April 2024 Reading Wrap Up

01 May 2024 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I thought that I was over my reading slump from March, but then I only managed to read 3 more books in April. However, for this month I felt like I made more steady progress. When I looked at some of the details, it turns out that I read 2,409 pages for the month, making this my second highest page count per month so far in 2024!

These are the books that I finished in April:

I reviewed The Skull Throne here and Dragonfly in Amber here. I only finished reading The Core, the final book in Peter V. Brett’s Demon Cycle yesterday, but I should have a review up later this week (paid links).

I also read some of the shorter works nominated for the Nebula Awards, so that took more time. However, I’m glad that I did delve back into reading some short fiction, and I have more of that planned in the upcoming months.

I am part of the way into the third book in the Outlander series, Voyager, and I also started book 5 of The Wheel of Time, The Fires of Heaven (paid links).

For the upcoming month of May, I’m hoping to finish a couple of books that I started, but that were larger projects than I originally envisioned. These would be The Anatomy of Story and the Utopia Science Fiction Magazine Five Year Anthology. I need to find a day where I have few distractions so that I can focus more on these kinds of books.

What else is ahead in May? I’ve bumped a couple of the books I had planned for April into this next month, but pushed others back further. I’m still planning to read the 5th book in the Dune series, Heretics of Dune. I’m continuing with several series with The Sandman: Book 3 by Neil Gaiman, Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros, and Jud by Michael Breen (paid links).

I also picked up a new book by one of my recent favorite authors – The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo. Then I have Deep Freeze by Michael C. Grumley planned for a book club (paid links).

How is your reading going for the year? What book are you most excited to read next? Let me know in the comments (above).

Book Review – Dragonfly in Amber

15 Apr 2024 2 Comments

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I did manage to finish the second book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon last week, Dragonfly in Amber. Hopefully this means that I’m on the way out of my March reading slump (paid links). This was also the audiobook version, narrated by Davina Porter.

You can find my review of book 1, Outlander, at this link.

I listened to the audiobook edition of this.

Here is the blurb:

From the author of Outlander… a magnificent epic that once again sweeps us back in time to the drama and passion of 18th-century Scotland…

For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland’s majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones …about a love that transcends the boundaries of time …and about James Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his ….

Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna, as Claire’s spellbinding journey of self-discovery continues in the intrigue-ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart …in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising …and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves….

The beginning of this book was not what I expected and introduced more time travel complications to the overarching storyline. It also framed the theme of this book – can the past be changed if one has foreknowledge of their outcome? Or is one helpless, pinned in place like the titular dragonfly? I won’t answer that question because you’ll have to read the book to find out.

This volume takes Claire and Jaime to France for most of the book. There, they use family connections and a little spycraft to try to stop the eventual uprising of the Scots against England that Claire knows is doomed to failure.

Claire and Jaime’s relationship evolves as they are faced with new challenges. I have to wonder how many different ways the author can pull them apart, have them question their love, and then have them reunite and reconcile. So far I don’t think she’s had a similar situation between them come up twice, but there are a lot of books to go.

The same narrator gave voice to this book, and I really like her portrayal of the characters. I wish that the books included a glossary or dramatis personae because sometimes I get the more minor Scots confused.

I don’t want to give any specific spoilers here, but I think that the ending of this volume was stronger than book 1. It provides enough resolution, but also sets up more mystery and tension about what happens next. I have already started the next book, Voyagers, which is almost 44 hours long, so look for my review of that one in about 6 weeks (paid link).

Have you read any of the Outlander books? How do the first two books compare to you? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my book reviews here.

March 2024 Reading Wrap-Up

02 Apr 2024 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Help, help! I’m in a reading slump!

March wasn’t a very good month for me in terms of reading. I was distracted by other things in my life and I didn’t have as much time to devote to books, unfortunately. What did I actually finish reading in March? Just these two books:

I did review The Combat Codes by Alexander Darwin here. And I should have a review of The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten up soon (paid links).

I am still in the process of reading a few others which you can see here:

I didn’t make any further progress on The Anatomy of Story by John Truby, but I still plan to get back to this one. My audiobook listening habit also struggled, so I haven’t finished the second book in the Outlander series, Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon. As of the time I’m writing this, I have a little under seven hours left to go. I started reading the Utopia Science Fiction anthology last week, but I was not in the right mood to read short stories and ended up finally starting The Skull Throne by Peter V. Brett, which is book 4 in The Demon Cycle (paid links).

What’s ahead for April? And how do I break out of my reading slump?

I rearranged what I originally had on my April list, since I didn’t get to most of what I had planned to read for March. Here are the books that I now have on for this month:

I put them roughly in the order I think I might read them. The Core is the fifth and final book in The Demon Cycle, so I expect I’ll want to finish that series once I get through book 4. I think I’ll probably get back to The Sandman series of graphic novels for a quick read and then move on to book 5 of The Wheel of Time – The Fires of Heaven. I expect Iron Flame to be a quick read, and after that I don’t know if I’ll actually get to the other books during April. I should be able to at least start Voyager, the 3rd book in the Outlander series, but since each one is longer than the last, I don’t know if I’ll finish it this month (paid links).

On top of those goals, I have been debating whether I should read some of the fiction nominated for the Nebula Awards. That will be the topic of a post later this week, so I’ll leave my thoughts on that until then.

As far as getting over my reading slump, that’s hard because I do have some travel plans this month. One trip involves a long flight, so that usually gives me some free time to read, but otherwise the logistics of packing and planning always takes time.

What are you reading in April? How are your reading goals for the year going so far? Let me know in the comments (above).

February 2024 Reading Wrap-Up

28 Feb 2024 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I love doing these end of the month/year types of posts and it’s time for another one – yay! However, February didn’t go as well for me in terms of reading. At the time that I’m writing this, I’ve only finished the first three books pictured below (Fourth Wing, God Emperor of Dune, Starling House). I still expect to get through Every Heart a Doorway and Color and Light by the end of the month (paid links).

Books that I read in February 2024

You can find my reviews for the ones that I’ve finished here:

I have been reading two other books that I don’t expect to finish by the end of the month. Those are The Anatomy of Story by John Truby, which is essentially a class on creating a blueprint of the plot and characters for your screenplay or novel. It is dense and I’m working through it slowly. The other book I’m partway through is the second in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, Dragonfly in Amber (paid links). I’m listening to the audiobook and I still have over 18 hours to go.

Books I have started, but haven’t finished yet.

Looking back at my January 2024 Reading Wrap-Up post here, I had also planned to read these books pictured below. I didn’t start either The Foxglove King (481 pages) or The Combat Codes (484 pages) because they were longer works and I had other novels that I needed to finish within a time frame for book club discussions (paid links). I also would like to read the Utopia Science Fiction Magazine anthology where my story (Selection Error) appears, so all three of these books will be pushed to the top of my reading list for March.

Books I had planned to read in February, but didn’t start yet.

If I look at my original reading list for March 2024, it contains the following 8 books:

Books I’m planning to read in March 2024

These are all parts of series! Additionally, I don’t think any of them are ones I’m reading for book clubs. I have put them in order of priority, with the series that I’ve already started listed higher. The last three on here, Scorpica by G. R. Macallister, Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff, and The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu are all by new authors to me, and are each the first books of a series (paid links).

I know that I won’t realistically get through all of these, but that never stops me from looking at more books and coveting them. I’ll continue to post reviews as I go, interspersed with reviews of books that I read last year.

How do you choose what to read next? Let me know in the comments (above).

Book Review – Outlander

13 Feb 2024 8 Comments

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I have been meaning to read the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon for many years, but it is daunting to start such a long series and I kept putting it off. My mother has read the whole thing (more than once) and I think she’s going to disown me if I don’t read it, so that was the final impetus for starting it. The first book is simply titled Outlander (paid links). I listened to the audiobook edition, narrated by Davina Porter.

The series has also inspired a show, and I’ve actually watched part of the first season. So going into this first book, I already had an idea of how the opening would go. Read on to see what I thought of the whole book.

I listened to the audiobook edition.

Here is the blurb:

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord…1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

I was surprised at how closely the beginning of the book followed what I already knew from the show. Of course, there are more details in the book, and this is certainly not a short novel. My own knowledge of English and Scottish history isn’t great at all, but I felt like I could follow along with the politics and intrigues. The author gives just enough historical knowledge to provide context for the story without becoming overwhelming.

The interplay between Jaime and Claire was interesting–the cultural differences between their two times cause a good amount of conflict. Claire is opinionated and headstrong while Jaime is a product of his time and tries to treat Claire accordingly. Their romance was well done though, moving from an arranged marriage to a place of mutual respect and then love. I’m curious to see how the author will keep their relationship fresh with at least nine more books left to go.

The narrator for the audiobook does a great job–both with the accents and with giving each character a distinctive voice.

My only criticism is that I felt that the ending of their time in Scotland was unsatisfying. Without giving too many specifics away, I wish that the final events of Jaime’s escape didn’t happen off-screen, only to have Claire hear about what happened later, particularly because I thought that it was weird for cows to be used in such a way.

I’m going to continue on with the series and am hoping to get through one book per month. Look for my review of book 2, Dragonfly in Amber, in March (paid link)!

Are you a fan of the Outlander books or the show? How far along in the books should I be before I start the show again? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

January 2024 Reading Wrap-Up

31 Jan 2024 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The first month of 2024 is nearly over and it’s time to look back at what I read, as well as what’s coming up next. Overall, January was a strong reading month for me, mostly because I was sick and stuck on the couch for more hours than usual which resulted in extra reading time. Here are the seven books that I finished in January:

I have already written reviews on some of these, which you can find here:

I had hoped to also finish Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon, the second book in the Outlander series (paid links). However, it took me longer to finish the first book than I had thought it would, so the second one got pushed back to February.

I started the 4th book in the Dune series, God Emperor of Dune, in January, as well as The Anatomy of Story by John Truby, but these books were too dense to rush through and finish at the end of the month (paid links).

Looking ahead at February, here is what’s up next for my reading plans:

Hopefully I can read as much as I did in January (minus the illness though). What are you currently reading? Let me know in the comments (above).

Books to Read in 2024

01 Jan 2024 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

It is a little after midnight on New Year’s Day as I’m starting to write this post. I have been cramming books onto my 2024 to-be-read list in a mad rush, like there is some sort of rule that once the ball drops in Times Square, I won’t be allowed to add any more for the year. I mean, that’s not true at all, but part of me feels like I have to have a plan for the year finalized by January 1. Well, here is my (once again) very unrealistic list of 113 books I plan to read for 2024:

How did I come up with this list? There are several considerations that go into this (paid links below):

What else goes into my choices? Well, I am trying not to start any new series. But on the list above, I also have several new series… what can I say? I am inconsistent. To be fair, some of the series on here are ones where I read the first book many, many years ago but was unable to finish the series (because it hadn’t all been published yet or because I got distracted by other books).

In that vein, I’m going to continue on my read-through of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. I’m also going to read Dune #4-6, which I had put aside after reading #1-3 in 2022 (paid links).

As the year goes on, I’ll add even more books to this list, perpetuating my never-ending pile and pushing more of these off to 2025. I need more hours in the day.

Of all these books, which ones are up first for the year? Well right now, I’m already reading the first of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series in audiobook format. I’m also about a third of the way through Not Like Us by Doc Honour, a writing critique partner (paid links). After that, here is what I have planned:

Let me go back to the numbers now. I have 113 books on my list for 2024. Even given that some are shorter novellas or graphic novels, that still comes out to about 9.5 books per month, or more than 2 books per week. And some of these books aren’t short, so what is realistically going to happen?

I usually end up reading somewhere between 40 and 50 books each year. I tend to read several books at once, so one goal I’m making for this year is to try to minimize how often I start a new book without finishing others. I feel like I’ll be more engaged in a book if I’m not splitting my attention between several of them. (However, I will still have an audiobook going while reading something in print).

Off to do some reading now…

How do you choose which books you’re going to read? What books are you most excited about reading in 2024? Let me know in the comments (above)!

10 Authors I Haven’t Read Yet

20 Nov 2023 2 Comments

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I had the idea for this post from another book blog that I follow and I thought it would be an interesting topic in regard to my own reading. My goal in creating this list was to think of ten authors that I am dying to read, but haven’t had time to get to yet. I started with a longer list and then pared it down to just these ten:

  1. Iain M. Banks – I have read the blurb for the first book in this author’s Culture series (paid link) and I honestly can’t tell what it’s about other than something with a sprawling intergalactic story which is something I generally love. This is a series with 9 books so far.
  1. Pierce Brown – this author is best known for the Red Rising Saga (paid link) which started out as a trilogy and has now grown to six books. Caste warfare on a dystopian Mars????? Yes, please!
  1. P. Djeli Clark is an author that I was not terribly aware of until I listened to him talk in a writing class sponsored by Orbit Books. He spoke about scene structure and sounds like an author who writes diverse and compelling stories (paid link).
  1. James S. A. Corey is a pen name for authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck who are best known for The Expanse series (paid link). This science fiction epic was the basis for the television series on Amazon Prime of the same name which is currently in my queue to finish. I plan to read the books once I’ve finished the show.
  1. Diana Gabaldon is best known for writing the Outlander series of historical time-travel romance novels (paid link). I watched the first season of the television show and loved it (but then got distracted – I don’t stick with tv very well). My mother is a huge fan of both the books and the show and if I don’t read this series soon she’ll probably disown me. It currently sits at nine books and is supposed to be complete with the tenth volume.
  1. Ann Leckie wrote the Imperial Radch trilogy of science fiction novels (paid link) that won the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards and was also recommended to me by friends. I picked up the first book but haven’t had the time to start it yet. So many books, so little time…
  1. Sarah J. Maas – I’m torn on this one because I’ve heard mixed reviews of her writing. I first heard of her Throne of Glass series, and now the author’s more recent series (A Court of Thorns and Roses) (paid links) has been added to the list of banned books in some conservative parts of the country – which makes it crucial to read it, right?!?! These are fantasy romance with faeries and probably some magic and swords. As long as the writing isn’t too painful, I’ll probably at least have fun with these.
  1. Seanan McGuire has written a ton of books. Her series include the October Daye, Wayward Children, and Alchemical Journeys books (paid links). The good news is that I’m planning to read Every Heart a Doorway for a book club discussion in the next few months. This series involves children and portals.
  1. Silvia Moreno-Garcia has written several stand-alone novels. Many appear to have a more gothic flavor to them, which is something that I have not read a lot of. I don’t know if I’d like these, but she has received awards and acclaim, so I’m open to taking a look. I already picked up Gods of Jade and Shadow a few years ago and haven’t had time to read it (paid link).
  1. V.E. Schwab is the last author on my list. She has written the Shades of Magic trilogy which explores parallel Londons in a threatened multiverse. Her more recent book, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue looks like a stand-alone novel about a woman who wins immortality but, in exchange, is forgotten by everyone she meets (paid links).

Have you read any of the authors on my list? Which one should I read first? What authors would be on your list? Let me know in the comments (above).

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