My reading for May was slightly less intensely focused on the Hugo Awards. Things have been very busy in the lead up to Continuum and I found I had to break things up with some lighter fare. Judging from my book count for the month, it looks like last month’s binge is easing off… however, I think that’s partly because I read a whole heap of fanfic instead.
Mt TBR Status
Mt TBR @ 1 January 2018: 351
Mt TBR @ 30 April 2018: 363
Mt TBR @ 31 May 2018: 366
Books Read
54. Paper Girls, Vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang. Shortlisted for the Hugo Awards. Four teenage newspaper deliverers from the 80s are accidentally thrown back in time to the caveman era. They must stick together and find a way home. Not really my jam.
55. Soft Hands by Ariel Bishop. Ice hockey m/m romance. Review forthcoming.
56. True Pretences by Rose Lerner. Regency romance. A Jewish con artist tries to persuade a rich heiress to marry his brother but falls in love with her instead. This was utterly delightful. Ash hasn’t had the easiest life and the connection between him and Lydia is very sweet. There were some clever parallels between con artist and society hostess, and I loved Lydia’s iron will.
57. New York, 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson. Shortlisted for the Hugo Awards. Climate change has hit and the ocean levels have risen, flooding lower Manhattan. The book is ostensibly about the lives of several residents of a building in the area as they investigate who is trying to sabotage their home. However, it’s really more about how climate change might impact the city and how these changes might be adapted to. Hard sci-fi isn’t usually my thing, but the ideas were fascinating and there was enough character work to keep me hooked.
58. Charm or Dare by Tansy Rayner Roberts. A short fantasy story from the Castle Charming series. Corporal Jack is roped into one of the princes’ drinking/kissing games. Sweet fun with one of my favourite characters (shh… they’re all my favourite characters).
59. Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault. Reviewed here.
60. Penric’s Mission by Lois McMaster Bujold. Fantasy novella. On his first covert mission, Penric is betrayed and imprisoned. He must escape and figure out what went wrong. I love Bujold’s Penric and Desdamona books and this was no exception. In this book, Penric is a little older and has a few more scars. However, he manages to retain some of the cheerfulness and sense of wonder I love so much about him. I also loved the widow Nikys for her practicality and her fortitude in the face of male stupidity. I kind of hope there’ll be more of her somewhere down the line.
61. Creative Incentives by Kit Rocha. Sci-fi erotica. A short story set after the Beyond series. Cruz resorts to some creative incentives to get Ace to complete his physical therapy exercises.
62. Catching Captain Nash by Anna Campbell. Regency romance novella. On the night of her engagement party, Morwenna Nash’s long-lost husband returns home. After several years of imprisonment and torture, Robert has some ghosts. I particularly enjoyed the way Morwenna was able to easily see through his facade and support him in quiet ways.
63. Ida by Alison Evans. Reviewed here.
64. Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor. Shortlisted for the Hugo Awards. Review forthcoming.
65. Penric’s Fox by Lois McMaster Bujold. Fantasy novella, shortlisted for the Hugo Awards. Penric’s peaceful day of fishing is interrupted when one of his friends calls on him for assistance in solving a suspicious death. As always, a delightful read from Bujold. I particularly enjoyed seeing more of the shamans and to see people other than Penric treating their demons with respect. It was also nice to see Penric be a bit of a badass, even though it left him feeling morally troubled.
Books Acquired
Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee
The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
Paper Girls, Vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang
Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor
A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
Charm or Dare by Tansy Rayner Roberts
Creative Incentives by Kit Rocha
Penric’s Fox by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Ida by Alison Evans
Three-man Advantage by Ariel Bishop
Moon-bright Tides by RoAnna Sylver
Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn
Tricks for Free by Seanan McGuire.
Online Reading
Lots of online reading this month! First, I read through the short stories shortlisted for the Nommo Awards. You’ll be able to hear my thoughts on the Skiffy and Fanty Show with my co-hosts Trish Mason and Brandon O’Brien in the next few weeks.
Then, after finally watching Spiderman: Homecoming, I fell down a rabbit hole of Peter/MJ fanfic and may have accidentally read somewhere around 500K words. I’m too lazy to list them all, but a couple of favourites were:
people in my hometown are pointing to the sky, do they truly see me? will they scream and sigh? by ephemeral cloud.
Five Times MJ Doesn’t Need Rescuing by nire.
The L in Love Stands for Loser a series of 6 short stories by AppleJuiz.