June Reading Recap
my five-star drought is over & I guess I'm into time travel now! or, thoughts on the 8 books I read in June.
Today, I’m coming at you from a convent in Sweden! June has been just as busy as May in my travel marathon, this time with actual work conferences and site visits as well. Between the UK, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Denmark, and now Sweden, I’ve somehow managed to read exactly the same number of books as I did in June. You can read shorter versions of these reviews here.
Some observations on this past month’s reads:
I did not read any nonfiction books, which makes this the first month I haven’t met that goal of reading one a month this year.
My ARC game has been slowing, big time. I only read one this month (THE KILLER QUESTION) when I know for a fact I have 12 sitting unread on my NetGalley shelf. I pride myself in having a pretty solid review-to-request ratio and am feeling the dip my NetGalley percent is taking, so I’m going to make a concentrated effort for July to get this back up.
Three books on audio this month! Slight uptick from last month solely because I had a lot of design work to do, so popped in earbuds and got to work with a story in my ears. I’m curious how this will change once I’m back in the US and will have to cook/clean/commute.
Another repeat: two of my books were in translation this month (ON CALCULATION OF VOLUME, DRIVE YOUR PLOW…), and I enjoyed them both! Last month’s WITs, which you can read about here, did not have me very confident about my track record of choices, but both were solidly in the 4-4.5 ranking and seemed to be really masterful translations (like I know anything about that, but I definitely know a bad one when I see it: MIDNIGHT BLUE by Simone van der Vlugt).
Without further ado, here are my 8 reads from June!
SEA OF TRANQUILITY by Emily St. John Mandel | 5 stars
Eighteen-year-old Edwin St. Andrew's mysterious encounter in a Canadian forest leads to an unexpected connection. Centuries later, in a totally unrelated incident, writer Olive Llewellyn pens a novel that echoes Edwin's experience. These bizarre happenings lead Detective Gaspery-Jacques Roberts to investigate anomalies that could be disrupting the universe's timeline and unraveling life as we know it.
I have wanted to read Mandel’s works for a while now and was never sure of where to start, but I had recommended this to my husband on his Novelier book flight since he loves anything sci-fi and I knew this had a bit of speculative/sci-fi lite going for it which is about as far as I go into the space gambit. We did an almost-buddy read, which meant that he vetted it for me to see if it got ~too spacey, and then I devoured it in a day.
Mandel’s speculative/time warp/multiverse literary fiction is exactly the kind I want to be reading. It’s that perfect mix of not-quite genre fiction, lyrical writing, and emphasis on common humanity. She puts her characters front and center, focusing on their felt realities and reactions to their circumstances instead of getting too into the mechanics of time travel, space colonization, or rockets. What’s especially potent in her writing is that nothing feels too far removed from reality. Each timeline was rendered so easily and distinctly that as a reader I felt truly immersed in the world she’d created. I’m excited to dig into the rest of her catalogue, especially since the characters of her world sometimes reappear in other stories, which is one of my favorite little reading Easter eggs.
If you haven’t read this yet, I highly recommend— it’s accessible enough for most people to enjoy it, I think!
Similar reads: WRONG PLACE WRONG TIME by Gillian McAllister, ON CALCULATION OF VOLUME by Solvej Balle
DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD by Olga Tokarczuk | 4.5 stars
In a remote Polish village on the Czech border, the reclusive Janina, a lover of astrology and animals, becomes entangled in a series of bizarre deaths. As suspicions rise, she believes she knows the killer, but people increasingly discount her theories.
Oh, what a book. An older protagonist who is sure of who she is, a setting that feels harsh and alive, eccentric neighbors, and mystery combine to make a Nobel Prize win that was definitely deserved. Not that I know what deserves a Nobel Prize, but I can tell you that the Vibes are Good and the Writing is Haunting. There’s a kooky confidence to Janina that makes you side with her unconditionally, even when some of her theories get a bit out of pocket. When I wasn’t reading this one, I was thinking about reading it, which is always my sign of a stroke of genius.
.5 stars redacted because there was too much deference given to William Blake in here for me— which, as a recovering academic, is a trigger because that man was a crackpot!— but otherwise great book. Not for everyone, I don’t think, but if you love a Grown Woman Knows Better And Yet vibe (a term coined by my friend Ammie), a darker storyline, and blurred lines of reality and fiction, this might be for you.
Similar reads: THE IDIOT by Elif Batuman in narration style; SEVERANCE by Ling Ma in suspense; but overall, nothing really like it comes to mind!
ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME by Solvej Balle | 4 stars
Tara Selter has involuntarily stepped off the train of time: in her world, November 18th repeats itself endlessly. We meet Tara on her 122nd November 18th: she no longer experiences the changes of days, weeks, months, or seasons. She finds herself in a lonely new reality without being able to explain why nor how to get out of it.
The first part of a seven-part novel, OTCOV 1 is a short but hypnotic take on the GROUNDHOG DAY trope. Tonally, it reminded me a bit of PALM SPRINGS with Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti, where the characters gather knowledge through their resets and feel the tension of trying to get back to their previous timeline, but without the reflection on going back to fix something or make a different decision that would alter the outcome of current reality. There’s a lot of philosophical and existential rumination in OTCOV that time loop movies don’t always let you sit with. Freedom, confusion, giddiness, isolation, guilt, and grief swirl simultaneously in Tara’s chronicling of her day(s), and it adds a mounting tension and awareness of Something Must Happen as a growing undercurrent to the monotony.
Because I had read one (1) book before this about time travel and am obviously an expert, I did have some questions about the mechanics of the time travel and resetting in this book, but was able to easily overlook that for the suspense it was building. And, as Tara’s focus shifts to details and minutiae in order to pinpoint what may have caused the rift, some descriptions got repetitive.
Warning: this does end on a cliffhanger!! I’m invested now in figuring out the rest of the plot, but others might not like that plot mechanic (case in point: my husband’s refusal to finish the TRULY DEVIOUS series on principle). Overall, I’m kind of surprised this made the Booker International Prize shortlist since it’s starkly an installment in a larger novel, but I’m on the Solvej Balle wagon now and don’t think I’ll be getting off any time soon. If you’re curious about dipping your toe into translated literature or the International Booker Prize list, this is an excellent starting point.
Similar reads: WRONG PLACE WRONG TIME by Gillian McAllister, SEA OF TRANQUILITY by Emily St. John Mandel
THE KILLER QUESTION by Janice Hallett | 4 stars | eARC (thanks, Atria Books!)
Mal and Sue Eastwood were once the kindly landlords of a local village pub, The Case is Altered. They ran a weekly pub quiz and were well liked by their customers and colleagues alike, always happy to lend a helping hand. But now The Case stands empty, its windows boarded up. What could have happened to Mal and Sue? Only by sifting through the quiz sheets, the WhatsApps, and Mal and Sue's hidden past may the truth be revealed…
I may be the world’s biggest Janice Hallett stan. Her books THE APPEAL, THE EXAMINER, THE TWYFORD CODE, and THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE ALPERTON ANGELS all follow the same formal convention of being found-footage mysteries, where you are given things like text messages, email transcripts, and other artifacts to learn what happened and whodunnit as if you are the detective yourself. Light-hearted, but not in a frothy, mindless way, they’re delightful reads that feel like solving a Sunday NYT crossword.
As a trivia host myself, I very much enjoyed THE KILLER QUESTION. The quirky locals, the competitive regulars, the mysterious newcomer team, and their relationships to dark pasts were laugh-out-loud hilarious at times while still providing a satisfying mystery. It’s a little silly and some of the twists come out of left field, but I definitely recommend it to any mystery fans out there.
This was an eARC from Atria Books and comes out September 23, so get your holds in on it and read one of her others in the meantime!
Similar books: THE MAGPIE MURDERS series by Anthony Horowitz, EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE by Benjamin Stephenson
CLEAR by Carys Davies | 3.5 stars
John, an impoverished Scottish minister, has accepted a job evicting the lone remaining occupant of an island north of Scotland—Ivar, who has been living alone for decades, with only the animals and the sea for company. Though his wife, Mary, has serious misgivings about the errand, John decides to go anyway, setting in motion a chain of events that neither he nor Mary could have predicted.
What’s really compelling about this book is its incipience. While writing in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, Carys Davies noticed a dictionary of words in a language she’d never heard of: Norn, which had once been spoken on the islands of Orkney and Shetland but began to die out after the Danish king pawned them to Scotland in the mid-1400s. A scholar of the late 1800s had put together a dictionary of Norn terms, which included precise ways of describing the sea, the weather, and emotions. Davies started leafing through it and eventually a novel began to take shape in her head around these words.
If you know me, you know I love Scotland and was just there driving through the remote West Highlands (though they’re nowhere as remote as the Orkneys—woof, those are up there). Davies’ landscape writing is evocative and precise, illustrating the intensities of living in these remote locations. I also liked that I learned a bit more about the Highland clearances, which was basically when wealthy, usually English, landlords decided that they would “clear” Scottish people off of land they’d been living on for generations so that landlords could have more space for their sheep to roam and thus more moolah.
So, while I liked the writing, the historical angle, and the creative process behind it, the plot didn’t entirely get as far as I’d have liked it to. I think this was mostly due to the book’s length— at 208 pages, it’s barely past a novella—, but there was some uneven character development in the multiple perspectives. I loved Ivar, but John pissed me off and Mary should have never married him imho. Also, for all the queer rep lists this was on, I thought this would be gayer!! Wrapped up a little too quickly and easily for my liking, but it was immersive and atmospheric.
Similar reads: THE MERCIES by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, THE INHERITANCE by Trisha Sakhlecha
THE FURY by Alex Michaelides | 3 stars | audio
Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex–movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island. Obviously, something dark and murdery happens.
This was my second chance for Alex Michaelides; I’d read THE MAIDENS, which promised to be “dark academia,” and rolled my eyes at the terrible choices the protagonist made. So when I saw he had a new one, I decided this was his make-or-break for me and I picked this up solely because of the Greek island setting.
It was…fine? Great atmosphere, great glitz-n-glam characters, shady secrets and ulterior motives, but character development felt a bit uneven and I did not care for the narrator at all (which, yeah, that may be the point, but still). However, twists abound & I was invested in what ultimately ended up happening, so I do think if you like a showbiz-people-behaving-badly type of book, this could work for you. Big beach read energy.
Similar reads: THE LIONESS by Chris Bohjalian, SALTWATER by Katy Hays (which I’ve reviewed here)
WIVES LIKE US by Plum Sykes | 3 stars | audio
Take a grand English country house, one (heartbroken) American divorcee, three rich wives, two tycoons, a pair of miniature sausage dogs and one (bereaved) butler; put them all into the blender and out comes this book. At its core, this is a comedy of errors about the posh housewife society of the English Cotswolds.
I usually cock an eyebrow at books that self-describe as “impossibly funny,” but I’ll give Plum Sykes credit where credit is due. Some moments had me audibly snorting or shaking my head, but some of that may be due to the audio narration of Annabel Mullion, who absolutely nailed it. Posh, frothy, full of lavish descriptions and over-the-top reactions: this is a Housewives season, but maybe a little tamer. Not much will stick with me, but it was a fun romp while it lasted and could be a silly lil treat of a beach read.
Similar reads: TEHRANGELES by Porochista Khakpour, SALTY by Kate Myers (which I reviewed here)
THE CHARITY SHOP DETECTIVE AGENCY by Peter Boland | 3 stars | audio
Three retirees working at a charity shop investigate a string of deaths after a murder weapon shows up in their donation box. I like an amateur detective novel, really, I do. However, some of the “mystery” bits and a lot of the characterization came off as uninteresting or caricaturish to me. If you like a Hallmark mystery, a cozy mystery, or something playing in the background, this could work for you, but it’s not at the same level as a THURSDAY MURDER CLUB in its depth, character work, or general mystery plotting.
Read this instead: the THURSDAY MURDER CLUB series, WE SOLVE MURDERS by Richard Osman, THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB series by Robert Thorogood