imyril @ There's Always Room For One More Redux

May Redux: …into the fire

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

The best thing to do when drowning on an intense project with lots of travel is co-host a month-long blogstravaganza celebrating all things fantasy across as many channels as possible. …I’m not actually kidding. Wyrd and Wonder was AMAZING and cheered up what could have been a miserable May.

Reading Round-up

Read-alongs and Subjective Chaos nominees dominated my May reading, with mixed results (partly because I was grumpy and stressed, so not in a forgiving mood). In fact, I ended up improvising a new approach to star ratings as a result – awarding additional stars I think it may merit if you’re not me. Which is to say ★★★(★) is not the same as ★★★☆. Confused? Well, it’s been a conflicted month.

  • Age of Assassins – R J Barker  (★)★★☆
  • The Ninth Rain – Jen Williams  ★★★★★
  • Trail of Lightning – Rebecca Roanhorse  ★★★(★)
  • Vicious – V E Schwab  ★★★★
  • Vengeful – V E Schwab  ★★★☆
  • Every Day – David Levithan  ★★(★★)

Review Round-up

I saved my very limited writing time for the read-alongs and weekly Quest Logs this month. So much for my good intentions to catch up my backlog of fantasy reviews! However, I managed to squeeze one in:

Stacking the shelves

You know I’m having a busy month when I don’t have time to buy books… of course, I never have time to buy no books at all.

Book cover: The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon a dragon wound around a tower against an orange sky
Head On

Reading statistics

My goal – always – is to read diversely and to love every book. This year, I’m determined to read more books I own, but I am taking it one book at a time!

Books read: 28 / 75 | Game of Books: 172 / 400

  • 6 / 22 off the shelf (i.e. not bought in 2019)
  • 7 ARCs
  • 6 bite-size (excl. short stories)

Authors: 10 male (36%) / 16 female (57%) / 2 trans, non-binary or genderfluid (7%)

  • Authors of colour: 5 (18%)
  • LGBTQIA authors: 10 (36%)
  • Non-US / UK based authors: 2 (9%)

What else is going on?

It has been an amazing month of Wyrd and Wonder: I’m so sorry I’ve had less time than I wanted to both blog and blog hop – but I’ve really enjoyed my weekly visits see what everyone has been up to as I put together the Quest Logs. It’s been an amazing year, and I think it’s probably safe to say we’ll be back for more next May – will you?

Next up in my schedule is the mad dash to try and finish reading the Subjective Chaos nominees in as many categories as possible (I’m determined to get a vote on SF this year, dammit). I think that means I need to read 4 books and a novella in the next two weeks, so wish me luck!