It feels as though September has flown by. Where did it go? I’m not sure, but a fair bit went into reading and writing about reading!

Read

Unsurprisingly I did NOT surpass last month’s thirty-two reads, but I wasn’t expecting to! I think twenty is more than good enough (or rather, a sign that my mental health is good enough, since how much you read is really just a combination of that – your mental health – the time you have available for reading, and your access to books).

This month held extreme highs – buddy-reading the Hollow Folk series with the hubby and then finally diving into Ember Boys; rereading the utterly enchanting Floating Islands so I could pounce on the new sequel; the unexpected Instant New Fave that was/is The Wolf Among the Wild Hunt – and extreme lows – First, Become Ashes and Nimuar’s Loss were both appallingly bad, even though they both started strong. But overall? Almost every book I read this month knocked it out of the park. (And I can’t believe it took me so long to read The Midnight Lie!!!)

Now for stats: out of 13 authors, I read

• 8 women, 2 men, and 2 nonbinary folx (counting trans men as men and trans women as women, and obviously this is only to the best of my knowledge about all the authors’ genders)
• 11 white and 2 BIPOC authors

2/13 – 15% of my reads – is pretty terrible, and it’s less than last month, both in terms of how many books and as a percentage overall. Gods damn it.

Reviewed

Strictly speaking, I didn’t review Lips Like Ice this month; I posted a review I wrote for it back in 2015. But I did edit it a tiny bit, so I’m counting it!

Which makes nine reviews this month!!! I’M SO PLEASED! Even though two were unhappy DNF-reviews, and I really don’t think my review of Nightbitch did it justice. But I tried!

I suspect nine reviews in one month is going to be my record. Nobody should expect that to become a regular thing here!

DNF-ed

I reviewed The Goddess of Nothing At All and Forging a Nightmare, so enough said about them. The Winter Garden was a book I knew almost nothing about but was still really excited for, and unfortunately it just didn’t work for me. I think it was going for a kind of Night Circus vibe, but even though I really liked the main character, the writing style grated on me pretty badly.

Scales and Sensibility goes on the it’s-not-you-it’s-me-dnf shelf – I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just not quite the right flavour of whimsical for me. I do plan on trying it again at some point, though, because Burgis!

Arcs Received

I requested A Far Wilder Magic rather warily, because I’ve promised myself I won’t request YA anymore unless I already know (and love) the author’s work. But I just keep hearing so many amazing things about it, and then Ava Reid blurbed (blurbbed?) it with THIS

Tender, intimate, and atmospheric, A Far Wilder Magic is unlike anything on the YA shelf. With devastatingly gorgeous prose, intricate worldbuilding, and an utterly original plot, Saft weaves a love story that will tear you apart and then stitch you whole again

_{Ava Reid}

So now I have to give it a go, don’t I?

And in fairness, I’m enjoying it so far.

WHEREAS DARK BREAKERS IS EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED AND I SCREAMED WHEN I GOT APPROVED. Also, it’s my first ever ARC from Edelweiss! ALSO-ALSO, IT’S PERFECT!

I’m also INCREDIBLY excited for Scorpica! HIGH FANTASY MATRIARCHIES, YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!!

Arcs Outstanding

This one number hasn’t changed from last month – I had 8 outstanding then and I have 8 outstanding now, even though I managed to review two of last month’s. TOO MANY ARCS??? …NOT YET.

Although I do feel so, so guilty for still not having managed to review The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry. It’s one of my favourite books of the YEAR but I don’t know how to write that down – when I go to start writing the review, it ends up with a lot of caps-locked keyboard smashing…

REC LISTS & MISC

For Bi Visibility Day (23rd September) I made a rec list of SFF featuring bisexual leads! I’m extra happy about it because my fibro was so bad that week, but my hands cooperated enough to let me finish the post on time.

I think that was my only Misc post this month though.

LOOKING FORWARD

October is a slower month, but slow’s not a dead stop! ESPECIALLY SINCE SURPRISE!NEW T KINGFISHER BOOK!!! Can you have happy heart attacks??? Because I think I had one when I saw her announce on twitter that we’re getting a THIRD SAINT OF STEEL BOOK. !!! I DIDN’T KNOW THERE WAS GOING TO BE ANOTHER BOOK!!! I THOUGHT THE STORY WAS DONE!!! AND I AM SO VERY DELIGHTED TO BE WRONG!!! 8DDDDDDDD

…I’m a tiny bit excited. Teeny tiny bit.

Then there’s A Spindle Splintered and Comfort Me With Apples, two brand-new books from two of my favourite-est authors – I know I’m not the only one excited for these! And I can’t wait to pounce on Quicksilver Court after the ending of the previous book! Payback’s a Witch I’ve already read and reviewed, but it’s always fun seeing how the rest of the world reacts to a book you already know is awesome.

I’m also very intrigued by Quenby Olson’s upcoming book Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide (to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons). It doesn’t have a cover yet, but apparently it’s a book Olson wrote and released chapter by chapter via Patreon during The Pandemic, and I am very here for escapist fantasy-of-manners with dragons!

And I will be buying the new edition of Vonda McIntyre’s The Moon and the Sun just for that incredible cover, honestly. (It’s also one of my favourite books ever, and you should read it!)

Other than that, I’m planning to sit down and make a list of SFF by BIPOC authors that I need to check out, and then set myself a number of books to read per month from that list. Obviously I’ll be posting the list once I’ve made it, to share.

That’s it for September! May October treat us all gently.