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June Summary and July Reading Plans

I completed 10 books in June, 2 short stories and I made it a little further through my ongoing projects, 2666 and The Tale of Genji. My favourite books this month were Out and The Ghosts of Eden.

I highly recommend them to you. I’m sure they will both be in my top 10 for the year.

Out – Natsuo Kirino stars51

A Secret Alchemy – Emma Darwin  stars3

Believers – Zoe Heller stars1

The Ghosts of Eden – Andrew Sharp  stars4h

The Fifth Child – Doris Lessing stars4

Mr Toppit – Charles Elton  stars3

The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov stars4

The Slap – Christos Tsiolkas stars4

The Children’s Book – A. S. Byatt  stars3h

Bleeding Heart Square – Andrew Taylor stars3h

Short Stories 

The Lottery – Shirley Jackson stars51

The Beautifull Cassandra – Jane Austen stars2

I’m still reading….

The Tale of Genji

2666 – Roberto Bolaño

Plans for July

I don’t really have any plans for July! I’m just going to pick up whatever takes my fancy before I knuckle down to read the Booker list in August!

Have you read any of these books?
Do you agree with my ratings?

Do you have more exciting plans for July than me?

23 replies on “June Summary and July Reading Plans”

I haven’t read any of them but the ones you gave top marks to, Out and The Master and the Margarita, are both on my shelves TBR.

How nice to have July as a clean slate!

You forgot Ulysses in your ongoing reading plans.

Yes – I plan to read a bit of Ulysses in July, but I haven’t got very far and haven’t written any posts about it yet, so didn’t add it to the list.

It is nice to have no firm plans!

And I thought I had a good June, with six books!

I really want to check out Master and the Margarita, and Out. I hadn’t heard of The Slap, before I saw your review, but it looks interesting as well.

Good luck with the July reading.

You did read a lot. The Ghosts of Eden is something I find really interesting. I had actually written a long comment on that review post of yours but I accidentally closed the Word doc (yes, I write comments in Word when I’m in office, so that people don’t know what I’m doing 🙂 ) Anyway I was too dissapointed to comment again.

I have enjoyed reading your Tale of Genji updates, keep them coming 🙂

Terri – I really want to read more by Natsuo Kirino, but don’t like reading too many books by the same author in a row. I’m keeping an eye out for the rest of her books, and if I don’t find them by Christmas will probably buy them in the New Year.

uncertainprinciples – 6 books is still a good number. The amount of reading I get done is just a reflection of how often I am left on my own in the evening! I would often prefer to be out enjoying myself than reading a book, but it is a close second place!

Beth – I look forward to reading your plans!

Melody – I hope you manage to find a few of them and enjoy them as much as I did, and thanks again for recommending Out!

Violet – Sorry to hear you lost a long comment – I really hate it when that happens! I always try to save comments when I write long ones as I often find they disappear when I hit submit, or put the letter recognition into some blogs.

Don’t worry – those Genji posts will keep coming for a long time!

Petunia – It is a great goal to have!

Hats off to you for being able to finish the Believers. I think I read the first part and hated everyone so much that I wasn’t able to pick it up again. I missed your review though, so I will have to go and take a look at that now and see if it turned out to be as I sensed it would.

Nicole – I didn’t finish the Believers – sorry I forgot about that! I shouldn’t have counted it in my monthly total.

I’m so happy to see you liked OUT. It’s been on my TBR shelf for, oh…. four years? I’ve heard pretty good things about it, I just for some reason never make it around to reading it. I probably won’t even get to it this year, but at least I know I have a good read ahead of me when I do!

You read a lot of books last month! I couldn’t even begin to read that many books in just four weeks. I hope your July reading goes just as well for you!

J.S. Peyton – I’ve had some books in my TBR pile for that long too! You really should dig it out, as it is a very good book!

I have Tale of Genji here as well and plan to read it eventually. 🙂 I thought about tackling it once before but only ever pulled it off the shelf, never even opening it to page one.

Kristen – I don’t think I’d ever have tackled it by myself. It really helps to read it with other people – it’s not too late to join in!!

I’ve put both Out and The Ghosts of Eden on my acquisition list, since I really trust your reading taste. In July I will continue to peruse The Tale of Genji, although the long weekend might compromise progress. I also have lined up Rebecca, Tender is the Night, Dialogue of the Dogs, and Angel’s Game for the month.

Matthew – I really hope that you enjoy them as much as I did. I might read Rebecca in July too. I look forward to hearing what you think of it.

Um…The Master and Margarita only 4 stars? I think you’ll find it’s ten stars. 🙂 I love that book.

Out is pretty good. I didn’t think it was that wonderful especially because of all the hype. I think her other novel Grotesque is a much better read, and it’s one I would recommend to anyone who enjoyed Out.

Damned Conjuro – I can see why some people would give The Master and Margarita 10 stars (although 5 is my top score for anything!!) It clearly is a work of genius, but it was just a bit too weird for me.

I hadn’t heard any hype for Out, but I’m pleased to hear that Groteque is better – I’m looking forward to reading it.

Thanks for commenting for the first time!

Fair enough. I adore it because you can read from different levels; fantasy, political allegory, magic realism etc. It would have to be in my top five books at least.

Grotesque was the first Kirino book I read (bought in Italy in a quaint bookshop) so maybe I’m biased. I don’t think I am though. She has been writing for years but it’s only recently she’s been translated into English.

I really want to read What Remains but it seems to be out of print.

I had never heard of What Remains, so just looked it up. It doesn’t look as though it has been released here in the UK. I am having trouble finding any copies for sale anywhere in the world though. I do like a challenge! I’m off to hunt for a copy!

I have finally caved in and bought The Slap so I can read it and make up my own mind up about. There are so many divergent opinions on it out there. It does sound like a good book club pick though – what do you think?

As long as the group is very tolerant of sex and swearing then this book would be the perfect choice. I think you’ll be discussing it for weeks! I hope you enjoy it!

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