imyril @ There's Always Room For One More Redux

January Redux: here we go again

A pair of burgundy boots rest on a bookshelf of fantasy novels

I’ve had a slow start to 2019 as I’m still sorting out where I’ll be working this year, and UK politics is a shambles so who knows what context I’ll be working in. Instead, I’m having fun in the kitchen and allowing a little Marie Kondo into my life. I’m not watching the show, but I like asking whether things ‘spark joy’, although nowhere near my bookshelf (SO MUCH JOY SPARKING RIGHT THERE, EVERY TIME).

Reading Round-up

December and January have been great months for reading, less so for reviewing. But I wanted to cover a lot of ground so I could be as well-informed as possible for my Subjective Chaos nominations!

  • The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – Stuart Turton  ★★★☆
  • Lies Sleeping – Ben Aaronovitch  ★★★★
  • Empire of Sand – Tasha Suri  ★★★★
  • The City of Brass – S A Chakraborty  ★★★★★
  • The Kingdom of Copper – S A Chakraborty  ★★★★★
  • Bitesize Books: The Tea Master and the Detective – Aliette de Bodard  ★★★☆
  • Bitesize Books: Static Ruin – Corey J White  ★★★☆
  • Tremontaine: finale

Review Round-up

At the time of writing, I’ve only got oh stars help me 9 reviews outstanding. And no reading notes. Ahahahahahaha.

Stacking the shelves

Why yes, I started the year by being unable to resist books. I imagine this is a harbinger of things to come. On the other hand, HOORAY, The Book of Flora is out this year! Expect next month to be a bloodbath (it’s my birthday, I’ve now got a Subjective Chaos shortlist, and the Hugo deadline is looming… there’s always time to fit in one more read, right?)

 

Book cover: The Book of Flora - Meg Elison a road curving away towards the horizon, bright colours in the sky
Book cover: Unholy Land - Lavie Tidhar two figures silhouetted walking down a lamplit colonnade
Book cover: Black Leopard Red Wolf - Marlon James (illustrated vividly coloured animal heads peering through the title)
Book cover: Pantomime - Laura Lam trapeze artists silhouetted on a yellow field surrounded by curlicues
Book cover: The Psychology of Time Travel - Kate Mascarenhas
Book cover: Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds (a spacecraft in flight around a silhouetted planet)

Reading statistics

My goal – always – is to read diversely and to love every book. I enjoyed having no specific goals last year, just using my reading stats to help nudge me from time to time, so I am adopting that principle once again. However, after several decades of reading predominately male authors I have no qualms whatsoever if I under-index in that regard. After all – reversing the argument I hear so often – if men were writing the books I want to read, I’d be reading them.

This year, I’m determined to read more books I own (2018 was very biased towards buying books to read, for various reasons), but am realistic about my commitments meaning this won’t be the main focus of my year.

Books read: 7 / 75 | Game of Books: 43 / 400

  • 3 / 18 off the shelf (i.e. not bought in 2019)
  • 1 ARCs
  • 2 bite-size (excl. short stories)

Authors: 3 male (43%) / 4 female (57%) / 0 trans, non-binary or genderfluid (xx%) + 0 group efforts

  • Authors of colour: 2 (29%)
  • LGBTQIA authors: 1 (14%)
  • Non-US / UK based authors: 2

I’m not going to include my progress in the Dancing With Fantasy and Sci-Fi reading challenge in my end of month Redux – watch out for separate posts with prompt suggestions and progress updates!

What have you been reading?