July 2023 Wrap-Up 🕶

Happy Monday, bibliophiles!

For once, it’s felt like this month has been…the right length? I often come to the end of any given month still internally mid-month, but it really does feel like it’s the end of July. Maybe I can chalk that up to either a) being nearly finished with my Camp NaNoWriMo goal (!!!) or b) the fact that I’m always looking forward to August, since it’s my birthday month, but either way, July is nearly out the window. Hopefully this awful heat will be out the window, too.

Let’s begin, shall we?

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

July has definitely been on the busier side for me; between working at the library and going for my Camp NaNoWriMo goal, there’s been a lot of writing, a lot of shelving, and a lot of straightening. But it’s all been good busy, as tired as my legs get after standing up for so long on a shift; working in a library has been such a welcoming environment, and I’ve been having tons of fun writing out the first draft of my sci-fi sequel. (I also got to put some books on my library’s unofficial Disability Pride Month display, so that is ALWAYS a plus.) And as of tonight, I’ll be finished with my goal of 50,000 WORDS! I know I technically haven’t done it yet (I’m only about 700 words away from finishing right now, so that’s no big deal), but I’m super proud of myself. I’ve been working towards 50,000 for around 4 and a half years, so it feels amazing to finally be this close.

Despite that, I’ve had a lot more time to read this month! It’s been a good batch of books, too; there were only two books this month that I didn’t really like, and all of the others were good to amazing. Most of what I read was for Disability Pride Month, and I found so many amazing books with great disability rep, which is always wonderful. And now that I’m back home and working at the library, it’s been great to be reading physical books more often. As convenient as my Kindle is, nothing beats the feel of a physical book.

Other than that, I’ve just been listening to the new Palehound (fantastic) and Blur (disappointing) albums, continuing to binge my way through Taskmaster (almost halfway through season 10 now, Johnny Vegas being incredibly flustered has no right to be as funny as it is), watching Barbie (sobbing) and Oppenheimer (never in a million years would I have thought that Robert Downey Jr. would be THAT creepy), and trying to get out of the heat whenever possible. (How is it that it got to almost 120 degrees in Arizona and people still don’t think that climate change is real 😭)

READING AND BLOGGING:

I read 18 books this month! I think this may have been the best (if not one of the best) reading months I’ve had this year, in terms of quantity. And it was a great batch as well—only two books that fell into the 2-star range, a 5-star read, and tons of great reads for Disability Pride Month!

2 – 2.75 stars:

• Venom & Vow – Anna-Marie McLemore and Elliott McLemore (⭐️⭐️)
• Far From You – Tess Sharpe (⭐️⭐️.75)

3 – 3.75 stars:

• David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music – Darryl W. Bullock (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Whispering Dark – Kelly Andrew (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Half a King (Shattered Sea, #1) – Joe Abercrombie (⭐️⭐️⭐️.25)
• The Immeasurable Depth of You – Maria Ingrande Mora (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• The Spare Man – Mary Robinette Kowal (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• The Mother Code – Carole Stivers (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• A Song of Salvation – Alechia Dow (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• We Are Satellites – Sarah Pinsker (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• Magonia (Magonia, #1) – Maria Dahvana Headley (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)

4 – 4.75 stars:

• The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. Le Guin (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Invisible: How Young Women with Serious Health Issues, Navigate Work, Relationships, and the Pressure to Seem Just Fine – Michele Lent Hirsch (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• To Shape a Dragon’s Breath – Moniquill Blackgoose (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Where You See Yourself – Claire Forrest (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century – edited by Alice Wong (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25)
• Some Desperate Glory – Emily Tesh (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

5 stars:

• So Lucky – Nicola Griffith (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH: So Lucky – 5 stars

POSTS I’M PROUD OF:

• I had fun reviewing Painted Devils, The Whispering Dark, So Lucky, and A Song of Salvation!
• Music rambling! Here are my Sunday Songs for 7/2, 7/9, 7/16, 7/23, and 7/30.
• Happy Disability Pride Month! I made another list of books with disability rep for the occasion.
• I reviewed Palehound’s great new album, Eye on the Bat!

POSTS BY OTHER WONDERFUL PEOPLE THAT I ENJOYED:

• Michaela @ Journey into Books made a great list of asexual books!
• Amanja @ Amanja Reads Too Much made a great list of books that will make you cry! (I can verify at least two or three on the list)
• Kate @ Feathered Turtle Press wrote a fantastic (and very vindicating) review of The Atlas Six!
• Ahaana @ Windows to Worlds recommended books based on her favorite movies!

SONGS/ALBUMS THAT I’VE BEEN ENJOYING:

Today’s song:

That’s it for this month in blogging! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!