am reading – Jo Ann Schneider

11
Mar 26
0

Books I Read in February

Tags : amreading

Four more books read or listened to in February!

So far Remarkably Bright Creatures is sitting at the top of my favorites list for 2026.

Will something knock it from its spot?

**Zombie Apocalypse**
What I liked:
I know these books aren’t for everyone, but the hubby and I love this series. The end of this one is maybe my favorite, which is saying something! Are the characters over the top? Yes. Is the style weird? Yes. Do I care? No.
What could have been improved:
Some of the jokes do start to get old in this book.

**Middle-Grade Fantasy**
What I liked:
Very fun world and magic system. Good main character and supporting characters. Chosen one trope, which I usually like. Someone in my neighborhood suggested this book and I’m glad she did!
What could have been improved:
Not telling Moorigan what was going on went on for too long. It made her participating in the trials unbelievable to me, which threw me out of the story. The reveal was great, but I was still a bit annoyed.

**Sci-Fi (Basically YA)**
What I liked:
This is book two in the series, and I devoured it. The characters and their awesome banter did not disappoint. The battles were again epic. The main plot is starting to unfold.
What could have been improved:
The writing isn’t stellar, and this book was way longer than it needed to be. I enjoyed listening to it, but if I’d been reading, I probably would have done a lot of skimming.

**Middle-Grade Murder Mystery**
What I liked:
The world building was spot on. So fun and clever and very well written. I liked the characters and the mystery. (Although I suspected the killer from the moment we met them)
What could have been improved:
The prose in this book, while beautiful, is dense. I was annotating it for a pass-along book club I’m in, and I had to really pay attention as I read. Maybe my brain is going soft…

Rankings So Far!

Remarkably Bright Creatures
Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village
Fire and Song
Islands of Rage and Hope
Skandar and the Unicorn Thief
Nevermoore: The Trials of Morrigan Crow
The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels
Every Heart a Doorway
The Wild Card

05
Mar 26
0

Books I Read in January

For the past two years I’ve made the goal to read 50 books in a year, and I haven’t actually accomplished it.

Should I do it again to prove that I can?

Nope. Not interested in failing something that should be fun.

Instead, I’m going to shoot for 48 books this year. That’s four a month, which I can do.

No, don’t ask me why 2 more puts me over the edge, because I don’t know.

I’m also going to rank each book I read, so at the end I have a list 1 to 48 of how much I liked them.

I didn’t rank them last year, but I have to say the book I thought about the most after I read it was Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. There were others that were excellent, but this was probably my top book read of 2025.

What will this year’s be? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Five down!

**Satire**
What I liked:
This book is delightful and hilarious! It’s short with amazing illustrations and all the tropes of an English murder village packed into a small package.
What could have been improved:
Honestly, it was too short! I wanted more!

**Contemporary Clean RomCom**
What I liked:
You all know I enjoy my clean romcoms. This book is the fourth in a fantastic series about a family of football players who buy a small town in Texas in order to revitalize it. It was cute, fun, and enjoyable with adorable characters.
What could have been improved:
The chemistry in this book of the series isn’t quite as good as the past installments. I liked it, but wasn’t obsessed with it like I was with books one and two.

**Contemporary (with a splash of mystery and fantasy)**
What I liked:
All the lists said this book was the best, and they’re not wrong. I loved the characters, including the pompous octopus. The setting was rich, the writing beautiful, and the ending so satisfying.
What could have been improved:
At first the character of Cameron bordered too much on the loser side of things for me. However, he redeems himself and is amazing.

**Urban Fantasy**
What I liked:
The premise of this book is insanely awesome—what happens to the kids who go down the rabbit hole (or a portal into a different and always bizarre land) and then have to come back? It was short, which I appreciated, and filled with all sorts of interesting characters and concepts that were both recognizable but also alien.
What could have been improved:
I wasn’t expecting it to turn into a murder mystery. The premise was so strong that I thought the author should have leaned into it more. The mystery felt like a distraction.

**Middle Grade Fantasy**
What I liked:
Violent unicorns, forbidden magic, a magic school, fun characters, and great worldbuilding. This book has a lot going for it. I particularly enjoyed the snarky dialogue.
What could have been improved:
This is technically a middle grade book, so characters carry the idiot ball longer than I appreciate. It works, because they’re like twelve-years-old, but a few things got old for me.

Rankings:

Remarkably Bright Creatures
Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village
Skandar and the Unicorn Thief
Every Heart a Doorway
The Wild Card

17
Feb 26
0

Books I Read in December

Well, despite the holidays, December went better than I thought it would.

I read/listened to four books in December.

That’s 47 total for the year.

I didn’t make my 50 book goal.

Unless…

I count the three books I wrote this year, that I had—for obvious reasons—to read in their entirety multiple times.

If I count those, then I did it!

Or almost did it.

I can’t complain about reading/listening to 47 books this year. That’s a good number, and I feel like I branched out into some genres I don’t usually go for.