Hello fellow boozie readers!

Sam’s Update:

This was such a busy week but on Friday I hopped on a train to my mom’s and I get to spend THE WHOLE WEEK here with her before leaving for BookCon! WOO!

What Sam finished this week:

• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin: I loved this so much! I think it was a bit slow in the middle, but damn it went out with a bang. I cannot wait to continue the series! I loved the audio too
• Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim: This book was fantastic. I loved it so much. It was a perfect light YA series with a slow burn bickery romance. I loved it. Review to come soon.

What Sam’s reading now:

• Lifel1k3 by Jay Kristoff: Listening on audio for this one too. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. It was a little predictable at first, but I’m only like 15% in so maybe that was intentional.
• Kingsbane by Claire Legrand: I have been waiting entirely too long for this sequel to Furyborn. I reviewed the first one, and it was one of my favorite books of last year. I’m dying to see how my children are doing.

Ginny’s Update:

Currently Reading:

• Kingdom of Exiles by Maxym M. Martineau: Lol, still reading this. We received this ARC and I’m not far enough in to be completely familiar with it. But this is a world that involves a bunch of magic. The heroine is a ‘charmer’ meaning she can capture magical creatures, and she’s currently being pursued by an undead assassin. Cool.
• Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers: She’s been a gunrunner for 20 years and is being kidnapped by goons that her sister sent after her because it turns out she’s a goddamn princess of a planet (I think a planet, I’m not positive). There’s a huge cast of characters but she’s currently trying to figure out who murdered her sisters and niece (who should have been heirs to the throne) and this is a matriarchal society. Awesome!

What I Finished:

• The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan: This book was great. Our heroine is a scientist back in the day and her best friend has been giving all the lectures on her science because patriarchy. Except they both super love each other and it’s awesome. There’s some amazing slow burn in here and the way consent is handled is amazing. I was more than half in love with Sebastian myself by the end of the book. 4/5
• The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester: Well, I finally finished this guy. My biggest problem with a lot of nonfiction is that the last 50 pages rarely seems necessary. Same was true here. This book followed the lives of two of the major players in creating this OED which traces back the first use of a word and adds in quotes as well as every possible definition of the word. One of the men was who you would expect; a word nerd who was a professor etc. The other murdered a man due to being mentally ill and spent the rest of his life in various hospitals and ‘asylums.’ It was definitely interesting, but a little longer than I cared for. 3/5
• A Duke in Disguise by Cat Sebastian: Cat Sebastian’s books are delightful. This one follows Verity who runs a printing press and is super feminist back in the day where that was even harder than it is today, and the family friend, Ash who surprise surprise finds out he’s a duke (hence the title – if you consider this a spoiler, I don’t know what to tell you). There are a lot of issues with their mutual attraction becuase Verity is hesitant to get married due to, you know, history of men being shitty to their wives, and Ash knowing that as a Duke he’d probs need to get married but Verity wouldn’t super want that. Fun 4/5.

DNF’d:

• This is Not the Story You Think It Is by Laura Munson: Man, nothing against this book, I’m just not the person who would super appreciate it. This is nonfiction about Laura whose husband told her out of the blue that he didn’t love her and it’s her dealing with that and beyond. I think it was originally a blog or a diary but, eh. I think part of my problem was that the writing style had this way of going off on tangents that was probably very real for that situation, but I didn’t care about the tangents. I got maybe 20% in and realized I didn’t care to force myself to keep reading.

Minda’s Update:

What Minda finished:

• Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens – Earned the Archival Badge in the Bookémon Badgeathon! This was a very sweet coming-of-age story set in the marshes of North Carolina. I liked the mix of characters and overall story. Review pending.

What Minda DNF’d:

• Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan – Decided to read after reading an article about how the author did not want this book classified as Sci Fi, so that was probably my first mistake. Thought it would be an interesting take on humanity, but was wrong. Dude doesn’t even turn on the AI for more than like 10 mins until 21% of the way in, which was the first major red flag. Unfortunately I kept reading until 41%.

What Minda is reading now:

• She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore – Tried to start this once before, but the library ripped it a way. It’s a reimagining of Liberia’s founding and the African diaspora. Pretty cool! Subbed in for the Fantastical Badge

Linz’s Update:

No update for Linz this week!

Until next time, we remain forever drunkenly yours,

Sam, Melinda, Linz, and Ginny