Jul 1, 2025
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✨ JUNE WRAPUP ✨
QOTD: What was your favourite read of June?
Mine snuck in right at the end! Human Rites by Juno Dawson blew everything else out of the park.
Books finished: 32
DNF’s: 7
Pages read: 8,944
Hours listened: 61.2
Carried over: Cursebreakers by Madeleine Nakamura (14% read in June)
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My June was literally just sleeping and reading. After Dokomi on the first weekend I was soo exhausted. I had to catch up on all the hours of sleep I missed in April and May ... And just when I thought I'll return to the land of the living the printhouse finally reacted to my complaint about the quality of my books, and hell, it's been years since I've been that angry! 8D Stillll dealing with that shit. So yeah, first half: physically exhausted. Second half: mentally exhausted. Great!
I did not expect to find a common theme among the books this month but surprisingly there is one: "Leave the past behind and start something new". I mean, maybe that's almost every book ever buuut ... Here's what I read:
The good ones: So this is Ever After (F.T. Lukens): Much needed fantasy and lots of fun and warmth and cuteness! I hope F.T. Lukens stays in the fantasy lane. I need more of this! I hope you get this message (Farah Naz Rishi): Finally the real end of the world, not just a metaphorical one. And honestly? People are scary! But I loved how it all came together in the end. All the struggling gets rewarded. The Friend Scheme (Cale Dietrich): I feel, this one took the easy way out on several (possible) confrontations but it was still a nice read. A different setting than usual for sure. Heartbreak Boys (Simon James Green): Perfect summer read. More cute fun. (And for once, the German cover is so much better than the original, which is horrendous, sorry 8D) Kiss & Tell (Adib Khorram): Has some important things to say and is still entertaining! The bad thing is that now I kinda want to listen to their music. Someone give me an animated music video pretty please.
Suprisingly Good: Where we left off (Roan Parrish): Borrowed this from the library for the train ride. Judging by the cover of the first volume I did not expect anything. But I liked it the moment Will explained how he glared at babies just to annoy their mothers. 8D I think this is the first book I read up to now that is solely focussed on the characters’ interactions and growth. As in nothing else happens at all. It’s interesting how it works.
Hmmm: Paper & Blood (Kevin Hearne): I enjoyed the first volume but getting through vol2 was a little bit harder. In vol1 there was a cameo of a character of the author's earlier series and I thought that was cool. But in this one that guy came as an additional cast member and while he was likable it still kind of annoyed me, because it made me feel like I missed out on so much stuff as I have not read his series ... I hope vol3 will finally be about Al's curses. That will be more fun again probably. If you change your mind (Robby Weber): Uhm, the drama of privileged white kids? It was sort of entertaining but the characters did annoy me on multiple occassions. Like when the ex wanted his date. He knew the scriptwriting was important for the protagonist and that there was only a little time left but he still insisted the date had to be now. Why not just wait a week?! ML as well though. Tell him off, boy! Show some spine! D: Also worst names ever. Harry and Haley? I couldn’t help wondering how similar these names would be in Japanese. “8D
On another note, I gifted “The Seven Husband of Evelyn Hugo” to my mother for her birthday and she seems to like it, while my sister found my copy of “Heartbreak Boys” lying around, read the blurb and totally dismissed it. Rude! Also “Aru Shah” is finally being published in German which is great because everyone everywhere should read it, but wtf is with that cover? Is it the lighting or is that girl’s hand white ....?!
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june wrap up || Best Reading Month Ever?? —June Wrap Up || 20 books!
Can’t believe we’re more than mid-way through the year! Also can’t believe I read so many books this month. All the graphic novels and novellas definitely helped with my count, but apart from those seen above, I also read:
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (I finally finished it!)
Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
Wolfsong by T.J. Klune
One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London
A Hymn in the Silence by Kelley York and Rowan Altwood
Ravensong by T.J. Klune
A Calm Before the Storm by Kelley York and Rowan Altwood
The Wicker King by K. Ancrum
How was your reading month?
June 2020 reading wrap-up
The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab A reissue of an older book by V.E. Schwab and as such, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would the quality of the writing be as good as her more recent books, or would it be clear that she had still been honing her craft during the writing of this? I shouldn’t have worried, because this book is excellent. It reminded me a little bit of Shea Ernshaw’s Winterwood, which I’d read only a few weeks earlier, and also very faintly of another book that I can’t put my finger on right now (will edit if I remember!). This is a standalone that felt like a quick little dip into another world with slightly more magic than ours. Goodreads rating: 4/5 stars
The Horologicon by Mark Forsyth I read Forsyth’s Etymologicon in November of last year and really enjoyed it, so I decided to pick up this one for a quick June read. While The Horologicon is a very similar book and I did enjoy it, it tickled me less than its companion. I would still recommend it as a fun read for anyone interested in language, etymology and/or philology, but maybe just as a book to pick up every now and then and read a few entries in (which, to be fair, is how the author recommends you consume the book as well). Goodreads rating: 3/5 stars
Hallo witte mensen by Anousha Nzume In light of the marches, protests and riots spurred by the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, I’m definitely not the only one turning to books to educate myself. But while social media mostly showed the situation in the US, I felt a great need to focus on my own country as well. The Netherlands does not exactly have clean hands when it comes to racially motivated inequality, but it has become easy to overlook injustices here because they look so different from those in America. This book is an extremely accessible initiation into some aspects of the current situation regarding racism, discrimination and prejudices, aimed specifically at white people. While I didn’t necessarily gain a lot of new information from this book, it’s always good to open your mind to more perspectives and this is a great introduction. Goodreads rating: 4/5 stars
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge The upsurge in BLM visibility lead to the publisher running out of printed copies of this title and we literally could not keep it on the shelves in the bookshop. In a way that’s a good thing, of course, but it also shows how dire the situation is (and how few copies the publishers apparently keep on hand compared to some other titles?). This book is a great resource for anyone who is looking to learn more about the (historical and present-day) situation regarding systemic racism in the UK, which is another perspective that I didn’t know much about. Eddo-Lodge writes in a wonderfully clear, articulate way that is at the same time filled with real-life examples. Goodreads rating: 4/5 stars
booksforthoughts BPC | June 2019 | 30. June Wrap Up
I was suuuuper busy in June and my wrapup really reflects that. It was an interesting month, with mostly good reads and some really good ones. I wish I had gotten to more pride books, but I’ll just make up for it the rest of the year.
favorites of the month: Things a bright girl can do by Sally Nicholls, Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik, Persuasion by Jane Austen and All Out by various authors [edited by Saundra Mirchell]
least favorite book of the month: The collection of Eliot poems was really disappointing, because it was mostly essays and not what I wanted
nonfiction reads: 2 (goal: 1) Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik and Common Sense by Thomas Paine
classics: 1 (goal: 1) - Persuasion by Jane Austen
poetry: poetry by T.S. Eliot
june 2016
I had surgery at the beginning of June. Before this procedure, I’d never broken a bone, never had to stay in the hospital, never even had stitches - so, when faced with bedrest, pain and exhaustion, I turned to all the television, books and movies I could get my hands on to distract myself. I’m not sure it worked, but it was definitely a good way to spend my month.
- The Television -
The immediate aftermath of my surgery - aka. the weeks that I wasn’t allowed to move other than to get food - was spent watching a great deal of teen drama programs. I watched the first three seasons of Gossip Girl and continued my marathoning of The OC (season 1 and 2) with my sister.
This month, my family finally got a Netflix account. We’re about 238574 years behind the ball, but because we (again, finally) acquired an account, my family and I were able to watch all of Grace & Frankie over the span of a week. My dad has an awful (and extremely picky) taste in television that mostly consists of Big Bang Theory reruns, Dateline and tennis tournaments but Grace & Frankie was a home run. It was nothing short of a miracle. I continued to take advantage of the Netflix account and made my way through the first seasons of Charmed and Full House. Both take place in San Francisco, a decade apart, and both involve a family with three sisters. Who knows? In another life, DJ, Stephanie and Michelle could have been the Charmed Ones.
- The Books -
Now that I’ve moved back home, I’m five minutes away from my childhood library and I have been taking full advantage of it. I borrowed both Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson and Dolphins At Daybreak by Mary Pope Osborne from the library. The former is a fairly predictable YA novel that was pleasant, if a bit dull and the latter was a welcome return to the Magic Treehouse series, one of my favourites from when I was young. (Another Nostalgia Project text!). Next, I tackled the latest Morgan Matson novel, The Unexpected Everything. Where ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ was dull, ‘The Unexpected Everything’ was heartwarming and had well-rounded, wonderful characters. I followed that with Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, which is profoundly disturbing but thoroughly enjoyable.
Finally, I finished The Circle by Dave Eggers after nearly six months of reading it in fits and spurts. I really wanted to like this book - the premise sounded incredibly interesting - but, I ended up really hating it. (And I don’t use that word lightly). I found it to be incredibly pretentious, self-important, and very “Old Man Yells At Cloud” regarding Internet culture and social media, not to mention how infuriatingly naive the protagonist is. Nearly 3/4 of the novel is spent introducing us to the Circle, and is so dense with numbers, stats, and the monotonous tasks that Mae is responsible for. I’m glad I pushed through to the end, where I was (semi) rewarded with a plot twist that I genuinely did not see coming and a dark final chapter, but even that wasn’t enough to redeem it.
- The Movies -
Being temporarily bed-bound with access to Netflix and the Internet has its perks. Over the course of two weeks, I watched Zootopia, The Lizzie McGuire Movie, Anastasia, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper, Finding Dory, Spy, and The Martian. While the majority of those were re-watches, it was great to revisit some old favourites and experience some new ones (especially ‘The Martian’!).
- Miscellaneous -
Since moving back home & having my surgery, I’ve discovered that I listen to 95% less podcasts. Living at home means no commuting or walking around campus and the surgery means no exercising, which means I have to consciously make time to listen to podcasts. But this month, I made time to catch up on ‘This American Life’, and the episode from June 19th - Tell Me I’m Fat - blew me away. In the episode, Lindy West and Roxane Gay speak about social media, body image, weight and health. It’s a wonderful instalment of a fantastic podcast.
I hope you all had a good month, and as always, happy reading, watching & listening!
JUNE WRAP-UP | 2015