Well, June wasn’t any different to what I expected. It was the last month of full-time work for everyone at my office and wow, it was hectic, stressful, frustrating and emotional in so many different ways. It hasn’t been an easy process and if I’m being honest, there were so many instances the team felt deep betrayal and disbelief due to decisions being made by the higher-ups in New York, but would be the most impactful to the local team on the ground here. By the time the 30th rolled around, the energy was almost manic because everyone was beyond exhausted but at the same time, relieved to not have to deal with the heavy burden of this change full-time anymore.
Personally, I was feeling pretty numb to it all and even now, I don’t think it’s fully set in? There were a few panicky moments towards the end of June when I started thinking too long and hard about what I’m going to do next, whether I’m ever going to be able to get a job again, how I’m going to survive in this economy, etc. I know it’s a serious situation but I also know my brain was making things more dramatic and worse in those moments. As of right now, I’m feeling quite a bit of guilt because I’m not working, and I’m also struggling to not feel like I have to constantly be online and available for work because I’m no longer being paid to work full-time. It’s a weird transitory feeling and I’m sure it’ll take a while for me to get used to it, but I know I will adjust. 🙂
Again, as expected, June was another weird month for reading. I’m honestly happy that I managed to read anything at all and that I wound up finishing 7 books. It’s hard to pick a favourite because I read some surprisingly great books and almost all of them were rated 4+ stars! Since I can’t pick a favourite, I’ll share my top 3 and they’re all very different to each other, but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them.
I was more online on the blogosphere in June, but it wasn’t a vast improvement from being on hiatus. I tried to at least post once a week and I did that, so I’m happy with it. The area where I really dropped the ball was in engaging with others—I didn’t have the energy or headspace to respond to comments on my blog or to do any blog hopping and I feel so bad about that! 😣 I just want to say thank you to everyone who has continued to support my blog, and visit and engage with my content even if I didn’t do the same. I appreciate you all so much and thank you for your patience! 💜 Now that I will have more time from July onwards, I’m really looking forward to being more active again in the blogosphere.
Let’s Talk Bookish made a return this month but we’re changing things up moving forward! You can check out the announcement post including the newest topics, but TL;DR: LTB will now have a quarterly schedule and will have 1-2 topics per month. Even with these changes, Aria and I hope that you’ll still join us for these bookish discussions!
TEXTis linked to my review (if available)
4.5 & 4.75 pandas
Blog Tour Review: The Ocean Would Paint Me Blue by Zoulfa Katouh
4 pandas
A Rather Vengeful Accord by Danielle Knight
3.5 pandas
The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst
Colour me surprised because I completely forgot about my reading challenges over the past few months but I was still able to fill in the prompts for June anyway! (We’ll just ignore that the Buzzword book was read in May…) I’ve thankfully been reading my share of backlist titles, so I can also still count those towards my challenge, even if no prompts on the bingo were filled. There were a few I’d missed in previous months but I’ll try catching up on those asap now that I have the time and brain space.
✔ Goodreads Reading Challenge: 51/100
✔ Beat the Backlist 2026: 📚 4 backlist books // 📱 0 backlist ARCs ⇢ +1 bingo spot
✔ 2026 Buzzword Reading Challenge: June (“one word title”) ⇢ Faithbreaker
✔ Year in Aeldia 2026: June (Book ft. Fantasy Creature) ⇢ The Shadow of the Gods
And with that, we’ve passed the halfway mark of the year! Still hard to believe time has gone so quickly. How was your reading month? I hope everyone is doing as good as can be and taking good care. Hope July treats you better than June did, friends! 🫂
dinipandareads 
It sounds as though it’s agood thing that your job has finally finished. The stress of those last few days must have been awful. I hope that you do manage to find anothe job and hopefully one that you enjoy.
Well done on your challenges and reading 7 books despite all the mental upheaval.
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