Like May, June was not a great reading month when it comes to the total number of books read. I've been a bit preoccupied lately - yesterday afternoon I officially became a homeowner so I have been spending a lot of the last two months picking out paint colors, cabinets, tiles, carpets, fans and lights. It's been quite a process. We need to move for the second time this year and then hopefully reading will resume at a faster rate.
But even with only three books read, two of them were the longest books I've read so far this year (one was 600 pages and the other was 650 in hardcover) so I actually feel like I did better than last month. Plus I've reviewed one of them already so that's some progress - the last two months have started with none of the previous month's books reviewed. That's actually one of the reasons I read some longer books.
June books are:
24. Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews (review)
25. Feed by Mira Grant
26. Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey
Favorite book of the month: I liked all of these, but I'll have to go with Magic Bleeds. I am so addicted to the Kate Daniels series.
Usually I've read at least one new author, but these were all authors I've read before. This was my fourth Ilona Andrews book, my third by Mira Grant (the other two were of course written as Seanan McGuire since that was the first book she wrote as Mira Grant - and I was very excited to receive her third October Daye book in the mail today!) and my third Jacqueline Carey novel.
So what did you read during June? What did you think of the books you read?
11 comments:
Hey Kristen. Congrats on becoming a homowner! When you guys move in?
Colors? Carpets? The most important question is: have you designed your library yet? :P
Okay, this month I read,
Nemesis, Lindsey Davis
Stealing Light, Gary Gibson
Ex-Kop, Warren Hammond
Wicked City: Black Guard, Hideyuki Kikuchi
The Dervish House, Ian McDonald
The Scar, China Mieville
Moving Pictures, Terry Pratchett
Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
My favorites were Nemesis, The Dervish House, and The Scar.
Benjamin - Thank you! We're not sure when we'll be moving yet, but we think it will be the weekend after this coming weekend. It may be a gradual process since we need to figure out what we want to get rid of and what we want to move to our new heated storage room.
Unfortunately, they didn't offer to take care of a library like painting and carpets and all that other stuff, but there has been a lot of thought put into what to do with all the books. (Enough that my husband has been astounded at the number of books and pointed out that we are NOT a library.) We'll probably have to wait until we get back over there to figure out exactly what to do, but some taller bookshelves are definitely in order. And once we get a new couch, the old one is going in the room with the skylight which will probably have a lot of the books.
Sounds like a good reading month! The Dervish House sounds interesting. What did you think of Stealing Light? I see it mentioned every once in a while and wonder about it.
Congrats on becoming a homeowner! That's fantastic! I haven't done any renovations yet (the house needs everything), but am about to make my first purchase shortly! All the best with the move and here's hoping July is a good reading month!
I think I read something like 6 books in June. I would like to read more, but somehow I don't manage it! I also read Naamah's Kiss - YES, that book is LONG. It reads easily, but it's rather epic.
Here's June for me:
1. Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey
2. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K Jemison
3. Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson (technically an audiobook)
4. The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea Campbell
5. Goddess for Hire by Sonia Singh
6. Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
I read:
Charles Stross - Palimpsest (novella) - Hugo nominee, about time travel, pretty good
Gail Carringer - Soulless (1/3 way through only)
Michael Cisco - The Tyrant - so weird, the writing style is... I don't even know how to describe it. Descriptive? I fully intend to read more of this author's works, but he complained that he hasn't seen any royalties from his current publisher in 3 years, so I hope I can ask him in person at Readercon how I might best get ahold of his books.
Felix Gilman - Thunderer - good
Paolo Bacigalupi - The Windup Girl - ok but somewhat disappointing
John Scalzi - The God Engines (novella) - Hugo nominee, interesting story marred by misogynism
Eugie Foster - Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast (novellete) - Hugo nominee, Nebula-winner, it was ok, I didn't love it. (Wont' be voting for it)
Nicola Griffith - It Takes Two (novellete) - Hugo nominee, it was ok
Rachel Swirsky - Eros, Philia, Agape (novelette) - Hugo-nominee. THIS. Blew me away. Go read. You will like it. Available for free on the Tor website http://www.tor.com/stories/2009/03/eros-philia-agape This is a writer to watch.
Tanya Huff - Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light, The Fire's Stone - pretty enjoyable fantasy
Catherine Asaro - Catch the Lightning, Spherical Harmonic - my sister and I were trying to remember in what book a particular scene took place (a member of the family captured by Aristo who was then physically pulled out of their prison cell using the web), so we divided up the books and re-read several novels each until we found it. Asaro is always a delight. I'd remembered Catch the Lightning as one of the weaker books, but I really enjoyed it this time. And, since it takes place in the future, I was surprised how much of the future events she was referring to correctly (several books before they were actually written).
Congrats on being a homeowner, but commiserations on the accompanying stress :(
I've seen quite a bit about Feed recently, I'm intrigued by it and I think I'll give it a shot. Looking forward to your review of it :D
Orannia - Thank you! It will be nice to have our new place - we're just waiting for a couple of things to be finished up so we can move back in. Good luck with your first purchase for your new home and renovations!
Although now I'm kind of wishing I'd held out for one of these ;) :
http://www.castlemagic.com/color.html
Unfortunately, it won't link right to the photo but they are gorgeous.
Janicu - Six books in a month sounds pretty good to me. Four to five is typical for me with the occasional six books read in a month.
Naamah's Kiss is really long, but it did read surprisingly easily. Kushiel's Dart was so dense; I was expecting more of the same.
It sounds like you read some pretty good books in June - I really want to read both Daughter of the Forest and The Rise of Renegade X. Both are on the TBR.
Anastasia - Wow, that's a lot of reading! I'll have to try to remember to check out the Swirsky story. I have the omnibus with the two Huff books and was going to try to read them over the summer since I'm supposed to read them this year sometime.
Jamie - Thanks! Hopefully it won't be too stressful after we move. Right now that part of it is stressing me out and I wish it would just be finished so we could get it over with.
I never read zombie novels, but I did really enjoy Feed. It wasn't really what I'd call horror - there were zombie hordes but it wasn't full of graphic gore. It was more about a political campaign set in a world that had drastically changed.
Ooo, custom-built castles!
My personal belief on a home is that it's a library with extra rooms. :D
I thought Dervish House was very good. Have you read any Ian McDonald?
Stealing Light was just decent enough to be interesting. It's one of the more recent examples of the current wave of space operas that have come out in the last decade. It was interesting enough that I bought the second book recently. We'll see if the series improves or not.
Benjamin - A custom-built castle would be amazing. I'd better start saving my millions. :P There would be plenty of room for a nice library, though!
A library with extra rooms - I like that. :) Right now my whole home is like a library since I don't have all the books in just one room - they're taking over.
No, I haven't read anything by Ian McDonald. I keep hearing he is very good, though. Which do you think is a good book of his to start with?
Thanks for the information on Stealing Light.
It's hard to say which is the best to start with. I've read River of Gods, Brasyl, and now The Dervish House. McDonald has a few other books, but I haven't read those yet.
Most people seem to start with River of Gods, but I thought it had a little too much bloat. I myself started with Brasyl, but the cultural and scientific stuff in it can easily go over someone's head.
The Dervish House might be the most engrossing and easiest to get into, at least for me. If you like it, you'll probably like the rest of his books.
Benjamin - Thanks for the recommendation on which Ian McDonald book to start with. I used to have River of Gods on the wish list, but then I did hear that it was too bloated so I removed it. I've still heard enough that I'm curious about his books so I'll add The Dervish House instead (and wait for paperback).
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