Random (but not really)

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

The Books of August

Another month of a lot of reading–the weather was hot at the beginning of the month, and then events conspired to keep us at home on weekends towards the end of the month.

I did a fair amount of re-reading this month, mostly historical romances and mysteries. For some reason I’ve been in the mood for books that remind me how glad I am to live in the future.

My recommendations from this month’s reading? Let’s start with Mockingbird. This is marvelous and delightful, but it did take a second reading for me to be way less confused. It is NOT for kids, but it is wonderful. What’s especially fascinating is the contrast between the Mockingbird and New Avengers portion of the second volume. I adore Mockingbird, but have no interesting in reading New Avengers, even if that did help clarify just what had happened to her.

If you like geek heroines, then I highly recommend checking out Courtney Milan. You’ll find an evolutionary biologist (botany), an astronomer, and a suffragette. Plus a fabulous doctor.

If you want characters that are outside the normal heroes and heroines, you’ll find virgin heroes, heroes with dyslexia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, PTSD, a history of substance abuse, and characters with a history of ruin (including a former courtesan), what would be called today autism spectrum disorder, and characters of color and non-WASP ancestry. She really is marvelous.

An unexpected delight was Alissa Johnson’s third book in her Thief-Takers series, A Dangerous Deceit, where the heroine has hearing issues (the previous two books are also marvelous, where the heroines are sisters with a criminal past). And I really enjoyed re-reading Michelle Diener‘s Regency series, which are mysteries with strong and unusual heroines.

And although I listened to the audio version of the second book, if you haven’t read Paul Cornell‘s Shadow Police series, you are truly missing out on some fantastic urban fantasy.

Historical Romance

The Brothers Sinister
The Duchess War (2012) Courtney Milan
A Kiss for Midwinter (2012) Courtney Milan
The Heiress Effect (2013) Courtney Milan
The Countess Conspiracy (2013) Courtney Milan
The Suffragette Scandal (2014) Courtney Milan
Talk Sweetly to Me (2014) Courtney Milan
The Turner Series
Unveiled (2011) Courtney Milan
Unclaimed (2011) Courtney Milan
Unraveled (2011) Courtney Milan
The Worth Saga
Once Upon a Marquess (2015) Courtney Milan
Her Every Wish (2016) Courtney Milan
Rules of Scoundrels
A Rogue by Any Other Name (2012) Sarah MacLean
One Good Earl Deserves a Lover (2013) Sarah MacLean
No Good Duke Goes Unpunished (2013) Sarah MacLean
Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover (2014) Sarah MacLean
Scandal & Scoundrel
The Rogue Not Taken (2015) Sarah MacLean (6.5/10)

Audio Book

Shadow Police
The Severed Streets: Audio Version (2014/2015) Paul Cornell narrated by Damian Lynch
Soulwood
Blood of the Earth, Audio Version (2016) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam
Curse on the Land, Audio Version (2016) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam

Graphic Novel

Rivers of London: Detective Stories #2: Old Soldiers (2017) Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan, Luis Guerrero, Gary Erskine, Yel Zamor
Rivers of London: Detective Stories #3: Cry Me a River (2017) by Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan, Luis Guerrero
Mockingbird Vol. 1: I Can Explain (2016) Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Ibrahim Moustafa, Joelle Jones (9/10)
Mockingbird Vol. 2: My Feminist Agenda (2017) Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Sean Parsons, Rachelle Rosenberg (8/10)

Historical Mystery

The Thief-Takers
A Talent for Trickery (2015) Alissa Johnson
A Gift for Guile (2016) Alissa Johnson
A Dangerous Deceit (2017) Alissa Johnson (8.5/10)
Regency London
The Emperor’s Conspiracy (2012) Michelle Diener
Banquet of Lies (2013) Michelle Diener
A Dangerous Madness (2014) Michelle Diener

Mystery

Inspector Montalbano
A Nest of Vipers (2013/2017) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli (written in 2008) (7/10)

Supernatural Romance

The Edge
Steel’s Edge (2012) Ilona Andrews

As usual, I read (or re-read) mostly eBooks, with the paper exceptions being comics, which I strongly prefer in paper format, since I miss a lot of things otherwise (I can’t really get the whole page with ebooks, and it’s a PITA to flip back and forth to check things.)

Trade Paperback: 2
eBook: 26
Audio: 3

Multiple Formats: 5
Re-read: 24

Genre-wise, it was a LOT of historicals this month.

Fantasy: 7
Mystery: 10
Romance: 22
Comic: 4

And this was the month female authors caught back up (what with all the historicals).

Male: 4 (39% for the year)
Female: 24 (41% for the year)
Joint + Anthology: 3

And that wraps up the books of August.

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