July 2026 - Reviewed

July felt like an odd and very long month! It feelslike it has been dragging on since at least mid May and somehow I onnly managed to read six books, of which two were for research. I did get about halfway through Inventing the Renaissance, which is an absolute tome, and I am hoping to finish that eventually but I had to take a break before I got completely bogged down in Medicis, Sforzas and Orsinis.

The Library at Mount Char - Scott Hawkins

My first book of the month, this was a brilliant complex read, that delivered on all its promises. The eponymous library is the seat of creation for the current god or father, who has adopted a dozen children and taught each of them part of his powers, in horrific brutal methods. When this father disappears, the children must try and make sense of the world whilst fighting amongst themselves. Oh, that's as best as I can pitch it to you! It's really more difficult and complex than that,  but absolutely worth a read. Trigger warning for some pretty graphic violence.

 The Just City - Jo Walton

Having spent several hours reading the forementioned renaissance book I decided to take a quick break and dive into an old favourite. The just city is a wonderful science-fiction/fantasy/philosophical fantasy novel which imagines scholars and philosophers throughout time coming together to create their own version of Plato's utopian city.  I really like Simmea, the main character, as well as the incarnation of Apollo who joins the city, But on this read I felt most for Matthias/Kebes, the child brought to the city who never really engages with the experiment and fights to make his own way.

 The Once and Future Sex - Eleanor Janega

I read this book for research purposes and didn't get as much out of it as I was hoping.  There is a lot of time and energy spent explaining the roots of western sexism and how that carried into mediaeval life and affected the women living in it. I was really hoping for a bit more detail on that actual day-to-day life but there wasn't much here. I think I also struggled with this because it's quite a light poppy version of the impact of classical historic writers on western civilisation and I had just read a much more detailed and engaging version in the Renaissance history book.

The Last Queen of Faerie - Serra Swift

A totally charming cozy fantasy with a little bit of darkness in it just to keep it interesting, This tells the story of a family of witches living at the edge of a fairy wood. Over the generations, most of the witches have been lost to the malevolent fairy King and when Ria finds her teenage daughter snatched away she determines to go and wrest her back. A fresh and vibrant adventure, this fantasy blends darkness and humour, anchored with the unshakeable force of a mother's love.

Mediaeval Woman - Ann Baer

I read this book for research and found it really excellent in a way I wasn't expecting. Mediaeval Woman tells the story of a year in the life of Marion, a dirt poor peasant in England. From the first page we get an Incredibly grounded understanding of day-to-day life the amount of work to produce a mouthful of food, to try and keep your children alive, and maintain the community that you live in.  This is not a type of mediaeval representation that you often find in books which focus on castles and conflicts but this is what life would've been like for the vast majority of mediaeval Europeans and I found it completely fascinating, as well as well-written and surprisingly heartwarming.

All Hail Chaos - Sarah Rees Brennan

This is the sequel to Long Live Evil which I read earlier this year and absolutely loved, and this instalment is just as good. It neatly sidesteps the middle book problems of a trilogy by bringing in new characters and new perspectives, whilst still centering the story of our protagonist, Rae. Don't start here, but definitely try to get here if you enjoy the first one!