July 2025 Wrap Up

It doesn’t look like I got a lot of reading done this month, but the books I did read were fantastic – plus I have a few more on the go that are amazing.

July is the month where I realized that the book club I was participating in was just not for me. Out of 7 months of reads, I only completed two, and I had missed out on a bunch of the in-person discord chats about some of the books, too. I’d like to continue looking for a book club that will appeal to me a bit more. I love reading outside of my preferred genre, but I’d like one that at least leans in the general direction. We’ll see how that search goes.

So my DNF (did not finish) for the month was “The Dose Effect” and that was a book club read. Honestly I just had such an issue trying to find this book in a non-Amazon location. For those unfamiliar, I stopped purchasing books from Amazon and using my kindle earlier this year, and I swapped over to Kobo, where I’ve been ever since.

I finished the audio book to the next Dungeon Crawler Carl book, and started the next one. I love Princess Donut, what can I say.

3/5 Stars – Dungeons and Drama

Dungeons & Drama, written by Kristy Boyce. This was a YA book chosen by my book club – and it started off really rough with a young woman who had stolen her mom’s car, and without a license, drove it. Her “punishment” was to work at her Dad’s store. Pretty sure if that was me, I would have gotten into a lot more trouble. It was difficult to suspend reality for that. The cover was absolutely adorable, and that’s where my interest in the book stopped.

3/5 stars

3/5 Star Review: How to Keep House while Drowning

I went into this with some pretty strong negative feelings, but the methods presented in the book actually made sense to me, and were things I would actually use in my day-to-day. the end was quite repetitive, and the book was already very short, which is why I give it such a low rating.

This was a BBBC (book club) read for the month of March.

3/5 stars

BBBC for February (Bujo Buddies Book Club)

The Bujo Buddies Book Club read for February was Psyche and Eros, by Luna McNamara. This was my very first Greek mythology retelling, and to be honest, it really didn’t do anything for me. The very first part of the book was incredibly slow, and I wanted to DNF it, but I pushed through and the book started to get good even if the story made no sense to me. Then the story started to rush – and then the ending was SUCH a disappointment. I was very frustrated.

We had our monthly get together about this book and around 100 others showed up. Some were much more experienced with Greek mythology and were able to tell me things I didn’t know, like the fact that MOST Greek mythology end in death / sadness, so the fact that this book did not already made it good for some readers. It was also a mash up of a few different myths, which I hadn’t realized.

Overall, I gave the book a 2.5/5 rating, because it simply wasn’t for me. The pacing felt awkward and while I eventually fell into the story, the ending just ruined everything. I’m still glad I gave it a read, and I really do love participating in my monthly book club meetings even if the books are not all my favourites. March is a self help book, so I’m not expecting great things there, either.

2.5/5 stars

A Year of Goober

One of the book challenges I’m doing this year is “A Year of Goober” from the book club that I belong to. The challenge is pretty simple, there’s two prompts for each month, and each one coincides with a flower. You can do either of the prompts, and at the end of the year you have a bootiful (beautiful, but Goober is a ghost, see?) bookuete (bouquete) of flowers. So far I’ve got January and February planned out, January is a Carnation “your favourite author” and I went with Holly Black, and then February is a violet, “continue a series” and I went with Iron Flame (I can’t wait to read the next book). On the left hand side I’m pasting the prompt along with the flower (I printed them out onto sticker paper) and on the right hand side I’m writing down the book and the author, but I think instead I might print out the covers and stick them there. This is my 2nd attempt at this layout, I had an earlier version that I just wasn’t loving at all. I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s completed at the end of the year!

Reading Journal Spreads

The next spread in my reading journal includes my BBBC (bulletjournal buddies book club) books which are selected monthly, and my series tracker. I didn’t like how I initially set my tracker up, and eventually realized I NEED the titles in there, so I re-did it and I added a tip-in, since I ran out of room! Of course I had to add my favourite stickers, chickens!

FaRoDay – Day 8

ELVA BIRCH

Thawing His Heart

A rare white hart shifter who was imprisoned in a cruel shifter zoo, Robert returns to the rebuilt Shifting Sands Resort to prove that he’s put his demons to rest and his memories of captivity behind him…only to meet a mate who doesn’t recognize him. Is he more broken then he knows?

Heat Level: Hot ***

A Year of Goober (2025)

As I mentioned before, I recently joined the BBBC (Bujo Buddies Book Club) run by Jess (known as JashiiCorrin over on YouTube) to inspire and motivate myself a bit more when it comes to reading and book related things. I’ve never been a part of a book community before, and so far it has been lovely. I participated in my first book club meeting, and had a lot of fun discussing the read.

There are also challenges and read-a-thons that happen throughout the year, one of which is called ‘A Year of Goober‘ which is sort of like a new take on reading bingo. Ghosty Goober is the name of a ghost mascot the group uses, and basically each month you have the choice between two prompts, which are also tied to two types of flowers. Each month you build a bouquet of flowers up, depending on your monthly reading choices. The video I linked goes into resources available and how to sign up if you’re interested. I’ll be adding this to my reading journal, so I’ll share my progress here once I get that up and running.

I didn’t intend on getting so involved with the reading club once I joined, but I’m having a good time and it’s really nice to be surrounded by a possitive non toxic community who have similar interests. Even if we do spend a lot of time defending differences in opinion about books, there’s room for every sort of reader.