Monthly Recap is a feature where I recap my life, share books I’ve read, borrowed, and purchased, blog posts you may have missed, shows I’ve watched and give an overall count of my reading progress and more.
Well, things have been okay lately. While getting things in order for my dad’s passing, I was off work from the 4th (holiday) through the 9th. My mom and I received my dad’s ashes and it feels weird. Everything pretty much feels weird right now. There are days when there’s so much grief and days when I don’t think a lot about it.
I’ve been frequenting the coffee shop a block away from my apartment and I’m pretty much a regular now. It’s where I’ve been doing most of my blogging, other than the library. I like the atmosphere a lot. There’s plants on tables, board games and the occasional book on shelves. Plus they sale alcohol which I keep meaning to try sometime.
My mom and I have been trying HelloFresh for a couple weeks. We first tried it back in 2017 and liked it well enough we thought we would give it another try. The meals are good but there’s not a ton of variety. It feels like everything comes with couscous… At any rate, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing but I would like more choices. We’re taking a break for now.
- I was finally able to join Bluesky! I’m still getting the hang of it and finding people I followed on Twitter and Instagram. Mostly I’m trying to just copy my tweets there since it’s still my default for when I want to say something.
- I finally went swimming this summer.
- I won an ARC giveaway for a copy of Kit Frick’s The Reunion from Instagram. I could not be happier about it. It was the one ARC I wanted from Simon & Schuster at ALA and…I did not get it. More on that later. Eventually. Hopefully. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for my ALA recap.
Be prepared to be amazed. I wrote a whole three blog posts for the month of July. I know, I am absolutely killing it with my blog. At least it looks pretty, right?
Ocean Views Covers (Wondrous Covers Wednesday)
Ocean Views Covers (Wondrous Covers Wednesday)
Please note the cupcakes under this post, the header, the sidebar, the new rating system–oh wait, that hasn’t been revealed yet. I am having so much fun working on my blog and Shannon’s been a huge help because I’m kind of hopeless. And tend to have meltdowns. I’m creating new graphics though, thinking of new features and thinking of my mission for YA Indulgences.
I participated in the Dewey’s 24 Hour Reverse Readathon!
No, no I didn’t. I honestly thought about it though, really hard. I even had a book ready to read (The Legacies) and I just…I didn’t. Physically reading is hard for me. It’s so hard to concentrate. I will be doing #ARCAugust though because these backlist and ALA books need to get read.
Young Adult Books (Audiobooks): 11
Adult Books (Audiobooks): 6
Started Reading:1 eARC
I managed to get through seventeen audiobooks and started one eARC. As always, I’m in a mystery mood and tried to read more adult fiction as well.
I absolutely loved Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilson. Plus the Kindle book is on sale for $2.99 as of this posting. I was having doubts given the age gap and being the mom of a friend. It was so, so good. I am so excited to read Cleat Cute I grabbed (the last of) from ALA.
How could I not love Forget Me Not after loving her previous book, She Gets The Girl written with her wife, Rachel Lippincott!! Total heart eyes there. Forget Me Not was such a heartfelt and heartbreaking read at times. Memory loss books always get to me and this was one was even more so given the small town and homophobia that can come from that.
Their Vicious Games was seriously vicious. It’s dark and just, so well written. I loved the main character, Adina.The Squid Games comparison is accurate as is The Bachelor.
I’m at 106 books I believe! My challenge was to get through 100 books and I made it this month!
Books Bought
Physical: 6
I bought a couple books from the library’s bookstore that I showed off on Instagram, Friday I’m In Love by Camryn Garrett and Picture Perfect Boyfriend by Becky Dean.
I stopped by the Topeka Friends of The Library’s book sale and picked up Not Otherwise Specified and Underneath Everything. Previous library copies but I will gladly take them. Especially since I’ve been craving a semi-toxic friendship book (Underneath Everything).
And I accidentally bought two copies of Courtney Peppernell’s Pillow Thoughts 4: Stitching The Soul. I’ll be doing a giveaway for that this month!
Audiobooks: 3
The Girl With Stars In Her Eyes by Xio Axelrod
You Don’t Have A Shot by Raquel Marie
Hello Now by Jenny Valentine
I bought these three from Libro.FM while they were on sale.
For Review: 4
All The Consumes Us by Erica Waters
There’s No Way I’d Die First by Lisa Springer
Down Came The Rain by Jennifer Mathieu
I Feed Her To The Beast and The Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea
Thank you so much to HarperTeen, Delacorte Press, and Macmillan via Netgalley.
I am gearing up to watch the season two finale of Cruel Summer. I cannot wait to see what happened. I started watching Veronica Mars…Again. Riverdale is seriously winding down to it’s last few episodes too. The whole show has been BSC.
My mom and did a rewatch of Only Murders In The Building in anticipation of the third season and of course, the show was still hilarious. I may have ended up watching the entire first season in an evening. No shame here, it’s a talent. And a short episode length.
I watched a Udemy course on blogging which has helped me a ton and given me ideas on what to work on.
Maisie Peters has still been getting all of my love. Poor Kelly Clarkson. I did take a break to listen to the new release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and the amazing Carly Rae Jepsen’s new release, The Loveliest Time. Carly cannot miss!
I gave a bit of love to Meg Myer’s TZIA and Sharon Van Etten’s We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong. I just love their songwriting so much.
This is not a music discovery to me but I discovered that Blü Eyes had a new album called The Last Songs I’ll Write About You (for real) and I loved it!
I’m pretty much obsessed with the Nudge Coffee Bombs and the (probably) almost two percent of caffeine they provide.
How was your month? What was one of your favorite books you read so far this year? Do you share a monthly recap? Let me know in the comments.
As always, you can follow me on Twitter (while it exists), Instagram, Threads and my latest social media, Bluesky. My username for Threads and Bluesky is YAIndulgences.
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