- Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson (★★★★☆)
- The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich (★★★☆☆)
- Descendant of the Crane by Joan He (★★☆☆☆)
- Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (★★★☆☆)
- The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty (★★★★☆)
- Miracle Creek by Angie Kim (★★★★☆)
MONTHLY TOTAL: 6
YEARLY SO FAR: 46
I guess my average number of books read is turning into…six. Which, I guess is not bad and is still way more than the average person, but I just can’t fathom why I’m reading so much less than I was last year. How on earth did I manage to read the amount I did?
Anyway, it was a lukewarm reading month; my favorites were Miracle Creek and The Husband’s Secret because they were so damn compelling; it’s had not to love page turners. Anything that can keep me so hooked I almost miss my train stop deserves plenty of praise, in my opinion.
I am currently reading: Red, White, and Royal Blue (which…is fine but also not terribly compelling), Fire Logic (a high fantasy I’ve been meaning to read for literal years but is shaping up to be quite a disappointment that I am highly likely to DNF), and The Hidden Face of Eve (a non-fiction book by a controversial Egyptian feminist).
My TBR is…shall we say, nebulous. I’m still feeling kind of blah when it comes to reading in general. I have two books out from the library that I should get to: These Witches Don’t Burn (which I’m really looking forward to) and Teeth in the Mist (which I’ve heard less than positive things about). I also requested and gotta pick up Big Little Lies and Again But Better, both of which I’m relatively optimistic about! I might pick up Kameron Hurley’s dystopic fantasy God’s War, since I’ve had it in my possession for a while, but who knows. I don’t think I’m really in the mood for high fantasy these days.
I think my blah mood is partly because it’s summer; I always get the blues when the temperature goes up and the sun shines far too often. I just don’t enjoy the aesthetic that comes with summer; everything just feels lethargic. I think I’ll have a better reading experience – and feel better in general – as the weather gets colder and as we slip into autumn (my favorite time of the year!). But summer also feels very much like a time to read fluffy YA/adult contemporaries and light thrillers, so that’s probably what I’ll end up doing for most of August.
TV Update: I marathoned both seasons of Fleabag in less than a week – I think I may have done this in late June, actually, but forgot to mention it! And yes, I was swayed by word of the Hot Priest. I can safely say that the Hot Priest is, in fact, hot. I finally finished my rewatch of How I Met Your Mother. The terrible finale is no more palatable the second time around, even though I can see the writers building up to it this time; it’s so clear it’s what they always intended to happen, but that doesn’t make it any less of a shitty decision.
I binged the first season of Light as a Feather, which is a supernatural teen drama, aka one of my favorite things ever. It reminds me a bit of Pretty Little Liars, only with a supernatural element that’s actually kind of creepy. Just starting the second season now. I also caught up on the second season of Harlots, which was fantastic, and the third season of One Day at a Time. I’m still in the middle of The Americans, but I’m almost done with season four of Lucifer. There’s still so much to start and catch up on, though…
Film Update: I’m making a conscious effort to watch more films, so, to that end, I watched two whole films this month! The first was Hereditary; with all the excitement surrounding Midsommar I had to watch the director’s other film, and I really enjoyed it. Still have yet to see Midsommar, though fingers crossed I’ll go see it tomorrow! I also went to the movies to see Crawl, because I love creature features, only this wasn’t so much a monster movie as a movie about the hazards of everyday life in Florida. Like, I kind of thought that the alligators were either mutant alligators or prehistoric giant beasts. Nope. Turns out they’re just…alligators. Ah, Florida.
Theater Update: I saw several shows this month! First up was Burn This, a play starring Adam Driver and Keri Russell. I absolutely adore Keri, and she was fantastic, but it was Adam who absolutely stole the spotlight with a fiery performance. The show itself is hilarious and super intense. Then I saw Beetlejuice! I have so much nostalgic fondness for the film and the television show that there was no way I could resist this, and it was so, so much fun. Teenage lead Sophia Anne Caruso has ridiculous, out of this world vocals.
Then I saw In the Green, an Off-Broadway production created by and starring Grace McLean, of the Great Comet cast. It was a very strange production about historical figures Saint Hildegard and Jutta. It was…very experimental and avante-garde. I think I enjoyed it, but I can’t be too sure. And finally, just yesterday, I saw Phantom of the Opera, and was…well, less than impressed. Everything about it was accomplished and technically good, but it’s such a classic, orthodox production that I couldn’t help but be bored with it.
Hadeer Elsbai 