Monthly Wrap Up | July 2024

Welcome to the Monthly Wrap Up hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction to share our monthly wrap-up posts that summarizes our month in books, our favorite books of the month, what we did on our blogs, and anything noteworthy we want to share.

July 2024 Wrap Up

July was another hectic month, but for positive reasons this time. June was hard and it made me realize I needed to change certain things and build better habits. Obviously, things don’t change overnight, but I think I made a good effort this July to get things started.

I started waking up at 6.30am in the mornings and go for a walk/run (alternating because I’m not quite in good shape yet). Some days are harder than others, but the important thing is that I showed up. I’m also looking into continuing education classes I can take and I’ve been doing some research and legwork on that. I’ve organized and reorganized my workspace and workflow, purged some things in my life that no longer served, and am trying to prioritizing the important stuff.

To be honest, I’m still floundering and some days I’m full of self-doubt and throw out everything I thought I was clear on the day before. We also had a heat-wave this month and some days were so bad I couldn’t bring myself to do anything except lie down on the cool floor and not move.

Still, it was a good month overall, even though I haven’t been very present here on the blog and in the blogosphere. I’ve missed visiting with all of you, and I’m trying to figure out how to manage my time better so I can still do the things I love.

My July 2024 TBR Intentions

1. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte
2. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
3. Feeling Good by David Burns
4. The Dance of Anger by Harriet Lerner
5. Frequency by Penney Pierce
6. The Enchanted Life by Sharon Blackie

I only read two of my TBR intentions this month, but the good news is that my broader intentions were to read more nonfiction and books I own, and I did that! Out of the 12 books I read this month, five were nonfiction, and eight are books I own! So I did pretty good!

Books Read in July 2024

1. The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
2. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte
3. Network Effect by Martha Wells
4. Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
5. Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky
6. Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey
7. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
8. Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher
9. The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher
10. Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown
11. The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown
12. Braiding Sweetness by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Notable Books This Month

I got lucky again this month because almost every single book was great! The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs was a bookclub read, and our bookclub went for a road trip to the Royal Tyrrell dinosaur museum after that, so it added to the experience. It was so much fun and I love spending time with these people!

The picture isn’t very good, unfortunately, but we couldn’t take too many because it was pretty crowded and there were other people wanting to take pictures too.

I also really loved Women in Science more than I expected. It features so many amazing women and their contributions in history, and all the important information is presented so interestingly and succinctly. I loved reading every single one of them.

Project Hail Mary was a reread – I read it a while ago on print, but I keep hearing about how it’s so good on audio, and I really wanted to experience that. I’d been listening to audiobooks through Libby and my library all this time, but PHM was only available through Audible so I finally signed up for it just for this book. That’s how they get you! But hey, so far it’s been worth it. I loved listening to PHM on audio, and I’m enjoying so many other audiobooks on the Audible Plus catalog as well.

As I said, I loved almost every book I read this month, but I’ll leave the rest of the gushing to reviews I’m planning to write for them!

Reading Challenges

I achieved a few of these challenges a couple of months ago, but instead of marking them done I upped the challenges instead. I’m now rethinking that decision, because I haven’t done well in some of the other challenges and I think I should focus on the unfinished ones instead of adding to the challenges I already finished.

• The 52 Book Club 2024 Reading Challenge – 47/52 – Started at 43/52 at the beginning of the month. I have 5 more to go!
• 2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge – 16/12 – Started at 11/12 at the beginning of the month. Read 5 nonfiction books this month! Challenge accomplished! I’ll keep going informally.
• 2024 Series Ender Reading Challenge – 2/5 – Started at 2/5 at the beginning of the month. Did not read a series ender this month.
• 2024 Finishing the Series Challenge – 3/4 – Started at 3/4 at the beginning of the month. Did not finish any series this month.
• 2024 Diversity Reading Challenge – 14/20 – Started at 13/20 at the beginning of the month. Read one diverse books this month.
• 2024 Bookish Books Challenge – 5/10 – Started at 5/10 at the beginning of the month. Did not read any bookish book this month.
• 2024 Audiobook Challenge – 58/75 – Started at 47/75 at the beginning of the month. Listened to 11 audiobooks this month!
• 2024 Library Love Reading Challenge – 63/60 – Challenge accomplished last month, continuing informally.
• The Classics Club – 4/10 – Started at 4/10 at the beginning of the month. Did not read any classics this month.

August 2024 TBR Intentions

This month I’d like to try knocking out the 52 Book Club 2024 Reading Challenge. I only have five more prompts to go, and I’ve got a couple of books I’m excited to read that would fit the remaining challenges, so I think it would be very doable.

The prompts are:

• 13. An academic thriller
• 17. Nominated for the Booker Prize
• 37. Palindrome on the cover
• 42. Author debut in the second half of 2024
• 48. The word “secret” in the title

I’m planning to read, respectively for each prompt, but subject to change:

• If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
• The Women by Kristin Hannah
• Four Weekends and a Funeral by Ellie Palmer
• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

I do have some other books in mind for some of these prompts so I might end up changing my mind, but the goal is to finish the challenge so as long as I read books that fit the prompts, I’m good!

How was your month in July? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful August with lots of great books!