For the month of June I thoroughly enjoyed my book journey. I explored a number of memoirs, violent novels and themes surrounding crime and hardships. In the end, that amounted to 21 books. In an effort to not overwhelm myself I made sure to balance these reads with great non-fiction and light reads.
I did a re-read of three of my favorite books and I enjoyed them all over again. I forgot how hilarious “The City of Thieves” was, how much I loved books set in India, “A Fine Balance” reminded me of this and “The Book of Night Women” reminded how much of a great writer Marlon James is. If you are looking for three solid book recommendations, if you want to visit India, Jamaica and Russia- these books will take you there.
My stand-outs for this month include “Speak No Evil” by Uzodinma Iweala, this was a solid 5-star read. While the book is short in pages, it tackles some hard topics. I also spent an entire day reading Brene Brown’s “Daring Greatly” and took copious amounts of notes. I highly recommend this read to anyone who is struggling to be courageous and vulnerable.
Two stand-out memoirs for me were, “A Long Way Gone” by Ishmeal Beah and “Call me American” by Abdi Nor Iftin. These three books are going to stick with me for a long time. The things these writers faced and wrote about makes your soul feel heavy but these are stories worth reading.
I’m trying to use my platform to be a voice and promote self-published authors, this month I read two great female self-published works “What the Soul Already Knows” by Salma Farook and “What We Not Finna Do” by Erin McLaughlin. Please go check out their work!
I had a few reads that I thought would be good but did not live up to my expectations, but overall June was a great reading month. Below is the list of books in order of ratings:
5 Stars
Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala
City of Thieves by David Benioff
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
4 Stars
Small Country by Gael Faye
A Long Way Gone by Ishmeal Beah
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Book Of Night Women by Marlon James
This Will Be My Undoing by Morgan Jerkins
Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
Call Me American: A Memoir by Abdi Nor Iftin
3 Star
What Your Soul Already Knows by Salma Farook
The Parking Lot Attendant by Nafkote Tamirat
The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy
Every Note Played by Lisa Genova
Trinidad Noir by Lisa Allen-Agostini
We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
2 Star
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
What We Not Finna Do by Erin McLaughlin
Here’s to June, a month filled with some really great reads!
