July Reading Wrap Up – Sunrise on the Readathon

Hello, fellow bookworms! Welcome, or Welcome back! My name is Amanda, and this is where I share spoiler-free book reviews and other bookish things. Thanks for visiting. Join the conversation and share your thoughts. Let’s get Smitten for Fiction!

I read 18 books in July, all thanks to the amazing readathon hosted by Katie Colson called Sunrise on the Readathon. I don’t think I’ve ever read this much in one month. I was reading any chance I had, and I loved it. The Discord and reading sprints were so much fun. There were over 1100 people who signed up for the readathon. Together, we read over 3 million pages!! Incredible.

Each week had a different prompt:
Banned and Challenged Books
Books by Marginalized Authors
Translated Books
Underrated Books (10,000 reviews or less)

All Month Long: bonus points for reading a book in The Hunger Games series.

Books Read: 18
DNF (did not finish): 0
Number of Pages: 4956

The first book I read ended up being my favourite book of the year so far:

Title: Atmosphere
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, LGBTQ+
Click here for my review
Novelist Description: “Joan Goodwin, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University, dreams of going to space after seeing an ad for NASA’s space shuttle program. Selected in 1980, she trains at Johnson Space Center with fellow candidates, including Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond, scientist John Griffin, mission specialist Lydia Danes, warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, and aeronautical engineer Vanessa Ford. As they prepare for their first flights, Joan finds new passion and love, questioning her place in the universe. Everything changes on mission STS-LR9 in December 1984.”

Title: Eat the Ones You Love
Author: Sarah Maria Griffin
Genre: Horror, LGBTQ+
Click here for my review
Novelist Description: “After losing her job and her fiancé and moving in with her parents, Shell Pine needs some help. And according to the sign in the window, the florist shop in the mall does too. Shell gets the gig, and the flowers she works with there are just the thing she needs to cheer up. Or maybe it’s Neve, the beautiful shop manager, who is making her days so rosy? But you have to get your hands dirty if you want your garden to grow—and Neve’s secrets are as dark and dangerous as they come. In the back room of the flower shop, a young sentient orchid actually runs the show, and he is hungry…and he has a plan for them all.”

Title: The Bewitching
Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Genre: Horror, Historical Fiction, Gothic
Click here for my review
Novelist Description: “Minerva is a graduate student researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure horror author. Tremblay’s most famous novel was inspired by a true story: decades earlier, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is studying and became obsessed with her otherworldly roommate, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. These events echo stories Minerva’s Nana Alba told about her girlhood in 1900s Mexico, where she had an encounter with a witch. Minerva begins to sense that the malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus in 1990s Massachusetts.”

Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Science Fiction, Romance
Novelist Description: “In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss’s skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister’s place.”
This was a re-read for me. One of my all-time favourite book series.

This is a banned book.
Title: Serendipity: Ten Romantic Tropes, Transformed
Edited By: Marissa Meyer
Genre: Young Adult, Short Stories, Contemporary, Romance, LGBTQ+
Novelist Description: “This collection of 10 stories from some of today’s brightest and award-winning YA authors celebrates first love, unrequited love, surprising love and love that’s been there all along.”

Written by a Marginalized Author
Title: Lucky Day
Author: Chuck Tingle
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction, LGBTQ+
Click here for my review
Novelist Description: “Four years ago, in what was later known as the Low-Probability Event, eight million people were killed in one day, each of them dying in improbable, bizarre ways. A day of freak accidents that proved anything is possible, no matter the odds. Vera, a former statistics and probability professor, lost everything that day, and she still struggles to make sense of it all. When Special Agent Layne shows up at her door, she learns he’s investigating a suspiciously lucky casino. He needs her help to prove the casino’s success is connected to the deaths. Because what’s happening in Vegas isn’t staying there, and she’s the only thing that stands between the world and another deadly improbability.”

Written by a Marginalized Author and a Banned Book
Title: All Boys Aren’t Blue
Author: George M. Johnson
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, LGBTQ+
Novelist Description: “A first book by the prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist shares personal essays that chronicle his childhood, adolescence and college years as a Black queer youth, exploring subjects ranging from gender identity and toxic masculinity to structural marginalization and Black joy.”

Written by a Marginalized Author
Title: The Only Good Indians
Author: Stephen Graham Jones
Genre: Horror, Indigenous
Loved this
Novelist Description: “Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.”

Written by a Marginalized Author
Title: The Serviceberry
Author: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Genre: Nonfiction, Nature, Science, Indigenous
Loved this
Novelist Description: “The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass explains how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.”

Written by a Marginalized Author
Title: The Trees
Author: Percival Everett
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Horror, Crime
This was recommended to me by a patron at the library, and I loved it!
Novelist Description: “An uncanny literary thriller addressing the painful legacy of lynching in the US, by the author of Telephone.”

Written by a Marginalized Author
Title: We Love You, Bunny
Author: Mona Awad
Genre: Adult, Horror,
Mona Awad is one of my favourite authors. This is a prequel/sequel to Bunny.
Novelist Description: “In the previous novel, Bunny, Samantha Heather Mackey, a lonely outsider student in New England, was first ostracized and then seduced by a clique of creepy-sweet rich girls who call themselves “Bunny.” In this follow up, Sam has just published her first novel, and her one-time frenemies, furious at how they’ve been portrayed, kidnap her. Now it’s her (and our) turn to hear the Bunnies’ side of the story. With a bound and gagged Sam, we embark on a wickedly intoxicating journey into the heart of dark academia: a fairy tale slasher that explores the wonder and horror of creation itself. Not to mention the transformative powers of love and friendship, Bunny.”

Written by a Marginalized Author
Title: Home
Author: Toni Morrison
Genre: Historical Fiction, Literary
Really good story. Enjoyed the audiobook.
Novelist Description: “A Korean War veteran living a shattered life embarks on a quest to save his younger sister.”

Translated Book
Title: A Man Called Ove
Author: Fredrik Backman
Translated By: Henning Koch
Genre: Adult, Literary Fiction
Wow, so good!
Novelist Description: “A curmudgeon hides beneath a cranky and short-tempered exterior a terrible personal loss while clashing with new neighbors, a boisterous family whose chattiness and habits lead to unexpected friendship.”

Translated Book
Title: I Who Have Never Known Men
Author: Jacqueline Harpman
Translated By: Roz Schwartz
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopian, Feminism
For the readathon, we were separated into districts according to our zodiac sign. I am a Taurus, and we decided to do a buddy read for this book. This is such a unique story, and I really liked the writing.
Novelist Description: “A prize-winning, “womanist” novel–part thriller, part science-fiction fantasy–traces the emotional and sexual awakening of one woman, the youngest of a group imprisoned in a world of men who attempt to dehumanize them.”

Underrated Book (10,000 reviews or less)
Title: Night Fever
Author: Ed Brubaker
Genre: Graphic Novel, Noir, Horror
This was okay for me. I liked the visuals.
Novelist Description: “In Europe on a business trip, Jonathan Webb can’t sleep. Instead, he finds himself wandering the night in a strange foreign city, with his new friend, the mysterious and violent Rainer as his guide. Rainer shows Jonathan the hidden world of the night, a world without rules or limits. But when the fun turns dangerous, Jonathan may find himself trapped in the dark… And the question is, what will he do to get home?”

Underrated Book (10,000 reviews or less)
Title: My Immortal
Author: Tara Gilesbie
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fan Fiction
Honestly, this book is not written well, but the grammar errors add to the humour. It was a fun time.
Description: This is a vampiric fan fiction inspired by Harry Potter.

Underrated Book (10,000 reviews or less)
Title: The Burial Plot
Author: Elizabeth Macneal
Genre: Historical Fiction, Gothic, Mystery
This was really good! Highly recommend to fans of Gothic mysteries.
Description: “London, 1839. Where the cemeteries are full and there is money to be made in death, Bonnie and Crawford lead a life of trickery, surviving off ill-gotten coin and nefarious schemes. But one hot evening, their luck runs out. A man lies in a pool of blood at Bonnie’s feet and now she needs to disappear.

Crawford secures her a position as lady’s maid in a grand house on the Thames, still deep in mourning for its late mistress. As Bonnie comes to understand this family – the eccentric Mr Moncrieff, obsessively drawing mausoleums grand enough for his dead wife, and their peculiar daughter Cissie, scribbling imaginary love letters to herself from the mysterious Lord Duggan – she begins to question what really happened to Mrs Moncrieff and whether her own presence here was planned from the beginning.

Because Crawford is watching, and perhaps he is plotting his greatest trick yet . . .”

Underrated Book (10,000 reviews or less)
Title: The Lightning Bottles
Author: Marissa Stapley
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Romance
Compelling story about love, trauma, addiction, and healing.
Novelist Description: “Grunge-era musician Jane Pyre goes on a journey to find out what really happened to her husband and partner in music, who abruptly disappeared years earlier.”