It’s barely August and I’m posting about the books of July! Shocking!

Only nine books read this month, but that’s because I spent a week on vacation with many wonderful small people, and by the time I went to bed every night, I fell right to sleep. On the other hand, I’m still dealing with stress and anxiety, so I did a fair amount of re-reading and reaching for favorite authors. But despite “slacking off” this month, I’ve already read more than 100 books this year.

My favorite books of the month were two re-reads: A Matter of Magic by Patricia C. Wrede, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and Charles de Lint I had not previously read: Someplace to Be Flying. I really love Charles de Lint–he is possibly the best short story author I’ve read, and he does a fantastic job writing female chracters.

Historical Fantasy (YA)
A Matter of Magic (2010): Mairelon the Magician (1991) and The Magician’s Ward (1997) Patricia C. Wrede (10/10)

Urban Fantasy
American Gods (2001) Neil Gaiman (10/10)
Someplace to Be Flying (1998) Charles de Lint (9/10)
Newford Stories: Crow Girls (2015) Charles de Lint
Moonlight & Vines (1999) Charles de Lint

Supernatural Fantasy
Chaos Choreography (2016) Seanan McGuire (6/10)

Historical Mystery
As Death Draws Near (2016) Anna Lee Huber (8.5/10)

Historical Romance
A Gift for Guile (2016) Alissa Johnson (8/10)
To Charm a Naughty Countess (2014) Theresa Romain (6/10)

I read all ebooks–aside from cookbooks, which I haven’t gotten around to reviewing, I haven’t read a single paper book this year.

Here’s the genre break-down:
Fantasy : 6
Mystery : 2
Romance : 3
YA : 1
Anthology : 2

And the gender break-down:
Male : 4
Female : 5

But male authors are still really far behind this year, at only 18% of the books I’ve read so far.

And those are the books of July.