So I don’t usually do TBRs because I’m way more of a mood reader, and I might look at this TBR in a week and decide to scrap it completely, BUT there are a bunch of books I want to finish and read within the next month or so, and I thought I would share them here so you guys can see and so that I have some record of what I intend to read.
WHAT I HOPE TO FINISH (by the end of July):
I am currently reading the above three books: Illusion by Paula Volsky, The Royal Art of Poison by Eleanor Herman, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (yes, STILL). I sped through a couple hundred pages of Illusion yesterday, but the pacing has slowed down again and so have I! I’m still enjoying it very much, however, and I don’t think finishing it by the end of July will be a problem. The Royal Art of Poison, while not what I expected, is turning out to be a quick, fun read too, so I don’t think that should be a problem.
What I’m not sure I will finish in July is Jane Eyre. I really need to sit myself down and just go through the rest of the book already; I’ve been reading it since fucking March! I’m about 44% of the way through, and things are starting to get more interesting, but I still always manage to find something else I would rather read. So, I don’t know, maybe this will go into August? Thing is, there’s another classic I really, really want to read very soon, for a very specific reason. Read on, friends.
AUGUST TBR
As soon as I finish Jane Eyre, I need to pick up Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Not only is it shameful that a self-described lover of the Gothic such as myself has never read it, BUT I also have an e-ARC of Kiersten White’s The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, which I am absolutely dying to read. I realize reading Frankenstein is probably not a prerequisite, but I would still like to read it beforehand. I also of course want to read Kiersten White’s Bright We Burn, the conclusion to her trilogy and a book that will likely be recalled from me very soon (I have it out from the library and it’s quite in demand). So, as soon as I finish my July reads, this is the first book I will start.
Another book I have out from the library is A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza. I’ve heard good things about this book, so hopefully it will be a success! Also, this is another highly in-demand book (I was eleven on the queue and it took a loooong time for me to get this book), so I need to get on it soon. Another book I struggled to get and am excited to read is Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rape Culture, edited by Roxane Gay. I’ve heard it’s amazing. Another book I’ve been seeing absolutely everywhere is Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver. I actually acquired an e-ARC of this months ago but never got around to it. Now, though, it seems it’s the book everyone’s going to be reading. I loved Uprooted and I’ve heard people say Spinning Silver is even better.
This portion of the TBR for August is more aspirational than anything. So, the next classic I want to read is The Picture of Dorian Gray, not just because I’ve heard great things about it, but because Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer, a book I purchased months ago and have been dying to read, is heavily inspired by it. The latter takes place in a Victorian London infested with demonic presence and features a fencing heroine, so I am HERE for it. And finally, I’ve had An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson out of the library for AGES, and I don’t know if I will get to it or put it on hold yet again. Thing is, I’ve been trying my best to stay away from YA fantasy for a while, especially YA fantasy that has such middling reviews. However, the fact that it is not universally beloved means I might actually like it, so who knows? At the very least, I’m told it has beautiful language, and it’s one of the splashier books out there, so I would like to say that I have read it.
I’ll stop there! There’s a few other books on my TBR but I highly doubt I’ll get to them in August. I might do another TBR as September nears, though!
Have any of you guys read any of these books yet? Planning to soon? Let me know!
“Do not lose that hunger. You will always have to fight for everything. Even when you already have it, you will have to keep fighting to maintain it. You will have to be more ruthless, more brutal, more everything. Any weakness will undo everything you have accomplished. They will see any crack as evidence that they were right that a woman cannot do what you do.”
“There was no peace in continuing to do what had already proven unworkable. Sometimes tradition itself disrupted peace, and only newness could smooth the way.”
“But if you stay, no part of this comm[unity] gets to decide that any part of this comm[unity] is expendable. No voting on who gets to be people.”
“In a child’s eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.”
“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”
“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
Hadeer Elsbai 