Monday, June 30, 2014

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.



http://otherwomensstories.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-reason-i-jump-naoki-higashida.html
 
The Reason I Jump, Naoki Higashida
Generalized
 
 
http://otherwomensstories.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-ministry-of-guidance-invites-you-to.html

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?
 
 
 
 
 

2 comments:

  1. I have a review of Sous Chef coming up, I wasn't really blown away by it.

    ReplyDelete