Joe Kessler > Recent Status Updates

Won a giveaway to get an ARC! Let's goooooo

Was the reveal of those names supposed to be surprising? Sometimes this feels like it was written for a middle-grade audience.

Objection! This story takes place in Alaska. That character should have mentioned Tagalongs and not Peanut Butter Patties. (Two different bakeries supply two different versions of Girl Scout Cookies, you see. It's a regional thing.)

"Towards the end of the twentieth century manned space flights had visited other planets in the solar system."

It's always funny to see sci-fi predictions about the future that didn't come to pass, but that seems really optimistic for a book published in 1993!

And there was only one bed!! This book is more than a little tropey, but I'm enjoying it.

This is long, but really good so far. Feels like it's definitely gonna be at least a four-star for me.

‘My mother used to say you had scaly green skin and terrible halitosis.’

'Really,’ he chuckled. ‘It seems that reports of my breath have been greatly exaggerated.’

Glad to hear the librarian character say that audiobooks count as reading while I listen to this book on audio.... though I have to admit, it would be pretty funny if she had said the opposite instead.

Station Eleven reference!! I knew I liked this heroine.

"She joined him at the console. As he flitted from panel to panel she wondered, not for the first time, if the TARDIS was supposed to have six operators rather than one." A concern later made canon in the newer show!

It's always interesting to see how late in these books the Doctor and companion will sometimes make their first appearance.

This girl is so very autistic, and I love that for her.

This is so dumbbbbb

"Beneath the snow, the monastery was in shambles. It had been attacked by bears." Yeah, there's a lot of that going around in the books I read apparently

What is this book even about? Pretty unclear so far.

My top books of 2025:

1. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
2. Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang
3. King Sorrow by Joe Hill
4. The Redoubtable Pali Avramapul by Victoria Goddard
5. Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
6. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
7. Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
8. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
9. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Will I make it to 200 books this year? 2.5 to go!

"There are no gods. I should know, I've met a few."

I've now been to two weddings this year where Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive was featured as part of the vows, and I can't say enough how much I love that.

"'This fridge,' said the Doctor, 'will be bursting with all manner of good things to eat. I will remember to go back and fill it especially.'

The fridge door unsealed on the Doctor's third pull. A river of freezing air flowed out over his knees. Waving away the vapour he peered in at the empty shelves. So I forget, thought the Doctor. There's never a temporal paradox around when you need one."

'I used an eighth-century dialect that has since become accepted as the formal tongue of the Japanese royal family,' said the Doctor. 'I expect they were a bit surprised. And I doubt they understood more than one word in ten. Which is just as well. Because what I actually said was "Make way! For I am the official keeper of the Emperor's penguins and I must hurry because his majesty's laundry basket is on fire."'

As of yesterday, I've now officially finished more books in 2025 than 2024 (when I read 188). I think I can probably hit 200 for the year if I keep up my current pace, but I'm not going to push myself to hit that.

I'm not loving this, but I might as well finish it.

My six-year-old reader wasn't happy with how slowly one chapter a night was going, so she took the book and finished it on her own 😂

And now we're eating live baby mice for some reason.

There's such a douchey bro vibe to this, too. Like casually comparing people to crackheads, background misogyny in character descriptions, etc.

Not really getting the hype so far, and also not really vibing with the snarky humor. Unless things turn around, this is probably getting a 3-star from me and I won't bother with the sequels.