July-August 2021 wrap up

Hello bookworms!! It’s time for the July-August 2021 wrap up. Because we are finally catching up on things!! YAAAAAAY!! (Oh, I seriously hope that sentence doesn’t come back to jinx me…)

Unfortunately I actually spoiled August’s big news in the May-June wrap up when I told you that I got a new job… Which is unfortunate since I also stopped recording all the things that I was watching and listening to. So, this could be a very short post. But then again, I did catch up on blog-hopping too!!

So, please keep your fingers crossed that I will continue to achieve a regular posting schedule for the rest of the year. And with that in mind, let’s look at what I did in July-August!!

July-August 2021 wrap up

Unfortunately for my reading goal, the dive I took in June (yes, the grand total of 2 books) continued in both, July and August. Which, after being 11 books ahead of schedule in May now puts me seriously behind. I think I was about 9 books behind schedule at the end of August. You know, which is only mildly terrifying. It’s funny, because out loud I’m always like “It’s ok if I don’t read my goal this year. 2021 has been tough.” But then in my head I’m like “Whyyyyyyyyyyy am I so behind?! How can I let this be the year I don’t read 100 books?!” So you know, there’s no pressure or anything. 😓

What I do need to keep reminding myself is that last year I only read 1 book over 500 pages. And this year I’ve already read 12 over that page count, including one book at 751 pages, and one at 862. But, I’m hoping this will all come out in the comparison tables.

Anyway, to get back on topic, I read 4 books in July, and 3 books in August.

the books

Book	Author	Series	Symbols / Year of publication	Rating	Cover
Tomboy	Avery Flynn	The Hartigans #3	⛱ ❤️ 🍆 🐞 🌑 🏈 👩‍🦳 📱 2019	⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Cruel Prince	Ashley Jade	Royal Hearts Academy #1	⛱ ❤️ 🎓 🍆 🧠 🌑 👩‍🦳 📱 2019	⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Ruthless Knight	Ashley Jade	Royal Hearts Academy #2	⛱ ❤️ 🎓 🍆 🧠 🐞 🌑 👩‍🦳 📱 2019	⭐️ ⭐️
Crooked Kingdom	Leigh Bardugo	Six of Crows #2	⚔️ ❤️ 🏳️‍🌈 🧠 ♿️ 🌑 🧘‍♀️ 🗒 🌀 2016	🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
Any Way the Wind Blows	Rainbow Rowell	Simon Snow #3	⚔️ ❤️ 🍄 🏳️‍🌈 🧠 🧘‍♀️ 📔 🖋 🪆 2021	⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Misadventures with a Professor	Sierra Simone		❤️ 🍆 👩‍🦳 📱 2018	⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Emerett Has Never Been in Love	Anyta Sunday	Love, Austen #1	❤️ 🍆 🏳️‍🌈 👩‍🦳 📱 2021	⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

the faves

Uhhh… it was a pretty ‘light on’ two months, and apart from my reread of Crooked Kingdom (which almost broke me, again), there weren’t really any stand-outs. Of course it was nice to finish the Simon Snow trilogy, and I really liked where Rainbow Rowell took it. But yeah, everything else was just… good.

Uhhh… well. We went back into lockdown (and are still in it), so… not really much happened at all. I feel like it’s just been a lot of staring at walls and watching trash tv. Apart from the new job thing, which happened in August. The new job also meant saying goodbye to my old job. I’d been at my previous workplace for 8 years (and 1 day), which is the longest I have ever worked anywhere. I’d had a few promotions over time, but the last 5 years were split pretty evenly across 2 areas. I was very sad to go — it’s always the people you get attached to — and I don’t know that I really got to say goodbye properly because we were in lockdown at the time. But yeah, it was a bittersweet time.

My new job is definitely a different pace though, which means no working until 8pm. Which means, hopefully, more time to catch up on blogging and reading (which I desperately need to do)!!

gaming

The Sims 4 Cottage Living came out in July, and that is all that I have played since. I’ve been having a lot of fun creating the recipes that turn animals different colours, and then having a pink llama walk around my homestead. Plus the new challenge of not being able to buy food, but only to make recipes from what is in my fridge, has been really good. I highly recommend this new expansion!!

We also started a new D&D campaign… which means I have 3 characters on the go at the moment. I have to say, it is getting harder to remember their unique voices and traits. But, I’m still having fun!!

tv and movies

So, I have a small group of friends that I chat to every day. We’ve all been in and out of lockdown over various stages this year. And not everyone (except for me — and possibly Em) had seen all of the MCU. So, we started watching it together on Disney+ group watch (link if you don’t know what this is or how to use it). Which was really fun. Except when Disney didn’t have the movie, because of reasons. (Also, I believe in including the Edward Norton Hulk film, so that was added complexity.) So, there’s a lot of Marvel below — all of it rewatches for me. Which, counteracts the amount of P&P you normally see!!

• Iron Man
• The Incredible Hulk
• Iron Man 2
• Thor
• Captain America: The First Avenger
• The Avengers
• Iron Man 3
• Thor: The Dark World
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Guardians of the Galaxy vol 1
• Avengers: Age of Ultron
• Ant-Man
• Captain America: Civil War
• Doctor Strange
• Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2
• Spider-Man: Homecoming
• Thor: Ragnarok
• Black Panther
• Avengers: Infinity War
• Ant-Man and the Wasp
• Captain Marvel
• Avengers: Endgame
• Spider-Man: Far From Home
• WandaVision

We watched more in September, which you’ll see in the next wrap up, but this was pretty good since we watched most of it in a month.

Other things I watched:

• The Kissing Booth (rewatch)
• The Kissing Booth 2 (rewatch)
• and, The Kissing Booth 3 — Yes, I may have watched these in a marathon
• The White Queen miniseries eps 1-4
• The Matrix (rewatch)
• The Matrix Reloaded (rewatch)
• and, The Matrix Revolutions (rewatch) — We also watched these in a marathon
• What If…? episodes 1-3

So… I know this is two month’s worth of watching. But, it’s also now very obvious how I only read 7 books during this time. 😅

Top 5 Tuesday for July was all about hyped books!! Topics were top 5 hyped books:

• I love
• on my TBR
• I’m not interested in
• I didn’t like

That was pretty much all I posted in July…

August’s Top 5 Tuesday topics were like a cover love scavenger hunt. I had SO MUCH fun with these, that I think I want to make this a regular thing. Topics for August were, top 5 books with:

• food on the cover
• creatures on the cover
• plants on the cover
• buildings or vehicles on the cover
• people on the cover

And again, that was pretty much all I posted in August. I have to say, if I wasn’t hosting Top 5 Tuesday then I probably would have gone on hiatus the last little while. But once you’re on that kind of hiatus, I find it hard to get back into the swing of things. So, I’m really glad that I had this tethering me to the blogging world.

So, I did start to catch up on blog-hopping in August. The below list isn’t super long, but it is a start of all the posts I was catching up on.

Recommendation lists:

• Kaya @ A Fictional Bookworm wrote a list of the best books she’s read every summer for the last 4 years
• Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books gave us 10 YA books with an enemies to lovers romance
• Kal @ Reader Voracious gave us 6 scifi beach reads
• Ash @ Ash’s Infinite Library listed 49 dark academia books
• Nyx @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books wrote about 10 YA back to school stories
• The Orangutan Librarian told us about awesome audiobooks
• Charvi @ Not Just Fiction listed 6 adorable graphic novels
• Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books listed 10 YA books about friendships

Discussion posts:

• Malka @ Paper Procrastinators talked about if blogger burnout is inevitable
• Jayati @ It’s Just a Coffee Addicted Bibliophile spoke about tropes she loves and why she loves them
• Chana @ Paper Procrastinators asked if we must read “must read” classics

Reviews:

• Noura @ The Perks of Being Noura reviewed Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend and I am here for this!!
• Paper Fury reviewed Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating and it was so cute!!

How were your last few months?