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Congratulations to the two giveaway winners! I drew the names on New Year's Eve. They are:

Carol and Robin! Robin, your book is on its way, and Carol, your hat is in the works!

I'm also going to share these drafts of a map of Turner and a floor plan for The Dump:

BOOK STATS!!

Audiobooks listened to: 95 (out of 129 total books read)

Hours listened: 1203 hours and 57 minutes - a new personal record!

Longest book: I read quite a few hefty tomes this year, honestly (22 books 16 hours or longer), but Les Mis won. Here are the top 7:

Les Misérables (62 hours and 45 minutes): This actually wins as longest book I've EVER listened to, at least in the last 4 years that I've been keeping detailed records. But I also know I've not listened to a longer one.

Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone (49 hours and 27 minutes)

The Desire of Ages (33 hours and 56 minutes)

The Path Between the Seas (31 hours and 36 minutes)

Lindbergh (31 hours and 9 minutes)

Into the Silence (28 hours and 53 minutes)

Sundown Towns (26 hours and 20 minutes)

Shortest book: Before We Sleep, 4 minutes, read by Simon Vance

Most-Listened To Narrator: Jayne Entwistle, with 14 books! Granted, several of those were read with one or more other narrators, but I'm still counting them.

Second most-listened to narrator: Norman Dietz at 10 books, whom I'd never heard of until this year, but just happened to be the narrator of a surprising amount of my literary choices this year. If we're going by length-of-book, he probably comes out on top because Sundown Towns was so long.

Author I kept accidentally reading despite being consistently underwhelmed: James Carl Nelson. It just happens that his books come up when I do my periodic searches at the library for "WWI books" and so I listen to them and then am like "oh, it's HIM again". It's not so much that the topics he tackles are dull, it's just something lacking in the writing itself.

One fun thing I tried this year was a bracket thingie on which I chose my top read for each month. The winner? Bill Bryson's ONE SUMMER. However, all of these books were incredible, and I'm going to list them below with some thoughts.

​January: The Huntress, by Kate Quinn​

Okay, this book is fascinating because it uses the device that the 1940 version of Gaslight uses: you know immediately who the bad guy is, and the tension comes from knowing what the rest of the characters DON'T know. It took me way too long to get around to this book, that's for sure, and I will definitely read it again. The characters are fantastic. I especially loved Nina. On her own and with Ian.

​February: The Old Patagonian Express, by Paul Theroux​

I couldn't very well resist a book with "Patagonian" in the title, could I?

​March: Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo​

I already said a lot about this and if you missed it, you can go here:

Eva 30-50 Feral Ideas Seyler @the_eva_seyler I’ve begun reading Les Mis (it’s been years) and the second sentence starts “Although this detail has no connection whatever with the real substance of what we are about to relate, it will not be superfluous, ...” dude, half this book is superfluous, but you do you #EvaLesMis March 23rd 2022 6 Retweets 36 Likes

​April: The Family Plot, by Megan Collins​

Such an amazing opening line. If you're morbid. Like me. Anyway, I was so instantly sucked in by it that I subjected the author (whom I am acquainted with because we were both Debut19s) to a running commentary as I listened.

​May: The Pearl Thief, by Elizabeth Wein​

Another many-times-reread book. My friend and I listened to it on the flight to Scotland to prepare us for our Pearl Thief tour with E Wein herself.

​June: The Grave's a Fine and Private Place, by Alan Bradley​

I don't know why this one particularly stood out to me in my Flavia de Luce re-read of this summer, but it did. I think because Flavia and Dogger really peak here (the last book is fine and all, but there's something just really special about this installment).

​July: The Sound of Gravel, by Ruth Wariner​

This was such a riveting memoir of growing up in FLDS polygamy. It was horrifying in many ways, yes, but SO well-written.

​August: Secret Warriors, by Taylor Downing​

I was really impressed with this one, but off the top of my head just now I can't remember why. I do know I was about to buy myself a hard copy only to realise I... already HAD a hard copy. (This is why I have to keep a WWI Book Spreadsheet.)

​September: One Summer, by Bill Bryson​

Third time through this one. I read it last year as I was pulling together my first draft of Shadows From the Sky, since it's all about that same summer of 1927, and it's really just SO comforting and fun and I love it.

​October: Have His Carcase, by Dorothy L Sayers​

I rather incoherently mentioned this here, but it is my favourite Lord Peter novel because it has everything I love in a literary couple, ie BIG BICKER ENERGY that also manages to be super flirty or funny depending on the context, as well as Mutual Respect Despite Man's Egotism.

​November: The Ship of Dreams, by Gareth Russell​

I talked about this one here.

​December: Under a Flaming Sky, by Daniel James Brown​

This was my second time reading this--if you've been around a while, you may remember that last December I binged all of Erik Larson's books for second or third times, and this year I was in the mood for more DJB, especially after finishing his newest book earlier this year. I still have The Boys in the Boat to re-read, but I'll save that for whenever I next feel the need for a comforting re-read.

Finally, as a thank you to everyone who subscribes to this here newsletter, I've got a free story for you!

Remember ÉLÉGIE, the novella I offered as a preorder incentive for The Summer I Found Home? It's now on Amazon and will be free today (the 5th) through Monday (the 9th) for everyone to download, so please do that! It will also continue to be free for anyone with Kindle Unlimited. Just click here! Let me know if you run into any issues.

Until next time,

Eva