A recap of July and my goals for August

It's a new month!  Man, July just flew right by!  So here's a recap on my reads last month:

Last month I set myself the goal to read 15 books.  Well I kind of failed that goal, reading on 12 books, but it proved to be an interesting ride.  There were the good, the bad, and the ugly this month, so here’s a little rundown of the books I read in July:

1. Seeing A Large Cat(Amelia Peabody #9), by Elizabeth Peters ★★★★★ One of my favorites in the series, with Abdullah proving to be the smartest detective out of all of them. Love that!

2. The Ape Who GuardsThe Balance (Amelia Peabody #10), by Elizabeth Peters ★★★★★  Another good one within the series.

3. Oliver Twist, byCharles Dickens ★★★★  A very good classic from the masterful Charles Dickens

4. My Name Is Rapunzel,by K.C. Hilton ★ Copy and pasted chapters? Really?  Terrible book.

5. The Fault In OurStars, by John Green ★★★★★  A wonderful read.  Tissues required.

6. Guardian Of TheHorizon (Amelia Peabody #16) ★★★★★  5 stars for the series in general but this book is more like a 4 star.

7. The Falcon At ThePortal (Amelia Peabody #11) ★★★★★  My favorite book in the series with Ramses’ POV

8. The Maze Runner, byJames Dashner ★★½ A decent YA read, but doesn’t quite hold up to my standards

9. James And The GiantPeach, by Roald Dahl ★★★★ A very fun, sweet children’s book

10. He Shall ThunderIn The Sky (Amelia Peabody #12), by Elizabeth Peters ★★★★★  Was one of my favorites within the series, because the one thing I wanted to happen finally did happen, but the ending this time around seemed a little too mushy

11.  Lord Of The Silent (Amelia Peabody #13), byElizabeth Peters ★★★★?  Dratted book was abridged!  So I will reserve final judgment until I read the unabridged version.

12. Vicious, by V.E.Schwab ★★★ Decent read, but the characters are all dark and sociopathic, so I couldn’t get into it at first.

Admittedly, 12 books is still a lot to read in one month (thank God for audiobooks!).  But I have never been able to achieve that elusive goal of 15 books.  So that’s my going to be my target for this month: 15 books by August 31^st.   
This shouldn’t be too difficult to achieve.  My summer reading challenge with the Bibliophile Read is in its final month, and I still have to read 5 books for that.  I have 6 books left in the Amelia Peabody series to read, including re-reading Lord Of The Silent (I am so annoyed that the audiobook was abridged!  They cut out over half of the original story!  Who does that?!).  That leaves reading 4 books that could be BOTMs in my book groups, or just for fun.

So here’s my reading list this month.  Fingers crossed that I will complete it!

Lisa’s August Reading List

Monthly Goal: 15 books

1. Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn (reading now)

2. The Magicians, by Lev Grossman (reading now)

3. City Of The Beasts, by Isabel Allende

4. The Yard, by Alex Grecian

5. Lost Lake, by Sarah Allen Addison

6. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini

7. Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo

8. Pillars Of TheEarth, by Ken Follet

9. Lord Of The Silent, by Elizabeth Peters

10. The Golden One, by Elizabeth Peters (reading now)

11. Children Of The Storm, by Elizabeth Peters

12. Serpent On The Crown, by Elizabeth Peters

13. Tomb Of The Golden Bird, by Elizabeth Peters

14.  A River In The Sky, by Elizabeth Peters

15.  An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green

16. The Invention Of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd

Dance updates:

Over the past few months, I’ve realized that I really don’t go out dancing much.  Considering the fact that I’m a dance teacher, I really should remedy that.  So this month I’m going to try to go to at least 2 social dances that are not hosted by the studio I work at. I figure it’ll be a good way to promote myself as a dance teacher, and maybe learn some new moves as well.

So here’s this month’s dance schedule of dances I’ll probably go to, including my studio’s dances:

• Friday August 1^st: First Friday Swing Dance, West Hartford Town Hall, West Hartford, CT
• Saturday August 9^th: Hartford Ballroom’s Second Saturday Dance Social, Hartford Ballroom Dance Studio, Hartford, CT
• Friday August 15^th: Hartford Ballroom’s Third Friday Beginner’s Social, Hartford Ballroom Dance Studio, Hartford, CT
• Saturday August 16th: Nocturne, NYC
• Friday August 22^nd: Hartford Ballroom’s Fourth Friday Salsa Night, Hartford Ballroom Dance Studio, Hartford, CT
• Friday August 29^th: USA Dance New London County Ballroom Dance Social, 41 Society Rd, Niantic, CT