Back in January, an opinionated collective of bloggers and book lovers announced our shortlist for this year’s Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards. Six months later, where have we got to?
Subjective Chaos
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.
The new job has remained incredibly intense and has added trips to Denmark every other week to its roster of unexpected demands. Now I’m a bit more settled, I am actually mostly enjoying it (and I love Denmark), but gosh I’m feeling the pressure. Easter was a godsend – four much-needed days off to decompress.
Well March has been a month. With Brexit looming, I knew this month would take quite a toll, but then I started a new job and that has also been rather bruising! Fair to say I have been mostly overwhelmed. This isn’t likely to change next month, so I suspect it will remain quiet around here on the blog until May.
February has been a big book haul month for me, but it’s been a dreadful reading month. I got distracted by some unplanned work re-insulating the house and a sudden flurry of work opportunities. So it’s been dashes to the DIY store and big decisions about my future; punctuated by a much-needed and rather extravagant weekend retreat to Scotland for my birthday.
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).
It’s that time: announcing the 2019 nominees for the Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards!
Cue: drum roll
Annnd: CHAOS
At the end of 2017, C of The Middle Shelf proposed a new set of informal awards: nominated, debated and awarded by a group of bookworms. We embraced chaos as our guiding principle, and we had so much fun we’re back for more. Welcome to the Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards 2019.
November is SciFiMonth and this year has been EPIC. My heartfelt thanks and love to everyone who took part – it’s been an absolute blast from start to finish! I read fewer books than I hoped; I was having too much fun scanning the SciFiMonth feeds – and the life admin I put off last month demanded a fair bit of my attention. I’m still not done. But I’m still alive, so I guess it can take a bit longer? And first I better start drafting the final Mission Status of the year. Sniff.
The Saypuri overthrew their Continental masters, killed their gods and passed the Worldly Regulations outlawing any further mention of them. But belief in the Divine lingers. Divine power can still be channelled. And now a Saypuri scholar of that forbidden history has been murdered in the Continental capital. Are the Divine returning to Bulikov?
At some point every summer, I hit a reading slump. This year, it was caused by an overseas trip too far (so tired, people. So tired) and an endless cascade of work deadlines (ongoing through the end of September); too much fun (Nine Worlds!) …and too much reading. I couldn’t keep up with my reviews, and that left me reluctant to pick up anything new until I caught up. I allowed myself a time out, so here’s to getting back on top of reviews and reading in the autumn.
It all started – as so many things do – with a proposal on Twitter: what would happen if a group of bookworms had a go at calling the best genre reads of 2017? Well, firstly an explosion of reading lists as our opinions cross-pollinated. Then an outbreak of glee. Finally, much Serious Debate. And now, at last, we can reveal our winners…
No Season is forever, but this one promises to be longer than humanity can endure. In the underground refuge of Castrima, Essun must master powers that might save her new people. But a powerful city state has emerged from the ashes of Sanzed, and far to the south, the Fulcrum is not yet dead. The Season is not all Castrima must survive…
It’s been a scorching hot summer so far, but thankfully the extra degrees haven’t interfered with my appetite for reading. In fact, July’s reading has been extensive, fuelled by daily London commutes, a long-haul flight back to the US mid-month and the 24 in 48 hour readathon! It’s been lovely to reach the end of assigned reading lists and read free-range – before I tackle my ARC backlog in August (probably)…
The American government imprisoned Aphra’s people and let them die in the desert, far from the sea. Now they need her help, and have an irresistible offer to make. But can outcasts ever truly win the trust of a government that persecuted them? And can they trust that government in return?
