As predicted, I didn’t get many books finished this month. I read a lot (a LOT), but it was almost all for class. That kind of reading involves reading from a lot of books but not actually finishing many of them. After the class is over, I do plan to review the ones of which I’ve read more than 50%, but that won’t be until the July Bookends.
I do have a silly idea to participate in a challenge put on by my town library, though. More on that below the book lists.
June’s books…
Grown-ups’ Books:
Children of the Same God by Susan J. Ritchie
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (just the title story in this collection)
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson (SBC June Selection)
Kids’ Books (read-alouds and audiobooks):
Then There Were Five by Elizabeth Enright (audiobook)
Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander (audiobook, re-read)
Currently Reading
- The Histories by Herodotus (for my Cavalcade of Classics, as a read-aloud with my daughter, skipping some of the more questionable parts)
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (for my Cavalcade of Classics and the one I didn’t finish for the Classics Club Spin #9)
- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein (read-aloud, re-read, in a single-volume edition)
- The High King by Lloyd Alexander (audiobook, re-read)
- The Blackwell Companion to the Qur’an by Andrew Rippin
- How to Read the Qur’an by Carl W. Ernst
- The Story of the Qur’an by Ingrid Mattson
- Approaching the Qur’an by Michael Sells
- Understanding the Qur’an by Muhammad Abdel Haleem
- The Qur’an: With a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation by Ali Quili Qar’ai
My To-Read List for July
Here’s where I tell you about my silly idea, which will serve as my to-read list for July and August.
While my kids are busy logging hours for our town’s summer reading program, I’ve decided to participate in the reading challenge they have for grown-ups. Between June 1 and August 14, I need to read a book from each of the following categories (titles can be fiction or nonfiction and can count in as many as two categories each; the ones I’ve read are in grey):
- A book set in your hometown (I either don’t have a hometown or I have eleven) – The Moment of Everything by Shelley King (set in Mountain View, California, which I called home from 2005-2008)
- A banned book – All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
- A book that became a movie – The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- A Pulitzer Prize-winner – The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- A National Book Award-winner – The Round House by Louise Erdrich
- A Man Booker Prize-winner – Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
- A book with a color in the title – Greenglass House by Kate Milford
- A book with a one-word title – Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
- A book with a number in the title – Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (SBC July Selection)
- A book published this year – The Point of Vanishing by Howard Axelrod
- A book published the year you were born – Speedboat by Renata Adler
- The first book in a series – Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
- The last book in a series – The High King by Lloyd Alexander
- A book written by someone under 30 – Lucky Girl by Nell Freudenberger
- A book written by someone over 60 – Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich
- A book you chose because of the cover – Lucky Girl by Nell Freudenberger
- A book with a non-human main character – The High King by Lloyd Alexander
- A book set on a different continent – Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson (SBC June Selection)
- A book based on a true story – Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
- A book originally written in another language – All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
- A book set in antiquity (before 500 C.E.) – Confessions of Augustine of Hippo
- A book set in the future – Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
- The first book by an author – Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
- A book published posthumously – Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor
- A book originally published more than 100 years ago – Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
I know I get a raffle ticket for every five categories I complete, but I don’t know what the raffle is for. But then, I’ve never needed external motivation to read.
To clarify, the challenge isn’t silly (it’s actually really cool, I think); it’s just the idea that I would participate in another challenge is silly. It would be downright ridiculous had I not packed the list with titles that are already on my other reading challenges.
Oh, and these are the titles I’ve picked out, but I’m open to suggestions for substitutions.
What have you enjoyed reading in the past month? What’s on your to-read list for July? If you blog your answer, please post a link in the comments (and/or link back to this post, if you’re so inclined).
Imperfect Happiness 
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