Another month of reading down. Honestly, this wasn’t an especially successful one for me, especially as I hate the halfway mark to the year only meeting about a third of my Goodreads goal… Time to charge ahead into summer!
I’m a children’s librarian, so I read books for kids and for grown-ups. This month, I read 1 picture/early reader book and 6 “big” books, including audiobooks, adult novels, and chapter books for children. My average rating this month was 4 stars.
It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle by Mark Wolynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I felt like the ending dragged on with examples but overall this was a helpful book. I did some talking with family that made me realize how much my trauma was connected to the trauma of others and that was healing. Listened to the audiobook around 1.3x speed.
Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This might be the best in the series! Lovers to friends to lovers. Maria and Peter have a one night stand before finding out they’ve been cast to play roles opposite one another for six years on a quiet island. While they butt heads at first, they quickly become friends who are hesitant to give back in to the deep attraction and developing love between them until the show wraps. But then, they both have some shit from their past to work through before they can compromise, grow, and give one another the happily ever after they deserve. I loved the body positive message in this one. The hero and heroine are both tall, strong, healthy, fat, and hot, because none of those things are mutually exclusive. And Maria is a sexy modern heroine who doesn’t like to remove her body hair and stands by that despite pressures to do otherwise in her career. As always, the Game of Thrones references were so fun and the epilogue – SO ON THE NOSE and hilarious.
Pride Colors by Robin Stevenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Cute, inclusive photos.
The Runaway Duchess by Joanna Lowell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This one started slow for me. It took me 10 days to read 100 pages… and then 1 day to read the rest. Once I got hooked I couldn’t put it down. I cried so much reading this. I loved seeing a “mean girl” – someone who has fulfilled everything society requested of her as a woman – come to her own decision about her expression of femininity and to fall for someone who loved all her facets, whether it was the debutante or the writer or the, well, mean girl.
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was sweet and fun. I would say more women’s fiction (or, as I like to call it, fiction) than romance, though we do get a large romantic plot and a HEA.
Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe by Laura Lynne Jackson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
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A Peek Into My Planner
I’ve been trying to fill out my planner each day to keep myself organized and to use the plethora of planner supplies and stickers I possess. (I use The Happy Planner.) I started a brand new planner (well, two of them, actually) in January. Here are the spreads I shared in June.
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I’ve been keeping track of my moods to keep an eye on my depression and anxiety. In 2022, I also began habit tracking various aspects of my life, though I got overwhelmed with the process in February and have scaled back quite a bit, but on the blog I’ll just continue to share moods:
Note: I wrote this post on 6/30, so I had not “tracked” my mood for that day yet.
- Angry – 1 day
- Bored – 1 day
- Busy – 1 day
- Good – 5 days
- Happy – 4 days
- Okay – 4 days
- Emotional – 3 days
- Great – 2 days
- Lazy – 2 days
- Optimistic – 2 days
- Productive – 2 days
- Tired – 2 days
I was away from my family all month and, well, nonsense was happening in the world… So I’m not surprised there were some meh ones in there.
I have been posting almost every day about my witchier interests on TikTok and also just having fun with it. I’m also sharing some #booktok posts there and just updates about my life in NYC.
@daily.manifestationx Time makes you bolder. Children get older. I’m getting older too. #ex #stevienicks ♬ Landslide (2017 Remaster) – Fleetwood Mac
I also watched Hereditary.
Looking Ahead: July
It’s my birthday month and I’ll be seeing my family loads. All I can hope is things start to look up for the direction my country is headed in.
