Mid-Year // Book List

 It's the halfway mark for the reading year!

A bit arbitrary, but because I enjoy keeping track, as of the end of June I'm at #39 for the year, which breaks down to...

16 audiobooks, 23 hardcopy

25 fiction, 14 non-fiction.

My highlights from the last little while...

A Gentleman in Moscow

by Amor Towles

I love his writing style ~ lovely prose & memorable characters.. this was a slow burn, but worth it in the end. 5 stars for me. Benedict Cumberbatch was the perfect fit for the main character in my mind.

Hello Beautiful

More of note because of its popularity recently, I didn't love it as much as everyone else seemed to. A good one for character casting & enneagram typing, tho. I couldn’t shake Napoleon Dynamite from my mind as the main male protagonist! 3 stars

I Miss You When I Blink

by Laura Mary Philpott / 4 stars

I really liked this one. Memoir-ish essays & a fascinating detailed look inside her mind. Mid-life solidarity here, as well as a lot of levity ~ had a few good laughs. Will definitely check out her newer book, Bomb Shelter.

The Covenant of Water

This was a wonderful audiobook (2023) & was my June listen as it is quite lengthy. The author does such a wonderful narration. Set in India spanning a few decades, this one drew me in, lost me a bit in the middle, then left me wanting for more at the end. Solid 4 stars. Will need to re-read(?) Cutting for Stone, his other book at some point.

Cheers to (officially) starting some Summer Reading! I've got a few good fiction contenders & some memoirs from the library to choose from. 

Some titles on my summer to-be-read list...

Tom Lake

by Ann Patchett / narrated by Meryl Streep, fiction

You Could Make this Place Beautiful

by Maggie Smith / memoir

The Lincoln Highway 

the latest Amor Towles / fiction

Where the Crawdads Sing

re-read, fiction 

the Half Moon

narrated by Rebecca Lowman / fiction

Climbing the Mango Trees

by Madhur Jaffrey / memoir

the Orchard House

memoir

The kids too have been very motivated & are well on their way to get their prizes from the library for filling in their time clocks. (We'll see how good the prizes are!)