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spoltz
Posted 2014-06-01 2:17 PM (#7875 - in reply to #7862)
Subject: Re: May 2014 Challenge Roundup
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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA
I added two more challenges to my list, Elizabeth Noun and Fantasia. Fantasia was an easy choice because I'm reading so much fantasy between the other challenges. I opted for the Elizabeth Noun challenge because I could use them for the WoGF challenge, and I've never read any of the Elizabeths. So why not?

The books I read in May:
The Steel Remains - Richard K Morgan 5 stars (LGBT / Fantasia)
Drawing Blood - Poppy Z Brite 4 stars (LGBT / WoGF / Second Best)
Pstalemate - Lester del Rey 3 stars (Grandmaster)
Arachne - Lisa Mason 3 stars (I Just Have To Read)
Winterlong - Elizabeth Hand 3 stars (Masterwork / WoGF / Second Best / Elizabeth Noun)

I also started The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C Hines for my SF bookclub. I thought it was terrible and was the first book I actually put down with no intention of picking up again. I would give this book 0 stars.

The Steel Remains was my favorite this month, because it was so dark and unabashedly vulgar and violent, and because the characters are so well developed. I never thought of myself as a splatterpunk fan, but I really enjoyed it here. And as a gay man, it's awesome to read a "mainstream" book where the main character is gay. Even though it's high fantasy, and I'm no hero, there's a level of identifying with a character that I haven't reached in a very long time. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, and hoping the third in the trilogy is out in October as currently promised.

I also really enjoyed "Drawing Blood." I haven't read any horror in a long time. If found it really creepy.

Tallies of my challenges:
I Just Have To Read 11/12
Grandmaster 3/12
LGBT 5/12
Masterworks 6/12
WOGF 8/12
2nd Best 8/12
Fantasia 8/12
Elizabeth Noun 1/3
Total: 50/87

So 21 physical books or 37 virtual books left to read. I'm heading to the library in a few minutes :-) I'm taking two more programming classes this year, so I'm hoping I can get through all my planned reading while writing copious amounts of Python code.

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