Tsana's February Status

Goodness, what a reading-packed month and a half 2015 has been so far! As I mentioned last month, I was drafted in as a last-minute Aurealis judge, so most of my reading so far this year has been for that. But now (as of twenty minutes before writing this sentence) I'm DONE! Whoo! I can go back to reading books I'm allowed to review! (Well, I can talk about the Aurealis books after it's all over and awarded, but that's not until April.) Now I can be mainly stressed about work instead of also about whether I've spent enough time reading. (To put it into perspective, I do not read quickly and yet I've finished 28 books this year. Up until the 18th of January, I was at parity for days of the year vs books read.)

So that's why there haven't been many reviews on the blog.

In other news, the preliminary Ditmar ballot was recently announced and you can have a gander here. I've been shortlisted for Best Fan Writer and under Best Fan Publication in Any Medium for Snapshot, so that's nice and exciting. I'll reproduce the full shortlist here with some light commentary when it moves from preliminary to final.

I had a couple of non-review posts over the past month. First up there was a guest post from Duncan Lay about realistic battle scenes, something which he does particularly well in his books. And I also had an interview with Kat Ross, who was one of the authors whose unpublished book was orphaned when Strange Chemistry went under. The book is Some Fine Day, which I reviewed before its intended release date, and it's coming out imminently from another publisher. If you go to the interview, there's also a competition to win stuff that you can still enter.

What Have I Read?

Not much that I've reviewed!

• Imposter by Jill Hathaway — the sequel to Slide, contemporary speculative YA.
• Rebels by Accident by Patricia Dunn — completely non-speculative YA about an Egyptian American girl who sort of gets caught up in part of the Egyptian Spring on her holiday
• Space Dogs by Sophia Parsons Cope — a comic drawn by an independent Melbourne artist who is also a friend of mine. And also dogs in space, what's not to like?
• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein — an even more awesome than expected book about a girl pilot and a girl spy in WWII

Yep, that's all. There should be many more reviews in the coming month.

Currently Reading

Symbiont by Mira Grant. It's the sequel to Parasite, which I read in 2013 when it came out. Not sure how much I can really say without spoiling the first book for you. It's more of the same story, which is a good thing.

New Booksies

From most recent to least, this time.

• Hush by Skye Melki-Wegner, the first in a new YA series that I am excited about. For review from the publisher via NetGalley.
• Cranky Ladies of History edited by Tehani Wessley and Tansy Rayner Roberts — an anthology I backed via crowdfunding (and also got an ARC, which was unexpected) full of stories about cool historical ladies (obviously).
• Black Dove, White Raven by Elizabeth Wein, the third book in the loose series she started with Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire. I think this ones starts before the war. For review from the publisher via NetGalley.
• Winning the King by Nicole Murphy, the sequel to Loving the Prince. Science fiction romance. For review from the publisher via NetGalley.

And wow, I kind of really thought there'd be more than four. I suppose I've been hiding from books more successfully than I thought. I'm not sure, but that's probably a good thing... Maybe... It's not like I'm in danger of running out.