What are you reading for June?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just finished The House is on Fire by Rachel Breland, its historical fiction based on a Richmond theater fire in the 1800s. I really enjoyed the book!

I enjoyed this one too! Read it in May. This month I’m wrapping up Secret Book of Flora Lea which is great so far.

[Anonymous]

I am currently reading The Last Songbird, which is good so far. It's about a murder of a Carole King-type character in LA. The writing is lyrical, which is not common for a thriller.

I also just started the audiobook of The Mountain in the Sea, which was a finalist for a bunch of sci fi awards.

The best book I've read so far in June is Maeve Fly. It's been described as a female American Psycho, which is kind of reductive but kind of apt. Very, very good.

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins was also pretty good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am reading Lessons in Chemistry - about 30% through it right now. I have a beach vacation at the end of the month, and I just downloaded 3 books on my kindle from the library in prep for that trip: Every Summer After, Carrie Soto is Back, and The Peacock and the Sparrow (new release spy novel - local former CIA agent author - not typical beach read but I'm ok with that). I really want to read Fourth Wing but I have about 8 weeks left on my library hold.

How do you like Lessons in Chemistry? I recently bought it, but I can’t push through. It seems like such a silly contrived story. I hate to give up on books (as I’ve been doing it a lot)…does it get better?

Not PP, but having read so many glowing reviews of the Lessons in Chemistry, I was excited to read it. Didn't finish. Just could not get through it.

[Anonymous]

I loved Lessons in Chemistry, but read it before all the hype blew it up.

I think hype sometimes ruins a book (I'm going to wait a few months to read Fourth Wing) for me because I set my expectations too high.

[Anonymous]

I just finished House of Eve, Our Missing Hearts, and Wish You Were Here. I really enjoyed all three. I get the vibe from reviews that the last one is polarizing because people think it’s too soon for a pandemic book, but I liked it. It depressed me a bit though, both the pandemic content and the premise of the book.

I’m trying to figure out where to go from here, so I’m in this thread for more ideas. Maybe something a bit more lighthearted than those three.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just finished Verity and We Were Once a Family. I have a book called The Perfect Marriage - a DC based mystery thriller that I'll probably read next. Need something light after We Were Once a Family (which I highly recommend).

I read Verity two months ago and actually really liked it. What did you think? For the Gone Girl genre - I think its the second best book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am reading Lessons in Chemistry - about 30% through it right now. I have a beach vacation at the end of the month, and I just downloaded 3 books on my kindle from the library in prep for that trip: Every Summer After, Carrie Soto is Back, and The Peacock and the Sparrow (new release spy novel - local former CIA agent author - not typical beach read but I'm ok with that). I really want to read Fourth Wing but I have about 8 weeks left on my library hold.

How do you like Lessons in Chemistry? I recently bought it, but I can’t push through. It seems like such a silly contrived story. I hate to give up on books (as I’ve been doing it a lot)…does it get better?

NP. I did finish Lessons in Chemistry, but didn’t care much for it. In my opinion, it actually gets worse, not better. The first half was much stronger (or maybe had more promise).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Started the book Horse, and it’s eh. I’m thinking of moving on. I have a new stack of books to try: City of Thieves, Covenant of Water, Love Songs of WEB Debois, Cloud Cuckoo Land, Demon Copperhead, and On The Savage (Tiffany McDaniel).

Cloud Cuckoo Land is really good! It starts slow but then really envelops you. It would make a great book for a summer vacation. Very satisfying.

Oh, that’s good to hear! I’m usually not into fantasy, but I absolutely love Anthony Doerr so I figured I’d try.

NP. I loved CCL, but I wouldn’t call it fantasy at all. I’ve seen it referred to as “speculative fiction”. It was a mix of things - some futuristic/sci fi, some more contemporary/realistic, bits of historical fiction, but not fantasy. So if you’re not into fantasy it’s a good thing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I loved Lessons in Chemistry, but read it before all the hype blew it up.

I think hype sometimes ruins a book (I'm going to wait a few months to read Fourth Wing) for me because I set my expectations too high.

You may be right but when I read it the only hype I knew of was that it was prominently featured in displays at Barnes and Nobles, and of course I read the cover blurb so knew the general idea. I thought it sounded good so bought it for my adult daughter for Christmas. She liked it so then I read it but did not care for it. The hype didn't ruin it for me, the weak writing and contrived plot did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am reading Lessons in Chemistry - about 30% through it right now. I have a beach vacation at the end of the month, and I just downloaded 3 books on my kindle from the library in prep for that trip: Every Summer After, Carrie Soto is Back, and The Peacock and the Sparrow (new release spy novel - local former CIA agent author - not typical beach read but I'm ok with that). I really want to read Fourth Wing but I have about 8 weeks left on my library hold.

How do you like Lessons in Chemistry? I recently bought it, but I can’t push through. It seems like such a silly contrived story. I hate to give up on books (as I’ve been doing it a lot)…does it get better?

Not PP, but having read so many glowing reviews of the Lessons in Chemistry, I was excited to read it. Didn't finish. Just could not get through it.

I think some of these reviews on Amazon/goodreads are fake, TBH

[Anonymous]

Recent reads...

Our Missing Hearts - I've liked her other books better. I really did not like that one.
Lessons in Chemistry - fun/fine book but I don't really understand why everyone is going bananas about it.
Covenant of Water - I loved Cutting for Stone. This was good, but not in the same class in my opinion.
Migrations - I don't know how this got good reviews. I barely made it through.

I think that between Our Missing Hearts and Migrations I've realized that I'm not a fan of the dystopian future genre.

To the other PP -- I read Claire Keegan for the first time a couple months ago and her writing is absolutely beautiful. I loved both of the books. My only complaint is that I wished they'd go on and on!

[Anonymous]

Currently reading The Mill on the Floss. About halfway through, but it's really dragging so I'm thinking about DNFing it.

Anyone read it? Worth it to keep going?

[Anonymous]

Just finished The Guest by Emma Cline. Read it in a few hours which is unusual for me. Kind of depressing but well written. I really liked The Girls

[Anonymous]

I’m the original poster who said they were reading Lessons in Chemistry. I finished it and gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.

I am not sorry I read it. Sometimes I like to know what everyone is talking about. I thought parts of it were funny and good but some things in it were just too much for me.

[Anonymous]

Just finish Wool (the first in the Silo series) by Hugh Howey. I am currently reading Beloved by Toni Morrison, and listening to A Feast for Crow (the fourth in the series).