July 2020 Wrap-Up

It’s mid-August, and I am writing my July wrap-up post. I guess it’s never too late to do wrap-ups. Since my recent venture into actually doing blogging instead of merely posting reviews, I want to catch up on all my monthly wrap-ups starting March. So far, I still need to do May and June.

The global situation has definitely led me to read way more books than I used to, but then again, it has been a personally stressful semester for me. A lot of important things are happening in my life right now, including my recent graduation with a master’s and starting my PhD studies. With everything going on, nothing is certain and it makes me really restless all the time.

Books are a wonderful escape, and I admit I may have been running away from my school duties, such as a few academic papers that I should have finished writing and textbooks that I should have studied. Sorry, Boss.

Stats

I am going to step into the stereotype of being an engineer/scientist and bombard you with statistics of my July reads.

• I read 19 books.
• 18 of them are fiction (95%) and the other one is a poetry collection.
• 15 of the 18 fictional works are sapphic romance, one is not romance but somewhat sapphic (The Tea Dragon Tapestry), and the nonfiction is by a sapphic author (Courtney Peppernell). The last one is The Gilded Wolves which is also LGBTQ+*. In short, I read 100% LGBTQ+ books this month!
• 18 of them are by women or women-aligned authors** while the other one is by a non-binary individual (Noelle Stevenson).
• 12 of which are review copies from publishers.
• My average rating is 3.63 stars.
• Total page count is 4469 pages.
• I finished my 111th book of year 2020.

One thing that surprises me is that more than 63% of what I read is ARCs (or backlisted review copies)! I thought I read a lot of backlist works because cannot stop reading Nicole Pyland’s books. My friend Lex on Goodreads had told me about her plans of designating one day every week to read books from her own backlist. I think I need to do this as well. There are so many published works sitting in my Kindle, laptop, and on my bookshelf that I have yet to read!

Also, this place is slowly becoming a sapphic book blog, which was not my original intention. But hey, why not?

* Because of the connotation of the word “queer,” I am trying not to use it unless the characters or authors I am referring to specifically used the word to describe themselves.
** I may have assumed their genders from their bios. We know that not everyone who use she/her/hers pronouns is a woman or woman-aligned person, so please let me know if there is any misgendering!

Books I Read

Click on the book title for more info on Goodreads.

Turns out I have reviewed every single book I have read in July! Yay me!

• Just Tell Her by Nicole Pyland | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [review on GR]
• Love Walked into The Lantern by Nicole Pyland | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [review on GR]
• The Chicago Series: What Happened After… by Nicole Pyland | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [review on GR]
• The Tea Dragon Tapestry by Katie O’Neill | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [review]
• Out on the Ice by Kelly Farmer | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ [review on GR]
• Kiss Me Everyday by Dena Blake | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [review]
• A Heart This Big by Cheyenne Blue | ⭐️⭐️ [review on GR]
• Blades of Bluegrass by D. Jackson Leigh | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [review]
• Serenity by Jesse J. Thoma | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [review]
• Hopes and Dreams by PJ Trebelhorn | ⭐️⭐️ [review]
• A Love that Leads to Home by Ronica Black | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [review]
• Hopeless Romantic by Georgia Beers | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [review]
• Laid Bare edited by Astrid Ohletz & Jae | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [review on GR]
• Sylver and Gold by Michelle Larkin | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [review]
• The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ [review on GR]
• Stitching the Soul by Courtney Peppernell | ⭐️⭐️ [review]
• The Harbinger by Mary Eicher | ⭐️ [review on GR]
• Nimona by Noelle Stevenson | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [review on GR]
• Always More by Nicole Pyland | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [review on GR]

Quick Summary

In July 2020, I read 19 books, a total of 4,469 pages, and my average rating is 3.63 stars.

For more of my reviews and other whatnots, follow my blog, my Twitter, and friend me on Goodreads.