Yeah, we’re still staying safer at home here. With a few high-risk folks in our family, we feel like it’s the best to just err on the side of caution.
Since I’m still spending all my time at home, I have a lot of time to read and listen to audiobooks. Here’s what I read and listened to in June.
The Carrow Haunt by Darcy Coates • ⭐️
I was not expecting this book to become one of my favorites or anything when I picked it up. I just wanted an entertaining ghost story.
I felt like this book was full of missed opportunities to create a more engaging story. Instead, it was almost rudimentary in its construction.
But what irked me the most—as always—were small details. Like the author kept referencing how the house was the most haunted locale in the state but never mentioned what state. Then kept referring to things by their UK-English names like torch instead of flashlight. Small details like this took me out of the story and made me feel like the author should have just set the story in the UK and called it a day.
The Parting Glass by Gina Marie Gaudagnino • ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book was hyped as Downton Abbey meets Gangs of New York, so obviously I bit.
I suppose it was a bit of both of these things, but I didn’t find it as thrilling or entrancing as either. It was a fine bit of historical fiction: an Irish-born maid in love with her mistress, her brother part of an Irish nationalist group. There was a lot to be interested in.
In all though, I felt like not a lot happened, but that might be me just taking my time listening to this one. It’s fine, but I might recommend reading over listening.
The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox • ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I like a good witch-focused piece of fiction here and there. The Witches of New York was a really good one (read that one on the way home from Salem). And The Witch’s Daughter was a nice fluffy read.
The Witch of Willow Hall was very much in the same vein as the latter. It was pleasant and kept my attention, but I won’t insist you read it.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was a big book—almost 500 pages, 12 central characters and generation-spanning stories—and I loved it.
Evaristo managed to create so many well developed, interesting characters in this novel. When the chapters jumped from one woman to another, I was almost pained to leave one dynamic player, but happy to dive into the world of the next.
The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements • ⭐️⭐️⭐️
You know I love a good Gothic-style novel, and The Coffin Path fit the bill: a dilapidated estate in the Yorkshire countryside, a ghastly legend, a stranger come to town. It checked all the boxes.
The Coffin Path was a good read. It was spooky and atmospheric. Sure, a few too many words spent on the care and keeping of sheep, but it kept me interested until the end.
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This one has been on my radar for a while, and oh my gosh am I glad I finally got into it. It might be my favorite read of the year so far.
The gist: Emira, a Black woman in her mid-twenties, babysits for the children of Alix, awealthy, white blogger. One night while she’s out with the toddler, she’s accused of kidnapping by a grocery store security guard and “concerned” customer. The book then follows how Emira and Alix live in the aftermath of this encounter.
I was totally riveted by the story and the characters in this book (and the audiobook performance is really great too!). I devoured it all in three days.
While I loved the story, I have to say this novel also helped me gain some perspective on the difference between being a good ally and acting selfishly thinking you’re being a good person.
This is an absolute must read.
Weird but Normal by Mia Mercado • ⭐️⭐️⭐️
My friend Amanda alerted me to this book’s release, and I’m happy she did! The author was a grade below us at our high school and we attended the same church—so a lot of her references truly hit close to home.
This collection of essays was a nice, easy-breezy read—something light to take my mind off what a trash heap the world can be. And, sure, a lot of it was your standard Millenial musings, but it was still a fun read.
Also, I feel like I want to embroider this quote and hang it above my desk: “I want to do absolutely nothing, and then I want to be recognized for all my hard work.”
Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby • ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I cannot tell you how much I loved Wow, No Thank You. It was just such a hilarious, well-done collection of essays. Two pages in I was cackling and texting my mom that she had to give it a read (Samantha Irby’s musings on poop are truly some of the finest writing I’ve read of late).
It’s just such a joy and thrill to read something so heartfelt and true and funny rolled into a single book. Her other collections are not on my must-read list.
I’ll leave you with this quote which left me in stitches: “First of all, why you would ask a man anything is beyond me.”
• • •
I’ve been relying a lot upon digital books and audiobook downloads lately, but I’ve made some exceptions and started shopping at Semicolon Bookstore—Chicago’s only Black woman-owned bookshop. They have a mammoth selection and you can digital goods from them, too!
As always, you can follow along with my reading on Goodreads.
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