Don't know if I'm gonna get a lot of reading done this month, because I hope to do two items on my Bucket List! Those who read From Dust to Stardust with me for the #SundayBuddyRead might be able to guess what one of them is. 😁

Nice to not have any “meh“ weeks. A great reading month.

Five bingos! I confess, I read a couple of picture books for the covers... but I couldn't not have a rainbow book for June, right?

I'm really happy with how many of my #BookSpin books I managed to read or try this month! Just 6 titles left!

Absolutely hilarious collection of short science fiction. Not much plotwise, more satiric vibes. The gossip of intelligent machines was a high point.

#AuthorAMonth

When the yogurt took over, we all made the same jokes--“Finally our rulers have culture,“ “Our society has curdled,“ “Our government is now the cream of the crop,“ and so on. But when we weren't laughing about the absurdity of it all, we looked into each others' eyes with the same unasked question--how did we ever get to the point where we were, in fact. ruled by a dairy product?

An old, not very findable book, but it taught me so much about reading and writing.

“Having read a book means nothing. Reading a book may be the most tremendous experience of your life; having read it is an item in your memory... We don't apply the same principle elsewhere: We don't believe in having heard Mendelssohn's violin concerto...I say, don't read the classics -- try to discover your own classics; every life has its own.”

I read some, then skimmed some and then read the ending, and I do think Alderton did something really interesting here, but I just couldn't force myself through the incredibly depressing part to read the book as a whole.

Also, as with another book I read that was set right before lockdown, I found myself worrying about how the characters would manage with this horrible new challenge in front of them. Why do authors do this?!

#BookSpinBingo

Almost bailed because the narrator's immaturity really got up my nose, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Former child star Jane has some heavy emotional baggage that makes her hide behind facades, but when she's teamed up with quiet, artistic Dan to try and get a movie made, he makes it all too easy to be her funny, quirky self. There's good growth arcs for both and a lovely romance that's not very steamy, but so descriptive it's a sensory delight.

I take out True Story and read a few scenes for comfort. Those characters showed up flawed and fell in love anyway. Their connection is the kind of love I never understood, the kind where the love is the reward for being yourself. It's *This is who I am* followed by *I'll take it!*

A fairly typical #Roll100 month for me... I only read numbers that *weren't* chosen! 😂 Hey, it's five books off my TBR.

Started on part two of Wild, Dark Shore last night and of course I was up to 3 a.m. finishing it. What was I thinking?!

#CampLitsy

In some ways this is just as silly as When the Moon Hits Your Eye, but it has so much more sweetness and heart. A reread for me, and just as good as the first time.

*#AuthorAMonth @Soubhiville

Not finding this very engaging and wondering if I should bail. @Faranae do you have an opinion?

#DoubleSpin

Cute interactive book along the lines of “The Monster at the End of this Book.“ Though do you really want to train your child to say “no“ to everything? 😂

#ISpyBingo Negative word

Cool that I finished this in June! Does anyone remember who the creator of these cards is?

#LGBTQIA2025

This is *not* the intergenerational friendship story the blurb promises; I think the marketing dept. had no idea what to do with it. It's pretty dark, but also tender; I was thoroughly engrossed but left going “I don't know how to feel“ by the end. The messages about loving books and the vagaries of fandom are very mixed. (Perhaps inevitable for an book written in these times.)

#BookSpinBingo

I didn't expect to like this as much as I did, because there's something about Poston's style that I don't quite jibe with, and I'm not a big fan of the sweet, small town romance subgenre this celebrates. But I do love me a high concept story and this was very clever and pretty touching.

#BookSpinBingo

This satire on our weird times makes excellent use of terrible cheese puns and is also very schadenfreudelicious... I half wondered if Scalzi wrote it as therapy. It suffers from not having a main character to follow and root for and inevitably comes off feeling insubstantial, like the lightest cheez whiz instead of a solid slab of cheddar. Just fine, if that's what you were wanting on your cracker. Pairing: Martians, Go Home.

I liked the first book in the series but I *really* liked this one. The plotting is tighter, the writing very clever, and the characters so endearing, I was much less bothered by moral ambiguity.

(Can you guess why I chose this image to illustrate my blurb?)

#SeriesLove

“You're not going to shoot us?“ says Joyce.

“Not if you behave yourselves,“ says [ ]

“Not really our specialty,“ says Joyce.

People from history have been reappearing, and down-on-his-luck music producer Darnell finds himself enlisted to help Harriet Tubman make an album--a new voice for a new generation needing new roads to freedom, like Darnell himself.

A quiet personal odyssey; I confess I was expecting something more fabulous. The author's narration is surprisingly amateur, though the two songs are the end are great.

#lgbtqReads

The overworked head of a school for magicians is deeply suspicious of the handsome prince who keeps stopping by, and who always seems to know exactly how to fix his problems... A charming short romance, with lovable, caring characters. This is a prequel to Magician but may be better read after that, since you get to see Lorre in his heedless, quixotic days and he is so much fun.

It was her mother's most unnerving trait. She could pinpoint with breathtaking accuracy the areas where you were perfectly secure, and then undermine them with reassurances. The Ludens, of course, were fairly immune. As Indiana had once remarked, unless you made it a major project, you could only work emotionally stable people over if you started young enough.

My mother always instilled in me the importance of our history but somewhere along the way I stopped listening. I had a hard time accepting my Blackness because my Blackness had a hard time accepting me. My mother also instilled in me the fear of God, and I‘ve spent my entire life learning not to be afraid.

My #ReadOrDonate book; I did read about a third of it. Megan Chance wrote intense, interesting, dark romances but a lot of their value was in how different they were for their time, and that's no longer a big draw for me. Neither is 400 pages of stress.

A married couple adjusts to being back together after the reporter husband does a short stint in prison for refusing to identify a source. The story is mostly vibes, and pretty dated ones, although the political elements aren't: he's committed to free speech as a child of Hungarian immigrants. But it's mostly about the relationship, and though I usually love how LL writes them, this came off as too purple. A soft pick.

#BookSpinBingo

It will be very dull when I shall have killed myself, as it were, and live only in trying to do, and to be, as other people like. I don't see any end to it. I might as well never have lived.

A humorous expose of negging techniques that's a reasonably funny short listen, though probably more fun in its original tiktok form. To make for a longer audiobook it has a section of the author and his mom interviewing each other, which was heavy on “you know, like...“ and then an advice section which was pretty entertaining. I'm not a big fan of prank humor, so it wasn't really for me.

#BlameItOnLitsy #MonthlyNonfiction2025

I've never encountered this feature for a kindle book before! Very cool, especially since I DNF'd book 2. 😂

I had the same problem with this as the first book, which is that the whole Austenland experience seems to be a real drag. I skimmed ahead some and am not sorry I bailed.

#JaneAustenThenAndNow #Pemberlittens @Crinoline_Laphroaig

“The components of a free press are reporters who aren't afraid to tell a story and citizens who aren't afraid to talk to reporters.“

“Could you explain why you think criminals have the right to that kind of shield?“

“Could you explain why, in a nation that assumes innocence until conviction, you would stick a label like 'criminal' on people who've never been convicted of a crime?“

Another outrageously wrong cover, this one a Kindle cash-grab rather than a foreign language edition.

This social satire from 1926 didn't wear well. The title character is an amiable working class girl who just wants to live a simple working class life, but happens to have been born so ethereally beautiful, no one can resist her. Hijinks ensue that make everyone involved utterly miserable, especially her. Far more depressing than funny.

I wonder if Tyler was inspired to write this by All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome?

I haven't related to an Anne Tyler book so much in years, and I loved it.

Just happened across this on K.J. Charles' Redbubble site.

#junespecials #cheese
@eggs @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

I've been fine-tuning to try and enjoy the fun of the bingo without feeling too much pressure. We'll see how this month goes.

This is such a hard question! I can't remember a time when I wasn't a bookworm and I always read so much. But this feels like a right answer, if not *the* right answer.

Just got the audiobook today. I figured since the author is a performer, I'd probably enjoy the book most in that format. Also have Mutual Aid to read, which is nonfiction by a transgender activist.

May books read and DNF'd.

I got two last minute bingos thanks to @MatchlessMarie today. :-) I really tried to find a book with a straw on the cover but there was just nothing that grabbed me. Still four bingos doesn't suck.

I didn't read my #DoubleSpin book! 😱 I did start it, but it seemed like a serious commitment and I didn't have the bandwith. Will definitely try to finish it before the end of the year.

In my quest to reduce pressure, I removed three books from my list that I decided I really wasn't all that interested in trying. Go me!

I was looking at my library wishlist and noticed that Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall by Spike Milligan was still there. I listened to it a while back, so I removed it from my wishlist. The library gave me a notification saying “Adolph Hitler has been removed from your wishlist.“

If only it was that easy!

There's nothing like reading Terry Pratchett for being reminded that there's nothing new under the sun.

#OokBookClub

I don't think I've ever participated in this before but... 1) My daughter has finished the semester! (CC) She worked very hard but needed so much support, I feel like I took a class too!

2) I wrote in depth about a book! Doesn't happen that much anymore and it makes me happy.

3) Fresh peas from the garden, so nummy.

4) The pressure-reducing plans I made for this month were pretty successful.

5) Solved a phrazle in one move. 😎

#5JoysFriday

Haven't a clue what's going on in that picture, but I had to use it.

I saw the #BeyondTheYellowBrickRoad group reading this & was surprised I couldn't place it in my memory. I've definitely read it multiple times but I think it must be one I didn't go back to as an adult. Not hard to see why... Dorothy and Ozma are both kind of obnoxious in this one and I feel bad for Uncle Henry and Aunt Em. Still lot of fun to be had though.

A nice variety this month. Contemporary romance, literary fiction, fantasy romance and audiobook nonfiction.

Hey #QueerBC peeps, May is almost over so here are some discussion questions for our author Neon Yang! (Formerly known as JY Yang.) Answer any or all if you're so inclined!