Monthly Wrap-Up – June 2020

Hello everyone,

Would you believe that we are halfway through the year! Ever since we went into quarantine, it feels like the time has been moving at double speed. Anyway, it is time for another monthly wrap-up…

June was a fairly busy month, so I have had less time to read and have also struggled to focus on my blog. However, I reached an amazing milestone by passing 1,000 followers on my blog, something that I never dreamed would be possible.

I enjoyed all of the books I read in June, and that made me really happy and relieved, having struggled to connect with several of the one I read in May. I managed to finish a total of five, and here they are…

The Truants ⭐⭐⭐.5
The Woman In The Painting ⭐⭐⭐.5
An Anonymous Girl ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Waiting Rooms ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Beast ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

This means that at the halfway point of 2020, I have read 33 books, so if I keep that going it could be my best ever reading year! I am comfortably on course to reach my target of 52.

I was also very happy with the range of genres I read in June, and all of the books were extremely well written. I’m even more looking forward to the books I am going to read in July; all of them are very highly anticipated reads!

As far as writing goes, I made some more progress with my WIP, but I have not written anything for a couple of weeks because I have had other things to work on. I am definitely aiming to return to it very soon, so hopefully July can be a very productive writing month.

I have been working from home since March, but this week I am able to make a phased return to the office, which I am really happy about. It would restore a greater element of routine to my day, and I have very much missed being on campus. It will certainly be different with all the social distancing measures in place, but being in the office again will be a good first step.

What makes me more anxious is the gradual easing of lockdown measures and travel restrictions in the UK. I am still quite afraid to travel very far or use public transport at the moment, and I wonder when I will feel confident to do so again.

Away from my life, which at the moment feels fairly disorganised, a lot of other bloggers have produced some wonderful posts this last month. Here are some of my favourites.

• Anniek wrote a fantastic list of LGBT+ books by black authors, and there are several here that I feel very tempted to read.
• Caitlin always writes amazing discussion posts. It feels like I feature them on all my wrap-ups! In June she shared another one, this time on the subject of blog hopping.
• Amy Louise writes some of the best reviews, and it seems impossible that you could read her stunning review of The Bell Jar without wanting to read it straight away.
• Marie wrote a long and thought-provoking post that asks if and how book bloggers are valued. She makes a very good point that book blogging could be considered as work, due to the amount of work that goes into it and other factors.

That’s everything for now. I hope you all have a wonderful July!

Happy reading 🙂