what i read in july

what I read in July. I read 10 books this month and as usual, I will go in ranking order, which means we'll start with keep them close by David Ellis. I unfortunately did not love this book and I was kind of shocked because David Ellis is one of my favorite thrillers of all time. It just really didn't do it for me. I thought the ending was just not worth it at all. I gave it one star, which I really hate doing. It's just not for me. Then I read Summer's Never Over by Darby Bozeman. This was a two-star read for me. It's about a girl that returns to her family's summer camp after years prior, the death of a fellow camp counselor, her brother away. It was a bit of a letdown for me personally, but I did love the setting of being at summer camp. Don't Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino on Kindle Unlimited. It's about Marilyn who gets herself into a little bit of trouble. She gets sent to live with her great aunt Ada in Avalon. I loved Ada as a character. She's opinionated and very confident, very much so a Mad Mabel kind of character. I did feel a little bit bored throughout reading it. I found it very hard to pick up, so I ended up on a three-star rating. Down with the Shipmans by Meg Mitchell Moore was a 3.5 star read for me. The Shipman sisters all go back to their family beach house for a week for all of their personal and pent-up family drama to start to unfold. Quick, easy, simple, a great addition to your beach bag. Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe. I read this literally last night. I gave this four stars and I can't stop thinking about it. It's a coming-of-age story about four girls that are really trying to hang on to their friendship while living in the housing projects of Chicago. Everything around them is changing every single day. Friendships, their families, the fact that this is a debut novel and it is well under 200 pages. You need to go read this instantly. I was handing out four and a half star ratings this month like candy. The first one goes to The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand. This was my second to last novel that I have left. I really loved this one. It made me so emotional. Like I was that person reading this in the airport, sitting with tears streaming down my face at my gate. I loved her prose. And then Swan Song. I also gave four and a half stars. Good People by Patmeena Sabit. Oh my gosh, if you're in a book club, please make this your next book club read. You will have such an amazing discussion because of the nature of the story. Everyone in your book club is going to be divided on what they think actually happened. I went into this completely blind. I highly recommend you go into it blind. All you really need to know is that you are reading a police procedural through the lens of different family members, friends, neighbors, investigators in this case. It's gripping, it was fast-paced and so unique. I also gave 4.5 stars to The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson, which was one of my most anticipated releases of the year. Picture this. Girl meets boy, they fall in love. Boy introduces girl to his hometown lifelong friend group. Who finds out that he's expecting a baby with somebody in that friend group. It's from months before boy and girl met. And then we as readers sit back, relax, and watch all of the drama unfold within this friend group. I devoured it. And of course, five stars to The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett. If this is on your TBR, I cannot recommend enough to listen to this book on audio because the narrators for our main characters fully bring this book to life in such a uniquely addictive way. I think the audio book is about 28 hours. But if you loved it as much as I did, then you probably wish that it was an additional 28 hours longer. And I don't personally rate non-fiction, but my non-fiction read of the month was Lifeguard: A Love Story by Janet Fash. It's the story of her being the first female chief lifeguard at Rockaway Beach in New York. It's a story of her being the first female chief lifeguard at Rockaway Beach in New York.