April feels like it has zoomed by when I wasn’t looking, and I’m not quite sure where it went. My reading has been dominated by bite-size books and read-alongs, with distractions and a number of DNFs that have stopped me sinking my teeth into much else.

Reading round-up

• The Terracotta Bride – Zen Cho     
• The Privilege of the Sword – Ellen Kushner      
• Fellside – M R Carey   
• Faith and Moonlight Part 2 – Mark Gelineau & Joe King     
• Bloodchild – Octavia Butler     
• The Lies of Locke Lamora – Scott Lynch      
• Like a Boss – Adam Rakunas     
• One of Us – Åsne Seierstad [DNF]

 

Bonus reviews

I don’t always post reviews straight-away (especially for Bite-size Books and read-alongs) so I’ve also published some older reviews this month:

• Civil Blood – Mark Gelineau & Joe King     
• The Passage – Justin Cronin    
• Faith and Moonlight – Mark Gelineau & Joe King    

 

Stacking the shelves

April acquisitions were all ARCs or Riversiders until the Clarke Award got announced. Hey, I needed cheering up after the mixed bag that is the Hugos.

 

Conscious demographics

My challenge to myself is to read diversely and to love every book. This tracker is intended to help me stay mindful of how I’m doing with that.

• 17 male (55%) / 12 female (39%) / 2 trans, non-binary or genderfluid (6%)
• 7 (23%) – by people of colour
• 4 (13%) – by non-het people / 7 (23%) featuring non-het protagonists

Actual challenges

• 31 / 75 books (I revised my target)
• 9 (29%) – towards the Backlist Challenge (excl. re-reads)