Monthly reading review – August 2016

This August I have read:

Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield ★★★★

Sudden Backtrack (The Hollows #13.1) by Kim Harrison ★★★★★

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley ★★★

Prince of Wolves (The Grey Wolves, #1) by Quinn Loftis ★★

The Annotated Hobbit Or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien ★★★★

1. How many books you’ve read last month? Are you happy with the amount you read?

This August I’ve read five books. My slow reading trend continues but it is improvement from July nevertheless.

2. What was the best of all the books you’ve read in June? Any scenes or characters that made a lasting impression?

Sudden Backtrack was a short novella from the Hollows series. It was short and it delighted me. I loved it! All and Newt were incredible and it gave me a new perspective on their dynamic.

3. Were there any not so good books for you last month? What made it hard or not enjoyable to read?

Prince of Wolves was a kindle freebie I got years (!) ago. I finally decided to read it this summer. What made it bad for me was some editing errors. I could not get into this YA urban fantasy no matter how I tried. More explanation will be provided in a review soon.

4. How did the books you were reading last month fit in your reading plans if you had any?

Only one book was recent edition to my reading list. I managed to read some books that have been on my TBR for a long time and that makes me happy. RL book club reading was nice for a change – I’ve already moved to my September assignment Sense and Sensibility.

5. Any updates on the series you are reading or are you starting any new series?

I gave one new series a go and it did not work out. I’m expecting to finish up The Hollows series by the end of the year with all the extra novellas and short stories I can get my hands on. Also after I’ve finished Hobbit I can finally start Lord of the Rings series!

6. Would you like to recommend any books or authors you’ve been reading this last month?

This year I’ve been tacking some classics and I’m enjoying reading different books. I would not make them out to be the favorite or the best books I’ve read but would recommend reading them anyway! Frankenstein and Hobbit are part of urban culture and it is good to read the original books that fascinated many revivals, movies, plays and new versions. 

Final thoughts on August reading:

I realized that every month there are quite a bit of books I’ve read and haven’t managed to find the time to write a review on. Even these last few months when the number of books I get to read is not so great I still write reviews for less than half of them. So far I had reservations for writing reviews after the months is over.

But lately I’ve looked back on some of them and realized I have some things I want to say and share my opinion on concerning the books I’ve read and haven’t written a review on. So maybe I’ll try working harder at finding the time and not wait to the end of the month to finish three books at once.

Anyway, Ill be posting some reviews on books read in the previous months soon.

Monthly reading review – July 2016

This July I have read:

Ever After (The Hollows #11) by Kim Harrison ★★★★

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie ★★★★★

This July was one of the most difficult months of my life. Instead of leaning myself on my book friends I got distracted by things that don’t give me the half of piece of mind that books do. So I ended up getting my vactaion days and and then abruptly got ragged back to work to work even longer than usual. I got a gym membership as a present from my friend but I ended up going only three times in the whole month. July was hot and humid and then came the storms…

Also I got myself hooked on Pokemon Go. That was one of the nicer things in July. The game servers were mostly down but the amount of hype and unusually long walks with friends trough the city hunting Pokemons and conquering gyms was amazing. Most of the things I did in July were not planed and all that were planed were a total bust.

Onto the books…

I have read only two books for the whole month. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was as an amazing as it was the first time I’ve read it. The Hollows series is one of my favorite urban fantasy but I still had very little energy and time to read it. It took me almost the whole month for it since I would usually read only 10 pages before bedtime. As opposed to the The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian which I finished in a matter of days.

I even got some bookish presents in July which add to my huge TBR pile. Hopefully I will present the books I got in a single post in August. 🙂

Squeezed in at the start of August

From felling guilty for reading so little in July I’ve gotten a head start on August by finishing off two books already.

Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield ★★★★

A strange and thought provoking story about time and death and what’s left in between. I liked it more after I spent some time thinking about the story, characters and ideas that they brought in. For a book with such a bleak topic I found it quite comforting and strangely positive.

Sudden Backtrack (The Hollows #13.1) by Kim Harrison ★★★★★

The Hollows short which gives insight into life of demons and elves of long time ago. It was great to see Newt and All dynamic and learn more about what happened between the two races. I was not sure about the reading order but I just grabbed it on my Kindle in the middle of the night and read it trough. It is really short and it fit nicely after book 11. in The Hollows series.

Final thoughts on July reading:

I did not do my usual Monthly book review since the month itself was not usual for my reading habits. I do have a reading goal for reading 100 books this year which I’m terribly behind in. Also I’ve been neglecting a reading challenge I’ve got going on with my BF this year.