May Wrap-Up // a little less reading, a lot more blogging

Who is ready for summer? I know I certainly am! I am enjoying warm weather for taking walks and lounging by the pool. You might think that being on break for most of May would lead to more books getting read, but somehow it resulted in less. I think when I have an inconsistent schedule it becomes easier to spend all day scrolling the internet instead of reading. I will say, it was looking truly dismal, but just in the last few days I finished a couple more books to get myself to a bit more respectable seven total books read this month. Definitely under my average, but not bad. And not to brag, but I did also manage to read many New Yorker articles this month, which don’t make it onto my list but that is, of course, still reading.

I read a few duds this month; they weren’t bad but they also weren’t great. However, I thankfully also read a few that I loved: Band Sinister by KJ Charles (my first KJ Charles book!), A Suffragist’s Guide to the Antarctic by Yi Shun Lai, and Stateless by Elizabeth Wein. I duly enjoyed all of these and would definitely recommend them.

Finally, although I didn’t read as much as normal, I was very consistent with blogging this month, posting something every single week. So to get more details on what I read and blogged about this month, check out the content under the cut.

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April Wrap-Up // I started blogging again!

I am so relieved we finally made it to the end of April, because it is also the end of my semester! I am one day and one final away from surviving my first semester of grad school. But that’s not what you’re here for, you’re here for the books!

Given how busy I was this month, I was shocked to find that I read 10 books total. My favorites were anticipated releases This is Me Trying by Racquel Marie and Funny Story by Emily Henry, with unexpected hits Light From Uncommon Stars and Hijab Butch Blues. I had a couple disappointments, but most of the things I read were really fun, if not really amazing! Find a full list of the books I read this month and more under the cut.

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March Wrap-Up // it’s the audiobooks for me

Happy Spring! For me, March meant Spring break, and April means I am almost done with the semester (our last day of class is April 29th!). I was traveling over Spring break, so I am actually kind of shocked at how much I managed to read this month. A lot of that was due to audiobooks; half of the books I read this month were audiobooks. I had a very stressful couple weeks after break, so I started comfort re-listening to the Emily Henry cycle.

But I also read 8 new books this month, including a new five star! I read Math in Drag by Kyne Santos (@onlinekyne) and absolutely loved it! If you haven’t seen her TikToks you should totally check them out. I also really loved Just as You Are by Camille Kellogg, I Hope This Doesn’t Find You by Ann Liang, and Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk.

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February Wrap-Up // I love libraries

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a lovely February. I, for one, really feel like I got back into the groove of reading this month. I read a whopping total of 14 books! And not only do I feel like I managed to knock a lot of books off my tbr, I also read some really great books. I was totally blown away by Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire, which has been on my tbr for a while but which I picked up on a whim because it was an available audiobook on Libby I actually wanted to read. The same goes for Nimona, which I heard about when it first came out, but had never really looked in to. I simply got it because it was a graphic novel available at the library. But I absolutely loved it, and immediately watched the Netflix movie as well.

I also read like, four nonfiction books this month! I probably usually read one nonfiction book a month, sometimes two, but four might be a new record for me. Poverty, by America, x + y: A Mathematician’s Manifesto for Rethinking Gender, and Moby Dyke were all great. One thing I neglected this month though was my physical tbr. I only read one physical book that I own. This is because I was checking a lot of books out from the library, but I definitely want to rectify that next month, and read at least two books from my physical collection. For more about books and this month, hit that read more button.

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January Wrap-Up // a solid reading start

Ah, January, what feels like the longest month of the year. If you have been around before, thank you for sticking with me into 2024! And if you are new here, welcome! I hope to see more of you this year. I feel like so much has happened to me this January. In previous years, I had nearly three weeks of January off for winter break, which meant I got a lot of reading done. Like twenty books a lot. This year, I only had about three days off in January, so I didn’t get quite that much reading done, but I definitely feel I am back into my normal pace, as I read ten books this month (and none of them were even graphic novels).

I feel especially accomplished because I read three books from my physical tbr this month: Becoming by Michelle Obama, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon, and Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen. But my favorites were None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney (which I listened to on audio) and Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland. For my full list of reads this month and more, check out the content under the cut. You may notice my ratings look a little lower than normal, averaging closer to 3 than 4 stars. I am just trying to re-configure the rankings in my head. Star ratings are silly and fail to capture a lot of information, rest assured that 3 stars means I enjoyed a book!

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November Wrap-Up

Happy December! I am so happy there is just one month left in the year (and more importantly, my semester is nearly over as well). And I officially hit my reading goal for the year this month! So it really is almost time for the year to be wrapped up. I am excited for 2024, especially the many amazing new releases.

My reading has definitely been down in recent months, so I am really happy that I got back into the swing of things this month! I read 8 books total, and I really loved many of them. I finished two ARCs and both were amazing, Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo and Gwen and Art are Not in Love by Lex Croucher. Be on the lookout for reviews of both of those soon. I also read the new Percy Jackson book, which was fun, and How to Find a Missing Girl, a YA mystery that has been on my tbr since long before it came out. Read below for my full list of reads and ratings, and the other things I have been up to this month.

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October Wrap Up// tbr? I don’t know her

Happy Halloween! I hope that no matter how you are celebrating the holiday you are enjoying yourself. Personally, I will be going to weekly trivia tonight. What I said in the title seriously stands; I did not read a single book on my tbr this month (not counting the one book I wrote down because I was already reading it and knew I would finish). All the books I intended to read for October because they were spooky or because they are arcs I need to read (or should have already read) are either still in progress or untouched.

That doesn’t mean I got no books read, although I certainly read less than usual. I finished a total of five books this month, two of them graphic novels and two of them audiobooks. Wow, now that I am reading that, it is wild to think that I only read one normal book this month. However, I did love the graphic novels I read, Check Please! Book Two and The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Thankfully, heading into November I think I am finally getting out of my reading slump. Now it’s just about finding the time to read!

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September Wrap Up

Happy Fall! The weather where I am at is still pretty warm, but I am so excited for all things Fall. This month has been quite rough; grad school is just as much work as everyone says it is. I have definitely been finding it difficult to actually set aside time to read, or just to sit down and read at the end of the day. So I am a bit surprised with just how much I read this month! It was certainly not my best reading month, but it wasn’t my worst either. I was definitely aided by audiobooks and graphic novels.

I read six books total this month; two audiobooks, two graphic novels, and two regular books. I had a pretty good distribution across genres too, but I think my favorite that I read this month was Check Please: Volume One, which I finally picked up after years of hearing about it. I also read Ninth House, which is of course huge on the book social medias, but I was still surprised how much I liked it. Honestly, everything I read this month was pretty good, which is definitely nice. Even if the quantity wasn’t great, the quality was.

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August Wrap Up // audiobook august

You may have noticed (or not, I don’t expect your life to revolve around this blog) that I literally have not posted anything since my July wrap up. This is mostly because in the last month I moved across the country and started graduate school! Not only have I not had time for blogging, but I haven’t had much time for reading either. I only read six books this month, which I realize isn’t atrocious, but it is lower than my average. And just to emphasize how little time I had to read, four of those were audiobooks.

However, I lots of those audiobooks were good! I re-read A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green on audio, and found a new favorite in Julia Whelan’s Thank You for Listening. I also got out of a reading slump at the end of the month reading The Dos and Donuts of Love by Adiba Jaigirdar. Since I haven’t been blogging, this will be an abbreviated monthly wrap-up, but you can still check the rest of it out under the cut!

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July Wrap Up // bad arcs but good backlist reads

Happy August everyone! As a kid, August meant there was still a full month left before school, but now it means my summer is coming to an end. I am moving across the country to start graduate school in literally two days, so I will be very busy! On the one hand, I won’t have a lot of time to sit down and read. On the other hand, I will certainly go through multiple audiobooks while unpacking.

But that is the next month. My July was excellent! I had a lot of great vacation time, and that meant I also got lots of reading time! I read thirteen books total. Not only that, but I actually did pretty good at sticking to my tbr. I read four of the six books for my beating the backlist challenge, and two ARCs. Unfortunately, I didn’t love the ARCs that I read, but I did re-read An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, which was a delight. There were plenty of other books I read and enjoyed, including This Will be Funny Someday, I Have Some Questions for You, and Emergency Contact. Take a look under the cut for the full list of what I read this month!

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