Happy new year. We are twelve days into 2025, I just came back from a two-week winter blog break, and I’m still not over that damn Wicked movie. I literally am sitting here with “No One Mourns the Wicked” running on a loop because that’s just how I roll and Ariana’s voice is basically god-level at this point. I somehow managed to watch the movie twice in December and I have zero regrets, though I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t the reason I got to the theater early the second time around.
Anyhoo, under laboratory conditions I was supposed to be using my two-week hiatus to catch up on my review backlog which has been quietly ballooning out of control, only I’m not in a laboratory and in the real world we got snow on Monday.
You would think a snow day would’ve meant a stay-in-bed-all-day kind of day, but instead I woke up before nine and couldn’t go back to sleep, which meant I had more than enough time to do insane productive things like relaunch my editing business. This thing has been on ice for about three years and it was surprisingly irritating bringing it back, because I envisioned a smooth reopening but instead spent a stupid amount of time figuring out why the internet couldn’t seem to find the damn site. Then when I’d finally logged into the website I just had to spend the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon redesigning the site, editing the content, and making a logo and a social media ad. Long story short, I now have an editing business (again) and I’m unreasonably annoyed with myself. If you need editing, I’m your editor.
The good news: I finally got to use one of the cute little ramen bowls I got for Christmas, because a snow day isn’t a snow day without a bowl of ramen.
December Reading Summary
Books Finished:
- Impossible Creatures – Katherine Rundell
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling
- The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – Suzanne Collins
- Curiosity Thrilled the Cat – Sofie Kelly
Total Pages Read: 1,542
Ehh. I guess it was an okay month for reading, though I didn’t get through as many books as I thought I would at the beginning of the month. I am pleased, however, with my final read of the year. It’s cute and sweet and it has lots of baked goods and a pair of magical cats, and I just love it. I have the next two books, which is a good start but it’s worth noting there are currently seventeen books in the series. Of course, after Redwall, that seems fairly short.
The other most notable December reading event is that I finally cracked and downloaded a sample of the first Stormlight Archives book to try. This is what I get for giving in to the hype around the just-released fifth book. I was hoping to love it, and I was hoping to hate it: love because everyone and their mom seems to love it and I kinda want to know what everybody else is talking about, hate because I don’t need another series to never finish. Turns out I don’t love it or hate it. I just………don’t care. Maybe it doesn’t help that I started the thing late at night, but I could not follow the assassination scene, which uses some conjugation of “lash” every other word, and none of the characters appealed to me. I gave up at Shallan’s first chapter. We are holding firm on the Sanderson-isn’t-for-me line, and I have no current plans to give the series another shot. To be honest, this is a huge relief because I really did not want to read five 1,000-page books. Whatever your personal thoughts on Sanderson, this dude does not do short, at least not for this particular series. All in all, I am so glad I didn’t spend money on it.
Yearly Challenge Stats
2022
Books Pledged: 72
Books Finished: 37
Total Pages Read: 13,041
2023
Books Pledged: 72, later extended to 84
Books Finished: 80
Total Pages Read: 27,379
2024
Books Pledged: 30
Books Finished: 63
Total Pages Read: 19,062
2024 Book List
Asterisk Key
* recommended
** highly recommended
*** my love for this book knows no bounds and YOU WILL READ IT
Assume that all the mangas/comic books are recommended, because I haven’t bothered asterisking them. Hyperlinked titles lead to reviews.
- Twilight Falls*** – Juneau Black
- An Admirable Point: A Brief History of the Exclamation Mark!* – Florence Hazrat
- The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America – Erik Larson
- The Bear and the Nightingale*** – Katherine Arden
- The League of Lady Poisoners: Illustrated True Stories of Dangerous Women*** – Lisa Perrin
- Evergreen Chase: A Shady Hollow Mystery Short Story** – Juneau Black
- Phantom Pond: A Shady Hollow Halloween Short Story** – Juneau Black
- These Violent Delights** – Chloe Gong
- The Fox Wife*** – Yangsze Choo
- Cat + Gamer 1 – Wataru Nadatani
- Cat + Gamer 2 – Wataru Nadatani
- Cat + Gamer 3 – Wataru Nadatani
- Cat + Gamer 4 – Wataru Nadatani
- The Girl in the Tower – Katherine Arden
- Spy x Family 11 – Tatsuya Endo
- The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich*** – Deya Muniz
- Our Violent Ends** – Chloe Gong
- How to Argue with a Cat: A Human’s Guide to the Art of Persuasion – Jay Heinrichs
- The Winter of the Witch** – Katherine Arden
- Tales of the Celestial Kingdom – Sue Lynn Tan
- The Thursday Murder Club** – Richard Osman
- The Man Who Died Twice** – Richard Osman
- I Am a Cat*** – Sōseki Natsume
- Sideways Stories from Wayside School*** – Louis Sachar
- Wayside School Is Falling Down*** – Louis Sachar
- Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger*** – Louis Sachar
- Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom – Louis Sachar
- The Princess Bride – William Goldman
- Foul Lady Fortune* – Chloe Gong
- Jurassic Park* – Michael Crichton
- Goblins & Greatcoats*** – Travis Baldree
- Cat + Gamer 5 – Wataru Nadatani
- Black Sun** – Rebecca Roanhorse
- A Dictionary of Maqiao* – Han Shaogong
- Summers End*** – Juneau Black
- Fantastic Mr. Fox*** – Roald Dahl
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory** – Roald Dahl
- Matilda*** – Roald Dahl
- The Pagemaster*** – David Casci, David Kirschner, and Ernie Contreras
- Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees*** – Aimee Nezhukumatathil
- Fevered Star*** – Rebecca Roanhorse
- Into the Wild* – Erin Hunter
- Alias Grace* – Margaret Atwood
- Mirrored Heavens*** – Rebecca Roanhorse
- Black Butler 33 – Yana Toboso
- Spy x Family 12 – Tatsuya Endo
- The Cartographers** – Peng Shepherd
- Shady Hollow** – Juneau Black
- Bookshops & Bonedust*** – Travis Baldree
- Pride and Prejudice** – Jane Austen
- Cold Clay** – Juneau Black
- Mirror Lake*** – Juneau Black
- House of Hunger* – Alexis Henderson
- Fire & Blood* – George R.R. Martin
- Cat + Gamer 6 – Wataru Nadatani
- Bruce Coville’s Book of Nightmares: Tales to Make You Scream* – Bruce Coville et al.
- Legends & Lattes*** – Travis Baldree
- The Secret Life of the Universe: An Astrobiologist’s Search for the Origin and Frontiers of Life* – Nathalie A. Cabrol
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone** – J.K. Rowling
- Impossible Creatures*** – Katherine Rundell
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets** – J.K. Rowling
- The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes* – Suzanne Collins
- Curiosity Thrilled the Cat*** – Sofie Kelly
DNF
- The Widow Queen (Elżbieta Cherezińska) – DNF’d 2/3/24 on page 66, funnily enough a year to the day since my first 2023 DNF. I can’t. I can’t keep up with all these names Cherezińska keeps throwing at me, as if I too am intimately familiar with European politics in the 990s. The five chapters I’ve read can also get very lecture-y when Cherezińska is trying to get us up to speed on how the characters got where they are, and the writing is awful. I don’t know if this is Cherezińska’s usual style or if it’s the translator, but please normalize paragraph breaks. I was so hoping to love this book, but I have to admit this is disappointing rather than surprising. I will not be giving this a second chance, this is going into the unhaul box.
- Jade City (Fonda Lee) – DNF’d 2/16/24 on page 73. The book is not bad. I’m just really not feeling it for some reason, and I’m not in the mood to start a new series when I know each of the Green Bone books is so long. I might try again later, but for now this one’s going back to the library.
- Godkiller (Hannah Kaner) – DNF’d 2/16/24 on page 78. The reading gods do not smile on me today, I am currently 0 for 2. This one was really a surprise, because I love the premise and I love what I’ve seen of Skedi, I mean, he is literally a rabbit-faced squirrel-sized god of white lies, what a cute thing to be a god of. But I’m bored and I don’t care about anyone or anything that’s happening, and I most likely will not be revisiting this series.
2024 Favorites and Least Favorites
This list only covers books I read for the first time this year, and does not include rereads.
Favorites
- Twilight Falls – Juneau Black
- The Bear and the Nightingale – Katherine Arden
- The League of Lady Poisoners: Illustrated True Stories of Dangerous Women – Lisa Perrin
- The Fox Wife – Yangsze Choo
- The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich – Deya Muniz
- Our Violent Ends – Chloe Gong
- I Am a Cat – Sōseki Natsume
- Goblins & Greatcoats – Travis Baldree
- Summers End – Juneau Black
- Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees – Aimee Nezhukumatathil
- Mirrored Heavens – Rebecca Roanhorse
- The Cartographers – Peng Shepherd
- Impossible Creatures – Katherine Rundell
- Curiosity Thrilled the Cat – Sofie Kelly
Least Favorites
- The Girl in the Tower – Katherine Arden
- The Princess Bride – William Goldman
A Barnes & Noble Holiday
Customers are customers and retail still sucks no matter what industry you’re in, but I was for the most part pleasantly surprised by my time at BN. Is this mostly because of the whopping employee discount and the free ARCs in the break room? Sure. But also the customers generally weren’t too bad, except for this one genius who asked me if my teeth were real because apparently the front teeth looked suspiciously large, and the other booksellers were great, except for that one person who for some reason consistently went out of their way to tell me and the other temps that we wouldn’t be in the store for very long, I mean, tell me you’re counting the days without telling me you’re counting the days. And to clarify, yes, the teeth are real; no, I would not spend money on cosmetic teeth so disproportionately large that they apparently look fake; and, yes, I am officially Hermione.
Those two notwithstanding, it was a great experience, and I would sign up for another holiday season. Unfortunately, I’m 99.99999999% sure I spent more than I made, as you can see below, so that’ll be something to work on next time. And with that, here is everything I could remember buying this holiday season, minus a couple of things I forgot (such as a set of ridiculous snack bag clips) and all the presents I picked up because this season everybody got something from BN, and under that pic is the dumbass duck umbrella I picked up on a whim because, you know, discount. No, really, I’m definitely going to stop spending money on stupid shit this year.
And all the ARCs I walked off, bless BN for finally getting a copy of Sue Lynn Tan’s Immortal into my hot little hands, omg I have been trying to get it via goodreads giveaway ever since I heard of it:
And then after I’d taken five billion photos of two iterations of The Haul (it took me two iterations because I forgot so many things the first time), I was going to have dinner but then I found this giant pile of books on the table at the place where I normally sit, and then I remembered I had done that deliberately so I’d have to put everything away before I could sit down and eat. Why is nothing ever easy with me?
New Stuff for a New Year
Rudest purchase of the year: My new planner. I love it.
Circe, of course, had other plans for the birbs. That kitty pillow was such a waste of money.
And here is Circe using Auntie Lori’s brand-new copy of Valor as a pillow, because the rude birbs were not available.
Biggest “What is This Package What the Hell Did I Order” of the year: This kimchi plush that I backed on Kickstarter several months ago and then completely forgot about. And with that, I am adding “stop ordering dumb shit” to my 2025 resolutions list because I’m still big unemployed. Pretty pleased to have a kimchi plush, tho.
Biggest purchase of the year, period: I squeezed my bank account until both of us cried, and I managed to buy a new laptop. Listen, I’m not proud and it’s definitely not the specs I originally wanted because I couldn’t afford the specs I originally wanted, but it does what I need it to do, and I’m pleased. The last time I bought a MacBook Pro was in 2011, right before I started grad school, so it was way past time for an upgrade. And I normally would’ve made do without the laptop, but this was slightly urgent because I really wanted to get any big technology purchases out of the way before we get hit with those tariffs we keep hearing about.
First order of business: downloading Adobe, of course. I love setting up new devices, ngl.
2024 Resolution Recap + 2025 Goals
2024 resolutions went lousy and I won’t pretend otherwise, so I won’t bother summarizing them except to say that I did not get my first novel to publication, learn Premiere or XD, update my portfolio, pay off my credit card debt, or find a better job. Getting kicked out of the job I was trying to leave doesn’t count. On the other hand, I did cook more frequently, waste less food, and start going through my freezer stash, and I did manage to find an acceptable form of exercise, so the year wasn’t a total loss. The 2025 goals are pretty much 2024’s leftovers with a couple more added, such as “Revive Breaker of Typos,” which obviously has already been checked off. I mean, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give myself an easy early win. We’ll see how I do with my goals of getting up earlier and keeping on top of my mail. I seem to keep accumulating unopened junk mail, and it’s driving me crazy.
As far as reading goes, I’ve set myself a token challenge of 60 books to appease the goodreads gods. Really, though, I want this to be the year of the series catch-up, and I hope I’m actually going to cooperate with myself this year because last year I blew right past my own TBR and didn’t get even close to finishing my main challenge. But I have far too many series that I’ve either started and forgotten about, or that I’ve read but haven’t reviewed, plus a bunch of series that are somewhere in between. I have 37 series in my series-tracking database and only 15 of those have been read in their entirety, with or without corresponding reviews, so I’ve got my work cut out for me. The biggest priority will be to reread Mirrored Heavens (Rebecca Roanhorse) so I can finally close out my Between Earth and Sky review series; I also need to reread Foul Lady Fortune (Chloe Gong), because I’ve got some questions about the ending and I really need to make sure I’m not crazy before I even try to review it. Aside from those, I mean to finally read Shelley Parker-Chan’s Radiant Emperor duology, which I’ve been putting off for years, and I really want to finish the Books of Babel (Josiah Bancroft) and Lost Queen (Signe Pike) series. Basically, the goal is to stop saying “Ooh, I keep meaning to read that!” every time those damn books come up in conversation.
Right now things are looking moderately good: I just started The Bullet that Missed (Thursday Murder Club is on my series TBR) and I have been reading every day of this month in order to stay in the running for StoryGraph’s January reading challenge prize. Two winners will get mega book shopping sprees and one grand prize winner will get the shopping spree and a Kobo Clara Color, and I cannot tell you how much I want that grand prize winner to be me even though I already have two Kindles yeah okay lemme alone. Do I particularly need a Kobo? No. Will I manage to find a use for one, should I actually win her? DOES THE SUN COME UP IN THE MORNING??? In fact I’m thinking of using the Kobo for my digital manga collection, so as you can see my hopes are high and I would love to take that little Kobo home. (And, do I feel guilty for supporting Amazon by using Kindle exclusively? Also yes. But I also love my Kindles. It’s complicated. If I don’t win the Kobo, chances are more than good that I will eventually get suckered into buying the Colorsoft, after they’ve had some time to work out the first-gen bugs and presumably add some more colors to the screen.)
Re: reading journaling, I haven’t actually finished the 2024 reading journal that is included in The Cartographers, but I had a good time putting the journal together and plan to continue the practice. I really really really love layout design and I love recording what I’ve read, so this is pretty much a match made in Heaven. One of my goals for the first quarter of this year will be to finish the 2024 journal and create a new template for the 2025 journal.
Anyway, that’s the general idea for this year. We’ll see if I can actually carry it off.
