I hope July has been as good a month for you as it has for me. I was lucky enough to spend time with many of the people I love most in this world and get in quite a bit of reading time, too. July is such a sweet month for me. It’s completely free of work and the start of school is still far away. Once August arrives, I try my best to ignore it, but I can’t really forget that by the end of the month I’ll be back to work. Still, I intend to make the most of the first three weeks of August, getting loads of reading time in. In both June and July I read nine books. Maybe I can top that in August!

{My July, Books & Blog}

The Cream of the Crop

Books I enjoyed the most…

• The Family Tabor by Cherise Wolas – I loved this under-appreciated novel of a family in crisis. I found the family connections refreshingly beautiful and the emotions so real. (my review)
• From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein – I hadn’t read a nonfiction book in a couple months and picked a winner with this one. I loved being immersed in some of the behind the scenes work of the Obama administration. (my review)

A Cut Above

Great stories…

• How Hard Can It Be? by Allison Pearson – I listened to this one and thoroughly enjoyed being along on Kate’s journey toward figuring out her place in life as a 50-year old woman. Very funny! (my review)
• The Banker’s Wife by Christina Alger – This is exactly the sort of smart thriller that I most enjoy. (I’m VERY behind on reviews, but hope to get to this one next week.)
• When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger – Sometimes you need a book that is just pure fun and not very deep. That’s exactly what I got with Lululemon, so it was perfect! (mini-review coming soon)
• Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win by Jo Piazza – I just finished Charlotte and may have her in the wrong spot. I struggled with putting it here or in the Cream of the Crop section. Either way, I loved Charlotte Walsh. Piazza gives you a lot to think about and a great story. (review coming soon)

Subpar

Books I could have skipped…

• Eden by Andrea Kleine – There were many things to like about Eden, but the many tangents to the main storyline just didn’t work for me. (my review)
• Clock Dance by Anne Tyler – I feel guilty for not liking this one because I respect Tyler’s writing so much. For some reason I just couldn’t connect with her main character here. (mini-review coming soon)
• The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager – I’m glad I read this one. It gave me a lot to talk about in a discussion post earlier this week. (join the discussion)

DNF’s

• Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras – I read about 30% of this book, and liked parts of it, but the pace was just too slow for summer reading.
• The Third Hotel by Laura van den Berg – I probably started this one at a bad time and just couldn’t stay with the story that seemed to ramble a bit. I might be willing to give it another try.
• Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood – I was also on vacation when I picked up Rust & Stardust. It wasn’t quite the story I expected and I sadly lost interest pretty quickly.

Top Blog Posts

This is nearly a repeat of last month!

• For the second month in a row My Favorite Books of 2018 (so far) was my top post. I know I loved taking a look at the books that have been winners for others.
• The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah continues to get lots of traffic. My review was only so-so for the book, but it’s paid off.
• My top review for July was The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams. It was a light historical fiction, perfect for summer reading.

{From the Book Blogging World}

Favorite Reviews & Recommendations

Links take you to these wonderful reviews…

• If you visited the blog on Tuesday, you know I had a lot of issues with The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager. For a couple of other opinions, check out reviews by Stephanie at Stephanie’s Novel Fiction or Eva at Novel Deelights.
• I loved How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran, so was happy to get a peek at its sequel, How to Be Famous, from Andrea at Born and Read in Chicago.
• Ghosted by Rosie Walsh is one of those books that we’re seeing everywhere and one review I really appreciated was from Amy at Novel Gossip.
• I just finished listening to Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win by Jo Piazza, and was pleased to see that Jennifer at Tar Heel Reader liked it every bit as much as I did.
• And finally, I always like to see my favorite book of 2017, The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne, getting some love. That’s exactly what I got this month from Amy at Reads a Latte.

Fun & Useful Blog Posts

July brought so many great posts on book related topics. These are a few that really inspired!

• Ever think about pen names and why authors use them? I hadn’t given it a whole lot of thought, but Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl has with her post Iconic Pen Names Across History And Why They Were Chosen.
• Many of us struggle with calling it quits on a book we don’t like. Katie Heany over at The Cut wrote about just that in her article, Why It’s So Hard to Stop Reading Books You Don’t Even Like?
• We all like lists of upcoming books and Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner put together a thorough list in 37 Must Read Books for the Second Half of 2018.
• I’ve never had much luck with book clubs and to be honest haven’t thought all that highly of celebrity book clubs popping up everywhere these days. However, I had to reconsider a bit after taking a look at The Ultimate Guide to Celebrity Book Clubs from Sarah at Sarah’s Bookshelves.
• As a blogger who DOES write negative reviews I SO appreciated that Danielle from Books, Vertigo & Tea wrote about why that’s so important in her post Negative Reviews: Why I Appreciate Them as a Reader.

That’s a wrap! How was your July?

Disclaimer: There are Amazon Associate links contained in this post.