July 2018 Reading Summary

Well, here we go, another month almost complete. I won't finish any more books by the end of today. It's been overall an excellent month. My stats are below.

July 2018 General Stats

General Info               July            Total
Books Read -                12                 71
Pages Read -               4140            23100

Pages Breakdown
      < 250                        2                 23       
250 - 350                        5                 21
351 - 450                        2                 14
      > 450                        3                 13

Ratings
5 - star                            2                   4
4 - star                            6                 42
3 - star                            4                 24
2 - star                                                 1

Gender
Female                           6                 25
Male                              6                 36

Genres
Fiction                           2                 14
Mystery                         8                 41
SciFi                              1                 11
Non-Fic                         1                   2
Classics                                              1
Poetry                                                 2

Reading Group Challenges

Favorite July Book

Top 3 Books
1. Flesh and Blood by John Harvey (5 stars)
2.  The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (5 stars)
3.  Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth (4 stars)

12 + 4  Challenge (completed 12)
1. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (5 stars)
2. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (4 stars)
3. Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth (4 stars)

New Series (completed 19)
4. Flesh and Blood by John Harvey (Frank Elder #1) (5 stars) 
5. Haven by Kay Hooper (Bishop #13) (3 stars)
6. Under Orion by Janice Law (Anna Peters #3) (3 stars)

Ongoing Series (completed 15)
7. Occam's Razor by Archer Mayor (Joe Gunther #10) (4 stars) 
8. The Fifth Woman by Henning Mankell (Wallander #6) (4 stars)
9. The Abyssinian Proof by Jenny White (Kamil Pasha #2) (4 stars)

Decades Challenge (completed 13)
10. Plain Murder by C.S. Forester (1930) (3.5 stars)

Canadian Content (completed 12)
11. A City Called July by Howard Engel (3.5 stars)
12. Caught by Lisa Moore (4 stars)

Aug Books

Currently Reading

Bear Island

1. Bear Island by Alistair MacLean (Decades Challenge)
2. Slicky Boys by Martin Limon (Ongoing Series)
3. A Siege of Bitterns by Steve Burrows (Canadian Content)
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick (12 + 4 Challenge)

In the Mill

1. Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews (New Series).









"In present-day Russia, ruled by blue-eyed, unblinking President Vladimir Putin, Russian intelligence officer Dominika Egorova struggles to survive in the post-Soviet intelligence jungle. Ordered against her will to become a “Sparrow,” a trained seductress, Dominika is assigned to operate against Nathaniel Nash, a young CIA officer who handles the Agency’s most important Russian mole.

Spies have long relied on the “honey trap,” whereby vulnerable men and women are intimately compromised. Dominika learns these techniques of “sexpionage” in Russia’s secret “Sparrow School,” hidden outside of Moscow. As the action careens between Russia, Finland, Greece, Italy, and the United States, Dominika and Nate soon collide in a duel of wills, trade-craft, and—inevitably—forbidden passion that threatens not just their lives but those of others as well. As secret allegiances are made and broken, Dominika and Nate’s game reaches a deadly crossroads. Soon one of them begins a dangerous double existence in a life-and-death operation that consumes intelligence agencies from Moscow to Washington, DC."

 

2. The Moor by Laurie R. King (Ongoing Series / Mary Russell #4).













"In the eerie wasteland of Dartmoor, Sherlock Holmes summons his devoted wife and partner, Mary Russell, from her studies at Oxford to aid the investigation of a death and some disturbing phenomena of a decidedly supernatural origin. Through the mists of the moor there have been sightings of a spectral coach made of bones carrying a woman long-ago accused of murdering her husband--and of a hound with a single glowing eye. Returning to the scene of one of his most celebrated cases, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes and Russell investigate a mystery darker and more unforgiving than the moors themselves."

3. Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey (Decades Challenge).












"What begins as a ploy to claim an inheritance ends with the impostor's life hanging in the balance. In this tale of mystery and suspense, a stranger enters the inner sanctum of the Ashby family posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family's sizable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick's mannerism's, appearance, and every significant detail of Patrick's early life, up to his thirteenth year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself. It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception until old secrets emerge that jeopardize the imposter's plan and his life. Culminating in a final terrible moment when all is revealed, Brat Farrar is a precarious adventure that grips the reader early and firmly and then holds on until the explosive conclusion."

So there you go folks. Another month passed. Back to normally scheduled programming next entry.