What are you reading in June 2024?

[Shel, Moderator]

Happy June! Let us know what you're reading this month- all genres welcome!

[Cheryl]

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow, a Newbery Honor book. Omg. Well told; not gratuitously graphic, explains the appeal of the charismatic man's strategies. Must share with your children.

[Mary]

Resolute by Jack Campbell

[Cheryl]

What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses by Daniel Chamovitz. They do have the equivalences of our senses, just no brain, they don't "care" if they're thirsty or infected or whatever. An interesting read that, for me, took several nights to get through because it was also pleasantly soporific.

[Mary]

Implacable by Jack Campbell

[Chris, Moderator]

Well, I just finished The Saint of Bright Doors, and I'm underwhelmed. It's a finalist for both the Nebula and Hugo awards, but this book is clearly not for me. Petty factional squabbles and an unlikeable protagonist with no clear purpose. An interesting world and good writing can't save us from a truly dreary story.

On the other hand, I'm flying through Some Desperate Glory ; just can't put it down!

[Shel, Moderator]

I finally finished Dragonfly Falling yesterday (off to comment on the spoiler thread next). I have the next one in the series lined up, but I want to read something else in between so I just grabbed Lock In from the library. John Scalzi is always good for an entertaining read.

[Gary]

I finished reading Half a War by Joe Abercrombie (Shattered Seas #3). This is the concluding novel of the series. It brings the characters from the first two novels to a satisfying conclusion. I also finished reading The End of All Things (Old Man’s War #6) by John Scalzi. It is a series of novellas that interlock and conclude the series well. I am reading Royal Assassin (Book #2 of the Farseer Trilogy) by Robin Hobb and Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold. I plan to read Thinner by Stephen King next.

[Shel, Moderator]

Gary wrote: "I finished reading Half a War by Joe Abercrombie (Shattered Seas #3). This is the concluding novel of the series. It brings the characters from the first two novels ..."

You've hit three of our group's past series reads in one post! :) We've read all of the Old Man's War books, the Miles Vorkosigan books, and the Realms of the Elderlings series (which the Farseer trilogy is a part of) together. Old discussion threads never close, so feel free to take a peek in our series discussion archive and chime in on any of them!

I guess that means we need to read the Abercrombie next?

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Halfway through June, I’ve read:
Crescent City Rhapsody by Kathleen Ann Goonan, 8.5/10. Although it is book 3 in Goonan’s Nanotech Cycle, the events take place before books 1 and 2, which was a surprise to me. This fills in a lot of holes and lays a good foundation for the events of the first 2 books. Although there was a large cast of characters and settings all over the world, it was, in many ways, a more focused story, more tightly plotted, more maturely written.
A Conjuring of Light by Victoria Schwab, 10/10. I thought this was a powerful final book in the trilogy—major storylines wrapped up, plenty of action, & a dash or two of romance. The author elicited pretty much every emotion from me in one scene or another—anger, sadness, frustration, joy, relief, indignation, confusion, satisfaction… you get the idea. A couple quibbles—I really would have liked to find out Kell’s origins. (view spoiler)[He had the answers to those questions in his hand and decided he didn’t really need to know. Well, I needed to know! (hide spoiler)] I also wanted to know how Lila lost her original Antari eye.
Ashworth Hall by Anne Perry, 7.5/10. Perry’s books often end abruptly and this one definitely did—too abruptly, in my opinion. And the “Irish Question” was vastly simplified, as I suppose it had to be. Still the author captured a taste of the terrible wrongs on both sides, the intransigence and deep passion. And the mystery was complex, as were some of the characters.
Still listening to Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune.

[Mary]

In Our Stars by Jack Campbell

[Mary]

Bearskin by Heather Strickler

[Cheryl]

A picture-book for ages 5 to 105, Bag in the Wind by the poet Ted Kooser, illustrated by Barry Root, What happens to a plastic bag when it escapes a landfill? Whose lives are revealed by its encounters with them? Includes author's note about litter, its impact on wildlife, plastic, and inadequacy of recycling.

[Shel, Moderator]

Lock In was everything I expected from John Scalzi - in other words, I loved it and have just requested the sequel from the library.

I've also just read Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant, an interesting memoir about race, food, sexuality, and Detroit (I grew up in the metro Detroit area so it's always fun to read about places I know, though I never ate at this particular restaurant); and then just finished System Collapse. The problem is that now I'm all caught up with Murderbot and I have to wait until she publishes more!

Next up - Blood of the Mantis.

[Alexander]

I'm currently finishing The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia. It's my third try, and I'm finally in the mind space to appreciate it the way it deserves. What a book!

I started this month with Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. I liked it, but the lengthy prose can get oh so dry.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a nice comic relief after that one. Then I snacked on Adrian Tchaikovski's Ironclads (military sci-fi, not my favourite genre, but his quirky style still made me appreciate it) and finished Aspects of the Novel.

I'm reading some (non sci-fi) books in other languages on the side, where the progress is slower. I'm currently halfway the Swedish book Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann (The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared), reading Jules Verne's Autour de la Lune, Camus's La Chute and Ernaux's L'Autre Fille.

Lastly, and under the influence of Ursula K. Le Guin, I'm also reading Tao Te Ching, which is very nice to read a couple of pages of every day.

Oh, and I just started Hyperion. I should really read fewer books all at once.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Alexander wrote: "I should really read fewer books all at once."

Whew, my head was spinning! Quite an eclectic assortment!

[Alexander]

Kathi wrote: "

Whew, my head was spinning! Quite an eclectic assortment!"

Haha, so is mine, Kathi, so is mine...!

[Mary]

Cecily by Alida Leacroft

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

The rest of my June reads:
Light Music by Kathleen Ann Goonan, book 4 in her Nanotech Cycle, 7/10. I loved parts of this book, but it just didn’t come together into a coherent story for me. I give the author credit for writing a unique book (& series), with a number of creative & original ideas. I loved the interplay between music (especially improvisation), light, & mathematics. She was willing to speculate in a number of different directions—nanotech, obviously, but also genetic engineering, medicine, communication, & sociology. The author explored was it means to be alive, to be human, to be family, to be sentient. My main quibble is that the author (& thus, the reader) invests a lot of time & effort into characters & relationships only to let them kind of fall by the wayside. So, great ideas, some very interesting characters, but the pieces just don’t seem to quite fit together, the tapestry isn't woven tightly enough, & so this reader was left a bit dissatisfied.

Brunswick Gardens by Anne Perry, book 18 in her Charlotte & Thomas Pitt Victorian mystery series, 9/10. As always, well-researched, well-written.

Quentins by Maeve Binchy, 9/10. Maeve Binchy is a marvelous storyteller, & this book is just that, a marvelous collection of interlocking stories with a wide cast of characters who have faults & virtues, dreams & schemes.

Blood of the Mantis by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 8/10, comments in our group discussion folder for this series.

Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune, 10/10. The author explores life, & life choices, through the lens of death, an interesting concept to me, & presents an interesting version of the “afterlife”. The author creates beautiful, multi-dimensional characters & gives the reader reasons to care about each. I liked the way the characters’ sexuality was just matter-of-fact, whether hetero-, homo-, or bisexual. Same with race.