Books I read in July

Grimoire Girl by Hilarie Burton Morgan – I don’t read a lot of memoirs, but I found this one very interesting. I’ve always been a little bit witchy so even though I haven’t seen much of her work, her stories spoke to me, and the title grabbed me as soon as I saw it. I especially loved where she talked about living in a haunted house, and the way she writes about the people she loves really resonated with me. I genuinely cried more than once as I read this, even though I know nothing about her at all aside from what she wrote in this book.

Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher – I just want to say that I *love* T. Kingfisher. I really enjoyed Wolf Worm because I found the main character Sonia very, very relatable. How many times have I finished a painting only to compare it to somebody else’s and just lament my artistic ability? It’s sort of universal, I think. I really appreciated the way Sonia thinks about painting, and her inner turmoil between her logical scientific mind and the normal-person brain panicking during some of the particularly scary parts. This book did a very good job at making me squeamish, too, and since I’ve grown up here in the south, a lot of the insects mentioned are at least ones I’m somewhat familiar with.

Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. Wilson – This book was a trip. I read it for the scifi/fantasy book club this month and I liked it. There were some things I thought were kind of strange, like some of the procedures used by some of the characters working for NASA or other government agencies that made me wonder if that would really happen or not, but in the world we live in it’s really hard to say, especially these days. Throughout the whole book I found myself wondering if all of the characters were dreaming or hallucinating, but I’m pretty sure that was the intent. It had a very surreal feel to it.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth – I’ve been meaning to read this one for a very long time. Years now, actually, and it has always been pushed aside on my TBR and I’m really not sure why. I really liked this book. Not because it was super self-helpy. I enjoyed the stories about successful people and what grittiness is, and reading about the studies that have been done. I feel like this book actually gave me a new perspective on my own life, and that’s really one of the best sorts of books in my opinion.

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce – I have sort of mixed feelings about this book. I think I would have loved it as a kid, and parts of it I loved as an adult, such as how I personally hate gender roles and people who try to stuff me into that box. I could appreciate that Alanna wants to become a knight and how she works so hard for it.

I appreciated that she isn’t perfect and how much she doesn’t excel at certain things, or how she sometimes has tantrums or her temper gets the better of her. I really loved Alanna as a character. I did not love some of the adults in her life telling her she was being foolish for trying to become a knight or their dismay at how she doesn’t want to become a woman. It felt to me like she’s experiencing distress over puberty and her body changes because they don’t match what is in her head and heart, and a lot of people can relate to those things.

I felt like even though this is fantasy, some parts were very realistic and other parts were not, but this is also a novel written mostly for children so I tried to look at it from that perspective. Overall I liked it, though, and I didn’t read this series back when I was a kid so that might definitely skew my opinion of it. I definitely plan on reading the rest, too.

I wanted to give this a re-read because I was forced to read it in high school and hated it back then. It turns out I still have problems with it, now. That whole period of history is so asinine, though, that I think it might be more my problem with that part of the history rather than my problem with the work itself.

I found it very hard to sympathize with John Proctor, even though he is the hero, and hard to hate Abigail even though she’s the villain of the tale. I mean he’s the adult here and she was what? A teenager? Maybe barely an adult or not even, and yet old enough to be married back in those days. He should have known better and yet he chose to have an affair with her anyway.

Then he proceeds to do all he can to keep it a secret and keep his good name, that he tarnished himself with the choices he made… and his wife suffers for it, at least until the accusation of witchcraft extends to him. I didn’t find him particularly heroic, back as a highschooler or now either. He tries to redeem himself but it’s amazing to think he might have survived the patriarchal nonsense of the witch trials if he had just kept it in his pants.

And don’t even get me started on how Tituba is treated and demonized. The whole story has so many infuriating parts, I still can’t help but sort of hate it, but I think that’s less about Miller’s writing and was actually pretty much the point he was trying to make.

The Tapestry of Fate by Shannon Chakraborty – I have to say that I was absolutely enchanted by Amina in the first book, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, and the second book did not disappoint me. There were so many things to love about this book, and I finished it in record time, not only because someone else was waiting on it at the library, but also because it was pretty hard to put down.

For a while there I was pretty intimidated by longer books, like they felt like an insurmountable task, but after managing to get through Moby Dick earlier this year, and The Count of Monte Cristo in a previous year, I was ready for the challenge.

I particularly enjoyed the villain of this novel. I loved that Lab was smart and believable, and that she had basically built an entire empire. I also love that Amina despite all of her badassery isn’t perfect, and often hasn’t been a good person. I’m not really ready to call her an anti-hero, even though she’s a retired pirate, but I guess even villains and anti-heroes have families and people that they love. I feel like one of the strengths of this series is all the detail of character development. They feel so alive as you read about them. Even though I’ve read a lot of great books this month, I think this one was my favorite.

Paris: The Memoir by Paris Hilton – As a kid that grew up in the 90s and a young adult in the early 2000s, I can safely say that I didn’t expect to want to read this memoir at all. Paris was very demonized by the media, and I grew up being told how hateable she was, so I admit that I hated her too, for no good reason.

When I read Brittany Spears’ memoir a few years ago, I told myself that I should read it, because I had also been young and stupid and hated her for no good reason also. I think that was the reason I finally decided to read this. Paris got a lot of hate, and so I was pretty shocked to read all that she went through “for her own good.” I can’t imagine the sheer trauma that was inflicted on her in those various troubled teen facilities that she was forced to go to.

I know it’s pretty unlikely that she’ll ever read this, but I feel terrible for judging her so harshly when I knew basically nothing of the world, and especially nothing of her world. I’m very glad she’s doing better these days and I feel happy for her. Her memoir was a great read, but definitely not for the faint of heart.

I also appreciated that she narrated the audiobook, too. She has done so many things that I never knew about at all, because of course the media barely reports on the good things and instead only focuses on the scandals. I was surprised to find out that she was so relatable, too. I always had it in my mind as a teen that we’d never have anything in common.