So, reading has been pretty great for me this summer! In July I was able to read 15 books so as with June I am going to break it down into two more manageable chunks for your consumption. I feel like after this month my reading is going to slow down sooooo much with work taking up my entire life. This first part is just the books I read outside of the readathons I completed and the next piece will be the readathon books. Without further ado, here are the books that I read outside of readathons in July!
Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare
[5 Stars] I really enjoyed reading the finale to this trilogy (The Dark Artifices). I found the twists and turns to be super intriguing and the end was fantastic! Gosh, it is super hard to talk about this book without spoilers. I definitely think this is my second favorite series after The Infernal Devices!
Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga
{5 Stars} So I loved this story! Jasmine did a fantastic job setting up a story in verse that was just so compelling. Jude was a great character to follow and her dealing with having to leave her home and assimilate into American culture, understanding family, and racism. It was such a quick and important read and I hope tons of people read it!
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
{5 stars} This was a reread for me because I learned that Lin-Manuel Miranda does the audio book and I immediately put it on hold on Libby. I really loved this story when I first read it and that feeling did not change through this second reading. Ari and Dante are such great and realistic characters that I just adore. This story is so gripping and just thoroughly enjoyable.
The Blue Witch by Alane Adams
{4 stars} I received this book from Booksparks for free as part of their #flatabby summer challenge. I really enjoyed the story, it is definitely a more middle grade fun type of story but it worked out really well. I liked the friendship between Abby and Hugo. The story was just simply charming! I did find out that this is a prequel series to another series of Alane’s so I need to get my hands on that story!
Girling Up by Mayim Bialik
{5 stars} I really appreciate this book for all of its humor and real information. Mayim does a great job at making the awkward information palatable for kids and easy to read and understand. As an adult I would love to use this book to teach my future children about their bodies and would love to have a bunch of copies in my science classroom.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
{5 stars} This book took me by surprise in all the right ways! I don’t read a lot of adult novels but the hype around this book was just unavoidable. Kya was such an interesting and multifaceted character and I just found her super intriguing. I liked the dual timeline and the mystery aspect of the story that I wasn’t completely expecting. This made me more appreciative of adult novels.
Ghosts of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare and Friends
{3 stars} I liked most of the stories in this novella collection but I felt very detached from them and not completely invested. My favorite collection was the Tales from Shadowhunter Academy because I was more invested in Simon’s story and the background we learned from that collection more. I think that these stories will be important in the next series but until then, I was not connected to the stories. I love Jem and Tessa and they brightened up these stories so much for me.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think?
Be on the look out for my next post which will have the books I read during the bibliothon and Reading Rush!
The Bookish Hollow 