My Imaginary Mary by Hand, Aston, & Meadows

 I love the series. I do. There is something satisfying about an alternate history laced through with magic and other fantasy elements. This one is loosely based off the lives of Mary Shelly and Ada Lovelace. I'm pretty that in reality they never met (and Mary Shelly was like 2 decades older than Ada) but the authors cheerfully ignore such inconvenient faces. Viva la plot! (and all that)

The story is about their friendship united as they are by a mystical fae heritage and a similar loathing of idiot boys and their rakish ways. It's fun and once I got into it, I enjoyed it. It didn't pop as well as the Mary Queen of Scots and Lady Jane Grey books did. However, I'm wondering if the fault there lies in me. I'm way more read up on the lives of various royalty of the British isles in a way that I am not when it comes to later less regal personages. It's possible that it didn't pop for me because I'm just not as familiar with the subject material.

It's hard to say. 

Regardless, it was a pleasant read. 

November - Changes

 It's 11 days into November and there's no list. Things have changed. I have been recently been acting as interim Assistant Principal at my school and it very much looks like the change will become permanent. While it seems like nothing should really change in terms of my free time, I am not reading as much and the big lists don't feel as productive. So I am, at least for this month, going to flip it around. Instead of putting together a huge to read list, I'm going to list here the books that I finish in the month.

1. Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross (11/11/2025)
2. My Imaginary Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows (11/24/2025)
3. Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove (11/25/2025)
4. Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek, M.D. and T.J. Mitchell (11/26/2025)
5. Witch of Wild Things (11/27/2025)