That Was Then
I only finished 11 books in June and formally consigned one to the DNF pile. It’s hard to pick my favourite book for the month as both
were terrific. Having read Theorin’s previous book I fully expected The Darkest Room to be excellent whereas I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Bauer’s debut. It’s always particularly exciting to find a great new author.
Honourable mentions for the month go to a couple of top quality police procedurals from opposite sides of the planet
- Rob Kitchin’s The White Gallows (set in Ireland)
- Leah Giarratano’s Watch the World Burn (set in Australia)
It’s marvellous to see this sub-genre being so well represented by relatively new authors as some of my old favourites have kinda lost their shine of late.
New Additions
Of the 18 books that made their way into the house this month highlights include
Andrea Camilleri’s August Heat (I’ve already started this one, it’s the 5th of 6 books on the shortlist for the CWA International Dagger Award that I want to read before the winner is announced later this month)- Elly Griffiths’ The Janus Stone (which I received from my reading fairy godmother and will leave on the shelves for a while as I like to leave it a few months between books in a series and I’ve only read the first book in May)
- Stuart Neville’s The Ghosts of Belfast (I’ve read a couple of reviews of this that made it sound very, very tempting)
What to Read Next?
In July you’re likely to be seeing reviews for
- Linda Castillo’s Pray for Silence (I finished it on this morning’s walk to work in 2°C, I read the first of Castillo’s mysteries last year )
- Deon Meyer’s Thirteen Hours (the last book on the CWA International Dagger shortlist which I need to read before the winner is announced later this month)
- Adrian Hyland’s Gunshot Road (my copy has been despatched from the UK and I await its arrival eagerly, having thoroughly enjoyed Diamond Dove)
Mario Vargas Llosa’s Death in the Andes (thanks to a recommendation from Jose Ignacio at The Game’s Afoot I tracked this one down for the 2010 Global Reading Challenge as it’s set in Peru)- Mystery Man by (Colin) Bateman (the subtitle is murder, mayhem and damn sexy trousers and I have Mack of Mack Captures Crime to thank for this funny recommendation)
- John Hart’s The Last Child (this one’s next up on my audio book playlist, it’s won a bunch of awards so hopefully I enjoy it – a book needs to be especially good to take my mind of chattering teeth these winter mornings)
Chart of the Month
I’ve felt too busy to read as much as I wanted to this month and this chart of how many pages my eyes have scanned and hours my ears have absorbed shows it’s true: June has been my second lowest month of the year for printed pages and the lowest for hours listened 😦
What about you? What did you really enjoy in June? What are you looking forward to reading in July?
Reactions to Reading 
What a terrific post Bernadette. My pick of the month was THE WHITE GALLOWS (even though it wasn’t my highest rated post)
I’ve been considering BLACKLANDS too and thanks for the reminder about Leah Giarratano. I love your graphs.
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Thanks Kerrie for the kind words. I downloaded Blacklands from audible and as well as being a great story it had a terrific narrator. My only grizzle about downloading from audible is I can’t loan out the books I’ve loved.
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Bernadette – Lovely post! I always like your charts very much. You’ve got some great-sounding reads planned for July, too. You and Kerrie are putting me to shame; I absolutely must work on that TBR pile of mine.
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I can’t see where you find the time to read anything Margot with all your writing and blogging and working.
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Bernadette, a great post, you are so organized. I always worry when I get a book sent by an author, Rob Kitchin, that I might not like it. But I agree with you this was an outstanding police procedural and I really enjoyed it.
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I worry about that too Norman, happily both of the books I received from authors this month were great reads but I won’t be too upset if I never receive another book from an author – the pressure!
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Love the chart. The lists: I am copying down titles as I read your blog. And I am so thrilled that I won a copy of “The White Gallows,” that it will be the start of my much-anticipated August reading vacation where I go global, without making plane reservations, buying airplane tickets, standing in line or getting searched, dealing with hassles, just total bliss.
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I too enjoy the kind of holiday where you don’t have to go anywhere but can just read – not to be for me this year. Bernadette, I am really looking forward to what you make of Gunshot Road – but surprised you are getting it from the UK not from its native land? Of the others on your “next” list I’ve also read The Last Child and 13 Hours and enjoyed both -very readable. I like books that slip down a treat without requiring too much concentration. At the moment I am reading a Polish one (Entanglement) which is very good but trying to remember, and distinguish, the characters’ names is quite a challenge for the tired old brain.
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I know it seems counter-intuitive Maxine but I bought Gunshot Road for $10.64 from the UK, here its RRP is $33. Having discovered that paying the higher amount doesn’t net the author any more bucks I buy the cheapest I can find now. Which is rarely (if ever) from here.
Ooooh – a Polish book. I haven’t read anything from there – look forward to hearing what your tired brain makes of it (I am equally struggling at the moment – a book set in Spain and everyone has 3 names – don’t these authors know my memory is not what it used to be)
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Memory: Once one hits middle age, it flies out the window. I needed a glossary to read Stieg Larsson’s third book. (Nora Ephron does a hilarious parody of the trilogy with all of the Swedish characters’ and cities’ names at the New Yorker’s website under “Humor.” )
I found ordering “Hypothermia” was cheaper from the Book Depository than ordering it here, as they do not charge shipping. Or buying it here would have been and then I’d have had to wait until September.
Did you read “Affairs of State”? I read that you got it but haven’t seen a review.
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Kathy I use Book Depository for about 90% of my book buying as the prices are so exorbitant here in Australia (I generally pay about one third the price to get a book from Book Depository than to buy the same thing here).
And no I haven’t read ,Affairs of State, yet. I’ve had a few library books become available lately and I have been concentrating a bit more on my challenges but I hope to get to it within the next couple of months. So many books, so little time.
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Oh and yes I did love the Stieg Larsson parody – I do agree about those blasted Swedish street names that cropped up repeatedly – but I loved the books anyway.
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I sent my sister–who loved Nora Ephron’s parody but did not read the trilogy–a paragraph from “Hypothermia,” which had 14 Icelandic city/town/lake names in it. (I was laughing out loud when I read it.) She said it sounded like a parody…no offense to Icelanders.
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