June Reading Wrap Up

June was a pretty good reading month for me. I read some books which were on my May TBR and few other books which were not on any of my earlier TBRs. I just picked whatever caught my fancy. I read a total of 9 books but most of them were small in size.

Here are the books that I read in June –

1. Atomic Habits by James Clear – 4 stars

This book has a lot of interesting ideas. The author has given clear steps to build new habits and to get rid of bad habits which I hope to implement. The one good habit that I have been trying to incorporate from last few years (after I had a kid and my body bloated) is daily exercise. I keep failing to do that because of lack of time (or is it motivation?). With a hectic daily schedule, it seems impossible to make time for exercise. I am hoping that this book might help in that regard.
The only con is that the book is quite repetitive like all the other self help books. Author keeps repeating the same sentence multiple times by rephrasing it.

2. Double Star by Robert A Heinlein – 4 stars

After having Heinlein on my TBR forever, I finally read a novel by him. I wasn’t drawn to any of his books because the topics didn’t sound that interesting to me. This book was also political (and I stay faaaar away from politics) but it has won Hugo award. So I gave it a try and I actually enjoyed it quite a lot, even though it had a lot of politics. It’s about an actor who is hired as a body double for a politician. I liked his writing too which was pretty good, when compared to his contemporaries. I will try some of his popular works next.
I picked this book after reading Jo Walton’s amazing writeup about this book.

3. The Flash : Rebirth by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver – 3 stars

This comic book was sitting on my shelf from last few years. I finally picked it up after binge watching 3 seasons of Flash back to back this year. The storyline was too confusing. I wasn’t a fan of the artwork either as it was difficult to understand what was happening in the panels. But still a good introduction to all the different speedsters and villains. I am a huge fan of the TV series so had to pick up the comics.

4. To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo – 4 stars

After having this book on every single TBR ever since I bought it, I finally read it this month and I loved it. It is a great retelling of my favorite fairy tale – The Little Mermaid. I loved both the characters and the romance. It was perfect except for few slow moments in the middle of the book where there was a lot of monologues. Sirens, world building, story, action packed scenes, witch queen – I got everything that I expected and more. I read some part of the book sitting on a beach, which is the perfect setting for this book.
Writing was great too so I am definitely picking anything else this author writes in future.

5. The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge – 5 stars

One more book which has been on my TBR for way too long. My copy has illustrations from Chris Riddell which are amazing. This is the one of the most underrated books/authors I have probably read in the recent past. I am not sure why this author isn’t more famous. It had all the elements that I look for in a book. And it was perfect. Compared to all the cliched YA fantasies, this was so original and well written.
1. Young bold female (feminist) protagonist
2. Young girl who is interested in science
3. Mystery
4. Dark and thrilling
5. Fantasy involving a Lie tree
6. Set on an island
7. Nobody believes our protagonist and she is all alone in her investigations
8. Murderer was no one that I had suspected. It was cleverly done.
Time to pick up every other book written by this author. Writing was great, story was fresh. I have found a new favorite author guys!!

6. Pixie Dust by Russell Nohelty – 4 stars

I met the author in Worldcon where I purchased a copy and got it signed from him. This was my first foray into high fantasy graphic novels. He recommended this book to me saying it has a strong female protagonist. I liked the artwork style and the story was decent too. It’s about a Pixie who works for the king and kills goblins, orcs and other magical creatures. The King betrays and kills her. She has now turned into a monster herself after she gets her life back and is now all set to seek her revenge.

7. The Curated Closet by Anuschka Rees – 3 stars

I want to build my own capsule wardrobe and I picked this book to get some ideas. But this book has too many steps which are time consuming and not really feasible for someone who hardly has time to even wash clothes, let alone photograph outfits and answer questionnaires. The process sounded way too complicated and cumbersome. The target audience seems to be people who are more concerned about how they look and can spend hours dressing up. I don’t have the time to sit and try a 1000 outfits in a store.
I need recommendations for any simpler technique/book for capsule wardrobe.

8. Photo Organizing Made Easy by Cathi Nelson – 3 stars

This book is interesting but doesn’t have too many tips or resources for people who want to organize photos themselves. Cathi is part of APPO which is an association of personal photo organizers and this book essentially is for marketing this association I feel. She touched upon topics briefly while suggesting us to go to a professional in case we need more. I didn’t like the fact that she didn’t go into details on tools available or techniques used by professionals.
Anyway, still it was worth reading as I got some ideas on how i can possibly tackle my GBs and GBs of photos.

9. The Minimalist Home by Joshua Becker – 4 stars

If this was the first book that I had read on minimalism, I probably would have given it 5 stars. But after reading SO many books on this topic, I think I already knew most of what Joshua was talking about in this book. But still it’s a good book and I would recommend it to anyone who is planning to move to a minimalistic lifestyle. He follows a room by room approach to help you declutter. He addresses electronic/digital clutter which I haven’t seen any other book address. This book will be very helpful to people with families and kids. This is a good motivational book too for those who are on the fence about minimalism.
I liked the checklists that he has given for each room, along with the kitchen checklist.

DNF:

I started reading Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg only to DNF it. I also ended up DNFing Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman after reading around 150 pages.

What did you read in June?