Medieval Bookworm

As usual, it’s hard to believe we’ve already hit November! I’m on my third day of #nanowrimo and so far the first couple have gone pretty well, even though it is really hard to try and fit that writing in after work. Unfortunately, you’ll definitely be seeing less of me this month, but we’ll see how it goes.

October, though, was a decent month for reading. Even though I spent a week in glorious Rome, I still read quite a few really amazing books. The Read-a-thon helped too! 17 books in total, not bad.

Fiction

• Unclaimed, Courtney Milan
• The Dragon and the Pearl, Jeannie Lin
• The Lady of the Rivers, Philippa Gregory
• The Duke is Mine, Eloisa James
• The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, Melanie Benjamin
• Miles Errant, Lois McMaster Bujold
• Miles in Love, Lois McMaster Bujold
• For the King, Catherine Delors
• Just Like Heaven, Julia Quinn
• A Touch of Dead, Charlaine Harris
• After the Golden Age, Carrie Vaughn
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
• Far to Go, Alison Pick
• Storm Front, Jim Butcher

Non-fiction

• Quiet, Susan Cain
• The Glitter and the Gold, Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan
• Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Pick of the Month

I couldn’t really choose between these two, and I think they have very different audiences, so I chose them both. I loved them and would wholeheartedly recommend them, so there you go.

In November, I expect I’ll be reading a lot less as I try to shift my focus to writing this month. I’ll try to keep up with reviews, which should actually be a lot easier if I read as little as I’m expecting to, and I will be posting about my trip to Rome this weekend and probably a few times over the next few weeks – it was quite a busy vacation!

I’d still like to squeeze in the following books:

• Rome by Robert Hughes (already reading!)
• Flawless by Carrie Lofty
• The Courtesan’s Lover by Gabrielle Kim
• Praetorian by Simon Scarrow
• The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

We’ve made it all the way into July! I can’t believe half of the year is over. And it’s the painful half of the year; I have no less than three trips scheduled in the last six months of this year and I’m really excited for all of them. So, roll on July, August, and October, and after that comes November and Christmas.

June was exciting, too, though; I got to see Kathy from Bermudaonion!

I also met her lovely husband Carl and we spent a nice afternoon wandering around London. Definitely worth the train trip!

June was a month that was decent for reading, considering how much else I had going on, and not so decent for reviewing. They’ll turn up eventually, trust me!

Fiction

• Unlocked, Courtney Milan
• The Native Star, M.K. Hobson
• A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness (I may never review this. It hit too hard.)
• Whisper of Scandal, Nicola Cornick (and a Q&A with Nicola)
• The Girl in the Steel Corset, Kady Cross
• Magic Slays, Ilona Andrews
• The Collaborator, Margaret Leroy
• The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, Philip Pullman
• Bloodroot, Amy Greene
• The Story of Beautiful Girl, Rachel Simon
• Captives of the Night, Loretta Chase

Non-fiction

• Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America by Jeff Ryan
• You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know, Heather Sellers
• Blood Work, Holly Tucker

February was a bit of a mixed bag for me in many ways. In the “real world”, very little actually happened! It was mainly just more of the same; I’ve started an exercise routine in earnest, have been working as usual, and am in general modestly busy. Nothing to complain about but nothing to get excited about either. I did manage to finish an Xbox game I’d got for my birthday, Assassin’s Creed II, so I’m doing a decent job of keeping up my other hobbies as well.

The month was also mixed in terms of reading. I managed to keep up with part of my re-reading goal. I finished Anne of Green Gables and have just sneaked in the start of The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. I’ll count that as being mostly on track. I’m still failing pretty hard at writing reviews on time, but I think I’d best just accept that and keep trying to write a full week’s reviews each weekend. The quality of the books I read varied – I had more duds than usual, but as always some good ones as well. In total I read 18 books this month.

Fiction

• To Serve a King, Donna Russo Morin
• Pictures of You, Caroline Leavitt
• The Mischief of the Mistletoe, Lauren Willig
• All That’s True, Jackie Lee Miles
• The Mistress of Abha, William Newton
• Love in the Afternoon, Lisa Kleypas
• Some Girls Are, Courtney Summers
• A Fatal Waltz, Tasha Alexander
• Dracula, My Love, Syrie James
• The Orchid Affair, Lauren Willig
• Tears of Pearl, Tasha Alexander
• Snapped, Pamela Klauffke
• When Beauty Tamed the Beast, Eloisa James
• West of Here, Jonathan Evison

Nonfiction

• Bad Science, Ben Goldacre
• Flow, Elissa Stein and Susan Kim
• She-Wolves, Helen Castor
• A Computer Called Leo, Georgina Ferry

In March, I’m looking forward to reading two more Wheel of Time books. I think this may be the year of fantasy re-reads, however, because George R.R. Martin has just confirmed that July 12th is the release date for A Dance with Dragons, the next in A Song of Ice and Fire.

I flat out loved the first three and enjoyed the fourth, so this is a must read – but I’ve been waiting five years for it to come out. That means I’ll have to read those four books as well, before July, because no way am I having that spoiled for me. And then there’s The Wise Man’s Fear, Patrick Rothfuss’s new book, which came out two days ago, and necessitates re-reading The Name of the Wind. Looks like I’ll be busy … but in a very good way.

How was your reading month?

I truly can’t believe that October has ended and we’re almost in the long, cold, dark stretch of winter.  About the only thing winter is good for is reading – as well as my birthday, but I’m sure I won’t like that any more either soon! – and I have a lot of that lined up this winter.  Unread book numbers have been pretty constant since July, which isn’t terrible but isn’t great either.  I doubt I’ll make a dent in them this winter with the holiday season coming around, but I can dream, can’t I?

I read 19 books, which is a bit less than normal, but still an entirely satisfying month.  Here’s the breakdown:

Non-fiction

• Red Azalea, Anchee Min
• Chinese Whispers, Jan Wong
• The Lost City of Z, David Grann
• Neither Here Nor There, Bill Bryson
• A Voice from Old New York, Louis Auchincloss
• Sex on Six Legs, Marlene Zuk
• Cod, Mark Kurlansky
• The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion

Historical Fiction

• The Auschwitz Violin, Maria Angels Anglada
• The Gendarme, Mark T. Mustian
• Mistress of the Art of Death, Ariana Franklin
• The Wrong Blood, Manuel de Lope

Historical Romance

• Breathless, Anne Stuart

Literary Fiction

• The Passport, Herta Muller

Contemporary Fiction

• A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby

Fantasy

• Of Saints and Shadows, Christopher Golden
• Spirit Bound, Richelle Mead (YA)
• Angel Souls and Devil Hearts, Christopher Golden
• The Demon’s Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan (YA)

This may be the first month ever where my largest category of reading was non-fiction.  I think I like it!  I felt like I was learning a lot this month, and while it may have meant I read less fiction, I really found myself craving facts and history.  There are also a few memoirs in there, which I found quite interesting as well.

The clear favorite for fiction for this month is Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin – I still haven’t got my hands on the sequel, but it’s sitting in the library reservation basket and I’m just waiting for it to come in so I can get to it right away.

How was your October reading?  Are you looking forward to settling in with a book on the ever-colder November nights?