July felt like such a long month. It wasn’t my best month in terms of mental/emotional health. However, I had a great month with respect to bookish things. As usual, this July 2024 Book Blog Wrap-Up includes a book review recap, statistics, bookish, and non-bookish activities.
Book Reviews
I posted five book reviews in July. From earliest to latest they are:
- Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood
- The Nightingale’s Castle by Sonia Velton
- How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler
- A Room Called Earth by Madeleine Ryan
- What Have We Here? by Billy Dee Williams
Blog Statistics
Every month I share some statistics from Google Analytics because I think it helps put expectations into perspective for other micro-bloggers like me who are out there. These statistics are from Google Analytics 4.
My top five posts for total page views, as of yesterday evening, are:
- Arthurian Retellings Reading List: 1,035 views
- Book Review: Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer Armentrout: 920 views
- Book Review: Assistant to the Villain by Heather Maehrer: 673 views
- 2024 Mid-Year Freakout Book Tag: 522 views
- ARC Review: Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig: 346 views
I’m shocked that the Mid-Year Freakout Book Tag made it to this month’s top 5 most-viewed posts! That’s a first for any type of meme-ish post. I don’t have 400+ followers, so that is SEO doing its job, my friends! I also finally surpassed my January 2024 monthly views record, which means July 2024 had the most views yet during the lifetime of this blog. According to Jetpack for WordPress, I had over 8,600 views. (GA4 says I had close to double that. I’m not sure why, but it looks like it counts views to my home page, so maybe that’s partially the reason.)
Finally, I’m now up to 196 followers. That’s so close to my goal of 200 for 2024!
#BeattheBacklog
I finished two books for this challenge: UNDER THE HENFLUENCE by Tove Danovich and THE BOOK EATERS by Sunyi Dean.
Other Bookish Items
I finished ten books in June:
- THE NIGHTINGALE’S CASTLE by Sonia Velton (ARC)
- HOW TO BECOME THE DARK LORD AND DIE TRYING by Django Wexler (ARC)
- DUNGEONS & DRAMA by Kristy Boyce
- UNDER THE HENFLUENCE by Tove Danovich
- POISON IN THEIR HEARTS by Laura Sebastian
- THE BOOK EATERS by Sunyi Dean (audiobook)
- THE MIRACULOUS JOURNEY OF EDWARD TULANE by Kate DiCamillo (audiobook)
- NOT ANOTHER LOVE SONG by Julie Soto
- A COURT OF FROST AND STARLIGHT by Sarah J. Maas (audiobook, reread)
- LORE OF THE WILDS by Analeigh Sbrana (ARC + Fairyloot SE)
I’m proud that the majority of my reading this month was physical copies of books. Most of them (except POISON IN THEIR HEARTS) were even copies of my own!
I wrote a post about 2024 Mid-Year Reading Statistics.
I went to S.T. Gibson’s last stop on the EVOCATION book tour, which was in Northern Virginia. I am forever jealous that Brookline Booksmith near Boston tends to see a lot of the authors I’m interested in. So it was nice to have one stop in my area. Listening to Saint talk about EVOCATION and her background gave me a greater appreciation for her work. I love that the next three books in The Summoner’s Circle series will have a primary focus on a different character. Up next is Rhys. Since he’s the academic of the bunch we’ll learn more about the technical aspects of the occult.
Non-Bookish Items
July was an emotionally and physically tough month for me. It honestly felt like one of the worst months of my life. I had a quick and minimally invasive procedure done, which meant my first time under IV anesthesia. The procedure itself went well, but the end results were unexpected, frustrating, and emotionally challenging. They were not what I hoped for. So I’ll have to do it all over again in September. My whole life has felt like a waiting game for about the last year or so and it’s wearing on me. One day maybe I’ll share a little more. But I’d like to have good news first and everything is just a crap shoot right now.
In less heavy non-bookish news, production from my vegetable garden is starting to increase. It’s not at peak yet, but there are lots of peppers on the plants. The drought definitely affected tomato and potato yields. I’ll be surprised if we hit 100 pounds of produce this year. I think we have around 30 pounds so far. Once the cucumbers and more tomatoes come in we should see a decent increased in yields.
And that’s it for my July 2024 book blog wrap-up! What was everyone else up to?
It looks like you had a pretty good reading month (yay for reading all those physical copies!) but I’m sorry to hear that July was so emotionally taxing and heavy. Sending you much positivity and I hope that things end up turning around the way you want it to soon. 🫂 Hope August is kinder and you get to read many amazing books, too!
Thanks a bunch, Dini! August has, so far, been kinder…I’m really leaning in to mood reading my own books! ^_^
Congrats on passing your old views record, it must be so cool! And these numbers are great, so well done.
I am not surprised your Mid Year Book Freak Out was so popular, I love these types of posts because there’s a bit of everything in there and it serves as a wrap up as well.
Seems like July was also a great month for reading, you got to so many great books! I hope August continues like that.
Thank you! It’s amazing how SEO can drive traffic to my li’l ol’ blog. I hope you have a lovely reading time in August!
Very cool that you got to meet Saint! Sorry to hear it was such a frustrating month. I hope things ultimately turn out fine, but I imagine the waiting part isn’t any fun😥 Hang in there, Celeste!
Saint was so cool to listen to–such thoughtful answers to the various questions. And thank you for the kind wishes. Thankfully I have a bit of a break from all that health stuff this month, but will get back into it in September. So I’m enjoying this time off now.
Your stats are really good for a book blog. From what I know, JetPack tries to filter out visitors it thinks are spam or bots, and it won’t count when you visit your own blog, but GA counts everything. You probably have some real visitors who aren’t counted by either though, due to the increase in people blocking cookies.
Ah, ok! Thanks for the information about Jetpack vs. GA. It was a big enough difference that I was wondering what was going on!
I’m sorry your month was so mentally and physically difficult, Celeste. Please know I’m thinking of you and I’m sending all the warmth and positive vibes I have your way. I’ll be hoping September goes much better, too, and then hopefully you can be in a great place for fall and Halloween stuff!
Congratulations on the record-breaking month on the blog, too! That’s so fun! And it has to feel so rewarding :). Yay! I’ve never been one to write “for views.” As you know, my pieces can be long and stream-of-consciously rambling or multi-source analyses or whatever I’m feeling at the moment XD. So that’s not everyone’s cup o’ tea. In that way, I always feel like I’m writing for myself first and foremost. But it still feels really good when you have a surprise piece take off or you see your blog breaking all your own records! So know I’m feeling that vicariously with you right now and I’m so, so happy for you!
Also, congrats on the garden, too! I’m not one for gardening. In fact, I’m an if-it-grows-it-stays sort of person, much to my mom and aunt’s chagrin XD. The “flower bed” in front of my home is as wild as if it was in the middle of the woods and that’s just how I like it. Though, since little critters like to hide in that and sneak into my garage during the winter, I’ve decided to just pull the bed out and make it a deck. Now I can read out front and chat with the neighbors! Anyway…this story got a little away from me. WHICH reinforces my point in the paragraph above! All this was to say, I’m impressed with your gardening skill and could never manage the same myself ;D.
Thanks for the kind words, Michael!
As for your writing style, I don’t think you’re ramble-y! Of your posts that I’ve read, all flow very well with an obvious goal of communicating your thoughts about something as completely as you can.
Thank you! I think it feels that way to me sometimes because I’ll dance between the analysis and personal reflection/memoir-y stuff so it can feel a bit stream-of-consciousness-y to me. So I really appreciate knowing it doesn’t feel that way to you!