Hello! It’s time to provide an update on my monthly reading journey. To reiterate, my goal is to read 70 books this year. This may not be a lot for some folks but it is a nice challenge for me. I enjoy reading and have been an avid reader since childhood. One thing that has changed for me in adult hood is that I have a much better sense of what genres I like. Because of my participation in 2 book clubs, I have read books that I never would have read on my own. As a result, in addition to the “chick-lit” books that I’ve always liked, I have also learned that I love the historical fiction and psychological thrillers genres. I’m not crazy about science fiction or fantasy but I have read a couple of books in these genres that I have liked including Way Station, The House in the Cerulean Sea, and Remarkably Bright Creatures.
I consider reading to not just be good for the brain but also for the heart and soul. For me, it is a form of self care and sometimes procrastination. I will admit that there are times I use reading as a why to procrastinate on not doing other tasks like cleaning!
JUNE READS
This book falls into the psychological thriller genre. I have heard a lot of positives about this author but I have to say that I wasn’t thrilled with this book. It was okay but the writing was slow and frankly not that thrilling. The characters were all a bit annoying and somewhat stereo typical. I may try and read something else by this author since I’ve heard such good things about her. (2.5 stars)
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
This is a second time around for me reading this book. I re-read this book for one of my book clubs and am really glad that I did. This book takes place through many generations and has some fantasy elements. I was confused after reading this the 1st time but things were much clearer the 2nd time. I liked the book the first time but I really enjoyed it the 2nd time. I usually don’t like read or listen to books more than once but this one is worth it because it has so much detail, jumps around a lot and has many different characters. (4.0 stars)
This is the 3rd book in a series where I read the first two last month and loved them. I’m terribly disappointed that the series is over as I really fell in love with the characters. Even though these are 3 independent books, there are characters that appear through all through the series. (4.0 stars)
Another book by a new author (to me). She writes in the psychological thriller genre and I have enjoyed a few of her books-The Good Girl and Local Woman Missing. I was not aware when I was reading this book but apparently this book is being turned into a Netflix series. I will be interested to see how that turns out as it’s a pretty complicated premise. I enjoyed this book as well even though I did figure out one of the twists. I did not figure out the whole thing and was quite shocked when it all came to a head. (4 stars)
I chose to read this book because it was written by the same author of The Latecomer which I absolutely loved. I did not love this one. It felt really slow and there were a few times where I almost stopped reading because it was boring. I admit that it’s hard for me to stop reading a book even when I don’t care for it. I thought about going to the end to find out what happens but I decided to just stick it when I realized that I was about 75% finished.
I didn’t figure out everything but I did figure out one of the really big reveals. The main character was really hard to root for and I wish that he had been less snarky and more human. (2 stars)
Reading Journey-Goal=70 books
Jan-5 Feb-5 Mar-5 Apr-6 May-6 Jun-5
Total read to date: 32. I’m pretty on track to meet my goal this year. I have to find time to read a few extra books.
If you have any book recommendations, please share in the comments and thanks for reading.
