Bookishly Happy

A few months back, one of my favorite authors announced a special edition set of one of her series, one I loved, and I decided I wanted to own it. 

The author is AJ Sherwood, and she writes many different series, some with slight overlap, usually but not always fantasy, and I love (almost all of) them. She is very prolific and regularly updates on social media regarding where she is with which projects, which is also fun to follow along.

The series in question is a romantic fantasy trilogy, kind of: the first two books are in order and focus on one couple, and then the third is kind of a companion piece alongside the second, with the main focus on other characters. I've read it multiple times and own the ebooks, but not print copies. Until now!

From here, be warned, there are spoilers for the contents, which included some ephemera and a surprise item.

The set arrived in this fun box:

Pretty inside as well as out.

The books themselves had tissue around them, and a seal.

They had actually bumped around inside the box, tearing the tissue, but no damage was done to the books.

Spines:

Painted edges (at top and bottom as well):

Lovely dust jackets:

But also pretty under the cover:

The backs of the dust jackets as well.

I am happy to say that the books also feel nice. Do you know what I mean? The covers (both dust jacket and book) are smooth, the paper is good, and the font size isn't too small. (Yes, all things that I have found not always the case.) They make me happy to hold.

The set had a postcard of the covers, as well as one with a list of Ren's Rules.

One of the main characters is a man of very few words, which is why the rules include:
Rule One - When giving orders, said orders must be more than a location.

Rule Two – Grunts are not answers.

Rule Three – You have to at least try words before relying on gestures.

Rule Four - You’re not allowed to argue with just one word.

Something else that was included kind of puzzles me. Not in a bad way, but in a "what even are these" way. Each book has an accompanying sheet of, well, not quite tissue paper, but sort of? I mean, what is it?

It matches the painted edge:

And it fits neatly inside, but, really? What is it? I guess you could use it as a bookmark, though I would rather use the postcard, which is a little stronger.

Anyway! The books are also signed:

And have a couple of fun notes on the copyright page. Villains ARE a different story!

And of course, the typos are there on purpose. Boo to AI!

The chapter pages are illustrated:

And there's a map of the countries as well.

This is the first thing I saw when opening the box.

Opened the vacuum bag and found a blanket of the cover images!

Which made for a very cozy reading experience.

All in all, this set made and makes me very happy.

Book Rec for Fantasy Book Lovers

Or maybe that should be "Book Rec for Book Lovers Who Love Fantasy"?

I recently read the last book in a fantasy series of five, and it was actually my favorite of them (though of course I enjoyed them all or I would have stopped reading before this point). I'm going to write more about book five than the others, though if you decide to try them, I highly recommend starting at the beginning.

The series is called Golden Pride, by Caitlin Ricci (AZ link), and it's about a world like our own, but with shifters, specifically lions (hence the pride part)*. Book one starts when Toby, a mild-mannered librarian, stumbles into a bar that turns out to be the hangout of a pack of lions led by Knox, and things happen from there. 
*If you think this is a ridiculous concept, well, yes, sure, but it is FAR from the most ridiculous I have read. Just ask me about that one!

Each of the books covers one member of the pride, dual POV, and the last book is about Silas, a quiet booklover, and Devin. Dev also loves books, especially fantasy books, and the title-dropping the two of them do starts at once. Book recommending is practically a long language as they get to know each other, and even when they were talking about books I haven't read, I was all in.

In this scene, Toby talks books with Devin.

This author GETS IT. She is one of us. After that exchange, Silas and Devin are alone.

The banter, the book love, it was all so pleasant to read. Assuming you like MM with a fantasy element, this is a good one to pick up. Start here:

Three Good Reads Recently

I read three books via the library recently that were all good enough to mention--and a fourth that didn't click and was a DNF, but that's still a good result. I'm not writing up real reviews here, but just wanted to share what they are. Good reads, entertaining enough to finish, enjoyable, but not me trumpeting that you must read this book. 

Recommending books is hard, y'all. I struggle.

The Forget-Me-Not Library by Heather Webber is a romance with an element of 'is it magical realism or not' that I mostly bought into, but partly just decided to roll with. It was an enjoyable read but I sort of think it's not one that will stay with me, if you know what I mean.

For various reasons, I've been reading almost exclusively ebooks, so it felt big that I got an actual paper copy of this when an ebook was not available. The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory had a fun premise and was an entertaining read, though when I saw it was the first in a series, I hesitate to get the next one. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. I did like the supporting character who is a main in book two...

After seeing this book mentioned on Stephany's blog, and then Kim's, I decided to give it a try, and I'm glad I did (and if I hadn't, Engie might have persuaded me!). I don't always get into books this way, but in this case I really enjoyed it, and I'm glad I did. Thank you, library!

My Reading Trend

At this time of year, a lot of bloggers I read are talking about their reading from last year: numbers, favorites, and all that. I enjoy reading these posts, but haven't really wanted to dig deep on my own. I did get to thinking, though, about how much I read last year, which was a ton, I mean a ton, and decided to chart it to show what I mean. Yes, messing around in Excel is fun for me! 

I started my books read spreadsheet in 2013, and over the years I have added (and removed) different things to track. Of course, date finished, title, and author have remained, but in 2013 I checked off these:

And things were added and removed until in 2025, it looked like this:

The category short/novella is one I added midway in 2024, as I was reading a bunch of shorts that I wanted to add to keep track of, but that felt kind of skimpy to count as a book (I don't track book size, but even so). So in the figure below, the 2024 and 2025 numbers are not counting those, to give a more true comparison.

I'm intentionally not showing the actual numbers, because that isn't my point. The point is, just look at how much life avoidance through reading I did last year! I'm somewhere between appalled/embarrassed and impressed.

I don't know that I want to break things down more than I do, but it's fun to think about what else I could track if I wanted.

* happy ending ✅

* cliffhanger (I could write a whole post about how much I hate them) ❌

* potato-chip read (enjoyable read but promptly forgotten) ✅ or keeper (must own to reread) 🎆🎇

What else do you or might you track?

Brrrr; Depressing Library News; Good Cat News

While I understand that my cold weather is not your cold weather, Florida did have record-breaking cold overnight Monday into Tuesday. This was what I had at 8 this morning:

Brrrr! In Florida, that doesn't merit a frost warning, but a falling iguana warning:

The local weather person shared some fallen iguana photos on Facebook today: it really does happen.

Now, by mid-afternoon, it was more like 60, and probably in the sun it felt decent. But inside, not in the sun, I was layered up. 

Brrrr.

~~~~~~~~~~

I've written before about how I have not only a library card for my county's library system, but reciprocal borrowing through the next county's library. Since I read more and more ebooks, I love having two cards* to use: I read an absolute TON, increasingly so this year, as escapism, and I do buy some, but I would be bankrupt if I bought them all. 

*Technically, I have a third: there's an org called the Queer Liberation Library and signing up for that gave me another 5 loans a month from Libby, nothing to sneeze at. 

I was therefore crushed, and I mean CRUSHED*, to get an email from the other library system saying that they are changing the reciprocal borrowing program to eliminate ebooks. Almost the only thing I use it for! (The closest branch to me is an hour's drive, so obviously I'm not making that trek on a regular basis to borrow physical items.)
*Now, a few days later, I'm starting to get over the shock, but that just means I changed the title of this post from "Kind of Heartbreaking" to "Depressing" Library News. Dial it down, there, ccr.

In the email, they note that they offer a non-resident card that can be used for ebooks as well as other things---for $60 per year. Sigh. 

I get it. I do. But ow.

So my Libby borrows would go from 35 a month to 15, and Hoopla from, well I don't know because it tells me how many more I can borrow this month but not for any amount of googling can I find out how many I get per month, why is this a hard question, ugh.

Ahem. I go from more to less, basically. And I probably will suck it up and pay for the non-resident card, since I can afford $5 a month to read 20 books. But, you know, ugh. Change.

~~~~~~~~~~

I took Newman to the vet for his checkup, and though he wasn't pleased about the experience, he was a very good boy, and got a mostly clean bill of health. 

"Why does this take so long? I guess I'll watch the TV."

He needs dental work ($$$), and they're testing to make sure the worms are completely gone, but he's at a good weight (about 12 and a half pounds, he's not a lightweight) and there were no red flags. They also trimmed his claws: I'll do that going forward, but for now the needles are gone and he can make biscuits on me without making me shriek. 

Which makes both of us happy.

On Reading: What I Want, What I Don't

I've written recently about how all I want to do these days is read, very Escapism 101, and that holds true still. And I had an amen-sister moment when I read this in author Rachael Herron's email newsletter, part of a conversation with her sister:

I was recently looking at some book recommendations, and couldn't nope-out fast enough when one said, "I found this book exceptionally difficult to read—it's depressing and dark and triggers abound—yet I was eager to find out what would happen next to these doomed families..." No thank you, not me!

I did read a book recently, a fantasy, that was pretty good, an interesting premise and well written, but it ended on an absolute fucking cliffhanger, like "captured by the enemy, pause here and pick up the sequel, whoops it doesn't come out until next March," and I was pissed.  

I hadn't actually realized it was the first in a series, which is my bad, but that in itself isn't the problem. Look, I don't need every thread of the story to be completely resolved in that situation. But I need something!

Let's compare. I've been enjoying a lighter fantasy series, The Lost Arts, by Ellie Ash, which currently stands at two books (of a planned four), plus a prequel novella and a side-characters novella. 

Not everything has been resolved so far, and there are a bunch of questions I am waiting for answers on! I am very curious why one character reacted the way he did in that situation, why that other character is so mad at the main character, what exactly happened to cause the attack six years ago, how is it possible that someone who died in that attack is maybe not so dead after all...I have questions! So many questions.

But these stories are more happy than harrowing, and each story has stopped at a good place. At least something has resolved in each one. 

I don't want to name-and-shame the cliffhanger one*, because it was not a bad book. It just wasn't what I want these days. What about you?
*If you really want to know, I can email you.

Even More So: Read

I raise my head from a book and look at the world.

The world looks back at me, and I say "nope" and move on to the next book.

Why All I Want to Do Is Read

Lately, I have found myself frequently lamenting if I have to do anything that isn't reading. All I want to do is read.

All. I want. To do. Is read.

Every spare minute. Evenings on the couch. Weekends between forcing myself to actually do things that need doing. Walking from condo to condo, checking on neighbors' places. In the elevator (hey, it's slow, those minutes get boring).

I was on a zoom call last week knitting with a friend when that came up, and I added "and knit" a bit less than convincingly, since lately my only knitting time has been with others*. She asked if I knit while doing something else, like watching TV, and yeah, sometimes I do, particularly during hockey season. But lately, all I want to do is read, and we agreed that sometimes, that's all that shuts the brain down to a single focus.
*Though now and then I have coffee and a pastry at a local bakery on a Saturday and people-watch while knitting.

This is not a good time in America (and plenty of other places). All sorts of awful shit is happening, all the time, over and over. And the more I let it into my brain, the harder it is to function.

Other than being a woman, I am not in a class that is heavily targeted right now. I'm white, middle-class, above childbearing age but not into the Medicare years...but what's happening to other people right now is terrifying, institutions are caving and crumbling, and I feel fragile.

So I read.

All She Wants to Do Is Read

I'm working on the overdue post about my trip to Curacao, which is delayed because all I'm doing lately is reading. I've let a lot of tasks drop to plunge into the sea of escapism. Missing Maggie makes me so sad, and I really, really don't want to think about it any more than I already am, so ... I read. 

And I'm not giving myself a hard time about it, because as the saying goes, it is what it is. In fact, a new book came out that I devoured, going by usual MO of racing through the first read and then having to read it again more slowly. Nuance, what's that? What counts is reading and loving it.

I've written about Katherine Addison's books many times; this is the third in her Cemeteries of Amalo series, which are not sequels to The Goblin Emperor, but in the same world. I love all the books, in print but especially in audio, and have been waiting impatiently for this one. And it's so good! I really loved it, and I look forward to reading it again more slowly. And then starting the wait for her next book, whenever that may be.

Don't you just love a good book?

Dropping Things, but Hey, Read!

I'm so wound up with worrying about Maggie (current situation is that we don't know yet, but it isn't looking good) that I'm dropping the ball in a lot of things in life right now. There are things I should be doing that I just don't, like when I noticed on Wednesday, just by chance, that I hadn't paid a credit card bill that was due today, and things I want to do but am not, like reading and commenting on blogs, and tasks that fall in between the two, like working on clearing out my email inbox. I'm mostly working, reading-reading-reading, and fretting, which manages to fill all my time and then some.

I did try to catch up on a few things yesterday, and came across a post from the other day where where Engie wrote about the ubiquitous READ posters that were always in the library and bookstores when I was a kid. I have a similar one, not from the American Library Association, but from the publisher when this book about the Muppets came out. I had to keep Kermit, and it's on the back of the door of my office even now.

Truer Words, Etc.

You know, this is so me it should have my name on it:

Is it you, too?

Beyond Anne of Green Gables

The comments on my post about LM Montgomery's The Blue Castle let me know that not everyone knows she wrote other books, and she did! So many of them! So I wanted to talk about some of my other favorites.

As I said, TBC is probably my very favorite. I read this one as a young adult, and immediately fell in love with Valancy, and out of love with her mostly horrible family, even though Valancy is an old maid at her advanced age of 29, not a child like Anne. 

Now, don't get me wrong, I loved Anne! I read all 8 books, many times, though along the way I weeded them out (I'm sure I kept the first one, but it isn't on the shelf with the other Montgomerys...I wonder where it's got to?). I was of a good age for the miniseries with Megan Follows and Colleen Dewhurst, as well. I'm not dissing Anne at all, just saying that I turned to it less often as I got older.

Here are the others I did keep, in addition to TBC:

A Tangled Web is another non-child-protag book, and is actually a book of many stories within an extensive clan. A lot happens, but it's definitely the story of the many characters, and highly amusing.

Emily, Jane, and Marigold are child protagonists, like Anne, and are similar and different. Of the three, Jane is probably my favorite, but I'm not getting rid of any of them. The paperbacks are copies I got when visiting the LM Montgomery Birthplace in PEI, which is where I learned about many of her books. 

Mom and I first visited PEI in 1985, and went back four or five times more. We saw Green Gables:

As well as other related sites. And so many beautiful red dirt roads.

It's lovely up there. 

Any LMM questions?