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).
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.
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??
I also read Felix Ever After this month and liked it as well, it was such an impactful book and had so many great characters 🥰 The Avatar comics are also always a great, quick read 😊
Good luck with your writing!! You can do it 🌺 I didn’t participate in Camp NaNo this July but somehow did all my revision in 3 weeks after procrastinating it for over a month, so that was surprisingly good 😄
Sending lots of positive vibes for August your way! ❤
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yes!! i loved all the messages and characters in felix ever after so much 🥺 and i’m loving the atla comics! it’s so great to see the characters again <3 and aahh finishing all your revisions in 3 weeks is AMAZING!!! i'm so happy for you 💗 i hope you have a great august as well, caro!!
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i’m so so happy you were able to get an arc of the burning god, may, and i’m even happier to see that you loved it!! 🥰🥰 also, you don’t need to apologize at all for not being active, hosting the book blogger awards is a huge commitment (you and marie are doing amazing) and we completely understand!!! 💖 i hope the writing contest goes well, the snippet you shared is beautiful and i know the rest of it is amazing as well! and i’m so happy seeing that you got back into lorde, i love her so much 🥺 what are some of your fav lorde songs?
my school is starting in almost a week too and i’m scaredddd!!! it’s going to be online as well and i think what scares me the most is that i don’t even know what to expect 😭
omg thank you so much for sharing my post, i’m so happy you liked it 🥰💖 good luck with all of your goals (actually you don’t need luck bc you got this!!) and i hope you have a wonderful august!!
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thank you so much ash, you are too kind!! i’m really glad i was able to read it too, though i am destroyed 😭 and thank you, i really needed to hear that 🥺🥺
aah i ended up having some mix-ups and last-minute issues that made me 5 seconds too late to submit my entry for the contest but it’s okay 😭 but thank you aahh!! and ooh, i think my two lorde faves will always be liability and writer in the dark (yes… the sad ones), what are yours?
i hope we both don’t die at school!! i also have no idea what’s going to happen? all i know so far is that it’s going to be on zoom and i genuinely have no information about anything else fhdhs. and thank you so much!! i hope you have a fantastic august too 🥺💗
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ahh ilyyy 🥰 (also i need to read tpw lmao but i don’t think i’m ready for The Pain…)
oh no, i’m so so sorry to hear that!! 😭😭😭 liability and writer in the dark are so beautiful (and sad lmao but i love them too), i don’t know if i could choose a fav but i really love those two as well as ribs, green light and supercut ❤️
omg yes 😳😳 i completely agree, it’s all so confusing and vague :(( thank you ahh 🥺💖
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Aghhh I’m still waiting for The Poppy War and Felix Ever After from my library, but I am so excited to get to them :D
I also really want to read The Rise of Kyoshi (especially since I enjoyed The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by the same author).
Also, I would love to see a post about your reading spreadsheet!!
Wishing you a great August :)
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yess, i am so excited for you to read both tpw and felix!! i’m sure you’ll love them <3 and aahh i actually hated the epic crush of genie lo, so i guess that shows how much i truly loved the rise of kyoshi haha! thank you so much for the feedback, i think i'll definitely do a post about it 🥰 i hope you have a wonderful august too!!
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Love the snippet <3 And the typo is the greatest XD
I'm watching ATLA with my sisters (just finished season 2), and HOW IS IT SO GREAT??
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aahh thank you so much! <3 and YES i'm so happy you're loving it!!! atla is so good, it's my favorite 😭
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Aah, Rise of Kyoshi was great!! I’m super excited to read The Shadow of Kyoshi I requested it from my library so fingers crossed on that 🤞🏻 Good luck with school!! The government is a mess right now, especially in relation to opening schools 😪 Hopefully they don’t drive you too crazy with in-person versus online decisions.
I hope you were able to finish your piece for the writing contest! The bit you shared was fantastic, and I’m sure the rest of it is great too 💕 I also watched Love, Victor this month, and I liked it more than a thought I would too 😂 I’m so excited for Korra (literally counting down the days to August 14th), based on what I’ve heard from people I don’t think I’m going to like it as much as ATLA, but going in I’m already telling myself that it’s a very different show and that I shouldn’t have the same expectations from it.
I hope your August goes well!!
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yes!! i’m swamped with arcs this month but if i wasn’t, i’d be devouring the shadow of kyoshi 🥺 i’m so excited! and aahh thank you so much!! i’m hoping we’ll stay online for a while — even if it means a harder learning environment, at least it’s, you know, safer
aah i actually ended up submitting it a few seconds past the deadline due to some last-minute confusion with their guidelines, but oh well, next year! 😭 and aahh I’M SO EXCITED FOR KORRA!! i’m sad i can’t binge it all like i did with atla, since i’m going back to school, but i’m looking forward to it nonetheless. and yes, same! i think i’ll love atla more but i probably will still be able to enjoy korra a lot!
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This was a really great wrap-up May! I always love reading your recap posts.🥺 I hope you have a great August, despite everything!
Ahh, I’m glad you’re liking Trials of Apollo- I read the first book when it came out, but I haven’t continued with the series since then. I definitely should because I feel like it’s a crime that books exist that Rick Riordan wrote that I haven’t read (especially because they have some character cameos from PJO/HoO)?? So I should get to that soon.
HAHA wait I’m laughing so hard at “his longers were much longer”…this is exactly the sort of thing that I cry laughing over because my sense of humor is wack. But also- the other snippet you shared is SO GOOD, your talent >>
I feel you with the going back to school! We’re also going online for the first few weeks, and then supposedly going back in-person (unless the government says otherwise, which I doubt TX will). We could pick online, but I find it so hard to learn online as well, so I picked in person but I’m also terrified about that so? I also went back to dance, which is exciting, even though dancing with a mask is a very weird experience. Again, I loved reading this and I hope you have a wonderful August!💗
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AHH olivia, you’re too sweet to me, thank you so much 🥺
yeah, the trials of apollo series is my least favorite from rick, but it definitely isn’t bad by any means! but YES i love the pjo/hoo character cameos so much, they’re one of my favorite parts of the series. even though… one cameo… was very painful… 😭
i’m genuinely still so shocked at how i managed to make such a strange typo, like… i would expect something like “his longer were much legs” but LONGERS?? (also 🥺🥺 thank you so much you’re gonna make me cry!)
ah i know my school was thinking about a hybrid option (before the govt came in) so i feel like that could be a safer way of doing things in person? but YEAH i just… struggle because i don’t do super well with online learning, particularly in math and science, but i also don’t want to get the virus. and a school is just the worst place for a virus that spreads in the way that it does 😭 but i hope things work out for you/us! <3
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thank you again for convincing me to pick up The Rise of Kyoshi with your tweets (i LOVED it and i’m so excited to read The Shadow of Kyoshi!! hope you enjoy it 💓) and aahhhh i’m also super excited that Legend of Korra is coming to Netflix !! i hope we both enjoy it hehe
good luck with starting school (online) this month!! wishing you all the best <3 i'll also be starting my 2nd year of college this month, and i'm honestly not looking forward to this school year at all bc the entirety of fall semester will be online and i'll be staying home :')
also ahh good luck with college apps!! i remember how stressful they were, but i know you got this May ❤️
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i am SO happy you read and loved the rise of kyoshi, i felt so proud and excited seeing you rate it highly on gr lmao! 🥺 and yes i’m really excited for korra — i think we’ll both love it, knowing how much we both love atla!
thank you so much, dezzy, i hope school doesn’t going too badly for you <3 i totally get what you mean though, it's like… i have a hard time learning online but i also don't want to get covid by going in person :// and thank youuu! i know there are so many nice people in the book community who are willing to chat about college stuff so 😭 have a great august!!
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OMG finishing The Burning God is huge!! I’m still?? intimidated to pick up the Dragon Republic even though I LOVED POPPY WAR. Because.. I’ll be devastated. Argh. All the best for your August goals!
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P. S. I totally get you about being behind on clog posts because my god I need an entire DAY to catch up. I just went through my Reader a bit and have opened about 25 tabs. It’s looking crowded in my Chrome window and I even have the beginning of another window with more links. Whew.
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yeah! i’m really struggling with getting caught up on comments / posts, it’s just so much more time-consuming than non-bloggers would think 😭 i’m trying to do it this weekend before i go back to school, but i also want to do other things like read and it’s just ! a struggle
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AAHHH pick up the dragon republic pick up the dragon republic!! you will absolutely be devastated but it is 100% worth it 💕 and thank you so much, i hope you have a great august too!
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No, YOU’re the best and i love you so much 🥺🥺
I hope that classes haven’t been too overwhelming so far, take your time with it all and always remember that you come first. I’m here for you if there’s anything I can do always ❤️
I SO get the getting behind thing, I’m so behind on blog hopping I have like 5 actual word pages of blogs to go through and I’m overwhelmed, I need an entire week off life to do that 😂
I’m so happy you enjoyed Felix Ever After, I really really need to give this beautiful book a try. Take care of yourself and have a beautiful August! ❤️
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Hi May!!! Lovely post as ALWAYS. i feel you i also need to be doing more in the college department. crazy how we are preparing for college now… remember when all we had to do was stay up late and write on that doc all the way back in 2016? and now we’re both doing college and car stuff… sorry for this ramble ive been feeling nostalgic lately. im sure that your WIP will be amazing as you work always is. i hope you met the deadline!!
are you back in school yet? how is online treating you? im going back in person and just hoping i dont die lol
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