Book Riot's 2021 Read Harder Challenge - July Update: The West End Horror & History Is All You Left Me

Happy Wednesday everyone!  I hope everyone's been staying healthy and happy.  June is already on the way out and it feels like it practically just started.  Anyway, that means that I've now completed 14 tasks of Book Riot's 2021 Read Harder Challenge - I'm already more than half way through.  The tasks I completed this month required me to read a fanfic and a book that demystifies a common mental illness.  I selected The West End Horror (Nicholas Meyer Holmes Pastiches #2) by Nicholas Meyer and History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera.  Read on to see my mini reviews and what's coming up for August:

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The West End Horror: A Posthumous Memoir of John H. Watson, MD (Nicholas Meyer Holmes Pastiches Series #2) by Nicholas Meyer is my least favorite of the series that I've read so far.  It's still a solid read and the author definitely does just to the characters and the original tone.  Plus, it was fun to see Holmes and Watson interact with real world figures in this installment from George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, to Bram Stoker.  That said, that particular element became a little too much after a little while, if you know what I mean.  It pulled me out of the story more than once.  Overall, though, this series has been fun - and I really need to get caught up on the ones I haven't read yet.

My review is also on Goodreads.

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History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera is a must read novel about love, loss, and dealing with grief. I should have read this ages ago.  Adam Silvera is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me.  He is such a talented writer.  I wish I had his brand of YA contemporary when I was growing up.

My review is also on Goodreads.

Next Up For August:

Read a genre novel by an Indigenous, First Nations, or Native American author

My choice: Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich - Erdrich is one of my favorites. I'm surprised I haven't already read this actually.

Read a children's book that centers on a disabled character but not their disability

My choice: Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry - I can't believe I hadn't heard of this before I began looking into this task.  It sounds excellent.

Have you read either of these books?  Are you taking part in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge this year?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!