While She Knits--Whatcha Reading?

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While Megan knits and purls and tweaks Return of the Thief, what have you been reading recently that you'd recommend hunkering down with the shorter days and colder temperatures?*

I'll start. I've read some great things lately and some books that haven't quite lived up to my expectations.

I've started reading the Armand Gamache detective series by Louise Penny and it's a step above other mystery series I've read. The books are character and setting-driven and take place in a very small town in eastern Quebec, Canada. I've only read a couple of books so far but know I'll keep reading my way through the series.

I read The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal. It's an alternate history/sci fi story of what might have happened if a meteor had hit the earth in the 1950s and started an extinction event. It's part Hidden Figures as it follows a group of women who want to be astronauts as the world decides that colonizing Mars is the only way to save the human race. I had some issues with some repetitive elements but liked it.

I read Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher and thought it was a hoot. The main character is a university professor of English and it's just so much fun. The entire book is told in letters of recommendation and it shows the absurdity of the higher education system, along with how essential it is. There's a sequel that I'm waiting for from the library.

I read a couple of sequels-- Wildcard by Marie Lu and Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor and found them both disappointing. Especially Muse of Nightmares, after loving Strange the Dreamer so much.

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz was a lot of fun. It's a mystery story within a mystery story and, although I tried really hard to solve the mysteries, it surprised and stumpted me at every turn.

But my favorite recent read is Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. She's a genius at pacing and writing from different narrator's POV. I really loved everything about it.

What about you? What have you loved or not loved?


*Unless you're in the southern hemisphere--what are your fav summer reads?