My July Reading Wrap-Up

This post is coming in a bit later than intended, but I wanted to make it special. July was a very reading-centric month for me. Bought a new and fantastic Kindle eReader (review coming soon!) and have been bringing it everywhere. Finally renewed my library card, and got into the joy that is borrowing from Overdrive. Will also be posting about that in the future, borrowing library books (ebooks and audiobooks) electronically is so amazing! Overall, I read more pages in July than I’ve ever read in my life- almost 5000. It was an overwhelming month and I hope to keep reading consistently throughout August as well.

So without further ado, I present the ten books I read in July, in order from date finished.

From Sand And Ash by Amy Harmon

Review finished. Click here to read it. Loved it. So the plan was to just sample some of this book, check it out, and try some of the other books I’d loaded onto my e-reader. Things didn’t quite turn out that way, instead I ended up reading From Sand And Ash all night long. While this one exists somewhere between the genres of romance and historical fiction, it is my favorite romance in years and I am dying to find more books that are this relentlessly gripping.

A Court of Thorns and Roses (Book #1 of ACOTAR) by Sarah J. Maas

Review finished. Click here to read it. Liked it. Wish I read this much earlier when I was in the midst of reading a lot more YA/NA. Still trying many books from both genres, but some of the magic of the title is less effective after reading several similar books this year. I do get what all the fuss is about with this series though, there’s a lot of promise. I did really like the high stakes trial the heroine faces at a later point of the storyline. The last trial is clever.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Review finished. Click here to read it. Loved it. This book was long but so emotionally provocative. I loved the characters and it’s a real page turner despite the literary style and dark content. I knew the book that followed this one had to either be a guaranteed 10/10 classic or it would fail to pull me out of the haze left behind by A Little Life.

The Annotated Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Review finished. Click here to read it. Loved it. The writing/writing style is as close to excellent as writing can be, even if the concept is not anything most people would want to read about. That seems to be the point though, for this novel to challenge the writer and reader alike. Very curious now about Ada or Ardor, another book by this author.

A Court of Mist and Fury (Book #2 of ACOTAR) by Sarah J. Maas

Review finished. Click here to read it. Liked it. Will probably re-read this at a later point. I feel like anyone who liked A Court of Thorns and Roses will like this sequel, but after A Little Life still left me all but dead inside, I had trouble getting into this one at first. By book’s end I was enthralled and into trying book three. Might wait til 2020 or some months later at least. The books of this series are so long and they’re not greatest of all time epic fantasies that I can see myself fully enjoying without the time and space to make it all fresh again.

A Game of Thrones (Book #1 of ASOIAF) by George R.R. Martin

Review finished. Click here to read it. Loved it. So this IS that greatest of all time epic fantasy series that I could just marathon. It’s been a couple weeks and I still want to read Book 2 this instant and to heck with my TBR or any things in life that need doing. It’s that good. I’m showing self control for many reasons, not the least of which is that I’m not eager to join that club of people who’ve finished all there is to finish of ASOIAF stuff and are waiting who knows how long for the final book..

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

Review finished. Click here to read it. This book was just OK. I was quite in the mood for a thriller. The ideas and twists presented here were very interesting, but the execution wasn’t the greatest. But any books coming immediately after reading A Game Of Thrones would have a hard time, so looking back I have to admit that may have impacted the experience.

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Review finished. Click here to read it. Loved it. Astonishingly fast read, a good 400 pages but I was pretty glued to it, a great page turner. Looking forward to watching the show and apparently there may be a sequel coming out- I was happy to hear that since there’s plenty of room for more exploration of this title’s quirky little town.

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Really glad I managed to finish all my reviews for these titles! That month was quite a doozy. Have you read any of these books or plan to? How was your July reading-wise? Thanks so much for reading my thoughts.

All the best,

Kitty