The first ten books that I read (and detailed in Part 1), were, to be honest, a bit of a mixed bag. While I loved the Catherine the Great biography, and was very pleased with the latest addition to Anne Bishop’s The Others series, there were several so-so and even outright bad books in the first portion of the year. I hate when that happens — luckily, things improved in this batch, with nothing filling the outright awful category. Huzzah!

Books 11 – 20

What Was Amazing And You Need To Read It Now, NOW I Tell You:

• The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women, by Kate Moore

What Was Good, And Should Go On Your Giant, Teetering To-Read Tower:

• Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life, by Laura Thompson
• Howard’s End, by E. M. Forster

Pretty Decent, Worth Reading One Of These Days:

• Midnight Crossroad, by Charlaine Harris
• The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story, by Diane Ackerman

This Was, Indeed, A Book. And One That You Will Likely Complete:
Winter Palace

• The Winter Palace, by Eve Stachniak

I Mean, It Filled Some Time And It’s Not Like It Was Awful

• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See
• The New Countess, by Fay Weldon

Oh My God, It Was Awful

 (nothing in this period – yay!)

Honorable Mentions:

Bless Charlaine Harris, I Can’t Believe She Published This With A Straight Face, But, Hey, No Reason To Be A Hater – If I Had The Kind Of Success With Fort Scott That She Did With Sookie Stackhouse, I’d Do The Same Damn Thing And Laugh All The Way To The Bank

• After Dead, by Charlaine Harris

There’s A Certain Kind Of Biography That You Do When You Are A Celebrity Of Some Kind, And As A Reader I Honestly Don’t Have Many Expectations Beyond The Basic Level of Entertainment Going In – So This Achieved That, But Also Managed To Be Charming, And At The End Actually Raised Some Important Points About The Trashcan Fire That Was GamerGate As Well As The Challenges Of Overworking In The Creative Field, So, Kudos, Felicia Day. Kudos.

• You’re Never Weird On The Internet (almost), by Felicia Day