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My July reading was great…but, oddly enough, not because of books actually published in July. I read a couple of August releases this month that were fantastic…and a couple books that have been on my TBR since earlier this year.
I read 9 books this month…a lot for me! I finished a couple books I’d been reading over a longer period of time and also finally had some good reading time. It feels great to be back in the groove!
Winners
- FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE MONTH:
I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell AND…Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens - Calypso by David Sedaris (my review)
- Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott (my review)
- The Banker’s Wife by Cristina Alger (my review)
- The Distance Home by Paula Saunders
- The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner (Audiobook)
- Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
Losers
- Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Contreras Rojas (my review)
DNF’s
- The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
- Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles
- The Drama Teacher by Koren Zailckas
Best-Selling Book (via my affiliate links)
The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir (my review) – thrilled to see lots of readers are putting this one in their beach bags!
Announcements
- Last week, I posted The Ultimate Guide to Celebrity Book Clubs (with a free download) to help you figure out which Celebrity Book Club best matches your reading taste. If you enjoyed my spreadsheet helping you find the Best Books of 2017 lists that best match your reading taste, you’ll like this one!
- Personalized Book Recommendations and the Superstars Facebook Group are available to anyone who supports Sarah’s Book Shelves on Patreon!
July Quality and Recommendation Sources
Reading Quality
July 2018
- % Successful Books Attempted (includes DNF’s) = 67% (above my 43% success rate from 2017)
- % Successful Books Finished (does not include DNFs) = 89%
2018 Year-to-Date (through July)
- % Successful Books Attempted (includes DNF’s) = 58% (above my 43% success rate from 2017)
- % Successful Books Finished (does not include DNFs) = 84%
Successful Recommendation Sources
- Read It Forward’s Favorite Books of the Month (Calypso, The Banker’s Wife, I Am, I Am, I Am)
- Modern Mrs. Darcy (Calypso, I Am, I Am, I Am)
- Amazon Best Books of the Month (Calypso)
- Annie Jones from From the Front Porch podcast (Give Me Your Hand)
- Beth Fish Reads (Give Me Your Hand)
- Book of the Month (Calypso)
- Catherine at The Gilmore Guide to Books (The Banker’s Wife)
- Jaclyn Crupi (Give Me Your Hand)
- Jamie Golden on The Popcast podcast (Calypso)
- Kelly Massry (I Am, I Am, I Am)
- Liberty Hardy on All the Books podcast (Calypso)
- Library Reads (Give Me Your Hand)
- New York Post Summer Reading List (Where the Crawdads Sing)
- Rebecca Foster (I Am, I Am, I Am)
- Simone and Her Books (Calypso)
- Susie at Novel Visits (I Am, I Am, I Am)
- The Millions Great Second-Half Book Preview (Give Me Your Hand)
- Tina at TBR, etc (Give Me Your Hand)
- Tyler Goodson (The Distance Home)
- Unsolicited from Publisher (Where the Crawdads Sing)
If you’re interested in tracking these types of stats, my “Rock Your Reading” Tracker does all the heavy lifting for you! Enter your book details and it automatically compiles everything into Summary Charts in real time! Go here for more details.
August Releases I’m Excited About
The Distance Home by Paula Saunders (August 7)
Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (August 14)
The Line That Held Us by David Joy (August 14)
Ohio by Stephen Markley (August 21)
Most Popular Posts
Posts Actually Published in July
The Ultimate Guide to Celebrity Book Clubs
Book of the Month July 2018 Selections: What Book Should You Choose?
What I’m Reading Now (7/16/18)
Overall Posts
Best Books of 2018 So Far
Am I the Only One Who Didn’t Love Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine?
Book Club Recommendations
Favorite Posts by Fellow Bloggers
- I haven’t been reading much historical fiction lately, partly because I burned out of World War II books. So, I was delighted to see The Ardent Biblio‘s list of Historical Fiction Books That Aren’t About WWII.
- Doing Dewey‘s discussion about blogging priorities reminded me that I’m not alone in struggling with the balancing act of fitting blogging in.
- Before reading Janssen at Everyday Reading‘s post about Why She Loves the Libby App, I had it on my phone, but rarely used it. She reminded me of all the advantages of Libby and I’ve now started using it regularly!
- Allison at Mind Joggle basically crawled in my brain and voiced every single thing I’ve ever thought about mothering in words I couldn’t seem to string together in her post called Digging Out From Under the Mental Load.
- In keeping with juggling the endless demands of motherhood, Popsugar published a reading list for distracted moms: 15 Beach Reads That Distracted Moms Might Actually Be Able to Finish.
- Bustle’s article called I Made a List of Everything I’ve Read This Year and it Changed My Perspective Entirely showed how tracking your reading can help you improve your reading life (a lesson I’ve learned this year since using my Rock Your Reading tracker).
- Ann at Books on the Table shared some of her recommendations for summer reading!
How was your reading month?
The Sound of Gravel was our book club pick for June. What an interesting read. Always like to see what books you’re recommending.
Thank you!
What a nice mix of books!
You’ve got a lot of successful recommendation sources! I loved The Banker’s Wife and just picked up Calypso from the library. I’ve never read Sedaris but have wanted to give him a try and that seems like a favorite of so many readers. You’ve got me very interested in Where the Crawdads Sing, must get to that soon!
Definitely adding a few of these to my list! I read Give Me Your Hand this month and absolutely loved it! Definitely makes up for feeling just okay about her last book.
I liked The Sound of Gravel, too. I guess I need to read the Crawdad book. I’ve seen it everywhere recently. Happy August!
You had a very successful month, for sure! I guess I need to read the post about Litsy. I’ve completely stopped using it. I never felt like it drove any traffic and I just began to see it as “one more thing” I needed to find time for.
Just went there…dah! I read it wrong, It’s about Libby! I do use Libby!
Ha – should’ve scrolled down before I responded to your comment!
Did you mean Litsy or Libby? I’ve totally stopped using Litsy as well…redundant to IG. But, the Libby app is what the post was about and it’s a library app. Can use in place of Overdrive.
I am SO glad you loved I Am I Am I Am! Easily my favorite book of the year so far!
Yay!!
Thank you for the link! I definitely need to read I Am I Am I Am and Calypso. I’m trying again with audio, and both might be good candidates 🙂
Have a great weekend!
These monthly round-ups are so impressive in how thorough they are! I’ve gotta say, I kind of love that I’m not the only nerdy weirdo out there who loves tracking reading almost as much as I love reading itself, ha ha. Keep ’em coming!
Looks like a great month! I need to read the Maggie Farrell book soon, everyone I’ve seen said it’s great and it seems up my alley.
I wondered how Incendiaries would play out after the hype died down. Great list and very helpful.
Looking forward to trying Calypso and Fruit of the Drunken Tree. I tried The Banker’s Wife and thought it was just okay. I did enjoy, I Am, I Am, I Am. Have a good week Sarah.
I didn’t know you found out about the Maggie O’Farrell from me (and others); I’m so glad you ended up enjoying it, and I hope you’ll like her fiction too when you try it.
I did! I think on Instagram? Or maybe Goodreads?