Rachel Kovaciny's Blog, page 24

Reading Goals -- Completed and Begun

Somehow, it's already January 11 and I haven't written any wrap-up posts for my 2022 reading OR declared what my plans for this year are.  Oops!  Time to rectify that.  
First, let's look at my goals from last year.

Overall Goal
I kept my reading goal at 55 last year.  That's just over one book a week, and I know I generally read at least that many.  In 2022, I read 103 books!  
My Year with Irene Kelly
I decided I wanted to reread the four Irene Kelly mysteries by Jan Burke that I had read previousl...

"Howl's Moving Castle" by Diana Wynne Jones

I've been meaning to read Howl's Moving Castle for probably a decade now.  I even got it out of the library once, but took it back unread because I just ran out of time for it.  My son discovered this series recently, and he loves it so much I said I would read the first book so he had someone to discuss it with.
Happily, I liked it a whole lot!  It had the sort of quirky, absurdist humor that makes me laugh aloud.  And the characters were quite loveable.  
Sophie is the oldest of three daughters....

Do You Love L. M. Montgomery?

If you're a fan of L. M. Montgomery -- her books, stories, characters, and so on -- then I hereby invite you to join me on my other blog, Hamlette's Soliloquy, for a blog party in February!

Check out this post for all the details, the sign-up roster, and so on.

Top Ten Tuesday: My Favorite Reads of 2022

I had a wonderful reading year in 2022!  To celebrate it, I've rounded up my "Favorite Books of 2022" to share with you for Top Ten Tuesday today, since that's the prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl this week.
As usual, I'm actually sharing two lists here -- my top ten favorite new reads and my top ten favorite rereads.  Since about a quarter of my reading is rereading, and I tend to revisit my favorites a lot, if I didn't separate the lists, I'd mostly be sharing rereads and that doesn't seem fa...

"Les Miserables" (Manga Classics) by Victor Hugo (original story), Crystal S. Chan (story adaptation), and SunNeko Lee (artwork)

The Manga Classics team did a remarkable job of paring down Victor Hugo's massive, rambling novel into a manga under 350 pages.  If you're familiar with the musical, you'll probably like a lot of the streamlining they did, as it's pretty similar to the musical.  They glossed over Fantine's final resorts to earn money in a tasteful way, enough so that I'll let my tween daughters read it.
I don't have lots to say about this one.  It presents Jean Valjean's journey from being released from prison to...

"Les Miserables" (Manga Classics) by Victor Hugo (original story), Crystal S. Chan (story adaptation), and SunNeko Lee

The Manga Classics team did a remarkable job of paring down Victor Hugo's massive, rambling novel into a manga under 350 pages.  If you're familiar with the musical, you'll probably like a lot of the streamlining they did, as it's pretty similar to the musical.  They glossed over Fantine's final resorts to earn money in a tasteful way, enough so that I'll let my tween daughters read it.
I don't have lots to say about this one.  It presents Jean Valjean's journey from being released from prison to...

"Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas" by Stephanie Barron

It's been ten years since I read any of the Jane Austen Mysteries by Stephanie Barron.  And I have only read the first four, which means there are seven books between where I stopped and this one.  But none of that mattered at ALL because I dove merrily and seamlessly into this book and enjoyed it thoroughly.
The only reason I quit reading this series in the first place is that my foolish local library system got rid of them.  Hmph.  I picked up a copy of this at the used book store and saved it ...

Top Ten Tuesday: There Has Been an Addition

I didn't get many books for Christmas this year, but that's because I didn't ask for many.  I've been working for several years to cut my massive TBR stacks down to a manageable size, and part of that is being more intentional about what books I acquire.  
Still, I did get six books for Christmas, plus I bought a few more over the past weeks, so here are the "Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection," which is our prompt for Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl this week.

Guy Williams: T...

"Catching Christmas" by Terri Blackstock

I liked this book so much more than I expected to!  I picked it up at a library book sale at some point because I read a couple of Blackstock's books a few years ago and liked them.  But then I read some reviews that said the book was disappointing or boring or something, and so I went into it with really low expectations.  That might be why I liked it so much, I suppose.
Finn is a cab driver who answers a call to pick up a little old lady at her house.  He takes her to a doctor's appointment and...

"Silent Night; Holy Night" by Colleen Coble

Because I enjoyed All is Calm; All is Bright  so much last month, I thought I would try Colleen Coble's other Christmas novella duology too.  And now I have a conundrum: do I keep this paperback because I really liked one of the stories, or do I put it in the Little Free Library I steward because I didn't like the other story?  Ahhh, the troubles a bookworm faces, eh?
Silent Night is part of the Rock Harbor series set in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  I lived in Michigan's Thumb for nine years as a ...