Deanna's World: Around the World 175 Times with Gill the Literary Nomad

I’ve always said that reading is my ultimate escape, but y’all, I think Reader Gill might have actually figured out how to fold time and space. I was looking over her 2025 reading logs (she sends them to me every month, for which I am very grateful) and I was very suitably impressed. 175 books in a single year!

Can we just pause for a second and acknowledge that she basically lived 175 different lives while the rest of us were just trying to remember where we parked the car? It’s not just the number that gets me, it’s the length and breath of everywhere she went.

She didn’t just read; she traveled, and I mean really traveled, through every climate, every era, and even a few different galaxies. I’ve put together a bit of a "flight log" of her year because, honestly, it’s too cool not to share.

The Global Footprint and Geographic Empathy

Oh wow, if you love the chilly, dark vibes of Nordic Noir, Gill’s passport is basically a dream come true. She spent a massive chunk of her year in Iceland (fun fact, my best friend lives in Iceland) and Sweden, and I am obsessed with the intensity of those locations. In Yrsa Sigurðardóttir's The Wake, she wasn't just solving a mystery; she was trapped in the Westman Islands, feeling that creeping dread when university secrets you’ve buried for decades start clawing their way back to the surface.

Then she hopped over to Sweden with Johana Gustawsson's Scars of Silence, and let me tell you, the "wind of vengeance" blowing through that story is visceral. She lived through the heavy, suffocating cost of silence kept for 25 years, proving that some secrets have a way of poisoning the very air we breathe. It’s the kind of reading that makes you want to wrap yourself in a blanket even if it’s 90° outside—that’s 32° for those of us in Celsius-land.

But then, can you believe it? She flew straight from the frozen North to the heat of the African savanna in Toni Anderson's Cold Truth. She was right there in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, feeling the strength and vulnerability of a connection forged while literally hunting for the truth in the middle of a high-stakes international crime. I can’t wait to visit there too since those of you who have followed me for a while will know that I’m obsessed with Eric G Dove’s voice when he narrates Toni Anderson’s books.

I also noticed she spent a lot of time in the rugged American West, specifically New Mexico and Colorado, with Allison Brennan’s See How They Hide. The landscape in that book feels like a predator itself, and I love how Gill just dives into those high-stakes investigations where the terrain is just as dangerous as the villain.

She even made it to the Maldives for a "bonus epilogue" with Anna Hackett! From the icy fjords to the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean, she’s seen it all. And maybe one day, I can have a holiday in the Maldives, but right now, it’s a lot out of my budget. This kind of grounded authority doesn't come from a textbook; it comes from having narrative memories of the smells, the heat, and the cultures of places most of us will only ever see on a map.

The Chronological Compass and Temporal Intelligence

Now, this is where it gets really trippy—she didn’t just travel across the map; she traveled through time! In August, she anchored herself way back in 1350 with Dan Jones's Lion Hearts. I could almost smell the tavern and feel the weight of a scarred veteran’s PTSD while she navigated the aftermath of the Black Death in 14th-century France.

I don’t think I’d want to live through the Black Death, but maybe if I could view it through the safety and distance of a very secure bubble? Maybe. I’m a wuss. But it makes our modern problems look a bit different when you've shared a "worm's eye view" of the Hundred Years' War, doesn't it?

Then, she’d blip forward to a future where machines have more "heart" than their creators. In Michael Cheney’s Confessions of a Trash Droid series, she fought alongside a sarcastic, glitchy droid named T.E.D.D., which is just so dang cool and probably the best way to look at corporate greed through a darkly comic lens. A friend recently recommended the Trash Droid series to me, so I took notice that Gill read it too. I loved the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells, so she thought I’d enjoy the Trash Droid.

She even trekked through a post-apocalyptic Australia in Anna Hackett's North, hunting mutated monsters while grappling with the haunting memory of those she couldn't save. It’s that visceral survival story that makes you wonder what parts of your own soul you’d keep if the world just... vanished. Moving from the 1300s to a dystopian wasteland gives her a perspective on the human condition that is honestly absolute magic.

The In Death Residency and Narrative Expertise

Okay, we have to talk about the marathon of all marathons: the In Death residency. From May to September, Gill essentially moved into Eve Dallas’s New York and stayed there for over 60 cases! Can you even imagine? She started with the classic Naked in Death (it’s a fabulous book and I’ve reread it a couple of times!) and just kept rolling all the way through Bonded in Death and beyond.

By the time she was done, she wasn't just a reader; she was basically a precinct regular. She lived through the "least admirable aspects" of 2060s society, from high-society political conspiracies to the gritty reality of police work. It’s a specialized kind of expertise that you only get when you spend hundreds of hours watching a character like Eve Dallas use "ice-cold calculation" to find justice for those who can't speak for themselves.

I’m a total sucker for the way these books build a world that feels lived-in. In Survivor in Death, Gill felt the gut-wrenching need to protect a nine-year-old witness, a mission that forces Eve to face her own darkest childhood memories. It’s that emotional tension and the pay-off that gets me every single time—I mean, who doesn't love a character who fights that hard for an innocent?

Then in Promises in Death, the stakes got even more personal with the murder of a fellow officer. You feel the grief and the camaraderie of the squad as they sharpen their resolve for one of their own. It’s more than just a mystery at that point; it’s about the "friendships built on trust" that keep us all sane when the world gets dark.

I also love how she included the novellas like Missing in Death and Holiday in Death. It proves that even in the short stints, the procedural weight and the heart of the series never waver. She followed the evolution of Eve’s marriage to Roarke, which, let’s be honest, is one of the best "guilty pleasures" in fiction. Tell me, who hasn’t sighed over how delicious Roarke is? #HeroGoals

By the end of those five months, Gill didn’t just know the cases; she knew the people. She understood that regardless of the year, the "real game" is always the same: finding connection and truth in the chaos. It’s a masterclass in criminal psychology and human resilience that turned her into a true "expert amateur" crime-solver! I bet if I threw a crime at her, she’d be able to solve it!!

The Altitude Record and the Overview Effect

Finally, we have to talk about her frequent flyer miles in deep space—because apparently, the Earth wasn't big enough for her! Reading Samantha Harvey’s Orbital provided that literal "overview effect," where you see our "borderless and interlinked" blue planet from the ISS. It’s a story of six astronauts who are so together and yet so alone, while raw space stalks them like a feral panther outside the glass.

But then things got really fun when she engaged with intergalactic dating agencies! In Regine Abel's I Married a Catman and I Married Amreth, she explored the souls behind intimidating, villainized alien races. Finding the "sweet and cuddly" male hiding behind a stern mountain of muscle is just... well, it’s magic, and it requires a lot of conversational sophistication to empathize with a character who isn't even human.

It really is, and I confess I struggle to get into these books (I know they are popular!) because of the visuals of what the heroes look like. I’m sorry, but yes, sometimes I’m that shallow and I’m judging a book by its cover. C’mon ‘fess up! I can’t be the only one who does it.

She even faced the logistical nightmare of building a new society on the Red Planet in Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Martian Contingency. It forces you to think about how we preserve human culture without importing all our human hate to a new world. Dealing with "changed power dynamics" on a frontier where every resource is life-or-death really puts your own morning commute into perspective! I’ve heard good things about this book. Hmm… maybe I need to check it out?

Whether it was the "military precision" of a base in Michael Mammay’s Colonyside or the deadly intergalactic flu in Veronica Scott's Tamsyn, Gill just kept pushing her comfort zones. This altitude record proves that the best stories are the ones that take us the furthest away from ourselves. By the time she "returned" to Earth, her worldview was expanded in a way that is so incredibly cool.

Just a Tiny Taste of the Journey

Believe me when I say this is just the tip of the iceberg because we haven't even touched on the other 140-something books Gill devoured. She spent a massive amount of time in North America, trekking through 35+ different states from the snowy peaks of Wyoming in Rachel Lee’s Conard County Secrets to the spicy streets of Louisiana with Rebecca York’s Soulmated series. Her passport stamps for the UK and Europe are just as impressive, featuring the clever historical mysteries of KJ Charles in All of Us Murderers and the high-stakes intelligence world of Stella Rimington’s Liz Carlyle series in London.

It’s honestly mind-blowing when you look at the raw data of her travels. Beyond the usual suspects, she explored the environmental extremes of Antarctica in Eve Langlais’s The Legend of Scorpio and the high-conflict history of Iraq and Afghanistan. She even made it to the Global South, visiting Chile and the Congo through the intense, paranormal world of Christine Feehan’s GhostWalkers.

Whether she was navigating the wedding drama of Toronto with Jackie Lau in Two Friends in Marriage or the rugged Alberta ranch life in Vivian Arend’s Heart Falls series, Gill’s year was a masterclass in global citizenship. It’s a lot to process, but that’s the beauty of being a literary nomad—there is always one more horizon to chase. I’m just grateful I get a front-row seat to her itinerary every month!

Read to build a passport, not just a pile. What’s your next reading travel destination?

Let's Chat!

So, what about you? Does any of this delightful chaos sound familiar? Where was the most surprising place a book took you this year, and did it change how you look at the world when you finally closed the cover? I’d love to hear about the "stamps" in your own literary passport in the comments below!

If you find yourself wishing you could be part of that chaotic, wonderful process of bringing these kinds of journeys to life, there are a couple of ways you can jump in. If you love being part of that initial "cheer squad"—the ones who get that "WOW!" reaction first—then the Deanna's World Advance Readers (ARC) Team would be a perfect fit for you.

And if you have those eagle eyes that can spot a "sandal" when it’s meant to be a "scandal" (and let’s be honest, we all need that!), then my volunteer typo hunter team could use your skills. You can send me an email to find out more about it.

This whole 175-book saga is just a reminder that the best stories are the ones we share. For more of these behind-the-scenes shenanigans and my longer articles, the best way to stay in the loop is to sign up for my newsletter on Substack. I can't wait to see where we all travel next year! I’m available via email, or on Facebook too if you would like to chat more.