I am a fan of Helen Hoang as well
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How have I missed this thread? I’ve been keeping a book log in my journal (this is the December/ January shelf).
I’ve just finished Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which I absolutely love.
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So cute! I love how JS&MN is proportional.
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Haha yeah if anything it’s a little small 
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Went ahead and reread the first four Black Tide Rising books over the last couple days (Under a Graveyard Sky, To Sail a Darkling Sea, Islands of Rage and Hope, Strands of Sorrow)…mine so bad about keeping track of those reads, but Ringo is very good with worlds. Now on to the new library books which I’m better about recording 
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I finished Harrow the Ninth, the sequel to Gideon the Ninth, this morning. It was fantastic. I can hardly wait for the third book.
Also, if you haven’t read Gideon the Ninth and the description “lesbian necromancers in space” sounds like something you would enjoy, read it posthaste.
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Per recommendations, I pivoted to some romance novels, and I’m feeling much better.
I read the Royal We, to go along with watching the Crown. I realize both are fictional but man the royal family is f***’d up. Hazard of the weird job in the 21st century? Although they don’t seem that functional in the past either (also reading Wolf Hall, slowly)
Just finished An Offer from a Gentleman (3rd Bridgerton). Very engrossing read and I breezed through it. Not sure I liked it though?
Summary
I thought some of the ways Benedict treated Sophie were icky (threatened blackmail, etc), but not acknowledged as icky by the author like other things, if that makes sense. Also thought solution was too neat, even for a romance novel.
I think I prefer Lisa Kleypas for regency romances, but that doesn’t stop me from putting the rest of the Bridgerton novels on hold at the library.
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Have you tried any Tessa Dare novels? Her Spindle Cove series is pretty great.
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An Offer From a Gentleman is actually my least favorite Bridgerton! More of a legacy read for me. Romancing Mr Bridgerton is my favorite, but Tessa Dare is better 
.
If less funny
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Her more recent novels are better for that sort of thing. Seconding (thirding?) the Tessa Dare recs. Courtney Milan is another good author, her books are set in the Victorian period.
As far as the Bridgertons go, I’ve always been partial to Eloise’s story.
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Yes, I also like that one because it has one of my favorite features:
Spoiler
An en masse appearance of Bridgerton brothers being protective. A less egalitarian trope that I admit to enjoying.
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That scene is hilarious.
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The End of Average: Unlocking Our Potential by Embracing What Makes Us Different
It was fine. Starts off with the story of the US air force discovering with math that most people don’t fit the “average” on multiple dimensions. Also new stories I didn’t know about childhood development “standards”, and problems with standardized tests from a math perspective I hadn’t heard. Loses many points for going down a “we should have credentials for everything.” Probably because my last job had tech bros coming out of the woodwork, and that was one of the consistent things that would solve everything once it was in place.
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I don’t think I have actually said on here what I am reading? At least not in a while. It it kind of a list.
Teen rom-com with political activism, on my phone: Yes No Maybe So
Middle grades diverse fantasy reading out loud to my eight-year-old: Girl Giant and the Monkey King
Audiobook, investigative journalism by BIPOC for Read Harder Challenge, about the legacy of Canada’s residential schools for indigenous children: Seven Fallen Feathers
Large hard copy book that I got for Christmas and read in bed: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Also doing Me and White Supremacy, listening to most of Code Talkers (my husband is reading it to the children) and just finished a cookbook called This Will Make It Taste Good, which is about making a few long-storing highly flavored things (sauerkraut, an herb blend, pickled tomatoes, etc.) and using those to enhance your weekday meals. I don’t know if I will actually make sauerkraut, but she’s kind of selling it!
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Recently finished:
Brighid Devotional Anthology by the Cauldron Cill - Folklore and devotion. Very good if you like those things, and I do.
The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold - Like pretty much everything I’ve read by Bujold, a delight from beginning to end.
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I read that after you talked about it – the early historical bit was very nice.
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Ooh, I’m delighted that you read it on my recommendation! 
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Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
a woman who is really good with data is working through a temp agency that specializes in providing talent to villains. After ending up in the wrong place, wrong time, wrong side of a superhero rescue mission, our POV character is recuperating from a life-altering injury and starts down the rabbit hole of accounting for all the damage superheroes are responsible for. Literal accounting, she likes spreadsheets.
Some body horror towards the end. I skimmed over those paragraphs. Our POV character is not a nice person, but neither are the super heroes she is trying to take down. There is a fair amount of human collateral damage.
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Oh dang this sounds good.
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Finished Piranesi yesterday. If you have also read it then you should come to the book club thread because I want to discuss it!
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