No fireworks for us . . . way way way too dry, since we haven’t had any significant rainfall since early April. [Snipping a rant on the weather here.]
Anyway, as a 4th of July, not too bad. Hot, but hello, July. I made potato salad, we had burgers . . . all very traditionally American.
And I did write fifteen pages! Now up to 80,000 words, which is about 245 pages. Can I finish the book with a mere 20,000 more words? No. Can I finish it in 40,000? I’m hoping so. Then I’ll go through and cut. My aim is to hit around 100,000 words for the finished book.
Also! I took a look at my reading list for the year, since we are now halfway through 2012, and man has the year gone by in a flash. Wow. But so far I’ve read:
10 vampire romances (9 by JR Ward and one by Angie Fox)
18 other fantasy novels
12 SF
5 literary (yes, I know what I say about literary fiction, but four were by Wodehouse and that’s different.)(The other was THE PLAINSMAN by Pearl Buck, and actually it was quite good, but again, Pearl Buck is not like reading modern literary.)
4 nonfiction
1 mystery
2 short story collections (which is a lot for me, since I don’t intrinsically like short stories).
What is that, 50 or so? Some of those were YA, I didn’t separate them out when I counted. In one month I must have been really busy — April shows that I didn’t buy or read ANY books. That doesn’t happen very often! I wonder what I was working on in April! Of course I was probably re-reading something, it’s not like I ever go through the day without reading of some kind, but I don’t usually add re-read books to the list.
My favorites for the year?
The whole Valor’s Choice series by Tanya Huff was the biggest surprise of the year. That’s military SF and it really changed how I feel about Tanya Huff. I don’t think I can have picked up her best fantasy novels in the past? Because she was not really an author I looked for, but I just loved the whole Valor series and I’m definitely right there for any others that come out — it’s plainly not finished yet.
My other top picks so far:
THE SCORPIO RACES by Stiefvater blew me away. And my other top pick would be THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS, especially impressive because I think it was Carson’s debut.
And the three that I’m most looking forward to that I haven’t read yet? Those are easy picks for me, even though I don’t physically own any of them yet and one isn’t even out:
CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein. I think Wein is an amazing writer and the reviews I’ve seen from The Book Smugglers, including the one I linked to here, really make me want to read this. It’s epistolary and historical and it sounds amazing.
THE KILLING MOON by Jemisin. I haven’t actually read the review linked here — I don’t need to. And I haven’t put this book on my wishlist at Amazon because I’m not going to forget about it, and my wishlist is primarily meant to make sure I remember about books I want to get sometime. The moment I finish my current WIP, this (and its sequel) are the one I’ll reach for as a reward.
Aaand . . . Bujold’s newest! Out in November! I mean, Bujold! What else do I need to say?
Anybody else have three great books that spring to mind for this year so far? Or a couple that you’re just dying to get to?
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Code Name Verity is fantastic, though very different in style and time period from Wein’s earlier books.
I’m also very excited for the new Bujold, especially since I harbor a sneaky fondness for Ivan the Idiot.
I’ve heard good things about Patrice Kindl’s KEEPING THE CASTLE, which is out but I don’t have my hands on a copy yet.
Hmmm… The three books I’ve read this year so far that I’ve been trying to get all my friends to read are “The Gates” by John Connolly, “Akata Witch” by Nnedi Okorafor, and “the City in the Lake” by, well, you (which I’m not saying just because this is your blog — I just really loved that book!).
I’m definitely looking forward to the new Bujold — also to Patricia Wrede’s next “Frontier Magic” novel. I’m still wondering when the Native Americans are showing up, but that may be because I was an anthropology major…
And since your literary taste is clearly excellent, I must certainly try THE GATES and AKATA WITCH. And yes, I’m looking forward to the next Frontier Magic book, too! Heaven only knows what else is out west. Besides the steam dragons, which I LOVE that idea.