The Looooong and the Short of It: June 2024 Wrap-Up Post and Looking Forward to July

While June wasn’t a great month, it wasn’t as bad of a month for me like May. We did have the Celebration of Life for my stepdad, and having him gone only a few weeks before Father’s Day made that a rough day/time with all the ads for that. Even still having my birth father who I am close with didn’t mean I didn’t feel sad about losing my stepdad, who was my bonus father as people often call it. I got to go to the NKOTB concert and do the meet and greet! Then I had a huge tree fall in my back yard which of course led to dealing with insurance and getting that taken care of.

My reading was down again. Making sure to spend as much time with my mom as I can now, it means that she likes to have me go to dinner with her, and that’s fine, other than meals are often part of my reading time. But that’s fine, now that summer school is over, I’ll hopefully make more time to read while I’m sitting home enjoying my summer.

I only got 13 books finished, that’s two less than last month.

• # of pages read: 3697 – Last month I noticed a weird thing that I had a lot of books that had what seemed like the same number of pages, 384. And I had a few with that exact count this month too!
• Amount of time spent listening to audiobooks – Since I only count what I finished in my personal calculations, my time spent was 25 hours and 8 minutes. Only got two audiobooks finished. Even with driving to and from school most of the month. No big driving trips on my own to add time in. Missed out on that with my normal Memorial Day weekend trip being off back in May too. Also, the audiobook I started at the end of the month was so similar to the book I was reading at the time, I had to stop listening because they were both hockey romances! Started up again once I finished So This is War.

Here are my StoryGraph stats for June:

My Reviews

Of the 18 specific titles listed last month, I got 12 read and most reviewed, 1 DNFs, and one had a pub date pushed back to July, so didn’t even get the e-galley to read yet, except then I found out I didn’t get selected to even get the e-galley for it, so I won’t be reading it at all now, at least not before release date.

• [3 Jun] Past Present Future by Rachel Lynn Solomon ★★★★
• [10 Jun] Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood ★★★½
• [12 Jun] Isabel and the Rogue by Liana De la Rosa ★★★½
• [14 Jun] The Calculation of You and Me by Serena Kaylor ★★★★★
• [17 Jun] One-Star Romance by Laura Hankin ★★★½
• [20 Jun] The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson ★★★★½
• [21 Jun] White Trash Zombie Unchained by Diana Rowland ★★★★★
• [24 Jun] A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston ★★★★★
• [27 Jun] Lock In by John Scalzi DNF
• [28 Jun] So This Is War by Meghan Quinn ★★★★★
• [29 Jun] In the Weeds by B.K. Borison ★★★★
• [29 Jun] House of Light and Ether by Leia Stone ★★★★
• [29 Jun] Cleave by Boyd Bauman ★★★★½

Challenge Check-In

My goal is 24 for the year using the prompts that are listed, I got one more done with the poetry book I finished when I figured it could be added to one of the prompts. I’m behind! Need to be at 12 by now.

1. Prompt: On your TBR 5+ years – Five Minutes Late by Rich Amooi
2. Prompt: Anthology or omnibus edition – The Natural History Novellas by Erin Mallon
3. Prompt: We all scream – horror – The Dead List by Jennifer L. Armentrout
4. Prompt: Walk through history – Something Wilder by Christina Lauren
5. Prompt: Writing about writing – The Nerd and the Neighbor by Lainey Davis
6. Prompt: STEM stan – Co-Wrecker by Meghan Quinn
7. Prompt: 4 Word title – Getting Lucky Number Seven by Cindi Madsen
8. Prompt: Coffeehouse Reads – Cleave by Boyd Bauman

My goal was 6 for the year but I didn’t get anymore done this past month. However I’m still basically on track for the year.

• [6 Mar] Discussion Post: Just Can’t Get Enough or Do You Also Want All the Special Editions and Book Boxes?
• [22 Mar] Discussion Post: Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away Now, or Do you still host giveaways on your blog or enter on other blogs?
• [14 May] Lisa Loves to Discuss #1: Do you listen to podcasts?

My Goodreads and StoryGraph Goals of 150 books are on track with books 84 read so far, putting me ahead of schedule. I’m also still trying to keep my Netgalley percentage above 80%, and I did get it back up to 80% this month!

I decided to do the Chapter Break Bingo Challenge for June, and here are my books that fit each spot, I’d say I got 24 squares!

A Novel Love Story: Read While Traveling, Storm/Bad Weather

Past Present Future: Set in a School, Read a Physical Book, Gets Closure

In the Woods: In a series, Audiobook, Library book, Not a New Release

White Trash Zombie Unchained: Book Club read, Weapon on the cover – do gators count since she used them as a weapon?, Accent, June Audiobook bonus

Not in Love: Not in a series

House of Light and Ether: Monster/Paranormal, Treasure

Cleave: Shelf Love

The Calculation of You and Me: LGBTQ/Pride Month

Isabel and the Rogue: Snazzy Dresser

One Star Romance: Read an e-book

So This is War: Parent/Parents

The Art of Catching Feelings: Free book

What to Expect in July

Hoping I can get so much more reading done with no summer school! Also getting to comment on more blogs. Some things still need to be done around my house too, especially with my tree that fell on my shed the last week of June. Trying to get in all the doctor appointments I have put off as well. I will be getting to meet an author this month, and also towards the end of the month I’ll have some school meetings as well as I start back 10 days before the other teachers, which means July 30th. We’ll have the 4th of July celebration at my brother’s as usual. And my dad will be having total knee replacement surgery this month as well.

Here is my proposed TBR for July:

1. Finding Mr. Write by Kelley Armstrong – I forgot I had this e-galley to read! So I started it right at the end of June and hope to post a review soon!
2. The Ones Who Come Back Hungry by Amelinda Berube – another ARC I got from the publisher, hope to post a review on the 4th
3. Thank You, Next by Kathryn Freeman – an e-galley for a blog tour review that I went ahead and signed on for, hope to fit a review in by the 5th
4. It Started With A Book by Camilla Isley – an e-galley for a blog tour review on the 6th
5. The Five Stages of Courting Dalisay Ramos by Melissa de la Cruz – an ARC from the publisher hoping to post a review on the 8th
6. If You Want Me by Helena Hunting – an audiobook review for the author’s review team, already started listening to, should post review on the 11th or 12th.
7. Hold Me If You Can by Cheryl Terra – an e-galley review for a blog tour, should be posting this review on either the 11th or 12th
8. The Ex Vows by Jessica Joyce – an e-galley the publisher sent me, hope to read and post a review on the 13th
9. The Backtrack by Erin LaRosa – e-galley I think I requested from the publisher, hope to read and review by the 15th
10. The Fiance Dilemma by Elena Armas – an e-galley I think from the publisher, hope to read and review by the 16th
11. Do Me a Favor by Cathy Yardley – should be listening to an audiobook of this after the one I’m listening to now, and then post a review on the 20th
12. Asking for a Friend by Kara H.L. Chen – an e-galley from the publisher that I should be posting a review on the 22nd
13. A Family of Killers by Bryce Moore – an ARC from the publisher, plan/hope to read and review by the 24th
14. Under the Surface by Diana Urban – an ARC from the publisher, hope to read and review by the 29th
15. The Beat the Backlist titles I have proposed for this month are maybe to finish Ana Maria and the Fox by Liana De la Rosa, still want to read Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala, or else maybe Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, Misadventures With a Rookie by Toni Aleo, American King by Sierra Simone – although I might save that for a September Sequels challenge
16. Maybe another audiobook? Especially for my driving to and from St. Louis to meet Ashley Poston giving me 8 hours or so of listening time.

Final Thoughts

And we are officially halfway through 2024! I’m ready for a month of mostly no working, a true teacher summer break. No big trips this year like my Scotland trip last year. But that’s okay, I’m broke! Not a fan of the heat we’ve been having, and who knows how long it will last this year. A similar number of books planned as for June, but at least I should have more reading time this month! My mom will be going to San Diego with my brother’s family for a week, so that will be a week I will probably eat mostly on my own and do lots of reading with meals.

What are you planning or looking forward to in July?