June Wrap Up

Illustration by Andrea De Santis

 I predicted last month that my life would be drastically changing if I ended up being made the official reading consultant at my school. Well, it was made official and my life has already started changing. June was a busy month in general - I finished out the school year, had my birthday, took a long road trip home to Florida for a week, drove all the way back, and interviewed (and was recommended for) my graduate school program. I am suddenly filling up my calendar with summer planning meetings and working a lot on curriculum. It's been a lot, and it feels a little intimidating already, but I think I'm finally on the path I'm meant to be on. It's going to be tough for the next few years as I learn how to do this job and make my way through grad school, but it will be worth it in the end.

Happily, even with everything going on, I ended up reading a lot. I kept up my 100+ pages of reading each day and finished a total of 15 books. That number is deceptive, because seven of those were novellas and two were graphic novels, but I still read quite a bit. I totaled 3,574 pages, which is about average for me this year. I liked everything I read too--it was a bit challenging to pick a favorite this time. Here's the complete list:

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips (3 stars)

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger (4 stars)

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (5 stars)

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (5 stars)

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire (5 stars)

In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire (5 stars)

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire (5 stars)

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire (5 stars)

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire (4 stars)

Violets Are Blue by Barbara Dee (4 stars)

The Aquanaut by Dan Santat (4 stars)

Too Bright To See by Kyle Lukoff (4 stars)

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher (4 stars)

Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel by Mariah Marsden and Breanna Thummler (4 stars)

The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu (5 stars)

My favorite read this month was The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy, which was a smart middle grades fantasy novel with a complex message. I also really enjoyed Every Heart a Doorway and A Wizard's Defensive Guide to Baking, which were also both very engaging fantasies. Troubled Girls ultimately won out because of its symbolic inclusion of real world issues.

My least favorite of the month was Disappearing Earth, which was not as cohesive or focused as I was expecting. It was still a beautifully written story, but I just didn't vibe with the narrative strategy and found a lot of it to be boring.

In other happy reading news, I completed my Finally in 2020 Challenge this month! I finished all seven series I set out to read. I'm going to continue the challenge by reading more series from my shelves and see how many I can get up to by the end of the year.

I did not haul any books this month. That's great for my overstuffed shelves, but I still wouldn't say I was good about purchases in general this month. Between my birthday, random purchases, and vacation shopping, I acquired an obscene amount of puzzles. 

Anyway, I did end up donating quite a few books. I chose to let go of Disappearing Earth, Elatsoe, Violets are Blue, The Aquanaut, Too Bright to See, A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, and Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic novel. A total of seven books left my shelves.

In July, I plan to continue working on my challenges, like usual. Here's my TBR:

The Test by Sylvain Neuvel

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Tales from the Inner City by Shaun Tan

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsal Faizal

We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal

Across the Desert by Dusti Bowling

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

My physical reading journal was, once again, a failure. I'm still writing down everything I read in it, but I haven't been in the mood to get artistic. Maybe now that it's summer and I will be feeling more relaxed I can give the fancier layouts another shot. I did get some letter stamps for my birthday, so that should help motivate me to experiment a little.

I worked on some other hobbies during the month too. The most notable thing I accomplished was FINALLY finishing the diamond painting I was working on. For some reason, I was never excited to make progress on this, but now that it's done, I love the way it looks.

I started another, smaller diamond painting with round diamonds, so hopefully that one won't take me as long to finish.

I also finished a handful of puzzles, starting with Strawberry Affair by Piecework Puzzles. This was one of my favorite puzzles to work on so far because I loved the image so much. It was so sweet and not too difficult.

I also completed this 500 piece Spiderman puzzle from Buffalo Games. I got it for $5 during a sale on their website and I really enjoyed the vivid colors.

I did also complete three more 500 piece puzzles, but they are part of a set and I haven't completed the fourth one yet. I'm waiting until they are all done to take some pictures, so I'll write about those in my July post.

During my road trip, I actually finished a knitting project too! I made a very simple infinity scarf. It's been a while since I knit something and it felt really good to get back to it. I've got to make more of an effort to work on these again. I still need to wash and block the scarf before I can take pictures, so I'll discuss it in my July post as well.

I didn't have quite as much time to play my ukulele as I'd like due to my vacation, but I did learn Your Song by Elton John and Right Here Waiting by Richard Marx. I also started playing around with Hotel California by the Eagles and You're So Vain by Carly Simon, but those are in their beginning stages still.

So, that about sums up my busy month of June. In July, I'm hoping to enjoy some rest and relaxation, but I do have a lot to do for school that I have to work on. I'm going to try my best to keep everything in balance though. Summer is supposed to be for fun, after all!