June 2014 Recap

June has been a good month for many reasons. First, spring finally came to my corner of Wisconsin. All of the flowers that normally bloom in May finally bloomed this month. Except for the lilacs; there were no lilacs this year because of the harsh winter. I also lost my ivy plant, and a couple bushes don't look so hot, but other things are thriving. I finally planted my garden (tomatoes and cucumbers only) in early June. And just last week my lilies started blooming. They were transplanted on the hottest day of summer last year, and I wasn't sure they'd survive, but they are lovely.

June reading, too, has been lovely. May was kind of a disappointing month as far as number of books read, so I made a concerted effort to catch up in June. I cleared several books off the TBR (which I promptly filled with at least twice as many, of course).

In June I read nine books, all nonfiction. The first couple are linked to reviews. The rest are in the queue. I've included one-word reviews for all.

 

The Reason I Jump, Naoki Higashida

Generalized

 

 

The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay, Hooman Majd

Informative

 

 

Still, Lauren Winner

Pedantic 

 

 

 

Make Good Art, Neil Gaiman

Hackneyed 

 

 

Delancey, Molly Wizenberg
Delicious

 

 

Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg
Thought-provoking

 

A Nice Little Place on the North Side, George F. Will

Delightful 

 

 

 

Sous Chef, Michael Gibney

Gritty 

 

 

Quiet, Susan Cain

Comforting

 

 

My favorites were Delancey and A Nice Little Place on the North Side. Both garnered five stars. But I also learned a lot this month from Quiet and Lean In. Both are proving very difficult to review, though.

 

This month I stumbled onto some wonderful book blogs, and my TBR has been expanding at an alarming rate. I added Friday Find posts to my lineup to share some of the books that piqued my interest. You can read them here, here, and here.

 

I also (FINALLY) added an About Me / Contact page. I don't know why it took two years, you guys. I guess sometimes I'm just a nonconformist. But anyway, if you've been wanting to contact me directly, or learn how I met my husband, or discover what's on my MP3 player, you can find out there.

 

 

 

Going into July, I'm reading:

 

After all these shorter reads, I'm dying for a serious chunkster, so I've chosen Five Days at Memorial.

I started Relish this month, and I've been picking it up here and there. I'm enjoying it for what it is, but it's probably just not my thing.

I found Bomb on someone's TBR, and I remembered being intrigued by it when I ordered a copy for the library awhile ago. Plus, it's YA! I'm actually reading a YA book! I feel so hip. (But can one be hip reading YA nonfiction?)

So, what's on your July TBR list?