June and July 2021 have been quite cruel in terms of reading and blogging. I have been apartment hunting and it really takes over everything else! I also ended up DNF’ing a lot of books which just added to the reading slump. Hoping all’s well with everyone, and here’s a wrap-up post.
First, I want to give a shout-out to the new trailer for the movie Green Knight. I hope the movie is as good as the trailer, I am really looking forward to it.
I read A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, which I liked but did not love. And then I read Cat and Mouse by Christianna Brand which was a wonderful mystery à la Agatha Christie and I highly recommend it.
I don’t even remember all the books I tried reading and rated as DNF in the end. But I do remember giving up on: Terri Windling’s The Wood Wife (too slow in plot), Hannah Witten’s For the Wolf (too YA angsty for me), and T.A. White’s The Wind’s Call (too formulaic). I had high expectations of these, but in the end proved disappointing.
Next, I gobbled up Dancing with the Birds in one sitting. Documentary is not my preferred medium, and a documentary about random birds, umm… But let me tell you, this was a mindblower, with really chuckle-some commentary from Stephen Fry.
The other positive reads from June and July were Around the World in 80 Trees by Jonathan Drori and The Hidden Life of Trees by by Peter Wohlleben. A few readers had put these books in their Best Reads of 2020, and with good reason. Nature is so fascinating, and is the source of so much historical and cultural lineage for human beings. On top of it, we find that trees have social networks too! (At least the ancient ones do, very much like Tolkien’s Ents.) Seems there’s also a movie on the second book, which I need to watch.
How did July (and June) fare for you? Read or watched anything that you could recommend? Recs on something light, short and feel-good would be very much appreciated!
16 replies on “Monthly Wrap-Up: July 2021 / June 2021”
Dancing with Birds is a fabulous documentary, I love it. You said you aren‘t into documentaries much (I am, very much…), however… I just watched Playing with Sharks, which was entertaining.
Wohlleben is very popular in Germany, you see his books in every single bookshop. He does a TV show as well, where he goes off into the woods with German actors, writers, popular figures, etc. and chats with them about life and conserving our forests. Not bad. I listened to an audiobook by him about local wildlife and if they have souls. Not bad, although he lost me whne he started talking about them going to heaven.
Book recs… I didn‘t love Memory called Empire either. I did love Shards of Earth though. Master of Djinn was just ok as well. So my June and July weren‘t great in terms of books. I fared better with comics.
Wow, those are some excellent recommendations! You’ve got me interested in Playing with Sharks (though I’m sure that’s not feel good?), and Wohlleben’s TV show (where can I watch that?!). And of course, I’ve been following up on all your comics/ graphic novels reviews.
My wrap-up is coming monday so you’ll see that I read three Annette Marie books in her Guild Codex: Demonized series and those were really the best. They are light and short reads if you’re interested. 😏
Hmm, I’ve tried Annette Marie’s kitsune/ yokai series (forgetting the name) which was OK but not all that great. Guild Codex sounds more interesting though, will check it out. Thanks!
I love The Green Knight story and Dev Patel, so really looking forward to that one! But the release date’s been pushed back in the UK 🙁
It’s cool, we can just re-watch the trailer in the meantime. 😀
I have Witten’s For the Wolf on hold at my library, but I do not do well with teenage angst. Fingers crossed I can get through it. And that bird documentary sounds amazing. Have a great weekend!
That bird documentary is really all that good. I thought I’d watch it for 10 minutes, and then ended up watching the whole thing. It was wonderful!
Woah- the Green Knight looks amazing. And Alicia Vikander is in it.
I’m going to check out Dancing with the Birds.
Good luck with the search! I love what you said about trees too and social networks, and the reference to Tolkien. 🙂
Ents are the best! I hope you do check out Dancing with the Birds, it’s surreal and amazing and… oh well, will stop raving here. And thanks for wishes, need all the good luck with the housing!
I wish I could DNF books as easily as you do. I just power through, hoping that they’ll get better (and often it’s a waste of time).
Dancing With the Birds looks like a fun documentary, and The Hidden Life of Trees looks fascinating. To protect ourselves, we must protect nature!
Really? I actually admire that. I know I would have DNF’ed a few books at the 30% mark, only to realize later that they were actually hidden gems.
“To protect ourselves, we must protect nature!” Well said. I hope you check out Dancing with the Birds!
I’m glad you enjoyed a few titles to compensate for all the DNFs. Thanks for all the awesome recommendations related to nature.
The documentary on birds reminds me of all the amazing DVDs by Attenborough on the same topic
Ooh yes, Attenborough! I think I’ve seen a couple of those on Netflix too — Night on Earth and Our Planet, maybe? Those were breathtaking.
Around the World in 80 Trees is a great title! I’m going to have to see if my library has that one. And I picked up Cat and Mouse on your rec last month, so I’m hoping to get to it in August. Looking through the library books I got out recently, I have a feeling I’m about to go on a mystery binge. The start of fall always seems like a good time for mystery reads for me. 🙂
Sounds like a wonderful time to go mystery binge-reading, you’re absolutely right! I hope you’ll enjoy Cat and Mouse.
Around the World in 80 Trees is a collection of short essays on staple trees from each region/ country. I thought they were very well-written, with great illustrations. I had fun Googling all the images!