June went by in the blink of an eye but also felt like the longest month of the year, so that’s fun! It’s been quite a month, so let’s chat about it!
June was an insanely busy month for me. We started our summer camp program on the 8th, and of course the first week of the month was filled with prep for camp and training (so…much…prep…) so it didn’t leave a whole lot of reading time/energy. Now, you’re gonna look at my books read this month list and go “Uh, Caitlyn, what do you mean you didn’t have a lot of time or energy to read this month, you read 35 books?!” to which I will say “You are correct, and 30 of those are plays for my 30 plays in 30 days readathon”
Last year, I had wanted to read all the plays nominated at the Tony Awards and then I said to myself “Why stop there? Why don’t I read a play per day in June?” so I did — you can read about last year’s plays here — and had the best time, which meant that I was of course going to do the same thing this year! Of course, reading the plays count as books read, they are books, therefore they go on the list and towards my reading count, but very few plays are over 120 pages, so even with my schedule and lack of brain power, reading a play a day is a really easy thing to add to my routine.
Among the novels that I read this month I read 2 more books that were on my 26 in 2026 list! I read Great Big Beautiful Life and The God of the Woods, both of which were very successful for me, coming in at 4.5 and 4 stars respectively. I’ve now read 12/26 as of the first 6 months of the year, let’s hope I can finish the remaining 14 in the last 6 months of the year.
Books read this month:
- Fallen Angels by Noël Coward (4 stars)
- Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo (3.5 stars)
- Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan (4 stars)
- Giant by Mark Rosenblatt (3.5 stars)
- Liberation by Bess Wohl (4 stars)
- Little Bear Ridge Road by Samuel D. Hunter (3 stars)
- Orion: A Play by Matthew McLachlan (4 stars)
- 12 Ophelias by Caridad Svich (3 stars)
- How to Cheat Your Own Death by Kristen Perrin (4.5 stars)
- Clue by Sandy Rustin (4 stars)
- Getting Away With Murder by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth (3 stars)
- Dance Nation by Clare Barron (3 stars)
- JaJa’s African Hair Braiding by Jocelyn Bioh (4 stars)
- Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy Really by Kate Hamill (4 stars)
- Arcadia by Tom Stoppard (2 stars)
- Aubergine by Julia Cho (4 stars)
- Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl (3 stars)
- Vanya and Masha and Sonia and Spike by Christopher Durang (3.5 stars)
- Lost Girl by Kimberly Belflower (4 stars)
- Witch Hunt: Or, a Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World by Liz Duffy Adams (3 stars)
- The Library After Dark by Ande Pliego (4 stars)
- Gloria by Branden Jacob-Jenkins (4 stars)
- Stage Blood by Charles Ludlam (1 star)
- Elemeno Pea by Molly Smith Metzler (3 stars)
- The Devil She Knows by Alexandria Bellefleur (3.25 stars)
- Constellations by Nick Payne (3 stars)
- Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley (2 stars)
- Primary Trust by Eboni Booth (3.5 stars)
- Clyde’s by Lynn Nottage (3.5 stars)
- The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse (3.5 stars)
- Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (4.5 stars)
- Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury (3.5 stars)
- The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (4 stars)
- Red by John Logan (3.5 stars)
- Athena by Gracie Gardner (3 stars)
Blog posts and vlogs I loved this month:
- Katie Colson announced Sunrise on the Readathon which will be happening in July and I’m super excited to participate! She also posted a video where you got to Meet the Tributes and learn a little more about what’s in store for the readathon!
- Erin Smith has provided me with so much journal inspiration over the last year+ and I always look forward to her journaling videos. I’m obsessed with her Fairytale Storybook Midyear Set Up! Over the course of this month I’ve been setting up my second half of the year journal, and while the vibes we were for are very different, I’ve gotten lots of inspiration for future set ups!
- I am a sports girlie, which we all know, so I loved Kayla’s Sports Books Reading Vlog. She read a few books that are on my tbr and am still looking forward to after hearing her talk about them!
My posts this month:
Honestly, this month was super work focused for me and I didn’t really do too much outside of work. I did some crafts and cleaned/reorganized around the house, which is always nice. Made a Barnes and Noble run since I had a gift card, got some new musical theatre themed activity books (definitely loving screen free activities at the moment), made some good food, and got a new phone!
Oh, Dinner Party the album that you are! Niall truly never lets me down. I literally haven’t stopped listening to Dinner Party since its release. It’s a 10/10 album for me; I love every single song. It also came out at the perfect time for me because whenever I started to get stressed with work, I was just like “but girl, you’ve got a new Niall album” and then I put it on and everything was fine. We should maybe study the hold that Niall’s music has on me and how it instantly makes me feel better, but that’s a conversation for another time. This is such a perfect summer album. You’ve got the major bops that’ll get you up and dancing all over the place, Tastes So Good, Monochromatic, Boys Are Fun and Pretty. Then there are the ones that are perfect for listening to while drinking some wine and make you float around the room such as, Dinner Party, She Gets It from Her Mother, Little More Time, Flowers, and Fighting Over Nothing. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Niall album without some tearjerkers, and for me those are Better Man, Die if I Don’t, and End of an Era.
He also released two bonus tracks. Every album he seems to have a song that I can really relate to on a pretty deep level. For Flicker that was Mirrors, Heartbreak Weather it’s Dear Patience, The Show had Science and now Dinner Party has Loneliest Girl in the World. He released this one on the 3 year anniversary of The Show, which just makes me laugh, but I listened to it on repeat for hours. It’s got a fun, mid-tempo beat to it and the bridge with lyrics “everything’s gonna be okay / everything’s gonna be alright / everything’s gonna be okay / everything’s gonna work out fine” is so comforting to hear from your favorite artist. I know that this is a track that I’m going to be turning to whenever I’m feeling down and need some comfort.
I still can’t believe the song Mia exists. I literally gasped the first time that I read it. It’s so beautiful! The guitar in the song is absolutely stunning, and the melody/the way Niall sings it is almost like a lullaby, it’s so soothing. And the lyrics! My heart! It’s just beautiful. I love it.
I’ve been majorly vibing to Taylor Swift’s song I Knew It, I Knew You for Toy Story 5. Loving the country vibe (always and forever a country era Taylor girl) and have literally consistently had it stuck in my head since it came out.
Olivia Rodrigo released her 3rd album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love and I think it’s another stellar album from her! Historically, with Olivia albums I need a few listens before I form full opinions and pick favorite songs, but I haven’t really done my in depth listens because it’s been hard to get me to listen to anything other than Niall for most of the month. However, upon first listen the tracks that really stood out to me were stupid song, maggots for brains, my way, and expectations. I’m excited to keep listening to the album and finding some new favorite Olivia songs.
Similarly to the Olympics this past winter, this month I was basically on World Cup lockdown and all I did was watch the World Cup. Honestly, for as much as I love soccer, I don’t watch men’s soccer, almost ever — we all know women’s soccer is more interesting anyway — so I didn’t really have any stake in this World Cup, mostly aside from wanting the men’s US team to not embarrass us, so it was nice to watch some stress free soccer!
I was basically an entire season behind on Grey’s Anatomy and I decided that I wanted to catch up. But here’s the thing you need to know about me, when I need to catch up on Grey’s Anatomy, I don’t just rewatch the previous season and then move onto the latest season, I need to rewatch the entire series. So, I rewatched 21 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy so that I could catch up on season 22 🤣
I got to watch some theatre proshots this month which I always love! I watched In Pieces with some friends and thought it was a really lovely piece! I definitely want to continue listening to the music and there were some really moving moments. I was absolutely thrilled that they released a proshot of Fallen Angels starring Kelli O’Hara and Rose Bryne — they were fantastic in the show and I laughed so hard. It was a really well done proshot as well, and I’m just glad that I got to watch it!
Honestly, I’m glad to see June behind me! July has some fun things personally going on for me, so I’ve been looking forward to that!
I’d love to know how the month of June went for you. Let me know in the comments what you did and what you read.
Until next time 💜
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