i read 6 books this month and beat a reading slump // reading wrap up
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- We're finished with July, friends. WILD. Here are the books I read during the month of July. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself for kicking a reading slump and getting some books finished this month while also writing my novel. It's been a tricky balance! I read a classic western, an impactful memoir, and my friend @AndrewsWizardlyReads did a TBR takeover and had me reading some books that added a much needed shake up to my reading plans. What were your favorite reads in July?
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Super glad you liked the books I picked for you 😊
Lord of a Shattered Land seems to be influenced by Greek Literature as well as Sword and Sorcery. Hanuvar very clearly resembles Odysseus his traveling companion seems inspired by Greek playwrights like Sophocles. The sword and sorcery influences are reminiscent of many Conan novels I have read - both new and old. It works well.
July was a really good month for me, but I'll especially mention Nathan Lowell's "The Wizard's Butler". It's heartwarming in the way that most of Lowell's books are, with an interesting (though not particularly surprising) plot and excellent character work. If it's not my favorite book of the year so far, it's very, very close.
Glad you are out of your slump Tori.
I had a great month of reading in July with one exception.
I managed 4 comic books:
Annihilation - Books 1 to 3 (re-read)
Judge Dredd Complete Casefiles Vol 24
6 books:
Thornhedge - T Kingfisher
The Rage Of Dragons - Evan Winter
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Bookstore Wedding (The Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories) - Alice Hoffman
Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata (which was the exception)
Crow Girls - Charles De Lint (Please read De Lint sometime soon, I'm sure you'll love his character work)
Book of the month is a hard pick between Rage Of Dragons and To Kill A Mockingbird so I'm not going to.
What a great pile o books. Night is profound.
Yes it is! Thanks for watching, Chris!
I finished Earthsea in january and ended up really loving it. Was a first read for me having started the first book last year. Gave me nostalgic d&d vibes reading it, which i found a little amusing since le guin pre-dates dungeons & dragons. 😂
Eleni was an incredible book, written by a son about his mother, and her journey through surviving the Greek internal wars after WW2 ended, the constant switching between fascism and communism and the impacts on the small villages and towns.
Incredible book.
I don’t think we can ever understand the horror some communities and people endure. Absolutely heartbreaking
I completely agree, and I will definitely check out that recommendation!
Lonesome Dove: Wow, that is not an aspect of the book that anyone else had touched on (that I am aware of). That would be really rough to get through.
Audiobooks are the main reason I'm able to get through any book. I feel like any time I can sit down and read a book that I should be writing instead. I listen to audio books on my commute and doing chores around the house. Running a TH-cam channel where you need to read in order to put out content AND try to find time to write has got to be TOUGH!
Great video Tori! Too bad Earthsea wasn’t quite what you wanted, but I totally understand why. I’ve never had a desire to read Lonesome Dove, and I’m glad to hear your thoughts on it. 😊
Despite the almost universal praise it gets, I have always felt like Lonesome Dove would not be an Esmay book, and I think you just confirmed that with your review, so thanks for that!! Really glad that most of the other reads were so great though! I really need to get to some Andrew Howard Jones. Hope August treats you well 🤩
Night was a very impactful book. I’m glad you got a lot out of it. My parents survived the holocaust and Wiesel’s story really hit home.
I can imagine it would. 💜💜💜
Great assortment!
Good to get your thoughts on Lonesome Dove...I have it on my shelf but it may move down the tbr as I have similar views...I read Where the Crawdads Sing and really enjoyed it and I don’t read a lot of lit fiction but I found the characters really compelling.
I always love hearing your opinions on books, Tori. Although no 2 people have the same reading taste, I do find your opinions align more closely with my own and your review of Lonesome Dove is giving me pause about picking it up. It's such a long book and everyone raves about it so I bought the book thinking it would be an easy 5 star but I wondered if it might be a bit too dark for me. Your notes about the grim dark aspect and the treatment of women is really great information... it's probably not the book for me.
I hope the review was helpful! 💜 It is definitely grimdark. McMurtry doesn’t glorify the treatment of women portrayed in the books, which I appreciate. It’s just very heavy.
It’s taking me forever to get through 11/22/63. I like it a lot, but for some reason I’m only half way through after two weeks.
That’s alright! Reading pace ebbs and flows naturally. You got this!
@@ToriTalks2 it’s probably because since I’m like halfway through, I’m reading slower because I don’t wanna get to a horror or thriller part. I’m a huge Scaredy Pants lol
I’ve never got the Earthsea hype, read them years ago. Nice reads, but I have no plans to ever re read them.
Can't imagine not connecting with Ged, his story and Le Guin's way of telling is amazing IMO, though I do have to read beyond Wizard of Earthsea still.
On the other hand, I tried Dandelion Wine last year, and did have trouble focusing on Bradbury's rambling poem-prose, and had to (temporarily) DNF, even though I had previously read Something Wicked This Way Comes and totally 5 stared it and loved Bradbury's style, which I had thought kind of a kindred spirit to the way Le Guin writes like fluid dream words. Maybe it's largely a state of mind thing, I've mostly really liked his short stories in the Illustrated Man and want to give Dandelion Wine another go. Have yet to try Fahrenheit 451 (or much dystopian sci-fi for that matter).
Haven't read Day Zero yet, but I did read Sea of Rust (same world) and it was excellent.
That’s what I heard! I’m definitely planning on continuing with that.
Your comment about loving survival memoirs, prompts me to recommend a little-known memoir of the Gulag called "Journey into the Whirlwind" by Eugenia Ginzburg. I was assigned it in college years ago. In my little book rating world, I rate it my 5th greatest read of all time. Her story is incredible. (I've read "Night" too, and it and Weisel are also amazing.)
Thank you so much for the recommendation! I’ve added it to my TBR, it looks really good.
5:44 🎶 “….baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more!” 🎶
Great update Tori,
I totally understand what you mean about Earthsea. I didn't quite connect to Ged either but her prose is so pretty that I loved it regardless.
Fully concur with everything you said about Night too.
Glad you busted the slump! Hope August is an awesome reading month 😊
Heck yeah! Super excited for August. And I'm focusing on indie reads that I've put off for far too long, which is also super exciting. :D
I'd a feeling you wouldn't jive with LeGuin, I've read maybe 4 or 5 of her books and none of them I'd call character driven. More theme focused than anything, but Earthsea would be the most character centric of her's I've read.
You still ended up liking Lonesome Dove more than I predicted. Despite the treatment of women, i found them to be well-written characters, except that chapter with Roscoe and the widow, that was just weird. I don't think it was nilhistic, just tragic.
I mostly just read comics in July.
Have you read Man’s Search For Meaning, by Viktor Frankl? I can’t remember if I’ve seen you mention it or not on the channel. Like Weisel, he spends a lot of time reflecting on faith and how it affects us as we face hard things, or how the lack of faith can also affect us. Have a great week!
I haven’t but I’m checking it out! I’ve heard the title before. 💜
Really hope to get to «Lord Of A Shattered Land» in the not too far future!
In July I read:
«The Stone of Farewell» (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, #2) by Tad Williams (Epic Fantasy, a key influence for George R. R. Martin's « A Song of Ice and Fire»)
«Tiamat's Wrath» (The Expanse, #8) by James S.A. Corey (Space opera)
«The Warrior Prophet» (The Prince of Nothing #2) by R. Scott Bakker (Grimdark/Dark Epic Fantasy inspired by the Crusades, Silmarillion & Dune)
Awesome wrap up! Which was your favorite of the month?
@@ToriTalks2 Really hard to choose between «Stone of Farewell» and «The Warrior Prophet», they are so different in style!
Love the prose and athmosphere of «SoF»: Does it suffer from Middle-Book Syndrome? Yes, but it is still better than what most writers ever produce!
«TWP» is one of the darkest novels I have ever read (Bakker, both you and I need therapy after that one! 😱), but also really thought provoking! But, again, I can’t really recommend «TWP» to anyboy, so perhaps «Stone» by default? 😅 Because «Memory, Sorrow & Thorn» should be read by everyone! 🤩
Great video!! 😊
If you think Lonesome Dave was bad don’t read Streets of Laredo! If anyone missed the grimdark in LD McMurtry really got his point across in that one.
Good to know! I don’t plan on continuing the series.
I think you saved me from a future reading slump by being honest about Lonesome Dove. Thank you!
Great video! Is that an Algernon Blackwood book on your shelf?
Algernon Blackwood? I haven't heard of him! What has he written?
I'm not sure which book you saw.
Its the black/silver book with red text on the left. He's an early horror author, so not sure he's your speed! Just looks like one of his books and got super stoked. Anyways been really enjoying your channel, keep it up! @@ToriTalks2
@@MrDooney6 Thanks so much for watching the channel :) I think the one you were mentioning is a Japanese Myths and Folktales collection!
Hey! Thanks for a great video! I'm so glad you got out of your reading slump.
I've been thinking for at least half a day about your comments about Lonesome Dove and I would like to share some thoughts. I want to emphasize that it is by no means to invalidate your thoughts or experience, but I feel that your critiques on the book are actually completely in line with the purpose of the book and I kind of missed it in your review. I empathize anyone not wanting to read the scenes you mentioned. Even as a man, I had a physical reaction of revulsion at some of the scenes. But the purpose of the book seems to me to illustrate a particularly bleak, dangerous and kind of empty life for a lot of the characters (the males as well).
The westerns written by McMurtry are intentionally bleak to move away from the then popular trigger happy, plot armor cowboy on the white horse with all the pretty ladies swooning over him. McMurtry tries to be more historically plausible in his novels. As a corollary, it is a world where black people are being treated as second degree citizens and where the position of women is very vulnerable if not supported by a husband or father. Like I said, I understand it is not for everybody. However, I also feel that McMurtry really made these women particularly powerful over many of these boys and men by being smart and playing their cards well. Similarly, I feel he acknowledged how black people were treated in those times, while making the black person in the party one of the smarter and well-respected members. So I think for it's intent, the book delivered very much.
So in summary, not trying to invalidate anything you said, just wanted to add this. (also definitely reading Wiesel soon, after your review).
I completely agree with you that McMurtry was super intentional in the way he handled the themes and characters of the story. Subjectively, I'm not interested in reading heavy amounts of SA in my books, especially when it is so liberally utilized through the entire book. I don't think he handled it poorly at all. I think he did a great job creating an immersive yet bleak world.
Thanks for sharing!!!
@@ToriTalks2 hi! Im so glad you responded like this. 🙏🏻 I kind of felt guilty when you said you were tired of people explaining it was accurate and intentional 😅
@@Wouter_K I’m always open to other perspectives and respectful conversation! It just took me a while to sit down and have time to thoughtfully respond. Don’t feel guilty!
I don't really have much to say, but i wanted to comment for the algorithm, so here's an emoji of a flamingo: 🦩
Flamingos rock. Thanks Kaat! XD
Did you just read the first earthsea? I'm not a huge fan, it is just a kids book. The second one is v fun kids book and then the third is another decent kids book (better than the first). But I read the fourth recently, written 20 years latre and definitely aimed at much older readers who've grown up and it is a masterpiece imo. It's v v modern in prose and it is so deep and interesting while she grapples with ideas of feminism and reinterrogating her original stories. I think she's an incredible author v much done a disservice by people who recommend her very first book (wizard).
second and third earthseas while still being kids books are much more in the vein and pace of modern kids books imo, so they'd probably be more enjoyable too (although the third is a bit of a ramble).
I think the first book gets better in retrospect when you've read the others and it settles in one's memory.