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This post is the usual installment of books that I didn’t make it through this month, plus a look at how I’ve been doing with my reading goals. Earthrise by M.C.A. Hogarth is a space opera that I quit when I was 8% into it. I don’t think Earthrise is a bad book exactly, but I got the feeling that it wasn’t going to be what I was looking for. Namely, I suspect that it’s going to be romance heavy when I wanted something more action focused. If I hear differently, I might try picking it up again at a later date. Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding is a steampunk book set in an entirely different world filled with flying airships. I was planning on finishing it, but I got so annoyed with the sexism that I quit at 37% of the way in. I think the main character was supposed to be a lovable asshole, but I found him a sexist jerk I wanted to punch in the face. He goes on about how he doesn’t want marriage to tie him down, evaluates all women by whether or not he wants to sleep with them, and totally screws over the life of one young woman. That was actually the point where I was pissed enough to quit. It’s not like there was anything about this book that was good enough to make up for the drudgery of reading all this filth – characterization and world building were thin, and it’s hard to care about the plot when you don’t care about the characters. Grr, I feel annoyed just thinking about this book. It definitely didn’t work as the intended beach read. Deceptive by Emily Lloyd-Jones is the sequel to Illusive, which I reviewed earlier this month. I read the first sixty pages and decided that I didn’t think it was worth continuing. My favorite secondary characters hadn’t appeared yet, and I didn’t feel invested in any of the characters who did appear. There was also a sizable logic gap with why the mob leader recruited an illusionist when he himself was an illusionist. What can the protagonist do that he can’t do himself? Add to that a clunky info dump and a reoccurring lack of female characters outside of the lead, and I just didn’t feel like continuing when I could be trying my luck with other books.

Back in my 2015 overview post, I made some general goals for my reading in 2016.

Firstly, I’ve signed up for an LGBTQIA reading challenge with the intention of reading at least 21 qualifying books. As of this moment, I’ve read eight qualifying books, not counting The Bone Doll‘s Twin.

If I keep reading at this rate, I should make at least 21 books by the end of 2016.

My other goal was for at least 30% of the books I read this year to be written by authors of color. I haven’t been making this goal. Of the fifty-six books I’ve read this month, only ten have been by authors who aren’t white. That’s only about 18%. If I’m going to reach this goal, I’ll need to adjust the books I’m choosing between now and January. These were the ten books, if anyone’s interested:

I also wanted to read at least ten Netgalley ARC this years, so that’d I’d reach a total of twenty Netgalley books overall. So far I’ve read six:

So, what books will I be reading and reviewing in the next month? I’ve got a review for Traitor’s Moon that will be posted on April 2nd. Next week will probably be reviews of Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas, Wise Child by Monica Furlong, Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey and The Night Itself by Zoe Marriott.

I’ve currently got Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson checked out from the library and a notice that I need to go pick up Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen. There’s also the Lies of Locke Lamora reread, which has it’s first date as April 7th. Then there’s a book I started but have been letting sit for a while, And All the Stars by Andrea K. Host. Finally, I’ve got a Netgalley title I’ve yet to get to, Sister Dark, Sister Light by Jane Yolan. After that, who knows? Between my own stash of books, the library, and Netgalley I’ve got a lot of options available.







