July has been a busy month for me (I’m currently attempting to wrap up my master’s thesis) but I still managed to do some reading. Let’s take a look!
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Overview from the Storygraph
You can definitely see the spike when I was spending a lot of time on trains and rereading books.
Books Read
I read four new books this month:
- Under the Oak Tree (Novel) Vol. 3 by Suji Kim | ⭐⭐⭐.5 (Series Review)
- As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Review)
- 여성, 오래전 여행을 꿈꾸다 [Women Have Been Dreaming of Travel for a Long Time], edited by 김경미 Kim Kyŏngmi | ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
- Daggerbound (Swordheart #2) by T. Kingfisher | ⭐⭐⭐.5 (Review)
I have reviews for two of them already and my Daggerbound review will be coming in the next few days. Apart from that I also read a collection of Korean women’s travel literature that contains 1 work each from the 18th, 19th and 20th century. The first two are sources for my dissertation and the last wasn’t but I wanted to finish the book so I read it anyway and I really enjoyed them all. There’s no English translation of the first of last work, but the middle one (which is the longest) can be found in Classical Writings of Korean Women collection which is free. If you enjoy travel writing, I highly recommend!
(Also, let’s celebrate my first 5 star book of the year!)
I also did some rereading, as I tend to do in a busy month (and boy has this month been busy). I reread the first trilogy in the Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews, and, like normal, my rating hovers around a 3.75. But it’s so much fun!
Books Progressed or DNF’d
There’s really only one book that I started this month with the intent to finish and haven’t finished yet: So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ. I had hoped to finish it before the end of the month but the only thing I could bring myself to read was fun, quick reads whilst I toiled away at my thesis, so it’ll have to be finished in August.
As part of my thesis writing, I also made some progress through some academic books about Chinese women’s poetry – especially the sections on Gu Taiqing, a 19th century poet known for her travel poetry! In total, I read approximately 100 pages across four books.
I also DNF’d one book: The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengeance by Chiara Bullen. As I said in my Storygraph review, I think this book will appeal to fans of cosy fantasy generally (for example, if you like Travis Baldree’s books or generally like most cosy fantasy) and who also like/don’t mind characters like Owen Mallory from The Everlasting who have a major flaw that is understandable but makes them quite unlikeable or annoying to begin with until they do some character growth. Unfortunately, these aspects didn’t quite work for me.
On the Blog
Despite being ridiculously busy with my master’s thesis (6 days left now until it’s due!) this month, I still managed to most a decent amount… even if there was a bit of a break in the middle. I’m particularly proud of getting around to two book reviews this month.
Posts I made this month…
![[Review] Under the Oak Tree #1-3 by Suji Kim](https://keirasbookmark.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/screenshot-2026-07-24-at-13.08.09.png?w=800&h=600&crop=1)
![[Review] As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers](https://keirasbookmark.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/screenshot-2026-07-24-at-21.48.29.png?w=600&h=450&crop=1)
Song(s) of the Month
To finish off the wrap up, here is what I’ve been listening to this month:
Here’s a list of my most-listened to songs.
My favourite music/performance videos of the month (recent releases):
What was your favourite book of the month?
If you did a wrap up post of your feel free to link it in the comments and I’ll check it out!
Keira x
Keira's Bookmark 