Monthly Wrap-Up: June 2014

On the blog last month

June wasn't a great blogging month for me. It's taken me until 2 July to even put this wrap-up post together... I haven't replied to comments in forever, I haven't read nearly as many books as I would like, I've been failing to keep up with other blogs for the most part, I haven't managed to do Sunday Posts for the past two weeks... ): But hopefully July will be a better month!

I reviewed 10 books in June. Of these, 5 were for Mental Health Awareness Month (I've put an asterisk by those).

• *Review: These Gentle Wounds by Helene Dunbar (3 stars)
• Mini-review: The Snake Charm by Laura Lam (3.5 stars)
• *Review: Crazy by Amy Reed (4.5 stars)
• Mini-review: The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman (4 stars)
• Review: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (3.5 stars)
• Review: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (4 stars)
• *Mini-review: I Don't Want to Be Crazy by Samantha Schutz (4 stars)
• Review: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige (4 stars)
• *Review: Dr Bird's Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos (4 stars)
• *Review: Amy & Matthew by Cammie McGovern (3 stars)

Best of the bunch? That would be Crazy by Amy Reed, which I loved for its interesting format (the story is told mostly through emails between the two MCs) and its heartfelt emotion and gut-wrenchingly beautiful writing. A dizzyingly captivating story about a girl with bipolar disorder and the boy who falls in love with her.

I enjoyed Mental Health Awareness Month, though I was planning to read at least 6 books for it and I only managed to read 5.

Even though June was Pride Month, I failed to read any books with a real focus on LGBTQ content. This makes me sad. The Snake Charm is a short story set in the universe of the Micah Grey series though, which is a wonderful LGBTQ series, and the MC of The Snake Charm is Drystan, who as we know from the series is not straight, though this is not brought up in The Snake Charm. Crazy featured an unusually high number of side characters who were LGBTQ (four!) for a book whose MCs were not queer. But other than that, none of the books I read even featured any minor LGBTQ characters.

I bought Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis thinking I would manage to read it in June, but that did not happen. I will try to read this month or next.

(Cayce @ Fighting Dreamer made an absolutely awesome rainbow of YA LGBTQ books for Pride Month though! :D Go check it out!)

What have I been doing the past two weeks? Uh, I watched The Fault in Our Stars, which made me weep starting from about halfway through the film till the very end. Strange experience, watching half the film through such blurry vision. I went to Scotland. The Isle of Skye is so pretty! What with all the long car journeys I had, I finally managed to catch up with Welcome to Night Vale, which is ABSOLUTELY GLORIOUS. Then I went to a ball which lasted from about 8pm till 6am, which was fun. After that I flew home to Hong Kong. And now here I am in Hong Kong. Until 27 July, when I will fly back to England again to start my summer internship.

I don't really have any special plans for July, only the hope that I'll at least read one LGBTQ book. Plus I've been meaning to do a Strange Chemistry giveaway ever since I heard the sad news about them closing, so hopefully I will get around to that soon!

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How are you all? Sorry I've been so terrible at replying to comments! I WILL CATCH UP SOON, I PROMISE.