What did you read in June?

[ufcasey]

What books did you read in June? Ratings? Anything stand out?

[sarahswim]

We were on a cruise for the past week so I got a ton of reading done.
This month I read:

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo-Taylor Jenkins Reid ****
Bring Me Back-BA Paris ***
Class Mom-Laurie Gelman **
The Perfect Mother-Aimee Molloy ***
Everything, Everything-Nicola Yoon ***
Little Deaths-Emma Flint ****
Pieces of Her-Karin Slaughter ***
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire-JK Rowling ****
We Were Liars-E Lockhart ****
All We Ever Wanted-Emily Giffin ***
Don't Let Go-Harlan Coben **

[meowmaps]

A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn 4*
A Dangerous Collaboration by Deanna Raybourn 4*
(These are part of a five part book series that I love)
A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza 5* Highly recommend
The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey 3.75*
My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing 3*
The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz 4*

[travella]

White Rose, Black Forest by Eoin Dempsey, 4.5*
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey, 4*
Daughter of the Moloka'i by Alan Brennert, 3*
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, 2.5*

[mie]

Emergency Contact by Mary Choi, 3*
Roomies by Christina Lauren, 4*
It Takes Two by Jenny Holiday, 3.5*
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang, 4*
My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan 4*
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, 4*
Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren 3.5*

[Vespasia]

I had a pretty good month in terms of numbers but less so in quality.

My Sister, the Serial Killer - 3.5 stars
The Silent Corner - 3 stars
Shrill by Lindy West - 4.5 stars and probably my favorite of the month
Moloka'i - 4 stars
Daughter of Smoke and Bone - 3.5 stars (5 stars for the first half)

23/50 for the year so definitively behind but it was a stretch to begin with.

[msmerymac]

I did a good amount of reading in June and I'm now at 29/52 for the year, or 4 books ahead of schedule (as of the end of the month). Was hoping for 30 at the halfway mark, but I'll get a good amount done over the next few days. Audiobooks on the 6 300 mile drive to and from my parents', plus a lot of downtime while I'm there.

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas - 3* - this is my least favorite of the series so far. I don't love the witches storyline.
Food: A Cultural Culinary History by Ken Albala- 3.5* - a series of audio lectures in book form. I listened to it on audible. Informative and enjoyable.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle - 3.5* - I remember we had to read this in 6th grade, and I remembered NOTHING about it, just that I really did not like it, despite thinking I would. Since the movie came out last year, I decided to re-read it. It was fine this time, though not my favorite young adult sci-fi. I think my expectations about what the book was about were way off when I was 11 (like maybe I thought it was historical fiction, like a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, lol).
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton - 3* - I also read this in school, so it was a reread. It's fine. It's short.
The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One by Amanda Lovelace - 4* - this is her second volume of poetry in a 3-4 book series. I find it enjoyable. Feminist-themed poems about body positivity, relationships, assault, etc. Not that subtle and not the BEST poetry I've read lately, but I'll continue reading her work.

As always, I'm working on a kindle book, a physical book and an audio book right now too.

[mrspez07]

We were traveling through June 8th, so I was able to get in a decent chunk and then kind of kept the momentum, probably one of my biggest months ever.

Audio:
*3. Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Ellie Lang
*5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling (we do this on car rides, great for family travel!)
*2. The Beach Club by Elin Hilderbrand

Read-ebook or book:
*3. Origin by Dan Brown
*5. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
*4. Belleweather by Susanna Kearsley
*3 Everywhere that Mary Went by Lisa Scottoline
*4. The Book of Essie by Meaghan McLean Weir
*4 Magic Hour by Kristen Hannah

[froggy76]

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid - 5*
Love Poems by Pablo Neruda - 3*
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottleib - 4*
A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum - 5*

and just finished Into Thin Air by John Krakauer - 4*

[CrazyLucky]

I read
Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee. 3 stars. A lot of parts dragged.
Normal People also 3 stars. I liked the first half better than the second. I think I like books more when I can relate to at least one character and in the second half, the main female character was not relatable.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. 5 stars. I Think it's my favorite book so far. I didn't like the movie as much, probably because so much had to be cut out.

Currently Reading The Murmur of Bees and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

[tacokick]

The Ex Alafair Burke

The Family Upstairs Lisa Jewell

Mrs. Everything Jennifer Weiner

Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners Gretchen Anthony

They All Fall Down Rachel Howzell Hall

Come Find Me Megan Miranda

All the Rage: Mothers, Fathers, and the Myth of Equal Partnership Darcy Lockman

Evvie Drake Starts Over Linda Holmes

The Rest of the Story Sarah Dessen

The Dreamers Karen Thompson Walker

The Coincidence of Coconut Cake Amy E. Reichert

I Miss You When I Blink Mary Laura Philpott

The Book of Essie Meghan Maclean Weir

My Own Two Feet Beverly Cleary

TBH the major stand outs were only I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott and My Own Two Feet by Beverly Cleary. The rest were okay, The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy E. Reichert was one of the worst books I’ve ever completed.

[Gato]

Exhalation - Ted Chiang *3.5
The first three stories were beautiful; the others were okay but he's pretty cerebral, not very much on setting a scene or creating rich characters.

Women's Work: A Reckoning with Home and Help - Megan Stack *3
I liked this even though it wasn't scholarly, but more of a memoir of how guilty she felt depending on other women's labor to write her novel.

Trust Exercise - Susan Choi *4.5
I wouldn't think I would be interested in young people exploring their psyches through first love, but after this novel and Normal People, I guess I have to admit I am. This was a favorite of the year.

The Farm - Joann Ramos *3
Maybe I read this in May? It's a novel about an exclusive surrogacy program, and how the surrogates are treated. Kind of dovetails with Women's Work by examining class and racial privilege.

A Crack in Creation - Jennifer Doudna *3
This innovator of the CRISPR gene editing technique takes you through the ethical challenges that lie ahead. I still need to read a few chapters, but it has been fascinating and not as hard to follow as I'd worried it would be.

ETA: Whoops, I forgot The Wall by Jon Lancaster *4.  It had a few plot holes, but I enjoyed his imagining of life in England after drastic climate change.

AND Flanuese by Lauren Elkin *4.  Another favorite!  She talks about her experiences being a woman in cities across the world.  And womanhood in general.  This was much better and more thoughtful than I expected.

[litskispeciality]

I read Family Pictures by Jane Green (book is MUCH better than the Lifetime movie) 3.5 and Then She was Gone 3.5. I read most of What Made Maddie Run but it ran out so I'm waiting to finish. Goodreads says I'm at 11/24, gotta pick that up asap.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Without spoiling the end of We Were Liars I'm glad that book picked up. For such a short YA it took me a long time last year. Then I get to the end and I couldn't sleep.

I read Wrinkle in Time for the first time last year, didn't like it that much. A lot of people said it's much better as a kid. I dind't really like The Giver either, even though I'm a huge LL fan.