Hello everyone! I can't believe the year is already half way over. My reading is still going very well. I read 34 books this month, so my total for the year is 169. 14 of those were graphic novels and all the rest were regular books. I'm surprised to say I still haven't given anything a 5/5 star rating. I've got some books on my shelf that I'm excited to read, so hopefully those are all that I hope them to be.
Graphic novel wise, I finished the Runaways series. I didn't enjoy volumes 4 through 7 as much as I liked the first three. The ending was a disappointment to me. It was cool to see cameos from certain superheros, like Spider-Man. Volumes 4 through 7 were good but not great. I also discovered that there are Bob's Burgers graphic novels. I absolutely love that TV show. I read volumes 1 through 4 of that this month and enjoyed them. I think I gave the majority of them 4 star ratings. They had a very similar vibe to the TV show. They jump between a bunch of different short stories based on each of the Belcher kids. I wish more of the stories focused on Linda and Bob. Still, they were very enjoyable to read. I also read Injustice 2 Vol. 2 which I believe came out recently. I didn't like it as much as the first one. I rated 3/5 stars. It was okay but not anything amazing. A new series I started is Deadly Class. I finished volume 1 and liked it. Again, I wasn't blown away, but I probably will continue on with the series. It follows this group of kids that goes to an assassin school. I finished all those digitally through my library's Hoopla digital catalog. If you haven't heard of that app before, check it out, there's a lot of neat books, movies, TV shows, music, etc. on there. I did read one graphic novel physically and that was Archangel by William Gibson. I thought it was really neat. I rated it 4/5 stars. It's a time travel story where these people are going back to the World War II era to try to make sure Japan gets bombed, otherwise history as the present world knows it will be dramatically different. I loved the art and the plot. I didn't like the ending, but other than that, it was great. I just saw it when I was browsing at my library and am happy I checked it out. I'm not sure if there are any graphic novels I'm desperate to read in July. I saw that there are a lot of survival/bushcraft related books on my library's Hoopla, so I might give those a try instead.
Of the books I read this month, probably my two favorites were Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon and How We Eat With Our Eyes and Think With Our Stomach by Melanie Muhl and Diana Von Kopp. I rated both 4/5 stars. The first one was a self-help/memoir book centered around the idea of creativeness. It does focus more so on the art side and to not be afraid to show your creative processes. I always enjoy reading books from creative people, as I always wished I was more creative myself. There were a lot of little tidbits that could be applied to anyone's life. It was a interesting and cool read with neat illustrations throughout. I'd highly recommend it! The second one is a nonfiction book all about how we eat and make the choices we do when it comes to food. Supposedly eating off red plates doesn't make you as hungry. There were a lot of interesting facts throughout. It doesn't go into much depth, but I did like that it referenced other books if you're looking to read more about how we make these decisions. I had no idea so much brain power went into choosing and consuming food. It was also a relatively short read. I've been onto a short book kick lately, as sometimes I don't feel like devoting 300 plus pages to characters/plots I don't care about. I've started a list of short books I'd like to read eventually, so I'll probably try to make my way through that during the rest of the year. I read a few memoirs this month, like You'll Grow Out Of It by Jesse Klein (3/5), Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson (2/5), and The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish (3/5). They were just average overall. They each had some sections that were such a drag to get through. The Last Black Unicorn is written by a comedian, Tiffany Haddish, who I've seen a few movies this year. It wasn't my favorite celebrity memoir, though there were some funny parts. It's admirable to see how hard she had to work to get where she is today. I also read The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn (3/5). I've heard a lot about this one recently and figured I'd try it out. It was kind of suspenseful, but I didn't like the unreliable, always drunk, self-pitying female narrator trope. It reminded me a lot of the narrator in The Girl On The Train, which I absolutely hated. The twist did surprise me, and I did like that all the chapters were so short. It wasn't terrible, but again, it wasn't anything spectacular to me. A few disappointments were The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie (2/5), The Heist by Janet Evanovich (2/5), and Hardcore Twenty-Four by Janet Evanovich (1/5). That last one is part of the Stephanie Plum series, and after the utter dumpster fire that is the 24th one, I think I'll finally be stopping the series. There was nothing redeeming about it at all. The author needs to move on and stop pumping out such garbage. It's a shame the series went downhill so quickly, since they used to be quite enjoyable. I love mystery novels, but Agatha Christie just isn't for me. This is the second book from her I've tried now, and I hated it. There's never any action, which mean they're always insanely boring to get through.
Now that we're halfway into the year, I wanted to check in on how I'm doing on my goals and what I'd like to focus on moving forward. The big goals I wanted to do this year were to read 100 books, read all the books I own, and complete the Book Riot Read Harder challenge. I've completed exactly one of those so far. I've probably only read like 3 or 4 of the books I own, so I need to make that more of a priority instead of constantly checking out new library books. I've still got at least 40 books on my shelf that I need to read. I've completely fallen off doing the Read Harder challenge. It's a neat way to challenge yourself to read things outside your comfort zone, but some of the challenges are dumb. I'm just going to read what I want to read the rest of the year. If I complete the challenge, great. Honestly though, I'm not too worried about it anymore. I do want to put a greater emphasis on reading diversely though. I was going through the spreadsheet where I track what I read, and a lot of it is by straight, white American men. I believe I was around 70% men to 30% female authors. A lot of that is skewed because of graphic novels, but still, I'm not happy with that split. I've heard that perspective more than enough throughout my lifetime, so it's time to hear from some new/different voices. I'd like to read more female authors and ones that are from all over the world. We'll see if that ends up happening. By the end of the year, I'd like to have read more from more female author than men. Thanks for looking!
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