This month I read 19 books for a total of 5,108 pages and an average of 165 pages. Holy crap! I had an unexpectedly great reading month. Granted 8 books were graphic novels, but if you didn’t count those (which, I of course, totally do), 11 is still impressive. I read some great books this month but tops were definitely A Closed and Common Orbit and The Sparrow. Least favorite by far was Tender Morsels.
Reviewed:
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
First Sentence: Lovelace had been in a body for twenty-eight minutes, and it still felt every bit as wrong as it had the second she woke up inside it.
Notable Quotes: “So, tattooing…you’ve got a picture in your mind, then you put it on your body. You make a hazy imagining into a tangible part of you. Or, to flip it around, you want a reminder of something, so you put it on your body, where it’s a real, touchable thing. You see the thing on your body, you remember it in your mind, then you touch it on your body, you remember why you got it, what you were feeling then, and so on, and so on. It’s a re-enforcing circle. You’re reminded that all these separate pieces are part of the whole that comprises you.”
“Just because someone goes away, doesn’t mean you stop loving them.”
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
First Sentence: There are plenty who would call her a slut for it.
Arabella and the Battle of Venus by David D. Levine
First Sentence: Arabella Ashby sat at the writing-desk which had been her father’s, and was now her brother’s, staring out across the endless ranks of khoresh-trees which were her inheritance, her livelihood, and her legacy.
Sabella (or The Blood Stone) by Tanith Lee
First Sentence: I was out hunting the night my aunt Cassi died.
A few thoughts on Goodreads:
The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King
First Sentence: During the days after they left the Green Palace that wasn’t Oz after all – but which was now the tomb of the unpleasant fellow Roland’s ka-tet had known as the Tick-Tock Man – the boy Jake began to range farther and farther ahead of Roland, Eddie, and Susannah.
Notable Quote: “A person’s never too old for stories. Man and boy, girl and woman, never too old. We live for them.”
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
First Sentence: People who knew Chester and Serena Wolcott socially would have placed money on the idea that the couple would never choose to have children.
Sailor Twain by Mark Siegel
American Vampire 1-8 by Scott Snyder
The Twisted Ones by Scott Cawthon
First Sentence: “Don’t trust your eyes.”
View From the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman
Reviews to come:
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
First Sentence: It was predictable, in hindsight.
Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller
First Sentence: The thick, briny scent of sweat-soaked leather seeped through my cloth mask.
*Cover images from Goodreads
