Tag: The Ghosts We Keep

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles!

As you can see above, the melting emoji represents my slow melting, a la the Wicked Witch of the West, because July in Colorado always threatens to melt me into a slushy puddle. At least we got some rain. (And hail, one time? got enough that it looked like snow in certain parts of the yard…)

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

Hot as it was, I’d say that July was another good month of summer. I’ve had tons more time to read and relax, and even though college is always on my mind nowadays, the time off has been good to collect my thoughts. I’ve gone hiking a few times, seen some fun movies, and tried to exercise a little more.

I got to read tons this month, and although it was generally a mixed bag (a lot more books in the 3-star range than usual), I still found some gems in the mix. For Disability Pride Month, I tried to focus on books with disabled characters, and I’ve found some reads with great disability rep—including the first book I’ve ever read with SPD rep! (Thanks, Carolyn Mackler!!) Camp NanoWriMo is nearly over—it’s had its ups and downs (couldn’t find the stats page for a while and fell behind on my word count, hit command v instead of command b and accidentally pasted the whole Pinnochio trailer into my document), but I’m so close to 45,000 words now!!

Other than that, I’ve just been playing my guitar, recovering from the last two episodes of Stranger Things (OW), seeing Thor: Love and Thunder (pure Taika Waititi fun), drawing, and listening to an excess of Peter Gabriel.

Also, I figured I’d give everybody an update on Ringo, since I haven’t posted about him much since we got him; he’s 7 months old now and even more of a menace to society, but he has the sweetest face…

READING AND BLOGGING:

I read 25 books this month! This is probably gonna be the most books I’ll be able to read in a month, since it’s the middle of summer. It was a mixed bag, as always, but I found a few amazing 5-star reads in the bunch.

1 – 1.75 stars:

• Among Thieves (Thieves, #1) – M.J. Kuhn (⭐️.5)

2 – 2.75 stars:

• Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #2) – Tamsyn Muir (DNF – ⭐️⭐️)
• The Blood Trials (The Blood Gift Duology, #1) – N.E. Davenport (⭐️⭐️)
• The Circus Infinite – Khan Wong (⭐️⭐️.5)
• The Space Between Worlds – Micaiah Johnson (⭐️⭐️.5)
• Fortune Favors the Dead (Pentecost and Parker, #1) – Stephen Spotswood (⭐️⭐️.5)

3 – 3.75 stars:

• Bluebird – Ciel Pierlot (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Follow Your Arrow – Jessica Verdi (⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Ghosts We Keep – Mason Deaver (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• On the Edge of Gone – Corinne Duyvis (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• The Final Strife – Saara El-Arifi (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• Two Girls Staring at the Ceiling – Lucy Frank (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1) – Shelley Parker-Chan (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• Ophelia After All – Racquel Marie (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• The Sisters of Reckoning (The Good Luck Girls, #2) – Charlotte Nicole Davis (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• Meet Me in Outer Space – Melinda Grace (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)
• Mean Little Deaf Queer: A Memoir – Terry Galloway (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)
• Breathe and Count Back from Ten – Natalia Sylvester (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)

4 – 4.75 stars:

• The King and the Corpse – Heinrich Robert Zimmer, edited by Joseph Campbell (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Man o’ War – Cory McCarthy (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Kingdom of Back – Marie Lu (re-read) (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• Not If I Can Help It – Carolyn Mackler (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

5 stars:

• Alone in Space: A Collection – Tillie Walden (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Reckless Kind – Carly Heath (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects (20th Anniversary Edition) – Mike Mignola (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH: The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects – 5 stars

POSTS I’M PROUD OF :

• July is Disability Pride Month, and I made a post with YA disability recs & talked about my experience with SPD and why representation matters!
• I had tons of fun reviewing Among Thieves, The Reckless Kind, Not If I Can Help It, and Follow Your Arrow!
• I also made a list of YA recs for Nonbinary Awareness Week!
• I reviewed Soccer Mommy’s fantastic new album Sometimes, Forever!
• I made a list of my top 10 favorite albums!

POSTS FROM OTHER WONDERFUL PEOPLE THAT I ENJOYED:

• I wish I could put this one in flashing neon letters or skywriting or something, because my awesome brother has a blog too!!! he writes tons of short stories, poetry, and music/movie reviews, so go follow him!!!
• Maddie made a great list of 85+ (!!!) books with disability rep for disability pride month!
• Hundreds & Thousands of Books hit 500 followers!! Congratulations!!
• Ahaana @ Windows to Worlds shares her goals for the summer (and some SUPER CUTE pictures of her puppies)

SONGS/ALBUMS THAT I ENJOYED:

DID I FOLLOW THROUGH ON MY JULY GOALS?

• Read at least 20 books: 25!
• Get through Camp NaNoWriMo: We’ll see about that later tonight…

GOALS FOR AUGUST:

• Get through the first few weeks of college (AAAAAA)
• Enjoy my birthday (which also happens to be on the first day of classes…yeehaw😀)

Today’s song:

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