BOOKS
Reading Stats of July
- Books read: 9
- Number of pages read: 2,993
- Average star rating: 4.3
- Average time to finish a book: 6 days
- Format breakdown: 44% e-books, 33% print books, 22% audiobooks
- Genre breakdown: 89% fiction, 11% nonfiction
- # of DNFs: 0
- Audiobook reading: 15 hours, 2 minutes (actual listening time: 8 hours, 41 minutes)
Reading Superlatives of July
- The best book I read in July: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- The book romance I read in July: Back After This by Linda Holmes
- The book I didn’t expect to love as much as I did: Wild Love by Elsie Silver
- The book that lived up to the hype: How to Read a Book by Monica Wood
- The book with the most beautiful writing: No Cure for Being Human by Kate Bowler
Reading List (from favorite to least favorite)
- Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (e-book, 2025) ★★★★★
- No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Need to Hear by Kate Bowler (audiobook, 2021) ★★★★★
- Back After This by Linda Holmes (e-book, 2025) ★★★★★
- The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston (e-book, 2022) ★★★★☆ 1/2
- Wild Love by Elsie Silver (print, 2024) ★★★★☆
- Someone in the Attic by Andrea Mara (print, 2024) ★★★★☆
- The Wedding Pact by Katee Robert (print, 2016) ★★★★☆
- How to Read a Book by Monica Wood (audiobook, 2024) ★★★★☆
- People Person by Candice Carty-Williams (print, 2022) ★★★☆☆ 1/2
MEDIA
- MasterChef, season 14 (Hulu) – This season, the theme was “Generations,” and I was very happy with the millenial representation.
- Survivor, season 12 (Paramount+) – Cirie’s first season! (She’s the GOAT of Survivor, in my opinion.) They began this season by dividing the castaways into four groups: young men, young women, old men, and old women. Cirie, at age 35, was placed in the old women’s tribe. *dies*
- The Amazing Race, season 5 (Paramount+) – This was a great season and I was pleasantly surprised by the team that won. This was the first season where they didn’t have a super athletic male/male team, which really opened up the field.
- Big Brother (Paramount+) – It’s Big Brother season! Yay! I am enjoying this season, even though the gameplay has been pretty abysmal. I’m hoping things pick up in the second half.
- Destination X (Peacock) – This reality TV show popped up on my iPad as something to watch, and since I can’t get enough of competition reality TV, I decided to give it a try. It’s about a group of people traveling around Europe in an RV and they use clues to guess the city they are in. It was an interesting concept, but I’m not sure I’d watch another season.
- Superman – What a friggin movie. I wasn’t even planning on seeing Superman until my mom asked if I’d like to see it with her, and now it’s my entire personality.
MONEY
Favorite purchase of July
Poolside cabanas at the hotel. These cabanas were $50 per day, and my mom and I couldn’t help ourselves! They were shaded, comfortable, and in a separate area, so we didn’t have to be around splashing kids. It was so nice to live our bougiest lives with our poolside cabanas.
Most delightful little indulgence of July
Strawberry watermelon seltzer (Polar brand). I am obsessed with this flavor of seltzer! It is the perfect drink for summer—crisp and fruity with a sweet aftertaste. I love it and seek it out every time I’m at the grocery store.
Most regrettable purchase of July
So many Ubereats orders. It was a bad month, and I am not looking forward to reporting on my Ubereats total for July.
Number of books purchased in July: 6
- It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan (Target)
- Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet by Samantha Allen (Target)
- The Ghostwriter by Julia Clark (Target)
- What Happens in Amsterdam by Rachel Lynn Solomon (The New Romantics)
- Wild Eyes by Elsie Silver (The New Romantics)
- The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna (The New Romantics)
Best recommendation
Stitch Fix. I am really glad I re-started my Stitch Fix subscription in July. I loved almost everything I received, and I’m looking forward to what my stylist will choose for me next month (I asked for clothes for my London trip!).
BLOG/PODCAST
On the blog, I wrote about the reasons I love traveling with my mom, which was written after our Orlando vacation, which is a good sign that we had a great time together. I gave an update on my 2025 goals. I took you through my first colonoscopy and that terrible, no good, very bad prep day. And I shared my Stitch Fix items, my first box in more than three years!
On the podcast, Bri and I talked about bucket lists and how bucket lists can be different depending on your personality type. We released an episode about our favorite and least-favorite food combos and then did a weird food taste test, which was horrible! We started with ketchup on popcorn and it only got worse from there. And then we sat down with our dear friend Kim to discuss what it was like to lose her home during Hurricane Helene, mere months after closing on it.
JOURNAL
Samples from my One Line a Day journal
- July 2, 2025: Abdominal ultrasound. Results came back with nothing. Everything looks fine. Back to the drawing board.
- July 8, 2025: Mom’s birthday vacay! We went to the Orlando aquarium and then checked into the hotel. We went to Disney Springs to have dinner at a steakhouse.
- July 11, 2025: Ben Schwartz and Friends was amazing! What an incredible show. And 1,500 people showing up to see improv? So cool!
- July 17, 2025: Colonoscopy prep day. It was horrible. I was so hungry and threw up multiple times. Ugh. What a terrible day.
- July 18, 2025: Colonoscopy day! No polyps, ruled out Crohn’s and UC. I was in and out within two hours.
- July 20, 2025: Cried with Mikaela at Starbucks while reading her book. It’s so beautiful but so hard.
- July 21, 2025: I’m leading a Salesforce 101 training tomorrow and I am so nervous about it! I know my stuff, but always worried about stumbling over my words.
- July 25, 2025: I cannot stop looking at Superman/David Corenswet memes and Reels. I am obsessed.
- July 27, 2025: We did alpaca painting today! It was a lot of fun, although my painting did not turn out great.
- July 30, 2025: My mental health is on the struggle bus. Is it anxiety? Depression? Both? Whatever it is, it sucks.
Previous years:
- July 2, 2022: My mom has Covid and I feel so guilty. I know I gave it to her.
- July 7, 2023: First day in Charleston! We got to check in early and did a harbor tour. We had dinner at a brewery.
- July 31, 2025: My last 1:1 with Sara. Next week is her last week. I’m so depressed.
SUPERLATIVES
- This month’s chapter title: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times
- Weather notes: Hot and humid, as per usual. We also broke some long-standing heat records like hottest temperature and hottest heat index. Things are fun here!
- Favorite meal/snack: That sausage egg mcmuffin after my colonoscopy (!!!)
- Something I learned: That I can access Google Photos through my Chromebook*
- An unexpected delight: David Corenswet (and basically the whole press tour for Superman)
*This was a WILD discovery and I feel really dumb that I didn’t know about it until now. To add photos to my blog posts, I always had to email them to myself first, and often, if I tried to send too many photos in one email, it would take forever for the email to go through. So I’d usually email myself 2-3 photos at a time. And then as I was helping my mom set up her Chromebook, I realized that she has the Google Photos app… so my Chromebook likely has it, too. Sure enough – I had it all along and now I just have to download the photos from the app to add them to my blog posts. I mean, DUH. But also – adding photos to blog posts just got 1000x easier.
How many books did you read in July? What would you name this month, if it was a chapter in a book about your year?
I’m so glad your colonocopy is behind you!
Hmmm. July as a chapter title: Where Did the Time Go?
I read 12 books in July and most of them were really good! I just posted my reviews today (one of the books was How to Read a Book!)
Tehehe – colonoscopy is “behind” me. (I’m so sorry, I’m 12.)
Oh, so you liked How to Read a Book! People have mixed reviews on that one. I read seven book in July, and How to Read a Book wasn’t one of them- I ended up returning it to the library unread. But I might pick it up again some other time.
A chapter title for July might be “Wait, What?’ I mean it was a weird month for me- I was sick, I went on a trip, I had jury duty. The whole month just felt off. But I guess weird is better than boring.
I did like it! It was a little tough for me at times, but I would say it lived up to the hype. But I definitely think you should wait to read it until you’ve had some space from your last book about prison!
You had a wild July – let’s hope August is a lot calmer. <3
After I posted my July recap, I realized I left a book off (Kate and Frida). I finished it on 7/1 and somehow missed it when writing my post! So I actually read 10 books, plus 1 read aloud to Paul which was a long chapter book, so 11! But you had an amazing reading month! I also rated Back After This 5 stars!
July: The month of travel falling through (one trip was canceled due to weather, the other due to sales having a hard time booking meetings – I was not sad).
I still can’t believe we got our colonoscopies so close to each other! It was nice to have a buddy to text with about the experience!!
Hooray for travel falling through, especially when it’s work travel!
Colonoscopy buddies FTW!
I read twelve books in July and three were five stars! So that’s fun. When Birchie was here I saw how quickly she DNFs books if she’s not enjoying them, and that is aspirational for me! I need to do that more as I also had a few 2s and 2.5s in July. What a waste of time!
Rob and I have had cabanas when we have been in Mexico and they are so nice. I feel like such a princess!
Since Rob and Jake have been gone these past two weeks, I have watched a lot of British period dramas, which is 100% my thing! I don’t even generally watch TV and I’ve watched more these past two weeks than in the past six months. Last night I finished The Duchess (movie) and I loved it. But I kept thinking “wow Ralph Fiennes looks so much younger than when he was in Conclave.” Duh, it was made in 2008.
For some reason, I still don’t believe that 2008 was all that long ago. BUT NO IT WAS 17 YEARS AGO. My nephew was born in 2008 and he’s going into his junior year of high school. HOW.
Yes to DNF-ing books! I just finished a thriller I gave 1 star to, so I obviously need to get better at DNF-ing, too.
LOL this is completely random and I need to catch up on the rest of your month before I comment, but I have to share, I only recently discovered I can drag and drop photos into my blog. I was doing a longer upload process too (on my computer). And for some reason I kept meaning to tell you. I must have sensed you had a lightbulb moment as well. LOL!
I love that we both had this lightbulb moment the same month, haha!
Argh… not back to myself when it comes to reading… maybe 5 in July?
I am wondering how you track the actual listening time.
Also I had to google pool side cabanas. Looks fun.
I use the Bookly app to track how long it takes me to read books. So that’s how I track it!
I just love how you are all in on Superman. It makes me smile every time you post about it.
Also? This month, you deserved the cabana and the Uber Eats. You’ve had a rough couple of months. You’ll get back on track soon enough. <3