Skip to main content

Books read and bought in June #RoundUp

Another orbit by the moon later and it's time again to reflect on what books I have read and bought this month.

In terms of reading the first and probably my favourite book this month was Scribbles in the Margin by Daniel Gray. A love letter to all things book, I thoroughly recommend this short but sweet hardback. Self contained chapters make it a perfect alternative to any summer reading list.

Different in every way to Scribbles was George III by Christopher Hibbert. A well written, informative book expertly illustrating why George was so much more than the Mad King. In terms of the historical non fiction genre it's a good one but you probably do need an interest in the first place to get the most out of it.

The One by John Marr was our June #BookOfTheMonth based on what happens when five different people from all walks of life take a DNA test to discover who they are genetically Matched to. A good concept but too many characters fighting for not enough word count made it a miss for the group with the ending drifting into channel five territory.  

The Tent the Bucket and Me by Emma Kennedy rounded off the month. Laugh out loud and expertly capturing both the 1970's and an increasing awareness that your parents are embarrassing, it too would make an excellent addition to summer reading lists everywhere.

It was a busy month for book buying (sorry hubby). The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie finally made my bookshelf following this particularly fetching cover capturing my eye.



A fellow camper (note the location linked reading of The Tent, The Bucket and Me!)  recommended Nevermore by Jessica Townsend for both my daughter and I. The first in a trilogy of books set around Morrigan Crow a girl who is cursed to die on her 11th birthday. My daughter nabbed it from me before it made the bookshelf so this one may have to wait for review.



Whistles in the Dark by Emma Healey (Elizabeth Is Missing) was my next purchase in HARDBACK (yes you read that right). Based on the aftermath of Jen's 15 year old daughter going missing for 4 days. I purchased this during a meet and greet as Healey spoke so passionately about the book and her life that I felt compelled to read it.



My last purchase was Greatest Hits by Laura Barnett (The Versions of Us). An ageing rock star looks back at her life whilst compiling her Greatest Hits album. Written alongside Kathryn Williams who wrote the accompanying album its a fascinating concept that I can't wait to report back on.


Let me know what you have read in June and will be reading in July.

Comments

  1. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is great. I'm hoping to read more from Muriel Spark this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let us know which ones you read and whether they are any good.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mount by Jilly Cooper #inbetweeny

I'll start this blog with a warning, this post does contain spoilers. So if you haven't read the book then please don't read this blog, yet. Of course you should read this post just wait a little while until you've read the latest installment of Rupert Campbell Black (RCB). Warnings out of the way I'll begin. I was massively looking forward to reading this book having hugely enjoyed the previous ones. RCB is my (not so) secret trashy pleasure and has been for many years. This book had all the ingredients of a classic, pages of wonderfully named characters, a few tortured souls and of course RCB with all his horses, dogs and now grandchildren. The book got off to a good start full of characters from old but also plenty of new ones to mix it up a bit. The horse's really played a starring role in this book but I also really loved Gav and at first Gala. Yep only at first as she went strongly down hill and I bet you can guess why. RCB. Here is where I fell o

Stitch Up (A Best Defence Mystery) by William McIntyre #BlogTour

OK hold on everybody for MY FIRST EVER BLOG TOUR!!!!!!!!! Did I like it? Did I manage to read it in time? Did I forget to post my review when I should have done? Yes, yes and (thankfully) no! Stitch Up is the ninth in the Best Defence Series featuring Scottish defence lawyer Robbie Munro. As a solicitor not a policeman who successfully runs his own law firm, is recently married and has a daughter the book immediately set itself apart from your standard crime thriller. The book begins with Robbie's ex girlfriend asking him to investigate the apparent suicide of her new boyfriend (awkward!). At the same time a convicted child-murderer is attempting to have his conviction quashed (if I remember the term correctly Mr McIntyre?) claiming Robbie's dad ex sergeant Alex Munro planted key evidence at the scene of the crime (double awkward!). I liked the two stories running along side each other which kept the pace of the book moving swiftly forwards. In real life McIntyre is

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray and a 30 a day habit.

Nothing like challenging oneself in the New Year and rather than giving up alcohol and only eating steamed kale the Book Club decided on reading the 900 odd page doorstop that is Vanity Fair . I ordered it at once and (using something vaguely like maths) worked out I needed to read 30 pages a day to have it read in time for the meeting. I was surprisingly undeterred by this and thought if nothing else I could use the book as a dumbbell when working off the chocolate orange.   I found I actually liked hitting my 30 a day target (much like all the other New Years' resolutioners like hitting their ten thousand steps) and it motivated me to just squeeze a few more pages in here and there so I was ahead of target. I haven’t really approached a book this way before but then it is longer than my copy of War and Peace and there are over 50 books on my bookshelf waiting to be read (now in 'to read' order due to much prating about over Christmas).        I didn’t know anything a