May 2015 books
This is the latest post in a series I started in late 2019, anticipating the twentieth anniversary of my bookblogging which will fall in 2023. Every six-ish days, I've been revisiting a month from my recent past, noting work and family developments as well as the books I read in that month. I've found it a pleasantly cathartic process, especially in recent circumstances. If you want to look back at previous entries, they are all tagged under bookblog nostalgia.
A lot of travel in May 2015, starting with a day trip to Warsaw, then the announcement of the Clarke Award winner in London, the BBC in Belfast for the election results, a work trip to Sofia, a birthday outing to Antwerp for Anne (art museum ratehr than science fiction convention), an excursion to the public sculptures of Borgloon in eastern Belgium, a family party in Loughbrickland, a work trip to Kyiv and two more work trips to London. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here's a screenshot from the election broadcast:
Also Ireland had a referendum on equal marriage, which went the right way:
I read 25 books that month.
Non-fiction: 2 (YTD 19)
Doctor Who and the Communist, by Michael Herbert
Wisdom from My Internet, by Michael Z. Williamson (not finished)
Fiction (non-sf): 9 (YTD 13)
Jar City, by Arnaldur Indriðason
The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Across the River and into the Trees, by Ernest Hemingway
Islands In The Stream, by Ernest Hemingway
The Evolution Man, by Roy Lewis (a tricky classification, but I think it is a comic historical novel rather than fantasy)
Mating, by Norman Rush
The Egyptian, by Mika Waltari
Sharpe's Waterloo, by Bernard Cornwell
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
SF (non-Who): 8 (YTD 71)
Stopping for a Spell, by Diana Wynne Jones
The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu
The Affirmation, by Christopher Priest
The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison
The Battle of the Moy: Or How Ireland Gained Her Independence in 1892-1894, by Anonymous
The Deaths of Tao, by Wesley Chu (Not finished)
The Dark Between the Stars, by Kevin J. Anderson (not finished)
The Painted Man/The Warded Man, by Peter V. Brett
Doctor Who, etc: 4 (YTD 19)
Synthespians™, by Craig Hinton
Emotional Chemistry by Simon A. Forward
Down by Lawrence Miles
City of Death, by Douglas Adams and James Goss
Comics : 2 (YTD 11)
Amoras vol 1: Suske, by "Willy Vandersteen" [Marc Legendre and Charel Cambré]
Amoras vol 2: Jérusalem, by "Willy Vandersteen" [Marc Legendre and Charel Cambré]
~7,150 pages (YTD 32,650)
2/25 by women (YTD 33/129) - Jones, Addison
2/25 by PoC (YTD 10/129) - Liu, Chu
My favourite of these was The Affirmation, by Christopher Priest, which you can get here, followed by The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, which you can get here, and the long-awaited official novelisation of City of Death, which you can get here. I should also shout out to Anna Karenina, which I enjoyed more than on previous reading; you can get it here.
Wisdom from my Internet, by Michael Z. Williamson, was not only the worst book I read that month, but I think the worst I read in 2015, possibly in the 21st century. You can get it here.
A lot of travel in May 2015, starting with a day trip to Warsaw, then the announcement of the Clarke Award winner in London, the BBC in Belfast for the election results, a work trip to Sofia, a birthday outing to Antwerp for Anne (art museum ratehr than science fiction convention), an excursion to the public sculptures of Borgloon in eastern Belgium, a family party in Loughbrickland, a work trip to Kyiv and two more work trips to London. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here's a screenshot from the election broadcast:
Also Ireland had a referendum on equal marriage, which went the right way:
I read 25 books that month.
Non-fiction: 2 (YTD 19)
Doctor Who and the Communist, by Michael Herbert
Wisdom from My Internet, by Michael Z. Williamson (not finished)
Fiction (non-sf): 9 (YTD 13)
Jar City, by Arnaldur Indriðason
The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Across the River and into the Trees, by Ernest Hemingway
Islands In The Stream, by Ernest Hemingway
The Evolution Man, by Roy Lewis (a tricky classification, but I think it is a comic historical novel rather than fantasy)
Mating, by Norman Rush
The Egyptian, by Mika Waltari
Sharpe's Waterloo, by Bernard Cornwell
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
SF (non-Who): 8 (YTD 71)
Stopping for a Spell, by Diana Wynne Jones
The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu
The Affirmation, by Christopher Priest
The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison
The Battle of the Moy: Or How Ireland Gained Her Independence in 1892-1894, by Anonymous
The Deaths of Tao, by Wesley Chu (Not finished)
The Dark Between the Stars, by Kevin J. Anderson (not finished)
The Painted Man/The Warded Man, by Peter V. Brett
Doctor Who, etc: 4 (YTD 19)
Synthespians™, by Craig Hinton
Emotional Chemistry by Simon A. Forward
Down by Lawrence Miles
City of Death, by Douglas Adams and James Goss
Comics : 2 (YTD 11)
Amoras vol 1: Suske, by "Willy Vandersteen" [Marc Legendre and Charel Cambré]
Amoras vol 2: Jérusalem, by "Willy Vandersteen" [Marc Legendre and Charel Cambré]
~7,150 pages (YTD 32,650)
2/25 by women (YTD 33/129) - Jones, Addison
2/25 by PoC (YTD 10/129) - Liu, Chu
My favourite of these was The Affirmation, by Christopher Priest, which you can get here, followed by The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, which you can get here, and the long-awaited official novelisation of City of Death, which you can get here. I should also shout out to Anna Karenina, which I enjoyed more than on previous reading; you can get it here.
Wisdom from my Internet, by Michael Z. Williamson, was not only the worst book I read that month, but I think the worst I read in 2015, possibly in the 21st century. You can get it here.