July Wrap Up

How on earth is summer already almost over? I swear, every year the summer months get shorter while the dark winter months get longer. Or maybe it just seems that way because I now live in a grey, rainy place where sunlight is at a premium.

I made pretty good use of the sunshine in July, though, reading outside in my garden every chance I could with my reading buddy Zorro by my side.

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The Books I Read in July

It was devastating reading about the destruction of so many books, as I’m sure it would be for any other book nerds. Still, it was utterly fascinating and I learned so much not just about LA’s history and library fire, but about libraries, librarians, and book preservation too. Our libraries are treasures that are vital to the communities they serve and hopefully this book will raise more awareness to prevent more of them being shuttered.

Fun fact: When my mother’s family moved to the US, they lived in Los Angeles. Some of her first memories of LA are of her grandmother taking her to the impressive and towering Los Angeles Central Library.

Another fun fact: Unbeknownst to us, my mother and I checked this book out from our respective libraries (which are 5,000 miles apart) and started reading them within a couple days of each other.

A delightful ARC that Penguin sent me, due to be released next year. I’ll be putting a review on my blog soon.

A provocative Australian thriller about the real life impact shows like Making a Murderer have on communities. Read my review here.

What Commander Chris Hadfield has done for space agencies’ images is undeniable. It turns out he’s a pretty great writer, too. A lot of this “guide” is about having a positive outlook on life, a trope I’m not usually a fan of, but I have to say some of his advice did resonate with me. Like giving yourself credit for your minor victories, even for something as small as building a shelf. Because if you base your life solely on your major accomplishments you’ll just send yourself down a depressing spiral.

Most of the book was about what it is actually like to become astronaut and what the job entails, because you’re hardly ever in space (if at all). The insights to the day to day of space exploration both in the skies and on the ground were captivating. Who knew that each and every space walk is planned and trained for months or years in advance? I didn’t! I have a much better appreciation now for what our astronauts and ground crews do on a daily basis.

Another Australian thriller, this time about a woman who learns she is actually an American child who disappeared from her home as a toddler. Review coming shortly!

An awesome collection of speculative and science fiction stories. My favourite was about what were basically sentient Neopets and the people who forgot them as technology and fads shifted. From time to time I still feel a pang of guilt when I think of my long abandoned Neopets.

Influenced by The X-Files and Stranger Things, The Dark Above features aliens, government cover ups, and a little girl with deadly powers. Read my review here.

Part historical fiction, part murder mystery, part ghost story. I listened to the audiobook and completely fell in love with those poor girls.

A terrifying and mind bending horror story set in the Northern Californian mountains. Read my review here!

The second in a series following two children living in a steampunk England where automatons and steamcarriages fill the streets. It was tocking adorable! Review to come soon.

From my experience, Margaret Atwood never writes anything that isn’t amazing. I’ve read several of her books, but because I’m attending one of her lectures in October I’m trying to read more of them. I can’t say this is my favourite of the books I’ve read by her, but for me it was a solid 4 star dystopian tale that gave me the chills.

This ended up being completely different than what I was expecting! I checked out the audiobook from my library purely because of the good reviews I had seen and didn’t read the synopsis. What a twisty, weird, and fun book it turned out to be!

The DNF’ed of July

I saw this bouncing around on Goodreads and thought I would give it a try despite the negative reviews. At first it was off to a pretty decent start: it was well written and relevant to me, since much like the author, I’ve had to pick up the pieces after losing everything including my perceived identity. However, the book soon became very repetitive and overly melodramatic so I began to lose interest. I tried a few other chapters, but this book was essentially an uncurated collection of bitter diary entries.

While writing can certainly help people during their darkest days, I’m not sure that what you write necessarily needs to be published. I commend her for putting herself out there, but ultimately this was completely unreadable for me.

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How did your July reading go? Have you read any of these? Let me know in the comments!