The Terror of Knowing

Welcome one, welcome all, to my July Wrap Up. It’s been a pretty good month overall. Although I’ve had a massive impending deadline at work which is super important of 1st August (fingers crossed all is well since I’m writing this post the day before then!) and has made me a little stressed, thereby aggravating my skin (ugh) again, there have also been some good things to come out of this month. For a start, me and Liz went to see The Killers play the Macron Stadium in Bolton as part of their UK Wonderful Wonderful tour. We’d caught them earlier in the tour when they stopped by Liverpool but we jumped at the chance to see them again. Unfortunately, the venue itself was terrible and the organisation wasn’t just shoddy, it was downright dangerous. (Although I’m not one for writing letters, believe me, a complaint letter is pending on this occasion.) However, The Killers themselves were incredible. There’s something about their music that just makes complete strangers feel it’s acceptable to grab you and pull you into a dancing circle of people for no other ulterior motive than simply wanting to belt out All These Things That I’ve Done together. It’s genuinely great. I’ll be keeping an eye out for when The Killers visit the UK again because I’ll be there, with (metaphorical) bells on.

In terms of my reading, July has been a funny sort of month. As you will see from the post below, my productivity definitely fluctuated in July, but I didn’t realise just how badly it had until I put together the dates I’d started and finished these books. Even so, it picked up towards the end of the month and I managed to get some books read and discovered a new favourite graphic novel series, so that was very pleasing news! Also, I started participating in Laura’s The Full Monte readalong, where we’re reading Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo in six weeks – check out my weekly posts on that, if you’re curious. On top of making progress in that, I also managed to re-read a book I’ve been meaning to for a long time now and I’m also tentatively making my first steps towards finishing off some series I really need to finish.

It’s safe to say that I well and truly embraced my newly purchased Scribd subscription (with a little back-up from my Audible account on one occasion) as you can see from the fact that every single one of these books was either an ebook or audiobook. I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by the amount of new and interesting releases available on Scribd so I’m really happy I took the plunge and signed up, though I will say that my physical TBR is now looking on with jealousy since I’ve sorely neglected it this month – let’s hope August sees a return to my bookshelves so they don’t feel too put out by my new love for Scribd. (I swear I’m not spon.)

So without further ado, let’s take a look at the books I read in the month of July:

In June, I read a total of 7 books – 7 fiction and 0 non-fiction – and 2 were re-reads (marked by *). This amounted to 1873 pages in total.

In terms of format: 4 were ebooks and 3 were audiobooks.

And as for genre, very broadly speaking, 2 were contemporary romance; 1 was YA sci-fi/romance; 1 was a classic; and 3 were contemporary graphic novels.

Onto the books themselves…

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: contemporary; romance
Format: ebook
Pages: 336
Read: 1st – 5th July
Review: To come

Roomies by Christina Lauren

Rating: 4/5
Genre: contemporary; romance
Format: audiobook
Pages: 368
Read: 14th – 22nd July
Review: “I have never worked in the theatre biz and I have never had a fake anything (let alone marriage) but I found Roomies surprisingly relatable and that’s its true strength. Sure enough, the tropey fake marriage plot line is done very well, and Calvin is a very appealing prospect, but what I enjoyed most was how real Holland felt to me. Working in the theatre industry, being surrounded by people who are so super talented at playing instruments and writing music, Holland feels ordinary by comparison – it won’t be a surprise to learn that this feeling is one which is incredibly relatable to me, regardless of how different our situations in life are.” (full review here)

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray *

Rating: 4/5
Genre: young-adult; science fiction; romance
Format: audiobook
Pages: 373
Read: 23rd – 24th July
Review: “What sounds like it will be a fast-paced race through different personalities and iterations of the story’s characters in fact is more thoughtful, raising bigger questions about scientific discovery, morality and ethics, and the effect of death. Providing that the reader is willing to suspend disbelief and buy into the science surrounding the Firebird device, A Thousand Pieces of You proves to be an engaging read as we follow Marguerite through time and space in search of runaway Paul.” (full review here)

Giant Days, Vol. 1 by John Allison, Lissa Treiman and Whitney Cogar

Rating: 4/5
Genre: graphic novel; contemporary
Format: ebook
Pages: 128
Read: 22nd – 24th July
Review: This was SO much fun, I love the bright and colourful art style, and it makes me weirdly nostalgic for university.

Giant Days, Vol. 2 by John Allison, Lissa Treiman, Max Sarin, and Whitney Cogar

Rating: 5/5
Genre: graphic novel; contemporary
Format: ebook
Pages: 128
Read: 24th – 26th July

Giant Days, Vol. 3 by John Allison, Lissa Treiman, Max Sarin, Jim Campbell, and Whitney Cogar

Rating: 4/5
Genre: graphic novel; contemporary
Format: ebook
Pages: 112
Read: 26th -27th July

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen *

Rating: 5/5
Genre: classics
Format: audiobook
Pages: 428
Read: 27th – 31st July
Review: One of my favourite books of all-time, this has become such a nostalgic, comfort read by this point that I’d probably struggle to properly review it with any degree of objectivity. During this re-read, however, I chose to listen to it rather than read it and I am pleased to say that the audiobook, narrated by Rosamund Pike (once a Jane Bennet on-screen) was delightful and extremely engaging. (Full review to come)

How did your July reading go?
What was your favourite book you read this month?
Please do share in the comments below and let’s chat books!

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