June 2016 Wrap-Up

Hi there!

It is the end of June, and half a year has flown by. I don’t even understand how that happened, but I know all of us are wondering the same thing, so I’ll just let us all sit with it for a minute. Instead, let’s dive into the book data:

Print books: 9 books, 2741 pages

Audiobooks: 6 books, 1829 pages, approx. 46.28 hours

Graphic novels/Comics: None

Total number of books/comics: 15

Total page count: 4570

Read My Own Damn Books: 5 

Read The Books You Buy: 4 out of 5 of my own damn books were ones I bought in June.

Compared to April and May, this was a relatively low month of reading. I think it’s mostly because my supposedly free weekends turned out to be unexpectedly jam-packed, so not a lot of reading happened over weekends. Also, I haven’t had the urge to pick up a comic all month, though I’ve got them all downloaded and waiting on my kindle. Maybe I’ll be inspired when Ms. Marvel Volume 5 arrives at my doorstep.

Meanwhile, I have squared away this long weekend to hibernate and read, and have even curated a stack. So many exciting books on the docket. I’m also figuring out a way to be more organized about my blogging. I have a few non-review posts about reading in mind, but have been hesitant to roll them out yet. If you guys have any tips on how to blog more effectively, and what kind of content you would like to see, I would really appreciate your thoughts. 

What’s everyone else got on their stack?

-J

Review: Shrill by Lindy West

Shrill: Notes From A Loud Woman

Published: May 17th, 2016
Publisher: Hachette
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780316348409
Source: Owned
Challenges: Read My Own Damn Books, Read The Books You Buy

 

This is probably one of the most relevant and important books of the year. I got to see Lindy speak at the Printer’s Row Lit Fest a few weeks before I read the book, and I had heard about it so much but did no research before going to see her speak. She’s funny, she’s unapologetic, she’s honest. This memoir is a compilation of essays in which Lindy discusses and breaks down this prevailing culture of fat-shaming, internet-trolling, harassment, and good old-fashioned sexism. The titles of the essay had me snort-laughing, its content did not. Lindy gets real and gives no fucks. She talks about growing up as a fat girl, having to make herself smaller, tinier, quieter- because that’s such an ingrained ideal trait across cultures for women, and I related so much with that. It’s that terrible intersection of being a woman and being fat. There’s just no winning, because people would rather die than be some obscenely fat and ugly. They also think you should die because you are a smear on everything our society is working towards- to be thin is to be beautiful. 

June 27th, 2016: It’s Monday, What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme currently hosted by The Book Date. It’s a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week, and add to that ever-growing TBR stack.

Teaser Tuesday: June 21, 2016

Hello!

It’s Teaser Tuesday!

This fun bookish meme is hosted by MizB at Books And A Beat. The rules are pretty simple: Grab your current read, open a random page, and pick two teaser, non-spoilery sentences to share from that page.

Here’s mine for this week:

“We are biology. We are reminded of this at the beginning and the end, at birth and at death. In between we do what we can to forget.”

This book is so fascinating, and I’m loving it on audio. Yes, it is my first Mary Roach book. I don’t know what took me so long.

What are you guys reading?

-J

 

June 20th, 2016: It’s Monday, What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme currently hosted by The Book Date. It’s a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week, and add to that ever-growing TBR stack.

Hello hello!

FINALLY a week where I got some reading done. Last week, I finished Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi which I loved, The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, which I was very apprehensive about and surprisingly enjoyed, and Shrill: Notes From A Loud Woman by Lindy West which had me in tears from a myriad of emotions. 

Over the weekend, some friends and I got together for a day trip to Indianapolis, primarily to visit Books & Brews. Beer is cheaper in the rest of the Midwest, you guys. We had such a good time, and were really annoyed that we missed going to the Vonnegut Library. Oh well.

Here’s what’s on the roster for this week:

 

What have you guys been reading?

-J

 

Review: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Or…how I devoured 200 pages of a book in a day so that I could gush about it at book club the next day.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Published: June 7th, 2016
Publisher: Knopf
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781101947135
Source: Owned
Challenges: Read My Own Damn Books, Read The Books You Buy

 

Review: The Association of Small Bombs

I’ve been on the fence about writing a review for this book, particularly in light of the Stanford rape and the Orlando tragedy. Context is everything, and I know people are still grieving and struggling, so I do not want to cause anyone any more pain. Here’s my disclaimer/trigger warning: This book talks about a “small” bombing, is an attempt to understand how people coped with the aftermath of the tragedy, as well as an attempt to understand the motivations of the bomber. You are not obliged to read any more at this point if you don’t want to. 

June 13, 2016: It’s Monday, What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme currently hosted by The Book Date. It’s a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week, and add to that ever-growing TBR stack.

Another whirlwind week has passed, another whirlwind week has begun. It. is. WILD. Adulting. Is. NOT. FUN.

Mini-Reviews: The Audiobooks Edition

It’s Fri-yay!

As predicted, my life is not any less chaotic. Since it’s been a hot minute since I wrote a book review, I thought I’d do short reviews of the books I’ve read in the past month. For some semblance of organization, I ma starting off with audiobooks.

Sidenote: I just realized that all of these authors are non-white/cis/het/able dudes, which just makes me happy about myself as a reader. Diverse authors are the bomb dot com, y’all. 

May 2016 Wrap-Up

Hello booknerds!

I know this wrap-up post is a whole week late, but hey, life got in the way, shit happens, I’m trying not to get bogged down by it all. May was WILD. So many bookish and non-bookish things happening. But first, let’s get down to the business of bookish data:

Print books: 8 books, 1944 pages

Audiobooks: 7 books, 2558 pages, approx. 77.6 hours

Graphic novels/Comics: 5, 599 pages

 

Total number of books/comics: 20

Total page count: 5101

Read My Own Damn Books: 15 

Smash Your Stack: I hit my goal of 15 books (barely)

Read The Books You Buy: May was a terrible month in terms of keeping track of things, so I don’t really have a tally of the number of books I bought. Suffice to say, BookCon happened and I did buy at least 3 there, and then a few more when I went to Read Harder book meet-up, so yeaaaah.

Not too shabby considering I barely read anything in the last week and has so many social things happening all through May. My life is by no means any less chaotic, but getting that conference and then the work event out of the way are definitely two major stressors out of the way. I am still recovering from the past week and slowly tackling each portion of my life. I meant to spend some time on Sunday writing but I was so tired that all I did was read and nap. I will get those reviews and tags rolling out in a bit. 

Until then, happy reading everybody!

-J