Monthly summaries - October, November, December
177. What the Dead Know - Laura Lippman
178. To the Power of Three - Laura Lippman
179. Here Comes the Sun - Nicole Dennis-Benn
180. Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour - Kate Fox
181. Today Will Be Different - Maria Semple
182. The Blue Line - Ingrid Betancourt
183. The Girls in the Garden - Lisa Jewell
184. The Boy is Back - Meg Cabot
185. An Unrestored Woman - Shobha Rao
Here Comes the Sun was a difficult read emotionally but probably worthwhile? I can’t say I enjoyed it, though. The Boy is Back was a delight, but Meg Cabot pretty much always is.
186. Thud! - Terry Pratchett
187. Another Brooklyn - Jacqueline Woodson
188. Making Money - Terry Pratchett
189. Nicotine - Nell Zink
190. The Wangs vs. the World - Jade Chang
191. Britt-Marie Was Here - Fredrik Bachman
192. Snuff - Terry Pratchett
193. The Age of Miracles - Karen Walker Thompson
Nicotine did not compare to Mislaid, though Goodreads ratings would suggest otherwise. I would strongly recommend avoiding it if you’re asexual (or just bothered by the following situation: a character describing himself as asexual when actually he does experience sexual attraction, women basically sexually assaulting him because they don’t believe he’s asexual, and then the character being “cured” when women don’t actually care that his genitals are on the small side). I thoroughly enjoyed The Wangs vs. the World, and I tore through The Age of Miracles. More could have been done with the latter, but it was intriguing and an easy read.
194. The Mothers - Brit Bennett
195. Swing Time - Zadie Smith
196. Somewhere Out There - Amy Hatvany
197. Talking As Fast As I Can - Lauren Graham
198. You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine - Alexandra Kleeman
199. Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett
200. Scrappy Little Nobody - Anna Kendrick
201. Eric - Terry Pratchett
202. Who Will Catch Us As We Fall - Iman Verjee
203. The Expatriates - Janice Y.K. Lee
204. Raising Steam - Terry Pratchett
205. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett
206. Re Jane - Patricia Park
207. The Last Hero - Terry Pratchett
208. The Shepherd’s Crown - Terry Pratchett
The Mothers, Swing Time, and Re Jane were all good but not amazing. Highly capable authors writing about things that just weren’t hugely interesting to me personally, I think. Re Jane was my favourite of the three. Talking As Fast As I Can was disappointingly shallow - Graham is a very private person and as such probably shouldn’t have bothered with a memoir, least of all when working on several other projects at the same time. You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine was probably December’s standout book (aside from The Shepherd’s Crown) - creepy and incredibly visceral and probably way too smart for me.