518 ratings | 256 reviews | avg rating:3.26

Barbara’s Year In Books

Barbara’s 2025 Year in Books

Take a look at Barbara’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.

Go to Barbara’s 2025 Year in Books

Barbara Howe’s Followers (11)

Barbara’s Bookshelves

to-read (5)
currently-reading (0)
read (516)
did-not-finish (54)
alternate-history (6)
challenged-books (5)
children-s-books (11)
classic-sci-fi (9)
cli-fi (3)
contemporary-fantasy (46)
See all bookshelves »

Barbara’s Friends

Barbara hasn't connected with their friends on Goodreads, yet.

Barbara Howe

Goodreads Author

Website

http://barbarahowewriter.com/

Member Since

June 2014

edit data

Originally from the USA, Barbara has called New Zealand home since 2009. She lives in Wellington, where she works as a software developer in the movie industry and resides in a house overflowing with books, games, and jigsaw puzzles. After a long hiatus from creative writing, she took up writing fiction again several years ago to indulge her love of books with appealing, intelligent female characters. The Reforging series of epic fantasy novels is the result.

189 posts
Barbara Howe's Blog

The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone

The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone, by Gareth Ward and Louise Ward, is a Kiwi-infused mystery set in Havelock North, a town in New Zealand’s Hawk’s Bay region. This story about two ex-Brit coppers turned bookstore owners is written by … wait for it … two ex-Brit coppers turned bookstore owners. More than a bit self-referential, in other words, but forgivably so in service to a good story.

The

Combine Editions
Barbara Howe’s books

Average rating: 4.27 · 75 ratings · 32 reviews · 9 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Locksmith (Reforging, #1) 4.24 avg rating — 34 ratings — published 2017 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Engine of Lies (Reforging Book 2) 4.69 avg rating — 13 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Blacksmith (Reforging #3) 4.36 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 2019 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Wordsmith (Reforging #4) 3.83 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2021 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Philanthropy and Cultural Imperialism: The Foundations at Home and Abroad by Barbara Howe (Goodreads Author), Sheila Slaughter, Edward T. Silva 3.80 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1980 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Forge (Reforging #5) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2021 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Alcohol Education 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Alcohol Education: A Handbook for Health and Welfare Professionals 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Houses and Homes: Exploring Their History by Barbara Howe (Goodreads Author), Dolores A. Fleming, Emory L. Kemp 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Barbara Howe…

Series by Barbara Howe

Reforging (5 books)
by

Barbara Howe (Goodreads Author)

4.30 avg rating — 70 ratings

rss
Barbara’s Recent Updates

Barbara Howe and 11 other people liked Anja's review of Murder by Memory (Dorothy Gentleman, #1): "2.5* The comparison of this being similar to either Becky Chambers or Miss Marple is WILD to me. First of all, this was way too short. Then the world building was portrayed to be super special and magical, but it actually was... just really simple. Pe" Read more of this review »
May 01, 2026 06:16PM · see review
Barbara Howe and 12 other people liked Brett Gibson's review of Murder by Memory (Dorothy Gentleman, #1): "Murder by Memory is mercifully short. The mystery mostly concerns the motive, which is mired in the economic details of an interstellar starship on a millennial voyage. The nephew serves no purpose to the story as far as I can tell, and the web of ro" Read more of this review »
May 01, 2026 06:11PM · see review
Barbara Howe and 12 other people liked Marta's review of Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1): "I tried. I gave up halfway. I just can't. I am bored to death. Where is the hard sci-fi here? This is a giant soap opera full of exceedingly neurotic characters. I could not buy the level of disorganization and lack of planning that was central to the" Read more of this review »
Apr 07, 2026 11:48PM · see review
Barbara Howe liked Valleri's review of The Dentist (DS George Cross Mysteries, #1): "When the body of an elderly homeless man is discovered on the edge of Clifton Downs, George insists on scrutinizing the smallest details, even after his fellow officers dismiss the murder as an act of random violence. As he delves into the dead man’s" Read more of this review »
Feb 22, 2026 11:16PM · see review
Barbara Howe rated a book it was amazing A Far Better Thing by H.G. Parry (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 28, 2026 04:59PM · like
Barbara Howe rated a book liked it A Fire Upon the Deep (Zones of Thought, #1) by Vernor Vinge	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 15, 2025 07:24PM · like
Barbara Howe is now following Danika at The Lesbrary's reviews
Jul 30, 2025 03:56PM · like
Barbara Howe rated a book liked it Lake of Darkness by Adam Roberts	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This starts off as hard horror-tinged SF with the captain of a spaceship circling a black hole murdering his crew, but it then morphs into a satire on utopianism before morphing again into discussions on metaphysics and religion, before approaching t ...more
Jul 28, 2025 03:04PM · like · see review
Barbara Howe rated a book it was ok Among Others by Jo Walton (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This novel is made up of the diary entries of a 15-year-old girl at a boarding school in the UK in 1979-1980 as she struggles to make new friends, deal with the loss of her dead twin sister, escape the grip of an evil mother, and come to terms with h ...more
Jul 28, 2025 02:57PM · 1 like · like · see review
Barbara Howe rated a book really liked it Mandelbrot the Magnificent by Liz Ziemska	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This novella is loosely based on the real mathematician's life as a teen in Occupied France during WWII. The fictional Mandelbrot has a sort of mystical affinity for maths, particularly fractals, that he uses to build a safe haven for his parents. In ...more
Jul 28, 2025 02:54PM · like · see review

More of Barbara's books…

Barbara’s Quotes

“The best remedy for a bruised heart is not, as so many people think, repose upon a manly bosom. Much more efficacious are honest work, physical activity, and the sudden acquisition of wealth.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Have His Carcase

28 likes

“We notice the silence of men. We depend upon the silence of women.”
― Seanan McGuire, Every Heart a Doorway

477 likes

“A feminist is any woman who tells the truth about her life.”
― Virginia Woolf

tags: feminism, truth, voice, women

28 likes

“People who say change is impossible are usually pretty happy with things just as they are.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The City We Became

tags: change, impossibility

71 likes

“In the four years of its existence the Army of the Potomac had to atone for the errors of its generals on many a bitter field. This happened so many times—it was so normal, so much the regular order of things for this unlucky army—that it is hardly possible to take the blunders which marred its various battles and rank them in the order of magnitude of their calamitous stupidity.”
― Bruce Catton, Mr. Lincoln's Army