What did you read last month? - July

[Wigs]

Sorry it's a few days late! Tell us what you read in July!

[Wigs]

I readddd The Girl on the Train which I was definitely a page turner. I enjoyed it but it's no Gone Girl. However, I am super excited for the movie because I love Emily Blunt and I'm glad I read it in preparation. Also the movie preview gives away way too much imo!

I'm also very very close to being done with the Little Women audiobook. It is wayyy too long and if you are a fan of the Winona Ryder movie you will notice that the end of this book sort of drags on, stuff that was all cut out of the movie. LW is divided into a Book 1 and Book 2 because she wrote it at different times and while Book 1 has more stuff happening in it action wise if you can call it action, Book 2 is full of people just sitting and talking about their lives and I'm like oh man lets just get to the end already :OOOOOOO

Next I might be tackling the audiobook for In the Woods

[Nicole]

I read a lot (for me) this July. Whoo!

Dot Con. This guy that decides to answer those many scam e-mails we get. I enjoyed it but his video series about it is a lot funnier.

Brokeback Mountain. I had to read this for a summer course. Since I couldn't get a physical copy on time, I got the audiobook. It was a truly fantastic narrator. As for the story, absolutely heartbreaking and it is still with me.

Letters to Juliet: Celebrating Shakespeare's Greatest Heroine, the Magical City of Verona, and the Power of Love. NOT AT ALL LIKE THE MOVIE but still enjoyable if you want to read a short history lesson about Verona and the origins of the Romeo & Juliet myth.

[Idris]

On the very last day of July I finally read Drew Magary's The Hike. It was weird but enjoyable.

I also listened to The Diary of River Song series 1 for the second time. Big Finish Audio does Doctor Who so much better than the showrunner these days. It was really enjoyable. I can't wait to catch up on her adventures in Doctor Who: Doom Coalition 2 and eventually Doom Coalition 3 when it comes out later this year.

[Alyssa]

wait i think someone else also started a thread with this? so now we've got 2 going on!

[Wigs]

Oh dear. Well this one should be the one we stay in because I broadcast a mod message to all club members with a link to this one. If you would like to copy and paste your answer here that would be good!

[Knobby]

Whoops. I'll just cut & paste mine and hopefully the others will do the same, then we can delete the other one...

I read:

- A Little Life - (5 stars) which tore my heart out but it was really good. Long and dense but it flowed well

- Carry On - (4 stars) I usually like Rainbow Rowell's stuff but this didn't do it for me. It's basically Harry Potter fanfic if Harry/Draco got together. I loved Fangirl so it surprised me that I was like "eh" about this. I think my issue was that the world the characters lived in seemed like a really watered-down, lame version of Hogwarts.

- Eligible - (4 stars) a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice. I liked some parts but other parts were not a good look.

- Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman - (TEN STARS) I fell in LOVE with Lindy West. This book is so good SO GOOD READ IT

- The Cuckoo's Calling - (3 stars) meh.

- Fates and Furies - (3 stars) meh x2. This was a book club pick and we had a LOT to talk about re: the twist in the story, but the purple prose was ridic.

- Steelheart - (2 stars) meh x3.

- Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda - (5 stars) adorable.

[Vivian]

I did so bad last month, I read 3/4 of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which I enjoyed but can't be bothered to finish for some reason :\

[Casey]

I read the Captive Prince trilogy. Mixed feelings, mostly "meh" overall.

I also read The Strangler Vine, which was really boring and the main character was a jerk for the most part. I will say though that author knows her history and her general premise was interesting. It made me looking up and reading about some of the historical stuff described in the book (British occupation of India in the 1800s)

I started two others but got lazy and haven't finish them.

[Christy]

I read A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel and thoroughly enjoyed it. I haven't read the novel since 6th grade so this felt like a refresher.

I also read Dare Me. I really like the way Megan Abbott writes. I can't wait to read more of her stuff. Everyone in this book is a grade A asshole but I couldn't get enough of them.

[rachtotheizzo]

Hi, Jackals! Long time lurker, first time caller. I think the last time I was an active ONTD commenter was for a couple of months in 2007, but I've been reading it since it was blue and Nick Carter/Paris Hilton posts were a regular occurrence. ;) I went through a reading slump a couple of years ago and so I'm doing this thing this year where I'm reading books written only by women, and I'm really enjoying it.

I started reading Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches in March, but finally finished it last month. So powerful. Most likely will buy a personal copy in the future. :)

Started Empress of Fashion: A Life of Diana Vreeland in June for #wlclub's monthly pick, and I think it's pretty illuminating for anyone who, like me, is unfamiliar with early/post-war 20th century fashion trends and the history of 20th century American fashion editorials. I didn't realize how far and how deeply DV's influence had spread, or how many couture houses and designers we know today because of her-slash-were around in her time.

Read Station Eleven and did not like it AT ALL. After talking it over with a couple of friends who loved it, I think it might just be me, w/e.

Got Housekeeping from the library, been wanting to read it for a while. It took a few chapters for me to get into it, but I liked it and am looking forward to reading Robinson's Gilead books now.

Also read Howl's Moving Castle for this group. I'd never read it or DWJ before, and I loved it! I wish I'd known about this book & DWJ when I was a kid, because I know I would have devoured much more fantasy.

Finally, read The Queue. It's been described as Orwell meets Kafka and inspired by events in Mubarak's Egypt. The second half of it moves a lot more quickly than the first part, IMO, so don't worry too much if it takes a while to get into. The writing (or maybe the translation?) didn't totally do it for me; nonetheless, I was super disturbed when I finished it.

ONTD comments have given me a lot of great movie/TV/book recs over the years, so I'm very glad this group exists! ^__^

[Kino]

I read:

Fight Club 2
Ajin: Demi-Human, Volume 6 -
Highly Illogical Behavior
White Trash Zombie Gone Wild

Fewer than I had planned, but more than previous months. I also started Evil Librarian and finished it a the beginning of this month, but I don't count them unless I finished them during the month. I also have a bunch on my "currently reading" shelf.

[Alyssa]

Here is what i posted in the other thread!

i read:

The Red House (2/5) - really underwhelming. i really loved The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time so this was a disappointment.

Into the Darkest Corner (4/5) - really well paced thriller, and i thought a really great look at mental health and domestic violence.

I'm Down (3/5) - so, this book was marketed as a humorous memoir but i just found it to be...really sad and depressing.

Go Set a Watchman (3/5) - i knew enough going into this to not be surprised, but i didn't think it was as terrible as some people have made it out to be.

The Silent Sister (4/5) - my first book by this author, i thought it was predictable but still really enjoyable.

[Ezgi ☕️]

Bird Box (5/5)
Muhtelif Evhamlar Kitabı (Turkish) (5/5)
Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World (5/5)
Never Never (Never Never, #1) (4/5)
Vapurlara Küsmek (Turkish) (4/5)
Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina (5/5)
Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1) (4/5)
Pretty Girls (4/5)
By the Shores of Silver Lake (Little House, #5) (5/5)
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Persepolis, #1) (5/5)
Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return (Persepolis, #2) (4/5)

This was a really good month! I found great books and made a promising leap to finish series I abandoned.

[Julia]

Yes, Please by Amy Poehler
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth by Warsan Shire

Enjoyed them all, Yes, Please being my overall favourite out of the three. Loved the lessons in it, especially the chapter on winning awards, wanting the pudding vs getting the pudding.

[Anna]

I read "Thinking Straight" by Robin Reardon. It was really interesting and opened my mind to several bible interpretations I had never thought of before.