June Recap 2016

I’d say where did June go, but it’s pretty obvious when you spend two weeks out of the country and then two weeks playing catch up!

We had a great time in China and then spent almost a week readjusting to being at work and back on Eastern Standard Time.

I’ve tried my best the last two weeks to keep up the walking that happened on vacation. We walked upwards of five miles every day, even when we were on the three-day river cruise! The first week I didn’t walk much, but this week I’ve managed to hit my step goal every day which is great for me as it’s been too long since I’ve done that!

One thing that I’ve started to do is I’ve finally started reading Ulysses. I’m not sure how much I will retain as I’m using Serial Reader. Serial Reader is an app that delivers 10-15 mins of reading to you each day. I’m continuing to read other things while I try this, I’ll report back each month and let you know as it’ll take 109 days if I don’t miss any days.

Books & Bookish Things
One of the funniest things that happened was we took an internal fight while in China and I stumbled across this in the in flight magazine:

It made me smile even though I couldn’t read anything other than the titles! The bookstore (upper left) is one of two we went into, but not where I purchased the two books I did end up getting (see below). I recognized quite a few of the stores profiled, but was sad I couldn’t read anything about them.

This month I BLAZED through eight books. TWO Brontë fan-fiction pieces and then I re-read the entire Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series while on vacation.

440. Jane Steele – Lyndsay Faye

This review (and the hashtags #fanfiction and #LGBT) are so absolutely lovely, thank you. <3 https://t.co/I4kFXWlPZe

— Lyndsay Faye (@LyndsayFaye) June 23, 2016

440. The Madwoman Upstairs – Catherine Lowell
441. The Alchemyst (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #1) – Michael Scott
442. The Magician (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #2) – Michael Scott
443. The Sorceress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #3) – Michael Scott
444. The Necromancer (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #4) – Michael Scott
445. The Warlock (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #5) – Michael Scott
446. The Enchantress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #6) – Michael Scott

I’m behind on the responses, but I hope to have them up in the beginning of July. As has become habit, below are two fun social media posts about books.

Beautifully Designed Superhero Emblem Bookshelves https://t.co/z1ti3dP6K9

— Geekologie (@geekologie) June 22, 2016

Recent Acquisitions
I’m proud of myself. I turned down 13 review requests this month. THIRTEEN. Even if I wanted to read them, that’s roughly a fifth of my yearly total of books! Some sounded really interesting, some not so much, but either way that was a lot. On top of that I didn’t buy a single book! Well technically I bought two, but unless I learn to read Mandarin I don’t think I’m going to ever read these. Good thing I have multiple copies of both in English though!

What I’m most impressed with was my ability to find that copy of Wuthering Heights. They had one REALLY unattractive copy and I was like if I have to, but then I started wandering around in the same section looking at the spines (with NO ENGLISH!) and recognized the characters, so yay me 😀

Culture Corner
I don’t know if you heard, but I was in China for half of June. It was a wonderful and amazing experience. I have all intentions of writing about it later once I get my photos sorted out, but for now enjoy the few photos I was able to share on Social Media while there.

What’s Next?
I’m off to Texas tomorrow for the 4th of July weekend, but I’ll be back in Boston Monday evening to be at work on Tuesday. I’m excited to catch up with blogging and to read the rest of the blogs that I have outstanding from this month! I’m reading Daddy Dearest, a self-published advanced copy I’m regretting accepting but will be done with soon.

Any exciting plans for the summer? What about books?