Hello friends, happy Monday! I hope you’re all doing well and had a good month! My month felt balanced in the sense that it was both busy and relaxing, let’s get into my July!

Currently Reading:

Christine by: Stephen King. I’ve been loving this book! It’s so intriguing and fast-paced and the interweaving of the characters has been so good. I have a slight idea how this is going to end, but I’m loving the journey!

The Arabian Nights translated by: Sir Richard Burton. I’ve made a big dent in this version. I’m almost halfway through and if I’m being completely honest, I can’t wait to finish reading these stories because I’m getting tired. I’ve been reading them for 2 months straight. I’m liking the stories, but it has been tiring – I can’t wait to move on to my next classic read, hopefully next month!

Anne of Windy Poplars by: L.M. Montgomery. I’ve only just started the fourth instalment in Anne’s world and I’m so ready to jump in. I noticed from the small part that I’ve read so far, that there are letters in this one. I’m interested to see how that plays into this book.

What I’ve Read:

72/100

Whisper of the Tide by: Sarah Tolcser. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was a nice way to end the duology. It had a lot of deception, a lot of adventure and was an all around fast-paced adventure novel that I enjoyed.

All the Seas of the World by: Guy Gavriel Kay. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was long-listed for Canada Reads this year… and I just couldn’t get into it; the writing was goregous and that’s what got me through it all.

Anne of the Island by: L.M. Montgomery. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Another amazing instalment in this series, I always love to see where Anne ends up next. This one was all about her going to college and I loved that for her. I’m curious to see where she’ll end up next.

Tyler Johnson Was Here by: Jay Coles. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was a hard hitting novel, but it was an important novel and I thought it was really well done; it left things feeling hopeful for the future.

Fragments of the Lost by: Megan Miranda. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I didn’t realize this was YA when I started it; that didn’t make me like it less, but there were things I didn’t like. It was a good mystery/thriller but I didn’t think it was completely believable.

We Spread by: Iain Reid. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Wow did this book ever blow me away; I had no idea what was going on; the suspense and horror in this was so well done and when you figure out what is really going on, it left me shocked. So good!

Hit Refresh by: Satya Nadella. ⭐️⭐️.5 This was a biography from one of the CEOs of Microsoft and it was alright. It read like a biography from a CEO – I haven’t read many and there’s a reason I don’t read them because they’re kinds bland.

Links to my my blog posts this past month:

Links to posts I enjoyed around the blogosphere:

Riddhi @Whispering Stories wrote a relevant post on cancel culture.

Sofia @Bookish Wanderess wrapped up reading as many series as she could in a week.

Zainab @Zainab Chats talked about the new social media Threads and gave her thoughts.

Krysta @Pages Unbound talked about what she’s like to see from the new Narnia adaptation.

July has been a month of activity and I can’t complain one bit because this is starting to feel like pre-covid days where I actually had plans. The beginning of the month was heavy with plans; the second half of the month was very much relaxed, which was good – a nice balance.

Highlights:

✨Spent Canada Day driving around parts of Ontario with a friend

✨Went to brunch – even though the food wasn’t the greatest, still good company

✨Celebrated one of my best friend’s 30th birthday!! 🎉 at a backyard party

✨Went to my first concert of the year – Billy Talent – such a great show!

✨Went to brunch (my favourite meal!) with a friend to celebrate another friend’s 30th birthday! 🎉

✨Went to the Disney Immersive Experience, which was a lot of fun

✨Went to a Toronto Blue Jays game, where they won! Such a fun day at the ballgame!

✨Spent a lot of time in downtown Toronto 😄

✨Saw Barbie in the theatre with friends, SO GOOD!

✨Had a few hangout sessions with friends

What I’ve watched:

The Simpsons; season 7. This season was long, and there were episodes that felt like they dragged on. This is the first season where I was getting bored of the stories. I thought the Bush moving in across the street episode was strange and I didn’t care for it – that one sticks out in my mind the most. I did like the season finale where Lisa wants to change her looks and Bart tries to ruin it, but then tries to fix it. Oh, I also enjoyed the episode the Smashing Pumpkins were on it – that took me down a whole SM rabbit hole and I just had to listen to their music. (it also had me Googling Billy Corgan because I didn’t realize he had hair in his younger days, I’ve only ever seen him bald 😅 – I can also see the appeal he had, he was cute once upon a time!)

Black Mirror; season 6. I honestly didn’t think this show was coming back, but it did! This season had 5 epiosdes to it… and for the most part it was enjoyable and held my attention, but the stories just felt sub-par. I think my favourite was the first episode (the one that everyone talked about), it had the most intriguing story. The rest were kinda weird, some unnecessarily long or they gave us background information that was just kinda there – I get it was to round out the story, but some of it I was just like okay. I made a whole post about my thoughts on each episode you can read my more in depth thoughts.

One Tree Hill; season 9. And just like that I’ve finished my rewatch again! Now that I don’t spend my days watching this, my days feel kinda empty. I miss these characters, but I know I’ll be rewatching again soon. As for this season, I always thought this season was all over the place because there is just SO much going on for 13 episodes. You have Nathan missing, Dan trying to find him (I also don’t know how I forgot about his ending, like I knew it was coming, but I clearly blocked it out of my brain), I like that we get to see Deb, Lucas and Keith one last time. We have Haley losing her mind, while Clay is losing his… he’s wandering around because he’s in a fugue state… and he randomly has a son (this plot always felt so out of left field. I also thought he and Quinn got married earlier in the season, not the finale). Watching Brooke try to get her parents to be parents is wild to me – I do like that Julian is there to point them in the right direction. Also, why did it take 9 seasons to meet her father?! I always thought that was strange. I’ve also never liked Mouth’s fat plot, it just felt strange, like it added nothing to the show. I can’t forget how much I loved seeing Chris Keller as part of the main cast, he was SO good! I also liked his friendship with Chase and Chase and Chuck this season was just amazing. Last thing I will point, how did I never notice before that Bevin and Skills get back together, huh.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; season 6. I think this might be the best season of the show. We are now deep into the dominion war and it was so good to see all of our characters at battle and trying to figure out how to win the war. It gave the show a sense of purpose instead of just aimlessly going through space looking for new life. In between all the war bits, we got a lot of character developments. This was a big season for Odo and Kira, we finally got it, the two of them together. It was also a huge season for Dax. I honestly didn’t see any of it coming. I love that she and Worf got married – that was so cute and beautiful. Then they spent a lot of episodes where Dax is baby crazy and she gets so close only for the finale to happen. I still can’t believe they did that to her. Ugh. It’s not only Worf who this affects, but everyone on the station is affected by it in different ways and it’s so interesting to see the different dynamics. The way this season ended left me so curious where season 7 will go.

Prison Break; season 3. I didn’t hate this season, but it definitely didn’t live up to the first two. If anything, I’m starting to feel like Michael, tired of doing the same things over again. So we learn that Sona is a prison in Panama where they send the worst of the worst. Now Michael is locked up and Linc is the one who’s free and has to be the one to do all the planning. So this season felt like a repeat of season one where they were breaking out of prison… I really hope season four isn’t a repeat of season two where they’re on the run again because that feels lazy. The company, which we found out at the end of season two is bigger than the US President, but we still don’t know anything about them. We have a new character, Whistler who is both working for them, but trying to get away from them, but he’s in Sona and so Michael has to add him to the plans to get him out. If he doesn’t they could kill Sarah and L.J, Linc’s son. It was still intense, but like I said I was kinda bored by the repeat of plots.

Jack Ryan; season 4. The final season of this show and I enjoyed it. The characters came back for one last mission. There was so much heist and chases and I never knew what was going to happen – there were so many moments where I was gasping because I didn’t expect anything. I also thought it was really interesting that they gave each main character a loved one, like Jack got a girlfriend and James has a son and a family, like where did they all come from? I’m wondering if they wanted to give another level to the intensity of the plots because I actually really like the father son relationship, with James, but I also wish we had gotten more of it. Why couldn’t it have been spread throughout all 4 seasons? Oh well, I’m glad we got it for one.

List of Movies:

• Disney Movies:
  • Babes in Toyland – this surprised me, I did not expect to like a musical, yet here we are!
  • Moon Pilot – this was kooky, but I was entertained by it all.
  • Bon Voyage! – this movie was so chaotic, but I didn’t hate it; there were moments that really stood out.
  • Big Red – this movie was slow; but I did like the boy and his dog aspect to this.
  • Almost Angels – I enjoyed this, it had such a beautiful show of friendship
  • The Legend of Lobo – this was such a boring movie that made no sense to me

Barbie – I LOVED this movie. I thought it was funny, entertaining and the journey both Barbie and Ken go on was both good and important. I can’t wait to watch it again!

What I’m watching:

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; season 7. I’m onto the last season of this show and I’m sad because I’ve loved this show so much. I’m not sure how I feel about the new Dax, I’m only a few epiosdes in so I have to get used to her. I’m also curious how they will end the show.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; season 5. I watched the first episode back when it came out and didn’t care for it so I kinda dropped the show, but since this is the last season I should probably finish it, so here I am. I’ve only got a few episodes left and some of it has been good, other parts I’m like ehhh, so we’ll see.

Boy Meets World; season 1. I started re-watching this, this month. I’m only 9 epiosdes in so I’m not that far, but I remember all these episodes which surprises me. I’ve been loving it so far. I’m also listening along to the Meet the Pod podcast, which I’m also really enjoying. It’s so fun to watch an episode then listen to them dissect it.

The Simpsons; season 8. I’m slowly watching this. The only episode that’s standing out to me right now from this season is the one where Homer is afraid of gay people for no reason, it was both funny, yet I like where it ended up.

Instagram & YouTube videos from the month:

How was your July? Read, watch, do anything interesting? Let me know!