July was such a great month overall! I managed to do a lot of things, travel, celebrations, reading challenges, taking up cycling again, and managing my additional office workload as well. I feel really good about myself about such a productive July 🙂 The year is rolling towards an end and I feel like I’m ready for all the Indian and global festivals, and a long break. But alas, as I write this, I’ve been asked to start working on a high pressure project at work, so wish me luck! LOL 😀
Reading
I had an absolutely kickass month of reading, all thanks to the IndlitReadathon 2021 edition, that I took part in, hosted by Charvi @NotJust Fiction, Nandini@NovelsAndNebulas and Shruti @ThisIsLit. I also read a backlist to celebrate one of my favorite author’s birthday month and a few other books. Here is a quick summary of what I read in July 🙂
- Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) – The sixth book from the Discworld fantasy series and as always, absolutely hilarious and so cleverly written! I am simply in love with the Discworld books so far 🙂
- Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops by Shaun Bythell (⭐️⭐️⭐️) – Non fiction and a roast on readers who love to frequent bookstores for various reasons. The book is short and full of wry humour
- Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) – Contemporary fiction written by an author of Indian origin. Jhumpa Lahiri is one of my favorite authors as well, so you can never go wrong with any of her books. This book doesnt have any names of people and places and was originally written in Italian and translated to English by the author herself! How talented!
- The Parent Company by Dr. Urjita Kulkarni (⭐️⭐️⭐️) – This book was given to me by a friend to read, since I’m a mother too. It’s a non fiction read on parenting. I had mixed feelings about this one, but its an easy read and has some good advise on the importance of reading and sex education for children
- Kari by Amruta Patil (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) – A brilliantly illustrated and written book by Indian author Amruta Patil, which talks about gender identity and struggles with mental health and suicide, set in Mumbai, India
- Daura by Anukrti Upadhyay (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) – Another superb fictional story inspired by folktales in Rajasthan, India, written by Indian author Anukrti Upadhyay. I loved the epistolary format of the story and the eerie setting with the open ended ending
- Vicious by V.E. Schwab (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) – I have both the collector’s editions of the Villains series on my bookshelf since I love Victoria Schwab’s writing since I read the Shades of Magic trilogy and thought what better way to celebrate her birthday month than read one of her books 🙂 Loved the story about morally gray characters and I felt that one of the characters had major ace vibes, which I loved
- Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability and Making Space by Amanda Leduc (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) – A must read non fiction on disability and lack of its representation in mainstream literature, especially fairy tales. I read this as part of the Belongg Library Network event for the month
- Chup by Deepa Narayan (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) – A non fiction feminist collection of essays about Indian women from the upper middle class spectrum of the society and the sort of gender discrimination we face. This book hit hard and close to home
Writing
I still haven’t been able to crack my writing routine to build a consistent practise/habit of writing. I participate in the 10MinADay writing challenge hosted by my friend Tammy, but couldn’t complete the challenge, as you can see, my writing was sporadic and I wrote just for 15 days overall – which included a few short stories, blogs and journals.
If you have any recommendations on a good writing practise and how to share your writing for feedback from readers and keep yourself motivated, I’d love to hear about them in the comments 🙂
Socials, Life, Travel and Other Updates:
- We travelled on another weekend getaway to a beautiful Airbnb in Lonavla, with some friends and celebrated my husband’s 40th birthday there as well. It was another gorgeous weekend 🙂
- Looks like everyone in my family is getting into cycling. My mom gifted me an advance birthday present of this cute feminine gearless cycle, which I have taken out on a few rides already. Mom’s know their daughters best, because she knew I wouldn’t ride my cycle for 40-50 kms, and hence a gearless pink cycle is the best gift! hahah
- Can you believe I clocked 94Km of running and walking in July??? I had ran and walked for 68 Kms in June and looks like I’m steadily increasing my consistency and distances. I do admit I haven’t been on top of my game so far in August, but hopefully I will be remedying that soon. August will also include some biking kms.
- For the Belongg Library Network volunteer event in July, my friends and I read this really relevant book on disability and had a voice chat session on Clubhouse, a new social media platform. It was a very enlightening and fun experience. I hope more people read this book and join in our Belongg events
- As I’ve already mentioned, I had a blast participating in the snakes and ladder themed ‘IndlitReadathon’ reading challenge in the month of July
Shows and Music Reviews for July
What a disappointment this show was, to be honest. I mean, I had such high expectations. I love the character of Loki in general and I also am a huge fan of Tom Hiddleston, but after the first two episodes, I felt plot wise, the story kept getting worse and sappier. I mean, a love story? With a female version? Really? Agh, the last episode was too disappointing. Anyway, I hope when they revive it for season 2, it’ll be better than Season 1.
I have no words for Coldplay’s latest song – Coloratura. You have to listen to it to understand why this song will go down history as one of the classics. The lyrics, the operatic and progressive music, the theme, it brought back memories of Pink Floyd and what a grand song. Every time I listen to it, I get goosebumps and feel happy and sad at the same time. Absolutely love this song.
I know my July wrap up post was a week late in being posted, but August has been tough so far. I’ve been dumped into a new project, quite unceremoniously, I might add and based on the first two days of trainings, I see a grim future for August. I don’t know if I will have any time to do the things I love to do in the month of August, but we’ll see how that goes eventually 🙂 How was your month in July? Do drop me a comment to say hello! 🙂
Starry Eyed Enigma 