My Bookish Month of June 2024

Hi and welcome to another monthly overview!

It’s finally happened: we made it through a month without having to say goodbye to a beloved pet. And we got to welcome four new feathered / furry friends to boot! A red-letter month for sure!

At the beginning of June, we added two Wyandotte bantam chickens to our flock. However much we love our Padovana chickens, we did miss the feistiness of Wyandottes, so meet Rientje and Fientje (named after two characters from a Belgian TV show hubby and I love).

And last week, we finally got to welcome two feline friends as well, meet Lola and Cappuccino:

Lola felt right at home from the minute she arrived. This is she zonked out after exploring her new home. Cappuccino needed a few days to feel at home but as you see in the photo on the right, our little tiger is pretty at ease now too 😂 He was literally raised in a barn so we feel he adapted really quickly, I’m especially grateful he grasped the concept of litter boxes right away 😅They really are the cutest, they play hard and sleep harder. Despite the fact that I’m still grieving for Mel, they bring me such joy. And exhaustion and floors that are impossible to keep clean, but well, they’re worth it😂

Bookishwise, June was not the best but at least it was better than April and May. In fact, between planned and unexpected socialising, herding chickens and herding cats, I’m surprised I read as much as I did. I still had a hard time focussing sometimes but at least Fickle Frieda kept a low profile. There were a few duds, and a few books I expected to love more than I did, but overall it was a rather good month.
I cancelled my Audible UK subscription (the one I got for 99p a few months ago) and a few days later, I was offered a new free two-month subscription if I bought a selected title, one of which was The Familiar, which I’ve had my eye on for quite a while now. Seriously, what is up with Audible?! Not that I’m complaining, I happily snapped that up.
The bookish aspect I’m happiest with, is the fact that I downloaded a number of books I’d been meaning to read for ages from Everand and I managed to get through all but one (I’m still reading the last one). It feels like quite an accomplishment, even if it did mean that I neglected most of the books I bought.

Honourable mentions to Those We Drown, One Grand Summer, Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect, The Dead Friend Project, Dead Lake, The Book of Secrets, and Bluebeard, but these were my favourite reads of the month:

In figures June looks like this:

June
Novels: 5177 pages across 15 books
Audiobooks: 42 hours across 8 novels

And here’s what I did in June:

What I read:

The Wreckage of Us, Dan Malakin
Those We Drown, Amy Goldsmith
One Grand Summer, Ewald Arenz
Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect, Benjamin Stevenson
The Dead Friend Project, Joanna Wallace (review to follow)
Cackle, Rachel Harrison
The Burial Plot, Elizabeth Macneal
The Book of Purrs – Everyday Thoughts from Your Feline Friends, Luis Coelho (review to follow)
The Glass House, Jody Cooksley
The Alliance, Matt Brolly
Among Thorns and Stardust, a sci-fi fairytale anthology
Seat 7a, Sebastian Fitzek
Good Girls Don’t Die, Christina Henry
Hilos de sangre (Blood Lines), Angela Marsons
The Bone House, Brian Freeman

What I listened to:

Sunny, Colin O’Sullivan
Dead Lake, Darcy Coates
The Book of Secrets, Anna Mazzola
Young Rich Widows, Kimberly Belle, Layne Fargo, Cate Holahan, Vanessa Lillie
In the Hour of Crows, Dana Elmendorf
Bluebeard, Jim Clemente & Peter McDonnell
From Below, Darcy Coates
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

What I read earlier but reviewed in June:

We Used to Live Here, Marcus Kliewer

Let’s have a look at the books that landed on my lap in June:

A gorgeous paperback by one of my favourite authors:

Six 99p deals, one I’d been interested in that was on offer and two NetGalley DRCs:

Four audiobooks:

I hope you had a good month and that you are safe and well! Thanks for joining me today and happy reading xxx