Monthly Wrap Up: August 2024

Well, friends, it’s the end of August. It’s crazy how fast the month flew by, it feels like it just started, yet at the same time since I’ve been on vacation it also has felt like quite a long month. I don’t know, time is weird and it isn’t real. 

You know what that means, it’s time for my August wrap up! If you want to know what I was up to this month, keep reading!

It’s been a bit of a slower reading month for me, which is totally fine! I lost some motivation to read once I came back from vacation, and instead of trying to force myself to read, I just did whatever I wanted to do and then when I was in the mood to read I was able to enjoy it, which I think is much more important than forcing myself to read every day. That being said, it was a low for me reading month numbers wise (this is my lowest reading month so far this year), but I think quality wise it was pretty good as you can see from my ratings in August!

Books read this month:

• Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner (3 stars)
• I Wish You Would by Eva Des Lauriers (4 stars)
• The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord (5 stars, ARC)
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (3 stars)
• When You Get the Chance by Emma Lord (5 stars, reread, annotation)
• Come Out, Come Out by Natalie C. Parker (3.5 stars, ARC)
• My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows (4.5 stars)
• The Lies of Alma Blackwell by Amanda Glaze (4.5 stars, ARC)

Blog posts and vlogs I loved this month:

• I started reading Abby Jimenez this summer, and the first book of hers I read was her latest release, Just for the Summer and I really enjoyed it! I thought Taylor from Page by Paige’s review was great and mentioned a lot of things that I loved about the book as well.
• I’ve been looking forward to reading A Banh Mi for Two and I swear, every single review I see of it makes me more excited to read it! I really loved Michelle’s review and it definitely confirmed that I need to get my hands on a copy of this one asap!
• I haven’t heard of Maggie Horne’s Don’t Let It Break Your Heart before (honestly, I see the title and I’ve just got Louis Tomlinson singing in my head, which is never a bad thing) but after reading Michelle’s review I can’t wait to read it! Just as Michelle said, this book sounds messy but in the best way. I’m also obsessed with the cover. I’m really looking forward to reading this one!
• Have I read any of Helena Greer’s Carrigan’s series? No, I haven’t, but Helena’s review of Hers for the Weekend was so lovely that it made me want to pick up the series! Plus, why would I not want to read a series set in a Christmas wonderland? I’ll definitely have to pick them up this holiday season! 
• Okay, I’ll be totally honest, aside from reading the synopsis when it was first released (and not remembering any of it…) I don’t really know much about Allison Saft’s latest release, A Dark and Drowning Tide. At this point, I just need to know that she’s writing it and I’ll check it out. Robin’s review was, as always, fantastic and has made me really excited to get my hands on this one!
• Helena’s latest post on her Favorite Shakespeare References in & Juliet brought me so much joy. I just wanna be back at the Sondheim watching & Juliet (preferably sitting in the Ben seat)

My posts this month:

• Monthly Reset
• Such Charming Liars Review
• Death at Morning House Review
• NetGalley TBR: Recent Approvals
• A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Reviews
  • Episode 1
  • Episode 2
  • Episode 3
  • Episode 4
  • Episode 5
  • Episode 6
• The Lies of Alma Blackwood Review

Wow! What a month August has been! It started pretty busily. We finished our summer camp program at work — honestly this feels like forever ago, how was that the beginning of this month? — and it was another very successful summer!

The day after camp ended I flew to New York to visit Helena (bubblingupwithhelena) which is always exciting! We, of course, had multiple shows planned. We saw & Juliet (you’re shocked, and yes, I went twice), Moulin Rouge, Suffs, and Water for Elephants. I’ve seen & Juliet and Moulin Rouge before (&J is actually my most seen show now as rounds 7 and 8 happened on this trip), but it was my first time seeing Suffs and Water for Elephants. 

I really wanted to the Met to see the Sleeping Beauties Met Gala exhibit, so we did and it was stunning. I loved the interactive elements to the exhibit and getting to see some of these works up close was really astonishing. Also, shoutout to the guy working who gave me the student discount even though he knew I was not a student. That was a real solid move and I wish for only good things to happen to him

We also went to Emma Lord’s book signing for her debut adult novel, The Break-Up Pact and it was so much fun! I was so excited to finally meet Emma after being a huge fan of hers since Tweet Cute, and she’s just as lovely in person as you would expect. She also talked about some of her new books (describing the book as having Red by Taylor Swift vibes and the color being violet? She wrote that book SPECIFICALLY for me). We got to chat for quite a bit of time which was so nice and she said she loves the blog?!?! That was a wild moment for me! I absolutely adore Emma and am so excited to do a reread of The Break-Up Pact soon.

Otherwise it’s been a pretty chill month! Earlier this week I went to Half Priced Books and sold a bunch of books that have been sitting in my room waiting to be unhauled, and I got some books while I was there as well.

My sister and I went on a little picnic at the park near our house yesterday and had lunch, made some friendship bracelets for the Frozen tour (which we’re seeing this afternoon), and just hung out. It was a lovely day outside, sunny but breezy, honestly the perfect day to be at the park!

This month I have, unsurprisingly, been obsessed with Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet since it came out. I listened to the album 4 times in a row the night it came out and kind of haven’t stopped since. It’s a super solid album for me; my favorite tracks are Taste (definitely my favorite; it’s always stuck in my head), Good Graces, Coincidence, Bed Chem, Espresso and Juno, but literally every song is fire. 

Thomas Rhett’s new album, About a Woman, came out on the same day as Sabrina’s, and while I’ve only listened to it once, I did really enjoy it and am looking forward to listening to it some more! Niall Horan also released his The Show: Live from Madison Square Garden album yesterday, so I know I’ll be listening to this obsessively and reliving The Show Live on Tour (he’s also releasing a deluxe edition next week that I will also obsessively listen to!). Please do not be surprised when any of these versions make my top 100 on Spotify this year 🤣

Really, this whole month I’ve just been listening to Sabrina and Niall. If you wanna see my top 10 songs of the month, you can check out my August favorites playlist (none of you will be surprised by this list)

As you all know, this month I watched A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and thoroughly enjoyed it (as you can all tell from my reviews). I also watched My Lady Jane and adored it — I’m SO mad that it was canceled, it was so fun and silly and just plain entertaining. God forbid we have some fun television anymore! Otherwise, I haven’t really watched anything new. I’ve been doing comfort rewatches of The Great British Baking Show, but that really is a constant thing; I’ve also started a rewatch of One Tree Hill which is always chaotic but enjoyable. I did rewatch some of my favorite movies this month; Mamma Mia, Little Women (2019) and Death Becomes Her.

And that was my August! It was definitely a great month. What were the highlights of the month for you? Favorite books you read? Fun things you did? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time 💜