Summer is officially here and wow does that show in the temperatures.We’ve had a few heat waves this month. The rest of the month was filled with waiting on things and apparently getting a new car?
The Numbers
# Read 60 Books
Read this month: 14
Total: 76/60
- Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick / 3 stars // Perfect the Layout
- Not Your Backup (Sidekick Squad 3) by C.B. Lee / 3,5 stars // Make a Friend // ARC
- Dragonslayer (The Dragonslayer 1) by Duncan M. Hamilton / 3 stars // Create a Sim // ARC
- The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion (Danielle Cain 1) by Margaret Killjoy / 4,5 stars // Become a Ghost // Novella
– Monkey King, Faerie Queen by Zen Cho / 3 stars // Short Story - Legendary (Caraval 2) by Stephanie Garber / 4 stars // Interior Design
– The Color of Paradox by A.M. Dellamonica / 3 stars // Novellette
X Lost Gods (Lost Gods 1) by Micah Yongo / DNF - The Tea Dragon Festival (Tea Dragons 2) by Katie O’Neill / 5 stars // Landscaping // Graphic Novel
- Passing Strange by Ellen Klages / 3,5 stars // Fall in Love // Novella
- A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson / 3 stars // Eat a Cookie // Novella
- Finale (Caraval 3) by Stephanie Garber / 4 stars // Reach the Top of Your Carreer
- David Mogo, Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okungbowa / 3 stars // ARC // Buy a House
- His Majesty’s Dragons (Temeraire 1) by Naomi Novik / 5 stars // Get a Promotion
- Moonlocket (Cogheart Adventures 2) by Peter Bunzl / 2,5 stars // ARC
- Die Duftapotheke (Die Duftapotheke 1) by Anna Ruhe / 4 stars // Have a Baby
- The Murders of Molly Southbourne (Molly Southbourne 1) by Tade Thompson / 3 stars
Average – 3,5
Fire Breathing Dragon: 14/20
Prompts Completed This Month: 0
Complete Alien: 7/20
Prompts Completed This Month: Superpowers
Generic Robot: 8/12
Prompts Completed This Month: Set in Africa
Total: 29/52
Read more about my own reading challenge here.
Level: Elemental Witch (11-15 retellings)
Read This Month: x
Total: 15/15
I’ll show and update with the bingo card every 3 months here.
⌘ The heat waves were fun. Not. We went way up to 37/38 which rarely happens and with the humidity here it is so dangerous for a lot of people. There is nothing one can do with this heat, seriously. Yesterday (Saturday) was another one with a good 30 degrees. Merijn also has hard days with this heat.
⌘ On some of the better (less warm) days we went to a few zoos. One on Fathers Day. They were great fun!
⌘ Moodwise I am slightly up and down. I just worry about things. Normal things for a mom I’d say but with depression it kind of gets bigger. I have a harder time focusing on things. I’m still working on the bookshelf tours even though I took the pictures way back in April. That is not really like me. I still haven’t worked more on replacing the photos. I just can’t get myself to more forward there. It will happen someday but I don’t want to push myself too far either. It sucks but it will come when it comes I guess.
⌘ Outside the heat Merijn is mostly fine. Very Toddler I Say No to Everything and Let Me Scream in Your Ear. So yeah, fine, lol.
⌘ Last Thursday as I cycled out of our street a part of a tree had fallen on a car and a house. So close to us. There is a park across our street (we are a side street of where it happened) and there are many large trees but not all seem to be doing well. They already had cut another one a few months ago because it wasn’t healthy anymore. It is scary to think about because it happened 7.45 in the morning and we go through that street often.
⌘ As this posts we’ll be with my parents in zeeland and I will have picked up my new car. New what you say? Remember that my car was acting up? Well it didn’t die but it wasn’t going to be getting any better with the ripe old age of 18,5. My parents found a lovely second-hand car that is only 3,5 years old. I’ll share a pic next month’s wrap up.
Reviews
⌘ The Final Days of Magic (Witches of New Orleans 3) by J.D. Horn // ARC
⌘ Not Your Backup (Sidekick Squad 3) by C.B. Lee // ARC
⌘ The Outside by Ada Hoffmann // ARC
⌘ A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews
⌘ Dragonslayer (Dragonslayer 1) by Duncan M. Hamilton // ARC
⌘ Lady Mechanika volume 5 by Joe Benitez en M.M. Chen // ARC
⌘ Die Duftapotheke (Die Duftapotheke 1) by Anna Ruhe
Top Ten Tuesday
Some Favorite Thieves in Fantasy / Authors I Want to Like / 2019 Releases I Am Looking Forward To – July to December / Books on My Summer TBR 2019
Other Posts
Dancing out of May 2019 / Best of the Bunch // May 2019 / Book Haul #43 – Just May for a Change / Points I Live by for How to Review Books / Winter is Coming… / #IronTomeAThon Sign-Up / If You Liked That Popular Book You Might Like This Book – Times 5 / What I Read and What I Plan to Read for Dancing with Fantasy and Sci-Fi Reading Challenge the Rest of the Year / Book Shelf Tour 2019 // FAQ /
⌘ Crazy Rich Asians / Movie
I wasn’t sure about watching this but I surprisingly really liked it. I laughed so hard and loved so many characters.
⌘ Womens World Cup Football
Go The Netherlands~
⌘ Men in Black 3 / Movie
⌘ Extant / Season 1 / Ep 1-3
I started this on a whim and by the end of ep 3 I was completely into it. Halle Berry is great so far ❤ Need to make some time in July to watch the rest.
⌘ Finding Nemo / Movie / Rewatch
First time for Merijn. Nemo getting taken was very exciting lol.
Blogs
⌘ On Word Wonders Nadia from Our Worlds of Words discusses why f/f romances are so hard to find.
⌘ On Bookshelves & Paperbacks two bloggers share how to be a good ally to Muslims. Especially the performative solidarity is important to read about!
⌘ Anniek from Anniek’s Library recommends 10 LGBTQ+ Sci-fi books. And shares 10 LGBTQ+ books by authors of colour.
⌘ Ely from Of Wonderland journeys to Nevermoor.
⌘ CW from The Quiet Pond has 63 prompts to help you write that book review.
⌘ July is Irontomeathon month. All the adult fantasy all day~ Next to that I am continuing along with the Bitter Twins readalong and starting the 22nd is a readalong for The Sword of Kaigen on insta.
⌘ As for what is happening the rest of the month. Merijn’s pre-school summer vacation starts July 15th and is to August 25th. There will be way less grandpa days for him too because they will go on vacation for a few weeks. He will get his yearly check up with the 3 year old eye test (looking at the pictures I think its a load of bull but whatever). We’ll also be meeting up with a friend of mine later in the month.
This monthly wrap up will be linked up with the monthly one by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction. This so we can blog hop to each others wrap ups easier.
A Dance With Books 
With me being Dutch and the hubster being English we cheer for both teams in the Womens WC – Not sure what will happen if they have to play each other! Hope your mood stabilizes soon. Young children are always a worry, even if you know there is nothing to worry about. My 7-year-old broke her wrist at the beginning of June and is having her cast off on Tuesday followed by a school trip on Thursday. EEK!!!!
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Ah sorry England didn’t get the third place! We ended up with second place. 😛
Oh no! I hope everything went okay.
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Gosh this weather – it’s not been as hot here in London as you have had it (I think yesterday was our hottest at 34/35) but even the breeze has just been blowing more hot air around some days.
Congrats with the finding of a new car, that will be a little weight off your mind!
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We had like 37/38 as our highest I think but now we are back to below 20 for the next 2 days or so. Whew.
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The heat has been hard to deal with this week! I’m not surprised your toddler is struggling with it.
I hope you enjoy your new car! I bought one that was 3 years old in December and it was the best thing I’ve done in a long time seeing as my old car was so unreliable and a money pit.
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The heat is better now. luckily. Yes. So far this car drives like a dream. 😀
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I love that stack of big books! I’ve wanted to read The Poppy War for a while, one of these days I’ll get to it😊
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I’m crossing my fingers I’ll get to it this month haha.
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Ahh this weather… I’m happy it’s nice and sunny, but a few 10 degrees less so we could actually move, sleep, eat, and you know, live our daily lives would also be nice 🙂
Looks like a nice reading month. I’m happy to see you rated Legendary and Finale 4 stars – I wasn’t a big fan of Caraval so unsure whether or not to continue, but everybody seems to be happy with these two, so maybe I still will.
That tree falling seems so scary… Good luck with the new car though and have a great July!
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IYes just 20-24 degrees is nice enough. I enjoyed both a lot more than I thought I would. They won’t be favorites but still very enjoyable reads.
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I love the summer, but those heat waves are the worst. I don’t have any kids, but I have a three-year-old niece and the amount of attitude she packs into such a small person is astounding. I really want to try the other Naomi Novik novels outside of Uprooted and Spinning Silver. Hope you have a lovely July!
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Hahaha yeah that sounds like Merijn too.
I really enjoyed Temeraire! Definitely worth a try though it does show I think how she has grown as a writer since writing that.
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You have some fantastic fantasies lined up for next month! I love Robin Hobb’s Elderling books. Fool’s Fate is a treat 🙂 The Way of Kings is on my TBR. Have a wonderful month of reading 🙂
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They are so great. I loved all I’ve read so far!
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14 books! I wish I could get to that number. I haven’t done that in a long time. I love Finding Nemo! New car sounds great! And the heat wave has been terrible! I hope it eases some in the next few days but not likely 😦
Genesis @ Whispering Chapters
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Right now it is below 20 degrees here but I’m sure we’ll get some more heat wave this Summer.
Some of those I read were novella’s so it looks more impressive than it actually is haha.
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We’ve been getting loads and loads of rain where I’m at, which can be miserable. But, it has helped to keep the exteme heat at bay. Looks like you’re doing great with your challenges!
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They say that will be the summers now here. Either a lot of heat or a lot of rain. Thanks to the climate change.
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Wow, that tree incident does sound scary. They’ve been cutting down a lot of trees around here because they’re unhealthy and lots of people complain because they’re sad to lose these old, majestic trees—but then you hear something like this and realize that unhealthy trees can cause real problems!
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Yeah it is one thing if they are in a forest but in the edge of a park in the middle of a city, they really need to keep checking those trees.
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The heat and humidity landed here too, oof! I guess I am thankful it arrived almost a month later than usual, though. 😏
Falling trees are super scary! 😱😱😱
I didn’t realize His Majesty’s Dragons is by Novik! I have it on my Kindle. 😀
Yay for the new car! At least you won’t have that to worry about anymore. 👍✨
Here’s to July and good reading. 💜
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I hope the heat has gotten a little better now. We are below 20 degrees for now.
Yes it was a lot of fun! I hope you’ll enjoy that 😀
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We’ve had a heat wave as well. We’ve been around 40C and my AC broke for FIVE LONG DAYS in June. I was dying *or at least it felt like it*. The tree falling is so scary! We have a huge tree by our front door and I’m always afraid it will fall or something. Thankfully it still looks really healthy but it is something I fear.
I hope you have a wonderful July!
Tina @ As Told By Tina
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Noooo that is horrible 😦 Fingers crossed for your tree remaining healthy.
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Ik ben echt zo blij dat die hitte verdwenen is. Ok, je hebt nog steeds energie nodig om iets gedaan te krijgen maar nu kan je tenminste iets doen zonder te smelten of flauw te vallen van de warmte. Dat van die boom heb ik precies volledig gemist. Zo erg voor de mensen die er wonen. Hopelijk was er enkel materiele schade. Super blij ook voor jou dat je nu een wagen hebt mét airco. Dan voelt je wagen deze zomer toch minder snel aan als een sauna op wieltjes. 🙂
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Ja de auto was dus total loss maar ook al een oudje had ik gehoord.
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Brian Selznick is so amazing–did you see the Harry Potter cover art he did? I still have to get my hands on Legendary and Finale. This week we get our heat wave back with the kind of humidity that feels tropical and results in instantaneous sweat. I hope you are having a fun July!
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I don’t think I did. I can’t remember. I’ll have to look it up.
We are getting some warmer temperatures back this week too. Meh
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