Platform Decay by Martha Wells: I enjoyed this. I didn’t find it one of the best of the series, but it’s a more than worthy addition which I’ll likely be rereading when the next book of the series comes out. I wavered between 4 & 5 stars before finally deciding to grant it the 5 stars.

The Man Who Died Twice: Fun mystery, somewhat unexpected killer. It does appear, however, that all of the mysteries will involve Elizabeth personally. And that she’s acquiring quite the body count. 4.5 stars out of 5.

The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking: Delightful. YA, so I normally wouldn’t read it, but the title and description were too whimsical to turn down. I fully agreed with the book’s lessons: that those in charge are not necessarily out for your best interests, that you need to watch out for yourself, that you need to watch out for your people, and that anyone can turn their talents to good use. 5 stars.

A Natural History of Dragons: Lovely. Regency-coded, very young woman wanting independence, finding it through marriage to an allied husband. 18th – 19th century science. 4 stars

The Practical Guide on How to Annotate Like a Professor. Annoying, but useful. List of useful symbols to annotate; color-coding; list of useful reading apps. Self-edited, terrible editing, bad typesetting and more repetitious than needed. (Some repetition is necessary, but this was two to three times longer than it needed to be.) Also, discovered that writing in Scribe can only be seen on the actual device that notes are made. 2.75 stars.

City of Broken Magic. DNF. Could never get invested in the characters (36% of the way through)

A Gentleman in Moscow. Not my usual read, but a lovely, gentle book. Read for a Goodreads challenge (Fact or Fiction and Staff Shelves). 4.5 stars.

Good Omens. Reread for a Goodreads challenge (Community Picks). Fun and a little silly in a very British way. 5 stars.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. Read for a Goodreads challenge (Staff Shelves). This isn’t my usual read; it isn’t genre fiction, but it is genre-adjacent. It was recommended by AI for me specifically for the Goodreads Staff Shelves challenge, which wound up fill by A Gentleman in Moscow, also an AI recommendation. It’s good; the story and the characters are compelling, although I hate that Marx died. (He should have lived, damn it! He was the best of the trio.) It’s an almost-hit for me, but I’m glad I read it, if for no other reason than I’ll stop seeing recommendations for it. 3.5 stars.

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret. Third in the Ernest Cunningham series. So far, my least favorite of the series. Not bad, just not especially good. 3 stars.

Project Hail Mary. Read for a Goodreads challenge (Challenge Faves). I’d been avoiding it because very popular things always make me suspicious, but I’m glad I gave in to this one. It’s a delightful story, with suspense and an excellent bromance. And he ends up with kids in the end. 🙂 5 stars.

Foundling Fathers. This is a take-off on The Boys from Brazil, in which four of the founding fathers of the U.S. (Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams) are cloned and raised to become the leaders of an ultra-conservative reboot of the U.S. It doesn’t work. Slight. 3.5 stars.

A Simple Introduction to the Axial Age. A basic introduction to the concept of the Axial Age, including the controversies (at least, some of them). It also includes the major philosophies associated with the concept. Good for an introduction, although I suspect heavy AI influence. 3 stars.

Everybody’s Perfect. One of those books I probably should have given up; I considered it when I was halfway through, but decided to push on. I never really grew to care about the characters. (Too many POVs?) 2 stars