Tag: TBR

September Wrap-up and October TBR

~ EMM

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I read three books in September. I think that puts me at 34 books read so far this year (plus 2 DNFs), which is 5 books behind schedule (according to Goodreads) to hit my annual goal of 52 books read.

Five books isn’t that bad, I suppose. It means I need to average about 5 books a month for the last three months of this year, though. And I sincerely doubt I’m going to finish 5 books in October. So, this may be the first year since 2014 that I haven’t read at least 52 books! Shocking!

Anyway, to re-cap from previous posts, here’s what I read in September:

Bride by Ali Hazelwood — The only book I finished on my Orilium Autumn Equinox TBR.

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske — I liked the magic and world-building in this book, but the story seemed to drag a bit in the middle for me. I think I’m going to continue with the series, though, if only because the next book features two different main characters, and they were two of my favorites from the first book.

Marque and Reprisal by Elizabeth Moon — A re-read of book two so that I can refresh my memory before continuing on with the rest of the series.

In-Progress

I continue to make slow progress through Furious Heaven by Kate Elliott. This is by no means a reflection on the book, but only a result of my lack of time to read and also the fact that I insist on listening to the audiobook instead of reading this on my Kindle. I have a trip coming up that will require a lot of time in-transit, and I am looking forward to finishing the second half of this tome, uninterrupted.

Meanwhile, on my Kindle, I am slowly making my way through Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon for the second time. This is book three in the Vatta’s War series. I’m doing this re-read as a series buddy-read with my Camp Book Club friends (L & S). I am especially enjoying revisiting this story because it features Aunt Gracie, a character I really love. I sincerely hope she survives to the end of the series.

Inbox

Because of my upcoming trip, I have just downloaded a bunch of books from the library. Here’s a sampling of what I’m considering reading while I’m traveling:

  • The Undermining of Twyla and Frank by Megan Bannen — I read the first book in this series last year and really enjoyed the imaginative world-building and the characters. I don’t think this is a direct sequel. More like different story, same world, maybe? Regardless, I’m looking forward to checking this out.
  • Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa — I pre-ordered this because Suyi has become an auto-buy author for me, but it keeps getting buried on my Kindle. I have pushed it to the top for this trip.
  • Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett — I’ve read several books by this author and enjoyed all of them, so I have been very much looking forward to this one, her latest release.
  • Darkside by Michael Mammay — Another new release by another of my auto-buy authors. This one is an unexpected book four in his military sci-fi series! Hooray!
  • Grave Expectations by Alice Bell — I can’t remember who recommended this one to me (maybe S?), but it’s been on frozen on my holds list for a while now, and a hilarious paranormal murder mystery sounded like excellent vacation reading to me.
  • Stories are Weapons by Annalee Newitz — Several of my author friends are reading and recommending this right now. I’m very much looking forward to listening to this on audiobook during my travels (once I finish Furious Heaven).

I’m not considering this an actual TBR, because I will probably just read whatever I feel like, and I may not feel like reading any of these. Plus I may have more studying I need to do in order to wrap up “secret summer project” by the end of October. But, these are the books I feel like reading right now, if I had more time to read for fun.

What are you reading this month?

Weekend Reads Inbox-Outbox

~ EMM

We’re about halfway through the month, and I’ve only finished one book on my Orilium Fall Equinox TBR.

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I finished Bride by Ali Hazelwood and enjoyed it. I’ve heard that her adult contemporary romance books are really good if you enjoy the “big guy with small girl” and “broody alpha male” tropes. Those aren’t at the the top of my favorite tropes list, which is why I haven’t picked up any of her books before. However, I think those particular tropes work pretty well in the context of a paranormal contemporary romance. Somehow, I’m less inclined to get annoyed by romance frustrations that could be resolved with some basic communication when the hero is a broody literal-Alpha of his werewolf pack. There is a bit of that in this book, and it’s a little (okay, a lot) obvious what’s going on, which may make some people want to throw the book across the room. It didn’t bother me too much. Probably because of how this sort of miscommunication thing has almost become a norm in this particular sub-genre. But, it is why this was only an “enjoyable read” for me and not more.

After that, I started This Spells Love by Kate Robb. I think I picked this up from my library because I saw it on a witchy contemporary romance list somewhere. I got through the part where they do the spell described in the blurb and into the resulting alternate reality the following morning. Then I bailed. This is not a witchy contemporary romance like Payback’s a Witch or The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. This is more like a Freaky Friday thing, and I just wasn’t feeling it. So, that’s going back to the library as a DNF for me.

On the positive side, though, it does get me back on track with my Orilium Fall Equinox TBR!

Inbox

I was feeling a potential reading slump coming on after those two books, so I decided to pick up my book club book for this month, which happens to be a re-read of book two in a series I’m enjoying but haven’t finished and have convinced my book club buddies to read along with me. The only problem is, I’d forgotten that Marque and Reprisal (book two in Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s War series) starts off with Kylara in a somewhat mopey mood. Not ideal for pulling myself out of a potential slump, but at least I know she snaps out of it pretty fast.

Before that, I tried picking up Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, also by Elizabeth Moon, which is on my Orilium Fall Equinox TBR. But I didn’t get very far into it before setting it down again. It starts a bit like epic fantasy, but for some reason I’d thought it was also space opera? Oops. Oh well. I’m planning on continuing. I just want to eliminate my potentially slumpy reading feelings first, so they didn’t infect my opinion of the book.

I found and read a recap of the first two Neapolitan novels, and it did make me more excited about finishing that series. But I also really want to read The Dead Cat Tail Assassins. So, I may pick up that next, instead. Then I can at least finish my reading for Psionics & Divination.

Regardless of what I read next, I doubt I’m going to finish my TBR for this month. Kind of a bummer that I don’t have more time to spend reading for fun right now, but I’m sure I’ll be back to devouring fiction by November.

Orilium Fall Equinox Readathon TBR Time

~ EMM

This was a hard one to put together! But the readathon starts tomorrow, so here we go….

If you remember back to my April wrap-up post (aka the last update I posted before disappearing for several months), I finished seven books, but only four subjects. That I knew of. I never bothered figuring out if any of the other books I read counted for any of the other subject prompts.

Instead of doing that now, I poked around at some of the other “callings” that sounded interesting and then tried to see if I had the subjects to pursue that calling. After attempting a few of those, I gave up and decided to just stick with leveling up my Story Weaver calling.

But the prompts for Story Weaver are HARD! And I’m not sure I can read six books this month with everything else I have going on. In the end, I managed to pull together this TBR for September, but I’ll be shocked if I get even half of these read before the end of the month.

Here’s the breakdown by subject:

Inscription

I only need “O” level in this one, which is just one book, but the prompt is to read a book with a title that has all the letters in your first name. That’s a lot of letters! And one of them is a Z!

Luckily, the folks over on the discord came to the rescue and let me know that The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson basically covers all the letters. And it works! Plus, it looks like it’s a stand-alone. So I went with that one.

Psionics & Divination

I need “Q” level in this subject, so two prompts/books.

The first prompt is to read a favorite author’s debut book. Okay. Sure. but who is my favorite author? I considered a lot of options for this one, and ultimately went with an author I really like who has been writing for a long time. I’ve only read a few of her more recent books, and I never read her first book. So, I’m going to try that one. It’s called Sheepfarmer’s Daughter and the author is Elizabeth Moon.

The second prompt is to read a book where the same letter appears in the title four or more times! For this I picked a short one that I was planning on reading next(ish) anyway, The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark.

Lore

To get to “D” level in this subject, I need to read three books.

The first prompt is to read a vampire book! Vampires are not my fave… BUT, I’ve been wanting to give Bride by Ali Hazelwood a try, so I’m going to try that one for this prompt. I’ve never read anything by Ali Hazelwood before, and this is her only non-contemporary romance novel (that I know of). So this is going to be interesting…

Next is to read a translated book! I’ve been meaning to finish the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan Novels series. I read the first two books a long time ago, though. I’ll need to find a recap of those books to refresh my memory before diving into book three, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay.

And then I need to read a re-telling. For this prompt I am going for another book that has been on my TBR forever. It’s a YA contemporary retelling of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park called Hearts, Strings, and Other Breakable Things by Jacqueline Firkins. It looks super cute.

May Reading TBR

~ EMM ~ 2 Comments

April isn’t quite over. I am still working on finishing the last book in my Orilium TBR. But (of course) I’m already thinking about what I want to read in May…

May 2024 TBR

These are the three books I have at the top of my TBR for May:

  • Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson — I loved The Space Between Worlds, and I have been eagerly anticipating this second stand-alone set in the same world. Luckily, so have my Camp Book Club friends. So we decided to buddy read it in May.
  • Generation Ship by Michael Mammay — Another long awaited space adventure written by my current fave military sci-fi author. I have been struggling to get this to the top of my TBR for a while, but it’s going to happen in May!
  • A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn — One of my two favorite historical cozy mystery series has a new book out, and I cannot wait to read it!

Are you picking up on the general vibe for my May reading plans?

If not, let me explain. May is my birthday month, and I really want to fill it with anticipated five star reads. Nothing with DNF potential, please. I want to have the BEST reading month.

That’s not to say that April was a bad reading month. It wasn’t. More on that when I do my wrap-up post. It’s just that, readathon months, with their reading prompts, tend to help me clear off titles that have been lingering in the middle to bottom half of my TBR. Which is awesome, but it means I’m very behind on some new releases by my auto-buy authors.

The three books I picked to read in May are exactly that. New(ish) releases by three of my auto-buy authors.

In addition to these three, there are two new releases coming out in May by two other authors on my auto-buy list. I pre-ordered both. The first is Kilby Blades’s second Green Valley Heroes book, Young Buck, which comes out May 9th (her first in this series was Forrest for the Trees). The other is Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s near-future sci-fi novella, Lost Ark Dreaming, which releases on the 21st of May. But, in order to read either of these, I’ll need to take my Kindle off airplane mode, which means reading or renewing my current library haul. (#ReaderProblems)

I’m excited to see how many of these books I can devour in May! Happy reading (and birthday month) to me!

Book Overload — A mid-month check-in

~ EMM

To give you a sense of how my reading is going this month, here are some numbers:

  • Books carried over from previous months = 3
  • Books started this month = 3
  • Books finished this month = 2
  • Current number of books in progress = 4

Do I have more in-progress books now than I did at the start of this month? Yes.

Have I finished reading everything on my Orilium TBR? No.

Status of my Orilium Spring Equinox TBR

In fact, I haven’t even started the Psionics & Divination read (A Fate Inked in Blood) yet! I meant to start that one in the first week of this month so that I could be sure to have plenty of time to finish, but plans changed. I can’t remember my reasoning now, but I’m sure it made sense at the time.

Seriously, everything feels backward and wrong on so many levels this month. Why would reading be any different?

Is some celestial object in retrograde or something? BRB. *Goes to Google.*

Yes. It appears that is in fact the case. Well, there you go. That makes me feel a little better, I guess.

A Game of Hearts and Heists (my Art of Illusions reading assignment) is one of the books I started reading already. But I had to put it aside so I could read (and hopefully finish) The Tainted Cup before my Camp Book Club discussion this coming Friday. The good news is that I am really enjoying The Tainted Cup and find myself excited to get back to it every time I have to put it down to do something else.

After I finish The Tainted Cup, I plan to start A Fate Inked in Blood (finally!) and get back to A Game of Hearts and Heists. There are still two weeks left in the month, so I think I have time to finish all three of those books.

As for the two books I’ve already finished this month, they were both contemporary romance reads. The first was It Happened One Summer, and the second was The Homecoming War. Both were really fun books that I tore through and didn’t want to put down. I sighed happy sighs when I finished them. Highly recommend both if you like contemporary romance.

How is your reading going this month? Are you off to an equally awkward start? Or have you already finished your TBR?

Picking a Book for Inscription

~ EMM

If you remember, there was one open slot in my Orilium Spring Equinox TBR. I needed to pick a book for Inscription. I was going to put this off until I had at least one of the other two books on my TBR read. But, for reasons explained below, I decided to go ahead and do the selection now.

My long-awaited library hold for The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett became available to borrow, so I convinced my Camp Book Club friends that it should be our book pick for April. This automatically added this book to my April TBR.

Then, I remembered that I planned to give my niece a (signed) copy of my friend Addie Woolridge’s latest book, The Homecoming War, for her upcoming birthday. I got myself a copy at the same time that I bought one for my niece, but my TBR has been packed, and I haven’t gotten around to reading it, yet. Another non-Orilium Readathon book added to my April TBR.

At that point, I figured I should just make these options number one and number two for the Inscription draw. But, in order to determine which one would officially make it into my Orilium TBR, I needed a third book.

For my third pick, I added a (relatively short) contemporary romance novel. Rafe: A Buff Male Nanny by Rebekah Weatherspoon surfaced from the depths of my Kindle when I was trying to think of romance books I knew that had a very specific hero-heroine dynamic. I’d actually forgotten that I purchased this book on Kindle back in 2020! So, that book became Inscription option number three.

I used a random number generator to pick one (rather than slips of paper). The result?

The Homecoming War by Addie Woolridge won! Yay!

My Orilium Readathon Spring Equinox TBR

I still need to read The Tainted Cup. So, technically, there is also a fourth book on my April TBR. Fingers crossed I can finish all these by the end of this month!

It’s Orilium Spring Equinox TBR Time!

~ EMM ~ 1 Comment

It’s that time of year again! Time to head back to the Orilium Academy for the Spring Equinox Magical Readathon!

I have four subjects I know I need to complete if I want to take another shot at advancing my Story Weaver calling from Novice to Apprentice. If you remember what happened last year, I completed the Spring session, and then failed to finish all the prompts I needed to complete in Autumn.

  • Lore: “The Legend of Dia” — This is an Orilium lore short story, and I’m pretty excited that just by reading it I fulfill one of the prompts for this readathon! Woohoo!
  • Inscription: TBD — For this prompt I need to take the titles of three books, write them on scraps of paper, scramble them up, and then pick one at random. I think I am going to do this closer to when I am ready to actually read for this prompt, which probably won’t be until after I read the books for the other two prompts. That way, I can pick three short reads if I’m running out of time. (I’ll do a blog post mid-month to update on progress and tell you what I picked for this.)
  • Art of Illusions: A Game of Hearts and Heists by Ruby Roe — I chose this because, for the prompt, the title needs to include the word “game” or “play.” This works perfectly and also happens to be a book I’ve been meaning to read for a while.
  • Psionics & Divination: A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen — The prompt for this one involves creating a book bingo card. I created the book bingo card first (see below), and basically put together what I felt was a sort of generic romantasy book bingo card (feel free to borrow if you want, and tag me on Instagram if you use it). Then I waited to see what the book club pick was for my guild (the Mind Walkers). I’m thrilled that this book got the most votes because it is one of my Fairyloot hardcovers, and I needed to work one of those in somewhere anyway if I want to stay on track with my 2024 reading goals.

Since I only have four subjects (and one of them has a super easy prompt), I’m thinking that I might also try to complete the Lore side-quest. Or at least, I’ll get it started, even if I don’t finish all of it in April, since there are no deadlines for the side-quests.

However, I’m also starting a new writing project in April. So, I may be happy to have a light reading month. We’ll see how I’m feeling once I get started on my first two selections.

Are you participating in this readathon? What are you planning to read in April?

March 2024 TBR

~ EMM

This post and my February wrap-up are both going up late this month because I went on an unexpected road trip last week and forgot to post these before I left.

I considered re-doing them and combining them into one, but the February wrap-up is taking me a while to finish up, and all I needed to do to finish this one was complete the book list below.

So, an update in two parts. First up, I give you my already in-progress March TBR:

One tome, one FairyLoot hardcover, and a fantasy romance

One of these is already nearly finished, and there is a fourth that I just added to the list today, but that one isn’t in the graphic I already made, so I’m going to save that for my March wrap-up post (assuming I finish reading it before the end of the month).

  • Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott — This book is doing triple duty this month. It’s one of the tomes I wanted to read this year. It’s also our Camp Book Club book pick for the month, and I’m using it to fulfill the March Adventure in Aeldia prompt: “Remove a complex lock enchantment cast on the exit door” (start/continue a series that intimidates you).
  • Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong — I picked this as the FairyLoot hardcover I wanted to read this month because I also snagged it on audiobook from the library. Then the loan expired before I could get to it, and now I think I’m back in the hold queue again. Oh well. Guess I’ll have to actually read the hardcover.
  • That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming — Everything about this looks delightful. The title! The cover! The blurb! I’m very excited to start reading this book (and probably, let’s be honest, binge the entire series).

That’s my plan for this month!

But I’m already putting together my TBR for next month because April is the Spring Equinox session of the Orilium Magical Readathon! YAY!!! Once I get my February wrap-up posted, I’ll share my readathon plans with you.

February TBR Progress

~ EMM

It is the last full week of this month, and I’m finally getting around to posting my TBR. In case you were wondering, that pretty much sums up how this month has been going for me.

I feel like I’m behind on everything that isn’t either race prep for the half marathon I’m running this weekend or reading. That is at least partly as planned. I wanted to have a bit of a break this month, but my to-do list keeps growing as I continue to ignore it.

I’ll deal with all that next week. Right now, I’d rather talk about books. Specifically, how I’m doing on my February TBR.

The plan for February was pretty simple. First up, I wanted to finish my two in-progress books from January (Nettle & Bone and Faebound). Then, I wanted to read three more books (see below), which would put me at a total of five for the shortest month of the year!

See? I made a graphic weeks ago! I just never got around to posting it.

The three books on my February TBR are:

  • The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi — I’m listening to this one on audiobook even though I have the FairyLoot hardcover edition. I’m finding the audiobook format is a good match for Roshani’s lyrical prose.
  • Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett — This is my buddy read book for this month.
  • Like a Sister by Kellye Garrett — This was my Adventure in Aeldia pick for February (read a mystery/thriller). So excited to finally be reading this! It’s been on my TBR forever.

Five books is on the high end of what I usually read in a regular length month. But, I’ve already finished two books (just not the two I’d thought I’d have done by now). And I’m about halfway through two others. So I may just pull this off.

See you back here at the end of next week to let you know how I did.

I may also be back before that, if I can finish the other post I wanted to get done this month. No promises, though.

The First TBR of the New Year

~ EMM ~ 2 Comments

In keeping with my recent reading trend, I’ve started 2024 by selecting one ebook, one hardcover, and one audiobook to read first.

To kick things off, I’m diving right into a tome as one of my first reads. In fact, it is the most intimidating of the tomes on my TBR, and the one I’ve been wanting to read for the longest time. That book is: Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey. I’m almost embarrassed that I haven’t read this, yet. So many people have recommended it to me. I even recently recommended it to a friend, even though I hadn’t read it. The time is now. I started this on ebook last night. At least in that format, it’s harder to notice this book is 929 pages long!

My buddy read for this month is Yellowface by R. F. Kuang. This is another book I’ve been holding off on, but for entirely different reasons. It feels more like non-fiction than fiction to me, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The problem is that I have a strong feeling my jaw is going to end up aching from the amount of cringing that is going to happen while reading this book. I don’t like reading about other people behaving badly. It’s not my favorite. However, I’m going to deal with the discomfort because so many people have been telling me that this book is really good. I’m going to be listening to it on audiobook so I can take my frustration with the main character out on dirty dishes or veggies that need to be chopped.

And last, but definitely not least, is my hardcover selection. The December Fairyloot box brought a really exciting present for me. Faebound by Saara El-Arifi. This is not a book that had been on my book-radar, but it’s one that sounds like something I will enjoy (fae AND elves! Court politics!). Plus, the Fairyloot edition is just gorgeous.

Since I have this before the official release date of 23 January, I am bumping it to the top of my physical TBR. Maybe I can actually have it read before the release date? No promises.

What book did you choose as your first read of the New Year? Thoughts on any of the ones I’ve picked?