Favourite Book of July?

The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly.

I had a rather ho-hum month I'm afraid. There's normally one stand-out in the month but not this time. Which means when it's all said and done, the book I am enjoying most is my current read, HP7. That sounds so cliche I can't stand it.

It's The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Run, don't walk, to the nearest book store to buy this one.

This is a very quick but tender and haunting read about a father and son trying to survive in a burned-out country.

The book is fabulous!

I have to echo SqueakyChu's sentiment about The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This is also my favorite book for July - and probably one of the most important books I'll ever read.

So far, I think my favorite is either Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf or the latest Harry Potter. Strange juxtaposition there. I also really liked Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I haven't read any terrific books this month aside from those.

A Crooked Kind of Perfect a young adult novel by former bookseller Linda Urban. Both tender and funny. To be published in September.

Touchstones not working but the book is in the database, if you would like to check it out.

The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay. It was a reread, but it's still my favorite for this month.

the Murder of Tutankhamen by Bob Brier. And Harry Potter #7, of course. :)

Storm Front by Jim Butcher, the first of The Dresden Files series, though it might be The Thirteenth Tale by Setterfield, which I am just finishing up. I'll decide after I see how it ends.

It's such a cliche, I know, but it's got to be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. However, Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint, which I'm just finishing up right now, will probably rank pretty highly too.

ETA: yup. Swordspoint is quite firmly tied with Harry.

July started out bad, but ended up with two really, really good ones. The Book Thief and Year of Wonders. Only 14 books in July, hoping to pick up the pace for August. Working on three right now. Lamb the gospel according to Biff The Robber Bride and the Scarlet Letter. I am upping my challenge to 150.

Other than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which I loved!) nothing stood out very much.

If I had to pick a second place I would probably say Out of the Night by Robin Popp which was a pretty satisfying paranormal romance.

Best fiction read is easy: Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje. When I put it down and walked away, my heart was bleeding, and I never felt the knife.
Best non-fiction read is also easy this month: Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. The subtitle is "a story of courage, community, and war", but it could have been "how the pilgrims turned against the Indians who saved them."

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak was my favorite this month, but I also really enjoyed Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field.

I really enjoyed The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. It's the beginning of the Thursday Next series - a pleasure.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. Easily one of the best books I've ever read. Pessl's use of language nearly makes me weep with gratitude. Descriptive and clever without making you feel like she's showing off having memorized the thesaurus. Hundreds of sneaky little pop-culture references, and a page-turning plot that will have you unable to put the book down after page 250 or so. I look forward to her future works.

July has been a good month for me. Favourite would have to be What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day...but tied with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! Harry has to be favourite for sentimental reasons, and the pure excitement of finally finding out what happens! Was a good read too, and made me cry.
I must also mention that I discovered Lee Child this month, with Killing Floor, which I thoroughly enjoyed, (and have second hand copies of another two Jack Reacher novels ready to go!)
I'm 3/5ths of the way through Outlander and LOVING it - delicious fantasy/romance-with-sex! but that will be finished in August.

Top in July: Killing Critics by Carol O'Connell, slides in as third highest rated book, by me, so far in 2007.

MikeBriggs - I really love the Mallory series, and am in the process of re-reading them as I buy my own hardcover copies. The first books are so well-written its hard to believe that they get better as they go along, but its true.

Yes, I normally find series to get steadily worse as time goes by, but Killing Critics was both the third book in the series and the third book in the series I had read this year, and so far the best of the four books of the series that I have read.

July was really an off month for me - work stress left me reading a lot of light fiction, which is fun but never stands out later as being the best. So, aside from HP7, which I did love, the best of the month for me was Giraffe, which I bought on a whim (bargain price, intriguing premise) and wondered if I would ever get around to reading. It turned out to be fabulous. I want to write a review but I still haven't figured out exactly what I want to say about it.

Hands down, it was Lamb : The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. It's the first of his I've read, and I WILL be reading more.

I really liked all the books that I read in July, so this is hard! If I have to pick, I think it would be The Female Man or Good Omens. I read 3 P.D. James books, though, and really enjoyed them, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was great, it gave me a lot to think about. The Shadow of the Wind was really good, too. The two Alfred Bester books were great in some ways (well-told, dense with ideas), but they were awfully sexist, so that would push them down just a bit, even though they are definitely science fiction classics.

I am reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix now, but I won't finish before tomorrow, I don't think. Also, I enjoy the Harry Potter books, but I don't know that they are my favorites.

I still want to go back and re-read my favorite from April, The Gate to Women's Country, but I have so many other books to read. I may do it anyway, soon, though, because I still keep thinking about it.

No contest: A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Dulcibelle: Oddly enough, my favourite book of the month was A Dirty Job, also by Christopher Moore, and it was ALSO my first time reading his books. :)

Without a doubt, The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard. I bought it after reading aluvalibri's review, and she was absolutely right. I read it as slowly as I could make myself read, and savored every word of it.

Oh, I read The Pale Blue Eye a while back, and it was wonderful, I agree!

Since I posted Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as my fave book of July a mere week before the end of the month I didn't think I'd be reading anything I liked as much. However, I was mistaken. Over the last few days I've read two book (well, a YA novel and a manga) that definitely have to be listed as favorites. I absolutely loved the novel Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock and the manga, Her Majesty's Dog. This was my first manga ever and I adored it!

Emlyn's Moon and The Chestnut Soldier, both by Jenny Nimmo, and also The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Burglar by Maurice leBlanc.

The Corrections, by Jonathan Franze was pretty good despite the character's selfish/messed-up lives. For a more fun read, I'd say The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

I think The Polysyllabic Spree and Housekeeping vs The Dirt by Nick Hornby. They contain his columns from The Believer magazine and I highly recommend them to those who love books and reading. There are some great recommendations to increase your book collection and his style of writing is very witty.

I do feel like I have read a lot of good books this month though.

I read The Polysyllabic Spree this month also. What fun!

My favourite for July would have to be Lovers' Knots by Marion Halligan. I found this in an opp shop and read it while waiting for a couple of books to come in at the library. A great little story!

I read a lot of books that I really liked in July. I read more Scott Westerfeld and I was introduced to Naomi Novik, both of whose books I really, really like.

I also reread Sunshine by Robin McKinley, which is currently my favorite book overall, and...maybe it was because of the stress of moving, I don't know, but I read it more thoroughly, more deeply than I usually do. Something about the end hit me harder than usual - I like the end, a lot of people don't because it leaves a lot of questions, but I think it's appropriate to the story and it's McKinley's style, too - but I actually went back and reread the last 10 or 20 pages again after I'd finished, and it hit me again the same way.

Ok, I guess Sunshine was my favorite book of July.

No doubt about it: On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. I finished it several weeks ago and it's still rolling around in my head.

On of my favorites for July was also a Robin McKinley, The Hero and the Crown. I'm debating whether to read Beauty or Sunshine for my next McKinley.

My other favorite for July was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I finally read a few books I'd been meaning to read for quite some time. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was outstanding, and 'Salem's Lot was creepy and fun.