- Chemistry by Weike Wang ★★★★ + review
- Human Acts by Han Kang ★★★★★ + review
- When I Am Through With You by Stephanie Kuehn ★★★★★ + review
- The First Day by Phil Harrison ★★★ + review
- Final Girls by Riley Sager ★★★★★ + review
- Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo ★★★★★ + review
- Body Awareness by Annie Baker ★★★★
- Gone Without a Trace by Mary Torjussen ★ + review
- See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt ★ + review
- King Lear by William Shakespeare ★★★★★
- Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia ★★★★★ + review
Best: Human Acts by Han Kang
Runner up: King Lear by William Shakespeare
Worst: Gone Without a Trace by Mary Torjussen
July was a noteworthy reading month for me for a couple of reasons – first of all, I finally managed to get out of my 7 books a month rut and somehow ended up with 11. And second of all, this was a month of extremes – I rarely give 5 stars or 1 stars, but 8/11 of those books ended up being one or the other.
This is also the month where I reached my Goodreads reading challenge goal of 60 books a year, yay! I purposefully set it at a number that I knew was manageable because I didn’t want to get too obsessed with hitting an arbitrary number, but it was still exciting to finish my goal as early as July. I’m up to 63 books total.
As you can see, I really enjoyed most of these! The notable exceptions were Gone Without a Trace and See What I Have Done, but you can’t win them all I guess. The only two I didn’t review were the two plays I read, Body Awareness (which I really enjoyed but I didn’t have a whole lot to say), and King Lear (because I’m not really sure what to say about this that hasn’t been said already).
I’m currently reading 4 books: Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart, Yesterday by Felicia Yap, Holding by Graham Norton (yes, that Graham Norton – who knew he was a novelist, not me), and The War that Killed Achilles by Caroline Alexander. All of these will be reviewed in the next couple of weeks, I’m hoping.
Other books I’m definitely reading in August include American War by Omar El Akkad (for a book club), and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. Otherwise, as always, the TBR is up in the air.
So have you read any of these books I’ve mentioned? And what was the best book you read in July? Comment and let me know!
Wow….you read a lot of books. I did when I was a kid, wore out my library card reading nine books a week. Now it’s difficult to get a couple of hours of quiet time just to write. “Drafted” and “Identity Check” amazon.com. I have six novels backed up on my Kindle waiting for me!
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Wow, 9 a week!!! Very ambitious. Haha, it helps that I live somewhere rather dull, there’s not much to do after work except escape into a book. I’m sure writing takes up a ton of time too – when I used to write more, I didn’t get a lot of reading done. Good luck with your novels, and your reading!
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Thanks…you have to throw marketing in the mix too after you get the book finished. Thank goodness I’m retired (except for acting & playing in a rock band.)
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Quite the reading month! I haven’t had a run of 5 star reads like that for a while. Here’s hoping you have as much success in August 🙂
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I hadn’t either, I was surprised at myself! Maybe the nice weather puts me in a less critical mood.
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Nice reviews.
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Thanks Martie!
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Congrats on having a great reading month 😀 I wish I could think of reading 7 books in a month was a rut. lol
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Thanks! Hahaha, I think I was mainly tired of seeing the same number over and over. The amount I manage to read per month totally depends on other various life factors – a few years ago I only read 3 books in the whole year. 2013 me would be horrified that 2017 me is complaining about 7 a month.
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CONGRATS on having finished 63 books! I don’t know why I don’t do wrap up months…maybe I should start.
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THANK YOU omg yes you should do them!!! It definitely helps to keep me organized.
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