No big mid-week updates for me. I’ve just been chipping away at my August/Trope-ical Readathon TBR. I know I’ve been a little MIA when it comes to replying to comments and blog hopping, so I apologize for that. I suppose I’ve been taking a little bit of a mental break in that department while I try to whittle down my unread book pile and prepare for mentally taxing September. It’s a little easier for me to do my blog hopping in one big go over the weekend. So if you don’t hear from me during the week, I’ll try to stop by on a Saturday or Sunday!
Now, onward to the book meme…
WWW Wednesday was revived and hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words. The idea is to answer the three questions below and leave a link to your post in the comments for others to look at. No blog? No problem! Just leave a comment with your responses.
What are you currently reading?
What have you just finished reading?
What are you going to read next?
Currently Reading
NO CHOICE by Becca Andrews: I was browsing my indie bookstore a couple of weeks ago and found this. Rather than pile on to my unread stack of books on this topic, I opted for the library this time. (Due dates are a good motivator for me.) I’m about halfway through and I think it’s a great primer for anyone who wants to know more about the recent history (~1960s and later) of abortion in the U.S. It covers some things I read in JANE AGAINST THE WORLD, but I think it’s a little more intersectional. I especially like that the author comes from a religious background and was antiabortion for a while. She has since changed her mind.
THE MONUMENTS MEN by Robert M. Edsel: This is an audiobook that I listen to while gardening, cooking, doing chores, etc. It’s also on the longer side (~14 hours), so it’s taking me some time to get through it. I’m at about 60% through. I love the narrator–he reminds me a lot of the voice actor who plays Rhysand in the ACOTAR GraphicAudio version. That aside, I probably would get more out of it if I read it with my eyes. There are a lot of details and it’s in a country whose geography I’m not very familiar with.
IRON FLAME by Rebecca Yarros: It’s high time I read the second book in The Empyrean series. I haven’t seen too much racket about it on bookstagram lately. But it’ll be nice to finally not have to worry about spoilers anymore…just in time for book 3! I’m not very far into this one yet. I also didn’t reread FOURTH WING, so I’m a little rusty on the details.
Recently Finished
YELLOWFACE by R.F. Kuang: I finally read it! I’m so proud of myself. It’s my first R.F. Kuang book and I definitely enjoyed it. I won’t write too much about it here since I wrote a review for it. But it was entertaining, especially for someone who’s part of the larger bookish community.
Reading Next
I kind of have a lot on my plate between NO CHOICE and the chonky IRON FLAME. But it’s a long month, so maybe after those two books I’ll finish up a YA fantasy duology. I really liked THESE HOLLOW VOWS. To fully appreciate THESE TWISTED BONDS I might actually reread the last couple chapters of the first book.
I really like microhistories for when I want a non-fiction audiobook, because I always feel if I zone out on the details on one bit, it’s fine because it’ll be moving onto something else next! I do find more normal histories quite hard to focus if it’s something new.
The fact that this audiobook is a history of a portion of WWII also makes it tough for me because it bounces around and I definitely am not intimately familiar with what battles happened where. Phew! But I know I don’t want to make time to sit down and read it, so this was my next best option. Nonfiction in general, though, is nice to listen to on audio–it’s usually easier for me to get into.
I went into Iron Flame a little rusty on details as well. I found I remembered the big things right away but I’m struggling with character names, probably because I switched from print to audio so they might be saying them differently than how I did in my head.
Glad I’m not the only one who didn’t reread Fourth Wing! I just don’t have the time, so I just hope I can more or less remember what happened. I heard there’s a dramatized audio of the series, but I haven’t checked it out.
No Choice sounds really good. And Fourth Wing is calling to me!
Ooo do you think you’ll pick up Fourth Wing soon!?
I saw the Monuments Men movie! Happy August reading!
I am curious about the movie now after finishing the book!