What I Read // Winter 2024 Edition

Books I read during the months of December 2023, January 2024, and February 2024

I’m officially starting this post on February 1st. Wow. I can’t believe it. February. The second month of 2024, and a leap year.

I’m currently recovering from the longest cold ever. I started to feel an inkling of it on Thursday, 1/25, and Saturday, 1/27 after presenting and spending my morning with my writing group, I have been down and out ever since. It’s been a doozy of a cold, with energy coming back and then receding. But today, I am here and writing and that makes me happy.

The holiday season was a blast, as usual. This year was extra special because our TN friends were home in CA for two weeks and we got to see them a handful of times and had them over for dinner at the Hobbit Hole for dinner and games 🙂 and then January always feels like an extension of the holidays because my sister and Azzie have their birthdays. This year Azzie turned 8 and she had a Bluey themed party with games from the show and it was the most fun ever!

Winter has been fun! I mean, thanks to the cold, I was able to binge Jack Ryan in January and I wish it were a season or two longer or that we had got some of the backstory on the characters earlier in the show, but overall it was good. I joined a book club with my writer’s group, Quill and Cup. We’re reading the Reclaim Your Author Career non-fiction book. We also celebrated my grandma’s 90^th birthday in February. She passed less than a week after that celebration.

Took a friend to meet Chifu the giraffe at Sacramento Zoo before he moves to a different zoo. She loves giraffes and it was the most fun!

After-school date with the Mayzerbean! Milkshakes and French fries and dinked around Main Street Placerville.

Coming Up This Spring

Mom and I are planning on going to the City of Angles for a weekend in March for a cousin’s baby shower, to visit with family, and do a few of the Los Angeles touristy things I have on my list. I’ll celebrate 33 at the end of the month! And I’ve settled on going to Dillion Beach for the day 🙂 This was a tradition for a few years that I think ended in 2019 or 2020 and I’m ready to bring it back. The Daycare is closed for a week in April, so I’ll have that week off and hoping to focus on writing and enjoy the nice weather during that time 🙂

Onto the books!

I read 15 books this season. Here they are in the order I read them:

The Raven Boys (Book I of The Raven Cycle) by Maggie Stiefvater
Bravely by Maggie Stiefvater
The Dream Thieves (Book II of The Raven Cycle) by Maggie Stiefvater
Blue Lily, Lily Blue (Book III of the The Raven Cycle) by Maggie Stiefvater
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson
Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman
The Raven King (Book IV of The Raven Cyle) by Maggie Stiefvater (audio)
Thread of Dreams by Emily Barret, ARC copy – Releasing March 28^th, 2024
The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard by Tom Felton
Postcards from South Dakota by Chuck Cecil
Creating Character Arcs: The Author’s Masterful Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development by K.M. Weiland
Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fiction and Illusions by Neil Gaiman
Reclaim Your Author Career: Using the Enneagram to Build Your Story Strategy, Unlock Deeper Purpose, and Celebrate Your Career by Claire Taylor

Of the 15:

Completed: 11
Continuing Reading: 4
Did Not Finish (DNF): N/A

Books by the Numbers:

Owned: 9
Library Books: 6
Borrowed elsewhere: 0
New Books published in 2023/2024: 3
Ant’s Shelves: 0
Rereads: 0
eBooks: 4
Audio:1
ARCs: 1

By Readership and Genre:

Fiction: 11
Non-fiction: 4
Contemporary: 8
Anthologies: 2
Poetry: 1*
Fantasy: 11
YA: 6**
MG: 1
Thriller: 1
Writing: 2
Memoir/Biography: 1

*Thread of Dreams has some chapters written in poetry.

** Didn’t count Yumi or Sunlit in this. They most definitely could be read by high schoolers, but when they hit bookatores I don’t think they’ll be shelved in Fantasy YA.

My favorites of the Season

I loved so many of them this season!

Bravely and The Raven Cycle both by Maggie Stiefvater
Thread of Dreams
Beyond the Wand
Yumi and The Sunlit Man

**Spoiler warning: While I’m pretty good about not giving anything away (because I want you to read them and discover the story yourself =D)—there could be some light spoilers. In the blurb itself, I will try to let you know if a spoiler is coming.

Books listed out in order read:

34/30 // The Raven Boys (Book I of The Raven Cycle) by Maggie Stiefvater

Dedication: “for Brenna, who is good at looking for things”

One favorite line: “Fate,” Blue replied, glowering at her mother, “is a very weighty word to throw around before breakfast.”

“Everyone else,” said Maura, “had breakfast a very long time ago” (33).

And the above quote is just a snippet of the witty dialogue of the humans that live at 300 Fox Way.

This book was checked out on a whim. I added it to my list of holds at the same time as The Scorpio Races and I loved every bit of it. The dialogue is witty. The characters are easy to root for and they’re endearing. It’s beautiful writing. And while the story is different than The Scorpio Races, Maggie Stiefvater has a tone, a voice, a style that’s all hers (like V.E. Schwab and similar to how I feel about Jim Butcher’s books) and it just feels like coming home—comfortable, familiar, and you know the story is going to be good.

I will link the books and Maggie Stiefvater’s website at the end of The Raven King’s blurb.

35/30 // Bravely by Maggie Stiefvater

Dedication: “To the Islanders”

One favorite line: “A very different type of magic than the Callieach’s or Feradach’s. A magic that Merida liked an awful lot. The mundane, generous magic of her family” (71).

I added this book to my holds list at the same time as all the other Stiefvater books in this round-up. Honestly, I put it on hold because:

1. I love Brave and Merida

2. The description mentioned Christmas and I was like, This is perfect timing for the holiday season!

So, on-hold it went =D

And it was a delightful book! I just returned all of the Stiefvater books to the library (last week of January) because I’m attached and I didn’t want to give them back yet.

I ended up loving this book. A story about growth and change written in a way that you can be doing All the Things to grow and change but it doesn’t feel like it. I teared up at the end and that sold me. Merida and her entire family mean so much more to me after reading this novel.

It was a beautiful continuation of the animated film and I’m glad I read it. I surprised myself again by not rereading this one, but I think I’ll check it out again during 2024’s holiday season and read it then.

Again, Maggie Stiefvater’s work is like coming home.

Buy the Book | Brave the film

36/30 // The Dream Thieves (Book II of The Raven Cycle) by Maggie Stiefvater

Dedication: “for Jackson, and all her marvelous hours [sic]”

One favorite line: “In that moment, Blue was a little in love with all of them. Their magic. Their quest. Their awfulness and strangeness. Her raven boys” (11).

Sequels are sometimes hard for me because the story and world can start to leave the beauty and intrigue of what captured me in the first book, but I loved this one! I loved that everyone still got airtime (page time?) and no one disappeared in the sequel. I love these characters.

37/30 // Blue Lily, Lily Blue (Book III of The Raven Cycle) by Maggie Stiefvater

Dedication: “to Laura, one of the white knights”

One favorite line: “It was just that spending time with Gansey and the had made her think that the impossible might be more possible than she thought before” (60).

A solid third installment with interesting events. I love how every book picks up pretty much right after the book before it (maybe 1-2 months passing in between), but it helped me as the reader stay closer to the characters and the events of the story.

38/30 // Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

Dedication: “Also for Emily, who, for some amazing reason, gives me her love.”

One favorite line: “Painter hovered outside the place like a mote of dust in the light, seeking somewhere to land” (40).

The third novel in Sanderson’s Secret Novel Project. This is a beautiful book. It reminded me very much of one of the anime movies Ant and I have watched–either Weathering With You or Your Name. It reminded me of the Anime genre in general. The characters are flawed and loveable, the illustrations continue to be beautiful. Hope and humans come together in a really beautiful love story.

I have loved all these books so far and I know Ant is going to make me rank them when I finally read The Sunlit Man bleeeeh haha

39/30 // Unfortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman

Dedication: “For my late father, David, who would have told the tale with delight, and for my son, Michael, who would never have believed a word of it. With love.” –N.G.

“For my dad, who was a teller of stories and a maker of laughs. I miss you like crazy.” – S.Y.

One favorite line: “Fortunately, I had put the milk in my coat pocket” (12). – the Dad

Found this in the local bookstore in town back in December when I was Christmas shopping for the nephews and I’ve been wanting to read it for a while, so it was an obvious buy. And a delightful read! It would be a great book to read with children too—a very silly, adventure story told from the dad’s point of view when he went out to get the milk while Mom was out of town.

Buy the Book | Meet the Author | Neil Gaiman’s Books for Younger Readers

And, at a total of 39 books completed, that concludes 2023 for books I’ve read! As always, it has been one of many adventures with books I didn’t anticipate reading.

And now onto the start of 2024!

1/30 // The Raven King (Book IV of The Raven King) by Maggie Stiefvater

Dedication: Unknown

One favorite line:

*Note: When I get my hands on a physical copy, I will update the above section 🙂

This was my first fiction audio book in like 12 years. Maybe longer. I’ve listened to at least one non-fiction on audio and the only other fiction novel was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets way long ago when I was commuting to work.

I was worried, but I didn’t want to never read this book and wonder how the series ended, so when I discovered that it was available on audio at my library through the Libby app, I went for it! I listened to the sample audio that night and was so worried. He pronounced the name Gansey differently than I did and I was unsure about his voice.

But then it was ready and I was so ready to know how this ended that I just dived in! It became available on a Wednesday after my daycare shift, so I took a walk for an hour—down and back up our street and around our yard—so I could start it. It was a season of carrying our Bluetooth speaker, Jubl, around the house from room to room. And I came to really love it!

I listen to one podcast regularly (trying to catch up on Discover Ag currently) and I typically listen while driving down to my family’s on Mondays or sometimes driving around town on an errands day, but instead I was listening to this novel as often as I could. I don’t listen to things well if I’m just sitting because I’m a fidgeter—which is why I typically listen while driving or doing dishes—so it’s different than sitting down with a physical or eBook, but it was still an enjoyable experience.

I have other books (eBooks if possible) put on hold through the Libby app. So far, The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab, Shark Heart by Emily Habeck, and Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton*.

Okay, so the fourth installment of The Raven Cycle! It was beautiful and great and I loved it! I have added this series to my to-own list. I eventually googled the narrator and it’s Will Patton—Coach Yoast from Remember the Titans! I eventually warmed up to his voice and his pronunciation of the name Gansey sounded normal somewhere in the middle of listening to it (haha). I loved all of it! It was Will Patton’s speaking voice, but it still felt like Maggie Stiefvater and The Raven Cycle. A great series!

*Well that was fun that I got to read Tom’s memoir this season, too!

2/30 // Thread of Dreams by Emily Barrett

Dedication: To be revealed upon publication

One favorite line:

This book publishes on March 28^th, 2024! Woohoo! *confetti*

I read this book early before publication in an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) provided by the publisher.

I found Emily on Instagram through the Havok community after I was published last May. She’s also the wonderful host and prompt-gather for the #flashfictionmagic community over on IG. She’s very kind and a cheerleader of her writing community.

I was in Arizona visiting my friend Jen when the email came in to sign up for the ARC. I thought about passing because #somanybookstoread, but I jumped in last minute and I’m so glad I did!

This is a (standalone?) Fantasy Novel geared toward the Young Adult (YA) readership, but it’s a beautiful story about family and friendship and love—family love, friend love, and new romantic love. It’s about Nova who’s from the planet Lyra and they harvest dream threads from humans’ dreams to power their planet. And all that changes when Nova discovers she’s able to talk to a human, Arlo. The magic is beautiful. Lyra is a strange and beautiful planet. I loved it. My favorite bit about the magic comes at the end *covers face in excitement* it’s just so cool!

Don’t sleep on this one, Readers!

Pre-order the Book | Meet the Author | Emily’s Newsletter | #flashfictionmagic

3/30 // The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson

Dedication: “For all of you, the fans of the Cosmere, who make my dreams come to life”

One favorite line: “Without a dream, he will wear us down eventually and destroy us, no matter what we do. So yes, I’d prefer to trust a myth, Confidence. Instead of just stopping and embracing the Sun” (181).

And so, the Year of Sanderson Secret Novels comes to an end with The Sunlit Man.

This book is set in the greater Cosmere world. Nomad has clearly traveled around the Cosmere and he’s running from The Night Brigade and winds up on this planet with a strange sun rotation. It’s a fascinating Fantasy and Science Fiction novel, and it encouraged my curiosity of reading Everything Sanderson has written because it’s set in the greater Cosmere world and there were some things I didn’t know about. Cosmere newbie here :).

Because Sci-Fi isn’t a regular genre that I read, I had to reread some parts again to make sure I was understanding the science—which only speaks to my struggle with science and nothing to do with Sanderson’s writing. It’s brilliant and all checks out.

And what may seem like a straightforward book about escaping this strange planet, is definitely a great story about humans. I enjoyed it!

Ever since I finished it, I’ve been mulling over these Secret Project Novels, which one is my favorite, etc., and I plan to write a separate blog post for them. I’m so excited for the rest of the readers to start getting their hands on them as they become available.

4/30 // Odd Thomas (Odd Thomas #1) by Dean Koontz

Dedication: To the Old Girls: Mary Crowe, Gerda Koontz, Vicky Page, and Jana Prais. We’ll get together. We’ll nosh. We’ll tipple. We’ll dish, dish, dish.

One favorite line: “Although the dawn had just broken, it had already flash-fried into hard yellow yolk on the eastern horizon” (8).

My first Thriller novel in a while! I’ve loved this genre since I read Jeffrey Deaver’s The Devil’s Teardrop…in high school or just out of it. The pacing is fast, so they read fast, and they’re just a different kind of fun and thrill than other favorite genres.

Odd Thomas lives in a small town called Pico Mundo and he can see ghosts and they communicate with him about who killed them and he helps them. And so the story opens with a Odd Thomas retelling the events of August 14th and 15th, and he can insert some “hindsight’s 20-20” statements in there throughout the story.

This was my first Dean Koontz novel and I think that Odd Thomas being the narrator he is—and keeping his promise to P. Oswald Boone that he would “keep the tone light” (3) in retelling these events—helped lighten the scary. Thinking of The Poet by Michael Connelly—because that main character is a crime reporter and his brother is the latest victim—that puts a different grit into the story. Don’t get me wrong, Odd Thomas still had its creepy moments—and the book does dip into satanism, so it does get a little dark and weird.

I enjoyed the story, the other characters and residents of Pico Mundo, and Odd Thomas’s storytelling. This book is the first of six I believe, and my curiosity is definitely piqued. Also, this was one of the books I’d picked up from a Little Free Library in the last year or so; another one read!

Buy the Book | Meet the Author | Little Free Library

#5/30 // Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard by Tom Felton

Dedication: “I dedicate this book to the Muggles who got me here.”

One favorite line: “It was while sitting in those audiences, wide-eyed, that I learned an important lesson: it wasn’t weird to do this stuff and it looked like fun. Seeing my big brother up there taught me that it’s okay to want to perform, no matter what other people think” (32). – Tom on seeing his older brother, Jink, perform during school.

I loved this book! It was ready before Valentine’s Day and I had to push it back for something else I was reading at the time. It became available again last week (last week of February). I just finished Odd Thomas and hadn’t started the novel a friend let me borrow, so I jumped on it.

It was a delightful memoir! Tom Felton has fun posts on social media, and I love seeing his Harry Potter related ones, so this one caught my eye early on. Since I read Ron and Clint Howard’s memoir, The Boys, last year, it was fun to “compare” these two. And they are worlds apart! Both great books.

I enjoyed Tom’s stories of his childhood and how he fell into acting. The Harry Potter stories he shares are great and fans of both the movies and the books will enjoy them. And he talks very candidly of what it’s like to be known as Draco Malfoy, navigating the publicity during and after the films, and how he navigated life after the film. He included his mental health journey and I’m thankful for humans who share any piece of this journey they go on. Also, the chapter titles were creative!

Thank you, Tom Felton, for the beautiful memoir. This is going on my to-own list for sure!

Thanks again to the Libby app for making this possible to read without having to buy it (yet!).

Buy the Book | Meet the Author | Tom Felton’s music

Books I’m continuing into next season:

Creating Character Arcs by K.M. Weiland // I’ve started working on my Leah novel again—woohoo! *confetti*
Reclaim Your Author Career by Claire Taylor // This is for Quill and Cup’s book club and we’re set to finish it by the end of March.
Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman // I’m hoping once I finish Postcards, this will be the book I read 1-2 stories of a day. (To not drag out the reading over years.)
Postcards of South Dakota // I was really aiming to have this finished this season, but *shrug* life happens. I

What I’m looking forward to reading this next season:

Starting Spring off with a stand-alone Sci Fi novel, The Cityborn by Edward Willett. A friend is letting me borrow it. Again, Sci Fi isn’t usually a genre I read, but I’m enjoying this one!
The Scarecrow, the sequel to The Poet. I think Odd Thomas is guiding me back to some Thriller reads. I picked up The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith at our park’s Little Free Library a few weeks ago, so that’s on my list.
I love Ashley Poston and I’ve read most of her YA novels, but she’s released some Contemporary Romace novels, so I placed The Dead Romantics on hold at the library. Along with The Seven Year Slip, but that’s through Libby and the wait list is months long.
Some other non-fiction: Left on Tenth by Delia Ephron, Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott, Buffalo for the Broken Heart by Dan O’Brien.

It’s crazy to me that when this season ends, I’ll be gearing up for my third Stephen King Summer! But I’m excited to see what reading adventures Spring brings first.

Closing questions:

How was your winter? What was your favorite read? Have you tried the Libby app? Do we have any books in common?

Let me know! I love talking about books!

See what else I’ve read recently here and here.

Writing Process Notes:

1/1/24 // ~9:24am-10:37pm. Midnight prickle with Nicha and Vivian for a little bit too. Added titles, dedications, and favorite lines for first three reads of Dec. Current WC: 623

1/2/24 // 8:49pm-9:21pm. Updated titles, dedications, and a fav quote through December reads; prepped for the first reads of JAN; deleted excessive/repetitive stuff. Current WC: 579

1/24/24 // 3:41pm-4:24pm. Writing desk. PUPing with Ellie W. Listening to my Dave Barnes playlist. Current WC: 1,088

2/1/24 // 11:55am-12:35PM. Finishing up the 11am PST prickle and transitioning into the 12pm PST one. Still giving @nataliekovarik’s playlist a try. Just checking to see where I’m at with this. To publish date of Fri, 3/1 or Sat, 3/2. Current WC: 1,616

2/9/24 // 8:30am-10:06am. Writing desk. Listening to The Bobby Bones Show. On the Author Life prickle with Katy J., Feya, Bestie, IM, Kathleen Rowe, Courtney (writes as Janessa Haley). And then switched to the write-in with Laci at 9am 🙂 Current total WC: 2,643 // word written today: 1,027

2/15/24 // 11:44am-11:55am. The 11am PST prickle coming to an end (with Judith, Meg Brannon, Birgit, Kailey Haider, Amena, Kristin, and Feya). Adding thoughts on Sunlit Man—change of plans: going to see Grandma Betty

2/23/24 // 8:24am-8:52 and then again 9:17am-9:51am. 8am author life prickle with Bestie, Feya, and Michelle. Listening to today’s Bobby Bones Show. Updating for Sunlit Man and Odd Thomas. Current Total WC: 3,175 // Words written today: 532

3/1/24 // 9am-10:16am. Adding thoughts on Odd Thomas and Beyond the Wand. Need pictures for books after The Raven Cyle books. Updated my Intro, added stats, etc. Just need photos and it can be published this weekend—woohoo! Current total WC: 3,812. Words written today: 637

3/3/24 // 2:32pm-3:20. copy and pasting to WordPress, adding pictures, adding links where necessary. Publishing it?? Current WC Total: 3,885. Written today: 73

3/10/24 // 9:49pm-10:32pm. finished adding links and figuring out which books are needed for a second bookstack photo. Will publish this this week! Woohoo!

3/15/24 // 9:31am-10:25am. Added the bookstack photos and doodled a featured photo because Canva felt tiring. Published!