Hey guys, this is Abi here,
And I'm back with my July Wrap Up (2025)!
Going into this month I think I was three books behind schedule, which is definitely a good start. But, I pulled my socks up, came up with a plan, and got reading. I was even on track at certain points in the month! But alas, I still remain one book behind my Goodreads reading challenge (when will this torment end?)
But, I have lots of books to share with you guys today, and good news- I'm no longer reading the Earthsea Quartet or A Series of Unfortunate Events series! Finally!
Anyway, enough rambling on. I hope you enjoy my Wrap Up.
1. My Friends, by Fredrik Backman
I might still, to be honest, I only finished it at the start of July, so I still have all my thoughts sitting close to my chest at the moment, so keep an eye out for that.
Although My Friends was very much a slow burner, the writing was impeccable as always, and I loved the way these characters just felt like characters at the start, and then you suddenly start feeling so much for them, all at once, as the story rolls along.
2. Clementine: Book One (Clementine #1), by Tillie Walden
3. Clementine: Book Two (Clementine #2), by Tillie Walden
4. Clementine: Book Three (Clementine #3), by Tillie Walden
Since the release of Clementine: Book Three got pushed back, I've been eagerly waiting for June to roll around so I could marathon the first two novels and finally read the third with them.
With Volume Three, our heroine is on pretty good footing- excuse the pun- with friends, a cat, security and a person to spend the rest of her days with. Until that person is thrust away from her, never to return. Clementine feels that there's no hope to return to the happiness that she once had, until she's shown the way to another potential family, and another life entirely. But at what cost?
Clementine: Book Three brings about a well-rounded finale to a beloved series of mine, and I'm satisfied with the ending.
5. Global, by Eoin Colfer
I picked this up in Middlesborough, I think (during our Whitby holiday) and recognised it immediately. Global is written by Eoin Colfer, who also wrote Illegal, which I read a couple of years ago, and loved. Of course I had to have it. Of course I loved it just as much as Illegal.
Global jumps between two protagonists, Sami and Yuki, in two entirely different places in the world, but both in an equally desperate economic disaster. Sami and his grandfather live in a village along the indian ocean, and are daily risking their lives, trying to gather enough fish to sell to survive, all the while waiting anxiously for the next monsoon. Yuki lives in the far north of Canada, where warming temperature is melting the ice, and endangering the polar bears. Yuki is determined to do something to help.
Both stories are gripping and fast-paced, and I read the entire thing in one afternoon (probably because it was a graphic novel, but it was still good.)
If anyone knows of any other Eoin Colfer graphic novels, I would love to read them.
6. Before I Die, by Jenny Downham
At this point in the month I was struggling with deciding what to read next. I wanted to read something I would enjoy, but also didn't want to take an age to read it, because of the ever looming Goodreads Reading Challenge. Cue Before I Die: one of my favourite fast reads, when I'm in the mood for a sad book that I knew I would enjoy. Before I Die is about more than just a girl dying of cancer. It has a message that I think is very important- to take what you want and never let go. Tessa is dying- there's no getting around that- but she has a list, and a promise to herself: she's not going to die until all ten things on the list are done.
Before I Die is an emotional, powerful book, and it is always a pleasure to pick it up again.
7. The Grim Grotto (A Series of Unfortunate Events #11), by Leminy Snicket
8. The Penultimate Peril (A Series of Unfortunate Events #12), by Lemony Snicket
.jpg)
These books have been a long time coming. I think I put them off for two months, maybe. But July, for me, has been my catch up month, where I promised myself that I would finish everything I'd been working for, for seemingly forever.
Even though you can't tell, because the Earthsea Quartet is four short stories, all in one book, I was alternating the A Series of Unfortunate Events series, and the Earthsea novels, so I didn't get disinterested in either series.
I honestly think what was stopping me from finishing this series was the start of The Grim Grotto. It starts by descriping the water cycle, and maybe I just wasn't in the mood to read that, in the extremely wordy style that's accustomed in the ASOUE series. Once I got past that, I started gaining speed, and managed to knock out each of these in five days or so.
The Penultimate Peril felt like the finale for this series, because you get re-introduced to a number of characters that the reader has met over the last 11 novels, except for the extremely chaotic ending that sends the hotel up in smoke. There are only a few select characters that either show up, or get a mentioning in The End, so I thoroughly enjoyed The Penultimate Peril, since it's mostly a review of all of the Baudelaire's woes and troubles since the series began.
9. Earthsea: The First Four Books (Earthsea Cycle #1-4), by Ursula K. Le Guin
Honestly, thank fuck I finished this. I doubled with reading this and listening to the audiobook with each of the short stories for Earthsea, and it worked wonders for my progress. Each of the next three novels after A Wizard of Earthsea were captivating, entising and full of excitement. I fell in love with this vibrant world, interesting and flawed characters- because geenuinely, so much was packed into each story, each chapter, each page.
I am aware that there are two more novels I have to read until I have fully completed the series, but I'm going to read those as and when I'm in the mood to read them- hopefully it's sometime this year.
10. The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events #13), by Lemony Snicket
I'm going to start with this: The End has a completely different feel to the rest of the series. Like I said before, very few characters from the past 12 novels make it to the thirteen book. Kit Snicket is there, Count Olaf is also there, the Baudelaire parents are mentioned throughout, and the Quagmire triplets and Dewey are mentioned occasionally. That's it. Basically, the book starts with the Baudelaires and Count Olaf being ship-wrecked, and landing on a coastal shelf in the middle of nowhere.
It's soon clear that everything washes up on these shores eventually, the place that the Baudelaires find themselves on. Including, their parents, right before Violet was born. A very big part of this book is Violet, Klaus and Sunny finding our more about why their parents were here, what they were like, as well as trying to find out more about the schism, amongst all the other secrets they've been trying to uncover for the majority of these books.
It was very detatched to the structure of the other books, but I didn't have any issues with it, with the way it was written, and although I'll undoubtedly be thinking about it for at least another week, I was extremely satisfied with the ending.
Thankyou Lemony Snicket, and the Baudelaire siblings, for your amusing and unfortunate story. It was a pleasure to read about your lives once more. To another seven years before I come across your books again!
Okay! Those are all the books I read in July! I'm extremely happy to say that I'm finally free of all the series I've been stringing along (except for some books my colleague gave me to borrow...)
which I'm already reading now.
As always, feel free to comment down below what you got up to in July, and we can chat about it!
I hope you have a wonderful day and I'll see you all soon!
Byeeeee!
-Abi xxxx
No comments:
Post a Comment