What’s up, August?

I just realised that it’s August tomorrow (yeah, I know) so here is my monthly round-up post!

– What Happened –

The Fantasy Hive’s #WomenInSFF event on Twitter and Instagram was an absolute blast and has put my TBR in a state of shock. Happily, I managed to get through my planned SFF reads from female authors:

July was a fantastic month of books with Chaos Vector and Afterland being my favourite reads. Chaos Vector is now available in bookshops and Afterland will be published in September, so keep an eye out for my review in late August!

Knightmare Arcanist was my first blog tour and I loved it! It was a great way to discover a new author and meet new bloggers, so I’ve already signed up for a few more tours happening later this year.

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@oceansofnovels also ran the #Transathon event on Twitter in celebration of trans and non-binary authors and characters. While I ran out of time and wasn’t able to participate, I’m currently reading an ARC of The House of Styx by Derek Künsken which features a protagonist coming to terms with their gender identity. I’m 30% into this book and its shaping up to be one of my favourites of the year. I love the cover and title, which make even more sense after reading the first chapter.

If you’re looking to read books written by trans and non-binary authors, I have read and highly recommend these books by Alex White, JY Neon Lang, Yoon Ha Lee, Sarah Gailey and Margaret Killjoy:

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I achieved some really exciting milestones in July! I held my first ever author interview with Linden Lewis and talked about their upcoming sci-fi debut The First Sister which will be published on August 4th. This is one of my most anticipated reads of the year so it was an amazing opportunity – I was so excited that I contacted Linden, came up with the questions and published the post all on the same day when I should have been sleeping after my 12 hour night shift. Is sleep deprivation the key to productivity??

I also received my first physical ARC! When it happened, I did a little happy dance and messaged my Mum. May Day by Josie Jaffrey is the first instalment in Seekers, a new series about a vampire detective. It’s been a LONG time since I’ve read anything featuring vampires so I’m looking forward to it.

– The Damage –

Before I started blogging it was normal for me to buy three maybe four physical books per year, the rest being eBook purchases for the sake of storage. But, like most of the bookish community, my book buying habit is now a little out of control. I decided to add a summary of my monthly purchases to this post, mostly to show myself that self-control is a real thing that I should consider developing.

I don’t actually know how many books I bought so this is a little scary. Here we go:

eBook Purchases

Physical books and pre-orders

Well… That was about as confronting as I thought it would be. Who wants to be my sponsor to help me not buy books in August?

– What’s Gonna Happen –

I am only THREE books away from being completely up-to-date with my ARCs! After that I’m a free bird so I’m going to read whatever the heck I want. That said, I’m really looking forward to Wranglestone, a horror novel featuring a m/m romance, and The Year of the Witching, Alexis Henderson’s debut novel.

What will you be reading this August?

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