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So, what are you reading this month (January 2020)?

I am starting the year with Book 2 in The Traitor Son series, The Fell Sword by Miles Cameron.

The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods by Antonin Sertillanges

I'm in the middle of a few books and want to finish them before I move on to some newer publications. Right now I'm finishing up The Burning White, Dangerous Women, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, and The F*ck It Diet: Eating Should Be Easy (for my IRL book club). I'd also like to work in a re-read of Fool's Assassin.

I ripped through Prudence and Imprudence in a couple of days (hooray for school vacations!) and haven't decided what to pick up next yet. I may just jump into Fool's Quest early while I wait for my loan to come through on Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City.

I started leviathan wakes today.

I finished The Psychology of Time Travel which I enjoyed very much. A different take on time travelling stories with the emphasis on said psychology of the people involved.

I'm about to finish Transcendent 2: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction 2016 an ownvoices anthology. It made me curious to find out more about the Chameleon Moon series.

My scheduled books are mainly BotMs for the various groups I'm member of. My hopefully doable list looks as follows:

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City
This Alien Shore
His Majesty's Dragon
The Female Man
The Future of Another Timeline
All the Light We Cannot See
The Canterbury Tales
Invisible Man

Undeading Bells by Drew Hayes

I briefly picked up After Alice by Gregory Maguire, but I couldn't get into it. It seemed unnecessarily wordy and pretentious. Too bad, because I remember really enjoying Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Instead I ripped through Unspeakable Things by Jess Lourey, which was a free Kindle First download and was un-putdownable if you're looking for a thriller. Some dark and disturbing content.

I just got notified that my loan is in for Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, so that's next, then Fool's Quest.

Shel wrote: "I briefly picked up After Alice by Gregory Maguire, but I couldn't get into it. It seemed unnecessarily wordy and pretentious. Too bad, because I remember really enjoy..."

I chose Unspeakable Things as one my Kindle First books, too. Might have to move it up my list...

I finished The Fell Sword by Miles Cameron, 9/10. Complex characters, a multi-layered plot, an intriguing magic system, really well-researched battles, and a fascinating world. Looking forward to the rest of the series (this was book 2 of 5).

Now starting Shadows Return by Lynn Flewelling, book 4 of 7 in her Nightrunner series.

On audio, I am listening to the Forward Collection, sci fi stories and novellas. So far I finished Summer Frost by Blake Crouch and Ark by Veronica Roth. Now listening to Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin.

For me I'm trying Naamah's Kiss via audio. It has a lovely Scottish reader.

Jacki wrote: "For me I'm trying Naamah's Kiss via audio. It has a lovely Scottish reader."

I love that book! Have you read the Kushiel books set a few generations earlier in the same world?

I just finally had a chance to run to the library and pick up Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, so I'm planning to start it tonight.

The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman

Just finished Season of Storms and will be starting Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City at some point this evening.

Also finished We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe and starting Growing Things and Other Stories. Going with a short story collection as its easier to break into if necessary. I really want to read Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime with another group next month and I know I just don't have as much time to spend reading text books (can't do as much multitasking with them).

The Natural History of Unicorns by Chris Lavers

I finished Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City and thought it was great fun! Next up is Fool's Quest for the series read!

I finished Shadows Return by Lynn Flewelling, not as strong as the other Nightrunner books but still good, 7/10, and then read Tripoint by C.J. Cherryh, also 7/10, a bit confusing for the reader as well as for the 2 main characters, half-brothers Christian and Thomas. This is part of the Union-Alliance series (or the Company Wars series).

I also finished listening to Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin, excellent story and very powerful as an audiobook. Now listening to You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles.

And while I watch football, I usually read the paper, do a crossword, read magazines, or read nonfiction. During the playoffs, I’ve read about 75% of The Silver Lining: An Insightful Guide to the Realities of Breast Cancer by Hollye Jacobs. Brutally honest, yet balanced with humor and realistic optimism.

Kathi wrote: "I also finished listening to Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin, excellent story and very powerful as an audiobook. Now listening to You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles.
."

I really enjoyed Emergency Skin. About laughed my rear off when I realized where it was going.

I reacted poorly to You Have Arrived at Your Destination. But then I suspect we're supposed to react poorly.

My favorites of the group were Summer Frost and The Last Conversation. I'm curious what you think.

Random wrote: "My favorites of the group were Summer Frost and The Last Conversation. I'm curious what you think."

I’ll let you know when I have finished them all. And since I am listening to them when I walk 3x/week, it may take me a while. I think Summer Frost may have an edge because it is longer (I am not a big fan of short stories in general), but Emergency Skin was very special.

Kathi wrote: "I think Summer Frost may have an edge because it is longer (I am not a big fan of short stories in general), but Emergency Skin was very special."

Short stories are, in many ways, a very different art form from novels. They aren't there so much to tell a narrative, but to show a single snap shot, a single event, a single emotion. I find them every bit as fascinating as novels, though in different ways.


Finished Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City last night and started When Gravity Fails on my way in to work this morning.

Random wrote: "Short stories are, in many ways, a very different art form from novels. They aren't there so much to tell a narrative, but to show a single snap shot, a single event, a single emotion."

I know, and I can appreciate the craft and skill of a good short story. I just don’t care for them as much.

I love short stories! They were my entrance into Science Fiction. As a teenager all my pocket money went into the "Best of Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" collections that had been translated into my language. I guess it took me some years before I even started reading novels.

BTT:

My January so far featured the following reads:

3 time travel novels with prominently female cast

The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas had its emphasis on said psychology aspect of the jumps and was a great mix of character study and mystery crime.

The Female Man by Joanna Russ is a classic for feminism in SF, but did nothing for me. Too dated for my taste.

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz has the same topic (feminism and time travel) but struck much deeper into my soul. Sometimes pretty radical, sometimes morally questionable, but it moved me greatly. My first 5-star-rating of the year.


Fitting to the introductory sentences I want to read more short stories this year. I finished one which I began last year and read another one:

Transcendent 2: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction 2016, edited by Bogi Takács had some interesting stories and new-to-me authors. I already bought the other two volumes of this anthology.

Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson is a collection of mythical stories, re-tellings of known fairy tales (I didn't recognize all of them, but most) in Hopkinson's authentic, blunt, provokative and often erotic prose. I dearly love her prose and her down-to-earth characters.


I'm trying to read a bit outside the box this year (usually I'm only reading SF and F), so I challenged myself with

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, a very slow paced story set during WWII in France. I usually shy away from stories about this time (guess it's my always guilty German soul), but this one was a surprisingly good and soothing read - or better listen, since I listened to it on audiobook with a narrator who hadn't a grasp of German and French pronunciation which made it quite funny in times.

The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen by Elizabeth von Arnim is a travelouge from the beginning of the last century and was my feel-good harmless bedtime read. Cute and naive with an adorable self-deprecating prose.

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer are my current classic read. I started with the middle English version I own, but I already bought a German translation to read it side by side, cause it is quite difficult for me to understand.


Other than that I read (yes � I had too much time on my hand, I know �)

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik, an Napoleonic war AU with dragonriders as soldiers. Nice idea, but surprisingly simplistic in prose and character development. I won't be reading the rest of the series.

This Alien Shore by C.S. Friedman is a space opera/cyberpunk mix, much more accessible than Neuromancer, yet still with too much emphasis on the cyperpunk side for my taste. But very interesting and thoughtful worldbuilding and human social development. Definitely worth a read.

House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds is my current audiobook - and it is way too long. It suffers from too much talking and explanation. The plot behind the talking is rather good and would have gained a lot from tightening the story.

I hated the audiobook of House of Suns and returned it - the narrator makes it so boring!! It's much better when one reads it oneself. If you like you can borrow my kindle book (just send me a pm with your email address). I feel a bit sorry you're not enjoying something I recommended, but it's also really sweet that you are, especially since it's space opera (a genre you usually don't enjoy). I'm actually reading Merchanter's Luck based on your recommendation. :)

That's sweet of you, Eva. But I'm nearly through (2 hours remaining). I actually like the voice of the narrator. But I guess I have to keep a distance from space operas for some months after that. XD (� oh � not helpful since I try to read through the Vorkosigan novels �)

Lol! I like his voice, too - just not the way he reads things. But the Vorkosigan series has many parts that are pretty much entirely set on one particular planet, and it's very character-focused, so maybe you'll enjoy them more than you think. :)

I LOVE the Vorkosigan novels! FYI, if you dig back through the archives in the series read folders, you'll find our discussion threads for that series - we read them quite some time ago!

I'm about halfway through Fool's Quest and having a hard time putting it down. I'm going to be sad to leave this world when we finish the series!

(side note: stay tuned for a nominations thread for the next series read coming soon!)

I'm reading Von Bek by Michael Moorcock. I finished the first story but have taken a break to read Horus Rising by Dan Abnett because I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for a review. The Warhammer 40K universe the most grim dark of grim dark universes. It's my first Warhammer 40K book so lets see how it works out. After that I'll finish the other book.

I just finished Pariah which I thought was a satisfying ending to this trilogy, but wouldn't be unhappy with a sequel. Now I find that a fourth book is coming out in May!! I'm about to start The Wandering Fire

Christine wrote: "I'm about to start The Wandering Fire"

Oooooh I have read that book at least ten times. I'm assuming you've already read The Summer Tree? If not, definitely don't jump in on book two, find the first one first. I love that trilogy so very much.

In other news, I may or may not have wasted ALL OF MY PREP TIME at school today in finishing Fool's Quest... oops.

Ordination by Daniel M. Ford

Shel wrote: "Christine wrote: "I'm about to start The Wandering Fire"

Oooooh I have read that book at least ten times. I'm assuming you've already read The Summer Tree? If not, definitely don't j..."

Yes, I have read
The Summer Tree and enjoyed it

After finishing Fool's Quest I needed something completely different to cleanse my reading palate, so I browsed the unread books on my kindle and ended up breezing through The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son On Life, Love, and Loss by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt. I must have been living under a rock because I've always admired Cooper and I had NO IDEA that she was his mother! Anyway, it was a fascinating book. I learned more about Vanderbilt's early life, which was full of scandals that I'd never heard about. It's basically an edited series of emails that the two of them exchanged over the course of a year, with mother and son asking questions and opening up to each other in a way that they never had before. If you enjoy memoirs and biographies, this is a good one.

While I try to decide which fiction to pick up next, I'm reading through The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder to try and understand my kiddo better!

Now I’m reading pines by Blake crouch.

I read The Last Battlemage by Irene Radford, Book 2 in her Dragon Nimbus History series. I generously rated it 6/10 since I like dragons and there were parts I enjoyed.

Then I read Fool's Quest by Robin Hobb for our group series read. A solid 10, even though I sometimes wanted to shake Fitz. (It seems I often want to shake Fitz, even though I love him as a character.)

Now I am starting 61 Hours by Lee Child, another of his Jack Reacher books. I read today that he is going to stop writing that series and his brother is going to take over.

On audio I finished You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles. I didn’t care for this story at all, 2 stars. Currently about 1/3 through The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay, and so far, it’s pretty good.

Finished Growing Things and Other Stories and started Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime.

Also finished When Gravity Fails and A Fire in the Sun and started the third book The Exile Kiss last night.

Its actually a pretty good series. Given the time period it was written in, its surprising that it doesn't feel dated.

My loan for The Bear and the Nightingale came in sooner than I'd expected, so I just started it a little early for the February BotM discussion.

Let’s see, I finished 61 Hours by Lee Child and thought it was one of the best in the Jack Reacher series. Lots of puzzle pieces slowly coming together and somewhat less mayhem. 9/10

Next up was Stonehenge: Where Atlantis Died by Harry Harrison and Leon Stover, 6/10. Lots of fascinating archeological detail and a long Afterword (47 pages), making the case for why the authors believe their take on the how and why of Stonehenge is most sound. But I felt like the authors couldn’t quite decide if they wanted to write a dissertation or a novel, so the book is a mix of both. And their “cutting edge� theories are, of course, somewhat outdated, since the book was written in 1972 and revised/republished in 1983.

Now I have started The Dread Wyrm by Miles Cameron, book 3 in The Traitor Son Cycle, which just keeps getting better and better with each book, so I have high hopes for this installment. It is a February read for a different group here at Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ.

Terrors of Pangaea by John C. Wright

I finished The Bear and the Nightingale and it was lovely - looking forward to the February discussion! Now I'm reading Red Rising by Pierce Brown. I'm finding it not especially original - it's like a mashup of Divergent and The Hunger Games with a splash of Harry Potter and a smidge of Greek mythology - but still a lot of fun. Not great literature, but good entertainment! I received the book as a gift, and I probably will not purchase the rest of the trilogy, but I will certainly get them out of the library so I can finish the story.

This month I've read:

The Outsider - it took FOREVER to get this from the library, so by the time it arrived I had missed the discussion in the online book club I was reading it for - but I really enjoyed it anyway.

A Man Lay Dead - a quick and fun read for one of my IRL book clubs.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed - the current book for the aforementioned online book club. Not my thing at all.

American Born Chinese - another quick read for a different IRL book club - I was a bit disappointed after all the hype.

The Starless Sea - this was for both an IRL and online book club, and I was already planning to read it on my own - it was amazing, as I expected.

The Deal of a Lifetime - a strange little short story, not really my thing.

The Mist - definitely better than the movie.

Strangers at the Gate - well-written mystery

Currently reading:

Along Came a Spider - Somehow I never got around to reading this, and it's way better than the movie.

Currently Listening to:

Swipe Right for Murder - I couldn't find my paper copy for an IRL book club, so I'm listening to it with a free Audible trial, and it is SO much fun.

I finished pines which I loved and now I am reading patient zero by Jonathan maberry. I love the Mashup of science fiction, horror and thriller.


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I finished The Dread Wyrm by Miles Cameron, 10/10. Fantastic middle book in a 5 book series. Also finished listening to The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay, 6/10. I liked the first half of the story, when the reader is trying to figure things out along with the main character, better than the last half.

I am now listening to the last story in this collection, Randomize by Andy Weir. And I’ve started the next book in Lynn Flewelling’s Nightrunner series, The White Road.