Shannon Fallon
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Shannon Fallon
@shannonfallon.com
120 followers 86 following 330 posts
Programmer by day, writer by night. A lover of books working on a futuristic fantasy novel

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"The rooms were so dark he could barely make out the shape of the furniture, so when he was compelled to look at the snow outside, it blinded him—it was as if a curtain of tulle had fallen before his eyes, as if he had retreated into the silence of snow to escape..."
- Snow

#SundaySentence
The cover of Snow, featuring a blurry image of a people walking through a blanket of snow, with a building in the background
December 8, 2025 at 1:43 AM
shannonfallon.com
December TBR:

- How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler
- Snow by Orhan Pamuk
- Simplicity by Mattie Lubchansky

Details on each below!
The cover of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, featuring a cartoon-like image of a figure wearing a cape and horned helmet and carrying a staff with a skull on top, with a forest of evergreen trees and a dark tower in the background The cover of Snow, featuring a blurry image of a people walking through a blanket of snow, with a building in the background The cover of Simplicity, featuring an illustration of a young man falling upside down as a set of flowering vines encircle his arms and creep up one leg. Above, a pair of hands reaches towards him
December 1, 2025 at 12:56 PM
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A November well spent! My personal favorites were Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (cozy mystery with great humor) and Our History is the Future (eye-opening non-fiction about Indigenous resistance against settler colonialism in the US)

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A graphic showing the covers of 9 books read in November, including Dreaming in Indian, There but for the, James, Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, The Strength of the Few, Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man, Our History is the Future, Replay, and The Round House
November 30, 2025 at 6:56 PM
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This book was emotionally challenging, so much so in the middle portion that I almost couldn't bear to continue reading. I'm glad I did. I learned so much, and I feel as though I see the world a bit more clearly now

Highly recommended for anyone whose education had the same gaps in it as mine

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The cover of Our History is the Future by Nick Estes, featuring three people on horseback, two with a hand raised
November 27, 2025 at 3:28 AM
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I'm excited to read The Strength of the Few, but I haven't yet... because it was just published today. How was it nominated for an award that claims to be "readers' favorite"?
A screenshot of the Goodreads Choice Awards, with text reading "Readers' Favorite Books of 2025". The Strength of the Few is highlighted as a nominee on my Goodreads shelves
November 11, 2025 at 1:19 PM
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If I get through these with enough time to spare, I'll likely read The Round House by Louise Erdrich as well
Th cover of The Round House, showing flat reddish scraps or pieces of something arranged in a circle around the wording
November 1, 2025 at 1:39 PM
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November TBR:

- Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance by Nick Estes
- James by Percival Everett
- The Strength of the Few by James Islington
- Replay: Memoir of an Uprooted Family by Jordan Mechner

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The cover of Our History is the Future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance, featuring a sepia-toned image of people on horseback, two with one hand raised The cover of James, with the title in large golden orange letters on a black background. In the curve of the J is an illustration of a runaway carrying a bindle The cover of The Strength of the Few, showing floating scraps of paper or cloth shaped like birds with pointed sticks poking out like beaks. Below, a pair of people in long white robes walk across a desert towards a large black pyramid looming in the distance. The cover of Replay: Memoir of an Uprooted Family, with illustrations split into three vertical sections. On top, a man dressed like a soldier stands waiting for an approaching steam train. In the middle, a group of people sit in a train compartment, outside of which is a man wearing a long coat with a red armband. At the bottom, a boy walks away from a modern train holding what appears to be a large computer with a man at his side.
November 1, 2025 at 1:39 PM
shannonfallon.com
I made an effort to reduce screen time this month

Most of these were good, but standout novels include Happiness Falls, Davita's Harp, Several People are Typing, When Stars are Scattered, and Maskerade. I'd also recommend The Ace and Aro Relationship Guide (nonfiction) if it's relevant to you!

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A graphic showing October 2025 reads, with eleven books pictured: Beasts of Carnaval, Several People are Typing, Maskerade, Elena Knows, Happiness Falls, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, An Unkindness of Magicians, Davita's Harp, When Stars are Scattered, The Turn of the Screw, and The Ace and Aro Relationship Guide
October 31, 2025 at 1:01 PM
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One of the many wonders of libraries: sometimes you put a book on hold and have no idea you're about to enjoy a beautiful collector's edition!

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The first page of The Turn of the Screw, featuring a full page illustration of a tree lined path with dark clouds and fog opposite a page with a decorated title and the opening paragraph
October 23, 2025 at 2:46 PM
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It's so adorable when the bee from the NY Times Spelling Bee gets little hats! 💗
An illustrated bee flying a path through a honeycomb-like collection of letters. The bee is wearing a little witch's hat
October 17, 2025 at 12:51 PM
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I'm way late to the party when it comes to reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but the way this paragraph made me do a double take 😆

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Part of a book page with text: "I had been to school most of the time and could spell and read and write just a little, and could say the multiplication table up to six times seven is thirty-five"
October 10, 2025 at 12:56 AM
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I'm keeping my reading schedule more open than usual for October. I'll probably read more than this, but I'm not sure what yet!

- Beasts of Carnaval by Rosália Rodrigo
- Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

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The cover of Beasts of Carnaval by Rosália Rodrigo, featuring a green-headed monster with pointed teeth and blank eyes like a mask, surrounded by flowering greenery with nesting birds in the branches and a trail of roots beneath The cover of Happiness Falls, featuring an illustration of a house with people silhouetted in the window and a moon outside, but the illustration appears to be printed on a canvas that spirals from the bottom of the cover to the top
October 1, 2025 at 12:12 AM
shannonfallon.com
Unfortunately DNFed Inés of My Soul this month, but the books I finished were all good!

Retrospective was a fascinating sort of fictionalized memoir, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep was a fun take on book characters coming to life, and The Will of the Many leaves me waiting for the sequel!

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An image of three book covers: Retrospective by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H. G. Parry, and The Will of the Many by James Islington
October 1, 2025 at 12:11 AM
shannonfallon.com
New book arrived! Can't wait to start reading it

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A copy of Beasts of Carnaval by Rosália Rodrigo, featuring a green-headed beast with pointed teeth and blank eyes like a mask, surrounded by flowering greenery with nesting birds in the branches and a trail of roots beneath
September 24, 2025 at 10:35 PM
shannonfallon.com
Bookshop.org is having a sale for Latine Heritage Month! If you want to get 20% off while also using my affiliate link below, I'll earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

These are the adult fiction titles on sale (more links in thread): bookshop.org/lists/adult-...
Text reads "Join us in celebrating Latine Heritage Month - more than 100 titles are 20% off with discount code LHM25". Graphic shows a stack of books including The House on Mango Street, Of Women and Salt, Olga Dies Dreaming, In the Dream House, Sabrina & Corina, The Undocumented Americans, and Solito.
September 15, 2025 at 2:11 PM
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September TBR with two books for Hispanic Heritage Month (I'm starting the reading early 😆)

- Retrospective by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
- The Everything War by Dana Mattioli
- Inés of My Soul by Isabel Allende
- The Will of the Many by James Islington

Details on each in the thread below

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The cover of Retrospective, showing a line of matches, with a completely blackened and burned-out match on top, while each one below it is slightly less burned out until the bottom one is brand new The cover of Retrospective, showing a line of matches, with a completely blackened and burned-out match on top, while each one below it is slightly less burned out until the bottom one is brand new The cover of The Everything War: Amazon's Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power, featuring with and orange lettering, with the "a" of war as the end of an arrow reminiscent of the one in the Amazon logo, but pointing upward with cracks in it The cover of Inés of My Soul, featuring a black and white portrait of a woman looking down, superimposed over a black and white landscape with mountains and a body of water The cover of The Will of the Many, showing four decorative columns broken in the middle with the pieces floating in midair
September 1, 2025 at 1:42 PM
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"Uncle Felipe had contracted the virus of exile, the compulsion to move all over the place because life had forbidden him from staying in his own land."
- Retrospective by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

#SundaySentence
The cover of Retrospective, showing a line of matches, with a completely blackened and burned-out match on top, while each one below it is slightly less burned out until the bottom one is brand new
August 31, 2025 at 11:09 PM
shannonfallon.com
This wrap-up is a perfect example of how page count can be more important than book count, but also paradoxically how page count isn't always representative of effort.

When you have both an 800-page classic and a graphic novel listed, it really highlights that any metric for reading is flawed

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A graphic showing 4 books read, 1752 pages. Book covers depicted include The Brothers Karamazov, March Book 3, and Sheine Lende
August 31, 2025 at 1:40 PM
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I've been slowly chipping away at my physical TBR, which is now down to just nine books! Not bad!

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A shelf of books, including hardcover nonfiction and graphic novels as well as paperbacks of classics and literary fiction. Some are new and others worn and yellowed secondhand copies.
August 28, 2025 at 12:42 PM
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183 pages into Sheine Lende, I found out someone left a note inside!
A note card that says "Have an amazing day!" with a smiley face, propped up inside a book laid sideways
August 26, 2025 at 1:34 PM
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Picked up a new book from the library yesterday because I sped through what I'd planned for the month and wanted an extra treat. Didn't realize it would win a Lodestar Award that very evening!

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The cover of Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger, featuring a young woman in overalls and a backpack looking back at a herd of ghostly mammoths as she walks
August 18, 2025 at 2:18 AM
shannonfallon.com
Started reading Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey just now. Before I even got to the preface, I turned to the page below and had to smile. I am reading this while lounging in bed! 😆

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A book page with text: "I hope you are reading this while laying down!"
August 17, 2025 at 1:05 AM
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"memories may persist, as every one knows, from an even earlier age, even from two years old, but scarcely standing out through a whole lifetime like spots of light out of darkness, like a corner torn out of a huge picture, which has all faded and disappeared except that fragment"

#SundaySentence
The cover of The Brothers Karamazov, featuring three men in dark suits. All their faces are partially cut off along the edges of the frame
August 3, 2025 at 3:21 PM
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This month, I'll mainly be reading The Brothers Karamazov. I have a book club discussion on it at the end of the month, so I'm hoping to get through all 800 pages by then!

But I also expect I'll have some days where I want to take a break, so I'm adding a couple graphic novels to the monthly tbr
The cover of The Brothers Karamazov, showing three bearded men in dark suits. Two are visible only from the nose down, while a third is visible only on his left side The cover of March Book 3, showing a line of people three across marching down a street, while photographers point cameras at them and a formation of police officers advance with helmets and batons wielded threateningly The cover of Run, showing a black man in a suit and tie walking forward, while two black women following holding signs about their right to vote. In the background, people depicted in black and white run or stand in a group shouting with their own signs aloft
August 1, 2025 at 12:13 PM
shannonfallon.com
I mixed things up and read a variety of books this month

The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years was my favorite of the novels, while both Against Technoableism and How to Write Black Characters were very informative and worthwhile!

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Covers of books read in July, including The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew, When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi, The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov, and How to Write Black Characters: An Incomplete Guide from Salt & Sage Books
August 1, 2025 at 12:01 AM