July Snapshots

1. Celebrating 23 years around the sun with mermaid hair. 

2. I bought this jersey while I was in Paris and I wore it for all of France's World Cup games. When I bought this jersey, I had a lot of hopes that France would go far and it was so nerve wracking to root for them this whole tournament, but I'm so happy they won! And I'm sad that the World Cup is over but we are getting closer and closer to the Women's World Cup next summer and I can't wait to see my faves, the USWNT, especially since I'm hoping to go to one of their qualifiers this fall.

3. Scholastics just rereleased the 20th anniversary covers, and because I have no self control, I had to get them. And that called for a complete relocating of all my Harry Potter books. It's weird to not have any of them on my bookshelves anymore but I'm happy that they're all in one place.

4. I've talked a lot on here about how much I love Lights and her latest album/comic series. The graphic novel bind up just came out and I splurged and bought the hardcover because it's gorgeous and signed by Lights herself.

5. Latest Etsy haul. I got some more bookmarks from Happy Hello Co, because I have an addiction to her bookmarks, I think I have over a hundred at this point. But I honestly couldn't help myself when I saw the Yuri!!! On Ice sets and the Silver trio. The second item is a print I've been wanting for a while from OwlnBone. I've previously bought from her shop and her prints are of amazing quality and the colors are so vibrant. - Jessica

London

I'm still slowly going through the last batch of Europe photos. Our last stop on the trip was London! Originally when my sister was planning this trip, London was not on the itinerary, but I was able to convince her to add it, since I had never been. London was definitely the highlight of my trip, I knew that I would love the city, but I especially fell in love with the cityscape and the parks. 

Some highlights included: walking along Millennium Bridge and visiting Trafalga Square and the National Gallery. I really enjoyed visiting two places that had subtle ties to Harry Potter, I had completely forgotten that the Millennium bridge was in the sixth film, until I recognized it on our walk across the bridge. And I've wanted to visit Trafalga Square since I watched the livestream of the premiere of the eight film (I know I'm a giant nerd when it comes to Harry Potter). Some highlights from the National Gallery included the Rosetta Stone and the reliefs from the Pantheon, both of which I studied for my undergrad, and it was surreal to see them in person. 

I mentioned previously that we spent a day trip at the Harry Potter Studio Tours and at Oxford. Almost half my photos from the trip were taken at the Studio Tours so I'll be sharing those next week.

These two photos were taken during a stroll through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. I fell in love with all the parks we went to in London, they spoke so highly of the city's culture and they honestly felt like a wonderland. 

Views from our walk through St. James Park to Buckingham Palace. We were originally in the area because I had wanted to see Big Ben (sometimes you have to check things off the tourist checklist), but we weren't aware that it's down for renovations, and instead we made our way through St. James Park. This was the first park we visited, and I was immediately drawn to the wildflowers that lined the trails. 

We took a stroll through Regent's Park before sunset and it was my favorite moment while in London. We mainly walked through Queen Mary's Gardens, which is filled with thousands of roses. I may also share a separate post of just photos that I took while in the Gardens because it was the most gorgeous place I've ever seen.

Saving the best for last! I wanted to share a photo I took while waiting for Part II of the Cursed Child. When I first read the script, I loved revisiting the world, but I also recognized that it had a lot of problems (I have a detailed review of my thoughts). This is a story that demands to be told on stage and reflects how hard the cast and crew have worked to bring true magic to life. I absolutely loved seeing this in person and I feel so lucky that I was able to see this sooner that I could have imagined and on it's original stage. - Jessica

Paris

After the events of yesterday, today seemed like a good time to share my photos from France. And while I'm thinking of the World Cup, I told my mom during the Round of 16 that the final would be between France and Croatia, which she doesn't remember, but let it be noted that I got it correct! I also got a France jersey during my stay and I wore it at every opportunity during this WC. Anyways back to my trip, I really loved Paris. There was so much that I wanted it to see and do, and we were pretty successful in managing our time to get a lot out of the 4 days we spent there.

Although we relied pretty heavily on the Metro, we mostly explored the city on foot. Our hotel was really close to the Sacré-Cœur, which we ended up visiting several times because there are just some things you'll want to see both during the day and lit up at night. We also walked from the Arc de Triomphe to the Louvre in the humid heat, but it ended up being worth it because the walk allowed us to see so much of the city. 

We went to so many museums while in Paris; the Rodin, the Sainte-Chapelle, Versailles, the Musée d'Orsay, the Louvre. There's just so much art in the city, but it was important to me, to see as much as possible.

Detail shots from the Jardin du Luxembourg.

It was so hard to narrow down the sunset pictures, because I took a lot, but standing on the Pont des Arts and watching the sunset along the Seine was my favorite moment of the Paris trip. - Jessica

Books I Read in June

I read 8 books and one short story in June. It wasn't my best reading month, but I still felt like I read enough for the month. So here are the books I read and some of my thoughts and opinions on them.

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli - This is a spinoff novel that revolves around Leah from Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. I recently reread Simon in anticipation of this book, and I'm really happy I did because I had forgotten so much of these characters and their story. I really liked this book and the LGBTQ+ elements. Leah was one of my least favorite characters in Simon so it was nice to get to know her more and learn about her character.  

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson - This book revolves around Andie, after her summer plans are canceled and she has to learn to renavigate her life. This was my only reread of the month, and I wanted to revisit this book before I read Matson's latest book, Save the Date. This is one of my all time favorite books, so I loved getting the chance to revisit the characters and gain a new perspective from reading this book again. 

Opal by Maggie Steifvater - This is a short story that takes place after the events of The Raven King. This was a fun addition to the series and allowed the reader to revisit two of their favorite characters from The Raven Cycle, but other than that I don't think it truly added much to the overall story of the series.

Save the Date by Morgan Matson - This book follows Charlie and her family, on the weekend that the oldest daughter is getting married. As I have mentioned before, Morgan Matson is my absolute favorite YA contemporary author, her books mix coming of age with summer reads and they're just perfect. So I obviously had a lot of high expectations going in to this book, and it did not disapoint. This book is not as romance heavy as her previous books, but I really liked that element and how it fit the story. I also loved the family dynamic of this book, which is something Matson does so well in all of her books. I'm also so happy I reread The Unexpected Everything almost immediately before picking this book up, because Matson also does a really good job with adding in cameo appearances. Overall I loved this book and I'll be patiently waiting for the release of Matson's next book.   

From Twinkle, With Love by Sandhya Menon - This book follows aspiring filmmaker, Twinkle, as she works on her first student film. I absolutely loved Menon's debut, When Dimple Met Rishi, so I did go into this book with some high expectations. The storyline was fun but I had trouble liking Twinkle's character. Overall this was a fun and quick read.

The Ship of the Dead by Rick Riordan - This is the final book in the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series. Out of all the books in this trilogy, I definitely liked this book the most. I've gradually started liking Magnus' character throughout this series, and I liked how this book explored more of the side characters. I'm going to be honest my favorite part of this series has been Alex, who I think is one of the greatest characters in Riordan's universe (they are up there with Percy and Annabeth). Overall this was a fun read, and I'm really interested to see what myth Riordan focuses on next.

Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody - This book follows Enne after she travels to the City of Sin, in an effort to find her lost mother, and joins forces with Levi, a gang leader. This was a great first installment in a trilogy. I really loved exploring New Reynes, a.k.a the City of Sin, and how it has a similar vibe to Ketterdam from Six of Crows, but is also completely different. I'm really looking forward to the next installment in the series.

Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman - This book follows Elio as he develops an attachment to his father's summer guest, Oliver. I really wanted to love this book, because of all the praise this movie has, but it ended up being different from what I expected. I thought this book would revolve around a coming of age story, but it mostly tells the story of desire. Overall it was a quick read, and I listened to the audiobook that is narrated by Armie Hammer, which really added to the experience.

Bright Lights, Dark Nights by Stephen Emond - This book surrounds around the relationship between Walter and Naomi as they have to overcome their families approval and issues surrounding race. I liked this book, the characters were enjoyable and there is art interspersed within the book that gives it a graphic novel feel, but doesn't add a lot to the plot. This book raised a lot of questions about police brutality and racial profiling, but didn't provide any concrete answers. Overall, I found this to be a good read and fulfilled some of my interests after reading The Hate U Give.

And those are all the books I read in June. I have some books on my radar that I want to read in July, but ultimately I'm planning a big Harry Potter reread for the month. - Jessica