July 2021 Wrap-up: Long Summer Days and Honestly, Too Much Screen Time

My senior year of high school starts in less than a month, which is equal parts disturbing and exciting.

Life Update

• I worked on a lot of coding projects and made pretty good progress!
• I started doing more research on which colleges I’m going to apply to this fall
• I got most of my AP scores back and am pretty happy with how I did especially considering how burnt out I was in May
• I “enjoyed” the extremely hot weather

Other

Youtube Channels I Watched:

Kurzgesagt | Ruby Granger

Shows I Watched:

I continued to watch the amazing The Mysterious Benedict Society!

Books

I read 8 books this month! That’s not as many as I usually read, which may be due to my seriously concerning technology addiction, but I am still happy with this month. July actually ended up being the first month in which I read MORE nonfiction books than fiction books; I read 3 fiction and 5 nonfiction.

Fiction

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (historical fiction)– my Goodreads review here!

Passing by Nella Larson (classics)- Another book on my school syllabus! I really liked this one: it’s a short but very thought-provoking book with insight into 1920s Harlem.

Logan Likes Mary Anne! (Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novels #8) by Gail Galligan & Anne M. Martin– Okay. I read this because it was in my sister’s room, and this used to be one of my favorite series. It was a pretty decent installment, although I lost some respect for Mary Anne after her decisions in this book…

Nonfiction

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot– this book was okay and the story of Henrietta Lacks is one I think people should learn about, but I wished this book focused more on science instead of other things

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything by Chris Hadfield– My Goodreads review here!

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb– I’d seen this book ALL over the blogosphere and I finally got around to reading it. It was very emotional and sad but also… well, therapeutic. I enjoyed reading it.

Letters from an Astrophysicist by Neil deGrasse Tyson- I reviewed this in my Monday Mini-Reviews post

Superheavy: Making and Breaking the Periodic Table by Kit Chapman- aaand I also reviewed this one in my Monday Mini-Reviews post!

Blogging

July was a pretty good blogging month- I upgraded my wordpress site and got a new domain, frappesandfiction.com, I broke the dam on one of my more controversial opinions (the trigger warnings post) and though I missed a few posting days it was overall a pretty good month.

10 YA Contemporary Books To Read This Summer

5 Nonfiction Books I Couldn’t Put Down | Science, History Book Recommendations

10 More Places On My Travel Bucket List

The Aesthete Blogger Award | In Which I Search My Soul For Any Artistic Talent

Trigger Warning: Trigger Warnings: Why I Don’t Use Trigger Warnings In My Reviews

5 Historical Fiction Books That Aren’t About WW2 | Underrated Book Recommendations

30 Post Ideas For Book Bloggers | Blog Post Writing Prompts

I Programmed A Twitter Bot To Shout Out Book Bloggers | Reflections on Joining Book Twitter

Monday Mini-Reviews: Letters from an Astrophysicist and Superheavy

Goals

Last Month’s Goals:

1) Spend more time offline-

I definitely didn’t do this, unfortunately…. my screen time has been skyrocketing, as it usually does in the summer. Guess I will need to prolong this goal.

2) Work on my app project every day-

Actually, I think I did this pretty well! I didn’t work on my coding projects every single day, but looking at my Github commit history, I do think I did enough to consider this goal accomplished.

3) Spend more time with my friends-

Well, I went to the mall with my friends at one point, but with my other commitments it became super hard to schedule things!

This Month’s Goals:

1) Publish my new iOS app-

I have been working on a new iOS app all month and hope to release it before school starts. (I would be more specific with these projects, but on my released apps my last name is shown and I don’t feel comfortable revealing it so that’s why I’m always vague on here)

2) Get organized for school-

I can’t decide whether to be excited for school or to cherish the rest of summer! But right now, excited is winning out. I got a new planner and everything, and I can’t wait to have a normal, in-person school year!

3) Began my college applications-

It’s time….

Actually, though I have been dreading college application season for the past year, now that it’s really here I find myself more excited than anything. I am ready for the next chapter of my life!

Well, there’s my wrap-up for this month. Have you read any of the books I read this month? How was your July?

Throwback: my July 2020 wrap-up

June 2021 Wrap-up

May 2021 Wrap-up

April 2021 Wrap-up

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