February book round-up

[bedlamsbard]

So in February I read seven books! Which is a pretty low number compared to January, but there are factors: (1) School started up again so I had classes, (2) I didn't have any papers due in February so I wasn't frantically cramming stuff down for that, and (3) February is a short month anyway. Oh, and (4) I screwed up my wrists, so for about a week I couldn't really hold up a book. I do have a book stand, but that really only works with hardbacks and paperbacks of a certain size.

Of the seven books I read, three were vaguely school-related (I'm trying to do more wider background reading on Rome) and four were purely for fun. Two were rereads. I've also got a couple started and not finished, as well as some holdovers from January or earlier.



The complete list (finished):
69 A.D.: The Year of Four Emperors, Gwyn Morgan
Rome & the Sword, Simon James
Beauty, Robin McKinley
The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin
The Eagle of the Ninth, Rosemary Sutcliff
The Battle that Stopped Rome, Peter S. Wells
Rivers of London, Ben Aaronovitch

Books in progress (as of February):
An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire, David Mattingly
Calling on Dragons, Patricia C. Wrede
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Homeric Hymns, trans. Apostolos N. Athanassakis
The Medieval Universities, A.B. Cobban

I can't believe I still haven't finished the Mattingly book, I've been reading it since September. Calling on Dragons is at home, and I'm still stuck at the same point in The Hobbit as I was a month ago because I just don't want to read on, it's all death and despair from here on out. The Homeric Hymns I'm stalled out on because I've been reading other books, and The Medieval Universities, which I picked up as background for Dust, is kind of boring.

Should be more books read in March, since I already ripped through the other two Aaronovitch books and I've got papers due next week, so there should be a healthy bump on the list just from my ARGH RESEARCH EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE. *eyes bookshelf sadly*

Comments

[cupiscent]

What did you think of The Killing Moon? I read that duology recently, and was so delighted with KM, so I'm very curious to hear other opinions? I'm forever trying to untangle my emotional and rational responses to media recently. :D (Speaking of which: do you GoodReads? I am finding it invaluable for actually keeping track of my thoughts on books.)

Also Aaronovitch. <3 I am very fond of those books. Have you tried Kate Griffin? Totally different take on urban London magic, but I love her lush density.

[bedlamsbard]

I really liked it! I haven't read Shadowed Sun yet, because none of my local bookshops have it in and also...I'm trying not to buy more books until I read more of the ones I own...(I have a problem, okay.) Er, anyway, I really liked KM. I find Jemisin a really thoughtful writer who does some very interesting things that other writers probably wouldn't; I've read the first two books of the Inheritance Trilogy, which have one of my favorite things in (gods!), so I was curious what her other books were like. Plus, the Book Smugglers reviewed it and really liked it, and I generally trust their opinions.

At the risk of sounding like a crazy person, I finished KM and went, "Wow, that story was everything I wish Star Wars was," which I know is a weird thing to say because they're not that alike and is probably pretty unfair to the book. But it hit me on some of the same levels, I guess: master and apprentice, the seduction of power/becoming what you hate, absolute faith. I think it was a pretty ballsy book. And a good one, definitely.

I do not GoodReads, alas! I keep a couple of Excel files to keep track of what I'm reading and how much I'm reading, but I don't tend to articulate my book thoughts unless they're really good or really bad. (Although I guess I livetweet what I'm reading a lot, mostly because I'm usually reading at my desk, where my computer is. Uh. Not a good habit.)

I have not! I shall put her on my oh-so-long list of stuff to read.

[cupiscent]

I totally hear you on the Star Wars / Killing Moon correlation. I mean, I didn't think that myself, but I think that I love the same sorts of things about both stories - the epic personal stuff, and the epic external stuff - and obviously KM was delivered so much better. It is definitely a ballsy book indeed, big and bold and rampantly other, and I really did love it. (Shadowed Sun is also really good, but it didn't hit me where I live quite as hard.)

[bedlamsbard]

Oh, that's a good way to put it -- epic personal stuff and epic external stuff, I like that. It's funny, because it was such a weird thought (the Star Wars ref, I mean) -- I can't remember when in the book I had it, but it was somewhere in the last third or quarter. I didn't even know I was that connecting to that kind of trope! But apparently so.

Have you read her Inheritance Trilogy, btw?

[cupiscent]

I read Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and enjoyed it, but it wasn't really My Thing (not like KM was). But after how good that duology has been, I'm going to go back and revisit the Inheritance Trilogy.

[bedlamsbard]

I really liked The Broken Kingdoms, the second one, because it had MORE GODS (apparently I have a thing for vast pantheons of gods who all have their own attributes and their own issues. Thanks a lot, childhood full of Greek and Norse mythology. My dad has so much to answer for, ha). I still need to read the third one, though, and I'd like to go back and read the entire thing straight through since seeing Jemisin talk on her blog about how the trilogy is modeled after an old-school epic, where the overarching plot is actually the gods and their doom -- let me see if I can find the link, actually, in case you might find that interesting too? Here, the Inheritance Trilogy that could have been.