September was all lingering summer, but October 1st saw a 10 degree drop in temperature and a downpour. Autumn had arrived, and it was perfect reading weather! Conveniently, it was also a month where I could catch my breath and read through weekends rather than work through them. Long may this continue.

As I have been light on read-alongs and relieved from slush duties on Apex, I found I had time to indulge in my backlist (until I saw A Closed and Common Orbit on the shelf). I ended up in the delightful position of having several exceedingly good books on the go, constantly uncertain which one to settle down with. The best sort of problem – like too many cake choices in a good tea shop.

Reading round-up 

• Europe in Autumn – Dave Hutchinson     
• Star of the Sea – Una McCormack   
• Feed – Mira Grant     
• A Closed and Common Orbit – Becky Chambers      
• Rawblood – Catriona Ward    
• Victory of Eagles – Naomi Novik    

Review round-up of September reads

As I’m getting really out of sync between my reading and my reviewing, here’s a round-up of recent reviews from earlier reading:

• Empire of Ivory – Naomi Novik      
• False Hearts – Laura Lam      

Bite-size book reviews

While I’ve been reading some shorter fiction this month, I haven’t always had a lot to say about it. There were a couple of exceptions:

• Pockets – Amal El-Mohtar      
• The Eye of the Swan – Kelly Robson    

Tremontaine round-up

It has been all TremonTEAM as we approach the beginning of Season Two. The levels of excitement across the fandom hit astronomical levels with a sneak preview of Episode 1

• Good friends are enabling friends: how I found Tremontaine
• Welcome to the casting couch: Tremontaine the movie
• Convocation: taking another look 
• Review: Episode 2 – Old in Mischief

Stacking the shelves

Any good intentions I had about keeping my head down in October and reading the books I already had went out the window on October 1st, when A Natural History of Dragons was in the Kindle sale. After that, it was always going to be a slippery slope…

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.

• 24 male (40%) / 31 female (52%) / 3 trans, non-binary or genderfluid (6%) + 2 anthologies
• 9 (15%) – by people of colour
• 11 (18%) – by LGBTQIA people / 16 (27%) featuring LGBTQIA protagonists

Actual challenges

• 60 / 75 books (excl. this month’s bite-size reads as so short and any DNFs)
• 23 (38%) – towards the Backlist Challenge (excl. re-reads)