I'm working my way through #VirtualMountTBR2024. Here's my current To-Be-Read List, and here's the list of titles I have read this year.
In July 2024
Books read: 9
Books I decided NOT to finish: 2
The Orphan Collector: Usually books like this are my cup of tea, but I just couldn't get into it after a second or third attempt, and decided not to spend my vacation time on it.
The Apple: Eh. Not as racy as I'd been led to believe.
Books left on the TBR List: 55 (I pulled some from Hoopla recommendations, not the list)
Best book of the month: After We Were Stolen
This read like a long and twisty episode of Criminal Minds or Law & Order: SVU, with a little nod to the second half of Room. I appreciated the glimpses into safe house etiquette and the perspective of our unreliable narrator as she learns more about the outside world.
Worst book of the month: Cutting Lisa
What the heck was this?? I finished it because it was short, but I regret it. No explanation of character motivation. If you didn't already think just like this guy (an old white straight man), you don't get a clue as to what he's feeling or why. No plot development! Characters would have conversations, and either nothing at all would change about the situation (so why have the conversation on the page?) or somehow it would trigger a bold action, without explanation. I selected this because of the acclaim given to the author's latest, James, but reading this doesn't incline me in the slightest toward his other novels.
Spent the whole month on leave (and much of the reading occurred on an airplane or ship), but it often felt like I was just substituting work at home or travel for work at the office. I finished up a few that had been hanging out half-read, and succumbed to a sequel in a series I don't think I want to finish,
