Tag: roundup

This is a much shorter list than the fiction list! I’ve read three and a half non-fiction books over the last year. Three of these I’ve written a short essay after each section about what it said – one thing I need to get better at is editing these to be shorter and more on point (and then perhaps including more of the book in each post). The first two of these books are about China – a broad sweep of the whole history up to the end of the Empire, and a narrower look at the art & culture of 18th century Qing dynasty China. My current project book is about Plantagenet England, I’m a little under halfway through, I think. And I also managed to fit in a book about the Arab Spring, which I reviewed rather than recapped.

• “China: The World’s Oldest Civilisation Revealed” John Makeham. Part of Chapter-by-Chapter, an overview of the sweep of Chinese history from the Paleolithic through to the death of the last Emperor in the 20th Century.
• “China: The Three Emperors 1662-1795” eds. Evelyn S. Rawski & Jessica Rawson. Exhibition catalogue from a 2005 exhibition at the Royal Academy, covering the art collection of the three Qing Dynasty Emperors the Kangxi Emperor, the Yongzheng Emperor and the Qianlong Emperor. Part of Chapter-by-Chapter.
• “Plantagenet England 1225-1360” Michael Prestwich. Part of the New Oxford History of England series, part of Chapter-by-Chapter.
• “The Arab Uprisings: The People Want the Fall of the Regime” Jeremy Bowen. A book about the Arab Spring, written by a BBC journalist.

I wrote reviews of 42 fiction books during 2013, of which 17 were in my great re-read of all the fiction I own. There’s also a small handful of books I didn’t write about because I read them in the library and didn’t bring them home – so say 45 for a round number of books read. Of these both my favourite of the year and least favourite were library books, both written by women and one published this year and one last. Over on my librarything I do give books star ratings, and I’m organising the rest of this post using them. Even tho the difference between any two adjacent star ratings is dependent on my mood at the time I rated the books, there’s a clear difference between 5* and 3* and 1* books.

First some overall stats:

Gender split (f:m) = 14:13
Dates (2013:rest) = 8:34
Ownership (library:owned(new) ) = 24:18(1)
Series (standalone:series) = 11:31

(Counting authors once each, but not going into details about authors of short stories just using the editors. Also counting a book as standalone even if it’s in the same universe as others by that author but not directly related by plot or characters. If a book was owned when I read it it counts as owned even if it was given away afterwards.)

I’m noting these for a variety of reasons. Gender split is because that’s part of the ongoing conversation in SFF fandom over the last year – or at least in the parts that I read. One strand of that is that books by women are reviewed disproportionally less than books by men, and as one of the ways I pick up new books to read is by reading reviews I wanted to see if that affected what I was reading. But it looks like I’ve got a fairly even split, although that’s a slightly disingenuous way to count it – each author once – because I read a dozen Asimov related books which I think might skew it more male if I counted each book separately.

The next two stats are because I was interested in how my re-read was skewing what I was reading. But I’m still reading a substantial amount of new-to-me fiction (mostly from the library), and a reasonable amount of actually new fiction. The last stat is because I noticed that of my 5* books two were new instalments in on-going series that I’m already invested in. And three more were the start of serieses, only one was standalone. Which seemed very skewed so I wondered how it played out across the rest of what I read last year – the answer is skewed towards series books, but not at at 5:1 ratio like my favourites. I don’t know if that means anything, but it was interesting to me 🙂

5* Books

• “Life After Life” Kate Atkinson. Part historical fiction, part alternate history, part historical fantasy – the story of a woman growing up in the early 20th Century over & over again. Library book.
• “King’s Dragon” Kate Elliott. First book of Elliott’s Crown of Stars series, epic fantasy with flavours of English history to its secondary world. Library book.
• “A Memory of Light” Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson. Last book of the Wheel of Time series. Library book.
• “Limits of Power” Elizabeth Moon. Fantasy, fourth book in the Paladin’s Legacy series set in the same world as the Deed of Paksenarrion triology. New.
• “All Our Yesterdays” Cristin Terrill. Young adult time travel novel, rather good. Library book.
• “Blackbirds” Chuck Wendig. Urban fantasy/thriller about a young woman who can tell when & how people die just by touching them. Library book.

Gender split (f:m) = 4:3
Dates (2013:rest) = 4:2
Ownership (library:owned(new) ) = 5:1(1)
Series (standalone:series) = 1:5

Of these I’d pick out “Life After Life” by Kate Atkinson as the top book I read in 2013, I really liked the exploration of how the events of someone’s life shape them and yet they’re still themselves despite the differences.

4* Books

• “Gridlinked” Neal Asher. Part of Read All the Fiction, space opera with cyberpunk flavour. Kept.
• “Nemesis” Isaac Asimov. Science fiction set in a mid-distance future where some of humanity is living permanently on space stations and interstellar travel is just beginning. Part of Read All the Fiction, boxed up.
• “Use of Weapons” Iain M. Banks. Science fiction, set in his Culture universe – Zakalwe is the one operative capable of doing the job that Special Circumstances need doing, so he’s brought out of retirement but his past is catching up with him. Part of Read All the Fiction, kept.
• “Look to Windward” Iain M. Banks. Science fiction, set in his Culture universe. Part of Read All the Fiction, kept.
• “Ran Away” Barbara Hambly. Historical mystery set in 1820s Paris & 1830s New Orleans, one of the Benjamin January series. Library book.
• “Shadow of Night” Deborah Harkness. Sequel to an urban fantasy where the protagonists have travelled back to 1590, so this instalment is more historical fantasy. Library book.
• “Wool” Hugh Howey. Post-apocalypse dystopia with the flavour of a generation ship (without being in a ship). Library book.
• “Shift” Hugh Howey. The sequel to Wool, post- and immediately pre-apocalypse. Library book.
• “The Desert of Souls” Howard Andrew Jones. Arabian Nights-esque fantasy set in 8th Century Baghdad, with overtones of Sherlock Holmes. Library book.
• “Flash” L. E. Modesitt Jr. Science fiction political thriller set a few hundred years in the future. Library book.
• “Poltergeist” Kat Richardson. Sequel to Greywalker, urban fantasy about a ghost-seeing PI in Seattle. Library book.
• “Delusion in Death” J. D. Robb. Futuristic crime/detective/thriller. Part of the Eve Dallas series. Library book.

Gender split (f:m) = 4:5
Dates (2013:rest) = 1:11
Ownership (library:owned(new) ) = 8:4(0)
Series (standalone:series) = 3:9

3* Books

• “Foundation and Empire” Isaac Asimov. Far future science fiction, part of Read All the Fiction, boxed up.
• “Second Foundation” Isaac Asimov. Far future science fiction, part of Read All the Fiction, boxed up.
• “Nightfall One” Isaac Asimov. Anthology of five stories by Isaac Asimov, including his classic “Nightfall”. Part of Read All the Fiction, boxed up.
• “Isaac Asimov Presents Great SF Stories #9 (1947)” ed. Isaac Asimov & Martin H. Greenberg. Anthology of the best short stories of 1947. Part of Read All the Fiction, boxed up.
• “Isaac Asimov Presents Great SF Stories #10 (1948)” ed. Isaac Asimov & Martin H. Greenberg. Anthology of the best short stories of 1948. Part of Read All the Fiction, boxed up.
• “The Alternate Asimovs” Isaac Asimov. Original previously unpublished versions of the novels Pebble in the Sky and End of Eternity, and of the short story Belief. Part of Read All the Fiction, boxed up.
• “Pebble in the Sky” Isaac Asimov. Asimov’s first novel, originally published in 1950. Far-future science fiction. Part of Read All the Fiction, boxed up.
• “Before The Golden Age 1” ed. Isaac Asimov. Part of Read All the Fiction, short stories from 1931& 1932 plus autobiography of Asimov from birth (1920) to 1932. Boxed up.
• “Before the Golden Age 2” ed. Isaac Asimov. Part of Read All the Fiction, short stories from 1933& 1934 plus autobiography of Asimov during those years. Boxed up.
• “Before the Golden Age 3” ed. Isaac Asimov. Part of Read All the Fiction, short stories from 1935-1938 plus autobiography of Asimov during those years. Boxed up.
• “Consider Phlebas” Iain M. Banks. Science fiction, set in his Culture universe. Part of Read All the Fiction, kept.
• “Book of Shadows” Paula Brackston. Historical fantasy, framing story set in 2007 with flashbacks through the life of a witch born in the 17th Century. Library book.
• “The Iron King” Maurice Druon. Fictionalised history of the Capet Dynasty in France in the early 14th Century. Library book.
• “Enchanted Glass” Diana Wynne Jones. Childrens’ fantasy book about magicians & fairies. Library book.
• “Black Feathers” Joseph D’Lacey. Horror/fantasy/alt-history story following a teenager’s quest to find the Crowman in a dystopic Britain. Library book.
• “Greywalker” Kat Richardson. Urban fantasy about a private investigator who sees ghosts after recovering from being dead. Library book.
• “Think of the Children” Kerry Wilkinson. Crime novel, set in Manchester, about a sequence of murdered or missing children. Library book.

Gender split (f:m) = 3:6
Dates (2013:rest) = 2:15
Ownership (library:owned(new) ) = 6:11
Series (standalone:series) = 4:13

2* Books

• “Bitten” Kelley Armstrong. Part of Read All the Fiction, urban fantasy with werewolves. Taken to charity shop.
• “Foundation” Isaac Asimov. Far future science fiction, the start of Asimov’s most famous series. Library book.
• “The Woken Gods” Gwenda Bond. YA urban fantasy set in a modern world where the gods have woken up, too much boyfriend not enough mythology. Library book.
• “Control Point” Myke Cole. Military fantasy set mostly in a present day US. Library book.
• “In Great Waters” Kit Whitfield. Fantastical alternate history in Tudor-ish times where the royal families of Europe are hybrids with merpeople. Library book.

Gender split (f:m) = 3:2
Dates (2013:rest) = 1:4
Ownership (library:owned(new) ) = 4:1(0)
Series (standalone:series) = 2:3

1* Books

• “Crewel” Gennifer Albin. A rather disappointing YA dystopia. Library book.

Gender split (f:m) = 1:0
Dates (2013:rest) = 0:1
Ownership (library:owned(new) ) = 1:0
Series (standalone:series) = 0:1

If I manage to finish a book it generally doesn’t get 1*, but this was a rare instance of a book where the more I thought about it the less I liked it. The worst book I read last year.

Unrated

• “The Wasp Factory” Iain Banks. Horror, and very hard to summarise in one line. Part of Read All the Fiction, boxed up.

Gender split (f:m) = 0:1
Dates (2013:rest) = 0:1
Ownership (library:owned(new) ) = 0:1(0)
Series (standalone:series) = 1:0

I didn’t know how to rate this one, so I didn’t!