June in Review | 2018

I cannot believe that 2018 is already half over; it is both the longest year of my life where time stood still and the quickest year where life is just rushing me by. I had a pretty good month overall full of wrapping up some work projects, new friendships, movies, and travel! Let’s take a look at my bookish world for June, shall we?

Reading

It wasn’t my best month for reading – I had a couple of 5-day+ reading slumps, which resulted in an ARC heavy month for me. I read 8 books in June, all of them listed below. Click the title links to be taken to the Goodreads page, and if my review has been published here on the blog I will also provide a link to it.

1. * The Things We Learn When We’re Dead by Charlie Laidlaw (Review)
2. * The Fragile Ordinary by Samantha Young (Review)
3. * Not Like Everyone Else by Jennifer Leigh
4. * Book Simulator by Chris Yee (Review)
5. * The Game of Hope by Sandra Gulland (Review)
6. * The Mermaid by Christina Henry (Review)
7. Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody (Review)
8. * Suicide Club by Rachel Heng (Review)

ARCs/copies from author are noted above by an asterisk *

Total Books Read in June: 8
Total Books Read in 2018: 74
Goodreads Reading Goal: 50 100

Book Haul

I have a problem with buying books. I don’t know what it is but lately, I have been a MONSTER and I literally have stacks of books to read. I know my hauls are nothing compared to some other bloggers, but considering I have literal book towers for TBR piles, I really should save my money. I am going to go on a book buying ban for July… wish me luck!

• Legendary by Stephanie Garber
• Calypso by David Sedaris
• The Anomaly by Michael Rutger
• Anna Undreaming by Thomas Welsh (finished copy provided by author)
• Proof by Ted Berner (finished copy provided by author)
• Mammoth by Jill Baguchinsky (ARC provided by Turner Publishing)
• Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
• The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh

I bought a couple of books I used to own because when working on Sentranced Saturday posts I realized my copies were never returned by whoever borrowed them. Rude! I should start a library log or something because this is ridic! 

eBooks Purchased (not yet reviewed): Timebound, The Fifth Season, The Immanent World: Cluichi: A Horror Anthology Series, Ace of Shades, Uprooted

eARC approvals (not yet reviewed): Hullmetal Girls, Beneath the Citadel, Contagion

Movies

I thought that I would add a segment where I talk about the movies I saw during the month. Let me know what you think about this inclusion in the comments.

I actually enjoyed every movie that I saw this month, and I am again glad that MoviePass has enabled me to see movies again – and take chances. Hotel Artemis and Hereditary are up there for faves this month.

The various thoughts I had while seeing #HereditaryMovie

1) Hmm… this is a little slow
2) Wow ok this is atmospheric
3) I dig it, cinematography is 👌and the score is 💯
4) That’s a good jumpscare
5) …what the fuck
6) That’s the end? WTF
7) *googles the ending at home*

— Kaleena 📚 Reader Voracious (@kalventure) June 20, 2018

Video Games

The Steam Summer Sale has sucked me back into gaming, which came at the perfect time because I have been experiencing an intense book hangover after Ace of Shades murdered me.

• Played and Beaten: Simulacra, West of Loathing
• Not Yet Played: Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, Life is Strange Before the Storm, Cthulu Saves the World, Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 (legit this was $2.98 total!)

Oh, and this happened:

LOL I totally forgot that I impulse bought an NES Classic at 5:30 a.m. pic.twitter.com/1piwpUzH0R

— Kaleena 📚 Reader Voracious (@kalventure) June 29, 2018

Community

I am participating in the July Comment Challenge, and am so excited to get to know Lily @ Sprinkles of Dreams over the course of the month! Sign-ups for the month are closed, but you can sign up to participate in August here!

Blog & Stats

Here’s how Reader Voracious Blog did in terms of views & visitors in June 2018… look at the comparison to previous months!!! While it is exciting to see my words and thoughts being consumed rather than going into the void, I really enjoy interacting with you all and getting to know you! That’s by far my favorite part of this blog and is what makes this hobby worthwhile. 💖

Thanks so much, everyone for visiting, liking, commenting, and sharing your experiences here! I created this blog because I love books so much and wanted a platform to scream about them with others, and this has been such a rewarding and fulfilling experience. I treasure each of you and am humbled that you choose to read the words I write.

Let’s go on another adventure together!