we did
Judith: I went on holiday! For two weeks this month, I was staying in a little house near Bordeaux, France, and I pretty much had the most relaxing time ever. I spent long days on the beach, read a ton of books, and visited some gorgeous cities. And that’s pretty much all I did. It was very relaxing and I very much needed it. There’s pictures here!
Ellis: I had a good month but WHO CARES ABOUT JULY WHEN AUGUST IS GOING TO BE EPIC BECAUSE JUDITH, GILLIAN, AND GABY ARE GOING TO BE HERE SO SOON. Ahem. Quick recap of the month I’m supposed to be focusing on: I graduated, was supposed to be done with school forever but was asked if I was maybe interested in a PhD in gender studies, proposals are approved every February so I’d have to find work for another year first, the professor promoting/advising/supervising the project suggested I’d look into the Gender and Diversity MA they’d started last year, and after a few days of researching and “do I REALLY want to go back to school” questioning I decided that if I’d been told to go study anything else, I would have gone with the working for a year option, but this gender and diversity programme is practically made for me and even if my proposal doesn’t get approved, it will still give me a great background for the field I want to work in.
This also means I’m going to move back home, which is going to be weird after five years of semi-independence where I only saw my family during the weekends. Normally I get used to that dynamic again during summer break, but this year we’ve all been doing our own thing a bit, so the six of us being together has been an exception so far. We’re going to Copenhagen for a few days next week, which I’m also super excited for. I’ve been catching up with old friends, which has always been a consequence of unexpectedly bumping into each other, which isn’t all that hard in my hometown. The usual pattern is that we yell and hug for a bit and then blurt out random highlights, which often leads to more yelling and hugging. I’ve also had to train a new colleague for a few days. She’ll be taking over for me soon, since my contract ends in September and I’m becoming a full-time student again. July has felt long, though not in a bad way, and I’m pretty sure almost all of it was because it’s leading up to THE EXCITEMENT that is going to be August.
Ellice: I spent some time in Nashville this month, which was totally the highlight of July for me! I LOVE the city, and I had planned my trip so that I would be there for Miranda Kenneally’s event at Parnassus Books. However, Miranda wasn’t feeling well and didn’t get to make it (she contacted me early to let me know, which just shows how incredibly thoughtful she is), which I hated, but look forward to meeting her in October when we’re both in Nashville for the Southern Festival of Books. While I was there, I still went to the bookstore, of course (where I bought 4 books and wanted 50 more! hehe). I LOVE the people at Parnassus Books. They are just the best. I wish I lived closer so I could hang out in there all the time. Even their shop dogs are super friendly! Other highlights of the trip: I visited downtown Nashville, and found the antique shop that is owned by Mike Wolfe (one of the guys on the American Pickers show on the History Channel). My favorite part about it was actually the surroundings though. It’s in this old car manufacturing building that still has the original floors, walls, etc. on the inside, and you can walk through it and visit all these cool little boutiques, art galleries, and even a tattoo parlour. That building was gorgeous! The hotel was fun too, because it had a courtyard, a lovely hotel bar, and a really nice pool on the roof :) Other than that, July was full of work. School will be starting back in August so I was trying to get a lot of stuff done before the students come back!
Oh, I also decided to join the 3rd round of On the Same Page’s Secret Sister! I’ve already met so many people and am slightly obsessed with the hashtag on Twitter. I understand why everyone enjoys it so much. I’ll post pictures each month of the goodies I get from my ‘sister.’ :)
we read
Judith: Because I went on holiday I suddenly had a lot of time to read books, so naturally, I stressed myself out a bit about having to use the little time I had to read as many books as I could. I figured out the second week that that’s not exactly how it works and that I’d much rather chill out and have fun with it, so I read 6 books in total. They were Grave Mercy (which I absolutely LOVED), Last Will and Testament (which was enjoyable but not perfect), P.S. I Still Love You (which I struggled with a bit but was still adorable), Something Like Normal (which I read in a day and liked), Black Iris (which blew my mind), and In Honor (which didn’t really stand out to me but I still flew through). My favorite book of the month was Grave Mercy, because it had everything I wanted in a story, followed by Black Iris, which was phenomenal.
Ellis: A lot. I just counted and I managed to finish 15 (and a half, but I’m counting that fully towards August so I already feel good about having finished AN ENTIRE BOOK ALREADY) books, which I think is a first for this month. Highlights: Jesse’s Girl by Miranda Kenneally, Something Like Normal by Trish Doller, I’LL MEET YOU THERE BY HEATHER DEMETRIOS (I’M STILL NOT OVER IT), and Bitten by Kelley Armstrong. Good but I wish I’d loved it more: Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce and The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson. Liked but also disappointed I expected so much more: The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey, The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh, and Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas. And then I got thoroughly invested in and binged the first seven books of the Addicted series by Krista and Becca Ritchie. I like the series a lot, though it never reached the LOOOVE levels I was going for. What I do love is the strong focus on family and friendships (the six of them having adventures is easily the backbone of this series), the discussions involving women and sexuality, and especially when they discuss the “appropriate” identities of women who are societally allowed to be sexually empowered, and pretty much everything involving Daisy, Ryke, and preferably the two of them. I’m less fond of how it sometimes feels like story is sacrificed for sex and truthfully, half of the sex scenes could have been cut and it wouldn’t really make a difference.
Ellice: July had it’s work cut out for it to produce a book that I loved more than Jellicoe Road. It didn’t manage to do that, but I DID enjoy The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes a lot! Somebody described as Veronica Mars meets Scandal, which is very accurate (I only wish it had a ship as epic as Logan/Veronica). I’ve started 3 other books, but haven’t finished any of them yet, so I don’t guess I can count them in my stats for July. Yeah, I’ve got to step up my game in August. There are so many amazing books that I can’t wait to read!!
we watched
Judith: I’m sorry my answer is boring again, but I don’t think I watched anything memorable this month. I saw Insurgent with my youngest brother and I thought it was a hot mess, mostly because the plot was just all over the place. I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos, mostly.
Ellis: Besides the usual of The Fosters and Devious Maids, I also caught up on the last two seasons of Project Runway. Meg and Judith have the texts to prove just how embarrassingly invested I get in the show sometimes. (Note from Judith: it’s true, she is obsessed.)
I finally decided to give Younger a try. I LOVE Sutton Foster and will forever be bitter that Bunheads got cancelled. I tried the pilot a few months ago and wasn’t super impressed, but the first season got a lot better and I’m very curious to see where all of this is going. It’s also pretty fun to see sites like Goodreads and Book Riot get shout outs on a TV show. Going forward, I’d love to see more moments between Liza and her boss and less of this (single) women over 30 deserve to be pitied attitude Hilary Duff’s character seems to be moulded out of.
My best TV choices by far were Fresh Off the Boat and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which totally holds up on the rewatch. To be completely honest, part of the reason why I started rewatching is because I wanted to see if there was ANY truth to the Buzzfeed quiz that said I was Captain Holt. So far, all I’ve got is this: we both think we’re hilarious when we’re really not, I’m completely capable of his deadpan sass and it annoys the shit out of my mom, and we are on the same level of dramatic once we get really invested (him with his feud with Wuntch, me with almost anything in life). All I’ve got to say about Fresh Off the Boat is that IT’S AMAZING AND THE KIND OF HILARIOUS THAT’S COMPLETELY UP MY ALLEY AND IT WAS COMPLETELY ROBBED BY THE EMMY’S ESPECIALLY CONSTANCE WU SHE DESERVES ALL OF THEM. ALL. OF. THEM. I’m totally rewatching that show at some point too.
Ellice: I was super obsessed with Younger when it came on TV Land a few months ago, and I noticed that they’ve been advertising another new show that looks so-ridiculous-but-also-maybe-hilarious so I had to watch: Impastor. It makes me laugh. A lot. It’s just so utterly ridiculous, and it certainly doesn’t matter if you miss an episode here and there, but it’s perfect for a late night when you don’t want to think much :)
I went to see Minions with my coworker, and it’s just as cute as I imagined it would be. I HIGHLY recommend watching that adorable movie. It has a lot of historical references in it for the grown-ups that made me giggle. Shoot, the whole movie made me giggle. It’s adorable. Go watch it! :) Then there’s Pretty Little Liars, the show that is yet again promising that we’ll come face-to-face with A soon. How many times have they teased us with this info? And IT NEVER TURNS OUT TO BE THE REAL A. I don’t trust you, PLL.
we listened to
Judith: This month I finally took the time to listen to Halsey (after Meg had been telling me about her forever and then Ellis fell in love with her as well) and YOU GUYS. SHE IS INCREDIBLE. After I came back from holiday I listened to all of her songs on repeat, and I just Can’t. Get. Enough. My current favorite songs are Ghost, New Americana, Hold Me Down, Is There Somewhere, Hurricane, Empty Gold and Trouble. Wait, that’s all of them.
Ellis: Halsey’s Is There Somewhere is still ruling my Currently Listening playlist and NEW AMERICANA YES. AND IT’S FINALLY AUGUST SO BADLANDS WILL BE HERE SOOOON.
I usually take the train to work but I’m slowly moving my stuff back home so I’ve taken the car a few times in the past two weeks. The broadcast I usually listen to breaks up halfway through because it’s a very local station so then I switch to CDs. Cue me rediscovering my love for Usher’s Confessions and Destiny’s Child’s Destiny Fulfilled (genuinely the MOST underappreciated album because holy shit the general level of you’re going to deeply and violently regret not supporting and appreciating me for all that I am at the base of those lyrics), which led to some intense sing-along/lip sync sessions, complete with enthusiastic sitting-behind-the-wheel-in-traffic dance moves, that could be witnessed by every driver with a working rear-view mirror. No shame.
Ellice: I’m pretty much obsessed with Kacey Musgraves right now. Her music has a very old-fashioned, almost bluegrass-y sound to it, but her songs tell the truth and I just love ’em! Seriously, even if you don’t like country music, listen to the words of her songs. I bet you’ll find yourself saying YES and singing along :)
Here’s another one of my favorite songs of hers:
we added to our shelves
Judith: Nothing! I ordered some books but they haven’t come in yet, so it seems like I’ve been especially good this month (ha!). Meg did get me this INCREDIBLE graduation cap because we don’t do that in the Netherlands, and there’s a 1000% chance I’m wearing it when I graduate next year. Wheeee!
Ellis: I got the same cap but in black and I’m now officially jealous of Judith’s skull shape because my cap keeps jumping off my head. THANK YOU MEGARA. I also had some pre-orders come in and justified buying myself a few bookish graduation gifts.
Purchased: Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older | The Girl of Fire and Thorns stories by Rae Carson | How to be Bad by E. Lockhart, Lauren Myracle, and Sarah Mlynowksi | Jesse’s Girl by Miranda Kenneally | ATLA: The Lost Adventures, ATLA: The Promise, ATLA: The Search Pt. 1, ATLA: The Rift: Pt. 3 by Gene Luen Yang
Ellice: I went to Parnassus Books in Nashville this month, so it was inevitable that I buy books. Sigh. Maybe next month I’ll do better.
Purchased: Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone, Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee, The Revenge Playbook by Rachael Allen | Gifted by sweet Estelle: A Million Miles Away by Lara Avery, The Edumacation of Jay Baker by Jay Clark
challenge scoreboard
Ellis: I am 100% winning the coblogger competition. Judith just hasn’t accepted it yet. So far, I’ve read two of Ellice’s recs (Something Like Normal by Trish Doller and I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios) back to back and both were successes. Richelle Mead’ Vampire Academy (as forced on me by Judith) led to the first great binge of 2015 and a new all time favourite character being added to my army of queens in the form of Rose Hathaway. So clearly my cobloggers have a gift for guessing what I like in my books. I still need to read Just One Day by Gayle Forman, If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch, and Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan. For a while I joked I was going to read all of them while Judith was on vacation, but she’s waiting to read The Raven Boys until September so I still have some time. TO WIN.
I don’t think you can actually win the diversity challenge, but I’ve been diligently keeping track of the diverse books I’ve read this year and at least half of them qualified as diverse. Also, of the other half, 11 were non-fiction books I had to read for school, so I’m doing pretty well in terms of reading diversely. I do wish there was more intersectionality and I’m heavily judging the books that have no diversity whatsoever. The 2015 Reading Pamphlet is something I’ll have to fill out at the end of the year, if I still remember enough about the books I need to complete it. I dropped the Around the World challenge because I consistently forgot to keep track of the cities and countries I “visited” in my reading, BUT if this challenge still exists next year I’m 100% going to work on that.
As for challenges not advertised on the blog: I completed my Goodreads challenge of reading 69 books at the beginning of the month and FEEL HELLA MATURE ABOUT IT THANK YOU FOR YOUR INPUT MELANIE. I had to face the fact that The Raven King (Maggie Stiefvater) and Shaming the Devil (Melina Marchetta) just weren’t going to get released this year, so I updated and hung out my new 2015 TBR. I’ve been able to cross a good many books the past few weeks and ideally I’d have finished The Song of the Lioness (Tamora Pierce) and The Lumatere Chronicles (Melina Marchetta) too this month, but life (read: the Addicted series) happened. However, I think this is going to be the first time I’ll be able to actually finish a TBR I set out for myself beforehand. AND I’M STILL WINNING THAT COBLOGGER COMPETITION.
Judith: Okay Ellis, calm down, you are winning this challenge just yet. For our coblogger challenge, I have read The Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta, I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios and How to Love by Katie Cotugno. I still need to read The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater and A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller, both of which I started but for some reason didn’t continue, and Hopeless by Colleen Hoover.
As for other challenges: I have read only 7 fantasy books so far, which I’m not impressed with, so I’m planning on reading a lot more soon. I’ve given up on writing down books for the diversity challenge because I think I only read books that have some kind of diverse aspect to it and I don’t want to lump them all together. And I still very much enjoy doing the 2015 reading challenge, or the 50 questions challenge, whatever it’s called. As for Goodreads, I’ve read a total of 35 of my total assignment of 50 books, most of which were school books. I’m a bit disappointed in myself, not because I care about the 50 book goal, but because I want to read more. Oh well, the year isn’t over.
Ellice: Plain and simple, I’m getting my ass kicked at the coblogger challenge! BUT DON’T COUNT ME OUT YET. *stares at cobloggers* Ellis so graciously let Jellicoe Road count in the place of Finnikin of the Rock because basically she just wanted me to meet Marchetta, and also because she was afraid I might die from all the fantasy I have left to read on my list! I have The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas sitting beside me at this very moment, which Judith is going to let count in place of Throne of Glass because she thinks it’s better that I start with the novellas first. (Also, we might have to revive her when I actually start reading it because I don’t think she believes that I’m really going to do it! hahaha) Aaaaand, did I mention that Jellicoe Road is now one of my favorite books ever? Point for Ellis, though I think I successfully got her back feels-wise with I’ll Meet You There so I’m satisfied! hehe