April Wrap-Up & May Reading Plans

I survived my midterm exams!

However, as I mentionned last month, school stuff prevented me from reading a lot. The beginning of the month was great but, toward the end, I didn’t manage to read a single page. I’m still happy with what I read anyway, I hope next month will be better reading-wise but since I have two groups projects due plus a week long event organised by my student organization.. well, we’ll see!

Also, I didn’t get to write a post about the BSFA so I’ll do a quick update here. I wanted to read all the novels and the short works nominated, but I didn’t get to everything in the end: I only read the novels and half of the short works.

Embers of War won the Best Novel category and Time Was won the Short Work category! I’m happy with the winners, the novel shortlist was amazing so I would have been happy with any of them really. Time Was was also a good one though not as good as Nina Allan’s The Gift of Angels: an introduction in my opinion. I understand why it won, I won’t complain too much but still, it’s a bit unfair to compare novellas to short stories or novelettes…

Anyway, congrats to all the winners!

Books Read

• New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color edited by Nisi Shawl ★★★★
• Uncanny Magazine Issue 26: January/February 2019 ★★
• Europe at Dawn (The Fractured Europe Sequence, #4) ★★★★
• Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 149 ★★★
• Time Was by Ian McDonald ★★★ 1/2

As you can see, April was a short fiction-heavy month, I tend to read more short stories when I’m very busy. They’re easy to squeeze in a busy day! 😀

Reviews Posted

• Short Fiction Sunday: March Highlights
• The Dollmaker by Nina Allan

Not many as you can see… I hope I’ll catch up a bit this month.

Favorite Read

What a great little collection! I don’t always love anthologies because they usually tend to be mixed bags but this one was very good. I really liked most of the stories and I discovered a lot fo authors I never heard of before!

DNF

It was a short fiction nominee for the BSFA and it didn’t work for me at all. It’s a very short novella but it took me a week to read the first 30 pages… The writing was okay but I was confused and I couldn’t care less about the story. I read about 30% of it and it was enough for me.

Currently Reading & Tentative TBR

I’m currently reading the January/February issue of Interzone and I also just started String City by Graham Edwards. So far, the world is really cool but I’m not convinced by the main character. I don’t know, I only read 10% of the book so my opinion will probably change.

Here are the other things I would like to read:

• The Last Tsar’s Dragons by Jane Yolen & Adam Stemple

• Miranda in Milan by Katharine Duckett
• Clarkesworld #150
• Apex Magazine #117

I hope I’ll be able to read more than that but we’ll see! 🙂

 

How was your month? 😀

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February Wrap-Up & March Reading Plans

So it’s apparently already March and I still feel like the year just started! It’s probably because I was on a college break, time always flies when I’m on vacation!

Speaking of vacation, I went to Tenerife for a week with my family and I had a great time. I just love the Canary Islands, I went to Lanzarote last year and I fell in love with the landscapes.

Here are a couple of pictures of my trip! (sorry for the questionable quality, I’m not a great photographer and I took all the pictures with my phone)

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February was a good reading month for me, I read seven things and I surprisingly managed to stick to my TBR. I have not posted that many reviews this month but I’ve written a couple that will be posted later this month. For once, I tried to prepare in advance for the end of my break. Usually, I read and post a lot when I’m free and that I’m MIA for weeks because I’m drowning in my school work. I know planning posts in advance is common practice for everyone but I’m just starting to realize how useful it is (yes, I’ve been blogging for three years but hey, better late than never!).

Also the blog has reached 200 followers so thanks a lot! I never thought that many people would be interested by my bookish ramblings. You’re the best!

Books Read in February

• The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden ★★★ 1/2 (review to come)
• Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse ★★★★ (review to come)
• The Outcast Hours edited by Mahvesh Murad & Jared Shurin ★★★ 1/2
• Winter by Ali Smith ★★★ 1/2
• Interzone #271 ★★★ 1/2
• The Dollmaker by Nina Allan ★★★★ (review to come in April)
• Clarkesworld Issue #147

Reviews Posted

• Short Fiction Sunday: January Highlights
• The Outcast Hours edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin
• The Quantum Magician by Derek Künsken

Favorite Reads

My picks are very different from one another, the first is a fun urban fantasy ride and the second is dark and slow-paced tale but I really liked them both!

Trail of Lightning was the perfect holiday read, I flew through it and it was a lot of fun. I know it’s not perfect but it was the right book at the right time. My review of this one will come out later this month.

The Dollmaker doesn’t come out until the beginning of April so my review will be posted around this time but I really liked it. It’s a delicate fractured novel where not a lot of things happen but the quiet atmosphere and the structure really worked for me.

Tentative TBR

I am currently reading Dune by Frank Herbert and I am enjoying it but I’m listening to it and, for some reason, I cannot listen to audiobooks for more than fifteen minutes without falling asleep so I’ll probably finish this one in May…

Anyway, the other books on my tentative TBR are:

• The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
• Europe at Dawn by Dave Hutchinson
• Before Mars by Emma Newman
• New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color edited by Nisi Shawl
• Embers of War by Gareth L. Powell
• String City by Graham Edwards
• Apex Magazine January 2019
• Clarkesworld #149
• Uncanny Magazine January-February 2019

What was your favorite reads of the month? What are you looking forward to in March? 🙂