{2015} January Reading

Books bought/received:
~ Lonely Planet Korea
~ The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Books read:
Aurealis Awards...
~ The Falcon Throne by Karen Miller
~ Afterworld by Lynette Lounsbury
~ Unwrapped Sky by Rurik Davidson
~ The Godless by Ben Peek
~ Fireborn by Keri Arthur
~ Shadow Sister by Carole Wilkinson
~ Thorne: The Chronicles of Kaya by Charlotte McConaghy
~ The Assassin of Nara by R.J. Ashby
~ Sword of the Bright Lady by M.C. Planck
~ City of Masks by Ashley Capes
~ Endsinger by Jay Kristoff
~ The Memory of Death by Trent Jamieson
~ The Miranda Contract by Ben Langdon
~ The Story Makers by Tamara Pratt
~ The Unfortunate Death of Jonathan Wild by Stephen Hart
~ I, Morgana by Felicity Pulman
~ Trinity by Sophie Masson
~ The Dagger of Dresnia by Satima Flavell
~ The Shadow of what was Lost by James Islington
~ The Unbound Man by Matt Karlov
~ The Last Great Hero by Scott J. Robinson
~ Isis, Vampires and Ghosts - Oh My! by Janis Hill

Note: I didn't keep a thorough record of what I read this month, so I may have missed some things or doubled up from previous months. I have now finished my Aurealis reading, though! Yay!

Own reading...
~ Daughter of the Regiment by Jackie French
~ The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians book #4)
~ Clean Gut by Alejandro Junger
~ Hardboiled and Hard Luck by Banana Yoshimoto (actually two short books in one)
~ Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories edited by Alisa Krasnostein
~ An Age of License by Lucy Knisley
~ The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
~ Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop


Goodness me! It's been a busy month. We needed to finish Aurealis reading this month so we can get onto the judging and such, so I was often to be found in bed or on the couch, or in my reading chair, too, just reading and drinking gallons of water and tea (the weather has climbed up into the high 30s and low 40s lately, which is alarming [I mean celsius, by the way]). Often it would look a little like this:

Anyway, I managed to get all of my reading done, plus some of my own stuff, too! As always, I won't really talk about the Aurealis stuff, but I will talk about my own stuff!

I have been very firmly on the bandwagon with my 'read three before you buy one' plan to reduce my unread books, and have been really enjoying it, too! It has made me realise that I have such a wonderland of books just where I am (I always kind of recognised that, but lately I have been so excited to just read books I already have, which is lovely). I have quite a few Jackie French that I collected when I was younger that have been unread until now - last year I read Tajore Arkle and loved it, and this month I picked up Daughter of the Regiment. I love her style of writing and am looking forward to diving into some of the others on my shelves - The Book of Unicorns, The White Ship, and even a book sent to me by Katharine - Nanberry.
I battle ever onward with my Percy Jackson books - I find them enjoyable but not my favourite things ever - and I am still doing research on different diets and such to support recovery and maintenance of IBS, so Clean Gut was a worthy read this month. The rest of the books in my 'own reading' list were all stand-outs for me: Hardboiled and Hard Luck were fascinating little stories that added to my list of Japanese literature (I want to read more by Banana Yoshimoto! Not least because her name is Banana); Kaleidoscope absolutely lived up to the hype and I was so so grateful to Katharine for sending it to me as a Christmas present.
I delved back into Lucy Knisley's beautiful art/view of the world through 'An Age of License' and felt so comforted by that. I still prefer 'Relish', but she is an absolute favourite of mine.
Ava Lavender was a bizarre story, but no less beautiful and lovely to read, I definitely recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind a beautifully written story that is a bit off the wall.
Finally, FINALLY, I managed to finish Murder of Crows. I am still really loving this new series from Anne Bishop. Can't wait for Vision in Silver, due to come out the day after my birthday I believe...

What are you reading at the moment? Do you have books on your TBR you need to get through?

2 comments book review, books, thoughts