Tag: ReadHarder

December 2019: Reading Wrap Up

~ EMM ~ 3 Comments

Happy New Year, everyone! It’s time for me to do all of those fun end of year wrap up blog posts, starting with what I read in December, what books I hauled in to read, and what I plan to read first in January. Ready? Let’s do this!

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Let’s start with what I finished for the Winter Magical Readathon. If you’ve been following along with my blog posts, you are probably already familiar with the books I selected for the various reading prompts. I’m all read up through Chapter 4. The ones that have stuck with me the most are The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern and Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh.

I was really worried that I was going to be disappointed by The Starless Sea, but I think I liked it even more than I liked The Night Circus. It seems to be getting mixed reviews from folks, but I loved the story within a story structure of the book. I love her descriptions. A lot of times descriptions can bore me or take me out of a story, but hers always have a way of making me feel even more immersed in the story. The world-building was unique, and I loved the characters.

Saga vol. 2 reminded me how much I love that series and need to finish it. There There ended up being a page turner while still being a very literary novel and a great read (of course it was, given where it ranked on the Powell’s staff top five lists last year). The only two I was disappointed with were Fantastic Beasts and Jean Grey vol 1. I’m curious to watch the Fantastic Beasts movies now that I’ve read the book and realized that it’s basically an encyclopedia of creatures and there isn’t much of a story. I probably won’t be continuing with the Jean Grey series.

Besides my reading for the Winter Magical Readathon prompts, I did finish two other books: The Barefoot Bandit by Bob Friel and A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole. The later is the last book in her Reluctant Royals series, and it’s just as good as all the others in the series. I think book two (A Duke by Default) is still my favorite, but this one is a close second.

I read The Barefoot Bandit for the “read a book of nonviolent true crime” task in the Read Harder Challenge. I chose that book for this task because a good portion of the story takes place on the island where I live, and the author also lives on this island. It was a very entertaining read, and I definitely recommend checking it out if the description sounds interesting to you.

In the end, I didn’t finish all the Read Harder Challenge tasks before the end of the year. But… I think I got closer than I ever have before. I finished 21 of the 24 tasks. This challenge (like the readathons I participated in) definitely helped me read through some of the books I’ve been meaning to read for a while. Still, I don’t think I’m going to attempt it again in 2020.

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Most of my book haul this month are ebooks that I got off hold from the library, but I did buy one book, A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. I really like political space operas, and it sounds like this is going to be a good one.

I’ve been comparing bookish subscription boxes for months, mostly via unboxing videos on YouTube. I’ve been trying to decide on one that will have just the right mix of usable bookish swag with a book that I’m actually interested in reading. Based on the videos I’ve watched of previous boxes, I decided to go with Fairy Loot. My first month’s box came with a mix of really cool stuff and stuff I’m not likely to use. But, I had a pretty good idea what the book was going to be, and I was right. It was A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy, and it’s one that I wanted to read anyway, so I’m glad I got it. Depending on what this month’s box contains, I may not continue with this experiment, but I wanted to give it a try as a holiday present to my self.

As for actual presents, my mom bought me a bunch of books off my wishlist. I got Spaceside by Michael Mammay, The Alehouse at the End of the World by Stevan Allred, The Magnolia Sword by Sherry Thomas, and The Warrior Moon by K. Arsenault Rivera.

Currently Reading

Since I’m still not done with the Winter Magical Readathon prompts, the first order of business for January is to read the last three books I planned to read for that readathon: The Reluctant Queen, The Art of Theft, and The Right Swipe. Luckily, they all fit really well with my reading goals for 2020. More on that in a future blog post.

While I work on that post, tell me what is going to be the first book you’re reading in 2020? Let me know in the comments.

November 2019: Reading Wrap Up

~ EMM

I managed to finish six books while also writing over 50k words for NaNoWriMo in November. Before you get too excited, I should point out that three of those books were already in-progress before November started and one of the remaining three was actually a novella. Still, that’s a lot of reading during a very busy month.

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I started off the month by (finally) finishing Dread Nation by Justina Ireland. So, here’s the thing… I don’t like zombies, and I don’t like alternate history. I read this for the Read Harder Challenge. I also read it because a lot of people whose bookish opinions I trust really liked this book and said specifically that it wasn’t really a “zombie” book. So I made this my pick for the alternate history task. I’m glad I did. It’s objectively a good book, it’s just not my jam. If you like Westworld (the TV show) and alternate history, you might really love this book. I just realized that I also burned out early on Westworld. So yeah. Reading Harder accomplished. Moving on.

Next up, or possibly while I was still trying to finish Dread Nation, I started listening to Educated by Tara Westover on audiobook. This book has had no end of hype, and I feel like I’m arriving pretty late to the party when I say, Wow. This was a page-turner of a memoir, folks. I keep saying I don’t like memoir, but some of the stand-out books I’ve read this year (topic for a future post) have all been memoir like this one with lots of meaty chewy bits to stew on. (Mixed food metaphor much?) I’ll also say that the audiobook was a good choice for this one.

I picked up Witchmark by C. L. Polk immediately after (finally) finishing Dread Nation. It sucked me right in with the atmosphere and the world-building and the hints of mystery, not to mention the slow-burn romance. I’d been wanting to read this for a while and finally picked it up because my “Camp Book Club” crew decided to read it as our book club pick for November. Unfortunately, due to life drama combined with NaNoWriMo, I didn’t finish it in time for our meeting. I did finish it about a week later. I think the plot got a little convoluted and rushed at the end, but I still really enjoyed the characters and world. I think the problem was that this book is part secondary world fantasy, part romance, and part mystery. The problem is, that’s a lot for one novel (especially a first novel) and I don’t think the mystery part was as well done as the other bits.

After that, I read This is How You Lose the Time War by by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. I hadn’t realized this was a novella until I looked at the page count. I had a different book picked out for the “Read an Epistolary Novel” task in the Read Harder Challenge, but I decided to read this instead because I’ve been hearing a lot about it. I’m glad I did. The writing in this book is so good. At one point I was listening to it on audiobook and then going back to re-read sections in the hardcover I bought because there’s just so much going on with the language and the plot and the way the story is interwoven. I think I was most impressed by the fact that the language and the structure reinforce the time travel premise and this story about messages that forge a relationship between two individuals on opposite sides of a time war. I don’t want to give too much away, but I haven’t been this impressed by form matching substance in a story since Cloud Atlas.

I mentioned in a previous post about how I wanted to try to finish this book of short stories that I started earlier in the year but keep forgetting to read. Meet Cute is a YA short story anthology with contributions from a lot of really popular YA authors. Every story is the origin story for a couple. Many of the characters are LGBTQ and/or not white. Almost all of the stories are contemporary. There’s one (the one by Dhonielle Clayton) that has a speculative bent to it involving magical true love tattoos and a bit of seeing into potential futures. The one by Kass Morgan could probably be categorized as near-future sci-fi, but it takes place on Earth. The stories are all good. I’m still trying to decide which one was my favorite. I really liked “Print Shop” by Nina LaCour, “Oomph” by Emery Lourd, “The Unlikely Likelihood of Falling in Love” by Jocelyn Davies, and “Somewhere That’s Green” by Meredith Russo. That’s nearly half of them, so I’m not doing a great job narrowing this down, am I? Bottom line, if you want warm and fuzzy YA contemp (plus a little Spec Fic thrown in for funzies) by diverse authors with good representation, get your hands on this anthology.

Finally (and really, it feels like I’ve been listening to this book forever), I finished The Future of Humanity by Michio Kaku. I started listening to this audiobook back in April on a road trip to Utah. I think I gave up because the narrator kept putting me to sleep. Eventually, I came back to it (in October? or earlier? I can’t remember…). Turns out this is much better listened to on walks or while doing the dishes. Still, it took me forever to get through it. I’ve had to renew it from the library way too many times to count. Luckily, no one else seems to want to listen to this audiobook. I get it. I think the audience must be almost exclusively sci-fi writers. It’s not going to make you a scientist or an expert on colonizing Mars or living forever, but I do think it’s a pretty great overview. I bought the paperback so I can use it as reference, but I don’t think I would have ever finished it if I’d tried to read it instead of listening. As dry as the narration is, it’s still better than reading the material, I think.

Before I get to my “Inbox” summary for the month, here’s an update on where I’m at with that Read Harder Challenge…

Read Harder Challenge Status: 20 finished and 4 to go…

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My most expensive book purchase this month…

I purchased a hardcover edition of This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Not only did I purchase it in hardcover, but I bought it new from my local independent bookstore. That was a lot to spend on a book that’s only about 200 pages long. But, I didn’t want to wait for my library hold, and I wanted to support my local bookstore. I was going to give it as a gift when I finished it, but I like it enough that I think I may just keep it.

My most eagerly awaited book of 2019…

I’d intended to order a signed hardcover of The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, but I waited too long and they sold out. Then I couldn’t decide if I wanted a copy in hardcover or on Kindle. I have The Night Circus in hardcover because it’s one of my favorite books, but I bought it after I’d read it on Kindle. So, I decide to read this one first and see how much I like it before I buy a copy for my shelf. Luckily, I’d already put the ebook and the hardcover on hold at my library, so I don’t have to wait to read it. I had just started my borrowed copy last night, then the hardcover arrived today as an early Christmas present from my mom! Thanks, Mom!

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What’s on my TBR for December…

My December TBR is a little daunting. I have four books I need to read in order to complete the Read Harder Challenge, but three of those are non-fiction (The Barefoot Bandit, Guantánamo Diary, and The Middle Kingdom). The fourth one is the third book in a series I’ve been meaning to finish for several years now (Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante). I am pretty sure that I’ll finish at least two of these four. I really want to finish the challenge this year because I’m so close, but I’m not sure if I’m going to have time for all these books.

Other than that, I’m planning to read The Starless Sea for book club this month. I also want to read it now before I start hearing more about it and get psyched out by the hype (and/or spoiled). I’ve already started reading this, but it’s really long. Choosing to prioritize this may mean having to give up on finishing my Read Harder Challenge.

And finally, because I had that goal about reading the books I purchase this year within at least six months of buying them, I really should read A Prince on Paper before the end of the month. This one is going to be a fast and fun book that I’m very much looking forward to reading. I think I’m going to use it to keep me from going crazy with all those dry non-fiction books.

Somewhere in here, I’m planning on trying to keep up with the Winter Magical Readathon. I’m really hoping that I can use some of these books to meet those reading prompts. We shall see…

Stay tuned to find out how I finish the year and get all my 2019 reading stats. The most books I’ve read in one year up to this point was in 2015, when I read a total of 76 books (<– link goes to my Goodreads shelf that shows what I read that year). So far, I’ve read a total of 73 books this year. 2019 may be my biggest reading year since I started tracking this stuff. Wow.

October 2019: Reading Wrap Up

~ EMM ~ 1 Comment

I read some really good sci-fi and some great sci-fantasy in October. Plus I grabbed another great batch of books from the library. Not that I’m going to be doing much reading in November due to NaNoWriMo. Which is a bummer because (as I mentioned in my previous post) I have way too many books on my end of year TBR.

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What I read in October.

I started the month with my re-read of The Rowan by Anne McCaffrey. Whenever I mention her as one of my early favorite sci-fi / fantasy authors, most people chime in “oh yeah, the Dragonriders books!” But, I never read those until much MUCH later, and then I stopped after the first three because I just didn’t like them as much as her other stuff. This series (really starting with the Pegasus prequels) were what got me initially hooked on her stories. Because of that, I’ve been a bit nervous to re-read The Rowan in case it didn’t hold up, but I enjoyed it as much on this re-read as I did when I first read it as a young teen. The writing and story-telling style (language, narrative structure, etc.) is definitely dated compared to modern sci. But the story and the characters and the world-building are all still just as awesome as I remembered.

Somewhere in there I also read Polaris Rising. It ended up being an interesting contrast to The Rowan because they’re both sci-fi romance with talented and tough heroines near the top of an established power structure. They are both dealing with political plots and ultimately fall in love with Alpha male heroes. The difference is they’re two totally different styles of story-telling. The Rowan starts when the main character is a baby and advances in about two major time leaps until she’s probably about the same age as the main character in Polaris Rising. These days, that kind of character development would happen in backstory reflections scattered throughout the story when and where they become relevant to the plot. The Rowan is also “quieter” in that (aside from the inciting incident) the main character is never in any real physical danger throughout the story. On the other hand, Polaris Rising takes place over a handful of days or maybe weeks and is much more action-packed with lots of escapes and combat and danger. While I liked Polaris Rising, and I cringed a bit at the old-school writing style of The Rowan, I still like The Rowan more. Even now, as I type this, I can’t quite put my finger on why.

Continuing with the sci-fi trend, I listened to Emergency Skin while on a walk. It’s a quick read (or listen). Normally, I don’t like polemics dressed as sci-fi, and could definitely be considered as one since it’s pretty heavy on the “message.” But, it’s short, and I really enjoyed the story structure and the humor. I highly recommend checking it out, especially if you have Amazon Prime, because both the audio and the ebook are free with Prime.

Another short audio “read” that I really enjoyed was Wolfpack by Abby Wambach. I heard about this book on Smart Podcast Trashy Books where Sarah recommended it as an inspiring read about owning your ambition and your strength and surrounding yourself with other ambitious, strong women. So, yeah. I was in. Especially when I heard that the audiobook was about the same length as a podcast and figured out that it was available to borrow at my library. As expected, it’s great. Very inspiring. I highly recommend you check it out.

As much as I enjoyed those short reads, the book that really took me by surprise this month, the one that gave me a new favorite author (or author pair), was Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews (a husband and wife writing team). I was expecting this to be a cute paranormal romance with a witch heroine and werewolf hero. Since I like but don’t love what I think of as “standard paranormal characters,” I was expecting to enjoy this but not love it. Holy wow was I wrong. The world-building in this book! Oh my. This isn’t fantasy, people. This is sci-fantasy and it’s amazing. The reimagined backstory for what I consider to be standard paranormal creatures got a solid boost from sci-fi that made this a whole new world that I instantly fell in love with. So, yeah. New favorite. Immediately reserved the rest of the series at the library. Though, I found out that this was initially released as a serial novel, and I think it’s maybe their only indie-published series. I’m not sure what that means for their other series, but I’m excited to check them out and see if I like them as much as I like this book.

Finally, I read book two in Scalzi’s Interdependency series, The Consuming Fire. I had a really hard time getting into this book. There’s so much “telling” at the beginning. Chapters and chapters of telling. The story doesn’t really get started until almost half-way through. Then it starts to build up to an ending takes a very Godfather-esque turn that I really enjoyed. The end is great. The middle is pretty good. The beginning was super meh. Kiva is still my favorite character. I’m looking forward to seeing how the trilogy (this is a trilogy, right?) ends, but I’m not running out to pre-order book three. I’ll get it from the library. Even with Tor’s stupid library ebook delay policy.

Before I get to my “Inbox” summary for the month, here’s an update on where I’m at with that Read Harder Challenge…

Read Harder Challenge Status: I started two books (Dread Nation and The Barefoot Bandit) but didn’t manage to finish either of them before the end of the month for a variety of reasons. So… I’m now behind schedule. I need to finish six books in two months, and one of those months is NaNoWriMo. It’s cool. I can do this. Everything’s fine. I am still determined to finish the challenge this year. It’s going to happen. If you’re curious about my reading list, you can check out my Goodreads Shelf here.

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What I bought and borrowed.

A large chunk of the books in this haul were ones that I’d reserved at the start of the year because of their position on the Powell’s Staff Top Five books of 2018 lists (Educated, There There, Red Clocks, Heavy, and The Third Hotel). Check out my post on that, if you missed it and want the details on those books.

Another chunk are next books in a series I’ve already started (Five Dark Fates, The Art of Theft, Wrong to Need You).

The last few are books that I’ve heard good to great things about and want to check out (Heart of Iron, The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics, Wanderers, and Phoenix Unbound).

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In-progress and TBR books for November.

I have no reading plan or TBR for November aside from trying to finish the books I already have in-progress (Dread Nation, The Barefoot Bandit, and The Future of Humanity), plus try to finish some more books for the Read Harder Challenge (maybe The Middle Kingdom and Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay…). Oh, and I am reading Witchmark for “Camp Book Club” with my friends L. and S. But other than that, no TBR. (Who am I kidding? That’s totally a TBR.)

And that’s it for October. Now I better get back to my NaNoWriMo writing. Wishing you all a great month and lots of excellent reading!

September 2019: Reading Wrap Up

~ EMM

It’s officially fall here in the Pacific Northwest. I’m bundled up and burning a delicious smelling “Pumpkin Spice” candle as I write this. Even though it’s perfect reading weather, I didn’t finish as many books as I’d hoped to in September, but that’s okay because I’ve already hit my Goodreads goal for the year, and we’re just getting started with the cozy reading season.

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What I read in September:

I started off the month with Dryland by Sara Jaffe, which has been on my “to read” list forever because it features swimming as a sport and takes place in Portland in the 90s. It was available on ebook from my library, so I grabbed it in one of my recent library hauls. I was pleasantly surprised by the accuracy of the swim team stuff. The unique structure of the novel also really worked for me. It’s told in a sort of stream of consciousness journal entry first person account. The big mystery of what happened to the main character’s brother is mostly what kept me turning pages long after I should have gone to sleep. Otherwise this is a kind of quiet and literary YA story about finding your way and exploring your sexual identity.

After that, I did a couple of buddy reads with two of my friends, L. and S. The first of those was Radio Silence by Alyssa Cole. As you may remember from previous posts, I’ve been reading through her Reluctant Royals series (contemporary romance) and loving them. So, I thought it was time for me to finally read the first novel in her dystopian romance series. After all, I’m normally more of a SFF fan. I fully expected the book to be not as good as her other stuff because I’m pretty sure it was her first published book, and authors usually get better with each book. And, I can say this book met my expectations. I liked the book, but didn’t love it. I probably won’t continue with the series. My main complaint is just that it read like YA even though it was supposed to be an adult romance. I kept having to remind myself that the main characters had jobs and were adults, not kids.

Next up, my friends and I read Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. This one was actually YA (sci-fi) and also by authors whose books I’ve read and loved. It also had the added bonus of checking several of my “reader catnip” boxes. Specifically: military academy in space, officers in a space fleet on a mission, forming a squad / found family, and telepathy / telekinesis superpowers. Plus there was the added bonus of space Fae (or space Elves if you’re more of a Lord of the Rings fan). The book was fast paced and super campy. It definitely had a “Breakfast Club in space” vibe. I really enjoyed reading it, I’ll probably pick up the next one when it comes out, but I can’t think too hard about it, or I’ll start to nit-pick world-building and character stuff that annoyed me. Like the “new weird” twist at the end.

The last book I finished this month was actually the first book I started, Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I read this one for the Read Harder Challenge and picked it because I’d read her book Signal to Noise and really enjoyed it. This was a new take on a vampire novel. The world-building is top notch. I love all the types of vampires and how she’s integrated them into this alternate universe version of modern day. It definitely has that “urban fantasy” feel. There’s a romance, but I don’t think I would shelve this under romance because it doesn’t really end with the paired characters together. It’s an optimistic ending, but not exactly an HEA. Anyway, if vampires and/or urban fantasy are your jam, or if you’re looking for something like Trail of Lightning, I highly recommend this book.

Before I get to my “Inbox” summary for the month, here’s an update on where I’m at with that Read Harder Challenge…

Read Harder Challenge Status:

Tasks completed this month:

Total tasks completed: 18

Total tasks remaining: 6

I’m still on track to finish, but no longer ahead of schedule. The next three months are going to be packed, and I have a ton of books I want to read before the end of the year. But, I am determined to finish this challenge for once. I think this is the closest I’ve ever come to achieving that goal. So, I’m going to keep going and try to get at least 2 more tasks checked off in October.

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What I bought & borrowed:

The only one of these that I purchased was David Mogo, Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okungbowa. I was in a critique group with him at Futurescapes and got to hang out with him a bit. He’s super nice, and I love his writing, and I’m really excited to read this book. It’s been labeled as “Nigerian God-punk,” and he’s from Nigeria. So, if that sounds cool to you, grab a copy.

Some of the rest are new books by authors I like (There’s Something About Sweetie, Sorcery of Thorns, and Aurora Rising). A couple are for research (The Great Alone and Her Royal Highness). One is for a Read Harder Challenge Task (Guantánamo Diary). And the remaining two are based off of recommendations from the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books reviewers (A Curious Beginning and Polaris Rising).

I made another “TBR Bingo” tracker for my BuJo to create some additional incentive to finish my Read Harder Challenge and Kindle backlog books. But, as you can see from the list under the “Wild Card” section, I have quite a few sci-fi books that are calling to me at the moment…

We’ll see what happens in October. I think it’s going to be another chill (and chilly) month, but it is also officially “Preptober” and time to get started working on plotting and planning and outlining my NaNoWriMo project for November! So, I have some work to get done in addition to enjoying my “between novels” downtime.

What’s on your reading list for October? Have you read any of the books in my book haul? Let me know what you think in the comments.

August 2019: Reading Wrap Up

~ EMM

So, there are four months left in the year, and I’ve already met my Goodreads Reading Challenge Goal!

I have the N.E.W.T.s Magical Readathon to thank for that. I read TEN books in August. That’s just nuts as far as my usual number of books consumed in a month goes. It would be more understandable if reading was all I did in August, but it wasn’t. I also wrote over 30k words to finish the first draft of book three in my Modern Fae series! Talk about a productive month. Wow.

Are you ready for an epic reading summary? Buckle up, because here we go…

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What I read in August:

Before I could get started on my Readathon goals, I had to finish up reading all the Hugo best novel finalists. Rather than rehash that all in this post, if you want my thoughts on Raven Stratagem, Revenant Gun, and Spinning Silver, check out my previous post where I stack rank the best novel finalists, forecast the winner, and stubbornly choose one of the least popular of the bunch as a favorite.

I also finished reading through Draw Your Day, which I bought hoping it would spark some inspiration for me to add doodling to my journaling. I definitely found it inspiring, but also a little overwhelming. I put it down feeling pretty convinced that I was so not ready for that level of doodling. But then I took Fran Wilde’s Journaling for Creativity class and was reminded that “it’s okay to be messy” in your journal. I’m a perfectionist. This is a hard lesson for me to learn, but I’m working on letting go a bit. It’s a process. Maybe in the future I’ll get brave and post some of my own drawings from the day…

With all my unfinished business out of the way, I moved onto my N.E.W.T.s reading. If you read my N.E.W.T.s TBR blog, then you’ll notice that I made a few switches and substitutions in order to accomplish my tasks. But, I did it! Not only did I achieve the grades I needed to become an official (magical) writer/journalist, I ended up getting higher grades in Muggle Studies and Charms than I needed. So, maybe I can try for a second (side-gig) wizarding career next time the O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s readathons come around.

I started off with the History of Magic prompts.

I’d meant to read Our Dark Duet for the “read a fantasy” prompt, but it’s really long, and I wasn’t feeling like reading it. Plus, when it came time to get started, I realized that I really needed to read The Last Unicorn to check off one of my Read Harder Challenge tasks. I also wanted to pass it on to my brother-in-law and niece. So, I switched things up. I can see why this book is a classic. It wasn’t my favorite, but I enjoyed it, and I feel like it’s probably aged better than some other fantasy books of its era. You never know what you’re going to get when you dive into a beloved classic of the genre.

Next up, I finally started The Queen of Blood. I’ve had this book on my Kindle since March 2017. No joke. I just checked Amazon to be sure. The series is now complete, and I own all three of the books. I liked this first one enough that I’ll definitely be continuing with the rest. So, I suppose it’s a good thing I bought them when they were on sale, huh? I thought this was a great twist on the “magical wood” trope and a great twist on fairies and sprites. If I’d known that this book included a section set in a magical academy, I may have picked it up a lot sooner. Plus the main character wasn’t the standard fantasy assassin character so popular in that era of YA fantasy books. She’s nowhere near the best in the school, but she’s determined, has a strong sense of ethics, and works hard. Definitely my sort of heroine. So, if you’re looking for a YA fantasy with great world-building and actual consequences for going up against the dangerous elements in the world, definitely check out this series.

As much as I wanted to complete the final task in History of Magic (“reread a favorite”), I decided I needed to move on to Muggle Studies if I wanted to finish all the tasks needed for my career.

This is where I made another substitution to my plan. My hold on the audiobook version of Burnout became available, so I needed to figure out if I could use it for any of my tasks. I decided to use it for the “book set in our real world” task. It’s nonfiction, so I think it qualifies. This book was great. If you struggle with managing stress, I definitely recommend checking out this book. I learned so much, and it debunked some harmful myths and conventional thinking about stress that I really needed to hear. So, yeah. Great book. I highly recommend it.

At the same time as I was listening to Burnout on audio, I was reading You’d Be Mine on Kindle. This is a YA contemporary romance set in the country music scene, and it’s just so much fun. It definitely deals with some heavy themes, so check out the content warnings if that might be an issue for you. Otherwise, if you liked the movie Walk the Line and/or A Star is Born, but would have enjoyed a “happily ever after” ending, you should definitely check out this book.

Since I only needed to finish You’d Be Mine in order to get the grade I needed for my wizarding career, I decided to stop there and move on to my last subject, Charms, before time ran out.

  • Charms –> O
    • Read a book that you think has a gorgeous cover <– The Gilded Wolves
    • Read a comic, graphic novel, manga, or book under 150 pages <– Sailor Moon
    • Spongify: softening charm – read a paperback <– Revenant Gun

I basically read these tasks in reverse order because I decided I could use Revenant Gun to fulfill the Spongify task after I moved The Last Unicorn over to “read a fantasy” under History of Magic. I needed Revenant Gun for my Hugos reading, but I knew it wouldn’t count unless I got the other two done as well. Luckily, the manga I chose was a fast read.

I used to watch the Sailor Moon cartoon as a teen. While I really liked the show, I wasn’t a major fan and don’t really consider myself part of that fandom. There’s a lot about the world and characters that I don’t understand or remember. So, when I needed to find a manga for the Read Harder Challenge, I decided to try to get my hands on some Sailor Moon. I could have picked any one of a number of comics I have in my TBR stack to complete this task for the N.E.W.T.s Readathon, but when you’re trying to complete two reading challenges at the same time, you look for options that will help you cross off a task in each with one book. That’s why I decided to read Sailor Moon Vol. 1 for this task. It was fun, but a little confusing. I’m considering passing this on to one of my “niblings” (new word for “nieces and nephews” that I picked up from listening to Galactic Suburbia) to see if I can get them past the concept of reading a book “backwards” to get them hooked on the awesome Sailor Guardians.

Finally, more or less at the same time as I was wrapping up reading Sailor Moon, I finished The Gilded Wolves. This the fourth book I’ve read by Roshani Chokshi, and probably my favorite of bunch. Even thought this is a slightly different sub-genre of fantasy than her other stuff, there are still plenty of what I consider to be her trademark descriptions. While I love how creative she is in the way that she describes things (she makes associations that are unexpected but really work), my brain has a tendency to skim long descriptive paragraphs, especially when it’s been trained by an author that there won’t be any relevant plot details embedded in there. I’d thought there might be more of those embedded plot details in this book because this is a treasure hunt heist mystery story like Indiana Jones or National Treasure, but nope. I feel like it was missing a lot of the double-crosses and fakes and “that was my plan all along” sorts of things I expected to see in this sort of story. But I loved the characters. It definitely has that “found family” crew of misfits feel.

I just want to say, the Magical Readathons are excellent readathons. If you missed this one, you should definitely check out the next one. I really hope she does the “Christmas at Hogwarts” one again in December. I’m definitely in if she does.

Before I get to my “Inbox” summary for the month, here’s an update on my other 2019 reading challenge…

Read Harder Challenge Status:

Tasks completed this month:

  • Task #12: A book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character (The Last Unicorn)
  • Task #11: A book of manga (Sailor Moon)

Total tasks completed: 17

Total tasks remaining: 7

I have four months left, so that means I’m ahead of schedule on this challenge! Hooray! And, I managed to find a book that I think I might enjoy reading for the “written in prison” task, and it’s available on Kindle from my library. So, I may actually finish all 24 tasks this year. Shocking.

I should also mention one other thing that I’ve been reading. It’s serial fiction that an author friend of mine is writing and illustrating. The story is contemporary fantasy that starts in the “real world” with glimpses into what’s going on in the fantasy world, and hints at a lot more magic and adventure to come. You can check it out here and sign up to read episodes for free. There’s a new one every Friday. Here’s a little behind the scenes scoop for you… My husband and I were actually models for the image from episode ten. He definitely improved our hair, though.

And that’s it! That’s what I read in August. Phew.

Inbox

What I bought & borrowed:

Heart on Fire went on sale, and (sucker that I am) I bought it. This is the third book in Amanda Bouchet’s adult fantasy romance Kingmaker Chronicles series. I’ve only read the first book, and I didn’t love it. The way the hero pursued the heroine felt straight out of an old-school fantasy romance and maybe wouldn’t be good if you aren’t a fan of aggressive alpha males and not entirely explicit consent (I’m not). That said, I bought book two when it was on sale, and I’m willing to give the series another shot because lots of people love it. I figured, if I’m going to read book two, I might as well have book three on hand and ready to go. Could I have got this from the library? Yes. Should I have probably not spent the money on this? Also, yes. I’m a series completest, and I’m a sucker for the cheap ebooks. What can I say?

I’m also in the process of harvesting another batch of books from my library. Since technically those are going to be downloaded in September (and this post is too long already), you’ll have to wait for next month’s edition of “Inbox” to see what I got. I will hint that there’s at least one literary fiction book in there that was recommended by my friend “L,” plus a sci-fi romance novel that looks very promising, and a handful of new releases by authors who’ve written other books I’ve loved.

For possibly the first time this year, I don’t have any books that I feel like I have to read in September. I’d like to read at least one of my Read Harder Challenge books, but that’s it. I’m really looking forward to just picking up whatever sounds good at the moment. I made a “TBR Bingo” tracker for my BuJo just to remind me that there are still books on my TBR that I want to read before the end of the year. So, I may try to knock off a few of those squares. But I’m looking forward to a “wild card reading” month for once!

On that note, I will sign off for now. Until next time, happy reading!

July 2019: Reading Wrap Up

~ EMM

Summer is officially winding down. I’ve been reading like crazy and also getting lots of writing done, but I still didn’t hit all my reading (or writing) goals in July. I’m not that bothered about it, because I’ve been really enjoying my summer.

Before I jump into my July reading recap, I wanted to mention that I decided to change up the format a bit. I’m going back to an “Inbox/Outbox” style summary. I’m also going to continue to provide status on my Read Harder challenge, but I’ve dropped all my Kindle backlog reading tracking. I’ve decided that it’s just not that important to me anymore.

Part of the reason for dropping my backlog tracking is that I’ve accomplished what I set out to accomplish in terms of changing my book buying habits (and shifting more to library usage). I am still keeping a list of the new books I’ve purchased this year, and I still intend to make every effort to read all of them before the year is over. But, I’m letting myself off the hook on reading through my virtual TBR, at least for the rest of this year. Maybe I’ll take another stab at it next year, but (as I’ve said before) I want to read based on interest rather guilt. If I never read all the cheap ebooks I’ve been hoarding on my Kindle, it won’t be the end of the world.

Now that you’re up to speed, let’s get into the recap, shall we?

Outbox: What I read in July

I met my goal of reading all the Hugo finalists for best novella. You can read more about my thoughts on those in my previous blog post. I’m not going to rehash them again here. The ones I read this month were (in order of read/finished) The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard, Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson, Artificial Condition by Martha Wells, and The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark.

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to finish reading all the finalists for best novel. I came close, though. Rather than including my thoughts on Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers, which I read in July, I’m going to hold off until I’m done with the rest. When I finish, I’ll post my stack ranking and recap of the Hugo finalists for best novel. The awards are on the 18th of August, so it would be nice if I manage to get that wrapped up and posted before the then, but I’m not making any promises.

That leaves Thick As Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner. This was the first book I finished in July, and the timing would have been perfect if the release date for book six in this series hadn’t been moved out to 2020. Luckily, this book didn’t really end on a cliff hanger. I enjoyed getting the perspective of a character who is from the enemy empire, and I enjoyed the return of a previous point of view character. My only gripe was that I wish the author would have made the relationship between those two characters clear. Every time I thought there might be romantic tension, it was diffused in a way that felt a little like “queer baiting.” I’m really hoping that’s not the case, but I guess I’ll have to wait and see what happens in book six.

 

Inbox: What I bought/borrowed

I only bought one book this month, Shatter the Sky by Rebecca Kim Wells. Technically, I pre-ordered this book. So I “bought” it months ago, but the release date was 7/30. That’s why I’m counting it as a book purchased in this month. I made an exception to my book buying rule because I know the author (we were at Madcap together), and I was a beta reader of an early version of this book. So, I’m really excited for her, and I can’t wait to see how the story has changed since I last read it. I think this is the only traditionally published book that I’ve beta read and where I knew the author before she had a book deal. Obviously, I wanted to support her, even though I probably won’t get around to reading it for a few months.

 

Read Harder Challenge Status:

Tasks completed this month:

  • Task #3: A book by a woman and/or AOC that won a literary award in 2018 (Artificial Condition)
  • Task #6: A book by an AOC set in or about space (The Tea Master and the Detective)

Total tasks completed: 14

Total tasks remaining: 10

And that’s a wrap on July! Now it’s time to get started on my N.E.W.T.s reading. I’ve started a post over on Twitter where you can follow along with what I’m reading. If you want to help me decide what to read first, let me know in the comments which of the four books below you think I should start with (The Queen of Blood, The Gilded Wolves, You’d Be Mine, or Our Dark Duet).

Book covers for The Queen of Blood, The Gilded Wolves, You'd Be Mine, and Our Dark Duet

Until next time, happy reading!

What’s on my July TBR

~ EMM ~ 3 Comments

I started to create a second half of 2019 TBR, but as I worked on the post, I realized that it is insane and way too ambitious. So, I’m throwing out that plan, and I’m going to take it month by month instead.

This is what I’m planning to read in July:

This month, most of what I plan to read are Hugo finalist novels and novellas.

I still have four of the novellas to read. Two of them (The Tea Master and the Detective and Artificial Condition) were already on my TBR. The other two (The Black God’s Drums and Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach) also sound great, and I’m excited to read them as well. Novellas are fun and usually fast reads. So I think I can get through these pretty quickly. Then, it’s on to the novels…

All three of the remaining finalists for best adult novel (Revenant Gun, Record of a Spaceborn Few, and Spinning Silver) were already on my TBR. The only reason I hadn’t read them yet was because I was waiting for library holds (or the Hugo packet, whichever arrived first). Of course, I also need to read book two in the Machineries of Empire series (Raven Stratagem) before I can read Revenant Gun. But, now I have my holds and my Hugo packet, and I own both Raven Stratagem and Revenant Gun in paperback. So, I have no more excuses. Time to get reading. 🙂

Besides all this Hugo reading, I’m still trying to stay on track with the 2019 Read Harder Challenge this month. Luckily, there’s some overlap between my Hugo reading and a few of the challenge tasks. Both Raven Stratagem and Revenant Gun will satisfy Task #6 (Read a book by an author of color set in or about space) and/or Task #18 (Read a novel by a trans or nonbinary author). Plus, Dread Nation, which is a finalist for best young adult novel, will satisfy Task #2 (Read an alternate history novel). So, I may get to check off three tasks this month.

Finally, if I have time, I’d like to read book one in Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy (Assassin’s Apprentice). I was planning to read this with my friend and her son this month, but I think he’s already way ahead of us. I also moved book one in Alyssa Cole’s near-future dystopian romance series (Radio Silence) up in the “to-read” stack. Plus, the cover of You’d Be Mine is calling to me. I think it might make for a fun book to read while enjoying the sunshine this month.

This is still a very ambitious TBR for July. We’ll see how I do, and how much rolls over into August. Did I mention that I’m also working on writing the first draft of book three in my Modern Fae series this month, too? Yikes.

What’s on your TBR for July? Are you planning on reading any of these books? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

June 2019: Reading Wrap Up

~ EMM ~ 1 Comment

The first half of 2019 is over, and it’s time to change up these monthly reading wrap-up posts. I’m rethinking my format for my recap, so if you have thoughts on what you’d like to see here, let me know in the comments.

What I read in June:

I started the month off hot and steamy with Sinner by Sierra Simone. This is the second book (I think) in her Priest series. If you don’t like to mix religion and erotica, this probably isn’t for you. The heroine is planning on becoming a nun but wants to see what she’s missing first to see if she can be tempted away from what feels is her calling. What I love about this series are the contradictions. This is erotica where one of the subplots involves a character’s mother dying of cancer (decidedly NOT sexy). Plus, even though it might seem from the blurb like the author is using religion as a plot device and the “message” will be either anti-faith or that sex is dirty, it’s actually quite the opposite. I’ll warn that if you’re hard-core atheist, this may not be the book for you. It might also not be the book for you if just the idea of mixing faith and sex gives you hives. Because, don’t be fooled, this book is very sex-positive and hot. Oh, and the hero is the best friend of the heroine’s older brother, just in case you’re into that trope.

Did I scare off all my readers by talking about erotica in the first paragraph of my summary? If so, too bad, because they’ll be missing out on what might be my favorite book of 2019, so far. I had some travel planned for the first part of June. So, I got Space Opera by Catherynne Valente on audiobook to keep me entertained on my travels. I’d started reading this book on my Kindle shortly after its release, but couldn’t get into it. So, I didn’t have high hopes for this book, but I’d met the editor (Navah Wolfe) at Futurescapes, and she was contagiously enthusiastic about this book. I already knew the origin story for this book (a back and forth conversation on Twitter during Eurovision viewing), but hearing her tell it again reminded me of all the reasons I thought I’d like this book. Plus, it’s a finalist for the Hugo for best novel of 2018. So, I thought I’d give it another try. Wow, am I glad that I did. First off, audiobook is the way to go with this one. The narrator is awesome. Second, this may have edged out The Calculating Stars for my pick for best novel. The world-building and the dry humor in this book are fantastic. I’ve never read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but I imagine this is like that, but more queer and diverse and thoughtful. So good. Highly recommend checking this out.

Next up, I finally got around to reading Vengeful. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know how much I love Vicious. It’s my favorite book by Victoria Schwab. You probably also know how much I’ve been looking forward to reading this sequel. Unfortunately, Vengeful disappointed me. It bums me out to say that, but sometimes that happens. It took me a very long time to finish this book. I got bogged down in the time hopping. I didn’t feel like it served a purpose or enhanced the story. Plus, I feel like the potential of the two new female EOs (June and Marcella) was wasted. I think I’d almost have preferred if this entire book was just the June and Marcella story with nothing about Eli and Victor in it at all. There could still be the link to Sydney that ties the two stories together, but I was not at all engaged in the Eli and Victor aspects of the plot. Will I be back for more if there’s more in the series? Probably. Is VES still an author hero of mine? Of course. Liking books is subjective.

I knew I needed to squeeze in a couple of books to keep up with my Read Harder challenge. So, I went with some easy and short options for June. One was a children’s book (La Princesa and the Pea) and the other was a middle grade comic (The Backstagers). Both were cute and fun and I would definitely give them to the kids in my life to read, if they haven’t read them already.

That leaves the other surprise hit of the month, No Walls and the Recurring Dream by Ani Difranco. I listened to this one on audiobook because it was read by Ani Difranco. I highly recommend that medium for this book. I enjoyed it enough that I’m considering buying myself a copy of the book when it comes out in paperback. There’s a lot to think about here, and I think I might want something to refer back to and re-read from time to time. We’ll see if I’m still thinking about this book when they eventually release the paperback version. I suppose I should mention that I’m not really an Ani Difranco fan, so that’s not really why I read this book. I never really listened to her music for two reasons. One, I’m not a huge fan of folk music. I like it, but not for general purpose listening. The second reason is because at the height of her popularity, I was still going through my boy-crazy college years. It was the tail end of the 90s when calling yourself a feminist meant that you were seen as a man-hating bitch. I suppose some people still think it means that, but I feel like the majority viewpoint on this has shifted. Honestly, I cringe to think of younger me and how feminist I actually was while completely denying it lest it make me unattractive to guys. Oh, silly younger me who didn’t realize that the guys it made me unattractive to were exactly the ones I shouldn’t be dating anyway… sigh. Anyway. There’s a lot to enjoy in this book, but the thing I liked the most was her thoughts and reflections on her art and creative process, as well as why she decided to go indie and stay indie. I tend toward pragmatism but am filled to the brim with passion, so I really value hearing from people who confidently and unapologetically follow their dreams at all costs. I feel I have a lot to learn from them.

 

What I bought:

This was a close call. I was very tempted by several books. But ultimately, I didn’t buy any new books this month! Again! That’s three months in a row. Go me.

 

Net impact on my Kindle Backlog:

Total Kindle backlog books read in 2019: 5

Total new *unread* Kindle books in 2019: 7

Getting closer to net zero, but still need to read some more backlog in order to catch up to what I’ve already purchased (and haven’t read yet) this year. Assuming that I catch up by the end of next month (as I plan to do), I’m definitely dropping this section of my recap in July.

 

Read Harder Challenge Status:

Tasks completed this month:

Total tasks completed: 12

Total tasks remaining: 12

Looks like I’m still on track with this goal. I’m seriously shocked that I actually might finish the challenge this year. Did I purposely choose two of the easiest (and shortest) tasks to complete this month? Yes. Yes, I did. Will that make completing the twelve tasks that remain more difficult? Maybe. But, I’m not going to worry about that. I’m just going to keep chipping away at this challenge and see what happens.

Of course, I still need to find a book I want to read for Task #20 (read a book written in prison). So, if you have a recommendation for that one, let me know in the comments, please!

 

First half 2019 TBR Status:

Total TBR: 33 books

Books read to date: 30

Books remaining: 3

I am absolutely stunned that I managed to get so close to completing this TBR. I’m rounding up a bit here because I’m in the middle of Thick As Thieves and wasn’t able to finish it before the end of the month. Still, I’m counting that one as “read” for the purposes of this list.

Of the books that remain (Our Dark Duet, The Queen of Blood, and Stories of Your Life and Others), I’m rolling two onto my second half of 2019 TBR (to be announced soon). But, I’m dropping the book of short stories (Stories of Your Life and Others) off my TBR. I’d planned to read that one for Futurescapes and didn’t read it in time. I plan to get back to it at some point, but not in the next few months.

And that’s it for June. What was your favorite book you read in the first half of 2019? Let me know in the comments.

Until next time, happy reading!

May 2019: Reading Wrap Up

~ EMM ~ 1 Comment

And just like that, my birthday month is over. I had a lot of fun with friends and family this month, and I got some excellent new books to read! I’ll have to do a birthday book haul post soon. I’m just waiting for a couple that I ordered with my gift card to arrive in the mail.

Meanwhile, my stack of physical books is growing and threatening to topple off my nightstand. But, we’re not planning on traveling much this summer, so I think I may be able to work through a few if I start sitting outside in the sunshine each day for a little reading break. The spring weather here in the upper left corner of the US has been perfect for that kind of thing, and if it gets too hot, there’s always our nice shady deck to hide out on and read.

Before I get too far ahead of myself making future reading plans, let me jump into my May reading recap.

What I read in May:

I started the month with Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne. This was exactly as fluffy and fun as I’d anticipated. I love it when that happens. You can tell that Alexa used to write fan fic because she does a great job with tension and angsty romance. The world-building was a little more “hand-wavy” than I like in my sci-fi, and I the ending didn’t feel quite right to me, but other than that, I really liked this book and am looking forward to reading her next one.

After that, I switched gears pretty dramatically. I’d forgotten that I’d put a hold on the audiobook for The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck by Sarah Knight. This was a book that I’d planned to read for the Read Harder Challenge. It’s short and funny, a parody on The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (which I haven’t read). The audiobook turned out to be the perfect thing to listen to it on my walks. The author reads her own book, and I enjoyed hearing her words in her voice. I know this is meant to be funny, but there’s some good messages in here for people like me who still haven’t mastered the art of not caring what other people think about them. I’m half-tempted to go buy a copy so I can refer to it for reminders when needed.

Somewhere in there, I decided to dive into The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton. I’d been meaning to read this forever, and I’m so glad that I finally did. The world-building is really interesting, and I’m curious where the story is going to go from here. But, I don’t think I’m going to continue with the series. I’m just not that into fashion and beauty. Since the entire theme of this series has to do with beauty, there are lengthy descriptions of in-world fashion from clothing to make-up to hair and everything in between. This is critical to the story because it’s all about how the Belles have the power to create whatever image is requested by the regular people in this world and what that means for their world. It’s really well done, but my eyes start to glaze over after too many descriptions of fancy dresses. I much preferred the political maneuvering.

I needed a quick read after finishing The Belles. Something that I knew would be a page turner, either from romantic tension or from plot. So, I decided to check off another Read Harder Challenge task and picked up The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan. I loved the first book and the two novellas I’ve read enough to guess that this is a series I could pretty much devour in a week. . Because of that, I’ve been rationing the remaining books because I don’t want to be done with the series. As expected, I really, really liked this book. Something about the internal conflict for both the heroine and the hero really struck a cord with me. I highly, HIGHLY recommend this series, even if you think you don’t like historical romance. It’s not the genre I usually turn to for a variety of reasons, but Courtney Milan is an excellent author. Conveniently enough, the ebook box set of the series happens to be on sale for $2.99 on Kindle right now. So, if you’re reading this shortly after I posted it, you should go buy the set.

And, last but not least, I got caught up on my Queen’s Thief re-read and finished A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner. Of the first four books, this was the book I liked the least when I first read this series ten-ish years ago. I think that’s because there’s just a lot of political maneuvering in this book. There’s some action and some romance, but Sophos isn’t as naturally charismatic of a character as Gen. This story is all about him learning to become a leader. It’s a lot like story of The Lion King in that way. In fact, come to think of it, there are a lot of similarities between A Conspiracy of Kings and The Lion King. Huh. I definitely liked this book more on the re-read. Now I’m really excited to get to the first “new” book in this series (released last year).

 

What I bought:

I didn’t buy any new books this month! Again! Amazing! But I did pre-order my friend Rebecca’s book that’s coming out in July, Shatter the Sky. Because she’s awesome, and I read an early version of the book and can’t wait to read it again and see how the story has changed. If you like dragons, you should go pre-order this book, or request it from you library.

 

Net impact on my Kindle Backlog:

Total Kindle backlog books read in 2019: 4

Total new *unread* Kindle books in 2019: 8

Getting closer to net zero, but still need to read some more backlog in order to catch up to what I’ve already purchased (and haven’t read yet) this year. Assuming that I catch up by the end of next month (as I plan to do), I’m going to drop this goal in July and just add any remaining unread new books to my second half of 2019 reading list.

 

Read Harder Challenge Status:

Tasks completed this month:

  • Task #4: Read a humor book. (Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck)
  • Task #16: An historical romance by an AOC (The Heiress Effect)

Total tasks completed: 10

Total tasks remaining: 14

Looks like I’m still on track with this goal. Go me!

 

First half 2019 TBR Status:

Total TBR: 33 books

Books read to date: 26

Books remaining: 7

Turns out that I miscounted last month. I forgot that I had swapped out two of my Read Harder Challenge books for two different books than what were on my original list. So, I actually wasn’t as far off as I thought. It appears that I have four more “backlog” books to read, plus two more Read Harder books, and one book of short stories that I meant to read before Futurescapes. I might be able to finish all those in June. We’ll see…

I’m also starting to think about my TBR for the second half of 2019. Right now, I’m planning to include the following:

  • Six more “backlog” Kindle books…
  • The final twelve books I need for the Read Harder challenge…
  • Any new books that I bought in the first half of this year and haven’t read yet (as of 1 July)…
  • Three books I’m planning to read for a buddy read…
  • Plus any books I haven’t read yet (as of 1 July) in the Hugo award categories for best novel, best novella, and best YA novel…

It’s looking like that list will end up somewhere between 30-36 books, just like my first half of 2019 TBR. That’s another five or six books per month, on average. Hahahaha. Yeah. Not leaving myself much room for spontaneous reading in the second half of the year. Plus I have a whole lot of writing planned for this fall, which means less time for reading.

Someday maybe I’ll be slightly less ambitious with my reading goals. Maybe. There are just too many books I want to read. And I keep finding more that I want to buy or borrow. This year, the TBR list seems to be working for me. It’s keeping me focused on the books I have wanted to read for a while, but that keep getting shuffled to the bottom of my stack as I bring in bright new shiny books to read.

Having a TBR is also helping me stay on track with the Read Harder challenge. For the first time, I think I may actually be able to finish all the tasks by the end of the year. So long as I can manage to find books I want to read for the following three challenges:

  • Task #20: A book written in prison
  • Task #21: A comic by an LGBTQIA creator
  • Task #22: A children’s or middle grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009

So, if you have suggestions and recommendations for me that would help me check these tasks off my list, please leave them in the comments.

Until next time, happy reading!

April 2019: Reading Wrap Up

~ EMM ~ 4 Comments

April was not a good reading month for me. I didn’t have as much time to read as I thought that I would, and I found myself in a bit of a slump towards the end of the month. I think I’m going to have to change some things up for May, but first… let’s talk about what I read in April.

What I read in April:

The month started off really well. I tore through Alyssa Cole’s Can’t Escape Love. It’s a novella in her Reluctant Royals series, which we’ve already established that I’m very much enjoying. This one was another fast and fun read. I loved the characters. The plot was perfect for a novella and well paced. The romance was fun and believable. Overall, loved it. Ready for the next book in the series.

After that though, things slowed down a bit. I started Updraft by Fran Wilde and I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells because I was going to be meeting both of those authors at Futurescapes. Turns out that Updraft was the perfect book to be reading for me at a pivotal moment as I’m working on revisions of one of my older WIP novels. Fran does a great job with using language to enhance world-building (which was also the topic of her workshop that I attended at Futurescapes). The world in this book also has these “laws” that are roughly equivalent to what I’ve been trying to do with the legends and folklore in my WIP novel. So it was nice to see how she handled that, from a craft perspective. The characters and plot were good, too, but what really stood out for me in this book was the world.

I didn’t have as good of luck with I Am Not A Serial Killer. Unfortunately, I started this one on audiobook and the narrator was just not working it for me. I finally ended up ditching the audiobook about half-way through. I wasn’t sure I’d finish it, but I had the book on my Kindle as well. So, when I got back from my trip, I tried picking up where I left off. I’m glad I tried again in a different format because it’s a compelling thriller. I ended up speeding through the last half because I wanted to know how it ends.

Somewhere in the middle of all this I started reading Mercenary Instinct. This ended up being the book that gets the credit for putting me into a reading slump. I had issues with the world-building that kept me from getting into the story. Most of that had to do with unrealistic space travel science stuff that maybe wouldn’t have bothered me years ago, as I discussed in yesterday’s post. I also had a really hard time getting on board with the plot and the romance aspects of this book. My biggest issues were that there was way too much use of the threat of rape as a plot device, and the entire premise was built on a huge plot hole. The bad guy placed a bounty on the heroine and her crew, sending a bunch of mercenaries after them and putting their lives, and work, at risk, when he clearly had more than enough money and resources to just buy their company and/or research and no good reason to take this convoluted path to get it. Under normal circumstances, I would have just DNFed the book, but it was the Smart Podcast Trashy Books first book club pick, and I really wanted to read it before listening to the episode where they discuss it. If you’ve listened to their recap episode, I’m pretty well aligned with Carrie’s and Elyse’s opinions.

More than being frustrated by the time I spent reading this book when I have other books I’d rather be reading, I’m actually disappointed because I wanted to enjoy this book. I still haven’t found the sci-fi and/or fantasy romance author that does for that genre what Courtney Milan does for historical romance and Alyssa Cole does for contemporary romance. If you have recommendations, please let me know in the comments (and don’t say Rachel Bach/Aaron or Amanda Bouchet because I’ve tried both of them already).

So, yeah… after that disappointment, I’m determined to change things up in May. I think it’s time to get into some of those books that I think I’m going to love but have been putting off reading because I’m scared they won’t live up to the hype. And I’m going to get aggressive with the DNF, if it comes to that. There are just too many books I want to read and never enough time to read them all.

 

What I bought:

I didn’t buy any new books this month! Crazy, right? But I did do a *major* library book haul. More on that below…

 

Net impact on my Kindle Backlog:

I realized I’ve been doing the math wrong on this section for months now because I forgot that since I’m adding new books I bought to my original list of 124 books, I should also be subtracting them after I’ve read them. I’ve gone back and fixed it in previous posts, but going forward I’m changing how I tally this “score.” Here’s my new breakdown.

Total Kindle backlog books read in 2019: 1

Total new *unread* Kindle books in 2019: 8

If you remember, the goal was to only buy if I’m going to read them right away and to read more backlog books than I buy and leave unread. So, right now, I’m failing at this goal because 8 > 1.

 

Read Harder Challenge Status:

Tasks completed this month:

  • Task #23: Read a self-published book. (Mercenary Instinct)

Total tasks completed: 8

Total tasks remaining: 16

Looks like I’m still on track with this goal. Go me!

 

First half 2019 TBR Status:

Total TBR: 33 books

Books read to date: 20

Books remaining: 13

Uh oh. I have two months left to read 13 books. Yikes. I am decidedly behind schedule on this goal. Better get reading.

 

My massive library book haul:

This has been brewing for a while, and it’s finally time. I took my Kindle off airplane mode and loaded it full of books I’ve had on hold at the library. Here’s a look at my (virtual) book haul:

I have no intention of reading all these before they’re due, but that’s okay. My Kindle’s back on airplane mode. Mostly, I just wanted to clean out my library holds so I could make room for new books that are coming out later this year.

May is my birthday month, so I’m going to make it a point to only read books that I’m loving. If I’m not loving it, I’m going to set it aside for later. And I think I’m going to start with one of the six “backlog bust” books that I put on my first half of 2019 TBR. If you don’t remember, that’s these books:

And since Mercenary Instinct left such a disappointed taste in my mouth, I think it’s time to bust out Brightly Burning next. Let’s see if that sci-fi romance can snap me out of my reading slump. If not, I’m reaching for Vengeful and/or The Belles. Those are the three that are really calling to me right now.

What are you reading this month? Let me know in the comments, especially if you’re reading (or have read) any of the books I mention in this post.