June Wrap Up

Hi everyone! Welcome to my June Wrap Up!

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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!

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Posts written by other bloggers that I enjoyed this month

When Social Media Turns Toxic

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

Ramadan Readathon: My TBR

May Wrap Up

Character interview: The Little Mermaid from Sea Foam and Silence by Lynn E. O’Connacht (no spoilers)

Reviews

When Dimple Met Rishi – Sandhya Menon

The Good Immigrant (anthology) – edited by Nikesh Shukla

Willow Born – Shanna Miles

When The Moon Was Ours – Anna-Marie McLemore

Earth Boy – Sami Shah

Biskaya – SchwarzRund

A Daughter’s Courage – Renita D’Silva

River Tale – Jau N

But Not Up Here – RoAnna Sylver