Happy Wednesday everyone! Today I'm sharing my my seventh update for my July progress for the year long reading challenge called The 52 Book Club's 2026 Reading Challenge. You can see my original tbr here. In July, I completed 4 books for a total of 43 read so far out of 52 total books on my tbr. Only 9 books to go! Keep reading to see my thoughts on the books I read in July:
27. Two or more authors, one pseudonym
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Magic Bleeds (Kate Daniels #4) by Ilona Andrews is an urban fantasy series that is on the way to becoming a favorite. While I didn't quite like where this went as much as I did the previous installment, I still had a lot of fun. As much as I like Kate and the rest of the cast, the love the unique world of the story just as much or more. I'm glad I still have seven more installments of this series to explore in the future.My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.
24. Uneven number of chapters
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DNF'd @ 10%
Here I was looking forward to reading an archaeology book and hoping the author would talk especially about the areas/ peoples that now compromise Ohio's UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks. I wasn't at all expecting what we got here in Advanced Civilizations of Prehistoric America: The Lost Kingdoms of the Adena, Hopewell, Mississippians, and Anasazi by Frank Joseph. Like, what the heck! What am I supposed to say about this? I barely dragged myself through 10% of this and then jumped around to a few other spots featuring Ohio, but I couldn't put up with it at all anymore after glancing at the section that compares the Zuni and Japanese languages. Then, I looked up the author Frank Joseph. The back of the book says he's "the editor in chief of Ancient American Magazine and the author of The Destruction of Atlantis, The Lost Civilization of Lemuria, Survivors of Atlantis, and The Lost Treasure of King Juba. He lives in Minnesota." That should have given me some kind of hint, right. Anyway, then I googled the author. Turns out Frank Joseph is Frank Collin. Frank Collin who was part of the American Nazi Party (aka National Socialist White People's Party) and kicked out for being partly Jewish (his father survived Dachau and his grandparents were murdered in the Holocaust), so he created the National Socialist Party of America. In 1977, he and his group planned a Nazi demonstration in Skokie, Illinois (a place with a large Jewish population which included Holocaust survivors) which tried to block it and the case went to the ACLU and the Supreme Court. In 1979, he was convicted of child molestation and sentenced to 7 years of which he only served 3 and was paroled in 1983. After prison, he changed his name to distance himself from his past and make a new career for himself as a writer. Anyway, to say the least, his background comes across in his writing.
My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.
46. Non-fiction about character in prompt 45
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I really like what I've read of the Liebermann Papers book series so far and Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna, and the Discovery of the Modern Mind by Frank Tallis was an interesting book to read as a companion piece to that historical mystery series. That said, I realized about half way through that I'm much more interested in Vienna and that time period of the novel series than Freud by far. I can't wait to get back to the novels, and someday the tv adaptation.
My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.
Besieged (The Iron Druid Chronicles #9) by Kevin Hearne is a set of short stories from a favorite series. It was good to revisit some of my favorite characters with this anthology. I've missed it. Plus, Luke Daniels gives an excellent performance as the narrator.
My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.
Are you participating in this challenge? Have you read any of these books? As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!
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