Reading Update: Last week I had just finished The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes then jumped right into Jim Butcher’s Peace Talks. 2014 was the last year this series had a novel, but we were treated with a collection of stories in 2018. Still, I hadn’t realized how much I had missed these characters! So much so that I raced through Peace Talks and started Battleground immediately (I’m already a quarter of the way in and loving it!).
It’s funny how attached we become to the characters of our favorite series, how invested in their stories we become, as if they are our friends coming over to regale us with their latest tales. And when the series ends the strange sadness and loss you feel when you know you might not hear from them again.
I say might, because two of my favorite authors put me through such torture only to resurrect my friends at a later date. I’m not complaining mind you; I could just do without the loss and grieving in the first place. And now I will have to grieve twice for the same characters as one of the aforementioned authors just announced the ending of her series again! Fortunately, I love her other books and will read her for as long as she writes, but I will miss Melanie, Jack and all the other characters of the series.
On the other hand, Jim Butcher gets props in my book for not ending the Dresden series but for taking a break instead and then giving me more!
These are the real-world problems of book worms. We love, we lose, we start a new series, so are the days of our lives 😆😆😆.
In other news: The National Book Awards were awarded on November 18. The following titles are the winners in their respective categories.
Fiction – Interior Chinatown, author Charles Yu
Non-Fiction – The Dead Are Arising: The Live of Malcom X, authors Tamara Payne, Les Payne
Young People’s Literature – King And The Dragonflies, author Kacen Callender
Translated Literature – Tokyo Useno Station: A Novel, author Miri Yu
Poetry – DMZ Colony, author Don Mee Choi
The list of finalists in each category can be found here https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2020/?cat=poetry
My Lemons My Lemonade 
😲 Karen White’s Tradd Street series is done?? Oh no. I too will miss them. You turned me on to her and like you I love her books.
I agree with you about being invested in characters of our favorite authors. Luckily I have many favorites that I hope not to run out.
LikeLike
She has one final book coming out November 7, 2021 called the Attic on Queen Street which will end the series. I thought I was being vague enough to not out the author but I should have known better 😂😂😂.
LikeLike