What did you read in July?

[cole]

All out of 5 stars:

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond - 5 stars

Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women by Sarah Helm - 4 stars

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer - 3 stars

Life's Work: A Moral Argument for Choice by Dr. Willie Parker - 5 stars

Goodreads says I'm on track right now, 35/60. The Ravensbrück book took the bulk of the month, well written and very detailed, just emotionally draining and long (about 650 pages) so it was a few weeks to get through.

[oliviapope]

Aug 3, 2017 8:32:32 GMT -5 litskispeciality said:

I love you ladies (and gents) for reading so many books and giving me new ideas. Do you have any insight or advice on how you can read so many books?

Be unemployed? Lol, I had nothing but time. I also read pretty quickly and have since I was a kid. I also don't really watch much TV.

[litskispeciality]

Aug 3, 2017 9:31:47 GMT -5 rainbowchip said:

I also choose books carefully and I have no problem quitting books if they aren't working for me. I have no desire to make reading feel like a chore.[/quote]

I really need to work on this. I think I'm too optimistic about books (especially highly recommended books) getting better so I never drop a book. [/quote][/b]

Yes me too! I was just saying I fell behind because The Gunslinger took me too long. I feel bad putting books down, but I'd be able to pick a new one up.

I tend to watch tv before bed. I need to put that time into reading, I bet I'd have an easier time winding down and hitting a few more pages.

Thanks for the advice!

[ssmjlm]

All the Lies We Tell (Quarry Road 1) - 2 stars
The River at Night - 1 star
All the Secrets We Keep (Quarry Road 2) - 2 stars
Stillhouse Lake - 4 stars
Gone Without a Trace - 2 stars
It Ends with Us - 3 stars

The Quarry Road books were Amazon Prime lenders. I was on vacation and none of my library books were available so I searched and somehow ended up with the first one and then thought, meh read the second. They were just ok.

Reading challenge I'm at 45/50. I think I aimed too low again.

litskispeciality I read mostly at night. So DH will head to bed at 9 and I'll spend another hour reading on my kindle. I will also read in the early morning on the weekends before everyone is up because I'm an early riser.

[ufcasey]

Aug 3, 2017 10:41:44 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Aug 3, 2017 8:39:28 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

I'm cracking up because that's the book I am reading right now just because I felt like I should try to read some more classics and WHY AM I DOING THIS BECAUSE THIS BOOK IS SO BORING. Your post is giving me the courage to just quit it already.

I also never did any of the challenges because I didn't like the idea of picking my books solely on some random checklist criteria.

I LOVE that book!!

Sorry, already quit it and returned it! I got to the part where the one guy is asking the father if he can pursue his daughter. Does it get better or is up to that point pretty representative of how the rest of the book is paced? Because I couldn't figure out what the heck this book was supposed to be about, with what I read so far.

[MrsAxilla]

Aug 3, 2017 13:20:01 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

Aug 3, 2017 10:41:44 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

I LOVE that book!!

Sorry, already quit it and returned it! I got to the part where the one guy is asking the father if he can pursue his daughter. Does it get better or is up to that point pretty representative of how the rest of the book is paced? Because I couldn't figure out what the heck this book was supposed to be about, with what I read so far.

With Dickens, the payoff seems to come at the end.  I always have a hard time getting into it because of the syntax, but by the end I'm sobbing "so good!"  Maybe try again sometime.  

[BlackCanary]

Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher 5*
Captain's Fury by Jim Butcher 5*
Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher 5*
As Old As Time by Liz Braswell 4*

My goal is 30 books, I currently am at 25.

[mrspez07]

The Dinner by Herman Koch 2*
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher 3*
Faithful Place by Tana French 4*
Re-read of An Echo In The Bone by Diana Gabaldon (note on this: I'm also listening to John Adams by David McCullough right now, the overlap of time and mention of the same real people is why I love historical fiction with reference to real people and places!)
Caraval by Stephanie Garber 3*

I'm in a good place for the year.

[aurora]

I had a pretty big July:

Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon
City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin (audiobook)
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert (audiobook)
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling (audiobook)
The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

I don't have a goal, but I'm ahead of where I was last year at this time (36 vs 28). Three of these (WMOHB, HPDH, and TGS) are all re-reads for me so I guess I was in a comfort-book mood.

I'm getting impatient for Diana Gabaldon to finish the Outlander series already! Or at least publish the next book.

[aurora]

Aug 2, 2017 21:45:27 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

I can't with you ladies reading so damn fast! I look at my list at the end of each month like "surely I forgot to log four or five books??" NOPE. I'm averaging two a month.

Homegoing - 5 stars
Who Thought This Was a Good Idea - 4 stars

I've found that I'm far less motivated to post when I only finish 2 books in a month. Maybe that skews the perception here?

(It's not because I'm embarrassed, just less excited and therefore less likely to remember to log in from my computer where I keep my list.)

[aurora]

Aug 3, 2017 8:39:28 GMT -5 ufcasey said:

Aug 3, 2017 7:41:05 GMT -5 snshne322 said:

I never did the challenges either.  I think they're interesting, but what I like to read never quite fit in the spots.  And like you mentioned, I don't want it to feel like a chore. I'm going to read all the romance I damn well want to and not feel bad about not reading Jane Austin, Moby Dick or A Tale of Two Cities because I feel like I should read more classics. 

I'm cracking up because that's the book I am reading right now just because I felt like I should try to read some more classics and WHY AM I DOING THIS BECAUSE THIS BOOK IS SO BORING. Your post is giving me the courage to just quit it already.

I also never did any of the challenges because I didn't like the idea of picking my books solely on some random checklist criteria.

This wording gave me an epiphany: I probably like challenges purely because I'm obsessed with checking things off lists!

That said, I never worry if I don't get to 100% of a challenge so I guess I'm not obsessive about it. I just find it kind of fun to think about matching books with categories. Although, I did have to think for a while about whether I could categorize The Sixth Extinction as having a red cover when only one edition of it does and I read the Kindle version.

Finally, I ended up really liking A Tale of Two Cities, but I can see why it's not for everyone. I first read it in high school but then re-read it a few years ago.

[rainbowchip]

aurora or anyone else. How many more books are expected in the Outlander series?

[aurora]

Aug 4, 2017 10:30:17 GMT -5 rainbowchip said:

aurora or anyone else. How many more books are expected in the Outlander series?

I don't think she knows. I think she's said that this next one won't be the last.

[ally]

I feel accomplished for reading four books!  My new ability to borrow from the library electronically does keep me motivated - so many choices, holds come up, deadline to read...all in all a good thing.

Commonwealth, Ann Patchett 4*
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan 5*
The Hate You Give, Angie Thomas 5*
Murder in Time, Julie McElwain 4*

[AJL]

(Ratings out of 5 stars)

Wildfire (Hidden Legacy #3) by Ilona Andrews - 4.5*
Winter Kill by Josh Lanyon - 3.5*
Faking It by Christine D'Abo - 4*
Making It by Christine D'Abo - 4*
The Mystery of Curiosities by C.S. Poe - 4*
The Mystery of Nevermore by C.S. Poe - 4*

Goal = 100 books
Read = 66 books to date 

[AJL]

Aug 4, 2017 10:37:05 GMT -5 aurora said:

Aug 4, 2017 10:30:17 GMT -5 rainbowchip said:

aurora or anyone else. How many more books are expected in the Outlander series?

I don't think she knows. I think she's said that this next one won't be the last.

She says the series will likely end with book 10.
ew.com/article/2016/10/30/diana-gabaldon-last-outlander-novel/

[aurora]

Aug 5, 2017 22:07:46 GMT -5 AJL said:

Aug 4, 2017 10:37:05 GMT -5 aurora said:

I don't think she knows. I think she's said that this next one won't be the last.

She says the series will likely end with book 10.
ew.com/article/2016/10/30/diana-gabaldon-last-outlander-novel/

So...2025? 2030? Looks like she's had a wide range of time frames between books so it's hard to predict!

Thanks for the link, though; I obviously hadn't seen that.

[AJL]

Aug 5, 2017 23:11:50 GMT -5 aurora said:

Aug 5, 2017 22:07:46 GMT -5 AJL said:

She says the series will likely end with book 10.
ew.com/article/2016/10/30/diana-gabaldon-last-outlander-novel/

So...2025? 2030? Looks like she's had a wide range of time frames between books so it's hard to predict!

Thanks for the link, though; I obviously hadn't seen that.

I don't think it'll be that long. She's not George R. R. Martin.