I lost my momentum for posting my reading wrap-up entries last year. This year, I’ll try again. I set a modest reading goal this year of four to six books a month. The first year that I set a reading goal, I started at 100 books and read 120. Last year, I forgot to keep a count. I recorded my reading faithfully in my reading journals–three different journals, and now I can’t find all three. I tried different formats. I found that I prefer to make my own layouts rather than use the expensive preprinted, predesigned journals.

I read five books this month.

And I even recorded them in Story Graph! As usual, I have my share of 19th century mysteries. I enjoy Carla Simpson’s Angus Brodie and Mikaela Forsythe Mysteries. I thought I had read all of them and was up-to-date. However, Deadly Ghost popped up in my Kindle Unlimited library this month, and, of course, I had to read it. This is the eleventh book in the series, and I am way past number 11! Anyway, I enjoyed it. This book seemed a little more personal than other books in the series, mainly because Mikaela becomes the target of no good when a “long lost” half sister come to London to get to know her extended family, or so she says. Mikaela and Brodie, though, are suspicious and investigate.

The Cursed Divination and The London Seance Society have a creepy Gothic feel to them, and that appealed to me. I liked Sara Penner’s London Seance Society, but I thought it was a little flatter than her other two books, The Lost Apothecary and The Amalfi Curse. I enjoyed these two books.

The Author’s Guide to Murder was so much fun to read. The three authors made so much fun of the tropes of women’s romance, historical fiction, and mysteries, especially the cozy mysteries. The writers turned the tropes on their heads. Instead of the enemies-to-lovers trope, the authors changed it to rivals-to-friends. I hope this book begins a series with the three protagonists as writer-detectives.

My book club “assignment” was Surprised by Oxford. I enjoyed this book a lot, and our book club had a really good discussion inspired by the novel. Carolyn Weber’s book is a memoir of her first year as a graduate student at Oxford. During that year, she becomes a practicing Christian after being somewhat agnostic for most of her life. She explores the intersection of academia and Christianity, the role of friendship and mentorship. This book is definitely a coming of age book of the best kind.

I started An Arcane Inheritance this month, but I haven’t finished it. I have about 100 pages left. I also have to finish Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey.

In addition to my four to six books a month goal, my other goals include: read a classic, read a new-to-me author or genre, and meet two reading challenges. I definitely met the four-to-six goal with five books and the new-to-me author with Carolyn Weber’s memoir and the three authors of An Author’s Guide to Murder. I could claim Northanger Abbey as my classic even if I didn’t finish it.

In all, I had a good month with good books.