The July Roundup

NYC, Romantasy, and can anyone make the Michelin Guide- Bookstore Edition a thing please?

Hello my Lovely Reader,

Can you believe how fast July has flown by? It has been a Peregrine falcon. As I’m writing this, we’re six day into August! We’ve crossed the summer halfway mark. And as exciting as August and September will be in my world, when they arrive, it means we’re that much closer to boots, hats, scarves and jackets 🙉🙈🙊.

This month, we (my family of four) made a quick escape to New York. The weather was perfect— I experienced my first NYC full-body sweat and averaged 30,000 steps a day. We tried to see as much of the city as you can in three days and two nights, pulling in SOHO, Greenwich Village, Midtown, Central Park, Chinatown, Queens, the Financial District and Brooklyn. We stayed at the Benjamin Royal Sonesta where I was thrilled to discover something called Bedside Reading, a program that places bestsellers in hotels as a free amenity for guests to take up to their room, read while they’re there and then carry home with them.

📚 In the world of books:

Who doesn’t love free books, right? The two I picked up from the lobby were:

✼ Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Anker which I’ve seen front and centre in every single bookstore I’ve visited lately, both in NYC and back home in Toronto.

✼ The Location Shoot by Patricia Leavy.

Of course it wouldn’t be a holiday in a new city if I didn’t visit at least three bookstores; what’s the point of leaving home at all? Plus, there’s something about being away that makes you feel as though you have the right to buy as many books as you want. Budget? What’s that? My family doesn’t really need to eat, do they?

But I was good. I held back. I successfully reigned myself in and only got two.

✼ Cairos by Jenny Erpenbeck which was on my Summer Reading List as one I wanted to read in its original language, German, but then couldn’t resist when I saw the translation in Strand.

✼ Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros, which I got used at Housing Works Bookstore.

I’m happy to announce that I also made headway on my summer reading list

with two binge-worthy books, which I both binged.

✼ An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. Thank your

Harun Kewa

for recommending it! What a read!

✼ Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, which was my plane read, and first fantasy in quite a while.

🎬 In the world of film:

The first thing I watched when I got back home from our weekend getaway was,

✼ Autumn in New York, directed by Joan Chen. I wasn’t quite ready to return to the real world yet and just wanted to savour that New York City feeling for a little bit longer. Plus, I love this film. Richard Gere is a natural charmer and Winona Ryder has such an otherworldly beauty to her. And it’s a love story. Do I need any other reason?

I also watched:

✼ Call Me By Your Name, directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring the one and only Timothée Chalamet, which— why did it take me so long to watch?

✼ To Olivia, directed by John Hay, which is a film about Roald Dahl and his wife Patricia Neal as they come to terms with the death of their daughter to encephalitis due to measles.

and an advanced screening of ⤵

✼ Sing Sing, directed by Greg Kwedar, which tells the story of Divine G, a man imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit who finds his purpose in a theatre group with other incarcerated men.

Almost the entire cast was made up of formerly incarcerated actors and alumni of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing. They were phenomenal, and the film is already getting Oscar buzz. I can guarantee you it’s like no other prison movie you’ve ever watched, and— have a lot of tissues at hand when you do watch it.

In the world of apps:

I discovered two new ones.

✼ StoryGraph, a reading tracker that isn’t Goodreads. Thanks to

Kyli Wagner

for introducing me to it in this article.

Here’s what the app has to say about my reading taste.

Hmmm… might be giving me a clue about my stat of mind

✼ Wavelength, a fun mind-reading game we played with each other while waiting at the airport during our two hour delay.

Last but not least, this month I came up with a dream job for myself. International Bookstore Critic, where I travel around the world rating bookstores. A Michelin Guide- Bookstore Edition sort of thing.

My first six for the month July:

They're all ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

And with these happy thoughts, I’ll say goodbye for now,

Until next time,

XO Ingrid