So it’s September. Instead of wondering where summer went, I’m going to wish that lousy hot season a not-so-fond farewell and turn to face Fall and the cooler temperatures that make it easier for me to do things like sleep, think, and go hiking.

What I Finished Reading in August:

In spite of the heat waves, August was a good reading month. I finished fifteen things and enjoyed most of them all the way through. There were two ARCs from NetGalley, one of which I didn’t care for, and one that I quite liked. Now that the weather is cooling off, I’m going to be doing a lot of writing, but I also have a lot of reading I want to do, so it’ll be a balancing act for the next few months.

• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia #1) by C.S. Lewis
• The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide, translated from the Japanese by Eric Selland
• Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings, and Broken Hearts by Kathryn Harkup
• The Mabinogion by Anonymous, translated from the Welsh by Sioned Davies, audiobook read by James Cameron Stewart
• Prince Caspian (The Chronicles of Narnia #2) by C.S. Lewis
• Where Dreams Descend (Kingdom of Cards #1) by Janella Angeles, ARC provided by NetGalley
• Winter King: Henry VII and The Dawn of Tudor England by Thomas Penn, audiobook narrated by Simon Vance
• Her Smoke Rose up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.
• Stranger Planet by Nathan W. Pyle
• Jade War (The Green Bone Saga #2) by Fonda Lee
• African Samurai: The True Story of a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan by Thomas Lockley and Geoffrey Girard, audiobook narrated by Gary Furlong
• The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg, ARC provided by NetGalley
• The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher (short stories) by Hilary Mantel
• The Beautiful (The Beautiful #1) by Renée Ahdieh
• Amnesty (The Amberlough Dossier #3) by Lara Elena Donnelly

Statistically Speaking:

• 46.7% of the books I read were written by women, 40% were by men, 6.7% were by non-binary authors, and 6.7% were by unknown authors
• 33.3% were by American authors, 33.3% were by English authors, while 6.7% each of them were by the following nationalities: Welsh, Japanese, Filipino-American, English-German-American, and Ukranian-Israeli-American
• 13.3% of the books I read were works in translation
• 60% were physical books, 20% were audiobooks, and 20% were ebooks
• 13.3% were adult fantasy, 13.3% were YA fantasy, 13.3% were middle grade fantasy, 13.3% were general fiction, and 13.3% were history, while science fiction, speculative fiction, comics, nonfiction, and epics were 6.7% each.
• 46.7% were from my own shelves, 40% were from the library, and 13.3% were from NetGalley
• Publication dates ranged from 1410 to 2020

My favorite books of the month were Jade City and Amnesty. The books I wasn’t so thrilled with were The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and Where Dreams Descend.

What I Plan to Read in September:

Lots of things! ARCs! Space Opera! Library books!

• The Vikings, Third Edition by Else Roesdahl, translated from the Danish by Susan M. Margeson and Kirsten Williams
• The Damned (The Beautiful #2) by Renée Ahdieh
• A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1) by Arkady Martine
• Machine (White Space #2) by Elizabeth Bear, eARC provided by NetGalley, physical ARC from a Goodreads giveaway
• The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth by John Garth
• The Haunting of H.G. Wells by Robert Masello, ARC provided by NetGalley
• The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow, ARC provided by NetGalley
• Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky #1) by Rebecca Roanhorse, ARC provided by NetGalley
• The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair

I have nine books on tap for September, though I discovered that Machine‘s publication date has been moved to October 20, so I may end up reading it in October, in case something pops up that I really want to read instead this month. The Secret Lives of Color was a recommendation from Zezee with Books. I wasn’t expecting the library hold to come in as soon as it did, but here we are. The Damned is another library book I’ve already checked out, so I’ll need to get to it soon. A Memory Called Empire is my selection for this year’s Space Opera September, hosted by Thomas at SFF180. I had planned to read it for the same event last year, but with my trip to Iceland mid-September 2019 and Mina’s health stuff after that, I didn’t get to it, and then just shelved it for a year… Anyway. It recently won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, as well as the BookTube SFF Award for Best Novel, so it’s highly regarded, and I’m looking forward to it. But really, I’m looking forward to all of these books, as they all look like they could be either amazing reads or super informative.

I’ll also be doing a lot of writing, and if September/October 2020 is anything like September/October 2019 on the writing front, then I’ll get a major part of the first draft of my new work in progress done. I’m anticipating its being about 100,000 words, and I’m hoping to get the majority of it written before the first of December. I’m not planning to fully take part in National Novel Writing Month this November, but I do plan to set aside more time for writing that month in order to get the majority of it completed so I can tackle revisions and line edits in December. There are also a few short companion stories for my fanfic series I have planned, so I’ll set aside a few days here and there to get those written. They don’t take very long, so they won’t affect my overall schedule much, if at all.

So that’s what I have going on for September. If it continues as well as it started, it’ll be a good month. I’m looking forward to it.