Date Read: January 18
Author: Patricia A. McKillip
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4/5
While the world was difficult to understand at the beginning, the book was a fun read.
Then she dropped her hands into her lap and stared out the window at the restless water that ran beyond the edge of the world, and pulled the sun and the moon and the stars every night down into its secret country.
– The Tower at Stony Wood
Date Read: January 17
Author: Peter May
Genre: Mystery
Rating: 4/5
An excellent murder mystery, full of misdirection because the main character knows the same amount as the reader. He washes on shore with no idea who he is, or what happened, and quickly finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation.
They say that all any of us are is the sum total of our memories. They are what makes us who we are.
– Coffin Road
Read: January 15
Authors: William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White
Genre: Grammar
A short book that goes over grammar. That’s about all there is to say about it, really.
Date Read: January 14
Author: Erich Maria Remarque
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 5/5
I haven’t always enjoyed classic novels when I have read them for classes, and so I was surprised to discover that All Quiet on the Western Front was enjoyable. It presents a horrifying depiction of World War I from the point of view of a young German soldier, as he discovers the “glorious war” is not as glorious as it sounded.
We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial – I believe we are lost.
– All Quiet on the Western Front
Date Read: January 13
Author: Cliff Sims
Genre: Political Autobiography
Rating: 3/5
I have never enjoyed nonfiction as much as fiction, but for the beginning of 2020 I have been checking books off of a “52 Books in 52 Weeks” list, and one of the items on the list is a book about a world leader. This was the first book I found on the library website that was available, and so it is the book I read for the challenge. While it certainly presents an interesting inside view of the White House and the Trump administration, I found it unnecessarily repetitive at times. It’s definitely not a book that I plan on rereading any time soon.
Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test.
– Team of Vipers
Date Read: January 12
Author: Peter May
Genre: Mystery
Rating: 4/5
I have always enjoyed reading murder mystery novels, particularly those that are set in Europe. The Blackhouse follows Detective Inspector Fin Macleod, who is forced to return to the Isle of Lewis, where he grew up, in order to investigate a murder. The novel explores Fin’s past at the same time as it explores the murder that occurred.
But the one thing Fin had learned from his years in the police was that however much you believed you had them figured out, people invariably surprised you.
– The Blackhouse
Date Read: January 12
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4/5
By the same author as The Raven Cycle, The Scorpio Races is an excellent standalone novel. It effortlessly incorporates mythology into the modern world, creating a world that is almost, but not quite, the same as our own.
I didn’t know that it was the hard way when I started on it.
– The Scorpio Races
Date Read: January 11
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4/5
The sequel to Deep Secret, I mostly enjoyed The Merlin Conspiracy. It follows one of the characters from the first book, and yet offers a glimpse at other worlds through his eyes. The plot took several twists and turns in the same style as the first book, but I found that I enjoyed the first book more at times.
“Goats,” said Maxwell Hyde, “are a special case. Mad as hatters, all of them.”
– The Merlin Conspiracy
Date Read: January 9
Author: Margaret Owen
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 5/5
The characters and world are well-developed, and the book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time that I was reading it! I ended up staying up until 2 in the morning so that I could finish the whole book in one night and find out how it ended. The sequel is expected to be published in July, and I plan on staying up all night to finish the sequel, as well.
I will follow until I must lead. I will shield until I must strike. I will fight until I must heal.
– The Merciful Crow
Date Read: January 8
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 5/5
Full of magic, portals to different worlds, and drama, Deep Secret is an action-packed and fun book. While the world was confusing at first, by the end of the novel I wished I lived in it.
Can’t anyone look out there and see that you need not think of everything in terms of what works, or what they ought to do?
– Deep Secret
Zoey's Year in Books 2020