May’s Moments of the Month: June // Rough Mental Health and Favorite TV Shows

Was June even real? Be honest.

It felt like the month happened in a blur. But I guess that can be blamed on the fact that my mental health wasn’t so great! It also felt like I was doing so many things but also nothing at the same time? I’m doing things, like reading and writing and blogging, but it all feels so pointless.

Anyways, I’m going to take this opportunity to remind you to be keeping up with current events, sharing resources, and donating if you can! I’ve been including BLM resources in my posts but I also want to bring attention to Palestine: donate to these orgs, educate yourself, share resources.

Click for BLM resources.

• petitions
• numbers/emails
• videos to stream (ad revenue will be donated)
• George Floyd gofundme
• Gianna Floyd (his daughter) gofundme
• Breonna Taylor gofundme
• Ahmaud Arbery gofundme
• Elijah McClain gofundme
• bail funds, research local ones near you too
• organizations
• small Black businesses that were destroyed
• Black-owned businesses
• indie Black-owned bookstores
• tips on overall protest safety
• google doc masterlist of BLM resources

I read 10 books in June! I was not that great at following my TBR, and had a few impulsive reads that didn’t follow my theme of wanting to read Black authors / queer books. But that’s okay, because I’m planning on reading those throughout the year anyways and that’s what’s most important!

Unfortunately, I had a rough start to the month, though I ended up liking more books near the end. My average rating was 3 stars, not counting rereads, so I guess it could have been worse!

Favorite (not counting reread): 🌹, least favorite: 🥀, most disappointing: 💔.

       

• 🥀 Running with Lions Julian Winters // I suspected I wouldn’t love this but… god the writing was so bad and I didn’t care about the characters ★★☆☆☆
• The Black Flamingo Dean Atta // read this in one day and it was so beautifully written!! really great story about growing up Black and gay ★★★★☆
• How to Be Remy Cameron Julian Winters // better than Running with Lions in terms of writing and messages but I still didn’t care about the characters! ★★☆☆☆
• 💔 Forest of Souls Lori M Lee // this cover was pretty but oh look… another book where I didn’t care about the characters… ★★☆☆☆ [review]
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise Gene Luen Yang // Katara and Aang’s “sweetie”s were the worst but Zuko’s arc was 👌👌👌👌👌👌 ★★★★☆

       

• Graceling Kristin Cashore // [reread] impulsive because I was sad and needed serotonin from rereading and I was genuinely so happy because of this book!! ★★★★★
• The Beauty That Remains Ashley Woodfolk // I feel so mean but I just didn’t really care that much about the events/characters. also the multi POVs was weird ★★☆☆☆
• Girl, Serpent, Thorn Melissa Bashardoust // this was solid but I wanted things to be darker (and I also wanted more gay!!) ★★★☆☆
• 🌹 You Deserve Each Other Sarah Hogle // I did not read white cishet romance… look away… but this was cute and funny and made me smile! I did it for the serotonin okay!! ★★★★☆
• Full Disclosure Camryn Garrett // I really loved this! made me emotional at some points, and GOD I want someone to love me like Miles loves Simone ★★★★☆

updates

The 2020 Book Blogger Awards have begun and I am so excited! In June I wasn’t too good at keeping up with blog posts, and this month probably won’t be much better, because keeping up with the awards daily takes up a lot of time. But it makes my heart grow so much to see all the blogger love, truly!

Obviously I’m biased as a host, but!! nominate some bloggers!! You can learn all about it right here, and it’d be a great way to help boost and support bloggers (even if they don’t win an award). And if you need an incentive—though I hope you wouldn’t—there’s a giveaway you can enter!

(I also started going through my old 2017-2018 posts and privating them. I’m not deleting them entirely, but I refuse to have them viewable by the public. Thinking about that makes me want to climb in a hole and never get back out!!!)

top posts

   

I’m try not to look at/talk about stats, but I GOT ALMOST 10K VIEWS IN ONE MONTH??? I’ve never come anywhere close to that so I’m genuinely shocked. But I love you all, and the support for my QPOC YA book recs post really made me so so happy!!

favorite posts from others

• Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books wrote this phenomenal discussion asking whether book bloggers’ work is truly valued. It was bittersweet to read, but her words are so, so important.
• CW @ The Quiet Pond hosts Pride Month at the Quiet Pond, and all the posts are excellent! It’s continuing into July (when my guest post will be up!), but you can still check out what is currently up.
• Nish & Ngoc @ Nish and Ngoc puts together an extensive list of BLM resources, including various petitions and ways to educate yourself on the systemic racism that Black people have faced and continue to face.
• Faith @ Pages Left Unread talks about anti-Blackness and performative allyship in the book community, and I really recommend reading what they have to say, and giving them a follow while you’re at it!
• Michelle @ Magical Reads recommends books based on the album SAWAYAMA, and since I’ve been listening to Rina so much lately I just had to share her post!!
• Rukky @ Eternity Books talks about morally grey characters in fiction, and I loved all the points she brought up (especially as a morally grey character lover myself!).

I somehow got to 43.5k words for planning. Which means I wrote 15.2k this month??? It sounds like I’m achieving a lot, but I’m telling you I have NO idea what my plot is. I just talk to myself and write down random ideas that go nowhere.

this is what I think every time I plot

I’m giving myself another week in July to plot, but then I’ll have to start drafting because of the writing contest deadline! Perhaps we will see a writing update post this month?? Perhaps???

As for poetry, I wrote a tiny bit more than usual (because I was sad) but it wasn’t anything special. I wanted to do something writing-related every day, though, so when I wasn’t feeling up to the mood to plot, I just forced myself to write a (bad) poem lmao.

I watched She-Ra! Obviously I had to mention this first because it’s the most important event that happened in June (and also because… literally nothing else happened in June…). It was amazing, and though I was decently invested from the beginning, season 5 was truly a masterpiece!!! Lesbian friends to enemies to lovers excellence!!!

Moving on to less important things: My mental health was… not great! Honestly the only thing saving me from feeling like complete trash was my habit tracker, strangely. I made one for June for the first time in years, and it was super motivational for doing basic self-care/hygiene! It also pushes me to read/write a bit every day.

But it truly wasn’t all that bad!! My obsession with ATLA returned full-force after finishing She-Ra, and it kept me very distracted. I resumed watching Criminal Minds, and I started another Thai drama though I put it on hold <small>(I was using it as a way to learn Thai but I finally started actually studying the alphabet again)</small>. I also listened to a bunch of Rina Sawayama and Mitski, which was a very healing experience!

• read 13 books ✗ (honestly I’m surprised I even read 10 books
• continue working on WIP!! ✓ (I CAN’T PLOT but it’s okay I still tried)
• write 3 poems ✓
• do driver’s ed stuff ✓✗ (did it one day…?)
• read/write/listen to Thai every day ✓ (most days)
• work out ✗ (I did so well on all my habits except for this one)
• SAT practice ✓
• research college stuff ✓ (on the very last day of June I started so I’m counting it)
• donate ✓

• read 10 books (I don’t have a TBR but this seems like a good amount for me)
• write and edit 9k-14k
• write 3 poems
• start scheduling posts in advance (I have no post ideas but I want to do this because school is starting in August!)
• don’t let BBA pile up!
• do driver’s ed stuff
• keep up with habits (my habit tracker is my savior)
• work out
• more college stuff (including research / SAT practice)

Mourning that I’m not in Thailand. I was supposed to travel there for July, before covid, so I’m very sad about not being able to go. I really miss being there (as well as all my family of course), but it is what it is and I’ll just wait until next year!

Writing and reading! I’m entering a writing contest in August, so obviously I need to get some writing done! I’m also trying to read as many books as I can before I go back to school in August. I’m not sure how it’s going to work with covid yet, but no matter what, I’ll definitely have less time. And it’s supposed to be a very hectic, stressful year for me so!!

The Book Blogger Awards. This takes up a big chunk of my time, at least the nominations round. I’m so glad I have a co-host this year, and I’m especially appreciative of the fact that while I’m at home doing nothing during the summer, Marie is still working! I genuinely love hosting, though, and I can’t wait to see how the awards go this year.

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how was June for you? what books did you read? have you watched She-Ra or ATLA? are you planning to participate in the BBA??