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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.
August 2025 Wrap Up
I spent the first half of August mood reading, and the second half reading from the TBR, so I satisfied both sides of the reader inside me! I realized that it’s important to leave room for mood reading, and it’s okay to let go of some of the books I previously committed to if I’m not feeling it.
My August 2025 TBR Intentions
Six out of eight ain’t bad! I’ve lost interest in the last Children of Time book, unfortunately. I’m not sure if I’ll ever come back to it. I am still very interested in reading The Power of Myth, but every time I pick it up I end up putting it down after a few passages because I want to savor and contemplate everything. I want to study every last bit of it! I might end up having to make up a study schedule for it or something!
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
My favorite books in August were obviously The Hunger Games trilogy. They are my all-time favorites and always get better the more I reread them. Dragons of Autumn Twilight is also a reread and from one of my favorite series, and The Long Walk is another reread from a favorite author.
So in the interest of fairness, I should talk about the new reads that I loved this month; most notably A Man Called Ove and Blood Over Bright Haven. These two were amazing and they make me so happy that the authors have other books that have gotten great reviews as well. I’m so looking forward to reading more from them!
September 2025 TBR Intentions
My aim is to finish the Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman this month, hopefully. I do have a couple of September BOTMs and a few other books that have September deadlines I should focus on though. I also hope to finish S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst if possible, but I’m perfectly happy to take it slow so we’ll see how it goes.
Dragons of Winter Night by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Dragons of Spring Dawning by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Dragons of Summer Flame by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
A Sorceress Comes To Call by T. Kingfisher
Falling by T.J. Newman
S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst
How was your month in August? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful September with lots of great books!
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 2025 Wrap Up
July went by in a whirlwind. I feel like I got a lot of things done, but I also feel like there’s still so much to do! And of course, my coping mechanism is reading for escapism, so the good news is that I got a lot of reading done this month. The bad news is that now I’ve got even more book reviews to catch up on, in addition to the ones I’m already behind on! 😅
My July 2025 TBR Intentions
I made my July TBR list based off a friendly team reading competition in my online bookclub for thick books, plus also books that had July deadlines. My team didn’t win unfortunately, but we had lots of fun! I also actually did pick up The Brothers Karamazov but in the last minute realized that my copy was the abridged version and it was too late to put a hold for the unabridged one. I wouldn’t have gotten it in time so I just let it go.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Revival by Stephen King
Notable Books This Month
Purple Hibiscus, and Atmosphere were the standouts for me this month. They both packed an emotional punch and made me feel all the feelings! I love books that make me feel, and these two did that the most for me. However, I cannot exclude The Count of Monte Cristo because it is one of my all-time favorite books that make me feel but it’s a reread and I’ve talked about it a lot already so I thought I’d let other books have a chance.
Also, I cannot not mention Sunrise on the Reaping, but I thought it’s a series and people who loved The Hunger Games don’t need convincing, and people who don’t love THG probably wouldn’t care for another book in the series. But I have to mention it because I need the world to know I personally loved it too!
August 2025 TBR Intentions
Every book on this list are books I have to read for August BOTMs or buddy reads with August deadlines. The Hunger Games series are rereads but I’m in the mood because I want to revisit after reading Sunrise on the Reaping. I’m probably going to end up reading other books based off my mood as well, but these are the priorities.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeline Martin
Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa
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!
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.
May and June 2025 Wrap Up
Hello my friends, I have been so very absent on the blog to the point that this month’s wrap up is actually a combination of May and June. I have posted some book reviews but only because I have a compulsive need to keep track of the books I read and record my thoughts about them. Even so, I’m far behind on keeping up to date on writing the reviews, and I haven’t replied to any comments in the last couple of months. I am so sorry!
A lot of things have happened that have kept me busy, but only two worth mentioning right now;
First, we lost one of our beloved cats, Loki, very unexpectedly earlier this month. One day, he was fine and perfectly happy as usual, the next day he started having seizures and vomiting. We took him to the vet in the afternoon, but he wasn’t getting better, and we ended up having to go back later that night to put him to sleep.
It was a horrible day.
He was the most vocal and active of our cats, and it’s very noticeable that he’s gone now. We miss him every day, and it still hurts to think of him. The worst thing was how sudden it was. He was only nine years old and had no signs of any health problems. I don’t know why this happened. We’ve been cuddling our other two cats, Button and Pepper, a lot more than usual lately, and they’ve been more receptive to it as well. They notice he’s gone too and have been more affectionate with us.
The second thing is a happier thing, although it has me nervous. I’m going back to school for an Accounting certificate this fall. I had been busy with paperwork and applications, and recently just got my acceptance letter! I am very excited and nervous at the same time. It’s been a long while since I’ve been in school but I also love learning new things and once upon a time, my biggest aspiration was to be a “professional student”.
I still have a lot of things to organize and prepare for going back to school but there’s a couple of months to go. Being so absent from the blog these last couple of months, I do worry that I might not be able to keep up with the blog once school starts, but I like fixed schedules and routines and I’m expecting things to settle down once I adjust to the student lifestyle once again.
Now on to the book updates;
My May 2025 TBR Intentions
I did manage to finish all the books on my TBR intentions in May. Yay! The ones on the list were the priorities and I wanted to leave space for mood reads, and I got some in.
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (The Wayfarers #4) by Becky Chambers
Children of Ruin (Children of Time #2) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
My June TBR intentions were chosen because my online bookclub was having a friendly competitive read-off event, where the team that got the most points for books read would win. There were exponentially higher points for books over 1000 pages and 1500 pages, so I made my list with that in mind, although some books were chosen because they were BOTMs, and/or had end-of-June deadlines. I also did end up reading a lot more than expected because I was trying to distract myself from Loki’s passing.
For May, the notable books were Perdido Street Station, Rose Madder, and The Ghost Bride. For June, the notable books were Les Misérables, Gone with the Wind, Scarlett, and Oz: The Complete Collection. I won’t go too much into detail about the books here because these are two months’ worth of books and I’m somewhat rushing this post as well.
In brief, Perdido Street Station is a little wordy but the world-building is incredible, and the story is haunting and heartbreaking and lives in my head rent-free. Rose Madder is a Stephen King book and everyone knows I’m a fan. It’s not gory horror, but it’s psychological horror and that really gets me. The Ghost Bride is a reread and written by a Malaysian author about the early 1900s’ in Malaya. It’s so reminiscent about my life, family, and culture in Malaysia, and I love that it incorporates our folklore into such a vivid fantasy story.
I listened to Les Misérables on audio and absolutely loved the experience of it. It is a little long-winded but I enjoyed it still! The whole story infuriates me but it’s told so well that I can’t help but love it, and I feel like this is one of those books where I’ll come back to and get more out of every time I reread.
Gone with the Wind, and Scarlett, are two of my favorite books that I’ve read over and over again. My experience and thoughts about them have changed over the years, but this last read was very nostalgic and I appreciate them for the works that they are.
Oz: The Complete Collection is the collection of books 1 through 14 of the Oz books. I have never read them, not even the first book, and I had no idea there was so much to the stories! Reading them as an adult, I’ve fallen in love with the stories and the characters, and it makes me wish I had read them as a child. They are just so magical and imaginative, they were so fun to read!
July 2025 TBR Intentions
My online bookclub is continuing the competitive read-off event in July, so I’m planning to continue with the big books, plus also July’s BOTMs and other buddy reads with July deadlines.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino
How was the last couple of months for you? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful July with lots of great books!
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.
April 2025 Wrap Up
I’m posting April’s wrap up a little late, it turned into quite a hectic month for me and I have so much to catch up on with the blog! I didn’t finish as many books as I wanted either; I overcommitted to too many buddy reads in the last few months and I have learned my lesson! I’m making good progress in finishing the ones I’ve committed to though, and I’m a lot more careful about signing up for more. I’m also missing a lot of books I want to read that aren’t buddy reads, so I’m excited to make space for them as well. Still, I love buddy reads and I can’t give them up completely. If only everyone else wanted to read the books I want to read at the same time I want to read them! 😂
My April 2025 TBR Intentions
Five out of six of my TBR intentions aren’t bad. And the only reason I didn’t get to Stoner is because the library hold is still 3 weeks out at the time of this writing. I’m probably going to defer it to later since I already missed the deadline for the buddy read, but I’m still very much interested in reading it eventually.
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
The Terror was weird and a little trippy, but I was surprised by how invested I got into the characters and what happens to them. It’s a fictionalized account of real events, but I’m not very familiar with the history of the expedition so it was interesting trying to figure out what was real and what was made up.
I watched the adaptation of Little Fires Everywhere with Keri Washington and Reese Witherspoon and loved it, and it was nice to read the book and see that the show stayed quite true to the story. I got a lot out of the book, some of the nuances of the rich and privileged’s thinking processes were quite jarring to see on the page, but so incredibly well-written.
Sunshine was a reread. This is the third time I’m reading it and I’m still loving it! There were definitely some things I didn’t notice the first couple of times that I noticed now. The relationship stuff were… questionable, in that I’m curious as to the kind of relationship Rae actually has with the people in her life, but the story was amazing nevertheless.
May 2025 TBR Intentions
These are some of the books I’m planning to read in May. I read fewer books in April than usual and I’m definitely hoping to read more than five in May, but these are the priorities and after that, I’ll see where my mood takes me!
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (The Wayfarers #4) by Becky Chambers
Children of Ruin (Children of Time #2) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Every Tool’s a Hammer by Adam Savage
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
Rose Madder by Stephen King
How was your month in April? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful May with lots of great books!
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.
March 2025 Wrap Up
The first couple of weeks in March was quite slow for me in terms of reading. I was in a bit of a slump and only finished two books in those two weeks. The good news is that the other six books happened in the second half of the month, so at least I got my reading mojo back!
My March 2025 TBR Intentions
I managed to read three books from my TBR, and cross one off as a dnf. I’m sorry, I loved Fourth Wing and I wanted to see the series through but I just didn’t feel excited about Onyx Storm as I was reading, and 25% in I just… didn’t want to pick it back up. Maybe I will finish it, one day, but it’s not a priority.
Vengeful by V.E. Schwab
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (dnf)
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
The Making of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman I stumbled upon The Main Dish by the author while browsing on Audible. It was only an hour or so long, so I listened to it out of curiosity, and I ended up wanting more so I borrowed this book from Libby. I didn’t expect to get so engrossed in it. The whole time I was reading it I was completely immersed in his world of food and cooking, it was such an experience! I enjoy cooking but I’ve always known I’d never be a professional chef because I don’t care enough for precision and finesse; this book made me consider enrolling in the Culinary Institute of America! I eventually came to my senses and realized that while I love reading about the life of a chef, I don’t think I’d do well as one. Still, it made me want to!
All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell This book blew my mind! It was the BOTM for my in-person bookclub that another member chose because it was one of their favorite books. I’ve had Stiff by Mary Roach on my TBR for ages and a morbid fascination about death and dying, so I thought this book would be really interesting. I expected something clinical and analytical, facts about the business of death, but it turned out to be much more emotional than that. It talked about what people in the death business did, but more importantly, it also talked about the people themselves; why they do it, how they got into it, the emotional toll it takes on them, ways they cope. There is a lot more to this book that I could go into; we had such an incredible discussion during our bookclub meeting for the book, but just suffice to say that I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about death and grieving.
April 2025 TBR Intentions
I wasn’t able to get to all the books I wanted to read last month but I’m hoping I’ll get them this month! Plus some others. I’m really looking forward to all of these!
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
The Terror by Dan Simmons
The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Stoner by John Williams
How was your month in March? What were your most memorable bookish moments? I hope you have a wonderful April with lots of great books!
