June Overview

In June I read the same number of books as in May: 20 of them! I guess this new challenge I’m doing was partially to blame. Plus I read a few short books (2 were only around 100 pages) and 3 books were YA, which I can generally read quite fast, too. Oh, and let’s not forget my attempt to read a book a day for a whole week. My report is HERE. In addition to those 20 books, I abandoned two books. A busy month!

Books that stood out:

The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell. Two teenage girls bury their parents in the back garden and try to get on with life. With the death of their neglective parents, it seems the girls’ lives are improving, but what will happen if the bodies are found, as they inevitably will? 5 stars Original!

Fifty Shades of Grey stood out, too. Not because it was so terribly good, but because it’s not something I normally read.

And then The Turnaround by George Pelecanos. It wasn’t particularly good, but it turned out, that Pelecanos is a writer that other people have heard of. He was mentioned at least twice in a Dutch newspaper recently – it’s Dutch thriller month and there is a lot of things going on around thrilling books. I had not heard of him before.

This is what I read

The Death of Bees by Lisa O'DonnellThe Winemaker by Noah GordonWaterline by Ross RaisinThe Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWittThe Fault in Our Stars by John GreenThe Unnamed by Joshua FerrisThe Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather BarbieriThe Duplicate by Helen Fitzgerald
Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. JamesThis Bright River by Patrick SommervillePOD by Stephen WallenfelsOn the Road to Mr. Right by Belinda JonesThe Turnaround by George PelecanosBlood Lure by Nevada BarrVirals by Kathy Reichs

Click on the blue links to go to the review

The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell. 5 stars

The Winemaker by Noah Gordon. 5 stars

Waterline by Ross Raisin. 5 stars

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt. 4.5 stars

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. 4.5 stars

The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris. 4 stars

The Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather Barbieri. 4 stars

The Duplicate by Helen Fitzgerald. 4 stars

Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James. 4 stars

This Bright River by Patrick Somerville. 4 stars

POD by Stephen Wallenfels. 4 stars

On the Road to Mr. Right by Belinda Jones. 3.5 stars

The Turnaround by George Pelecanos. 3.5 stars

Blood Lure by Nevada Barr. 3.5 stars

Virals by Kathy Reichs. 3 stars

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. Abandoned

Girl Reading by KatieWard. Abandoned


***

Dutch blog:

Blindgangers by Joke J. HermsenHet eerste jaar van haar huwelijk by Anita ShreveDirty Martini by Elizabeth MollemaDe ooggetuige by Simone van der Vlugt

Blindgangers by Joke Hermsen. 5 stars

Het eerste jaar van haar huwelijk [A Change in Altitude] by Anita Shreve. 4.5 stars

Een gat in de lucht [Jumping in the Air] by Erik Nieuwenhuis. 4 stars

Dirty Martini by Elizabeth Mollema. 3.5 stars

De ooggetuige [The Eye Witness] by Simone van der Vlugt. 2.5 stars

.

This is what I reviewed too

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo HigashinoThe Submission by Amy WaldmanBeneath the Shadows by Sara FosterSister by Rosamund LuptonThe Unseen by Katherine Webb

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino. 4.5 stars

The Submission by Amy Waldman. 4.5 stars

Beneath the Shadows by Sara Foster. 4 stars

Sister by Rosamund Lupton. 4 stars

The Unseen by Katherine Webb. 4 stars


What was YOUR favorite book in June?

About Leeswammes
I'm owner and editor at bookhelpline.com. In my free time, I read and review books on my two blogs, Leeswammes' Blog and De Boekblogger.

27 Responses to June Overview

  1. A good month, Judith. A shame about the two abandoned books but I guess we need them occassionally to remind us how good all the other books really are. I haven’t done my list for this month yet, and I don’t usually blog it since all the books I read are on my blog anyway but I do know I managed to finish 18 books (well, 19 really I finished the last one just before 12 last night but since I won’t review it until today I’ll count it as a July read) which is a record for me I think.

    • Leeswammes says:

      Marleen, I think abandoning books depends very much on my mood. I don’t think these books are awful, but they weren’t for me at that particular time.

      You read a lot, too!

  2. Wow, that’s a fantastic month! Which books did you abandon?

  3. Nadine Nys says:

    Another great reading month, Judith… I would have thought that Girl Reading would be a great book, because of the title.

    • Leeswammes says:

      Nadine, yes, I thought so. But *Girl Reading* is a collection of stories about several (existing) paitings of a girl reading. I’m not a keen short story reader and I didn’t enjoy the first two enough to keep reading.

  4. Chinoiseries says:

    Seems like a very productive and good month too🙂 High ratings overall. Also, your review of Fifty Shades has made me reconsider giving it a try. Not sure whether I’ll read the entire trilogy though😉

    • Leeswammes says:

      Chinoiseries, you should definitely give it a try and see what the fuss is about. Especially if you can get hold of a free copy (e.g., library).

  5. Birgit says:

    You’ve certainly been reading a lot this past month! I don’t think I ever managed to read 20 books in a month myself. So, let’s see, I read “only” 13 books but then again, two of these were chunksters for my Tea & Books Reading Challenge, so I guess I can be proud of myself after all.

    • Leeswammes says:

      I didn’t read any chunksters this month, Birgit, some of them were very quick and easy reads. 13 is pretty good going, too! I think you can be proud. Or we could get a life?😉

  6. Joanna says:

    I really like Pelecanos, Judith. He is Greek American for one so the little Greek tidbits are quite pleasing. I also like detective , cop, mysteries too. He is also one of the writers for David Simon’s (originally from the book Homicide that became The Wire) new show Treme. He gets around!

    • Leeswammes says:

      Joanna, thanks for your comment. I somehow had never heard of him. I think I would have liked his book better if I had realised it wasn’t a thriller. I had the wrong expectations. He certainly is more famous than I’d thought.

  7. Suzanne says:

    Congratulations on another very productive month!
    You didn’t mention the success of the Literary Giveaway Blog Hop for which you should be very proud.

    • Leeswammes says:

      Thanks, Suzanne. Yes, I focused on the books rather than any other events. I’m somehow happier with this blog hop than the previous one (February) – maybe I felt less stressed about it and people co-operated better. October is the next one!

  8. Rikki says:

    God, 20 books! That’s my half year, well, almost! My favourite book definitely was The first man in Rome, which I finished yesterday. Not my fav book of the month but this will become one of my comfort go to books.

  9. Wow, you read a lot! That is great! I would love to read as much; however, I’m a mom of 5 children, a fulltime college student, and own businesses. I actually found your blog looking for plugins, ha-ha. Odd how google works sometimes. Great blog. Best wishes!

    • Leeswammes says:

      Pinchin Cents, sounds like you’re busy enough, wow! Plugins? Isn’t that odd? I don’t think I’ve ever said anything about that on my blog. Good luck with all your work & family.

  10. MoniqueReads says:

    You have had a great month. I am jealous. I wish i could finish twenty books a month.

    I hop you enjoy Beloved. It’s not an easy read but I loved it.

    Happy reading.

  11. Erika says:

    What a great month! That reading a book a day thing was really interesting🙂 I got a lot of reading done too, mostly short stories on my kindle. I’m finally down from 17 pages on my kindle list to 16. (yay :)) My favourite book was Winnemucca by Laura A. H. Elliot. I hope you have another great month of reading.

    • Leeswammes says:

      Erika, I love that new-fangled way of checking how many books you still have to read: the number of pages in the listing on Kindle. Ha, ha! I’ve “only” got about 5 pages to go on my Sony. That’s still absolutely loads of reading!

      I haven’t heard of Winnemucca (but will check your blog). Have a good month!

      • Erika says:

        I believe it is a self-published book (can’t quite remember that detail right now). I know…even 5 pages listed is still so much reading. It is funny that I think of my TBR on my ereader like that…lol.

  12. The Fault in our Stars is meant to be brilliant.🙂

    I’ve also heard a lot about Pelecanos (I think on the ABC Book Show), although I haven’t yet read him.

    • Leeswammes says:

      Stephanie, I enjoyed *The Fault in Our Stars* but I didn’t think it was quite as good as I was led to believe. Maybe it’s because I’m no where near the age group. I’m planning to let my teenage sons read it, maybe they will rave about it.

  13. It is interesting to see that you abandoned Girl Reading. I have seen nothing but praise for that book, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t enjoy it – you’re confirming that.

    I’ve added The Death of Bees to my wishlist. It isn’t in my local library system😦 but hopefully one will turn up soon.

    • Leeswammes says:

      Jackie, amazing you weren’t sure about *Girl Reading* already! I think you’d like it better than me, but probably not enough to bother with it.

      *The Death of Bees* is quite new. I hope your library will get it soon! It’s a UK publication!!

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