Monthly Archives: August 2021

July Recap – Reading, Birthdays and Frivolity

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Greetings, friends and Internet associates! It seems like just yesterday I did my June recap (shhhh…. let’s not discuss my procrastination, shall we?). And suddenly, it’s the end of August, and well past time to post about what all happened in the month of July. If you’re here for the State of the Challenge report, check it out here – and if you just want to see my non-reading updates, you can jump here.

After a very solid month of June, during July I finished four books. Still respectable, if a little on the down side.

I started out the month about halfway through The Parsifal Mosaic by Robert Ludlum, which was my choice for #53, Read a book that was published when you were eleven. Originally published in 1982, so, if you do the math…. yeah. Surprise, I’m 50. I have no idea how that happened.

The book was a pretty standard spy thriller – after a few Ludlum novels they start to become pretty predictable. I called some of the twists, although one thing I was expecting to be revealed was actually not the case and while it made for a happier ending, the resolution lacked emotional resonance with me. Lots of action, lots of tension, but nothing I’d really want to read again.

The next book I finished in July was The Red Sea Rules by Robert J. Morgan. I chose this for #6, Read a book that was recommended to you, because it was recommended by my mom. This is another one that Mom recommends for her students. It’s a short, practical set of 10 lessons we can pull from the story in the book of Exodus of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and apply to our own lives, in situations where there seems to be no way out. I found myself sharing these lessons with the members of my church when I was leading music, and at least a couple of people were planning to pick it up themselves.

Shockingly, I made it to July before I ended up using on of my free spaces – I had #12 designated for something else already, so when I decided I couldn’t wait any longer to finish the Shadow and Bone trilogy, I put Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo in at #24. I had to know how the story ended… and I did NOT expect that. It was surprisingly emotional, and like the second in the trilogy there were scenes that I could just picture being played out by the actors from the Netflix adaptation. Jessie Mei Li and Archie Renaux are going to rip our hearts out, y’all.

And of course once I’m on a binge, I’m on a binge. I had to go straight into the next story in the Grishaverse, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. This one took free space #36 for the challenge list. One thing I noticed while reading this book is that the characters – completely aside from any mental image of the actors from the Netflix series – just didn’t make sense to me as 16-18 year olds. This is intended to be YA, but if we hadn’t had the character ages emphasized as being so young, just by virtue of the amount of life they have lived I would have pegged them as early to mid 20’s. It honestly didn’t feel like YA to me, if they didn’t keep talking about how young they were.

After I finished the duology, I watched a couple of BookTube videos about the series and discovered that I am definitely not the only one who feels that way. I really enjoyed how much these characters feel true to the “prequel” versions that were presented in the adaptation, and how the flashback scenes with Nina and Matthias were pretty much exactly what were shown on screen.

Aside from reading, July was a pretty busy month for me. (My placeholder paragraph here when I was drafting this post was “and then i did other stuff and drank a lot of coffee”, so there’s that.)

There were birthdays – my bestie’s older daughter turned 9, and we had a combined birthday party with the younger sister who had her 7th birthday in August, so I took a long weekend and spent time with them – it’s a 1-1/2 hour drive to visit so I tend to make it a multi-day event.

And I had a birthday of my own to contend with – since it was one of those big round number deals, I decided to spend it with my closest friend in the world who’s been my honorary sister for 35 years (and my sister-in-law for 20). I spent a week in Colorado Springs, had some great food, snuggled some pets, watched some TV shows (including both seasons of A Discovery of Witches, as well as rewatching Shadow and Bone), had a coconut almond brownie cake, and got to meet up with another good friend (hey there Ed!) while I was at it. It was a great birthday.

Other favorites of the month were the Loki series on Disney Plus, Bones Coffee Jingle Bones and Smorey Time flavors, and Coastal English Cheddar cheese, which was seriously one of the best things I’ve had in my mouth. (No I’m not weird. Okay maybe a little.) I am deeply disappointed that I haven’t been able to figure out how to buy it here for a reasonable price and am mildly obsessed with finding something that’s similar.

So that was July – and over a week left in August before I need to start my next wrap up. Congratulate me? HA! Come talk to me in the comments! What’s the best food you’ve tried lately? Have you done any traveling in the last few months, or do you have any trips planned in the near-ish future? And if nothing else, tell me about what you were reading in July!

2021 Reading Challenge

Level 1: Book of the Month Club
1. Read a book obtained from Kindle Unlimited, Audible, Amazon First Reads, Paperback Swap, or the Library – A Way Through the Wilderness – Jamie Buckingham
2. Read a book under 400 pages – The Guns of Avalon – Roger Zelazny
3. Reread a book that makes you happy – Crazy For You – Jennifer Crusie
4. Read a stand alone novel (not in a series) – The Vanishing Half – Brit Bennett
5. Read a book that starts with the letter D – Doppelganger – Marie Brennan
6. Read a book that was recommended to you – The Red Sea Rules – Robert J. Morgan
7. Read a book with the color white on the cover – A Breath of Snow and Ashes (reread) – Diana Gabaldon
8. Read a book where the main character is a High School or College Student – Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo
9. Read a book by an author named Michael/Mike/Michelle or variant – Age of Myth – Michael J. Sullivan
10. Read a book that’s been turned into a TV series or Movie – Sword of Destiny – Andrzej Sapkowski
11. Read a book with exactly two words in the title – Blood Cross – Faith Hunter
12. Free Space- Pick any book!

Level 2: Casual Reader Club
13. A book from https://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/
14. Read a Murder Mystery
15. Read the first book in a series you’ve wanted to start – Nine Princes in Amber – Roger Zelazny
16. Read a book that has a person on the cover – Mercy Blade – Faith Hunter
17. Read a book where the main character’s occupation is chef or baker
18. Read a book by an author born in the 20th Century (1901-2000)
19. Read a book with a form of royalty in the title (Queen, King, Prince, Princess, etc) – The Queen of the Tearling – Erika Johansen
20. Read a book you meant to read on last year’s challenge – Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell – Susanna Clarke
21. Read a book by Barbara Cartland
22. Read a book that takes place in Spring
23. Read a book with the word Human/Person/People in the title
24. Free Space- Pick any book! – Ruin and Rising – Leigh Bardugo

Level 3: Dedicated Reader Club
25. Read a book by a Self Published Author – Peace and Turmoil – Elliot Brooks
26. Read a book for under $5
27. Read a book from : https://time.com/collection/100-best-fantasy-books/
28. Read a book published in the 2010’s – Shadow and Bone – Leigh Bardugo
29. Read a book from your favorite genre – The Black Prism (reread) – Brent Weeks
30. Read a book that has had at least three different covers
31. Read a book that takes place in Europe
32. Read a book by an author with the same first name as one of your grandparents – The Atrocity Archives – Charles Stross
33. Read a book where the main character is a magic user – Warrior and Witch – Marie Brennan
34. Read a book with a time of day in the title (Morning, Noon, Evening, Dusk, Dawn, etc) – Dawnshard – Brandon Sanderson
35. Read a book by an author of a different ethnicity than you
36. Free Space- Pick any book! – Six of Crows – Leigh Bardugo

Level 4: Speed Reader Club
37. Read the next book in a series you’ve started – Siege and Storm – Leigh Bardugo
38. Read a book with an orange cover
39. Read a book over 600 pages – An Echo in the Bone (reread) – Diana Gabaldon
40. Read a book that uses the “Chosen One” trope
41. Read a book where the main character is elderly – A Severed Wasp – Madeleine L’Engle
42. Read a book with the letter V in the title or author’s name
43. Read a Science Fiction
44. Read a book that starts with the letter P
45. Read a book with a bird on the cover – Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life – Anne Lamott
46. Read a book (Fiction or Nonfiction) about a lady on this list: https://www.historyextra.com/100-women/100-women-results/
47. Read a book with a main character with a different ethnicity than you – A Blade So Black – L.L. McKinney
48. Free Space- Pick any book!

Level 5: Overachiever Club
49. Read a book with an interesting cover font – Hit – Delilah Dawson
50. Read a book about orphans
51. Read a book with the word “wind” in the title – The Aeronaut’s Windlass – Jim Butcher
52. Read a book by John Irving
53. Read a book that was published when you were eleven – The Parsifal Mosaic – Robert Ludlum
54. Read a book that takes place in the 1960s
55. Read a book (fiction or Nonfiction) about a topic that’s always interested you, but you haven’t read about it yet
56. Read a Nonfiction book that teaches you a new skill
57. Read a book without a picture on the cover
58. Read a book (Fiction or Nonfiction) involving Mental Illness – Rhythm of War – Brandon Sanderson
59. Read a book that has had unfavorable reviews, but you’re still curious about – Confessions of a Curious Bookseller – Elizabeth Green
60. Free Space- Pick any book!