July Book List

This was a productive month for me! All those hours on the road with a iPad full of books and comics. This might be a record or something.

Catching Fire and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (continuing the Hunger Games Trilogy)
The Map of Time by Felix de Palma
Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Divergent by Veronica Roth
The Day After and Other Stories by Wil Wheaton
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Cowboys & Aliens the graphic novel

Favourite: I think the Margaret Atwood titles take this award for July. She is an amazing writer, creating imaginative, full characters and teasing out a perfect story

I Recommend: Margaret Atwood if you like dystopic storylines, The Map of Time if you want a fun and clever read, and the Suzanne Collins titles if you are a young adult. And Coraline, because it's Neil Gaiman, and man can that guy weave an amazing story!

I don't recommend: I wasn't a big fan of Divergent. It's one of those books that just sort of...ends. I don't expect everything to be tied up neatly and presented with a perfect bow, heck all of Atwood's books ended with a big "and then what". But with her books it's fun to fill in the blank because the storyline has been completed. I guess it's hard to explain. If you've all this stuff going on, and your character just walk away, even though just moments ago they were trying to effect all this stuff. It's frustrating. It makes me feel there's a second book coming (updated...I'm reading the author's blog, and she is planning a part two...next year...geesh)

So, for funsies, let's do a little tally-ho for the year so far. From January to June I read 22 books...and with this month marathon of reading it brings my total up to 32!

Goal for the Year: 52 books (one per week)
Books read as of July 31st: 32
Weeks so far: 30

All this math means is that I am ahead of the curve! Albeit only by two books, but it's there, my edge going in to the next couple of months. What I've learned from all of this already is that it is hard to read 4 to 5 books per month! Especially if you choose "book-club quality" ones, like some of these have been. It helps to taper some of this braininess with graphic novels and titles stolen from the young adult section at Chapters!

I still haven't got that library card...maybe I'll save that for the Fall.

Happy -cloudy- Sunday!