teatimelit

Wrap Up: June 2022

Hi, hello friends and welcome to another monthly wrap up! All of us here at teatimelit are truly baffled that we are already halfway through the year – honestly, where has the time gone? But, halfway through the year means we have read some pretty amazing books, so keep reading to see what we picked up in June! 

This month Caitlyn read 23 books, Cossette read 22 books, and Mary read 5 books. 

The month started out great! I read 10 books in 9 days, but then the craziness of summer camp got the best of me (regularly working 50+ hours a week/100+ hours every two weeks) and I slowed down a bit, and then I caught a cold at the end of the month. However, it was still a great reading month! This month was filled with many rereads and audiobooks, but I did read some new books that I’ve absolutely fallen in love with! My favorite (non-rereads) of the month were: Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong, Dauntless by Elisa A. Bonnin, One for All by Lilli Lainoff, and Great or Nothing by Joy McCullough, Caroline Tung Richmond, Tess Sharpe, and Jessica Spotswood. Cossette and I started Annotated Literature Book Club, which is a book club devoted to reading and annotating classics, and diverse retellings. I also started an annotation instagram, @caitannotates — which has been a lot of fun!

To add or purchase the books mentioned:

Posts I Loved Reading: 

  • We all know that I love a good listical, and I loved Kate’s post Books with Bisexual Characters (that aren’t Red, White and Royal Blue or The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo)! I really love that Kate shares recs for Middle Grade, YA and Adult, and every time she posts a list like this I find new books for my TBR!
  • I won’t lie, one of my favorite things about the month of June in the blogging community is reading people’s mid-year lists! It could be their favorite books of the year, books that they’re looking forward to for the second half of the year, disappointing reads, honestly, I don’t care what it is, I just really like reading mid-year lists. I loved Maddie’s Mid-Year Freak Out Tag post and definitely agree with many of her choices!
  • Growing up reading series like Nancy Drew (Nancy Drew, thank you for making me the person I am today) and the Hardy Boys made me an avid lover of not only middle grade mysteries, but reading in general. I still love revisiting middle grade mystery novels, and middle grade in general, so I absolutely loved Jen’s list of 105 Middle Grade Mysteries and Detective Stories, and know that I’ll be checking out a lot of these books!
  • I am a HUGE Disney fan, especially the parks, and Happily Ever Island sounds like such a fun Disney-themed story! My best friend Helena wrote a great review that has made me even more excited to read it!
  • When I think about it, the majority of films that I love are book adaptations, so I loved reading Charvi’s post Is It Really Fair to Compare Movie Adaptations to Their Books? I thought that she made some really great points, which I totally agree with and would LOVE to see a similar post on TV Adaptations! 

This was a slower reading month for me — I had a lot of family in town, and then also came down with COVID, so I only got to 22 books. Still, I had a lot of five star reads — Sasha Peyton Smith’s The Witch Hunt, Youngblood by Sasha Laurens, Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong, Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House, as well as Stephen Sondheim’s Finishing the Hat. This month, Caitlyn and I also started a new project: Annotated Literature Book Club, which is dedicated to reading classics and diverse retellings! You can find out more about it here. In addition to Annotated Literature Book Club, I also launched my annotations instagram @cossetteannotates! I’m currently in the middle of a couple reads, so I’m hoping to wrap those up in July, and get caught up on some ARCs. Some other books I’m hoping to read next month are Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You, as well as Seven Days in June by Tia Wiliams.  

To add or purchase the books mentioned:

Posts I Loved Reading: 

While my reading slump is still in full force, it is slowly coming to an end. This month I managed to finish Star Wars: Brotherhood by Mike Chen, and it did not disappoint one bit. This book is a must read if you’re a Star Wars prequel fan! It is a great exploration of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker’s ever-changing relationship in the early days of the Clone Wars. We see how they adapt going from Padawan and Master to equals, and how much they have to exist without the other always by their side. Honestly, I hope Mike Chen writes more for Star Wars, because he did a phenomenal job. I am still thinking about it. This month I also finally read Book Lovers by Emily Henry, and I am mad at myself for waiting for so long. While Beach Read still owns my heart and soul, Book Lovers is a close second. This book was perfect, and Emily Henry can do no wrong. 

To add or purchase the books mentioned:

Posts I Loved Reading: 

  • As someone who would like to write a book one day, I found this post by coffeebookandcandle to be super fascinating, and I definitely have taken some of their tips onboard! It’s all about creating a compelling magic system – the perfect resource for an aspiring fantasy writer!
  • Yesha from booksteacupreviews wrote a great review on The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston, and it definitely sounds like something I would enjoy! It’s being added to my tbr as we speak, and I look forward to learning more about it. Thank you for the recommendation, Yesha! 
  • J from themidnightbookblog wrote a review on The Midnight Library, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I know this book has received a lot of hype, so It was very interesting to read a different opinion! As per J’s recommendation, I might give this one a miss…
  • StuckinFiction did a wonderful author interview with Rachel Menard for Pride month, and Game of Strength and Storm sounds super fascinating! I will definitely be adding this one to my tbr, I cannot wait.
  • Upside-Down Books did a fun wrap up of their top 7 books of 2022 so far, and I loved seeing some of their choices. There are a few on here I haven’t read, so it seems like my tbr will continue to be never-ending! 

Thank you so much for reading our monthly wrap up! Have a fantastic rest of June, and we will see you in July! 

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