June Wrap-Up
Welcome to my June Wrap-Up! Everyone keeps saying it, but June really flew by. I’d say I don’t know where the time went, but I know exactly where mine went: primarily to scrolling through Twitter and listening to Critical Role. But hey, at least one of those is time well spent in my eyes.
June was a good reading month for me. I read five books, three of which I rated 5 stars and I had a lot of fun with all of them! Five books might not be much compared to others, but to me reading and loving all of the books I read in any given month is a huge win! So let’s get into it:
The Martian – Andy Weir
Now…I have listened to this for the 4th time this year. It’s one of my all-time favourite stories and, as you can tell, one I return to often. The Martian follows astronaut Mark Watney who, when a sandstorm hits and the crew aborts the mission, gets hit by a satellite dish, is presumed dead and consequently left on mars. Alive. The book follows his attempts at staying alive long enough to contact NASA and be rescued. It is primarily told through transcripts of Mark’s mission logs, chronicling the science, sarcasm and trials and tribulations of surviving on Mars. If you’ve seen the film: the book is even funnier! And there’s more science, a few plot points are slightly different and my favourite bit: you get to learn more about the other characters, especially the crew! So if you enjoyed the film, I can highly recommend the book as well.
Only Human – Sylvain Neuvel
Only Human is the final book in the Themis File series. (You can find my review of Sleeping Giants, the first book here.) It’s the first sci-fi series I’ve read and it got me wanting more so now my TBR list is populated by wonderful sci-fi books!
Overall, it’s a solid finale and does a wonderful job of introducing new characters and expanding on plot points and themes of the previous books. All in all, it wraps everything up nicely. I’ve grown to love the characters and I’m certain I will return to this story time and time again; there’s always room for a tale of big robots and small people and what it means to be human.
Slay – Brittney Morris
I picked this up because Mika Auguste mentioned it in a video and I was intrigued. The main character Keira is one of only a handful of Black students at her school and secretly the developer of an online game called Slay, which is a card-based strategy game and celebrates Black culture. When someone gets killed over the game, discussions start if it’s “racist against white people” (which of course it isn’t because that’s not how racism works). The pacing was impeccable, no plot point felt superfluous and the final showdown had my heart pounding! As someone who doesn’t know much about videogames, Slay was surprisingly easy to get into, thanks to the vibrant descriptions of the online world and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
Rumple Buttercup: A Story of Bananas, Belonging and Being Yourself – Matthew Gray Gubler
Rumple Buttercup is a novel by Matthew Gray Gubler who most people will know as Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds. He’s a certified weirdo and certainly does this title justice with Rumple Buttercup, a picturebook about a small creature who doesn’t go outside out of fear people will think him weird. Gubler’s quirky illustration style oozes with charm and detail I absolutely adore. For example, every single piece of text is handwritten. Even the copyrights page and the ISBN! Though it might look like it, Rumple Buttercup isn’t necessarily a children’s book. Even adults (maybe especially adults) can use a kind reminder that being ourselves is okay from time to time, and this is a wonderful book to pick up every once in a while.
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin – Roseanne A. Brown.
I’ll probably do a full review of this soon, so I won’t say too much more than this: A Song of Wraiths and Ruin might be the book that gets me back into reading fantasy! It’s a dual perspective YA fantasy that’s inspired by and based on West-African folklore. It follows Malik, a refugee looking to make a new life with his sisters in the city Ziran and Karina, the crown princess of the city. Their paths intertwine when Malik’s sister gets kidnapped and in order to save her, he is tasked with killing Karina…The worldbuilding brought me so much joy with all the perfectly placed details. Additionally, the main characters were complex and nuanced. I can’t wait for the second book in this duology, I have to know how the story continues!
And that’s it from me for today, how has your June been?
Did you read a book that surprised you? I hope you have a lovely day,
2 Comments
linesandlifemiriam
That looks like a brilliant reading month!
All of those books are on my radar, so I can’t wait to see how I like them!
bookshelfsoliloquies
It really was a great reading month, I’m especially happy about my return to fantasy, something I didn’t think would happen! If you do end up reading any of them, let me know! I’d love to chat with you about them 😀