In terms of activities, July was much less active than June, when I had Bloggiesta, ALA, Nonfiction Monday and Nerds Heart YA to boost my post count. Still, I stayed more on top of my reviewing than I ever have before, and even posted a few reviews and conversation posts on Sundays, boosting my post count for the month to 28.
I read a lot of nonfiction last month, inspired in part by the nonfiction books I received for review from my ALA contacts. Flow inspired some discussion about periods in YA lit, and the nomination of Enlightened Sexism for the Amelia Bloomer Project made me question just how they're defining the books that have "birth to 18" appeal, since both Flow and Enlightened Sexism were clearly directed at an older adult audience (that even made me feel left out at the age of 25). Other nonfiction titles were Sex and Girls Against Girls sent to me by Zest publishing and The Horrors of Andersonville, continuing my research for the Civil War YA novel I want to write some day.
I wasn't hugely excited about any of the books I read or reviewed this month, except for Sisters Red which is still on my mind weeks after reading it. I really might end up buying it so I can re-read it - and I never buy books anymore, unless I'm meeting the author in the process (Jackson Pearce, come to New York! She's visiting my husband's hometown in Ohio, she should come here!)
Honestly, I'm afraid I'm getting a little burned out by my fast pace of reading/reviewing. I spent yesterday forcing myself to finish a book. I really should have put it down a couple of chapters in and just tossed it onto the "did not finish" pile, but it's an LGBT title and there wasn't a compelling reason not to finish it, so I felt obligated to keep going. There was just something indescribable about the writing style that was making me cringe and roll my eyes and I just wanted the damn thing over already...but it insisted on continuing! I think I need to pull out one of my exciting ARCs from ALA, like Behemoth, to re-energize myself.
Of course, in 24 days I also get to read Mockingjay, so that will be exciting, too! I'm still planning on that midnight release party at Books of Wonder and would love to see you there, too!
