Books Read: January 2016

Now that we've completed the first month of the year, we can take a look at the books I read during January. It's a doozy, even by my standards.


1. Chimera, by Mira Grant
2. The Dragon Revenant, by Katharine Kerr
3. The Fifth Season, by N. K. Jemisin
4. Rules of Conflict, by Kristine Smith
5. Son of the Black Sword, by Larry Correia
6. Back to the Future: The Ultimate Visual History, by Michael Klastorin
7. Going Dark, by Linda Nagata
8. Future Visions, by Jennifer Henshaw and Allison Linn (editors)
9. The Shootout Solution, by Michael R. Underwood
10. The Invaders, by Karolina Waclawiak
11. The Complete Peanuts: 1997-1998, by Charles M. Schulz
12. Saint Camber, by Katherine Kurtz
13. Our Souls at Night, by Kent Haruf
14. A Spool of Blue Thread, by Anne Tyler (unfinished)
15. The Whites, by Harry Brandt
16. Planetfall, by Emma Newman
17. Court of Fives, by Kate Elliott


Best Book of the Month: The Fifth Season. This book is so good I am actually mad I haven't read any of Jemisin's other novels and it moves The Obelisk Gate to my #1 must read novel of 2016, no matter what else comes out (and yes, this includes *that* book)

Disappointment of the Month: While I mostly read science fiction and fantasy, I'm following along with the short list for the Tournament of Books and will try to read as much of that as I can before the tournament begins in March. I wouldn't say that A Spool of Blue Thread is bad, and I will still read at least one more Anne Tyler novel (the Pulitzer Prize winning Breathing Lessons), but I was disinterested. So, why continue if I don't care?

Discovery of the Month: Planetfall. This could well have been The Fifth Season, because I have no idea how I've gotten by in life without having read Nora Jemisin's novels. But - The Fifth Season was also the best book of the month by a solid margin and I don't like to double up here. Emma Newman's Planetfall is likewise one of the top novels of the month and of 2015 and I wish I had read it last year.

Worth Noting: I'd have to do some digging, but I feel that 17 books in January my strongest month of reading in a long time. I'm not quite sure how that happened.

Gender Breakdown: Having finished 17 books this month, I'm happy to report that 11 of them were written by women. My year in reading opens with a 64.70% percentage. While I do not a have specific goal this year to read more books written by women than those written by men, I would like to at least keep the breakdown near a 50/50 split.