I need to post about my reading adventures for last year before January gets away from me! I read (or at least managed to track on goodreads) 77 books last year. Highlights include:

The Raven Boys series by Maggie Stiefvater – So much more creative than most YA fiction out there, and so well-written.

Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny – I’ve been meaning to start reading this series for a long time and blew through around 5 volumes in short order.

The Winter Sea by Suzanna Kearsley – Nice historical time travel cozy book.

Magnificent Devices Series by Shelley Adina – Non-annoying steampunk romance series. I’ve only read the first four or so, but they feature an unconventional heroine with a yen for science who inadvertently finds herself in charge of a gang of child thieves.

I am doing such a poor job keeping track of my reading on this blog, but I have been better at updating Goodreads, so at least I have my reading lists saved somewhere:

On the YA front I’ve recently read:

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld
A Time To Dance by Padma Venkatraman
Scarlet and Cress by Melissa Meyer
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

On the romance novel front I’ve read:

Bound by Flames by Jeanne Frost
Lady Windermere’s Lover, The Importance of Being Wicked, The Ruin of a Rogue, The Duke of Dark Desires by Miranda Neville
Duke of Midnight by Elizabeth Hoyt
Staying at Daisies, Millie’s Fling, An Offer You Can’t Refuse By Jill Mansell
Truely by Ruthie Knox – this was one of the more memorable books I read, in that I can actually still remember the plot and characters! Midwestern girl meets emotionally distant New York Chef. It was a really good contemporary romance.
Cold Iron by D.L. McDermott
Wanted: Wife by Gwen Jones
It Started with a Scandal by Julie Anne Long
Royally Ever After by Loretta Chase
No Rest for the Wicked by Cresley Cole

Non-Fiction:

Using Open Refine by Ruben Verborgh

Comics and Graphic Novels (non-manga)

Saga Volume 3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Ms Marvel Volume 1: by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona
Captain Marvel Vol. 1: Pursuit of Flight by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios

I’m trying to do a better job of tracking my reading this year! This is what I read this month:

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater – For some reason it took me a couple attempts to get into this book, I think because during my first attempt I was a little bit distracted and Stiefvater’s prose and world building really deserve a reader’s full attention. But this was a wonderful book, and I’m only holding off on devouring the rest of the series because I want to savor the rest of it.

Say Yes to the Marquess by Tessa Dare – This was slightly less whimsical than the first book in this series, but it still has the combination of cleverness and humor that I tend to enjoy in historical romance novels.

With this Kiss and Once Upon a Tower by Eloisa James– Eloisa James tends to be one of those authors I turn to when I am feeling a bit stressed. With this Kiss as a set of novellas was a little disjointed, but that can only be expected. Once Upon a Tower is one of several volumes in James’ fairytale series, focusing on Rapunzel of course.

Trade Me by Courtney Milan – A new Courtney Milan is always an automatic buy for me, and I was interested to check out her first contemporary book. Some of the plot resolutions involved a bit too much suspension of disbelief, but I thought she was tackling a variety of important issues in the book, and portraying characters that are often not the focus of a romance novel in an interesting way.

I have been a MEGA slacker with this blog, but I still manage to post semi-regularly on Manga Report and contribute to some of the weekly features on Manga Bookshelf. Anyway, I hope to post a bit more here, even if it is a bit dusty. Maybe I will cover a bit of knitting progress, books I’ve been reading, and one of these days I want to finish out my posts on Amethyst Princess of Gemworld by outlining some of the references to her in Legion of Super-Heroes.

Along with lapsing in blogging, I stopped updating goodreads very often, so I lost my reliable metrics about what I’ve been reading. I’ve been trying to do a much better job though, so this is what I was reading in July. I actually had a vacation in July so I was able to breeze through many many books.

Rereads – Vast portions of the Dark Hunter Series. I bought this bundle when it was on sale for the low low price of $20:

I started wading through this in June, then my interest petered out in July after finishing Acheron.

I read books 1-6 of the Charley Davidson (haha) series:

This was a good, clever paranormal series, even if some of the mysteries explored in the books end up a bit obvious. Great and engaging cast of characters.

Historical Romances:

I read a couple of Eloisa James’ fairy tale series, The Ugly Duchess and The Duke is Mine. James is really up there with Loretta Chase and Courtney Milan as my favorite romance authors. These books were witty, with memorable characters. It is always interesting to see how James interprets the fairy tale inspiration of the plots, set in a non-magical historical setting.

I read the Suffragette Scandal, by Courtney Milan, a book that should be celebrated for many reasons, not the least is the phrase “puppy cannon”. I also read Proof By Seduction and Trial by Desire.

I also read the Lion’s Lady by Julie Garwood, Scotsmen Prefer Blonds by Sara Ramsey and a couple linked books by Lorraine Heath, In Bed by the Devil and Between the Devil and Desire. The Heath books were a bit different from the typical historical romance, since they were a bit inspired by Dickens’ Artful Dodger and his band of thieves.

For contemporary romance, I read Sarah Morgan’s Sleigh Bells in the Snow, which is really a great example of a contemporary Harlequin done well.

I also read Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire, which I had to force myself to finish. It was clever, but it was clever in exactly the same way to a degree that reading it became a bit grating. Also, the heroine interrupted the main flow of the story so many times to digress about thinks like her Great Aunt Myrtle’s adventures in dragon hunting, I realized the book was 85% asides and 15% actual plot and character development.

YA

My book group was reading Paul Zindel, so I read the classic The Pigman. It is very odd but nice going back and reading books that I had practically memorized when I was 14 years old (oh so very long ago)

That’s what I finished reading!

On the horizon for August:

Book club book Code of Silence
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Book of Live by Deborah Harkness

I’ve been less rigorous about tracking my reading. I used to be really good about logging everything in GoodReads, but I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t even managed to do that! But I want to have a record somewhere, so here are some of the things I’ve been reading for the past few months.

For whatever reason in addition to my usual diet of manga, I read VERY LONG Books.

Lies of Locke Lamora – amusing fantasy novel about a gang of con artists. Would appeal to people that like the Vlad Taltos series by Brust. Great worldbuilding, but sometimes gets bogged down a bit with the descriptions.
The Twelve by Justin Cronin – This is one of those series that is so much better than the plot makes it sound! I love the shifting points of view and the way the narrative all comes together between characters scattered across a post apocalyptic America.

Romance Novels

I’m forgetting some of what I read here, but I did finish up:

It Happened One Midnight by Julie Ann Long
Heiress Without a Cause by Sara Ramsey
Heart of Iron and Kiss of Steel by Bec McMaster

Young Adult Books

I’ve been on a big YA reread binge recently. The Vampire Academy sale on the Kindle happened to match up with a work trip I was taking, so I reread the entire series. They are the perfect airplane books, easy to read but engrossing enough that I almost forgot that I was crammed on a plane for untold hours.

I reread the first two books of Divergent, and read the final book Allegiant. I enjoyed the first book if I didn’t think about it too hard, but as the series develops there’s just so much that makes no logical sense, and I found myself getting really sick of the characters to the point where I was delighted when they started to die off. I actually think these books might be better served by the movie adaptations, because at least then the audience would be spared the whiny self-indulgent first person narration that I found so annoying in the last book of the trilogy. Also the charisma of the actors might cause the audience to not thing so very hard about the abundant plot holes.

I also read Eleanor and Park and Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, both of which were excellent!

Hideous Love: The Story of hte Girl who Wrote Frankenstein was my YA book club pick for the month, and it was an interesting blend of fictionalized biography and blank verse.

Graphic Novels

There was a Johnathan Hickman sale on Comixology! I finally picked up some of his work on Fantastic Four and really enjoyed the first couple volumes. Hickman really did an effective job of balancing the cosmic themes and family problems that I’d expect to see in a FF title. I plan on picking up more of these collections soon.

I also did a fair amount of Captain America rereading in preparation for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

I’ve been slacking on doing my reading lists, which I do find useful when I want to look back and see what I’ve read over the year. This is a partial list of what I’ve read from January 2013-May 2013:

YA
The Giver and Messenger Lois Lowry – We are reading a ton of Lois Lowery for my YA book club this month.
Graceling and Fire Kristin Cashore – Throughly enjoyed the first book in the series, but the switch to a different country in the same world with a complicated and detailed backstory left me a little bit unenthused by the second volume. Both were well-written, and I probably will check out the third volume in the series at some point.
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight Jennifer E. Smith – This was cute, but in terms of young romance in a foreign country, I much preferred Anna and the French Kiss. The timeline here in the characters getting to know each other was so compressed, I didn’t feel like I got a very full picture of their personalities.

Romance
Something About You Julie James
Irresistible (Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, #3) Mary Balogh
The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae (The Cynster Sisters Trilogy #3) Stephanie Laurens
Twice Tempted (Night Prince, #2) Jeaniene Frost
The Inconvenient Duchess (The Radwells #1) Christine Merrill
The Other Side of Us Sarah Mayberry
Temptation and Surrender (Cynster, #15) Stephanie Laurens
Potent Pleasures (Pleasures, #1) Eloisa James
Winterblaze (Darkest London, #3) Kristen Callihan – This was a fun historical paranormal romance series. Looking forward to the next book!
Firelight (Darkest London, #1) Kristen Callihan
Moonglow (Darkest London, #2) Kristen Callihan
If I Fall (The Blue Raven, #4) Kate Noble
Revealed (The Blue Raven, #1) Kate Noble
The Taste of Night (Signs of the Zodiac, #2) Vicki Pettersson
The Scent of Shadows (Signs of the Zodiac, #1) Vicki Pettersson
The Promise in a Kiss (Cynster Prequel) Stephanie Laurens
Devil’s Bride (Cynster, #1) Stephanie Laurens
The Ideal Bride (Cynster, #11) Stephanie Laurens
Skies of Fire (The Ether Chronicles, #1) Zoe Archer
The Forbidden Lord (Lord Trilogy, #2) Sabrina Jeffries
The Pirate Lord (Lord Trilogy, #1) Sabrina Jeffries
The Dangerous Lord (Lord Trilogy, #3) Sabrina Jeffries
Spiders Bite (Elemental Assassin Series #1) Jennifer Estep

Manga
The Story of Saiunkoku, Vol. 9 Kairi Yura
Crimson Empire Vol 1: Circumstances to Serve a Noble QuinRose
Tiger & Bunny, Vol. 1 Mizuki Sakakibara
Pepita: Takehiko Inoue Meets Gaudi Takehiko Inoue
Kare First Love, Volume 1-6 Kaho Miyasaka
Otomen, Vol. 15 (Otomen, #15) Aya Kanno
Dengeki Daisy 12 (Dengeki Daisy, #12) Kyousuke Motomi
Mobile Suit Gundam: THE ORIGIN volume 1: Activation Yoshiyuki Tomino
Paradise Kiss, Part 2 Ai Yazawa
Demon Love Spell, Vol. 2 Mayu Shinjo
Vagabond, Vol. 10 (VIZBIG Edition) Takehiko Inoue
Please Save My Earth, 1- 6 Saki Hiwatari
Kekkaishi, Vol. 14 (Kekkaishi, #14) Yellow Tanabe
Kekkaishi, Vol. 17 (Kekkaishi, #17) Yellow Tanabe
Barrage, Vol. 2 Kouhei Horikoshi
Barrage, Vol. 1 Kouhei Horikoshi
Jiu Jiu, Vol. 4 Touya Tobina
Oresama Teacher , Vol. 13 Izumi Tsubaki
Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 12 Julietta Suzuki
Skip Beat!, Vol. 30 Yoshiki Nakamura
Strobe Edge Vol. 2 – 4 Io Sakisaka
Paradise Kiss, Part 3 Ai Yazawa
Library Wars: Love and War #9 Kiiro Yumi

I got a Paperwhite for Hanukkah! So I have been tearing through some ebooks recently.

Books

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – This was a standout recent read. I am kicking myself for not reading this earlier. Who knew that a book about teens with cancer could be so intelligently quirky and hilarious and epic at the same time.
The Dark Highlander (Highlander, #5) by Karen Marie Moning
The Immortal Highlander (Highlander, #6) by Karen Marie Moning
Iced by Karen Marie Moning
A Kiss For Midwinter (Brothers Sinister, #1.5) by Courtney Milan
The Duchess War (Brothers Sinister, #1) by Courtney Milan
Season for Surrender (Seasons, #2) by Theresa Romain
A Week to Be Wicked (Spindle Cove, #2) by Tessa Dare
A Lady by Midnight (Spindle Cove, #3) by Tessa Dare
When You Give a Duke a Diamond (Jewels of the Ton, #1) by Shana Galen
The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation, #6) by Lauren Willig
The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2) by Richelle Mead – There was just way too much exposition in this book for the second volume of a continuing series. It bogged the book down for me quite a bit.
The English Witch by Loretta Chase
Knave’s Wager by Loretta Chase
Viscount Vagabond by Loretta Chase

Manga and Graphic Novels

Recently I’ve been working my way through some volumes of Kekkaishi due to the current Viz Digital Sale. I’ll have to pick up a few more volumes before the sale ends on the 8th.

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan – Nice to see that the hype about this series was justified!
Captain America and Bucky: Old Wounds
Kamisama Kiss 11
A Devil and Her Love Song 6
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon 5
?07 Ghost 1
Strobe Edge 1
Oresama Teacher 11 and 12
Kimi ni Todoke: From me to You 15
Story of Saiunkoku 8
Give My Regards to Black Jack 1-4