July Wrap-Up | Summer Break is Already Over?

I have exactly nine days until school starts. When did summer break become so short? This summer has flown by and I can’t believe that I’m beginning junior year next Tuesday. It’s crazy to think that I’m already halfway through high school. It feels like only yesterday that I was in online schooling freshman year.

July was a pretty busy month for me so I didn’t get to read as much as I would’ve liked, but still got some decent reading in. Let’s go over what I read!

BOOKS READ

We Were Liars (We Were Liars #1) by E. Lockhart (reread)|📖|★★★.5
After rereading this, I realized some things that I didn’t notice the first time. I’m not in love with the writing style. It had a lot of adverbs at the beginning of the sentences, like “probably we would do this.” Also, I’m sorry to say this, but the Sinclair Family is really messed up.

Family of Liars (We Were Liars #0) by E. Lockhart|📖|★★★★
I enjoyed the prequel better than the original book. The writing was better and the story wasn’t as . . . completely mind-boggling, I guess you could say. I did like getting a closer look at the Sinclair Family, the generation before and learning about their secrets.

The (Un)Popular Vote by Jasper Sanchez|🎧|★★★.5
I liked the concept of this story and the characters, and the narrator was good as well. But everything felt a little extreme. The message of the book was said so many times and the seriousness of student government wasn’t exactly realistic. It was really slow paced and dragged in places.

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys|📖|★★★.5
I learned about the Cold War last year and I enjoyed getting to know about the history of Romania. I enjoyed the storyline but I feel like the characters didn’t have a whole lot of depth to them. I also didn’t get the emotional feel I thought I was going to get. Everything about the Cold War was horrible and I thought I would get more emotional, but I didn’t.

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir|📖|★★★★
This book tackled a lot but I really enjoyed it. I could feel the emotion coming off the page and all the pent up grief and rage that the characters felt. The three POVs were all done really well. This was my first book by Tahir, and I will definitely be reading some of her other books in the future.

CURRENTLY READING

MY POSTS

I managed to post eight times this month (not including this one), which I would say is really good, considering I was gone for a week and had a busy schedule.

• June Wrap-Up|Pride and Permits, Books and Braces
• 2022 Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag
• Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Releases for the 2nd Half of 2022
• My Favorite Quotes From Books|Part 2
• My Favorite Book-to-Film Adaptations (And Books I Would Love to See Adapted)
• Mid-Month July 2022 Camp NaNoWriMo Check In
• A Week in the Sierra Nevada
• Let’s Talk Bookish: What Book Format Do You Prefer?

AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE

I read posts this month, but I forgot to mark them down, so we’re going to skip this section for now. Let’s hope that I’m better at remembering next time.

BLOGS I DISCOVERED

Books by Starlight – This blog is run by Lily, and she’s a fairly new blogger, but her posts are all written so well. I also love her poetry!

The Bookcheshire Cat – Caro does a variety of posts and I enjoy reading them! I like how she formats them and her blogging voice is really engaging.

Happy Bookish After – I love the aesthetic of this blog! It’s simple but pleasing to look at the I love the frog. I especially like her book reviews, which are always so detailed.

Min’s Archives – Min is also a new blogger but you wouldn’t be able to tell from her posts. I love her blog design as well!

I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo this month and got a lot of writing done. I’m planning to do a wrap-up post later on, but here’s a few details: I worked a lot of rewriting scenes, cutting out filler scenes, and making the story more fleshed out. I didn’t hit my word count goal, but I’m still happy with what I accomplished.

🏕 The big thing that happened this month was going to Yosemite with my family. We stayed there for a week and had a lot of fun. We went on hikes and had relaxing days where we went to lakes. There were a few things that didn’t go as planned, but it all worked out in the end. Besides, a camping trip isn’t a true adventure without something going wrong.

📚 I finished the reading mentor program last week. I’m a little sad that it’s over because I won’t see the kids anymore but I’m glad I’ll have more time now. I’m planning to do it again in the fall, and the program leaders are the same, so it will be nice to see them again. Maybe some of the same kids will come back.

🚗 I had my first driving lesson near the beginning of the month and it was nothing like I expected. I was really nervous for it, mainly because of the driving instructor and I’m not great around people I don’t know. But he turned out to be really nice and driving is a lot easier than I thought. I’ve practiced outside the lesson as well and it’s kind of fun.

☀️ I’m leaving for overnight summer camp today, which I’m a little nervous about but also excited. We haven’t done camp in person since before COVID, and that was the last time I went to sleep-away camp, so it’s been a while. But I know I’ll have a good time and I better enjoy it because it’s my last week of summer break.

July Goals:

• Read 6 books ❌
• Post 8 times ✅
• Participate in Camp NaNoWriMo ✅

August Goals:

• Read 5 books
• Post 7 times
• Practice driving

---

How was your July? Did you read any good books?
Do you have any fun plans for August?