July Books

Oh, you all.  July was kind of a ridiculous month with respect to reading.  Ridiculous, as in -- it took me the entire month to finish one and a half books.  And even that WAS A CHALLENGE!


Here's the story:

Book -- One Half

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Well the whole internet was atwitter about this book and I certainly thought it sounded interesting.  It was claimed to be any one of the following: Harry Potter meets Twilight, Not Your Daughter's Vampire Novel, A Paranormal Romance for Grownups -- and while I agree with the accuracy of most of these sentiments, the most overwhelming quality of this book?   IT IS 600 PAGES.

For some reason, the length to me made it feel like a bit of a slog.  It's not like I can't read that many pages  -- I generally read 6-8 books per month which is far more than 600 pages -- but something about 600 pages OF THE SAME STORY just feels like climbing Everest when I just want to sit down and relax.  It felt like work.  

The entire story and premise were fascinating, the pace worked well, but I was busy at the beginning of the month and was reading 10 pages here and there and I began to dread picking it up because I was making NO PROGRESS.  I realize that technically this is not a reflection of the book, but a reflection of my reading shortcomings, so I don't want confuse the two.  The book was just fine at being entertaining, but it was a library book that I couldn't renew and after paying a week's worth of late fees, I had to give up.  So I only got through about half.  SOB!


The silver lining (or perhaps the Universe issuing a challenge) is that last night when I stopped by the library another copy was available.  I hate being a quitter, so damn if I didn't pick it up and  check it out AGAIN!  I guess that means you may have to hear about this book next month, so prepare yourself.  But I hear it actually gets better later on, so maybe I will have a whole new attitude.

The book I did actually finish this month (and thank god there was at least one!):

The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong 

This was light and Young-Adulty.   Moody Pacific Northwest Town, Mysterious Incidents, People Who Can Shapeshift-- any of this sounding familiar? So yeah, originality is not the most notable thing about this book.  It was, however, pretty well written and definitely engaging enough for me to finish in a day and half.  At 359 pages it was just the boost I needed to bounce back from being unable to finish a 600 page book in a month.  I've said it before and I'll say it again:  My Life Is Small, people.  Don't hate on this lame things that keep me up at night.  

ANYWAY, so mostly this book was cheesy in that very enjoyable way that derivative YA Lit can be.  If you like that sort of thing, pick it up!  My only caveat is to warn you that this is a trilogy, and the author uses trilogy in that loose form where they don't actually tell you three separate but related stories but rather they stretch one story over three separate books.  

I guess what I'm saying is:  CLIFFHANGER ENDING.  And the next book doesn't come out until April 2012 and by that time, I'm fairly certain I will have forgotten everything about this novel.  So keep that in mind.  

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Since July was so dismal, I've got quite a few things I'm looking forward to reading in August, including not ONLY a celeb memoir, but fiction written by a celeb.  Hmmmm -- we'll see how that goes.  I'm skeptical about celeb fiction.  Have you ever indulged?  I'll report back what I think next month!


Any Must Read Recommendations?
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