July 2018 Wrap Up
Holy cow that went by fast! Let's wrap up my July reading. I'll start with the TBR.
Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson - Done! Holy cats this book broke my brain. I thought I knew what was going on until that last page. Spoiler: I didn't know what was going on. It's about a teen girl who was convicted of killing a baby her mother was watching. The actual events of that evening are sketchy. No one really knows what happened. But now, she's spending her life in foster care and her mother is awful. Hints lead the reader to suspect the main character was stolen as a baby. It was a great story, but wow! That ending!
Locking Up Our Own by James Forman, Jr. - Done! I finally finished this thing. It was actually not too bad. It was easy to read. It's about the phenomenon in the 70's that lead to more and more black judges putting more and more black men in prison for drug crimes.
Caraval by Stephanie Garber - Done! This was great. Very spooky and circus-y. Two sisters are under the thumb of their abusive father. The oldest one is about to marry a stranger to get away and the youngest thinks that dangerous. They get a long-coveted invite to Caraval so they run away from home to get there. Once there, it's not quite what they expected.
18 and Life on Skid Row by Sebastian Bach - Done! I really enjoyed this rock memoir. Bach has a better grasp of the English language that your average rock star. That was welcome. Also, he doesn't whine on about the loss of the glory days and how his band done him wrong. I mean, he says that, but it's literally about a page of the book. After he left the band, he sang on Broadway, and he was on TV in The Gilmore Girls, as well as having a bustling solo career. The book was mostly upbeat and a pretty good story.
American Fire by Monica Hesse - Done! This is about a weird occurrence in the winter of 2012-2013. Someone was burning down abandoned houses. All over the county. The volunteer firefighters were exhausted. When they found out who it was, everyone was shocked. This couple was charged with the fires. The man confessed and said they did them. The woman insisted it was all him, she didn't know he was doing it. After she was convicted for two or three of the fires, she changed her plea so she didn't have to go to court for the other 59 fires. This was bizarre.
That's the entire TBR! I read all of them! I've got my reading mojo back!
But wait, there's more!
Herding Cats by Sarah Andersen - These books start as a web comic called Sarah's Scribbles. The comics are about 20-something life when you're introverted, anxious, and artistic. I can relate to a lot of what she writes. Some of it I think is just being silly and juvenile. But she does like animals.
Happy Read and Drink Coffee by Agnes Martin-Lugand - This was definitely not what I thought it was going to be. It was not happy. But then again, it's translated from the French, so that might have something to do with it. About a year after her husband and daughter are killed in a car crash, the main character decides to move to England. She rents a house from some lovely people and just huddles in the house. But then she encounters her crusty, grumpy neighbor who is just downright rude. And of course, they fall in love. Until his wife shows up. What?! Well, not really his wife, but she calls herself that. Anyway, it's not your typical romance.
Damnation Island by Stacy Horn - This is about the island that is now called Roosevelt Island. Back when the state of New York purchased it, they called it Blackwell's Island and they thought it would be a great place to put all the state homes and make it the epitome of humane treatment in the world. It was not. There was an insane asylum, a workhouse, an almshouse, a charity hospital, and a prison on the island. They didn't allot enough money to feed all the people they sent to the island. Many people died.
Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak - I read this one day to complete the Read Harder challenge to read a children's book written before 1980. I loved this book as a kid. It was a nice remembrance.
And that's it! That's 9 books, y'all!!!