My Goings On in June:
- June was a month of subtle changes. Since the school year technically ended in June, my kids and I are doing less school, BUT we don’t actually stop altogether – and in some ways I feel busier since I have to be pretty hands-on with the stuff we’re continuing (math for my daughter and a special reading program for my son who has learning disabilities).
- I started the copyediting certificate program at UC San Diego.
- I took on a new volunteer leadership role in the children’s ministry at our church that means a bit more time and attention.
- I started my first manga series (Death Note) and watched my first anime series (Blue Spring Ride). Really enjoyed both of these! We also started watching the anime version of Death Note, but decided we weren’t interested enough to watch the whole thing since we’re already reading the manga. I think I prefer the romance type anime.
- I started doing the Couch to 5K program because our family plans to run a 5K in Spetember. This means I’m listening to more audiobooks!
- I started a new series while doing the elliptical – Reign. I’m not managing to watch this as often as past series since I’m running more and doing the elliptical less, but I’m enjoying the series so far!
Most Popular Posts:
The Perils of Growing a Bigger Blog
June Discussion Challenge Link-Up & Giveaway
Other Features & Discussions:
My 2016 Reading Progress:
I’ve pulled way ahead on my Goodreads reading goal this summer. I think that’s partially because I’m listening to so many more audiobooks – plus, it doesn’t hurt that eight of my 102 read books were manga! 🙂
June 2016 Reviews
Here’s a recap of the books I reviewed in June:
- Out of Play by Nyrae Dawn and Jolene Perry | Review | Rating: 4/5
- The Problem with Forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout | Review | Rating: 5/5
- Wanderlost by Jen Malone | Review | Rating: 4/5
- Winging It by Cate Cameron | Review | Rating: 4/5
- The Clay Lion by Amalie Jahn | Review | Rating: 4/5
- The Wrath & the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh | Review | Rating: 3.5/5
- The Rose & the Dagger by Renee Ahdieh | Review | Rating: 4.5/5
- The Moth & the Flame by Renee Ahdieh | Review | Rating: 4/5
- The Crown & the Arrow by Renee Ahdieh | Review | Rating: 2/5
- The Mirror & the Maze by Renee Ahdieh | Review | Rating: 3/5
- 738 Days by Stacey Kade | Review | Rating: 4.5/5
- Moonchild by Kate L. Mary | Review | Rating: 4/5
- Summer of Supernovas by Darcy Woods | Review | Rating: 4/5
- This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab | Review | Rating: 5/5
- Porcelain Keys by Sarah Beard | Review | Rating: 4/5
- The Accident Season by Katie Coyle | Review | Rating: 4.5/5
- Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone | Review | Rating: 4.5/5
June Best of the Bunch:
The Best of the Bunch meme is hosted over at Cocoon of Books and encourages us to pick our favorite book of the month! I use books I reviewed this month for this meme, rather than books I read.
I couldn’t possibly decide between these two. I love them both, and they’re so different that it’s very hard to even compare them!
Reading Challenges:
Status: 22/49 Discussions posted
I don’t think I’ll make it to my goal with this challenge, but I pretty much knew it was an impossible goal. (I actually meant to change the highest level to be a little less this year, but I forgot until after I’d already posted the goals.) Still, having that high goal encourages me to post a discussion every week as often as possible!
The Perils of Growing a Bigger Blog
Is Celibacy Shaming a Thing?
Fun with Spam!
#BEA16 Day One Wrap-Up & Giveaway!!
#BEA16 Day Two Wrap-Up & Jennifer Niven Holding Up the Universe Giveaway!!
#BEA16 Day Three Wrap-Up and Giveaway
Do Stats and Reports Help You?
Do Author Bios Ever Make You Want to Read a Book?
BEA is Coming Soon! What You Need to Know. (BEA Tips)
A Completely Useless (but kind of fun) Bookish Infographic
The Series Dilemma
Sometimes You Just Need to Disappear for a Little While
How Much Do You Read?
The Fine Line Between “Inspired By” and “Copycat”
Can Book Blogging Lead to a Job
Some Books Just Aren’t All That Memorable
Books that Intimidate Us
2015 End of Year Book Survey
Replying to Comments on Older Posts
What Blogging Has Done to My Bookshelves
What Type of YA MC Would You Be?
Culling the TBR
HOST/SIGN-UP LINK – Feed Your Fiction Addiction & It Starts at Midnight
Status: 3/5 Books Read
Every Last Word involved LOTS of poetry, so I’m counting that one toward this challenge!
HOST/SIGN-UP LINK – Shooting Stars Mag
Status: 11/12 Books Read
The Wrath & the Dawn Series was set in Persia (I only counted the actual books in my total, not the novellas)
Moonchild by Kate L. Mary – the main love interest in this one is dark skinned (I believe black, but I’m actually not sure.)
Sadly, I just realized now that I didn’t review a single book in June (Pride month) that featured LGBTQ main characters! I should have been more intentional about that.
HOST/SIGN-UP LINK – Chasing Faerytales & Read Sleep Repeat
Status: 10/21-30 Books Read
The Wrath & the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
Ugh! I’m not doing great with this challenge. The combination of BEA and some tours I’ve signed up for has made it nearly impossible!
HOST/SIGN-UP LINK – Chapter Break, Second Run Reviews & Bookworm Brandee
Status: 5/12 Series Finished
I read the entire Wrath & the Dawn Series this month!
HOST/SIGN-UP LINK – Love at First Page
Status: 6/9-10 New Series
The Wrath & the Dawn counts for this one too!
HOST/SIGN-UP LINK – Lisa Loves Literature
Wrap-Up Round-Up!
Don’t forget to link your June wrap-up posts up to the Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up! And check out the giveaway, which will be posted right here on FYFA on the 9th!
So many books read in June! Wow! Good job!
Happy July!
Yes, this was a great reading and reviewing month!
Definitely sounds like you were busy in June, but hopefully everything is going well. Good luck with your course and I hope your children’s reading and math goes well too. That’s great you’ve been listening to a lot while working out. I need to make it back to the gym soon. It’s been weirdly hectic and I haven’t had as much time. I walked outside and swam a lot in the past month though so that counts!
Swimming is great exercise – that definitely counts!
What a great reading month you had! You had a busier month than I did. Congratulations on taking on the leadership role at church! I’ve put audiobooks on hold at the moment so I can read more books, but I have 8 reviews to write so I really should be doing that, but it can wait, right? 🙂
My sidebar has a whole list of books that I’ve read and haven’t reviewed too. I’m horrible about that sometimes!
Hey you’re reading some awesome books though. I’m not doing too well with #Shelflove either, and it’s my challenge! But this past month I’ve focused on SYNC audiobooks so yea really behind on my goal too heh.
I’ve been listening to a lot of the SYNC audiobooks too – I love them! BEA made the Shelf Love challenge really difficult for me – so many shiny ARCs to read!!
It’s amazing that you’ve already read 102 books this year. That’s my goal for the entire year. I think I’ve only read 55 so far. Good luck with your kids’ schooling and your editing certificate. 🙂
I’m doing really well on my reading goal – I’ve managed to read LOTS of books lately, especially with audiobooks being added into the mix!
I love the show Reign. I like watching animes too. I have been watching Michiko and Hatchin. It’s a mother and daughter one.
I’ll have to check that one out! Thanks for the recommendation!
I’m way ahead on my Goodreads challenge as well! I’d say like you, that mine is partly due to audiobooks, as well as all the free ebooks I’ve been reading lately, short books I think. Looks like you’re still doing well on my challenge that I’m hosting! I can’t believe you signed up for 49 discussion posts! Wow! Although I guess that is less than one a week. You can check out my June wrap-up post in the link below.
Oh my goodness, what a fabulous reading month for you! Wow! And yay to JLA’s book being one of your favorites, I adored Rider and Mallory’s story and I’m so happy when other people do too. ❤
Woah, good job with all the reading you got done in June girl *high five* I really MUST get my hands on This Savage Song…after your glowing review for it I read another one and now my main focus is: GET THAT BOOK ASAP XD Happy July! xx
It can be so satisfying to read through an entire series at once! Interesting that you had such different ratings for the different stories. I haven’t started it yet and I’m a bit hesitant because of mixed reviews.
That’s awesome that you get to read the entire series of The Wrath and the Dawn! I still need to read that, so it’s interesting to see your thoughts on it. Good luck with the Couch to 5k program!
This Savage Song was absolutely stunning! And I am totally impressed at how many books you were able to read and review this month. I wish!!!
Another June wrap up and another busy month by the sounds of it! With school over I can only imagine how crazy busy it can get and congrats on starting the copyediting certificate program at UC San Diego and taking on a new volunteer leadership role in the children’s ministry! Heaps of great books for June and many that are on my TBR list, others I haven’t heard of so I’ll check them out!!
So many amazing books last month and I’m glad you enjoyed the majority of them! The Problem with Forever is high on m TBR list and I’m just itching to get in paperback when I have a book spree so I’m super glad that one was one of your favs and it seems many other enjoyed it too! The Savage Song is one I’m also interested in reading, the synopsis has definitely intrigued me!
Wow!!! How many mange to read s many books in a month!?! I only get time to read like 3 book..:(
It’s high time I start reading manga too.And watch Deathnote 😀