{2014} September Reading

Books bought:
~ Squire (Protector of the Small Book #3) by Tamora Pierce
~ Moab is my Washpot by Stephen Fry
~ The Brilliance of the Moon (Tales of the Otori #3) by Lian Hearn
~ Aurealis 43

Books received:
Aurealis Awards...
~ Thief's Magic by Trudi Canavan
~ The Falcon Throne by Karen Miller
~ The Lascar's Dagger by Glenda Larke
~ a few other Aurealis books - I've not been keeping great track of things this month...

Other...
~ Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld (previous preorder)
~ Lullabies by Lang Leav (previous preorder)
~ Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier

Books read:
~ Defector by Susanne Winnacker
~ Landline by Rainbow Rowell
~ H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
~ Lullabies by Lang Leav
~ Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier
~ The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

And so it goes on with my slow reading. I did manage to get through a few books that had been waiting for me, and a couple of newer ones that I may or may not have squealed over when they arrived, but I wasn't reading terribly fast. I haven't had as much trouble settling to one book as I did last month, but my sickness frequency (yes, I measure it now) has still been rather high. Much of my sick time is taken up by mindlessly watching television and things that bring me comfort. Of course, reading tends to bring me comfort, too, but it's been a hard road!

Now, a few notes on the books I actually read. Defector has a link there, so please feel free to check out my review. Landline was a wonderful read when I was feeling quite sick - her writing is just such a comfort, and her characters feel so real. I have loved all her books so far, and hope there are more to come.
H is for Hawk is a book that I won off of a friend's blog, and I am so very grateful that I did! It was a wonderful, thoughtful read. Very sad in some places, but I definitely think I will be re-reading it again soon. I still think about it even now, and it has been at least two or three weeks since I finished it.
Lullabies by Lang Leav continued on with Lang Leav's fantastic, beautiful, amazing poetry. I cannot praise her work highly enough. She has this amazing way of weaving pure emotion into her work that I haven't yet experienced with any other poet.
Dreamer's Pool was an unexpected but wholly welcome surprise from Pan Macmillan. It was a joy to read more of Juliet Marillier's work, and I definitely still count her as one of my all-time favourite authors. Just so much love.
Finally, the Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. On the whole I enjoyed this book. It was decent YA fiction with a touch of fantasy and a dash of creepy, and I found myself picking it up more often than I expected. I ended up giving it a 3 out of 5 stars on goodreads, but I found myself reading a few of the other reviews while there. Some people raved about it, but others had issues. This is normal for any book, but for this one I found myself reading quite a few reviews where people were saying the characters in this book were...anti-feminist in a way? Thinking back over my reading experience, and looking at their examples of this view, I found myself agreeing with them on only one topic - the slut-shaming of one popular girl who bullies the main character. I think that could have been handled a little better, for sure. But these reviews went on to say that the romance was reflective of a sort of Twilight-esque relationship - where the girl completely disappears into her crush/love for the guy. Here, I think I disagree. While the romance within the book is fairly conventional by YA standards at its heart, I really don't think there was a huge display of disrespect or marginalising of women within it. I believe that the examples that these reviews used simply showed a playful element to the relationship - some gentle teasing and such. I find myself wondering that, had the male character been changed to a female friend (or perhaps lover), would these reviews be thinking the same thing? Or was it just because it was a guy saying these things? I only found this to be frustrating simply because these reviews had convinced so many other people to not read the book in the first place, instead of suggesting that they find out for themselves if they'd like to.

Sorry for being so vague, I just didn't want to give too much away while I rambled. Anyway! Onto a new month! October already. Is anyone planning to read anything spooky this month? I am a self-confessed scaredy cat, so I don't tend to read creepy things that often, but I may actually reserve the next Mara book at my library. Otherwise, back into Aurealis reading for me!

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