And that…in a nutshell – is a pretty decent representation of my challenge – if you were to change the blue books from “Pretend To Have Read” to “Started – Not Yet Finished.
Now that I’ve finished “Oscar Wao” and all the new March releases, it’s time to start thinking about April and it looks like it’s going to be a busy month.
First, I’m still only halfway through “The Forgotten War” by Clay Blair.
I picked it up today and started back in but – given the length – that represents a good week of bedtime reading. I’ve been drifting in and out of this book ever since the Winter Olympics and am determined to finish it before I move onto anything else. Having passed the halfway point, it’s starting to feel more manageable.
I’ve also started “The Rook” by Daniel O’Malley.
This was one of the 20+ books recommended in the Verge article I posted about a month ago. The description was intriguing so I downloaded it and got started – only to get sidetracked with two priority March releases – “A Call To Vengeance” by David Weber and Timothy Zahn and “The Good Guys” by Stephen Brust. I mentioned in two earlier posts that these are must read authors for me so when they release something new – it moves to the top of the stack. Once done with “The Forgotten War”, I’ll come back to this as the first few chapters were really intriguing.
Mix that all in with the fact that I have two new important books that will be available in April – “On Grand Strategy” by John Lewis Gaddis and “The Night Dahlia” by R.S. Belcher – both with release dates of April 3. I’ve posted on Belcher’s books before – they range from excellent – both the Golgotha series and the Nightwise series – “The Night Dahlia” being the 2nd entry in the latter – to atrocious – “The Brotherhood Of The Wheel”. I’m treating “Brotherhood” as the outlier and will be reading “Dahlia” as soon as it’s available. “On Grand Strategy” will be a longer term project – similar to “The Forgotten War” – but I will get started as soon as it arrives.
Finally, I’m still only halfway through Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim series and have #6 – “The Getaway God” waiting for me. I’m also two books into Neil Asher’s Polity series and “Gridlinked” waiting for me.
Last but not least – I’m about a third of the way through “Reaper’s Gale” by Steven Erikson – a book I started in December but put aside as I started working my way through other titles On The Nightstand.
One of the wonderful things about this blog is that it motivates me to read – giving me new titles to review. The downside is that longer, more time consuming books like “The Forgotten War”, “On Grand Strategy” and “Reaper’s Gale” get pushed to the side. Titles like that normally take me more than a week and I want to be able to post at least once a week. It’s a balancing act but one that’s been manageable so far.
Short to long – I should be getting back to you with reviews on “The Forgotten War” and possibly “The Rook” next weekend – moving from there on to “The Night Dahlia”. After that, it’s anyone’s guess.
Best wishes to all for a great week ahead and being that much closer to Spring.
I really enjoyed the Rook and its sequel Stiletto. I hope it turns out as well for you.
I just finished Reapers Gale a couple of weeks ago so I can sympathize with the “big book” syndrome 🙂
Hey There and thanks for the message. I’ll be finishing and posting on Rook today. Have to say that this one really surprised me. It was a lot of fun. Glad you’re done with Reaper’s Gale. Is this a reread for you? I’m circling back right now and working my way through the full body of work but inserting Ian C. Esslemont’s work in at the appropriate points in the progression. It’s helped to open up the world for me. Have a wonderful Easter.