What I’ve been up to in June 💐 Prideathon & A Difficult Mental Health Time

Hello fellow bookworms 💐 June was a somewhat difficult month. Quarantine caught up with me and with no news about my Master Applications, I was pretty much stuck in monotonous days, so to be honest, not that much happened during the last month. Plus, it started getting warmer and you know how much I dislike summer weather, at least I had my delicious ice tea with me. In general, I tried to make the best of my time and I did read some great books and watched amazing shows, so something good came out of the month as well! ✨ In other ways, June was also full of fighting for Black Lives Matter and other injustices that are currently happening around the world. That’s why I wanted to include another compilation of links about information and resources if you want to get involved or inform yourself on what’s currently going on!

• Important carrds to check out if you want to educate yourself & help out
• BLM 2020 Resources Spreadsheet
• BLM Resources Masterlist
• Editorial Edge’s Black Fiction Directory
• Queer YA Books by Black Authors Spreadsheet

🔄 = Reread 💌 = Library Books 🌈 = Here and Queerathon

🐯 = #YARC2020  ✨= #StartOnYourShelfathon  ⌛ = Digital Arc

Did I chill more this month compared to the previous ones? I’d probably say yes, as I finally did some more rereads instead of chasing after all my library loans and new releases. As an avid reader, it was amazing to finally take the time to revisit some of my favorite worlds and spend time with beloved characters – I reread Simon VS. and Queens of Geek for Pride Month and then also started rereading the Miss Peregrine’s books as I was really in the mood for them 🥰 I’ve just ordered the fifth book in the series – The Conference of the Birds – that just came out and I cannot wait to dive into it! In total, I read 17 books, 4 of them graphic novels! I participated in Prideathon this month and read 11 books for the Readathon, among them many new favorite books, something that made me really happy this month. In general, I did read some great books like finally getting to the Wayward Children Series which surprised me by really getting me invested in the story and A Blade So Black, a great Alice in Wonderland retelling ❤

I feel like every month I read fewer books for the challenge, but to be honest, I have been doing a lot more mood-reading lately and there is still the rest of the year to read all the books I’ve been wanting to get to. In June I read 3 books out of my comfort zone, one of them an adult graphic novel and the other two YA historical fiction books, one of them also contained a mystery element. I’m really happy with that as I haven’t read that much historical fiction this month, something you can see in my Mid Year Update that I did as we’ve already reached the halfway point of the year 😱

My Calamity Jane (Ashton, Meadows, Hand) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌 

Bingo Love (Franklin, St-Onge, San, Rae) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌 🌈 

Deadly Curious (Cindy Anstey) ⭐⭐⭐ ⌛

1. Queens of Geek (Jen Wilde) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🌈🔁

2. Simon VS. the Homosapiens Agenda (Becky Albertalli) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🌈 🔁

3. Every Heart a Doorway (Seanan McGuire) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 🌈 💌

4. Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Seanan McGuire) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🌈 💌

5. Beneath the Sugar Sky (Seanan McGuire) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 🌈 💌

6. My Calamity Jane (Ashton, Meadows, Hand) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌 

7. Bingo Love (Franklin, St-Onge, San, Rae) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌 🌈 

8. You Should See Me in a Crown (Leah Johnson) ⭐⭐⭐.5 💌 🌈 

9. Clap When You Land (Elizabeth Acevedo) ⭐⭐⭐ 💌 🌈 

10. The Avant Guards Vol 1. (Usdin & Hayes) ⭐⭐⭐ 💌 🌈

11. The Avant Guards Vol 2. (Usdin & Hayes) ⭐⭐⭐.5 💌 🌈

12. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 🔁

13. Hollow City (Ransom Riggs) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 🔁

14. Library of Souls (Ransom Riggs) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 🔁

15. A Blade so Black (L.L. McKinney) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌

16. Ghosts (Raina Tegemeier) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💌

17. Deadly Curious (Cindy Anstey) ⭐⭐⭐ ⌛

Favorite Book 💕

💐 The Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus Character Book Tag ⚡ It’s Nostalgia Time Again 🥺 💐 LGBTQ Recommendations 🌈 If You Like This … Then You’ll Like That

💐 Review: We Used to be Friends by Amy Spalding 💔 Friendship Breakups are Hard 💐 Mid Year Book Freakout Tag ⭐ Screaming about new faves, disappointment and the passage of time

💐 Stuck at Home Book Tag 🌺 Priority TBR & ‘Stuck at home’ Activities 💐 Out of Comfort Zone Reading Challenge 💗 Mid-Year Checkin

💐 Blog Tour: Deadly Curious by Cindy Anstey 🌹 Mystery & Romance 💐 20 Books by Black Authors I’d Like to Read 📚 Backlist Books & 2020 Releases

For this section of my wrapup I’m linking up with the Favorite Blog Posts of the Month Meme that has been created by Kristin @ kristinkravesbooks to showcase our favorite blogs of the month!

• Recommendations: 20+ LGBTQ+ Books by Black Authors (Anniek @ anniekslibrary)
• Reacting to Book Twitter’s Unpopular Opinions // Enemies-to-Lovers, Fantasy Book Titles, & more & All My Thoughts on Blog Hopping // Why I Do It, My Blog Hopping Process, & more & The Stuck at Home Book Tag // Basically my Pride Month TBR + Some LGBT Book Recs! & Favorite Posts of the Month: May 2020 // Introducing a New Feature!! (Caitlin @ caitlinalthea)
• Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books by Trans Authors You Should be Reading and Recommending (Ben @ aceofbens)
• My top 4 tips for staying motivated & productive! (Emme @ A Literary Latte)
• Are the Publishing Industry and YA Book Community Really the Inclusive and Safe Spaces They Claim to Be? // A Discussion on Performative Allyship and Anti-Blackness in the Book Community (Faith @ Pages Left Unread)
• What I’ve Been (Binge-)Watching #34 & What I’ve Been (Binge-)Watching #35 (Kat @ lifeandotherdisasters)
• 30+ book bloggers and readers share their favourite LGBTQIAP+ books and anticipated releases for Pride Month (Kate @ readingthroughinfinity)
• Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag, in which I am indecisive & If you liked this, try this | LGBTQ+ books, part 2! & 40+ queer books by Black authors to support this Pride month (and always) (Margaret @ weirdzeal)
• Best books of 2020 so far & Is book bloggers’ work really valued? & 20 YA books to read for Pride Month (Marie @ drizzleandhurricanebooks)
• Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag: 2020 Edition! (aka How Many Times Do I Talk About The Poppy War) & 50+ YA Books by QPOC About QPOC that You Should Have on Your TBR, Especially for Pride Month!! (May @ foreverandeverly)
• My Top 8 LGBTQ Reads (Sophie @ sophiexli)
• In a book blogging slump? Here are 10+ tips to re-discover that creative spark (ft. sides of motivation and societal reflections) (Taasia @ libraepaintspages)
• The Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus Character Book Tag (Tiffany @ readbytiffany)
• My Recent Favourite Books & The Best Opposites Attract Couples & The Good Reading Habits Tag & Results: Five Star Predictions (Pt. 1) & The Stuck At Home Book Tag, ft. What We’ve Been Doing During the Lockdown (Veronika & Sabrina @ wordyandwhimsical)
• My Summer TBR // we all know this is subject to change, but I’m trying & The Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus Character Book Tag (Xandra @ starryskybooks)

My Mental Health really took a dive out of the window this month. I feel like quarantine was finally catching up with me in a way. I’ve been at home again after finishing my Bachelor Thesis in Mid-March but only in June did things really get to me. It’s strange that it only happened now, but not having many plans (unlike my family and friends I didn’t return to work or even online classes and most other things were canceled) and being stuck in the same routine took a toll on my mental health. I was beginning to feel increasingly unhappy and just really off – I wasn’t sleeping as well and even keeping up with my Master Applications didn’t give me enough to do. I love blogging and reading, but every day it felt like I was doing the same. Going out more and raking up jogging id help me a lot though – I tried making tentative plans to get out of the house a bit more while still staying safe. At the end of June, I’m feeling a lot better and hope to take up Revision again because I did nothing writing-related all month due to feeling so off. I tried revising but it was so halfhearted, so I stopped and took a break instead of forcing it because I knew I wouldn’t be happy with the results. Let’s hope July is a bit better writing-wise!

Things that made me happy 😊 (I’m just keeping this as a fixed installment in my wrapup now, it’s definitely important to highlight all the good things that have happened instead of only talking about the bad stuff)

• I watched Sherlock (BBC) and it really helped me. I had this on my watchlist for ages, as I never got around to watching the series in my early Tumblr days (unlike Supernatural, which I discovered back then) and the hype had died down a bit by now.  So at the beginning of the month back when I was feeling really out of it, I decided to start a new show and I immediately fell in love with Sherlock. It’s far from being flawless, but I got so attached to the characters, and quite frankly hanging on to the show really helped me when my Mental Health was at its worst. I’m really glad that I gave the show a chance because it meant so much to me this month 💗
• In general, there was much amazing show news! The third and final season of Dark came out at the end of the month and a new Lucifer Season was announced for the end of August! Lucifer is another one of my favorite shows and due to COVID I didn’t think they had finished filming but apparently, it worked out and now a 6th season was announced as well!! Plus, Queer Eye’s 5th season came out and the Umbrella Academy will be coming back in July. That’s great news for me and my friend Sandra! We rewatched the first two seasons of Dark to prepare to dive into the final season and also watched some Ghibli movies – it all really made me feel happy and relaxed ❤

I love them 💕🌈

July finally brings things to look forward to again 🌞 I’ll be (hopefully) going on a short vacation at the end of the month with my family, as we couldn’t do our cruise back in May. We booked a vacation home in a lesser-traveled part of Germany so that it’s not going to be as full as other places might be. I’m quite excited to finally be out of the house again and have a change of scenery, it’s going to be good for me to see something new – while of course still staying safe. It’s just nice to have something to look forward to again, as all plans were suspended this year and I still have no idea where I’ll go to University in the fall, so having some sort of plan is really nice.

Apart from that, I’ll be trying to go outside a bit more to take a walk or go running or just sit on the porch and do some reading 📚 I only plan to participate in one Readathon this month and that will be the ReadingRush at the end of July – lasting one week – that I wanted to join last year, but was too late for. I love the sense of community and reading motivation that accompany Readathons, so it will hopefully be a great week full of reading! I also plan to finally read some more of my owned books and don’t have a big TBR that I set for myself, so I can chill even more. I’ll try to make the most of the free time that I have now, as surely things will get busier in the fall and now I have all the time to read the books that I want, do some writing, blogging and generally what I want ❤

A gentle reminder ❤

What were you up to in June? What was your favorite book this month? I hope you’re staying safe 💐

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