July Reflection

Published on by Isabelle @ Nine Tale Vixen

My life, I realize suddenly, is July. Childhood is June, and old age is August, but here it is, July, and my life, this year, is July inside of July.

– Rick Bass

The year is positively flying by, and I haven’t accomplished half the things I wanted to, but time marches on relentlessly and I resign myself to my human limitations. (There’s a million things I haven’t done [and another million that I could do after that]. But just you wait …)

If you’ve left me a comment recently, I love you and I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to reply yet! And if you’ve published a post lately, I probably haven’t had a chance to bloghop to it yet either, though I have tons of tabs open and waiting. (I have a midterm on Thursday, so I’ve been focusing on that; this weekend I’ll hopefully catch up on all the bookish stuff I neglected.) 

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July highlights:
  • While I wouldn’t consider myself super patriotic, 4th of July was a great excuse for a social hangout! We saw the fireworks and had some good food; of course, it was also nice just to catch up with my friends.
  • I was a host for Bookending Summer! Some of the posts I have yet to hop to are based on my prompts, and I’m really looking forward to reading them. Also, I hosted a Twitter chat that was pretty much just me talking to myself — just bad timing on my part, scheduling it around dinner hour 😅
  • 24 in 48 readathon was the weekend after my first midterm, so I celebrated by reading for almost 13 hours the first day (finishing two blog tour ARCs and 5 other books) before returning to my regularly scheduled life upkeep tasks (i.e., cleaning, TN setup, meal prep) and more studying.
  • At long last, I’m unpacked and fully moved in to my off-campus housing! Okay, there are a few boxes that I still need to take care of, but for the most part I’m settled. What matters is that I can now switch my focus to lifestyle and academic goals. Organized room, organized mind, or however the saying goes.
header: posted this month

My Best July Posts

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Other Awesome July Posts

header: read this month

Clicking on the titles below will take you to the book’s Goodreads page; clicking on the flames (which indicate my rating out of 5) will take you to my review. Books marked as [ARC] were received as Advance Review Copies; [RC] indicates a post-release review copy.

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23 total, 3.67 average rating

Top read(s) of the month: Queer Eye by The Fab Five & Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki

Currently reading:

header: coming out next month

ARCs I Have

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Waiting for Release Day

header: looking to next month

Although I’ve been doing pretty well keeping up with review copies, I’ll be participating in ARC August and Netgalley #Reviewathon to hopefully stay ahead of the game — with my summer vacation half over, I’m all too aware that, all too soon, full-time-student commitments will retake control of my life. 

Although summer vacation is a relative term here, since I’ve been taking a class that meets five days a week and requires a lot of self-study time. It’s the main reason I wasn’t able to participate in Tidyathon or generally engage with the bookish community as much as I’d wanted. My final exam is August 14 (wish me luck!); once that’s done I’ll have the rest of the month to rest and prepare for the upcoming semester.

In addition to the usual back-to-school reorganization, I plan on doing a lot of the blog maintenance / optimization that I didn’t get to this past month, as well as finally clearing out my backlog of reviews. I have a pretty long list of each to work through, but none of it is really urgent so I’m trying not to overwhelm myself.

Other than that, I’m keeping my options fairly open. True summer vacation, in my mind, calls for some spontaneity and flexibility … whether that’s a beach day with my friends or a Good Omens rewatch on repeat for a week.

What’s the best book you read in July? Did you read any of this month’s releases, or ARCs of August/September releases? Have you set any goals for August?

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17 thoughts on “July Reflection”

  1. Happy to hear you are now all set up in your dorm house ! Also the best of luck to you on your midterm 💕

    I so agree- proper summer vacations shall be relaxing, spontaneous and fun! I hope you’ll get to have a little « end of summer » fun before going back to studies! Xx

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    1. you’re very welcome! and yes, it’s awesome to be (mostly) done unpacking – it takes quite a lot of mental and physical energy to get everything settled, but at the same time I love the chance to reorganize and redecorate 😊

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    1. haha it’s been a pretty good reading month for me; as I mentioned, I did 24in48 readathon so that helped a lot; I also read a lot of graphic novels and listened to audiobooks during my daily commute, so it all adds up!

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  4. I read a lot of good books this month, so it would be hard to pick, but man, I am so looking forward to the UK release of We Hunt the Flame and for some blog tours I’m a part of for August.

    Yay for being unpacked!! I am still waiting to see when I’ll move into my place lol, ughhhh.

    I’m so looking forward to The Downstairs Girl btw <3333

    Let’s hope August is just kick butt and cooler than July lol (Thank you for including my poooooost)

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    1. I’ve heard so many good things about We Hunt the Flame! it’s definitely one (of the many) I’m looking forward to picking up hopefully soon. and honestly, having read too many good books to pick a favorite sounds like the best kind of problem to have 😉

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  5. Pingback: [Tag] Who Am I Book Tag – Sometimes Leelynn Reads

  6. Congrats on moving into your off-campus housing!
    All the best for your exam and I hope you do well on it!
    I am also participating in Rc August and Reviewathon and I think it will be a lot of fun!
    Hope you have a great August!

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  7. Aaaah you read so many books, go youuuu. Also good luck for your exam, sending you all the good vibes Izzy I’m sure you’ll smash it! And thank you for sharing Charvi and I’s collab post! It was a ton of fun to write that post with her ❤ hope you have a great August

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  8. You read The Priory of the Orange Tree AND 22 other books?! I am flabbergasted. And seriously impressed. I caught up on bloghopping at the end of July (thank you Tidyathon), but then seriously fell off the wagon again, and tonight had a loooooong list of 243 to try and catch up on (I’m down to 169 now, but I’ve been sitting here for literal hours reading posts…) 😅 Please don’t ever feel you need to comment back to me, or read my blog posts!!
    And good luck with your mid-term! That is probably now over… (it’s Friday night here, so must by very, very late Thursday or possibly very, very early Friday morning…)

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    1. I actually started Priory at the beginning of June, I can’t remember now how far I was into it but it was definitely more than halfway LOL.

      and thank you so much, Meeghan 💕 bloghopping and comments pile up so quickly, it’s astounding and more than a little alarming … but luckily both are fun for me!

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  9. Yay for moving in and getting all settled into your off campus accomodation! Are you sharing with people? I hope you enjoy living wherever you will be living and that the back to school organisation and getting ready goes well. I also really like the sound all the blogging and reading events you still managed to join in on. Hope August is treating you well x

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