Happy Friday! July has kicked off with a bang with a head cold that had me laying in bed all day on the Fourth of July, watching episode after episode of Friends. I couldn’t focus on reading, so my books brought me no comfort. I’m hoping I’m on the mend, but this is the third time I’ve been sick in two months and I’m really not sure what I’m doing to cause it! I’m typically a head-cold-once-a-year type of person. Maybe I’m allergic to not having a dog? Hmm…
In any event, I’m doing my monthly reading wrap-up today, talking about all the books I read over the month. I read 10 books and abandoned one. My average rating was a 3.9, so that means I read a lot of good books this month! Woop!
Books Read
1) I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez (★★★★☆) – A sweet YA story that covered a ton of pressing social issues. The main character could be frustrating, but I also couldn’t help but love her.
2) Boy Erased: A Memoir by Garrard Conley (★★★★☆) – A book about what it’s like to go through conversion therapy as a nineteen-year-old. Heartbreaking, vulnerable, and ultimately hopeful.
3) Dance with Me by Alexis Daria (★★★☆☆) – I had high expectations for this dance-related romance, but it didn’t fully meet them. It was fun, but the main characters could be annoying.
4) Beauty and the Mustache by Penny Reid (★★★★☆) – Content warning for cancer and death, but if those topics aren’t triggering for you, I totally recommend giving this book a read. Such a fun romance with really great characters.
5) Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover (★★★★☆) – I both loved and loathed this memoir, mostly because of Tara. If she had been a character in a book, I would have hated her. But she’s not, and that’s what makes this memoir so much more gut-wrenching.
6) A Storied Life by Leigh Kramer (★★★☆☆) – While I found the writing in this novel beautiful and the plot interesting, it seemed to fall apart for me a little over halfway through the book, and never could get back on track.
7) Running Blind by Cindy Gerard (★★★★☆) – I usually fly through Cindy Gerard books, barely able to put them down, but this one didn’t have the same effect. (The main characters were very unrelatable.) However, once the story hit its turning point, I couldn’t put it down for anything.
8) Final Girls by Riley Sager (★★★★★) – If you’re looking for a thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat, this is it. Read it now.
9) 1984 by George Orwell (★★★☆☆) – If you’re as horrified about the current administration as I am, read this book. It’s fascinating and really makes you think deeply about the state of politics and what it could mean for the world at large.
10) The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang (★★★★★) – Need something lighthearted and fun? This book is the ticket. It’s sexy and sweet and lovely. It’s definitely steamy (much steamier than The Wedding Date; I hear so many people talk about how steamy that book is and… it’s not. Y’all. It’s not.), so bear that in mind.
If I’m going to recommend three books from the 10 I read this month, it would be:
- Boy Erased, for a vulnerable story about a topic that needs to be broadcasted widely. Conversion therapy is an awful and inhumane practice.
- Final Girls for a thriller that will keep you guessing all the way to the end.
- The Kiss Quotient for a story that will make you smile and have all of the happy feels.
BOOK STATS
- Number of pages read: 3,262
- Breakdown of formats: e-books (5), physical copies (3), audiobooks (2)
- Book that took me the longest time to read: Educated (12 days)
- Book that took me the shortest time to read: I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (3 days)
- Breakdown of genres: romance (3), nonfiction (2), fiction (3), YA (1), thriller (1)
- Number of diverse reads: 4 (40%)
- Where I sourced my books: library/Overdrive (6), Amazon (2), from the author (1), Book of the Month (1)
- How much I spent this month: $18.97
What was the best book you read in June?
We have suuuuuch similar taste in books. SO many of these are already on my already-read or to-read list!
Final girls sounds intriguing! I love a good thriller!
I just finished Final Girls but only gave it 3 Stars. It was a fast read but it annoyed me that the main character let that Samantha girl into her home without really knowing anything about her… that just did not seem realistic so that kind of dinged what would have otherwise been a 4 star rating from me!
I’m sorry you didn’t love Final Girls! I listened to it on audiobook, so I think that’s what kept my attention. Thrillers are great on audiobook! I will admit that I couldn’t believe all the times the main character just went out in the middle of the night with Samantha. No. no. no!
I am reading Final Girls now and have a similar feeling as Lisa. Ha! I am curious to see what happens. I get the feeling her perfect bf isn’t what he seems…
Great month of reading! 10 books is so impressive! Every week that I get through more than 1 is a victory! It sounds like you had some really good books on your list!
Oh that’s interesting you didn’t like Tara in Educated, I just finished it and I found her really compelling. I mostly just felt awful for the situation they were in. I LOATHED her parents though, that’s for sure.
Oh, I definitely found her compelling as well! I just wanted her to STOP trying to make things work with her family. I understand that it’s damn hard to estrange yourself from your entire family, but she continuously went back to them and tried to make things work when it was so obvious they were gaslighting her and she needed to estrange herself for her own sanity. If that happened in a novel, I would have been so annoyed with Tara!
I love that you include your spending on this list too. I think since joining the library, I’m definitely saving a ton of money, but I’m also getting books I really, really want to read right now, as opposed to before when I would wait for the books I wanted to read to go on sale which would take years. I love the library.
Yes to libraries! I love mine. I’m part of two different library systems and it’s the BEST.