Books read in February and March:

1. The Dead and the Gone. Susan Pfeffer.
2. The Encyclopedia of the Dog. Bruce Fogle.
3. A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent. Marie Brennan.
4. Critters of Texas: Pocket Guide. Anne E. McCarthy.

I feel like this list is incomplete. Maybe because I still have two chapters left out of Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire that Never Was by Angélica Gorodischer, maybe because I’m half way through Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman. Maybe the list is shorter than expected because I had my PhD defense in mid-February, I moved from one continent to another in early March, and have been settling in since then. Maybe because I watched all five seasons of Fringe while knitting a throw blanket. Maybe because of a lot of different things.

But I have a library card for the public library here in San Antonio and I have a number of books checked out already. With a bit of patience and persistence, maybe my appetite for reading will grow again.

Books read in January:

1. Bring Up the Bodies. Hilary Mantel.
2. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Susanna Clarke.
3. The Count of Monte Cristo. Alexandre Dumas. (150/875pp)
4. Encyclopedia of the Cat. Bruce Fogle.
5. Life as we knew it. Susan Pfeffer.
6. Here, There Be Dragons. James A. Owen.
7. Champion. Marie Lu.
8. The Modern Middle East. James L. Gelvin. (25%, in progress)

Some of the books read this month were long, as in running in the 800+ page range. I will probably come back to The Count of Monte Cristo, but it was a bit much after just reading the 1000+ page Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

My mom and I are reading The Modern Middle East together, and one thing I’ve noticed is that it focuses heavily on how Early Modern Europe influenced the Ottoman and Safavid empires. What about their neighbours to the east, however? Why so western-centric? And I noticed this to be the case with Here, There Be Dragons, also — the fantastical world, which is supposed to be all the imaginary worlds that have ever existed, is composed entirely of the imaginary worlds of Western European folklore and mythology. What about Asian folklore? Russian? Any of the myriad of African folklores? Australian Aboriginal? Various Latin American? North American Indian?

Time and time again, the motifs drawn on in fantasy literature comes from the Western European tradition. Part of this is due to that is what is taught as the canon for literature in most literature survey courses. Writers write what they know, and so they write about fantasy worlds that are based on Western European mythology. And so this trend is self-perpetuating.

But fiction and fantasy are not solely written by American and British writers. And not all American and British fantasy writers confine themselves to Western motifs (such as N. K. Jemisin or Guy Gavriel Kay). So, my dear readers, who are they? Recommend books to me — fiction or non-fiction — because I don’t want to be confined to only one literary tradition when I go exploring…

Well, to be more accurate, it should be Autumn-Mid-Winter reading. Here are the books I’ve read since the last time I posted a list (in August). Yes, I did manage to read fiction while finishing up my PhD. I had to. I needed that escape more than anything, sometimes.

Books read September-December:

1. Shift. Hugh Howey.
2. The 13 Clocks. James Thurber.
3. Four Ways to Forgiveness. Ursula K. Le Guin.
4. The Nature of Blood. Caryl Phillips.
5. Lacuna. Barbara Kingsolver.
6. Fortunately, the Milk. Neil Gaiman.
7. The Book of Lost Things. John Connolly.
8. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. Catherynne M. Valente.
9. The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There. Catherynne M. Valente.
10. The Christmas Mystery. Jostein Gaarder.
11. Pegasus. Robin McKinley.

I had actually stopped reading for a while after reading a frustrating book and personal circumstances, but some friends put The 13 Clocks by James Thurber in my hands. Thurber’s whimsy, storytelling, and play with words whetted my appetite again. So the list would be better labelled, ‘November-December reading’.

Granted, the last four on the list were read in the last two weeks. I thought I would read more after submitting, but I’ve been sleeping. 🙂 Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver was 600 pages or so? But it was a pleasure to read. I loved how it transported me to Mexico — hot, vibrant, colourful, chaotic Mexico, the perfect contrast to cold, grey, depressing Scotland, especially this winter. I remembered how I’ve longed to go to Mexico City and Tenochtitlan. I won’t say any more about the book just now, because I have half a mind to revive book reviews. (Dear Readers, do you want book reviews again? Tell me in the comments.)

And, because it is the end of the year, I give you Books Read in 2013. It is a much shorter list than in years past, for various reasons. But looking over the list there are a few books that jump out at me as ones that have stuck with me, or that I really enjoyed: Legend by Marie Lu, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver.

What have been the books that stuck with you this year?

Books read May-August:

1. Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen.
2. Reading Lolita in Tehran. Azar Nafisi.
3. The Night Circus. Erin Morgenstern.
4. The Creature in the Case. Garth Nix.
5. Pigs in Heaven. Barbara Kingsolver.
6. The Scorpio Races. Maggie Stiefvater.
7. Sailing to Sarantium. Guy Gavriel Kay.
8. Lord of Emperors. Guy Gavvriel Kay.
9. Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood. Meredith Pierce.
10. Crucible of Gold. Naomi Novik.
11. The Snow Child. Eowyn Ivey.
12. Wool. Hugh Howey.

Since I haven’t been posting monthly updates on what I’ve been reading, I thought I would save it all for posting a summer reading list. It looks more impressive this way. 😉

By far my favourites are The Night Circus and The Scorpio Races — the former is so… enchanting that you can’t not get entangled in its web; and the latter because it retells Scottish folklore in a semi-modern setting (about a hundred years ago), and it works perfectly. Though I did also enjoy reading The Snow Child, Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood, and Wool — and I’m very pleased indeed that Wool is part of a trilogy and that my public library has all three.

I’m going to be working long hours in the office these coming months, so I don’t know how much autumnal fun reading I’ll get to do — just enough to keep my sanity, at least!

* indicates in Middle English/Scots

Books read in March:

1. Mazers. Omar Ramsden.
2. Go Tell It on the Mountain. James Baldwin.

Books read in April:

1. East. Edith Pattou.
2. Serenity: Those Left Behind. Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, and Will Conrad.
3. Serenity: Better Days. Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, and Will Conrad.
4. Pretty Monsters. Kelly Link.
5. Prodigy. Marie Lu.
6. Burgess, Merchant, and Priest: Burgh Life in the Scottish Medieval Town. Derek Hall.
7. Historic St Andrews and its University. John Read.
8. The Testament of Cresseid. Robert Henryson. *

Best new read: East
Best sequel: Prodigy
Best non-fiction: Burgess, Merchant, and Priest

I never got around to posting the books I read in March, so here they are with April’s post. April has actually looks like what my reading average used to look like. I suppose that’s the benefit to reading shorter books and taking a few days off.

Books read in February:

1. The Broken Kingdoms. N. K. Jemisin.
2. The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald.
3. Legend. Marie Lu.

Three novels read in a short month AND while being busy! Hooray! The best new read was Legend, which I will review on Sunday.