Monthly Musings – February 2015

This is a where I look back at what I read (or tried to read) during the past month. I also plan on highlighting my experiences in any book club reads I from the month as well. I will always start with any books I would label as a surprise find/under-read books so if anyone missed my reviews for them, and don’t make it to the end of this post, they’ll be easy to find.

Not surprising, February went by fast!

This month I participated in my first blog hop (Share the Love Giveaway). And while I loved picking favorite authors/books to feature and giving one of them away, I can’t say I am eager to do another hop like that again. I know it sounds silly, but I would rather do one that featured participating blogs that focused on similar books as me. There were a couple, but in general most of the blogs were not ones I would normally be interested in. If I am going to feature a link to someone else blog/giveaway (even if it is just through a set of links), I would rather it would be one I felt my readers would be interested in. So, I love the concept, I just didn’t feel I quite fit the mold of most of the other blogs involved. Lesson learned, moving on.

I’ve really been enjoying my Backlist Burndown effort. It feels really good to search through all of my backlist books and picking one to finally read. It can be hard to choose, but I feel a sense of rewardment finally setting aside the time and giving priority to the books I’ve missed out on. I’ve also been happy to see some others join in!

I generally do not pay attention to author gender when I select my books, but sometimes I do tend to notice my reading trends, how many male vs. female authors I have read. Honestly, it does not tend to be an even split, I do seem to read more male authors than female authors. Last year, only 23 of the 66 books I read were by female authors. So, I was a bit surprised when I noticed that of the 13 books I have read so far in 2015, 9 of them were by female authors. That’s 35% compared to almost 70%. I don’t expect it to stay that way, but maybe it means my selections will be closer to even in regards to author gender than they have in the past.

Highlighted Read from February

Touch by Claire North – This book was just wonderful! The thought of someone’s existence relying on pretty much hijacking another person’s body, stealing time from their life as you take them over, is so fascinating and North does an incredible job executing it.

Review Summary [February]

• [2 Feb] The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black ★★★★
• [9 Feb] Touch by Claire North ★★★★½
• [16 Feb] The Thorn of Dentonhill by Marshall Ryan Maresca ★★★★
• [17 Feb] The Inheritance Trilogy - The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin ★★★★
• [21 Feb] The Autumn Republic by Brian McClellan ★★★★
• [23 Feb] Dirty Magic by Jaye Wells
• [27 Feb] Zoo City by Lauren Beukes ★★★★

Tough Traveling with the Tough Guide Tour [February]

• [5 Feb] Tough Traveling – Evil Lairs
• [12 Feb] Tough Traveling – To Blathe (True Love)
• [26 Feb] Tough Traveling – Chessmasters

Looking Forward to March 2015

February I have a few sequels to look forward to! Shadow Study, Shadow Scale and Skull Throne are all ones I plan on reading. Trying to pick my Backlist Burndown book for March is harder than I would expect. There’s just so many to choose from, but I think this is part of my challenge, making sure I just pick something and actually go read it. I think this month will be another audiobook month for it, so a couple of my choices (California Bones and Sharps) are going to wait for another month when I don’t have such a high number of ARCs to read (not complaining!!) I do have Gunslinger, it might be that, but right now, I am thinking I will go with Miserere by Teresa Frohock!