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Let us know how your reading went this month, if you had trouble completing this month's task, if you enjoyed the book you read and whether you'd recommend it!

I ended up reading:

The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova (loved it)
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey (loved it)
Beautiful Broken Girls by Kim Savage (hated it)
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (loved it)
Human Acts by Han Kang (loved it)
The Black Wolves of Boston by Wen Spencer (it was okay, but i liked it)

I think the month for me went well because I finally crossed off two books I've been wanting to read forever (Interview and Kushiel's Dart). My only regret is not reading more diverse authors from around the world. If I do this theme again I will definitely make that a priority. I wish I didn't read Beautiful Broken Girls because I really did not like it. I also started Savage Theories by Pola Oloixarac but ended up abandoning it.

I read Pride and Prejudice and as I suspected, it wasn't really my thing...hence why this is my first time reading Austen!

I also read Dying To Forget on a whim, and it hit the spot, but it wasn't great by any means. It was too short...I wish the author had expanded it more because a lot of things happened that were just told and not shown.

I started Who Cooked the Last Supper?: The Women's History of the World but hit a wall where I didn't feel like reading it anymore, which is when I moved on to Dying to Forget. I will definitely go back to this book though, just not in August since it's not fiction!

I'm pretty proud of myself that I actually did the 5 continents thing this month, even though I didn't like every single book I picked.

I ended up reading 6 books by women authors who were new to me! 3 I didn't like (Jane Harper, Maurene Goo, Ayelet Gundar-Goshen), 1 I did (Gillian Flynn), and 2 I'm now a fan of (Gail Honeyman and Yaa Gyasi).

Ive read 4 books this month and hope to finish a 5th by tonight.

Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust (meh - not the best YA i have ever read, although at least it was a new story, not a rehashed dystopian future or love triangle)
Me Before You (liked it a lot - especially given the hype around it i wasn't let down)
We are Never Meeting in Real Life. (loved it, recommend it to anyone looking for a funny essay collection, etc etc)
The Last Act Of Love (wouldn't say i loved it but i am glad i read it - pretty interesting true-story and got me thinking a lot about my own wishes for end-of-life decisions.)

and i'm currently reading:
So Sad Today and it has some really great moments but also some pretty graphic descriptions of sexual encounters that kinda go on too long for my taste.

I also read Why Not Me? this month, but it doesn't count for the challenge because i have read Mindy Kaling before. if you liked her first book you'll like this one as well. I find her very endearing and wish we could be friends.

All the books I read this month were by women! I ended up reading 8 books. I read 2 series by different women and they had three books each in them. I basically ended up reading books by 4 different female authors I never had before. Jenny Han, Nalini Singh, Tarryn Fisher, and Kathleen Flynn.

I read 5 books authored by women for this past month, and all but one were by new authors for me!

The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley (loved it)
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb (loved it, will continue with the series for sure)
A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro (cute, kept me interested)
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (the most interesting character, to me, was the AI during the latter half)
and
Once and for All by Sarah Dessen (not my first Dessen, and definitely not the best)

I think this month has been my favorite challenge so far, as I don't typically pay attention to how many women authors I read. My only regret is that I didn't read any authors outside of North America, but I was trying to work with books I already own.

I had big aspirations for myself and...I read none of the books I said I wanted to. :/ Haha! Instead read Death at Wentwater Court, which was on theme, and it led me to reading 8? of it's sequels in this 22 book series. Ayyyy. So I enjoyed it well enough to continue the series. :)

My goal is to pick one book for August and everything else can be a bonus.

I read books from 4 new authors.

Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas, along with the next two books in the series. I enjoyed the first book but after the 3rd it got so depressing and I'm taking a break before I read the last two books.
Moonshadow by Thea Harrison. I really enjoyed reading this one and I'll read the sequel.
Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg. Good book although it wasn't what I was expecting. It's about dealing with grief and wasn't relevant to my life (thankfully).
To Seduce a Witch's Heart by Nadine Mutas. This was also fun to read.

I read three books for this challenge

The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood (I loved it, very dark and stirring. It was like The Handmaid's Tale meets Lord of the Flies)
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (I loved this book but more than that I loved Celeste Ng's writing. She's fantastic and I can't wait to read more of her.)
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan (This was a very interesting read. I either love memoirs or can't stand them and this one stuck with me. At 24 years old to fall into psychosis and no doctors being able to find out why was terrifying to read about.)

I ended up with two~
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta. Loved it, the writing was really nice and the subject matter, the life of a lesbian in post-war Nigeria, was so interesting! but it was just so heavy, it took me forever to get through because I was sick for most of July and wanted fun happy books.
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley. Looooooved it. Totally different to what the blurb promised, it was a really sweet, magical m/m romance in the end.
and then I finished In a Dark Wood Wandering: A Novel of the Middle Ages by Hella Haase, which I started in May. Heavy because it was just really thorough historical fiction, but I've never read historical fiction quite like it - telling the story of one man's life, but also taking a sweeping portrayal of his time.

I had also read some short stories by female authors that I received from NetGalley but was just disappointed by them really, not worth mentioning :|

I read Stay with Me just because I bought it at a yard sale and it fit the prompt. I ended up liking it quite a bit.

The Wangs vs. the World ***
The Snow Child ***1/2
The Golem and the Jinni ***1/2
Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley ***

I liked Food of the Gods, though the second part felt a lot more disjointed and surreal. It's also very gory, so stay away if that bothers you. I also caved in and finally read something by Philippa Gregory: The Lady of the Rivers, about Jacquetta of Luxembourg. I liked it more than I expected! Probably because she isn't well-trodden ground like the Tudors.