Bookish: August 2018 TBR & July Wrap Up

My disclaimer is this…

I did not do so great on the book front in July.

It seems that this is such a pattern for me that I’m beginning to think ‘I did not do so great’ should just become my mantra! But then… what is greatness anyway?

I’ll tell you what greatness is – more than what I friggin’ achieved!!! Who am I trying to convince?!

You. I am trying to convince you dear reader of this blog.

Sit down, let us begin a tale of woe.

This was my July list and how they fared.

The Memory Shop by Ella Griffin

A surprisingly delightful find which I have given four stars! This was one of my ‘random off the stack’ picks where I picked it up, skimmed the blurb and thought, “cool” before chucking it on my pile o’books. I don’t know what I would classify it as  – it seems to have a literary biscuity base with a creamy filling of contemporary romance and a jus of magical realism.

I am hungry and want cake. Cake has nothing to do with this book. Review is pending (as is standard now). That should be my mantra.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi 

This is what I had to say about Children of Blood and Bone for my July TBR list:-

This is an incredibly hyped book which is going to go one of two ways. Badly or well. I find hyped books tend to do that with me. This is one that I am looking forward to and I follow Tomi Adeyemi’s online writing course and she seems absolutely delightful and helpful and so I am really wanting this to go well.

This is what I had to say about Children of Blood and Bone.

I take no joy in the fact this was a DNF.

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

I held off reading this one on purpose but for a very good reason! Marina of Books of Magic – hi Marina *waves* – and I are doing a buddy read on this! She was off being all cool and stuff and living life in July so we’re hopefully going to tackle this gothic, atmospheric creep fest in the sunshiney month of August.

I don’t know if we know what we’re doing. Well, Marina probably does. I have no clue.

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

Another surprisingly delightful read which I have given three stars! My review is here.

Please read the review – I want you to gaze upon the pictures of my cat that I have included and gush about her and tell me how pretty she is.

Disclaimer: I have a mug that says ‘Crazy Cat Lady’ purchased for me by my very own mother. She has also brought me a cat scarf, a cat board game, cat socks and um… this actual book.

I love cats. It’s becoming a problem.

I aimed for four books and didn’t achieve four books. Bum fiddle.

Stats look like this:-

• 1 book which was a ‘not yet started’
• 1 book which was a DNF
• 1 book with 3 stars
• 1 book with 4 stars

So really…. 2.25 books. I would say that’s an average of 3.5 though for the two that I read so I’m going to take this to mean July for me was about quality over quantity!

Now in August I have a busy month. Next week I’m getting married. Twice! Luckily it is to the same person – I’m just greedy, not a bigamist! I’ll also be taking a mini hiatus from book blogging next week and may not have as much chance to read this week or next (although I hope I do) as it turns out that weddings are fiddly buggers to plan.

I’m excited about it though. Very, very excited!

I’m going to aim for four again!

We gots this Marina. We gots this.

I’ve not read any books by Leigh Bardugo but I’ve heard good things so I’m looking forward to this one. It’s a collection of fairy tale inspired short stories so it seems as good a place as any to ease myself in. The book copy I own I got when I was in NYC and where I just about wept over the size of the bookstore.

This isn’t a book that I own but a book that someone let me borrow. I’ve had it sat on my bookshelf since January 2017 and I’ll be darned if I let another month pass by without reading it. Historical fiction and a retelling (I think?) of Pride & Prejudice. I’m cool with this.

You wanna know something? I have no clue what this is about. I picked it up because it’s an Alice Hoffman. Literally just saw it, saw her name and didn’t even read the blurb. Why? It’s an Alice Hoffman. I think she is an auto buy author of mine. In fact what nonsense am I speaking?! She is an auto buy author of mine.

I’m just going to quickly look up the Goodreads description….

Ok, still no clue what it’s about! But I’m looking forward to it!

 

What did I get up to on a personal perspective this month? Really not much.

• It was mainly wedding, wedding, wedding stuff. Well it’s got to be really 😉
• Me and my partner went to Goodwood Festival of Speed in the middle of July. For those of you who are also into your cars and motorbikes and planes than you will know what this is about! For those of you who don’t know Goodwood is an English estate that makes its money from events like horse racing and motor festivals. My partner is massively into cars and we went down there for the day. I’m not hugely into cars but it was a lovely day out with a wonderful atmosphere. I got promised champagne so here is me quaffing some by the Veuve Cliquot van! That’s how I agree to these things… booze.

• Me and my partner also did a last pre-wedding jaunt to something called Backyard Cinema in London. There is a lovely Italian style market/ eatery place called Mercato Metropolitano which I’ve never heard of before where we ate pizza and drank wine (honestly… can you see the pattern?!) before heading into the themed cinema to watch a movie. Me and my partner love The Fifth Element and because the theme of the cinema is currently ‘Mission to Mars’ it just seemed right to go!

How was everyone’s July? You can see I don’t get out much but when I do it usually involves food and drink somehow!

What books have you got planned for August? Are any of my pending ones looking good?

Look forward to hearing from you!