August proved work could get busier and hours could get longer – especially when you can do a working days across multiple timezones back to back. Not that I’d let a little thing like that get in the way of reading (although by mid-month it was taking chunks out of my energy for reviewing). Definitely looking forward to a holiday!
Reading Round-up
- Traitor’s Blade – Sebastien de Castell
- Broken Homes – Ben Aaronovitch
- In the Labyrinth of Drakes – Marie Brennan
- New Pompeii – Daniel Godfrey
- Bitesize Books: Every Heart a Doorway – Seanan McGuire
- Abaddon’s Gate – James S A Corey
- Hannah Green and her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence – Michael Marshall Smith
- Bitesize Books: Acadie – Dave Hutchinson
- Foxglove Summer – Ben Aaronovitch
Review Round-up
- Signs for Lost Children – Sarah Moss
- Throwback Thursday: Whispers Underground -Ben Aaronovitch
- Throwback Thursday: The Collector of Lost Things – Jeremy Page
Stacking the shelves
The ARCs came a-calling – I enjoyed Gilded Cage too much not to jump on Tarnished City, and Michael Marshall Smith holds a special place in my heart. Then I was offered Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s new novel and I jumped at the chance as I loved Certain Dark Things and this sounds completely different and delightfully up my street. And then I heard about the new Lychford novella. THERE’S A NEW LYCHFORD NOVELLA COMING OUT SOON PEOPLE #pre-order
Conscious demographics
My annual challenge is to read diversely and to love every book. This year I’ve made things a bit more complicated with subsidiary challenges and more fun with the Game of Books.
- 20 male (37%) / 31 female (57%) / 2 trans, non-binary or genderfluid (4%) + 1 antho
- 9 (17%) – by authors of colour / 30 (56%) prominently featuring POC
- 5 (9%) – by LGBTQIA authors / 22 (41%) featuring LGBTQIA characters
Challenges
Still ignoring challenges in favour of just enjoying my reading.
- 54 / 40 books or novellas
- 9 / 8 books by authors of colour
- 5 / 8 non-SFF books of which 0 non-fiction
- 2 / 8 classic SFF books (5 incl. rereads)
- 17 / 24 – off the shelf (it doesn’t count if I bought them to read them straight away!)
- Game of Books score: 282 / 267 (I increased my annual target to 400)
- 20 Books of Summer final score: 17 / 20 (novella and rereads don’t count)
onemore.org 