I did two cards this year: one was fully hard mode, and the other was fully regular mode (meaning the books couldn’t count for hard mode). It was fun (and valuable playtesting), but also a lot. Prolly not gonna do that again.

If you did bingo this year, thank you! We enjoy putting it together, and we hope you enjoy playing it.

Veeerrryyy slowly making my way through The Cadaver Client by Frank Tuttle, number 4 in a fun series about a PI in a fantasy city. It’s nice and light (and very short), I just haven’t been reading more than a few pages a day.

Idk why I’ve never considered murder mystery short stories, that sounds great! Gonna put that on my TBR.

I have finally just finished 1984 by George Orwell, and with that, my last bingo square as well. \o/ Overall, I liked it, but found it too drawn out; the book section at the 60% mark especially killed the pacing for me. The appendix about Newspeak at the end was fascinating, though.

These are lovely! The Pesta ones look like Fromsoft used them as inspiration for Bloodborne.

I’ve barely been reading, so that + being on the section of 1984 that’s (mostly) unnecessary info dump means I’m still 2/3 of the way through it.

I did finish

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (contemporary) | bingo: continent HM, adaptation, steppin’ up HM, cozy, jerk

A cantankerous old man’s plans are interrupted by new neighbors.

Not my normal fare, but this was a cute, poignant story about found family and starting a new chapter. I knew nothing about it going in, so I was surprised about Ove’s intentions in the first half. A little repetitive in places IMO, but otherwise pretty solid.

I found Authority jarringly different. It’s good in its own way, but… yeah.

I paused 1984 about 2/3 of the way through due to finding it too depressingly close to reality, but I’ll go back to it once I finish A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Bachman in a day or two.

Read:

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (mystery)

Renowned detective Hercule Poirot investigates the death of a rich man in a small village.

Since I’d heard this was one of Christie’s best, I decided to read it before I watched the adaptation (I’ve been slowly re/watching Poirot this year). Pretty par for the course til the reveal, which… well, I didn’t figure it out. I’d call it cheap, except they go through exactly which clues I missed, so I can’t actually be indignant about it.

I’m not sick, but I’m not well

And I’m so hot, 'cause I’m in hell

(https://youtu.be/wYsMjEeEg4g )

City of Stairs is the only Robert Jackson Bennett I’ve read, and it put me off reading more of him. (I had kind of the same experience as you’re having. Like, it was fine, but not for me.) If his other stuff is better, I’ll have to give him another shot.

Glad you’re liking Slow Horses!

Open to recommendations for all 3, but especially saddle up!

Two short things I read and liked, that’d work for Saddle Up: Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono (also works for cozy), and River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey (hard mode!). If neither of those sound interesting, maybe look at The Country Under Heaven by Frederic S. Durbin; it’s still on my TBR, so I can’t recommend it, but it looks like it might be fun? Beyond that, I’d argue that driving/piloting counts for Saddle Up, so anything featuring aviators, professional drivers, or mech pilots should also work.

I haven’t been reading much, so I’m only about halfway through 1984. I really like all the world building, but the actual plot kinda drags so far. Maybe that’s about to change?

I also barely started Threads of Malice by Tamara Siler Jones, which I can already tell will be engrossing. Holding off on reading more of it til I finish 1984.

Sometimes I see something in the weekly reading posts here that seems fun. I also try the StoryGraph recommender occasionally, but it often gives me a very narrow set of recs that I’ve seen 10 times already. (You can tell it not to recommend specific books or authors anymore, but I consider that a last resort.) Mainly, I look at a lot of lists (new releases, curated/themed, “similar”/“readers also enjoyed”, etc).

Once I find something that looks interesting, I read a bunch of 3-star reviews on Goodreads or StoryGraph, to weed out stuff I’d be likely to drop. Whatever passes that test goes on my TBR.

I’m not suuuuper familiar with owlbears, so I’m going solely by composition. Since the scroll is very orderly (centered, not tilted or anything), have you considered arranging the weapons more geometrically, too? Personally, I’m thinking rays, where the heads are symmetrically spaced to imply an oval, and the handles all angle from the same point (warning: this will draw the eye there). Making any kind of decorative pattern with them might work, though!

I’m slowly but surely making my way through 1984. I think I’m not in the right mood for it to grab me better, but it’s interesting so far.

__

Finished (since last thread):

Days by Moonlight by André Alexis (magically realistic literary fiction) | bingo: minority author, award

A grieving scientist agrees to join his parents’ friend on a trip to research a missing poet.

I liked this a lot in the beginning, and found the writing style engaging. However, I could tell a lot of the Canadian references were going over my head, and the last third went off in a direction that killed a lot of my enthusiasm. It’s not a bad book, and I might try something else by the author eventually, but I think someone who reads a lot of lit fic would appreciate it more.

Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley (historical detective noir) | bingo: minority author HM, motion picture, award HM

A recently unemployed WWII vet takes on a shady request to find a missing girl.

It was cool to see noir from a Black perspective, but I didn’t like it enough to want to read more of the series. Maybe I don’t have the patience for noir tropes I thought I did.

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher (historical gothic fantasy horror) | bingo: creature, short, lgbtqia+ (maybe), award, late to the party

A The Fall of the House of Usher retelling. An ex-soldier visits a friend, whose sister is gravely ill. On arrival, it quickly becomes clear that something is very wrong with, well, everything.

I was wary of trying another horror from T. Kingfisher after disliking The Hollow Places, but I really liked the cover, and it was short, so I gave it a shot. Turns out, this was great! Pleasantly disturbing and didn’t overstay its welcome.

I also didn’t care for The Hollow Places, and have avoided her horror novels ever since. I did pick up What Moves the Dead recently, though, and found it enjoyable. Maybe it’s just that one book? Maybe she’s better at gothic than straight horror? I don’t know.

I do generally like T. Kingfisher’s fairy tale-inspired titles, as well; the ones I’ve read do tend to have the same kind of spunky protagonist as The Hollow Places, but that kind of MC doesn’t bother me in a fantasy setting. YMMV, ofc.

3 hours? That’s one tough chicken.

I’m reading Days by Moonlight by André Alexis. Literary fiction isn’t normally my jam, but this is very chill so far.

I’m still settling on a new book rn, but I went on kind of a reading binge last week.

Finished:

A Case of Life and Limb by Sally Smith (mostly cozy historical mystery with legal elements) | bingo: different continent, x of y HM, new, alliterative, cozy

The reclusive barrister from the first book is drawn into another mystery while preparing for a court case rife with scandal.

This was a little less cozy than the first book, but I liked it just as much. I do hope the next one will break the pattern of ‘seemingly separate court case turns out to be related to the mystery’, though.

Obscura by Joe Hart (scifi thriller with mystery and horror elements) | bingo: none!

A scientist working on a cure for an Alzheimer’s-like disease is convinced to travel to space to diagnose a team of astronauts with similar symptoms.

For as many issues as I had with this, it was still enjoyable. The horror/thriller/mystery parts were fun, but the physics were applied spottily, and I did a lot of eye rolling at the repeated railroading of the MC by others to avoid explaining the situation, only for them to later explain the situation.

Teacup Magic: The First Collection by Tansy Rayner Roberts (cozy fantasy of manners with romance and mystery elements) | bingo: different continent, indie, short HM, steppin’ up HM, cozy

A trio of novellas about an upper-class young woman falling into magical mysteries and adventures with her friends and love interest.

These were charming, fluffy fun that I will happily read more of. Skip if you prefer detailed world building, or acknowledgement of privilege.

I haven’t read Mieville yet, but while I was reading The Works of Vermin, I did wonder if there were similarities. Good to know!