June 2018 Bookish Wrap Up

Alright folks, I’m going to be honest with you. Maybe I’ve been too honest lately with how I’ve been doing, but if you don’t follow me on Instagram then I can tell you now that June wasn’t kind to me. June hit me with a wave of emotions and I’ve been out of sorts for a few weeks.

That means, my reading struggled. When I say struggled, I mean I read six books out of the usual eight I finish in a month. While I was able to finish my #tamingthetbr challenge, I feel like I didn’t get to read a lot for myself. I’m definitely changing this for July, but I still feel bad that my June wasn’t the best. Don’t sign up for too many bookish projects! I think that’s the best thing I’ve learned from this whole process.

But, looking back at the books I read this month, I did come across some amazing books that I want to share with you. Some of these weren’t my favorite and others will always have a place in my heart. Without further ado, here’s what I read in June:

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My Thoughts and an Excerpt from Tahereh Mafi’s New Novel, A Very Large Expanse of Sea

This is a little bit different from what I normally do, but I was perusing Twitter when I saw this:

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In my head, I was hyperventilating. I had heard Tahereh Mafi was going to move away from her high fantasy books to write something that felt much more autobiographical.

I knew that it would be about being Muslim American and the months and years after 9/11.

However, I didn’t think I would get to read an excerpt from the book. I didn’t think I would read it today, a few days after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the travel ban from Muslim-oriented countries.

Here’s what the book is about

It’s 2002, a year after 9/11. It’s an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who’s tired of being stereotyped.

Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. She’s tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments—even the physical violence—she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day. So she’s built up protective walls and refuses to let anyone close enough to hurt her. Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her brother.

But then she meets Ocean James. He’s the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin. It terrifies her—they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds—and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down.

You can pre-order this book now!

So I read the excerpt while slurping spicy noodles for lunch and right off the bat, I knew that this will be another amazing story about Muslim Americans that needs to be boosted on all social media platforms. Since this exclusive excerpt was shared on Entertainment Weekly, I’ll share the link to that article below:

Read an excerpt from Taharei Mafi’s newest book, A VERY LARGE EXPANSE OF SEA

Now, even though I’ve only read this excerpt and highly anticipating reading the rest of this novel, I do want to share some quotes and reflections that resonated with me. You can find these after the jump!

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The New Trailer for The Hate U Give

I’m silently freaking out about this trailer. Silently, out loud. In my head, my voice is booming. Shrill screams and face grabbing ensues.

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I can’t wait for this complex story to finally be on the big screen. If you haven’t already read the book, I highly recommend you do so but also watch out for this trailer. It’s a spoiler.

It’s the story about a young girl named Starr who was with her childhood friend when he was shot by the police. They believed he was in possession of a weapon, but Starr only saw the brush he pulled out of his car window before the gun shots went off.

After that incident, the story changes into one about a young girl who lives in two different worlds. One world is where she calls home, but it’s not in the most pleasant of places. The other world is filled with white people, her high school. The only school her family wants her to attend to avoid a tragic teenage existence. Neither of them fit her, but they both define her.

And as she’s trying to figure out everything with her life, she’s also being asked to testify against the police officer that shot her friend. What does she do? Does she speak up for her friend or does she stay silent?

Movie is out October 19, 2018, so check out The Hate U Give on Amazon if you haven’t already.

Who else is ready to hear Starr speak? You can find the trailer after the jump!

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They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

It’s Pride month and I haven’t read any books for it yet. So I decided to do two. One is Guapa by Saleem Haddad and the other was this one. The month is still young, so I might just pick up another, but until then here’s what I thought of They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera.

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Taming the TBR Update

A few weeks ago, I put out a short-term project called #tamingtheTBR. This was basically a way for me to clear my bookish calendar for the summer and let me read whatever I want. It’s the summer after all and the summer deserves certain types of reads. For me, it’s going to be a lot of romance, a lot of fantasy, and a little bit of diverse reading.

I know there’s a couple of slow burners in my pile and I might skip them depending on my mood. That’s right, I’m going to kick off the TBR and just read books because of the mood I’m in. I want to make a pretty good dent in my TBR list this summer. I’m already getting anxiety that I won’t get to read everything I want. I mean, it’s more realistic to think this way.

Anyway, I did come away with a few highlights that I want to share. But from this point on, it’s going to be reading for me and I’m so excited about it.

Finished reading all the books

Well, just the books I had to read. It actually didn’t turn out so bad. Aside from a couple more books I’m waiting on for various IG promotions, I’m pretty much done! I did end up not reading a couple of the books I chose from Netgalley and I’ll share those reasons why.

I won’t be using Netgalley anymore

When I first started out, I used Netgalley to get books and review. It was a lot of fun! It allowed me to build my blog and my credibility. I was able to work on my review style too because of it. But as my Instagram started to take off, I didn’t need the books I was receiving on Netgalley. In  fact, I started ignoring my Netgalley reviews because I was getting so many books in the mail I’m happy to read.

So I’ve decided that I’m not going to be using Netgalley to request and review books, but I will use it as a resource on all the new books coming out and I can easily request from publishers.

I had the worst book slump ever

Scratch that, this wasn’t the worst book slump. That was the few years after college where I just didn’t care about books and just wanted to watch TV for a little while. That was my worst book slump. However, it did take me a week to read a contemporary YA story that would have taken me about two days. I mean, that could have been the book too, but I’m not going to count that.

As I mentioned in my post from a few days ago, I’m legit over reading. I guess when I’m asked to read a bunch of books I’m not in the mood to read, then I find myself wanting to stop reading all together. It’s something valuable and I’m glad I learned that about myself. But I’m glad that this slump is over as you can see by my review of Save the Date by Morgan Matson. I’m now reading They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera which is giving me serious Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe vibes.

Finally I organized my books and ready to read!

It’s been an interesting few weeks. I don’t think I’ve bellyached more than maybe I was a kid at Disneyworld and I didn’t get a chocolate Mickey ice cream bar. I finally took a moment to go through all my books in my TBR, make the choice on the ones I do intend on reading, and displayed them out like a library or a bookstore or something.

To make things short, I displayed all my books in my room. I don’t plan on having a TBR during these months because I want to really go by my mood. I still have a few books that I’m going to be reading for my book club, but aside from that it’s free reading from here on out.

I hope you enjoyed this update and I do hope you follow along with me as I read books existing in my TBR. Who knows, maybe you’ll read along with me or we’ll coincidentally read the same book at the same time.