July On Repeat
Here's what I was reading, writing, laughing about, and listening to in July, when I wasn't trying to "beat the heat" at Target.
Read
The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr. Fantastic read! Would highly recommend for anyone who is trying to craft richer, more believable characters. (Genre: Nonfiction, Creativity)
“Those characters, when we meet them on page one, are never perfect. What arouses our curiosity about them, and provides them with the dramatic battle to fight, is not their achievements or their winning smile. It’s their flaws.” - Will Storr, The Science of Storytelling
Sacred Struggle by Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye. This was written by a member of my church, and I loved the way she approached spirituality as something that isn’t solely individual. She writes beautifully about how uniting with people who are different from us can strengthen our spirituality and understanding of divinity. (Genre: Nonfiction, Spirituality)
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 1, 2, and 3 (!!!) by Beth Brower. I have a confession: I don’t typically care for books set in the Regency period. BUT. This series, as wholesome as it is, might need a warning label. It’s a highly addictive substance. Beth Brower’s writing makes me laugh on nearly every page. The characters are quirky, and y’all—it’s raining men in St. Crispian’s. I’m genuinely concerned Emma Lion will eventually have to choose just one of them, because I am attached to each in different ways and I adore them all.
I digress. You must give this series a try. (Genre: Adult, but exceedingly wholesome, Romance. I think.)
Write
July was the month of composition notebooks. Good timing, considering they’re dirt cheap during back-to-school season.
Notebooks are my best friend right now. I have multiple projects pulling at my attention, and getting on a computer to work on them just scatters my brain and distracts me even more. So I bought a separate notebook for each of my projects (including this Substack, which I’m planning to revamp in the coming months!).
Anywho, the goal is that each time I open a notebook, I send a signal to my brain: hey, this is what we’re working on today. Let’s dive in.
It also gives me much-needed anti-screen time, which I love. And I’m hoping that by using notebooks, I might be able to write more in front of my daughter. We often talk about modeling reading in front of our kids, but what about writing? I want to do better there, and maybe this strategic move for my own creativity will help.
Laugh
This t-shirt I saw at Target.
I love that, almost twenty years after the Twilight movie release, this T-shirt is being sold in stores. Seeing this T-shirt on the shelf does good for my inner-child (who was whole-heartedly Team Jacob, if you were wondering.)
So much to unpack with that photo. So little time. (Regretfully, in 2025, I did not purchase the shirt.)
My dad’s birthday is in July, and each year I go through photos of him and find one that makes me smile. Safe to say, this photo of him wearing denim cutoffs in the ‘70s did just that. Wish we knew where those shorts ended up so I could borrow them. Happy Birthday, Dad. Love and miss you always.
An absolute icon and legend.
Listen
Audiobooks
I’m still working my way through the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. I have to say, Heir of Fire and Queen of Shadows are definitely my favorites so far—though I loved the earlier books as well. Excited to keep going! (Genre: Series has been very “YA” Fantasy up to this point, but there is some romance heating up. It’s starting to lean more Adult.)
Music
It’s been a very sombr summer at my house. sombr showed up on my Spotify radio a couples months back. Then I listened to more of his stuff because the teens told me to. And, well, sombr keeps dropping hits. The person I was before “12 to 12” came out and the person I am now—they’re different.
In other news…
I visited Folklore Book Shop while I was in Utah this month. It’s the cutest shop in Midway! They even have the typewriter Taylor Swift used in the “Fortnight” music video… and they encourage you to write your own poems on it. How cool is that?
Until next time!