August Reading Wrap Up

In August I had two readathons: the Mary Shelley AThon and the MiddleEarthAThon. Both were amazing and both inspired me to pick up books I wouldn’t have (at least this month) otherwise. It also meant that I read more than I would’ve so no complaints here!!

If you’d like to see how well I balanced my books out this month, then check out the video here!

The first book I finished in August was Fire by Kristin Cashore which is the second book in the Graceling series. This is an older YA series that has gotten a bit of a revival lately and it’s so much fun! Fire is our main character and I loved seeing her development throughout the book, as well as how the court changed around her. So excited to dive into Bitterblue next! This was my tbr jar pick and I’m glad this was forced into my hands!

Next up was Mathilda by Mary Shelley which I picked up for the Mary Shelley A Thon prompt of something written by Shelley. This is a super short read, around 100 pages, and a really interesting one. It’s essentially an unedited short story about a young woman who just wants a family and considering it’s unedited… wow is it written well. I just wish Shelley had been able to edit this one up into a fully fledged work!

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi was my next read, the Goldsboro GSFF book for last month, and WOW did I adore this book. Five stars, one of my favourites ever. This book is just amazing. I need the sequel like yesterday. This high fantasy is incredibly detailed, beautifully well developed, and I adored seeing the characters learn more about the world and each other. I love this book so much that I struggle to talk about it. That’s when you know I loved a read!

Then another great read was The River and the Book by Alison Croggon, my first reads from this author since The Pellinor Series (you know, that one that’s in my handle). This is not an own-voices book, but that is literally the only downside. It’s a beautifully written book that tackles white saviourism and it’s a real short read too. One I’d definitely recommend picking up!

Then I read the behemoth that is The Collected Poems of Robert Burns which clocks in at 600 pages. This was for a Mary Shelley A Thon prompt to read a poem/collection of poetry and this was the best choice because it was gifted to me by the readathon host Caitlyn! (from Mad Cheshire Rabbit) This is definitely not one I’d recommend generally to everyone, because there are some duds in this collection, but there are also some fantastic works and I think you should look Burns up and read a few.

The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones was the Illumicrate read for August and it was… fine? There wasn’t anything particularly wrong with this YA fantasy, but it also wasn’t a standout. Not one I’ll recommend or remember, but it’s fine. Read my full review linked above for more details.

Then I finished my non-fiction for the month, Timefulness by Marcia Bjornerud. This one was fantastic, having super interesting and unique discussions on geology, the physical makeup of our planet, and how we can learn to think more about timeframes past our existence. But. There’s ableism right at the end and I just can’t recommend a book after that. Check out my full review of this one coming in a few days (or available on my blog now if you’re reading this in mid September 22 onwards).

For my first MiddleEarthAThon read, a shiny book, I went for Demon Road by Derek Landy which is the first book in a YA Urban Fantasy trilogy. This is the same author of the Skulduggery Pleasant series and unfortunately it doesn’t quite live up to that high bar. It was enjoyable enough though and I’m curious, so I’ll be carrying on with the series.

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr works for both readathons. For MiddleEarthAThon it’s (one of) the oldest book on my tbr, and for Mary Shelley A Thon it counts for both a book outside of your comfort zone and a tbr vet. This. This book was fantastic, amazing, and a 5* read! I had the smallest of issues with how travel was portrayed but other than that – perfection! Another favourite of the year.

And my final read was most of The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This entire collection was 1122 pages so I didn’t manage to read it all before the month was up, but I did manage it in the one week of the MiddleEarthAThon, and in August I read a fair few of the short stories. I’ll mention this one more in my September wrap up but this was a 4* read and just as fun as I remember Sherlock stories being.

And that’s everything I managed to read last month! It totalled 3944 pages, and so much of that was during the MiddleEarthAThon!!

Did you get any five star reads last month? The Final Strife and All The Light We Cannot See are both amazing and I’m so glad that I picked them up!!

2 Readathons, 2 Book Boxes – My August ’22 TBR!

It’s tbr time again! This month I’m going to be taking part in two readathons, as well as wanting to read my book box choices and starting up the tbr jar again! Let’s start with the books that aren’t for any prompts.

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi is the Goldsboro GSFF book. This is apparently the first book in a trilogy, a high fantasy with Lesbian rep and the praises of Samantha Shannon. Simply just being the Goldsboro book would’ve been enough for me to be excited but with all those other points? So excited to dive in!

The Illumicrate book for this month is The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones which is a Welsh based mythologically inspired read with faries and fae. I’m usually not a big fan of fae, but I actually really enjoy them when in a Celtic and native British setting so I’m hopeful for this one. It’s only 350 pages so I may as well give it a shot!

Then, my tbr jar book. Yup, I brought it back! And this time I pulled out Fire by Kristin Cashore, the second book in the Graceling series. I’m really excited to continue on with these books because Graceling was such a fun read. I’ve been told that this isn’t a direct sequel, but is within the same world, so I’m really curious!

Now onto the two readathons I’m taking part in this month! The first I’ll mention is one that’s covering the whole of August, and that is the Mary-Shelley-A-Thon hosted by Caitlyn from Mad Cheshire Rabbit. This is in celebration of Shelley’s birthday on the 31st of August, and so of course the prompts were all inspired by her! The second is taking place from the 28th August until the 2nd September, and this is the MiddleEarthAThon, this one celebrating the new Lord of the Rings series coming out on the 2nd. Neither of these require you to have read things in their respective areas before you join them, so please do consider joining us!

Mathilda by Mary Shelley is a short story, according to Goodreads it’s 79 pages. I picked this one for the prompt of reading something by Shelley, as I don’t own anything unread by her and thought that I may as well go for something short if I’m adding another book!

Then for the prompt of reading a poem or poetry collection, I’m using The Complete Poems of Robert Burns. I’m hoping I can read the whole thing this month. But if not as long as I read one it technically counts for the prompt so I’m all good!

This next book hits two Mary-Shelley-A-Thon prompts and one MiddleEarthAThon prompt. The book is All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, a historical fiction set in WWII France following a blind girl trying to survive Nazi occupation. For Shelley the prompts are a book outside of your comfort zone and a tbr veteran. I’ve had this book since 2016 and I really don’t get on as much with historical fiction anymore. For MiddleEarth it’s the oldest book on my tbr.

Then Demon Road by Derek Landy is my pick for the shiny book, the whole cover is so bright! This is by the same author as Skulduggery Pleasant and I’m nervous, because I’ve heard mixed reviews, but I’m excited to dive in myself.

The last book I’ve put on my tbr is the biggest, at 1100+ pages, and that’s The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This is for the short story collection prompt, and because this one is so big (and I only have a week to read both it and the other two books – which are both 500+ pages) I’ll count the prompt as complete as long as I read a minimum of 5 stories. But I’m going to try and read them all!

And that’s my tbr! Definitely a challenging one, specifically at the end of the month, but I’m excited to dive into all of these and enjoy some new worlds and stories! What’s one book on your tbr for this month?

August Reading Wrap Up

I’ve not been having much luck with my mid-month reading lately. Yet again I hit a big slump, and this month the culprit was This Savage Song, so once I identified the culprit it was put back onto the tbr shelves to be read in another month.

If you want to see what I intended to read this month then click here to see my tbr, but, spoiler, I barely read any of it.

The first book I finished was No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwood which is all about Edward Snowdon and his NSA leak. It was a surprisingly slow read for me but I really enjoyed it and I’m very glad I picked this up from a little free shelf at work.

Second up I finished Prodigy by Marie Lu, which I read 80 pages of in July and I wanted to finish it up. This is another book that I’m pleased I’ve read. I really like where this book went and it definitely didn’t suffer from second book syndrome for me! I wonder how long it’ll take me to get to Champion!

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte was the first book to be finished after the slump of the savage song. This I read through a few chapters each day and whilst I enjoyed it, it was a very odd book! I’m still not quite sure how to describe it but I think I enjoyed it?

For the Dead Famous Readalong we were reading Kingdom of the Wicked by Derek Landy this month. This time I was actually able to buddy read this with Bekka from The Comic Book Sanctum! And of course we loved it! This is a reread for me so they always go by super quick!

On a related note, is this months pages of Armageddon Outta Here by Derek Landy which is comprised of short stories. And of course as always I enjoyed them.

That Inevitable Victorian Thing by EK Johnston was an unexpected 5* read for me!! I had one little gripe with it but when I put it through CAWPILE it still came out at 5*s and honestly it’s just so sweet and wholesome! (mixed with a little sci-fi, honestly I’m in love)

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid was next and I didn’t quite love this as much as I’d hoped. But I still did enjoy it and I enjoyed chatting about it with Shay from Shay with the Hobbies!

And the final book I read this month was Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare and this… was exactly as expected. Trashy. Bad writing. Felt guilty while reading it, but still kinda fun? If I do continue with this series it’ll be via my library or ebooks. But at least it fulfilled my Buzzwordathon prompt!

Then I of course read about 100+ pages of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and me and Olivia are getting so close to the end now! I’m predicting we’ll finish in October!

And lastly I read around 150 pages of Labyrinth by Kate Mosse which I’m also reading a chapter of each day to make my way through this chonker of a book.

And that’s my August reading! I managed 7 full books which is still pretty decent! Even if I didn’t get to half of my actual tbr. We can’t do everything!

What’s your favourite read of August? Mine has to be That Inevitable Victorian Thing! It just has to be!

August Readathons?

Guys. Tell me. What readathons do you know about in August? There are already three on my radar which I’m crafting my tbr around, but I’m curious to know which ones are out there!

Of course I’m still taking part in the Dead Famous Readalong hosted by Hannah from LadetteM to read Skulduggery Pleasant. We’re simply reading each book each month, so there’s no specific prompts for this other than “read the book”. But if you’d like to check out the announcement video then here it is for your viewing pleasure!

Then we have the Mary Shelley-a-thon hosted by Caitlyn from Mad Cheshire Rabbit where all of the prompts relate to the woman who created her favourite book, Frankenstein.

The prompts for this readathon are:

1. Read a book by Mary Shelley

2. Read a poetry collection or a book by a poet

3. Read a book that was published in 1818/1831 or a book by an author who was born in either of those years (+/- 5 years)

4. Read a book you keep saying you will get to but still haven’t

5. Read a book set in the late 1700s or the early 1800s

6. Read a book in a country the author was not from/a book that features travel

7. Read a horror/gothic

Becca from Thebeccafowell is co-hosting The Royal Readathon: Sidekicks which is all based around Disney side characters which is so cute!

The prompt for this readathon are:

Olaf – A book under 300 pages

Mushu – A book with a dragon

Sebastian – A book with music

Gus Gus – A cheesy book

Chip – A Middle Grade or a children’s book

Hei Hei – A book with comedy

Pascal – A book with a colourful front cover

Abu – A book with greed

Ray – A book with death

Pegasus – A book with mythology

And lastly but never least, Olivia is co-hosting a Shakespeare themed readathon named All the World’s a Page which I’m super excited to take part in! It’s round two of this readathon after it went so well last year and even though I don’t have any Shakespeare related books to read, I’m pretty sure I can squeeze the prompts to fit on my tbr books! You can do as many of as few of the prompts as you like so don’t be put off by how many there are!

The prompts for this readathon are:

Character Tropes:

You Have a Twin, I Guess? – Read a book in a duology.

The Inevitable Cross-Dressing – Read a queer book.

Villain Monologue – Read a book focusing on a villain, antagonist, or antihero, OR one you think will have a dramatic character arc (positive or negative.)

The Fool With All The Wisdom – Take a chance on a book you’re unsure about.

Band of Brothers – Read a book with multiple points of view or an ensemble cast.

Underrated Female Character Outshines the Main Character – Read a book by a BIPOC female author

Lavinia Speaks – Read a book by a disabled author.

Story Tropes:

Fake Your Own Death Because That Will Definitely Solve This Problem – Give a book or author “a second chance at life” – a book you’ve DNFed, a second chance author, etc.

It’s a Problem Play So Your Punishment is Marriage – Read a book with a romance element in it.

Even Instalove Sounds Beautiful When You Write It, Will – Read a book with pretty writing AND/OR a writing style you love.

Definitely Not Set in England, I Promise – Read a book set in a country you don’t live in. History,

But Add Even More Drama – Read a book that blends historical fiction + another genre: fantasy, romance, etc.

Does This Play NEED Three Parts? – Read a book in a series.

You Just Missed the Character You Really Needed To Talk To – Read a book you’ve been meaning to read for a while.

Surprise! Magic Actually Exists for Plot Convenience – Read a book with magic in it.

I’ve Been Dying for the Last 50 Lines: Read a big book (can decide what ‘big’ means).

There is a 99.999% chance I won’t be doing all of the prompt’s for Olivia’s readathon but I’m looking forward to fulfilling some of them! So come on, let me know what other readathons there are for August! Or if you know some for the other months in 2021 let me know so I can get prepared now!!!