Books Read in July

1. Control – Kim Curran. The excellent followup to Shift, about a boy with the power to undo any decision he’s ever made, and it came out in the UK yesterday so you should all go buy it.

2. Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon – I read this as a teenager during the height of the hype, and was left a little cold by it. I re-read it when we went to Barcelona and absolutely fell in love with it, perhaps as a result of being older, being a writer, and being in the city where it was set as I read.

3. The Weight of Souls – Bryony Pearce. This also came out in the UK yesterday, and you should also buy it! Taylor Oh receives a mark if she’s touched by a ghost must avenge that death before the Darkness comes for her. 

4. – Elizabeth Wein. I finally read the book which I’ve heard so much about, and I enjoyed it.

5. The Devil of Nanking – Mo Hayder. I read this a few years ago and it absolutely haunted me. I re-read it, and unlike a lot of books, I still remembered it very clearly. Such a good book looking at the history of Japan and China through the lens of a troubled English girl in modern Tokyo. Though that doesn’t even really begin to describe it.

6. Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales – Gordon Jarvie. Book research.

7. Stolen – Lucy Christopher. A gripping tale of a girl stolen from an airport and forced to live in the Australian outback with a troubled young man. Very gripping–I read it in a day.

8. The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince – Robin Hobb. My mom sent me the hardback for my birthday. I loved this short novella about the piebald prince, though it felt like it could easily have been spun out into a full novel.