Space Station Mir

If you haven't heard of the SFF Lit Project, click here and join in! I haven't gotten to read as much SFF Lit as I would like this year. Fortunately my Utopian Sci-Fi class in the spring introduced me to a few really strong books, and I knew where to look for authors who had stood the test before. 1. Shattered Pillars by Elizabeth Bear I didn't think it could get much better than Range of Ghosts , but Shattered Pillars brought new depth to characters and more magic to the kingdoms of the Eternal Sky. I'm looking forward to the third book this year! 2. Necessary Evil by Ian Tregellis Tregellis has still got his way with words, and this time around I even got to like detective Raybould Marsh, both as his scarred back-from-the-future self and idealistic younger self. And Gretl-a madwoman who can change time because of man-made powers? A book to ponder, for sure (despite the icky man-with-a-gun cover). 3. Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy Mattapois...

How many books read in 2013? 34, as of December 29th. How many fiction and non-fiction? Officially, 3 non-fiction and the rest fiction. However, that's not counting the vast amounts of literary criticism I read this year. Male/Female author ratio? 21 female and 9 male authors (some were repeats). It's funny, I've gone from slightly slanting toward male authors to strongly slanting towards female authors! Favorite book of 2013? The Best of All Possible Worlds , Wanderlust , and Woman on the Edge of Time . Least favorite? I mostly DNF'ed books I didn't like this year...so of those I did finish, Patternmaster by Octavia Butler. Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why? Having other priorities this year really freed me up to just say "no" to books for pleasure that I wasn't getting into. That would include London Falling and The Wet and the Dry . The former was just not my style, the latter was interesting in terms of content, bu...

I'm combining this week and last week's Top Ten Tuesday hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. I don't want to overburden myself with too many extracurricular goals just as I start my thesis for a very intensive graduate program, so this year I'm keeping it light. Top Five Books I Resolve to Read in 2013 1. Insurgent by Veronica Roth 2. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel 3. This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz 4. The Seeress of Kell by David Eddings 5. The Sorceress of Darshiva by David Eddings Top Five Bookish Goals for 2013 1. Read more short stories (perhaps an easier way to get in my SFF and stay up on this year's writers). 2. Read more nonfiction (nothing too crazy, let's just see if I can beat 2012's eight). 3. Read more books translated from other languages! It shouldn't be hard to beat last year's one. 4. Post to the blog at least 5 times a month (that was my goal last year and I mostly kept it up and even surpassed it...