July was a very productive reading month, and I got back into comic books!
I don’t know what happened to July, but it’s been and gone and apparently I read seven books! Seven! I also got really into reading comic books again which will definitely supercharge my books read count for the rest of this year!
This is a longer round up than usual because I’m including the comics I’ve been reading too.
As usual I have linked the title to my full review.
I read 7 books!
Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England’s Kings and Queens by David Mitchell 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I loved this audiobook! I listened through Spotify but I’m definitely going to buy it and listen again in the future. I love David Mitchell and this potted history was everything I could have wished for.
Also, by happy coincidence My Lady Jane came out on Prime after I’d read this so I actually knew the weird bit of history that’s very loosely based on!
Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen #1) by Steven Erikson ⭐⭐⭐
I did it! I read it! It was alright, I wrote a lot about it, and I’m powering on with the next book!
The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman ⭐⭐⭐
I borrowed this on audio mainly for the nostalgia because I loved this series when I was a teen. It’s still good!
Weyward by Emilia Hart ⭐⭐⭐
So after all those months of this being in my TBR picks list I finally read it… And it was a womp womp. Disappointing! Please give me recommendations for books with witchy women that actually have witchy stuff in them, and not whatever this was.
Breaking the Dark by Lisa Jewell (Marvel Crime #1) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A new Lisa Jewell caught my eye and then I realised LISA JEWELL HAS WRITTEN A JESSICA JONES NOVEL! I actually squealed. I loved this! Lisa Jewell writes Jessica so well.
Alias Omnibus by Brian Michael Bendis 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Shamefully I owned this masterpiece for 9 years before I finally read it!! Thanks to Breaking The Dark, and a long weekend off work, I finally did it and it is so fucking good. I love Jessica Jones even more now, and it inspired me to get Marvel Unlimited again so I can read more!
Lost Property by Helen Paris ⭐⭐
I wanted an uplifting easy read when my brain was too burned out to wrestle with Malazan, but after a promising start this just fell flat.
Plus a load of Marvel Unlimited!
I was so hyped to read more comics I renewed my 9 years lapsed subscription to Marvel Unlimited and I’ve been having a great time! It’s such a great service and works so well on my phone, as well as my tablet, I can read an issue whenever I have a few spare minutes.
I’m not sure how to track these on the blog, I might just include a section in this round up!
I started with seeking out more Jessica!
I read most of these as single issues on MU (though some we own), but I’ll track them as they get collected into trade paperbacks.
Jessica Jones: The Pulse – this is the less expletive riddled follow on from Alias and I really enjoyed it! You can read my little review through the link.
Avengers Disassembled – I read this for context on the breakup of the original Avengers before diving into the formation of the new team. It was chaotic but as my re-entry point I don’t have much attachment to this team for the emotional impact, or context for what Wanda has been through.
New Avengers, Vol 1: Breakout – following on, and The Pulse intersects this a bit, with a New Avengers team forming. This was fantastic! I’d read it before but now I have the significance of Luke coming face to face with The Purple Man, and (thanks to the X-Men cartoon) I know a few more of the escapees!
New Avengers, Vol 2: The Sentry – this was such a sad but interesting story of a mentally troubled super powerful being. Imagine having the power of million suns but not being able to trust your own mind? I really need to read more Emma Frost (who lends a hand) at some point!
New Avengers, Vol 3: Secrets & Lies – This arc follows Jessica Drew’s Spider-Woman and her double/triple agenting about, it wasn’t as good as the previous volumes but I do like her character. Echo also pops up as Ronin and she’s really cool, looking forward to her return! I do remember that some of this has an impact later with Secret Invasion!
House of M – I reread this to make sense of where I was in the New Avengers timeline! Some issues are better than others but I do like it when a team works together. Man, I feel bad for Spider-Man, he just never gets a break does he?
I thought about reading the whole cross-title event but it’s way too many issues and since the world gets reset anyway (kind of) it did not seem worth it!
New Avengers, Vol 4: The Collective – the New Avengers deal with the aftermath of House of M and clash with Maria Hill who was so frustrating! (Also again, poor Spider-Man). Carol Danvers/Ms Marvel pops up more in this one, and I always like to see her. This leads into Civil War.
Currently reading
I took a break from Malazan to read Weyward and Lost Property, but I am now back to slogging through Deadhouse Gates. It has been a struggle, and I can only read it when I have the right kind of focus… But I think it’s getting better now stuff is happening finally.
On audio I have The City We Became by N. K. Jemesin… which is weird AF so far, but intriguing.
Adding to TBR
I got Children of Ruin, which I might not read myself but my partner probably will at some point. I’m undecided, I did generally like Children of Time but I don’t know if I need any more time in that universe (or any more spider biology). It was only 99p though! As was A Lady’s Guide to Scandal which I am excited about because I enjoyed A Ladys Guide To Fortune Hunting, and I’m always in need of a light little rom-com when my head can’t cope with any heavier stuff!
And of course I now have all of Marvel Unlimited to read!
TBR Pulls
Right now I have 44 books waiting on my Kindle in my “to read” collection! Each month I browse through and pick the 3 that are calling to me most.
Last time I picked out Weyward, Deadhouse Gates, and Vacuum in the Dark . I managed to read one, and I’m currently reading another – so for once I’ve followed my picks.
Deadhouse Gates is probably going to take up most of August, but when I do get it finished these are the ones on my radar!
All three are first timers in the pull!
A Lady’s Guide to Scandal by Sophie Irwin
When shy Miss Eliza Balfour married the austere Earl of Somerset, twenty years her senior, it was the match of the season–no matter that he was not the husband Eliza would have chosen.
But ten years later, Eliza is widowed. And at eight and twenty years, she is suddenly left titled, rich, and, for the first time in her life, utterly in control of her own future. Instead of living out her mourning quietly, Eliza heads to Bath with her cousin Margaret. After years of living according to everyone else’s rules, Eliza has resolved, at last, to do as she wants.
But when the ripples of the dowager Lady Somerset’s behavior reach the new Lord Somerset–whom Eliza knew, once, as a younger woman–Eliza is forced to confront the fact that freedom does not come without consequences, though it also brings unexpected opportunities . . .
I enjoyed A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting well enough, and I’m interested to see if the standalone sequel improves. I might want a break from Malazan for some easy to digest formulaic romance!
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice’s life isn’t terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn’t exactly the one she expected. She’s happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn’t just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush, it’s her dad: the vital, charming, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?
This is one I impulse bought last month then forgot about until my last reading roundup! If I’m in the mood for some contemporary fiction this one sounds promising.
She’s A Killer by Kirsten McDougall
The world’s climate is in crisis and New Zealand is being divided and reshaped by the arrival of privileged immigrant wealthugees.
Thirty-something Alice has a near-genius IQ and lives at home with her mother with whom she communicates by Morse code. Alice’s imaginary friend, Simp, has shown up, with a running commentary on her failings. ‘I mean, can you even calculate the square root of 762 anymore?’ The last time Simp was here was when Alice was seven, on the night a fire burned down the family home. Now Simp seems to be plotting something.
When Alice meets a wealthugee named Pablo, she thinks she’s found a way out of her dull existence. But then she meets Pablo’s teenage daughter, Erika – an actual genius full of terrifying ambition.
She’s a Killer is the story of a brilliant and stubborn slacker who is drawn into a radical action. It’s about what happens when we refuse to face our most demanding problems, told by a woman who is a strange and calculating force of chaos.
I did not realise before I copied this blurb I’ve picked two books with protagonists called Alice! It’s not a name I find comes up often in fiction (other than Wonderland), so that’s funny to me! It’s been a while since I read anything satirical and weird, and I like the sound of this one!
What books are you excited to read at the moment?
