July Wrapup

Tags

Alexandre Dumas, AS Byatt, books, monthly wrapup, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh, Possession, Quiet, reading, Susan Cain, The Three Musketeers

Two finished books (top row) and two in-progress books (bottom row)

I think, number-wise, July was the slowest of slow reading months this year. Not only was I busy with life admin stuff (being newly unemployed while trying to write/finish my PhD thesis, among other things) and had yet another bout of the cold, I also picked a couple of very long reads.

In fact, I spent most of the month reading

AS Byatt – Possession ★★★★★

This turned out an excellent, if long, pick. I absolutely adore AS Byatt’s rich, immersive style and puzzle-like composition of the novel. The book also managed to fulfill my recent cravings for Victorian thoughts and literature, all while not being actually Victorian, but rather postmodern instead.

Near the end of the month, I also picked up

Susan Cain – Quiet ★★☆☆☆.5 (My full review will be up next week)

I got this book from a friend who was overhauling their bookshelves. Quiet had been on my radar for a while, so I didn’t say no when they offered. An interesting read, but not as groundbreaking as I’d hoped. (Or maybe I’m just too introspective an introvert who has actually figured out most of Cain’s revelations through their own research.)

And then there are the two other books I’m currently in the middle of: Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers and Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation. I hope to finish the latter this week (there’s a Deweys’ Readathon coming up on the weekend), and since it’s N.E.W.T.s time in August, I’m pretty sure my reading will pick up, too.