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Summer Reading Roundup
During the month of June, due to a mixture of illness and low motivation, I didn't get a whole lot of reading done. Not enough to justify a whole post rounding it up. Because of this, I decided to merge June, July and August into a Summer Roundup instead. Hey presto, here we are!
Books read: 9
⭐ Average: 4
My star average isn't absolutely accurate for a very unique reason. The calculator I use to work out the star averages each month doesn't have a "0 stars" option. I don't know if a rating of no stars would have effected the average since it's . . . well . . . zero, but I wanted to make mention of it anyways.
Yes, believe it or not I gave a book a rating of zero stars over the summer. More so I chose not to rate it all because Goodreads also doesn't have a zero stars option and I wasn't going to give the book even one star. I couldn't even finish it because it made me so angry.
The book was November 9 by Colleen Hoover. I knew Colleen Hoover was a polarising author and despite having read Verity earlier in the year, before reading November 9 I wasn't sure why this could be. After reading November 9, everything became clear. This is the type of story that glamours abuse as romance and the further into the story I got, the worse it became. It's at a point where I don't know how anyone could read this book and not see it for the horrifying monstrosity that it is. But that has become a theme in modern romance, hasn't it? Forcing yourself onto someone is okay if its its being described as being unable to control yourself around them and beating people up because your love interest is trying to move on from you is fine because they are yours and you're just making sure they know that. Such toxic garbage.
If it had been a thriller novel and the behaviour had been portrayed as dangerous and unhealthy? Completely different story. But the characters within the book don't see it that way and act like that kind of behaviour is alright when IT'S. NOT. ROMANTIC. IT'S. ABUSIVE.
So I didn't finish it, and I'm okay with that. But its on this list because I suffered enough throughout the 3/4s that I did read that I'm counting it as read.
But onto the books I did enjoy . . .
I read Chanel Miller's memoir. What she was put through when going through the court system during the Stanford Rape Trial was truly horrendous but the courage Ms Miller had to come out, reveal her identity and tell her story will always be amazing to me. Her story is a difficult one to get through, particularly if you have experience with the court system of not just America, but anywhere, but it's worth reading her side of what happened because for a long time all we knew was what the media told us. Her attacker was found guilty and thus the victory is hers, not his, and I hope that in deciding to tell her story she was able to find some form of catharsis.
I got some Doctor Who comics for my birthday from a friend, and two out of three of the volumes were also five star reads for me. Christopher Eccleston is my favourite NuWho Doctor and being given a volume of the only comics he appeared in due to his one series on the show is something I'm grateful for. Same goes for the volume I got with the mixture of Donna and Martha comics. There's a particular one at the very of that volume that sinks it's hand into your chest and rips your heart out. In a good way, I promise! And even though I didn't rate it exactly five stars (only four) the Seventh Doctor comics with Ace were wicked also. Anything with Ace in it is wicked, really.
I also re-read Killing Stalking due to the first physical copies in England being released at the end of July in the form of a first volume. When it comes to re-reading there's always going to be an element of remembrance, depending particularly on how much impact said story had on you. I just found Killing Stalking this time around . . .okay? I used to die with anticipation each week for a new chapter to be released online and I think that might have been integral to my experience of reading the comic. Having the first volume all laid out and ready made it just a bit . . .mediocre? Nothing had changed in the story or art and everything was how I expected it just less exciting, that's all.
Other books I read over the three months were Aokigahara, Fine Print and the biography of Patrick Troughton. All my reviews can be found on my Goodreads profile: www.goodreads.com/shewritesstuff
I'm officially level with last year's book count! This means unless I don't read a book at all for the rest of the year (doubtful) I will most definitely beat 2021's book count! I know in my New Year's reading resolutions I said I wouldn't focus on numbers but I'll be the first to admit that I've been doing terribly with that. It's still incredibly exciting though! And I've definitely been following my other resolutions, particularly the one about reading more non-fiction. So at least I'm doing something right!
One final note before I stop blabbering: The Seven is now a Kindle Exclusive! You can grab your digital copy now for half the price of the originals or, if you have Kindle Unlimited, it's totally free! Some physical copies still remain if you prefer, however once they're gone, they're gone for good so best be quick!
The link on the main page of my site will now take you straight to the Kindle download page on Amazon ❤️
Keep Creating,
Erin Curran
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