June Wrap Up

Oh June, I don’t think I will miss you…
A busy month, complete with an awful heatwave and a mini reading slump.

Reading Wrap

In June I read 4 books. Not a bad number, but definitely lower than I wanted, since now I am not currently studying I have more time to catch up on my tbr! Unfortunately I was hit with a small reading slump in the middle of the month which put paid to most of my plans. If you look at the reading timeline on my Storygraph wrap-up, you can see where the slump fully hit, and not reading anything for an entire week felt like an eternity to someone who usually reads every day!

Titles with a * have been gifted.

Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff Vandemeer. The book that caused my reading slump. I wanted to love it. The first 25% was SO GOOD. The latter 25% took a week to get through and I was so disappointed.
The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri. A reread, and one I really enjoyed. The world is so cool and unique and I really am determined to continue the series in a timely manner now…
Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman. Climate disaster meets capitalism. I had a good time with this one, though it was actually quite depressing if I let myself think too much about the possible state of the future it is showing us.
Harriet Tubman Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen. I picked this up for the Pagebound Pride Readalong and I’m really pleased I did. I listened to it, and the narration made it much more entertaining than I think it would have been by eye. I learned a lot of new things about certain parts of US history that I never got to study at school in England.

Books ACQUIRED

I gained 4 books in June. 3 from publishers, and one preorder I bought from Honnomushi Cat Books, a really lovely UK based indie bookshop selling translated fiction. (Quite funny that I could copy this sentence from last month.)

Dead Bees Still Sting by Susan Cormier (publisher)
A Bird’s IQ by Louis Lefebvre (publisher)
Break Room by Miye Lee
Alive by Melanie Challenger (publisher)

Reading Challenges

My r/Fantasy Bingo board didn’t change in June, sadly. I could put The Jasmine Throne into the politics square, but that would be my one reread, and I am saving that for a different book.

Hopefully next month I will have some changes!

In terms of other challenges, I thought it would be fun to share my progress towards various Pagebound badges each month. In June I earned the Pride 2026 badge through reading Harriet Tubman. This badge was only available to earn for the month, so I am very pleased that I got it! I didn’t make any progress towards any other badges.

Blog Wrap

June was a slow blog month too, the slump extended to all things bookish, sadly.

REVIEWS:

DISCUSSIONS:

Let’s Talk Bookish: Reading With Pride!

READING UPDATES:

Life Wrap

June was quite a month. During the latter half, the UK and a lot of Europe suffered through a very scary and extreme heatwave. It has only just broken here in the UK, but we recorded our new highest temperature for June of almost 38 Celsius (99.9F). The fact that it isn’t even full summer yet and we had that… Honestly it scares me. Apparently we have more of the same on the way and I am NOT looking forward to it at all.

Aside from that, I recorded my first talking reel for my Bookstagram, which was quite nerve-wracking but exciting. My sister arrived after traveling Asia for almost a year and I am so happy she’s here! I did another pottery class, this time making old mine buildings, which are synonymous with Cornwall, and worked a lot at the cattery!

You Tell Me: How was your June? What was your best read?

5 responses to “June Wrap Up”

Keira @Keira’s Bookmark

Jul 3, 2026 at 10:02 am

Reading slumps suck!

I have Break Room in Korean and keep meaning to get around to it and not – I’ll be very interested to see what you think!

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1. Emma
  
  Jul 4, 2026 at 5:25 pm
  
  They really do!
  Ah I’m so looking forward to Break Room, I LOVED Dallergut, and while I know this is different I am still excited. Hopefully I’ll get to it this month.
  
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  1. Keira @Keira’s Bookmark
    
    Jul 5, 2026 at 12:17 am
    
    I also really liked Dallergut, so fingers crossed!
    The only reason I haven’t read Break Room yet (I’ve had a copy for at least 2 years) is that it’s stuck in a storage box at my mum’s house hehe.
    
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Dini @ dinipandareads

Jul 3, 2026 at 1:54 pm

Sorry to hear about your slightly slump-ish June! I hope that July sees that turn around for you 🙂 The Harriet Tubman book sounds interesting especially since it’s by Bob the Drag Queen (who I coincidentally came across on my YouTube FY page last month where he was doing a game review). I can imagine narrated by him would be very good!

Despite not reading much your June sounds like very fun and eventful! Yay for your sister being back 🙂 I met up with my sister briefly in June as well, and it was so nice to see her even if it was just for a week before she went back to Japan. The global rise in temperatures in the past week have been scary indeed. I’m glad to hear that it’s better now, and hopefully it’ll give you good time to prepare for any future heatwaves, should they come (and hopefully they won’t be as bad). Have an amazing July! 🌻

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1. Emma
  
  Jul 4, 2026 at 5:28 pm
  
  I appear to be back on track after my slump – touch wood! Harriet Tubman was great, the narration really made it. It’s super short too, so a really easy one to fly through. I’d never heard of Bob the Drag Queen before, but I’ll definitely be looking for more of their stuff!
  
  June was fun despite the slump! I think my sister will be here for a little while which is nice, I’m trying to persuade her to show me all 1000000 photos from when she was in Japan haha.
  
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