Hearthside

Currently reading

The King at the Edge of the World
by Arthur Phillips
The Starless Sea
by Erin Morgenstern
Curse of Strahd
by Christopher Perkins
Cugel
by Jack Vance
The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft
by H.P. Lovecraft
What to Expect When You're Expecting
by Heidi Murkoff
The Tombs of Atuan
by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Bloody Crown of Conan
by Robert E. Howard

Finished reading

2020 (33)

The Tattooist of Auschwitz
by Heather Morris
Read September 8–11, 2020
★★★★
Tiamat's Wrath
by James S.A. Corey
Read August 22–September 5, 2020
★★★★
Lovecraft Country
by Matt Ruff
Read August 10–24, 2020
★★★★
Persepolis Rising
by James S.A. Corey
Read August 15–22, 2020
★★★★
The Bar Book
by Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Read December 15, 2019–August 9, 2020
★★★★
The Book of Magic
by Gardner Dozois
Read July 11–August 8, 2020
★★★★
Sapiens
by Yuval Noah Harari
Read June 29–July 11, 2020

★★★★

4.5 / Recommend.

Really interesting history of the homo genus and sapiens species. So many interesting ideas and things I didn’t know. Possibly the most atheist book ever.
The Guardians
by John Grisham
Read June 17–July 7, 2020

★★★

Would not recommend.

The pitch of this book is that there are some secret forces working against the exoneration of Guardian Ministries’ clients, but those people never show up. It’s really more of a weak mystery where they follow some leads to find evidence. It wasn’t an especially interesting mystery, courthouse drama, or crime novel, but rather a milquetoast mix of the three.
The City We Became
by N.K. Jemisin
Read June 25–27, 2020
★★★★★
The Last Emperox
by John Scalzi
Read June 11–16, 2020
★★★★
The City of Brass
by S.A. Chakraborty
Read May 13–June 16, 2020
★★★★
The Lazy Dungeon Master
by Michael E. Shea
Read June 8–9, 2020
★★★
Exit Strategy
by Martha Wells
Read May 25–June 6, 2020
Rogue Protocol
by Martha Wells
Read May 19–25, 2020
★★★★
Broken Angels
by Richard K. Morgan
Read April 16–May 18, 2020
★★★★★
Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel
Read May 7–13, 2020
★★★★
The Splendid and the Vile
by Erik Larson
Read March 29–April 24, 2020

★★★

I didn’t enjoy this like I did Devil in the White City.
Civil War
by Mark Millar
Read April 05, 2020
★★★★
S.
by J.J. Abrams
Read June 1, 2014–March 31, 2020
★★★★
Provenance
by Ann Leckie
Read March 15–29, 2020
★★★★
Tyll
by Daniel Kehlmann
Read February 26–March 2, 2020
★★★
The City Born Great
by N.K. Jemisin
Read February 28, 2020
★★★★
The Shining
by Stephen King
Read February 8–21, 2020
★★★★★
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Read February 14–16, 2020

★★★

The writing is excellent. Unfortunately there isn’t much of a plot beyond “life comes at you”.
City of Thieves
by David Benioff
Read January 21–February 12, 2020
★★★★
Raising Good Humans
by Hunter Clarke-Fields
Read December 3, 2019–February 8, 2020

★★★★★

I really think that this is a book on better communication and understanding oneself disguised as a parenting book. It’s my first book on parenting so I don’t have much of a point of reference, but I’d recommend this broadly.
The Gifts of Imperfection
by Brené Brown
Read January 25, 2020
★★★
So You Want to Talk About Race
by Ijeoma Oluo
Read January 22–23, 2020
★★★★★
Shōgun
by James Clavell
Read December 15, 2019–January 21, 2020
★★★★
Me Talk Pretty One Day
by David Sedaris
Read January 9–12, 2020
★★★★
Talking to Strangers
by Malcolm Gladwell
Read January 12, 2020
★★★★
Dog Songs
by Mary Oliver
Read December 29, 2019–January 1, 2020

★★★★

First book of the year! Dog Songs is a funny, easy, familiar read that will resonate with dog people.
How To
by Randall Munroe
Read December 15, 2019–January 1, 2020

★★★★

Randall is always good for an absurdly in-depth and technical answer to questions I didn’t have. I did learn a bit about how fake snow is made, which was apropos to my current ski trip!

2019 (42)

The Silent Patient
by Alex Michaelides
Read December 20, 2019

★★★★★

Alicia is the silent patient, a successful painter who seemingly killed her loving husband of a happy marriage and tried to commit suicide, and who has been unable or unwilling to speak ever since. Theo Fabre is a psychotherapist who wants to help and understand his patient. To do this, he seeks to understand what happened on the day of the murder-attempted-suicide, what is going on in Alicia’s mind, and how the lies of the people he speaks with can fit together into a truth.

As a bonus, the main narrator for the audiobook sounds like Alexander Siddig, so I imagined Doctor Bashir trying to solve a murder.
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
by Ken Liu
Read July 27–December 20, 2019
★★★★
A Clash of Kings
by George R.R. Martin
Read November 18–December 5, 2019
★★★★
The Devil in the Shape of a Woman
by Carol F. Karlsen
Read October 30–November 30, 2019

★★

I was hoping for a description of the powers ascribed to real-life women accused of witchcraft, but this is a dissertation on mostly demographics of who was accused. Interesting in a vague sense but long-winded for most readers.
The Thief
by Claire North
Read November 17–18, 2019
★★★★
The Master
by Claire North
Read November 17, 2019
★★★★
The Serpent
by Claire North
Read November 16–17, 2019

★★★★

I enjoyed The Serpent, and it was made more interesting by a point of view I couldn’t quite pin down. It appears to be third-person at first, but we quickly realize that it is a mixture second-person and third: “We watch the lady, and we feel...” but by the end I wonder if it isn’t a frame story of sorts and if “we” aren’t a bigger character than I had thought.
Barren
by Peter V. Brett
Read November 12, 2019
★★★★
Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Read October 29–30, 2019

★★★★

Lots of wonderful ideas about raising a child to be very tolerant, very curious, and very fair both to herself and others.
Lord Foul's Bane
by Stephen R. Donaldson
Read April 4–October 29, 2019

★★★

Never had a book been so good at putting me to sleep.
The Institute
by Stephen King
Read October 21–29, 2019

★★★★★

Tim is an ex-cop turned drifter. Luke is an abductee who can move things with his mind. They fight crime!
Songs of Giants
by Mark Wheatley
Read October 14, 2019

★★★★

Evocative monochromatic illustrations enhance rhymes of eldritch literary titans of yore.
The Adventure Zone
by Clint McElroy
Read October 11–14, 2019

★★★★

TAZ is why I’m interested in D&D, and the Rockport Limited, itself hearkening to the Orient Express, immediately had me imagining my own train-bound murder mystery.

The comic adaption is beautiful, but loses some of the je ne sais quoi, humor, and rapport between the boys.
The Vine Witch
by Luanne G. Smith
Read September 14–October 7, 2019
★★★★
American Gods
by Neil Gaiman
Read September 4–13, 2019

★★★★★

We are a country of immigrants and we brought our gods with us.

I read this book a long time ago, and it’s one of those books that you don’t realize you like until you’re almost done with it and you can’t remember everything so you feel like there’s something you missed out on.

Listening this time to the full cast audiobook and with Gaiman’s preferred text, the experience was very good, especially since it has been long enough that I didn’t remember the plot entirely.

One of my favorite parts of this is to try and figure out which character is which god. The depth of America’s mythology, with its roots in so many other mythologies, is incredible.
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Read September 3–4, 2019
★★★★★
Wally Roux, Quantum Mechanic
by Nick Carr
Read September 01, 2019

★★★

This audiobook was narrated by William Jackson Harper from The Good Place. It’s a great coming of age story with a twist: Wally is a genius school kid who, with a glorified box cutter, cuts open reality to fix problems as a quantum mechanic.
The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent
by Larry Correia
Read August 25–26, 2019
★
Artificial Condition
by Martha Wells
Read August 17–21, 2019
★★★★
The Fifth Elephant
by Terry Pratchett
Read August 17–21, 2019
★★★★
All Systems Red
by Martha Wells
Read August 13–17, 2019
★★★★
Fuzzy Nation
by John Scalzi
Read August 8–12, 2019
★★★★
Lost Gods
by Brom
Read June 28–August 8, 2019
★★★★
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
by J.K. Rowling
Read July 5–27, 2019
★★★★
The Adventure Zone
by Clint McElroy
Read May 19, 2018–July 11, 2019
★★★★★
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
by J.K. Rowling
Read June 29–July 5, 2019
★★★★★
Born a Crime
by Trevor Noah
Read July 05, 2019
★★★★★
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
by J.K. Rowling
Read February 16–June 28, 2019
★★★★
Fire & Blood
by George R.R. Martin
Read June 12–16, 2019
★★★★★
Black Klansman
by Ron Stallworth
Read June 4–8, 2019
★★★
Wonder Woman Unbound
by Tim Hanley
Read June 1–3, 2019
★★★
An Unkindness of Magicians
by Kat Howard
Read May 27–June 2, 2019
The Seascape Tattoo
by Larry Niven
Read May 24–30, 2019
★★★
Watchmen
by Alan Moore
Read May 9–25, 2019
The Consuming Fire
by John Scalzi
Read May 6–14, 2019
★★★★
Glory Road
by Robert A. Heinlein
Read May 1–6, 2019
True West
by Sam Shepard
Read April 26–27, 2019
★★★
Strongholds & Followers
by Matthew Colville
Read February 11–April 25, 2019
★★★★
Kitchen Confidential
by Anthony Bourdain
Read February 8–April 25, 2019
★★★★★
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
by J.K. Rowling
Read February 8–16, 2019
★★★★
The White Rose
by Glen Cook
Read January 24–February 11, 2019
★★★★★
Dangerous Women
by George R.R. Martin
Read November 27, 2018–January 24, 2019
★★★

2018 (20)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
by J.K. Rowling
Read September 23–December 28, 2018
★★★★
Shadows Linger
by Glen Cook
Read December 25, 2018
★★★★★
Engraved on the Eye
by Saladin Ahmed
Read February 8–December 6, 2018
★★★★★
War and XPs
by Rich Burlew
Read December 01, 2018
Hard Contact
by Karen Traviss
Read August 2, 2017–November 18, 2018
★★★
The Effigy Engine
by Scott Lynch
Read November 18, 2018
★★★★
From a Certain Point of View
by Elizabeth Schaefer
Read August 18–November 18, 2018
★★★★
American Prometheus
by Kai Bird
Read August 13–October 11, 2018
★★★★
Waterdeep
by Wizards of the Coast
Read September 12–18, 2018
★★★★★
The Hound of the Baskervilles
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Read July 25–September 6, 2018
★★★★
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
Read August 28, 2018
★★★★★
In the Stacks
by Scott Lynch
Read August 16, 2018
★★★★★
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Read June 8–25, 2018
Norse Mythology
by Neil Gaiman
Read May 16–22, 2018
★★★★★
A Higher Loyalty
by James Comey
Read April 25–May 9, 2018
★★★★
Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury
Read April 27–30, 2018
★★★
The Punch Escrow
by Tal M. Klein
Read April 12–25, 2018
★★★★★
Thief
by Matthew Colville
Read January 31–March 13, 2018
★★★★★
How to Draw Fantasy Art and RPG Maps
by Jared Blando
Read January 9–22, 2018
★★★★
Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
Read December 28, 2017–January 4, 2018
★★★

2017 (26)

Priest
by Matthew Colville
Read October 30–December 28, 2017
★★★★
On Tyranny
by Timothy Snyder
Read December 03, 2017
★★★★★
Dungeon Master's Guide
by Mike Mearls
Read December 3–October 1, 2017
Murder on the Orient Express
by Agatha Christie
Read September 07, 2017
★★★★★
Mort
by Terry Pratchett
Read September 04, 2017
All These Worlds
by Dennis E. Taylor
Read September 04, 2017
Dark Force Rising
by Timothy Zahn
Read September 04, 2017
Good Omens
by Terry Pratchett
Read June 1, 2014–August 7, 2017
★★★★
Legend
by David Gemmell
Read July 13–25, 2017
Game Night
by Jonny Nexus
Read June 13–July 19, 2017
The Last Command
by Timothy Zahn
Read June 27–July 3, 2017
1984
by George Orwell
Read June 10–25, 2017
★★★★★
Heir to the Empire
by Timothy Zahn
Read June 06, 2017
Algorithms to Live By
by Brian Christian
Read November 29, 2016–May 31, 2017
Aftermath
by Chuck Wendig
Read April 14–May 28, 2017
★★★★
Notorious RBG
by Irin Carmon
Read May 19–20, 2017
★★★★★
Wizard and Glass
by Stephen King
Read March 9–May 1, 2017
Ringworld
by Larry Niven
Read June 1, 2014–March 19, 2017
★★★★★
The Waste Lands
by Stephen King
Read December 31, 2016–March 9, 2017
★★★★
The Collapsing Empire
by John Scalzi
Read March 30–1, 2017
Bloodline
by Claudia Gray
Read March 21–1, 2017
★★★★★
Altered Carbon
by Richard K. Morgan
Read February 26, 2017
★★★★
Kindred
by Octavia E. Butler
Read February 20–26, 2017
★★★★★
Necronomicon
by H.P. Lovecraft
Read February 1–13, 2017
11/22/63
by Stephen King
Read January 16–25, 2017
★★★★★
Grokking Algorithms An Illustrated Guide For Programmers and Other Curious People
by Aditya Y. Bhargava
Read February 15–January 6, 2017

2016 (32)

Babylon's Ashes
by James S.A. Corey
Read December 11–29, 2016
★★★★★
The Drawing of the Three
by Stephen King
Read August 5–December 24, 2016
★★★★
The Fifth Season
by N.K. Jemisin
Read November 3–December 11, 2016
★★★★
Dune
by Frank Herbert
Read December 1–5, 2016
★★★★
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
by Dennis E. Taylor
Read December 1–5, 2016
★★★★★
The Return of the King
by J.R.R. Tolkien
Read February 26, 2015–November 6, 2016
★★★★★
Messenger’s Legacy
by Peter V. Brett
Read November 29–1, 2016
Brayan's Gold
by Peter V. Brett
Read November 29–1, 2016
The Great Bazaar and Other Stories
by Peter V. Brett
Read November 29–1, 2016
The Alloy of Law
by Brandon Sanderson
Read September 24–October 15, 2016
★★★
The Dispatcher
by John Scalzi
Read October 9–10, 2016
★★★★
The Hero of Ages
by Brandon Sanderson
Read October 5–7, 2016
★★★★★
The Well of Ascension
by Brandon Sanderson
Read September 4–October 5, 2016
★★★
The Three-Body Problem
by Liu Cixin
Read August 17, 2016
Flood
by Stephen Baxter
Read August 8–17, 2016
★★★
The End of All Things
by John Scalzi
Read August 8–17, 2016
★★★★
The Gunslinger
by Stephen King
Read July 2–August 8, 2016
★★★★
Nemesis Games
by James S.A. Corey
Read July 1–2, 2016
★★★★
Drive
by James S.A. Corey
Read May 31–June 12, 2016
★★★★★
Cibola Burn
by James S.A. Corey
Read May 22–June 11, 2016
★★★★
Gods of Risk
by James S.A. Corey
Read May 22–31, 2016
Abaddon's Gate
by James S.A. Corey
Read May 22, 2016
★★★★
Tarkin
by James Luceno
Read May 3–5, 2016
★★★
The Hacker's Diet
by John Walker
Read December 13, 2015–April 12, 2016
★★★★
Caliban's War
by James S.A. Corey
Read January 18–April 12, 2016
★★★★
The Fall of Hyperion
by Dan Simmons
Read June 1, 2014–April 11, 2016
The Anti-Goals Guide
by Suzan Bond
Read April 12–1, 2016
★★★★★
Modern Romance
by Aziz Ansari
Read February 10–15, 2016
★★★★★
The Lost Command
by Vaughn Heppner
Read January 30–February 8, 2016
★★
Darth Plagueis
by James Luceno
Read January 13–23, 2016
★★★★
The Butcher of Anderson Station
by James S.A. Corey
Read January 16–17, 2016
★★★★★
Leviathan Wakes
by James S.A. Corey
Read December 7, 2015–January 13, 2016
★★★★★

2015 (28)

One Second After
by William R. Forstchen
Read November 7–December 6, 2015
★★★★
The Lion's Gate
by Steven Pressfield
Read November 23–December 1, 2015
★★★
Cain
by José Saramago
Read December 01, 2015
★★★★★
Star Wars
by Brian Daley
Read November 25–30, 2015
★★★★
Star Wars, Episode V The Empire Strikes Back
by Brian Daley
Read November 25–30, 2015
★★★★
Star Wars
by Brian Daley
Read November 25–27, 2015
★★★★
Professional Integrity
by Michael J. Sullivan
Read November 20–23, 2015
★★★★
Ancillary Sword
by Ann Leckie
Read November 7–20, 2015
★★★★
Hack the Bird
by Adam Khan
Read October 30–November 18, 2015
★★★
Ancillary Justice
by Ann Leckie
Read October 19–November 7, 2015
★★★★
A Dance with Dragons
by George R.R. Martin
Read July 24–October 19, 2015
★★★★
The Rebirths of Tao
by Wesley Chu
Read July 24–August 6, 2015
★★★
Questions for a Soldier
by John Scalzi
Read July 24, 2015
★★★★
The Martian
by Andy Weir
Read July 24, 2015
★★★★
A Feast for Crows
by George R.R. Martin
Read July 3–16, 2015
★★★★
A Storm of Swords
by George R.R. Martin
Read June 1–July 3, 2015
★★★★★
The Long Mars
by Terry Pratchett
Read February 9–June 6, 2015
★★★★
Men at Arms
by Terry Pratchett
Read April 2–June 1, 2015
★★★
Ready Player One
by Ernest Cline
Read May 28, 2015
★★★★
Deadpool by Daniel Way
by Daniel Way
Read May 19–25, 2015
The Legacy of Heorot
by Larry Niven
Read April 13–May 10, 2015
★★★
The Mongoliad
by Neal Stephenson
Read April 12–13, 2015
★★★
Neverwhere
by Neil Gaiman
Read April 12, 2015
★★★
The Slow Regard of Silent Things
by Patrick Rothfuss
Read April 12, 2015
★★★★
The Chaplain's War
by Brad R. Torgersen
Read April 07, 2015
★★★
The Great Bazaar and Brayan's Gold
by Peter V. Brett
Read April 05, 2015
★★★★
The Skull Throne
by Peter V. Brett
Read April 01, 2015
★★★★
The Lost Starship
by Vaughn Heppner
Read February 9–April 1, 2015
★★★★