Books Read in July

 

The month of July was a very busy one for me. But even before the month started, I knew it would be a difficult month to get through, because July 24 would mark one year since my older brother, Troy, passed away. I am still very grieved that he is gone.

 

Even so, I had a ton of things keeping me busy that made it difficult for me to dwell on my sadness. Work for Dreamweaver Press is going strong and I have a lot of submissions to get through. We also released another book this month: the fantasy novel Insights into the Next Realm: Shadows from the Darkness by Erika Ravnsborg. Alas, as much as I had hoped to get an anthology out this month, it didn’t happen. And Twisted Dreams Press was also busy. We are receiving submissions for anthologies as well as nonfiction books, which we are very excited about. We haven’t published any nonfiction books yet, so we are looking forward to publishing our very first nonfiction title in the near future. Twisted Dreams Press also released a book this month, a collection of extreme horror stories titled Head Full of Hornets by J. Rocky Colavito. It was the second of the two books published by TDP this month, with my new poetry book being the other one.

 

My new poetry book, Last Writes, includes poems on death, grief and bereavement. Some of the poems were written while I grieved my brother’s death, as well as the death of others – including my son’s dog. I did write a memorial poem about Troy shortly after he died, but I felt that this poetry book was just one way to honor my brother and the lasting impact he had on so many people. He was very loved by many and he is sorely missed.

 

Of course, I also had books to read to occupy my time. Some of the books were for book reviewing while others were for either pleasure reading or for research. 

 

This month, I read 9 books and finished reading 2 of them. The list picks up where the last one left off so the numbers are accurate for the number of books I have read so far this year.

 

86. FINISHED READING: The Day the Pirates Went Mad (Emma Sharpe's Adventures, Book 1) by Trevor Atkins

87. Star Legacy: Origins (The Star Legacy Series, Book 1) by C.V. Jackson

88. Back to the New Adventure (Emma Sharpe's Adventures, Book 2) by Trevor Atkins

89. Umami by Hiromi Yoshida

90. FINISHED READING: Where the Tide Leaves its Dead by Bray Mattheson

91. 7 Days to Death: One Woman's Battle Against GBS by Lynne Armstrong-Jones

92. Queen of Starlight by Molly M. Hammond

93. The Declaration of Independence: Study in the History of Political Ideas by Carl Lotus Becker

94. The Mitigator by Samuel Colabufo

95. Somewhere Else: A Novel by Joe Robinson

96. Insights into the Next Realm: Shadows from the Darkness by Erika Ravnsborg