Books that I read in July (original) (raw)

Books that I read in July:

30. Moon, Elizabeth. Winning Colors (Heris Serrano, bk. 3) (409 p.)

31. Sayers, Dorothy L. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (Lord Peter Wimsey) (345 p.)

32. Sayers, Dorothy L. Unnatural Death (Lord Peter Wimsey) (285 p.)

33. Harrison, Harry. The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell (The Stainless Steel Rat) (253 p.)

34. Ennis, Garth. Dixie Fried (Preacher, vol. 5) (223 p.)

35. Ennis, Garth. War in the Sun (Preacher, vol. 6) (238 p.)

36. Ennis, Garth. Salvation (Preacher, vol. 7) (248 p.)

37. Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit (317 p.)

38. Asprin, Robert & Jody Lynn Nye Class Dis-mythed (Myth Adventures) (300 p.)

39. Munroe, Randall. Thing Explainer (61 p.)

July total: 2,679 pages
YTD total: 8,231 pages

Whew, that was a lot more reading than I've been doing of late--or since.

In the interest of getting this posted before it's time for the next one, I'll make this very brief:

Winning Colors: Quite good, but I was hoping to get more details of Esmay Suiza's backstory (which is a direct sequel to this), but in both books the key incidents take place frustratingly off-panel.

Lord Peter Wimsey: Both excellent, with lots of fake-outs that make perfect sense... right up until they get disproven.

The Stainless Steel Rate Goes to Hell: It's okay, has some good bits, but the humor felt too much like the slapstick of Bill the Galactic Hero than the self-confident quasi-suaveness of the original Stainless Steel Rat trilogy. (Self-deprecating but ultra-competent even if not always successful? Yes. Bumbling self-important blowhard? No, not really.) Entertaining, but not an essential read.

Preacher: Good stories. Salvation seems to have been the basis for a lot of the TV show.

Hobbit: This was a read-aloud to my daughter. Always enjoyable!

Class Dis-mythed: Better than I feared it would be (as the co-written Myth Adventures books don't have the best reputation), but also not as good as the original books in the series.

Thing Explainer: For being written in "simple" English, this is fairly hard to read, yet both informational and frequently hilarious. Definitely recommended.

Feudalism: Serf & Turf