Books 2016: this is just a list because I am so distract?

[hawkwing_lb]

Books 2016: 43-73


43-56. Karin Kallmaker, Captain of Industry, The Kiss That Counted, Warming Trend, Love By The Numbers, Stepping Stone, Substitute for Love, Wild Things, Painted Moon, Unforgettable, One Degree of Separation, Just Like That, Making Up For Lost Time, and Roller Coaster. Bella Books, various dates. Ebooks.

Contemporary romance novels starring queer women. I might have binged. A bit.


57. Jane Fletcher, The Shewstone. Bold Strokes Books, 2016. Ebook.

Fantasy caper romance involving queer women and a magical macguffin. Fun.


58. T. Kingfisher, The Raven and the Reindeer. Independently published. Ebook.

For column at Tor.com. AMAZING LOVELY GREAT READ IT. READ IT NOW.


59. A.J. Quinn, Just Enough Light. Bold Strokes Books, 2016. Ebook.

Lesbian romance involving mountain search and rescue and dark pasts. Meh. No, seriously, really kinda meh.


60. Jae, Shaken To The Core. Ylva Publishing, 2016. Ebook.

Romance set in 1906 San Francisco featuring two women from very different backgrounds. Earthquakes! Class differences! FIRES AND PERIL! It's a lot of fun.


61. Genevieve Valentine, Icon. Saga Press, 2016.

Elegiac sequel to Persona. Beautiful, but left me rather cold.


62. Charles Stross, The Nightmare Stacks. Orbit, 2016.

Excellent instalment in Stross's Laundry series. Elves! Vampires! Invasions from another dimension. A tip of the hat to Terry Pratchett in the sheer psychopathy of the elves. Terrible family dinners. So much fun.


63. K.B. Wagers, Behind the Throne. Orbit, 2016. Forthcoming.

Space opera. Featured in Tor.com column. Enjoyed a great deal. SEQUEL NOW PLEASE?


64. Barbara Hambly, Drinking Gourd. Severn House, 2016.

Another excellent instalment in the Benjamin January series of historical mysteries featuring a free man of colour in 1830s America.


65. E.E. Richardson, Spirit Animals. Abaddon, 2016.

Urban fantasy set in Yorkshire featuring a take-no-shit middle-aged DCI. Fun!


66. Daniel Godfrey, New Pompeii. Titan, 2016.

Reviewed at Tor.com. Utter bleh.


67. Simone Zelitch, Judenstaat. Tor, 2016.

A peculiar book. Reviewed at Tor.com.


68. Max Gladstone, Four Roads Cross. Tor, 2016. Forthcoming.

An amazing book. I'm supposed to review it for Tor.com just as soon as I get my act together.


69. Melinda Snodgrass, The High Ground. Titan, 2016.

Fun space opera that should have irritated me more than it did. Covered in a column at Tor.com (future).


70. Lois McMaster Bujold, Penric's Demon. Subterranean Press, 2016.

Kind, decent, encouraging little novella, first published as an electronic version last year. Covered in a future Tor.com column.


71. Jo Walton, Necessity. Tor, 2016.

Review forthcoming from Tor.com.


nonfiction


72. Paul Cartledge, Democracy: A Life. Oxford 2016.

Reviewed at Tor.com.


73. Frank L. Holt, The Treasures of Alexander the Great. Oxford 2016.

Reviewed at Tor.com.

---

I may have missed one or two. It has been something of a difficult month, and before that things fall out of memory. But I think this gets me pretty much current.

(Now I just need to read and review ARABELLA OF MARS, THE WOLF ROADS, and CLOUDBOUND by Monday and we're laughing.)

Comments

[rachelmanija]

Bold Strokes seems to have a consistent issue of the premises being better than the books. The Jae and Fletcher sound fun, though. And I love Max Gladstone.

[hawkwing_lb]

They really, really do. (Max is kinda best.)

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Binged just a bit? Yeah, I'd say so. I have a horrible confession that I lost interest in the only Kallmaker I tried about a third of the way through. Not the fault of the book, I just can't get excited about contemporary romance.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I'm not a big fan, but sometimes I want something easy and comforting and I will take contemporary pure romance in the absence of something more suitable. Alas.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can see that. And I *have* read contemporary romance on occasion. But as my reading time narrows, it gets elbowed out fairly quickly. And there's also... this is tricky to say...there's a clearly identifiable genre of "LesFic" that cuts across other genre categories. And it's not something I'm in tune with. It's not what I write, and it's not my first choice to read unless it hits a lot of my other buttons. There are times when this makes life rather difficult for me.

Apropos of nothing at all in particular, the Golden Crown awards got handed out last night.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Well, as far as I'm concerned - and I shouldn't maybe admit this? - the experience of reading standard contemporary lesbian romance is kind of like reading a coffeeshop AU fanfic.

Sometimes I want to turn my brain off and read about ridiculous people doing soap opera things. (I'd rather read decent space opera or sword and sorcery when I'm in that sort of mood, but how much of that has queer women in?)

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

*snort* But wait! There's more! Keep going!

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

But but but but finances.