Just three books finished in June.
I got through more audiobooks in June while I’ve been gardening and trying to get back to doing more walking (even jogging twice), but I’ve not been reading for as long in bed at night and most of the month I’ve been reading an 800 page beast of a thing which has slowed me down!
As usual I have linked the title to my full review.
Three read
Dust (Silo #3) by Hugh Howey ⭐⭐⭐⭐
It feels so long ago since I finished this! How has June felt simultaneously long and gone by in no time? Anyway, Dust was a great conclusion to the Silo trilogy! I highly recommend the whole series, and it felt like an appropriate time to reread after my Fallout fever as it has many common elements.
When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill ⭐⭐
I got through most of this out working on the garden during the brief period of sun we had in June, and I only finished because of the convenient audiobook format. The idea of this book is cool but I found there was not enough substance to it to pull off a great novel. It’s very repetitive and took forever to get to it’s point.
A User’s Guide to Make-Believe by Jane Alexander ⭐️⭐️⭐⭐
I love it when I pick an audiobook I don’t know anything about on BorrowBox and it turns out to be great! (also see The Muse!). This was a fun but of speculative fiction (think Black Miror) grounded by character and it had me hooked. The audio narrator was wonderful too!
Currently reading
I’ve been reading Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson, as I mentioned last month this is not my usual kind of book… but, incredibly (against the odds)… I’ve been enjoying it! It’s over 800 pages, and I’ve been spending more time looking at bathroom stuff (by which I mean tiles, showers, vanity units… nothing rude 😅) while in bed rather than reading, so it’s been taking me a few weeks. I think I’ll finish it tonight so more on that soon!
I also just finished Unruly by David Mitchell which was fucking great! I’m thinking of rereading via audio The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman since I just saw it available in my library app. I remember really enjoying that series as a teenager.
I also tried on audio Alien Clay by Adrian Tchiakovsky, which I’d been on a waiting list for months for through the library, but I had to abort it. DNF at 20% because I couldn’t stand the man character and the narrative framing. Children of Time was very cool for its imaginative ambition, but I don’t think he’s is the author for me.
Adding to TBR
Apparently I bought two ebooks for 99p in June, and one have no memory of! It was This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub, reading the blub sort of jogged my mind, at least I understand why I got it!
The other is White Noise by Don DeLillo, which I think got my watch list through an author I admire recommending it but I didn’t record who that was! Anyway, I don’t know if I’ll like it but it sounds weird and worth a shot. It’s apparently also got a forthcoming movie adaption with Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, and I like both of them.
TBR Pulls
Right now I still have 46 books waiting on my Kindle in my “to read” collection! Each month I browse through and pick the 3 that are calling to me most.
Last time I picked out Weyward (again), Gardens of the Moon, and F.O.E. I got one of those read (nearly)!
Weyward has been in the front of my mind for months now, I might finally make it my next read!
Vacuum In The Dark by Jen Beagin
Mona is twenty-six and cleans houses for a living in Taos, New Mexico. She moved there mostly because of a bad boyfriend—a junkie named Mr. Disgusting, long story—and her efforts to restart her life since haven’t exactly gone as planned. For one thing, she’s got another bad boyfriend. This one she calls Dark, and he happens to be married to one of Mona’s clients. He also might be a little unstable.
Dark and his wife aren’t the only complicated clients on Mona’s roster, either. There’s also the Hungarian artist couple who—with her addiction to painkillers and his lingering stares—reminds Mona of troubling aspects of her childhood, and some of the underlying reasons her life had to be restarted in the first place. As she tries to get over the heartache of her affair and the older pains of her youth, Mona winds up on an eccentric, moving journey of self-discovery that takes her back to her beginnings where she attempts to unlock the key to having a sense of home in the future.
The only problems are Dark and her past. Neither is so easy to get rid of.
I enjoyed Pretend I’m Dead and I’d like to check back in with Mona and see if she finally gets her shit together. And it might be nice to read something that’s only 240 pages!
Deadhouse Gates (Malazan #2) by Steven Erickson
In the Holy Desert Raraku, the seer Sha’ik and her followers prepare for the long-prophesied uprising named the Whirlwind.
Enslaved in the Otataral mines, Felisin – youngest scion of the disgraced House of Paran – dreams of freedom and vows revenge.
The outlawed Bridgeburners Fiddler and Kalam conspire to rid the world of the Empress Laseen – although it seems the gods would, as always, have it otherwise.
And as two ancient warriors – bearers of a devastating secret – enter this blighted land, so an untried commander of the Malaz 7th Army leads his war-weary troops in a last, valiant running battle to save the lives of thirty thousand refugees.
In this thrilling second chapter in the epic story of the Malazan empire, war and betrayal, intrigue and roiling magic collide, shaping destinies and giving birth to legends . . .
Yes, in a stunning turn of events I am considering going straight into the next book of the series! Nobody is more surprised than me. I am debating whether to dive right in or take a break to read something a bit more… er, emotionally and intellectually stimulating (this is fun but it’s like comic book superhero fun). The argument for powering on is my notoriously terrible memory, especially given how hard to follow these books are!
What books are you excited to read at the moment?
