I love reflecting back on my reading and this week I was SHOCKED at what all I finished!

Before I get into it, make sure to visit the IMWAYR hosts Unleashing Readers and Teach Mentor Texts to find other blogs to follow that use this weekly wrap up.

Alright, let’s get into what I read last week and what is in my option pile!

Reading Life

Books I Read June 19-25

Middle Grade

The Takeout by Tracy Badua
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a fun book about food trucks, food, family, and friendship. It touched on so many different topics but very well and also, the Filipino folk healing was something I really enjoyed reading about. I kept turning the pages on this one.

View all my reviews The Order of Things by Kaija Langley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Welp, this book tore me apart. If you are looking for a sad book, this is for you. But also…it’s a great book about discovering your passion. It was a great novel in verse.

View all my reviews

Upper MG/ Young Adult

Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this prequel to PET! It answered a lot of questions I had about PET and the monsters/angels that came before. I really like how Akwaeke has created a dystopian world that feels so real-it’s the best kind of dystopian.

View all my reviews If he had been with me by Laura Nowlin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So. Many. Feelings. I loved this book.

View all my reviews

Adult

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book made me so uncomfortable, but in such a great way. I enjoyed the satire and how the unreliable narrator made me think about books and who are the “right” people to tell stories. It was also really interesting about what it means to “steal” ideas and what that means. Definitely a thought-provoking read and if you are a writer or in the publishing world, I think you will enjoy it.

View all my reviews Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Holy Moly this book is not for the faint of heart. I gave it 5 stars because I could not stop reading and was surprised at every turn.

View all my reviews

Option Pile

I am going to read FOURTH WING this week. I have been waiting for the “perfect” day where I can binge and it WILL happen! I also hope to make a YouTube video for it, so stay tuned!

Book Tube Favs

Some recent videos I have enjoyed!

Reading Challenges

I keep losing track of the reading challenges I am doing this year… *face palm*

So, here’s my most recent! The covers change to full color once I read them! I have read 2 books, and thus am behind!

Writing Life

So, my writing life is a struggle. A struggle! I have been working with one of my critique groups on how to make it a better, more developmental focused group and it is motivating me! I have a meeting this week with that group and am looking forward to it.

To help me focus more, I have set up a reward system! My goal is to write 12 minutes a day and each day I do that, I get a sticker. And then, for each 144 minutes I get a fun pen. I am almost to the pen!

I will be adding a poem to my newsletter on substack as well-so make sure to subscribe to that.

My goal this week is to reorganize my poems and start DRAFT 10 of my novel in verse! EEEEEEK. This is the draft after I sent out to beta readers and I feel like things are getting so close to being ready to query. It’s close. I hope anyway.

To help me focus, I watched several of Heart Breathings videos by Sarra Cannon. Here is one I found super helpful.

Legit KidLit

We are taking a break during July and August, but our last two episodes were so much fun and have great giveaways! Check our Twitter and be ready for September because we have some fun stuff coming up.

Well, that’s my update!

Thanks for stopping by. Take care.

Happy reading!