TSS: July and upcoming themed months

Hello. I haven't written a bookish news post in awhile and unfortunately today's post will not be general bookish news but more of an update on books read in July as well as looking forward to the events coming up on my blog in the next few months.

July totals

First of all, here's a look at the books I read in July as well as how I acquired each book.

1. Finding Sky by Joss Stirling* (purchased)
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling* (re-read) (purchased)
3. Raised By Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (sent for review)
4. The Dark Divine by Bree Despain (gift)
5. Milo and the Restart Button by Alan Silberberg (purchased and sent for review)
6. David by Mary Hoffman* (sent for review)
7. Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready (sent for review)
8. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (sent for review)
9. 13 To Life by Shannon Delany (swapped)
10. Sea Change by Aimee Friedman (swapped)
11. Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden (purchased)
12. The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan (swapped)
13. The Maze Runner by James Dashner (purchased)
14. A Most Improper Magick by Stephanie Burgis* (purchased)
15. 0.4 by Mike Lancaster* (sent for review)

It's kind of a mixed bag of books there. There's some review books that I needed to read for whatever reason. A bunch of paranormal books for an upcoming event, some dystopic books for another event. Only 4 books by British authors...

Goals for August? Get through more books for Dystopian August including:

The Fox Inheritance by Mary E Pearson
The Dead by Charlie Higson
Exodus by Julie Bretagna

as well as some review books because I've been falling slightly behind and I need to be completely free of other responsibilities in order to read books for my other themed months:

Wickedness by Deborah White
Stealing Phoenix by Joss Stirling
Lottie Biggs Is (Not) Tragic by Hayley Long
Pegasus by Robin McKinley
Between by Jessica Warman
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Huntress by Malinda Lo
Blood Ninja by Nick Lake


Upcoming events

It's now August, and I've decided to take part in Lenore's Dystopian August. I have quite a few dystopic/post-apocalyptic/zombie books read and ready to share with you this month which will be quite fun.

But I'm also planning on doing a paranormal themed month during the month of October. So look forward to seeing reviews and other posts featuring vampires and ghosts and werewolves and other mythical creatures. I have stacks of paranormal books that have been languishing on my TBR shelves and this really just gives me a great excuse to get through them as well as tying in with Halloween. So I'm hoping you will be looking forward to that.

And, because I must be slightly mad, if you haven't already heard (I sent out quite a few emails recently advertising this themed month and asking for guest posts and support) I've decided that the month of November will be entirely focused on British authors. I'd like to highlight and promote British authors and books and have been asking bloggers and authors if they'd like to take part in the month with me. There will be posts about our favourite books and authors, places in the UK that inspire. I'd really like this event to be diverse and covering as much as possible, so if you would like to contribute in any way, I would love to hear from you. Already the response and the support for this British month has been overwhelming and I'm deeply grateful to everyone who has already gotten in touch. Thank you.

And I think that's it for me. The summer holidays have completely taken their toll on me and I'm finding that I have less and less time for reading and blogging these days! I hope this feeling passes soon though.

Have a wonderful weekend all, and DFTBA!