Me on Sept 30th: Oh yeah gonna start off October strong

October 1st: But how about, a nasty cold?

I was gonna edit pretty pictures of covers into this post but I’m feeling too sniffly

September was a freakishly long month for me, but not in a bad way. We took the first two weeks off for a very socially distant trip to the sea. Only staying in our rented flat, eating in, staying well away from other people at the beach. It was weird but also good and I got a lot of reading done. The was nothing else at all to do but read.

On the blog it’s my best month ever (my previous best was Dec. 2019 so it was a lot of catching up), and my third month of steady growth as far as views go. So that was great. It was mostly due to the Self-Published Fantasy Month.Thank you all for visiting and thanks to the organizers of the event for organizing and boosting blogs.

September was Self-Published Fantasy Month, hosted by Jason Aycock from Off The TBR, Elizabeth Tabler from Before we go blog,  Justine Bergman from Whispers & Wonder and Calvin Park who hosts the Under a Pile of Books. It was a lot of fun, there were tons of great posts and giveaways, a read-along too.

Blog posts this month

I started off with Self-Published Fantasy Month – plans & TBR. I planned to 6 SPFM posts and I managed that! Just ended up switching a blogging meme post for a review. Didn’t stick as well to my TBR, but I did read Crux Skullcrusher and the Definitely Evil Sword (Cruxverse Shorts Book 1) by Vichet Ou and Demon Haunted by Ashe Armstrong.

Next up was Self-Published Fantasy Month – A LOT of recommendations which is now my second most viewed post (top post is Top Ten Tuesday Characters I’d Follow On Social Media). I’m really glad that did so well because I love talking about underread books, and I hope more people pick up some of my favorites.

I ended up doing fewer blogging means than I’d set out to, but these are the ones I’ve posted:

• Top Ten Tuesday Books for my Younger Self where I highlighted some recent queer books I’ve loved and some fresh YA releases as I would’ve loved as kid
• Top Ten Tuesday Self-Published Fantasy Covers, this was so much to put together as I spent a long time just scrolling through lovely covers
• It’s Monday What Are You Reading 21.09.2020

I also participated in a blog tour for The Four Profound Weaves by R. B. Lemberg, you can read the lovely excerpt here.

Reviews Posted

I’m really struggling to get my reading and reviewing pace to match. I think I will do a big batch of mini-reviews again

• Spirit Caller: Books 4-6 by Krista D. Ball
• BLM Bingo reviews: Dread Nation, A Song of Blood and Stone and Queen of the Conquered
• The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood
• A Ghostly Requeest by Krista D. Ball
• Demon Haunted by Ashe Armstrong

I was obsessed with playing The Outer Worlds, where I started out wanting to play a stealthy sniper and then found a minigun and spent the entire game going RATATATATATATATATATTATATATATATATATTATATA

Books read

Reading wise this month that a lot of ups and one long down. Read a bunch of books in about 24 hours, and also slogged through Dune in what felt like an eternity. So many of the books I’ve read have been standouts this month.

• The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth, #1) by N. K. Jemisin – loved it, why haven’t I read this soon. I was very into the world and figuring stuff out, will be continuing the series for sure
• The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North – loved it, my second Claire North and I’m here for her brand of weird and books traveling through Europe
• Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi – I thought it was very good, a quick read but because it was so dark and current, not an easy one
• City of Stairs (The Divine Cities, #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett – loved it, omg Sigurd. Will be continuing the series
• Turning Darkness Into Light by Marie Brennan – liked it, but missed Lady Trent a little too much, interesting epistolary format
• Taina Sfinxului de pe Marte by Viorica Huber – nope, it’s a similar structure to Kalpa Imperial only in space
• The City We Became (Great Cities #1) by N. K. Jemisin – liked it, the audiobook narration is great, again darker than I usually read
• Demon Haunted (Grimluk, Demon Hunter #2) by Ashe Armstrong – liked it, orc western, a great improvement from the 1s book (which I also liked)
• The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz – loved it, very sweet and aww
• Mem by Bethany C. Morrow – liked it, some really interesting ideas about personhood, plus set in the 20s and I always love that
• Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lord – loved it, this was an autobiography as her life as a young lesbian Black woman, which is miles outside my usual reading but it was really captivating, which is very weird to say about someone’s pain and struggles
• Crux Skullcrusher and the Definitely Evil Sword (Cruxverse Shorts #1) by Vichet Ou – liked it, a quick fun read, short story I think
• Dune (Dune, #1) by Frank Herbert – nope, nope, nope – a reread, when I wasn’t bored I was annoyed. The desert parts are still pretty cool though and I’m looking forward to see if the movie improves it
• Legendborn (Legendborn, #1) by Tracy Deonn – omg loved it, this was so exciting and had so many mysteries and secrets, also loved how Arthurian tropes were used
• Od Magic by Patricia A. McKillip – liked, fairy-tale-like and comforting, pretty small scale for most of the book

Currently reading

• A Song Below Water (A Song Below Water, #1) by Bethany C. Morrow – loving it, it’s as much a book about being a young Black woman during Black Lives Matter as it is about sirens and magic
• Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson – started a while ago but haven’t really gotten into it, there’s a lot of Caribbean English that’s slowing me down
• Heart of Stone by Johannes T. Evans This a very slow, very slice of life, m/m historical vampire romance. The joy and beauty of it are in the two main characters dialogue, thoughts, and emotions.

I’m linking up with The Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up, hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight.

That’s it for this month, it was really busy and exciting, some amazing books, let me know if you’ve read them or are you interested in reading some of them?