Wednesday Reading Meme
What I Just Finished Reading: Four novels this week: Cat on a Hot Tin Woof by Spencer Quinn, Where The Heart Is by Billie Letts, Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, and Boring Asian Female by Canwen Xu. Reviews below.
What I'm Reading Right Now: The final (as of now) book in the Andy Carpenter series, And To All A Good Bite by David Rosenfelt. It's been 32 books!
What I'm Planning to Read Next: There's a short story/novella theme at a monthly challenge at Challenge Factory this month, so I've been trying to clear out the short stuff on my Kindle. So next up I will probably tackle a couple of novellas and short stories from there.
77. Cat on a Hot Tin Woof by Spencer Quinn
Chet and Bernie are on the trail of a missing celebrity cat.
Oh Chet, how I’ve missed you so! Chet the Jet continues to be the best dog narrator on the planet as he and Bernie search for Miss Kitty, a viral video star who makes her owner tons of cash on a social media app. Chet is none too happy to be searching for a cat, his opinions on them well known, but he of course continues to adore everything about his beloved Bernie, always “the smartest guy in the room” (and the one with the best eyebrows, and of course the sweetest uppercut.)
There’s some really fun Chet tangents in this one, a so-therefore that he comes up with all on his own, some delicious steak tips, and a pretty harrowing moment for Chet that had me on the edge of my seat. The resulting reunion with Bernie was beautifully written.
If I could rate the book based on Chet’s awesomeness alone, it would have 17 stars. But alas, there’s a mystery plot in there too, and that’s where it fell short. The reader shouldn’t have to look up what tailings and REEs are because it’s not explained at all in the book, and there were too many distractions to make the mystery compelling.
Dates Read: May 12 to 14, 2026
Page Count: 307
4 out of 5 stars
+ Around the Year in 52 Books - Prompt 33 indigenous character (52/52) - COMPLETE!
+ Lost Challenges Penguins - dog on cover (29/46)
+ Crazy Challenge Potluck - cat on cover (28/50)
78. Where The Heart Is by Billie Letts
Pregnant 17-year-old Novalee ends up living in a Walmart when she’s abandoned by her useless boyfriend.
The story actually focuses on the next seven or eight years of Novalee’s life, in a heartwarming if unrealistic look at found family. And since found family is practically my favourite thing, I came happily along for the ride as Novalee found a community to take her in and help care for her child. The world opens up to her due to the friendship and love of these people, and I enjoyed watching her blossom.
Along the way we also follow the life of Novalee’s ex, who seems to get a good chunk of the bad luck she’s always worried about. Yeah, he’s not a good guy but the author did seem to enjoy covering him in misery. In fact, to me it seemed like the author almost had an obsession with throwing in a bunch of awful events to traumatize the secondary characters, and they just weren’t needed. That was the one that marred the book for me.
Dates Read: May 15 to 16, 2026
Page Count: 388
4 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges Penguins - orange cover (30/46)
+ Crazy Challenge Potluck - standalone (29/50)
79. Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
When their shepherd is murdered, his sheep set out to find the killer.
I’m a huge fan of the Chet and Bernie books by Spencer Quinn, mysteries told from the point of view of a dog. So I was stoked and ready for a mystery told from the point of view of sheep, and the premise sounded great.
Unfortunately, it just didn’t come together for me. I mean, it’s fine. But I expected humour and whimsy and something really different. And while there was some humour, generally it all fell flat. The sheep are, dare I say it, kind of boring. And the mystery didn’t really hold up either. There are multiple little pieces that don’t really connect that are left dangling, such as an encounter in which a person’s life is threatened and then… suddenly all is well, and we don’t know why. And there are actually two crimes, and there is no resolution at all for one of them.
I’m rating this average, and have no plan to continue to the next book.
Dates Read: May 16 to 17, 2026
Page Count: 377
3 out of 5 stars
+ Crazy Challenge Potluck - book in a series (30/50)
80. Boring Asian Female by Canwen Xu
Elizabeth’s only goal has ever been to get into Harvard Law School, and when she is rejected while wealthy and pretty Laura Kim gets accepted, she becomes obsessed.
Elizabeth’s mind is a sticky web, and the reader gets stuck and is unable to escape in this great debut novel. She is obsessed not only with Laura but with the idea of being rich, to prove to her absentee father and those she left behind in her small town high school that she is better than them… because Elizabeth views everything in percentiles. And since she rates herself in the 90th percentile for intelligence, she just can’t figure out how Laura could “beat” her.
Elizabeth evaluates everyone and everything only for how they can help her achieve her goal. Is she a sociopath? I’m beginning to think so. And the twisty turns her mind takes to justify and explain her actions become more and more unhinged as time goes by. I was definitely along for the ride.
Dates Read: May 17 to 19, 2026
Page Count: 328
5 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges Penguins - character gets a bill (31/46)
+ Crazy Challenge Potluck - published 2025 or 2026 (31/50)
.
What I'm Reading Right Now: The final (as of now) book in the Andy Carpenter series, And To All A Good Bite by David Rosenfelt. It's been 32 books!
What I'm Planning to Read Next: There's a short story/novella theme at a monthly challenge at Challenge Factory this month, so I've been trying to clear out the short stuff on my Kindle. So next up I will probably tackle a couple of novellas and short stories from there.
77. Cat on a Hot Tin Woof by Spencer Quinn
Chet and Bernie are on the trail of a missing celebrity cat.
Oh Chet, how I’ve missed you so! Chet the Jet continues to be the best dog narrator on the planet as he and Bernie search for Miss Kitty, a viral video star who makes her owner tons of cash on a social media app. Chet is none too happy to be searching for a cat, his opinions on them well known, but he of course continues to adore everything about his beloved Bernie, always “the smartest guy in the room” (and the one with the best eyebrows, and of course the sweetest uppercut.)
There’s some really fun Chet tangents in this one, a so-therefore that he comes up with all on his own, some delicious steak tips, and a pretty harrowing moment for Chet that had me on the edge of my seat. The resulting reunion with Bernie was beautifully written.
If I could rate the book based on Chet’s awesomeness alone, it would have 17 stars. But alas, there’s a mystery plot in there too, and that’s where it fell short. The reader shouldn’t have to look up what tailings and REEs are because it’s not explained at all in the book, and there were too many distractions to make the mystery compelling.
Dates Read: May 12 to 14, 2026
Page Count: 307
4 out of 5 stars
+ Around the Year in 52 Books - Prompt 33 indigenous character (52/52) - COMPLETE!
+ Lost Challenges Penguins - dog on cover (29/46)
+ Crazy Challenge Potluck - cat on cover (28/50)
78. Where The Heart Is by Billie Letts
Pregnant 17-year-old Novalee ends up living in a Walmart when she’s abandoned by her useless boyfriend.
The story actually focuses on the next seven or eight years of Novalee’s life, in a heartwarming if unrealistic look at found family. And since found family is practically my favourite thing, I came happily along for the ride as Novalee found a community to take her in and help care for her child. The world opens up to her due to the friendship and love of these people, and I enjoyed watching her blossom.
Along the way we also follow the life of Novalee’s ex, who seems to get a good chunk of the bad luck she’s always worried about. Yeah, he’s not a good guy but the author did seem to enjoy covering him in misery. In fact, to me it seemed like the author almost had an obsession with throwing in a bunch of awful events to traumatize the secondary characters, and they just weren’t needed. That was the one that marred the book for me.
Dates Read: May 15 to 16, 2026
Page Count: 388
4 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges Penguins - orange cover (30/46)
+ Crazy Challenge Potluck - standalone (29/50)
79. Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
When their shepherd is murdered, his sheep set out to find the killer.
I’m a huge fan of the Chet and Bernie books by Spencer Quinn, mysteries told from the point of view of a dog. So I was stoked and ready for a mystery told from the point of view of sheep, and the premise sounded great.
Unfortunately, it just didn’t come together for me. I mean, it’s fine. But I expected humour and whimsy and something really different. And while there was some humour, generally it all fell flat. The sheep are, dare I say it, kind of boring. And the mystery didn’t really hold up either. There are multiple little pieces that don’t really connect that are left dangling, such as an encounter in which a person’s life is threatened and then… suddenly all is well, and we don’t know why. And there are actually two crimes, and there is no resolution at all for one of them.
I’m rating this average, and have no plan to continue to the next book.
Dates Read: May 16 to 17, 2026
Page Count: 377
3 out of 5 stars
+ Crazy Challenge Potluck - book in a series (30/50)
80. Boring Asian Female by Canwen Xu
Elizabeth’s only goal has ever been to get into Harvard Law School, and when she is rejected while wealthy and pretty Laura Kim gets accepted, she becomes obsessed.
Elizabeth’s mind is a sticky web, and the reader gets stuck and is unable to escape in this great debut novel. She is obsessed not only with Laura but with the idea of being rich, to prove to her absentee father and those she left behind in her small town high school that she is better than them… because Elizabeth views everything in percentiles. And since she rates herself in the 90th percentile for intelligence, she just can’t figure out how Laura could “beat” her.
Elizabeth evaluates everyone and everything only for how they can help her achieve her goal. Is she a sociopath? I’m beginning to think so. And the twisty turns her mind takes to justify and explain her actions become more and more unhinged as time goes by. I was definitely along for the ride.
Dates Read: May 17 to 19, 2026
Page Count: 328
5 out of 5 stars
+ Lost Challenges Penguins - character gets a bill (31/46)
+ Crazy Challenge Potluck - published 2025 or 2026 (31/50)
.