It’s been almost a month since I set up my list and got started, so let’s have a bit of a check-in! To recap, I set myself twenty specific books I’d like to read across four categories, and also added a section of potential books to swap in if I got fidgety about any. So far, I haven’t activated any of my swaps (though I’m tempted to pick them up in their own right and make it twenty-five books of summer) and I’ve been making some good progress!

You can see the full line-up in my intro post, but now let’s talk about what I’ve actually finished!

Five non-fic: 4/5

I could probably have predicted I’d do well with this section, and it’s far and away my most successful, with four books finished since I signed up. Here they are!

That just leaves John and Colleen Darnell’s Egypt’s Golden Couple, which I have already started.

Five in-progress: 3/5

I was a bit less sure about this section, since it represents books I’d started and got stalled on for one reason or another… but actually, I’ve been doing okay here! I’ve finished three of the books so far.

By definition for this category I’m already partway through Gareth Russell’s Queen James and S.L. Huang’s The Water Outlaws, but haven’t touched them since before setting up my list. Hopefully I’ll get to them soon!

Five ARCs: 0/5

Nothing to report here, I’m afraid! I did make a start on Robert Jackson Bennett’s A Trade of Blood, and I did get a few pages into Ann Leckie’s Radiant Star as well, but so far the stars haven’t aligned.

Five danmei: 2/5

I got off to a good start with these, devouring my first two picks:

Now I’m somewhat tempted to wait for the third volume of The Wife Comes First to come out (in a couple weeks) to finish off that series before I start any new danmei series. Given they’re generally quick reads, there should be plenty of time after that to read the rest of my list, and avoid having too many series on the go at once… but I don’t know, I’ve been tempted by Thrice Married to a Salted Fish for a while, and I technically made a start on volume one of Peerless a while ago, so we’ll see.

Five wildcards: 0/5

Nothing here, but I am tempted to finish up Servus, which I’m already partway through… that would work as a wildcard for either the non-fic category (though it hardly needs it), the in-progress category or the ARCs category, should I need an out later on.

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So overall, that’s 9/20 books — not bad for a month’s progress! I’ve been reading other books as well, as usual, so there’s been plenty of reading happening.

To close, here’s a bonus picture of Eclair’s reaction when I said in a voice call earlier in the week that the heatwave was starting again…

Somehow, I don’t think he was keen. Luckily I can report that the room the bunnies hang out in stayed pretty cool this week and they came through juuust fine!