Another month has come and gone and this year is officially half over. Time is flying. But there is ALWAYS time to read and I read (finished) many wonderful books during the month of June.
My two favourite reads for the month (and scoring 4.75 stars) were "Born a Crime" by Trevor Noah and "Diamond Promises" by Anna Jacobs. I knew of Trevor Noah, and I think his comedy is hilarious, but I knew little about his life. His book was exceptional and far exceeded my expectations. Anna Jacobs is a prolific author who writes really wonderful stories based in England and Australia that just warm my heart. They have just the right balance of tension and relief and I often turn to them when I need a mental break from my heavier books.
In a very close second place are all the books I read that I gave a 4.5 star rating. They were as follows: "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Death on the Nile" by Agatha Christie, "The Incredible Life of Hubert Wilkins" by Peter FitzSimons, "Raising Readers" by Megan Daley, and "The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul" by Deborah Rodriguez. Each of these were exceptional in their own right and for vastly different reasons. If I had to choose a favourite it would probably be "Murder on the Orient Express" because the ending shocked me.
My four star reads for this month were: "Elizabeth Macarthur's Letters" Edited by Kate Grenville, "Espresso Tales" by Alexander McCall Smith, "Shanghai Girls" by Lisa See, "Battle for Australia" by Bob Wurth, and "The Queen" by Andrew Morton. My favourites from this group would have to be "The Queen" and "Battle for Australia". I learned so much more than I already knew from reading both of these books. It was also interesting to learn about Elizabeth Macarthur's life through the lens of letters she wrote to friends and family. "Shanghai Girls" was a confronting read and would be difficult for anyone who has experienced war, trauma, or physical and sexual abuse. "Espresso Tales" was a light hearted a fun read and I'm enjoying yet another series by the author through reading these books.
Finally, I read "Teacher, Teacher" compiled by Megan Daley which was a lovely book highlighting wonderful teachers and educators. I think my expectations for it were too high though and it was only a 3.5 star read for me. There was nothing inherently wrong with it, I was just expecting more.
Many of these books fulfilled prompts for the 52 Book Challenge that I participate in, and two were buddy reads with my mom. Together we thoroughly enjoyed "The Incredible Life of Hubert Wilkins" and "The Queen". July is here and with it comes our scheduled two week winter school holidays. I made a good dent in the HUGE collection of library books that I borrowed before I thought carefully, and if all goes well I'll finish many of the remainder during July.
