July 2020 Wrap-Up

As my clinicals pick up, I am reading fewer books per month. I anticipated this, and I'm still well ahead of my reading goal for this year, but that means that in lieu of the 16-book months I've been having all year, I read only half as many in July. This month I read 8 books (still not a bad number), with a total of 3,380 pages. This means the average page-count for July was 422 pages/book, which is quite a bit higher than June's average. I have recently started using the CAWPILE method of rating books, and as a result my average ratings from here on out will be a bit lower than normal. This month my average was 3.65 stars. I have rounded the stars under the rating of each book, but include the actual rating in parentheses after the stars. 

1. Beach Read by Emily Henry

Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.50)
I found January a very convincing and relatable narrator, and I enjoyed this book very much. I'm only knocking a star off my rating because it was terribly cliche and predictable (although I suppose that's not completely fair because what happened was exactly what I wanted to happen, no matter how idealistic). On the cliches note, I'm beginning to think "this second time was different. Whereas the first time we were rushed, as if we would run out of time, this time we savored every moment" is the new "I let go a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding".

2. Aurora Burning (The Aurora Cycle #2) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.32)
What the heck was that ending??? This book was good, the relationships definitely got more complicated (a good thing in my opinion), and the character development from certain characters was incredible (Aurora, Tyler, Zila). But also, I feel that other characters were overlooked (Finian) or became annoying (Scarlett). I honestly have no feedback on Kaliis, I didn't hate or love his parts of the book.

3. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.86)
Taylor Jenkins Reid is so masterful at weaving together characters and their stories - this was a great read.

4. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.21)
Similar to the author's previous book, this is told in several different perspectives over different timelines with different plots that marginally overlap. This makes the book both more engaging and more confusing. Some characters and plots were really intriguing (Vincent, and the Ponzi scheme plot), while others did not hold my interest at all and I had to wonder why they were even in the book (anything to do with Paul's backstory).

5. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games #0) by Suzanne Collins

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.00)
This was slow, but not completely unenjoyable. Check out my full review HERE.

6. Twilight (Twilight #1) by Stephenie Meyer

Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.70)

I guess I'm a h*e for sparkly vampires now. 

7. The State of Us by Shaun David Hutchinson

Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.92)

I know a lot of people are calling this a ripoff of RW&RB, but the Romeo-and-Juliet-in-a-modern-setting was never a new idea to begin with. Yes, there are similarities between the two books, but I ended up rating them the same. I actually found this book to be more realistic, and I think the idealism of RW&RB was what made it so popular. Lots of people complained that this book didn't have Dean (the republican candidate's son) immediately flip over to liberal ideals even though they're more moral, but I was able to appreciate Dean's growth more because it wasn't just a flip of a switch. This book is controversial, but just based on my personal enjoyment I gave it 4 stars. I will include a disclaimer that several people of color have reviewed this book with complaints about the Mexican-American representation. I can't speak to though, but feel free to check the reviews on Goodreads in this concerns you.  

8. The One by John Marrs

Rating: ★★★★★ (4.64)

There were so many twists and turns... but none of them felt forced. There were things I noticed where I was like "hmm, that seems a bit too convenient", and then it turned out that it was related to a later plot twist. I really liked the fast pace and alternating perspectives of this book, and the premise overall was just really interesting.

Review for "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" by Suzanne Collins

Rating: ★★★☆☆

I actually think this book did Snow's character very well. He is not an enjoyable protagonist to read; he's arrogant, overly ambitious, classist, cruel, narcissistic... but we already knew all that. It was interesting to see how the inner workings of his brain function, especially at such an impressionable age. So no, I didn't *like* Snow as a character, but I appreciated the way he was written, given that it was pretty consistent with his character in the trilogy.

Not all the characters were so great, though. I really liked Sejanus and Lucy Gray, but then all the other side characters were throwaway characters. All of the girls in the story had completely interchangeable personalities, which both made the book more boring and more shallow. Although this may have been a result of Snow's apathy towards other humans. I'm inclined to believe it was just that the characters weren't developed because the story itself isn't even a first person POV (it should've been).

The main reason I give this 3 stars instead of more is because it dragged soooooo much. And I didn't really understand the point of the story. Like... was this supposed to contribute something? That's not being totally fair though because we do get a lot of Hunger Games and Panem history: we learn a lot about the war, the beginning and progression of the games, and the origins of the songs that Katniss sings. But it just felt like the book didn't have a lot of direction, and it dragged painfully.