Hi everyone! Welcome to my June Wrap Up!
I was working a lot June and otherwise just relaxing and dancing or blogging. My asthma has gotten worse and I’m hoping that my upcoming visit to the doctor’s will be able to help me with that.
I’m catching up on writing reviews, since I’ve still got to review quite a few books from my Asian Lit Bingo reading challenge. But my to-be-reviewed pile is under 20 books now!
It’s been raining so much in Berlin the last few days and it was sunny before that, which is why the featured image for this post is a flower with rain on it. I actually like the rain a lot, especially when it’s warm so it was okay for me. Just kind of exhausting to have to cycle in the rain, even though I did enjoy that too (except for the cars that thought rain-time equals splash-Sinead-with-water-time).
I’ve started to watch booktube videos while eating, but I’m not following that many people yet. If you have any recommendations, I’d love to read them in the comments.
My second character interview was published this month, and it’s actually written in verse. I’m really proud of that, since I wasn’t really sure how I was going to write interview questions in verse. I interviewed the little mermaid from Sea Foam and Silence. Check out the interview here, and my review of the book here.
I participated in Ramadan Readathon this month, which led to me reading more of Intisar Khanani’s books – I had only read The Bone Knife before the readathon, but now I’m a huge fan of her Sunbolt Chronicles. I cannot wait to read the third book, but it doesn’t even have a release date yet. 😦 I also participated in a giveaway for members of The Shadow League, which is the name of Intisar Khanani’s launch team, and I ended up winning a copy of Sunbolt! I’m so excited!
I read a lot of books in June again, and I don’t want to overwhelm you with titles. So I’ll just mention the ones which stood out to me.
City of Betrayal is the sequel to one of my favourite fantasy books of this year: City of Strife (review here). I got it as an ARC. It’s the second book of the City of Spire series, and I swear it’s soooo good! The release date is the 22nd of October, and I really recommend the book! City of Strife is already available.
As I mentioned above, I’ve become a huge fan of Intisar Khanani and this is in particular due to the book Sunbolt, which was one of my reads for Ramadan Readathon, and the read that pulled me into her books.
The Lifeline Signal is another sequel that wowed me this month. It’s the sequel to Chameleon Moon (review here) and I loved it. I think it’s even better than Chameleon Moon. There’s a really cute scene where one of the characters uses cards to symbolise asexuality, aromanticsm and being questioning.
Ida was a surprising five-star read. I didn’t expect it to be so creepy or intriguing, but it was. I couldn’t stop reading because I was so frightened of the doppelgängers and I wasn’t sure if it would end up with everyone staying safe.
Biskaya is another book that surprised me. It’s only available in German. I haven’t come across many diverse German books that are diverse, not only is Biskaya diverse, it’s so intersectional and it pulls you in. It introduced me to the song: Fremd Im Eigenen Land (Stranger in my own country) by Advanced Chemistry. The translation of the lyrics can be found here.
Last but not least, Tales from Perach. This is such an adorable and cute short story collection featuring different characters from Shira Glassman’s Mangoverse. It was my introduction to her writing and after reading it, I know that I’ll be getting more of her books. Such sweet stories – especially the one with the scavenger hunt!
Posts written by other bloggers that I enjoyed this month
Coffee Shop Talk: Romance Novels (asexual perspective)
Character Interview: Xifeng from Forest of A Thousand Lanterns (this interview led to me putting Forest of a Thousand Lanterns on to my TBR)
‘Publishers love paying lip-service to diversity, but none of them actually mean it.’ || Sami Shah
Do reviewers have a responsibility towards readers
Discussion Post: Blogging With Care
Posts I published in May
Non-review posts
Reviews
When Dimple Met Rishi – Sandhya Menon
The Good Immigrant (anthology) – edited by Nikesh Shukla
When The Moon Was Ours – Anna-Marie McLemore
Thank you for linking to my post!
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You’re welcome. I really enjoyed it and it has helped me make a better blogging strategy.
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Glad it helped 😊
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Oh no, I hope your asthma isn’t too bad xx And how you read and review so many books so quickly is just beyond me!! ❤
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Thank you! Actually, a lot of them are pre-scheduled. I’ve got over 30 reviews in my queue at the moment.
I’m hoping that the doctor can help me with the asthma.
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I’ve seen so many amazing things about IDA, I’m gonna have to add it to my TBR!
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The writing style doesn’t seem to be up everyone’s street but I thought it was amazing!
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I’ll have to check it out myself then! I love odd writing styles!
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