I read more books in June than I have read in the two months since, not that this is a contest or anything. But I promised an accounting, and so it seems I should get to it, if for no other reason than I will be annoyed with myself if I don't.
Actually, the first three books were finished in June, but none of them were completely read that month. I'd been working my way through
Introduction to the Hebrew Bible and Introducing the New Testament since October, as they were primary texts for members of the EFM group I was mentoring and My Neighbor's Faith, was the last text for the the fourth year portion of the group. This was my second reading for each of the books.
Working down from the top left corner of the collage, the next layer consists of non-fiction. I found Bryan Caplan's The Case Against Education and Deborah Davis' Strapless fascinating. I don't have to agree with the author to enjoy a book, or to find it edifying, although both authors engaged in some interesting and enlightening analysis. Crow Country was charming and I would have found it engaging had I not leaned that I really have little to no interest in corvids. In fact, Crow Country and Kristin Hannah's The Great Alone were my least favorite books of the month; the former because, well, crows, and the latter simply because I found it too predictable for my peripatetic brain.
My favorite novel was Warlight. I wrote about it, along with Little Fires Everywhere and The Immortalists, here, I thoroughly enjoyed The President is Missing, even though I am not usually James Patterson's target audience and Lisa Halliday's Asymmetry surprised me with its depth. I wish I had written something about it. This was the first time I had read anything by James Lee Burke, whose prose built a powerful sense of place, but although I felt the characters had potential, I was not convinced I was interested in continuing to build a rapport beyond that first weekend's read.
So a good month, with books for every mood in which this reader happened to find herself.