Goals for 2016
It’s a new year, everyone! That is super exciting. It’s time for new goals, new opportunities, and new experiences. It’s also Friday, which is slightly less exciting for those of us with a non-traditional work week, but still, Friday!
I’ve set a few goals for myself for this year and I thought I’d share the ones that were relevant to the world of book fandom. As recommended by Bill Doran of Punished Props, I’m keeping all my goals concrete and measurable.
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- Blog at least five times a week. I’m trying to keep to a daily schedule, but at least five times every week.
- Continue the House Reads and read at least 50 books that I already own.
- Get all of my books onto bookshelves by August. That means no more piles on the tables or the floor. All the books MUST be on shelves! And now that I have this awesome lighting on my shelves, what’s stopping me? Oh, room, right….
- Thank someone once a day. This can include fanmail that I send to authors, so I’m counting it here.
- Leave more reviews. Obviously, I review things here, but since the entire internet doesn’t read my blog (I don’t know why) I need to make more of an effort to get reviews on sites like Amazon or Goodreads that people look at when making buying decisions. It’s the least I can do for authors I enjoy.
So, those are my goals for the year. Have you set any goals or made any resolutions for this year?
Also, it’s time to check in on the PopSugar Reading Challenge. I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped to, even though I read more than twice the required number of books.
I got 34/50, which isn’t too bad really. Here are the challenges I didn’t complete:
A popular author’s first book
A Pulitzer Prize-winning book
A book more than 100 years old
A book based entirely on its cover
A book you were supposed to read in high school, but didn’t
A book with antonyms in the title
A book that came out the year you were born
A book with bad reviews (I started one, but I couldn’t finish it)
A book with a love triangle (several almost made it, but not quite)
A book set in high school (I’m halfway through one)
A book that takes place in your hometown
A book that was originally written in a different language
A book written by an author with your same initials
A play
A banned book
So, I didn’t make it this year. Did any of you take the challenge? How did you do? Also, what do you think, should I try the 2016 challenge?
Year in Review
2015 has been fraught on the political front both within the sci-fi/fantasy community and the greater stage of US politics (which is where I live.) Great strides have been made on some issues like marriage equality, while horrific losses have been inflicted on minority communities. Some of it is too big for me to fit my brain around and some of it I have very personal feelings about, which don’t fit in with the mission of this blog.
So, there’s the world.
As far as the purview of this blog goes, I’ve had some great experiences and reads.
I set a goal of reading 100 books this year, and as of today I’m at 112, so that makes me pretty happy. ::throws confetti::
TOTALS
SHORTEST BOOK LONGEST BOOK
Like, seriously, @medusasmirror has managed the GIFT TO BEAT this holiday season, at least among weird blonde plant people.
— Seanan McGuire (@seananmcguire) December 12, 2015
This is what I sent Seanan. It’s a candy corn Cthulhu! The painting was done by Autumn Fredericks of Daydreams and Giggles Studio.
My favorite new discovery was thanks to Stephanie Burgis who mentioned the Livia Day books on Twitter. I grabbed the first one, A Trifle Dead, and was enchanted. So, yay for a delicious new mystery series! These are set in Tasmania and confirms my previously held belief that Australian authors are lovely. This series is cozy mystery at its best and I adore them.
I ran several giveaways to help spread books that I love. I’m still planning to have a giveaway a month in 2016, so I’m very excited about that. And in pursuit of that, I started a Patreon page to help cover costs from that and hopefully grow all these book-related endeavors. I’m very excited about the next year.
What was your favorite new find from 2015?
What are you most excited about tackling in 2016?
My Top Books of 2015
I’m not going to rank these because that is like picking my favorite children that I did not even have to go to the trouble of baking myself. (That’s how you make children, right?) But, here are the top ten books that rocked my 2015.
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
This book starts off as a Beauty and the Beast story and then explodes into something truly amazing.
Against a Brightening Sky by Jaime Lee Moyer
This is the final book in the Delia Martin series and touches on the Russian Revolution, an event near and dear to my scholarly heart. It’s a lovely book and a lovely close to the series.
Of Noble Family by Mary Robinette Kowal
Jane and Vincent have to face something even worse than being jailed in the previous book, Vincent’s family. His father has passed away in Antigua and his brother is overwhelmed. Jane and Vincent sail immediately, straight into extraordinary danger. 
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
Nimona was nominated for a National Book Award this year and it’s easy to see why. Nimona comes to work for supervillain, Lord Ballister Blackheart as he fights against his nemesis, Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin. As a shapeshifter she has some unique skills to bring to the effort to prove Goldenloin and the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics are up to much worse things than Blackheart has ever imagined.
Lumberjanes: Beware the Kitten by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke A. Allen, and Maarta Laiho
Lumberjanes can best be explained as the Girl Scouts meet the Twilight Zone. And yes, Noelle Stevenson gets two entries on this list.
Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon
Molly has arrived at Castle Hangnail to become its new wicked witch. But first, she has to convince its inhabitants that a small twelve year old girl with impressive boots is actually what they need to save the castle from being decommissioned.
The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher
It’s an open secret that T. Kingfisher is actually Ursula Vernon writing for adults, making her the second double entry on this list. This book is built around the framework of the Bluebeard story. Rhea is engaged to a magician only to discover that he is already married to six other wives, all of whom have lost something precious to him. The only things she has going for her are good sense and a hedgehog.
It’s a little bit of a cheat since it came out as an ebook last year, but it was picked up by 47North and brought out as a physical book this year.
Little Robot by Ben Hatke
A girl finds a little lost robot and makes her first friend. However, nothing as amazing as an adorable robot could show up out of the blue. Dark forces are moving to retrieve the adorable robot and it will take everything they’ve got to fend them off.
The Poe Estate by Polly Shulman
This is the third book that deals with the New York Circulating Materials Repository. This time, the story focuses on Suki, a girl haunted by a family curse and her sister’s ghost.
She also has a feeling for places and things that might fit into the Poe Estate, a collection at the Repository that focuses on items from American supernatural stories. As Suki learns more, she begins to believe that the Poe Estate might hold the key to lifting the curse on her family. 
Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire
Alex Price and his girlfriend Shelby have gone to visit Shelby’s family in Australia, where everything, including Shelby’s family, wants to kill him. Although, the werewolf outbreak is of slightly more immediate concern.
As a reminder, there is still a little time to enter my giveaway for a copy of this very book!
House Read: Lady Killer
What I’m Reading: Lady Killer by Joelle Jones & Jamie S. Rich
Publisher: Dark Horse, 2015
Cover Art: Joelle Jones
Read This: when planning how to get rid of any little “annoyances” in your life.
The female serial killer is not something seen much in popular media. Josie Schuller isn’t a serial killer though, she’s something a little more familiar, she’s an assassin.
She’s also a wife with two young children. It is, as we all learned in “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” very difficult to balance a family life with a busy schedule as an assassin. But she’s doing ok. At least, until her boss starts to question her loyalties.
This is the sort of story I love, and I know how weird that makes me sound, but I really do. Women in unusual roles. Women who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. Also, I’m a fan of anything with 1950’s dresses. This is sort of the hit man version of Aberford, the 1950’s zombie fighting game I was really excited about a few months ago. Sadly, that didn’t make its funding goal, but I’ve got this awesome series I can appreciate.
Lady Killer manages to dodge some of the “Dexter Problems” that made me uncomfortable with that show. Josie’s husband isn’t willfully blind, she’s just that good.
She isn’t, as far as this story tells us, the victim of some childhood trauma that altered her morality. She just seems to be very good at killing and not too fussed about it. She’s more Martin Blank from “Grosse Point Blank” than she is Dexter. She’s good at what she does and if she gets sent after you, there’s probably a reason.
The art is beautiful! Josie is sexy and well put together without being over-sexed. She doesn’t feel exploited. She is attractive with a great body, but her proportions aren’t unbelievable. I also love that she’d drawn with a very strong musculature. For the sorts of things she’s doing, she would have to be physically strong.
I don’t recommend this book if you’ve got a problem with violence. The deaths are pretty much on screen. The colors are muted, but there’s still blood and violence. The cover is Josie standing in a kitchen awash with blood, so that pretty much should warn off anyone who might be upset by the content.
Top Books of 2015- LP Edition
I’ll give you my top 10 books of the year tomorrow, but I thought you might like to see what my coworker’s really enjoyed in the last year.
As you can see, we had plenty of books to chose from. The size of the picture reflects how many employees liked a book. The most was Go Set a Watchman with three employees pulling for it. Then various books with two fans, and then the majority were single readers. Everyone who works here is just enough different that we manage to cover most of the literary spectrum. I fall heavily into the genre selections with some other people picking up the non-fiction and literary fiction. All in all, it’s a pretty good mix.
What were your favorite books of the year?
Also, don’t forget, you’ve got two days left to enter my Seanan McGuire giveaway to win a copy of Pocket Apocalypse!
Sarah Gailey is a Gift
I’ve just started Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari, but I just started it, so I don’t have much to say about it yet. It’s interesting so far and some of it sounds very familiar, although I’m not particularly active on dating apps, so I can’t speak to those anecdotes. More on that tomorrow as I make more progress.
Now, for the real topic of the night. Sarah Gailey and Star Wars.
I mentioned yesterday that I had been following her Star Wars live tweets as she watched the original trilogy for the first time. She finished “Return of the Jedi” tonight and it was beautiful.
She has, because she is an angel, collected these marvelous artifacts of pop culture gold in a Storify.
A New Hope: Space Voldemort vs Whiny Space Criminals
The Empire Strikes Back (finally): Capes vs Cloaks
Return of the Jedi (now with murderbears!): Luke is Disappointing
I am 100% planning to nominate these tweets for the 2016 Hugo for Best Related Work. They are delightful. They are funny. They are getting me through the post-holiday slump. And you should go read them.
(She’s currently debating watching the prequels. On the one hand, YES! On the other hand, I really hate those movies…)
House Read: The Real Macaw
What I’m Reading: The Real Macaw by Donna Andrews
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, 2011
Cover Artist: not sure, I’m reading this in galley and it doesn’t have the attribution.
Read This: When you’re feeling bad about your civic leaders.
It turns out that I somehow missed a Donna Andrews book! I have no idea how this happened, but I never actually read The Real Macaw, which is number thirteen in the series, which makes it my favorite by default because I love the number thirteen. I’ve had the ARC for it since 2011, apparently. (This tells you how bad the book situation in the house is.)
Honestly, when I picked this up I thought, “Of course I’ve read this one. But it’ll be a nice little mental break at the end of the holiday rush.” But, as I read along I realized that I didn’t actually know what was happening. The broad outlines, sure, but not the details. Not, for example, the actual cause of and solution to the central murder. So, yay me! I get a new Donna Andrews book almost a year early.
So, a quick summary: Meg and Michael are settled into having new twins and doing a fairly good job of it when Meg hears some suspicious noises downstairs one night after a 2AM feeding. It turns out that the male members of the Langslow clan have raided the county animal shelter and are hiding all the liberated animals in her living room.
The county manager has decreed that the animal shelter is going to be closed and all animals euthanized. Hence the midnight rescue. However, the getaway vehicle failed to arrive so the guys decided to stash the animals at Meg’s house. When Chief Burke shows up before dawn, they find out that Parker, the driver, has been murdered.
These books are always delightful. They are light and fun and help me take my mind off anything stressful going on. If you like cozy mysteries, I highly recommend them.
Speaking of things that are fun, author Sarah Gailey has started watching the Star Wars movies for the first time ever and has been livetweeting about them. This is pure gold. If you’ve seen the movies and like them, or even if you don’t, please, please go read her tweets. Here is a sample (warning for expletives)
Also, I trust her because her name is Sarah.
Who is this turtle in a hoodie who is trying to boss Space Voldemort around #starswars
— Burr Shot First (@gaileyfrey) December 26, 2015
And she’s driving Sunil crazy…
@gaileyfrey Sarah are you talking about the Emperor. Like. The fucking Emperor. Of the Empire.
— Finnil Poetel (@ghostwritingcow) December 26, 2015
HOODIE TURTLE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A CAPE https://t.co/CIZvRiHw47
— Burr Shot First (@gaileyfrey) December 26, 2015
Merry Happy
Today is Christmas for those who celebrate it. I’m off to spend the day with friends, but I wanted to leave you with something fun.
Elegy for a Dead World is a game about writing stories. You travel to an unknown world and write stories about the peoples who once lived there. A little creative game for your holidays.
Whether Christmas is your thing or not, I hope you have an awesome day and I’ll see you tomorrow!
The Beautiful Books of Anna Bond
One more work day to go! Birmingham was under severe weather threats all day on the 23rd, so it was a little quieter than usual for two days before Christmas, but we still moved an impressive number of books.
Today, I wanted to focus a little on some of the really beautiful editions of books. As it happens, they’re all done by the same illustrator, Anna Bond.
The Puffin in Bloom collection is a great set of children’s classics.
As I said, the cover illustrations are all done by Anna Bond, who is the creative director of Rifle Paper Co. I got an awesome calendar of queens from them for 2015. I love it so much! They don’t have the calendar anymore, but there is a collection of note cards with some of the illustrations. Guess how much I want them…
Anna also illustrated a beautiful Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Unlike the In Bloom series, this is a larger format book with full color illustrations throughout. It retails for $30 as opposed to the smaller hardcovers which run about $12.99.
You can find Anna on Twitter, Instagram, or at the Rifle Paper Co. site.
I do not currently own any of these editions because I have all the books already. But, I don’t know if I’ll be able to resist forever. Are there any new editions of old favorites you haven’t been able to resist?
T-3 Days and Counting
Christmas is in three days. And you can tell. It’s been remarkably busy at work this week, which surprises no one. So, what have been the must-have books of the season?
Fiction
All the Light We Cannnot See by Anthony Doerr
The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah
Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Coloring Books
Secret Garden by Johanna Bassford
The Official Harry Potter Coloring Book
Art of Coloring Star Wars
Non-Fiction
Crimson Heart by Mal Moore
SPQR by Mary Beard
My Southern Journey by Rick Bragg
The Generals by Winston Groom
Dead Wake by Eric Larson
Crimson Heart is regional specific. Mal Moore is a former athletic director for the University of Alabama, so if you’re not around here I wouldn’t expect it to be a big seller.
The fiction list is a little smaller because everyone is getting those three books and then some people are getting all the other books.
It’s been an amazing year for coloring books. I, myself, have about five of the various adult coloring books. I got one just because it had a peacock in it. I don’t, however, have that much time to color right now, what with the jobs and the stuff. But I’ve got them for that mythical day when I can use them. I also have many, many colored pencils to play with. I’ve been collecting for this moment my entire life! (Or I hoard art supplies. 
Whatever.)
The surprise… flop is not what I mean because it’s doing respectably, but it didn’t do as well as expected is The Witches by Stacy Schiff.
Cleopatra was far and away the breakout hit of 2010, but The Witches is slow, but steady. Possibly because the topic is less sexy.
What are the books you’re getting for everyone?
Medusa's Library 