-Today we are going to be doing my June wrap-up,
which means that we're going to talk
about all the books that I read in the month of June.
Before we get into all that,
a shout out to today's sponsor, Squarespace.
From websites to online stores, to marketing tools, analytics
Squarespace is an all in one platform
that helps you to build your website
and grow your business.
We'll talk more about them at the end of the video.
Shout out to what I'm currently reading,
because I'm currently reading three books
because I did a really bad job at finishing out my month,
having read 24 hours.
I don't know why it doesn't matter.
I thought I would read a lot more at the end of the month than I did,
but also it was unreasonable expectations,
which I seem to set for myself a lot.
Still currently reading Shadow Divers,
which is a nonfiction about deep sea diving.
I'm enjoying it a lot, but I'm reading it really slowly.
I'm also still currently reading Running to the Fire,
which is a self pub fantasy book,
lighthearted, charming, silly fun.
I'm really enjoying it.
It's all building up to something, but that's how the beginning feels.
I'm also still currently reading Guards! Guards!,
which I didn't even realize until I got to the point
where I was trying to organize this video
and go through what I've read
and I realized that I forgot to finish it.
I got really far into it,
but I had to put it down
because we had to read this nonfiction for our adoption
before one of our home studies.
I focused on that.
Then when I finished it, I moved on to the next book
and I forgot to finish Guards! Guards!
I was enjoying it,
I just forgot to finish it.
It's not going to be in this wrap-up. I will finish it though.
Onto the stats.
I read eight things this month,
six books, one manga, and one graphic novel.
I read a variety of genres.
My star ratings were overall very good.
I enjoyed pretty much everything that I finished this month
and that's because I DNFed three books.
The things that I wasn't enjoying, I just stopped reading,
which is great for me because that means
that I enjoyed everything that I did finish.
The first thing that I finished this month was
I put this under the books category.
Now, that I'm thinking about it,
I guess I should have put it under letter.
Is that a category?
It's called Letters from Birmingham Jail.
This is a letter written by Martin Luther King jr
after he had been arrested.
He just wrote a letter.
This was after he had published a book or two
and he was at the end of his rope.
He had lost a lot of hope in the white man at this point
because of the way he had been treated
and the way they had reacted to him up to this point.
It's a really raw letter
and I really appreciated reading it.
The audio book was only an hour long,
highly recommend it,
and I definitely want to read his full novels as well.
The next book I read was Children of Time,
which is a Sci-Fi novel.
This is a tough one to describe. Let's see here.
It follows two perspectives.
One is a ship full of people
and the other is spiders.
A perspective of spiders.
It's the weirdest Sci-Fi book
I think I've read, but it was so good.
I don't know how many of you know this,
but I read-- A lot of the books that I read,
I read them with my dad
because he just reads whatever I'm reading a lot of times.
He's a really fast--
It's impressive how fast he gets through books.
All I'm going to say for those of you who have read this is
my dad loved it too.
He was rooting for the spiders.
A quick summary of the plot,
the earth is dying and the last bits of humanity
have to leave behind the dying earth
and travel through space to find or not to find,
to go to what they've discovered,
which is a terraformed and protected new planet
that they can exist on.
The problem is that there's two separate groups
that are going to the same place
and they're going to have to Duke it out to get there.
Like I said, this is probably the weirdest Sci-Fi book
I've ever read,
but I enjoyed it so much.
The beginning of this book I was so enamored with
and the ending of this book was so satisfying,
but there was a chunk in the middle
that I really had to push myself to read through.
There are definitely some slow spots,
at least in my opinion, there were,
but well worth the read weird, weird, weird book.
I think it has a companion and I really want to read that too
because I just don't know. I just don't know.
Fullmetal Alchemist.
Last month in my wrap up, I said,
I finished volumes 10 and 11, but I was wrong.
I got my numbers mixed up.
I had finished 9 and 10.
This month, I read 11.
This is important to clarify
because last month I said that 10 and 11
were not so exciting, nothing much was happening.
The brothers weren't even really a focus in them.
Not so. 11 was great.
Ed is back as the focus, it went dark,
it went intense.
I have no idea where it's going from here
and I love it.
I'm back on really excited about these.
I didn't finish.
I didn't keep reading more manga this month
because I got really hooked on avatar graphic novels,
but so good
and I will be continuing for sure into July.
I know I'm going to see the series through,
but I'm really excited to be reading them again.
The next book I finished was The Vanishing Half.
This is a book about--
It takes place in the '50s
and it's about two identical twin girls.
They are black and white passing.
One decides to move back to her hometown after they grow up a bit
and the other disappears, leaves behind her family,
they don't know what happened to her.
She remakes herself as a white woman,
marries a white man
and tries to hide the fact that she's black.
This follows both of the sisters, as well as both of their kids.
I loved the way this was done
because she followed four separate people
and their separate side people.
People in their lives and life journeys that they've taken
and it's all weaved in so well.
This is a complex way of writing this
and the author handled it so well
and she tackles so many deep topics.
Again, so well and I just got her debut novel.
This is her second novel
and I'm going to be reading the debut really soon
because it only took one book for me to fully trust this author
and want to read everything she writes.
Hard-hitting contemporaries is one of my favorite genres to read,
but I don't read it a lot because they're so intense
and this book was so intense, but in the best way, I loved it.
The next book I finished is The Connected Child.
This is the nonfiction that I had to read for our adoption.
Our adoption agency requires it
and we aren't adopting a baby.
We're adopting a toddler.
This book is really dedicated to people
who are adopting kids that have already lived in another home,
might be bringing in some sort of trauma
or just in general, they need to adjust.
This is all about things that we should be aware of things
that we should be watching for and how to love our child
the best way that we can and take care of them.
It was a really good book, had a lot of things that we learned
and that we got to discuss and I'm glad I read it.
Then I picked up Once Again Upon A Time,
which was free on audible
and it was fine.
I put it under the romance category in my stats.
It's a fantasy, but it's a romance fantasy
and the romance was really the focus of it.
That's why I put it there,
but it is a fairy tale
about two people who married,
they were in love, they had a great life
or they were having a great relationship.
They were married for a day and a night
and then because of a curse that was put on them,
they forgot about each other
and now they're married,
but they don't know each other or really want each other.
Then they go a quest, on a journey
and it goes exactly how you would think it would go.
It's very formulaic.
Meet someone,
that goes exactly how you think it will.
They travel a little, they meet someone,
that goes exactly how you think it will.
Then the end is also exactly
how you think it's going to go.
It was fine.
I wouldn't have finished it if it were any longer.
It was only like a five hour audio book,
four hour audio book,
but it was fine.
Next I read The Search,
which is the second Avatar graphic novel.
You guys, I recommend these so much
if you're an avatar fan.
These graphic novels starts--
The Promise is the first one
and it starts immediately after the series ends.
This one, The Search is the next one.
In this one, we're seeking out Zuko's mom.
We're trying to find Zuko's mom and they go on this journey
and it was so good.
I really enjoyed The Promise,
but The Search was incredible.
We get amazing relationship moments within team Avatar.
Also, Azula joins team Avatar,
not willingly or happily, but she joins them
because she also wants to find her mom
for different reasons.
Oh there's so many things. I don't want to say too much.
The journey was amazing.
The relationship dynamics were amazing.
The spirit they encountered in this one
is my new favorite spirit that has ever been written
and the conclusion was very satisfying.
I enjoyed this so much.
This is definitely going to make it on my favorite books of the year
at the end of this year.
I don't know how the next one--
I don't know. I don't know how it could be this good,
but I'm going to read it and I'm so excited.
Also, in case you missed me saying it in a reading vlog,
I'm going to read the third graphic novel for avatar,
and then I'll be reviewing them.
Probably in a week-ish,
I will have a review video out for the first three graphic novels.
I'll give my spoiler free thoughts.
Then I'll go in depth
talking about the whole plot of each of them,
just in case anyone doesn't want to read them,
but once I know what's going on.
Finally, the last book that I finished this month was
Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher.
This is my second Jim Butcher book.
The first one was The Aeronaut's Windlass,
which I loved
and I'm still waiting on the sequel for.
This was such a unique fantasy book
dealing with even tropes that I don't even like
but doing them so well
that I couldn't wait to read more of those specific tropes.
I was really interested in the characters.
I was so into where the plot was going
and what was going to happen.
I was really excited to read another Jim Butcher book.
Unfortunately, this one I didn't have such strong feelings for.
I have mixed feelings about it.
This series deals in elemental magic which I loved
but it's also more of a standard classic style setting
and I didn't care about the setting of this nearly as much.
I also had a really hard time attaching to these characters
and the plot itself was--
Sometimes I was on the edge of my seat for the plot,
sometimes I really didn't care what was going on.
It was an off and on interest with this book.
Also this was one of those fantasy worlds
where women simply cannot exist
apart from experiencing some sexual assault repeatedly.
Honestly, I just get tired of reading that.
There are a lot of things that I did like about this book
and I do get the appeal of it especially the magic.
I enjoyed the magic so much
and I did enjoy certain aspects of the story
but I couldn't attach to the characters,
other aspects of the story just did not grip me.
It was a great ending
and I don't know
if I'm going to continue on with the series or not.
I'm probably just going to try his Dresden Files
because that's the series
that so many people seem to love of his.
I'll probably just try Dresden Files next
and then maybe come back to this. Maybe not.
I don't feel a need to continue reading immediately
but it was a good book.
I get the appeal.
I don't know. I felt middle of the road about it.
Welcome to how to create a Squarespace website with Merphy.
Today we are going to create custom bookmarks
and a custom website to showcase it.
Sorry about the tripod legs in the screen.
I'm very unprofessional.
The first thing you need is a piece of paper and some scissors
to cut into a bookmark shape
and a marker to draw
whatever it is you're going to be doing.
While you're cutting and drawing,
I recommend thinking about
how you're going to be sharing your website.
Like with Squarespace's social sharing.
The Squarespace blogging platform
supports a configurable sharing button
letting your visitors share content on Facebook,
Twitter, Google plus, Reddit, Pinterest, Tumblr everywhere.
You can share these beautiful bookmarks when you're done.
Now you've made the base of your bookmarks.
Next is going to be the glue
and the glitter.
Now, I recommend doing this step
on a hard wooden surface like maybe your floor or a table.
Not your Ottoman but I'm a professional
so we're going to take the risk.
While you're doing this step
think about the glue of your website
like integrated analytics.
Refine your email strategy with real time campaign
and website analytics
from one source.
Learn what content leads to higher engagement,
tracking metrics from send to sale.
Now all you have to do is drop the glitter off of there.
Oh my goodness, it turned out.
Now I know what you're thinking.
Are my bookmarks going to turn out as good as yours?
The answer is no
because I'm a professional
but your website can.
Head over to squarespace.com
for a free trial.
When you're ready to launch, use the link in my description
and you'll save 10% off your first purchase
of a website or domain.
One last tip. I do recommend not laminating these
because studies have shown
that readers really like getting glitter in their books.
Thank you for joining me for today's session of
how to build a website for your bookmarks
or anything you want to build a website for.
We'll see you again next time.
Those are the books that I read this month.
I'd love to continue chatting to you guys about them.
Let me know what your favorite book of the month was.
I post videos every Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
I'll see you guys again soon.
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