 we were not supposed to be doing that. Sorry about this one guys. Alan regards my three star review of this book as a betrayal. This book was terrible from every perspective. Hey guys it's Liana and I'm here today with my July wrap up. So I read um everything on my TBR and then some there's an asterisk to that because I swapped something out but so it ends up being the same number. But I read one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fifteen books. I did the thing. So we're going to talk about the thing, the things. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Cool. So first book that I read in July was McBeth by William Shakespeare because me and my friend Heather are reading the Hogarth Shakespeare books. That is to say like we're reading the play and the Hogarth retelling the play and the Hogarth retelling for all of the ones that there are. In June we did Hagseed and The Tempest and in July we did McBeth and McBeth and the live show where we talked about all four together. We meant to do some separately but we because of time and scheduling we did them together. So the live show where we talked about all four the play and the retelling the play and the retelling is on my channel. You can watch the replay. We will be doing the next ones like individually. We won't be grouping them like that. But anyway, so I'd read McBeth before but it was fun revisiting it and yeah it's Shakespeare. So I don't know. I mean we talked a lot about the play as well as why the retelling of McBeth was a failure in the live show but so I mean I love Shakespeare so I had a good time revisiting a play. McBeth is not my favorite Shakespeare play by any stretch but it's solid. It's a good one and a classic for a reason. So yeah it was nice visiting it again. The next book that I read was Dark Age. In my wrap up for June I was like I'm doing this early and I have the rest of the month left to read Dark Age so I'm just gonna film this now. Well I didn't finish Dark Age. I didn't really even I mean I kind of sort of started Dark Age in June but I'd read like 50 pages. So I predominantly read Dark Age in July which was not on the schedule. It was not planned. We were not supposed to be doing that. So but I had to do it for the live show on Ellen's channel for their Feb Rising, Red Rising Read Along. Oh the replay for that is on Ellen's channel. Oh we had a great time. It's very spoilery so if you haven't read Dark Age, well read Dark Age but also don't watch if you haven't read Dark Age. I had a great time rereading this. I love me some Red Rising. Love Dark Age the best out of all of them. Well I'm gonna do Love Golden Sun. Dark Age is the best written though. I stand by that. In any case uh yeah so I meant to read this in June but I ended up reading this whole god dang book in July a month in which I did not have time that was spare. Next up I read the book that my patrons picked for me to read and review for them and that is I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. I was grateful to have a short book to read and review for them so I won't be posting a review on my channel here because I did it for my patrons but I did briefly uh I I found it interesting as a piece of genre fiction history. As a reading experience like for funsies I can't say this is a favorite but I enjoyed experiencing something that is has been influential in like horror and speculative fiction. So from that as a student of the genre I found it interesting to read but I I didn't super duper have fun reading it but it was short and I appreciated that. Next up I read The Gunslinger by Stephen King the first book in the Dark Tower series. I have buddy read this with Bethany and she and I if you've watched my TBR video you know that she and I are also buddy reading the next book because we liked this well enough or found it promising enough to go on with the series and everyone is told definitely me and I think her as well that like oh The Gunslinger's terrible but just go on it's the worst of the bunch but just like don't judge the series by that one um and I think I liked The Gunslinger better than Bethany did but both of us were prepared to loathe and despise it. Stephen King himself is like sorry about this one guys whoops so with all of that going into it expecting it to be just like a shit show I actually quite enjoyed it not a favorite I gave it three stars um but I was like that's that wasn't all that bad that was pretty good it was it had problems it wasn't a perfect book by any stretch it's a bit dated but like it was fine I even go so far as to say I had a pretty good time so anyway um yeah I it's certainly an intriguing beginning to the Dark Tower series and if everyone is I'm a little worried that if everyone said loathe and despise The Gunslinger but then you'll love the rest so since I didn't loathe and despise The Gunslinger I'm concerned that maybe I won't like the rest I'll just have the entirely opposite reaction that I'm supposed to have because that would be just like me wouldn't it? Next up I read McBeth by Jonas Bo this is the Hogarth retelling of McBeth and it is fucking long all the other Hogarth retellings are short because Shakespeare plays are short so I mean yes you could go into it a bit but this was terrible Heather and I hated this so much we went in depth into why we hated this so much in our live discussion uh like we did talk about The Tempest in Haggisid uh I don't want to make it sound like we didn't but we did spend a great deal of time ranting about this book in that live so if you're running out of rants to watch there's plenty of ranting about McBeth in that live briefly it's too long and I neither of us thinks that Jonas Bo has any understanding like even a service level understanding of the play McBeth so it was a pretty big what the fuck the next book that I read was The Howling Dark by Christopher Rockio this is the second book in the Sun Eater series I buddy read this with Alex from Alex Nieves and the live show Chat Fort is on Alex's channel um the chat for the third one will be back to my channel so if you want to watch the replay for that that is available on Alex's channel everyone told me and Alex that the first book Empire of Silence is like the weak one and they only get both better and crazier from there I don't know if I can say that I like this better than Empire of Silence but it is certainly crazier than Empire of Silence I mean I'm not making it sound like I I don't want you to think that I disliked this but I think Empire of Silence is better I don't think this is better than Empire of Silence I think they're about equal in quality oh but this is definitely more bananas this one definitely is it's kind of like how I try to explain in a non-spoiler way Dark Age in Red Rising where I'm like this book is just like it's it's very strange and there's just a lot of like what huh didn't know that was an option so yeah there's it's uh it's intense and it answers few questions and leaves you with many more and I'm you know both super excited to read the third book um because we're told that that one's even more bonkers so buckle up but yeah this series so far has been absolutely tip-top uh favorite for the year for Sherb highly recommend Empire of Silence knockout howling dark continues to be a knockout and I fully expect the demon and white to be a knockout so nothing but great things to say about this again the live the live show where we talked about it um in some at some link is available for your viewing at your leisure but yeah five out of five no questions so good next up um is the shadow of summer I have the bind-up edition there is the shadow of summer and betrayal in winter this is the bind-up of the first two but I read the first book in the Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham and I read this because Alan made me yeah I are still going to do chats on each other's channels about the books that we picture one another and that being the case I am not going to go in-depth and talk about how I feel about these books here uh because we're gonna do that together if you follow me on Goodreads which apparently everybody who is subscribed to Alan follows me on Goodreads and then reports back to him when I finish a book that he loves I give this two stars um it was a tough win for me uh I'll talk to Alan about why by which I mean I will endure him yelling at me and try to get a word in to explain why I didn't like it yeah this this was not not for me and I will not be continuing with this series so next up I read Year One by Nora Roberts on my Kindle hence my Kindle and this was the blades and bodice rippers book club pick so if you want to see the ladies me and the ladies gathered to discuss Year One by Nora Roberts the live show is on Mara's channel for that it was actually it was both the blades and bodice rippers book club pick and it coincided with the conclusion of the Nora Roberts read-a-thon that Mara hosted and none of us really liked it I think Mara probably liked it the best out of all of us but that was more because she has previously experienced dislanking paranormal works by Nora Roberts and on that scale like grading on a curve year one it was better than the other paranormal books by Nora Roberts that Mara had read so comparatively it was better but none of us thought it was very good and during the course of that live show we kind of like identified how it could have been improved and basically if we had been consulted it could have been a great book but as usual no one asked us and the book suffered next up is another book that I read with Mara and that is a Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb I have not filmed but I plan to film a review for Ship of Magic so usually in wrap ups I have been on the ball and I can be like I already have a review for this for you to go and watch but I don't yet but I will so what I'm saying is like I'm not going to say too much here there's nowhere for you to find me saying anything yet but there will be I had a lot of thoughts about this I liked it a lot I loved it so five out of five stars did I give five stars yeah I didn't I should have I'm pretty sure you have five stars I'm loving Hobb so like it's it will not be a rant review but yeah it's I yeah Hobb is the Hobb is great and that's why I want to have to film another review for because I film reviews for books that I have a lot to say about so um yeah I I will talk about this more but A plus loving live ship can't wait to read the mad ship next up was another Alan Pick and that was Guards Guards by Terry Pratchett again I was ratted out extremely quickly Alan regards my three star review of this book as a betrayal I gave Hogfather which he did not make me read I read that on my own steam I gave Hogfather five stars and I showed that to Alan as like an olive branch and he just said that Hogfather's not two stars better thing good than Guards Guards that was ineffective as a strategy Guards Guards was fine that's why I gave it three stars I don't dislike it I gave it three stars I just I will talk about this or I will try to talk about this when we and Alan talk about the books we picked for each other I did not hate it it was fine next is another Alan book and that is Sunlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft this one I also gave three stars right I gave it three stars I think so this one was more disappointing to me because I'm like Guards Guards which like I mean I'd read Pratchett before and I continue I would continue to say that I like Pratchett Pratchett isn't my favorite author but I love I really liked Hogfather I love Good Omens which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman and Guards Guards was fine um so like I didn't go into Guards Guards being like this is going to be the first book ever I was like oh it's going to be a Pratchett Discworld book like this will be a good time and it was like a fine time but with Sunlin Ascends uh this is I mean Josiah Bancroft has only written this series and this is the first book in that series so I've never previously read anything by Josiah Bancroft so I had no expectations based on previous experience but I had mega expectations just based on everybody who I know who's read it raving about it and people recommending it specifically to me just knowing my own taste and kind of the kind of things people had to say about it it just sounded like this would be a new favorite and I've owned this book for a long time and the whole time it's been on my shelf every time I looked at it I've been like I need to get around to that for sure five star book and it wasn't a five star which was surprising to me and therefore disappointing to me so even though I also give this three stars it's a more like disappointing three stars and again I'll talk about why when Alan and I discuss this but it didn't hate it I just I definitely didn't love it next up I read Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman this was the patron buddy read uh 4 July so I chatted with my patrons about it as we read it this is a collection of short stories what the fuck why is there dirt on this book anyway um this is my second Neil Gaiman short story collection that I've read though I read I guess I'm reading them in a publication order on accident um the first one I read was Smoke and Mirrors I read that some time ago and then now this is my second short story collection and a few of the short stories in here have been published separately like um standalone volumes that are illustrated and I've actually had read some of those so The Sleeper and the Spindle I have the illustrated version of that and highly recommend Neil's I mean I recommend any time if possible if Chris Riddell has illustrated uh an edition of Neil Gaiman's work to always get the one that's illustrated by Chris Riddell so Neverwhere he also illustrated that so if possible get the one illustrated by Chris Riddell so Sleeper and the Spindle is illustrated by Chris Riddell so highly recommend that um also The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains I have sung that's praises that's praises can I say it like that well I did The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains is also a picture book it's not illustrated by Chris Riddell but the audiobook is read by Neil Gaiman accompanied by a string quartet it is quite a haunting and incredible experience which I highly recommend but yeah so I was familiar with those two stories the others were all the others were new to me those were the only two well those are the only two I'd read before one of them a few years ago I went to an evening with Neil Gaiman and he read some stuff aloud and one of the things he read aloud was a short story from here which like as soon as I started reading it here I was like oh yeah I remember I remember this one and I remember being creeped out by it and I was creeped out by it again I think I gave it four stars um not every short story in this collection is a win for me not every single one was like perfection a lot of them were like really knockout um some of them were like okay uh I feel like that's the thing with short story collections like it's really hard for me to imagine a short story collection that I would give five stars to did I keep sharpening five stars so I'm just looking at the next short story collection on my ramba I don't remember I don't think so because that's the thing with short story collections they're usually hit and miss even the best ones so yeah this was like super solid and as a short story collection like absolutely great um and it's Neil Gaiman so and between this and smoke and mirrors I think I like this better like overall like I think more of this was hit there is definitely some short stories in smoke and mirrors that I think are really really excellent but like overall there were more hits than misses so like as a whole this is better as a collection but definitely read smoke and mirrors there's some excellent short stories in that basically just read everything game it's ever written okay so the next book that I wrote was sharp ends which is a reread this is the collection of short stories that take place in the world of the first law in the reading order which you should be familiar with by now uh this is what you should pick up after you've read the trilogy the first original trilogy and all of the stand-alones then read sharp ends and definitely definitely definitely even if you don't read the book uh even if you don't like experience the book of the audiobook which I recommend you do because all of the audiobooks for first law are incredible and Joe Abercrombie reads one of the short stories in sharp ends which is great um but at the end of the audiobook there is an interview with Joe Abercrombie and Steven Pacey the narrator which is a really amusing and insightful interview which is just adds to the overall experience as well but yeah in any case sharp ends is a great time because you get short stories that are about characters that you've seen before so you get to see a glimpse into like some other part of their life or to into something that you've heard about but never actually seen on page so that's fun but there's also short stories about characters that are not from familiar to you that are new characters that are just like showing you kind of a different part of the world or that they might have encountered a character that you that is familiar to you from like the story isn't about this character that's familiar to you but these new characters do run across somebody that's familiar to you so it's just kind of fun to get these snippets from across different times different places different people in the world of the first law and there's some really truly excellent short stories in here so i recommend and i will be doing a review for this in red country that is coming i'm behind but those are coming next up i read a guns of the dawn because alan made me and this was by far my favorite of the books that alan made me read again i'm not going to go in depth um but i give this five stars so you you did good alan i only hated one of them i i liked three of them and one of them i even loved so so good job i think it could go much worse when it's me involved i i liked this a great deal and i will tell you more about why when me and alan discuss it second to last what i read was half sick of shadows by laura sebastian and i'm not sure if this wrap up is going up first or if my lengthy ranty review is going up first but needless to say i hated this book hence the long ranty review that i have filmed but i don't know if it's up yet this book was terrible from every perspective pros was bad the characters were bad i think the story was bad and i think that the historical inaccuracies were egregious um the big fat nope from me on this one and the last book that i read was the wolf by leo caru which was my fifth time reading it ever and my second time reading it this year uh i think if you've watched my channel for any period of time you know that i'm big big big big big fan of this book i do think this sequel is better but i've only read the spider once i i don't know why have i read the the wolf five times i keep meaning to then go on and read the spider or reread the spider but i've only read the spider once maybe i'll reread the spider now uh the spider is the better of the two but the wolf is so good i know not everybody likes it and i've been emotionally preparing myself for the fact that when shelf space picked this book then not everyone in shelf space would like this book and i did accept that my baby would be hurted and i am fine with it it's fine i don't know what else i can say about this book that i haven't already said i love it it's the perfect book for me not the perfect book for everybody obviously so if you didn't like it it's fine but yeah five out of five stars as usual fifth time through five stars so yeah those are the 15 books that i read oh i didn't mention my asterisk so yeah these are all books that were on my tbr except dark age which is carryover from june so that's extra and then half sick of shadows i just swapped out my other book so i was trying to read all my book of the month books like as they come and my pick for the month um my june book of the month was the maiden so that's what was on my tbr but i got this as an add-on the same time i got the maidens so i just like swapped them um because i thought i'd rather read dark academia in the fall so i was just like oh i'll just switch them out so it's the same amount of books i just swapped out a different book of the month so i think i can still say i completed my tbr anyway yeah those are the all the books that i read in july let me know in the comments down below your thoughts and feelings about all the books that are in july um whatever you want to let me know i post videos on saturdays other random times as well but definitely saturdays so like and subscribe join my patreon if you feel so inclined and i'll see you when i see you