a reading wrap up because i cannot think about anything serious

It is July and I am twenty-three and a half years old. My mother’s garden is full of wildflowers, butterflies, and bumble bees. My hair is mostly dirty blonde, but its dyed pink in places too. I have just had my heart broken for the first time. 

I wish I had the freedom of an empty summer. I miss reading a book a day, jumping into the ocean at any hour, seeing friends without scheduling them a month in advance. I am most reflective on open, beautiful summer days. I am able to be creative and ambitious, inspired by the terrain that raised me and the smell of sunscreen.

As June was a mess I am currently choosing to ignore, I am focusing on making my July and August as full of empty days as possible. I still have a full time job and adult tasks I despise to manage, but I want to be a summer kid too. I have such a specific nostalgia for sitting with friends in my backyard on a summer night. If I could capture that laughter and tension and bring it with me all season, I would.

Although I could long for summers past for this whole post, I am finding myself dreary lol so instead I am shifting to a halfway through the year reading wrap up. I've read 30 books so far this year. Here are the highlights, flops, and books I'm looking forward to reading next.

Books I loved:

• Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron (a weird, short novel set in 2003 in NYC. I love the main character's narrative voice and I feel like Cameron is able to capture the specific, privileged urge to run away from all responsibilities and buy a big, old house in the middle of nowhere so well)
• Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (having one narrator be a librarian and another a patient at a psychiatric hospital was VERY impactful for me. my life is currently a mix between wanting to be a librarian and working on a psych unit so it hit hard)
• The Trio by Johanna Hedman (I have never wanted to visit Stockholm more in my entire life. I want to visit so badly. The descriptions of the city were delightful)
• On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (finally read it!! finally learned what all the hype was about!!)
• Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood (very not serious and all the better for it. the things I have heard about the current chess world from friends in it are bonkers and this book fits in with the climate well)

Books I did not like/did not finish: 

• Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens (I wanted to like this book so bad. Ghosts and George Sand?! I read all of it, but I was just annoyed by it idk why)
• These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever (I like dark academia so I wanted to like this book, but it was too dark for me tbh. I think my opinions on psychological thrillers/books with sad endings bc of unwell characters has deeply changed because of my job)
• Dead Man's Hand by James Butcher (the Boston geography was horrific.)
• Bellies by Nicola Dinan (another one I wanted to love!! the couple were just so mean to each other I could not get past it)

What I am reading next: 

• Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner by Natalia Dykstra 
• Forest of Dreams and Whispers by Katherine Macdonald
• Natural Magic: Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, and the Dawn of Modern Science by Renee Bergland

I would be curious to read what others are reading this summer! 

Cheers to a few warm months of creative days, 

Michaela 

Also the font is definitely weird on this I don't know why