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I'll write about the Dark Tower books at the end...

To answer my question, I keep track on Goodreads and in a spreadsheet with movies and series I watch too. Not sure why, but it keeps me entertained.

The B-List

The Music of the Sphere (B+): A friendship develops between two guys paired together randomly for a high school assignment, then things get crazy when they go to college and realise that it’s more than friendship feelings.

The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman (B+): The final book in the Practical Magic series. They could easily make this a direct sequel to the movie, and it was a great ending, although a bit sad because I sorta wanted their aunts to live forever.

Gay Club by Simon James Green (B+): It’s like Tom Perrota’s Election meets a British high school LGBTQ+ association. The protagonist is certain he’ll win the small group’s election for president, but his rival gets the election to open up to the entire school. Both are shocked when a straight guy wins the election.

The Tie that Binds by Kent Haruf (B+). When the 81 year old neighbour is hospitalized and accused of murder, the protagonist tells the story of her life and how she got there. It’s like a cross between John Irving and Ivan Doig. I’ve already read 3 of Haruf’s books before this, and apparently he only had six before passing away in 2015 or 2016.

Miss Merkel: El caso de la cancieler jubilada by David Safier (B+). Safier is a comic German writer whose books I haven’t seen translated into English yet, at least in the US. This one turns the retired Angela Merkel into a Agatha Christie style detective. Fun snarky humourous political comments throughout as she tries to solve the murder. Apparently there’s a sequel!

You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky (B). I read the first and last of this “trilogy” (no recurring characters) in December, but this didn’t get returned to the library until way after the due date, and was Christmas themed…ah well. It was still a fun story about a spoiled rich brat who is sent to his grandparents for Christmas. Of course the small town loves Christmas, and he clashes with the handyman renting a room at his grandparents, and typical Hallmark movie fluff.

Two Steps Onward by Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist (B-). I preferred Two Steps Forward as it was about the Camino de Santiago. This one was an unnecessary and contrived sequel about a pilgrimage to Rome. The magic was completely gone.

The C-List:
The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop by Fannie Flagg (C+): Talking about unnecessary sequels. I don’t think Flagg’s heart was in it as much as her publishes probably pushed her to do a sequel (which I loved Fried Green Tomatoes at Whistle Stop or whatever the first one was called). It spends 100 pages FFing to the present day, when a son decides to escape the senior living place and go back to Whistle Stop which no longer exists.

My Fair Brady by Brian D. Kennedy (C). Another YA gay male romance…that ripped off the plot of She’s All That and My Fair Lady…with a neurodivergent coded character deciding to completely change who he is to be popular, and being taken advantage of, and being published in 2024…it did not sit well with me at all. The writing was good, but the whole plot was cringe.

The Dark Tower 3, 4, 4.5, 5 by Stephen King:

The Wastelands (B+). My fave of the series so far. It was just fun, fast paced, and left off with a great cliffhanger that King annoyed everyone with by not writing the fourth one for six years!

Wizard and Glass (C-): Followed by my least fave. I’d give it an F if it weren’t for the first 130 pages and last 60 pages. The 500 pages in between were worse than Fairy Tale and Dreamcatcher…yet the first 130 pages were awesome with the riddles for Blaine and then the tie in to The Stand, one of my faves. It ended with a random Wizard of Oz homage. But the 500 page flashback about characters I didn’t care about did nothing for me.

The Wind Through the Keyhole (C). Speaking of flashbacks about characters I didn’t care about…King published this one in 2012 but it was meant to take place between the fourth and fifth. As the 4th was one of the most tedious books I’ve ever read, I wanted to get it out of the way so I read it before the 5th…and it was just basically Roland telling a tale about someone else telling a tale.

Wolves of the Calla (B): I’m just not a fan of Westerns nor fantasy, but this one had enough going on to distract me, at least. And I did like Salem’s Lot. And then a character existing as a character here but then as a fictional character in a book written by Stephen King…well, it makes sense the way King tells it!