The BEST Books I Read Last Month|June 2020 Wrap-up and July Goals

I’m having a hard time believing it’s already July; since quarantine started, everything has blended together into one long expanse of monotonous social distancing.

March feels like it was simultaneously last week and five years ago.

I thought writing a monthly wrap-up would help break up the Groundhog Day feeling, so here’s a little overview of what I read and blogged about this month!

Reading:

I did not realize I read so much this month until I checked just now. I read 18 books total in June! (I’m not including nonfiction in this wrap-up)

Here’s a list of all of those books, ranked according to rating (my 4-star reflex is about to get exposed…):

2 – 2.5 stars:

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen– I loved the first two Sarah Dessen books I read, but I found this one unbearably boring

Once and For All by Sarah Dessen– Unfortunately I didn’t like this Dessen book either… once again, it was super boring and had the most generic title I’ve ever seen (and the title has no relation to the book!)

3 – 3.5 stars:

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Lauren Ruby– I think it’s entirely my fault I didn’t enjoy this book

Champion (Legend #3) by Marie Lu– I found this a rather disappointing ending to a pretty good series, although it still had its merits

Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens– I had very mixed feelings about this book

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis– very philosophical, but I’m not much of a fantasy person

4 – 4.5 stars:

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen– one of the Sarah Dessen books I actually really liked

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen– same with this one

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord– my review here!

Prodigy (Legend #2) by Marie Lu– I really enjoyed the word-building in this sequel to Legend

Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse– this was a really intriguing WW2 story

P.S. I Still Love You (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before #2) by Jenny Han– surprisingly, the 2nd book was just as entertaining

Always and Forever, Lara Jean (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before #3) by Jenny Han– the last book in this series was definitely not as good as the first two, but it was still a pretty fun read

The Hand on the Wall (Truly Devious #3) by Maureen Johnson– finally, Maureen Johnson solved the mystery.

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys– Ruta Sepetys is one of my favorite authors now

The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys– my review here!

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte– this story is much stranger than you would expect

5 stars:

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson– I may post a review for this soon!

Blogging:

June was a great month for Frappes & Fiction!

I hit 100 subs last week, was nominated for two blogger awards (I’m posting the second one soon I promise!), and posted 10 times.

Here are all the posts from this month if you missed any:

Book Review: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

6 Amazing YA Historical Fiction Books

Book Review: The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Why I’m Addicted to Mysteries|5 Recommendations

The Mystery Blogger Award

Book Review: The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

Book Review: One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus

A Spontaneously Large Book Haul|July TBR

100 Subscribers|10 Fun Facts About Me

July Goals:

I have a lot of stuff going on, and I want to shift my focus towards school and other things this month as I start preparing for September. I’m taking the SAT in August, too, so I’m not going to be able to read quite as much.

However, I have a few things I want to improve in the upcoming month:

1. Pre-write and schedule blog posts to give myself more time to write ~quality content~. Don’t tell anyone, but I usually procrastinate until the day I’m supposed to post something before finishing writing it, and it ends up being stressful. I did that for this post too so…. whoops.
2. Read more slowly– This sounds like a weird goal, but hear me out. I read very fast naturally, but sometimes I catch myself skimming to finish a book and it takes away from the story. I want to start reading more slowly so I can make sure I am actually getting everything out of the book, especially when it’s more complex.
3. Get off my phone- I’ve had this problem since the beginning of quarantine, but it got way worse this month. I’ve been spending hours every day just scrolling. It’s not only unhealthy; it wastes an unhealthy amount of time as well. I want to get my screen time down to 2 hours or less a day (It’s about 5 hours now, and that doesn’t even count my laptop!)

Well, that’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by!