Book Review Catch Up Part 3: The Second Half of July 2018

Last of the review catch up posts, I promise. Here are all the things I read in the second half of July.

The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding Book 1 by Alexandra Bracken
Category: Middle-Grade
Published: September 2017
Genre: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Enjoyable read, as usual, from Alexandra Bracken. Turns out this is going to be made into a movie, so I read it just in time.
Rating: Four out of Five snarky demons

Another Country by James Baldwin
Category: Adult
Published: 1962
Genre: Contemporary
Read mostly because it was on the Great American Read list. I'm kind of slowly going through the ones I haven't read. Not all of them, because there are some I'm just not interested in, at all (Atlas Shrugged, for instance). But most of them I will be reading....at some point.

Robots VS Fairies anthology by various authors
Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi
Published: January 9th, 2018
Fun short story anthology that had stories featuring either robots or fairies.
Rating: Three and a half out of Five short stories that I wanted to be whole books

Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley by Emily Chang
Category: Non-Fiction
Genre: Social Commentary/Feminism
Published: February 6th, 2018
A deep look into the sexism of the tech industry. How bad it is, how we got there, why it persists, and how we can change the culture. The book is good and interesting...it's just draining, hearing about all these incidents and seeing all the indifference from some of the people in the industry.
Rating: Three and a half out of Five informative, but sad books

Kat Holloway Book 1: Death Below Stairs by Jennifer Ashley
Category: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery
Published: January 2nd, 2018
Okay historical mystery. Didn't really impress me, but didn't really fail me either. It's good for if you just want some Downton Abbey-esque feelings with a dash of mystery.
Rating: Three and a half out of Five nosy maids getting shit done

Veronica Speedwell Book 3: A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn
Category: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery
Published: January 16th, 2018
This series continues to be delightful. If you like slow burn romances, heroines who don't give a fuck about society's expectations, and snark, seriously pick this series up.
Rating: Four out of Five awesome snarky heroines

The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Category: Play
Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: 1953
I started to read this one, and it turns out I actually already have read it...way back in school. I just apparently forgot that. Oh well. If nothing else, it was a good refresher.

Comics read:
Captain America original 1940s series on Marvel Unlimited
Heavy Vinyl vol. 1

Reading Through the Classics: The Bell Jar

TITLE: The Bell Jar
AUTHOR: Sylvia Plath
PUBLISHED: 1963
CATEGORY: Adult/YA (I think it fits both really)
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
PREMISE: A young girl on the brink of adult hood slowly starts to have a mental breakdown....
MY THOUGHTS: Yes, somehow I escaped reading this book in high school. It just never came up in one of my classes and high school me was very much not interested. But again, one of my online groups had this for their book of the month for March and so I finally got around to it.
This is again, one I wished I studied in a classroom environment. Because I suspect there are a lot of things in this that went over my head without knowing much about Slyvia Plath. I knew enough to get the general importance of it though. This book was written during a time when mental health (especially women's mental health) probably wasn't talked about all that often.
I wouldn't go into this one looking for light entertainment. It's pretty heavy subject matter. Also several of the characters will likely annoy you. Esther's boyfriend in this seriously became my new hated literary figure.
The writing in this however, is gorgeous. You can really tell Plath is a poet. I definitely will be checking out her poetry next year when I start my journey into poetry (I was planning on doing it this year, but decided plays and poetry at the same time was probably a bit much). Probably will be reading her unabridged journals at some point too...
WHO SHOULD READ: those who like angsty reads, if you're interested in books about mental health, Slyvia Plath fans