2019 Reading And Blogging Goals II

At the beginning of the year I posted about my 2019 Reading And Blogging Goals. I listed ten things I wanted to do this year. Wow ten. I didn’t realize it was that many until I just counted it. Huh. Anyway, I listed ten things I hope to accomplish this year:

• Get caught up on my reviews
• Open the blog to review requests again
• Read more Self-pub/Indie Books
• Another Self-pub Fantasy Month?
• Finish up series I’ve started
• Dragonlance
• Warhammer 40K
• Star Wars
• Clean up the blog
• Reduce the size of my TBR

Because this isn’t simply a book review blog (I mean mostly yeah but not completely), it’s also my thoughts on books and reading and the blog in general, I’ve decided to take some time to address each one in more detail because I know you’re all riveted by it. OK, truth be told this is really to help me keep on task. Anyway, here’s the first deeper dive into my goals…

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The Wolf Of Oren-Yaro Review

Author: K.S. Villoso
Series: Annals of the Bitch Queen (Book One)
Publisher: Liam’s Vigil
Publication Date:  January 2018
Format: Kindle Edition
Pages: 417

Let me start by saying I’m a bad, bad book blogger and should be punished for how bad I am. I read The Wolf of Oren-Yaro in September as part of Self-Published Fantasy Month here on Off The TBR. SEPTEMBER. The book had already been out four 9 months. It’s been five more months. The book has now been out over a year. Book two has already been published and has been out for ten months. And I’m just now getting around to posting this review. It’s been so long I will miss important details and points because I didn’t take notes and the review won’t be up to my usual standard. This book is good and deserving of a detailed review. Really good in fact. I suck.

Now that I’ve got some self-flagellation out of the way let me tell you something about this beautiful book. Because of what I mentioned above this review won’t follow my usual format and may not be as detailed as usual. (Some of you will like that).

Monthly Reading Goals: February 2019

Nicole over at Thoughts Stained With Ink talked me into trying out this post topic last month and I’m giving it another go. This isn’t something I usually do because I hate locking myself into a specific reading list. It just never works out for me. And as my Month In Review for January revealed, though I read more books than I’d set out to read, only half of them were from my original list.

So my ongoing rule for this topic will be…

So yeah…I’m gonna look at them as more what you’d call guidelines and post my monthly reading goals. These are goals, or guidelines for what I would like to read during the month. I reserve the right at any time to chase the next shiny object that comes by and read something else. I also add the disclaimer that life can get in the way at any time. With those things being said, here’s my list of reads for February 2019…

Month In Review: January 2019

January has drawn to a close and with it another month on ye olde blog. This month went a lot better than I’d hoped, mainly because I had a lot less going on with work than in the past oh six months or so. I was able to read and post more which was a nice change of pace.

I started the month off with some 2019 Reading And Blogging Goals as well as some Monthly Reading Goals.

And sure enough I changed things up. I’d planned to read the following books:

• Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
• Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
• A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
• Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

And I read exactly half of those. Here’s what I actually read in order:

• Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
• Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
• Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen (currently reading)

So yeah…that reading plan was blown out of the water kinda like I thought it would be knowing me. I came across our old copy of Treasure Island before we took our trip to Jamaica and decided it would be great to read to get me in the mood for the Caribbean.

Pirate Latitudes Review

Author: Michael Chrichton
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: 2009
Format: Paperback
Pages: 384

“The Caribbean 1665. A remote colony of the English Crown, the island of Jamaica holds out against the vast supremacy of the Spanish empire. Port Royal, its capital, is a cutthroat town of taverns, grog shops, and bawdy houses. In this steamy climate there’s a living to be made, a living that can end swiftly by disease – or by dagger. For Captain Charles Hunter, gold in Spanish hands is gold for the taking, and the law of the land rests with those ruthless enough to make it.”

I picked up Pirate Latitudes from my local library when preparing for our recent trip to Jamaica. I was looking for a fun page turning beach read set in the Caribbean in general or Jamaica specifically. I’d read Jurassic Park and Rising Sun back in high school (way back in the 90’s) but nothing by Crichton since. I really enjoyed those books then and figured this one would be cool. I would read it while sitting on the beach sipping a rum drink and bask in all the atmosphere. We were even staying at a resort on a bay where the pirate Calico Jack was supposedly captured. I mean c’mon pirates (check), Jamaica (check), rum drinks (check)! This had everything going its way. To add to the interest factor It turns out Pirate Latitudes was published posthumously in 2009. Supposedly after Crichton died in 2008 an assistant found the manuscript on one of his computers.

As you might could tell I wanted to like this book. I really, really did. I tried to like it. But in the end I just couldn’t. There was a reason Crichton hadn’t published Pirate Latitudes yet and it shows. I think he knew it and that’s why he hadn’t submitted it yet.

Red Sister Review

Author: Mark Lawrence
Series: The Ancestor
Publisher: ACE
Publication Date:  April 2017
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 469

“I WANT MORE!!!”

Those were the words that came out of my mouth the moment I finished Red Sister. I stayed up late to finish it and felt cheated I didn’t have book two in hand and another day to devote to reading.

I was late coming to this read and was aware of all the hype surrounding it the past couple of years yet I was still surprised by it; just how much was unexpected. I know there isn’t a lot I can say about this book that ten other reviewers haven’t already said but I’m gonna give it a go.

Rating Scale Update II

Back in November I posted some thoughts I had about a Ratings Scale Update. Essentially I was discussing the fact most of my reviews are 4 and 5 stars and I hardly ever have anything less than that, and why I think that happens, and (most importantly for that post) that I was thinking of doing away with a rating score entirely with a list of reasons why.

That post generated a lot of feedback here on the blog as well as on Twitter. More feedback than I expected to be honest. All of it was good and appreciated. Some readers supported the idea of doing away with a rating and others felt I should keep it. Well I’ve been pondering those comments and the discussions we had, and in the end I’ve decided to keep a rating scale. Here are a few of my reasons:

Kingshold Review

Author: D. P. Woolliscroft
Series: Wildfire Cycle Book One
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date:  April 2018
Format: Paperback
Pages: 506

Regicide, politics, assassinations, pirates, magic, demons, and giant draco-turtles are just taste of what’s in store for you in this solid and entertaining self-published debut from D. P. Woolliscroft. Kingshold made it to the semi-finalist round in this year’s Self-Published Fantasy Blogg Off (#SPFBO) hosted by author Mark Lawrence and it’s easy to understand why. Offering a fresh take on revolution and dynastic change in fantasy literature this first book in the Wildfire Cycle sets the stage for an imaginative and rousing new series.

I read Kingshold back in September as part of Self-Published Fantasy Month here on the blog but didn’t get a chance to write up my review. It made my list of favorite reads for 2018 though and I’ve been wanting to be sure to review it even if the review came late. Given that it’s been about four months this review may not be as good and detailed as I’d prefer. That’s nobody’s fault but mine.

Monthly Reading Goals: January 2019

I was chatting with Nicole over at Thoughts Stained With Ink yesterday on her Reading Outlook 2019 post. She was listing all the books she’s planning on reading this year and I commented that I was scared to put together a list like that. She pressed me on it and I admitted if I planned a list like that it would be a failure by February. I tried to create a list of my planned reads last year including books coming out by month and reading events I wanted to participate it, and yeah I didn’t stick to it for long. Nicole admitted her list is really “a guiding post” and I thought, “you know…I just need to look at it in a new way.”

So yeah…I’m gonna look at them as more what you’d call guidelines and post my monthly reading goals. These are goals, or guidelines for what I would like to read during the month. I reserve the right at any time to chase the next shiny object that comes by and read something else. I also add the disclaimer that life can get in the way at any time. With those things being said, here’s my list of reads for January 2019:

2019 Reading And Blogging Goals

Yesterday I posted my 2018 Year In Review so today it’s time to settle on my goals for 2019. I always hesitate with these kinds of lists because they seem to get blown out of the water pretty quick but it does give me some things to focus on. I don’t want this list to be too long or difficult. It needs to be something I can manage. I’m not setting goals for number of books to read, or anything related to reading new releases. I always want to read new releases. OK, let’s get to the list…here we go…