Month in Review for September: Sufficiently Scary Design and Preparing for Halloween

In case you didn't notice, I changed a few things around the blog to get into the Halloween spirit... mostly because PicMonkey is a highly addictive drug for the macabrely inclined. September hasn't been very kind to me- in addition to my grandmother's health declining, we had various incidents happen that made me a little bit angry, but I'll expand on that for the Not Quite a Confession. Although in my real life September has been exceedingly not what I wanted it to be, the blog has seen an unexpected uptick in pageviews. That always cheers me up.

Statistics:
 Total Posts: 13
  Total Critiques: 6
  Genres:
    Dystopia: 1
    Historical Fiction/Magical Realism: 1
    Out-of-Orbit: 1
    Part of a Series: 3
    Space/Sci-fi: 3

Most Popular Posts of September:
(I actually didn't think many people would want to read my Kesrith/Faded Sun reviews, since the books are older [and generally older book reviews get much less attention]. However, it appears my blogging predictions are out of wack- Kesrith has more views than Magic Shifts.)
"Kesrith (The Faded Sun #1)" by C.J. Cherryh
Month in Review for August 2015: I'm So Ready for September!
SFF: The 5 Foods You've Read About in Books, But Want to Try In Real Life
"Shon'jir (The Faded Sun #2)" by C.J. Cherryh
NQAC: Biweekly Update #17: Writing Like the Wind and a Sad Kitty Tale
SFF: The 5 Types of Reading Slumps Every Reader Suffers From

Pageviews for the Month: 1498!
Comments: 9!

Reading Challenges Updates:

Snowflake and Spider Silk Bingo Challenge

(I decided to start squiggling stuff out, since I've gotten so many)

Applicable Books:
From January:
Song of Blood and Stone (Earthsinger Chronicles #1) by L. Penelope (POC main character)
Soulless (Parasol Protectorate #1) by Gail Carriger (New to me author)
Changeless (Parasol Protectorate #2) by Gail Carriger (2nd book in a series)
Blameless (Parasol Protectorate #3) by Gail Carriger (female author)
From February:
Unseen (Unborn #2) by Amber Lynn Natusch (published 2015)
Written in Red (The Others #1) by Anne Bishop (Urban Fantasy)
From March:
Stardust by Neil Gaiman (written before 2000- it was first published in 1998)
Anthem by Ayn Rand (Novella/Short Story)
Moxyland by Lauren Beukes (Dystopia)
From April:
The Princess Bride by William Goldman (Humorous SF/F)
"The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil #1)" by Soman Chainani (fairy tale retelling)
From May:
"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley ("classic" SF/F)
From June:
"The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard #1)" by Scott Lynch (Heists and Cons)
From July:
None!
From August:
"Kesrith (The Faded Sun #1)" by C.J. Cherryh (Non-Human Main Character)
"The Sleeping King" by Cindy Dees and Bill Flippin (Epic Fantasy)
From September:
"Shon'jir (The Faded Sun #2)" by C.J. Cherryh (space travel)
"The Golem and the Jinni" by Helene Wecker (debut author)
"The Martian" by Andy Weir (Audiobook- my first since 4th grade)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy #1) by Douglas Adams (Aliens)

Travel the World in Books Challenge

Applicable Books:
The Third Son by Julie Wu (Set in Taiwan)

Reading Stats:

Books read this Month: 10

Book Stats:
Has a Diverse Main Character: 2
Doesn't Have a Diverse MC: 8
Female Main Character: 1
Male Main Character: 4
Pair and/or Group of Female/Male Main Characters: 4
Nonfiction/No Characters: 1
Genre:
 Contemporary: 1
 Dystopia: 1
 Historical Fiction/Magical Realism: 1
 Historical Fiction: 1
 Harlequin Romance: 1
 Historical Romance: 1
 Nonfiction: 1
 Sci-fi Set in Space: 3
Published in 2015: 4
Published in 2000-2014: 4
Published in the 1970's: 2
Self-Published, Small Press, or Other: 1
Traditionally Published: 9
Series Books: 5
Standalones: 5
Ebook Version: 9
Paper Version: 1
Favorite of the Month: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Least Favorite of the Month: Carrying the Greek's Heir (One Night With Consequences #8) by Sharon Kendrick (bought as a freebie to laugh at- but it actually wasn't too terrible)
From the-pile: 1
From the-invisible-pile: 5
Recently acquired: 4
Added to the-invisible-pile: 3
Books bought: 1
Pages Read in 2015 Thus Far (according to Goodreads): 21,348 pages

Ratings:
5 Stars: 0 :(
4-4.5 Stars: 4
3-3.5 Stars: 5
2-2.5 Stars: 0
Left Unrated (Because I have no clue): 1

Author Stats (1 = 1 book read by x author):
Male: 3
Female: 7
Male/Female Team: 0
Diverse: 1
Not-so-Diverse: 9
Living: 9
Deceased: 1

Planning to Read in October:

I'd like to finish up the Faded Sun Trilogy with Kutath, and also read a lot of short stories for Mini Macabre Review Monday. I won a couple of scary looking books last year, so I'll try and get to those, but there are no guarantees. I've also been trying to read The Queen of the Tearling, but I just can't seem to get into it. There are a couple other books I'll be trying to read by the end of 2015, but my mood has been choosing the books, not me.

                        Until next time,