Book Nook Cafe discussion

Please share with us what you read in June 2019 !

Please provide:

~ A GoodReads link
~ A few sentences telling us how you felt about the book.
~ How would you rate the book

My June reads:

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: A
Review: Firstly, I can't believe it took me a month to read this book. :D Secondly, this is a reread for me and I love it even more than the first time. I only remember glimpses from my past read and now I'm getting the whole picture again. Love this series and I definitely plan to have it in my personal library.

The Daughters of the Moon by Italo Calvino
Genre: Fantasy, Short-Story
Rating: B
Review: A very interesting short story about a near-future consumerism-oriented Earth where Moon is in shatters and people want to get rid of it. In reality, it's a critique of the modern shallow society we live in.

The Red Headed League by Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Classic, Short-Story, Mystery
Rating: B
Review: Another in the line of clever Sherlock Homes stories. A reread for me.

All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury
Genre: Classic, Short-Story, Fantasy
Rating: A
Review: A human colony on Venus eagerly awaits it's first appearance of Sun after 7 years of non-stop rain. The Sun appears for only two hours before rain and cold come back. Margot is a girl different from he classmates because she came to Venus from Earth when she was four years old and, as opposed to her jealous classmates who were born here, she remembers what Sun looks like. For that she is being bullied. On the day of the appearance of the Sun, her classmates, out of spite, decide to lock her up in the closet so that she cannot enjoy the Sun.

The Matchmaker's Replacement by Rachel Van Dyken
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Rating: A
Review: A good read when you need something light and funny. I really enjoy the protagonists' banter.

Cuentos de Bloomsbury by Ana Maria Navales
Review only for "Walter no ha muerto"
Genre: Short-Story
Rating: C+
Review: Written in the first-person form as a letter from the protagonist to her husband. The protagonist is a writer, but seems to be suffering from mental-health issues as she hear voices in her head and sees dead people. She writes about all the men that formed part of her life, with whom she could have made a life (and what that life would have been like) and what she chose in the end. The name in the title, Walter, is her friend/lover/something who died and whom she constantly sees and is, according to her, the only man that really understands and accepts her.

La fuente de la vida by Lourdes Ortiz
Review only for "El espejo de las sobras"
Genre: Short-Story
Rating: C+
Review: The protagonist is preparing to go to the traditional Christmas dinner at his aunt Marta's house. The aunt is very strict when it comes to tradition so he is afraid of being late. While he is shaving in front of the mirror, he enters the said mirror and "travels" through the past and future Christmas family gatherings, noting the changes and the disappearance of tradition.

Cuento Espanol Contemporaneo; Contemporary Spanish Story by Anthony Percival
Review only for "Viejas historias" de Soledad Puertolas
Genre: Short-Story
Rating: B
Review: A story of relationships between people and how crazy and tangled they can get. I like it.

The Deal by Elle Kennedy
Genre: Contemporary Romance, NA Fiction
Rating: A
Review: I love this series and I keep coming back to it whenever I feel a bit down. It's a Romance novel, but it's not just a bodice-ripper, but also has an important topic and message. The issue of consent, rape culture and abuse, that seem to be very prominent in our society today, are in the background of this funny and nice NA love story.

Samanta, that's an impressive month.
All Summer In A Day sounds brutal. Such bullying! Sounds like Ray Bradbury didn't think humans could overcome their pettinesses. I'm going to see if the library has this book.

I had a horrible reading month. I hardly read at all.

An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon (audio; 4 star) - a fun continuation of Claire & Jamie's stories. The overall story has grown beyond the two of them into a family saga. This installment centers a lot on the various branches of their extended family. The audio was well read.

Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God: Poems by Tony Hoagland (5 star) - a book of poems centering on the end of life. The poet knows he is dying and is coming to terms with his mortality and thinking of his life. The poems hit hard yet focus on the beauty of life and all it contains.

Samanta, i remember reading that Bradbury story! He seemed to capture an awful experience in a solid way. I'm grateful you introduce us to authors we might not previously have "met". In particular Ortiz, whose story here sounds good to me, even though i see you weren't particularly fond of it. Calvino is a fascinating author to me. Sometimes i struggle with his work, other times it strongly strikes me. His If on a Winter's Night a Traveler was a wonderful mind stretcher for me.

Petra, some months are like that. In this case you accomplished so much in June, when your garden needed it, that i would just embrace the fact of it. Thanks for the introduction of Hoagland.

I had a productive reading month beginning with

Michelle Obama's Becoming, which i liked enough to recommend to my sister who is in Spain for 3 weeks. I particularly liked the way she wove her experiences from her youth with what she shared about her White House years.


My Lovely Wife a novel by Samantha Downing is a sort of comedic killing story. A husband becomes unsure if his wife is telling him the truth about the people/stories he knows they killed. Someone on this board (Dem, maybe?) introduced the book to us but i'm still not sure how i feel about it. This is why i don't rate books...i mean i read it in early June and STILL don't know if i liked it or not.


How Not to Die Alone by Richard Roper is one of those sweet novels which are written with frequency of late. A British loner works for his town's Council in a department which tries to locate family &/or funeral funds for people who died alone in their own homes. He is assigned training responsibility for a new employee and we learn more about why/how he performs the tasks the way he does. Sweet.

Lab Girl, written by scientist Hope Jahren was mostly informative for me, particularly the chapters where she discusses botany and the latest discoveries. There is so much i don't know! ANYway, she shares her own growth as a scientist, as well as her science buddy Bill's. For me, it may have been too much about Bill but the facts i learned well outweighed that aspect. I had no idea that some labs are actually built by scientist themselves, up to the very machines they needed. I suppose i never really thought about it but just assumed they used apparatuses which already existed. Thanks to Julie for the intro & Alias for the additional input about their opinions on the book


The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay is a sort of feel-good novel about a successful woman who learns what her live has missed and how she can change it. My library had it listed as one of their suggestions and, as we all know, i'm a sucker for titles with Books or Bookshop in them! I found it to be another sweet novel, one with which i could relax.

As we've traveled and visited museums i've come to wonder about African Americans who settled the west. When Alias posted the Book TV schedule one week i found this title, The Bone and Sinew of the Land: America's Forgotten Black Pioneers and the Struggle for Equality with a talk by its author Anna-Lisa Cox listed. It was not exactly what i was looking for because i erroneously believed that African Americans didn't settle in the west much before the end of the Civil War. WAS I EVER WRONG! Indeed, this migration of free people was the largest migration of African Americans yet experienced in our country. The story is a sad one, however. Even after cultivating the land (there were basically two forests, the one above ground & the roots underneath which need to be withdrawn), making money and homes on it for over 20 years before bigoted settlers arrived, these farmers were victimized. It's bewildering to imagine people wanting to evict folks who were as successful as those farmers were. GOOD BOOK!


A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher kept me reading. The kid who is our protagonist is an avid reader of apocalyptic novels, comparing his apocalyptic life with what earlier writers predicted/portrayed. Someone steals the kid's dog & the kid pursues, leaving the island home their family has shared for over 100 years. I liked this one, but i am a fan of this genre.


As i am of this subject--The Psychology of Time Travel is a novel by Kate Mascarenhas. While i liked the exploration of a world where time travel is a reality, i wonder if it couldn't have been better told. In this case each chapter is from the POV of a character, mostly time travelers, additionally, each chapter is from various years when the travelers visited. That was confusing to my small mind because i kept forgetting to look at the chapter titles! However, the story was a rather intriguing mystery.

Samanta wrote: "My June reads:

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: A
Review: Firstly, I can't believe it took me a month to read this book. :D Secondly, this is..."

Overall a nice reading month for you, Samanta. Thanks for sharing.

Petra wrote: "I had a horrible reading month. I hardly read at all.

An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon (audio; 4 star) - a fun continuation of Claire & Jamie's stories. The overall story has ..."

The two you did read you gave good ratings to. So that's better than reading a ton and not finding anything that appeals to you.

Here's wishing a great July reading month for you !

madrano wrote: "I had a productive reading month beginning with

Michelle Obama's Becoming, which i liked enough to recommend to my sister who is in Spain for 3 weeks. I particular..."

You certainly did have a productive month. As always you selected a nice eclectic array of books.

I'm glad that you enjoyed the book title that you got from our C-SPAN Book TV thread.

Finished two books that I've been reading for awhile. They were excellent books and I highly recommend them.

Becoming--Michelle Obama
Non Fiction
Rated 5/5
I really enjoyed this book. The writing was excellent. It flowed so easily it was like talking to a friend. Well done !

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind----Yuval Noah Harari
Non Fiction
Rating 5/5
Excellent book. Well written and I learned so much. I will absolutely read more by this author.

Deb, re: The Psychology of Time Travel. I have the same issues with books where the chapter titles are important to placement. I hardly ever check the chapter titles out. and things can get confusing.
That said, I love books that center on time travel and will look this one up.

Alias, Sapiens has been on my TBR for ages. I really need to get to it.

Thanks for the good thoughts on my reading month. You are correct. I have had a good month in terms of quality of story/poem. Had I finished listening to my current audio book, that would have changed (LOL!). It's a predictable, eye rolling story. Luckily, it gets put into July's list of finishes.

madrano wrote: "I had a productive reading month beginning with

Michelle Obama's Becoming, which i liked enough to recommend to my sister who is in Spain for 3 weeks. I particular..."


The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay sounds like something I would like - adding to my reading list!

Thanks for the feedback, Book Nookers. I'm always pleased to share what I've read & enjoy getting "fixes" from others here. Petra, the time travel bits were interesting because the author considered many side effects and perks of such travel, which was thought provoking. If you read it, i think you will enjoy it.

Alias, isn't it a relief to finish long-time-reading books? It feel like such an accomplishment. Today i began Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President by Ari Hoogenboom. It's another honkin' long one!


Julie, while i wasn't a fan of the main character, the other shop employees had good stories which kept me going. And, of course, there is the book talk.

madrano wrote:Today i began Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President by Ari Hoogenboom. It's another honkin' long one!..."

You are doing so well with your Presidential challenge, deb. Well done.

Funny you write that, Alias. My brother thinks i should read bios of Presidents written for children to “get it over with”. Somehow he is missing my point! I’ve learned so much more about US history as a result of reading these than i ever could in other ways, i believe. Regardless, thanks for noticing. 😊

madrano wrote: "I'm grateful you introduce us to authors we might not previously have "met"."

Madrano, thank you, but as much as would like to take credit, I can't. I read those short stories through another group here and through a Spanish reading club here in Zagreb. Other people chose the stories, I'm just reading. :)

Samanta, I appreciate the honesty. I'm pleasantly surprised there are so many reading groups on GR. Until your post, i had no idea. Please keep sharing them with us, as i'm learning to stretch my short story exposure as folks share here.

my June reads
The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece byErle Stanley Gardner
Rating 3/5
This is part of my goal to read all the Perry Mason books in order. Although the language is somewhat stilted due to this book being written in the 1930s the mystery was good
Unto Us a Son Is Given byDonna Leon
Rating 4/5
This is a series set in Venice with a police commissioner as the protagonist. I have enjoyed these mysteries and grown to know the characters
The American Agentby Jacqueline Winspear
Rating 4/5
This is the latest in the Maisie Dobbs series. This book takes place during the London Blitz..
The Case of the Stuttering Bishopby Erle Stanley Gardner
Rating 3/5
The next in the Perry Mason series. The mystery was intriguing
Murder on Washington Square by Victoria Thompson
Rating 3/5
The protagonist of this series is a midwife in turn of the century New York City. The mystery is good and it is interesting to see the mores and history of that era

Meredith wrote: "my June reads
The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece byErle Stanley Gardner
Rating 3/5
This is part of my goal to read all the Perry Mason books in order. Although the la..."

Nice reading month, Meredith. Thank you for sharing.

Fascinating reading, Meredith. One must appreciate the fact Gardner wrote mysteries which still hold the reader, despite the writing/language usage itself. You had a nice reading month, it seems to me. Well done.

My June reads were almost maxed out! I read five books that were five star reads and three books that were four star reads.

The Dresden Files Collection 1-6 by Jim Butcher - the first six books in a series of seventeen books - five stars.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia - 1st book in a 7 book series - five stars.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Carrow Haunt by Darcy Coates - five stars.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Housemates by Iain Rob Wright - five stars.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Element Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Hauntings by Theresa Cheung - five stars.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Everett Exorcism by Lincoln Cole - four stars.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand - four stars.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Scarecrow by Scott Nicholson - four stars.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Wow, Marie, that was a lot of reading in June! The first book alone was almost 2000 pages! The Carrow Haunt sounds very good— the guide learned plenty!