Hello! I hope you’re well 🤗
Well, June was an absolute blur – I’ll find out what I want to say as I type it I guess this time around, ahaha!
I read practically nothing until the final week – where I ploughed through all the books I’d started and read only a few chapters of, as well as some books I hadn’t got to yet but knew I was not fitting into my July tbr…
His Black Tongue by Mitchell Lüthi was pretty much the only book I’d read for much of the month. I listened to it on my first few commutes to work. At this point, I have to say it was that long ago and I’ve read so many in such a short span since, this I don’t remember much… but I remember enjoying the vibes, and that the audio had extra effects in the background that I adored being a feature.
Next I buddy read Divine Might by Natalie Haynes with Hannah @ LadetteM. I really enjoyed it, but not as much as Pandora’s Jar (which is much the same vein and also by Haynes). Still really recommend if you’d like a more non-fiction look at the Greek Goddesses that is easily digestible. Demeter is absolutely a new favourite of mine.
One I picked up on a whim, then absolutely didn’t feel like reading was the first in the Cadfael series by Ellis Peters. It’s set in my local-ish area, so I had an interest – and a medieval monk solving mysteries sounds amazing. But it just dragged a bit for me.
I also buddy read with Morgan @MorganIsReadingAgain. We’d talked about annotating the first HP book together, and finally got around to it this month. We still need a final catch up about it, but I have loved seeing the differences in how things have been translated into Hungarian.
A surprise book for me was The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young. A book club I am in was reading it this month, and I was taken with the cover. Oh my gosh, I loved it! There is mystery and a family history to unravel with sci-fi / fantasy elements. It just totally swept me up.
Tales of a Monstrous Heart by Jennifer Delaney was an arc I requested on a whim (admittedly without looking to much into it). I AM SO FREAKING GLAD I DID! You can read my review here.
And then finally, a book I managed to just about squeeze into the last day of the month, was one for a bookclub at work. I’m not much a fan of sci-fi (I want to like it, but I prefer fantasy by far) – but The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi had the right humour for me. I found myself whipping through and really enjoying myself. A great end to the month.
tl;dr & ratings
books finished
◍ His Black Tongue – Mitchell Lüthi // 🎧 // ★★★★ // horror short stories set in medieval france.
◍ Divine Might – Natalie Haynes // 📖 // ★★★★☆ // non-fiction looking at some of the greek goddesses and their female rage.
◍ A Morbid Taste for Bones – Ellis Peters // 📱 // ★★★☆ // first in a rather long mystery series following Cadfael, a medieval monk, and set fairly locally to me.
◍ Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone // 📖 // ★★★★★ // self explanatory at this point
◍ The Unmaking of June Farrow – Adrienne Young // 📖 // ★★★★★ // timey-wimey fantasy family mystery (i don’t really know what else to call it haha).
◍ Tales of a Monstrous Heart – Jennifer Delaney // 📱 // ★★★★★ // jane eyre inspired gothic fantasy, releases in august!.
◍ The Kaiju Preservation Society – John Scalzi // 📖 // ★★★★☆ // shorter sci-fi story set in the pandemic with an alternate earth and big monsters.
books dnf’d
I haven’t finished The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell – as spotify cut me off with an hour to go!!! I need to wait until part way through July and when my 15 hours included audiobook time resets…
LOOKING FORWARDS – JUL // readathons and book clubs I’m participating in
◍ The Bookwanderers // run by Celine @ StuffCelineReads // continuing the summer of the witch readathon! I am absolutely obsessed with the theme!
◍ Summer Camp – Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark // run by Celine @ StuffCelineReads // celine has made an incredible horror themed readathon for july! join bookwanderers for more details.
June really has gone by in a flash. I’m looking at my bullet journal now, and I also am struggling to account for it. I think work has just been a lot, and so everything has just mushed together a bit.
I have got out and about for some walks at the weekends fairly consistently, but otherwise, I don’t have much to report on. The weather has been even more temperamental, and we had a “heatwave” between two cold and damp weeks, where everything was just really swampy feeling and I wanted to do literally nothing haha.
One highlight was going to see the show Uncanny in Liverpool. I’m a long time fan of the podcast, loved the TV show they did last year, and also thoroughly enjoyed the book that also released I think last year. They put the live show on again after it was so popular last year – I managed to convince my partner to go with me (despite it not being his cup of tea) and I had a blast! He even says it was a good time, so great praise there haha.
We also went to watch the Midsummer Watch Parade in a nearby city. It was so fun! The energy there was great, and the buskers eclectic while we waited. It’s something I’ve wanted to get to for a while with regards their winter one. I will absolutely have to get to that one this year after experiencing the summer one.
I do have some exciting book news that I’ll be announcing on the 8th of July. But other than that, I think that’s all for this one folks.
How was June for you? I hope yours was less of a blur than mine!
The Bookworm's Feast 
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