2021 Reading Round-Up

I totally fell off of doing monthly “reading round-ups” detailing exactly what I read during the last quarter of 2021. I thought about catching up on those before posting the annual summary, but … life. Yeah.

So here’s part one of the annual summary, covering what I read/listened to in 2021. There will be two more annual summaries, one covering what I watched and the other what covering what writing/proofing/editing I did.

 Looking over this summary, it’s clear that I set myself too many reading challenges in 2021 and managed to not complete most of them. But I did complete some, and I did read A LOT even without meeting the challenges. It wasn’t a lack of reading time or motivation so much as a TOO MANY CHOICES. I could have read twice or three times as many books and still not put a real dent in my physical or virtual TBR piles. Overall, I’m going to count the year as a “win.”

Goodreads Challenge:

I challenged myself to read 125 books. I read 140 books from approximately 67 different publishers.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Fiction: 131 books

  • 2 anthologies

    • 1 horror

    • 1 mix of science fiction, fantasy, and horror

  • 8 single-author collections

    • 2 mix of science fiction, fantasy, and horror

    • 2 horror

    • 1 fantasy

    • 3 poetry

  • 24 graphic novels

    • 6 super-hero

    • 6 horror

    • 10 fantasy

    • 1 crime/mystery

    • 1 sport (mixed martial arts)

  • 12 magazines

    • 12 issues of Lightspeed Magazine

  • 36 novels

    • 3 crime/mystery

    • 4 horror

    • 12 fantasy

    • 8 science fiction

    • 7 romance

    • 2 pulp-adventure

  • 2 novelettes

    • 1 fantasy

    • 1 mystery

  • 44 novellas

    • 4 horror

    • 12 fantasy

    • 14 romance

    • 2 drama

    • 12 science fiction

  • 3 play scripts

    • 1 memoir (Year of Magical Thinking)

    • 1 drama (Amadeus)

    • 1 Shakespeare (Macbeth)

• Non-Fiction: 9 books

  • 1 TV/movie criticism

  • 1 movie-craft

  • 6 memoirs

  • 1 true crime

Other Book Stats:

# of Authors/Editors: approximately 117 (including graphic novel artists; I need to be better at listing all the creators of graphic novels somehow). The following breakdown is estimated because not every author shares their personal information online, and many people overlap categories, but roughly:

·              33 female creators

·              5 Trans/Non-Binary

·              30 LGBTQIA+

·              21 BIPOC

·              10 Asian

·              2 Latinx

Shortest Books Read: 54 pages (Dust to Dust by Jess Faraday; A Little Village Blend by ‘Nathan Burgoine)

Longest Book Read: 565 (Everything in All the Wrong Order by Chaz Brenchley) (The Sandman Act Two audiobook accounts for roughly 632 pages of graphic novel, so technically that’s longer)

Total # of pages read: 26,840

Average # of pages per book: 189

# of Rereads: 11 (including annual rereads of Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October, ‘Nathan Burgoine’s Handmade Holidays and Faux Ho Ho, Ken Schole’s If Dragon’s Mass Eve Be Cold and Clear, and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol)

Monthly Breakdown:

·         January: 12

·         February: 12

·         March: 13

·         April: 9

·         May: 13

·         June: 8 (tied for fewest read in a month)

·         July: 12

·         August: 9

·         September: 8 (tied for fewest read in a month)

·         October: 14

·         November: 14

·         December: 16 (most read in a month)

Review-wise on Goodreads I gave 19 three-stars, 81 four-stars, and 40 five-star reviews.

Format Summary:

• 19 audiobooks

• 53 e-books

• 68 print

  • 19 hardcovers

  • 49 softcovers

366 Short Stories Challenge:

Each year, I challenge myself to read one short story per day. I read 362 stories in 2021, narrowly missing the goal.

Total # of pages read: approximately 5,711 pages of fiction

Average story length: 16.75 pages

Shortest story: 1 page long (“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, “Wrath of a Queer God” by Anthony Moll)

Longest story (novella): 250 pages (“Halfway Through the Wood” by Seanan McGuire, on her Patreon).

The breakdown of where the stories appeared:

• 15 Magazines (197 stories)

  • Apex

  • Asimov’s

  • Bachelors

  • Fantasy

  • Fireside

  • Future

  • Kaleidotrope

  • Lightspeed

  • Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

  • Nightmare

  • The Dark

  • The Deadlands

  • The New Yorker

  • Tor.Com

  • Uncanny

• 5 Anthologies (56 stories)

  • Body Shocks

  • Clockwork, Curses, and Coal

  • Decision Points

  • Giving the Devil His Due

  • Glitter + Ashes

• 6 Single-Author Collections

  • Davi Rhii Omnibus by Bryan Thomas Schmidt

  • Everything In All the Wrong Order by Chaz Brenchley

  • How Long Til Black History Month by N.K. Jemisin

  • Nine Bar Blues by Sheree Renée Thomas

  • The Witch in the Almond Tree and Other Stories by C.S.E. Cooney

  • Underworld Dreams by Daniel Braum

• 3 published as “back-matter” in novels

  • Calculated Risks by Seanan McGuire

  • The Wizard of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  • When Sorrows Come by Seanan McGuire

• 22 Stand-alone (self-pubbed or publisher-pubbed in print or e-format)

  • 12 Seanan McGuire (Patreon)

  • 1 Mysterious Bookstore (Printed pamphlet giveaways)

  • 8 ‘Nathan Burgoine (author website)

  • 1 Bram Stoker (e-pub of “To the Rescue”)

24 stories were re-reads (including a number of annual Christmas stories), the rest were “new to me” in 2021. I gave only 3 stories a 2-star rating. 150 got a 3-star rating, 162 got 4 stars, and 47 got 5 stars.

226 different authors wrote those 362 stories, under the auspices of more than 26 editors (estimated because I couldn’t always find “edited by” information for self-pubbed/website/chapbook stories). The following breakdown is estimated because not every author shares their personal information online, and some people overlap categories, but roughly:

·              129 female creators

·              4 Trans/Non-Binary

·              32 LGBTQIA+

·              33 BIPOC

·              10 Latinx

·              15 Asian

Monthly Breakdown:

·         January: 26

·         February: 53

·         March: 25

·         April: 39

·         May: 20

·         June: 13 (fewest read)

·         July: 24

·         August: 17

·         September: 23

·         October: 54 (most read)

·         November: 31

·         December: 37

Graphic Novel Challenge:

Because I own so many, I challenged myself to read one graphic novel per week. I didn’t make it, reading a total of only 24 from 10 different publishers:

·              DC Comics: 3

·              Marvel Comics: 4

·              BOOM!: 7

·              Aftershock: 3

·              Titan: 2

·              Image: 1

·              Source Point: 1

·              Northwest: 1

·              Turtleback: 1

·              Scholastic Books: 1

You can see in the “books” section above what the genre breakdown was among the graphic novels.

To Be Read Challenge: I challenged myself to read 12 fiction books and 12 non-fiction books that had been on my bookshelves for over a year (meaning nothing published in 2019) and assigned 2 alternate titles for each category. I didn’t do well with this challenge. The 9 titles I did read are identified in italics, with completion dates:

FICTION:

1.       The Mystery of the Sea by Bram Stoker

2.       How Long ‘til Black Future Month by NK Jemisin – Finished February 28, 2021

3.       The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R. A. Dick

4.       Dune by Frank Herbert

5.       Monstress Volume 1 by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda – Finished July 5, 2021

6.       Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller – finished June 20, 2021

7.       Excalibur! by Gil Kane and John Jakes

8.       Lord Tyger by Philip Jose Farmer

9.       The Book of Lost Saints by Daniel Jose Older

10.   Slights by Kaaron Warren

11.   Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini by Cynthia Von Buhler – Finished March 24, 2021

12.   The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum – finished December 30, 2021

Alternate #1: Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Alternate #2: The Red Lamp by Mary Roberts Reinhart

NON-FICTION:

1.       Poisoning for Profit: The Mafia and Toxic Waste in America by Alan A. Block and Frank R. Scarpitti – Finished January 31, 2021

2.       An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina – Finished February 17, 2021

3.       Twilight at the World of Tomorrow by James Mauro

4.       Faery Tale: One Woman’s Search for Enchantment in a Modern World by Signe Pike – Finished March 20, 2021.

5.       Something in the Blood: The Untold Tale of Bram Stoker by David J. Skal

6.       Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxane Dunbar-Ortiz

7.       The Celluloid Closet by Vito Russo

8.       The Tricky Part: One Boy’s Fall from Trespass into Grace by Martin Moran

9.       Comic Book Implosion: An Oral History of DC Comics Circa 1978 by Keith Dallas and John Wells

10.   Letters to the Pumpkin King by Seanan McGuire

11.   The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier – Finished February 27, 2021

12.   First Family by Joseph J. Ellis

Alternate #1: Classics on Infinite Earths by Julian Darius

Alternate #2: Hollow Earth by David Standish

Non-Fiction Challenge: I didn’t do well on this one, either. I challenged myself to read 24 non-fiction books in 2021, and I only read 9. (Not as good as 2020’s 11, better than 2019’s 4)

Read the Book, Watch the Movie Challenge: I didn’t set a numbered goal for this one in 2020, and looking back I don’t think I managed a single paired reading/watching.

Complete the Series Challenge: Challenged myself to complete reading 5 complete series, actually completed 2 series:

THE VELVETEEN SERIES by Seanan McGuire

1.       Velveteen Vs. The Junior Super-Patriots

2.       Velveteen Vs. The Multiverse

3.       Velveteen Vs. The Seasons

CARSON OF VENUS by Edgar Rice Burroughs

1.       Pirates of Venus – read in January 2020

2.       Lost on Venus – completed in August 2021

3.       Carson of Venus – completed in August 2021

4.       Escape on Venus – completed in August 2021

5.       The Wizard of Venus – completed in August 2021

THE CHRISTMAS CHRONICLES by Jeff Guinn

1.       The Autobiography of Santa Claus

2.       How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas

3.       The Great Santa Search

THE FRANKENSTEIN NOVELS by Frank Schildiner

1.       The Quest of Frankenstein – read in 2018

2.       The Triumph of Frankenstein – completed in July 2021

3.       The Spells of Frankenstein – completed in July 2021

THE SHADOWSHAPER TRILOGY by Daniel José Older

1.       Shadowshaper – read in 2015

2.       Shadowhouse Fall

3.       Shadowshaper Legacy

So there’s my year in reading! Next post will be my year in viewing (television, movies, and live events).

Reading Round-Up: February 2021

The monthly summary of what I’ve been reading and listening to in 2021!

BOOKS

I read 12 books in February: 6 in print, 5 in e-book format, and 1 in audio format. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #129 (February 2021 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Phoebe Barton’s “The Mathematics of Fairyland,” Keith Brooke and Eric Brown’s “Me Two,” A.T. Greenblatt’s “The Memory of a Memory is a Spirit,” and Autumn Brown’s “Small and Bright.”

2.       Abbott by Saladin Ahmed (writer), Sami Kivelä (art), Jason Wordie (colors), Jim Campbell (letters), Chris Rosa and Eric Harbur (editor). This graphic novel collects the first Abbott mini-series about intrepid reporter Elena Abbott, who happens to be both black and a woman working at a white-run newspaper in 1972 Detroit. As Abbott investigates a string of unusual murders (of black men and animals), she uncovers supernatural events tied to the death of her first husband. I absolutely loved this: the pacing of the story, the multi-faceted characters (and their full representation of racial/gender/sexuality marginalized groups), and the supernatural threat – the Umbra – along with Elena’s role in fighting it. A second mini-series, Abbott 1973, has just started monthly publication.

3.       The Worker Prince (The Saga of Davi Rhii Book 1) by Bryan Thomas Schmidt. Schmidt takes the Moses myth and jumps in into far-future interstellar space, where the human leader of the Borali Alliance declares the first-born sons of all human Workers must be killed. The one child spared grows up thinking he’s the leader’s nephew until the truth comes out and he rallies the Workers to revolution. Fast-paced space opera with engaging lead characters and a scenery-chewing villain you can’t help but hate.

4.       Lumberjanes True Colors by Lilah Sturges (writer), Polterink! (art and colors), Jim Campbell (letters), Sophie Philips-Roberts (editor). The focus of this stand-alone graphic novel (which does not reprint material from the regular monthly Lumberjanes book) is on Ripley. Ripley, the youngest and most excitable of the ‘Janes, starts to feel like standing out and being noticed isn’t the great thing she’s always thought, and then she meets a zebracorn (yes, you read that correctly, and it’s exactly what you think) who grants her wish to fit in and be like everyone else. Downside? She’s so bland everyone forgets her, which causes problems when her fellow ‘Janes encounter a problem only Ripley’s unique persona can solve. Once again, Sturges and Polterink deliver a story that shows the power of friendship and human need to be liked/respected/needed.

5.       The Returning (The Saga of Davi Rhii Book 2) by Bryan Thomas Schmidt. In the second book of the Davi Rhii trilogy, the Workers (Vertullians) have been made full members of the Borali Alliance, but not everyone is happy about that. Political and personal tensions bubble over. Just as fun and fast-paced as the first book, while adding layers to the characters and to the society as a whole.

6.       An Ordinary Man: An Autobiography by Paul Rusesabagina. I bought this book a few years back after several people recommended it. Reading Rusesabagina’s memoir of his role in saving refugees during the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994 was an interesting experience. He has an engaging style, very personable and expressive. The early chapters do a nice job of laying out not just his personal history but a bit of Rwanda’s history that led to the genocide. But about halfway through the book, I started to question what I was reading: were his actions really as altruistic as he was painting? why does he insist on describing the Hutu leaders of the genocide movement as “good men” when they clearly aren’t? Every memoir is subjective – ask five people who witnessed the same event to describe it and you’re going to get five different stories – but this felt a bit like the author was trying to unsuccessfully gloss over things he didn’t think fit the narrative that’s been built around him thanks to the movie Hotel Rwanda. So, I’m reading more about the genocide, from other refugees/survivors. Because one of the things the author is accurate about is the lack of knowledge in the US when it comes to genocide in general and especially to genocides in other countries.

7.       Nine Bar Blue by Sheree Renée Thomas. What an amazing short story collection. Every story here was new to me, even the reprints. I have no idea how I’ve managed to not read anything by Thomas even while being aware of her via Twitter, Facebook, and posts by so many other authors – it’s kind of embarrassing. As the title implies, a lot of these stories have music as a background or basis, and many of them take place in or near Memphis. They also skirt the genre line between horror and fantasy – quite a few gave me chills and a sense of wonder. I’m planning to post a full review soon.

8.       Later by Stephen King. The protagonist of Stephen King’s third novel for Hard Case Crime calls to mind King favorites like Geordie LaChance and Bill Denbrough but is set in the 2000s. There’s a solid supernatural element to this alongside the crime, so something for everyone. FULL REVIEW HERE.

9.       Hawkman Vol 4: Hawks Eternal by Robert Venditti (writer), Fernando Pasarin, Marco Castiello, Marcio Takara (art), Jeromy Cox (colors), Rob Leigh, Richard Starkings (letters), Harvey Richards (editor). Collecting the final issues of Venditti’s fantastic reinvention/expansion of the Hawkman mythos. I regret not picking this series up in monthly format, the story is that good. The run ends as strong as it started, while leaving room for other people to work with the character. I’m planning to do a Series Saturday post sometime soon.

10.   Inside the Hotel Rwanda: The Surprising True Story … and Why It Matters Today by Edouard Kayihura. While I was reading the Rusesabagina memoir, this book and several others about the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsis in Rwanda popped up as recommendations. So, when I decided I wanted a broader look at the Hundred Days, it made sense to start here. Kayihura’s style is not as immediately personable as Rusesabinga’s; his style is more tense, fully acknowledging the danger everyone was in. Again, the early chapters cover his life pre-genocide and a bit of the country’s history – but Kayihura also extends the story beyond the end of the Genocide, covering his life and the nation’s attempts to heal. There’s also a lot of anti-Rusesabagina talk throughout the book, which matched some of what I thought was suspect about Rusesabagina’s story. I have two more memoirs (one by a female survivor, one by the leader of the UN peacekeeping forces) that I’m going to read this month to try and round out my understanding of what happened.

11.   The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography by Sidney Poitier. The only audiobook I listened to this month (I’m traveling far less these days), and what a great listen. Poitier is a wonderful storyteller (no surprise there). What I found interesting is that this is not a linear memoir; Poitier bounces between his early childhood in the Bahamas, his teen years in Miami, his adult married life and acting career and his present (at the time he recorded this) reasons for looking back. He tackles moments in life and those of his parents when those moments tie into whatever point he’s making about being human. And it’s really enthralling all the way through. And he leaves in all the natural verbal tics (the “you knows” and “you understand what I’m saying” type phrases) that most memoirists leave out. There’s nothing effected at all in his style.

12.   How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin. The first of my fiction To Be Read challenge titles hasn’t been sitting on my shelf as long as some of the other titles on this year’s list, since the book came out in 2018, but it was an appropriate choice for Black History Month, don’t you think? I had previously read a handful of these stories in other venues (“The Ones Who Stay and Fight,” “The Effluent Machine,” “Cloud Dragon Skies,” “Valedictorian,” and “Non-Zero Probabilities”) but most of them were new to me. As with the Sheree Renée Thomas collection, I really tried to savor this one, but could never put it down after just one story. Every single story is thought-provoking, whether it’s science fiction or fantasy, present-day, far-future, or otherworldly. This is not just Afrofuturism/Afrofantasy at its finest, it’s science fiction/fantasy as a whole at its finest.

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 365 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this year. Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.

1.       “The Mathematics of Fairyland” by Phoebe Barton, from Lightspeed Magazine #129 (February 2021 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “Bulletproof Tattoos” by Paul Crenshaw

3.       “Me Two” by Keith Brooke and Eric Brown

4.       “Sidewalks” by Maureen F. McHugh

5.       “Church of Birds” by Micah Dean Hicks

6.       “The Memory of a Memory is a Spirit” by A.T. Greenblatt

7.       “Small and Bright” by Autumn Brown

8.       “Destinations of Beauty” by Alexander Weinstein

9.       “Kisser” by David James Brock, from Fantasy Magazine #64 (February 2021), edited by Christie Yant and Arley Sorg

10.   “Of Course You Screamed” by Sharang Biswas

11.   “Like a Box of Chocolates” by Dani Atkinson

12.   “Flight” by Innocent Chizaram Ilo

13.    “Inflatable Angel” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

14.   “Spyder Threads” by Craig Laurence Gidney, from Come Join Us by The Fire Volume 2, (not sure who edited it)

15.   “Navigational Errors” by Lucy A. Snyder, from Fireside #88, edited by Maurice Broaddus

16.   “Ancestries” by Sheree Renée Thomas from Nine Bar Blues

17.   “Thirteen Year Long Song” by Sheree Renée Thomas

18.   “Aunt Dissy’s Policy Dream Book” by Sheree Renée Thomas

19.   “Nightflight” by Sheree Renée Thomas

20.   “River, Clap Your Hands” by Sheree Renée Thomas

21.   “Stars Come Down” by Sheree Renée Thomas

22.   “Child’s Play” by Sheree Renée Thomas

23.   “Headstatic” by Sheree Renée Thomas

24.   “The Parts That Make Us Monsters” by Sheree Renée Thomas

25.   “The Dragon Can’t Dance” by Sheree Renée Thomas

26.   “Who Needs the Stars if the Full Moon Loves You” by Sheree Renée Thomas

27.   “310 Lucy” by Sheree Renée Thomas

28.   “Shanequa’s Blues – Or Another Shotgun Lullaby” by Sheree Renée Thomas

29.   “Madame & the Map: A Journey in Five Movements” by Sheree Renée Thomas

30.   “Teddy Bump” by Sheree Renée Thomas

31.   “Origins of Southern Spirit Music” by Sheree Renée Thomas

32.   “The Ones That Stay and Fight” by N.K Jemisin, from How Long ‘Til Black Future Month?

33.   “The City Born Great” by N.K Jemisin

34.   “Red Dirt Witch” by N.K Jemisin

35.   “L’Alchemista” by N.K Jemisin

36.   “The Effluent Machine” by N.K Jemisin

37.   “Cloud Dragon Skies” by N.K Jemisin

38.   “The Trojan Girl” by N.K Jemisin

39.   “Valedictorian” by N.K Jemisin

40.   “The Storyteller’s Replacement” by N.K Jemisin

41.   “The Brides of Heaven” by N.K Jemisin

42.   “The Evaluators” by N.K Jemisin

43.   “Walking Awake” by N.K Jemisin

44.   “The Elevator Dancer” by N.K Jemisin

45.   “Cuisine des Mémoires” by N.K Jemisin

46.   “Stone Hunger” by N.K Jemisin

47.   “On the Banks of the River Lex” by N.K Jemisin

48.   “The Narcomancer” by N.K Jemisin

49.   “Henosis” by N.K Jemisin

50.   “Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows” by N.K Jemisin

51.   “The You Train” by N.K Jemisin

52.   “Non-Zero Probabilities” by N.K Jemisin

53.   “Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters” by N.K Jemisin

So that’s 53 short stories in February. Quite a bit more than “1 per day” and putting me ahead so far for the year. (February 28th was the 59th day of 2021.)

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 3 read; YTD: 4 of 24 main titles read. (0 of 4 alternate titles read)

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  53 read; YTD: 79 of 365 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 3 read; YTD: 5 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 12 read; YTD: 24 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 3 read; YTD: 4 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 0 book read; YTD: 0 of 14 read.

                                                          Series fully completed: 0 of 4 planned

Monthly Special Challenge:  February was Black History Month and Women in Horror Month, so my challenge, as usual, was to read as many Black authors and women horror writers as I could, and with hopefully a few overlaps. I read 5 books (An Ordinary Man; Nine Bar Blues; Inside the Hotel Rwanda; The Measure of a Man; and How Long ‘Til Black Future Month) by black authors, which was not quite half of the total books read for the month. Most of those short stories I read by black authors were accounted for by the Sheree Renee Thomas and N.K. Jemisin collections, but there was also work by Gidney, Ilo, and Brown. Thomas and Jemisin also accounted for most of my minimal “women in horror” reading, alongside short stories by Seanan McGuire and Lucy A. Snyder.

March is Women’s History Month, so my intent is to read as many female authors as possible.

Reading Round-Up: January 2021

The first monthly summary of what I’ve been reading and listening to in 2021!

BOOKS

To keep my numbers consistent with what I have listed on Goodreads, I count completed magazine issues as “books.” I read 12 books in January: 3 in print, 8.5 in e-book format, and .5 in audio format I started We Are Totally Normal in audio but finished it in e-book). They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #128 (January 2021 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Anjali Sachdeva’s “The Incorruptible World,” An Owomoyela’s “The Hard Spot in the Glacier,” Maria Dhavana Headley’s “The Orange Tree,” and P H Lee’s “Frost’s Boy.”

2.       By the Way, I Love You by Seth King. Cute New Year’s Day romance novella in which a college boy who has always thought he was straight falls for his out-and-effeminate new roommate. King gives the characters depth and personality.

3.       Lumberjanes Volume 16: Mind Over Mettle by Shannon Watters & Kat Leyh (writers), AnneMarie Rogers (artist), Maarta Laiho (colors), Aubrey Aiese (letters) and Sophie Philips-Roberts (Editor). Mal’s attempt to overcome her fear, which she thinks is a detriment to the other ‘Janes, lands her in dinosaur land again – but things have changed there, and the Janes must not only rescue their friend but all the dinosaurs. Another fun adventure with great character advancement for several of the main cast.

4.       The Christmas Accomplice by Hank Edwards. A gay holiday romance novella. Socially awkward geek Welton winds up on vacation at a ski resort after breaking up with his boyfriend, and immediately has an awkward meet-cute with resort employee Reece. Complications ensue (the arrival of the ex-boyfriend, nosy co-workers, and Reece’s challenges to earn a possible promotion) but there’s a HEA ending. The characters are endearing, the stumbling-blocks not insurmountable. Highly recommended.

5.       The Warrior’s Pilgrimage by Frank Schildiner. Schildiner takes on, in novella form, one of his favorite genres: the “sword and sandal” movies, and he nails it. His new take on the legend of Romulus and Remus focuses on the forgotten brother. FULL REVIEW HERE.

6.       The Final Decree by Jeffrey Ricker. All Bill Templeton wants is to marry his fiancée – but first he needs a divorce from Travis, the smuggler he left behind for a different life. To get it, Bill must travel to a city under siege by corporate armed forces. This is a really fun adventure story (light on the romance, although it underpins everything that happens) and I hope Ricker writes more novellas set in this universe with these characters.

7.       Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor. A girl with strange powers travels Ghana in search of explanations and the seed that gave her her abilities, while legends grow around her. Once again, Okorafor blends magic and science with strong characters to give us a fantastic novella. FULL REVIEW HERE.

8.       We Are Totally Normal by Rahul Kanakia. A YA novel about coming out and coming to understand yourself. The main character, Nandan, is highly confused about his attractions and spends a good portion of the book contradicting himself in terms of what he wants and what he believes. There are scenes in which he’s even pretty unlikeable and manipulative. His friends seem to understand him a lot better than he does. I started this one in audio form, but finished in e-book partially because I just wasn’t driving long distances enough to make progress with the book, and partially because I found the narrator’s character voices irritating/grating (as this is the only thing I’ve heard this particular narrator on, I can’t judge whether it’s the narrator overall or just these particular voices).

9.       Kill the Man by Steve Orlando and Philip Kennedy Johnson (writers), Al Morgan (art and colors), Jim Kennedy (letters), Mike Marts (editor). Up and coming Mixed Martial Arts star James Bellyi watched his father be killed in the ring by a contender who happened to be gay, so he keeps his own sexuality quiet – until he’s publicly outed by the current MMA champ. This is a story not just of coming out in a notoriously homophobic sport, but also of finding peace with your past. Fantastic character work is accompanied by Morgan’s moody detailed artwork, and the limited black-white-red color palette increases the sense of claustrophobia, of being “in your own head.” Content Warning for homophobic language and physical violence.

10.   Calculated Risks (InCryptid #10) by Seanan McGuire. McGuire’s latest entry in her InCryptid series picks up immediately where the cliffhanger ending of the previous installment, Imaginary Numbers, left off. I read an e-ARC obtained through NetGalley, so a full review is forthcoming.

11.   Defensive Play (a Boys on the Brink novella) by Jamie Deacon. I do seem to have developed an interest in gay sports romances over the past year or so. In this one, a closeted British teen who suffers from social anxiety and panic attacks but who is a fantastic soccer defenseman finally meets the boy of his dreams – a striker for a rival team who is very openly gay. I loved the way this one develops both characters (without bouncing POVs, as so many romances seem to) and doesn’t let the roadblocks to their happy-for-now ending linger. I also thought the author took a realistic view of modern high school social dynamics.

12.   Poisoning for Profit: The Mafia and Toxic Waste in America by Alan A Block and Frank R. Scarpitti. The first of my non-fiction To Be Read challenge titles has been sitting on my work bookshelf for a long time. It’s an interesting, if now somewhat outdated, look at the links between organized crime and the waste disposal industry as it developed in New York and New Jersey in the late 70s and early 80s. A bit dry and repetitive in places, but still a solid read.

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 365 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) this year. Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.

1.       “The Incorruptible World” by Anjeli Sachdeva, from Lightspeed Magazine #128 (January 2021 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “The Hard Spot in the Glacier” by An Owomoyela

3.       “The Memory Plague” by D. Thomas Minton

4.       “On the Fringes of the Fractal” by Greg Van Eekhout

5.       “The Orange Tree” by Maria Dhavana Headley

6.       “Answering the Questions You May Have About the Kharbat” by Adam-Troy Castro

7.       “The Mushroom Queen” by Elizabeth Zienska

8.       “Frost’s Boy” by P H Lee

9.       “Things to Bring, Things to Burn, Things Best Left Behind” by C.G. McGill, from Fantasy Magazine #63 (January 2021), edited by Christie Yant and Arley Sorg

10.   “Incense” by Megan Chee

11.   “10 Steps to a Whole New You” by Tonya Liburd

12.   “The Billionaire Shapeshifters’ Ex-Wives Club” by Kristiana Willsey

13.    “What You Build” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

14.   “Let All the Children Boogie” by Sam J. Miller, from Tor.com, edited by Jonathan Strahan

15.   “A Fairy Tale for the Little Acorn” by ‘Nathan Burgoine, on the author’s website

16.   “Goal Invariances Under Radical Self-Modification” by Julie Nováková from Future Science Fiction Digest #6 (March 2020), edited by Alex Schvartsman

17.   “Our Lady of the Golems” by Irene Punti

18.   “Vic From Planet Earth” by Yevgeny Lukin (translated by Mike Olivson)

19.   “Sankofa” by Nnedi Okorafor, from Decision Points, edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt

20.   “The Van Etten House” by Carrie Laben, from The Dark #68 (January 2021), edited by Sean Wallace

21.   “Love for Ashes” by Frances Ogamba

22.   “There, in the Woods” by Clara Madrigano

23.   “Each Night an Adaptation” by Osahon Ize-Iyamu

24.   “Singing the Comic-Con Blues” by Seanan McGuire, novella included in the paperback of her InCryptid novel Calculated Risks

25.   “Wild Geese” by Lavie Tidhar, from F&SF January/February 2021, edited by C.C. Finlay

26.   “How to Break into a Hotel Room” by Stephen Graham Jones, from Nightmare Magazine #100, edited by John Joseph Adams and Wendy N. Wagner.

So that’s 26 short stories in January. A bit less than “1 per day.” (January 31st was, of course, the 31st day of 2021.)

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 1 read; YTD: 1 of 24 main titles read. (0 of 4 alternate titles read)

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  26 read; YTD: 26 of 365 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 2 read; YTD: 2 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 12 read; YTD: 12 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 1 read; YTD: 1 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 0 book read; YTD: 0 of 14 read.

                                                          Series fully completed: 0 of 4 planned

Monthly Special Challenge:  I didn’t set a specific “mini challenge” for January, other than to work on staying on track or getting ahead on the yearly challenges. I didn’t really get ahead on any, but at least I made partial progress on the graphic novel challenge (Kill the Man and Lumberjanes Volume 16), the non-fiction challenge (Poisoning for Profit), the “To Be Read” Challenge (Poisoning for Profit), and the 365 Short Stories and Goodreads Challenges. No progress on the Read/Watch or Complete the Series Challenges this time out.

February is Black History Month and Women in Horror Month, so my challenge, as usual, is to read as many Black authors as I can and as many women horror writers as I can, and hopefully a few who overlap.