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.

I started the year with a trip to London (for some reason I flew to Heathrow rather than taking the Chunnel, no idea why). Mid month I attempted to fly to Serbia, but the weather was against me and I only got as far as Munich. Later in the month I successfully got to Skopje and then Dubrovnik on the same trip. Dubrovnik as always was spectacular.

At home, I started my very enjoyable rewatch of Here Come the Double Deckers!

I read 29 books that month.

Non-fiction: 6
Lois McMaster Bujold, by Edward James
Perilous and Fair: Women in the Works and Life of J. R. R. Tolkien, eds. Janet Brennan Croft and Leslie A. Donovan
Baptism of Fire: The Birth of the Modern British Fantastic in World War I, ed. Janet Brennan Croft
The Story of Ireland by Brendan O’Brien
No Official Umbrella, by Glyn Jones
On The Way To Diplomacy, by Costas Constantinou

Fiction (non-sf): 2
Travelling Light, by Tove Jansson
The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro

SF (non-Who): 12
Jews vs Aliens, eds Lavie Tidhar and Rebecca Levene
A Day In Deep Freeze, by Lisa Shapter
Rupert Wong: Cannibal Chef, by Cassandra Khaw
The Philosopher Kings, by Jo Walton
Wylding Hall, by Elizabeth Hand
Uprooted, by Naomi Novik
Touch, by Claire North
Streetlethal, by Steven Barnes
Sorcerer to the Crown, by Zen Cho
House of Shattered Wings, by Aliette de Bodard
Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott
Ancillary Mercy, by Ann Leckie

Doctor Who, etc: 4
Zodiac ed Jacqueline Rayner
Relative Dementias, by Mark Michalowski
Dry Pilgrimage, by Paul Leonard and Nick Walters
Royal Blood, by Una McCormack

Comics: 5
Saga vol 5, by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Ms. Marvel Volume 2: Generation Why, by G. Willow Wilson
Sex Criminals, Vol. 2: Two Worlds, One Cop, by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
Bételgeuse, tome 3 : L’Expédition by Leo
Thor Volume 1: Goddess of Thunder, by Jason Aaron

7,300 pages
18/29 by women (Brennan Croft, Donovan Janssen, Monro, Levene, Shapter, Khaw, Walton, Hand, Novik, North, Cho, de Bordard, Leckie, Rayner, McCormack, Staples, Wilson)
5/29 by PoC (Barnes, Khaw, Cho, de Bodard, Staples)

I’m going to give you five good books and no bad ones this month:

• Ancillary Mercy, by Ann Leckie (get it here)
• The Love of a Good Woman, by Alice Munro (get it here)
• Wylding Hall, by Elizabeth Hand (get it here)
• Travelling Light, by Tove Jansson (get it here) and
• Baptism of Fire: The Birth of the Modern British Fantastic in World War I, by Janet Brennan Croft (get it here)