What I read in July

July was a fun reading month, partly because I set goals aside and read whatever I fancied, almost all of which were books that I added this year.

I read 16 books in July. I rated 6 of them as four-star reads or better. Four were outstanding and two of them I set aside.

I was fortunate enough to get ARCs of books by two of my favourite authors, both of which were five-star reads. ‘Ashes Never Lie‘, Lee Goldberg’s second Sharpe & Walker novel, was a fast, fun ride that brought Eve Ronin into the mix and delivered some hilarious comic action. ‘The Mountain Crown’ by Karin Lowachee kicked off an exciting new fantasy series that mixes magic, colonialism and dragons to create a tense and surprising story.

My other five-star reads were ‘The Daughters’ War‘, Christopher Beuhlman’s wonderfully sad and totally absorbing prequel to ‘The Blacktongue Thief‘ which describes a brutal war between humans and goblins that had nothing at all of the fairtale about it and Kim M. Watt’s ‘What Happened In London‘ a mix of urban fantasy and police drama set in contemporary London that was slightly dark and a totally gripping.

I indulged in one of my long-time pleasures this month and read two Science Fiction anthologies ‘Last-Ditch‘ and ‘Apocalyptic‘, published by Zombies Need Brains LLC, which kept me entertained, gave me a lot to think about and added books by five new-to-me authors to my TBR shelves.

Status of TBR Challenge Goals: July – December 2024

After a half-year review, I revised my TBR Challenge goals for the last six months of 2024. Here’s how I’m doing against them:

1. Read at least 70 books (11.7 per month): read 16 in July so I’m ahead of schedule
2. Read 25 books (4 per month) from my TBR pile that were added in 2023 or that were part of the 30 books selected from my 2012-2022 TBR shelf: I’ve read two so I’m behind schedule
3. Add no more than12 books: waive that target goodbye. I added 24 books in July

I’ve realised that it’s pointless for me to set a limit on the number of books I buy a month. Instead I’m trying not to add books that I won’t read. I added 24 books this month (7 less than last month) and I’ve already read eight of them and started another two. That’s as about as good as it’s going to get.