City Voyage; Destiny World; Fire Repair Soup

Tiger's Voyage and Tiger's Destiny, by Colleen Houck
Oh, dear. These never did get very good, writing/cultural context/sense-making romance/-wise ... and yet, the various threads were compelling enough that I really did want to see how things would turn out. And was reasonably pleased by how things went.
ere (42, 49)

Ash Mistry and the City of Death, and Ash Mistry and the World of Darkness by Sarwat Chadda
These were as splendid as I expected after reading the first one. Kind of funny to read them close by the Colleen Houcks as they could easily serve as a primer for how to incorporate many of the same legends in a much less ridiculous and more appealing way. I expect I'll eventually read everything Mr. Chadda has written...
(43, 44; O19, O20)

REPAIR for Kids, by Marjorie McKinnon
I hope, fiercely, that no kids you know ever experience sexual abuse. (Though some of you already do know, and/or have been that kid.) That said, my inner kid who has some very-long-ago never-dealt-with-until-now sexual abuse to process was really helped by this book, and I think actual kids would be too. There are a very few strange statements that *really* would have pissed me off when I was actually seven (inner seven-year-old was similarly unimpressed), but, you know, that's why the book's designed to work through for a caregiver to help a kid work through, not just the kid alone. Mostly, it is great.
(45, O21)

The World of Ice and Fire, by George Martin et al
Boring in exactly the right way. Hard to explain what I mean by that! But basically there's a certain sort of hyperfocused fact-packed reference book that I really enjoy - I used to obsessively read Guinness Book of World Records when I was younger, and multiple different encyclopedias - and this is like that, only for the fictional world of The Song of Ice and Fire. I won't remember much of it, but probably the next time I reread the books, bits and pieces of this copious backstory will rise to the surface. The art was pretty tasty too, as fantasy art goes.
(46)

Stone Soup, by Jon J. Muth
A fairly straightforward retelling of one of the stories my mom most liked to read to me as a kid, which I mostly picked up because Jon J. Muth's illustrations are uniformly wonderful. Also it was interestly transposed from Eastern Europe to China. Maybe I will send this one to my mom; I think she would like it too.
(47)

Grave Dingle Murder; Geography of Crumbfest; Psychotherapy of Belong

Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie, read by Dan Stevens (audiobook, reread)
Not sure whether being able to listen to Dan Stevens (Matthew of Downton Abbey) read to me was an excuse for rereading this book, or vice versa. Either way, it was a delightful experience, and good company for some heavy duty tidying.
(48)

Second Grave on the Left, by Darynda Jones
Still a huge amount of fun, still not totally sensical. The Janet Evanovich comparisons are apt, but there seems to be more there there. I think.
(50)

Dolly Dingle, Lesbian Landlady, by Monica Nolan
I get so excited when a new book in this series comes out! Each one is good, rather than great, but *huge* on the fun axis. And predictable in the good way - ringing the changes.
(51)

The True Meaning of Crumbfest, by David Weale, illustrated by Dale McNevin
Was tidying and I found my copy of this one, which I hadn't seen in a few years. Obvs, had to reread it even though it isn't Christmas. My favorite part is the illustrations, which are absolutely charming.
(52, O22)

The Geography of Bliss, by Eric Weiner
I enjoyed this, but not as much as I remember enjoying it when I first started reading it a couple of years ago. I kept having the feeling "oh, I've read all this before... funny, but not really deep". Of course, that's probably mostly because I *had* read about half the book last time!!! Also because I read an entire non-fiction memoir set in Bhutan at one point. Neither of which are this book's fault. On the upside, the narrative voice is very good company. I would happily buy this author a beverage (or three) of his choice, just so I could hear about whatever is on his mind these days.
(53)

Psychotherapy Without the Self, by Mark Epstein
I really like Mark Epstein's interdisciplinary work about Buddhism and psychology, but I didn't realize until I started reading this book that, rather than being a sustained argument written in a layperson-approachable style (like his other books that I've read), it's actually a collection of academic articles, the first half-dozen of which were written before he decided to start writing in a natural rather than a hyper-academic voice. So..... once again, not the book's fault, but I was a bit disappointed. I super-highly recommend his book Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart as a much better place to start.
(54)

Where I Belong, by Alan Doyle
This was a gift from start to finish. Good stories, smoothly told, just enough pictures, and the place he is writing about (Petty Harbour, NFLD) is enough like where I grew up to make me pleasantly homesick, while being different enough from where I grew up to be fascinating. Also I laughed out loud a lot, and said "oh, just a few more pages," a lot.
(55, O23)