This year has been flying by. I know I say this pretty much every month, but I cannot believe it is almost August already. I have been incredibly busy this month – partly because I’ve been designing an entirely new site for this blog! Everything here, I customized from scratch, and I’m really proud of how it turned out. I am still working out some bugs and will be making a few more improvements over the next month or so, but I am happy I was able to get this site up and working in time for this post.

I have absolutely no idea how I was able to read so much this month with how busy I’ve been. This has actually been my biggest reading month of the year so far, both in number of books and number of pages. And while there is a one-star book in this bunch, there were also three five-star reads and a nice sprinkling of three- and four-stars.

What I Read

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

I am really not sure why I went into this one thinking it was middle grade. Because unless middle grade novels contain profanity now, it definitely is not. Fortunately, I am a grownup who enjoys a healthy dose of profanity in my books, so I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It’s about a tea monk and a robot who meet in the forests of the moon on which they live and become friends. It’s also one of the first (if not only) books I’ve read with a nonbinary main character, so that was a welcome new experience. I picked this one up completely on a whim, but was so glad I did.

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

This is the sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built, which coincidentally was just released this month. So I obviously had to pick it up. I couldn’t tell you which of the two is my favorite, but I very much enjoyed both. They weren’t quite five-star reads for me, but they were very close.

Pew by Catherine Lacey

It’s not often that I read a book that is decidedly weird and don’t connect with it. Because you all know I have a thing for weird books. This one is about a person who one day is found sleeping on the pew of the church. The townspeople name them Pew (and are pretty put-out by the fact that they can’t figure out if Pew is male or female). The story is told from Pew’s perspective, but they do not speak. So the people in the town start telling Pew their stories and confiding their secrets. It’s weird and mysterious, and wasn’t quite was I was expecting. I enjoyed it, just not quite as much as I was hoping to.

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century edited by Alice Wong

Since July was Disability Pride Month, I thought it was the perfect time to read this collection of essays by a diverse group of Disabled people, edited by Alice Wong, who is a fairly well-known disability activist. And I absolutely loved this book. It is such a great collection of insightful essays. I learned a lot from these stories and the experiences of everyone who contributed to this collection.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Yes, I know, it took me way too long to get around to reading this one. I am a pretty big Andy Weir fan, and it’s a little embarrassing how long I had this book sitting on my shelves, unread. But I finally read it, and I absolutely loved it. I’m not quite sure where I’d rank this one against The Martian, but it’s definitely up there. It was fun and funny, but had its heartbreaking moments, too. Just an all around great novel, and such a great reading experience. I am not at all surprised Project Hail Mary is being adapted into a movie, and I cannot wait. 

The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O’Rourke

The second book I managed to squeeze in for Disability Pride Month, and one that was very close to home for me. I’ve spoken about it briefly, but I am disabled and my disability (MS) also happens to be a chronic illness. This book discusses how chronic illness sufferers are viewed and treated, and I can absolutely attest to the fact that it really sucks. Friends and family don’t understand a lot of the time, doctors ignore or dismiss you, and it can be pretty isolating and it can sometimes be the worst part of being ill. I thought this book did a great job of portraying that experience. Highly recommend it! 

True Biz by Sara Novic

I’ve been trying to get to more new releases this year, and this one caught my eye. It also worked great to for Disability Pride Month, so I decided to pick it up in July. It’s about a school for the deaf, and alternates perspectives between a few of the students and the principal. It does an interesting job of portraying deafness on the page. I actually listened to the audiobook (I fully understand that irony), and thought they did a great job of adapting it to that format, too. This was close to a five-star read for me, but I thought the ending was a little too abrupt. I just wanted a bit more at the end. But overall, I really enjoyed it. I would absolutely recommend if you also liked CODA (which is amazing, so if you haven’t watched it yet, you should).

Also should mention the author, Sara Novic is deaf, so it was great to read a book like this one knowing the author is very familiar with the Deaf experience. 

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

I was feeling really good at this point in the month. I’d read some amazing books and was excited to finally get around to reading one of my most anticipated books of the year. I loved Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater when it was released a few years ago. I haven’t read The Death of Vivek Oji yet because it just seems like it’ll make me cry and I wasn’t in the mood for that. But this one is a romance, so it felt like a great choice for summer. If you know me, you’ve probably already guessed that I did not like this book. I actually kind of hated it. The romance was cringe-y on multiple levels and I could not stand the character development. Almost everyone was worse by the end. This might just be my most disappointing read of the year. 

Mean Baby by Selma Blair

Fortunately, I followed it up with a book that exceeded my expectations. I was a little young for Cruel Intentions when it was popular (I have since watched it), but I was obsessed with Legally Blonde. So I’ve been a Selma Blair fan for a while. But when she announced that she was diagnosed with MS right after I was, I’ve felt a bit of a connection to her. That’s only grown stronger after reading this book. Our experiences – both with MS and life in general – could not be more different, but I just felt where she was coming from. I also thought her writing was beautiful, and I really loved this book. I haven’t read a celebrity memoir in a while, and this was a great one to come back to that genre. 

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

This book just won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, which is super exciting. It was already on my reading list, but that made me even more eager to read it because the past two winners have been some of my favorite books. I’ve also read Ruth Ozeki before, and enjoyed her writing. Plus, this book is weird – it’s about a boy who beings to hear inanimate objects speak to him after the death of his father – which is right up my alley. And I could have loved this book. I wanted to love this book. But it was just so long. I think if this had been half the length it is, it would have been a favorite. But I struggled to get through it at points, so it was unfortunately only a three-star read for me.

What I’m Currently Reading

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt

I’ve been picking up quite a few new releases on a whim this year, and I haven’t really regretted any of them. And I’m pretty sure that’s going to be true of this book as well. I am loving it so far. It’s about an octopus named Marcellus who lives in an aquarium, and Tova, the elderly woman who cleans said aquarium and is still coping with the disappearance of her son over thirty years ago. They develop an unlikely friendship and it is so cute. I’m not even halfway through and I’m already in love. It’s definitely giving me A Man Called Ove (Marcellus is the curmudgeon in this story), and I am so here for it. I also love all things octopuses, so was hoping to love this one and am so happy it’s meeting my expectations. 

What I Watched

Doctor Strange & The Multiverse of Madness

I very rarely go see movies in theaters, so even though I do love Dr. Strange, I waited until this one was on Disney+. And I enjoyed it. It was fun and action packed, and felt very Dr. Strange. I will say I’m not the biggest fan of Wanda’s whole story arc in the MCU. I watched WandaVision and liked it, even though I wasn’t too happy with a premise that revolved around a woman destroying the lives of others with her grief. But I got it. I just wish she’d gotten a redemption arc instead of them pushing her further into villain territory with this movie.

Persuasion

Yes, I watched the Netflix Persuasion adaptation this month. And I think I’m going to save my thoughts and do a whole post on it in the next week or so. This has been a very controversial movie in the book community, and my thoughts maybe don’t totally align with what a lot of people are saying.

Blog Highlights

20 Books to Read for Disability Pride Month

Like I mentioned, this month was Disability Pride Month, so I shared a list of books I think would be perfect to read this month (they’re good all year, too, I promise – so don’t feel like you shouldn’t check them out since July is over). There are a lot of great books on this list, so I highly recommend you go check it out if you haven’t already.

That’s it for July! I hope you all had a great reading month. What was your favorite book in July?

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