cocaine Blues - Kerry Greenwood. Started June 14, 2016. Finished June 15, 2016. The first 3 books of the series (the others are listed below) were an impulse buy over a year ago. This was a pretty interesting mystery, with great characters.

42. Flying Too High - Kerry Greenwood. Started June 15, 2016. Finished June 16, 2016. I am definitely going to read the rest of this series. I think the characters, even the side characters, are really well-developed.

43. Murder on the Ballarat Train - Kerry Greenwood. Started June 16, 2016. Finished June 16, 2016. As well as reading the rest of the series, I am interested in watching the TV series based on it and seeing how it compares.

44. Carrion Comfort - Dan Simmons. Started June 16, 2016. Finished June 20, 2016. I thought it had a fitting ending.

45. Strange Girl - Christopher Pike. Started June 21, 2016. Finished June 21, 2016. I didn't read the description before starting this, so the storyline surprised me.

46. Dangerous Women - edited by George R. R. Martin & Gardner R. Dozois. Started July 5, 2016. Finished July 8, 2016. I liked this. I really like anthologies because they're often a mix of perspectives and styles. This one was also a mix of genres, which was nice.

47. Warriors - edited by George R. R. Martin & Gardner R. Dozois. Started July 8, 2016. Finished July 12, 2016. I was really glad to read the short story by Naomi Novik - I had only read her novels before. I also really liked the David Weber story, which was a twist on "aliens invade earth”.

48. A Fatal Waltz - Tasha Alexander. Started July 12, 2016. Finished July 13, 2016. Maybe I've just read these too close together, or I'm just not in a historical mystery mood, but I wasn't as enthusiastic about this one as the ones before it. I'm going to slow down on reading this series.

49. Blackout - Mira Grant. Started July 13, 2016. Finished July 14, 2016. This was also a pick for another reading challenge for me - book with a colour in the title. I think it did cloning very well. Her parasite series also did identity issues well in different ways. This had a good reason to be very close to the original (with worry about the differences), & the parasite series had a good reason to go in a very different direction.

Lenore wrote: "Planning:
1. Trigger Warning - Neil Gaiman - Started January 1, 2016. Finished January 2, 2016. I pre-ordered this, and I really love his work, but somehow this slipped into my TBR, what with all m..."

You're making great progress! Saw Penhallow in your line-up--I love Heyer. I first discovered her through her mysteries and then worked my way to her Regencies. Penhallow is interesting--but I think it's a little different from her usual mysteries. A little bit darker in tone.

Bev wrote: "Lenore wrote: "Planning:
1. Trigger Warning - Neil Gaiman - Started January 1, 2016. Finished January 2, 2016. I pre-ordered this, and I really love his work, but somehow this slipped into my TBR, ..."

Thanks! Yeah, Penhallow was interesting for me. Usually a Heyer book has me laughing throughout the book. That was a book filled with so much frustration and bitterness, and frustration from the reader since we know what the characters don't know.

You're off to a great start!

Jessika wrote: "You're off to a great start!"

thanks!

50. The Reluctant Widow - Georgette Heyer. Started July 15, 2016. Finished July 15, 2016. Very funny.

51. The New Dead - edited by Christopher Golden. Started July 15, 2016. Finished July 17, 2016. This one has been kicking around my shelves for awhile. I bought it on impulse, because it was an anthology and because it was about zombies - I love both. Update: very well picked collection, all very good.

52. Bellwether - Connie Willis. Started July 17, 2016. Finished July 17, 2016. Not an Oxford Time Travel book. Very funny (the humour is in the frustrations of daily life).

53. World Made By Hand - James Howard Kunstler. Started July 17, 2016. Finished July 18, 2016. I heard about this a year ago and a week after hearing about it I stumbled across a used copy. I love reading different takes on apocalypse fiction. I'm also really interested in history, and these types of books are very grounded in history, from taking ideas on how societies would handle economic collapse to envisioning a less globally connected world.

54. She Walks These Hills - Sharyn McCrumb. Started July 18, 2016.
Finished July 18, 2016. I now have "Long Black Veil" permanently stuck in my head. Good book, good song.

55. Blackout - Connie Willis. Started July 19, 2016. Finished July 21, 2016. Goodreads says this was the first one, but I went by when they were written. It don't think it makes too much difference. Update: before I read too much of this, I recommended it as a funny book. I would still recommend this, but not as a funny book. To Say Nothing Of The Dog and Bellwether were very funny, while still having stakes (TSNOTD more so than Bellwether, because the stakes are more life and death). Anyway, I really like this and the author, and I am going to tell the person I recced this to that the funny ones are TSNOTD and Bellwether.

56. All Clear - Connie Willis. Started July 22, 2016. Finished July 24, 2016. This was really interesting. It felt really good to finish this series, although she has more short stories & some of them may be part of this series. It was nice to get an idea of how things turned out for people, although I may always wonder how the Hodbins turned respectable.

57. Impossible Things - Connie Willis. Started July 28, 2016. Finished July 29, 2016. Very good stories. Her humour is in the frustrations of bureaucracy and miscommunication. Even though I laugh, I always get upset when the characters give up. Also, the kinds of things she describes are why I try to avoid going to movies & concerts (especially with friends), shopping in groups, and people in groups larger than 3 as much as possible.

58. The Nonesuch - Georgette Heyer. Started August 1, 2016. Finished August 1, 2016. I really liked this, I found it funny how Ancilla Trent & Waldo Hawkridge interacted with Tiffany Wield and the other characters. I found this in a used bookstore.

59. False Colours - Georgette Heyer. Started August 2, 2016. Finished August 2, 2016. Very funny.

60. Regency Buck - Georgette Heyer. Started August 4, 2016. Finished August 4, 2016. This wasn't on my TBR list because of all the other things I was reading, it was there because I moved my books, and then something got stored in front of a bunch of books, making it really hard to get at them.

61. Cryoburn - Lois McMaster Bujold. Started August 4, 2016. Finished August 4, 2016. I was all mixed up about the timeline for this, but it didn't matter, still a great book.

62. Steel: & Other Stories - Richard Matheson. Started August 5, 2016. Finished August 5, 2016. Most of these are older, but there's one from 2009 and one from 2010. I like the subject range of these stories.

63. The Conqueror - Georgette Heyer. Started August 7, 2016. Finished August 8, 2016. I think it would be really cool to read something she had written today. Her books were very well researched. Even in the span of time she wrote in, there were major changes in what people knew about history. For someone who writes history, I'd imagine that would be both exciting and frustrating.

64. Lock In - John Scalzi. Started August 11, 2016. Finished August 13, 2016. I found this to be very well balanced between the SF & mystery aspects.

65. The Postman - David Brin. Started August 13, 2016. Finished August 14, 2016. Interesting world-building, annoying main character - thinks he's the only good person left, very condescending.

66. Roadwork - Richard Bachman/Stephen King. Started August 14, 2016. Finished August 15, 2016. Not what I expected, but still very good.

67. Bel Canto - Ann Patchett. Started August 15, 2016. Finished August 17, 2016. Great characterization. Poetic language.

68. Little Brother - Cory Doctorow. Started August 17, 2016. Finished August 20, 2016. This was published in 2008, but it's still very timely in the analysis of the modern Western approach to security and anti-terrorism.

69. League of Dragons - Naomi Novik (preorder). Started August 20, 2016. Finished August 23, 2016. This is a great end to a great series.

70. These Old Shades - Georgette Heyer. Started August 23, 2016. Finished August 24, 2016. Very good. I find her books to be very familiar in that they use some very familiar tropes. Since she was so huge in building a the Regency as a genre, she probably helped create them. However, tropes aren't the sign of a hack writer - it's what they do with the tropes that matters. She does well.

71. The Colorado Kid - Stephen King. Started August 25, 2016. Finished August 25, 2016. I liked it. If the resolution of a mystery is hugely important to why you read mysteries, don't read this one.

72. I Know I Am, But What Are You? - Samantha Bee. Started August 25, 2016. Finished August 26, 2016. Funny. Not what I expected, since it's mostly about her personal stuff, and I've mostly seen her do political/social stuff.

73. Joyland - Stephen King. Started August 26, 2016. Finished August 27, 2016. Very good. I was emotionally invested and upset about who the killer turned out to be, although I had my suspicions that he was the guy.

74. April Lady - Georgette Heyer. Started September 20, 2016. Finished September 20, 2016. I found this to be very funny. I have fancast Alan Tudyk as Dysart's friend, because I've found his drunk/drugged scenes so funny in things I've watched before.

75. The Girl Who Chased the Moon - Sarah Addison Allen. Started September 20, 2016. Finished September 21, 2016. I liked this book - a quick read with three-dimensional characters.

76. Perfection Salad - Laura Shapiro. Started September 21, 2016. Finished September 24, 2016. Very interesting. Also very frustrating, given some of the prejudices described within.

77. The Best Of H.P. Lovecraft - H. P. Lovecraft. Started September 25, 2016. Finished September 29, 2016. Good, but if I think in the future I'll definitely space out reading Lovecraft stories in between other things because it was pretty dense.

78. The Road Through The Wall - Shirley Jackson. Started September 30, 2016. Finished October 1, 2016. I was interested in this. It turned out to be extremely different from the impression the description gave.

79. Pines - Blake Crouch. Started October 1, 2016. Finished October 2, 2016. I'm really intrigued for the rest of this series.

80. 1636: The Viennese Waltz - Eric Flint, Gorg Huff & Paula Goodlett. Started October 2, 2016. Finished October 5, 2016. I started this series awhile ago, then went away from it for awhile, so I may re-read it after a bit. Still good, though.

81. The Bees - Laline Paull. Started October 6, 2016. Finished October 7, 2016. I picked this up because of the intriguing front cover and creepy back cover, and then never read the inside description because I wanted it to stay mysterious. It was good.

82. Sea of Glory - Nathaniel Philbrick. Started October 7, 2016. Finished October 11, 2016. Pretty interesting. I thought it was funny that the book focused so much more on the personalities of the crew rather than what they discovered.

83. Federations - edited by John Joseph Adams. Started October 12, 2016. Finished October 15, 2016. I hadn't looked at the table of contents and I was hoping the Lois McMaster Bujold story was something I hadn't read before, but it was still a good collection.

84. High Lonesome - Joyce Carol Oates. Started October 15, 2016. Finished October 17, 2016. It was interesting to read a whole collection together, I've only read her short stories before and only in anthologies with other authors.

85. The Border - Robert McCammon. Started October 18, 2016. Finished October 19, 2016. Not what I thought it was going to be at all - I only read part of the description when I got it.

86. The Last Ship - William Brinkley. Started October 20, 2016. Finished October 21, 2016. I usually love this kind of book, but it was told from the perspective of a pompous ass.

87. The Accidental Time Machine - Joe Haldeman. Started October 21, 2016. Finished October 22, 2016. I've only read a short story by him before, but I don't really remember it, so right now I don't have a lot of expectations. Update: ok, but kind of forgettable.

88. Under The Greenwood Tree - Thomas Hardy. Started October 22, 2016. Finished October 24, 2016. Was recommended to me. Didn't like it as much as I was told I would.

89. The River Of No Return - Bee Ridgway. Started October 24, 2016. Finished October 16, 2016. Liked it, though it was more romance and less SF/F than I preferred.

90. Lest Darkness Fall - L. Sprague de Camp & Bring The Light - David Drake. Started October 26, 2016. Finished October 29, 2016. You have to imagine yourself as the hero to like this book, I think - he messes around in people's lives worse than Gandalf, so if you end up sympathizing with any of the people around him you want to punch him in the nose. If you sympathize with multiple people, you end up confused.

91. The Round House - Louise Erdrich. Started October 29, 2016. Finished October 31, 2016. Well-written, frustrating (because of the subject matter) book.

92. Passage - Connie Willis. Started October 31, 2016. Finished November 4, 2016. I found what happened to Joanna very surprising. Typical Connie Willis style humour, with characters running around trying to find other people, people being frustrating, and lots of references to different movies.

93. Fevre Dream - Started November 7, 2016. Finished November 9, 2016. I want to re-read the A Song Of Ice & Fire books, finish the Wild Card books, and read his standalone books. Update: this was like a George Romero movie, or a Stephen King book. The use of racial slurs is jarring, and I have no patience with people who say "but that's the way it was!" However, I think the story mostly worked. I just hate it when people act like not wanting to read it makes a person a coward.

94. Notorious - Alison Brennan. Started November 9, 2016. Finished November 12, 2016. I kept feeling like this was a few books along in a series, because it really referenced the main character's past a lot. It's actually the first in the series. It was good.

95. Blood & Iron - Harry Turtledove. Started November 12, 2016. Finished November 17, 2016. Starting another Turtledove alternate history. Update: I thought this was interesting because it just quickly establishes that major changes have happened and are just background to the story, a springboard to further action. A lot of alternate histories start with those changes and follow them through, see how they develop a world. I think both approaches can work well in the right hands.

The Invention of Murder - Judith Flanders
The Unnoticeables - Robert Brockway (preorder)
War For The Oaks - Emma Bull I ran across a couple of mentions of this, one in another book I was reading, and I ordered it. Sometimes once I actually have the book physically, I think "I can read that anytime," and kind of forget about it. My library books and re-reading books means that the TBR list gets shunted aside.
Tipping The Velvet - Sarah Waters I began reading Sarah Waters with The Little Stranger, which was really cool.
The Paying Guests - Sarah Waters
Affinity - Sarah Waters
Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
Serpent Of Venice - Christopher Moore
Sacre Bleu - Christopher Moore
Bite Me - Christopher Moore
The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova
Harvest Moon - Mercedes Lackey
A Lion Among Men - Gregory Maguire
Out Of Oz - Gregory Maguire
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
How To Fight Presidents - Dan O'Brien
A Fistful Of Sky - Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Welcome To Night Vale - Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor
The Science Of Discworld 3 - Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen
The Science Of Discworld 4 - Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen
NOS4A2 - Joe Hill
The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter
Horrorstor - Grady Hendrix
1984 - George Orwell
Dark Tide - Stephen Puleo
Gallery Of Horror - edited by Charles L. Grant
Giallo Fantastique - edited by Ross E. Lockhart
Gods Of Gotham - Lyndsay Faye
Domain Of The Dead - Iain McKinnon
The Final Solution - Michael Chabon
Darkness On The Edge of Town - Brian Keene
A Maggot - John Fowles
The Postmistress - Sarah Blake
Four Dark Nights - Christopher Golden, Tom Piccirilli, Douglas Clegg, Bentley Little (anthology)
Paradise Alley - Kevin Baker
Women Of Wonder - edited by Pamela Sargent. I found this in a used bookstore. It reminded me of those magic moving stores in fantasy stories, the ones where a character hasn't heard of a new store, just stumbles on it, and they buy something that turns out to be magic. Then, when they try to come back and learn more or get help or buy more magic things, the store's gone and nobody can tell them anything about it. This book didn't turn out to be magical any more than a book normally is, but what I mean is that I stumbled upon the store and the next time I was in the area, it wasn't there.
Alien Pregnant By Elvis - edited by Esther M. Friesner & Martin H. Greenberg. I ordered this because of the editors (Esther M. Friesner is an awesome writer, and I've liked what I've read of Martin H. Greenberg) and because I couldn't resist the title.
The Madman’s Daughter - Megan Shepherd. I got this at a yard sale. I love reinterpretations or continuations of really classic stories.
Hunted Past Reason - Richard Matheson
Bag Of Bones - Stephen King. I have had some interesting hang-ups with Stephen King. For a long time I avoided the Dark Tower series, because I thought it was one of those things that tries to be Tolkien and fails. Now, it's one of my favourite Stephen King things. Although, I tried a few pages of Eye Of The Dragon and then stopped. Anyway, I don't have any prejudices against Bag Of Bones, I have just been reading the other things that I've been reading.
Ghost Riders - Sharyn McCrumb
The Rosewood Casket - Sharyn McCrumb
The Ballad Of Frankie Silver - Sharyn McCrumb
Hoka! Hoka! Hoka! - Poul Anderson & Gordon R. Dickson
Star-Begotten - H. G. Wells
History Is Dead - edited by Kim Paffenroth
The Imposter Bride - Nancy Richler
Sineater - Elizabeth Massie
Time Storm - Gordon R. Dickson
The End Is Nigh - edited by John Joseph Adams
The End Is Now - edited by John Joseph Adams
The End Has Come - edited by John Joseph Adams
The Book Of Negroes - Lawrence Hill
Daughter Of Fortune - Isabelle Allende
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris
The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson

96. Curses! Broiled Again! - Jan Harold Brunvand. Started November 17, 2016. Finished November 19, 2016. I was hoping this was going to go a little more into the history of urban legends, but it was mostly a collection of urban legends and attempts to trace those individual legends. Still, they were fun to read and the culture shock of the time it was written in was pretty funny.

97. The Dwelling - Susie Moloney. Started November 19, 2016. Finished November 21, 2016. Reminded me of "A House Next Door" by Anne Rivers Siddons, with the haunted house and the focus on different residents of the house. Spoiler: I really like that it turned out that someone had purposefully "assembled" a haunted house: they decorated/furnished it with a number of haunted objects for reasons unknown.

98. Mysterious, Menacing & Macabre - edited by Helen Hoke. Started November 21, 2016. Finished November 22, 2016. Good, if small, collection. I'm always on the lookout for a Helen Hoke anthology because I read one when I was a kid and it really stuck with me.

99. New Amazons - edited by Margaret Weis. Started November 22, 2016. Finished November 23, 2016. This was pretty good. It's a good example of why I love anthologies - you can pick up something filled with authors and editors you're not really familiar with, and be pretty sure of reading at least some interesting stories. I'd never read anything by Margaret Weis, but as an editor, she's pretty solid. In other news, so close to the finish! Of course, that's just Mt. Everest - I still have other mountains to climb!

100. The Dragon Book - edited by Jack Dann & Gardner R. Dozois. Started November 25, 2016. Finished November 29, 2016. Pretty good. Liked the 2nd last one the best.

101. Hangsaman - Shirley Jackson. Started November 29, 2016. Finished December 2, 2016. I find that everything of hers but the short stories (and "The Haunting of Hill House") seems to get a pretty horrible summary. I think the publishers wanted to pigeonhole her into "The Haunting of Hill House" again and again. Her novels are mostly slice-of-life stuff and maybe some action at the end. They can be weird, or creepy, but the summary for this one (if it wasn't Shirley Jackson) really emphasized Tony, who came in pretty late. She was definitely important, but not in the way the summary implied.

102. Clash Of Eagles - Alan Smale. Started December 9, 2016. Finished Dec 13, 2016. I think this was interesting. I want to read the rest of the series.

103. The Steel Remains - Richard Morgan. Started December 13, 2016. Finished December 16, 2016. I had a copy of this and also a copy of "Altered Carbon" kicking around - after I finish the trilogy "The Steel Remains" started, I'm going to dig up "Altered Carbon" and read that.

Finished Mount Everest!

Awesome job! Congratulations!

Thanks!