≡ Menu

July 2014 Reading Wrap-Up and Look to August

july 2014 reading wrap up

Whew, I can’t believe July is over. It feels like a crazy busy month, what with my birthday and traveling and signing a lease on a new rental house. I’m still sort of shaking my head and wondering how it went by so quickly. With all of that, I still managed to finish a ton of books. About a third were comic books, but whatever, I’m still counting them. Here’s what I read in July (in no particular order):

  1. Abbot, Meg: The Fever (fiction)
  2. Rachman, Tom: The Rise and Fall of Great Powers (fiction)
  3. Netzer, Lydia: How to Tell Toledo From the Night Sky (fiction)
  4. Gay, Roxane: Bad Feminist (essays)
  5. Rubin, Gretchen: Happier at Home (nonfiction)
  6. Taylor, Chris: How Star Wars Conquered the Universe (nonfiction)
  7. Winters, Ben: Countdown City (fiction/audio book)
  8. Winters, Ben: World of Trouble (fiction)
  9. Grossman, Lev: The Magicians (fiction)
  10. Wieve, Kurtis: Rat Queens, Vol. 1: Sass and Sorcery (comic book)
  11. Vaughn, Brian K: Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1: Unmanned (comic book)
  12. Vaughn, Brian K: Y: The Last Man, Vol. 2: Cycles (comic book)
  13. Vaughn, Brian K: Y: The Last Man — The Deluxe Edition Book Two (comic book)
  14. Vaughn, Brian K: Y: The Last Man — The Deluxe Edition Book Three (comic book)

Like the rest of my summer reading, a lot of fiction and a lot of other formats (in June it was audio books, this month it’s comics). It’s hard to pick a favorite book of the month. I adored The Rise and Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman, but also had a hard time putting down Chris Taylor’s How Star Wars Conquered the Universe. We’ll call it a draw.

A Look to August

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I’m going to focus on reading nonfiction for the month of August (except for finishing up The Magician King and The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman). I picked up a ton of great September nonfiction at Book Expo America that I am going to make it a priority to read. Here’s what I’ve got on my plate:

  • What Stays in Vegas by Adam Tanner (Sept. 2 from PublicAffairs) — How private corporations are using big data in targeting consumers.
  • Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbot (Sept. 2 from Harper) — Four women who risked it all as Civil War spies.
  • Daring: My Passages by Gail Sheehy (Sept. 9 from Harper) — A memoir from a early lady journalist in the 1960s.
  • City of Lies by Ramita Navai (Sept. 9 from PublicAffairs) —  The true stories of “ordinary people forced to live extraordinary lives in modern Tehran.”
  • Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Charles Blow (Sept. 23 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) — A memoir by a New York Times columnist about his experience growing up in Louisiana.
  • A Deadly Wandering by Matt Richtel (Sept. 23 from William Morrow) — A cautionary tale about the dangers of texting and driving and the science of attention.
  • On Immunity by Eula Biss (Sept. 30 from Graywolf Press) — An exploration of why we fear vaccinations and our ideas of immunity.

What books are you excited to read in August?

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Sandy July 31, 2014, 5:42 am

    You always get your hands on the best non-fiction! I can’t wait to see what you unearth next. My next print book is going to be Liane Moriarty’s “Big Little Lies” which should be awesome. After that I have a huge stack of things I bought at B&N lately, not necessarily new books though. I’m still listening to “The Silkworm” and holy moly do I love these audios. Total love, like not ever wanting them to end. After that, I’m excited to listen to A.J. Fikry and then perhaps joining Ti and listening to something Stephen King.

  • Andi @ Estella's Revenge July 31, 2014, 9:38 am

    You had a lot going on, but it looks like a great reading month!

  • Sheila (Book Journey) July 31, 2014, 10:18 am

    Yo had a good July! My month turned into a surprising turn of events and well.. as you know moving out of my 10+ year job so my reading took a big drop. You have a few there I still want to read 🙂

  • Diane@BibliophilebytheSea July 31, 2014, 8:20 pm

    You had a great July for books — For August i am anxious to try the new books by Umrigar and Murakami – happy reading.

  • Jennine G. August 1, 2014, 3:52 am

    Your August reads are all new titles to me! Can’t wait to hear about them! I’ll be squeezing in my reviews for September during August because the start of school is going to be crazy – I can just feel it. Want to have all commitments out of the way! Besides the reviews, I am reading three books at this moment.

    Teacher Wars – nonfiction that needs some thing else to take a break even though it’s interesting.

    House of Leaves – fiction, but creepy so I can only read it during the day. Also challenging, so need another book to help break it up.

    This Is a Where I Leave You – the book I’m currently using to break up the other reads. It’s complicated.

  • tanya (52 books or bust) August 1, 2014, 4:36 am

    I’m trying to dedicate my summer to catching up on reading books that may have passed me by in the last few months. Looks like there’s lots of great non-fiction coming up in the fall. Good luck.

  • Finley Jayne August 1, 2014, 6:22 am

    You had a solid reading month! I’ve also started reading more non-fiction and I’m really enjoying it so far 🙂