7:100 Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

Sumi was taken to a land of Nonsense and returned to Earth not able to make sense of things here.  And then she died.  Now her daughter, a daughter from Nonsense before she came back but had not had yet when she arrived, is here looking for her mother.  A mother without whom Rini could not have been born but had not had any children before she died.  Now Rini must find the pieces of her mother, scattered over different worlds (that are also not Nonsense and have their own rules) and convince the Baker of her own Nonsense world to bring her mother back again so that the evil in her world can be destroyed and Rini herself can be born.

It makes no sense to even try something so crazy but then again, that's what Nonsense is all about.  So when Rini shows up looking for her mother at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, those who knew Sumi there and even some who didn't but are still looking for ways back to their own worlds chose to go with her on this Nonsense adventure.  And who knows, maybe it's so crazy it just might work.

I really, really loved this one.  I loved the Nonsense of Rini and her world.  I loved watching the others try to fit into worlds where they didn't belong but had gone to in order to help this girl who had shown up out of nowhere.  Something about this book just filled my heart in wonderful ways.


Page count: 174p/1,925p ytd/312,830p lifetime

6:100 Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet Book two by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Really hard to summarize this series as there are plots and subplots and just a lot going on.  I'm reading slowly trying to catch it all.  In order to not give stuff away, I'm going to just use my review from the first volume for all subsequent volumes.  Know that I'm really enjoying them but I think the way they unfold means they are best experienced fresh.

I have so much to say about this but it's hard to nail it all down.  Having read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates and completely loved the Black Panther movie, I was super excited when I saw that Mr. Coates would be writing for the comic.  I was not disappointed.  The story was a bit slow in this as it was the first installment but that is because there was so much being set-up.  There is a lot of depth to T'Challa (from my understanding drawing from many different comic versions of the character), the "villains" are ones that are understandable even sympathetic, the questions being asked are not simply answered and force T'Challa to question so much of what he thinks he knows and understands.  Layers upon layers.  On another note, I also really enjoyed the art which I tend to be incredibly picky about (or why I don't read tons of comics).


Page count: 144p/1,751p ytd/312,656p lifetime

5:100 Ancient South Asian History by

My review from 5 years ago:

Middle School History.  It's my second time reading this and here is my review from 4yrs ago:

The book covered from 400,000 years ago to about the time of the Huns invading South Asia. Yes, it's coverage in brief but it was a good introduction to the material. I knew a little about the Indus Valley people but hadn't heard of the Harrapan civilization before. So much of the history of that time period is lost which is a shame. I enjoyed reading more about their religion and how some things have developed, many things stayed the same for many, many centuries even while incorporating bits and pieces from so many other cultures through trade and conquest.

A vibrant and rich culture warmly explained for the middle schooler.

Page count: 172p/1,607p ytd/312,512p lifetime

4:100 The Once and Future King by T.H. White

My Review from 3 years ago:

A 20th century telling of Arthur, Guenever, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table.  The book itself is split into four different books that were actually published separately when originally published.  The first, The Sword in the Stone, chronicles Arthur's childhood meeting with Merlyn and the subsequent tutoring of him by Merlyn and ends with his drawing the sword from the stone and becoming king.  The second, The Queen of Air and Darkness, goes more into the daughters of Igraine, the feud between them and Arthur due to his father's actions, and we see how that plays into Arthur's tale.  The Ill-Made Knight is really the story Lancelot and Guenever and their love and how it plays out over many years.  It ends with The Candle in the Wind where Mordred driven by jealousy and hatred of Arthur is bent on destroying him and taking the crown.  The book closes with Arthur knowing that he will be facing Mordred in the morning and will not likely live out the day and he is working to set things in order.

So I've grown up knowing the basics of the Camelot and King Arthur. I loved Disney's Sword in the Stone and later the 1980s Excalibur (pretty and shiny).  I had always meant to read some of the stories but as usual, it took a kid reading it for school that got it in my hands.  I found this an interesting rendering as it's got a much more modern feel to things and the language is modern and easy to understand.  You can tell the author definitely had a thing against war (not a bad position in my opinion) and it comes across as almost heavy-handed sometimes.  I also didn't feel like the author had much affection for women as they are almost entirely portrayed as either manipulative, cunning, creatures who will do whatever they need to do to get whatever they want or they are simply a set piece to move a character.  None are full-fleshed characters such as we see with the knights which while I get it was still disappointing to see that not even Guenever was generally anything more.  Otherwise, an interesting take on the old tales and had me getting many of those older tales for my Kindle so I can read those.

Page count: 654p/1,435p ytd/312,340p lifetime

3:100 Casting Curses by Yasmine Galenorn

Book 5 in the Bewitching Bedlam series.  When a tree crashes into Maddy's B&B, a previously unknown space in the attic is opened up but when they start poking around a malevolent spirit is let lose in her house.  Now everyone involved is under a curse: Maddy can't perform magic, Franny has been chased into a mirror, Aegis can't control his predator, and one of the werewolves doing the repair has died.  Maddy has been calling in favors all over town to figure out what they are dealing with and how to fix it but the last thing she expected to find out was that she was going to have to go asking favors of Ereshkigal, the goddess of the Underworld, without her magic to back her up.

Another fun romp with Maddy and her friends.  These are a nice, light, fluffy read and I'm bummed that Maddy is taking a break right now.  Ms. Galenorn has said she'll be back, probably next year, but when everything has been crazy these have been a lovely diversion.

Page count: 285p/781p ytd/311,686p lifetime

2:100 Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet book 1 by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Illustrated by Brain Stelfreeze

I have so much to say about this but it's hard to nail it all down.  Having read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates and completely loved the Black Panther movie, I was super excited when I saw that Mr. Coates would be writing for the comic.  I was not disappointed.  The story was a bit slow in this as it was the first installment but that is because there was so much being set-up.  There is a lot of depth to T'Challa (from my understanding drawing from many different comic versions of the character), the "villains" are ones that are understandable even sympathetic, the questions being asked are not simply answered and force T'Challa to question so much of what he thinks he knows and understands.  Layers upon layers.  On another note, I also really enjoyed the art which I tend to be incredibly picky about (or why I don't read tons of comics).



Page count: 144p/496p ytd/311,401p lifetime

1:100 Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire

12th book in the October Daye series.

Things are not ok and Toby is not sure if they will ever be ok again after what her mother did (see previous book).  May's girlfriend, Jazz, is having nightmares and they are trying to work through it but its hard and slow-going.  Sylvester, Toby's liege and surrogate father, is not speaking to her.  Worst of all, Tybalt is avoiding her.  Always before, he has been there and now she feels that the earth under her feet is no longer solid.

So who shows up at her door?  Her ex- and his wife to inform Toby that her daughter is missing, presumed kidnapped, and (after accusing her of doing it) to ask for her help in finding Gillian.  Any other quest Toby may have refused but this is her daughter, even if they are estranged, and she can't walk away.  When she finds out that faerie is involved, she knows Gillian is in danger because of her and she will do everything in her power to get her daughter back.  She just has no idea, as usual, of just what or who she is up against.

Ms. McGuire manages to keep upping the stakes on Toby but not, like so many authors, make them ridiculously hard or just have Toby snap her fingers to acquire new powers (ok, there was a bit of that for a while but that has died down as I think Toby is now in the form she was meant to be in).  There was reason for what happened in this story (however twisted but it's there) and not just new baddies.  False trails and falser 'friends' all leads to a delightful tale.



Page count: 352p/352p ytd/311,257p lifetime

2018 recap and 2019 goals

So 2018 ended up being even more stressful than 2017 and a lot more chaotic than I could have ever imagined.  Work was a much bigger adjustment than I could have known it would be as I ended up taking on a bigger role than was first described which was good in a lot of ways as I'm enjoying what I'm doing a lot but it ended up taking more time than first thought as well.  And there were several deaths and a wedding which meant a lot of traveling, being emotional support for many, and helping in whatever ways I could. So yeah, a stressful  year.

I'm really hoping 2019 is less so.  I've got a better idea of what I'm doing at work now and since it's tied to the election seasons, I've got the first half of the year to deal with other things while work is slow.  I'm planning on enjoying it if I can ever get over this cold.  Mark has started a new job in a field he loves with people he has worked with before and enjoys doing something he is passionate about.  It will be hard work but of the kind that will be a joy for him to do.  Yes, he is still going to school but I'm hopeful there will be a better balance now.

So with everything that happened last year I did meet my goal of 100 books (Goodreads and I again disagree since I count Patreon short stories but not comics and Goodreads is the opposite) but only 30 authors and just under 19,000 pages so fell short on those goals but I'm still counting it as a success.

There is a lot to do this year to get things caught up after this last year so I'm going to keep it simple again.  100 books, 30 new authors (I want to read more by several of the new authors I've already read so...), and 20,000 pages (I'm going for an average of 200p per book I'm hoping to read from now on LOL).  My to-read pile has miraculously remained pretty stable, only up 3 to 1,396, and my read pile has now surpassed it with 1,411.  It's nice finally see those numbers swap.  Now to keep it that way.  LOL