Still plugging away at The Wandering Inn webserial...now on book 8.

I'm stalled in the middle of like 6 different books and I'm not feeling any of them at the moment.

I just DNFed Assassin of Reality as the second in the Vita Nostra series (I really liked the first book, but...), so I ended up rereading The Scholomance series by Naomi Novik instead.

I started the Four Quarters series by Tanya Huff last night, and I just aggressively don't care about any of the characters. I don't know what I'm looking for in books right now, and I'm getting a little cranky about it.

Made it to the 4th book of the Temeraire series before needing a break (the 3rd book felt a little slow/less engaging than the first 2, and it probably isn't, I just need to read something else for a bit), and my new library holds arrived, so I read Murder at Haven's Rock by Kelley Armstrong last night. It's a spin-off or sequel series to Rockton, and revisiting the characters was a treat.

Finished 1066 and All That (library books get priority in case someone else is waiting), started Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand but wandered off when the story switched to the 2nd main character being introduced about 75 pages in (but I'm gonna come back to it, I just made base camp), and I picked up As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes with Joe Layden from the library today.

...Hard for me to answer that, as I'm still wrapping my head around it, but I'm going to say yes, as while I haven't seen the adaptation, you almost certainly get a lot more of the main character's thoughts and point-of-view, as well as more worldbuilding. The way the city (and the city) work is clearly integral to the plot, but I didn't feel cheated by it, in any case.

Tearing up the 'D' column of my bingo card--I finished The City & the City by China Miéville, Mad Hatters and March Hares ed. by Ellen Datlow, and Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne.

I really liked The City & the City, but it took a good long while before I felt like I was getting a handle on how the society worked, and I'm still not convinced I fully grasped it properly by the end. But it was twisty and turny and enjoyable to read. Also, the first (maybe only) book I've read this year that required the Merriam-Webster website on my phone nearby (I learned "encomia", "rood", and "machicolation". Also "grosstopically", but that was just made up for the book, apparently.)

Mad Hatters and March Hares was easier for me when I read a few stories and then switched to longer works in between to break it up. Some of the stories were pretty creepy, but I enjoyed the theme of the anthology.

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea would work for either the Cozy Read square or the LGBTQIA+ square, and was very light and quick for me to get through. I had fun with the characters, and would read more by this author as a palate cleanser.

I'll be starting Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand this evening, and I picked up 1066 and All That from the library on a recommendation from the bingo recs page, just because it sounded neat, so that should be coming up this week.

I'm taking a break from reading Mad Hatters and March Hares to read Persuasion, since I just watched the movie 2 days ago.

I really like the idea of short stories, and loved reading them as a kid--but as an adult I struggle with them. Getting into a new story before I'm invested in the characters is the slowest/most effortful part of reading for me, so anthologies feel like continually trying to restart a car when the engine keeps turning off. And when the stories are good, I'm usually annoyed that there isn't more about those characters or in that world (but standalone novels don't normally evoke that response and I don't know why).

I'm considering picking another book for my "Judge a book by its cover" square, since The Tangled Lands is also an anthology.

Suggestions: Becky Chambers (I think all of her books qualify) - Monk & Robot; Diana Wynne Jones - Howl's Moving Castle

My card: Heather Fawcett - Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Suggestion: any LGBTQIA+ romance, such as TJ Klune - Under the Whispering Door (or pretty much any other book by this author)

My card: TJ Klune - Wolfsong

Suggestion: Samantha Shannon - The Priory of the Orange Tree; Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange

My card: Jostein Gaarder - The Orange Girl

Just finished Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros because of the cliffhanger of the last book, but this one just didn't grab me. It took me a lot longer to get through, and I had a break in the middle where I wandered off and read other books instead.

I started Whispering Wood by Sharon Shinn last night (as the 5th and last book in the Elemental Blessings series) and it's...all right, I guess. Definitely doesn't feel like the series will conclude with a bang, but that seems to be the case with her other series as well. Having said that, I really enjoyed her stand-alone book Summers at Castle Auburn and have re-read it a few times.

I planned out a full card...and then didn't finish it. Here's the "C" column books I read to complete my bingo:

1C - What's Yours is Mine: Alexandra Rowland - Running Close to the Wind

2C - Independent Author: Michelle West - Hunter's Redoubt

3C - One Less: Baroness Orczy - The Scarlet Pimpernel

4C - Award Winner: Larry Niven - Ringworld

5C - Institutional: Victor LaValle - The Devil in Silver

With a shout out to column "E", which I almost made it through as well. Thanks so much for putting this together--it was a lot of fun, even if I didn't meet my goal of reading all the books. I'm looking forward to planning my 2025 card!