Mid-Year Bookish Roundup

Hey friends! Today is the first day of the second half of the year and I’m very nervous and excited. Nervous because I have an exam in a couple of month and I’m not sure how prepared I am for it. Immigrating to a new country and starting over is definitely not as easy as I thought it’d be. Anyway, I thought it’d be nice to share my mid-year bookish roundup as I’ve not been doing monthly wrap ups.

Breakdown into different categories

I read 19 books in the first half of 2023. Thankfully, they were mainly good books. Of the 19 books, 11 were physical copies, 5 were ebooks & 3 were audiobooks.

17 – written by women. 2 – written by men.

Fiction – 17, Non fiction – 2

Romance– 5, Thriller/Mystery – 4 , literary fiction– 8

ARCs/Gifts from publishers (in different formats)- 6; Purchased – 13

Favorites

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors : This was probably my favorite read of the year so far. I remember finishing this and immediately going to Reddit to find more books similar to this.

Daisy Jones & the six by Taylor Jenkins Reid : this was absolutely brilliant. I still haven’t read any book like this and I’m a huge fan of TJR because her storytelling prowess is undeniable.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry : I enjoy every book of hers that I’ve read. She knows how to write a good romance novel and I particularly enjoyed this because the characters are book lovers like myself.

Thank you for listening by Julia Whelan : I’m so glad I listened to the audiobook and I have to thank Julia for writing this one and narrating it herself. If good vibes was a book, it’d be this book.

I’m glad my mom died by Jennette McCurdy : This was a vulnerable, heavy, and honest read. These days I’ve been reading a lot of the impact of our childhood on how our lives take shape. Shared a review here.

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Here is a quick pictorial breakdown of my ratings of these books.

Here’s to hoping for a better second half of the year! How many books did you read from January to June? Let’s chat in the comments!