June Wrap Up

  

Life

• I hate winter. Bleugh. Winter is definitely the worst season. I don't like being cold, and I don't like it being dark at 5pm.
• I didn't blog much - I had exams and wasn't inspired to write anything - but I read some great posts from lots of other bloggers, so that was something.
• Exams... happened. Which means I'm halfway through my degree! I'm also on break now, which is great.
• I watched a lot of TV. New seasons of Orange Is the New Black, Orphan Black, and Wynonna Earp came out and I'm all caught up now with those. I also watched Marco Polo, which was incredible. I'm sad that Netflix cancelled it after 2 seasons - the story wasn't finished!
• I went to the movies a couple of times, to see Pirates of the Caribbean 5 and My Cousin Rachel. They were good.
• I was naughty and read some books that weren't on my TBR and added to my TBR. But I then did a TBR purge so I've ended up with a smaller list than before. My TBR is now a reasonable and manageable 40 books.

Posts

Micro Reviews: June
Top 10 Historical Books I've Read So Far in 2017

Read

Covers go to Goodreads.

     
        
     

Around the blogosphere

Anna at Powered by Girl answered what is queer fiction? (This was posted last year but I read it this month so it counts.)

Cait at Paper Fury gave us 10 reasons why books succeed better at life than we do.
Bec at Readers in Wonderland listed 5 bookish pet peeves.
Nemo at The Moonlight Library discussed misassigned retellings.
Greg at Book Haven gave us the dos and don'ts of attending fan conventions.
Tasya at The Literary Huntress talked about ARCs and materialism.

How was your June? Do you hate winter as much as I do? How much do you enjoy wrapping yourself in a blanket and reading a good book?

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Top 10 Historical Books I've Read So Far in 2017

Top Ten Tuesday is an awesome meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's theme is Best Books You've Read In 2017 So Far. You can break it down into a specific category, so I chose historical books because I've read so many this year (and in general tbh). In my list I'm including fiction, non-fiction, books set in the present/alternate present that deal with history, and a contemporary set in the past 25 years. *sighs* I love history so much.

Covers link to Goodreads.

1.

The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor

 

2.

 

Goddess by Kelly Gardiner
My review

3.

Gladiatrix series by Russell Whitfield
My review of book 1

 

4.

Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
My review

5.

Radio Girls by Sarah-Jane Stratford

 

6.

Shaken to the Core by Jae

7.

Cranky Ladies of History by various authors

8.

The Conqueror's Wife: A Novel of Alexander the Great by Stephanie Thornton

9.

The Great Library series by Rachel Caine 

10.

  and 

Tied for 10th place is Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St Mary's #1) by Jodi Taylor and New Pompeii (New Pompeii #1) by Daniel Godfrey. I couldn't decide between the two as they both deal with time-travelling and history and I enjoyed them about the same amount.
My review of New Pompeii

Have you read any of these? Who are your favourite authors of historical books? And what historical books do you always recommend?

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Micro Reviews: June

In which I review the books I've finished reading this month in one sentence.
Covers link to Goodreads.

 

All That is Lost Between Us by Sara Foster

 I really enjoyed this as a family drama, but it's not as psychologically thrilling as it promised.

Rolling with the Punchlines by Urzila Carlson

Lucy Lawless said it was good and it was good - funny, sad, and altogether a moving and entertaining memoir. 

 

 

Far from Home by Lorelie Brown

A tense and hot f/f romantic comedy about a marriage of convenience, however the epilogue is cheesy and I would've liked to read more about the awkwardness their married life could have involved.

 

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

A well-written and interesting novel that I would've enjoyed more 5+ years ago when I was still in my Tudor/Elizabethan phase and was less wary of girl/girl hate.


 

Carolyn for Christmas by Lucy Carey

A cheesy f/f novella that had jarring POV changes and should have been extended into a novel, but I liked the friends-to-enemies-to-lovers aspect of it. 

The Further Adventures of Xena: Warrior Princess by various authors

 An expanded universe anthology in which all the stories rely too much on dialogue and not enough on showing instead of telling.

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

 Yet another WW2 book, and it didn't have the strongest plot line or climax in the world.

 

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

 This classic Gothic novella fits under both early vampire lit and early lesbian lit, and while the climax is obvious for 21st Century readers, the ending itself is quite horrific and sad.

 

Storm Season by Pene Henson

A non-cliched f/f book that involves the good old trapped-in-a-cabin trope and is full of ethnic and LGBTQ representation, but even though it's set in Australia it doesn't feel authentically Australian as it uses American spelling and American words (bangs? Ass? Sidewalk??). 


 

Unknown Horizons (New Horizons #1) by CJ Birch

 An f/f sci-fi novel that I flew through because it's short and exciting, but it ends on a cliffhanger (noooo!). 

I would describe June as an "okay" reading month - I didn't hate anything I read, but I didn't love anything either. I'm currently reading The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson and

The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor.

Have you read any of these? What did you read this month? What are you excited to read next?

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