Monthly Musings – June 2015

This is a where I look back at what I read (or tried to read) during the past month. I also plan on highlighting my experiences in any book club reads I from the month as well. I will always start with any books I would label as a surprise find/under-read books so if anyone missed my reviews for them, and don’t make it to the end of this post, they’ll be easy to find.

June was a good month for me. I actually had more posts than any other month since I’ve been blogging, so I count that as a win! I’ve also been tinkering with little things on my blog like adding dynamic links for Goodreads, LibraryThing, Book Depository, Amazon and Audible to my reviews. Not sure if anyone will ever use them, but if they want to, they are there. I also adding a thumbs up to comments, but I can’t say I’m a fan of the thumbs down, and they come as a pair. Once again, not likely to be used, but they are there. 🙂 I also added a couple of new indexes, but they just made me realize how much I need to clean up some of my posts when it comes to tagging genres. I had a HUGE set of books come in this month as part of the Ace Roc Stars team. Really looking forward to diving into some of those! And finally, I have a top secret idea I’ve been toying with, starting some initial investigation for. *shhh …. secret*

Highlighted Reads from 

Highlighted Non-Review Posts

• Top Ten 2015 Releases (so far) I did a post highlighting my favorite 2015 releases so far. There are great books on this list! Check it out if you haven’t seen it yet:
• Futility of Fiction? I think not. Why do you read? Escapism or Something More? – A somewhat rambling post where I talk about the value of fiction, even when your not looking for it.

Review Summary [June]

• [1 Jun] The Fold by Peter Clines ★★★½
• [2 Jun] Day Four by Sarah Lotz ★★★★★
• [8 Jun] The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi ★★★★½
• [9 Jun] Firefight by Brandon Sanderson ★★★★
• [15 Jun] A Murder of Mages by Marshall Ryan Maresca ★★★½
• [16 Jun] Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol ★★★★
• [22 Jun] The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis ★★★★½
• [26 Jun] Last Call by Tim Powers ★★★½
• [28 Jun] The Philosopher Kings by Jo Walton ★★★★½
• [30 Jun] In Midnight's Silence by T. Frohock ★★★★

 June Backlist Burndown

This month, I selected The Player of Games by Iain Banks. I was happy with it. Honestly, I think it seems like a book I enjoy more as time passes.

Here’s what other people read and burned off their backlist this month! It makes me happy to see other people joining in with this, so thanks to all of you! 🙂 Anyone else that posted a backlist review this month, feel free to link up! Hope to see another great set of books for May.

Looking Forward to July 2015

Here are some of the great titles I plan to read! As always, I I know I won’t get to all of them, and theres liable to be a couple of impulse reads not listed. But in general, these are the books that are on my radar for reading in July. I am still trying to select my Backlist Burndown book for July. Some ideas are Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb or Tainted City by Courtney Schafer. But then, looking at how many other books I have for the month (more than I know I can read), I may look into finding something a bit shorter. We shall see!

How was your June? What are you looking forward to in July?