Welcome back to Whatcha Reading! Hope this week has lifted your spirits in some way, with or without some good book noises.
Here’s what we’ve been reading lately:
Carrie: I just started Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells ( A | BN | K | AB ) and also Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind by Peter Godrey-Smith. ( A | BN | K | AB )
Shana: I’m reading Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, ( A | BN | K | AB ) the hosts of the Call Your Girlfriend podcast. It’s basically a memoir about the ups and downs of their friendship. Memoirs are my least favorite genre but so far I don’t hate this. I’m also reading Edge of Glory by Rachel Spangler, a f/f romance between an Olympic snowboarder and skier
Sarah: Shana, I LOVE Edge of Glory. Tara recommended it and wow did I like it.
Tara: Oh yes! I’ve read everything Rachel Spangler wrote and that’s my favourite by far.
Catherine: I’m rereading Faking It by Jennifer Crusie, ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) which is a gloriously hilarious rom com with heists and art fraud and complicated families and so many secret identities. It’s enormous fun, though I’m not at all sure the main premise makes sense after the big reveal.
Shana: Yay, I’m glad to hear all the love for Edge of Glory! Catherine, I just read Faking It thanks to Carrie, and I thought it was the perfect comfort read. But I agree that serious suspension of disbelief was needed.
Catherine: I mean, it’s a delight! Eve and Louise ! The many many closet scenes! The tiny tiny teeth! But just don’t look too closely at the plot…
Elyse: I haven’t been able to focus enough for a book. I’m doing a lot of TV knitting and sleeping a lot.
Tara: I’ve been listening to the audiobook of Songteller by Dolly Parton and I am loving it.
Lara: I’m indulging in The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon. ( A | BN | K | AB ) When talking about the book, Elyse mentioned competence porn and I was hooked. I only started the book last night, but so far I’m loving it!
Catherine: Ooh, that one was fun! I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it!
Claudia: Elyse, same here! So many DNFs.
Sarah: I’m reading Wolf Rain by Nalini Singh and am trying to savor it because I’m coming to the end of the published books in the series. I’m having trouble doing that because it’s so freaking good.
Sneezy: I’ve just started Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele, and I’m SUPER EXCITED FOR IT!! YES THE FUCK PLEASE ILLUSTRATE QUEER THEORIES IN PRETTY PICTURES, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT MY BRAIN CRAVES!
Ellen: I am currently reading Winter’s Orbit by Evelina Maxwell ( A | BN | K | AB ) and so far it is sooooo good and has al the sci-fi and romance tropes I love and I cannot wait to review it!!
What are you reading right now? Let us know below!
@Pear, I’m another for whom Patricia Briggs’ Alpha and Omega stories are comfort reads. And now you have me thinking of a reread!
@Merle I get some of my best reading time playing Seeker’s Notes and other tablet games by listening to audiobooks. I can get hours of a book “read” while catching up on my games. It makes me feel less like I’m wasting time, although, honestly, I have time and there’s nothing wrong with games! I also listen while cooking, doing chores, driving, and walking the dog. I finish more books on audio than in print.
harthad says: “AUGH! Don’t tease us with the ARC of Fugitive Telemetry! I had brief heart palpitations until I figured out, no, it still isn’t available to the masses until the end of April.”
Oh no, the date has changed! It used to be the beginning of April!
–The Hot Mess and the Heartthrob by Pippa Grant. Single mother of 3 meet a boy bander who went solo as an adult. Love Pippa Grant’s books and this one is a new favorite.
–Roommate by Sarina Bowen. M/M romance. Broke and newly single guy returns home in hopes that his homophobic parents will let him stay. Instead becomes roommates with his coworker who had a crush on him in high school. It was just ok for me. Felt like it was missing something.
–Batter of Wits by Karla Sorensen. I loved Batter of Wits and the MC is a cousin of the MC in Batter. I ended up not liking this nearly as much and was rather disappointed. There’s a love curse on the family. For the guys it’s love at first sight, for the females it’s hate first, love later. I do have an ARC of Kiss My Magnolia which is the ex-gf and brother from this book.
–Royally Endowed by Emma Chase. Bodyguard and princess’s sister. I enjoy Emma Chase and really liked this book.
–Arrogant Devil by RS Grey. Woman leaves rich husband and goes to Texas toget help from her half sister, ends up working for her boss. Sister and boss expect her to be pampered and spoiled. I enjoyed the book.
Barbarian’s Prize by Ruby Dixon. Blue Aliens book and a quick read. Heroine doesn’t want to resonate with any of the males since she was raped by different aliens and becomes friends with the one not constantly hounding her and become FWB’s. Quick, ok read but for some reason you become intrigued and read all of them.
I still find myself flinching whenever the news reader says, “The White House said today…” but it’s slowly getting better.
@FashionablyEvil, I loved Wizard’s Guide and have Minor Mage on hold. I like her adult horror books too–The Twisted Ones was funny yet terrifying.
Could not put down THE 7 1/2 DEATHS OF EVELYN HARDCASTLE by Stuart Turton and enjoyed the twisty mystery set in a kind of mashup of Agatha Christy/Quantum Leap/Groundhog Day. I didn’t think the eventual explanation of “why are we here in the first place?” was very compelling, and could have done without the fatphobic depiction of one particular character.
Just started WINTER SOLSTICE by Rosamund Pilcher and am liking it a lot–a very cosy read so far. I’ve never been able to get into THE SHELL SEEKERS but the characters in this one grabbed me immediately.
Still have HOGFATHER by Terry Pratchett sitting on my bedside table since before Christmas. I love the Tiffany Aching books but his regular Discworld novels feel too forced to me.
My reading is still going slowly, but I did manage a few books. I also watched Bridgerton and the first season of Virgin River. I loved Bridgerton, but Virgin River got so soap opera-ish, with multiple story lines going on at the same time. “Shelter Mountain” was my favorite Virgin River book, but in the TV series that romance plays second fiddle to Jack & Mel’s story.
I read “What a Lady Most Desires” by Lecia Cornwall. It’s the third in her Temberlay series, and I finally figured out what I really liked about them. It’s the actions of the heroine, not the hero, that drive the plot, not things that are happening “to” her. The heroine was outstanding, and she really saved the day. The hero was OK once he got his head out of his ass. Now I’m reading “Murder at Half Moon Gate” which is the 2nd Wrexford & Sloane mystery by Andrea Penrose. I have a lot more historical mystery catching up to do, after this come more Lady Darby, and Ann Granger’s Victorian mystery series.
Will have to come back and read all the comments because they are my favorite part of this post every couple of weeks. But wanted to quickly update because for some reason January has been a prolific reading month for me. Maybe because I am also doing Dry January and trying to stay under 1600 calories a day (send help…or snacks, either one) so I’m spending a lot of time trying to distract myself. I have flown through 6 books already this month, which is a lot for me (I’m usually on pace for one book a week or not even). Since the last Whatcha Reading I finished I GOT A MONSTER by Baynard Woods, about a scandal within the Baltimore police department. This was a good story, but I felt like the writing was a bit hard to follow. I then moved on to The Duke and I, because I am one of the few romance readers who had never read any Julia Quinn prior to the TV series. I found it absolutely delightful, up until the end when….wow. Even knowing it was coming it was a bit hard to read. But, because I found the rest of the book so enjoyable, I’m going to give the series another chance and start the 2nd book this week. So far I’ve only watched episode 1 of the Netflix series so I’ll be interested to see how they deal with the events of the book. Then I FINALLY was able to get The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas from my library holds–I put the hold request in when it first came out so it has been a while. This one was my favorite in the series so far because it seemed like the tightest in terms of plot, and I felt like it really moved along the character development for Charlotte and Lord Ingram. Now I’m doing a quick re-read of the Stage Dive series by Kylie Scott, because I got the box set of all 4 books on sale and those books sooth my brain. On the immediate TBR are the next Bridgerton book, The Switch by Beth O’Leary, My Fake Rake by Eva Leigh, and From Blood and Ash by Jennifer Armentrout. So clearly I need to keep up this reading pace for a while at least!
popping in super late to this party… I’ve been reading everyone’s comments and 3 days later my brain finally clicked and demanded I share things. Thanks brain.
So I’ve been back on my comfort rereads, relistens, and rewatches because stress. I have mentioned my love of Jeeves stories here often but it bears repeating. Books by P.G. Wodehouse, audio narrated by Jonathan Cecil, TV adaptation by the BBC with young Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. There are a ton of them, very funny and low stakes, and I relate hard to Bertie’s quest to just be left in peace by meddling relatives and dramatic friends. The early books are in the public domain and easy to find free or cheap on Kindle or library apps, and YouTube has full episodes of the TV series.
Digging into the archives for extra comfort, currently re-reading/re-experiencing Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett via MarkReads.net. It goes like this – Mark Oshiro reads the book out loud in 20 minute chunks and posts YouTube videos of that a few times a week. Mark has no idea what’s going to happen and reacts adorably to plot twists and terrible puns, then writes a thoughtful review. Commenters post their thoughts and jokes, while carefully avoiding spoilers to keep Mark unprepared for the next chapter. So this particular book was one I hadn’t read before and I kept pace with the videos/reviews/comments for one long winter… I posted on there under the same screen name if anyone is interested. My brain came up with a sort of soundtrack for the story as it unfolded, there’s deep thoughts and puns and sorting characters into Harry Potter houses, and more puns. And fanfic for the main romantic subplot. If you’re into this kind of nerdery check it out. It’s well moderated and TW/CWs are called out upfront. All the Discworld books are on there, including my favorite Tiffany Aching. It had been going on for years before I stumbled onto it, sadly on hiatus now.
So yeah, that’s the rabbit hole that I’ve been escaping into this month. Stay safe, take care of your wild and wonderful self, embrace anything that brings you moments of joy.
I read Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas and it was a delight! Queer YA UF about a teen who accidentally summons a (cute, snarky) ghost and can’t get rid of him. And the HEA is excellent.
Also finally read my first N.K. Jemisin – The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance, #1) and I enjoyed it.
I’m watching the new All Creatures Great and Small series on PBS and enjoying it. It makes me want to re-read the books.