Book & Blog Chat: July 2020 Wrap Up
Reading Wrap-up
I only managed to get to two of the four books on my July TBR post, and I DNF’ed one. But I’m not feeling all that bad about it. Mid-month, I tried to read S. A. Chakraborty’s City of Brass, and at 60%, I just…burned out. I couldn’t follow the threads of the complex plot and struggled with learning all the necessary things needed to understand a new high fantasy world. Outside of the book, my life was wearing me down, and I just decided not to push myself.
I made the decision to clear off any SFF books on my plate for the month (that meant shelving The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway) and switching gears to paranormal horror. I figured they’d be easy to get through, since they’re set in the real world and have some fairly standard plots. By pure luck, all the creepy books I placed on hold a few weeks ago started becoming available, requiring me to rush through them, and in the end, I was unable to make it to Michael Clarke’s The Patience of a Dead Man—which is fine, because I’ll be reading it soon for sure.
Reviews in July
A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1) by V.E. Schwab (3/5 stars)
Foundryside (The Founders Trilogy #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett (3.5/5 stars)
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo (3/5 stars)
A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark (5/5 stars)
Misc posts in July
My July TBR: books I wanted to read this month
The Fourth Annual Book Blogger Awards: my nominations of award-worthy books blogs
The New 13th Shelf: introducing my new design and site
I’ve got two paranormal horrors on my August TBR, must be your influence!
Is she?? I thought she might; I think I heard another blogger mention it somewhere, but I didn’t know if it was written in stone. Yay!
Oooh, what are they?
The Year of the Witching and Wranglestone 😊