July was a great reading month for me! I finished 18 books which is a lot for me.
I only DNFed one book which is pretty amazing.
The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson
This sounded like an interesting book. Two sisters are sent to Barbados to live with their grandmother and have two different takes on life on the island. There was getting to be a lot of teenage foolishness though and I just wasn’t in the mood at the time.
I did a huge purge of my Goodreads TBR list. I didn’t have a big one compared to others I hear about but I cut my TBR list to 77 and cut my International TBR list and Nonfiction TBR list in half too. I cut anything that I knew I would just never get around to reading no matter how good the book sounded.
I’ve been requesting a lot of books from the library off my lists and praying they don’t all come in at once. Sometimes all the stars align and this happens.
These were four books I’d been waiting for a while to read and they all came together. Best library book haul ever!
Here are the books I read this month.
They were set in The United States (5 states), England, Nigeria, Somalia, Ancient Rome, Egypt, Scotland, Canada, and various imaginary places. Three were nonfiction. Two were on audio. Two were written by men and three were written by black female authors.
And then this happened…
Great talk by LeVar Burton tonight. A photo posted by @dvmheather on
I follow him on Twitter and he tweeted something about “See you tomorrow Cleveland.” I looked it up and he was appearing at the library.
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He talked about the story telling mentors in his life – Alex Haley, Gene Roddenberry, and Fred Rogers. He read his children’s book. There was a question and answer session which always makes me embarrassed to be part of the group.
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I don’t ever do book signings because I think it is horrifying. It would be ok if I didn’t have to stand in line with a bunch of other people who are asking the most cringe-making questions. I’d feel the need the apologize for all of humanity before I could get a picture so I just use the zoom lens to take them from afar like a proper stalker.
Wow, your reads look very diverse! Love the covers! They mostly seem very Steampunky. Have a great week!
Ha! I’ve never found signings uncomfortable – except for one time that I made a total fool out of myself in front of a favorite author (I wrote a whole post about it afterward). Sigh. Oh well – just have to block that one out of my mind! 🙂
Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Quite a variety of reads there and great you got to go to the signing!
That’s a great library haul indeed. I am realy curious about Ink and Bone, it sounds so good! And only one DNF in a month is pretty nice! I really should remove some books form my to-read list on goodreads soon. Last time I did that was last year, so it has grown a lot again. I hope August will be a great month as well!
Ink and Bone was great. I reviewed it here. –
18 – that’s awesome! Love it whena bunch of books come in.
And I’ve heard the carriger books are good…
The Carriger books are really fun.
I have actually never been to a book signing so I don’t know how I would feel. Most authors never even come close to where I live. 🙁 I think it would be cool, but I do no that people can ask some of the dumbest questions..lol.
Stormi
Week in Review
I find anything with audience questions cringe-worthy and am embarrassed to be part of the group. The worst is when someone asks a cringish question that WAS ALREADY ASKED!
Thanks for visiting today. I prefer to visit rather than reply back, too!
Interesting idea to purge your TBR list. I have 854 books on my list, which even for someone who reads a lot is just insane.
I haven’t been to enough author events to have an opinion on book signings. The two or three signed books I have came about because my parents knew the authors. I had one guy sign the trail guide I bought for my husband, but he was peddling them himself at a street fair, so it wasn’t like an Author Event. In some ways I’m not sure what the point is. It’s cool, but it’s not like it means you actually have a connection with the author. On the other hand, it’s a way of letting the author know that their work is important to you.
I’m jelly over the LeVar Burton signing. That is too cool!
You had a wicked month for books too! Happy August reading!
Freda’s Voice