2020 Books Read

1. Eternal Magic – Linsey Hall
2. Shadow of Night – Deborah Harkness
3. Infinite Magic – Linsey Hall
4. The Book of Life – Deborah Harkness
5. The Girl of Fire and Thorns – Rae Carson
6. Sweep with Me – Ilona Andrews
7. The Vine Witch – Luanne G. Smith
8. The Queen of Sorrow – Sarah Beth Durst
9. Alif the Unseen – G. Willow Wilson
10. In the Market for Murder – T. E. Kinsey
11. The City of Lost Fortunes – Bryan Camp
12. Fierce Heart – Tara Grayce
13. Kingdom of Ruses – Kate Stradling
14. Magic Undying– Linsey Hall
15. Demon Magic – Linsey Hall
16. Magic Revealed – Linsey Hall
17. Magic Wild – Linsey Hall
18. Phantom Magic – Linsey Hall
19. Sunshine – Robin McKinley
20. Spinning Silver – Naomi Novik
21. The Fairy Godmother – Mercedes Lackey
22. The Kingdom of Copper – S. A Chakraborty
23. Calamity – Brandon Sanderson
24. The Paladin Caper – Patrick Weekes
25. Feast of the Mother – Miranda Honfleur and Nicolette Andrews
26. Twilight’s Dawn – Anne Bishop
27. Clash of Eagles – Alan Smale
28. The Royal We – Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
29. Bayou Moon – Ilona Andrews
30. Mira’s Last Dance – Lois McMaster Bujold
31. The Snow Queen – Mercedes Lackey
32. A Great and Terrible Beauty – Libba Bray
33. Snow White Learns Witchcraft – Theodora Goss
34. Od Magic – Patricia A. McKillip
35. The Great Divide – Peter Watson
36. A Tangled Web – Mercedes Lackey
37. Newt’s Emerald – Garth Nix
38. The Lord of Stariel – AJ Lancaster
39. The Thorn and the Blossom – Theodora Goss
40. The Fifth Season – N. K. Jemisin
41. Cast in Shadow – Michelle Sagara
42. Binti – Nnedi Okorafor
43. Manners and Mutiny – Gail Carriger
44. Hunting Ground – Patricia Briggs
45. The Prisoner of Limnos – Lois McMaster Bujold
46. Sapphire Flames – Ilona Andrews
47. A Midwinter’s Wedding – Melanie Cellier
48. The Faerie Girl and Other Tales – Anthea Sharp
49. Clean Sweep – Ilona Andrews
50. Sweep in Peace – Ilona Andrews
51. One Fell Sweep – Ilona Andrews
52. Sweep of the Blade – Ilona Andrews
53. Sweep with Me – Ilona Andrews
54. The Hazel Wood – Melissa Albert
55. Nordic Tales
56. The Secret Lives of Color – Kassia St. Clair
57. Un Lun Dun – China Mieville
58. Magic Shifts – Ilona Andrews
59. Storm Cursed – Patricia Briggs
60. Masques – Patricia Briggs
61. War Bound – Tara Grayce
62. Trail of Lightning – Rebecca Roanhorse
63. Antarctica – Gabrielle Walker
64. A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet – Becky Chambers
65. Circe – Madeline Miller
66. Winter of the Gods – Jordanna Max Brodsky
67. Six of Crows – Leigh Bardugo
68. Fate’s Edge – Ilona Andrews
69. Steel’s Edge – Ilona Andrews
70. The World of All Souls – Deborah Harkness et al
71. A Discovery of Witches – Deborah Harkness
72. Broomsticks and Burials – Lily Webb
73. Heir to the Shadows – Anne Bishop
74. Death Wind – Tara Grayce
75. The Copper Promise – Jen Williams
76. Written in Red – Anne Bishop
77. Every Heart a Doorway – Seanan McGuire
78. The Night Raven – Sarah Painter

Definitely an interesting reading year. There was a lot of rereading, and I ended up being fairly specific in the kinds of books I actually enjoyed reading. I went pretty heavy on comfort. I suspect that’s going to continue for a while into the new year.

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Knitting Projects 2020

Here’s the finished projects for this past year. It’s a little light in number – I definitely did lose some of my knitting mojo this year. But I got some leftover yarn out of the way, and I got to do a fun test knit. So it was a good year, considering.

Knitting Notes

In an effort to get my knitting mojo back, I went through what I have for leftover yarn, and plotted some easy patterns to get rid of it. I also ordered yarn to go for a complicated project of the kind I enjoy making, but don’t often have an excuse to do, but that’ll be a post for another day.

This is the Bearly Bonnet from Purely Stitches, to use up the Swans Island Ikat Watercolors in the Beetroot colorway that I used for my mother’s socks. (My MIL’s socks are languishing – I’m not loving pattern number two. I think I may need to scrap both that particular yarn, and that pattern. But that is also a post for another day.)

Embroidery Notes

Panel seven is done. Fairly well flying along now, since these last panels are skinnier than the others.

Running Around on Boxing Day with Only My Cellphone Camera

We got a bit of rain on Christmas – mostly overnight. We’d gotten about twenty inches the week before, and while that had compacted a bit, it was definitely still around. Woke up Christmas morning, took a look out the window, and it was almost entirely gone, save for the worst of the banks. So so much for that White Christmas. (This is downtown at Saccarappa Falls on the Presumpscot River.)

We also ended up a very windy Crescent Beach. That surf is mostly because the wind was coming in off the water – it was quite the site, and definitely cold.

The Night Raven – Sarah Painter

Lydia Crow is a member of one of the four magical families that rule London, except she has no real power, so has grown up outside of the family. She’s managed to get a pretty good life going up in Aberdeen as an investigator, but a small snafu on the job makes it necessary to leave town for a bit, and her uncle offers her a place to stay, for a favor.

That favor is to look into the disappearance of her cousin Maddie. Things get complicated –she’s got a ghost for a roommate, the local DCI is way too hot for either of their own good, and the truce between the families appears to be breaking down.

This book came across as a lot of set up – what eventually happens with the Maddie story line seems over way too fast (well, I’d say it’s not really over). I like the world building, so I’ll definitely be interested to see where things go from here, but I’ll need a little more from the second book to keep me coming back for more.

Every Heart a Doorway – Seanan McGuire

Nancy has arrived at a very particular boarding school –it’s for children that have fallen through doors into other realms, and for whatever reason, have had to come back. Their families often don’t understand them, so Eleanor West, herself a child that went through a door, has created a safe space for them. Their parents think that Eleanor is trying to fix their children, but she’s actually helping them either learn to live in the “real” world, or return to the other world that they love, if they can.

It’s got a really interesting cast of characters in the others students at the school – you really need to read it to get the full flavor for that. There is a little action – a body turns up – but it’s really about the other children, and what they’re dealing with when they lose access to the place they were meant to be in – that seems to be the theme that’s sticking with most people in the reviews I’ve read, and I’ll agree with that. It’s a lovely story.

Embroidery Notes

Panel six (which is the smaller, bottom corner, so really half a panel), is done. I have the right hand side left to go, and I think they’re a bit slimmer then the panels I’ve done so far, so this is just screaming along.

Written in Red – Anne Bishop

This is a really interesting world – the terre indigene existed long before humans, and control all the lands. They have compounds called Courtyards within each human city where they can interact with humans, but they are fully in charge of those interactions.

Meg is a blood prophet, which means she’s been kept in isolation her whole life – she manages to escape and happens upon a Courtyard looking for a new human liaison. What’s interesting about the Others is that those that the humans see – werewolves, vampires, etc. are just the tip of the iceberg – most humans have no idea they’re buffered from Elementals that could kill them in an instant.

Because Meg has lived in such isolation, she’s even learning to be human, and she ends up bringing the Others in her new home on that journey along with her. And of course, Meg’s keepers don’t really want to let her go, so when they come after her, the Others have to deal with that, and they have no qualms defending someone they’ve decided to bring into their family.

I really love that the others are completely in charge here, and are not particularly romantic versions of the archtypical “monsters” the author chose to bring in. I’m definitely interested to see where things go from here.

Embroidery Notes

Next panel is done. Since I seem to have lost my knitting mojo, this seems to be comparatively flying along.