May Round-Up
Here are the reviews posted during May. Please note, this is not a comprehensive list of books I read in May, but rather the books I had the time to review before month's end.
1) Kim Harrison: The Good, the Bad, and the Undead: It's a Gamble
2) Erin Hoffman: At the Foot of the Lighthouse (Todai Moto Kurashi): Good Read
3) Jennifer Pelland: Machine: Worth Reading, with Reservations
4) Jacqueline Carey: Saints Astray: Below Standard
5) John Scalzi: The Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City: Worth Reading, with Reservations
6) Kim Harrison: Every Which Way But Dead: Good Read
7) Ken Liu: The Paper Menagerie: Excellent
8) A.M. Dellamonica: Blue Magic: Worth Reading, with Reservations
9) Bill Willingham: Fables: Deluxe Edition: Book Four: Good Read
10) Scott Westerfeld: Goliath: Excellent
11) Nancy Fulda: Movement: Excellent
12) Mike Resnick: Homecoming: It's a Gamble
13) E. Lily Yu: The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees: It's a Gamble
14) Kim Harrison: A Fistful of Charms: Worth Reading, with Reservations
15) C.J. Cherryh: Downbelow Station: Problematic, but Promising
Total Number of Books Reviewed: Technically, it's 9 books and 6 short stories
Total Number of Books Read: Technically, 7 books and 7 short stories
Weird. In hindsight, I felt like May rather dragged as a reading month, but between the number of reviews and number of things read, wow! That's quite productive! Thank you, Hugo Voter's Packet, for giving me a CRAPLOAD to read. Oh well, I asked for it.
Favorite: Book-wise, it'd be Scott Westerfeld's Goliath, because the end of this trilogy wrapped up nicely and it was a LOT of fun; story-wise, I think it's a tie between Ken Liu's "The Paper Menagerie" and Nancy Fulda's "Movement."
Most surprisingly enjoyable: Kim Harrison's Every Which Way But Dead, only because I did not have a good experience with the preceding book and worried a bit about continuing.
Biggest disappointment: Jacqueline Carey's Saints Astray. Sure, it was entertaining on a base level, but after Santa Olivia set the bar so high, I couldn't believe this was written by the same author!
Mount TBR Stats: 25 books accomplished! Mount Vancouver! The plan was to go ahead and raise my goal to the next level of Mt. Ararat, which is 40 books. However, I'm going to hold off on that for the time being, due to what I'm about to explain below:
Reading Goals: (if you need to refresh yourself on my personal 2012 reading goals, click here) So far, I feel pretty good about my current reading rotation, which is listed below.
1) Series
2) New Purchase (2012)
3) Old Purchase (pre-2012)
I'm officially taking a break from the above format. Now that I've met my Mount TBR challenge, I'd like to knock out the stack of 2012 purchases that accumulated in May, as well as really focus on my Hugo Voter's packet, so for June, perhaps July, that's what you should expect. Come August, after Hugo voting is over, I may go back to the preferred reading schedule, unless something EPIC happens, and if something EPIC happens, then, well, we'll be talking about that later.
Anyway, what were YOUR favorite reads from May? Which books did you love most? Which books, if any, were huge disappointments? Got a review list? Lay it all on me! :)2012's resolution is to RECEIVE no more than 72 books a year, which means if I want to keep a monthly status, no more than 6 books a month! And May was my second-worst to date, but it's not entirely my fault. This brings up my total for the year to 21, with it breaking down like this:
January: 6 books
February: 4 books
March: 4 books
April: 2 books
May: 5 books
I'm still well within my resolution, so that's a good thing.
1) Lies & Omens by Lyn Benedict (Amazon)
2) The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi (Amazon)
3) Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (Amazon)
4) Spellcrossed by Barbara Ashford (free from publisher, unsolicited)
5) Blackout by Mira Grant (Kindle) **
** = reading now
So here's a few clarifications. I said that this year, I would NOT accept freebies from publishers for review. This is true. I have not solicited a single one. However, Spellscrossed landed in my mailbox anyway, much to my surprise (and slight consternation, as I've got it pre-ordered from Amazon), and I learned that the author, who's a buddy of mine, requested that free copies go out to select bloggers, and I was one of them. For which I thanked her, but kept my pre-order in tact. For starters, I want to make sure the author makes SOME money off of me, and second, it keeps my resolution in tact, seeing that I'm still buying the book. Keep your eyes peeled, though, as I'll be doing a giveaway for the second copy!
Also received this month, but not added to the list, was the Hugo Voter's Packet, which includes a LOT of reading material, as well as digital copies of Jo Walton's Among Others and Stina Leicht's Of Blood and Honey, both of which I intend to read on the Kindle. If I had to count the Hugo Voter's packet as part of my haul, it'd get one slot, simply because there's so much in it and so much are excerpts, and not all of it is readable media. However, for the books I do read on my Kindle, I'm not going to count them as received (I don't think) unless I decide to buy them, which, if I like them, I probably will. I don't know yet, I have decided. I guess I'll have to let you know.
As for the rest, all of them were Amazon pre-orders from earlier this year. It sucks that I haven't reviewed a single one yet, but May was an interesting reading month, as I've already mentioned above. June looks to be surprisingly good for the time being, with only two pre-orders coming (one of them being the Ashford), though I'll be picking up a few books myself for the sake of Hugo reading (Leviathan Wakes was not provided in a Kindle-friendly format, and there's no way I'm going to try and read that beast on my computer at home).
That's my May. How'd you all do?
1) Kim Harrison: The Good, the Bad, and the Undead: It's a Gamble
2) Erin Hoffman: At the Foot of the Lighthouse (Todai Moto Kurashi): Good Read
3) Jennifer Pelland: Machine: Worth Reading, with Reservations
4) Jacqueline Carey: Saints Astray: Below Standard
5) John Scalzi: The Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City: Worth Reading, with Reservations
6) Kim Harrison: Every Which Way But Dead: Good Read
7) Ken Liu: The Paper Menagerie: Excellent
8) A.M. Dellamonica: Blue Magic: Worth Reading, with Reservations
9) Bill Willingham: Fables: Deluxe Edition: Book Four: Good Read
10) Scott Westerfeld: Goliath: Excellent
11) Nancy Fulda: Movement: Excellent
12) Mike Resnick: Homecoming: It's a Gamble
13) E. Lily Yu: The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees: It's a Gamble
14) Kim Harrison: A Fistful of Charms: Worth Reading, with Reservations
15) C.J. Cherryh: Downbelow Station: Problematic, but Promising
Total Number of Books Reviewed: Technically, it's 9 books and 6 short stories
Total Number of Books Read: Technically, 7 books and 7 short stories
Weird. In hindsight, I felt like May rather dragged as a reading month, but between the number of reviews and number of things read, wow! That's quite productive! Thank you, Hugo Voter's Packet, for giving me a CRAPLOAD to read. Oh well, I asked for it.
Favorite: Book-wise, it'd be Scott Westerfeld's Goliath, because the end of this trilogy wrapped up nicely and it was a LOT of fun; story-wise, I think it's a tie between Ken Liu's "The Paper Menagerie" and Nancy Fulda's "Movement."
Most surprisingly enjoyable: Kim Harrison's Every Which Way But Dead, only because I did not have a good experience with the preceding book and worried a bit about continuing.
Biggest disappointment: Jacqueline Carey's Saints Astray. Sure, it was entertaining on a base level, but after Santa Olivia set the bar so high, I couldn't believe this was written by the same author!
Mount TBR Stats: 25 books accomplished! Mount Vancouver! The plan was to go ahead and raise my goal to the next level of Mt. Ararat, which is 40 books. However, I'm going to hold off on that for the time being, due to what I'm about to explain below:
Reading Goals: (if you need to refresh yourself on my personal 2012 reading goals, click here) So far, I feel pretty good about my current reading rotation, which is listed below.
1) Series
2) New Purchase (2012)
3) Old Purchase (pre-2012)
I'm officially taking a break from the above format. Now that I've met my Mount TBR challenge, I'd like to knock out the stack of 2012 purchases that accumulated in May, as well as really focus on my Hugo Voter's packet, so for June, perhaps July, that's what you should expect. Come August, after Hugo voting is over, I may go back to the preferred reading schedule, unless something EPIC happens, and if something EPIC happens, then, well, we'll be talking about that later.
Anyway, what were YOUR favorite reads from May? Which books did you love most? Which books, if any, were huge disappointments? Got a review list? Lay it all on me! :)2012's resolution is to RECEIVE no more than 72 books a year, which means if I want to keep a monthly status, no more than 6 books a month! And May was my second-worst to date, but it's not entirely my fault. This brings up my total for the year to 21, with it breaking down like this:
January: 6 books
February: 4 books
March: 4 books
April: 2 books
May: 5 books
I'm still well within my resolution, so that's a good thing.
1) Lies & Omens by Lyn Benedict (Amazon)
2) The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi (Amazon)
3) Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (Amazon)
4) Spellcrossed by Barbara Ashford (free from publisher, unsolicited)
5) Blackout by Mira Grant (Kindle) **
** = reading now
So here's a few clarifications. I said that this year, I would NOT accept freebies from publishers for review. This is true. I have not solicited a single one. However, Spellscrossed landed in my mailbox anyway, much to my surprise (and slight consternation, as I've got it pre-ordered from Amazon), and I learned that the author, who's a buddy of mine, requested that free copies go out to select bloggers, and I was one of them. For which I thanked her, but kept my pre-order in tact. For starters, I want to make sure the author makes SOME money off of me, and second, it keeps my resolution in tact, seeing that I'm still buying the book. Keep your eyes peeled, though, as I'll be doing a giveaway for the second copy!
Also received this month, but not added to the list, was the Hugo Voter's Packet, which includes a LOT of reading material, as well as digital copies of Jo Walton's Among Others and Stina Leicht's Of Blood and Honey, both of which I intend to read on the Kindle. If I had to count the Hugo Voter's packet as part of my haul, it'd get one slot, simply because there's so much in it and so much are excerpts, and not all of it is readable media. However, for the books I do read on my Kindle, I'm not going to count them as received (I don't think) unless I decide to buy them, which, if I like them, I probably will. I don't know yet, I have decided. I guess I'll have to let you know.
As for the rest, all of them were Amazon pre-orders from earlier this year. It sucks that I haven't reviewed a single one yet, but May was an interesting reading month, as I've already mentioned above. June looks to be surprisingly good for the time being, with only two pre-orders coming (one of them being the Ashford), though I'll be picking up a few books myself for the sake of Hugo reading (Leviathan Wakes was not provided in a Kindle-friendly format, and there's no way I'm going to try and read that beast on my computer at home).
That's my May. How'd you all do?