Empty Shelf Challenge: July 2014

Quick recap: Jon Acuff introduced the #EmptyShelf challenge in December. It’s pretty basic: starting December 23rd, you empty one shelf of a bookcase in your house completely. Hence, “Empty Shelf.” Then, through the entire next year, you fill that shelf with the books that you read.

To read what I’ve read this year by month: January // February // March // April // May // June

We moved in June, and I still don’t have enough shelf space for all of my books. Still no empty shelf images, but I’m getting there. I think.

July was a really fun reading month: I didn’t get through a lot of books, but one of them has become a new favorite for sure. All of the books I read this month were from my local library. I’m linking to the ones that I am planning to purchase so that I can read them again and again.

Here is what I read in July:

36.) Rich Kids of Instagram by Maya Sloan – I picked this up because I found the concept interesting: it’s a Tumblr account turned into a novel, revolving around the Instagram lives of really rich kids. The book was horrible, full of cruel, self-centered people. I expected it to be outside of my normal reading scope. What I didn’t understand was this: at the end of the novel, everything works out for everybody. You don’t identify with any character, you don’t feel affinity for anyone, but in the end all is well. It just doesn’t sit well with me, still.

37.) Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell – This is easily a new favorite. I will be buying this in hardcover – it’s that good.  This is no surprise considering how much in love I was with Rowell’s Attachments earlier this year. Fangirl is a sweet story about a girl in love with a series of books, so much so that she doesn’t always allow herself to live in the real world. And when she finally does: it is just as magical as the books she gets caught up in. Read this book as soon as you can.

38.) Austenland by Shannon Hale – I feel kind of silly saying this, but I follow Shannon Hale on Twitter (@haleshannon), but have never read any of her books (until now). Shannon is well-spoken, even in 140-characters, and chimes in on all sorts of issues relating to the publishing world and our culture at large. Austenland was a fun book about a thirty-something single girl in NYC who is in love with Mr. Darcy – aren’t we all? She spends three weeks in a Jane Austen-inspired Regency retreat, and learns that maybe her obsession was for a reason after all. I had to go back and re-read the ending the day after I finished the book – it was just too perfect to not read again.

 So … what have you been reading? Anything good?