I’m not sure if this is a result of FOMO or over-enthusiasm, but boy do I have some reading lined up for July.

1. It’s Blak History Month here in Australia, so a good time to be picking up books by Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander authors. Tony Birch’s The White Girl has just recently been released, and Tara June Winch’s The Yield has just come out this week. Also Melissa Lucashenko’s wonderful Too Much Lip has been short listed for the Miles Franklin, so it’s a good time to read that one if you haven’t already. Also check out Magabala books which is an Indigenous publisher.

2. Stella Prize Reading Group – there are a bunch of us reading through the backlist of the Stella Prize nominees. This month we are reading Night Games by Anna Krien and The Hate Race by Maxine Beneba Clarke. (I’m not going to reread The Hate Race, so just Night Games for me.)

3 and 4 are read-alongs with my book coven buddies, one for around the world reading (Nigeria this time) and one Shakespearean (Much Ado About Nothing). These read-alongs run for two months, so I have been a little slack. I think I’ll be reading The Purple Hibiscus for by Nigeria book. I’m also wanting to read Speak Easy, Speak Love which is a YA retelling of Much Ado.

5. Text Publishing has started a book club, and their book for this month is Room for a Stranger by Melanie Cheng. As Text Publishing brings out wonderful Aussie books and I already had this one out from the library I figured why not?

6. The Book Junkie Trials.

The Book Junkie Trials is an amazing reading challenge with so many intricate details! Masterminded by Rachael Marie, there is a personality quiz, there are maps, each personality type has their own monarch – it’s totally rad. You can check out all the details through here , which links to the twitter profile which had everything you could possibly want to know linked in.

I got the Scribe on the quiz and my challenges are:

A) Dwarf Mount You spot a fair wench, however the Dwarf Mines , grimey and dusty, don’t evoke a very romantic feeling. Read a book with a hint of romance to get you in the mood. (Speak Easy, Speak Love)

B) Apothecary Towers: Where the wizards dwell. Tricksters. They have blind folded you and randomised all your books, choose a book at random from your bookshelf. (Warcross)

C) The Great Library : Aah the great archives. Find and read a book that has been on your TBR forever. (The Dry)

D) The Drowning Deep: The whirlpool is so mesmerising …. Read a book with rich world building that will suck you in instead (Middlegame.)

E) The Bookie Grail: Here you find a lost manuscript, delivered on this forgotten island by a fallen star. Read the group book Stardust.

There is a lot to this challenge that I’m not going in to, so make sure you go and check it out if it’s your thing. A lot of work, planning and preparation has gone into setting this one up! One of the biggest challenges for me is that you need to announce your TBR and you can’t move from it. Eek!

7. The Reading Rush

This is another big challenge and it runs for the last week of July. You can read more about it and sign up here.

The challenges for this one are:

A) Read a book with purple on the cover.

B) Read a book in the same spot.

C) Read a book that you meant to read last year

D) Read an author’s debut.

E) Read a book with a non human main character.

F) Read a book with 5 or more words in the title.

G) Read and watch a book to movie adaption.

I have NO IDEA what I’m going to read for these yet. Obviously the trick is to try to pick a couple of books that will fill a bunch of categories – I read a lot but 7 books in a week is beyond me. There is a lot of discussion on the forums to help people figure out what to read. It should be fun!

So that’s me. What do you have lined up for July? Are you participating in any of these challenges?

Cheers,