June Wrap Up

I know that I’ve read a few monthly wrap ups which talk about how we can’t believe it’s already halfway through the year. At the risk of sounding like a repetitive record, WHAT?! I really am astonished. It feels like no time at all it was the beginning of the year and I was planning my life. So what has been going on this month here? (Don’t forget to enter my July book of Choice Giveaway!)

Books Reviewed

This month seemed to be busy on the blog. People were asking me via email if they could send me their books, and I basically just responded, my only free time is in August. And it’s true! In an attempt to have better balance, I’ve been trying to cut down. But still, this month felt like a whirlwind. So here’s the list of books I reviewed, organized by type of book.

Fantasy: Tyrants Throne, Akata Witch, Every Heart a Doorway, Starlit Wood, Mapping the Interior, Of Fire and Stars, Horizon, Cold-Forged Flame, Lightning in the Blood, Lost Boy, Infinity

Science Fiction: Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom, More of Me, Autonomous Excerpt, Infomocracy, Ensnared, The Flight of the Silvers

Contemporary: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, This Impossible Light, If I Was Your Girl, Some Kind of Happiness, A List of Cages, The Paths We Choose, Girl on the Verge, Under Rose-Tainted Skies

Historical Fiction: Dragon Springs Road

Poetry: The Hour Wasp, Heaven or This/Monsoon Dream

TOTAL: 28 Reviews the majority of them being Fantasy!

Books Read

This month I completed my Goodreads goal of the year, 100 books. But I read quite a few books this month that were ARCs and haven’t released for a while. You can see from the screenshot alone!

But I’d like to give you a little snapshot even closer. Consider this a preview of the reviews you will see on my blog in the future! Who’s up for it?

Some notable mentions of the first half of June go to: Song of the Orphans. I read the sequel and loved it more than the first. So there’s a spot of good news for you if you read it and wanted to read the sequel. I actually have a review coming out tomorrow for this!

Another exciting thing from this snapshot is my reading of Sovereign in which I hope to do a giveaway of a few copies, so keep an eye out for that! I liked it a whole lot more than the first because it deals with a lot more ideological morally gray spots than the first. It’s more about Danny as well.

And the last exciting thing from my first half of June is when I read the Haus der Kunst. I was asked by a website locally in Munich to do some book reviews and they gave me that book. It is a historical nonfiction book about the history of that museum in Munich and I LOVED writing that review actually. So that gave me a taste of what life as a book reviewer as a job could be? Anyway, I’ll of course let you know when it goes live. If you want more up to date news follow me on Twitter.

These are the books I read in the second half of June. There’s so many lovely mentions here. As you might be able to tell it’s mostly advance read copies. I needed to go on a Netgalley streak and read my copies. Now my approval rating is 95% so that’s a good thing right? I want them to approve me for Warcross, so that’s why I needed to increase my rating. Wish me luck!

Anyway, let’s give some mentions out. I absolutely LOVED the Epic Crush of Genie Lo. It doesn’t come out for a while, but when it does, you need to get your hands on a copy. It’s so perfect. In that similar vein, I loved The Tiger’s Daughter because of its characters and the friendship between them. For that reason alone it is precious to me. I finished that actually last week while waiting in the doctor’s office.

I was lent two gorgeous books The Abyss Surrounds Us and When Lambs Become Lions and really enjoyed both. There will be reviews coming to you as of this week. Did you know you could lend people books via your Kindle Library? If you want to borrow any of mine, see this Tweet to see which are available. And my last mention is the Alchemists of Loom which I ADORED. I am so happy to be participating in the Blog Tour for that later this month. Also if you’ve read the first and forgot there was a second, please go pre-order it and register to get some swag! There’s some great bookmarks and trading cards that look gorgeous.

Favorite of June

This is beyond normal difficulty level because I read so many great books. Of course, I am going to only pick the ones that are out. If not, that’d be super sneaky! So without ado, and this actually took me about four hours to decide.

Under Rose-Tainted Skies. This was such a great feel good read and really stood out for me in the Contemporary bunch. I feel like I always pick fantasy books, but I wanted to change it up a little. Thanks to the lovely Laura for recommending me this book.

Discussion Posts

Just like the last months, I’ve been trying to have one discussion or special post per week. What did we have this month then?

My Interview with Tiffany McDaniel, Author of The Summer That Melted Everything

Honeymoon Bookstore Haul, Blog Update, Book Drop Subscription Box Review, Confessions of a Book Blog-aholic, Would I Write a Book, What is a Beach Read?, Why Do I read YA Fiction,

My special Top Ten Tuesday Posts: Recent SF Additions to my TBR, Book Recommendations from Dad,

Challenges

I have been doing the Summer Bingo Challenge and done quite a bit on that. Here is my most up to date Bingo board. Although I need to update it a bunch. In the July Wrap up, even more will be done I hope!

As I said last month I finished my Discussion Challenge and have only been working more on that, as you can see above. I love writing the discussion posts, in fact today I have to write two more. They can be really hard to write, but they are so rewarding.

For the Netgalley/Edelweiss challenge I read so many this month: 10. And I didn’t even count the ones I read for First to Read. Because it doesn’t say so in the title and I don’t want to cheat.

The Diversity challenge for last month and July is sexuality diversity. I reviewed Artistotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and actually read so many this month, in terms of arcs.

Books I Bought

This is a snapshot of my haul for the month of June. These are all the books I got through advance reads, honeymoon books, and subscription boxes.

 

Personal Life

This month I also got a freelance gig. It’s really exciting and just sort of getting off the ground, but it’s fantastic so far. I made a Litsy account, so if you are there, follow me@utopia.state.of.mind. I wanted to keep it consistent with my Instagram. I really love it so far, it really prioritizes reading and photos. It’s not like Instagram where I post many photos of things I haven’t even read…my fault of course. Speaking of Instagram, do you want to see some of the Top Posts? Look around!

ALSO DO NOT FORGET ABOUT THE JULY BOOK OF CHOICE GIVEAWAY

Discussion

What did you read this month? Anything new happen in your life?

Subscribe for all the fun things next month

Share this post