June Booklist

I allowed myself the luxury this month of reading just about any book I wanted -- those that might have been a bit longer than what I could afford to read earlier in the year.  So with that said I managed to get through 7 books this month bringing the total for the six months year-to-date to 56.  I'm really happy with that!  Here's what I read:

1. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
2. Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes
3. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
4. Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis
5. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
6. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
7. The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

I found Constellation and Mountains Echoed both harrowing in their own way -- excellent retelling of the impact of war on the lives of those that survive it.  Ready Player One is a story I've wanted to read for a while as it gets so many rave reviews.  I wasn't disappointed.  If you're a fan of 80s nostalgia and just about every geek reference you can imagine then this story is for you!  Bitter Seeds is the first in a trilogy of books about an alternate WWII history -- great scifi stuff and I can't wait to tackle the remaining two books.  Daughter started off great (for me) with a very imaginative plot but it degenerated into a YA-like forbidden-love yarn that I couldn't wait to wade through.  Undecided about reading the next in the series.  Similarly for me Winter Sea was overly obsessed with romance in an historical context (more than I thought) and had echoes of the Gabaldon's excellent Outlander series.  Finally Darkest Corner I just managed to finish late last night -- good story about domestic violence that had an interesting mechanism for unrolling events 4 years apart.

Six months down -- six to go!!!