2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion
2025 Personal Challenge: 101+
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SarahKat's Notes - 150
Book: A Kingdom of Flesh and FireStarted:12/25/24
Finished:1/3/25
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Quote: (in this case one of the many ridiculous quotes- not a favorite)
Casteel tugged my eyes back to his
What?
Review
Book: The SpellshopStarted: 12/28/24
Finished: 1/3/25
Why: Group Read
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Favorite Thing: Cloud Bears!
Review
Book: The Wood at MidwinterStarted: 1/3/25
Finished: 1/3/25
Why: Buddy Read
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Favorite Quote:
"Nonsense, said the wood. We are patient. And we see each other doing it. We admire it in each other."
Review: I liked the wood being a character that actually speaks.
Book: An Elephant in the GardenStarted: 1/5/25
Finished: 1/9/25
Why: Buddy read
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Review: In short, this was a great WWII middle grade book. MUCH better than Boy in the Striped Pajamas. (view spoiler)
Book: The StrangerStarted: 1/10/25
Finished: 1/12/25
Why: Buddy read
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Review: Interesting and short read. Sad outlook on life and death.
Book: Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd OdysseyStarted: 12/28/24
Finished: 1/14/25
Why: TBR, January monthly
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Favorite Quotes:
'the ultimate picture of a cow; it's just totally cow
Review: This was so good. I knew Syd Barrett's story, having read Crazy Diamond last year, and the gist of a lot of the Waters/Gilmour drama from my dad who was a Pink Floyd fan. This really delves into the group from start to when this book was written. And it's well-written. Interesting and at times sad or funny. Definitely not just a dry recounting of albums and concerts.
Book: The Ladies of the Secret CircusStarted: 1/5/25
Finished: 1/9/25
Why: Buddy read
Rating: ⭐⭐
Review
📘Book: Wormwood, Gentleman Corpse OmnibusStarted: 1/17/25
Finished: 1/20/25
Why: TBR
Rating: ⭐⭐
Review: I like Templesmith's art style and some of the humor in this omnibus. I would have liked this more if I had read it 10 years ago.
🎧Book: The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn EvilStarted: 1/7/25
Finished: 1/24/25
Why: Buddy read
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Review
📱Book: Innate MagicStarted: 1/19/25
Finished: 1/26/25
Why: TBR
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Review
Favorite Quotes:
Living in fear of the future just shows a lack of faith in God and a lack of confidence in oneself, and I lack for neither.
📘Book: Onyx StormStarted: 1/24/25
Finished: 1/31/25
Why: I wanted to read this before the fans on the internet ruined the plot for me.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Review
Favorite Quotes:
“Your wings won’t hold the weight of this ice,’” Andarna blatantly mocks him. “And yet yours miraculously carry the burden of your ego.”
Also almost any time Tairn speaks.
📘Book: Churchill: A BiographyStarted: 1/2/25
Finished: 4/11/25
Why: TBR- longest book
Rating: ⭐
Review: I read this for the wrong reasons and it is so boring.
Favorite Quotes:
From Lloyd George and just because of the work I do helping coal miners: (view spoiler)
📗Book: The Blue HourStarted: 2/1/25
Finished: 2/4/25
Why: February challenge
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Words I looked up:
Haar: a British dialect term for a cold, wet sea fog that forms off the east coast of Scotland and northern England.
Review
Favorite Quotes:
Pain is clear, grief a fog.
Solitude too, is clarifying, revelatory.
Love, like grief, obscures.
📱Book: A Girl Called EelStarted: 2/1/25
Finished: 2/13/25
Why: Buddy read, Shelf Awareness
Rating:
Words I looked up:
badamier: Indian-almond tree
medina: non-European quarter of a North African town (best I can tell)
pirogue: a small boat, like a dugout or canoe
Review:This was a good story, though very meandering. It was much easier to consume in large chunks rather than small bits at a time like I was doing near the beginning of the book. (most of my thoughts are in the buddy read)
Favorite Quotes:
I am not here to give a history lesson, I do not want to be part of those liars, what interests me are the eel-shaped stories, the unusual stories, those that are like an eel like mine, these are the sort of stories that readers of newspapers and current best-sellers are completely unaware of, the truly true and strangely strange stories, all those who write or read stories which are not eel-shaped, I’m telling you, are far from the reality of this world
there's a world of difference between fear and panic
I hadn’t asked him for his views on the subject, why do people have to go out of their way to answer questions they haven’t been asked
📗Book: The Year of the WitchingStarted: 2/5/25
Finished: 2/10/25
Why:Popsugar and monthly Challenges, Buddy read
Rating: ⭐⭐
Review
Favorite quote:
Sometimes the things that seem like they're hurting us are really a part of healing.
📗Book: The First Day of SpringStarted: 2/7/25
Finished: 2/12/25
Why: Opposites Attract challenge
Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Review
Favorite Quotes:
person-shaped secret
When I said that, Mam's face slipped away. The makeup was still there, locked in a pretty mask, but there was no one underneath it. Her mouth went straight and her eyes went unsparkly, like plastic pretending to be glass.
We were bonded by something thicker than water, thicker than blood: a tar-dark soup of hate-want-need.
His voice sounded like a window with a crack that was letting in rain.
When someone you knew died, you didn't die with them. You carried on, and you went through phases and chapters so different they felt like whole different lives, but in all of those lives the dead person was still dead. Dead whether you were sad or happy, dead whether you thought about them or didn't, dead whether you missed them or not. If it didn't last, it wasn't real dying, it was just someone caring so little they disappeared.
🎧Book: The Midnight FeastStarted: 2/4/25
Finished: 2/10/25
Why: Challenges
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Review
Favorite Quotes: I can't find the exact quote now but it was something like "No one is going to retrograde my Mercury." hehe
📘Book: This Tender LandStarted: 2/13/25
Finished:
Why: Book club, Re-read
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Words I looked up:
hoosegow: a prison
Review: Such a beautiful book! The story was great. The journey on the river reflected Odie's journey with his own thoughts and doubts. The writing was superb. I'm not in a long reviewy mood and it wouldn't do justice to this book anyway. Just read it.
Favorite Quotes:
You tell stories but they're real. There are monsters and they eat the hearts of children.
Everyone knew that although Mr. Brickman wore the pants, it was his wife who had the balls.
Love comes in so many forms, and pain is no different.
There is a deeper hurt than anything sustained by the body, and it's the wounding of the soul. It's the feeling that you've been abandoned by everyone, even God. It's the most alone you'll ever be. A wounded body heals itself, but there is a scar. Watching Emmy weep in Mose's strong arms, I thought the same must be true for a soul. There was a thick scar on my heart now, but the wound to Emmy's heart was still so recent that it hadn't begun to heal. I watched as Mose signed on her palm again and again, Not alone. Not alone.
If we were perfect, the light he shines on us would just bounce right off. But the wrinkles, they catch the light. And the cracks, that’s how the light gets inside us. When I pray, Odie, I never pray for perfection. I pray for forgiveness, because it’s the one prayer I know will always be answered.
📱Book: Dreamsongs, Volume IStarted: 2/15/25
Finished: 2/26/25
Why: TBR, Buddy Read
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Words I looked up:
Review
Favorite Quotes:
Lonely? Yes. But a solemn, brooding, tragic loneliness that a man hates with a passion—and yet loves so much he craves for more. And then there is the second kind of loneliness. You don’t need the Cerberus Star Ring for that kind. You can find it anywhere on Earth. I know. I did. I found it everywhere I went, in everything I did. It’s the loneliness of people trapped within themselves. The loneliness of people who have said the wrong thing so often that they don’t have the courage to say anything anymore.
“That’s victory, isn’t it?” Valcarenghi said. “If you bury your hurts so deep that no one can tell you have them?”
🎧Book: A Solitude of WolverinesStarted: 2/20/25
Finished: 2/26/25
Why: 12 Recommendations
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Review
🎧 Book: Upgrade by Blake CrouchStarted: 2/28/25
Finished: 3/6/25
Why: Buddy read,, TBR
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Review
Favorite Quotes:
Not a quote, but I loved the stuff on compassion, citing Robin Dunbar's work on it at the end. I say this ALL THE TIME. We are not equipped to feel compassion for the entire world yet we are constantly being told about the entire world's woes.
🎧Book:The Mistletoe MysteryStarted: 3/6/25
Finished: 3/7/25
Why: Hold finally became available
Rating: ⭐⭐.5
Review
📱Book: House of Salt and SorrowsStarted: 2/26/25
Finished: 3/7/25
Why: Quarterly
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Words I looked up:
ranunculus: a type of flower
Review
📗Book: The Years of Rice and SaltStarted: 2/28/25
Finished: 3/10/25
Why: Yearlies/Quarterly
Rating: ⭐
Review
📱Book: Poison in the PastriesStarted: 3/9/25
Finished: 3/10/25
Why: Buddy read, popsugar
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Review
Favorite Quotes:
🎧Book: Water MoonStarted: 3/19/25
Finished: 3/22/25
Why: Buddy read
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Review
Favorite Quotes:
Because if we don’t hit walls, we can’t break through them. Every significant scientific discovery ever made was because someone hit a blank wall and decided to push further.
📱Book: AdelaideStarted: 3/16/25
Finished: 3/24/25
Why: Book Club
Rating: ⭐⭐
Words I looked up:
wine key: a corkscrew (I hadn't heard this apparently English/UK term)
apodictic: clearly established or beyond dispute
Review
Favorite Quotes:
How lucky she was to exist in this reality. How terrified she was of this luck running out.
📱Book: The Frozen RiverStarted: 3/26/25
Finished: 4/3/25
Why: Buddy read
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Words I looked up:
moue: a pouting expression used to convey annoyance or distaste
milquetoast: a person who is timid or submissive
Review
Favorite Quotes:
It rains upon the just and the unjust, love. And we no more deserve this than our friends or neighbors do.
Though you never think it possible, you can celebrate and grieve in the same breath. It is a holy abomination.
📗Book: Preparing for Easter: Fifty Devotional Readings from C. S. LewisStarted: 3/19/25
Finished: 4/8/25
Why: Christian/20 Questions
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Favorite Quotes:
I am therefore (with some help from the weather and rheumatism!) trying to profit by this new realisation of my mortality. To begin to die, to loosen a few of the tentacles which the octopus-world has fastened on one. But of course it is continuings, not beginnings, that are the point. A good night's sleep, a sunny morning, a success with my next book-- any of these will, I know, alter the whole thing. Which alteration, by the bye, being in reality a relapse from partial waking into the old stupor, wd. nevertheless be regarded by most people as a returning to health from a 'morbid' mood!
🎧Book: The Other ValleyStarted: 3/31/25
Finished: 4/8/25
Why: Opposites Attract
Rating: ⭐⭐
Review: This should have been good. It wasn't. The premise was good and I was really invested at the beginning, but by the end I was so bored my attention span was waning hard.
📱Book: EuphoriaStarted: 4/8/25
Finished: 4/15/25
Why: Buddy read, personal TBG challenge
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Review
Favorite Quotes:
Elinor has an overenthusiasm for her own ideas and a voluble dearth of enthusiasm for those of others, most especially her teacher’s.
You have to pay much more attention to everything else when you can’t understand the words. Once comprehension comes, so much else falls away. You then rely on their words, and words aren’t always the most reliable thing.
Because death is not tragic to them, not in the way it is to us,’ I said. ‘They mourn.’ ‘They feel sorrow, great sorrow. But it isn’t tragic.’ ‘No, it isn’t. They know their ancestors have a plan for them. There’s no sense that it was wrong. Tragedy is based on this sense that there’s been a terrible mistake, isn’t it?
📗Book: From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good DeathStarted: 4/14/25
Finished: 4/18/25
Why: Buddy read
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Review: Not in the mood to write a long review. I wish there were more different cultures included in this. I realize the logistics of being able to be involved with other cultures' funerals and death practices are probably very difficult and expensive, but the majority of this book was just different types of funeral homes. And yes some of them are interesting and have really cool or different quirks, but a funeral home is a funeral home is a funeral home.
That being said, Doughty is humorous and she makes this branch of nonfiction entertaining. Will read more books by her.
Favorite Quotes:
when your bills come due, you have to pay them. At my company, I pay my bills. Here at this restaurant, I pay my bill. It is the same with feelings. When the feelings come, the fear of death, I must feel those feelings. I must pay my bill. It is being alive.
📱Book: On Fragile WavesStarted: 4/16/25
Finished: 4/26/25
Why: Buddy read, TBG
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Words I looked up:
dastarkhan: the traditional dining surface or tablecloth used in Central and South Asia for communal meals
mazy: Maze-like (I realize this is probably obvious but I guess I didn't realize "mazy" was an actual adjective to describe this). Also, it's used to describe sunlight, which could have been anything!
Review
Favorite Quotes:
You can’t go killing PMs, they’ll stick another one in, and then we have to memorize an extra name. No wonder Abay was so upset. When my history marks come back, I’ll blame you.
Anyone can suffer. But joy—that’s hard.
📘Book: The AdolescentStarted: 5/2/25
Finished: 5/25/25
Why: Monthly
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Review
Favorite Quotes:
Well, cher enfant, one cannot be offended by just anybody.
You torment yourself too much. If you find that you spoke badly, you need only not speak that way the next time; you still have fifty years ahead of you.
One of the strongest traits of Kraft's character was his delicacy.
From the age of twelve, I think, that is almost from the birth of proper consciousness, I began not to like people. Not so much not to like , but they somehow became oppressive to me.
I involuntarily fell to thinking.
I don't like it when someone puts a finger on certain ticklish things in my soul....
But his merriment, though rapturous, was somehow fragile and might be supplanted at any moment by complete dispiritedness
2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
A Line to Kill (other topics)Two Twisted Crowns (other topics)
Hex (other topics)
Lady Oracle (other topics)
Anita de Monte Laughs Last (other topics)
More...
It's new and a work in progress, so we'll see how it goes.
Book:
Started:
Finished:
Why:
Rating:
Words I looked up:
Review
Favorite Quotes: