(TAG) End of Summer Recap

I was tagged by Faith at You Are What You Read to do the End of Summer Recap!

This summer was an ~interesting~ time for me, and while I wasn’t super duper excited about everything I read, I did read some fantastic books!

Like Faith, I count summer as June to August. If summer is different for you, feel free to adjust 🙂

What book can you not stop thinking about?

Definitely Unbecoming by Anuradha Bhagwati. It was a recent listen and I still haven’t posted a review, mostly because my feelings are all over the place and I can’t stop thinking about how closely our experiences were related, even though we did completely different things in the Corps and served five years apart. But after listening to my wife talk about a PTSD training she attended yesterday, and hearing about the misogynistic drivel being pounded into these Marines’ ears, it made my blood boil all over again.

Which book would you rather not have read?

Brave New World was on my TBR since the day I joined Goodreads (well, more like the same week but whatever), and there it should have stayed. Or been deleted. But nooooo. It’s a classic. And my goal is to read 10 classics this year. I pushed through the audiobook and it was not the best. Perhaps this is a book that is too smart for me, but I was underwhelmed and didn’t care for it that much.

What genre did you read the most?

Science fiction and fantasy—a result that should surprise no one, although I was surprised that I had read mostly adult books. I’ve generally read primarily YA, mostly because I love the books in the age category, but lately I’ve been falling out of love with them (mostly those that are SFF). However, I also read a lot of contemporaries and sevenish nonfiction books.

Which book surprised you the most?

It’s a tie! I was entirely delighted by these two NetGalley impulse requests, which both featured witches and were both absolutely adorable. And inclusive and just all around awesome. The Okay Witch (releases 3 September) is middle grade, while Mooncakes (releases 15 October) is more YA/NA.

Which book disappointed you the most?

Put down your torches and pitchforks! I was very underwhelmed by The Dragon Republic. While I enjoyed the plot, Rin annoyed the hell out of me with her impulsiveness, lack of leadership and strategic thinking (despite having been in a military academy that specifically trained those two things), her obsession with this fucking trident and all the vomit (so much vomit—how did the girl always get it in her hair??). Despite enjoying the plot, I just didn’t want to pick the book up and finish it? Ultimately, it was not for me.

What was your favorite cover?

Another tie! Why no I’m not indecisive at all, these are both just too gorgeous to choose one! While neither book was a stand-out favorite, those covers are just so beautiful. I’ve never seen a cover like Gods of Jade and Shadow before, and while Spin the Dawn is a typical YA cover, it fucking sets a new standard for excellence. The details! The determination! The colors! The font!

What was your favorite summer release?

I’ll probably never stop raving about This is How You Lose the Time War, because it was amaaaaazing. Sometimes it dipped into overly poetic, but overall it was the time-traveling Spy vs Spy sapphic snark fest I never knew I wanted. And because I loved this book so much, I requested another sapphic time-traveling read from NetGalley: The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz, which releases 24 September.

What books did you plan on reading, but never got around to?

I’m going to get to these, even though it feels like Jade City has been on my TBR for forever (Goodreads says since March 2018). My goal is to get to them, along with another long-time TBR sitter, The Fiery Cross. So we’ll see what happens.

Which books do you plan on reading this fall?

Well, for starters I plan on reading the books I didn’t get to this fall, but after that there are just so damn many that I have no idea where to start. Despite my suckage during August and lack of getting really ahead on my September ARCs (for shame, I know I know), I do plan on keeping September a themed month: Sci Fi September. Here are three that I am super duper excited to read: