What Happened Over These Past 2 Months? // June + July Wrap Up

Hey! How is everyone doing today? How is your August so far? I hope everything is going well! 

It seems as though it has become a tradition for me to wrap up two months at a time. I don’t know why I started doing it like this, but I’m too used to this pattern to change it now!

I had a wonderful last two months, even though it didn’t go exactly as planned!

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BOOKS I READ

Although I didn’t get to read as much as I had hoped, I did a lot of other things instead! I blogged a lot, I traveled with my family, and in the end, I actually read a decent amount of books. Here are the books I’ve read recently, though I haven’t reviewed most of them!

I read a total of 9 books (I believe) over the summer, and that sounds good, to me!

(you can click on the post headers to take you to my review, but the individual book pictures will take you nowhere!)

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I really enjoyed Muse of Nightmares! It was really good, and if you’re hesitant about finishing this series, I highly recommend it.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I read Invisible Ghosts in June for no particular reason, and it was just… good. It was light and cute, but I didn’t love it.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ .5

However, I read Tithe, the first book in Holly Black’s Modern Faerie Tale series, as part of my 24-Hour Readathon and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ .5

I read We Are The Ants because… well, I had been wanting to read it for a while. I don’t think I’ll ever get around to writing a review, but it was good. It lagged in some parts, but I don’t think I was ever confused or upset. It was okay, but it was also lacking somehting I can’t quite put my finger on.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ .5

I finally read The Vanishing Stair! Since Truly Devious was my first ever book review, I knew that I would have to read this one eventually, and hopefully I’ll review it at one point in time!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ .25

I also read Hunting Prince Dracula, and wow, the process was a mess (although I might not be able to say the same for the book!). I liked it, but I ran into a lot of problems with reading the dang book. I started it on audiobook, but I lost my place about 2 or 3 times, and I was kind of confused for most of the time. The ending was good enough, I guess, and I thought it was surprising. Did I already review this book? I don’t even remember.

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I also started reading the following books, and I am about half-way finished: Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine, Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman, Escaping from Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco and… Infinity Son by Adam Silvera!

(YES, I got an eARC for Infinity Son! And I cried! I’m so excited to finish it!)

For some reason, I was under the impression that I would get to blog a lot during the summer. And did I do it? No, not really.

While I didn’t blog nearly as much as I thought I would, I did have the time to make some interesting posts! Here are some of my favorites.

(you can click on the post headers to take you to my posts!)

I hosted a 24-hour readathon! It was fun, and I read several books until I passed out!

I made a list of everything we need in the Percy Jackson TV show of our dreams, and it was generally one of the best things I’ve ever done.

If you’ve always wanted an accurate representation of this series, I made this post for you!

Here, I made a list of discussion prompts I would love to see other people write about! I mostly made this post because I noticed some people asking for advice on how to write discussion prompts, or how to find discussion inspiration.

📚 related: 8 Things I Should Have Known When I Started Blogging

If you ever need a list of prompts for your blog, here are some I would love to read! Let me know if you’ve written a post with one of these prompts – I would be delighted to see it!

And lastly, I shared a guide to managing school and blogging! I wrote this post because some of you have asked about how I manage this blog while in school (particulally college, but hey, school is school), and I have answered your call!

If you’ve read this post and you would like more school/blogging tips, let me know! I would love to make another post about this! Just give me some time, because it’ll probably take me a while to come up with some things! But I’ll get there!

Here are some things I’ve done recently, outside of the blog:

• I just came back from my trip to New York City! ✈️ I had an absolutely wonderful time, and I did some bookish things, too! I got to see some muscials (Mean Girls, Frozen, and Phantom of the Opera), and I also visited The Strand, which is one of the biggest bookstores in New York! (and, of course, I bought some bookmarks for the occasion!)
• I lost 6 lbs! 💪 One of the reasons why I haven’t been able to blog as much as I thought I would, was because I was exersizing every day! And it finally paid off! but then I gained it all back when I ate everything NYC had to offer, haha
• Um… this wasn’t really exciting, but my college roommate left the school without notice, right before the new school year, and then I had to scurry to find our who my new roommate was. This was just a hassle, and it also took me like 3 hours to settle everything.
• My dog turned 10 years old! 😭 💕 You’ve never seen her, but her name is Baby Doll and she is the cutest dog on the planet. She just turned 10, and we threw a little party for her!
  • My mother also had a birthday, but I’m not allowed to tell you how old she is! 😉
• Did I mention school is about to start again? I’m not ready.
• I was nominated for Best New Book Blogger! (!!!) Thank you all so so much for getting me this far in the Third Annual Book Blogger Awards!! 💕 I’m eternally grateful, and I’m still shocked! I can’t thank you all enough! Thank you, thank you! It means so much to me that you think I’m a cool new blogger! 🤗 (me giving hugs to each and every one of you)

Okay, I think it’s also become apparent that I am The Worst at keeping track of all of my favorite posts, school or no school. Thankfully, I managed to track down some of my favorite posts from July!

If one of your posts is not listed here, just know that I still love you! 💕 Even if I just ‘liked’ one of your posts, I’m still reading it and enjoying it, but maybe I just didn’t have time to comment or save your post.

✨ Why You Should NEVER Compare Your Blogging Statistics with Others’ from Caitlin @ Caitlin Althea

Caitlin made a terrific discussion about why you shouldn’t compare your blog to other blogs, and it was magical. I could have sworn on my life and my bookshelf that I had commented on it, but I couldn’t find my comment, so… Caitlin, if you’re reading this: thank you for making such a wonderful and encouraging post! 💕 This is something that every new blogger needs to see and keep in mind. We should never compare ourselves to others, because everyone has a different blogging journey. If you haven’t read this post, I highly recommend it! 

✨ TRAVEL DIARIES – CROATIA: SPLIT, KRKA NATIONAL PARK, HVAR ISLAND from Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books

Marie made a post about her recent travels, and the hopeful travel-blogger inside of me jumped for joy! I loved reading about Marie’s wonderful trip to Croatia! The picture she took were stunning, and she made me wish I could just hop on a plane and travel with her!

✨ 5 Things No One Tells You About Blogging // ft. the real truth about what bloggers do!! and July Recap // ft. lots of traveling, riverdale, & I made a cake for harry potter!! from Olivia @ Purely Olivia

Olivia made a great post with things no one tells you about blogging! I think it’s a great list of things you should know when you’re just starting out, but even if you’re not new to the blogging game, this is still a very reassuring post! 😊

I would also just like to point out that Olivia made the Iconic cake for Harry Potter’s birthday, and that is 110% something I would love to do in the future.

✨ BROKEN, AWKWARD, INCOMPETENT, MISMATCHED HEROES: WHY WE NEED THEM IN STORIES from Kathy @ Pages Below the Vaulted Sky

Kathy wrote a post about why “messy heroes” should be in more stories, and it is everything. She talks about reluctant heroes, shy heroes, and generally, every kind of main character which is my favorite. I love reading about these kinds of characters, and I also love writing them, too! This was such an interesting post!

Do I have any news this time? Was I supposed to have news? I’m not sure why this is a category.

• School is starting, and I have no idea what that will do to my schedule! Stay tuned.
• I may or may not participate in a blog tour? Maybe.
• I have a Harry Potter post I’ve been trying to post since October 2018, and I just keep pushing it back, but… I might just post it in September!

Goals! I don’t usually follow any of the goals I set for myself, but like having them here anyway. It doesn’t hurt.

• Post at least 6 posts a month! (This should be a good goal, right? Let’s hope so.)
• Write a little bit more of my WIP! I would like to write 2 more chapters! (Please, future Xandra. Get something done, for once.)
• Read 3 books! I can do it. I hope.

How was your July? How is August so far? Are you also dreading school soon, or are you already in school? (Or maybe you’ve already escaped and you’re free now?) What’s something interesting you did over these past few months?

Let me know, and chat with me about it!

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You can also be my friend on Goodreads!

Happy reading, everyone! 😊