September has been a mess in meatspace, featuring all the work, a plonker rear-ending our recently-acquired car and a death in the immediate family. I won’t lie, it’s been hard and I’m feeling pretty battered. We managed to get away on holiday to Scotland, which was lovely, but as I worked at least briefly most days anyway, it wasn’t very restful. Hold the sympathy. Just send chocolate.
Reading Round-up
With everything going on, there has been a shocking lack of reading (which is contributing to my overall level of sadness and grump) and my (few) reviews were for books read previously.
- The Midwich Cuckoos – John Wyndham
- Within the Sanctuary of Wings – Marie Brennan
- Cibola Burn – James S A Corey
Review Round-up
- Bitesize Books: Every Heart a Doorway – Seanan McGuire
- Bitesize Books: Acadie – Dave Hutchinson
- Throwback Thursday: Foxglove Summer – Ben Aaronovitch
- Hannah Green and Her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence – Michael Marshall Smith
Stacking the shelves
The autumn avalanche continues and is threatening to bury me, but I have no regrets. NONE. Except about time to start reading my way through this pile of joy.
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.
- 22 male (39%) / 32 female (56%) / 2 trans, non-binary or genderfluid (4%) + 1 antho
- 9 (16%) – by authors of colour / 32 (56%) prominently featuring POC
- 5 (9%) – by LGBTQIA authors / 22 (39%) featuring LGBTQIA characters
Challenges
Challenges? Pffft. More like guidelines anyway
- 57 / 45 books or novellas
- 9 / 9 books by authors of colour
- 5 / 9 non-SFF books of which 0 non-fiction
- 2 / 9 classic SFF books (6 incl. rereads)
- 17 / 27 – off the shelf (it doesn’t count if I bought them to read them straight away!)
- Game of Books score: 295 / 400
onemore.org 