The first in a new series of posts looking back at the books I’ve read this month – I’ll have a look at any trends or through-lines I see in what I’ve read, and how I’ve stacked up against my goals for the year. Let’s begin!
Books Read
Here is the full list of books I read this month:
General/Genre Goals (For the month)
- Self-published books –
Goal: 1+ a month, 10+ recent SPFBO finalists over the year
Read: 2 self-pubs, 1 SPFBO - Sci-fi –
Goal: 1+ a month,
Read: 1 - Expand my Horizons –
No goal, but no progress either - Read older books –
Goal: 1ish a month
Read: 1
Goalwise I’m fairly happy with how things are going. The expand my horizons goal is the only one I haven’t made progress on, and I don’t mind too much there so long as I’m reading a good variety of SFF.
Author Goals (Cumulative – this month’s progress in brackets)
- Octavia Butler:- 0
- Adrian Tchaikovsky:- 0
- Janny Wurts:- 0
- Seanan McGuire:- 1 (1)
- R.J. Barker:- 0
Not much progress here, but I did finish Middlegame, which has been on my list for a while. I think my aim will be to read at least three books by at least four of the authors on this list, which means 12 books total. So technically I’m on track!.
Specific book goals
Key: started; finished this month; finished before this month; DNF
- The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
- The Hod King by Josiah Bancroft
- Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
- Jade City by Fonda Lee
- The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart
- Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
- City of Lies by Sam Hawke
- Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee
- Priest of Lies by Peter McClean
- Piranese by Susanna Clarke
- We Are The Dead by Mike Shackle
- The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
- The Lost War by Justin Lee Anderson
- The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
- Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
- Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno Garcia
- The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker
- Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Out of the eighteen books here, I’ve read one, and started another two (both have been temporarily put down for mood reading reasons). Ideally I’ll read at least 2/3 of the books on this list by the end of the year, which again, puts me just on track for meeting this goal by the end of the year. I’ll probably count DNFs as reading the book, since I’ll have read enough to have decided whether or not to read more.
Trends
One thread I’ve noticed running through several of the books I’ve read is playing/tarot cards. In Raven Stratagem, card identities can be used as a callsign for fleet commanders. In Spellslinger, the Argosi made deck of cards represents the factions in the continent (and there is an excellent sequence where an improvised card game is used to overcome a muting hex). And finally in The Mask of Mirrors, card reading is one of the types of magic featured. In general this is a trend I enjoy, so this has been great!
Other than that, the only other trends that I can see running through the books are extremely common genre tropes (the oppressed trying to upend the status quo happens in Voice of War, The Mask of Mirrors, Spellslinger, Raven Stratagem – to an extent, and is discussed in King’s Blood Four). I don’t mind the lack of trends, as that means I’ve been reading a good variety of books this month!
Plans for Next Month
I’m hoping to read a little bit more Sci-fi this month, especially considering Raven Stratagem is probably a hybrid that leans Sci-fi. Potentially I can also tick off one of my specific book goals as I’m leaning towards reading The Calculating Stars soon.
I think this will be the month for me to read some more Tchaikovsky for my author goals, as I have several of his books floating near the top of my TBR.
For my older books goal, I might also get two birds with one stone by reading Clay’s Ark by Octavia Butler, a book I started as part of reading the Patternist series, but stopped because it wasn’t quite what I expected.
I’m also thinking about trying City of Lies again – for whatever reason I wasn’t engaging with it when I started it, but I think this was a mood thing.
That’s it for this month! Do you have any monthly goals, and if so, how are they going?
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