Reviewing 85 Books: A Summary and A Big Thank You

The GHPALS reviewed all 85 books we picked up free at Comic-Con 2014 and did it before Comic-Con 2015 started. We are so proud of ourselves and we celebrated big time on Preview Day night, after roaming the exhibit hall and picking up a few new books.

What did we learn? That it was a bigger undertaking than we'd thought when we started. It wasn't just the sheer number of books. It was having to read books one really wasn't interested in when there were other books one would rather be reading. Forcing oneself to read does a disservice to the book and the reader.

We discovered new authors and bought books they wrote. We calculated 53 books were bought that would not have been if we hadn't taken this project on.

We reaffirmed the importance of editors, and bemoan the scarcity of them. The newly published Harper Lee book appears to back that up–her original editor gave her excellent advice after reading her first effort. The result was a masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird. The publication of that original work proves the editor was right. Too bad they are a disappearing profession because many books we read would have benefited greatly from a good one.

Everyone wanted their favorite listed in this summary, so here's the ones we really, really liked:

• Confessions, by Kinae Minato. The one book every member read. No one could put it down once he/she started reading it.
• The Warded Man, by Peter V. Brett. None of us wanted to read the sequel though, after we read about it on Amazon.
• Dead Witch Walking, by Kim Harrison. A wonderful series we all enjoyed, and it ended perfectly.
• On Her Majesty's Behalf, by Joseph Nassise. Zombies and World War One. A great combination.
• Greywalker, by Kat Richardson. We bought all the rest of the books in this other series that ended well.
• Green Rider, by Kristen Britain. The most recent book in the series lost its way when it went to the future, but once it went back to the normal time it was as enjoyable as the first book. We look forward to the next one.
• His Majesty's Dragon, by Naomi Novik. Dragons in the Napoleonic War. How great is that?!
• Uprooted, by Naomi Novik. We know, we didn't get the book, just the sampler. But that was enough. Everyone loved the book, so it goes on this list.

Thank you, publishers, for giving us these books and for publishing so many fine writers. Please, please  continue doing both, and hire more editors.