This year the library system I work for put together a reading challenge. No prizes given, just the self-satisfaction of completing the challenge. For the first half of the year, I’m not going to try to read to fill the categories. I’m just going to read and see what fills what spots, and then later this year, I’ll focus on filling spots.
Here’s what I got so far!
On the NY Times Bestseller List
The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama
This was therapy in book form. I took notes in my therapy notebook of lines that struck a chord with me. Two that really got me to stop and think and bring it up in therapy were:
”I am fully convinced that you will get further in life when you’ve got at least a couple of solid friends around you when you’re reliably and demonstratively invested in them and they in you.”
”According to a 2021 survey, one-third of American adults reported that they have fewer than three close friends. Twelve percent said they have none at all.”
2. From an author you have already read
The Choice: The Dragon Heart Legacy Book 3 by Nora Roberts
I loved this trilogy, the magic, and the characters (I am attached to these characters and always want more). I would have liked a bit more after the big final battle. I always think she cuts her stories short, but how long can she make a book/story?
3. With a one-word title
Icebreaker by A.L. Graziadei
This was such a good enemies-to-lovers story. They had a great group of characters, loved the hockey, and the ending was perfect. I like that the queer YA novels are moving away a bit from the struggle of coming out and how being queer is just an aspect of the character and not the major action of the novel. These characters are dealing with so much more, showing just how much a person has to juggle in life.
4. That’s Science Fiction, Fantasy, or a Graphic Novel
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
The slow-burn romance between an Orc and a Succubus while they open and run a coffee shop while dealing with a gang and a vengeful past questing group member. This was an easy read that was very enjoyable, especially for my D&D and WoW-playing self. It will be a future comfort read, and it’s marked as a Book 1, so I can’t wait to see what else Travis does with this world.
5. Of short stories or essays
Into the War by Italo Calvino
I read Calvino’s If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler in college and instantly fell in love with a book that had some of my classmates throwing it across the room. Since then, I’ve always wanted to read more of his work but haven’t had the chance. Then a few weeks ago, I was walking my laps in the stacks, and the books in the short story section had just been shifted. I saw this book and picked it up cause it was a sign as I was just talking about him when I was chatting with a guy, and he was like oh, you’re a librarian can you recommend a book. They were so drastically different from the other book I read, but the flow of his writing was there and pulled me into the stories of young boys on the eve of war. While Italy was at war, these boys are still on the outside looking in and getting a small idea of what was happening around them.
I've read Legends & Lattes and I remember really like it.