Happy July everyone! I have a feeling that nearly every update on my reading gets the title “more rereads.” I just can’t stop rereading books this year for some reason. Don’t worry though, I still make time for new books!
I hope everyone had an enjoyable June. We had some amazing weather the past month and I spent much of it outside. Unfortunately, the weather has turned again and there’s rain in the forecast for at least another ten days. Yay, Dutch summers… Anyway, I got some good reading done, and have some exciting life updates as well!june 2021 june 2021 june 2021
June Wrap Up: Reading
Chain of Iron
By Cassandra Clare
Chain of Iron was the first book I finished in June, and really enjoyed it! Though it was also incredibly frustrating at times. Not because of the writing, but because of the characters doing weird shit. Either way, I wrote a review for it which you can find here! I am very sad I have to wait another whole year before I can read Chain of Thorns.
The Lights of Prague
By Nicole Jarvis
This was a fun read set in historic Prague. I loved that the vampires in this story were more akin to the classical vampire; violent bloodthirsty creatures. I wrote a review for this one as well, which you can find here! Overall this is a good read if you really enjoy darker vampire stories, though I do think that the characters could’ve used some more depth.
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
By Michael Scott
And this is where the rereads started. I read this whole series in little more than a week, because I was feeling nostalgic. I remember exactly when I bought and read this book. We were vacationing in Tucson, where we used to live, and we went to Barnes & Noble where there were heaps of this book. I mean like a whole table full with just this book. I think the latest installment had come out just around that time. Anyway, I finished the book in like a day. And then back in the Netherlands I bought the rest of the series! There’s six books in total, and I still enjoyed them on my second read.
The Crown of Gilded Bones
By Jennifer L. Armentrout
I finally got to The Crown of Gilded Bones in June, too. I had ordered this one quite soon after it came out, put it on my shelves, and then didn’t look at it again for nearly two months. I’ll be real honest, these books have like zero plot until the last 100 pages. But somehow I’m entertained anyway. The beginning and the ending were both super fast paced, and there were a ton of revelations, so I really need that fourth book now.
Thorn
By Intisar Khanani
Thorn had been recommended to me on Bookstagram like a hundred times by now, so I finally decided to read it. This is a Goose Girl retelling, which is awesome, because I don’t think there are many Goose Girl retellings out there. It was an enjoyable book, though it did very much read like a fairy tale. I have a Barnes & Noble edition of Grimm’s fairy tales, and was happy to discover it included the original Goose Girl. It’s amazing how much of the original story is present in this book!
Truthwitch
By Susan Dennard
Lastly, I reread Truthwitch. Which brings my June reading up to 11 books! That’s more than I expected to read. I’m rereading this series because 1: I never got further than reading Windwitch, even though I own Sightwitch and Bloodwitch, and 2: Witchshadow just came out. I think I actually enjoyed Truthwitch more this time around. Currently I’m working my way through Windwitch, of which I remember absolutely nothing. I’m excited to continue the series though!
June Wrap Up: Life Stuff
So really the biggest, and only news I got regarding my life is that I submitted my thesis at the beginning of the month. And thus began nearly four weeks of anxiety about “Did I submit the right document?” “What if I accidentally plagiarized something?” “Omg I just remembered something I could’ve added.” “What if my supervisor thinks it’s trash?” (This despite having regular feedback sessions and knowing, in fact, that my supervisor never thought my thesis was trash)
Self confidence who??
Anyways, I got my grade back a few days ago, and am happy to say I got a 7.5 out of 9. Which is, in my honest opinion, pretty darn good. Also good to know I was overthinking the whole thing for nothing, like always. But the good news is that now I should be ready to graduate! My thesis was the last component of my Master that I still had to fulfill. I took an extra course this semester as well, but apparently my university doesn’t let me take more credits than required for my diploma. 60 credits is 60 credits, and no more. My university in the States wasn’t this mean. I graduated with 123 credits there, even though I needed 120.
I have also completed a few job applications, three of which are paid traineeships with the EU. I’ve been in contact with someone from the Netherlands that works for the EU in Brussels, and he gave me some contact information of Dutch people that work for the departments I applied at. Apparently lobbying for a spot is a thing with these traineeships, so if anyone has tips on how to properly do that, I’m all ears.
And that’s all for my June 2021 wrap up! How many books did you read the past month? Did you find any new favorites? Let me know!
