Let's See How Far LShelby Gets

See, I really never do give up. Here I am, back again.

May this year be less disasterous than the previous two. ::prays::

Hi, y'all

I'm L. Shelby
(It's a pen name and the L doesn't actually stand for much. Y'all can call me Shel.)
I am a fantasy and science fiction author and artist, and I also like to sing, code webpages, play boardgames, go hiking (or disc golfing) and tat. I am the mother of six -- now almost all grown up, and a Canadian, although I currently live in Ohio, ('cause I married a USian).

I read fantasy and science fiction, non-fiction, regency romances (of the 'sweet' variety), YA romance, cozy-mysteries, adventure fiction, and occasionally even classics. I also read manga/graphic novels. I spent most of last two years under the weather, and watching more TV than reading, which makes me sad. I want reading to be the default downtime activity, and TV to get saved for emergencies!


25 books read in 2020

Sub-goals:
20 New Authors

5 new authors in 2020

20 Old Favorites (SFF->RR->C/YA->O)

11 rereads in 2020

20 Non-Fiction Books (Largely to prevent me from counting these as new authors)

2 non-fiction in 2020

24 LT Authors (Because I'm playing Bingo.)

6 LTAuthors in 2020

Also:
1 Volumes of Manga
22 Asian Dramas (not all listed)

So far this year I have read a grand total of 3 books. And two of them hardly count. (But I'm counting them anyways, because.)

1. How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom by Dojyomaru
This is a "light novel" which apparently means one with large print and some illustrations. I wasn't impressed. The writing didn't enthrall me (not sure how much of that was the original and how much was the translation) and I'm not particularly picky, I don't think. But more importantly it has a bunch of my least favorite manga/anime cliches, and apparently I'm more willing to put up with them in an actual manga/anime than in something that resembles an ordinary novel.
The premise was sorta fun. Typical manga/anime fantasy world country summons a hero to save them from the evil invasion of magical creatures, and he's a economy/government student, so he starts with an audit and some agricultural reforms.

2. Sails of Everwind by L. Shelby
Yep, I read one of my own books, because I'm prepping it for publication and I need to write the glossary. So far it was my favorite read of the year, but I think that's probably cheating. :)

3. Remarkables by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Picked this up this Juvenile in the fantasy category of my library's digital collection, but the fantasy aspect is a little... superficial? Two of the characters see bits and snatches of another time. No other fantastic elements, and no explanation. I guess the story was okay. A bit too angsty for my tastes.

4. Betraying Season by Marissa Doyle
Second book in Doyle's YA Victorian romance with magic series. I enjoyed it.

5. Courtship and Curses by Marissa Doyle
And this is the prequel, so it's a YA Regency romance with magic. I'm noticing a "save the important historical charcter" theme to the plotting, but I can't claim that's a crime. :)

6. Smugglers' Summer by Carola Dunn
This is one of the many regency romances I own. I had read this one reasonably recently, but I ended up reading it again because it was there, I guess.

7. Forests of the Night by S. Andrew Swan
This is a gritty noir thriller except that its set in a near future with intelligent gengineered animals. Our private investigtor hero is a tiger, and he carries a BIG gun, if he feels he needs to.
The action was more compelling than the mystery, I thought. But a very interesting setting.

Shows:
Her Legend
Fairly typical Kdrama fare: oppressed heroine, super rich hero. :)

Queen of Love and War
Historical KoewN drama, that I ended up watching straight through all 16 hours worth because I had insomnia. It had the usual pointless time gap at the end, but the plot moved well, and the ending wasn't lame.

Manga
Takane & Hana Vol. 11 - the continuing adventures of high school student Hana who became part of a "marriage arrangement" with a young business man about a decade older than her. (I should have reread the previous volume, though, its been long enough since I read it that I got a bit lost at first.)

With the library closed, I've been pulling books off my shelves, trying to concentrate on those I never got around to putting on LT, therefore presumably ones I haven't read in a long time.

8: Looking Around: A Journey Through Architecture by Witold Rybczynski
Grabbed this one just before the library closed. It's a collection of articles/essays on Architecture. I'd love to see more similar stuff, but I might have to wait until the library's open again.

9: Phule's Company by Robert Asprin
Amusing and fun, but oh my gosh the tech details are so clearly outdated a mere 30 years later.

10: The Three Graces by Jane Ashford
This was the first paperback regency romance I ever read, so I grabbed it when I saw it for sentimental reasons, and apparently I am the only person on LT to own a copy. Three sisters, tragically left to fend for themselves when the great-aunt who raised them, leaves her entire fortune to her cats.

11: The Sins of Lady Dacey
I don't know what to say about this one. It's a regency, it's there. The most unusual thing about it is that the named character in the title is not either of the heroines. One heroine is typical good girl nets rake, the other heroine is unhappily married, and we are only saved from an adultery plot by the fortunate annulling of her marriage -- too bad that you can't actually annul marriages just because they haven't been consummated. (An error frequently seen in regencies.)

A flare-up of my gastritis in the past week increased my show watching again. ::sigh::

Shows
The Best Mistake -this is a webdrama, and so really only a movie long. But cute. And just what I was in the mood for. Girl trying to get rid of a creepy stalker acquaintance posts a picture of her "boyfriend" thinking, 'good, you can't see his face' only unfortunately he's a boy that goes to her school.

Touch - A 16 hour korean romantic comedy. He's a top-of-the-line makeup artist, she's an idol trainee. She re-does the makeup he did for her, oh the horror! She ends up being kicked out and working for, of course, him.

That Winter, The Wind Blows - This is a classic Korean drama, and as such much more angst-ridden than I usually care for. The heroine is not just blind, she's also got a brain tumor, etc, etc. The hero is a conman who is pretending to be her brother. I'm not sure how I finished it, to be honest, but somehow I kept going back to it.

Some Day or One Day - This was a fantasy-based time-travel thriller (with travelling via inhabiting the body of someone already there), with the time-traveller trying to discover who will murder the girl whose body she is inhabiting -- plus a really complicated romance.

12. The Practice Effect by David Brin
This is a pretty unusual science fiction story, in that it speculates on what a world might be like if one of the fundamental laws of nature worked differently. The effect is fairly fantastical, but handled throughout with a Reasonable rigorousness. Certainly one of the most unique SF worlds I've visited.

13. Ronia, the Robber's Daughter by Asrid Lindgren
Very cute children's fantasy by the author of Pippi Longstocking.

14. Sweet Silver Blues by Glen Cook
This is the first in a Noire Fantasy detective series. These amuse me, but only in small doses, because they're a bit more cynical than I am. :)

15. The Missing Brides by Cindy Holbrook
This is a cute regency romance but it kept drawing attention to the fact that it is a sequel, and unfortunately I don't own the first one. :(

16. The Ideal Bride by Nonnie St. George
I found this regency quite funny, but I was a bit irked by the whole "I won't marry you, but please keep kissing me" bit near the end.

17. Dune, by Frank Herbert
I was rereading this because my son wanted me to write a plot synopsis turning it into a regency romance. I have done so, and I probably won't reread it again until I have another ulterior motive. I admire the worldbuilding immensely, but I don't find it all that enjoyable to read.

18. Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose and Pictures by Leon Stevens
I rather enjoyed this, although I don't usually consider free verse my thing. But it was frequently amusing, and when not amusing insightful. And the sketches are cute.

19. A Quiet Rebellion: Guilt by M. H. Thaung
This one had some interesting worldbuilding. There are leftover bits of technology, and the people are attempting to relearn and recreate, but most of what they have is pretty primitive.

20: A Vampire's Daughter by Jeff Schanz
The author seems to think he's written an action book, but I swear it reads a lot like a gothic romance without the goth. Other than the final big action sequence there is one other action sequence and a rather icky flashback to Afganistan.

21: Avania by R. R. Adams
I don't know that the worldbuilding felt all that familiar, because my impression of the worldbuilding was totally overshadowed by the emotional landscape, and that did feel like very familiar YA fantasy fare.

22: The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
This was a reread, of course. I last read it about 10 years ago, probably for the same reason I read it again this year -- one of my kids had been reading it, and left it out, and it's such a pick-up-able book.

23: My Man Jeeves by P. T. Wodehouse
I checked it out of the library digitally (although, apparently as of today I can start checking out physical books again, I just can't go inside). It was amusing, of course, but somehow it didn't strike me as being Wodehouse at top form.

DRAMAS
Forest (16 hours)- A formerly cold business genius takes a job with search and rescue in order to buy up a bit of forest, only instead he discovers the secrets of his past, and a girl, and his conscience, etc, etc.

Three Lives, Three Worlds: The Pillow Book (42 hours) - The sequel to Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, I think I might have liked it a little better. Anyway, fantasy and star-crossed lovers with a happy ending, it gave me my wuxia fix. :)

Skate Into Love (30 hours) - Cute sports romance.

Under the Power (41 hours) - Wuxia-ish, but was more of a historical than a fantasy, with the protagonists a (female) constable and an inspector, who have a whole lot of crimes to unravel in an attempt to prove to the king that one of his favorites is evil. Not a lot of court, given the premise. Lots more investigating and problems with pirates and so forth. Fun! Plus a romance. The end felt a bit anti-climax, in how it played out, but was otherwise satisfying.

The Good Witch (20 hours) - This was a rewatch, I felt the need for something cute and fluffy. Workplace (an airline) romance with our nice but somewhat dim heroine attempting to take the place of her almost evil twin. Her elementry school age daughter is smarter than she is. But... it's cute.

Hwarang (20 hours) - A historical set in Korea's Three Kingdoms period, about the founding of the Flower Warriors. Somewhat painful love triangle, but I liked the end.

Hey, Shel, good to see you pop up!

>7 ronincats:
Thanks! It always makes me happy to see your posts too. :)

I guess it has been a while since I posted here. I have been posting to LT fairly regularly, though. It's just that I seem to keep running out of oomph before I get as far as updating my thread here. Fortunately I have been earning my weariness by consistant output in my writerly endeavors. (Which at the moment involve editing and a major website overhaul rather than actually writing, but as long as progress continues to be made, I will get back to my favorite writing part eventually.)

...which reminds me. I actually read two other books...

24: Eyes of Infistar, by L. Shelby (Pulptastic space operatic romp.)
25: Lioness, by L. Shelby. (YA fantasy adventure)

I'm not always sure if I should count my own books, but while I'm editing them I read them many times through -- thats a whole lot of reading and I've been noticing that it makes me much less inclined to read anything else during those times than I am during the times when I am when I'm writing or coding. So I'm going to count them.