Books Read in July

Lake Ontario at sunset, from Selkirk Shores State Park, NY

 What a crazy month! We had a couple of short trips, sent the kids off for a week, and dealt with my husband's emergency eye surgery (which went very well - thanks for all the support!). So, I have not had much time for blogging and am behind on posting reviews, but I did read a lot. I finally got moving on my Big Book Summer Challenge with two books over 400 pages this month, and I managed more audios than usual:

• Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, an emotionally powerful novel by Ben Fountain (Texas)
• Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, on audio (Italy)
• Game Changer by Margaret Peterson Haddix, a middle-grade/teen novel (no location specified)

• Defending Jacob by William Landay, a legal thriller and my 2nd Big Book of the summer (Massachusetts)
• The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, a teen/YA novel and another Big Book (other world)
• Not Exactly a Love Story by Audrey Couloumbis, a teen/YA audio book (New York)

• Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich, pure summer fluff! (New Jersey)
• The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, a classic, on audio (England)

Wow, I thought I'd read fewer books than usual this month, but all those audios really added up! I read 8 books total (a lot for me), all fiction. Three were audios, 5 were grown-up novels, and 3 were for kids/teens/YA. It was a nice mix this month, and I enjoyed all of them. Hard to choose a favorite this month - I think it's probably Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, with The Knife of Never Letting Go as a close second.


Update on 2013 Reading Challenges:
I added only one new state (Texas) and one new country (Italy) to my 2013 Where Are You Reading Challenge. I read two more books off my TBR shelves, bringing the total up to 11 so far this year for my 2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge. I also added two audio books to my 2013 Audio Book Challenge. And The Time Machine counts as one more for Those Books I Should Have Read 2013 Challenge.

What did you most enjoy reading in July?