June 2023 Reading Review + Summer Reading Update

Happy Wednesday, friends! The week so far can be summed up in one word: rain! We have had some amazing rain showers and thunderstorms over the last few days. I can’t get enough of it and am so pleased with the rainy weather pattern we’ve had over the last month or so. Sadly, no rain is forecasted today and the high is expected to be in the 90s. I’m hoping to be able to spend most of the day inside, prepping for our next homeschooling term, and catching up on some cleaning with my earbuds in. Wish me luck!

I’m here today to reflect on the books I read in June and to check-in on my summer reading list. I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of books that I read last month and can’t wait to share a few of my favorites.

Books Read in June 2023:

---

June Highlights:

Favorite Book of June:
The Garden of Evenings Mists by Tan Twan Eng might end up being my favorite book of the entire year. It was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2012, but there’s no way I could have appreciated this complicated and beautiful book back then. While set during WWII, it shows a perspective not often seen in popular literature: the Pacific theater. This novel features the lush and beautiful backdrop of a Japanese garden in the Malayan jungle in which Yun Ling finds solace after being tortured in a Japanese internment camp.

Eng explores so much in this work, including some Buddhist ideas about impermanence and nature. He also makes the reader think about memories: capturing them, incorporating them into our lives, and just how fleeting they can be:

Memory is like patches of sunlight in an overcast valley, shifting with the movement of the clouds. Now and then the light will fall on a particular point in time, illuminating it for a moment before the wind seals up the gap, and the world is in shadows again. p. 294

I’m trying to be brief in this post, so I’ll stop here. But this is one that I could spend a lot of time with, unpacking and discussing all of the lessons that Eng tried to share. I highly recommend it and it’s still only $2.99 on Kindle!

(Tan Twan Eng’s newest effort, The House of Doors, was published in the UK in May and will be out in the US in October. I’ve put in an order at Blackwell’s that should arrive soon — I don’t want to wait until October to read it!)

---

Honorable Mentions:
The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller is her pandemic novel, except the world is experiencing a virus much worse than Covid. I love how dark and twisted Fuller can be but was pleasantly surprised by her tact in this one. A pandemic is dark and twisted enough without adding too much to the mix, right? I was riveted by this book and was anxious to know how this group of volunteer vaccine testers, seemingly among the last few people alive on Earth, would choose to venture out into the world. It was hard to put down!

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton was a fun and terrifying thriller about gardening. Who knew that it could be such a radical act?! I loved the Australian setting and this group of environmentalists who banned together to combat climate change and food insecurity using guerilla gardening tactics. But they had no idea what they were stepping into when they began gardening on a large property that they believe is abandoned. What happens next left me thinking about technology’s impact in my life and how twisted this world is. The ending was totally unexpected and I was left in a daze and chuckling with the absurdity of it all. This was definitely worth the 2+ month wait on Libby!

---

Prize Reading:
Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov won this year’s International Booker Prize. It started off really promising but my interest waned as time went on. I only continued because I hoped for some big twist that was unexpected? But I felt like the ending was not surprising. Did you love this one? Was there some big revelation that I missed? I’d love to hear other perspectives on this one.

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff was longlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. A group of women bound together by a microloan help each other kill their “no good husbands,” in this entertaining contemporary novel. The dialogue is so good and the author did a great job exploring the dynamics in abusive relationships. There’s nothing humorous about the abuse that so many Indian women experience but it’s helpful to have the humor as a backdrop for the reader, especially for those who are new to the world of domestic violence.

---

Chapter Book Readalouds:

Sometimes I feel silly sharing these every month, but people consistently thank me for including them! This is probably some of the most important reading that I do every day: small chunks of time devoted to reading with the kiddos ensures that reading on a daily basis is simply a part of their routine. Reading every day is normal for them and I hope it’s something they carry with them forever, even if it’s just 15 minutes at a time.

---

Bronwyn and I met Kit in June! We read the first two Kit books and I am really enjoying her story. She’s a spunky nine year old living in Cincinnati during the Great Depression. We also read an Ivy & Bean book together (One Big Happy Family) and an Fancy Nancy chapter book (Nancy Clancy: Secret Admirer)

Bryce’s bedtime reading has continued to be Captain Underpants and we read three of them. I feel like a broken record in these wrap ups posts, but these are comfort reads for him. And I will continue our bedtime reading for as long as he wants me to!

Summer Reading Plans Update:

My summer reading plans have gotten off to a great start and I’ve added five books to the list since the end of May (Victory City by Salman Rushdie; House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng; Where the Line Bleeds by Jesmyn Ward; Tears of Amber by Sofía Segovia; and Three by Valérie Perrin). I’m trying not to add anything else to my TBR until the Booker prize list comes out on 8/1. Here’s my progress so far:

Slow & Steady Books:
✔️ Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak 
✔️ When I Was a Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson
❒ The Givenness of Things by Marilynne Robinson
❒ Taking the Leap by Pema Chödrön

Toni Morrison:
✔️ Love
❒ A Mercy
❒ Home

Prize Reading:
I have a few books from this year’s International Booker Prize list that I’d like to read this summer:

✔️ Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov 
❒Whale by Cheon Myeong-Kwan (abandoned; this one wasn’t for me)
❒Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel
❒ The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier

And one more from this year’s Women’s Prize longlist:

✔️ The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

New Releases:
✔️Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
✔️ The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller
❒ The Postcard by Anne Berest
✔️ Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
❒ Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
❒ The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (currently reading)
❒ Enchantment by Katherine May
❒ Victory City by Salman Rushdie (added in June)
❒ House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng (added in June)

Backlist Titles:
❒ Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (currently reading)
✔️ Fight Night by Miriam Toews (will be in next week’s post)
❒ So Big by Edna Ferber (currently reading)
❒ Telephone by Percival Everett
❒ When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
✔️ The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (currently $2.99 on Kindle!!)
❒ The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (currently reading)
❒ Horse by Geraldine Brooks
❒ Where the Line Bleeds by Jesmyn Ward (added in June; free to listen with Audible membership)
❒ Tears of Amber by Sofía Segovia (added in June)
❒ Three by Valérie Perrin (added in June)

---

How was your reading life in June? Did you read anything that you think will become a lifetime favorite? Is there anything on my summer reading list that I should prioritize right away? Tell me everything I need to know!

I hope to be back on Friday with my monthly stitching update. Spoiler alert: I’m pretty sure my Junction sweater is going to fit. I don’t want to get too excited because strange things happen in my life, but the prognosis is positive. Until Friday – take good care.

PS: 27 days until the Booker Prize longlist announcement!