Happy August ✨ It was a slow month of reading for me, with one paper back and one audio book finished. However, I enjoyed them both so I still count it as a good reading month!
I gave both books a ★★★★☆.5
July Wrap Up
The first book I read this month was A Game of Fate by Scarlett St. Clair which I read via audiobook. It took me a while to get used to the narrator for this one, and I wouldn’t say he’s my favourite narrator but I got used to him. A Game of Fate is essentially the same story as A Touch of Darkness but from Hades point of view. If you’re worried that you’re going to find it too similar to Persephone’s point of view, don’t! Listening to this book, although you obviously recognise the course of the events and the interactions between the two gods, but you get so much more insight into the world of the gods through Hades point of view. Hades gets up to a lot in his spare time away from Persephone, he interacts with a number of different mortals and gods, and it really opens up the politics and the wider world of the novels. It also gives the reader an invaluable opportunity to know what Hades is thinking in every interaction he has with Persephone, and how she affects him which I absolutely adored. So, if you loved A Touch of Darkness, definitely read this one!
The second and final book I finished this month was Venus & Aphrodite: History of a Goddess by Bettany Hughes. This surprising light and easy to read non-fiction takes you from the beginning of the goddess Aphrodite with her early influences in Mesopotamia, to the modern-day reception of the goddess. The book reads as if Bettany is just chatting to you, which made it easy to read and accessible for anyone wanting to learn about the goddess. The connections to the early war goddesses of Mesopotamia (Inanna, Ishtar and Astarte) were fascinating, and Bettany supported her claims with archaeological evidence and images in the book. I absolutely loved reading the changes in the goddess both through time and region, and how the depictions of her, and the connotations towards her morphed. I definitely feel like the goddess Aphrodite/Venus has been simplified into the goddess of sex and desire with little substance, and this book is out here to remind the world that she is so much more.
August Hopefuls
This month I continued to read The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women by Nancy Marie Brown. I’ve been really enjoying the intertwining of fact and fiction, and hopefully, I’ll get it finished this month! I am also half way through Red Rising by Pierce Brown which I started on a whim for a buddy read and I am ABSOLUTELY loving it! I’ve also just found out that it isn’t a trilogy anymore, and that is very exciting! I also started Assassins Apprentice by Robin Hobb which I have been really enjoying, but I’ve been neglecting it since I started Red Rising so hopefully I can pick it back up again this month. But of course, I am a true mood reader at heart, and it is truly impossible to plan my reading. I definitely need to finish The Real Valkyrie and I will HAVE to finish Red Rising because it’s so addicting. The final book on my radar for August it Egyptian Mythology by Garry Shaw, which I am so stocked to have an early release copy of because I’m going to have the opportunity to interview Garry about it and I’m SO EXCITED! But, other than that, we’ll just have to see what I feel like picking up. Maybe I’ll join another spontaneous buddy read, who knows. What are you most looking forward to reading this month? Lemme know down in the comments or find me over on Instagram @kell_read!