Where did June go! Oh right, it went into my two weekends of camping. I leave straight from work on Thursday and return by Sunday evening. Then this past weekend (since June 28), we have family visiting from out of town so that has also kept me busy. But technically I met my blog post goal for this month so that’s exciting. 😛 I was reading my way through two +450 page books in June, but both had to go back to the library before I could finish them 🥲 So this month has turned out to be the month with the least books finished (in 2024). Anyway, to shake things up, here are a few photos from my camping trips:
Books Finished
- The Unlikely Redemption of John Alexander MacNeil by Lesley Choyce
- Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest by Ariel Gordon
- Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu
Books Reviewed
- Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest by Ariel Gordon (non-fiction)
Posts Written
- My sister and I discussed Kelly Barnhill’s When Women Were Dragons for ‘May’ Family Reads
- My dad and I discussed Lesley Choyce’s The Unlikely Redemption of John Alexander MacNeil for June Family Reads
Challenges Check In
- 7/30 middle grade fiction novels (excluding rereads)
- Have not yet had the ‘summer boost’ that I anticipated… but there’s still July and August! If you have any recs for lush compelling MG fantasy, please do leave them in the comments…
- 5/9 Family Reads
- Super pleased that I’ve basically stuck with the schedule on this one! Thank-you to my family for cooperating with my schemes haha.
- 2/6 “I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read that Yet”
- Been a bit stagnant with this one, but I do have the latest winner (The Prestige) currently checked out, so hopefully I’ll get the next post in this series up this month.
- 34/82 books read
- Six books behind now… if I hadn’t had to return those two chunksters, I would still only be four behind. Oh well!
- Reviewed 44% (15/34) of what I read (goal = 40%)
- I’m counting two of the five ‘reviews’ I wrote in a Round Up post for this stat
- Reread The Silmarillion,
The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings - 4/4 posts in June
- Goal is reduced in summer due to camping trips, so now I’m on track with posts per month 😎
- 2,529/2,200 views in June
On My Radar in July
Representation indicated below AFAIK (I haven’t read these books). Please notify me of any errors or places where I can be more specific.
- 2 July – Release date of Benji Zeb is a Ravenous Werewolf by Deke Moulton (MG contemporary supernatural, MC is queer Jewish boy – author is Jewish)
- 16 July – Release date of The West Passage by Jared Pechaček (adult fantasy, queer rep)
- 30 July – Release date of It Came From the Trees by Ally Russell (MG horror, Black rep – author is Black)
How was your June? Which new books, or bookish events, are you looking forward to this month?
My reading continues to be all over the place. LOL I did read The Long Way Around by Anne Nesbet, which is a realistic fiction adventure story. More about the children and them resolving some personal issues but a very nice story.
That looks like a fun read! Have you been able to do any camping trips? (if so, hopefully with no earthquake interruptions, haha)
I hope you had fun on your camping trips! I haven’t been camping in years, but it was always something I enjoyed as a kid. I hope it wasn’t too hot where you were. I hope you are able to get your hands on those books you weren’t able to finish. I hate when you have to return a library book before finishing. Renewals only seem to be an option on books you’ve already worked your way through. I’ve got my eye on It Came from the Trees as well. The cover for that one reminds me a scary books I used to read as a child. Happy July!
Thanks Alicia! My main challenge with camping ended up being the mosquitoes but I was still able to enjoy hiking, biking, and a half day at the beach. I had to get back in line for those two books but hopefully I’ll be able to finish them before end of August… they aren’t even new releases or hot titles but my library rarely has more than a single copy of any book these days =.= Hope your summer is also going well!
Mosquitos are the worst! Last year we had them pretty bad. It was so horrible that I just started wearing jeans even when it was hot out. Besides that sounds like it was a lot of fun!
Ah dangit, having to return library books before they’re finished isn’t fun. I hope if they were good reads so far that you’ll be able to pick them up again soon.
I don’t know why but I can’t for the life of me get your camping photos to load, even after refreshing the page and trying a different browser. It’s most likely that this is a me-problem (the internet here is apparently made of pool noodles), but on the off chance there’s something wonky going on with the image widget I wanted to give you a heads up.
I’ve got both of them on hold again and am hoping it won’t be a long wait now! Thanks for mentioning the photos not loading – there was something weird where they were showing in the preview when I drafted the post but I see they’re not showing up in the published post for me either. I will look into it 👍🏻
Glad you’re enjoying camping! I have a trip home soon and while we won’t be camping, I’m very happy for the vacation
That’s exciting! When was the last time you headed home? I’ll keep my fingers crossed for good weather for you – it’s beeen all over the place lately with wind, heat, and rain. 🤞🏻
I just came last summer but on a particularly Vancouver-like rainy week lol
The West Passage has an interesting looking cover. I hadn’t heard of it at all.
I think I saw it in another blogger’s anticipated releases post? The premise seems as interesting as the cover!