September was a slow reading month. Temperatures finally cooled enough that I wanted to go hiking again, and the insanity of football games was more than enough incentive to push us out of town. Plus, I decided to take up canning this fall (if I get my act together, I’ll write about that sometime) so my free time has been limited.

In addition to less reading time than normal, we were busy enough (in a good way) that I was wanting to relax with favorite characters and books I knew I’d enjoy.

The best books of the month included two audio books. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith narrates Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant series, and he completely blew me away. I liked the book, but the narration was pretty much perfect. I can’t recommend these highly enough.
I also read Patricia Briggs’ anthology set in Mercy Thompson’s world. Very few of these stories are about Mercy, but that doesn’t bother me at all. I love well-written short stories, and these are all very good.

Fantasy, Supernatural

Alpha & Omega
Cry Wolf  (2008) Patricia Briggs
Mercy Thompson
Moon Called (2006) Patricia Briggs (8.5/10)
Blood Bound  (2007) Patricia Briggs (8/10)
Iron Kissed (2008) Patricia Briggs
Bone Crossed  (2009) Patricia Briggs
Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson (2014) Patricia Briggs (9/10)

Mystery, Historical

Flavia de Luce
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches (2014) Alan Bradley (Not Rated)
Speaking from Among the Bones  (2013) Alan Bradley (7/10)

Audio Books

Moon Called: Audible Version (2006/2009) Patricia Briggs and read by Lorelei King (DNF)
Peter Grant
Midnight Riot: Audio Version  (2011/2012) Ben Aaronovitch narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (10/10)
Moon Over Soho: Audible Version  (2011/2012) Ben Aaronovitch and narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (10/10)

So, in a slow reading month I read eleven books, which I know is more than most people read, but still relatively low for me. (I read nine books in May, for many of the same reasons I read so little in September.) This also brings my total for the year to 131, which was more than I read some years when I was in grad school. So I’m on track to read more books this year than I have in any other year.

I read mostly eBooks again, but there were three audio books in there, and one lonely paperback. Of course nine of the books I read were re-reads, and eight of those I have in multiple formats. (Of course, this counts the Mercy Thompson Moon Called audio book that I didn’t finish.)

Mostly supernatural fantasy this month, with those books having a strong mystery element, and two straight-up mysteries.

I read four male authors and seven female authors, which brings me to 59 writing-as-female authors for the year and 43 male authors. With the nine books written under initials and two written under a male pseudonym, that gives me approximately 55% female authors to 34% male authors. (I’ve read a lot of anthologies this year.)

So not much new this month, but I really do recommend that you seek out the audio version of the Peter Grant books.