June 2018 Recap // #BookCon2018, posting regularly (!!) and so many trailers!!

June was an interesting month?

I started posting more regularly (I posted over 7 times!!!), I went to BookCon, and I ACTUALLY REMEMBER A LOT OF THINGS THAT HAPPENED so I’ll have good sections for my “life stuff” section? This is great.

Also, a lot of people talk about how they don’t enjoy reading monthly recaps but my stats for my monthly recaps are fine and actually better than my reviews, so who even knows tbh. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

books i read

    

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan // ★★★★★

• I loved this and I love Lei and I love the world and the beautiful sapphic-ness of this entire story!!!

Smoke in the Sun by Renée Ahdieh // ★★★★☆

• I definitely enjoyed this book, but I enjoyed Renée’s other books in the Wrath and the Dawn duology so much more.

No Filter by Orlagh Collins // ★☆☆☆☆

• Uhhh this was cringy and it was pretty insta-lovey and so much girl-on-girl hate and white saviorism so no thanks!!!

    

Warcross by Marie Lu // ★★★★★

• THIS WAS A REREAD AND I LOVED THIS BOOK AS MUCH AS I LOVED IT THE FIRST TIME AND HIDEO OWNS MY HEART.

Seafire by Natalie C. Parker // ★★★★★

• This was disappointing in the lack of gayness* but in all other aspects I loved it!! The setting was so beautiful and I really enjoyed the character development?? (Also I wrote a goodreads review for this for once pls shower it with love.)

Legendary by Stephanie Garber // ★★★★★

• THIS WAS AMAZING AND SUCH A GOOD SEQUEL TO CARAVAL and Tella is amazing and Dante is amazing and this entire book is amazing I’m sorry but I’m such trash for this series.

    

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han // ★★★★★

• This was so cute and LARA JEAN IS MY FAVORITE CONTEMPORARY CHARACTER and I think this is definitely my favorite contemporary book ever!! PETER THO.

P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han // ★★★★★

• PETER THO.

Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han // ★★★★★

• Like I said before, PETER THO.

*Okay but let’s be real here: an all-female crew of over fifty girls and only ONE sapphic couple?

I also read Along the Indigo by Elsie Chapman (I forgot I did lol) but my formatting is really nice and I don’t want to mess it up.

book haul

This pic shows most of my book haul from BookCon (my entire haul is listed in my BookCon recap post) and I also received Mammoth from Turner Publishing & Ignite the Stars from Albert Whitman & Company!

overall reading analysis

• I read a lot more books than I typically do and I’M REALLY HAPPY ABOUT IT.
• My favorite book this month was definitely Warcross!!!! Although it was a reread it still counts!!! My other favorite book was also To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before because both of them are excellent and amazing and worthy of being shouted out.
• I haven’t been keeping up with any webtoons except for Super Secret because I can’t use my phone (I don’t like reading webtoons on the computer), so I’m really hyped when I can use it again because of all of the updates to catch up on!!
• My least favorite book was No Filter because of all the reasons stated above (cringiness, girl-on-girl hate, and white saviourism). The cover looks so pretty how dare it lie to me.
• But almost all of these are five stars (one’s four stars, one’s one star) and I’m so happy with the overall enjoyment of these books! My READING SLUMP HAS DISAPPEARED.

things i’ve changed

I don’t know if this counts as a change but I finally uploaded some of my links like my Ko-Fi and things like that to support me because I’m actually broke. I also have a Patreon with perks like writing and extra posts so if you’re rich then what’s up.

I also posted a page with my books for sale since I’m unhauling but also we can negotiate because I don’t know how to price things!! I’m also unhauling a lot of arcs, you can see my tweet here & you can basically just pay shipping for a lot of the arcs (not Escaping From Houdini or City of Ghosts or Seafire) since I’m not too into trading right now. (Unless you have Wildcard or Evelyn Hugo then I’d be willing to trade!!!)

Also, I’m starting a new Instagram theme that has a more white bed-sheet background type instead of using my legs as the background because it’s summer and I’m wearing shorts 24/7 sooooooo yeah!! (I took like two hours last week taking pictures pls appreciate them.) (Also my handle is @paperblots pls love my page.)

I started formatting the titles of books like this now, and I also link them when I format them like that because I miss my old link formatting & also how thick the text was but I don’t miss my gross header!!

one-year-blogaversary

Technically, my one-year-blogaversary was supposed to be in May, but I didn’t actually start posting regularly in May so I decided to “celebrate” it during August, which is also my birthday month so that’s 10/10.

Anyways, I have no idea what to do for celebration, so I decided to post a q&a instead.

Here’s the link to submit questions for me and I’ll also embed it at the end of this post!

most popular post

I actually love that this is my most popular post because # asian # love. And I spent a lot of time trying to look for asian-inspired fantasies!!

favorite post

Okay, if I’m being honest my actual favorite was probably my asian-inspired fantasy post, but I don’t want to repeat it so this is my second favorite post!!

posts i loved

• Kav guest posts on Fadwa’s blog about their experience as an Indian American and how society erases that identity.
• Aris throw a ton of LGBTQ+ recommendations at us and they’re all amazing.
• Marie shows us her techniques on avoiding reading slumps and they work 11/10.
• May tracks her books, ARCs, and TBR with Google spreadsheets and we’re all here wondering how they put so much effort into it.
• Cait discusses bookish romances (nomances) and calls out all the problematic tropes (we stan!!).
• Lu explains reasons why she feels stressed from ARCs and honestly? same.
• Mel gives us more LGBTQ+ recommendations because we never have enough.
• Elise talks about how different narratives in fiction are important and how they saved her life.

bookish news

• The teaser trailer for To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before came out and it’s being produced by Netflix and it’s coming out the same day as Crazy Rich Asians and who’s screaming? (me). (Also Lana Condor is a queen I love her.)
• Angie Thomas showed us a teaser for The Hate U Give and then the full trailer was revealed and it looks amazing and THIS BETTER BE HYPED UP.
• Adam Silvera is a. working on a queer fantasy book (!!!) and b. FaceTiming a cute guy while in this tweet so I’M HYPED FOR THE BOOK and ALSO FOR THE CUTE GUY.

bookcon

I went to BookCon this year with my sisters and it was fantastic and I got to meet people (!!) and I got basically all of the books that I was hoping for and I just had a fantastic event in total??

Some of the books that I got from this event were What if It’s Us, Blanca y Roja, Escaping from Houdini, and City of Ghosts!! Those are some of my most anticipated books for this year?

school

School ended this month!!! You know what that means!!!! It’s SUMMER!!! I generally hate summer because of the heat and… because of the heat, but I do like the fact that I have a break to study, blog, and read! (You can see from the fact that I read over 7 books this month.)

(Also if any mosquito comes near me I learned martial arts from the show Ninjago so they’ll definitely be sorry!!!)

a program

I applied to this program (I won’t be naming it because it’s pretty region specific and I’m not a fan of being stalked (if you are I won’t judge)) and I got in!!

It’s basically this STEM-focused program that’s ran by this university and it’s not a summer program, it’s a program during my school year and I’m really excited to go!!!

book unhaul

I already mentioned this in my “things I changed” portion of my blogging section, but I’m unhauling a lot of books and pls buy them from me or pay shipping for some of my arcs. I have no space for any of them.

I did get these really cute globe bookends from my parents because they were on sale and they’re REALLY CUTE (but easily breakable I broke one of them the first day) and now I have a rainbow “shelf” on top of my dresser I LOVE.

small iconic moments

• Right after I reread the Lara Jean series I begged my sister to start reading it so we started listening to the audiobook of the first book sooooo third reread?? Yes.
• Also it’s actually great because my sister never gets actually invested in books that I shove at her (she liked the Epic Crush of Genie Lo but once I stopped reading it out loud she didn’t continue).
• I encountered a bug in the bathroom (it was a daddy long legs) and it started climbing towards the ceiling and I couldn’t reach it to kill it, so my little brother brought over this water gun and we started shooting it with the water gun.
• My brother is weak fyi so I grabbed the water gun from him and started shooting it more aggressively and IT WORKED. THE BUG was overcome with the force and started sliding down the wall.
• Since my mother works at a sushi place, I went there to visit and I started learning how to make sushi and I literally just made California rolls over and over again.
• My first couple of rolls were a mess but at least I got to eat them so free sushi!

bookish

•  read at least 3 arcs ✓ I ACTUALLY DID THIS LOOK WHO’S PROUD. ME.
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• read at least 4 books ✓ look at my past self talking about a reading slump and having no confidence in this goal!!!
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• write at least one (1) review on goodreads ✓ I did this one too!! Wow I’m really accomplished this month aren’t I.
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blogging

• post at least six times ✓ I posted over six times this month??? Guess I’m an overachiever (even though I forgot that this was one of my goals)

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• write at least two posts that aren’t published in preparation for July ✓ I actually wrote all of my posts published this month in advance (except maybe my recap) by either a week or a couple of days.

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• write at least two required reviews ✓ I DID THIS. # i # am # accomplished

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• finally upload my sensitivity reads doc as well as my Ko-Fi/Patreon/Amazon wish-list ✓ I also accomplished this goal please donate to me.

life

• run more regularly (at least 4 times a week) ㄨ Ok I lost my streak of accomplishing everything but you know what!!! it’s ok!!

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• go to sleep at 11 regularly & wake up at 7 regularly ㄨ Oof I forgot about this goal but I did start going to sleep more regularly!! I’m just not accomplished at waking up.

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• earn enough money to buy wireless earbuds/headphones ㄨ yeah, no, I’m broke

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• also earn enough money to buy myself a bookshelf ㄨ ahahaaa I didn’t accomplish any of my goals in this section!! Pls give me money!!

bookish

• read the four review copies (these are Ace of Shades, The Belles, Fire Song, and The Radical Element) I’m finally out of a reading slump so hopefully it won’t be too hard!!

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• receive a couple of arcs (since I am no longer in a reading slump I requested a couple of arcs)

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• write at least two (2) reviews on Goodreads (this is literally just one more than this month.)

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• sell at least four books (I know I don’t have much impact on whether people want to buy but I just want to sell them please.)

blogging

• write at least four posts in advance (can I do it? who knows because my mind is confusion!)

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• blog hop at least every week (I’ve been blogging hopping for the last week pretty regularly and I’m pretty proud of myself?)

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• reply to comments earlier (I take like a month to reply to comments I’m SORRY GUYS.)

life

• finish all of my studying before 5pm (I have a lot of assignments that I’m planning on doing during the summer, soooo hopefully I’ll finish all of them before 5pm)

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• finish the math course on khan academy (I’ve already reached 20% so if I just finish 10% each day I’ll be finished in 8 days?? This is easier than I thought??)

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• wake up before 11am each day (I wake up naturally around 10am but sometimes I’ve overslept a lot.)

ask me questions here!

What are your goals for this month? Did you go to BookCon this year? How many books did you read and are you proud of the amount that you read? How easily do you get out of reading slumps?