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HTTP/2 200 server: nginx date: Wed, 28 Jan 2026 07:05:52 GMT content-type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 vary: Accept-Encoding x-hacker: Want root? Visit join.a8c.com/hacker and mention this header. host-header: WordPress.com link: ; rel="https://api.w.org/" vary: accept, content-type, cookie link: ; rel=shortlink last-modified: Wed, 28 Jan 2026 07:05:51 GMT cache-control: max-age=300, must-revalidate x-nananana: Batcache-Set content-encoding: gzip x-ac: 2.bom _dca MISS alt-svc: h3=":443"; ma=86400 strict-transport-security: max-age=31536000 server-timing: a8c-cdn, dc;desc=bom, cache;desc=MISS;dur=1458.0 Zezee With Books – …random as my thoughts go…

…random as my thoughts go…

Top 5 Tuesday: Authors I Want to Read From This Year

Published on January 27, 2026January 27, 2026 by Zezee4 Comments

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

This week’s topic:

Top 5 authors I want to try in 2026

I doubt I’ll get to all of them, but I’d really like to at least try something by the first author.

Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom

Cottom is a sociologist and professor who also writes for The New York Times. I enjoy listening to her on podcasts, so I’d like to try one of her books, most likely Thick.

Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis

Burgis has been on my radar for a while now. Her stories always appeal to me whenever I read about them, so maybe I’ll finally give Snowspelled a try.

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

This cover has been haunting me ever since I got a copy of the book. I keep intending to read it every Halloween. Maybe this will be the year.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Will this be the year I finally read a book by Miller? I keep adding her books to my TBR, even buying them. I think I’ll be really let down if they don’t work out because I already think I’ll love them. It was the same with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose work I finally tried last year. Unfortunately, I didn’t love Dream Count as I thought I would.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman

Backman’s books are so popular and get so much praise that I’ve always been curious about them. It would be nice to finally read the copy of his book that I own.

I’m sure this already passed as a Top 10 or Top 5 Tuesday topic, so here are the authors I read from in 2026 who I was glad to finally try:

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I really admire her and have bought all her books, I think, but had been holding out on reading her work. Dream Count didn’t fully work for me, but I think I’ll like her earlier books better. It’s a contemporary novel set during Covid times that focuses on the lives of four African women.

Inheritance trilogy by N.K. Jemisin

I’ve been curious about Jemisin’s work since I first heard of her and was glad to give her first set of books a try. The trilogy kicks off with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, which is fantasy set in a world where some humans have managed to chain some gods. I liked the first book a lot but not so much the rest. Still I’ll continue to try the other Jemisin books on my shelves.

Themis Files series by Sylvain Neuvel

Well, for this one it was more the book covers than the author that drew me to the books, but I was happy to try Neuvel’s work anyway. It’s sci-fi about a group of people searching for and assembling parts of a giant robot that they find scattered around the world. Sleeping Giants is the first book. Like with Jemisin’s trilogy, I liked the first book the most.

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

I’m still a little mad at myself for holding out on Wang. I really enjoyed reading Blood Over Bright Haven, a standalone fantasy novel about a young woman who becomes the first female Archmage in her world and learns some uncomfortable truths about her magic and her society. I had a great time reading this, so it made my top reads of 2025 despite its heavy-handedness with its themes and other faults. I look forward to trying more of Wang’s work.

The Troop by Nick Cutter

I’m also glad I tried this horror novel about a group of boys on a camping trip on a remote island. It was such a good read and so unsettling and gross, omg! It, too, made my top reads of 2025. People’s descriptions of the book got me curious about it, so I’m glad that participating in Tammy’s Summer of Horror enticed me to read it. I was on edge the entire time, wondering what would happen and asking damn near everyone I know if they’ve read it so they could tell me if the boys survive. Oooh man! So good. Looking forward to more of Cutter’s books.

Well, what author would you like to read from this year?

Also, let me know which author you were glad to try for the first time last year.

Romance, Fantasy, Sci-FI: Last Books of 2025

Published on January 26, 2026January 15, 2026 by Zezee4 Comments

Here I am finally reviewing the last batch of books I read last year. Do I remember anything about them? That remains to be seen. I’ll keep these short. Here’s what comes to mind.

The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest

GENRE

Romance

SERIES

Greene Sisters, book 1

PUBBED

2023

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

A shy bookworm who works in publishing asks her hot neighbor to help her get a date for her sister’s wedding, not realizing he’s her favorite author who’d ghosted her months before when their email communications started becoming something more. (Goodreads)

WHAT DO I THINK

I’m not big on romance, but this one worked for me, probably because the protagonist is a bookworm too. For the most part, I enjoyed it a lot. I liked Lily’s relationship with her sisters, who she’s really close to, and Nick’s interactions with Lily’s family when he visited them. And I like the books discussed, even the fictional one, and that modern titles are mentioned by the characters. I think it helps ground the story in our reality.

What I didn’t like was how the story started, which is intended to be a shocker but didn’t fully work for me. And that it’s not very steamy.

OVERALL: ★★★☆☆

I had a good time reading it, so I gave it 3.5 stars at first. But my excitement has died down to a 3.

DO I RECOMMEND IT?

Yes.

The Amberglow Candy Store by Hiyoko Kurisu, transl. from the Japanese by Matt Treyvaud

GENRE

Fantasy

SERIES

n/a

PUBBED

2025

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

A “charming, fable-like” book of interconnected stories about a fox spirit who sells magicked sweets to humans that help them resolve their troubles. (Goodreads)

WHAT DO I THINK

This was my first time trying one of these Japanese cozy fantasies that’s all the rage now, and I liked it. It was the cover that drew me to the book. “Charming” is the best word for it. But also “quiet” too, and I agree it’s “fable-like” because there’s a lesson at the end of each story — there are six. In the last one, we learn more about the fox spirit, Kogetsu, and his magical shop, which exists on the border between reality and the spiritual.

Of the stories, I liked the last one, “Valedictory Mame Daifuku,” most because it concerns the fox spirit. But “Invisible Wasanbon” and “All-Is-Revealed Chestnut Monaka” appealed to me too. Though this is often described as cozy on Goodreads, it wasn’t so for me, just… quiet, as I said above, and even a little relaxing to read.

OVERALL: ★★★☆☆

It was fine. I had a good time with it. Wish it was illustrated.

DO I RECOMMEND IT?

Yes.

The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany

GENRE

Classic Sci-Fi

SERIES

n/a

PUBBED

1967

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

The surface story tells of the problems a member of an alien race, Lo Lobey, has assimilating the mythology of earth, where his kind have settled among the leftover artifacts of humanity. The deeper tale concerns, however, the way those who are “different” must deal with the dominant cultural ideology. The tale follows Lobey’s mythic quest for his lost love, Friza. (Goodreads)

WHAT DO I THINK

I‘m going with the Goodreads summary because I can’t do better. This was one of the weirdest books I’ve ever read. I still don’t know what to make of it and am still confused. I buddy-read it with Peat, who appreciated it’s weirdness much more than me. I was curious at first, but as the story got close to its end, it began to lose me. I just felt lost and little confused.

The book won the Nebula Award for best sci-fi back in 1967, and if those who read it then understood it, then I can see why it won. Though it lost me, the book is tightly written and explores many ideas and issues in its few pages, just over 130. I’m not sure I’d reread it, but I like to think I would. I think it’s a book you need to sit with. The more I mull it over in my head, the more I appreciate what it’s trying to do and the concepts it explores.

OVERALL: ★★☆☆☆ ½

It’s a good one, but I rate based on enjoyment and though I started out curious, this one lost me along the way.

DO I RECOMMEND IT?

Umm… not really. I have a feeling it won’t work for most folks. But some of the ideas explored seem ahead of their time and would appeal to modern readers.

Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel

GENRE

Sci-Fi

SERIES

Themis Files, book 3

PUBBED

2018

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

We learn where Rose, Vincent, Eva, and General Govender had disappeared to at the end of the last book. Now they return to a world oppressed by the country running the robot left behind. (Goodreads)

WHAT DO I THINK

Minor Spoilers

Fast-paced as usual once it got going, so I completed this in a day — Christmas Day, to be exact. We learn that Rose and ‘em were carried off to the alien world and lived there for many years, becoming central to an uprising there. Though the story maintained my interest throughout, I was more curious about the alien world and what happened there. I was annoyed by the characters’ actions when they returned to earth; some things seemed a little naïve of them to me. And I didn’t like parts of the very end.

As for the series as a whole, it was an interesting reading experience, and I couldn’t tell exactly how the story would progress. The first book, Sleeping Giants, is the strongest of the three to me. I’m still a little surprised that the characters didn’t expect the nations to use the robot in the ways they did, considering it’s a big-ass weapon.

OVERALL: ★★☆☆☆ ½

It was meh for me.

DO I RECOMMEND IT?

I recommend the first book.

< Waking Gods (book 2)

Series Start: Age of Madness by Joe Abercrombie

Published on January 22, 2026January 24, 2026 by Zezee11 Comments

Emily at Embuhleelist and I have started on Abercrombie’s Age of Madness trilogy, and I’M LOVING IT!! This trilogy is the last set of books in his First Law world, a series I’ve had ups and downs with. So far, I’ve read the first two Age of Madness books and enjoyed them both. Here’s what I thought.

A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie

carview.php?tsp= GENRE

Fantasy

SERIES

Age of Madness, book 1

PUBBED

2019

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

We’re back in Adua, which is in the midst of an industrial revolution. Factories are on the rise, smoke clog the air, the poor are being oppressed and exploited, but the wealthy are making even more money and grabbing up land for the factories. Industry is everything; investment is the name of the game. And no one plays the game better than Savine dan Glokta, a socialite and daughter of the most feared man in the Union, Old Sticks himself.

But there are murmurings of discontent building to outright protests, which the Inquisition is working hard to put down while searching for the leader of such protests — someone called the Weaver.

Continue reading “Series Start: Age of Madness by Joe Abercrombie” →

Series Wrap-Up: Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin

Published on January 21, 2026January 22, 2026 by Zezee6 Comments

Here I am catching up on reviews of books I’ve read since September, which is when I stopped doing book reviews because life became too busy. It’d really help if I’d post these things soon after completing the books I read. I’ll try to test that this year. I’ve never been able to do it for long and admire those who are able to. For now, here’s what I thought about the second and third books in Jemisin’s Inheritance trilogy, which I buddy-read with Peat.

The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

carview.php?tsp= GENRE

Fantasy

SERIES

Inheritance, book 2

PUBBED

2010

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

The events at the last part of the first book caused the World Tree, a great tree about 125,000 feet high, to appear, around which a city has erupted that has many godlings in it. The tree is located close to the Arameri palace. The locals call the city Shadow and in it lives Oree, a blind painter who can see magic. One night, she came across a hurt, homeless man, whom she takes home and cares for. But dude is a curious fellow: Sometimes, he glows.

One day while at the market where she sells trinkets, Oree happens upon an odd murder scene — because the victim is a godling. This becomes a growing concern for her as more and more godlings are murdered, and Oree and her odd friend are pulled into the conspiracy surrounding the murders. (Goodreads)

Continue reading “Series Wrap-Up: Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin” →

Top 5 Tuesday: I Might Read These

Published on January 20, 2026January 20, 2026 by Zezee14 Comments

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Shanah, the Bionic Book Worm, and now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads.

This week’s topic:

2026 Reading Plans

Published on January 19, 2026January 19, 2026 by Zezee26 Comments

I completed half of my goals in 2025. That probably means I should alter them to make the goal numbers less for 2026, but that’s not gonna happen. My goals will mostly remain the same but with increased numbers.

My intent this year is to read more somehow, and I want to focus on comics and picture books. I have many books on my shelves, and I need to get rid of some. So my plan this year is to read mostly my own books (ones that’ve been on my shelves for longer than a year) and unhaul any I really don’t like.

OVERALL READING GOALS

Catch up on and complete series.
Spend less.
Read more of my own books.

I only completed two instead my intended three series last year. I spent more, didn’t read as many of my own books as I thought I would, and I certainly didn’t attend Worldcon (one of my goals). Ah well. I’ll keep the goals mostly the same this year anyway.

GOODREADS CHALLENGE

50 books

I read 15 more than my goal of 30 books last year. I should probably keep my goal about the same, but because I want to weed out my comics, I think I should easily hit this 50 (and maybe make it to my secret goal — 100 books!!).

Continue reading “2026 Reading Plans” →

Characters of the Year Book Tag | 2025

Published on January 15, 2026January 10, 2026 by Zezee2 Comments

I enjoy doing this tag as part of the reflection posts on my reading in the past year. It’s become a tradition for my blog. The tag was created by Amanda at A Brighter Shade of Hope, whose blog seems to no longer be around.

FAVORITE MALE CHARACTER OF THE YEAR

Prince Orso, from the Age of Madness trilogy by Joe Abercrombie

I’ve only read the first two novels so far and should have started on the third by the time this post is published. Orso is one of the POV characters we read from, and boy does he sell himself short in the first book. His self-confidence is so low, but I love the potential we see in him to be a decent leader by the end of the second book. I’m hoping for the best for him, but since this is an Abercrombie novel, I doubt Orso will have a happy ending. Maybe he’ll die (but don’t tell me — no spoilers!!).

Continue reading “Characters of the Year Book Tag | 2025” →

Reflecting on 2025: Reading

Published on January 14, 2026January 17, 2026 by Zezee10 Comments

Last year was a good reading year, though it had highs and lows. I suffered from no reading slumps, for which I’m grateful.

I managed to read a combination of 45 books, comics, mangas, and picture books, and the majority of that number was novels. That was a pleasant surprise since the number of comics I read had been trending higher, so I thought I’d read less novels in 2025. I also stuck with what I picked up and only DNF four books — another surprise since my DNF number had been rising over the previous years. Another shocker — only seven books were rereads. What?! I’m Miss Reread. I can’t believe I reread such a low number of books, but I see that as an improvement. I have a huge physical TBR that I need to work through, and that won’t happen if I reread all the time.

I’d set my 2025 reading goal to a low number — 30 books — which I easily passed, and it was a good thing it was that low because 2025 was a busy year for my job. I read for a living, so the more I have to read for work, the less I read for fun. It’s one of the drawbacks of my job. I have my fingers crossed that 2026 won’t be as busy, but with what’s already happened in recent days, I doubt that’ll be the case. But hopefully I won’t be so busy that I lessen my reading. I really would like to hit my magic number — 100 books read in a year.

Well, let’s see how my reading went in 2025, reviewing all the top things and my stats. (This will be a very long post.)

ALSO SEE

ZeZee Favorite Reads of 2025
ZeZee Memorable Reads of 2025
ZeZee Disappointing Reads of 2025

Continue reading “Reflecting on 2025: Reading” →

Books I’m Glad I Didn’t Quit in 2025

Published on January 13, 2026January 10, 2026 by Zezee20 Comments

Since I chatted about the books I did not complete in 2025, I thought I’d mention the ones I considered DNF’ing but am glad I stuck with. I think these titles deserve some attention too — or maybe I’m in the thick of making year-end round-up lists and can’t stop. Either way, let’s chat about some books.

I stole this idea from the Orangutan Librarian, who did a similar list recently. Check it out.

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ★★★☆☆ ½

carview.php?tsp= It’s a contemporary novel set in the midst of the Covid pandemic. The story focuses on the lives of four African women, three of whom live in the U.S. It was an engrossing read, but it took some time to get going, and I didn’t miss it when I took breaks. There was also one point in the book when I just had to put it down for a while. It’s not a difficult one to read, but it wasn’t as gripping or impressive as I thought it would be. Still I’m glad I read it, because with this I’ve finally read a novel by Adichie.

Continue reading “Books I’m Glad I Didn’t Quit in 2025” →

Books I DNF in 2025

Published on January 12, 2026January 12, 2026 by Zezee28 Comments

I usually do not finish a fair number of books in a year, but it seems I did great choosing what to read in 2025 because I only gave up on four books! I’m so proud of myself for that. Here are the books I did not finish. And yes, I sometimes rate the books I DNF.

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

carview.php?tsp= GENRE

YA Sci-Fi — Dystopian

SERIES

Darkest Minds, book 1

PUBBED

2012

QUICK SUMMARY

It’s YA dystopian set in a future where kids have superpowers and adults fear that, so the kids are rounded up and classified according to the type of power they have. Then the government starts to weaponize those powers. (Goodreads)

Continue reading “Books I DNF in 2025” →