Sunday Status Update: September 2, 2018

September rolls in, and it’s time for more reading.

Bill: This week I read the last of J.R.R. Tolkien’sthree “Great Tales”: The Fall of Gondolin, an absolutely gorgeous (thanks to a number of illustrations by Alan Lee) edition edited by his son Christopher, who also traces the story’ evolution and adds critical commentary. I also read The Storm Runnerby J.C. Cervantes, the disappointing second book in the “Rick Riordan Presents” MG series.  In genre media, my son and I both watched and enjoyed the first two episodes of Travelerson Netflix, which intrigued us enough to push forward with more (for now at least).

Jana: This week was another hectic one–like most of my weeks over this past year–and I got very little writing done, unfortunately. But I did read a couple of YA-horror/mystery novels, R.L. Stein’s You May Now Kill the Bride and an anthology he edited called Scream and Scream Again!, which were pretty okay. I started reading Nick Mamatas‘ new short story collection, The People’s Republic of Everything, and so far it’s interesting. I hope to have more time and mental energy to get back to review-writing next week!

Marion: I finished up a long and dark Henning Mankel book in the Kurt Wallender series; The Fifth Woman. After I finish any Scandinavian crime novel I need a break; they are all so bleak. In this one Wallender faces dire changes in his personal life as well as tracking down another serial killer, one motivated by vigilante justice. I’ve just cracked the cover of Nick Mamatas’s story collection The People’s Republic of Everything, and I can already tell I’m in for a very different reading experience.

Skye: On a recent road trip I uploaded some shorter novels to my phone in order to entertain myself through the many hours of travel. Most notably I read THE TALES OF CAPTAIN DUKE, a steampunk series of 4 books by Rebecca Diem. Full disclosure, I’ve run into Ms. Diem at a few writing and nerd conferences now, and have always had excellent conversations with her. I thought it was about time I read her books and I was not disappointed. They had characters I wanted to root for and were ultimately extremely entertaining. I’ve also been chipping away at some reviews, and similarly taking small chunks out of some longer works when I can find the focus for them. I’m pretty severely behind, but I do hope to hit my goodreads reading goal this year. 1 book a week isn’t too hard right?

Terry: I had intended to spend the holiday weekend reading, reading, reading, READING! Alas, I received a new work assignment that’s due Sunday night (yes, that’s right, in the middle of a holiday weekend), so I’m reading, all right, it’s just that I’m reading case law instead of novels. I had hoped to finish all the books I’ve got started (already pretty ambitious, as I’ve got bookmarks in nine books), but no such luck. Still, I’m going to fit Night and Silence, the new OCTOBER DAYE urban fantasy by Seanan McGuire, into the interstices of my days, which is sufficient consolation for almost anything.