Tuesday, December 01, 2015

Books Read: November 2015

The beginning of a new month brings with it the opportunity to look back at the month gone by and to give one last glance at what I most recently read. The below listed books are what I read during the month of November. 

1. Camber of Culdi, by Katherine Kurtz
2. The Sorcerer of the Wildeep, by Kai Ashante Wilson
3. Empire Ascendant, by Kameron Hurley
4. Shadow of Self, by Brandon Sanderson
5. Binti, by Nnedi Okorafor
6. White Trash Zombies Gone Wild, by Diana Rowland
7. Career of Evil, by Robert Galbraith
8. Sunset Mantle, by Alter S. Reiss
9. Bazaar of Bad Dreams, by Stephen King

Best Book of the Month: This month it is surprisingly difficult to pick a single best because almost everything I read was good to very good, but there might not have been a true standout. So - let's go with Empire Ascendant, Binti, and Career of Evil.  With bonus points to Camber of Culdi just because I love it so much.

Disappointment of the Month: This would probably be the first Stephen King collection I can remember reading that I wasn't excited and engaged the whole way through. There were some standout stories like "Ur" and "Obits", with "Drunken Fireworks worth a mention. But as a whole, I was a bit disappointed.

Discovery of the Month: I read two of Tor.com Publishing's novellas last month and another three this month. The more I read from them the more excited I am to read everything they put out. Long live the novella! 

Worth Noting: You should all read more Deryni from Katherine Kurtz and I highly recommend starting with Camber of Culdi because I find this era of the series to be far more interesting, engaging, and emotionally wrenching than the later Kelson novels.

Gender Breakdown: 5 out of the 9 books I read in November were woman authored (remember, Robert Galbraith is the pen name for J. K. Rowling). This brings me to 69/119 and continues to slide my percentage down just a smidge to 57.98% (from 58.18%). Goal remains on track. I'd like to slide that up over 60%, but I'm still nailing the goal so I'm happy.


Previous Months:
January
February
March 
April 
May  
June
July
August 
September
October

2 comments:

Todd said...

Joe,
The only ones you've read this month that were on my radar are Shadow of Self and Sunset Mantle so I'm curious as to what you thought of them. Being a big fan of Mr. Sanderson I've found that even his not-so-great work is still hands down better than most out there, so I know it's just matter of time before I go buy it. Sunset Mantle at least interested me, but after some bad tastes from new writers the last year or so I've found it a bit difficult to try any more without some major trepidation.

Joe said...

I was more engaged by the second half of Shadows of Self than the first because it finally feels like it was building to something bigger and more exciting. And it is. I love Marasi's character. But I'm more interesting in reading Bands of Mourning than I am to re-read this, if that makes sense. But if you like Sanderson, there's no reason not to read this.

One of the biggest advantages of Sunset Mantle is that it's a novella - so the time and money investment is pretty low. I did enjoy it, but the more distance I get from it the less I'm truly excited.