Friday, October 02, 2015

Books Read: September 2015

Friday, October 02, 2015
The beginning of a new month brings with it the opportunity to look back at the month gone by and to give one last glance at what I most recently read. The below listed books are what I read during the month of September.

1. Lagoon, by Nnedi Okorafor
2. Iron Hearted Violet, by Kelly Barnhill
3. The Daylight War, by Peter V. Brett
4. Kitty Saves the World, by Carrie Vaughn
5. 1633, by David Weber and Eric Flint
6. The Darkling Child, by Terry Brooks
7. The Girl With All the Gifts, by M. R. Carey


Best Book of the Month: I loved Kelly Barnhill's Iron Hearted Violet. I want my son to grow up reading books like the ones Kelly writes and I am going to do everything I can to combat the idea of boys not reading books featuring girl protagonists - and the fact that Violet is a princess should not be a discouraging thing.  We'll see how that goes. My son is only 9 months old, so I've got time to set that stage for him.  Most importantly, Iron Hearted Violet was just friggin delightful to read.

Disappointment of the Month: Oh, Shannara - I thought the Dark Legacy of Shannara was a stronger step back to what Shannara has been at its best, though Brooks has long moved away from building the world and the atmosphere and moved towards pushing the story forward as fast as possible with increasingly thin characters. But even with that understanding, Dark Legacy did some very interesting stuff and I'd love to see where the story of Grianne goes. It's not going to be the main story, but I think it's clear that Brooks is going to return to that at some point. The latest two novels, set 100 years after Witch Wraith just haven't been very good. I think Brooks is setting stuff up for his next series or trilogy which I think is the one planned to bring Shannara to a close - but these Defenders of Shannara books are just so disappointing.

Discovery of the Month:None. 

Worth Noting: If the Darkling Child was my disappointment ranked 1A, my 1B disappointment was Lagoon, except like with Shanarra, my expectations were not high. Despite Lagoon being discussed as a top novel of the year, it's going to be nowhere near my Best Of the Year list.  I could not engage with it or the characters. 

Gender Breakdown: September ties with August for the fewest books read in any month this year. Unlike August, the gender balance skewed just the other way and I read one more book written by a man than I did by a woman. M. R. Carey is Mike Carey, he of The Unwritten comic series.  This brings my yearly total to 59 out of 100 books and drops my percentage to an even 59%.  I'm still on track, and while the first book that I finished in October was written by a man, four out of the five novels I have out from the library are written by women. So, my goal is still very much achievable to read more books written by women than those written by men.


Previous Months:
January
February
March 
April 
May  
June
July  
August

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