June Wrap-Up
Welcome to my June Wrap-Up! I don’t know where this month went, to be honest. It happened, I have the evidence. But apparently, I must have fallen into some sort of time-bending wormhole because June felt like it was a single week. A lot of stuff happened! I read books I loved (and some I didn’t which aren’t included here because I want to spread good vibes today). Also, I wrote posts I’m super proud of and: I celebrated my 1 year blog anniversary! 🥳
Thank you all so much for being here in this tiny space of the internet I call my home! Now let’s get into this wrap-up, shall we?
The Books I Read in June
Counting Down With You – Tashie Bhuiyan
Me, reading a YA romance? It’s more likely than you think! I’d heard such good things about Counting Down With You so I just had to preorder it. Come on, it has fake dating! That’s one of my all-time favourite tropes and this book does it beautifully.
Counting Down With You was super sweet and even though I am very gay, I wouldn’t say no to a fake boyfriend who buys me books. Seriously, Ace and Karina are super cute and potentially one of my favourite fictional couples.
The way this story dealt with complicated family dynamics and navigating expectations vs. your own desires was beautiful! It’s definitely the kind of book that a lot of teenagers would really benefit from, I know I would’ve loved it when I was younger.
In the Ravenous Dark – A.M. Strickland
In the Ravenous Dark is deliciously dark, queer and overall a stunning book.
The story follows Rova, a pansexual blood mage who’s hiding her magical abilities because, in Thanopolis, blood mages must be bound to a spirit who keeps them in check.
Well, Rovan gets discovered and brought to the palace and shenanigans ensue. “Hey my guardian is kinda hot and oh, is the princess flirting with me? Let’s start a revolution because this place sucks!” kind of shenanigans.
I loved this book so so much, it had all the things I wanted from it: a headstrong main character, cool magic and queerness. There’s a nonbinary side character who may or may not be asexual and man, that really made my heart sing. Also a big whoop whoop for portraying a variety of queer identities and relationships, including platonic ones!
Related: My Review of In the Ravenous Dark
You and Me on Vacation – Emily Henry
Oh hey, it’s another romance! You and Me on Vacation is a sweet friends to lover romance that ticked all the right boxes for me.
Alex and Poppy are adorably different and should absolutely not work as friends, but that’s exactly what makes them perfect for each other!
I loved the multiple timelines the story is told in, it keeps the pace up and made for a great reading experience.
In my full review, I described this book as “the equivalent of strawberry lemonade on a hot summer day: refreshing and sweet and I’d like more of it, please.” and I think that tells you everything you need to know!
Related: My Review of You and Me on Vacation
The Anthropocene Reviewed – John Green
I am a big fan of the Anthropocene Reviewed podcast. It’s been with me on long walks and lonely nights and always leaves me feeling a little better than it found me.
This book contains some of the essays from the podcast and some new ones. I decided to listen to the audiobook and that was absolutely the right choice. John Green’s narration is perfect and made me cry more than once.
This is the kind of book I’ll definitely return to time and time again because so much of it resonates with me.
If you’re unsure if this book is for you, I highly recommend you check out the podcast, it’s a great way to see if this style of essays is up your street!
Posts I Wrote
For your convenience and enjoyment, here’s round-up of all the posts I wrote this month, in case you missed one of them!
- My May Wrap-Up
- Review: Not My Problem by Ciara Smyth
- Books My D&D Character Would Love
- 15 Books to Read This Summer | My Ambitious Summer TBR
- Review: In the Ravenous Dark by A.M. Strickland
- Review: You and Me on Vacation by Emily Henry
- 1 Year Blog Anniversary Q&A | Blogging Lessons, Personal Life and Books
Posts I Loved
Oh hey, let’s talk about some of the posts by other bloggers that I loved!
- Kal talked about her book-buying process and what goes into building her dream library!
- The team of The Quiet Pond shared a whole series of wonderful interviews and recommendation lists for pride month, here’s a list of books with trans, nonbinary and genderqueer representation!
- Sumedha shared how she uses Notion to write better blog posts
- Kat wrote a hilarious post all about whether or not she and Tom Hiddleston are compatible readers!
- Fadwa shared 6 LGBTQ+ mystery and thriller books (that are all on my TBR now hehe)
Some Closing Words
To avoid getting too emotional on here, I’m gonna keep this short. June had some personal setbacks and definitely wasn’t the best month of my year. But I also got to celebrate reaching the one-year milestone of being a bookblogger and bookstagrammer! I can’t believe it’s been a whole year. Time is weird. But I’m so proud of myself for reaching this point and I couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Onto bigger and brighter adventures in the future.
I hope you have a lovely day,
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14 Comments
nihaarika @clouded galaxy reads
This was such a great post!! Loved reading it! And I also enjoyed Counting Down With You and You and Me on Vacation!!
bookshelfsoliloquies
Thank you so much! Those books were so fun, right?? Just the sweetness I needed to cheer me up, glad you enjoyed them too!!
Sumedha
Sorry to hear that June wasn’t a great month in your personal life but sometimes, that’s what hobbies are for! To give you things to celebrate about. Congrats on your blogversary again and glad that you read some good books! Hope you have a great July 😊
bookshelfsoliloquies
haha thanks! and yes, I definitely agree! It’s one of the reasons I try and actively make time for hobbies, both public ones like my blog and some that are just for me. I’ve found that it’s super important for my mental health to have spaces in my life that aren’t shared online or with anyone, I think it balances out all the time I do spend sharing my life 😂 I hope you have a great July, too! ✨
Ena J. @ Fly(er) on the Wall
A fellow Anthropocene Reviewed fan, hellooooo! I discovered the podcast this year and have cried my fair share while listening to it on errands. The signed hardbound copy made such a dent on my wallet that it made me cry, but then I cried again when I saw what John Green had written about autographs and when I realized that the autograph page had been touched by someone who made me cry… so all in all, with all the cry-ception, it was probably a worthwhile throwing away of my money, right? 😀
Have a great month of July!
bookshelfsoliloquies
It’s definitely a worthy investment! I also got a signed version (and was terrified it wouldn’t arrived because international shipping can be difficult lol) and I love it so much! The podcast was honestly a personal highlight throughout all the pandemic mess, there’s something about John Green’s writing that just reaches my soul in a profound way and I love it. Glad to know I’m not alone in crying when listening 😂
Kat Impossible
I’m sorry to hear that June was a difficult month, but am so very happy to see that you reached that one-year-mark with the blog! It was great reading your Q&A for it and I’m looking forward to the reflection post about it you teased on Twitter.
Also, thank you so much for sharing my post!!! I put a ridiculous amount of work into it, so this feels validating haha
bookshelfsoliloquies
I’m honestly so proud of myself for actually making it to this one year point so thank you so much! And I can’t wait to turn my thoughts into a very rambly and chaotic post, I’m very happy to see that apparently people are interested in my thoughts! And you’re so welcome, I laughed so hard while reading it because omg, what an idea! 😂
Kat Impossible
You should be proud!! Not many people even make it to that milestone. It’s a great achievement.
And I aim to entertain, so that’s very good. The next post in the series should be ready in a couple weeks and I hope it will be equally as fun and not get old.
Avhlee
I’ve heard a lot of great things about Ravenous Dark and your little review just makes me want to check it out all the more, lol. I’m sorry that June wasn’t a great month for you, but I hope things get better for July.
bookshelfsoliloquies
haha, glad I could add to your reasons to read it! And thank you so much, I certainly hope so too!
Kal @ Reader Voracious
I lso fell into the time-bending wormhole in June, because I literally blinked at it’s July. Sorry to see June wasn’t a good month tho, guess it’s not so bad it was fast? I hope July is better for you & thanks for sharing my discussion post!
bookshelfsoliloquies
Yeah, I’m honestly quite glad the month passed without me having a lot of memories if it, it’s probably for the best 😂 Thanks, I’m doing my best to actively make it a better month because I’ve decided I deserve better than wormhole madness 😌 And you are very very welcome!!
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