Tag Archives: Robert Galbraith

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Books I’m Excited to Read in 2026

Just a few of my TBRs

I’m excited to do anything in 2026, to be honest. Three weeks ago, I had cardio-thoracic surgery. No one expected that the solution to my problem would be the easiest that it could possibly be, as far as diagnosis, procedure, and recovery because multiple doctors, who were informed by multiple scans and tests, were unsure what they would find when they went in. I couldn’t envision life beyond the surgery, although I anticipated that one or two more surgeries would be necessary to solve my problem. The problem? It started with a spontaneously collapsed lung in March and was followed by a recurrent collapsed lung in July. Thankfully, when the surgeon went in, he found out exactly what was causing my lung to collapse and fixed things so that it should never happen again (fingers, toes, and eyes crossed). The first collapse happened exactly 10 days after my last post. In combination with a number of other unforeseen events (one of which happened this week), 2025 became quite a memorable year—also a year in which keeping up with this blog was the least of my concerns. I did, however, keep up with my reading better than in recent years. And that’s why we’re here.

I had a simple goal for 2025: to read more than I read in 2024. Granted, I read more in 2024 (29 books) than the year before, but since I only read 21 books in 2023, that’s not saying much. At the end of the day, I own a lot of books, people lend me a lot of books, and I find joy in buying a lot of books, but it’s hard to justify getting more when my TBR list doesn’t change much from year to year. And I want to be very clear: no matter what, I will always want more books. It’s my vice, people. But I did it in 2025—I started the year with the goal of reading 25 novels (nine of them carried forward from 2024), and I read 20 of my goal titles. In fact, I read all but one of the carried-forward-from-2024 books, and number nine is the book I’m currently reading, so take that, 2024 and 2025 lists! I also have a strategic plan, and that is to prioritize the five books I’m bringing from 2025 into 2026 (with one exception—more on that in a sec) before reading the rest of the list or getting sidetracked by other books. (This is where Ron Howard starts narrating my life and says, “She got sidetracked.”)

Sadly, part of why I was able to read more in 2025 is because I didn’t dedicate much time to writing. Even if I don’t write during the rest of the year, I usually participate in National Novel Writing Month in November, but the non-profit NaNoWriMo went down in flames for a number of reasons, including their confusing stance on AI (read: they didn’t require writers to prove that they hadn’t used AI, which turned off most of their supporters). I have mixed feelings about NaNoWriMo shutting down because my first experience with NaNoWriMo in 2013 was exhilarating. Although I never matched that level of success again, NaNoWriMo (and the couple times I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo) helped me feel like I was staying connected to my writer side, especially when work and grad school pushed writing to the side. But when there was no validation process last year, the whole experience felt cheapened, and I honestly breathed a sigh of relief this past November because, for the first time in over a decade, I didn’t feel the internal push to write 50,000 words in 30 days (or, alternatively, the internal guilt for not doing it). I certainly hope I’m not done writing, but that extra time this year allowed me to squeeze in extra titles toward the end. And here they are in chronological order (* indicates books that weren’t on the original list):

  1. Rule of Wolves (King of Scars #2) by Leigh Bardugo
  2. Dark Age (Red Rising Saga #5) by Pierce Brown
  3. Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga #6) by Pierce Brown
  4. A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat
  5. Fourth Wing (The Empyrean #1) by Rebecca Yarros
  6. Iron Flame (The Empyrean #2) by Rebecca Yarros
  7. Onyx Storm (The Empyrean #3) by Rebecca Yarros*
  8. Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games #0.5) by Suzanne Collins
  9. Wild River (The Wild #2) by Rodman Philbrick
  10. Solimar: The Sword of Monarchs by Pam Munoz Ryan
  11. Took by Mary Downing Hahn*
  12. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Expuréry*
  13. The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn by Sally J. Pla*
  14. The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh*
  15. The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall*
  16. When Sea Becomes Sky by Gillian McDunn*
  17. Murtagh (The Inheritance Cycle #5) by Christopher Paolini
  18. Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow*
  19. The One (Dark Future #1) by John Marrs
  20. Olivetti by Allie Millington*
  21. The Cuckoo’s Calling (Cormoran Strike #1) by Robert Galbraith
  22. The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2) by Robert Galbraith
  23. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin*
  24. Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike #3) by Robert Galbraith
  25. Lethal White (Cormoran Strike #4) by Robert Galbraith
  26. Troubled Blood (Cormoran Strike #5) by Robert Galbraith
  27. The Ink Black Heart (Cormoran Strike #6) by Robert Galbraith
  28. The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike #7) by Robert Galbraith
  29. The Hallmarked Man (Cormoran Strike #8) by Robert Galbraith
  30. The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden*
  31. The Rook (The Checquy Files #1) by Daniel O’Malley
  32. Stiletto (The Checquy Files #2) by Daniel O’Malley

Not on the above list is the Bible (English Standard Version), which I read in 364 days. This was accompanied by a year-long devotional that a friend gave me last Christmas. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I would do it because I didn’t think I could keep up with the readings (given my track record). But on January first last year, I dove in, and I am very proud of myself for making it to the finish line. I did use the audio version for many of the more difficult readings. (Not sure how to pronounce that jumble of letters? Let the audio guy do it!) I also read a book in relation to (but not required for) my job as a literacy specialist, but given that I only agreed with about half of it, I won’t be recommending it here.

Of the 32 books listed above, my top recommendation is the entirety of the Cormoran Strike series (which Robert Galbraith, aka J.K. Rowling has not finished writing yet). This is detective fiction, but if you’re thinking Miss Marple, think again. My husband was a detective for years, and a very good one, but he hasn’t figured whodunit in any of these books yet. Murder mysteries were my first fiction love, way back in 1996. Yes, I read plenty of books before then, but when I discovered Agatha Christie, I officially became book crazy, and I haven’t recovered since. I won’t say that if you love Harry Potter, you’ll love these—do not do J.K. Rowling the disservice of stuffing her into a magical young adult box. She is the most brilliant writer I’ve ever read (just my humble opinion). She grabs you from The Cuckoo’s Calling and builds on the realistic, historically correct British world of Cormoran Strike from there. They’re amazing mysteries, but the writing also reflects a good understanding of people and what makes them tick.

Another one of my loves is kidlit, and my school’s librarian hooked me up, yet again. Every single one of the titles I borrowed was amazing, so I highly recommend them if you have an upper elementary/middle school kid in your life or if you just love to read great books. The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn is about an autistic girl (narrated first person), and it got me right in the feels. The Lost Year was a book that all our 6th Graders had to read, and it addresses the cover up of a devastating famine that happened in Ukraine in the 1930s. Not only is it a great read for historical purposes, but the ending—wow. When Sea Becomes Sky was another gut punch at the end and also a fun sibling adventure. Simon Sort of Says does a fine job of dealing with pre-adolescent PTSD without getting political or hitting you over the head with it. The narrator’s sense of humor provides a much-needed counterpoint to the heaviness of the subject matter. Thomas read it and enjoyed it as much as I did, and now Ian is reading it. Lastly, Olivetti is narrated by… a typewriter. Yep. And deals with how families can be affected by disease. Here’s the thing about good kidlit: done right, it addresses issues that kids can identify with in an authentic way. By this, I mean that kids can read these books without feeling like they’re being taught a moral or that they’re supposed to learn something. Kids enjoy them for their great storytelling, and adults enjoy that aspect, too, while understanding the full impact of the sensitive subject matter handled between those pages.

Thomas and I are fortunate to have friends who love to read as much as we do. One of the reasons I have such an extensive personal library is because I love sharing books that I’ve enjoyed (I may have mentioned that before). I borrowed and read six books from one such friend in 2025, and I want to highlight two in particular, The Dearly Beloved and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. These two deserve a chef’s kiss, and for completely different reasons. Thomas read The Dearly Beloved first and was interested to see what I would think about it. This book is about the intertwined lives of two pastors, but I hesitate to call it a Christian book. Is there Christianity in it? Yes. But at the heart, the more important thing is that this author gets life. Maybe it’s cliché, but this book made me feel heard, validated, whatever you want to call it. There were so many parts that resonated with me. Highly recommend. And A.J. Fikry was an interesting little book with some twists that really surprised me. It’s also a great book for book lovers—the main character owns a bookstore. I had Thomas read it, and he was also pleasantly surprised. And almost as soon as he finished, a different friend lent him Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, which is by the same author. Thomas has read it and gives it his stamp of approval. You’ll see it on this year’s book list.

As for The Empyrean series, yes, I got on that bandwagon. Thanks to a friend clueing me in ahead of time, I knew better than to mistake it for YA, even though it shared some young adult themes. Said a different way: I would let my own teenagers read a lot of other adult novels before these. It seems to assume that, for younger adults (if not teenagers) to want to read a book, it must include violence, foul language, and sex. Okay, fine. If they’re all so shallow (which I don’t believe), can’t we dress it up in better prose, style, and literary devices? The nougat center of this story is unique and compelling but enrobed in a layer of casualness around people biting it that is enrobed in an equally casual we-might-die-tomorrow-so-let’s-get-freaky-tonight outer shell. There are no clever turns of phrase, challenging vocabulary, or jaunty witticisms. And some lines are so cringey as to make me mentally gag: “I shatter.” Give me a break. Never has anyone ever shattered. I know it’s metaphorical, but also, who has ever thought, in the heat of the moment, “I shatter”? With that said, I did mention that the story is unique and compelling, didn’t I? I really have no idea where it’s going, so even though I’m not wild about how it’s being told, I am curious enough about what will happen in the next installment that I’ll probably check it out. I reserve the right to read books that I’ve semi-panned.

The one book on my list that is a definite no (and has already been turned in for credit at one of my favorite used bookstores) is The One. It was one of those craft-paper-wrapped, date-with-a-book purchases. And it’s made me shy away from ever buying one of those again (as alluring as the mystery of it may seem). The premise of this book is interesting: what if every person could be genetically matched to “the one,” their soulmate? Some of the writing is humorous, but it’s the first in a series of what seems to be a cautionary tale that I don’t need to be told (I felt the same way about The Circle when I read it years ago).

Lastly, I read The Rook in 2023, another book loan from my friend mentioned above. I knew I wanted to continue the series as soon as I finished it—it’s kind of a mash-up of X-Men and the Ministry of Magic with a Douglas Adams-ian sense of humor. In 2024, I planned to read the sequel, Stiletto, and the threequel, Blitz, but I didn’t acquire either until 2025—whoops. By then, I knew I wouldn’t remember the finer details of The Rook, so I went ahead and bought it, too. I was too deep into rereading Cormoran Strike one through seven, followed by the newly published eighth installment, The Hallmarked Man, to get all three of these books in by the end of the year. And guess what I found out when my planning my 2026 list? The fourth book, Royal Gambit, was recently published, so that’s the one book I’m planning to read early on before I tackle the leftovers from 2025 (or get distracted by something off-list).

If you’re still hanging in there, my 2026 list contains many new books, thanks to contributions and recommendations from a few friends and some last-minute buys. In fact, the only repeat on the list is the Harry Potter series, which I haven’t read since 2019—yikes. A whole pandemic has happened since then. It’s time. You might have noticed a lot of Louise Penny books in my TBR shelf photo and wonder why I’m only listing one title. Penny is a complete unknown—these books were donated by good friends downsizing their library—so I am not going to commit to reading more than one before I know what I’m getting myself into. Maybe I’ll love them, and then—sidetrack. I’m also listing Corrie ten Boom’s autobiography, which belongs to Peter. He read it recently and then placed on my desk for me to read. (Even though I miss reading to little Peter and Ian, I am so happy to be trading with and recommending book to them.) One last minute addition that gives me immense joy is Neal Shusterman’s Break to You. I read Challenger Deep years ago on the recommendation of my cousin-in-law Julie, who became friends with Shusterman through a FAME (Florida Association for Media in Education) Conference. Julie is one of the librarians in the 2025 documentary The Librarians (which has its Florida debut this month), and she is the first person listed in Shusterman’s dedication in Break to You—of course I needed my own copy! Above all others, I will make this title a priority after finishing the books I’m bringing forward from 2025. And if, by some miracle I finish everything else on the list, will read the ancient behemoth Don Quixote. Since that I haven’t gotten through an entire year’s list in I don’t know how long (although it has happened before), I think I’ll be realistic and save it for 2027. (It’s Thomas’s book, anyway—he has to tackle it first.) With all that in mind, here are the books (alpha by author) that I hope to read in 2026:

  1. I Loved You in Another Life by David Arnold
  2. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
  3. The Women by Kristin Hannah
  4. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
  5. A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1) by Sarah J. Maas
  6. Blitz (The Checquy Files #3) by Daniel O’Malley
  7. Royal Gambit (The Checquy Files #4) by Daniel O’Malley
  8. Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #1) by Louise Penny
  9. The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak
  10. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter #1) by J.K. Rowling
  11. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter #2) by J.K. Rowling
  12. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter #3) by J.K. Rowling
  13. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter #4) by J.K. Rowling
  14. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter #5) by J.K. Rowling
  15. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter #6) by J.K. Rowling
  16. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter #7) by J.K. Rowling
  17. Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan
  18. Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson
  19. The Well of Ascension (Mistborn #2) by Brandon Sanderson
  20. The Hero of Ages (Mistborn #3) by Brandon Sanderson
  21. Break to You by Neal Shusterman
  22. The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom by Corrie ten Boom
  23. The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson Walker
  24. All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
  25. We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker
  26. One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon
  27. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Time to go—I have some reading to do!

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Please Let Me Read More in 2025

Shelf-Worthy Books?

Despite the title, I did read more in 2024 than in 2023. Still, I wish I’d been able to read more the last couple months of the year. Participating in NaNoWriMo and all the usual Christmas shenanigans gave me very little time to read—sometimes only several pages a day. I don’t think anyone who knows me will be surprised that I deviated from my planned list a few times. When family members or friends lend me books, I read them. That’s how I came by three series—All Souls, The Kane Chronicles, and Schools of Dune—all of which I finally read in 2024 (two had been on my list since 2022). I also borrowed the King of Scars duology, which I hoped to finish in November, but I barely finished the first book by Christmas and am currently reading the second.

I always expect to deviate from my list when it comes to my students; I just don’t know which titles I’ll be reading with them. In 2024, this included Fantastic Mr. Fox and Charlotte’s Web, to name a couple. My school’s librarian also understands my love of all things kidlit and occasionally loads me up, so I read several unplanned books at the end of the 2023-24 school year (titles such as A Monster Like Me and Dead Wednesday). While I, sadly, no longer read aloud to my sons, the younger one got into the Underland Chronicles last spring and insisted I read them. I’d read the first book, Gregor the Overlander, in 2007, and with his encouragement, I finished the series 17 years later.

The only book that I read in 2024 that was a real stinker was A Psalm for the Wild-Built. It was a book I received in a book exchange from a total stranger, which is always a risk, but it was on my list, and I was determined to choke it down and get it over with. On the other hand, Wonder, which I read with a 4th Grade book club, was a delightful surprise.

I also have a couple non-fiction titles that I’m including this year. I don’t always list my non-fiction, but these were ones I truly enjoyed and believe they are accessible to many readers. In fact, Thomas and I both read and enjoyed these books, Tuesdays with Morrie (which I’d always assumed was fiction before reading it) and Different Kind of Minds (check out my review of it here).

In 2024, my book list included 25 titles. Although I only read 16 of the books I planned to read, I read 29 books in all, which I consider a win. Here they are, in the order in which I read them (* indicates the unplanned titles):

  1. A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1) by Deborah Harkness
  2. Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy #2) by Deborah Harkness
  3. Wonder by R.J. Palacio*
  4. The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy #3) by Deborah Harkness
  5. The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles #1) by Rick Riordan
  6. The Throne of Fire (The Kane Chronicles #2) by Rick Riordan
  7. The Serpent’s Shadow (The Kane Chronicles #3) by Rick Riordan
  8. Gregor the Overlander (Underland Chronicles #1) by Suzanne Collins*
  9. Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane (Underland Chronicles #2) by Suzanne Collins*
  10. Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods (Underland Chronicles #3) by Suzanne Collins*
  11. Gregor and the Marks of Secret (Underland Chronicles #4) by Suzanne Collins*
  12. Gregor and the Code of Claw (Underland Chronicles #5) by Suzanne Collins*
  13. New Dragon City by Mari Mancusi*
  14. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
  15. A Monster Like Me by Wendy S. Swore*
  16. Dead Wednesday by Jerry Spinelli*
  17. A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot #1) by Becky Chambers
  18. Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl*
  19. Fractal Noise (Fractalverse #0) by Christopher Paolini
  20. Sisterhood of Dune (Schools of Dune #1) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
  21. Mentats of Dune (Schools of Dune #2) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
  22. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White*
  23. Navigators of Dune (Schools of Dune #3) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
  24. Red Rising (Red Rising Saga #1) by Pierce Brown
  25. Golden Son (Red Rising Saga #2) by Pierce Brown
  26. Morning Star (Red Rising Saga #3) by Pierce Brown
  27. Different Kinds of Minds by Temple Grandin*
  28. King of Scars (King of Scars #1) by Leigh Bardugo*
  29. Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga #4) by Pierce Brown

In 2024, I said I would prioritize the books that I didn’t read in previous years, and I was mostly successful. I still need to read Pierce Brown’s Dark Age and Light Bringer to finish his Red Rising series, and then it will be on to the seven books left over from 2024. Something that was missing in 2024 was a real page-turner that made me want to prioritize reading. That’s not to say that I didn’t read some excellent books, but they were all books that I could put down. This year, I plan to dive into the Cormoran Strike series again because they are penned by my favorite author (Robert Galbraith, AKA J.K. Rowling), and they are the best mystery novels I’ve ever read. AND *drum roll please* the title of book eight of the series has been released, The Hallmarked Man. Although there’s no publication date yet, I am crossing my fingers that it will happen in 2025, so onto the list it goes. I am also going to pick up Harry Potter again. It’s been over five years since I’ve read the series, and even though I’ve read the first four books 13 times (and five to 12 times for books five through seven), there is so much to love about these books, and it goes much deeper than an orphaned wizard. My 13-year-old recently breezed through the series over the period of a couple weeks. It was the first time he’d read all the books on his own, and his enthusiasm for them (plus a deep understanding that he didn’t have previously) has rekindled my interest.

Rounding out my 2025 list are books that have yet to find a spot on my shelves. It used to be that, as soon as I acquired a new book, I would shelve it. Which usually meant a monumental shift of books, since I shelve all my fiction alphabetically by author across two large cabinets. Then one of my voracious-reader friends posted a picture of her unread books, which she keeps on a separate bookshelf. This, I realized, would not only keep the books I have yet to read front and center, but it would also keep me from shelving books that are unknown and might not be shelf-worthy. These are the books in the photo featured at the top of this post. While I don’t have an extra bookshelf to spare, I do have a handy hearth that is empty most of the year, so that’s where those books will live until they’re read and shelved or… they meet some other fate. (Not pictured are books I have yet to acquire—The Rook Files—or books in my classroom library.) In a separate corner of the house altogether is a box of books (shown above) that was gifted to me on the last day of the year. While visiting friends on New Year’s Eve, I was invited to take what I wanted, so I did just that. I am not familiar with Louise Penny, but I’m told she writes mystery novels, so I’ll try the first one of the series and see where it goes from there. And if none of these books work out, I won’t have to rearrange the whole bookcase again.

With all of that in mind, here are the nine books I’m pulling forward from 2023 and 2024 plus 16 new ones that I might possibly read in 2025:

  1. Rule of Wolves (King of Scars #2) by Leigh Bardugo
  2. Dark Age (Red Rising Saga #5) by Pierce Brown
  3. Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga #6) by Pierce Brown
  4. The Cuckoo’s Calling (Cormoran Strike #1) by Robert Galbraith
  5. The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2) by Robert Galbraith
  6. Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike #3) by Robert Galbraith
  7. Lethal White (Cormoran Strike #4) by Robert Galbraith
  8. Troubled Blood (Cormoran Strike #5) by Robert Galbraith
  9. The Ink Black Heart (Cormoran Strike #6) by Robert Galbraith
  10. The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike #7) by Robert Galbraith
  11. The Hallmarked Man (Cormoran Strike #8) by Robert Galbraith
  12. The Women by Kristin Hannah
  13. A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1) by Sarah J. Maas
  14. The One by John Marrs
  15. The Rook (The Rook Files #1) by Daniel O’Malley
  16. Stiletto (The Rook Files #2) by Daniel O’Malley
  17. Blitz (The Rook Files #3) by Daniel O’Malley
  18. Murtagh (The Inheritance Cycle #5) by Christopher Paolini
  19. Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #1) by Louise Penny
  20. Wild River (The Wild #2) by Rodman Philbrick
  21. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter #1) by J.K. Rowling
  22. Solimar: The Sword of Monarchs by Pam Munoz Ryan
  23. A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat
  24. Fourth Wing (The Empyrean #1) by Rebecca Yarros
  25. Iron Flame (The Empyrean #2) by Rebecca Yarros

When I first started making this list in 2013, it was mainly to give me something to look forward to during the year, not something to chain me down. While I understand I have an obligation when I borrow books, I also want to enjoy what I read, so that’s the ultimate goal. May you find joy in reading (or whatever your creative outlet is) over the next 360-something days.

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Meet the 2024 Book List, Same as the 2023 Book List

Now that I have you thinking I was a total slacker in 2023, it’s really not as bad as my title suggests. I did read some of my book list last year. And now is the time when I lay out all my excuses for why I didn’t come anywhere close to reading my list of 30 titles. *cracks knuckles*

First, let’s tackle the elephant in the room, which is that I always veer off the path to read books that weren’t on my original list. There was a time when these books were the ones I read to my kids. Car rides were a favorite time to introduce them to series such as Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, and A Series of Unfortunate Events. The series that did me in was The Lord of the Rings. Reading elvish aloud is a different animal. That was two years ago. Now I have a kid who can drive himself, so we’re not always riding together. Plus, times have changed. When the four of us are riding somewhere together now, we’re more likely to be singing along with our extensive YouTube playlist. And that’s okay.

My side novels, as I like to think of them, have shifted to books that I read to keep up with my students. Because I teach kids with learning disabilities, it’s important to know firsthand exactly what happened in the books they read; when their comprehension takes a dive, I can help correct their misunderstandings. And I’ve really enjoyed some of these unplanned reading treasures. Although they pull me away from my list, they’re well worth it. Five of the seven unplanned books I read in 2023 fit this category.

One excuse down. Here’s another: In 2023, I struggled. Sometimes the struggle was because some of my books were just meh (I will not be returning to the Ship Breaker series). Sometimes the struggle was due to the length of the books and a lack of time. In July, our lives were turned upside down by an unexpected (but necessary) move in a horrible housing market. While I now believe that we ended up right where we were supposed to be, there was a lot of stress involved, a lot of sleepless nights (spent worrying, not reading), and up until a couple days before Christmas, we were still unpacking. The house projects promise to keep us busy for years to come. Oh, and before the move, we got chickens, so I can blame a lot of time evaporation on them, too.

Okay, that ended up being a whole list of excuses. I’m keeping on keeping on, but it’s slow. I’ve been reading my current book since late November, and sometimes I only manage five pages in a day. When your book has 700+ pages, it feels interminable. I could have devoted more time to reading this past week and squeezed in one last title, but instead, I chose to play games with my family, and I don’t regret it. After all, the books will always be waiting for me. (And, boy, do I have piles of books.)

Excuses delivered. Now it’s time to dive into the books. In 2023, my goal was to read 30 novels, and a few of them were doozies. (I did say it was ambitious right up front—the proof is here.) When it came right down to it, I only finished 22 books in 2023 (all but one were novels—the non-fiction title I read for work can be found on my Goodreads page). Only 14 of the books I read came from the original list of 30. Here they are, in the order in which I read them (* indicates where I deviated from my original list):

  1. Siege and Storm (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy #2) by Leigh Bardugo
  2. Ruin and Rising (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy #3) by Leigh Bardugo
  3. Carry Me Home by Janet Fox
  4. A Duet for Home by Karina Yan Glaser*
  5. Superstar by Mandy Davis*
  6. Stuck by Jennifer Swender*
  7. Written in My Own Heart’s Blood (Outlander #8) by Diana Gabaldon
  8. Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone (Outlander #9) by Diana Gabaldon
  9. Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon
  10. The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2) by Robert Galbraith
  11. Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike #3) by Robert Galbraith
  12. Lethal White (Cormoran Strike #4) by Robert Galbraith
  13. Troubled Blood (Cormoran Strike #5) by Robert Galbraith
  14. The Ink Black Heart (Cormoran Strike #6) by Robert Galbraith
  15. The Rook (The Rook Files #1) by Daniel O’Malley*
  16. Ship Breaker (Ship Breaker #1) by Paolo Bacigalupi
  17. The Drowned Cities (Ship Breaker #2) by Paolo Bacigalupi
  18. The BFG by Roald Dahl*
  19. Horns by Joe Hill
  20. The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike #7) by Robert Galbraith*
  21. Masterpiece by Elise Broach*

Of the titles I read, some favorites include everything by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling), Superstar (a fantastic middle grade book about an autistic boy), and Instructions for Dancing (very different for Nicola Yoon but probably my favorite of her books).

In 2024, I will prioritize the 16 books that I wasn’t able to read in 2023, and I’ve added a few more because it’s me, and that’s what I do. Here’s the list (alpha by author):

  1. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
  2. Red Rising (Red Rising Saga #1) by Pierce Brown
  3. Golden Son (Red Rising Saga #2) by Pierce Brown
  4. Morning Star (Red Rising Saga #3) by Pierce Brown
  5. Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga #4) by Pierce Brown
  6. Dark Age (Red Rising Saga #5) by Pierce Brown
  7. Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga #6) by Pierce Brown
  8. A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot #1) by Becky Chambers
  9. A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1) by Deborah Harkness
  10. Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy #2) by Deborah Harkness
  11. The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy #3) by Deborah Harkness
  12. Sisterhood of Dune (Schools of Dune #1) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
  13. Mentats of Dune (Schools of Dune #2) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
  14. Navigators of Dune (Schools of Dune #3) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
  15. The One by John Marrs
  16. Stiletto (The Rook Files #2) by Daniel O’Malley
  17. Blitz (The Rook Files #3) by Daniel O’Malley
  18. Fractal Noise (Fractalverse #2) by Christopher Paolini
  19. Murtagh (The Inheritance Cycle #5) by Christopher Paolini
  20. Wild River by Rodman Philbrick
  21. The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles #1) by Rick Riordan
  22. The Throne of Fire (The Kane Chronicles #2) by Rick Riordan
  23. The Serpent’s Shadow (The Kane Chronicles #3) by Rick Riordan
  24. Solimar: The Sword of Monarchs by Pam Munoz Ryan
  25. A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat

This year’s list isn’t nearly as daunting as last year’s, so maybe I’ll finally reach my goal. If not, I’m still going to enjoy the journey. As a writing professor told me decades ago (sigh), the important thing is to always have an answer when someone asks what I’m reading, and that I can do.

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Freedom to Fail

In November, I did something that I had not done since 2020: I signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). And in doing so, I did something I’ve never done before: I signed up for NaNoWriMo expecting to fail.

The last time I participated in NaNoWriMo, I was in the midst of grad school, and I think the only thing that saved me was that it was 2020, when most of my (and my children’s) extracurricular activities were postponed until who-knew-when. Was I still stressed out? Yes. But I validated a 51,000-word manuscript by the 25th of the month.

In 2021, I had just started a special education certificate program that required me to take more courses per semester in order to stick with my cohort. With sports and music programs in full swing again, I made the tough decision to forego NaNoWriMo in the interest of spending time with my family and keeping a shred of sanity. What made my decision particularly tough was that, in March of that year, I’d had a brainwave, and a new story idea was born. Despite this brainwave coinciding with a new semester at a new school, I split my time between typing papers and typing the story. By the end of June, I’d written close to 114,000 words. Then my creativity fizzled out. There was a two-year period in my story line in which I needed the characters to develop, but I had no idea what events would cause that development. I knew what would happen at the end of those two years, but as for filling in the details, I was stuck. NaNoWriMo would have been a great time to wrestle with that, but even if I hadn’t been stupid-busy, I’m not sure if I would have made progress.

Last year, I felt guilty for opting out for a second year in a row, but no new ideas—or even old ones—had occurred in my year-plus of writing abstinence. Even though I knew I would finish my degree by the end of the month, it wouldn’t be enough time to squeeze 50,000 words in. And I was so burnt out that I was grateful for the lack of pressure.

Why is there so much pressure with NaNoWriMo, by the way? It’s kind of an honor system, although I believe that most people who are crazy enough to sign up to write 50,000 words in a month will see it through properly—or proverbially die trying. I put all that pressure on myself. While fellow Wrimos supported me every year, it was me who was upset if I didn’t make a certain word count in a day. So as November approached this year, I knew that it was on me to take the plunge… or not. I hadn’t written anything new in almost two-and-a-half years. I’ve edited some since 2021, but what if editing was all I had left? Signing up for NaNoWriMo seemed like a final test. Can I still write? That was a more important question than, Can I write 50,000 words in a month?

At the end of October, I signed up, deciding that I would return to my unfinished manuscript from early 2021. It was November 5th before I had time to even think about starting, and when I did, it was only in short spurts. My momentum didn’t start until the week of Thanksgiving. At that point, I knew I was capable of making up my paltry word count—after all, for my first ever NaNoWriMo in 2013, I wrote close to 5000 words on my first day. But that kind of passion was absent this year, leaving me with more of a slow burn. The poor NaNoWriMo stats tracker eventually gave up on telling me how many words I needed to write in a day when the daily goal exceeded 8000.

Here is what I did do in November: I spent time reading a fabulous book (The Running Grave, sequel to The Ink Black Heart, if you read my last post); I enjoyed a day trip to Savannah with my family (also in my last post); I did some much-needed cleaning/decorating/straightening around the house we moved into two months ago; I gave my family and our pets more attention than I have in Novembers past; and I ultimately lost NaNoWriMo for the first time, writing just over 9000 words.

But if you don’t live, what is there to write about?

I don’t know what future Novembers will look like, but now that I’ve lost and survived it, it feels… good. My writing has slowed down, but in this slower season, I will keep moving forward in manageable chunks. I now know the answer to my initial question: Not only can I still write, but by allowing myself to change my pace, I’m even enjoying it again.

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Cemeteries, History, and Bayonet Graffiti

One of my favorite places to go for a quick day trip or mini vacation is Savannah. As close as Disney World but not nearly as expensive, it also has the added attraction (for the adults, at least) of being full of history. And being married to a history nerd… well, it’s rubbed off. One of my favorite historical haunts (pun intended) is Colonial Park Cemetery. I visited it twice when chaperoning my kids’ 5th grade field trip to Savannah, but what actually made the biggest impression on me was hearing about it from the perspective of a ghost tour this past summer.

Displaced headstones again the back wall at Colonial Park Cemetery

I’ll have to admit, I had no idea what to expect from the ghost tour. While there was a conspicuous dearth of actual ghost sightings, and much of the tour was intentionally campy, the historical foundation laid beneath the ghost tales is solid. After hearing that hundreds of victims of the Spanish influenza had been shoveled into a mass grave and that Union soldiers used the cemetery as a camp in the Civil War, Thomas and I had to investigate for ourselves.

We didn’t find a marker for the victims of the flu, but we did walk along the back wall of the cemetery, where displaced headstones now rest. Many headstones are so old that their surfaces have been worn smooth, but we finally found one where some 19th century comedian etched a 1 with his Union-issue bayonet, changing the deceased’s age from 42 to 421. The rule follower in me is appalled by such blatant disrespect of the dead, but the nerd in me finds it absolutely fascinating that this prank from over 150 years ago is still visible today.

Earlier this week, we took the kids to the cemetery to show them our post-ghost tour findings. I’d taken a picture of the altered headstone the first time we found it, and we were able to find it again. Instead of being bored to death, the boys actually thought it was interesting. When not distracted by classmates and a rushed schedule, they began asking questions about the cemetery and the Civil War and history in general. We found some headstones from the 1840s that looked pristine. Considering that people were no longer buried in Colonial Park Cemetery after 1853, that’s comparatively recent. Reading the ages of the deceased on many of these headstones was a history lesson in itself—lots of children and teenagers. It’s sobering to realize that these aren’t cool props but actual markers in honor of real people. Now that the boys are old enough to appreciate it, a cemetery is a pretty cool place to visit.

Now that I think of it, a cemetery would be an excellent setting for a novel—one I have yet to use. I can, however, recommend a great book that has a lot of interesting goings-ons in London’s Highgate Cemetery. It’s Robert Galbraith’s The Ink Black Heart. (Side note: Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym for J.K. Rowling, and The Ink Black Heart is the sixth book in his/her phenomenal Cormoran Strike series.) Not only does a murder happen in London’s Highgate Cemetery, but Galbraith/Rowling creates a whole animated world around that cemetery. If you happen to be in the Savannah neighborhood, I can even recommend where to buy The Ink Black Heart (and any other book you could possibly want): E. Shaver Booksellers. They have giant friendly cats that sleep in the windows—what more could you want?

So keep reading, but don’t forget to get out into the real world and visit places that are worth reading and writing about.

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Books I Might Actually Read in 2023

As usual, my 2022 book list got derailed. I mean, I even predicted it in my title (“My Totally Unrealistic 2022 Book List”), but a year ago, even I didn’t know that I would be taking a class that would require me to read more than one novel per week. I just thought I would have a hard time keeping up because a) I knew I wouldn’t have much time to read for pleasure because of grad school, and b) I had five Diana Gabaldon titles on the list, and it takes me weeks (if not months) to get through one of her books. So it comes as no surprise that I only read three of the Gabaldons. I have to space them out with other books just so I can feel like I accomplished something. And then there came the magical night sometime in the fall when I walked into a Barnes & Noble and was drawn to a new release that I didn’t even realize existed: Robert Galbraith’s The Ink Black Heart. Since I was in the middle of my multicultural lit course at the time, my husband read it first, and as soon as he finished it, he was adamant that I make it my top priority. Having just finished grad school, that’s what I decided to do. And because Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling) is my favorite author, and murder mystery is my oldest fictional genre love, as soon as I finished The Ink Black Heart, I decided to return to Galbraith’s first book and re-read the series. If you love a good murder mystery/thriller, I highly recommend these books (and you will see all the titles below in my 2022 and 2023 lists).

Thanks to my lit course, I read more books in 2022 than originally planned. And thanks to finishing grad school and getting my life back, I now have a craving to read whatever I want whenever I want simply because that’s now an option. So yes, this year’s list is very ambitious, but also more do-able than my annual lists since 2019.

Before I present the lists, however, I want to take a second to talk about the aforementioned multicultural lit course. It was a class that was a requirement to graduate, but I am so glad that it was. A couple of the books were assigned (Gratz’s Grenade and Khorram’s Darius the Great Is Not Okay), but others were left up to the students to find on our own. I am grateful to work in an elementary school with a well-stocked media center, and our media specialist loaded me down with more books than I needed (but that I read anyway), and the winner that left me sobbing on the couch after everyone else went to bed was Kereen Getten’s If You Read This. Despite being overwhelmed by having to read more than a novel per week, I was introduced to books I would not have otherwise read, and it also immersed me in the literature that many of my students are reading. When I visited our school’s fall book fair, I did so with a different outlook than usual, and my 2023 list includes a middle grade title that I purchased there (Carry Me Home). By adding titles like this to my personal library, not only am I reading great books that I genuinely enjoy, but I am also in touch with what my students are reading.

My 2022 list included one title (“Randomize” by Andy Weir) that I did not realize is a short story. It’s available electronically only, and I just don’t have it in me to purchase an electronic short story. So I’m removing that from my list and hoping that he releases another actual novel soon. Of the remaining 19 titles from that list, I read 10 and added quite a few more (not even counting non-fiction—you can see those five titles on my Goodreads page). Here they are in the order I read them (* indicates the ones not from my original list):

  • 1. The Fiery Cross (Outlander #5) by Diana Gabaldon
  • 2. Yaqui Myths and Legends by Ruth Warner Giddings*
  • 3. Artemis by Andy Weir
  • 4. The Rim of the Prairie by Bess Streeter Aldrich*
  • 5. The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye*
  • 6. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
  • 7. Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
  • 8. I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier*
  • 9. The Swarm (The Second Formic War #1) by Orson Scott Card
  • 10. The Crown’s Fate by Evelyn Skye*
  • 11. The Hive (The Second Formic War #2) by Orson Scott Card
  • 12. A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander #6) by Diana Gabaldon
  • 13. The Christmas Pig by J.K. Rowling
  • 14. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars (Fractalverse #1) by Christopher Paolini
  • 15. Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate*
  • 16. The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon*
  • 17. Indian No More by Charlene Willing McManis and Traci Sorell*
  • 18. The Unsung Hero of Birdsong, USA by Brenda Woods*
  • 19. The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez by Adrianna Cueves*
  • 20. Grenade by Alan Gratz*
  • 21. If You Read This by Kereen Getten*
  • 22. Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram*
  • 23. The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin*
  • 24. Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt*
  • 25. An Echo in the Bone (Outlander #7) by Diana Gabaldon
  • 26. Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes*
  • 27. Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes*
  • 28. The Sweetest Sound by Sherri Winston*
  • 29. The Ink Black Heart (Cormoran Strike #6) by Robert Galbraith*
  • 30. Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram*
  • 31. The Cuckoo’s Calling (Cormoran Strike #1) by Robert Galbraith*
  • 32. Shadow and Bone (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy #1) by Leigh Bardugo*

For the first time in I can’t remember how long, I did not receive a single book for Christmas—and I didn’t need to. I still have last year’s book from my husband to read (Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone), as well as all the other books from my 2022 list, not to mention the other books I added to my collection last year. So here is that very ambitious list (alpha by author):

  • 1. Ship Breaker (Ship Breaker #1) by Paolo Bacigalupi
  • 2. The Drowned Cities (Ship Breaker #2) by Paolo Bacigalupi
  • 3. Siege and Storm (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy #2) by Leigh Bardugo
  • 4. Ruin and Rising (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy #3) by Leigh Bardugo
  • 5. Red Rising (Red Rising Saga #1) by Pierce Brown
  • 6. Golden Son (Red Rising Saga #2) by Pierce Brown
  • 7. Morning Star (Red Rising Saga #3) by Pierce Brown
  • 8. Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga #4) by Pierce Brown
  • 9. Dark Age (Red Rising Saga #5) by Pierce Brown
  • 10. Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga #6) by Pierce Brown
  • 11. Carry Me Home by Janet Fox
  • 12. Written in My Own Heart’s Blood (Outlander #8) by Diana Gabaldon
  • 13. Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone (Outlander #9) by Diana Gabaldon
  • 14. The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2) by Robert Galbraith
  • 15. Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike #3) by Robert Galbraith
  • 16. Lethal White (Cormoran Strike #4) by Robert Galbraith
  • 17. Troubled Blood (Cormoran Strike #5) by Robert Galbraith
  • 18. The Ink Black Heart (Cormoran Strike #6) by Robert Galbraith
  • 19. A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1) by Deborah Harkness
  • 20. Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy #2) by Deborah Harkness
  • 21. The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy #3) by Deborah Harkness
  • 22. Sisterhood of Dune (Schools of Dune #1) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
  • 23. Mentats of Dune (Schools of Dune #2) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
  • 24. Navigators of Dune (Schools of Dune #3) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
  • 25. Horns by Joe Hill
  • 26. Fractal Noise (Fractalverse #2) by Christopher Paolini
  • 27. The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles #1) by Rick Riordan
  • 28. The Throne of Fire (The Kane Chronicles #2) by Rick Riordan
  • 29. The Serpent’s Shadow (The Kane Chronicles #3) by Rick Riordan
  • 30. Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon

That’s it! Just a little reading list. Subject (definitely going) to change. Happy reading in 2023!