books | Aaaand it's Which Books Did You Read Last Month? time again <3

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Aaaand it's Which Books Did You Read Last Month? time again <3

I made a conscious decision to read my own things this month (as compared to March's "read nothing but course books and small extras if you have the time"). It's almost doubled the amount of books I read this month, with as bonus that I finished most of them.

Sadly, my brain is a sieve and the best I've got for you are the ones I talked about:

Spellwright by Blake Charlton
Goose Chase by Patrice Kindl
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
Howards End by E.M. Forster
The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones
Ann Veronica by H.G. Wells

It doesn't look like much until you remember I read about twice that and just can't recall titles. (Oh! No, I can! The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald, which I didn't actually finish, but I think that's the only one.)

It wasn't a terrific reading month for me with not loving anything I read, but I did enjoy most of it in some manner. May will be All About The Course Books. I suspect I'll be dipping in and out of shorter things here and there just to retain my sanity, though.

What about you? Did you have any favourites this months? Something you couldn't finish? Did you make any reading plans and did they work out if you did? Why (not)? Any plans for May?

Also, lastly, has anyone made any bookish posts for the 3 weeks fest that they'd like to share links for?

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In April I reread Charmed Life this April, and enjoyed it a great deal. Did you enjoy The Lives of Christopher Chant? It's been ages since I read it.

I also read tearjerkers by Melina Marchetta - I literally sobbed even though they were rereads and I had every foreknowledge of what was going to happen.

I did, yes! I forgot to mention that it's a reread because I'm all over the place. It's my favourite of the DWJ books I've read to date. ^-^

Sounds like an emotional reading month for you!

This is why you should write 'em down when you finish 'em. *G*

Here's what I read from April 4th to May 1st, though: http://a-reader-is-me.dreamwidth.org/101017.html :)

Oh, I do. ^-^ I'm just too lazy to look them up and I'm trying to get myself to remember the titles of what I've read better without looking them up. I don't mind if I forget them in more than a month's time, but surely I can get my memory to work well enough to remember them for a month...

It sounds like you've had a really good reading month. ^-^

58 books this month, the list is here: http://quackaquacka.dreamwidth.org/20315.html

Anything by Michael Thomas Ford is always a favourite, and I'm a long-term fan of Amber Benson's - something about her writing (both in films and in books) really just clicks for me. A very good month for me in terms of books I will definitely be re-reading!

I have definitely been reading less this year than last year. I have also had a very bad case of writers block this year, while last year was very prolific for me. I don't know if the two are related, but I think it's something to take note of.

I'm going to proceed as usual for May, then I'll be repeating my two-books-a-day experiment in June.

Oh! That's quite interesting! I'd say it's worth taking note of too. ^-^ Maybe it's also worth seeing how your two-books-a-day experiment fits into this correlation?

Good reading months are good! ^-^ I hope May'll be just as enjoyable for you!

I did the two books a day thing in March, which is also the only month I managed to write a story (to completion, as well). (For the sake of accuracy, I did also write something last month but it was little and silly and I wrote it in about twenty minutes while baking, so I don't think that particularly counts.)

It's definitely interesting.

This was definitely a better month than March for me!

C. J. Cherryh, Betrayer (Foreigner 4.3) -- Always good to spend time with Bren Cameron and friends^H^H^H associates, but one would have liked a little more resolution for the end of the trilogy, and I really hope the (other) aliens put in an appearance before too many more books go by -- it's been six, now, with only occasional reminders that they exist.

Jane Lindskold, Nine Gates -- Chinese-flavored fantasy, middle book of a trilogy. Intriguing and reasonably satisfying; if there's a giant plot hole I haven't spotted it yet.

Seanan McGuire, second of the October Daye series, with mysterious killings in a fearie-owned software company. Diverting travel reading, not very deep. (It's on the e-reader and I'm too lazy to go check the title; Artficial something, I think.)

Michelle West, City of Night, second of the House Wars series. Which I haven't quite finished yet, but I'm only a few pages from the end. I'm a little frustrated with this series; I've been waiting since (I think) 2004 to find out what happened to Jewel Markess and her den *after* her thread was unceremoniously dropped in the last volume of the Sun Sword series, and instead we get, apparently, three fat volumes of backstory about their childhood and adolescence, with this volume having a fair bit of overlap with events in Hunter's Death. Still, it's an engaging enough story, though the suspense is somewhat lacking given that we already know pretty much who was alive ten years later and who wasn't.

Barbara Hambly, Dead and Buried, a welcome return to the Benjamin January series of murder mysteries set in the free colored community of 1830s New Orleans. In this one, the body of an old friend of January's (white) friend Hannibal mysteriously turns up in the coffin of a colored man.

Also I finally made it to the end of Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables, which was ... odd. Pages and pages and pages of (quite powerful) description of a dead body sitting undiscovered overnight, after most of a book of meandering anecdotes leading up to that moment, and then -- wham bam happy ending in about two pages.

Aargh! I meant to crosspost the above comment to my journal and seem to have sent it to the community instead. Mods, please don't let it through? Many apologies.

Yay! Better reading months are good! (Unless you're supposed to be too busy to read much, I guess. Then it'd probably be bad.)

Linskold, Linskold... Oh! That book's from the series that starts with Thirteen Orphans, right?

Artificial Days, I think, is the title of the McGuire book. But I'm not quite sure. I haven't read them myself. I'm... half curious about them and half not. Fairies in urban fantasy and I... tend not to get along.

The Hawthorne sounds weird. Intriguing, but weird. Anything you preferred more than the others from this list? (I admit to skipping a bit over your description of the Michelle West. I've had about... half of her Sun Sword series standing on my shelf for... three years now? so wanted to err on the side of caution)

The McGuire is An Artificial Night. And yes, the Lindskold was the sequel to Thirteen Orphans. That one felt a bit like an obligation at first -- it was a personalized hardcover from last year's Tucson Festival of Books, and I was not quite in the mood for it when I started, but it grew on me as it went on, and the plot didn't fall apart at the end. On the panel before the signing, the author explained that she makes her plots up completely as she goes along, and her first reader is her husband, who reads the manuscripts on his commute. This probably explains why they often fail for me on a macro level, though they're engaging on a page-by-page basis. I just hope the third one wraps up in a way that works.

I think my favorite was the Hambly, though I didn't say much about it. I can always count on Hambly for atmosphere; she's really great at immersing the reader in the grungier side of different realities. Though this one does suffer slightly from the problem that once the love interest is married to the hero it's harder to find interesting things for her to do ...

Apparently my memory for titles is spectacularly awful. ^-^

The Linskold books sound interesting! *should put the first higher on her wishlist* I hope you'll enjoy the third!

Why does being married exclude the ability to do interesting things? *tilts head* Is it a cultural thing in the book that causes that?

I think it's something about the nature of long-running episodic series rather than about a specific culture. Love interest gets introduced to a previously single main character, spends a book or two being the love interest and an interesting character in their own right -- and then they get married, which reduces the tension in the relationship and also means they're a fixture in the series. But the series isn't primarily about them or the relationship, so the main character goes off and keeps having adventures according to the pre-established theme, and the love interest just sort of sits there in the background, making occasional helpful comments. This instance isn't nearly as egregious as what happened (or didn't happen) to Ekaterin in the latest Vorkosigan book, but it reminded me of that, and it feels like a pattern.

Still, I suppose it's better than the alternative model for detective series, where anyone the main character is romantically interested in turns out to be involved in the crime, either as victim or perpetrator.

long way down by ewan mcgregor & charley boorman
rita will: memoir of a literary rabble-rouser by rita mae brown
21 dog years - doing time @ amazon.com by mike daisey

and i managed to find 4 books at my library's used book sale \o/

Whoo! Books! Which books did you find? And what did you think of the ones you read this month? I've never heard of any of them before.

the books i found were;
the vagabonds (a novel) by nicholas delbanco
the red prince: the secret lives of a habsburg prince by timothy snyder
the buccaneers by edith wharton
war letters extraordinary correspondence from american wars edited by andrew carroll

the books that i read in april were pretty interesting (IMHO) especially the look at amazon.com before the internet boom of the mid to late '90s went bust.

11 books this month:
Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney
Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward (reread)
Lover Unbound by J.R. Ward (reread)
Lover Avenged by J.R.Ward
Lover Mine by J.R. Ward
Lover Unleashed by J.R.Ward
Gemini Bites by Patrick Ryan
Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose
English Assassin by Daniel Silva
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Annabel by Kathleen Winter

The best was Catching Fire, am sick of the J.R. Ward books now.

What's wrong with the Ward books? I haven't read them and have a faint curiosity towards them, so I'm curious what makes you dislike them now.

There's a lot of sexism in these stories, the Brotherhood are VERY MASCULINE, and women, the good ones are "women of worth" I could sort of ignore it before, but after reading so many all at once it got to me, so right now I'm turned off.

Aaaaah. I can see why reading them all at once would put one off them. Reading them at intervals might well do the same at that. Hopefully next month's books will be better in that respect.

Edited (Apparently, I cannot spell...) 2011-05-05 16:03 (UTC)

Fairly pleased with what I managed to read this month.

Newly read books for April

Blue Mauritius: The Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Stamps ~ Helen Morgan
Black Barty: The Real Pirate of the Caribbean ~ Aubrey Burl (very poorly written and edited)
Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny ~ Mike Dash (brilliant but not for the squeamish)
A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: The Life of William Dampier ~ Diana Preston & Michael Preston
The Man Who Knew Too Much: The Strange and Inventive Life of Robert Hooke, 1635 - 1703 ~ Stephen Inwood (fascinating)
Gunpowder ~ Clive Ponting
Flushed: How the Plumber Saved Civilization ~ W. Hodding Carter (funny and informative)
The Invention of Air: An Experiment, a Journey, a New Country And the Amazing Force of Scientific Discovery ~ Steven Johnson
Galileo's Daughter: A Drama of Science, Faith and Love ~ Dava Sobel (should be titled Galileo and daughter but it's a good biography)

And Only to Deceive (Lady Emily, #1) ~ Tasha Alexander (okay)
Silent in the Grave (Lady Julia, #1) ~ Deanna Raybourn (flawed but entertaining)
The Giver ~ Lois Lowry
High Valley ~ Colin Thiele
The Road to Balinor (Unicorns of Balinor #1) ~ Mary Stanton

(I posted about the latter three here)

Also reread the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. Not great writing but an engrossing story.

That sounds like an awfully interesting reading month with all that non-fiction. Cool! (Also, your ability to read non-fiction is awesome and inspiring. I have so much trouble with most of it...)

i've read galileo's daughter, very interesting bit of history.

I too read some of Diana Wynne Jones's books last month, namely the Dalemark Quartet. I couldn't get into those books when I was younger, so I was delighted to find that I now could get into them. I had the first book out of the library when she passed away and really, it was her passing that finally got me to get over my fear of "what if I won't enjoy it like before" because I wanted to read some of her work in honor of her memory. I'm sorta half afraid I sound silly because of that, but she is one of my favorite YA authors.

I need to post my list of books I read in the last month, but if you want a suggestion on how to keep track of books as you read them, can I suggest that you keep a notebook to keep track of what you read as you finish them? That way you can write it down without having to go to the computer. I use a hardcover spiral bound note book that I got from B&N for this purpose.

(I know it's easier for some people to use the computer, but I am trying to cut down on being on the computer as much as I am on it so I can focus on other things.)

I do think the book I read this month that I liked the most was Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente

You don't sound silly at all! I think there's quite a few people who decided to read some or all of her works as a tribute. I can't think of a better tribute for a writer as (re)reading their works.

Thank you for the suggestion. ^-^ I already keep track of my books as I read them, but I can't remember them all at the end of the month and that irks me. It'd be one thing if I read sixty books a month, but I only read about eleven or twelve on average. Surely I can remember that many titles for a little while...

I haven't even read all of her books yet. o.o Plus the library doesn't have them all and I don't have the funds to buy new books. XD I had to ask the library to get Fire and Hemlock so I could read it. Children's librarians = awesome btw.

I couldn't remember even a few books that I read in a month or rather, I have just fallen into the habit of recording them as I go especially as when I return them to the library, I can't go back and double check. I have little under 30 books out of the library and it has been worse at times. ^^; Sometimes I think I'm never going to get around to reading the books I actually own.

Neither have I! ^-^ (I'm actually in a similar situation except that in my case it's fairer to say that my library has none of her books. Our library sucks. And it's the biggest one around so ILL sucks just as much. Oh, to live in an English-speaking country with libraries I could/would actually use...)

O_O I really have to move to wherever it is these awesome libraries are someday. It sounds divine.
Deliberately make time to read books you own, maybe?

Well, I'm lucky enough to live in an English speaking country (America). I just happen to live in a fairly rural area where the main industries are tourism and orchards (along with other forms of farming, but we have a lot of apple orchards). I kinda miss where I went to college, but there are some things I prefer about the public library here than the one there, mostly in regards to DVD lending.

I feel weird making time to read books that I own because I'm like "must read books from library so others can read them!" But I can't let a book back to the library un-read unless I have no choice. ^^;

Moore and Pettigrew: Cytochromes c - Evolutionary, Structural and Physicochemical Aspects.
Pettigrew and Moore: Cytochromes c - Biological Aspects
Robert A. Scott and A. Grant Mauk: Cytochrome c - A multidisciplinary approach
Britton, Liaaen-Jensen and Pfander (Eds): Carotenoids Volume 1B: Spectroscopy
Hunter, Daldal, Thurnauer and Beatty (Eds): The Purple Phototrophic Bacteria
Steven Long: The Raman Effect
[cut for excessive list of similar books due to doctorate thesis in the making]

C. J. Cherryh: Foreigner, Invader, Inheritor (the latter not being completed). A wonderful complex space opera series with great world building, once one gets past the first three chapters of Foreigner, which leap through time somewhat fierce and prevent getting a feeling for the setting. (Those chapters were the reason that it took me over 6 years to actually start on this series. Now I can't wait for book 12 to come out in paper back.)

Good luck with your thesis! (I'd say it sounds scary, but then I'm an arts major and fled from the beta side of things as soon as regulations allowed.)

I take it the Cherryh are all rereads for you then? I keep hearing about them, but have never read them myself.

No, the Cherryh aren't rereads. I got the first 3 books ages ago, but always put them down while still being within the dreadful first 3 chapters. :)

I really only read one book in April, not including Cherie Priest's Dreadnought, which I didn't finish because I didn't think it was all that great, and not including all of the work I read for my literature classes, so Things Fall Apart by Achebe was the only book I finished in April. Geesh. I need to read more.

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Aaaand it's Which Books Did You Read Last Month? time again <3

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