Reddy-reads - Reddy Reads - Tumblr Blog

The shifter romance features a librarian and an archivist and they just uncovered a mystery in the archives

Having a great time

Did not finish: Holiday Trap by Roan Parrish

I wanted to like it because it's a cozy queer holiday romance (one of the protagonists is Jewish!) and it's cute and it's tropey

but I noticed that all the characters who are named are white and I was like :(

and then I was like "eh who cares"

and then every time I picked the book up after that I was like :(

and like. I read fluffy romance books to feel good, not to feel sad and then feel like I "shouldn't" be sad

So anyway if you want a recommendation The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna is still really good (it's fluffy and there's magic, although the romance takes a back seat to the found family aspect in my opinion) and Courtney Milan's "Wedgeford Trials" books are romantic and tropey and have a historical setting AND feature characters of color. And Scarlett Gale's "Warrior Guild" books are romantic and sexy (there's uh there's a lot of sex in there) and there's magic and adventure--and there are characters of color!!! just imagine :O

If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

rocking back and forth. dog-botherer and his dog. vetinari's terrier, i've heard them call you. always hot on the chase and he won't let go. do you know they call vimes “vetinari’s terrier”? terriers dig and dig and don’t let go. we are all someone's dog. someone got past his guard. yes. and i'm his guard. i'm his guard and i didn't see it coming. he's here somewhere. i know it. who is your boss, sir samuel? when push comes to shove? I think he’s got a sort of soft spot for the patrician, in his way. he once said that if anyone was going to kill vetinari he’d like it to be him. but he was smiling when he said it. that's your master, is it? the thought occurs, sir, that if commander vimes did not exist you would have had to invent him. you know, drumknott, i rather think i did. vetinari had tamed ankh-morpork. he’d tamed it like a dog. he needed vimes and his view of the world. he didn't thump the wall. i may have gone too far. he gave vetinari the look which said: if you take this any further i will have to lie. vetinari returned one which said: i know. sam vimes once arrested me for treason. he is known as vetinari's terrier. apparently, his lordship rather enjoys allowing vimes to break wind in the halls of the mighty. vetinari's terrier, eh?

Terry Pratchett

Announcing: Designing Terry Pratchett's Discworld. | Terry Pratchett

We are excited to announce the publication of Designing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, written and illustrated by Sir Terry Pratchett’s artist

ANNOUNCEMENT: We're excited to share that Designing Terry Pratchett's Discworld, written and illustrated by Paul Kidby, will be published in November 2024.

An incredible celebration of Discworld art and a brilliant homage to the decades-long collaboration between Paul and Terry, the book takes readers behind the scenes of one of the great creative partnerships, packed with unseen art and the real stories behind it.

Covers and more to be revealed soon...

When Your Murder Mystery Party Goes A Little Too Well

Ally Carter has not missed yet with her adult novels. The Blonde Identity was a delight, and so was this book. The marketing pitched this book as a "Knives Out Christmas romance," but I haven't actually seen Knives Out, so I can't comment on the comparison. What I can comment on is how Agatha Christie meets James Bond the setup and characters are (I also got a few Castle vibes at points), and how fluffy and fun that was. This book also had quite a lot to say about gaslighting and recovering from being gaslit, which I deeply appreciated because seriously, people have got to STOP gaslighting their partners. It's BAD, actually. So let's talk The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year.

Hey, hi, hello. This is your SPOILER WARNING because I am going SPOIL THIS BOOK below the cut. Be warned.

When Maggie's publisher gently bullies her into going to a secret Christmas party thrown by Maggie's favorite author of all time, the publisher neglects to mention that Maggie will be travelling with Ethan Wyatt--former secret service agent turned writer (again, I told you I'd spoil the book) who is also the vessel Maggie has transferred all her self-loathing to in the wake of her nasty divorce and significant career setback.

The two have a somewhat contentious five-year history, which comes to a head while they're trapped in an old English Manor House in a blizzard. The communication between them has a great arc, and the use of time jumps is handled beautifully--by the time the reader is like, "what the heck WAS this incident!?!?" We get it and invariably we get some new context or perspective that just makes Maggie and Ethan's relationship even more fun to watch.

I will say, Maggie's ex, Colin, is the kind of raging douchecanoe we love to hate, and I deeply appreciate that the book didn't try to get empathetic or redemption arc-y with him. For fucks sake, the man took HALF OF MAGGIE'S COPYRIGHTS in the divorce and made her buy him out to get them back. The sheer LEVEL of dick move on that one floored me, and I adored that even a deeply hurt and gaslit Maggie understood that those rights MATTERED and that she got the important thing when she got them back.

The fact that Ethan also sees that and was like, "yeah no, you got YOU back and that's worth it" might have made me melt a little.

I also really enjoyed the bit of nuance in Ethan's backstory. Ally Carter LOVES writing spies. Like absolutely adores it. But what was interesting this time is that Ethan is a former spy who was pretty aggressively put out of commission by a severe injury, and his arc is really squaring his two identities: spy and thriller writer. It doesn't get as much page time as it maybe could have, because this is a fluffy Christmas romance, not a hard core novel about squaring identities, but its there and drawn clearly enough that it made sense and was fun to watch.

Overall, the whole book feels like just a slight shift could have brought it darker or more serious, but it stays light and fluffy, and I'm not complaining about it, because it was a sheer delight to read.

i've been reading a lot of books about urban naturalism recently, and the one big thing they all talk about is how you HAVE to stop seeing nature as something that happens somewhere else. nature is not just charismatic megafauna and state parks and mountain ranges. nature is that abandoned lot that's growing native milkweed in it. nature is the murder of crows that lives in your block. nature is the moss growing on your roof and the dandelions growing in the sidewalk cracks and the song birds at your neighbor's birdfeeder. and you should care about it! you should notice it! that's YOUR nature!

I finished it! Five days late! Don't worry about it.

It was REALLY GOOD. I knew it was going to be good. Done's writing is warm and funny and insightful. As someone who loves working with children, it made me sigh, it made me smile, and it made me have strong enough feelings to like... induce tears, but in a good way. For who I am, and for when I read it, it was like a hug, a blanket, and a warm cup of tea. I'm glad I own this book because I can see keeping it on my shelf and flipping through it when I need a pick-me-up. If you think you'll like it, get it. For someone who works with kids, it's an easy recommendation.

Book of the month: September 2024

Book of the month! I take a book from the "to read" pile, and I either finish it by month's end, or I don't finish it and add it to my amnesty list. No guilt, no "required" reading.

This month's book is The Art Of Teaching Children by Phillip Done.

This might be a bit of a cheat because I'm already halfway through it, but I started it in like. 2022 or something. Every time I pick it up, I enjoy it. BUT. Well. I'm with kids all day, and then I go to school to talk about kids, and then I come home and tell stories about kids... reading about them on top of all of that is a bit much. So there's also the fact that, well, sometimes I just need a break from kids!

An excerpt from the summary is below:

After more than thirty years in the classroom, award-winning teacher Phillip Done decided that it was time to retire. But a teacher’s job is never truly finished, and he set out to write the greatest lesson of his career: a book for educators and parents that would pass along everything he learned about working with kids. From the first-day-of-school jitters to the last day’s tears, Done writes about the teacher’s craft, classrooms and curriculums, the challenges of the profession, and the reason all teachers do it—the children.

I'm optimistic I'll finish this, but tbh it's not guaranteed. Starting in a few weeks, things are going to get intense in this household, and they're going to stay intense until at least December. How fortunate, then, to have a well-written book about a topic I like with a tone that is generally uplifting, inspiring, and comforting.

I finished it! Despite all my criticisms (and there were many) I did like reading it. I stand by my statement that it's not a very good book--but candidly a book doesn't have to be "good" to be engaging? It's like junk food I guess, sometimes what you want is schlock.

I think it would be fair to say i liked it in kind of a mean way. The plot was okay, the characters were okay, the setting details were stupid. It's an easy read, I guess. Not all books have to be "good" and honestly not all books are trying to be "good."

The book seems dated to me, and my knowledge of Teens These Days is already dated, so like... unintentional period piece. As an example, a recurring plot point in the book is a Mysterious Person taunting the accused main characters via... posts on tumblr. The plot with the character who is gay but not out (and then gets outed) is (I hope) also getting to be a kind of worn-out trope. There's a bit where the characters mention in passing using the schools computer lab and I suspect that also is getting to be more old-timey. (My local schools are moving away from that model at least.) But what I can't get over is. TUMBLR.

Circling back around to the "not all books are trying to be good" idea... the characters are familiar and follow familiar arcs. The plot is not too complicated (I can NEVER predict how murder mysteries go and rarely even try, but even I figured this one out). The whole book is weirdly boilerplate and formulaic with little that makes it feel special. It's not even done in a winking, tongue-in-cheek, homage-to-the-genre way. But it passes the time and gets the job done. Guessing the various plot points made me feel smug, which was enjoyable I guess. Griping about the way the school is written was also enjoyable-in-a-mean-way. It was like mundane cafeteria food: it fills you up, it passes the time, it's neither horrendously bad nor truly good.

I was going to add: I got a copy of this book from my friend who read it and the sequel. If I recall correctly she gave it to me specifically because I said I like to read books that aren't that good xD but she said she liked it and that at least it starts fast. (Apparently the sequel takes a while to get going.) The plot kicking off fast is the most positive thing I can say about this book off the top of my head. That, and my friend liked it, which makes me like it more. (I'm one of Those People)

So this is a recommendation with caveats. If you like trope-filles books and it looks like your thing, give it a go. It's fine I guess. But get it from the library if you can because (a) save your money and (b) save your shelf space.

i started reading one of us is lying by karen m mcmanus. i don't know if i'll finish it. I love tropey pulpy books but it's a little odd to read... the characters are very familiar "types"- the jock, the brainiac, the misfit, the popular girl. the details about the school are also very weird.

for example, the plot kicks off when a teacher finds the characters' phones in their bags. this is framed as his standard practice at the beginning of class, which is like... if you need to search a backpack for an object as small as a phone, you need to get into all the nooks and crannies. i'm not in high school any more, but my every-day backpack has more than 8 separate, zippered areas that could hold a phone. imagine doing a thorough check for a class of thirty high school students. imagine doing it for, i dunno, four classes. imagine doing it five days a week every week. already, it's kind of a weird concept. ALSO at my local public schools, there are rules about searching students' possessions and persons like the requirement to get school administration involved. (obviously there's more to it than that, and there are provision for emergencies and immediate threats to health and safety, and different rules about stuff like private property vs school lockers... but random spot-checks of students are not allowed.)

there's also this thing with epi-pens. at the book's fictional school, the nurse keeps some epi-pens in a drawer in the health room and it's clearly marked and you can run in there and grab one if there's an emergency. i'm not saying that's a terrible idea, i'm saying that at the schools where i have familiarity with epi-pens rules, it doesn't work liek that. each kid/family provides the epi-pen for themselves. the epi-pen can be kept in the health room, or the family can sign a form allowing the student to carry their own epi-pen. but each epi-pen belongs to a specific kid, and you can't give a kid someone else's epi-pen (i mean you're not supposed to; no one i know has ever been in the horrible situation where they had to decide to do/not do that. but officially you're not supposed to do that!!!!)

plus the police keep questioning the students without any indication that their parents/guardians have been contacted. and the principal is just kinda letting it all happen? Idk how police investigations work in schools but i hope that if the police showed up to question my kid, the school would at least call me to let me know.

so like. is the book good? i dunno, but the book is weird. i'm still reading it for now but it'll have to do something interesting soon or it goes on the "donate" pile.

Jesus Mary and Joseph

Your school SHOULD NOT be publishing your home address. If the student directory lets any random student (or parent of a student or associate of a student) look up anyone's address? Get an adult to go to school administration IMMEDIATELY and kick up a fuss about private information, informational security, and student safety.

It would be more realistic for her classmate to dig through this kids social media and find an old post that shared information like that. It's one thing if you doxx yourself. It's another if your school does it for you

i started reading one of us is lying by karen m mcmanus. i don't know if i'll finish it. I love tropey pulpy books but it's a little odd to read... the characters are very familiar "types"- the jock, the brainiac, the misfit, the popular girl. the details about the school are also very weird.

for example, the plot kicks off when a teacher finds the characters' phones in their bags. this is framed as his standard practice at the beginning of class, which is like... if you need to search a backpack for an object as small as a phone, you need to get into all the nooks and crannies. i'm not in high school any more, but my every-day backpack has more than 8 separate, zippered areas that could hold a phone. imagine doing a thorough check for a class of thirty high school students. imagine doing it for, i dunno, four classes. imagine doing it five days a week every week. already, it's kind of a weird concept. ALSO at my local public schools, there are rules about searching students' possessions and persons like the requirement to get school administration involved. (obviously there's more to it than that, and there are provision for emergencies and immediate threats to health and safety, and different rules about stuff like private property vs school lockers... but random spot-checks of students are not allowed.)

there's also this thing with epi-pens. at the book's fictional school, the nurse keeps some epi-pens in a drawer in the health room and it's clearly marked and you can run in there and grab one if there's an emergency. i'm not saying that's a terrible idea, i'm saying that at the schools where i have familiarity with epi-pens rules, it doesn't work liek that. each kid/family provides the epi-pen for themselves. the epi-pen can be kept in the health room, or the family can sign a form allowing the student to carry their own epi-pen. but each epi-pen belongs to a specific kid, and you can't give a kid someone else's epi-pen (i mean you're not supposed to; no one i know has ever been in the horrible situation where they had to decide to do/not do that. but officially you're not supposed to do that!!!!)

plus the police keep questioning the students without any indication that their parents/guardians have been contacted. and the principal is just kinda letting it all happen? Idk how police investigations work in schools but i hope that if the police showed up to question my kid, the school would at least call me to let me know.

so like. is the book good? i dunno, but the book is weird. i'm still reading it for now but it'll have to do something interesting soon or it goes on the "donate" pile.

God the details are so weird. Some of them could be explained by private schools--one character is explaining that she's scoping out a nearby school but no one will notice she's gone from her school because "they start class 40 minutes before we do." Like.... idk in my area the schools start at the same time except MAYBE private schools. (And if I recall our private schools generally start at the same time but get out later.)

I'm enjoying the book it's just that the details are weird. More on that if I remember

i started reading one of us is lying by karen m mcmanus. i don't know if i'll finish it. I love tropey pulpy books but it's a little odd to read... the characters are very familiar "types"- the jock, the brainiac, the misfit, the popular girl. the details about the school are also very weird.

for example, the plot kicks off when a teacher finds the characters' phones in their bags. this is framed as his standard practice at the beginning of class, which is like... if you need to search a backpack for an object as small as a phone, you need to get into all the nooks and crannies. i'm not in high school any more, but my every-day backpack has more than 8 separate, zippered areas that could hold a phone. imagine doing a thorough check for a class of thirty high school students. imagine doing it for, i dunno, four classes. imagine doing it five days a week every week. already, it's kind of a weird concept. ALSO at my local public schools, there are rules about searching students' possessions and persons like the requirement to get school administration involved. (obviously there's more to it than that, and there are provision for emergencies and immediate threats to health and safety, and different rules about stuff like private property vs school lockers... but random spot-checks of students are not allowed.)

there's also this thing with epi-pens. at the book's fictional school, the nurse keeps some epi-pens in a drawer in the health room and it's clearly marked and you can run in there and grab one if there's an emergency. i'm not saying that's a terrible idea, i'm saying that at the schools where i have familiarity with epi-pens rules, it doesn't work liek that. each kid/family provides the epi-pen for themselves. the epi-pen can be kept in the health room, or the family can sign a form allowing the student to carry their own epi-pen. but each epi-pen belongs to a specific kid, and you can't give a kid someone else's epi-pen (i mean you're not supposed to; no one i know has ever been in the horrible situation where they had to decide to do/not do that. but officially you're not supposed to do that!!!!)

plus the police keep questioning the students without any indication that their parents/guardians have been contacted. and the principal is just kinda letting it all happen? Idk how police investigations work in schools but i hope that if the police showed up to question my kid, the school would at least call me to let me know.

so like. is the book good? i dunno, but the book is weird. i'm still reading it for now but it'll have to do something interesting soon or it goes on the "donate" pile.

Accurately predicted the jock was secretly gay in the first section because this book is Not That Good (yea I'm up to page 250 because I'm having a good time, but that doesn't mean the book is good)

i started reading one of us is lying by karen m mcmanus. i don't know if i'll finish it. I love tropey pulpy books but it's a little odd to read... the characters are very familiar "types"- the jock, the brainiac, the misfit, the popular girl. the details about the school are also very weird.

for example, the plot kicks off when a teacher finds the characters' phones in their bags. this is framed as his standard practice at the beginning of class, which is like... if you need to search a backpack for an object as small as a phone, you need to get into all the nooks and crannies. i'm not in high school any more, but my every-day backpack has more than 8 separate, zippered areas that could hold a phone. imagine doing a thorough check for a class of thirty high school students. imagine doing it for, i dunno, four classes. imagine doing it five days a week every week. already, it's kind of a weird concept. ALSO at my local public schools, there are rules about searching students' possessions and persons like the requirement to get school administration involved. (obviously there's more to it than that, and there are provision for emergencies and immediate threats to health and safety, and different rules about stuff like private property vs school lockers... but random spot-checks of students are not allowed.)

there's also this thing with epi-pens. at the book's fictional school, the nurse keeps some epi-pens in a drawer in the health room and it's clearly marked and you can run in there and grab one if there's an emergency. i'm not saying that's a terrible idea, i'm saying that at the schools where i have familiarity with epi-pens rules, it doesn't work liek that. each kid/family provides the epi-pen for themselves. the epi-pen can be kept in the health room, or the family can sign a form allowing the student to carry their own epi-pen. but each epi-pen belongs to a specific kid, and you can't give a kid someone else's epi-pen (i mean you're not supposed to; no one i know has ever been in the horrible situation where they had to decide to do/not do that. but officially you're not supposed to do that!!!!)

plus the police keep questioning the students without any indication that their parents/guardians have been contacted. and the principal is just kinda letting it all happen? Idk how police investigations work in schools but i hope that if the police showed up to question my kid, the school would at least call me to let me know.

so like. is the book good? i dunno, but the book is weird. i'm still reading it for now but it'll have to do something interesting soon or it goes on the "donate" pile.