July Short Read - Details and Dates

[Abigail]

In the month of July, I will be leading our first short group read. For this read, I have chosen a Young Adult (target reading ages 11 -18) pirate adventure novella, 'Pirate Sea' by Kyler Kuehler.

At only 111 pages, it should be a short and interesting group read!

The novella was published in July 2021. As part of our vetting process, Robert and I pre-read the indie books shortlisted for group reads. I really enjoyed Kuehler's action-packed story, giving it a 4-star rating. You can read my review below:

"Fast, fun and rather gruesome!

Well, I never expected that a YA pirate adventure story would be my thing, but I really enjoyed this! Pirate Sea follows the misfortune of young James as he is captured and made the cabin boy of a ship of sadistic pirates. We follow James’ narration as he fights for his life, respect and with his own conscience. The cherry on top of this story was the very sweet romance.

The writing style and structure of this story, clearly designed for its young adult audience, lends itself to being an extremely quick and engaging read. I found this book pretty hard to put down once I’d picked it up. While the story is designed for a younger audience, it doesn’t shy away from heavy emotional themes, dark concepts or grisly details. I absolutely am not the intended audience for this book, and I enjoyed reading it tremendously, so I’d imagine for adventure story fans or avid readers of young adult fiction, this would be a perfect short read.

I tend to read pretty lengthy and dense classics, and I am constantly on the lookout for shorter books I can pick up in between those reads to refresh my reading motivation. In that respect, Pirate Sea was a winner!"

There are a few reasons why I didn't rate this book at 5-stars (I think each reader has very varying and subjective criteria). But overall, I think it perfectly walked the line between accessible literature and a compelling and layered book.

We will be reading the book over two weeks. Reading roughly 55 pages each week. The reading dates for this book are as follows:

Friday 1st July we begin reading Chapters 1-10
Friday 8th of July we begin reading Chapters 11-Epilogue

Pirate Sea can be purchased on Amazon and is also available to read FREE on Kindle Unlimited!

[Abigail]

Sounds like fun! My July reading slate is already extraordinarily heavy (in the range of 4,000 pages) but will try to squeeze it in. Ohh to find my Kindle.

[Abigail]

Abigail wrote: "Sounds like fun! My July reading slate is already extraordinarily heavy (in the range of 4,000 pages) but will try to squeeze it in. Ohh to find my Kindle."

Wow! I am in awe! You're an absolute gem, OA! Thank you for being so supportive of our new little reading group!

[Abigail]

Well, it doesn’t help that one of my assigned books next month is 1,500 pages long (I’m getting a head start now). Sometimes it just falls out that a lot of my reading groups assign chunksters at the same time. So I’m grateful to have the promise of some lighter fare!

[Abigail]

Abigail wrote: "Well, it doesn’t help that one of my assigned books next month is 1,500 pages long (I’m getting a head start now). Sometimes it just falls out that a lot of my reading groups assign chunksters at t..."

Oh, gosh! It's not Clarissa, is it? I read Pirate Sea in a little over a day. It's super easy to get into! :-)

[Abigail]

No, it’s A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, assigned by my JASNA chapter for their July meeting. It’s supposed to have been partly inspired by Pride and Prejudice and I can see the connection though it’s not close. So far no Darcy character has clearly emerged. I am enjoying it, but keeping in reserve the 6-hour miniseries if I get bogged down.

Then I’m reading Belinda for two other groups (loving that too, and only 500 pages!), leading a group discussion of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the Georgette Heyer group is reading one of my favorites, Sylvester, Reading the Detectives is starting buddy reads of a favorite mystery writer, Michael Innes, Historical Mysteries is sampling a writer of Regency mysteries, and my real-life book club is reading The Midnight Library.

And I’m supposed to be reading vol. 3 of Fanny Burney’s journals and letters for my own work and taking notes.

Then it’s Jane Austen July, so there’s another whole list there! Good thing I’m retired.

[Abigail]

Abigail wrote: "No, it’s A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, assigned by my JASNA chapter for their July meeting. It’s supposed to have been partly inspired by Pride and Prejudice and I can see the connect..."

Ooh! I'm on Belinda too! Enjoying it so much so far. It's my first Edgeworth! I might think of joining the Heyer group, as I've been meaning to try some of her works (after many recommendations to do so) for half a year now!

Gosh! I'm exhausted just reading about your reading plans! Good on you!

[Abigail]

See you in Belinda!