It’s hard to believe, but 2018 is already half over. Is it just me, or is time simply moving faster and faster? I think it’s an age thing. The older we get the faster time seems to move. Oh, well. It’s summer and that means family, vacations, fun and extra reading time. I can only hope that the rest of my summer reading is half as stellar as June books were. Three out of the nine books on My Favorite Books of 2018 (so far) list from earlier in the week were June releases. Making June my best month of the year, by far!

{My June, Books & Blog}

The Cream of the Crop

Books I enjoyed the most…

• The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai – A powerfully, beautiful story of the AIDS crisis in 1980’s Chicago seen through the lenses of two characters you’ll love. (my review)
• Us Against You by Fredrik Backman – I usually avoid sequels, but loved Beartown so much I had to try Us Against You. I’m so glad I did because I liked this one even MORE! (my review)
• The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir (debut) – I listened to this one and let me just say, “WOW!” Essie is my top recommendation for fun summer reading. (full review next week)

A Cut Above

Great stories…

• Woman Last Seen in Her Thirties by Camille Pagan – Another book I listened to on audio, this at times frustrated me, but in the end I liked it very much. (my review)
• Eagle & Crane by Suzanne Rindell – I’d been away from historical fiction for a while, so it was nice to return with a light, fun read about a barnstorming troupe in 1940’s California. (review coming soon)
• Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott – Abbott’s new book doesn’t come out until mid-July, but i was ready for a thriller and Give Me Your Hand did not disappoint. (review to come in mid-July)
• The Summer Wives by Beatriz Williams – If you’re a fan of Beatriz Williams, you’ll like this book. It is quintessentially Williams. (review to come in mid-July)

Subpar

Books I could have skipped…

• Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (debut) – I’m sorry, but this story was just too odd for me. There was nothing about the main character I could relate to and sympathy can only go so far. (my review)
• Goodbye, Sweet Girl by Kelly Sundburg – I think I’d expected more from this memoir. As promised, it was a story of a woman who survives an abusive marriage, but the rambling writing just didn’t work for me. (review coming eventually, maybe?)

DNF’s

• A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza – I just couldn’t get past the slow pace of this character driven novel. I quit at almost 40%.
• Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt – I’ve rarely been so lost in a book and by 15% I wasn’t willing to keep trying.
• Dreams of Falling by Karen White – I really wanted to like this one, but the melodrama was just too much for me. I quit at 25%.
• The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang – Too chick lit, too romance, too big a need to suspend disbelief all contributed to me deciding to put this away after listening to four of nine hours.

Top Blog Posts

• My most visited post for June is from earlier this week with My Favorite Books of 2018 (so far). Everyone always loves those “best of lists. They’re a great place to find books you may have missed.
• I’m not sure what’s going on with The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, but for the third month in a row it’s my most visited review.
• Also having a lot of visits during the month of June was my Clearing the Shelves Edition, Volume 2 where I reviewed three very different novels.

{From the Book Blogging World}

Favorite Reviews & Recommendations

Links take you to these wonderful reviews…

• Many of us have a long standing fascination with all things Kennedy: books, movies, gossip, etc. So, I was thrilled to read the great review from Ann Marie at Lit, Wit, Wine, Dine of The Summer I Met Jack by Michelle Gable. Looks like a fun summer read.
• In the same vein of summer fiction, Stephanie from Stephanie’s Novel Fiction reviewed The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand. My TBR list just keeps growing.
• If you read my review of Us Against You yesterday, you know I loved that book and so did many others. Two early reviews that I appreciated reading were from Tara at Running and Reading and Chelsea at The Suspense is Thrilling Me. Both convinced me to read this sequel.
• I’m happy to see that Tin Man by Sarah Winman (my top May book) is getting love from Michelle at That’s What She Read.

Fun & Useful Blog Posts

• PopSugar had a fun slide show showing us 50 Signs You’re Addicted to Reading.
• Do you read the classics? I must admit that I don’t always enjoy them, so was happy to read the post from Sarah at Sarah’s Bookshelves on Letting Go of Feeling Guilty for Not Reading Classics. I’m letting go!
• How Do You Get Rid of Books? What a great discussion topic taken on by Lory at Emerald City Book Review.
• Another great discussion topic came from Kate at Doing Dewey. Her discussion focused on Balancing Blogging Priorities. Is that even possible?
• I read nine books in June and that’s pretty average for me. Can you imagine reading 30 in a month? Well that’s exactly what Resh at The Book Satchel did and she tells us all about it in What I Learnt from Challenging Myself to Read 30 Books in 30 Days.
• Sometimes books are worth all the hype they get and other times they just aren’t. Amy at Reads A Latte discusses 5 2018 Releases Worth the Hype. I’ve only read two of them, but on those I agree.
  

  That’s a wrap! How was your June?

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