wrap up
Bookish other,  Wrap-ups and TBRs

June ’20 wrap-up

Good evening bookworms!

Does anyone else feel like this year has simultaneously taken 30 seconds, and 8 years?! I am so tired, but also, where the hell did this year go? How are we already more than halfway through?

Thankfully I have a week of holidays coming up. I’m hoping that I can use some of that time to catch up on blogging and get slightly ahead by actually scheduling posts (as opposed to starting them 6.5 hours after my blogging plan says they should have been published… oops?! (and then posting 10 hours later… ?)

June is kind of a blur right now… I mean, my birthday (which was in the second half of the month) feels like it was months ago, and I’m always surprised when I look at my toenails and can still see how fresh my pedicure looks. (I had a spa day for my birthday present this year.)

A gif of a kitten lying down as though at a spa. It is wrapped in blankets and has cucumber slices over its eyes.

We’ve had a second wave of COVID outbreaks in Australia, so while some parts of the country are back in quarantine, I’m just staying at home forever because I don’t have an immune system…

The whole world is still in a state of flux, and I’ve been taking bigger breaks from social media. The blogging world is still a kind place, but I have recently thought that even Bookstagram is getting a bit hard sometime. The bullying is getting real. Once again, this is a link to heaps of information on the Black Lives Matter cause, including updated information for petitions to sign, places to donate, info for protests, as well as resources that you can read.

I’m also including a link for people who want to read more about LGBTQIA+ issues. The queer community is my community, and I love it, but being a good ally is something that everyone can do. And I’m not just saying a good ally for queer people, but a good ally for all human rights issues. The world is in such a hurtful place right now, and it makes me so sad. Anyway, ReachOut.org has lots of resources and information that is relevant to everyone, despite being an Aussie based site.

 

what i read

 

Book time!! I read a surprising amount in June… 10 full novels, and a bunch of novellas and a graphic novel too. 17 things in total to add to my read items. Which is huge for me. But also, basically everything I finished was a romance story… because sometimes we just need something happy in our lives.

Actually, I have thought about this a lot recently. Normally when I am trying to escape reality in books, I read a lot of fantasy… but recently, I haven’t been able to really deal with the conflict in fantasy books because of what is happening in the world, so I’ve kind of just been drowning myself in romances instead. I mean, I’m ok with this. But this is my reality at the moment.

SYMBOLS

 

Symbol
Key
Symbol
Key
Symbol
Key
⚔️ fantasy contemporary ? sci-fi
? historical fiction ❤️ romance ? crime / mystery
? thriller ? classic ? own voices
? BIPOC author ?️‍? queer rep ♿️ disability rep
?‍♀️ YA ? MG ?‍? Adult
? physical book ? ebook ? audiobook
? webcomic / graphic novel ?‍♀️ buddy read ? reread
? Beat the Backlist ARC / review copy ? Aussie author / #loveozya
? Of Wonderland

(June: LGBTQ books)

? YARC ? friend pick

Emoji table for reference

 

Book
Author
Series
Symbols
Rating
Cover
Filthy Gods R Scarlett American Gods #0.5 ❤️ ?‍? ? 4 Filthy Gods
Under Locke Mariana Zapata ❤️ ?‍? ? 4 Under Locke by Mariana Zapata
From Lukov With Love Mariana Zapata ❤️ ?‍? ? 4 From Lukov With Love
Leo Loves Aries Anyta Sunday Signs of Love #1 ❤️ ?️‍? ?‍? ? ? 4 Leo Loves Aries
Leo Tops Aries Anyta Sunday Signs of Love #1.5 ❤️ ?️‍? ?‍? ? ? 3
Scorpio Hates Virgo Anyta Sunday Signs of Love #2 ❤️ ?️‍? ?‍? ? ? 4 Scorpio Hates Virgo
Scorpio Loops Virgo Anyta Sunday Signs of Love #2.5 ❤️ ?️‍? ?‍? ? ? 3
Gemini Keeps Capricorn Anyta Sunday Signs of Love #3 ❤️ ?️‍? ?‍? ? ? 4 Signs of Love #3: Gemini Keeps Capricorn by Anyta Sunday
Gemini Rules Capricorn Anyta Sunday Signs of Love #3.5 ❤️ ?️‍? ?‍? ? ? 3
Pisces Hooks Taurus Anyta Sunday Signs of Love #4 ❤️ ?️‍? ?‍? ? ? 4 Pisces Hooks Taurus
Pisces Floors Taurus Anyta Sunday Signs of Love #4.5 ❤️ ?️‍? ?‍? ? ? 3
Cancer Ships Aquarius Anyta Sunday Signs of Love #5 ❤️ ?️‍? ?‍? ? ? 4 Cancer Ships Aquarius
The Tea Dragon Tapestry Katie O’Neill The Tea Dragon Society #3 ⚔️ ?️‍? ♿️ ? ? ? ⏰ ? 3 The Tea Dragon Tapestry
Blindsided Amy Daws ❤️ ?‍? ? 3 Blindsided
Fix Her Up Tessa Bailey Hot and Hammered #1 ❤️ ?‍? ? 4 Hot and Hammered #1: Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey
Suck Nikki Belaire A Naughty Novella #1 ❤️ ?‍? ? 2 Suck by Nikki Belaire
Hawk James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet Hawk #1 ? ?‍♀️ ? ⏰ 4 Hawk by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet

 

Honestly, I don’t even think I had a favourite book in June. There was lots of books that I enjoyed, but none that were really ‘stand out’ faves, and no 5 star reads (which is a little sad).

 

what i did

 

General

I worked all June. *surprise*

I mentioned above it was my birthday, and husband organised a spa day for me as a present. It included a massage, facial, and mani / pedi. Plus they gave me cake on the day at the spa. TWO FLAVOURS! (Blueberry cheesecake and tiramisu.) It was so good. That was definitely the highlight!

 

Gaming

The Sims 4 got a new expansion and I have played the SH!T out of it. Yep, while I loved the Tiny Houses pack, The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle has been so much fun, and I have sunk another 40 odd hours into the game in June. I know that’s not a huge amount, but I’m still working full time and I also read 10 full books and a bunch of novellas this month. And I didn’t get it until 9 June either… ?

Anyway, it’s been super fun and you can do all these things to change the eco footprint of where you are living. Recycling and updating your appliances and plumbing to be water or power saving is so good. You can also go dumpster diving which is something I’ve never seen before, and there’s new careers (town planner and new engineering) and all the other good stuff that The Sims does so well. The boys are encouraging me to start streaming my Sims life, but I’m not convinced yet…

 

Dungeons & Dragons

I took almost A FULL MONTH OFF D&D. It was really weird. I played one game in our Star Wars campaign, but that was it.

I can’t wait to talk about the second ‘season’ in our main campaign in July though. arghhhhhhh!!!! (I am seriously in love with this campaign, and my character.)

Also, we have been talking about streaming our D&D games (which, the boys have more traction with this than The Sims request) and hopefully it should be pretty easy because we play online anyway… But I will definitely let you know more about this later if it happens!!

 

TV and movies

Things I finally watched in June were:

  • the final season of Jessica Jones on Netflix
  • Mary Poppins Returns on Disney+

 

Music

Did I even listen to music in June?? I’m not sure. If I did, you can pretty much guarantee that it was a mixture of really old Fall Out Boy (Take This To Your Grave), Illy (still waiting for the new album to come out…) and Taylor Swift (all of the albums forever).

 

on my blog

 

As you may know, Shanah @ The Bionic Bookwork who runs Top 5 Tuesday is on hiatus at the moment. But since it was PRIDE month, I wanted to do something a bit extra. While I did have plans to do topics for all five Tuesdays in June, because of real life (rude), I only manager to get three posts in. Regardless, these are some of my fave posts of June:

Of course, if you know me at all, you’ll know that I didn’t stop at 5 for them… there’s no one to police me any more so I can do what I like!! MWAH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA… ok, I’ll lower the evil now!!

 

on your blogs

 

I am still up to date on blog-hopping!! YAY!! I know, it’s taken me a long time to learn this lesson and I’m sure I’ll forget it again by the end of the year, but while I’m still remembering, let’s take a look at some of my fave posts of yours in June!! There’s a pretty heavy PRIDE theme, obviously, but also some great lists of BIPOC reads and just great books, so I hope you all find something to add to your shelves with all of these recommendations!!

The next batch are my fave discussion and general blogging posts that I saw in June. Some of these really made me think, and I have to admit that I really need to step up my game!!

These are all really valuable topics, and some have actually inspired some of my upcoming posts (you know, when I get around to finishing writing them!!)

 

How was your June?

until next time, happy reading! Meeghan xo

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