This is the latest post in a series I started in late 2019, anticipating the twentieth anniversary of my bookblogging at the end of October 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.
For the first time in four years, we made our family trip to Northern Ireland, this time by the direct ferry to Rosslare from Dunkirk.
We did many things on holiday, including local megaliths, Derry and nearby attractions, a quick trip to London for me to the Clarke Award ceremony, and an early wedding anniversary celebration.
And I finally put together my photos of the stucco ceilings of Jan Christiaan Hansche.
Unwinding from an intense period, I read 45 books that month.
Non-fiction 10 (YTD 58)
Representatives of the People?: Parliamentarians and Constituents in Modern Democracies, ed. Vernon Bogdanor
Falling to Earth, by Al Worden
Gifted Amateurs and Other Essays, by David Bratman
Autism Spectrum Disorders Through the Lifespan, by Digby Tantam
The Stones of Blood, by Katrin Thier
Arachnids in the UK, by Sam Maleski
Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, by Kyle Buchanan (did not finish)
Will We Ever Speak Dolphin?, ed. Mick O’Hare
Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir, by Wil Wheaton
The Return of Eva Perón with the Killings in Trinidad, by V. S. Naipaul
Non-genre 4 (YTD 18)
Love and Mr Lewisham, by H.G. Wells
The Man Who Died Twice, by Richard Osman
The Various Lives of Keats and Chapman: Including the Brother, by Flann O’Brien
Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
SF 17 (YTD 139)
A Wind in the Door, by Madeleine L’Engle
Akata Woman, by Nnedi Okorafor
The Outcast, by Louise Cooper
Bloodmarked, by Tracy Deonn (did not finish)
Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak, by Charlie Jane Anders
Collision Course, by Robert Silverberg / Nemesis from Terra, by Leigh Brackett
Nettle and Bone, by “T. Kingfisher”
Osmo Unknown and the Eightpenny Woods, by Catherynne M. Valente
What Moves the Dead, by “T. Kingfisher”
A Mirror Mended, by Alix E. Harrow
A Rumor of Angels, by Dale Bailey
Into the Riverlands, by Nghi Vo
Even Though I Knew the End, by C.L. Polk
Where the Drowned Girls Go, by Seanan McGuire
“Beggars in Spain”, by Nancy Kress
Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
Doctor Who 4 (YTD 25)
The Shadow Man, by Sharon Bidwell
Doctor Who: The Zygon Invasion, by Peter Harness
Doctor Who and the Stones of Blood, by Terrance Dicks
Doctor Who – The Stones of Blood, by David Fisher
Comics 7 (YTD 21)
Sins of the Father, by Nick Abadzis et al
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, by Tom King, Bilquis Evely and Matheus Lopes
Cyberpunk 2077: Big City Dreams, by Bartosz Sztybor, Filipe Andrade, Alessio Fioriniello, Roman Titov, and Krzysztof Ostrowski
Monstress vol. 7: Devourer, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
Major Matt Mason: Moon Mission, by George S. Elrick
DUNE: The Official Movie Graphic Novel, by Lilah Sturges, Drew Johnson, and Zid
Daleks, ed. Marcus Hearn
10,000 pages (YTD 64,900)
21/42 (YTD 115/267) by non-male writers
6/42 (YTD 36/267) by a non-white writer
Several great books here. From the Hugo ballot, the two novellas Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk, which you can get here, and What Moves the Dead, by “T. Kingfisher”, which you can get here; and the graphic novel Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, by Tom King, Bilquis Evely and Matheus Lopes, which you can get here. Also, newly published Gifted Amateurs and Other Essays, by David Bratman, which you can get here.
On the other hand, I found nothing to like about Hugo finalist Cyberpunk 2077: Big City Dreams, by Bartosz Sztybor, Filipe Andrade, Alessio Fioriniello, Roman Titov, and Krzysztof Ostrowski; you can get it here.