June Reading/Life
- I read eight books in June, which is a lot for me (two < 200 pagers definitely helped!), but the quality wasn’t quite as fantastic as in May. However, it’s still a lot better than it was earlier this year and I think that has a lot to do with reducing my ARC reading…specifically, letting others vet some books before I read them.
- I added two new books (Grunt and Before the Fall) to my 2016 Summer Reading Guide and will be adding two more (Never Leave Your Dead and Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty) as soon as I post my reviews.
- I was sadly disappointed with Listen to Me, especially since I loved Pittard’s Reunion so much two years ago. And, I just didn’t get Grief is the Thing with Feathers.
- I continued my trend of light nonfiction working well for me on audio with Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari.
- I completed my second sprint triathlon race (recap) in Stamford, CT and am currently deciding whether to sign up for another one in August.
- And, on the topic of sports…I spent a good chunk of last week watching the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials and dissecting them over text with Catherine from Gilmore Guide to Books. You can check out some of the highlights of our oh-so-professional analysis here!
Best Book of the Month
Dear Fang, With Love by Rufi Thorpe (May 24, 2016)
Fiction, 303 Pages
Affiliate Link: Buy from Amazon
July Releases I’m Excited About
The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock (July 12)
Home Field by Hannah Gersen (July 26)
You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott (July 26)
Top Backlist Books on my “To Be Read” List
Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo
The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Most Popular July Posts
Best Books of 2016 So Far
How Do You Feel About Epilogues?
Top 10 Reasons I Love the Summer Olympics
Favorite Posts by Fellow Bloggers
- Trish at Love, Laughter, And A Touch of Insanity talked about a habit that I’m completely guilty of too…delayed pleasure reading.
- Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness shared her thoughts on the ending of Before the Fall (alert: this post contains spoilers!).
- Finally, June is “Best Books of the Year So Far” month! Here are some of my favorite lists: Gun in Act One, Kathy Reads Fiction, and River City Reading.
Dear Fang is on my wish list. I think you’ll love You Will Know Me.
I hope so – it sounds SO deliciously demented!
I just finished Listen to Me and I’m still musing about it. Sometimes it felt like nothing was going on and listening to those two go back and forth endlessly was tiring. But by the end, when she wrapped it up, I think I saw what she was getting at and it made me appreciate the whole more than the parts. Certainly not my favorite by her, and I’ve enjoyed her short stories much more than her novels at this point.
You know…I’m still waffling over it too. It definitely dragged and lacked a point at times, but sometimes the writing was really great. And the ending def got me emotional, but I didn’t really see the overall point. It seemed kind of random to me. Maybe uneven is a good word for this one?
I have an ARC of Before The Fall, but might purchase it, to listen to it. I’m glad to know it made your summer reading guide.
I can’t wait for The Heavenly Table, and Home Field looks really good. I still have Fang to read, but I’m so behind already, I can only hope to get to it this year. So many of the books you have here appeal to me. I wish Grief is the Thing with Feathers had been better for you, but at least I can mark that one off my list, now.
It’s interesting that you say that reducing ARC reading contributed to a better reading quality because I have noticed the same in my reading too. As much as I like to read upcoming titles, after a spree of that, I need to go back to the backlist.
It’s interesting…it’s not necessarily backlist for me, a lot of my successful non-ARC books this year have been 2016 releases. It’s just a matter of waiting until publication date and some other blogger friends have generally read it and I have a better sense of what to choose/avoid that’s hard to get just from catalogs.
Oh my gosh – I’m getting Olympics fever. I watched swimming, diving and track trials.
Yay!!! I watch all of those and will be doing some Olympics themed posts in August.
Dear Fang is one of those books that keeps popping up on lists, and might be doing so often enough for me to pick up a copy! It sounds really good.
I obviously think you should! 🙂
I have a copy of Before the Fall from BOTM club. It’s not at the top of my pile though. I was going to give Dear Fang … a pass (except that I adore the cover), but your positive buzz about it makes me want to try it. I am also eager to read Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty.
I thought Modern Romance was great. As an “old” married woman and mom of three, I felt like I learned a ton reading it.
I know a number of others who loved Dear Fang too, so I think you should give it a shot! And I’m also an “old” married mother of two (who married my husband before online dating really took off), so I learned a ton as well! Fascinating stuff and I kind of feel for my children having to navigate that world (or whatever the world will look like by the time they get to dating age).
I’m really excited about The Heavenly Table. Hopefully I’ll have time to get to it this year! Grunt is at the top of my nonfiction TBR list right now. I’ve heard great things about it, but there hasn’t been as much effusive praise heaped upon it as I would expect for a Mary Roach book. I wonder if people are a little tired of reading about war.
From what I’ve heard about Grunt, it’s not Roach’s best. It’s the first book of hers that I’ve read (I listened to Stiff, but it’s so hard for me to concentrate on audio that I don’t bother truly comparing those), so I couldn’t really make that comparison. But, that could be it.
I started The Heavenly Table…and had some trouble getting into it. I’ve put it down and might go back and read Devil All the Time, which I’ve heard great things about.
Too bad about Listen to Me. I really liked Reunion too. Looking forward to Before the Fall on audio. My mom and I are driving from Fla to MI and it is one audio we plan to listen to. Looking forward to the Olympics
I bet Before the Fall would be great on audio…and much better a car ride than a flight!
I thought Modern Romance was a lot of fun on audio too. I seem to enjoy celebrity-narrated audio books, particularly memoirs, which is interesting since in print those aren’t always my jam.
I feel the exact same way! It’s something about being easy to follow and concentrate on audio for me.