May’s Moments of the Month: July // I Read My Most Anticipated 2020 Release and Sobbed

July went by way too fast.

I say this probably only because I didn’t accomplish nearly all the things I needed/wanted to, but it’s also true in general! I can’t believe summer is over—not season-wise, technically, but I count summer as over when I have to return to school.

I think this month probably hit me hardest in terms of mindless activity at home during a pandemic, and needing to do all these different things but not being able to make myself do them. But I’m trying hard to forgive myself because god, it’s a pandemic! I can catch myself a break as long as I’m not spreading a deadly virus.

I’ve decided to stop sharing the same list of BLM resources with every post because it’s likely become something you just scroll past, so instead, going forward, I’m going to be sharing (at least) one new resource: If you have money to spare, please consider looking through this hashtag to find a Black trans person to help out!!

I read 6 books this month! Which is unfortunately not as much as I was hoping to. It was a pretty good month in terms of enjoyment, but I couldn’t finish a book for more than a week until I devoured The Burning God in three days.

I am dedicating a paragraph here (and the title of this post) to talk about The Burning God because. OH MY GOD!!! I was hugging my knees to my chest on my bathroom floor and sobbing at the end of the book. I am STILL in pain. If you’re anticipating the book, or are interested in reading the series: Get ready for heartbreak. :))

I also revamped my reading spreadsheet! If anyone is interested I might do a post about it, since the last time I did one was in like 2018? It’s mostly the same, but I redid the diversity/representation parts. I also changed how I counted some comics and… I am now behind on my Goodreads challenge. I have many regrets.

Favorite: 🌹 (guess what it is).

   

• Stargazing Jen Wang // I think this was a bit too short for me and I wasn’t emotionally impacted, but it was still cute! and the Buddhist rep was cute ★★★☆☆
• The Tyrant’s Tomb Rick Riordan // I cried… it’s not my fault [redacted] was just casually mentioned 10 times! though this was enjoyable and I’m liking Apollo’s voice/arc more, it didn’t particularly stand out ★★★☆☆
• The Rise of Kyoshi FC Yee // this was so GOOD. very gay, I’m in love with Kyoshi, and my most amazing friend Lauren bought me the sequel!!! ★★★★☆

  

• Felix Ever After Kacen Callender // loved this! it has such beautiful messages, it’s truly a love letter to queer (especially trans) people ★★★★☆
• 🌹 The Burning God RF Kuang // took off a half star because I have minor critiques but it is so good and I am officially dead <33 ★★★★★ [4.5]
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search Gene Luen Yang // this was fun! liked seeing what happened to Ursa (Azula deserves better though!) ★★★☆☆

updates

I got behind on commenting on posts and replying to comments with the 2020 Book Blogger Awards going on, and I’m really sorry about that! I’m not going to go back through my Reader very far, because I’m less likely to stay on top of the current ones if I do. But I’ll be better in August hopefully!

Note: The voting round will open this Sunday, August 2! Keep an eye out on my blog for the link to the form <33

I also am going to be posting a bit less in August, due to me going back to school about halfway through the month. This school year is one of my most important years, so I need to focus a lot on my academics over blogging, unfortunately.

top posts

   

I said last month that I try not to talk about stats, but this month I just? again got so much love on all my posts?? I am confused and overwhelmed (and I know when I become less active in the next few months, I’m going to feel so bad), but thank you all so much, I just.. have no words for all of you. You’re the best!!

favorite posts from others

• Lauren @ Love Yo Shelf made an excellent list of 20 Asian contemporary books to read (instead of racist Eleanor & Park!).
• CG @ Paper Fury discusses disability representation and 5 things she wants to see more of in books! It was an insightful post and I highly recommend giving it a read.
• Ash @ Starlight Strands recreated some book covers and she did so well!!! I could only wish I had her artistic talents.
• Maha @ Sunshine n’ Books recommends romance books for those who don’t read romance and it’s a great resource for me as a non-romance reader!!
• Kate @ Your Tita Kate shares tips on balancing blogging and WFH, and while I don’t work, I’m going back to school soon and these will be so helpful.

I am still working on writing 9k words for a writing contest (the deadline is tomorrow)… It has been the worst experience of my LIFE.

I’m overexaggerating, but I genuinely despise myself so much for what I did this month. At the beginning, I came up with a vague plot outline, and then halfway through the month, I decided to re-plot almost everything. So I essentially have had only this past week to write—and during this week, I wrote 5k, then decided I was going to rewrite everything.

Currently I’m at about 7k , so I have about 2k to write today but I probably will end up going over because I don’t think I’ll finish the chapter (and then I have to edit everything tomorrow and also come up with enough plot to write a synopsis hahaha I’m gonna die).

this is the only good part. like genuinely the only good part. out of the entire thing

also very funny typo that I still cannot believe I made

Again, nothing much happened. The biggest thing was that my younger sister’s birthday happened (my baby is growing up… I can’t believe it…). I’ve gone out twice since March, aside from protests, and the only relatively “normal” thing I’ve been doing is online dance classes. I also was supposed to go to Thailand this month, and I am still so sad, but it is what it is!!

I kind of got stressed about the different things I had to do/was pressuring myself to do (blogging, specifically the awards, reading, writing, college stuff), but my mental health has been pretty decent! It’s going to go down the drain in August with school but we don’t talk about that.

My parents got Disney+ for my sister’s birthday, so I got to watch most of the Marvel movies I never got to watch! (I have absolutely no opinions, they are mindless entertainment for me.) It also was a package deal with Hulu, so I watched Love, Victor too! (It was better than I expected.) As for music, I got back into Lorde and the indie rock songs I used to play on repeat a few months ago, and my friend Skye introduced me to a Thai artist named Phum Viphurit!

• read 10 books ✗ (it was that one week of no reading that did me…)
• write and edit 9k-14k ? (I, um, really need to accomplish this)
• write 3 poems ✗
• start scheduling posts in advance ✗
• don’t let BBA pile up! ✓ (my co-host Marie is the best)
• do driver’s ed stuff ✗
• keep up with habits ✓
• work out ✗ (I failed MISERABLY)
• more college stuff ✓ (need to start doing more but I’m building up a habit at least)

• read 11 books (I have a strict TBR to stick to but I will absolutely not stick to it!!)
• continue plotting WIP (yes… instead of continuing to write I am reverting back to plotting)
• write 3 poems
• schedule posts in advance (like I said, I’m posting less in August, so hopefully that gives me some time to schedule at least one post early!)
• keep up with Reader
• do driver’s ed
• work out
• more college prep (I need to start memorizing/going over old math concepts haha I hate math)

Going back to school… I’m never excited to go back to school, but this year with COVID, everything is 10x worse. We’re doing online for at least a few weeks, and I have no idea what happens after that because the Texas government is ridiculous. I don’t want to go back in person, but it’s also difficult to learn online/independently so!! I’m stressed.

PJO reread!! Yes this is getting its own paragraph because I’m excited!!! I need all the serotonin I can get for when I go back to school. I’m rereading the series for the fourth time (and The Lightning Thief for the sixth) for Nostalgiathon from August 7-16, which is hosted by my friends Tiffany, Breana, and Alexandra!

Legend of Korra!!! After finishing ATLA, my sister and I were really hoping it would come to Netflix US so we could watch it. And our manifesting worked, so now we’re really excited!! I know it’s quite different from ATLA, and that Korrasami isn’t very big, so I’m hoping that with those things in mind I won’t be let down.

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how was your July? did you participate in Camp NaNo? do you have a reading spreadsheet? are you going back to school yet or are you LUCKY??