July Reading Round-Up

July has come to a close and what a month it has been!  I’ve been incredibly busy in my work, personal, and bookish lives.  From my holiday to Edinburgh to the absolute insanity of YALC, there has been so much going on and not nearly enough time to read!  Regardless, July has been an amazing month for books, so let’s take a look.

 

Books I read

A Gathering of Shadows by V. E. Schwab

Flight of a Starling by List Heathfield (DNF) (review)

The Cardinal’s Man by M. G. Sinclair (review)

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (review)

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed (review)

A Conjuring of Light by V. E. Schwab

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren E. James

I managed to read eight books this month and DNFed only one, so I’m right in line with my goal.  It was a really great month for reading in general, despite how busy I was, so I’m very pleased!  I’m going to review A Gathering of Shadows and A Conjuring of Light together because at this point I can’t separate them in my brain.  The best book I read this month was definitely The Loneliest Girl in the Universe.  An early sales copy from YALC, I am so thrilled I got to read this marvellous little book.  It is beautiful and wholly unexpected.  I highly recommend it!  A review is coming soon.

However, I only finished three ARC’s this month — The Cardinal’s Man, How to Stop Time, and Gather the Daughters, which is not great.  Only one of those is a NetGalley ARC too, which means my review percentage is plummeting.  I really need to hop back on the ball when it comes to digital ARC’s.  I have plenty of them waiting for me and I keep requesting more, it might be time to do a big push on my digital ARC’s.  However, The Cardinal’s Man was my very first blog tour post, which is very exciting!

As you can probably tell, I am a little behind on reviews.  I usually post them on Monday and Wednesday, but I’m thinking of throwing Saturday into the mix too.  That means I’ll be posting every single day of the week, which is great and stressful at the same time.

 

Books I am currently reading

Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill

I put off Sea of Rust in the lead-up to YALC so I could finish A Conjuring of Light (which is now signed!).  I’m really looking forward to diving back into this book.  I’m only about 10% in so far, but it is so compelling and fascinating.  I’m debating what to pick up next because I finished The Loneliest Girl last night and haven’t picked up anything new yet.

 

Books I bought

Non-YALC

A Conjuring of Light by V. E. Schwab

Laura by Vera Caspary

Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood

I picked up most of these on holiday in Edinburgh — or in the airport on the way there — and I have to say that I’m pleased to have actually read a couple of them!  If you don’t take YALC into account, I was quite responsible with book buying this month.  I’m very pleased with myself.

To be perfectly frank, I bought so many books at YALC that I don’t think I can actually include them here.  I’ll be doing a proper round-post for those, so stay tuned.  There will be photos.  There will be books.  There will be books and cats in photos together.  I’m excited to sort through everything I got.

 

Book post

Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed

The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams

The Farewell Tour of a Terminal Optimist by John Young

The Vorrh by Brian Catling

All my Bookbridgr requests seem to have come through at once this month!  All of these except The Farewell Tour came from that site.  I am particularly excited to read The Vorrh because it sounds so delightfully weird and complicated, but it looks like a difficult book for that exact reason.  I feel like it’s going to be one of those books that I’ll either love or hate.

 

Overall, it has been a pretty good month.  I’ve done well for physical books, but need to make a push on ARC’s.  I’ve also got this HUGE YALC book haul to sort through and prioritise.  I’ll come up with an August reading strategy and figure out what I’ll be reading next!

What have you read this month?  Have you read anything featured here?  Are any on your TBR?  Do you have a monthly round up?  Let me know in the comments, I’d love to take a look!