“Winter TBR” is a difficult thing for someone living in central Alabama, because winter isn’t something that happens. Yes, the leaves do turn brown and fall, it tends to get cloudy and rainy, and we’ll have occasional cold streaks, common enough to be annoying but not steady enough to get used to them. Case in point: the high today is 70 degrees (~21 Celsius), and I’m sweating at work despite having a desk fan aimed right at me. My January reading does tend to be a little more deliberate than the rest of the year, because I like to read a mix and get things off to a good start. But first, the tease!
I thought of the only dance I could. In my head, I sang the Macarena and began the steps. Both hands out. Then flipped them. Crossed my arms. I felt like an idiot. Absolutely must’ve looked like one too. When I got to the part where I shook my hips, the baker had had enough. “Stop, stop, stop!” he said. “I’ll give ye something to eat just to get ye to stop.” (An Unexpected Hero: A litRPG Adventure, Rhett C. Bruno & Jaime Castle)
(1) Some science read involving either weather or climate, to finish off the science survey. It will only be my 14th science read for the year, which is remarkably poor.
(2) The Relentless Moon, second in that “Earth is hit by an asteroid and has to kick off the space race ten years early” series kicked off by The Calculating Stars. I have it on hold and am next up.
(3) Men in my Situation, Per Petterson. The January pick for a book club I may be participating in.
Men in My Situation, Per Petterson’s evocative and moving new novel, finds Arvid Jansen in a tailspin, unable to process the grief of losing his parents and brothers in a tragic ferry accident. In the aftermath, Arvid’s wife, Turid, divorced him and took their three daughters with her. One year later, Arvid still hasn’t recovered. He spends his time drinking, falling into fleeting relationships with women, and driving around in his Mazda. When Turid unexpectedly calls for a ride home from the train station, he has to face the life they’ve made without him.
Don’t that sound like a fun time.
(4) Star Trek: Firewall, David Mack; and (5) Star Trek Strange New Worlds: Asylum, Una McCormack. The fact that I have two new ST releases and haven’t yet read them is an indication of just how mentally busy and time-consuming this past semester was. (Finished with full marks, though, and my prof sent an email asking for permission to use my last project as an example for her future classes. w00t!)
(6) Images of America: Fenway Park. Gift from the lady-friend to celebrate the professor’s email.
(7) Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia, Scott Horton.
(8) The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife, now that I’ve found it again. Sneaky fella was hiding in a PC parts box. (My beast gave up the ghost during Thanksgiving weekend, and I was doing some parts testing before I decided to just buy a new rig, since I’d planned on a massive upgrade in 2016 anyway..)
(9) Strange Weather in Tokyo, Hiromi Kawakami. Honestly, I want to read this one just for the cover.
(10) Bibliotech: Why Libraries Matter More than Ever in the Age of Google
Reading Freely 
A rather mild 10C here with some rain later. Patches of blue sky, but that won’t last long!
Congrats on your academic work. When I’m held up as an example its usually how NOT to do something… [lol]
I would’ve picked up ‘Strange Weather in Tokyo’ from the cover too. Its pretty cool!
Thanks! The last project was a major one (a multi-program portfolio along with promotional medials like flyers and such). I was waiting to see if it would pass. Definitely didn’t expect perfect marks!
Oh… *completely* off topic…. I know you’ve read a few books by Amy Shira Teitel. Have you checked out her YouTube channel? I’ve started working through her vids from 12 years ago. They’re quite crude back then but still pretty neat. Obviously the recent ones are *much* better. It’s making me want to read much more space related stuff going forward. Hopefully I can schedule some in next year – along with the 10,000 other books I want to schedule in 2025! [lol]
Oh, absolutely! That’s how I found her. 😀
Wow, your climate is so different from Toronto’s. I mean, I knew that already, of course, but it’s hard to imagine sweating at this time of year unless I’m exercising hard or something. The rest of the time I’m much more likely to shiver. Haha.
Lydia
Nice list! Your #9 will be perfect in January for the Japanese Literature Challenge.
I want to try something by Kowal!
https://wordsandpeace.com/2024/12/17/top-ten-books-on-my-winter-2024-2025-tbr/
I hope to read Strange New Words if it ever comes to a library near me.
I’m glad you had such a good semester even if it did cut into your reading time.
woah Men in My Situation sounds quite bleak, good thing you got some Star Trek in there to cleanse the palate haha 🙂 Also, Bibliotech sounds super interesting!
Yes! Bibliotech is one I ran across a semester or so ago when I was looking for books about libraries & cybersecurity.
Ahh, that makes sense 🙂
The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife sounds great.
Thanks for stopping by Long and Short Review’s post earlier.
Astilbe
We’re the same here in Arizona (the Phoenix area, anyway). It was 80 degrees here today. The mornings are cool, but it’s still unseasonably warm. Ick.
I hope you enjoy your winter reading.
Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Wow, 70 degrees in December. It’s in the low 50s here during the day. Good luck with your TBR!
Yeaaaah, it’s been like this all of my life. Central AL weather is TOTALLY unpredictable from November to say…January. February is consistently cold, though. Case in point: two years ago, it was 70 degrees in mid-January, and then we had a tornado and the temperatures dropped to 30s-40s.
Great list! I haven’t read any of these books, but they sound interesting. I hope you’ll love these books when you get to them 🙂
If you’d like to visit, here’s my TTT: https://thebooklorefairy.blogspot.com/2024/12/top-ten-tuesday-books-on-my-winter-2024-2025-to-read-list.html