I was on summer break all of July, so I read a LOT. There were about four days in a row when I was doing puzzles almost all day, and ended up going through more than one audiobook a day!
Here are my favourites:
This was surprisingly my first book by Georgette Heyer, who is a historical romance legend. It was written in the 50s, and it was a delight! While technically a histrom, I feel like it's more a comedy than anything, with a fake engagement that is the slowest of burns - just how I like them! It's full of shenanigans and silliness, and the writing has that charm that I rarely see outside of classics. I'll definitely be reading more by Heyer.
My favourite non-fiction book of the month. I read this primarily because July was Disability Pride Month, but I'm glad I did. The author starts by saying people need to change their perceptions of disabled people, and I have to say, I was challenged right away! I've read quite a few books on disability theory, but I still went into this book with a specific image of what a Deafblind author would be like, and was immediately corrected! She's a great essayist, with a very forthright tone. Great for people ready to go beyond basic disability theory.
Stead's MG books remind me exactly of how it felt to be 12 years old, in a (mostly) good way. It's mostly about the main character's father getting married to his boyfriend, and how this change is exciting and scary for her at the same time. It also brings up lots of old feelings of guilt that she has to work through, plus great representation of anxiety in kids. It's lovely.
This is a cozy-ish sci-fi book that's structured as a series of vignettes, each about a different person aboard the floating hotel. Through these little stories you get to know more about the world, and a few mysteries come to light, with pieces of answers in each chapter. Somehow all the characters are memorable, and I got invested in each story - plus I had to find out how everything would come together.
A book about Rose and Ruby, twins conjoined at the head growing up in small-town Southwestern Ontario (I loved all the references I recognized). The twins take turns narrating their story, jumping back and forth in time, but soon enough we learn that due to an aneurysm, they will be dying soon after their thirtieth birthday, and so they are writing their autobiography.
Rose and Ruby talk about people staring and the discomfort of being conjoined, sure, but also their love for their adoptive parents, the boys they had crushes on, etc. There are lots of reflections on what it means to be close to death, especially when they want to be known as full people and not just half of a conjoined person. I found it really beautiful, and although I saw some people call it boring, I thought the meandering nature of it suited the concept of the two girls writing what came to mind without editing.
I went into this knowing little about it, and was pleasantly surprised when it ended up being a series of interconnected stories all inspired by fairytales of the Brothers Grimm. A lot of the source stories were unfamiliar to me, but I was excited when I recognized bits and pieces of stories. The author uses them in a creative way, so they don't feel like you know exactly where the stories are going, and so there's more anticipation to see how it will turn out. I also liked that there's a main plot to tie everything together, and then you get different characters' perspectives who also get their own arcs. It felt fresh, and I really enjoyed the vibes of this one.
I love a unique concept and an unusual narrator, and this book has both! It's narrated by a potty-mouthed, domestic crow named ST during an apocalypse when all humans have been zombified. This book is super funny, and the author's word choice was impeccable. It's occasionally gory, but also surprisingly touching and poignant.
I'm an unabashed Rowell fan, but when I read what this was about I was a little disappointed. And yet within the first few pages I remembered why I just love Rowell's books. Each scene and bit of dialogue is filled with so much emotion and yearning and desperation, while also being very funny and feeling kind of fluffy. This is a friends to lovers, second chance romance between Shiloh and Cary, who were best friends throughout high school but at the beginning of the book, reunite after 14 years at a mutual friend's wedding. We go back and forth in time to find out what happened as they try to find their way back together again. It sounds like such a standard plot, and it would feel like an average romance book in another author's hands, but Rowell just does yearning so well! And such realistic dialogue - each conversation between them is messy and full of misunderstandings, but in a completely believable way. I ate this book up.
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