…hi, I’m back!!
If you’ve noticed, it’s been a few weeks since I’ve last published anything or interacted with the blogging community. I know this was a completely unannounced hiatus, but as I’ll explain throughout this post, I wasn’t feeling the best and started to experience major blogging burnout.
I’m excited to be back and ready to post, though, starting off with my June wrap-up where I talk about everything that happened this month!
Before I get started, please use these resources to support the Black community and demand justice for everything that has been going on. Remember to always show your support, even when social justice isn’t “trending.”
– Sign Petitions
– Text, call or email
– Educate yourself with these resources here or here
– Donate
– Support Black authors
– Buy from Black-owned independent bookstores
– Stream these videos to donate
Overall: this site has many links including petitions, funds to donate to, organizations to support and more.
June began with a really good start! I haven’t talked about this on the blog before, but I want to go vegan soon (I’m vegetarian right now), so I experimented with trying out a lot of healthy, vegan meals.
My friend and I also added lots of things to our summer bucket list — of course, things that we can do safely in quarantine. I continued to binge watch The Good Place and tried my best to educate myself and show my support towards the Black community.
Then… around halfway through the month, my mental health went down a bit. I’d really like to stress that this wasn’t anything crazy, it was more like a dip in my motivation levels. I started feeling unmotivated to do basically anything, including keeping up with my blog and YouTube channel and even reading!
I was spending my days wasting time on my phone instead of working on things I needed to do, which caused even more stress for me. I decided that it was best for me to take a break from my online presence until I felt better and more in control, so I focused on recharging myself in other ways!
I wish I could say that I focused more on reading and writing, but as you’ll find out later in this post, those were also pretty meh. However, I did a few other fun things like…
- Learning skateboarding: I had no interest in skateboarding whatsoever, but then I started learning it on impulse… and I’m really enjoying it now! I practiced skateboarding a lot towards the end of this month and I plan on doing so throughout the rest of the summer as well.
- Art (specifically watercolors): I used to be intimidated by watercolors and would always prefer using colored pencils or acrylic paint, but I worked on a lot of watercolor paintings this month and am starting to love the medium! You can see the two pieces I’m most proud of below.
- Redecorating my room: I finally did this and I am so, so happy with how my room turned out. I rearranged the layout to something I’m very happy with, and I finally have a bookshelf in my room as well!!
A few days ago, I also woke up to see the sunrise! I’m not a morning person at all, so it was a struggle waking up at 4:45 AM (after getting around 5 hours of sleep because i couldn’t sleep til 12:00 PM the night before), but it was definitely worth it.
In fact, the view was so beautiful that the pictures featured on the side are barely edited! (And thankfully, I was able to catch up on sleep by sleeping for almost 11 hours the next day, haha.)
I also listened to a wide variety of songs this month, so I’ll just let my playlist speak for itself below. But if I were to choose my top artists this month, they would be Lorde, Clairo, Beach Bunny, and Rina Sawayama. I also listened to many throwback Taylor Swift songs! (also, please ignore the fact that the playlist isn’t centering and it’s messing up my formatting!!)
I was pretty disappointed by my reading this month: I wanted to read more QPOC books for Pride month and more books by Black authors! I also wanted to just read more books overall, but I think my lack of reading had to do with my lack of motivation to do blogging-related things??
However, I actually wrote coherent reviews of almost all of the books I finished this month! I’m specifically really happy with my reviews of Foolish Hearts and You Should See Me In A Crown (you can read them by clicking the hyperlink of each book title below).
Radio Silence by Alice Oseman // 5 stars
This book!!! I’d heard so many good things about Alice Oseman’s novels and decided to pick up Radio Silence first. It definitely lived up to its’ praise: I finished this in two sittings and got teary-eyed reading it (I rarely cry in books so this is a big thing)! Overall, it was absolutely beautiful, and I hope to read more Alice Oseman’s books soon!
We Unleash The Merciless Storm by Tehlor Key Mejia // 3.5 stars
I loved We Set The Dark On Fire so much, so naturally I was looking for the sequel to be strong as well! I’m sad to say that a few things fell flat, especially the slow beginning and repetitiveness. While the ending partially redeemed it (I would still recommend this book), it didn’t live up to the standards that the first book set.
[reread] Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills // 5 stars
I reread this around the time my mental health wasn’t feeling great because this is my ultimate comfort read! I feel guilty for picking it up, especially because I wanted to read so many different other books this month, but reading it really made me happy; it’s one of my favorite contemporaries for a reason.
Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour // 2.5 stars
If you hear anyone crying, it’s me, because I wanted to love this book so badly, but couldn’t because of my problems with the writing style. I was also really bored throughout it and wished I had loved the f/f romance, because it was meh for me!
You Should See Me In A Crown by Leah Johnson // 4 stars
Ahh!! This was such an amazing read!! Liz was a powerful main character, and I loved seeing her growth. My only problem was the slow beginning and a few confusing parts, but other than that, I really enjoyed every aspect of You Should See Me In A Crown!
[reread] Sisters by Raina Telgeimer // 4.5 stars
I’m kind of embarrassed to be including this, but let me give you a little backstory: so this was one of my favorite books growing up, it just has that special nostalgic feeling and is very close to my heart!! I recommended this to my little sister, so after she read it, I impulsively picked it up and ended up getting sucked into the Happy Feelings & Memories™️. I also finished it in 20 minutes…
Becoming by Michelle Obama // 4.5 stars
What else can I say other than the fact that Michelle Obama is so inspiring?? I rarely ever read nonfiction that’s not required reading for school (which needs to change), but I’ve been wanting to read this for a while and was so happy to finally start it. I ended up really enjoying this; it is such a powerful book and something everyone needs to read.
I worked a little bit on my character profiles and had a few outlining breakthroughs, but other than that, I unfortunately did almost no writing this month. I’m not proud of this, but like I’ve said in this post (probably 100 times already), I wasn’t motivated to do much at all this month anyways! I think I needed this break, though, and will try my best to work more on my WIP in July.
Like I mentioned before, I went on a blogging hiatus in June. I struggled a lot with feeling motivated to just write posts in general this month, and when I would get a post idea, I would think that my ideas and thoughts weren’t good or original enough! I’m so glad to be back now, and don’t plan on leaving anytime soon!
On a happier note, though, I changed my blog’s design at the very beginning of this month!! I went all out and redesigned everything: the header, sidebar graphics, post graphics, dividers, and my blog button! (if you could update my blog button with the current one i would really appreciate it <3) I’m really happy with how it turned out and will definitely be keeping this purple aesthetic for a while.
I also started a new blogging schedule where I sometimes post on Wednesdays as well as Saturdays, although this was more like a one-time thing. I don’t want to pressure myself to post multiple times a week, so I think I’m going to stick to only posting on Saturdays from now on.
I will try to post my monthly wrap-ups the day after each month ends, though — which is why I published this post on Wednesday!
My Posts in June (click on the graphic to read them)
Around The Community…
- Margaret recommended 40+ queer books by Black authors to not only read now but forever!
- Faith wrote the most powerful and eloquently-worded discussion about the reality of performative allyship in the book community; everyone needs to read this post!
- May shared the most amazing list of 50+ books about QPOC by QPOC for you to read during Pride and always!
- Marie discussed whether book bloggers’ work is truly valued in this wonderful post!
- Chana wrote an eye-opening discussion about whether you can really separate the art from the artist!
I’m very behind on blog hopping and am still trying to catch up, so I apologize if I featured your post but haven’t commented on it yet!
Also, it’s embarrassing how small this section is, so please feel free to leave posts you’re proud of in the comments below. ❤
how was the month for you? what’s your favorite art medium to work with? do you have any good queer book recs? i hope you have a beautiful July!!
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