Monthly Musings – April 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.

Well, April didn’t last long but it was a great reading month. I’ve been a bit distracted, getting ready to do some home renovations this week (or rather, have other people that know what they are doing come do them for me). So, packing up and relocating and cleaning out whatever we’ve accumulated in the 14 years of living in this house. Fun times! I had hoped to get to The Rook with the r/Fantasy goodreads group, but is just didn’t happen. But I did read Wee Free Men for the Fantasy Faction book club. I also met with the local book club as they were discussing The Martian (this is the book club I have gone to before on their ‘non-specific book’ days). It was interesting, there was actual discussion on the book!

I gave out my first 1 star  review since starting my blog. Maybe it was harsh, maybe I should have given it 2 stars, but it did irk me to a level where I decided I was comfortable with 1 star.

Highlighted Reads from April

I gave out two 5 Star ratings this month to two very different books. Grace of Kings is an epic fantasy told in a very different style as it pulls techniques from non=western literature and combines a very interesting blend. Because of this it had such a unique feel to it.

When We Were Animals was just an incredibly beautiful and reflective book. The prose was superb and the main character was just fascinating. A very hard book to put down

Review Summary [April]

• [7 Apr] Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel ★★★★½
• [12 Apr] The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu ★★★★★
• [21 Apr] The Rebirths of Tao by Wesley Chu ★★★★½
• [24 Apr] The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham ★★★★
• [26 Apr] The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy: A Handbook for Girl Geeks by Sam Miggs ★
• [30 Apr] When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord ★★★★★

April Backlist Burndown

For my backlist pick, I read The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham. I really enjoyed it and am hoping to find the time to read the rest of the series. For next month, I haven’t decided yet. Front runners are The Reapers are the Angels, this has been on my TBR list for years and now that I know it’s a pen name for Joshua Gaylord, I may have to finally give it a try. I am also considering just continuing with The Coin and the Dagger series with The King’s Blood by Daniel Abraham.. Other books I’ve eyed are Tainted City by Courtney Schafer. I bought this immediately after finishing Whitefire Crossing but haven’t read it yet. I really want to read it before the third book is available. Broken Kingdoms by N. K Jemisin and Lock In by John Scalzi are a couple more. Actually, I really, really want to read Anathem or Reamde by Neal Stephenson, but I keep putting them off because they are just so long. One of these months I will pick one! I’ll finalize my choice for May after I finish my current audiobook 🙂 If anyone wants to try and persuade me to read something, feel free! 🙂 In general I think my mood is actually leaning towards Sci-Fi or horror right now, but that may very well change.

Here’s what other people read and burned off their backlist this month! It makes me happy to see other people joining in with this, so thanks to all of you! 🙂 Anyone else that posted a backlist review this month, feel free to link up! Hope to see another great set of books for May.

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Looking Forward to May 2015

I have so many great books lined up for the next couple of months! Here’s a a few towards the top of my list at the moment that I plan on reading, but as usual, there is the caveat that I probably won’t get to all of them. And may get distracted by some others.