July Reading Wrap-Up!

July Reading Wrap-Up!

This month I read 13 books! Some good, some not so good, but overall I would say I'm pleased with how many books I was able to get through this month! This will probably be the last month in this year that I'm able to read so many books, because I start my next semester of grad school at the end of August. However, I am way ahead of where I need to be to accomplish my Goodreads goal so I'm not too bummed about not being able to read as much. Without wasting more time, here are the 13 books I read in July! ~Em

Since I wrote about My Hero Academia's synopsis last month and I want to avoid spoilers, I'm just going to put my ratings for the rest of the volumes as I read them. Rating: 5/5

Radio Silence is about a girl named Frances, who draws fan art for a podcast called Universe City. She gets asked to draw work specifically for the podcast by the show's creator who has kept themselves anonymous. However, the creator and Frances accidentally meet and form a friendship. Y'all this book is SO good. I listened to the audiobook on Scribd and it was incredible. I loved the discussion about the struggle and pressure of deciding what to do after high school and exploring other options besides college. I love the friendship in this book, the bits of the podcast that we get to hear, and the overall vibe of this book. I absolutely loved it. Rating: 5/5

In this memoir, Kelly Corrigan talks about her experience with traveling after high school and becoming a nanny for a family in Australia who has lost their mother. She discusses the lessons she learned from the two kids she nannied and the rest of the people that lived in the house she was staying in, as well as the lessons she learned from traveling with her best friend and being on her own. I didn't like this memoir as much as her book I read last year, Tell Me More, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it and I think the audiobook for this was well done. Especially since Kelly narrates it herself. Rating: 4/5

I can't say much about this graphic novel, since this is the third in the series, so all I will say is that I didn't like it as much as the others. I think it was probably my least favorite in the series. Rating: 3/5

Hidden Figures recounts the stories of the black women who helped the US advance so quickly in the Space Race and eventually land a man on the moon. This was the perfect time to read this book, since the 50th anniversary of the moon landing was this month. I listened to the audiobook and honestly I did not like it. That is not to say that I don't recognize the importance of these women in history and the value of the story. I just think that the way this book was written was incredibly boring and too heavy on the math and science jargon. I think that I would enjoy the movie better. Rating: 2/5

This book follows Esta, who has the ability to travel through time. She is sent back in time to retrieve some artifacts and a book that can destroy the powers that are sucking magic out of people and leaving them dead. Unfortunately, I did not like this book very much. I kept comparing it to the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo, that I read earlier this year, because there were several very similar elements. It took me a couple of weeks to get through this book, which does not happen very often. I just found it slow to get into and quite boring. There were many plot twists that should have been surprising, however I was not shocked by them at all and found that they were almost predictable. Rating: 2/5

Schadenfreude is the phenomenon of finding joy in other people's misfortunes. This was a pretty funny book with many examples of schadenfreude that the author has experienced or are common experiences for others. I liked this quite a bit and I was glad to pick up a book related to my degree, because I haven't done that much since I've graduated! Rating: 4/5

Rating: 4/5

Coraline is about a young girl who lives in a house with several kooky people and she discovers an alternate reality with different versions of her parents who have button eyes. I had previously seen the movie for Coraline but I hadn't ever read the book, so I'm glad that I picked it up and got the original story. I like Neil Gaiman's middle grade writing a lot. I did end up enjoying the movie more, because I think it's able to elaborate on the plot more and do the pacing better. Overall, I enjoyed this quite a bit! Rating: 3/5

This is the final volume of the I Hate Fairyland graphic novel series. I think it ended well and although it's not my favorite graphic novel series ever, I liked the art style a lot and I'm glad that I read this series. Rating: 4/5

In an alternate reality, a woman wins the 2016 presidential election. This book follows the First Son, Alex, and one of the princes of England, Henry, as they are forced to fake a friendship after a mishap at the Royal Wedding of Henry's brother. Their fake friendship then turns into a PRECIOUS relationship. I LOVED this book! Alex and Henry's relationship is so wonderful, the friendships in this book are amazing, and it's just a great book, y'all. All of the people in the main friend group and the body guards all have different personalities but they are elaborated on well and it makes them relatable and makes you just want to be best friends with them. There are discussions of anxiety and stress and expectations that are too high, and it was done so so well. Rating: 5/5

Obviously I have read the Harry Potter series before, but I haven't read through the illustrated editions. Jim Kay is an amazing illustrator and the artwork in this book is SO gorgeous. If you have the chance and you love Harry Potter, PLEASE do yourself a good deed and flip through the illustrated editions. Rating: 5/5

The world has eliminated the natural causes of death and in order to maintain population control, there are Scythes, who "glean" people at random. The main characters, Citra and Rowan, have been chosen as apprentices to a Scythe. They have to train to assume this job if they are able to pass the test. This is a unique and interesting concept and story. It gave me Hunger Games vibes, even though it is not really similar to The Hunger Games at all lol. I liked the discussion of death and morality throughout this book and I'm excited to continue on with the series. Rating: 4/5

My Trip to Washington D.C.!

My Washington D.C. Trip!

Though I've been home from my trip for a while now, I still wanted to make a post about my trip to visit my best friend in D.C.! I spent a week in our nation's capitol and what better week to be there than the week of the fourth of July, right? Except for the heat and the terrible humidity, we had a blast exploring the city and visiting historic sites. AA only ended up having to work on one of the days I was there so we were able to do many touristy activities together and made the trip more worthwhile! So, without further ado, here are the shenanigans we got into, including pictures! ~Em

Day 1

I flew into D.C. on June 29th and with my layover being in St. Louis, I got to meet up for brunch with my stepsister, V! After waiting for my luggage for a super long time, being misled about how to get to the Metro, and then lugging my giant bag to AA's apartment, she and I had worked up an appetite, so we went to a cute little Italian restaurant in Eastern Market (I think) and then we just went back to the apartment to chill because I had been up since 5am. 

Day 2

On the first full day, AA and I spent the morning at a Farmer's Market near the apartment. Then in the afternoon we went to the strip because there was a festival going on. We walked along the strip for a while, took a bunch of pictures, and then went to the Natural History Museum! At the end of the day we went to Trader Joe's for groceries and I'm pretty sure we made spaghetti for dinner that night.

Day 3

This was the only day I had to go off by myself, but I spent the day in the best way, by book shopping!!! I went to three different bookstores: East City Bookshop, Second Story Books, and Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe. I ended up getting 8 books, which I was very excited about and loved getting to walk around these awesome bookstores. After AA got off work, we got Thai food then went and played bingo at a bar and had an absolute blast! 

Outfit for Day 3 

Makeup for Day 3

Day 4

Day 4 was one of our busiest days. We toured the Capitol Building, went down to The Wharf to walk around for a little bit, and saw an Aziz Ansari stand up show! It was a super long day and we weren't allowed to take pictures at the show, but it was still a great day! 

Makeup for Day 4

Outfit for Day 4

Day 5

We packed day 5 full of things to do. We toured the Library of Congress, which was absolutely beautiful and wonderful. We didn't give ourselves very much time so we were only able to see about 1/4 of the art at the National Gallery of Art. Then we had yummy pizza at a place called &pizza and watched the 4th of July preview show on the Capitol lawn. The 4th of July show was hosted by John Stamos and a bunch of the Sesame Street characters were there as well! After the show we went to a pub in China Town with some girls that go to or went to the grad school AA is going to which was a lot of fun.

Makeup for Day 5

Outfit for Day 5

Day 6

On the 4th of July we stayed in all morning because we were wiped out from the day before. Through AA's internship, we were able to get tickets to the Salute to America speech at the Lincoln Memorial, which was pretty cool. It rained almost all day, so we were a little damp during the speech, but after that was over, it stopped raining. We were invited to the Army base in D.C. to watch the fireworks. It was incredible to watch fireworks from the roof of a building in the nation's capitol. 

Day 7

On my last day, AA and I shot to see all the monuments and memorials along the strip. We saw the WWII memorial, the Korean War memorial, the Vietnam memorial, and the Lincoln memorial all within in an hour! We also made a short detour to see the Einstein statue. Then we went back to the apartment to gather up my things and then I was off to the airport to make my way back to Arkansas. We didn't get to do everything we wanted to, so I'll definitely have to go back some day!