What have you been reading this June?

[Andrea]

Georgann wrote: "Quiet weekend, people. Did you all melt in this heat? Using my fun bookmark "Beat the Heat, Read," I stayed in the AC and finished the last book of the Jane Yellowrock series, Final Heir trilogy.

The heat is kicking in today here.

Finished reading A Grim and Sunken Vow. It won't ever make my top 10 but there's a lot of complexity in the characters and decent worldbuilding.

Continuing my journey through the Sandman universe with Books of Magic, Vol. 1: Moveable Type

For a year where I planned to read predominantly vampire books, I'm doing a pretty poor job of it...though an unnamed vampire without a single line of dialog did show up in A Grim and Sunken Vow, so there! At least there are vampires in that universe...

[Audrey]

I finished Patient Zero on the trip and started Network Effect. I forgot my book bag, but I was able to download the Kindle app and get a book from there: Stranger Still: Book 2 of I Am Legion: a no-holds-barred horror-thriller that will leave you breathless.

Finished Undead and Unappreciated and The Berry Pickers, which was kind of a slog. Starting Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen, which is really good.

[Mary]

Outlaw of the Outer Stars by John C. Wright

[Georgann]

Finished The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle , book 3 of the series. I like our 2 FMCs, and the magic system. I struggled with "now when does this take place?" I had no idea whodunnit.

[Andrea]

Ok, reading a quick vampire book now, its only about 160 pages long - Tunnels of Blood by Darren Shan, third in the Cirque du Freak series.

[Robin]

OK, so I have finished book one of 'Old Man's War' and it was very entertaining. It felt a bit like an update of Heinlein 's 'Starship Troopers' but significantly less gung ho and with much less of the dubious politics. There was though, a lot of exposition and a fair few info dumps. Now, don't get me wrong, Scalzi is slick and he knows all the moves but even so, there were times... To be fair, it is the first book in a series and as such has a good deal of world building to do. Anyway, although it was an agreeable enough read I am not sure if I will pick up any more in the series.

Next is the splendid graphic novel rendering of 'A Wizard of Earthsea' that I was given for my Birthday.😊

[Georgann]

Just finished Upright Women Wanted . Thank you for the Weird West Bingo square or I'd never have read this and I loved it!!

Robin, my DH is not much into sci fi but he has sure been enjoying the Old Man's War series! I only read the first one but I am not into military sci fi.

[Robin]

Yeah, it is a good book and I did mostly enjoy it but... at the same time I didn't really connect with it on anything more than a surface level. I might try another one at some point but I'm not feeling any urgency about it.😊

[Andrea]

Georgann wrote: "Just finished Upright Women Wanted . Thank you for the Weird West Bingo square or I'd never have read this and I loved it!!."

Yay, that's what the BINGO is intended to do, make people read things they might otherwise have missed out on.

Now I should REALLY get back to filling in those squares, got completely sidetracked by some other stuff...

[Rachel]

I just finished
wasn't planning on reading this right away but it was good. first half is slow and i wish the mc had more challenges in the beginning but overall enjoyed the book.

[Andrea]

Finished Tunnels of Blood, now on to more vampires with Undead and Unreturnable by MaryJanice Davidson

[Mary]

The Words of the Night by C. Chancy

[Tony]

I finished Swordsmistress of Chaos. I have always enjoyed this series, while recognising that it's not the best quality writing and the characters are a little cliched, the lead character being a woman notwithstanding (which was pretty unusual for a sword & sorcery novel in the 70s).

It fills the Swords(wo)man slot in my Bingo. I have now completed 17 of the 25 slots, but no bingo yet.

[NekroRider]

I've zipped through quite a bit since my last post!

I finished Come with Me by Ronald Malfi, which was really great! I rated it 4.5/5. It was a mystery/horror with grief as it's central theme.

Next I read Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle. It was horror/comedy with a bit of a sci-fi tinge. I was in the mood for more horror and my partner had this one lying around apartment so I went for it and enjoyed it! A 3.75/5-ish read about an evangelical community known for being home to the "most successful" gay conversion camp in the world. I'd recommend if you like Grady Hendrix's books.

Then I went on to The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher and another of my partner's books (she reads mostly horror and thrillers, so we have quite a bit of this type lying around at home). I'd call it a mix of horror (with a heavy dose of humour) and portal fantasy. MC is going through a divorce and goes to live with her eccentric uncle Earl at his Wonder Museum where he collects all types of strange things. One day a portal to a strange world opens up in the wall of the museum. It was another really enjoyable one and I rated around 3.75/5.

And now reading yet another "had it around the house" book The Gathering by C.J. Tudor. I just started it but like it so far. Its about a remote town in Alaska that is also home to a vampire colony. A boy is murdered and the vampires are suspected, so a forensic vampire anthropologist/homicide detective is flown in from down south to investigate the murder.

[Georgann]

I just finished this great cozy fantasy The Teller of Small Fortunes

[Barbara]

I read and reviewed "Remembrance of Earth's Past' science fiction trilogy a few years ago, and now I'm listening to the audiobooks.

The third book in the series:

Death's End by Liu Cixin

The Earth is in great danger from the Trisolarans and from an alien society determined to wipe out other intelligent life in the universe.

Combines philosophy, physics, and science fiction. Very imaginative. 4.5 stars

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Clare]

Scalzi, some of the Old Man's War series.

[Andrea]

Finished Undead and Unreturnable. I had intended to read this whole series this year but as I finished book 4 as month 6 ended I might have to hurry up!

At least I'm finally filling a BINGO slot, the Urban Fantasy one. I'm going to have to put more effort into this challenge, I'm falling behind!