Books Received in January 2016

Since I won't be accepting much in the way of review books this year, this column will likely not be a monthly feature.  The list today has 1 title, which I actually got in December but forgot to add to my list then.  

Traveler by Arwen Elys Dayton - This is the second book of the Seeker trilogy, and I've already reviewed it.  This is a fun YA series and I'm looking forward to the third book.

Quin Kincaid is a Seeker. Her legacy is an honor, an ancient role passed down for generations. But what she learned on her Oath night changed her world forever.

Quin pledged her life to deception. Her legacy as a Seeker is not noble but savage. Her father, a killer. Her uncle, a liar. Her mother, a casualty. And the boy she once loved is out for vengeance, with her family in his sights.

Yet Quin is not alone. Shinobu, her oldest companion, might now be the only person she can trust. The only one who wants answers as desperately as she does.

But the deeper they dig into the past, the darker things become. There are long-vanished Seeker families, shadowy alliances, and something else: a sinister plan begun generations ago, with the power to destroy them all.

The past is close. And it will destroy them all.

Movie Review: Time Lapse

Directed by: Bradley King, 2014

IMDb listing

Pros: makes you think, good acting, some tense moments, establishes and follows internal logic/time travel rules  

Cons: takes a while to get going, no science

Three housemates: a painter with no inspiration, an aspiring writer, and guy who’s hoping to win big on dog races, discover a machine in their neighbours house that takes photos 24 hours in the future.

The premise of the film is fairly simple, though it takes a while to get going as they have to find the machine and then figure out what it does.  But once they do, and realize they can use it to further their ambitions, things start to get tense.

The acting is great, which is important as the film really demands a lot of its protagonists.  I wasn’t that keen on Jasper’s character (played by George Finn) and wasn’t surprised that his greed and idiocy caused some of their problems.

There’s an internal logic to how the machine works and thereby how time travel works in the film that the film doesn’t deviate from.  Which is great.  Having said that, I felt that the characters should have asked more questions about how the machine worked.  The film gives no science or explanations at all about how this is possible.  

The ending made me think about the film in new ways, going over the events to puzzle out what happened and why things happened in those ways.  

It’s a well done film, that’s worth seeing.  

Shout-Out: Nova by Margaret Fortune

*36:00:00*

The clock activates so suddenly in my mind, my head involuntarily jerks a bit to the side. The fog vanishes, dissipated in an instant as though it never was. Memories come slotting into place, their edges sharp enough to leave furrows, and suddenly I know. I know exactly who I am.

My name is Lia Johansen, and I was named for a prisoner of war. She lived in the Tiersten Internment Colony for two years, and when they negotiated the return of the prisoners, I was given her memories and sent back in her place.

And I am a genetically engineered human bomb.

Lia Johansen was created for only one purpose: to slip onto the strategically placed New Sol Space Station and explode. But her mission goes to hell when her clock malfunctions, freezing her countdown with just two minutes to go. With no Plan B, no memories of her past, and no identity besides a name stolen from a dead POW, Lia has no idea what to do next. Her life gets even more complicated when she meets Michael Sorenson, the realLia’s childhood best friend.

Drawn to Michael and his family against her better judgment, Lia starts learning what it means to live and love, and to be human. It is only when her countdown clock begins sporadically losing time that she realizes even duds can still blow up. If she wants any chance at a future, she must find a way to unlock the secrets of her past and stop her clock. But as Lia digs into her origins, she begins to suspect there’s far more to her mission and to this war, than meets the eye. With the fate of not just a space station but an entire empire hanging in the balance, Lia races to find the truth before her time—literally—runs out.

Video: Animation vs Minecraft

This is a really cute video by Alan Becker.  He's done several Animator vs Animation videos, but here, the animations discover the Minecraft app on the computer and start creating things.

Book Review: The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

Pros: variety of action, new settings, character development 

Cons: Wayne started to grate on my nerves, some predictable events

Waxilliam Ladrian and Steris Harms’ wedding day has finally arrived, but things don’t go as planned.  Against his desires, he’s roped into helping the kandra recover one of their fellows’ missing spikes.  He’s also given the whereabouts of his kidnapped sister. 

This book changes location several times, and the plot shifts from one connected goal to another, so while my synopsis may not sound that interesting, the book itself has quite a good number of twists and turns.

I loved the growing relationship between Wax and Steris, which again felt realistic.  I also liked how several characters developed, questioning themselves and coming to know themselves better.

Wayne started to grate on my nerves, especially at the beginning of the book.  His dislike of Steris annoyed me, both because I like her as a character and because he disregarded the growing attraction between Steris and Wax.  Towards the end he felt more like the loveable rogue from the previous books.

There are some plot twists that I found predictable, but others that changed the direction of the book in unexpected ways.  But even the predictable moments were fun, as they didn’t stay predictable for long.

From what I’ve been reading there’s an upcoming 4th book, which is good, because the ending wasn’t as neatly tied as I was expecting.  

This is a great series with a unique magic system and interesting characters that are so much fun to read about.  Can’t wait to see what comes next.

Shout-Out: The Sea is Ours: Tales from Steampunk Southeast Asia Edited by Jaymee Goh and Joyce Chng

The stories in this collection merge technological wonder with the everyday. Children upgrade their fighting spiders with armor, and toymakers create punchcard-driven marionettes. Large fish lumber across the skies, while boat people find a new home on the edge of a different dimension. Technology and tradition meld as the people adapt to the changing forces of their world. The Sea Is Ours is an exciting new anthology that features stories infused with the spirits of Southeast Asia’s diverse peoples, legends, and geography.

Contents: 

"On The Consequence of Sound" - Timothy Dimacali"Chasing Volcanoes" - Marilag Angway"Ordained" - L. L. Hill"The Last Aswang" - Alessa Hinlo"Life Under Glass" - Nghi Vo"Between Severed Souls" - Paolo Chikiamco"The Unmaking of the Cuadro Amoroso" - Kate Osias"Working Woman" - Olivia Ho"Spider Here" - Robert Liow"The Chamber of Souls" - zm quỳnh"Petrified" - Ivanna Mendels"The Insects and Women Sing Together" - Pear Nuallak

Book Review: The Medieval Kitchen: A Social History With Recipes by Hannele Klemettila

Pros: comprehensive, lots of great sidebars with extra information, mentions numerous sources, lots of illustrations, recipes to try

Cons: text is dry 

This is a well organized book on what people in the (predominantly later) Middle Ages ate.  The author presents information from a number of sources, including cookbooks, archaeological finds, artwork, health guides, and manner guides.  Chapters detail bread, vegetables, meat, fish, spices, milk/egg/cheese dishes, desserts (including fruits and berries), and drinks.  She’s careful to remind readers of foods that were unavailable at the time as well as mentioning where certain foods and spices originated (when they were obtained through trade - like the fact that peach trees originated in Persia).  The author also points out differences in menu and preference between regions - due to what’s able to be produced there, costs involved in importing goods, and other factors.  

While I found the text somewhat dry, the information was interesting.  The side bars, where a lot of the social information was relayed, were particularly interesting (with segments on food in fantasy literature, candles, ergotism, vegetarianism, etc.).  I also found the segment on medieval drinks interesting (and I think it’s cool that the book has recipes for making hippocras, claret and mead).

While I haven’t tried any of the recipes - yet - some of the over 60 recipes sound very appealing while others… less so.  It’s very true that tastes have changed.  Some ingredients will be harder to acquire than others, especially depending on your geographical location.  

The book is beautifully illustrated with over 100 images from manuscripts, paintings and illustrations.

If you’re interested in medieval food, this is a great reference guide, with a good variety of information and recipes to try your hand at.

Shout-Out: Eleanor by Jason Gurley

Eleanor and Esmerelda are identical twins with a secret language all their own, inseparable until a terrible accident claims Esme’s life. Eleanor’s family is left in tatters: her mother retreats inward, seeking comfort in bottles; her father reluctantly abandons ship. Eleanor is forced to grow up more quickly than a child should, and becomes the target of her mother’s growing rage.

Years pass, and Eleanor’s painful reality begins to unravel in strange ways. The first time it happens, she walks through a school doorway, and finds herself in a cornfield, beneath wide blue skies. When she stumbles back into her own world, time has flown by without her. Again and again, against her will, she falls out of her world and into other, stranger ones, leaving behind empty rooms and worried loved ones.


One fateful day, Eleanor leaps from a cliff and is torn from her world altogether. She meets a mysterious stranger, Mea, who reveals to Eleanor the weight of her family’s loss. To save her broken parents, and rescue herself, Eleanor must learn how deep the well of her mother’s grief and her father’s heartbreak truly goes. Esmerelda’s death was not the only tragic loss in her family’s fragmented history, and unless Eleanor can master her strange new abilities, it may not be the last.

Video: 1 Question, 2 Minutes

Arwen Elys Dayton, whose new novel, Traveler I reviewed a few days ago, has a series of videos on her site, 1 Question, 2 Minutes, in which she answers questions she's sent.  Most of them are writing related, but there are other types of questions in there too.

Book Review: Traveler by Arwen Elys Dayton

Pros: several fight scenes, more background, quick moving plot 

Cons: 

For Parents: some sexual content (nothing graphic), some swearing, some violence

Mere weeks have passed since John’s airship home crashed and Shinobu is slowly healing.  When he and Quin are attacked by two feral boys and her father, they head for safety in Hong Kong.  The Middle Dread’s plans put them in danger and they search the diary of John’s mother for clues to what’s happened to Seekers in the past in order to avoid the same fate.  Meanwhile, John has found someone willing to finish his Seeker training.

The book alternates through several viewpoints, including the new point of view of Catherine, John’s mother, from the time of her training until her pregnancy with John.  I personally found her chapters the most interesting, as they shined light on what the previous generation of Seekers were up to, and showed how she’d changed - or warped - into the woman John remembered.  She begins her scenes quite like Quin, idealistic and believing in the nobility of the Seekers.  It’s her research into the actions of the Middle Dread and the journal she writes about it, that guides this book, as both Quin/Shinobu and John search through the entries for clues in the present.

I really liked all of the protagonists in this book.  Shinobu’s arc made me a little sad at times, given the substance abuse he fell into in the first book.  John’s training was interesting and I would have liked to see more of it.  Quin doesn’t change much, but I suspect that’s because she started this book in a better place than the other two. 

The bad guys, while somewhat comical in their ineptitude, are also kind of terrifying with regards to the implications surrounding them.  The Middle Dread has, apparently, been busy while the Old Dread slept.

There are a couple of good fight scenes as the plot speeds along.  There’s just enough down time to appreciate the revelations that come before the characters head to the next problem or the point of view changes.

I liked that more of the Seeker families make an appearance, and that their history feels more grounded in this book.  I also liked that a few more Seeker tools make their appearance.  From the sounds of it, there are a couple more to discover in the last book as well.

Traveler’s a fun book.  It’s a quick read that builds on everything that was good about the first book, and then adds more to it.  While it’s not a cliffhanger ending, it did leave me wishing the third book, Disruptor, came out this year rather than next year.

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My review is part of a blog tour for Ms. Dayton.  Several sites have 2 minute video clips where she talks about her books and/or answers questions about them and her writing.  Several also have giveaways for books 1 and 2, though these are US only.  I'm adding the links to the specific blog tour posts as they go live.

January 11 - Seeing Double in Neverland (review + giveaway)

January 11 - The Cover Contessa (video + giveaway)

January 12 -  Once Upon A Twilight (video + giveaway)

January 12 - Two Chicks on Books (video + giveaway)

January 13 - Take Me Away to a Great Read (review + giveaway)

January 13 - Lytherus (video)

January 14 - Supernatural Snark (video)

January 15 - Bookish Lifestyle (review)

January 15 - The Eater of Books (video)

January 16 - Adventures in YA Publishing (Q and A with author)

January 16 - Page Turners (review + giveaway)

January 17 - Winterhaven Books (video)

January 18 - A Dream Within A Dream (video + giveaway)

January 18 - Sci Fi Fan Letter (you're here!)

January 19 - Mundie Moms (video + giveaway)

January 19 - The Reading Nook Reviews (review + giveaway) 

Shout-Out: The Drowning Eyes by Emily Foster

When the Dragon Ships began to tear through the trade lanes and ravage coastal towns, the hopes of the arichipelago turned to the Windspeakers on Tash. The solemn weather-shapers with their eyes of stone can steal the breeze from raiders' sails and save the islands from their wrath. But the Windspeakers' magic has been stolen, and only their young apprentice Shina can bring their power back and save her people.

Tazir has seen more than her share of storms and pirates in her many years as captain, and she's not much interested in getting involved in the affairs of Windspeakers and Dragon Ships. Shina's caught her eye, but that might not be enough to convince the grizzled sailor to risk her ship, her crew, and her neck.

RIP Alan Rickman

I was very sad to hear that Alan Rickman has passed away.  Die Hard was amazing, and I had an obsession with Robin Hood in high school that he helped contribute to with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.  I was late to the Galaxy Quest party, but I loved that film too.  And Harry Potter.  What a perfect actor to play Professor Snape.

I had hoped to see him in more movies, but what a legacy he leaves.

Rest in Peace.

Closed to Book Review Requests - Again

I've closed my site to new book review requests a few times in the past when I've had a lot of review copies to get through, etc.  Last summer I closed for a few months to start clearing out the huge backlog of books I've acquired over the years.  It felt good.

I saw a post on twitter a while back - unfortunately I can't find it again or I'd post it here - that showed a graphic representation of how much X this person had left in their life.  How many summers (assuming they'd live to be a certain age), how many BOOKS TO READ.

I recently did my blog stats, showing that I read just under 50 books last year.  Sounds pretty good, right?  But if I read 50 books a year, and I live to 81 (that's the average Canadian life expectancy for women), that gives me 2200 books left or, in visual form:

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That seems like a lot, in a way, but it's really not.  And that's making a lot of assumptions.  So I've decided that it's time to prioritize a few things.  I've wanted to read more of my history books for years, but they keep getting pushed aside for review books.  I've also wanted to read more of my husband's SF classics, again, I only read one of them last year.

The piles of backlogged books weigh on me and I'm finally going to tackle them and clean up my shelves.  2016 is my year of doing things I keep saying I will and then reneging on.

I may not have as many reviews up this year - though I'll still try for one a week.  I'm giving these older books 50 pages to wow me before I move on, which means I may go a few books before finishing one.  I've already considered I may do a 'your mileage may vary' post with a few unfinished titles, saying why they didn't grab me but also why you might like them.  I'll have to see.

I may open to requests later in the year, depending on how much of my backlog I can get through. I've got two outstanding requests that I accepted last year and I may request a few books through NetGalley if I spot something I'd love to read.  But for the most part, this year's all about reviewing older titles I've been waiting to read for years that I just haven't had time for.  Because sometimes you've got to make the time for things that matter to you.

Book Review: City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett

Pros: brilliant world-building, fascinating characters, intricate plot, thought provoking 

Cons:  

Prime Minister Shara Komayd calls General Mulaghesh out of retirement to ostensibly do a ‘vacation tour’ in order to keep her pension.  In reality, she’s being sent to check out a mysterious metal discovered in Voortyashtan that has potentially Divine qualities, and the disappearance of the last operative who was sent to investigate it.  Voortayshtan’s harbour is currently being cleared out by a company from the United Dreyling States, who need this contract to keep their struggling economy afloat.  Meanwhile, the commander of the military base there, a man Mulaghesh served under during the Summer of Black Rivers, has to navigate through local tribal politics.  Then a grisly murder takes place. 

This novel is set several years after The City of Stairs, but while some characters overlap, you don’t have to have read the first book to understand and enjoy this one (though the first book was absolutely brilliant, so you really should read it).  You’re told in broad strokes what Shara’s been up to in the intervening years, but this is really Mulaghesh’s story.  Sigrud becomes a big player later in the book, but again, nothing from the first book is required to understand this story or the characters.

A LOT happens in this book.  There are numerous plots interwoven, and they’re all fascinating.  The world itself is wonderfully real.  The politics are complex - in every nation - the characters are products of their lands, cultures, families, and pasts - especially their regrets. 

Mulaghesh is a wonderful protagonist, and not one seen very often.  She’s an older woman, one who’s had a hard life and who understand the difficult choices made in war.  She curses, she drinks, she smokes cigarillos and she’s forthright and honest.  She’s also quite clever, figuring out several difficult mysteries.  And she has nightmares about the time she served and the things she did during her years of service.

Signe, in command of the harbour reconstruction, is also a great character, dedicated to her job and helping her nation rise above its recent past of piracy.  She’s another hard and clever woman, but very different from Mulaghesh.  She’s also had a difficult life, but has chosen to use her time to make a better future for everyone.

It’s great seeing non-European based fantasy.  This book is engrossing and will make you think about war, soldiers, politics and more.

Out January 26th.

Blog Tour Dates for Traveler by Arwen Elys Dayton

I'm participating in a blog hop for book 2 in Arwen Elys Dayton's Seeker series, Traveler.  So, next week I'll be posting my book review on Monday instead of Tuesday.  I'll update the links to go to the specific tour posts once they're up.  The giveaways are for books 1 and 2 of the series, US only, and the videos are 2 minute interview clips.

January 11 - Seeing Double in Neverland (review + giveaway)

January 11 - The Cover Contessa (video + giveaway)

January 12 -  Once Upon A Twilight (video + giveaway)

January 12 - Two Chicks on Books (video + giveaway)

January 13 - Take Me Away to a Great Read (review + giveaway)

January 13 - Lytherus (video)

January 14 - Supernatural Snark (video)

January 15 - Bookish Lifestyle (review)

January 15 - The Eater of Books (video)

January 16 - Adventures in YA Publishing (Q and A with author)

January 16 - Page Turners (review + giveaway)

January 17 - Winterhaven Books (video)

January 18 - A Dream Within A Dream (video + giveaway)

January 18 - Sci Fi Fan Letter (review)
January 19 - Mundie Moms (video + giveaway)

January 19 - The Reading Nook Reviews (review + giveaway) 

Shout-Out: Arcana by Jessica Leake

Amid the sumptuous backdrop of the London season in 1905, headstrong Katherine Sinclair must join the ranks of debutantes vying for suitors. Unfortunately for Katherine, she cannot imagine anything more loathsome—or dangerous. To help ease her entrance into society, Katherine’s family has elicited the assistance of the Earl of Thornewood, a friend and London’s most eligible bachelor, to be her constant companion at the endless fetes and balls. But upon her arrival in London, Katherine realizes there will be more to this season than just white gowns and husband hunting.

Through her late mother’s enchanted diary, Katherine receives warning to keep hidden her otherworldly ability to perform arcana, a magic fueled by the power of the sun. Any misstep could mean ruin—and not just for her family name. The Order of the Eternal Sun is everywhere—hunting for those like her, able to feed on arcana with only a touch of the hand.

But society intrigue can be just as perilous as the Order. The machinations of the fashionable elite are a constant threat, and those who covet Katherine’s arcana, seeking the power of her birthright, could be hiding behind the facade of every suitor—even the darkly handsome Earl of Thornewood.

With so much danger and suspicion, can she give her heart to the one who captivates her, or is he just another after her power?

Trip/Artifact photos

It occurred to me recently that I've got a large collection of trip and artifact photos from all over Europe that might be of interest to my readers.  For personal research I've photographed large quantities of the medieval and other collections of certain museums as well as taken detailed photos of structures.  I've been using the photos from my recent trip to France for a series of Cathedral posts, but I have so much more than that.

So, would you - my readers - be interested in posts featuring more of my personal photos?  I've got albums for sculpture, ivories (my personal favourite), stained glass, tapestries, items from daily life (which is smaller than my other collections), manuscripts, etc.  I also have several manuscript reproductions and could scan some of the images from those.  And it's not just Medieval stuff.  I've photographed some Greek and Italian ruins and artifacts as well.  My collection of Middle Eastern works is smaller, but I've got a fair collection of ancient Egyptian photos (I'd LOVE to visit Egypt one day).

Another option, rather than post the photos here, would be to tweet some of the images.

Here's a sampling:

Archivolt sculpture from the left portal of the West Facade of Santiago de Compostella Cathedral, Spain. 

Diptych with the Coronation of the Virgin and the Last Judgement

Elephant ivory

French, probably Paris, ca. 1260-70

The Cloisters Collection, 1970.324.7a, b 

Measure for the tithe

Made by Roger of Amiens

France, 13th C

Bronze

Provence of Milly

Musee National du Moyen Age Paris

(has fleur de lis symbol in the arches around the sides)

I could either write a piece about the item, its significance, etc. or simply post the photo with credits.

Interested?

Shout-Out: City of Light by Keri Arthur

When the bombs that stopped the species war tore holes in the veil between this world and the next, they allowed entry to the Others—demons, wraiths, and death spirits who turned the shadows into their hunting grounds. Now, a hundred years later, humans and shifters alike live in artificially lit cities designed to keep the darkness at bay....

As a déchet—a breed of humanoid super-soldiers almost eradicated by the war—Tiger has spent her life in hiding. But when she risks her life to save a little girl on the outskirts of Central City, she discovers that the child is one of many abducted in broad daylight by a wraith-like being—an impossibility with dangerous implications for everyone on earth.

Because if the light is no longer enough to protect them, nowhere is safe...

Video: Uncanny Valley

This is a cool documentary style video about gamers of the future who use virtual reality as a drug to focus their violent impulses and escape their dreary lives.  It was made by 3DAR.


UNCANNY VALLEY (2015) from 3DAR on Vimeo.

Story Review: The Witch Who Came In From The Cold: A Long Cold Winter by Max Gladstone and Lindsay Smith

The city is Prague, occupied by Russian forces during the Cold War.  An American CIA agent sits down to make his final recruitment pitch to a target after 6 months of developing.  Meanwhile, two Russian KGB agents and witches, wait for a sorcerous elemental construct to make its appearance.

This is the first episode of the first season of a new serialized novel by Serial Box.  Each ‘episode’ is meant to take about 40 minutes to read and act like a TV show episode, able to be enjoyed on its own while contributing to a larger story.  Other writers for this series are: Ian Tregillis, Cassandra Rose Clarke and Michael Swanwick.  This series runs from January 13th 27th* until April 27th, with an episode being released each week. ** (please see note below for correct pricing information) Individual episodes cost US$1.56 including both text and audio, and subscriptions are available (with billing each week).  Serial Box has two other series underway, Tremontaine and Bookburners.

“A Long Cold Winter” is 23 pages long and sets up the characters, setting and plot for The Witch Who Came In From The Cold.  Prague has a high number of intelligence agents attempting to recruit the populace, and specific targets with access to useful information.  There’s a bar at the intersection of powerful ley lines, which are important for magic.  There is also a good number of interesting characters: Tanya and Nadia - agents working for two powerful organizations, Gabriel Pritchard - something unexplained in his recent past is causing him serious problems now, and Jordan - the bar’s owner, who knows things.

There are no answers here, just a lot of fascination introductions and questions.

Corrections:
* The release date for the series has been moved from January 13th to 27th, and will now run until April 27th instead of the 13th.

** I apologize for my error in reporting the pricing.  Individual episodes are $1.99 not $1.59 and is for either text or audio, available from several retailers.  If you want both text and audio it is $2.99 and only available via their website and app.  The $1.59 pricing I saw on their website is the subscription price, which includes both the text and audio (again, available only through their website or app).

Blog Stats for 2015 + Resolutions for 2016

Last year I managed to read 44 novels, 4 history books and 5 'other' (one psychology book, two graphic novels, one collection of fairy tales, and one short book on Arthurian myths).

Of the novels I read 22 were by men and 21 by women.  One book was an SF collection with mixed authors.

Going through my list I've had some trouble categorizing things, so I've categorized them here where I've linked their reviews on my review pages.

science fiction = 24
steampunk/weird west = 3
fantasy = 12
urban fantasy = 3
horror = 2

I should note that none of the urban fantasy took place in the modern day, though the books in question don't quite fit in other categories either.

I didn't do so well with the non-Western works.  I read one book by a Japanese man (All You Need is Kill), one by a South African woman (Black Dog Summer), and one by a Norwegian man (172 Hours on the Moon).

While I read several books with POC protagonists, I only managed a few by writers of colour.  So again, I could do better there.

My reading resolutions for this year are mainly to get rid of some of the backlog of books on my shelves.  I cleared out several titles last summer and fall, but there are a lot more I need to get through.  This may mean fewer reviews, as reading 50 pages of several books to see if I like them takes time that I could otherwise spend reading a review title, so I'll have to see how my timing works out.  I may start a 'your mileage may vary' series, where I mention books I've tried that for one reason or another just didn't grab my interest, so you know what I'm up to and can decide if the books are of interest to you (the reason I put down a book may be what makes you pick it up).

The down side of this, of course, is that there aren't many non-Western or POC authored books there, so I'll have to pick my other reads carefully if I want to increase those numbers.  I'm enjoying the different perspectives I get from them on SF/Fantasy and the world itself.

There were several books that came out last year that I really wanted to read and didn't have time for. I'm hoping to sneak a few of those in.

My January schedule has already been booked with reviews of books I received copies of in December or earlier.  I've only one of those left to read, after which I'll likely read a few older titles with sequels coming out soon.

So many books to read, so little time.

Speaking of time, I'll try to make a buffer of history based posts for Fridays so there are fewer gaps. While those posts are fun to do - and I learn a lot by doing them (hence why I'm doing them) - each one takes at minimum 3+ hours.  The cathedral posts take longer, mainly because I've been modifying/correcting my floor plan and sculptural program diagrams, which is very time consuming. But I'd like to finish off the French cathedrals I took pictures of last summer, do more medieval plant posts, and maybe start a feature (when I'm really pressed for time) where I simply show a picture or two from my collection (I've been to a lot of museums and medieval, etc. sites so that could be fun). I also want to get through more of my history book collection - which keeps growing.

Here's a toast to 2016, may it be a wonderful year with a lot of good books and good times.