June Reads

I'm so late on linking up my June reading to The Bibliophile Files@sarah did it! that the link is actually closed but I'm going to post this anyway since I've already written it and will link up June and July next month.

According to Goodreads.com I'm still on pace to meet my 2014 Reading Challenge Goal of 130 books.

4 of the 9 books I read in June were from the Vince Flynn series about the adventures of Super CIA Agent Mitch Rapp. He is one Bad-A$$ Dude I am telling you! Yesterday I loaded the last 3 books in the series onto my iPhone so as soon as I finish my current audio book I'll be back to walking along to Mitch's latest assignments. They are great books to get me out the door so I can find out what trouble he is going to get into next.

The only 4 star read on my list was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows which was on my To Be Read Shelf. I tried to listen to the audio book last winter but had to abandon it as the book is written in a series of letters and it was far too confusing to try to follow who was writing to who. It is set shortly after WWII in England and I thought it was a charming read about a serious time in history.

I might note that I'm a tough rater of books. The vast majority of my reads fall into 3 star which for me means I liked the book and would recommend it to others who like the genre. 4 star means I really liked the book and feel that most readers would enjoy it too. 5 star means I LOVED the book, can't stop thinking about it and will tell everyone I know about it!

At the opposite end of the spectrum 1 star means I either didn't like the book enough to finish it or I muddled through it only to be very disappointed by the ending and felt it was a complete waste of time. 2 star books mostly fall into the bad plot twist/insipid main character(s)/horrible or implausible ending type of read where I liked most of the book. Or the occasional "off-book" by one of my favorite authors.

My rating stats for June were one 4 star, six 3 stars, one 2 star and one 1 star.  Not bad.

The above photo was taken recently as storm clouds were moving in. We are lucky to face west on our lake and we enjoy some spectacular sunsets. This time of year the sun sets close to the channel to the next lake on our chain and it doesn't get completely dark until almost 10 PM. Oh the lovely long days of summer in Northern Minnesota!