Night of the Living Trekkies

 Book 8 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from January 13 - 15

Night of the Living Trekkies

by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall

published 2010

Summary (via the book jacket)

Jim Pike was the world's biggest Star Trek fan - until two tours of duty in Afghanistan destroyed his faith in the human race. Now he sleepwalks through life as the assistant manager of a small hotel in downtown Houston.

But when hundreds of Trekkies arrive in his lobby for a science-fiction convention, Jim finds himself surrounded by costumed Klingons, Vulcans, and Ferengi - plus a strange virus that transforms its carriers into save, flesh-eating zombies!

As bloody corpses stumble to life and the planet teeters on the brink of total apocalypse, Jim must deliver a ragtag crew of fanboys and fangirls to safety. Dressed in homemade uniforms and armed with prop phasers, their prime directive is to survive. But how long can they last in the ultimate no-win scenario?

My Opinion

4 stars

What a quick, fun read!  It caught my eye while browsing at the library.  My husband is a big sci-fi guy and while I'm not seeking it out for myself, I've picked up enough to get the main characters and jokes.  I'm sure there were things I missed but there was enough to keep me entertained and more importantly, it didn't veer too far into the other direction of "jokes upon jokes upon jokes".

I liked the short chapters and how the action started right away.  I didn't realize until I'd already written "I'm immediately a Willy fan" in my notes that I made my own unintentional pun.  But I did like all the characters and am sad by how many we lost along the way.

This seems like a nerd thing to point out but that goes with the theme of the book...at the beginning of Chapter 28 it said it was nearly five o'clock with no time to waste but a few pages later after passing out weapons and assembling, it said they were well-prepared at "five minutes to four", appearing to go back in time.

My Favorite Thing is Monsters

 Book 7 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from January 10 - 11

My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris

published 2016

My Opinion

5 stars

Typically I would include a brief summary of the book but this book is difficult to concisely describe.  I will say if this book calls to you, give it a try and you won't be disappointed.

I love the oversized book because it adds so much detail and speaking of details, having the pages appear like lined notebook paper really made it feel like I picked up someone's doodle journal (although just saying these are "doodles" underestimates the drawing).  The downside is there was so much going on that I had to purposefully slow down and take breaks to avoid overstimulation.  There weren't natural stopping places so it literally was 416 pages of content (according to Goodreads, there weren't page numbers in the book).

The storyline kept things moving but the design is really the star of the show.  I wish I understood more about the ending but I think it's a combination of things I missed and having a cliffhanger to go into the next volume.

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead

 Book 6 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from January 10 - 11

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead by Jenny Hollander

published 2024

Summary (via the book jacket)

Nine years ago, with the world's eyes on her, Charlie Colbert fled. The press and the police called her a "witness" to the terrible events that took place at her elite graduate school. But Charlie knew there was more to her story - if only she could make sense of how it all unfolded.

Now Charlie has meticulously rebuilt her life. She's the editor of chief of a major magazine, the fiancee of the heir to a publishing dynasty, and hell-bent on never letting her guard down again. But when a film adaptation of what became known as "Scarlet Christmas" - the bloody scene that transpired on that fateful Christmas Eve - threatens to shatter Charlie's world, her haunting memories surge back with unprecedented clarity. No truth has ever been more dangerous that the one that hides in her own mind.

With everything at stake, Charlie must decide how far she will go to prevent her past from colliding with her seemingly perfect present.

My Opinion

3 stars

I chose this based on title alone.  It's tough to rate because I didn't necessarily enjoy it but I also kept picking it up and reading it quickly because I wanted to find out what happened.  I decided on 3 stars to balance it out.

The setting of journalism school and the access of money made situations less coincidental that they may have been otherwise but there were still contrived moments.  The mix of Charlie not remembering yet also knowing she had something to hide was difficult to reconcile.

There were also one character's death that I'm still unclear on and it's unsatisfying.

Love Is My Favorite Flavor

 Book 5 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from January 6 - 10

Love Is My Favorite Flavor: A Midwestern Dining Critic Tell All 

by Wini Moranville

published 2024

Summary (via the book jacket)

In a remarkable career that has spanned nearly fifty years, Wini Moranville has witnessed the American restaurant landscape transform from the inside out. At just shy of fourteen, she began a ten-year stretch working in a kaleidoscope of quintessential midwestern eateries of the time. Moranvilles hands-on experiences weave a vivid tapestry of the American restaurant landscape in the 1970s and 1980s. In the mid-1990s, the tables turned as Moranville became a prolific food and wine writer for national publications, as well as the dining critic for the Des Moines Register and dsm Magazine. 

Love Is My Favorite Flavor underscores the timelessness of what it is we seek when we entrust restaurateurs with our hard-earned money and our hard-won leisure time.

My Opinion

3 stars

I picked this up from a display at the library.  I was a Register subscriber (reading an actual paper newspaper daily that was delivered to my doorstep!) during the time Moranville was their food critic so I have that familiarity besides the nostalgia of also visiting a few of these eateries during my childhood.

Taking notes as I read shows my decline of enjoyment as I read this book.  In the beginning I noted how thoughtful she is about negative reviews and how I appreciated her recognition of Iowa diners (as in the people eating, not the style of restaurant) and what they are typically looking for in an experience.  Then about midway through the note became yikes as she wrote about portion sizes, obesity, and how people visiting would comment on how unpleasant (she even used the word "noxious") the meal sizes were.  Then the note was oh no it really went downhill as she talked about returning from France each summer struggling to get back into the Iowa cuisine of "a bucket of lettuce followed by the usual plates of undistinguished overabundance" and how she had to write seemingly positive reviews because of what people wanted here "even if [she] thought they deserved better".

So why 3 stars?  Because the writing is fine and my personal reaction to her opinions doesn't negate the enjoyment I had at the beginning of the book.  I'm not talking about negative reviews she's written, I'm talking about the seemingly negative feelings she had about her community.

Talk about biting the hand that literally fed her.  It left a bad taste in my mouth.  All puns intended. 

How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England

 Book 4 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from January 2 - 8

How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England: A Guide for Knaves, Fools, Harlots, Cuckolds, Drunkards, Liars, Thieves, and Braggarts by Ruth Goodman

published 2018

Summary (excerpt from book jacket)

Drawing from advice manuals, court cases, and sermons, [Ruth Goodman] offers a veritable how-to guide for both the cheeky and the downright cunning. Social mores of the era are revealed in fascinating detail, including why it was bad form to quote Shakespeare; why nose-blowing was disgusting, but spitting was acceptable; [and] why curses hurled at women were almost always about sex (and why we shouldn't be surprised).

My Opinion

2 stars

I added this book to my list after seeing it on TikTok.  Bonus that my used copy was withdrawn from the Longwood Public Library in NY (I'm in Iowa).  Unfortunately it was mostly a miss for me.  There were interesting snippets but it wasn't 'pages and pages per topic' interesting for me.

The shortest "fun fact" I took away was that buttons and the color pink started out as things only for men's garments so according to Elizabethan England, we all could be accused of cross-dressing pretty much every day.

This had no affect on my rating but as a reader who skims, the number of times the author used "niggling" or "niggles" made me stop and double check every time to make sure I hadn't wandered into something racist.  I know they're words unrelated to race but they're not ones I see often so it jolted me.

Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments

 Book 3 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from January 4 - 6

Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments by T.L. Huchu

published 2022

Summary (via the book jacket)

Ropa Moya's ghostalking practice has tanked. Desperate for money to pay bills and look after her family, she reluctantly accepts a job to look into the history of a coma patient receiving treatment at the magical private hospital Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments. The patient is a teenage schoolboy called Max Wu, and healers at the hospital are baffled by his illness, which has confounded medicine and magic.

Roma's investigation leads her to the Edinburgh Ordinary School for Boys, one of only four registered schools for magic in the whole of Scotland (the oldest and the only one that remains closed to female students).

But the headmaster there is hiding something, and as more students succumb, Ropa learns that a long-dormant and malevolent entity has once again taken hold in this world.

She sets off to track the current host for this spirit and try to stop it before other lives are endangered.

My Opinion

2 stars

I was hesitant starting this because I didn't absolutely love the first one but I finished it and had this second one immediately available so I decided to give it a try.  If I was reading it on its own I'd probably give it 3 stars but I liked it less than The Library of the Dead so I dropped it to a 2 to reflect that.

There wasn't much character building in this book and the dynamics of the characters was why I was interested in continuing.  As far as the mysteries themselves, there were some surprises but it also felt like a lot of buildup for anticlimactic resolutions.

There are definitely readers out there for this series but unfortunately, I'm not one of them and won't be continuing.

The Library of the Dead

 Book 2 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from January 1 - 4

The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu

published 2021

Summary (via the book jacket)

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker - and she now speaks to Ediburgh's dead, carrying messages to those they left behind. A girl's gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead begin to whisper that someone's bewitching children - leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It's in Ropa's city, so she feels honor bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world.

She'll dice with death (not part of her life plan), discovering an occult library and a taste for hidden magic. She'll also experience dark times. For Edinburgh hides a wealth of secrets, and Ropa's gonna hunt them all down.

My Opinion

3 stars

Nothing to do with the book but the word "shit" was blocked out with green marker by a previous reader.  Either the book didn't have a lot of swearing or this one particular time was an issue because there weren't any other marks in the rest of the book.

I checked this book out based on the title and cover while browsing at the library.  It was in the Sci-Fi section and I really like sci-fi books that feel accessible; I'm not committing to 800 pages of world building by giving this a try.

It had a great start but the last half felt like it had too many "oops I don't know what happened but I'm ok" moments.  I did like the characters though.  I'm going to read the second book because I already have it checked out and I know it will be a quick read but if that hadn't been the case I don't think I would've sought it out to continue the series.