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7/1: Love Hard (Hard Play #3) by Nalini Singh (library ebook, 2020) - Sometimes you just want to read a romance novel about a rugby star single father falling in love, you know? Excellent romance. There is a ridiculous scene where he makes her orgasm simply by touching her breasts, though, and that is worth docking a half a point. 4.5/5 stars
7/3: Edge of Eternity (The Century Trilogy #3) by Ken Follett (library audiobook read by John Lee, 2014) - Such a brilliant series. Really brilliant. 5/5 stars
7/4: After World by Debbie Urbanski (library, 2023) - Dark book to finish on Independence Day. 4/5 stars
7/6: True Biz by Sara Nović (library, 2022) - I learned quite a bit about Deaf culture. 4/5 stars
7/7: An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten, translated from Swedish by Marlaine Delargy (university library, 2021) - Not as good as the original, but Maud is still pretty awesome. 4/5 stars
7/7: Ghosted by Rosie Walsh (library ebook, 2018) - Not the right structure for me. 2/5 stars
7/9: The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip (library, 1974) - Look at this cover! It makes you think a dragon is a big part of the book, doesn't it? LIES!! Bad 1970s romantasy. Boo. 2/5 stars
7/13: Iris Kelly Doesn't Date (Bright Falls #3) by Ashley Herring Blake - Sadly, the quality of the books in this series just gets worse and worse. I LOVED the first book, thought the second one was pretty good, and thought that the two main characters here should definitely not have been together. Too bad. I know Blake can write a very good romance, but this didn't work for me. 2/5 stars
7/19: Women and Children First by Alina Grabowski (library, 2024) - Look this is a me problem, not the book problem. I just didn't care for the structure of changing narrators every chapter. I just didn't feel like I got to know the characters well enough. 3.5/5 stars
7/19: Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal (library, 2023) - Fine. I like the Minnesota setting. I found it sort of lackluster, though, for the same reasons I found Women and Children First to be sort of meh. Too many characters, time jumps, and we never really settled in to learn about people. Frustrating. 3/5 stars
7/25: World War Z by Max Brooks (library audiobook, abridged version with the full Hollywood cast, 2006) - You know what? I enjoyed reading this book in the past and I enjoyed listening to it, too. Super interesting look at what a potential global crisis could turn into. 4/5 stars
7/25: All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker (library, 2024) - Interesting. The writing was sometimes purposefully obtuse and I didn't love that. 4/5 stars
7/27: Paladin's Strength (The World of the White Rat: The Saint of Steel #2) by T. Kingfisher (library ebook, 2021) - I am not enjoying this trilogy as much as I want to. I just looked it up. It's actually a quartet. I'm dead. 3/5 stars
Average star score: 3.46/5 stars
Did Not Finish
Erebos by Ursula Poznanski, translated by Judith Pattinson (library, 2010) - One of the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge prompts is a book that centers on video games and this was an attempt at that prompt. To be completely honest with you, there was too much time spent in the videogame and I just did not care. I might have to reread Ready Player One to fulfill this prompt. DNF at page 144 (33.2%).
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This is the second month in a row I did not read any non-fiction. What's a good non-fiction recommendation for me to read next month?
Well well well it just so happens that I have a few nonfic recs. #1 would be something by Alexandra Horowitz. The book of hers that I read was The Year of the Puppy, and she has several other books about dogs. The Wives by Simone Gorrindo was great as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm loving ICTC so far!
I now have "Inside of a Dog" by Horowitz on my Libby as an audiobook and will be listening on a roadtrip soon!
DeleteI have read the first chapter of ICTC and am finding it charming. I really need to get a move on!
Still haven't gotten my hands on the Sara Novic--looking forward to that. Engie--I'm not much of a romance reader, but I overrule your objection to the breast-orgasm scene. Grrrl, let her have her jollies!
ReplyDeleteI do have a rec for what not to read in non-fic. I downloaded Thomas Picketty's _Capital_ (I thought it would be like Matthew Desmond's _Evicted_) and couldn't get past the preliminary pages for all the equations. Wait--YOU're good at that, right? Perhaps you should read it and explain it to me!
Okay, so maybe this is a *me* problem, but I just don't think it's possible for someone to orgasm just from breast play. I mean, maybe they can, but it's rare and I'd like the authors of these romance novels to address that. I dunno. I just think...orgasms are far more work than that and these romance novels are all like "he touched her and she came" and I'm over here side-eyeing the whole thing.
DeleteCapital!! Ha ha ha! I would never even try. That's so funny. No thanks!
If you're not loving the Paladin books, let them go: she's still writing them, so there will be more! I do happen to love them, but every book isn't for every reader, life is too short, etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteMemoir counts as nonfiction, right? Because I read Dancing at the Pity Party, which is a graphic memoir, and it was really good---at least as long as a story of her mother dying isn't a no-go for the reader.
Ugh. I want to like the Paladin books and they're an integral part of the White Rat world, so I want to read them. I just want them to be 25% shorter and 25% funnier and less boring inner monologue. Is that too much to ask, T. Kingfisher?!
DeleteI liked the J. Ryan Stradal book quite a bit but my favorite of his was Kitchens of the Great Midwest but it's more like connect short stories/vignettes than a story told in linear fashion so it might not work for you (if you haven't read it). It can be confusing to remember who is who and how the characters relate but it worked for me.
ReplyDeleteJuly was a really strong reading month for me. I just need to get my act in gear and write a post about it! One of my favorites was "wandering souls" which is a novel about 3 teens that fled Vietnam during the war. It's a short novel but really packed a punch!
Okay, I added "Wandering Souls" to my audiobook TBR. I wanted to put a hold on it, but I've maxed out my holds. *sigh*
DeleteI haven't read any non-fiction in a while either. I do have Master, Slave, Husband, Wife in my holds and I'm eager to read it, but I haven't been in the right headspace right now to tackle non-fiction. I'm also slowly making my way through Our Red Book, a collection of essays about periods. I like it a lot, but also... not always in the right mood to read it.
ReplyDeleteI never even heard of Master, Slave, Husband, Wife, but it sounds great. I added it to my Libby TBR. I know I should read Our Red Book, but it sounds exhausting. LOL. Maybe for a different time in my life.
DeleteIt is always weird when the cover of the book is misleading! There certainly should have been dragons in that book!
ReplyDeleteThere was a dragon, but we barely got to hang out with him. Boo!
DeleteWell, I have the first book in the Ken Follett trilogy on my trip with me and will start it tonight! I can't wait.
ReplyDeleteI hope you love it as much as I did!
DeleteWomp, womp. I'm sorry you didn't love Iris Kelly Doesn't Date. Our romance disagreement strikes again! I did love the book but I could also highly relate to Iris so that helped.
ReplyDeleteHave you read any of Amanda Montell's nonfiction? I really like her work! Cultish was the latest one I've read and I enjoyed it!
July for me went something like this: DNF, 2 stars, 3 stars, DNF... actually I had a few four stars and one was Follett's Never, which is about a possible WWIII. I also enjoyed Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice For Murderers, which was a quirky and quick read about an annoying older woman who tries to solve a murder.
ReplyDeleteI'm reading book 1 of Ken Follett's Century Trilogy right now. Thanks for recommending it. Wow. This book is excellent, maybe even better than his Catherdral series.
ReplyDeleteYou make me laugh with your assessments: I'm dead. And also taking off half a star for a never-gonna-happen orgasm gave me the giggles. (also did not give me an O---now I'm really giggling.)
ReplyDeleteAnd again I scribble down some titles on my TBR...
ReplyDeleteSo far I have steered cleaf of the Century Trilogy for some reason even though I love a Ken Follet book. Might be time to pick it up.