Linking up for QuickLit hosted by Modern Mrs Darcy with the books I read in July! I’d love to hear what you thought of these if you’ve read them too. Enjoy!

Fiction:

1. A Place for Us by Mirza Fatima Farheen – This book is just as good as the hype. The second fifty pages were slow for me, but the next 200 went by in a flash.
2. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones – Heartbreaking and raw, but beautiful. I couldn’t put it down.
3. Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos – I loved this one. Just the perfect balance of lightness, romance, and extremely difficult life situations. I read all the books in this series this month and these first book main characters are my favorite.
4. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah – story of a family who moves to rural Alaska seeking a new start for a Vietnam vet with undiagnosed PTSD. Fraught, vivid, blunt, difficult, emotional. I felt like it ended well, but this is one I probably would have skipped just for the violence if I had bothered to read the flap first.
5. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell – so much fun and a nice change of pace after the last book. Satisfying, believable relationships. Quirky nerdy characters. Lots of complicated factors, but also how are they so emotionally aware? I read it in a day, even though it was fairly long. Totally enjoyed it.
6. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi – fantasy, magic, politics, sociology, some basis in history, firebrand heroine.😍
7. Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos – Difficult with some unlikeable characters. It seemed like there was a lot of cursing (but it could be I was just more sensitive since I had this in an audiobook format). Also I’m tired of the cancer side-plots. 😢 Overall: fine.
8. I’ll be Your Blue Sky by Marisa de los Santos – Liked this better than Belong to Me, Love Walked In was still the best. The original characters are still my favorite.
9. The Crescent Stone by Matt Mikalatos – 5 stars. Pub date, Aug 7. YA fantasy. Reminded me of Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman except not violent and creepy. Really good. Looking forward to the sequel. (Full Review)

Non-Fiction:

1. Women who Run by Shanti Sosienski – I hadn’t heard of many of the runners profiled, but an interesting book about various female runners (not just pro and competitive) and how they got their start. Inspiring. Made me want to go run.
2. Real Love in an Angry World by Rick Bezet – 3 stars. I’m not sure how I feel about this one. I’ll think through it a little more and post a review sometime in the next month or so.
3. When by Daniel H. Pink – 5 stars. flew through this one. Lots of practical and readily applicable research about how when we do something influences the success of the action.
4. Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership by Ruth Haley Barton – 5 stars. Written for pastors and leaders in the church, though really applicable for people outside of typical church leadership as well. Even just your leadership as a mom, if you use your imagination. I believe we all lead and could all learn from this book.
5. Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence by Lisa Cron – 5 stars! The subtitle says it all. Now I want to write short stories. This especially good for fiction, but it is also easily applicable to personal essays/memoir. I immediately turned around and recommended it to someone.
6. Shock Waves: A Practical Guide to Living with a Loved One’s PTSD by Cynthia Orange – 5 Stars. A genuinely helpful, honest, and encouraging book from someone who has been there.
7. Raise Your Voice by Kathy Khang – 5 stars. I really liked this one and felt very supported in continuing to learn to use my voice for things that matter to me. Practical, encouraging, and challenging. (Full Review)
8. Hills I’ll Probably Lie Down On by Rachel Toalson –  5 Stars. Came out yesterday! So fun and hilarious. Just the thing to read if you’ve got a spare minute in the check-out aisle or need a five minute break from the crazy in your own life to laugh or nod along to someone else’s thoughtful or entertaining take on parenting life as it is. (Full Review)

What have you read and loved recently?

Thanks for reading here!

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(Disclaimers: I received free review copies provided by publishers for the tagged books in the exchange for an honest review. Post contains amazon affiliate links! Thanks!)