Hello Loves!
I have been soooo good about getting my wrap-ups up on the last day of the month all of this year.
But June rolled around and threw my carefully maintained schedule for a toss. I had just come back home after being away for nearly two years and cleaning and sorting and organizing took over my life.
In fact, all of June was one thing after the other. Packing, planning and sending off boxes full of stuff to Bombay. I spent most of June anxious and on edge.
Ugh! Not my favourite.
I don't think I read a whole lot, most of my reading was done in a blur and in a bid to distract myself. There was one week when I was resting and I read one thriller after the other, because we had a rainy June back in the hometown. And rainy days are just meant for staying in bed and reading thrillers. I hoped to include some Pride Reads since it was Pride Month. And I wanted to read the books I was going to leave behind in the hometown..
June was an OK reading month..not the best, not the worst.
But let's talk about everything I read in June.
:)
JUNE READING WRAP-UP:
1. Here, There and Elsewhere by Sudha Murty: Started my month with some Murty. A collection of her best loved stories...well reminiscences, this was a non-fiction read. A re-read for me, since I had read all of these before but I didn't mind a re-visit. Sudha Murty is always a good idea in my world. I liked reading these stories again and spending some time with the wisdom of Sudha Murty.
4/5
2. The Beauty of All My Days by Ruskin Bond: I went from one comfort author to another. Ruskin Bond and his life story and being back in the familiar comfort of his words and the hills and a simpler world. I loved this so much, especially since it was full of beautiful pictures from his life, especially his childhood and youth.
I did a review for this, you can read it HERE.
4/5
3. Dear Seraphina by Avery Bishop: This novella was a such a quick and satisfying read. I read it in under two hours and loved it so much. It's about an obsessed fan writing to this young star and how slowly her obsession escalates into something darker and dangerous. It's such a ride and soooo well done. Cannot recommend it enough.
4.5/5
4. Colpetty People by Ashok Ferrey: This was my second time reading something from the author, I must say this collection of short stories was so much better than the previous book I read by him- The Good Little Ceylonese Girl. This one I enjoyed quite a bit and given everything that's been going down in Sri Lanka, this felt like an oddly timely read. Set in Sri Lanka and with Sri Lankans outside of the homeland, these are stories of people and places and loves and coming of age and home and identity. Enjoyable for most part.
3/5
5. Eve Green by Susan Fletcher: This was such a lovely read, one that came across so randomly. This is why I love buying second hand books, you find little gems you wouldn't have read otherwise. This is a story set in a tiny town in Wales, a story of a young girl making sense of her life and the grown-ups around her and what it means to belong and be comfortable in your skin. There was also the slightest hint of a mystery. I really enjoyed the time I spent with and I am so glad I found my way to it.
3.5/5
6. Yerba Bueana by Nina LaCour: I have read a few books by this author, all YA and all quite lovely. So when I knew she had written her first adult novel, I knew I had to read it. This one is such a moving and deep story about two women, growing up and finding their way to each other. Each with very different lives and backgrounds and each with struggles and pain of their own. I loved this so much. Nicely written and you find yourself loving both these young women.
4/5
7. Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender: I know this book is a huge deal for a lot of people and it's very loved and very popular. I really wanted to love it just as much but sadly..somewhere half way through I was not quite feeling it. This just didn't work for me. I don't even know why...I guess mainly because I didn't really like Felix very much, I found him to be slightly annoying.
:(
2/5
8. Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler: I adore Anne Tyler and this is my second novel of hers I've read in 2022. She has this incredible ability to make the ordinary come alive. Mundane lives and everyday concerns are infused with some genius levels of life and understanding. I adore her writing and the worlds she takes you to. So of course, I wanted to read the book which won the Pulitzer Prize. So I picked up a very battered copy of Breathing Lessons (which I found second hand). I liked it. Didn't love it. And between you, me and the four walls..I am frankly surprised this won the Pulitzer? It's perfectly nice, not great.
It's about this older couple on a day trip and the many detours and old memories and other grievances that surface unexpectedly. The main character has the same energy as a nosy Indian aunty, who thinks she knows better and wants to poke her nose into matters that concern her or don't. After a point I begin to see why her husband and her son were so annoyed with her. She is real, far too real in so many ways and maybe that's why she got under my skin like she did.
This was a decent read, just not nearly as incredible as I had thought it would be.
3/5
9. The Garden of Broken Things by Francesca Momplaisir: This author was being compared to Toni Morrison while this book was being promoted, so of course I wanted to read this and see for myself if this very high praise was anywhere close to true. Well, I think Toni Morrison they are not. Not quite. This book set in Haiti, before and in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake was powerful and moving and deeply affecting, I will give it that. But overall it was alright, nothing earth shattering (pun not intended).
3/5
10. The Henna Wars by Adiba Jagirdar: I enjoyed this book for most part, it was fun and enjoyable and about culture, henna, coming out and coming of age and falling in love and friendships and family. Plus Bengali-ness and queer love. Good fun and heart warming.
3.5/5
11. Hide by Kiersten White: I had such high hopes from this one. It's set in an abandoned amusement park and it's part thriller and part horror and part reality show-esque. It was supposed to be fun and spooky but sadly it just wasn't. For one there were tooooo many characters and too many back stories and it wasn't done so well and it made everything seem like a lot and too crowded and too muddled. I didn't grow to care about any character and even the big reveal was such a big surprise. Bit meh overall.
1/5
12. The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill: I was supposed to love this. I mean a murder in a library and two writers, a law student/journalist and a psychology student are on the case. I mean it had to much that I would just eat up.
Yet.
Somewhere it just kinda fell so flat and there is this whole correspondence that comes at the end of each chapter and it frankly got on my nerves and took away from the main action and ruined the pace of the book. I am sad this wasn't better.
2/5
13. The Sickle by Anita Agnihotri, Translated by Arunava Sinha: This book. Just broke my heart. We see these stories on the News, stories and images of droughts, famines and unimaginable suffering, we know of how our farmers suffer. We know they are let down, taken for granted and hurt and struggling. We know. We all do. Yet when you read something like this, read about the lives and walk a mile in their shoes and see their lives laid bare, it stays with you. It crawls under your skin and breaks you heart and stays there. It's a book that will make you pause and think and look at your own life and hopefully give thanks to those that work so hard to put food on our table.
4/5
14. The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray: Some books just sound like so much fun and you just want to partake in this world of make belief. Jane Austen is such a mood. I adore her books..well maybe adore is small word to convey how much I love her books and what they mean to me. They were some of the earliest "grown-up" books I read and ones I have re-read over the years. So to read a murder mystery set in the Austen-Verse was just a good time. Mr. Wickham is killed and everyone had reason to kill him.
Fun. Not life changing or anything but just fun.
3/5
15. Listen to Your Heart by Ruskin Bond: More Bond to end my month. A beautiful illustrated memoir of his UK days.
Did a review for this one too, you can read it here.
5/5
16. Bombay Time by Thrity Umrigar: A Parsi wedding. A slew of guests gather to celebrate and look back at their own lives and memories. Inter-connected short stories are something I tend to enjoy and I liked this one too...till some where in the middle where I kinda began to lose patience. It felt too dense and too much and a tad bit boring. I was so done. Not my thing, even though I usually enjoy this sort of thing.
2/5
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