Every year I struggle with my reading and blogging when August or September comes around. While I thought I’d do better with reading in August since I’d be laid up after a surgery, the medications made me sleepier than I would have liked, so my reading suffered. Then September comes around and is always a busy month for some reason. So better late than never, here are the books I’ve been reading since August.
In August I did finish the four books shown below, although Rogue Protocol was technically a novella.
- The Feeding by Anthony Ryan – You can find my review of this one here and a purchase link here.
- Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R. Weaver – My review is here and purchase link is here.
- The Book That Held Her Heart by Mark Lawrence – This was the third and final book in The Library Trilogy and was quite good. I hope to review it soon and you can find a purchase link here.
- Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells – This was the third novella in the Murderbot Diaries series. I haven’t reviewed any of these books yet, but I did watch the recent Apple TV series. You can find the show here and a purchase link for this third book here.
For September, I read three books, but one was a struggle and I DNF’d (did not finish) it about 1/3 of the way through.
- The Nightshade God by Hannah Whitten – This was the anticipated finale in The Nightshade Crown series. My review of it is here and you can find a purchase link here.
- What Fury Brings by Tricia Levenseller – I’ve read a couple of this author’s YA books (Warrior of the Wild, Blade of Secrets, Master of Iron) and this was her first adult novel (paid links). It is a stand-alone and I’ll have a review up soon. You can follow a purchase link here.
- Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders – While I’ve enjoyed this author’s other books, with All the Birds in the Sky being one of my favorite books of 2019 (paid link), this is the book that I struggled with. I’ll have a review up soon with an explanation.
October should have been when I caught up, but the month continued to be crazy and I only finished two books:
- The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong – This was a stand-alone novel as well. I recently reviewed the author’s first novel, The Teller of Small Fortunes, and found it to be surprisingly good (review here) for one of the first “cozy fantasy” novels I’ve read (paid link). This new book follows in the same vein and I’ll have a review here soon. This is a purchase link.
- Crossroads of Ravens by Andrzej Sapkowski – This is the new prequel novel in The Witcher series about a young Geralt on one of his first adventures. I just finished the audiobook a few days ago and you can find a paid link for it here.
At the end of October I succumbed to the temptation to read six books at once. I’m still working on 5 of them (purchase links included below):
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab – This is the first book that I’ve read by this author and I have about 50 pages left to go. It took some time to get into, but became more interesting about halfway through. I only need to find a dedicated hour to finish it.
- Katabasis by R.F. Kuang – I have been a fan of this author since I read Babel (review here / purchase link here) and her new novel is a stand-alone dark academia tale that reads like Dante’s Inferno so far.
- Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh – I was supposed to read this novel for a book club discussion, but didn’t finish it in time. It is a page-turner space opera tale that won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2024.
- Twelve Months by Jim Butcher – This is the latest (book #18) installment in The Dresden Files, a well-known urban fantasy series, that I have early thanks to NetGalley. I was excited to start this book, but the beginning reminded me of the tragedy of the previous book, so it has been slow going to get into it so far.
- A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon – This is the 6th book in the Outlander series and I’m more than halfway through it in audiobook format.
While it is only a short story, I just finished The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal (paid link) (technically this was read in November).
I’m trying to finish the year by reaching my goal of reading 50 books. I only have 11 left to go, so with two months remaining, I think I can do it! First I need to finish the current books above. Here are some of the other ones that I may read in November (purchase links):
- Slow Gods by Claire North
- Alchemised by SenLinYu
- Quicksilver by Callie Hart
- Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
- The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
- An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
- The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
Are there books on this post that you’ve read? What did you think? Which ones should I review here first?
What other books do you think I should try to squeeze in this year? Let me know in the comments!