Friday, July 3, 2020

June 2020 Wrap Up

June felt like a long month to me, and I feel like I didn't do much/enough important things. The world is so crazy right now, it is hard to keep up with it.

I've been working a lot and putting in plenty of overtime hours. That's what I do most of the time. That and play with my pet rats!

All that aside, here are book reviews for June!

Title: Alanna the First Adventure and In the Hand of the Goddess
Author: Tamora Pierce

Synopsis: Alanna is determined to become a knight, so she disguises herself as a boy and heads to the palace for training. These two books follow her journey of becoming a page, squire, and finally a knight. She makes friends and defeats enemies and discovers more about who she is and who she wants to become.

Thoughts: These are re-reads. I needed comfort books and have wanted to re-read many of Tamora Pierce's books recently. I've read these books more times than I would like to count, but I always love them.

Rating: 4-5 out of 5 stars


Title: The Blood of Olympus
Author: Rick Riordan
Narrator: Nick Chamian

Synopsis: The adventures of the crew aboard the Argo II and their allies comes to a head as they work to defeat the giants and Gaea once and for all. Octavian is on the brink of starting a war with Camp Half-Blood, while Reyna, Nico, and Hedge race to stop him. Meanwhile the seven demigods on the Argo II head towards Athens and the final battle with the giants.

Thoughts: I had to re-read this whole series and this book is probably the best in the series (or the House of Hades, I'm always torn). I always love Leo most. As a side note, it wasn't until re-listening to the series this time that I realized how much I dislike this narrator. The narrator for the first three books was much better. But I still love the book!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars


Title: The Keeper of Lost Things
Author: Ruth Hogan
Narrators: Jane Collingwood and Sandra Duncan

Synopsis: After Anthony looses his fiancee and the lucky charm she gave him in the same day, he spends the rest of his life collecting lost items and trying to find their homes. However, he is at the end of his life and ready to rejoin his love, Therese. He leaves his house and all the lost things to his personal assistant, Laura. Laura, like Anthony's other lost items, is also looking for her purpose in life and she sets out to complete Anthony's work.

Thoughts: This was a book club read. There were a few things that I found a bit repetitive and maybe a touch annoying. Despite these things, I did enjoy the story and how everything comes full circle in the end.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 5


Title: The Kingdom of Back
Author: Marie Lu

Synopsis: Marianne Mozart aka Nannerl is a musical prodigy and wants nothing more than to be remembered for her music. As a woman, she is not meant for such a life. But her prodigious brother Wolfgang is. A mysterious and magical being named Hyacinth finds her and offers to make her dreams come true. As the years pass and Nannerl approaches a marriageable age and her brother continues to outshine her, she begins to feel torn about the tasks that Hyacinth asks her to complete in trade for her wish. The cost might be too high.

Thoughts: This was an Owlcrate book from the March box and the book was so beautiful! It has silver edges and a pretty cover (both of which were chewed on by my rat, Hades--you can see a bit in the lower right corner... good thing he's such a cutie). It read like a historical fiction/fantasy novel. There was enough truth about the Mozart family to really keep me interested, though I did not love the whole story as much as I hoped to. I was still intrigued by the family and wanted to know Nannerl's real story.

Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.


Favorite book read this month: Is it cheating to say the Alanna books?
Least favorite book read this month: I didn't strongly dislike any of them, but I gave the Kingdom of Back and the Keeper of Lost Things the lowest ratings this month

Alphabet reading challenge completed: K (The Kingdom of Back and the Keeper of Lost Things).
I have read 53 books of my target 80 books for the year.

That's about it for this month. I have started working on a disease post about Diphtheria, but it still needs some work.