If you read my June Read Harder update, you'll know that while May was a rather lack-luster reading month for me, I finally came out of my reading slump in June. (Too be fair, I did move halfway across the country in May!)
I ended up reading 14 books last month, 5 of which were graphic novels/comic collections, which is a new avenue for me. I'm really enjoying Ms. Marvel, Thor: Goddess of Thunder and Saga. I also read one of the most disturbing graphic novels (or stories, period) I've read in a while in Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann. Think Pixar's Inside Out with a Stephen King flavor. Yep, that twisted.
A few other highlights from this month: (obviously I read more, these just rose to the top)
Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel José Older: This is a fun urban fantasy novel. If you like mysteries mixed with the paranormal and a whole lot of sass, definitely pick this up. The main character is a partially resurrected human being who is basically a gun-for-hire for the ghost world, keeping the dead from interfering too much with the living. Older does a great job with world building, and his characters are smart and funny, with the requisite melancholy. This is the book that pulled me out of my reading slump; I highly recommend it.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: This novel follows two young children throughout World War II. One is a young blind French girl who becomes part of the Resistance; the other is a young German boy with a gift for electronics, radios in particular, who is trained by the Nazis to search out and destroy the underground networks. This shows a very human side to the war, and how even the young were pulled in to the conflict.
Citizen by Claudia Rankine: Read this. This is probably the most important book about our society and race relations that I have read in a long time. Rankine uses prose poetry, essays, and scripts from videos she and her husband produced to create a very real picture of how far we still need to come in this country. It's not an easy read by any means given the subject matter, but it is a necessary one.
The Wicked Will Rise by Danielle Paige: This is the second in Paige's YA reworking of the Wizard of Oz. In this novel, Amy has to regroup after failing to kill Dorothy. She has lost the other members of the Wicked, and finds herself being drawn into the dark side of magic. Paige adds to the Oz legend without compromising the original mythos, creating a fun, quick read.
If you want to know more about these or any of the other books I read, let me know--I'm more than happy to chat about them!
No comments:
Post a Comment