And now, the post you’ve been waiting for: part two of the twenty books I’ve read since the last time I remembered to blog.

I have finished twenty books since I last blogged about my reading. Whoops. I shall now attempt to catch up in two, ten-book posts. I’ll keep the reviews short, for everyone’s sake.

I have been slacking on my reading blogs. I’ll have to cover February (many books) and March (few books) in one go.

New year, new books. I’m already off to a strong start with 7 books in January.

Whenever the end of the year rolls around, I read a ton of books in an effort to boost my annual count—which, by the way, was officially 74 in 2023. This past December I had lots of extra time to read while I was semi-vacationing in Santa Fe, so I really went for it.

November is still spooky season, in my opinion. And I got through even more spooky books in November than I did in October.

Spooky season, spooky books. I don’t make the rules.

I’m not sure this has ever happened to me since I started methodically keeping track of the books I read—but I only read one book in September. One.

I’ve been reading a lot of self-help and memoir lately for…a project. I must admit, I was skeptical of the self-help genre as a whole, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised! Squeezed a few novels in there too, of course. My brain requires fiction to properly function.

After 3.5 years, I finally caught COVID-19. My fever broke, but I’m still in the quarantine period—so this is probably a good time to tell you what I read in June and July, right?

Since it’s almost July, I should probably tell you about the books I read in May. Don’t you think?

In the immediate aftermath of my dad’s death, April was a rough month for me. But I still managed to read some incredible books. To devour some incredible books might be more accurate.

The past two months I’ve been subjected to extreme emotional whiplash. In February, I went to Stockholm for my birthday—what a treat! And in March, my dad entered hospice and swiftly died. Somehow, through all of it, reading remained a constant comfort.

I thought December was ridiculous—and then I read TEN BOOKS in January. The pages are a nice place to hibernate for the winter.

Sometimes things slow down at work and you read nine books in a single month. I am living proof.

With the exception of one audiobook, I dedicated the month of November to Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb series—easily some of the best books I’ve read in recent years. We do bones, motherfucker.

Given my dad’s diagnosis, I think I may have gone overboard using Spooky Season to buoy my mental health. I got really into it. But then, can you ever have too much Spooky Season?

I always try to start my spooky season a little bit early, so there are definitely a few horror stories here—plus some other stuff. Variety is the spice of life.

My dad is having some health problems, so I’ve been driving back and forth between Louisville and Wisconsin a lot—which means my audiobook consumption went through the roof in August.

My July in reading was all about finishing different series—with a few one-offs thrown in there for variety.