What are you reading in June?

[Peadar]

I'm about halfway though Monkey Wars by Richard Kurti. So far, it's a retelling of the wars of the 20th century, using various species of monkey to represent the nationalities.

[First of My Name]

I am currently reading Heroes Die and boy am I enjoying it, I love Matthew Stover. Next on the list is Dune, the first book for the first time, books 2 and 3 of the Hunger Games, and Shift by Hugh Howey. Then some Star Wars and Harry Potter rereading in the vacation

[wolverine]

Troy by Gemmell. I really don't have much time to read in the summer so it is slow going. Troy is starting to pick up though.

[gordonah]

Just finished The Riddle of the Third Mile by Colin Dexter. Another enjoyable Inspector Morse novel. With the television adaptations being so long ago (1980s), if I've ever seen the TV version of any of the books, it was so long ago that I can't remember any of the plot points. I think I'll be moving on to Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett next.

[Melonica Stormborn]

Finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane last night. I loved it overall. The ending however, made me think if:

Old Mrs. Hempstock had been snipping the main character's memory, which was sort of implied? Or is there some kind of psychological shenanigan going on? There seems to be a central theme about children exploring and adults staying in paths. I had some simplistic notions about it in the beginning but in the end it got me thinking if the boy is just making up a fantastical version of things and kind of dissociating. I'd prefer the fantastical version of things, of course.

Now I'm reading The Blade Itself, which had a good start, IMO. I read Red Country at the beginning of the year and liked it so now I'm reading First Law properly.

[Davos55]

Started the month by finishing up Inferno by Dan Brown which I really did not like at all. I thought it was his worst book yet, and it felt like I was reading a travelogue more than an actual novel. Extremely disappointing and predictable.

After that I read The World's Strongest Librarian, which was a pretty interesting memoir that I enjoyed.

A change up to a short story collection followed that with Tenth of December which I mostly enjoyed.

Now reading The Light Between Oceans, which is already shaping up to be my favorite of the bunch so far.

[Werthead]

Now reading Blade of Tyshalle by Matt Stover, which has so far been a huge step-up from the already-excellent Heroes Die.

[Cato.the.Elder]

"Light in August", by William Faulkner

[Jon's Queen Consort]

I just started The Monogamy Myth by Peggy Vaughan

[MisterOJ]

I remember liking book 3 a lot at the time, but honestly I can't remember any of it. The first three sort of blur togther in my mind. i looooved book 4. Some very nice payoffs(finally) plus a very obscure I didn't even pick up on it til after I finished the book reference to the fool. Which makes me want her next book even more. So uh, yeah I'd say its worth it.

I finished up Dragon City over the weekend. If was a complete setup book for the series finale. Nothing much happened in the whole thing. Now, I can see good things happening in the next one. But I am done with Hobb for the time being. I'll come back and finish the series after reading an Abraham novel or two. I need to get caught up on The Expanse and Dagger & Coin.

[SkynJay]

I am going to try The Scar by Sergey and Marina Dyachenk. Anyone read it, know how well the translation was done? It looks interesting, so I guess it is too late to look for recommendations now.

[MisterOJ]

I am going to try The Scar by Sergey and Marina Dyachenk. Anyone read it, know how well the translation was done? It looks interesting, so I guess it is too late to look for recommendations now.

I've had my eye on that one for a while. I'll be interested to hear what you think about it.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

I am going to try The Scar by Sergey and Marina Dyachenk. Anyone read it, know how well the translation was done? It looks interesting, so I guess it is too late to look for recommendations now.

I read it back in early 2012 and liked it a lot,would def. rec it.I remember reading the initial reviews before buying it and the translation earned particular praise.

[NewsToTom]

I finished Hobb's Rain Wilds Chronicles earlier this month. The impression I got from the first two books, that it was a two book series that took four volumes for no good reason, held constant throughout. Some decent payoffs, but I thought the denouement in the fourth book felt a little abrupt. On the whole, I'd rate it clearly the weakest of the four series set in that universe.

I also re-read Dune recently. It was still good, but I didn't love it as much as I did the first two times I read it (the most recent of those was about six years ago).

I finished Inferno, but I never had the "I'm enjoying this even though I know it's deeply implausible and dependent on a skewed reading" feeling I had with DaVinci and Angels and Demons.

I found John Scalzi's Human Division to be 13 related short stories that did not properly cohere into a single whole that advanced the story arc.

I got The Winds of Khalakovo when it was a free Kindle download I think right after book 2 came out and finally got around to it. It was okay, nothing more. The local library had the second book, so it's sitting on my nightstand while I look for the motivation to actually read it.

The much-delayed reading of War and Peace (Pevear and Volokhonsky trans.) begins next month.

[MisterOJ]

I finished Hobb's Rain Wilds Chronicles earlier this month. The impression I got from the first two books, that it was a two book series that took four volumes for no good reason, held constant throughout. Some decent payoffs, but I thought the denouement in the fourth book felt a little abrupt. On the whole, I'd rate it clearly the weakest of the four series set in that universe.

After just finishing the third book, I agree. Although I guess size may be the reason. The end of Book 3 definitely didn't feel like any kind of ending at all. Almost like an arbitrary stopping point.

[First of My Name]

Now reading Blade of Tyshalle by Matt Stover, which has so far been a huge step-up from the already-excellent Heroes Die.

I'm reading Heroes Die right now and I'm loving it, but Blade of Tyshalle is NOWHERE to be found in the entire Netherlands and I'm really pissed about that because I think it's a really great novel. And now I can't continue the series unless I skip a book, dammit.

But anyway, I think Stover is brilliant.

[ultraman7k]

Finishing up:

Cornwell's The Winter King

[williamjm]

I finished Ken MacLeod's Intrusion. Like most of his recent books it has an intriguing premise and the story is reasonable entertaining but it fails to be as good as it could have been. I thought it was an interesting dystopian setting where the world is not that unpleasant to live in but also subtly horrifying at the same time. Compared to Hugh Howey's Shift which I read a few weeks ago it did a better job of showing how dystopia can come from people in charge with good intentions. However, there were some things I wasn't quite so keen on in the world-building, occasionally some things felt like they were trying a bit too hard to satirise modern society and much of the science in the book was silly (even ignoring the Second Sight plotline). Reading Goodreads reviews a lot of people seem to dislike that the main character couldn't give a good reason for not taking a pill that could protect her unborn child from most diseases, but I think the novel wouldn't really work as well if she did have a rational reason for her refusal.

Next up is James S.A. Corey's Abaddon's Gate, hopefully it'll be as good as Abraham's The Tyrant's Law was.

[Werthead]

I'm reading Heroes Die right now and I'm loving it, but Blade of Tyshalle is NOWHERE to be found in the entire Netherlands and I'm really pissed about that because I think it's a really great novel. And now I can't continue the series unless I skip a book, dammit.

But anyway, I think Stover is brilliant.

I'm not sure on the availability in the Netherlands, but both the US and UK editions are available as ebooks. A physical copy is very difficult to get hold of: I really lucked out in finding on Amazon.

[hadaad]

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

The Black Company by Glen Cook

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

I finally finished The Two Towers by Tolkien

I'm still struggling with The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington.

I've started Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie but I don't think I'll get it done by the end of the month.