June has been a busy month on the reading month. I've read more this month than in any other month so far this year, and (surprisingly) I've been keeping up with the reviews too - so expect a lot of posts over the next month or so. For now though, just enjoy the usual monthly round-up of what's been going on :)*****
Total Books Read: 16
Year-to-Date: 62
New: 16
Rereads: 0
From the Shelves: 2
Review Copies: 10
From the Shelves: 2
Review Copies: 10
From the Library:4
On the Kindle: 2 (both review copies)
Novels: 8
Novellas:4
Novels: 8
Novellas:4
Short Stories: 2
Non-Fiction: 2
Non-Fiction: 2
Non-English Language: 15 (4 Spanish, 3 Japanese, 2 Dutch, 2 French, Polish, Italian, Croatian, Hungarian)
In Original Language: 1 (French)
Aussie Author Challenge: 1 (3/3)
*****
Books reviewed in June were:
1) American Stories by Nagai KafuBooks reviewed in June were:
2) The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
3) Sixty-Nine by Ryu Murakami
4) Blindness by José Saramago
5) Stone upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski
6) We, the Children of Cats by Tomoyuki Hoshino
7) The Infatuations by Javier Marías
8) The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker
9) Milky Way Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa
10) My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Tony's Turkey for June is: Mario Vargas Llosa's The Feast of the Goat
More because of thwarted expectations than the fact that it's a bad book, but still... I was expecting quality literature from a Nobel Prize winner - instead, what I got was a fairly standard piece of historical fiction. I'll be giving Vargas Llosa's work another try, but this one is being plucked and prepared for Christmas dinner ;)
Tony's Recommendation for June is:
Wiesław Myśliwski's Stone upon Stone
For the second month in a row, this was a very tough decision. While I didn't have quite as many to choose from as was the case last month, there were three very strong contenders, and it took me far too long to make the decision. In the end though, Myśliwski's long, rambling monologue just inched out Saramago's tale of a world gone blind and Hoshino's magical stories. Only just though ;)
*****
Time to look forward to July then. I don't really have major plans for next month, but that pile of review copies on my shelves just keeps getting higher and higher... There'll be a few more Spanish-language reads, courtesy of my wonderful local library, and you never know - I might even get around to reading a few of my own books too :)
