Exactly as you say! It’s a relief to know I’m not the only one who feels this way.

That’s a great suggestion–I’ll have to try it.

I loved this series! I tried to convince my friend to read it, but the length makes it a hard sell. Good luck!

Glad to hear the recommendation for The City & the City, I can’t wait to read it!

I’m taking a break from reading Mad Hatters and March Hares to read Persuasion, since I just watched the movie 2 days ago.

I really like the idea of short stories, and loved reading them as a kid–but as an adult I struggle with them. Getting into a new story before I’m invested in the characters is the slowest/most effortful part of reading for me, so anthologies feel like continually trying to restart a car when the engine keeps turning off. And when the stories are good, I’m usually annoyed that there isn’t more about those characters or in that world (but standalone novels don’t normally evoke that response and I don’t know why).

I’m considering picking another book for my “Judge a book by its cover” square, since The Tangled Lands is also an anthology.

Suggestion: Margaret Owen - Little Thieves

My card (I struggled to find something for this square that wasn’t romance, then gave up. I plan to try a couple of books, then the other recommendation here if I make it to this square and don’t have any luck…): Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko - Vita Nostra; Grace Draven - Entreat Me

Suggestions: Becky Chambers (I think all of her books qualify) - Monk & Robot; Diana Wynne Jones - Howl’s Moving Castle

My card: Heather Fawcett - Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

My card: Robert Jordan - The Eye of the World

Suggestion: Jacqueline Carey - Kushiel’s Dart; John Brunner - The Squares of the City

My card: Cassandra Rose Clarke - Our Lady of the Ice

Suggestion: Christopher Paolini - Eragon

My card: Alexandra Bracken - Brightly Woven

Suggestion: Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games; Clive Barker - The Damnation Game

My card: Agatha Christie - The Sittaford Mystery

Suggestion: Larry Niven - Ringworld

My card: China Mieville - The City & the City

Suggestion: John Wiswell - Someone You Can Build a Nest In

My card: Paolo Bacigalupi, Tobias S. Buckell - The Tangled Lands

For hard mode, I could really only find sequels in series, but here are a few suggestions: Andre Norton - Warlock of the Witch World; Michael Moorcock - The Weird of the White Wolf

My card: Max Gladstone - Full Fathom Five (I’ve been meaning to read the Craft Sequence series anyway.)

My card: Shalini Abeysekara - This Monster of Mine

Suggestion: Anne McCaffrey - Dragonriders of Pern; Mercedes Lackey’s Dragon Jousters series or any of the Heralds books from Valdemar; Rebecca Yarros - Fourth Wing

My card: using the first suggestion for this square, Naomi Novik - His Majesty’s Dragon

Suggestion: any LGBTQIA+ romance, such as TJ Klune - Under the Whispering Door (or pretty much any other book by this author)

My card: TJ Klune - Wolfsong

Suggestion: Nghi Vo - The Empress of Salt and Fortune; Laini Taylor - Daughter of Smoke and Bone

My card: Barry Hughart - The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox (omnibus)

My card: Katherine Arden - The Bear and the Nightingale

Suggestion: any anthology, especially any edited by Ellen Datlow (books span multiple genres)

My card: Ellen Datlow, ed. - Mad Hatters and March Hares