Saturday, July 31, 2010

july wrap-up


I am so sad July is over. July is my favorite month of the entire year for several reasons:

1) The Northern Hemisphere, where I happen to dwell, is inhabitable during July. By which I mean you're not generally at risk of hypothermia if you step outside your door without wearing several woolen layers (although this morning it was something obscene like 63 degrees when I woke up. This better just be a freak cold front and not a sign that winter is coming).

2) It is the month of my birthday. I'm getting old now so birthdays aren't quite as magical as they were before I'd been walking the planet for a full quarter century (vomit), but I still basically love them. Any day when you get to eat cake and people have to be nice to you and maybe even give you presents is just fine by me.

3) People just tend to be in a relaxed, happy state of mind during July, relative to other months. It is a month of vacations, popsicles, barbecues, puppies and dreams come true.

This July in particular was one of the best I've had in my "adult" life. Christina at Confessions of a Book Addict does great end-of-month summaries, and I hope she won't mind me copying her by doing the same over here.

Books read:
1. Carrie Ryan, The Forest of Hands and Teeth (1/5 stars)
2. Holly Schindler, A Blue So Dark (3.5/5 stars)
3. Chloe Neill, Twice Bitten (Chicagoland Vampires, #3) (4/5 stars)
4. Simone Elkeles, Leaving Paradise (2/5 stars)
5. Cate Tiernan, Immortal Beloved (3.5/5 stars)
6. Jennifer Echols, Forget You (3/5 stars)
7. Becca Fitzpatrick, hush, hush (1/5 stars)
8. Patricia Briggs, Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, #1) (4/5 stars)
9. Julie Kagaway, Iron King (currently reading...not appalling so far)

My July Top Five

1. FAVORITE BOOK: Twice Bitten by Chloe Neill. I had very high expectations for this and was so relieved/happy when it lived up to and even surpassed them.

2. BIGGEST LET DOWN: The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic books, but the one-dimensional, whiny, boring characters in this were a deal-breaker.

3. BIGGEST SURPRISE: Immortal Beloved by Cate Tiernan. I was not expecting to enjoy this but it was actually really good.

4. FAVORITE NEW (to me) BLOG: Taradiddle's Reports from the Couch

5. FAVORITE PART OF JULY: As I said, this July was the best July I've had in recent memory. Many awesome things happened, including my first ever visit to Rhode Island, lobster dinners, a kegger birthday party (I know, you'd think at 25 years old I'd be over all that...but apparently not), and a wedding in Switzerland. But though each of those things (especially the wedding) was amazing, the most exciting was being in Spain when they won the World Cup! EVENT OF A LIFETIME!!! YO SOY ESPANOL, ESPANOL, ESPANOL!!!!

4 comments:

  1. Okay, I have got to buy 2xbitten immed.

    Wait til you are 2x what you are agewise - if you think 25 sucks, 50 is a freakin' black hole.

    I live in New England and while I am not fond of cold, I know that there is no place in the south I would be happy if I didn't have "home" up here." The tropics don't really love me either.

    I am sorry the FOrest of .. was not great - the title is so cool.

    Just thought I would stop in, Fangs, Wands and Fairy Dust
    steph@fangswandsandfairydust.com

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  2. thanks for stopping by, steph - def check out twice bitten. cannot say enough positive things about that series. i also live in new england but am originally from the south - hence my aversion to the cold.

    you should still check out forest of hands & teeth. a lot of people really liked it and it was certainly an exciting, haunting story. not a complete flop. i just personally need to have some connection to the characters in order to like a book - and that did not happen at all for me with foh&t.

    ps: i'm sure 50 isn't a black hole! don't tell me that! 25 is fine, i'm just being melodramatic :-)

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  3. yo soy espanol, espanol, espanol!

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  4. Jane, I absolutely posotively loved Twice Bitten. I actually loved it so much I had to go back and reread it. I checked out the first 2 in the series from the library and bought Twice Bitten because I couldn't wait on the library for that one. Now I think I'm going to be buying the first 2 int he series. Ethan is quite dense at times, but I still had such high affections for him too. It was such a love/hate relationship... guess that is how it usually is with me and men :D

    Mercy is absolutely fabulous, and I think that if you liked the first you will like the rest the same or better. My favorite of that series was the 4th and 5th, but mostly the 5th. The 6th comes out next year, Yeah!!

    Jen
    In the Closet With a Bibliophile

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