What I’m Reading Lately: June Picks
I read 16 books in the month of June. Not all of them spoke to me in the same way. Here are a few of the ones who stood out to me as especially good.
A Room With a View
A classic I’ve been meaning to read for a while, A Room with a View is one of E. M. Forster’s novels. It may not be one of his most loved, but it is certainly entertaining. The book tells the story of a young English woman who visits Italy with her older cousin (who is also serving as her chaperone). She meets other travelers from her home country and the events that result lead to unexpected consequences. This was a fun and quick read and if you enjoy reading Victorian novels like I do, you’ll like this one.
The Library Book
This is a book about books. It captured my attention from the beginning and I learned so much. As a bookworm, this book was right up my alley—difficult to read at times, but very informative. If you like books, read this one!
From the publisher:
“On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, “Once that first stack got going, it was ‘Goodbye, Charlie.’” The fire was disastrous: it reached 2000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who?
Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a mesmerizing and uniquely compelling book that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before.”
Happier at Home
Do you ever feel like you wish your life could have just a little more happiness in it? Gretchen Rubin did too, which is what prompted her to write the book The Happiness Project. Happier at Home is a followup to that book and it details how she worked to create a happier environment for herself and her family in their home life. Some of her ideas are inspiring, some are obvious, but all of them are interesting. This was an easy book to read, but gave me plenty of food for thought.
The Gown
Historical fiction being my favorite genre to read by far, I am always up for a good historical novel. The Gown is a well researched, beautifully written novel based on a fascinating premise. It details the experience of the women who did the embroidery on Queen (then Princess) Elizabeth’s wedding gown. What more could a lover of historical fiction ask for in a novel than a gripping story about an actual event as thrilling as a royal wedding?
Next Year in Havana
Another historical novel, this one is about a wealthy Cuban family forced into exile in the United States in the 1950s. The effect of this situation on each member of the family makes for a heart wrenching tale that pulls you in from the beginning. I enjoyed this book so much and wanted to know what happened next so badly that I finished the entire thing in one sitting.
When We Left Cuba
The sequel to Next Year in Havana—though it could be read first and it would not be a problem—this was the fascinating story of a female spy in exile from her home in Cuba. I knew very little of this time period or the politics surrounding it. This was a captivating way to learn more about it, which is one of the reasons I love historical fiction so much. I highly recommend both of the these books!
The River
This boo was not one I would typically pick up on my own, but it was highly recommended on the Modern Mrs. Darcy Summer Reading Guide. So, I decided to give it a try. It is action packed and filled with suspense. I am glad I went outside my literary comfort zone and read this one.
Here’s what the publisher says about this book:
“Wynn and Jack have been best friends since freshman orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books, and fishing. Wynn is a gentle giant, a Vermont kid never happier than when his feet are in the water. Jack is more rugged, raised on a ranch in Colorado where sleeping under the stars and cooking on a fire came as naturally to him as breathing. When they decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of leisurely paddling and picking blueberries, and nights of stargazing and reading paperback Westerns. But a wildfire making its way across the forest adds unexpected urgency to the journey. When they hear a man and woman arguing on the fog-shrouded riverbank and decide to warn them about the fire, their search for the pair turns up nothing and no one. But: The next day a man appears on the river, paddling alone. Is this the man they heard? And, if he is, where is the woman? From this charged beginning, master storyteller Peter Heller unspools a headlong, heart-pounding story of desperate wilderness survival.”
Garlic and Sapphires
I love a good memoir, especially on audio if it is read by the author. This book is Ruth Reichl’s story of her time as the restaurant critic of the New York Times. Ms. Reichl reads the audiobook, and it added so much to the telling to hear it in her own voice. She is an entertaining writer and her anecdotes about the various situations she found herself in while working are sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant, but always interesting. She details the different disguises she used to get into restaurants without the staff knowing who she was and how all this subterfuge affected her personally. I really enjoyed learning more about this interesting woman and her unusual career.
The Island of Sea Women
Another historical novel about an area of history I knew very little about, this book tells about the women of Jeju, a small island off the coast of Korea during World War II and the Korean War. It follows the lives of two women in particular—how their relationship is shaped by these events, and how their lives are changed by the repercussions. It is a powerful and beautifully told story and I highly recommend it.
That wraps up the best of the books I read in June. I enjoyed reading all of these titles and I say, if you’re looking for a good book to read, try any one of these!
