Overview: October Reading

Books read in October: 23
Books read YTD: 204 (Goodread Reading Challenge completed. YAY!)

Fiction Titles: 

• 21 (12 historical romance, 8 contemporary romance, 1 paranormal romance)

Non-Fiction Titles: 

• 1 (Travel/History)

Noteworthy Novels

• Take the Lead by Alexis Daria
• Temporary by Sarina Bowen and Sarah Mayberry
• Hamilton's Battalion by Courtney Milan, Rose Lerner and Alyssa Cole
• Bountiful by Sarina Bowen
• Midnight Feast by Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner
• An Unsuitable Heir by K J Charles

Noteworthy Non-Fiction

• In the Greece of the East: A Journey through Jewish Urkraine Now and Then by Stefan Weidner

Noteworthy Settings

• Starling by Virginia Taylor - enjoyed the historic South Australian setting, but you can read my thoughts about the rest of the book here. 
• Midnight Feast by Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner - I am continually surprised by how Barry and Turner can make me buy the HEAs in this series, while at the same time showing the sexist and hypermasculine environment of the 60s. 

Kick-ass Characters

• Take the Lead by Alexis Daria - Professional dancer Gina Morales is a heroine who has set her professional boundaries, and doesn't take kindly to people who think that these are negotiable. Inspiring. 
• Hamilton's Battalion by Courtney Milan, Rose Lerner and Alyssa Cole
•  - literally every main character in this anthology deserves a mention. Just read it. 
• Bountiful by Sarina Bowen - small business owner and single mother Zara has to decide if she should take a risk and open her heart to the father of her child. 
• Midnight Feast by Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner - I'm still in awe at the authors' nuanced portrayal of a marriage gone sour, particularly their ability to imbue both characters with completely relatable and reasonable struggles, and the way that silence can become so full and heavy with preconceptions, misunderstandings and everything left unsaid. 
• An Unsuitable Heir by K J Charles - The love story and discussion about gender and sexual identity (sans 21st century terminology) between non-binary protagonist Pen and his partner, Mark were really something.

This Month on the Internet...

Please be aware that some of the links this month discuss abortion, sexual assault and rape. I have added content warnings to the articles that deal with these themes. 

Romance

• Romance Novelist Beverly Jenkins Talks Normalizing Diversity in Her Genre by Gina Mei at Shondaland
• The Ripped Bodice 2016 State of Racial Diversity in Romance Publishing Report by Bea and Lea Koch at The Ripped Bodice
• Here's How Not to Critique Romance Novels by Kelly Faircloth at Jezebel
• 11 Things the New York Times COULD Write About Romance by Robin Lovett

Other Literature, Craft and the Publishing Industry

• Why Can't We All Just Get Along: The Literature Edition at The Pantograph Punch - on racism and the legacy of colonialism in New Zealand literature
• Was Emily Bronte's Heathcliff Black? by Coleen Fowler at The Conversation
• Tudor, English and Black - and not a slave in sight by Bidisha at The Guardian

Other Media

• All the Ways that Taika Waititi Pushed for Indigenous Representation on the Thor: Ragnarok Set by Marykate Jasper at The Mary Sue

Women, Sexism and Feminism

• How a Harrowing Photo of One Woman's Death Became an Iconic Pro-Choice Symbol by Amanda Arnold at Broadly (CW: discussion of back-alley abortions)
• Why the Typewriter was a Feminist Liberation Machine at Radio National, with illustrations by Freda Chiu
• How Men Like Harvey Weinstein Implicate their Victims in their Acts by Jia Tolentino at The New Yorker (CW: sexual violence, rape)
• Bodies in Trouble: on sexual violence and the problem with hashtags by Melody Paloma at The Overland Journal (CW: sexual violence, rape)
• Stop Mentioning Your Daughters When You Denounce Harvey Weinstein by Hunter Harris at Vulture (CW: sexual violence)
• The Problem With Our "Good" Men by Sady Doyle at Elle - on progressive men, feminist "allies" and the appropriation of feminist language (CW: sexual violence)
• 
  

Weird, Wacky and Wonderful

• Buzzkill: Vibrators and the Victorians by Kate Lister at Whores of Yore - debunking the myth that Victorian doctors used proto-vibrators to treat female hysteria. 

Overview: July and August Reading

Reading Overview & Genre Breakdown

Soo...what are the chances anyone would believe that I follow the pre-Julian Roman calendar, and that's why July didn't get its monthly overview, and absolutely nothing was posted during August? Because that sounds way better than 'I got really busy with real life and had to put the blog on the backburner'. Even as I apologise for that and tell you that I'm back now, the truth is that my blogging will probably continue to be sporadic over the next few months, as I face the unenviable but unavoidable task of finishing my thesis.

To avoid the last two months being completely lost, I'm combining their monthly round-ups here, in a slightly more abbreviated form than usual. On the upside, after months of reading relatively little, the vagaries of real life seem to have bolstered my reading, and I'm back on track for meeting my goal of 200 books in the Goodreads Reading Challenge. August also saw a lot of comfort re-reading, which is quicker than reading a book for the first time, making the total for that month is unusually high.

Books read in July: 26
Books read in August: 33
Books read YTD: 156

Fiction Titles (July): 

• 24 (17 contemporary romance, 3 historical romance, 1 fantasy romance, 2 romance anthologies)

Fiction Titles (August): 

• 32 (18 historical romance, 13 contemporary romances, 1 steampunk romance)

Non-Fiction Titles (July): 

• 2 (1 history, 1 urban studies)

Non-Fiction Titles (August): 

• 1 (Mythography)

Noteworthy Novels

Contemporary

• Illegal Contact by Santino Hassell
• Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai
• Rouge Desire (Anthology)
• Saving Mr. Perfect by Tamara Morgan
• Once Upon A Rose by Laura Florand
• The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata

Historical

• Starlight by Carrie Lofty
• Freedom to Love by Susanna Fraser
• Beauty Like the Night by Joanna Bourne
• An Unnatural Vice by K J Charles

Other

• Singing Electricity by Charlotte Stein (Anthology)

Noteworthy Non-Fiction

• Once Upon A Time by Marina Warner

Noteworthy Settings & Sense of Place

• Safe Passage by Carla Kelly - set in Mexico during the Revolution, although readers should be aware that it centres the experiences of white Mormon colonists.
• Freedom to Love by Susanna Fraser - touching and sweeping romance between a British officer and a woman of the gens de couleur libres during the War of 1812.
• Starlight by Carrie Lofty - Incredible sense of place in working-class Glasgow, where mill owner meets one of his factory workers.

Kick-ass Characters

• Starlight by Carrie Lofty - Unionist, factory-worker heroine Polly is not here for your bourgeoisie shit. 
• Saving Mr. Perfect by Tamara Morgan - ex-jewel thief Penelope at a loose end now that her husband has put the nix on her career, and watching her and Grant trying to grope towards a new, happy life together is surprisingly poignant, partly because they are both so kick-ass in their respective fields. 
• Beauty Like the Night by Joanna Bourne - Sevie - sister of an infamous French spy, adopted daughter of an infamous English spy - was never not going to be awesome. See also: all of Joanna Bourne's other heroines. 
• Rouge Desire Anthology - The heroes and heroines we need - but probably don't deserve - in these dark times. 

Overview: June Reading

Reading Overview & Genre Breakdown

Books read in June: 19
Books read YTD: 93

Fiction Titles: 

• 16 (9 contemporary romance, 5 historical romance, 1 paranormal romance, 1 romance anthology)

Non-Fiction Titles: 

• 2 (History)

Other:

• 1 Poetry

Noteworthy Novels

• The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian
• Small Change by Roan Parrish
• Hard Hitter by Sarina Bowen
• Famous by Jenny Holiday (Release Date: 11th July 2016)

Noteworthy Non-Fiction

• Romanov: The Last Tsarist Dynasty by Michael W. Simmons

Noteworthy Settings

• Sugar Pie Guy by Tabitha True - 1977 Cleveland
• The Chocolate Thief by Laura Florand - contemporary Paris

Kick-ass Characters

• Small Change by Roan Parrish  - Heroine Ginger is not good at letting people get close, and it's lovely to see a spiky heroine and the hero who loves her.
• The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian - the way the heroes were kind, caring and thoughtful to each other was absolutely my catnip.

From the Internet this Month

Romance

• Romance in the Age of the Trigger Warning: Do Readers Need to be Warned? by Robin Lovett at Heroes & Heartbreakers

Literature, Craft and the Publishing Industry

• Turning Pages: How reading is still popular in Australia despite everything by Jane Sullivan at The Sydney Morning Herald
• Thomas Keneally: 'Cultural appropriation is dangerous' by Naaman Zhou at The Guardian Australia
• Vintage Photos of Travelling Libraries by Anika Burgess at Atlas Obscura
• 11 Things You Might Not Know About Looking for Alibrandi by Jenna Guillaume at Buzzfeed Australia

Other Media

• Blackface in a white nation by Morgan Godfrey at Overland Journal - On Chris Lilley's Jonah from Tonga, with reference to both Australia and New Zealand, where Maori TV has been receiving criticism for its decision to screen the show.
• My Soul Looks Back and Wonders: A Critical Examination of the Wonder Woman Movie by Son of Baldwin on Medium
• A Brief History of Steven Moffat Saying Why He Never Picked a Female Doctor Who by Beth Elderkin at i09
• Rotten Tomatoes, Netflix and A Perfect Storm That Dooms Hollywood by Scott Mendelson at Forbes

Women & Feminism

• Why Are We So Afraid of Female Desire? by Carol Dyhouse at Literary Hub

Overview: May Reading

Reading Overview & Genre Breakdown

Five months in I'm really starting to see the value of tracking my reading like this. For example, I never realised before how, in the normal run of things, I read more contemporary than historical romance, but switch to pretty much 100% historicals  as soon as my stress levels start to go up. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that historical romance - obviously - bears less resemblance to me everyday life, and therefore is more escapist? Or is it because historical romance was my first love and gateway to the genre?

Books read in May: 14
Books read YTD: 76

Fiction Titles: 

• 11 (8 historical romance, 3 contemporary romance)

Non-Fiction Titles: 

• 3 (1 memoir/social history, 2 history)

Noteworthy Novels

• Clean Breaks by Ruby Lang
• By the Hour by Roni Loren
• Unseen Attraction by K J Charles
• Seven Minutes in Heaven by Eloisa James
• A Dangerous Madness by Michelle Diener

Noteworthy Non-Fiction

• Talking to My Country by Stan Grant
• Bombing the Rainbow Warrior by Michael King

Noteworthy Settings

• The Philippines - Prep & Prejudice by Miren B. Flores

Kick-ass Characters

• Unseen Attraction by K J Charles - Neuroatypical hero & neurotypical hero unite to solve a crime threatening their home and businesses
• Clean Breaks by Ruby Lang - heroine Sarah is feeling angry and threatened due to a melanoma diagnosis and the reappearance of the hero in her life, which brings up memories of a long-ago teenage scandal.

From the Internet this Month

Romance

• Romance Isn't the Reason for Singledom by Andie J. Christopher at Heroes and Heartbreakers
• STEM Heroines in Romance: the Master List by A.J. at Lacy Literacy
• On Romance and Pre-Existing Conditions by Cat Sebastian at Open Ink Perspectives
• The #DisRom Project by Dr Ria Cheyne at The Pink Heart Society - exciting project about disability in romance novels & the romance community

Literature, Craft and the Publishing Industry

• More than the N-Word: How a 'tense' Paul Beatty interview raises bigger questions by Steph Harmon at The Guardian - On a session at the Sydney Writers' Festival, which revealed much about how Australia deals with race.
• Classic, Colonization and a Call for Change by Padma Venkatraman at Nerdy Book Club
• Tina Makereti: Stories Can Save Your Life at e-Tangata - On assembling a Maori, Pasifika and multicultural New Zealand canons of literature
• Antisemitism and The Girl Who Wouldn't Die by Katherine Locke on Medium - On a grossly antisemitic YA novel published this month
• Is "Show, Don't Tell" a Universal Truth or Colonial Relic? by Nammrata Poddar at Lithub
• What Really Happens When Women Writers Ask For More Money by Brittany Stalsburg at The Establishment

Other Media

• On Race and Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale by Max S Gordon
• The Doctor Who Episode 'Thin Ice' is a Allegory for Slavery by Liam Hogan on Medium
• 'I am sunk in lust and lechery': The History between ITV Encore's 'Harlots' by Kate at Whores of Yore

Women & Feminism

• 'Fear of the Clit': A Brief History of Medical Books Erasing Women's Genitalia by Suzannah Weiss at Broadly
• How a Frog Became the First Mainstream Pregnancy Test by Ed Yong at The Atlantic

Overview: March Reading

The blog's been pretty quiet this last month, because I've been drowning in uni work. I've come up now for a quick breath of air, but I suspect I'll be pulled back down in a week or two. Apologies in advance for that.

My uni commitments also meant this wasn't a very prolific reading month for me. Reading in English also seems to interfere with my ability to slip back into German when I step out my front door or put away my book at the end of a bus trip. Nonetheless, here is my reading for the month, in all its underwhelming glory:

Reading Overview & Genre Breakdown

Books read in March: 14
Books read YTD: 49

Fiction Titles: 13

• 13 Romance (4 historical romance, 7 contemporary romance, 1 fantasy & 1 mixed anthology)

Non-Fiction Titles: 1

• 1 Social History/Theology

Since I started this feature in January, I've been playing around with what I want it to look like. The previous months have focused heavily on setting, but I'm not sure that interests anyone as much as it interests me, so I've come up with something new and different this month that I think has better long-term potential (and is less time-consuming so maybe I'll actually get these posts up on time, even if I am busy). Also, if you have any opinions about what you would like to see in these posts, feel free to give me a shout.

Noteworthy Novels

• An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
• Peter Darling by Austin Chant

Noteworthy Non-Fiction

• N/A  - I only read one NF book all month, although I suppose that means that Geering and God 1965 - 1971: The Heresy Trial that divided New Zealand wins by default!

Noteworthy Settings

• Neverland - Peter Darling by Austin Chant
• Antarctica - Heating it Up by Elizabeth Harmon
• Civil War-era American South - An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
• 1890s Boston - Against the Tide by Elizabeth Camden (review here)
• Sydney, Australia - Spiritbound by Dani Kristoff

Kick-ass Characters

• Elle from An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole - Elle is a free woman with an eidetic memory, who goes undercover as a slave to pass information to the Union during the Civil War
• James Hook from Peter Darling by Austin Chant - not all anti-heroes wear capes, but James probably would if you gave him the chance

From the Internet this Month

• The Trauma of Facing Deportation by Rachel Aviv for the New Yorker - In January I reviewed A Time to Dance, A Time to Die by John Waller, in which Waller contends that the 1518 Dancing Plague of Strasbourg was a case of the subconscious mind physically manifesting psychological distress in cultural determined ways. In this long-form journalism piece that is both heartbreaking and enlightening, Aviv explores something potentially: children - largely from Roma and Uyghur families from the ex-Soviet and Yugoslav states - who fall into a coma-like state after their families are denied permanent asylum in Sweden, despite having nothing medically wrong with them.
• Danielle Steel Loves the Weather and Elmore Leonard Hates Exclamation Points: Literature by the Numbers by Ben Blatt at Publisher's Weekly - Particularly interesting to me is the way this data tells a story about the genre fiction/literary fiction divide
• The Diversity Gap in Children's Book Publishing, 2017 by Hannah Ehrlich at Lee & Low Books
• Why My "Read Across America Day" Was Different by Katie at Blavity - on Dr Seuss' racism
• How Not to Suppress Women's Criticism: On Neil Gaiman, Shirley Jackson, and the importance of not erasing women's writing by Carmen Maria Machado at Electric Lit
• Diversity, the Stella Count and the whiteness of Australian publishing by Natalie Kon-yu at the Conversation
• How Romance Novels 'Imagine a World in Which Women Can Win' by Eleanor J. Bader at Rewire

Overview: February Reading

This month was a bit of a slower reading month than January, mostly because of a big personal change that happened in my life: I moved to Germany to study!

Reading Overview & Genre Breakdown

Books read in February: 15
Books read YTD: 35

Fiction Titles: 12

• 11 Romance (2 historicals, 8 contemporaries, 1 historical fantasy)
• 1 General Fiction

Non-Fiction Titles: 3

• 2 History
• 1 Sociology/Social History

I am currently reading Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho, but I don't anticipate will be finished by the end of the day, so this will appear in March's stats. 

Setting Statistics

USA: 5

• Stealing Mr Right by Tamara Morgan - read my review here.
• Driven to Distraction by Olivia Dade
• Along Came Love by Tracey Livesay
• The Melody of You and Me by M. Hollis
• Hard Knocks by Ruby Lang - review possibly to follow (partially set in Canada, but primarily set in Portland)

UK: 4

• Wanted, A Gentleman by K J Charles - I really enjoyed this and highly recommend it, but I don't think I'll get around to reviewing it. 
• Sweetest Regret by Meredith Duran
• Pretty Face by Lucy Parker - This was - predictably - brilliant. Again, I don't plan to review it, but it has snarky humour and all the feels, and you should definitely read it. 
• Graveyard Sparrow by Kayla Bashe

Australia: 1

• Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms by Anita Heiss - this was my General Fiction read. Engaging and eye-opening story about a Japanese escapee from a POW camp in Cowra and the Wiradjuri family who shelter him. Romantic elements, but non-HEA warning!

Nigeria: 1

• A Tailor-Made Romance by Oyindamola Affinnih - Cute romance where the conflict comes from the heroine's perception of a class difference between her and the hero. Had some trouble with her self-absorption, even though it makes sense in the context of the story.

Philippines: 1

• Tempting Hymn by Jennifer Hallock - see my review here. 

Non-Fiction with a Setting: 3

• The Divorce Colony by April White (US)
• New Myths and Old Politics: The Waitangi Tribunal and the Challenge of Tradition by Tipene O'Regan (NZ)
• The Cathars by Sean Martin (Europe, primarily France)

Non-Fiction without a Setting: 0

As you can see, I'm still mucking around with the format for these monthly overviews. I liked the idea of highlighting books I read that took place outside the dominant settings of the US and UK, but I also don't want to focus on that at the exclusion of marginalised and/or ownvoices authors, and characters that are something other than the white, cishet able-bodied default. So we'll see what I end up feeling comfortable with; it may be that it continues to differ from month to month. 

Overview: January Reading

This year, I thought it might be fun and enlightening to crunch some numbers at the end of each month. It'll give me - and you - and overview of what I've been reading, and help keep me on track with the resolutions I made at the end of last year: to be better at reviewing diverse fiction I enjoy, and to read and review more Australian and New Zealand literature.

Reading Overview & Genre Breakdown

Books read: 20

Fiction Titles: 17

• 15 romance (5 historicals, 10 contemporaries)
• 1 Literary Fiction
• 1 Short Story Collection

Non-fiction Titles: 3

• 2 Gender Studies/Feminist Theory
• 1 History

Setting Statistics

USA: 9

Canada: 1 

• His Heart's Revenge by Jenny Holiday

Australia: 1 

• In At the Deep End by Penelope Janu - review to follow

New Zealand: 2 

• The Pretty Delicious Cafe by Danielle Hawkins 
• Hide Your Heart by Tracey Alvarez

Philippines: 1 

• Iris After the Incident by Mina V. Esguerra

Spain: 1 

• A Dream Defiant by Susannah Fraser - review to follow; characters are British

Fictional setting: 2

Non-Fiction with a setting: 1 (New Zealand History)

Non-Fiction without a setting: 2 (both Gender Studies/Feminist Theory)

I'm interested in the statistics about setting because calssifying my reviews my setting a few months ago really drove home how much of the literature I read is set in the US. 

I just did a quick tally, and of the 234 books I read last year, about 106 were fiction with a US setting (and that's excluding books only partially set in the US, or set in an alternate universe US). I thought that the UK wouldn't be far behind, given how many historical romances I read, but it's pulling a distant second with roughly 33 books. Even though I I've spoken about my disillusion with my Beyond a Single Story Challenge, I still think it's important to be aware of US (and British, and English-language) cultural hegemony in literature, and the effects that it can have.

At this point, I'm not aiming to read less books set in the US this year. I just want to keep an eye on the statistics, rather than being hit with a fait accompli in December. As you can see, 9 out of 17 fiction books I read this month were set in the US; that's 53%. I've also listed the books with real-world non-US settings in case people are interested, and made notes of which ones I intend to review. Hopefully that make me feel accountable and those reviews will get past the draft stage!