August Wrap Up

And so we enter the last days of summer and look towards autumn and winter. 2022 is really flying by and I swear these posts come round far quicker than I would like! August has been a bit of a weird month, but then again, I feel like this year has just been all over the place.

Books read:

• A Prayer for the Crown-Shy – Becky Chambers
• All My Rage – Sabaa Tahir
• Hench – Natalie Zina Walschotts
• The Oleander Sword – Tasha Suri
• Finna – Nino Cipri
• Treacle Walker – Alan Garner
• These Lifeless Things – Premee Mohamed
• And This Is How To Stay Alive – Shingai Njeri Kagunda
• Defekt – Nino Cipri
• Matryoshka – Penny Jones
• A Spindle Splintered – Alix E. Harrow
• Babel, Or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution – R.F. Kuang

I hadn’t quite realised how much I’d read this month, despite being in an awful slump. I knew it was going to happen, but it really hit at the wrong time. I was fortunate to be a juror for the Best Novella category for the British Fantasy Awards again this year, so trying to read them all ahead of the deadline, while in a slump, was an interesting exercise!

However, it has been nice to dedicate some time to shorter fiction and new authors though, so that was a definite bonus.

In terms of my standouts, Babel was absolutely fantastic – I can’t talk about this book without making some sort of incomprehensible noises. Babel was just so good and I am going to try and write a review at some point, once I get my thoughts in order! (I will say that I was sobbing at 12:30am as I neared the end…) Other noteworthy standouts were The Oleander Sword and Sabaa Tahir’s All My Rage (which I ended up finishing in a day – I am constantly in awe of Sabaa’s work and the emotion she packs into her novels).

One that was a pleasant surprise was Natalie Zina Walschotts’ Hench. This was an interesting take on the whole superhero / supervillain trope and I really liked what the author did with this. It does get quite dark in places (or it certainly felt like that), but if there is a sequel, I will probably end up picking it up – the ideas behind the novel were really interesting and I’m very curious to see where it goes next.

Goodreads / Storygraph reading challenges:

My Goodreads challenge is now at 69 out of 50 books or 138%. Bearing in mind I managed to read 70 books in 2020, the fact that I have nearly reached that number by the end of August kinda scares me. Reading was very much a coping mechanism back in 2020 and it feels like something similar is happening this year. Don’t get me wrong, this year has been great for reading so far – there have been some absolutely incredible books and I’ve loved discovering new favourites – but I’m not used to reading this much! (I tend to average around 50 in a year)

Having said that, if the next few months go well reading-wise, that elusive 100 books in a year looks like a very real possibility. I haven’t really mentioned it, because I know what my brain is like, but it would be a pretty neat way to end the year. However, I am in no way shape or form going to put any pressure on myself to hit that target

Other things:

In between all the reading, I’ve made some progress on another little project! If you follow me on Twitter, you probably already know about Space Dragon (my latest cross stitch project and pictured below):

I love the colours used for Space Dragon and she is going to look amazing when she’s complete!

It’s been really nice to stick on a playlist or audiobook and stitch away. I’d almost forgotten how soothing the repetitive motions could be and while my back and shoulders feel incredibly stiff after a few hours of stitching, it’s been so fun seeing the progress I’ve made. I’ve already reached the stage in this project where I cannot wait for it to be complete, because I have a feeling Space Dragon is going to look pretty awesome when she’s done (I do have a bit of a progress thread on Twitter, so please feel free to follow along if you would like to!)

Another thing that I’ve been pretty happy with this month is my posting schedule – I’ve had a lot of fun doing some of the tags that have been going round at the moment and I even managed to get 3 reviews out too! Given that this month has been horribly busy, I’m glad I’ve managed to actually do some blog stuff and dedicate some time to it. Granted, that has meant prepping quite a few posts in advance, but it works for me and it’s something I think I will be doing more of in the future.

With that in mind, I’ve got a couple of things planned for the next few months: first and foremost are my reviews for The Oleander Sword and Babel. I’m also hoping to read the next book for my re-reading series and I’m planning a non-fiction November as well (I have a few non-fiction books I’d like to get through, so why not dedicate a month to it?)

I hope August has been good to you and that you have a wonderful September!