June Wrap Up | ’18

Obligatory ‘damn you space-time continuum and your consistent moving-forward-ness’.

Happy July! I actually did a decent bit of reading in June – there was the MangaReadathon that got me reading quite a bit of manga. So I had set my Goodreads goal for 40 books this year, thinking it’d be a slower year for me, aaaaand now I’m sitting at 39 read. It’s pretty neat.

So this is what’s been goin’ down:

Books

I read 22 things this month, 16 of them being manga and 6 being books:

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J Maas

I bought this one shortly after it came out, hoping it would be an improvement on the third one. Buuut it was a bit of a downer, wasn’t great, was just okay. I wrote a blabber on it if you’d like to know more of my thoughts.

3 stars

Livingstone vols 2-4 by Tomohiro Maekawa

This series I finished up this month after starting it last month during the borrowathon. I rather enjoyed this series, and definitely recommend it. I also wrote a blabber on this one as well. 😀 It follows two character as they try to keep people’s souls from shattering. It’s really neat.

4 stars

Halo: The Flood by William C Dietz

I picked this up at the behest of my coworker, who was the one who got me to read the first one last month. I enjoyed this one as well, but I think I liked the first one better. The series is written by a different author each book, so I’m thinking it was just the writing style change. It’s still a decent series though, and I’ll be picking up the third one soon-ish.

3 stars

Fool’s Fate by Robin Hobb

This one. Gosh, this one. I’ve tried to write a blabber about it a handful of times now, and it keeps getting jumbled. I have so many feelings about this book, and I can’t get them straight. Maybe at some point I’ll get a coherent blabber out for this. Augh, this one will be with me for a long time. This whole trilogy will. I read it with Zezee, and I know she’s still jumbled in knots about it too. ONE DAY I’LL GET OVER IT. MAYBE.

5 stars

Just Around the Corner by Touko Kawai

I read this manga as part of the manga readathon. It was a gift to me by that one friend that I have mentioned – the one where our tastes are 100% alike or way way way off kilter. This, unfortunately, was the latter. I didn’t like this. The plot twist in this book made me feel so uncomfortable, and I will be trading this one in. It’s not staying on my shelves. The only reason it didn’t get a one star is because the art style was nice.

2 stars

Scryed vol 1 by Yasunari Toda

Read as part of the manga readathon, this fulfilled the challenge of ‘oldest manga on my tbr’. I must have bought this near a decade ago. I remember loving the anime when it was on tv so I figured I’d like this too. Well, I did, but I feel the anime is better. 😛 Sue me.

3 stars

Black Powder War by Naomi Novik

Ahhh this series is so good! I’ve been rereading it by listening on audiobook and I’m enjoying it so much. It’s so great. It’s a historical fantasy about dragon warfare during the napoleonic era, and it’s cute and funny and actiony and just.. wahh ❤

5 stars

 

Demon Diary vols 1-7 by Kara

I read this entire seven volume series for the manga readathon and adored it (up until the end, which was just okay.) This follows a young man who is forced into the role of demon lord and is honestly not suited or it at all. It’s a fluffy cute series mostly about his mentor getting aggravated as he tries to train the main character into being a decent ruler. This series had so much more potential and could have easily gone on another ten volumes. The ending though was a bit abrupt, resulting in vol 7 getting 3 stars, but the rest hovering around 4-5 stars each.

4.5 stars

Seraph of the End vols 1-2 by Takaya Kagami

I ended up really liking the first volume of this and the second was… not as good. Being a vampire series I was a bit iffy about it, but it surprised me with the uniqueness of it. The second volume however went downhill because I can’t stand the main character. 😛 He’s a pain in the butt.

3.5 stars

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

I FINALLY FINISHED IT. I’VE BEEN READING THIS BOOK SINCE THE BEGINNING OF JANUARY. This book was such a challenge for me, but because it was on my 10 in 2018 list, I wanted to give it my best to try and actually finish the thing. There are so many things about this book that I liked and so many that I didn’t. This will be getting a blabber soon, and I hope I can give its complexity justice.

2.75 stars

A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape From North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa

This is the third memoir I’ve read about a person from North Korea. Each one of them, including this one, crushed me. I cried. This book is just so much to take in. I can’t give it anything but 5 stars. How am I supposed to give a rating to someone’s life? Especially someone who has suffered so much.

5 stars

Orange: The Complete Collection vols 1-2 by Ichigo Takano

I finally finished this series as of yesterday. I had read the first one a while ago and forgot the details, so I reread it and then the second one as part of the Tome Topple Readathon, which is still ongoing. I loved it, and I have the sequel-afterward thingy still to read, but that will wait until after the readathon is over.

4.75 stars

AND THAT’S IT. THAT’S ALL THE BOOKS. YEESH.

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Other Things

• I saw Incredibles 2 this month, which was wonderful. My husband hadn’t seen the first one, so I went out and bought it, we watched it, and then we went to see the second one the next day. 😀
• I managed to get tickets to see Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me! recorded live, so I’m going to Chicago in August!

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Reading Goals

• Complete my Goodreads Challenge of 40 books: 39/40
• Complete my 10 in 2018 list of books: 2/10
• Keep book buying low (6-8 books/season):
  • January-March purchases: 9
  • April-June purchases: 12
  • July-September purchases:
  • October-December purchases:
• Get my physical TBR down to 270 books: 307
• Finish the r/Fantasy Book Bingo Challenge by Mar 31, 2019

• Participate in the Beat the Backlist Challenge
  • 21 books read towards the challenge this month
    • Total: 34 books
  • 0 photo challenge posts made this month (Shameless plug to Instagram)
    • Total: 8 posts

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And that’s it! Happy reading!