Hello!

Usually when I make these kinds of monthly posts, I’m baffled by how quickly another month has rolled around but considering I spent most of July feeling unwell, figuring out new medication doses and spending half my life in the phone queue for my doctor’s surgery, that managed to make it feel quite a bit slower!

Deciding I wanted to make a planned tbr last month has helped me feel much more focused on what I’m reading and making sure I’m getting the most out of the subscriptions I’m paying for. So rather than loading up a pile of 15 physical books I’m absolutely never going to complete, my goal with my tbr is to make sure I read my book club pick, two Kindle Unlimited titles and two of my Audible downloads within the month. A year ago that would have been incredibly ambitious for me but I’ve really settled into my stride with reading consistently and I’m confident and motivated that I can do it.

So for the Rocket Book Club (in summary: my husband and I asked for books as wedding gifts and in an endeavour to read them all we take it in turns to pick one a month and I call it a book club cos it sounds cooler) – August was my husband’s pick and he chose ‘Killing Eve: Codename Villanelle‘ by Luke Jennings, which came from my beloved friend Nicola who doesn’t read but loves the show and I’m not sure if I’m psyched or scared to read it. Storygraph describes it as a crime, mystery, thriller and I think I can handle that, plus there’s another adaptation to add to my list for when I’ve read it!

On Kindle Unlimited, I’m currently reading ‘A Touch of Ruin‘, the second in the Hades and Persephone series by Scarlett St Clair that I’m thoroughly enjoying, and then I’m going to dive into my first Ana Huang book – ‘Twisted Love‘. I’ve seen so much hype on TikTok, bookstagram and booktube and the entire series is on KU so if I like it I will probably read it all. I’m slightly dubious that it’ll be too dark for me but while it’s on KU I’ll give it a go.

And last but by no means least, on Audible I am currently listening to ‘1984‘ by George Orwell, narrated by Stephen Fry who has a beautiful voice… but I am bored. Then lined up after that I want to listen to ‘The Man Who Died Twice‘, the second in the ‘Thursday Murder Club’ series by Richard Osman. I own both of these books in physical copies as well so if I can tick two books off my physical tbr without turning a page, I consider it a win! (I like to call it ‘efficient reading’ but I need to stop applying my ‘productivity mindset’ to everything I do, so don’t tell my therapist 😂)

In terms of what I’m reading from my physical tbr, I want to reread ‘Red, White and Royal Blue‘ before the Amazon Prime movie comes out on August 11th and my next pick from my tbr jar is ‘Me Before You‘ by Jojo Moyes (and I really want to watch the film adaptation but I’m not letting myself till I’ve read the book). I find I can’t balance reading a physical book and my kindle at the same time, so at the moment I’m alternating – when I finish ‘A Touch of Ruin’ I’ll read ‘Red, White and Royal Blue’, then I’ll read ‘Twisted Love’ on my Kindle then depending on how much I enjoy that I’ll either continue with the Twisted series or move back to my physical tbr with ‘Me Before You‘.

It does feel like it’s been absolutely ages since I’ve picked a title out of my tbr jar though, so I would be lying if I said I wasn’t trying to get through everything on my ‘open’ list to be able to pick another title.

I feel steadfast and determined not to buy any new books, but I’m going for a coffee with some friends at the weekend and I know full well if we go anywhere near Waterstones I won’t be able to resist all of them. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx