February 2025 Reading Wrap Up

05 Mar 2025 Leave a comment

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

Another month has passed and it’s time to look back at what I’ve read before delving forward into more of my unrealistic reading goals! I didn’t complete as many books this month as I did in January, but I was also busier in general, leaving me less time to read.

These are the books I read in February:

House of Blight by Maxym M. Martineau was one I reviewed for Net Galley and you can find that review here. The rest of these are in my queue to still review, so you can look for those soon. Of the books I read in February, I think my favorite was The Teller of Small Fortunes, a cozy fantasy story by Julie Leong, even though I didn’t think I’d like it from the description. Knife Children is a novella by Lois McMaster Bujold (one of my favorite authors) and was from my backlog of Net Galley books, so I’ll be getting that review up soon too (paid links).

Here are the books I’m currently reading as March has begun:

I’m back to reading the Outlander series with the audiobook of The Fiery Cross, number five in the series. I started to read Sistersong by Lucy Holland a few days ago, but was struggling to get into it (probably no fault of the book – I was tired). In an attempt to find an easy read, I spontaneously grabbed the second book in Sarah J. Maas’s ACOTAR series, A Court of Mist and Fury (paid links). Of course, I’m now realizing that it is 600+ pages and while it may be an easy read, it isn’t going to be quick.

These are some of the books I had planned to read in February, but didn’t get to:

I’ll probably take The Space Between Worlds off my list for now. The second book in this series was selected for a book club, but I already missed the discussion. I’m trying not to start new series, so I’ll wait on this one. The Wheel of Time continues to haunt me and I’m planning to start book #7 – A Crown of Swords after I finish Sistersong and ACOMAF. I would love to read Inverse and Verdant Divided because they were written by some of my critique partners, but I’ll have to see how long it takes me to get through A Crown of Swords (paid links). I don’t think I’ll actually get to the sixth Outlander book in March because they are so long that it takes me a couple of months to finish one of the audiobooks.

Here is my unrealistic list of other books I’d like to read in March:

I listed these in order of priority for me. I’m hoping to read The Book That Broke the World so I’ll be ready to start the third book when it is released on April 8. I’ve been meaning to read something by T. Kingfisher for a while and I think that Nettle & Bone is a novella. Then I want to keep going on Ed McDonald’s Redwinter series while the first book is fresh in my mind (paid links). As for the rest – they are really just wishful thinking… at least for March.

How are your reading goals going for the year so far? Are there any books that you’ve found surprising? Let’s chat in the comments.

Book Review – Ancillary Justice

14 Feb 2025 2 Comments

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

I have had Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie on my to-be-read list for some time. It recently came up as a selection for one of my book clubs, so that gave me the impulse to finally read it. Ancillary Justice won the Hugo and Nebula Awards and is the first book in the Imperial Radch series (paid links).

I read the paperback edition.

Here is the blurb:

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Once, she was the Justice of Toren—a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

I was not a fan of this book at all, to the point where I’m sitting down to write this review and I can barely remember what it was about. I think part of my reaction is because I found it to be a difficult book to get into, and I never empathized with any of the characters.

The main point-of-view character is Breq, the last remaining body of an intelligent ship who formerly inhabited numerous human bodies that had been captured through imperial conquests. The story also follows two different timelines, filling in backstory while the main plot progresses.

I had heard that this book presented gender in a unique way, with the Radch language only using feminine pronouns, but I found that this distracted me from the story and didn’t really add anything to my experience of the characters. I read that this was intended to let the reader decide what gender the characters were, but the topic of gender didn’t have any true bearing on the story or any particular theme it presented.

I thought that the science fiction idea of the ships and their human bodies was nicely done. The author presented some scenarios that used this concept in interesting ways. I liked how Emperor Mianaai also had multiple bodies that could act independently, but I also wasn’t clear on where or who the real Mianaai was (but perhaps that is something to be determined in later books?).

This book contained some nice action scenes and tense situations, but I couldn’t get past the dry prose and unengaging characters. I don’t think I’m going to read the other books in the series, but I’d be open to different story by the author.

Have you read Ancillary Justice or any other books by Ann Leckie? Which would you recommend? Let me know in the comments.

You can find more of my reviews here.

January 2025 Reading Wrap-Up

31 Jan 2025 2 Comments

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

While having the flu in January was unfortunate for many reasons, it did give me more down time to do a lot of reading. I finished 8 books for the month, and although they weren’t quite the ones I had initially planned to read, I still completed the number I had aimed for.

Most of the books that I read in January were physical copies (actually all but Daughter of Redwinter). I have too many books on my shelves that I haven’t read, so reading some of the beautiful hardcovers that I own was a goal for me. Here is what I completed in January:

One of my goals for the early part of 2025 was to catch up on a few book reviews for Net Galley. Daughter of Redwinter was one of these books, and this review will be posting the week after next. Ancillary Justice was a book that I’ve wanted to read for a while and was chosen for one of my book clubs. Unfortunately I couldn’t make the discussion, but I’ll have a review of that one up soon also. Recursion is the pick for the next meeting of this same book club and I’m excited to discuss this one in a few days (paid links).

Of course I had to pick up Onyx Storm when it was released, and as I’m writing this post, I have a couple hundred pages left to go in it (paid link). But I’m assuming I’ll finish it by the end of January. The Art of Tommie Soule is a niche book I had been slowly working through as I have been relearning how to paint fantasy miniatures. I had put it back on my shelf, but picked it up and finished it this week.

I am also in the middle of two audiobooks, but did not finish either one in January.

I have less than ten hours to go in Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead. I had taken a break from the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon to listen to some other books. Each one is so long, but I have been making steady progress on these. I will resume book #5 – The Fiery Cross as soon as I finish Great Circle (paid links).

Other books that had been on my list for January that I didn’t get to were House of Blight by Maxym M. Martineau (an advance copy for Net Galley) and The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong (paid links). These will be the first ones I read in early February.

Looking ahead here are the other books that I have in my queue for February:

I plan to resume my read-through of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series. Book #7 (A Crown of Swords) is next. I have one more Net Galley book to review (Knife Children) that is short, and then a few stand-alones planned. Two of the books for the month are ones written by a couple of my writing critique partners (Inverse by Margot Conor and Verdant Divided by Doc Honour), and I’m excited to see the results of all their hard work. Lastly, The Space Between Worlds is for an upcoming book club discussion of the second book in this series (paid links).

Here’s hoping to a lot of time to read (but without the flu) for February!

What books are you looking forward to for the next month? Let me know in the comments.

Book Review – Dawn

30 Jan 2025 2 Comments

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

I read Dawn by Octavia E. Butler for a book club discussion at the end of 2024. I had too many physical books that I needed to read, so I listened to this one as an audiobook, narrated by Julienne Irons. Dawn is the first book in the Xenogenesis or Lilith’s Brood series (paid links).

I previously read Parable of the Sower by this same author (paid link) and you can find my review of it here.

I listened to the audiobook edition.

Here is the blurb:

When Lilith lyapo wakes from a centuries-long sleep, she finds herself aboard the vast spaceship of the Oankali. She discovers that the Oankali—a seemingly benevolent alien race—intervened in the fate of the humanity hundreds of years ago, saving everyone who survived a nuclear war from a dying, ruined Earth and then putting them into a deep sleep. After learning all they could about Earth and its beings, the Oankali healed the planet, cured cancer, increased human strength, and they now want Lilith to lead her people back to Earth—but salvation comes at a price.

Hopeful and thought-provoking, this post-apocalyptic narrative deftly explores gender and race through the eyes of characters struggling to adapt during a pivotal time of crisis and change.

I have so many thoughts about this book! It made for a great discussion with the book club. This is a hard book to say that I enjoyed because it was quite an uncomfortable read. The Oankali claim to care for the humans that they saved and to have our best interests in mind. But Lilith discovers that if she disagrees with the aliens, they can never accept her arguments and will keep gaslighting her and manipulating her until she is ultimately forced to agree with their decisions. All of her agency is an illusion. Yet at the same time, how much does she owe on behalf of humanity to the aliens who saved our species and our planet from our own destruction?

This book also deals with the topic of sexual consent quite a lot for being first published in 1987. The aliens claim that their species needs to exchange genetic information with each new species that they encounter as they travel through the galaxy. This means that they ask Lilith to have a part-human, part-Oankali baby as part of their conditions for returning the surviving humans to Earth. The aliens also act as match makers, trying to set her up with different men, oblivious to her own choice in this. If the price of mankind’s survival is to interbreed with aliens, then is our species truly surviving?

I loved how Lilith becomes an unreliable narrator to the other humans when they awaken. Her initial doubts about the aliens are duplicated by the other humans and she is self-aware enough to realize how she must sound to them, but cannot convince them that she isn’t under the control of the Oankali (because she is, even if she tries not to be). The factions that developed between the different people and how the group acted when placed into this situation was fascinating.

I thought that some of the science ideas in this book were also novel. One example was that the Oankali are fascinated with cancer and how it allows cells to proliferate. They cure Lilith of a tumor she didn’t know that she had, as well as eliminate her genetic predisposition to cancer. They use cancer as inspiration for their own medical advances.

This story continues in two more books, Adulthood Rites (#2) and Imago (#3), and I plan to read those later this year (paid links). Have you read anything by Octavia E. Butler? Let me know in the comments!

Find more of my reviews here.

November/December 2024 Reading Wrap Up

22 Dec 2024 Leave a comment

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

December isn’t quite over yet, but I want to leave some time to get an end-of-the-year post done. I also never got around to a November reading post, so I’m combining both months in this post for today. As with my other posts, the paid links here go to support this blog, so please click on any you’re interested in.

I’m continuing to be more distracted than I would like and have been taking longer than usual to finish what I’m reading. My Goodreads Challenge tells me that I could still make by 2024 goal if I would just read 5 books a DAY, LOL.

Books I Finished: The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera, The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart, Dawn by Octavia Butler (audiobook) (paid links). I’m still working on reviews for these – the internet ate the one I had nearly finished for The Gods Below, and I was so disheartened by that that I have yet to rewrite it.

Books I’m Still Reading But Should Finish This Month: The Boys Vol. 1 Omnibus, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence, The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness (audiobook) (paid links). I should finish The Boys today and I’m really enjoying The Book That Wouldn’t Burn. The Black Bird Oracle is a disappointment and I’ve been strugging to get through the last few hours of the audiobook.

Books I’m Reading But Won’t Finish This Month: The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon (audiobook), Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald. I took a break in my Outlander listening to get through a couple of other books. I have one more I want to read before I pick The Fiery Cross back up. I hadn’t intended to read Daughter of Redwinter until the new year, but I was stuck out of the house without a book! This was one that I received courtesy of NetGalley some time ago, the e-book was already in my Kindle app, and I had planned to start it in a few weeks anyway.

Next Up: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy (paid links). I think I’m supposed to have Ancillary Justice read by next week for a book club, so I should start that one soon! Great Circle is NOT science fiction or fantasy and is that other audiobook that I’m planning to listen to before I get back to the Outlander series. Sorcery and Small Magics looks like a lighter read than the books I’ve been consuming lately, so I’m looking forward to that.

New Books:

Oh boy – I received an email from the Science Fiction Book Club several weeks ago that made it sound like they were going to be out of business in the coming months. I had 2 credits sitting on my account and went shopping, only to find several other books also at steep discounts. Here are the ones I picked up:

I also had a few books arrive from subscription box services:

I used a couple of Audible credits to pick up Columbus Day, book #1 of the Expeditionary Force series on my brother’s recommendations. I enjoyed Alexander Darwin’s first book, The Combat Codes (review here), and want to continue the series. I usually try to stick with the same format, but I have too many books and this was available in audio, so I’ll switch it up for book #2 – Grievar’s Blood (paid links).

A Look at January: I’m starting to put together my reading plans for 2025, and like always, it’s chaos, with way too many books that I want to read, new releases, books I said I’d review, book club picks, and spur of the moment reads that sow disorder throughout my year.

I decided that for January, I’d try to focus on a few NetGalley reviews that have sat for too long. This is why Daughter of Redwinter was on my radar. I also have Knife Children by one of my favorite authors, Lois McMaster Bujold on that same list. I don’t know why I haven’t read this yet since I love all her books and already read the core series on which this story is based. House of Blight by Maxym M. Martineau isn’t out until April and is another NetGalley pick, but one I only recently received. I’ve read one of her earlier books, Kingdom of Exiles and you can find that review here (paid links).

I’m also anticipating the January 21 release of Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros, the third and final book in her ridiculously popular Empyrean series. You still have a little time to catch up with the earlier books, Fourth Wing (review here) and Iron Flame (review here) (paid links).

If I have any time left in January, I’m also going to try to read The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong and Perfectly Wicked by Lindsay Lovice, which I already mentioned earlier in this post (paid links).

Now it’s time for me to get back to reading!

Book Review – The Past is Red

11 Nov 2024 1 Comment

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

I don’t think that I had ever read anything by author Catherynne M. Valente, and that’s one great reason to participate in a book club. The Past Is Red is a novella that was chosen by one of my book clubs and was not a story that I’d been aware of until then (paid link). It was nominated for the 2022 Hugo Award for Best Novella. Read on below to see what I thought.

I read the e-book edition.

Here is the blurb:

The future is blue. Endless blue…except for a few small places that float across the hot, drowned world left behind by long-gone fossil fuel-guzzlers. One of those patches is a magical place called Garbagetown.

Tetley Abednego is the most beloved girl in Garbagetown, but she’s the only one who knows it. She’s the only one who knows a lot of things: that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world, that it’s full of hope, that you can love someone and 66% hate them all at the same time.

But Earth is a terrible mess, hope is a fragile thing, and a lot of people are very angry with her. Then Tetley discovers a new friend, a terrible secret, and more to her world than she ever expected.

This novella is divided into two parts. The first one is a previously published novelette – The Future Is Blue – while the second part is new material. Together they tell the story of a post-apocalyptic world in which the inhabitants are not trying to rebuild the society that was lost, but are content to simply live amid the remnants.

I had a hard time getting into this story and didn’t finish it in time for the book club discussion (although I did still finish it). The story is set in Garbagetown which is where those humans who have survived catastrophic sea level rise have managed to eke out an existence on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I think that part of what limited my enjoyment of this story was that the timeline hops around and there wasn’t a well-defined plot. Our narrator is not always reliable, which also made it challenging to orient myself in this unfamiliar future world.

Despite these things, Garbagetown itself was fascinating, and I would have loved to have learned more about how it reached its current state. The city is divided into different regions, each named for the type of garbage that they contain. The inhabitants all dream of the day that they will find solid land, and this tiny sad bit of hope keeps many of them going.

Part of this story evoked the old Kevin Costner movie, Waterworld, but without the Mad Max-ian aspects of fuel-obsessed clans fighting over resources. While our protagonist, Tetley, has to still find enough supplies to survive, she also never tries very hard to do more than that. When Tetley finally makes contact with an unexpected friend, I had hoped that this would lead to more of a science fiction-y resolution to the dilemma of those trapped in Garbagetown. But this was not that kind of story, and I’m probably not the right audience to truly have enjoyed this book.

What novellas have you enjoyed and would recommend? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my book reviews here.

September 2024 Reading Wrap Up

02 Oct 2024 Leave a comment

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

Is everyone awake now? September has ended and that means that we’re entering the final quarter of 2024 and it’s time to look back at my reading for the past month!

I had another slow month, but I had to travel for work. So while that helps me read (while on a plane), it takes up time with the event and the packing and preparations. In September I finished reading Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Moon Landings by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton (review here) and The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (paid links). I should have a review of The Familiar up later this week.

I had taken the graphic novel The Boys Vol. 1 with me on my trip, but then misplaced it when I unpacked, so I didn’t make much progress on it. It has since been found, so I should finish that soon. I’m also almost done with Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune (the sequel to the amazing The House in the Cerulean Sea) and The Drums of Autumn (Outlander #4) by Diana Gabaldon (paid links).

I recently signed up for one of those monthly subscription boxes (Fairy Loot), with the theme of this one being fantasy novels. My first delivery arrived last week and it’s a pretty hardcover of The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart.

Jewels and snakes on the edges of the pages.

I haven’t read anything by this author, but her earlier series (The Drowning Empire: #1 = The Bone Shard Daughter, #2 = The Bone Shard Emperor, #3 = The Bone Shard War) has been on my radar as a series of interest. The Gods Below looks like the first book in a new series (paid links).

I’ve included some pretty pictures of the features of this special hardcover edition.

Pretty artwork on the inside covers.

What’s up next for my reading? I’ll be traveling again, but for a vacation. While I’m sure I’ll have plenty of activities to keep me busy, I also plan to do some poolside and beachside reading.

I plan to start reading The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente this week for a book club discussion next week. I should be able to start the fifth Outlander book – The Fiery Cross soon. Then as far as other picks, I don’t know how many of these I’ll get to, but some of the possibilities include The Hemlock Queen by Hannah Whitten, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence, and The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (paid links).

Have you read any of these books? How do you decide what to read next? Let me know in the comments.

Book Review – The Echo Wife

03 Sep 2024 Leave a comment

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

I have previously read Magic For Liars by Sarah Gailey and really enjoyed it (but I didn’t post a review here). I had been meaning to get to another of her novels and finally found time to read The Echo Wife for a recent book club discussion (paid links).

I read the e-book edition.

Here is the blurb:

I’m embarrassed, still, by how long it took me to notice. Everything was right there in the open, right there in front of me, but it still took me so long to see the person I had married.

It took me so long to hate him.

Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be.

And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband.

Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and both Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up.

Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.

I think that this book held a lot of promise with the subject matter, but in some ways, it failed to deliver on all of the ideas that it initiated. The blurb doesn’t explain the premise in this book well, but at its heart, it’s about the science of cloning and the ethics behind the use of those clones. If you create a human clone in a lab and use it for research, is it murder when you need to end your experiment and practically dispose of the materials? What if that clone has a personality and a life of its own? Is that situation any different?

In this book, the researcher’s husband creates a clone of her, but with modifications that fit his idea of a perfect spouse. Of course, the experiment goes horribly wrong, and that is the focus of this story. Oddly, it occurs in a vacuum, with little concern for the rest of the world that might notice something wrong in the cloning laboratory. This story could have easily turned into an action-packed thriller with police investigations and car chases, but that isn’t the focus here.

I don’t think I agreed with the characters’ decisions in the end, but I also don’t have a clone of myself hanging around, so it’s truly hard to know if I’d make a different decision or not. I enjoyed the book, even if I felt rather underwhelmed by the treatment of the topic.

Have you read any books by Sarah Gailey? Do you have any books on the ethics of cloning that you would recommend? Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

August 2024 Reading Wrap Up

31 Aug 2024 Leave a comment

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

It feels like I just did one of these posts with my belated June and July 2024 Reading Wrap Up. But it’s already the end of August, so I’m going to look back on how my reading went for this month.

My reading plans often stray…

In August, I finished reading The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey and then randomly picked up and quickly finished the frequently banned book, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (reviews coming next week). I am still working on Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton and Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (in audiobook format). Since I’ve been catching up on the most recent two seasons of The Boys (on Amazon Prime), I also started to read the first omnibus collection of this comic (paid links).

What else am I looking forward to in September other than less humidity, sweatshirts, and fall colors? Here are some books I might pick up next month:

Of course, that’s 9 books, which I should know by now is not realistic for me. We’ll see where the month leads!

How has your reading been going for the year? What have your favorite books been so far? Are there any books that have autumn themes that you would recommend?

June & July 2024 Reading Wrap Up

20 Aug 2024 1 Comment

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

For some reason, my blog always suffers a slump in the middle of the year. I think that I become overly distracted by the variety of summer activities. My reading also suffers, with my Goodreads reading challenge showing that I’m 37 books behind schedule (not that I ever set a realistic goal, but that’s a separate issue).

For June and July, I continued to read some long books, finishing these below:

The House in the Cerulean Sea was the shortest of the group at 394 pages. The others came in at 1011 pages for Lord of Chaos (The Wheel of Time #6), 640 pages for Iron Flame (The Empyrean #2), and 43 hours and 46 minutes for the audiobook edition of Voyager (Outlander #3) (paid links). I should be putting reviews up soon.

I’ve also been working on some writing projects over the summer. I’ll have a flash fiction story appearing in a holiday issue of Abyss & Apex in December. I have a couple of short stories that I need to revise and submit to magazines. The larger project is that I’ve been outlining a 5-book epic fantasy series that’s been in my head for a long time. I have a rough outline of the first book for some of the characters, but I can’t start writing until I have done more of the planning. I’m also toying with writing a proposal for a non-fiction academic book (in case I don’t have enough to keep me busy).

Going forward with my reading plans, I just finished reading The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey. I’m currently reading Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander book #4) as an audiobook and Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton on my Kindle (paid links).

After that, these are some of the books that I might read next:

How have your reading plans been going for the summer? Do you have any must-read books that you would suggest? Let me know in the comments (above).

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