July Books

Oh Boy.

I kind of want to leave it at that. I may have gone a bit over the top in July. Not that life wasn’t busy, it was, but for some reason, since starting my new job, two weeks ago, I haven’t slept for shit. I’m freaking exhausted, yes, but I’ve gotten lots of middle of the night reading in.

I was just doing calculations, for fun. Last year, I read 155 books on the year. In order to reach that goal this year, I’d have to read just under 3 books a month for the remainder of the year. Since it is not unheard of for me to read more than three books in a day, I don’t see it being a huge issue. So I will most definitely beat last year’s total, probably by a lot. I foresee beating last year’s total before the end of August, actually.

Also, I was not trying to read a book a day this month. It just sort of…..happened. Back to back months of 32 books.

Oh Boy.

July: (32 Books)

1. The 5th Wave – Rick Yancey^ (Yes, Lisa, I finally did read it!!!)

2. I Am the Weapon – Alan Zadoff^

3. The Maze Runner – James Dashner^

4. The Scorch Trials – James Dashner^

5. The Death Cure – James Dashner^

6. Close Enough To Touch – Victoria Dahl^

7. Talk Me Down – Victoria Dahl^

8. Start Me Up – Victoria Dahl^

9. Lead Me On – Victoria Dahl^

10. Too Hot To Handle – Victoria Dahl^

11. On The Fence – Kasie West^

12. So Tough To Tame – Victoria Dahl^

13. Angel – Johanna Lindsey*

14. Shattered – Kevin Hearne^

15. Simply Irresistible – Jill Shalvis^

16. We Were Liars – E. Lockhart^

17. Undone – Shannon Richard

18. Broken – Megan Hart^

19. Sweetest Mistake – Candis Terry

20. Rebel Belle – Rachel Hawkins^

21. Led Astray – Sandra Brown*

22. Wife For A Day – Patti Berg*

23. Playing For Keeps – R. L. Mathewson^

24. The Next Always – Nora Roberts^

25. The Last Boyfriend – Nora Roberts^

26. The Perfect Hope – Nora Roberts^

27. The Sweetest Thing – Jill Shalvis^

28. Head Over Heels – Jill Shalvis^

29. Nora Roberts Land – Ava Miles^

30. Perfect Pitch – Mindy Klasky^

31. Catching Hell – Mindy Klasky^

32. Welcome to Temptation – Jennifer Crusie^

What did I love? Well I already wrote an in depth blog post on Broken (linked above). I will update it by saying that my mother read the book, too and she also liked it a great deal.

Speaking of my mother, she recommended a trilogy by Nora Roberts. The Next Always, The Last Boyfriend, The Perfect Hope, collectively, The Inn Boonsboro. Not only did I like the books, but I really loved the fact that they came recommended from someone else. Lisa and Jan send me recommendations, and sometimes I can nag Elena into telling me some books, but mostly, I find things on my own. It is a sheer delight to have a recommendation —and to enjoy it so immensely.

Last month I read the Hex Hall trilogy by Rachel Hawkins and loved it, so I was looking forward to her new series, which came out this month. Rebel Belle. I was surprisingly disappointed. It wasn’t bad, but it surely did not have the sparkle and zest that Hex Hall had.

Kasie West is a teen author I adore, her newest novel, On the Fence, was delightful. Likewise with Kevin Hearne. He writes the Iron Druid Chronicles, my favorite series of the year last year. This was the latest installment, Shattered. It was a bit of a departure from recent books, but still had the same wit, humor, vocabulary, and plot twists that I’ve grown to love. Plus, Jesus showed up again, and that was one of my favorite scenes from previous books. It was awesome.

Did a few rereads, because I was jonesing for stories I already know I love, and read a lot of mediocre to crappy romance. Now let’s get to the good stuff.

Lisa has been nagging me to read The 5th Wave for….a  long time. I promised her I would get to it soon, so when I needed a book to start the month, I just picked it up and did it. It was good. No doubt. I liked the story, it was suspenseful and kept me wondering. But it was….missing something. Not really sure what, but I wouldn’t give it a rave. But I am glad I read it and I will read the sequel, due out later this year.

Then, since I was diving into my TBR (To Be Read) list (which is crazy/scary long), I decided to stay in that genre and I tackled The Maze Runner. Another one people have been raving over and there’s a movie coming out soon. This one I really liked. It was hard to get into because the author throws you in at a breakneck pace and doesn’t slow to explain, but once you adjust, it’s fantastic to be along for the ride. I enjoyed that he never slowed the pace.

The only other one I want to mention is We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. I found this on an email by Amazon. They sent the best books for the 1st half of 2014 and I skimmed all the lists, but dwelled in the teen list. This was the best teen book for the first half of the year. So I read it. And it was….terrible, not good, shallow, light on substance, poorly written, take your pick. I understand why people would say they liked it, the plot twists unexpectedly at the end, but the rest of the book was so inconsistent and immature, I was appalled at Amazon daring to recommend it to me. They very rarely let me down. It is possible (I never checked) that the list was compiled strictly off sales, in which case I couldn’t blame them, but if it was anything else, shame on them.

And, there is the July wrap up. My annual total is 141 books. Yes, I am only 14 away from last year’s total, with five full months to go. Last year, I reached 141 books in the second week of November. That puts me more than three months ahead of last year’s pace. I am currently on pace to read 242 books this year. I doubt like heck it will get that high, but then I would have never said I’d read 64 books in 2 months either. So who knows? But if you guessed low, I’m not feeling good about your chances. And I just went back to look at the list of guesses and there are a lot of low guesses. If I had to predict a winner right now, I’d be feeling pretty good to be Mark. But we will see what happens. Remember that fall tv starts in a bit over a month, that’ll slow me down for sure. Plus it’ll get colder and I won’t be able to read endless hours outside in my new hammock swing.