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 29 ARCs left to be read. 

July was a really tough month for me. The heat has been brutal for me, with my heat intolerance and my POTS (postural orthostatic hypertension syndrome) combining to make it a difficult month to get out and do anything. I did see my friends a few times, and came down with an upper respiratory infection that aggravated my asthma symptoms enough to the point where I had to be admitted to the hospital. So you can say that July was a tough month, but all of that time inside made it easy to get a lot of reading done. 

I got caught up on a lot of my past due ARCs, and have even started working on my August ARCs, so it’s really feeling like I am finally getting back on track. It’s been a long time since I have been on top of my ARCs before they’re released, so this is kind of a big deal. And if August doesn’t cool off a bit and have better air quality, which I’m not actually expecting to occur, I’m going to be spending a lot of time inside with the central air conditioning and a fan. 

Every month I talk about how I plan to request less books, and I have to say that I completely failed at this plan in July. I got approved for nineteen books in July, even if it didn’t feel like it was *that* much at the time. I did read and review a lot of books, partially due to my brilliant plan of requesting audiobooks of the ebooks that I was approved for, since I can get through some of them more quickly in audiobook format, while others have to be read. And while I got approved for a lot, I also reviewed 13 books in July. If I can have another month like July, review-wise, I think I’ll be way ahead of schedule, which is a plus. Ratio is steadily holding at 92%, and I’m going to work on getting it up to 94% in August, even though my current ratio is nothing to complain about!. 

I got approved for 19 new books in July:

1. The Thirteenth Child by Erin A. Craig
2. The House of the Witch by Clare Marchant
3. The Kiss of the Nightingale by Adi Denner
4. Camp NetGalley by We Are Bookish
5. Love You a Latke by Amanda Elliot
6. Night Owls by A.R. Vishny
7. The Stone Witch of Florence by Anna Rasche
8. Saltwater by Katy Hays
9. Ghost Mother by Kelly Dwyer
10. When We Flew Away by Alice Hoffman
11. The Business Trip by Jessie Garcia
12. Israel Alone by Bernard-Henri Lévi
13. The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. McLean (audiobook)
14. Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma
15. Worst Case Scenario by T.J. Newman
16. The Shadowed Land by Signe Pike
17. Between Dragons and Their Wrath by Devin Madson
18. Breath of the Dragon by Fonda Lee and Shannon Lee
19. The Pairing by Casey McQuiston (audiobook)

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

1. House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen — see my review here.
2. House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen (audiobook)
3. Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller — see my review here.
4. Benji Zeb is a Ravenous Werewolf by Deke Moulton — see my review here.
5. Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber — see my review here.
6. Castle of the Cursed by Romina Garber (audiobook)
7. Bitter Waters by Vivian Shaw — see my review here.
8. A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher — see my review here.
9. A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher (audiobook)
10. Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner — see my review here.
11. Norse Mysticism by Disa Forvitin — see my review here.
12. Camp NetGalley by We Are Bookish — internal review on NG.
13. Strange Folk by Alli Dyer — see my review here.

These are the ARCs that I read but haven’t had the chance to post my reviews for yet:

• Ghost Mother by Kelly Dwyer | Amazon

Here are the ARCs I still have to read:

1. Sounds Like a Plan by Paula Samuels Young & Dwayne Alexander Smith | Amazon
2. The Pairing by Casey McQuiston | Amazon
3. The Pairing by Casey McQuiston (audiobook)
4. Ghost Mother by Kelly Dwyer | Amazon
5. The House of the Witch by Clare Marchant | Amazon
6. The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. Maclean | Amazon
7. The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. Maclean (audiobook)
8. Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright | Amazon
9. Worst Case Scenario by T.J. Newman | Amazon
10. The Witch’s Book of Spells by Lindsay Squire | Amazon
11. The Enchanted Lies of Céleste Artois by Ryan Graudin | Amazon
12. Between Dragons and Their Wrath by Devin Madson | Amazon
13. Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma | Amazon
14. Israel Alone by Bernard-Henri Lévy | Amazon
15. Hex and Hexability by Kate Johnson | Amazon
16. Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik | Amazon
17. Night Owls by A.R. Vishny | Amazon
18. When We Flew Away by Alice Hoffman | Amazon
19. The Thirteenth Child by Erin A. Craig | Amazon
20. The Forbidden Book by Sacha Lamb | Amazon
21. Modern Magic by Michelle Tea | Amazon
22. The Kiss of the Nightingale by Adi Denner | Amazon
23. Love You a Latke by Amanda Elliot | Amazon
24. The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman | Amazon 
25. The Stone Witch of Florence by Anna Rasche | Amazon
26. Sabor Judío by Ilan Stavans and Margaret E. Boyle | Amazon
27. The Judgment of Yoyo Gold by Isaac Blum | Amazon
28. The Mirror by Nora Roberts | Amazon
29. Betty Crocker Found Recipes by Betty Crocker | Amazon
30. The Voyage Home by Pat Barker | Amazon
31. The Shadowed Land by Signe Pike | Amazon
32. Breath of the Dragon by Fonda Lee and Shannon Lee | Amazon
33. The Business Trip by Jessie Garcia | Amazon
34. Those Fatal Flowers by Shannon Ives | Amazon
35. Saltwater by Katy Hays | Amazon

Which ARCs are you excited about this month? Do we have any in common? Have you already read any of the ones on my list?