6:100 Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simpson

 Major Ernest Pettigrew grew-up in Edgecomb St. Mary's, had a military career, and then returned after he retired. He lives in the house he grew up in, having inherited it from his parents, married and raised his son there. He is that Englishman, concerned with doing everything properly as it has always been done, keeping up appearances, and concerned with honor and duty. With his wife dead and his son living in London, he putters around his house taking care of the upkeep and reading, golfing with friends, and going on the occasional hunt. Then his brother dies and his regular world is turned upside down when he starts up an unlikely friendship with the owner of a local shop, Mrs. Ali, who lost her husband several years ago as well. Through a common interest in books and the shared experience of both being widows, the friendship starts growing into something more. However, he being of the old-blood in the village and she being a foreigner no matter how long she has lived there makes this a relationship that no one deems appropriate. Everything says this relationship can't work but will they listen?

Read for book club and really enjoyed it although the Major gets pompous enough and stodgy enough that times I really wanted to reach in and shake him. Yes, it's understandable and totally realistic (I've known enough people like him in many ways) but still....LOL  It was a lovely story, moved well, good characters, and a satisfying ending. 

Page count: 379p/1,402p ytd/348,783p lifetime

5:100 Black Panther Vol. 8: The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda Pt.3 by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The worlds of Wakanda Prime and the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda are colliding and T'Challa is in the middle of it all. Finally able to return to Wakanda Prime and trying to relearn who he was and recapture some of the memories that were stolen from him but N'Jadaka will not let things stand.  

Complex character arcs and rich storytelling, it continues to be an enthralling read.

Page count: 136p/1,023p ytd/348,404p lifetime

4:100 Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

 Regan had always felt she was a perfectly normal girl growing up but she also understood that there were rules for how girls needed to act and look and if you wanted to stay with the group, you did not break those rules under any circumstances. She and Heather and Laurel had always been tight but then Heather broke the rules of how girls should be and Laurel turned on her, taking Regan with her and Regan knew that if she went against Laurel, she would also be an outcast so she didn't. Regan realized that Laurel's friendship was conditional but always thought she could keep it...right up until the moment when she couldn't. As she ran away with her heartbreaking, her door found her and took her to the Hooflands where a human would soon be needed to save the Kingdom.

Regan had always loved horses and now she was part of a herd of centaurs who defied the Queen of the Hooflands just to keep her safe. She missed her parents from time to time but years passed and she grew into a confident young woman in that time until it was time for her to face her destiny and overthrow the Queen. This was the way it was done in the Hooflands and as much as she wanted to stay with her herd, she finally had to do what she was brought there to do.

I enjoy these books and I loved the world and characters in this one but felt that the actual adventure was short and lacking any punch. We spent most of the time watching Regan grow up and then very quickly she faced her destiny and a door pulled her back to our world and it felt too rushed with no buildup.

Page count: 172p/887p ytd/348,268p lifetime

3:120 Portents by Kelley Armstrong

 A collection of several short stories and novellas set in the Cainsville universe. Most have been published before but are now gathered in one place.  I enjoyed dipping back into the universe even if I had read many of them before. 

"Scream of Dragons" was originally published in Subterranean Press Magazine. I hadn't read it before and it was seriously creepy. It takes place when Rose is a teen and Seanna is a toddler and shows what can go wrong when the fae blood mixes badly and the child is taken away from Cainsville.

I know I've read "Devil May Care" before but can't remember if it was an extra at the back of a book or something else. It is the story of how Patrick and Seanna got together just long enough to produce Gabriel. Shows just how broken Seanna always was and doesn't do Patrick any favors either.

"Gabriel's Gargoyles" shows Gabriel about 10 years old already having figured out how to navigate his mother and ready to con and pickpocket and it's heartbreaking to see how broken he is because of Seanna.

"The Black Cat" is Gabriel's take on Poe's "The Orange Cat" and "Bad Publicity" is a Patrick prequel that again doesn't show him in the best light. Both were originally preorders for Betrayals.

"Matagot" is a new story and reveals more about TC's true nature and what happened during his kidnapping in Visions. It was interesting as it also reveals more about the start of the Matilda, Gwyn, and Arwen legends.

"Lady of the Lake" was another Betrayals preorder bonus but I don't remember having read it before. It takes place during Olivia and Ricky's vacation when they find a haunted lake.

I do hope that Ms. Armstrong continues to play in this universe from time to time as I do enjoy getting to go back with new stories.

Page count: 320p/715p ytd/348,096p lifetime

2:100 The Diary of Anne Frank

From 2017:

The diary of a 14yr old Jewish girl who lived in Holland and went into hiding with her family, another family, and a friend of the family in order to try and escape the Holocaust after the Germans occupied the country. They lived together for 3 years before they were caught and sent to the concentration camps. This is not a novel but rather the thoughts and feelings of a teenage girl growing up under the shadow of death but yet her writing is powerful and raw and you can see the underlying steel and passion within her.

One interesting tidbit that I learned is that this version of the Diary is not what she actually wrote but a compilation of what she originally wrote combined with a version she had started working on for publication after the war with her father's edits (particularly of her relationship with her mother to tone that down and also apparently of her thoughts that were of a more *ahem* adult nature).  There has been another version released that contains more of this and I really want to find time to read that one to see how it differs.

Page count: 283p/395p ytd/347,776p lifetime

1:100 Ghost-Spider: Dog Days Are Over by Seanan McGuire

 Gwyn Stacy, the Spider-Woman of Universe 65, has been outed in her own universe which makes leading anything resembling a normal life impossible. She just wants to go to school and get an education without the hassle so decides to jump over to the regular Marvel universe, 616, and go to school at Empire State University with the help of Peter Parker. So during the day, Gwyn can be found in U-616's ESU doing the school thing but then she returns home to U-65 for homework, band practice, and crime fighting. Unfortunately, jumping between dimensions has the additional problem of having two versions of Miles Warren after her. The one from her home dimension wants to take her out and the one from U-616 seems to have the hots for the Gwyn Stacy of his universe who is no longer and is willing to transfer his affections to this new one.  Neither seems to be ideal for Gwyn's plans.

As stated before, I have only recently started reading Marvel comics and even then tend to limit to characters I'm interested in by authors I like. I just don't have the time or brain power to deal with the constant reboots and artwork/story lines that don't work for me so I tend to not know a lot of the backstories or previous information. This means that I'm kind of lost on what is up with either version of Miles Warren in this collection. There is enough filled in that I have an idea but not much more than that. Also not really sure what is up with Jameson and the Man-Wolf. Again, there was enough that I could figure out basic motivations but there is obviously a lot that I am missing. It made certain things less clear so this was less enjoyable than the last couple of volumes I read. I think a little less time spent on setting up the cross-dimensional stuff and a little more on understanding these villains motivations would have helped tremendously.

Page count: 112p/112p ytd/347,493p lifetime

2020 Recap and 2021 Goals

 So yeah, 2020.  Huge elections for both primary and general meant a lot of work for me along with trying to take my college classes and then add in global pandemic to get the stress going off the charts. We had to put our dog to sleep, had our grouchy old kitty die a few days later, and then lost my dad a few months after that. As much as I usually derive pleasure and stress-relief from reading, there was just too much going on for me to process reading on top of it much of the time. So I not only didn't make my goals, but I also managed to not write single review for all the books I did manage to read.  I do plan on going back and filling those in but it will be it's own project.

So my goals for 2020 were to read 100 books, 25 new authors, and 20,000 pages.  I managed 77 books, 23 new authors, and just over 15,000 pages.  Considering how messed up everything was, I'm still considering it a victory.

I have no idea what this year is going to bring. My work shouldn't be stupid crazy this year but to make up for that I'm taking a full 14 units in school for the Spring semester, I've signed up for cross-stitch challenges to help motivate me to make some progress on those projects, and I have a ton of other personal projects that I want to work on along with getting my house sorted. In light of all that, I'm still going to try for the same goals as last year of 100 books, 25 new authors, and 20,000 pages.  We'll see what I manage to do.