Welcome to another monthly wrap up post. July is probably one of my favourite reading months this year. I tried so many different reads this month and I enjoyed so many of them! I mean, there were obviously some disappointments and some books that I thought I’d enjoy more but alas, you won’t love everything. Read one yo find out what I read in July!
July Reads
1. The Traitor Queen by Danielle L. Jensen – ★★★★★ || I love this series with my whole heart! I read book one earlier this year and it became an instant favourite. The sequel was no different. This book is so so good! If you haven’t read this year please do (note that this is adult fantasy)
2. The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend – ★★★★★ || This was my second 5 star read of July! This book went above and beyond my expectations. One of the best middle grade series out there. If I can convince you to read one book please let it be this one.
3. The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin – ★★★★★ || The 5 star reads kept on coming! This one was a reread but I loved it even more than the first time. I love how creepy and dark this series is. Will always be a favourite.
4. Black Widow Volume 1: The Finely Woven Thread by Nathan Edmondson – ★★★ || I watched Black Widow in cinema and ever since then I’ve been hunting for Black Widow comics. This first volume was pretty interesting. I know quite a bit about Natasha’s backstory I just thought we’d get a tiny bit more here.
5. Black Widow: Homecoming by Richard K. Morgan – ★★★ || This one had some of the backstory I was hoping for! Really enjoyed this one.
6. Black Widow: The Itsy-Bitsy Spider by Devon Grayson – ★★★ || Enjoyed the first half but the second was a meh. Didn’t like this one as much.
7. The Wonder by Emma Donoghue – ★★★★ || Was intrigued by this and then found out Florence Pugh was going to star in the movie adaptation and just had to read it! A little slow for the most part but was very shocking and surprisingly darker than I thought it would be. This book was really something.
8. Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk by Nikolai Leskov – ★★★★ || Was debating between 3 or 4 stars but decided to go with the latter. Heard the Lady Macbeth movie was based off of this novella and since I’m trying to read out of my comfort zone decided to give it a go. Was expecting infidelity but there were some twists!
9. You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann – ★★ || Definitely not what I expected. Didn’t enjoy this even half as much as I’d hoped I would. It was just very meh for me.
10. The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn – ★★★ || Unpopular opinion time, this was okay. I liked it a lot more than The Girl on the Train but it did not live up to the hype to be honest. I read it in one day and enjoyed a lot of it but I felt like it dragged in the middle and the ending though it was surprising fell flat after a moment.
11. Dolly by Elizabeth Bear – ★★★ || I read Dolly in the Apex Magazine (the only short story I’m interested in at the moment). I heard it was an interesting short story and decided to dive in. It was interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing what Apple TV does with it.
12. The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis – ★★★★ || Enjoyed this so much for than I expected! I had some tiny issues with this book but overall it was a really fun read. I don’t know much about chess but reading this didn’t really confuse me at all.
13. Normal People by Sally Rooney – ★★★★ || This was one of those books that I never thought I’d read. I’ve seen it so many times but I just had it in my head that I wasn’t interested enough. That’s the best thing about picking books up on a whim, they always end up surprising you. This was repetitive at time and quite frustrating but I enjoyed it so much! Even finished it in one sitting.
TBR Tackle
Number of books on July TBR: 7 Books
Number of books completed from TBR: 2
—
Books completed from TBR
Genre Jar
I started a new personal challenge at the end of July which was the creation of the Genre Jar. I’ve been reading different things this year and enjoying my time. I made the genre jar as a way of being spontaneous with my reading. I basically have some slips of paper with different genres on each. Each time I’m in the mood for a surprise and pick a slip at random, see what genre I got and pick a book from my TBR. I started this at the end of the month so I only managed to have 2 pulls but I loved the experience!
Pull 1: Contemporary
Book Read: The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis
Pull 2: Romance
Book Read: Normal People by Sally Rooney
What were your favourite reads in July?
The Perks of Being Noura 
This looks like such a good reading month! Not gonna lie, I’m obsessed with you reading Black Widow comics 😂 Nat is one of my favourite fictional characters of all time and I really need to get in on the comic grind, I even have a Marvel Unlimited subscription…so all I need to do is actually read them!
My July consisted of me reading one self-help book on mental health and then just listening to The Martian 5 times in a row, whoops. I think both of those say a lot about the state of my mental health last month 🙈
LikeLike
Haha I was living for Black Widow 😂 definitely recommend giving these a try. They were pretty good 👍
Wow 5 times?! Been obsessed with the idea of reading it. Should probably get to it. I’ll count this as motivation 😂
LikeLike
I never knew there were Black Widow books. I need to try Sally Rooney.
LikeLike
The comics are pretty good. Would definitely recommend giving them a try 👍
LikeLiked by 1 person
Looks like you had a great reading month!! Normal People is a book I’ve been dying to read… it’s so nice seeing so many people loving it!
I think my favorite read of July was How To Fail At Flirting by Denise Williams. It was such a good book 🙂
The Bookish Life of Tiffany
LikeLike
I did! Really happy with my book picks. I would recommend reading Normal People. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it but I ending up liking it a lot more than expected.
Ooh I’ll have to look that one up then! Hope your August is a good one 🤍
LikeLiked by 1 person
I loved reading “The Yearbook” by Holly Bourne !
Lovely WRAP UP 🙂
LikeLike
Ooh I’ll have to look into that one. Thanks for reading!
LikeLike