State of the ARC is a monthly meme temporarily hosted by Sarah at All The Book Blog Names Are Taken meant to motivate you to finish up your long overdue ARCs (Advanced or Early Reader Copies). This is its original intention, while some bloggers have tweaked it a bit for their own purposes, such as just keeping ARCs in order by due dates. Or you can just be a hot mess like me who sometimes misses publishing dates (or ignores them altogether) and needs a way to stay organized on what has been read, reviewed, or is still begging for attention. Thank you to Evelina @ Avalinah’s Books for coming up with this super helpful monthly meme.

I finished June with 20 ARCs left to be read. 

Devoting time to ARCs is now becoming a habit each month, and while I’m still getting approved for a bunch, I’m finding myself requesting less (but not fully on a requesting ban). It’s very heartening to see progress not just in the ratio going up, but also in having less ARCs to read each month, even with all the approvals I get. My ratio only went up a little bit, from 91% to 92%, but I got through all of the July approvals, all of the August ARCs, and even a few of the September ones! I’m so excited about a lot of these, which means that I’m already looking forward to getting started on my ARCs in August!

I got approved for 9 new books in July:

• The Villa by Rachel Hawkins
• Ithaca by Claire North
• Six Feet Deep Dish by Mindy Quigley
• Self-Made Boys by Anna-Marie McLemore
• The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber
• Defend the Dawn by Brigid Kemmerer
• Phaedra by Laura Shepperdson
• City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita
• A Wilderness of Stars by Shea Ernshaw

These are the ARCs that I read and reviewed, with links to my reviews:

• Please Join Us by Catherine McKenzie — see my review here.
• Babel by R.F. Kuang — see my review here.
• The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu — see my review here.
• Those Summer Nights by Laura Silverman — see my review here.
• Three Kisses, One Midnight by Roshani Chokshi, Sandhya Menon, and Evelyn Skye — see my review here.
• Belladonna by Adalyn Grace — see my review here.
• The Last Girl to Die by Helen Fields — see my review here.
• Six Feet Deep Dish by Mindy Quigley — see my review here.
• Self-Made Boys by Anna-Marie McLemore — see my review here.
• Ithaca by Claire North — see my review here.
• The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper — see my review here.

Here are the ARCs I still have to read:

1. The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber
2. Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott
3. Defend the Dawn by Brigid Kemmerer
4. The Matchmaker’s Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman
5. Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong
6. Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young
7. Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese
8. Live and Let Grind by Tara Lush
9. Drizzle, Dreams, and Lovestruck Things by Maya Prasad
10. Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse
11. Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake
12. A Wilderness of Stars by Shea Ernshaw
13. Winterland by Rae Meadows
14. Never Ever Getting Back Together by Sophie Gonzales
15. The Villa by Rachel Hawkins
16. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
17. Phaedra by Laura Shepperdson
18. City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita

Which ARCs are you excited about this month?