March has felt like a slow reading month, partly because it has been mostly work and little play, and partly because I’ve not enjoyed some of my reading as much as I’d like. I want comfort reads, and instead I have had reads I needed to work at, which hasn’t suited me at the end of a long day’s work. Cue some bouncing and frustration…

Reading Round-up 

My finished reading is still overwhelmingly positive – it just took a lot of effort to get to it.

• The Bitter Twins – Jen Williams      
• Taran Wanderer – Lloyd Alexander     
• Dogs of War – Adrian Tchaikovsky    
• The Rift – Nina Allan     
• The High King – Lloyd Alexander      
• Bite-size Books: Rupert Wong and the Ends of the Earth – Cassandra Khaw     

I also tried my hardest to read Julia Whicker’s debut Wonderblood – a long-time-post-apocalypse in which the nomadic carnivals tour the Midwest slaughtering one another in the name of the NASA shuttles they believe will one day return to rescue them from the poisoned Earth. While I gave it a good go and it’s beautifully written, I just wasn’t prepared to grapple with how bleak it felt in its outlook and violence, so I’ve put it back down for now.

Review Round-up

Definitely at the stage now where my reading and my reviewing is thoroughly out of step, but I’m happy with that. Don’t be under any illusion that it means I’m planning ahead; I’m just writing review late 😉

• Embers of War – Gareth L Powell
• Bite-size Books: Rupert Wong Cannibal Chef – Cassandra Khaw     
• Bitesize Books: The Red Threads of Fortune – J Y Yang      
• Bitesize Books: Binti – The Night Masquerade – Nnedi Okorafor     
• Throwback Thursday: Caliban’s War – James S A Corey     
• Movie review: Annihilation     

 

Stacking the shelves

I started the month by grabbing some classic titles by women. I’d like to get my Confessions back on the road later this year, and I definitely like the idea of focusing on female writers to reduce the teeth gritting. Plus some Subjective Chaos titles! …and well, there’s no way I wasn’t going to go on bended knee for an advance copy of Revenant Gun, was there?

Reading statistics

My goal – as always – is to read diversely and to love every book. I’ve put no targets on my reading this year beyond a number of books, but I’m tracking some stats for my own interest.

• 23 / 75 books or novellas + 3 DNFs
• 11 male (48%) / 9 female (39%) / 3 trans, non-binary or genderfluid (13%)
• 8 (25%) – by authors of colour
• 3 (13%) – by LGBTQIA authors
• 4 ARCs / 1 off the shelf (it doesn’t count if I bought them to read them straight away)
• Game of Books score: 109 / 400

Other Challenges

A Comment A Day – this challenge is definitely suffering. I’m still ahead overall, but it’s not really getting any attention. Sadly, this is unlikely to change for a couple of months. It’s tempting to drop out, but not doing so is the whole point. When work eases up, I’ll get back to finding new blogs. If that’s November… well, then that’s November.

Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards – I’m focusing closely on the reading lists now, and oh my word what reading I am being treated to. We’re starting to see overlap with most awards lists coming out, in the sense we all share one or two completely different titles. Nothing like consensus in the world of opinion!

Wyrd and Wonder – eeeee we’re only a month away! In case you haven’t heard: Lisa, Jorie and I will be hosting WYRD AND WONDER, a fantasy-themed month of enthusiasm for all things fantastic across blogs, twitter and other social media channels through May. Sign up to tell us you’d like to join in or take a peek at the emerging schedule.

 

How has your month been?