Here we are, the end of another month, which means it’s time for my August 2025 Book Blog Wrap-Up. August always feels like a long month (in a good way) and I feel like my reading took advantage of that. I had a reading month with a lot of variety from poetry to nonfiction political science to fantasy and even a memoir. So, if you want to see what I was up to, then this August 2025 Book Blog Wrap-Up post is the place to be.
Book Reviews
I posted four book reviews in August. From earliest to latest they are:
- Roll For Love by M.K. England
- Ascension by S.T. Gibson
- The Project by David A. Graham
- The French Ingredient by Jane Bertch
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 are (as of the evening of August 26):
- Arthurian Retellings Reading List: 481 views
- Book Review: Gild by Raven Kennedy: 230 views
- Book Review: Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Maehrer: 220 views
- STEMinist Romance Books: 211 views
- Book Review: The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake: 202 views
I wrote this post a few days before the end of the month. But, even so, it appears I spoke too soon about not being affected by Google’s latest algorithm update. I didn’t have as many views as July (down by about 1,000 views). It’s a little frustrating because every time I get back to where I was last year, Google does another update. Anyway, whatever. I welcomed one new follower to the blog, up to 259 followers.
#BeattheBacklog
I finished two books that were on my TBR prior to 2025. Those books are BABY X by Kira Peikoff and HEIR OF FIRE by Sarah J. Maas.
Other Bookish Items
I finished 10* books in August:
- THE BLACK FLAMINGO by Dean Atta (audiobook)
- CARELESS PEOPLE by Sarah Wynn-Williams (audiobook)
- ASCENSION by S.T. Gibson (ARC)
- THE PROJECT by David A. Graham
- THE FRENCH INGREDIENT by Jane Bertch
- BABY X by Kira Peikoff (audiobook)
- HEIR OF FIRE by Sarah J. Maas
- THE POET X by Elizabeth Acevedo (audiobook)
- SAME by Hannah Rosenberg (ARC)
- MINISTRY OF TRUTH by Steve Benen (audiobook)
*Potentially 11 books by the time this post goes live. I had to draft it a few days before the end of the month.
I’m pretty happy with what I read this month, particularly because most of these were over 300 pages. Granted, a couple of those over 300 pages were novels-in-verse, but they still count!
I’m also still being really choosy about what ARCs I request or accept. I really want to read more from my own purchased books. But it’s tough because there are so many other newer shiny things!
Other Media Wrap-Up
DOCTOR WHO: We finished the latest season of DW on Disney+. I won’t mention any specifics for spoiler reasons. But I liked Ncuti Gatwa’s second season much more than the first. I felt like the chemistry between him and Belinda, his companion, was much better than with Ruby. Plus the episodes were more interesting and a little slower, which allowed me to get more invested. I hated the fast-paced, goldfish-attention-span feeling of season one. However, the ending of season two was “meh” after all that build up.
Non-Bookish Items
We’ve officially hit the point in the season where our garden is out producing how much we can eat. This is mainly because of cucumber and summer squash production, though the tomatoes are starting to ripen, too. We now have 6-7 butternut squash growing plus a few more other winter squash on a couple vines that found a second life. At the time of drafting this post we’d harvested 85+ pounds of produce.
I also decided to bite the bullet and drive 45 minutes to a dance shop whose owners are known for being well-informed pointe shoe fitters. The local dance store where I live isn’t so great at that and all my adult ballet dancer peers have had similar experiences; that translates into wasted money (including for myself) because pointe shoes are expensive. The manufacturer of the pair I like discontinued that line, so I had to find something new. It’s probably for the best because they’re quite tapered, which makes balancing more challenging. Anyway, I found a nice pair that feels great and hopefully I continue to think so once I actually try them out in class.
Finally, we bought plane tickets to visit South Korea before the year is out. I had anxiety over whether to decide to go or not considering all the personal stuff we have going on. But we figured out the timing of a few things and decided to do something that makes us happy.
How was your August?
I love the fact that your Arthurian post still gets so many views. Well done on your garden produce. That sounds like an incredible amount of food that you’ve grown.
It’s so nice to see people finding and (hopefully) appreciating the Arthurian post. It’s always a reminder that I have a lot of those types of books to read, lol! And thank you re: garden. 🙂
Congrats on a very good August. It felt long to me too. 85 lbs of produce sounds like a lot! I’m not sure if I remember you mentioning you were a dancer before, but I hope this pointe shoe experience is a good one😁
Thanks! I’m so thrilled with our garden production this year. It makes a difference when you don’t have a drought in the middle of the growing season! I did try out the new pointe shoes in class on Thursday and they seem pretty decent, thankfully.
Lol sounds like a good prob to have, a bountiful garden.
It’s an excellent problem to have!
Great wrap up!! I listened to The Project after reading your blog review. It was disturbingly informative, but I’m glad I listened to it.
I’m glad you read it! And yea, definitely kinda depressing, but an important read.
Sounds like a decent month overall! I definitely struggled this month, but we have enjoyed a lot of great food on the farm for sure!
Glad you’ve been having some good farm food to enjoy, too!
Oh wow, a trip to South Korea, how exciting!!! Hope the shoes you got work out, sounds like a challenge.
I definitely need to do a little YouTube watching about South Korea…I think I’ll start with the food because I don’t know much! I used the shoes once so far…they seem to feel pretty good. Hopefully they break in ok and I get used to them. 🙂
Ten books in a month is great! It’s a shame the end of the Doctor Who season wasn’t great. Oh man, you gotta love that garden glut in this time of year. Out garden has been struggling this year, but we are in a completely different grow zone, which is the exact opposite of what I deal with the last almost 20 years, but we are getting a couple of things out of it so that’s good enough for us.
Thanks! I’m pretty pleased with 10. I’m looooving the garden glut…we had a great week this week for veggies. What grow zone are you in now? I’m in 7b using the newest grow zone map.
Awww, enjoy your trip!! 🎉😍
Thanks!
Great wrap up! I don’t know if it’s because of the Google algorithm update or something else because I hadn’t noticed any changes in previous updates, but this time my views have ‘tanked’ pretty massively. My daily views have gone down by like 200 and I don’t even know why because it’s not like I’m posting any less than usual. Maybe my content is just too stale 🤭 Thankfully, I try not to pay too much attention anymore cos otherwise it would make me mad, lol. Looks like you had a great reading month overall. Also, a trip to South Korea before the year ends sounds like a very fun time—I hope you enjoy the trip. 😍 Have an awesome September!
It could be the Google algorithm! Sometimes it hits right away and sometimes there’s a delay. They do it frequently enough that I haven’t quite bounced back to the stats I was seeing this time last year. I’ve been more or less static, which is fine, but a little surprising since I try to SEO my posts.
Happy September! Hope you have a good month.
thank you!
I totally get the struggle of prioritising books that you own when there are lots of shiny new arcs around to distract you 😅 you read a lovely mix of books during August though and I’m thrilled you enjoyed Heir Of Fire so much 🥰
I hope you have a fantastic time in South Korea later this year. It sounds like your garden must keep you busy. And that’s wonderful that you do tap dancing, it always looks so hard. I used to do ballroom & Latin. I hope the shoes end up being a good fit 🤞
Have a great month 🥰
I know, it’s so tough to prioritize all the books I have/want to read! Heir of Fire was fantastic. Taking a break from TOG now to buddy read Katabasis!
Our garden is doing well considering we just had the driest August on record. I’ve had to water the garden a lot more, which takes a while, but it’s worth it.
And the new ballet pointe shoes worked pretty well in class a few days ago! I’ve only worn them once, so they are still quite new to me and I need to get used to them.
Ooh is that the big group one that Leslie & Dini are hosting? Enjoy.
I imagine we have too tbh as until the last week or two its barely rained which is pretty much unheard of here.
I hope they stay strong in future classes then 🤞
Yep, it’s the buddy read that Leslie and Dini are hosting! I think there’s like 6 or 7 of us? A nice bunch!
Ooh enjoy, it sounds fun 🥰
Wow, ten read books is a very impressive number. I was almost as successful as you with 9 read books.
Ha, the new shiny ARCs are always a bad tempation even though I have more than enough books on my shelves.
HEIR OF FIRE is my most favorite book out of the series and I could reread and reread it over and over again. I am really glad you enjoyed it.
I hope you’ll have a great time in South Korea.
Thanks! 9 books is still really good! I’d be happy with 5 or more, honestly!
I’m glad HEIR OF FIRE was your favorite, too! I’m taking a short-ish break from the series to buddy read KATABASIS, but hopefully I’ll get back to TOG soon!
Hmm I sort of forgot about DW haha. I think I watched all of Ncuti’s S1 but also didn’t care for the pacing. Sounds like I should give S2 a chance. A trip to South Korea is exciting! Hope you have a great time.