Wrap Up: July 2018 or that was a binge read.

As you can see below I went a bit over-board with the Kate Daniels books but I could NOT stop reading them. For most of the month I was more or less up to date with my ARCs and as such could just read what I want to read and apparently I wanted to read pretty much a whole series in a month. And then I went on a requesting spree on NetGalley (so my reading will be a bit more balanced next month).

Books read in July:

1. Magic Burns (Kate Daniels #2) by Ilona Andrews: 4 out of 5 stars
2. Magic Strikes (Kate Daniels #3) by Ilona Andrews: 4,5 out of 5 stars
3. Magic Bleeds (Kate Daniels #4) by Ilona Andrews: 4,5 out of 5 stars
4. Swimmer Among the Stars by Kanishk Tharoor: 3 out of 5 stars
5. Magic Slays (Kate Daniels #5) by Ilona Andrews: 4 out of 5 stars
6. Suicide Club by Rachel Heng: 2 out of 5 stars
7. Delicate Edible Birds by Lauren Groff: 4,5 out of 5 stars
8. Magic Rises (Kate Daniels #6) by Ilona Andrews: 3 out of 5 stars
9. Magic Breaks (Kate Daniel #7) by Ilona Andrews: 4 out of 5 stars
10. Magic Shifts (Kate Daniels #8) by Ilona Andrews: 4 out of 5 stars
11. Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires: 4 out of 5 stars
12. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss: 3 out of 5 stars
13. Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race: 3 out of 5 stars

Favourite of the month:

I mean, the obvious answer is all the Kate Daniels books. I had so much fun reading them and I cannot wait to finish the series. It might not be the best thing to have ever been written but I am enjoying it so much and I am so very invested in everybody’s journey. (My mini-reviews for the first five books can be found here.)

I also really enjoyed Lauren Groff’s Delicate Edible Birds; her stories are intricately structured and wonderfully human. I now own all her books and will have to get to her two remaining novels soon.

Stats(ish):

I have read the ridiculous amount of 13 books (with 3916) pages this month, which is the most I have read in I don’t even know how long. Of these 13 books, one was written by a man, five were written by women, and seven were written by a husband and wife team. I read seven fantasy books, three short story collections, one essay collection, one dystopian novel, and one literary fiction novel.

Currently reading:

Books I should get to next:

I have a few ARCs I want to get to this month, most importantly City of Lies by Sam Hawke and Can You Tolerate This? by Ashleigh Young. I also hope to read Everything Under as soon as I finish The Mars Room. I also finally caved and bought myself a copy of Red Sister by Mark Lawrence and won’t be able to hold off reading for much longer. The rave reviews for this one are serious.

(Some of the) blog posts I loved:

I adored Teagan and Jess’ review for Dragon Actually.

Zuky’s list of authors whose next book she is impatiently awaiting is a topic I will have to steal – I love it.

I do like it when people talk about the books that did not quite work for them – if you do as well you should check out Ally’s list of books she thought she would like more than she did.

Laila’s review of The Fire This Time (ed. by Jesmyn Ward) reminded me that I really need to get to this book soon.

Alice wrote a great review of My Brilliant Friend, a book I have been wanting to read for ages, and made me even more excited for it. Talking of which, has anybody read the German translation? Is it wort reading or do I better pick up the English version?

Hadeer’s review of Mr. Darcy, Vampire is just beyond brilliant.

If you are as excited about the Man Booker Prize longlist announcement you should check out Rachel’s and Elle’s thoughts on the list. (PS: If you talked about the Prize somewhere, please do let me know, I want to read everybody’s thoughts!)