Catching Up With May And June Book Reviews

I only read two books in May, so I deferred my reviews to combine them with my June reads. Now I’m ready to share two books I loved, two that were entertaining while they lasted, and others I have no regrets spending my time with.

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What I Read In May

There’s two reasons I should not have enjoyed The Boomerang by Robert Bailey, but I did. I’ve been reading to avoid doomscrolling about politics, but the main character is Chief of Staff to a newly elected President. I don’t think Big Pharma is evil, but the plot revolves around a cancer cure conspiracy. Still, I liked the book and found the storyline credible enough to wonder …. 

The other book I read in May was Sleep by Honor Jones. It was another unusual selection for me, but I read it in honor of a friend who experienced similar childhood sexual abuse that was similarly minimized by her family.

In Sleep, we follow Margaret as she grows up and grapples with the lasting impact while still maintaining relationships with her parents and brother and figuring out how to protect her own daughters—and what that even means. Maybe others will see it differently, but I admired her ability to confront her family without cutting all ties.

What I Read In June

After Sleep, I was ready for some lighter reading.

First up in June was Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry. The main storyline follows two writers who are competing to be hired for the biography of “an heiress of a media empire” who has become a recluse. I didn’t care much about the would-they-or-wouldn’t-they between the main characters, but the parallel story about the “tabloid princess” was interesting enough to keep me reading.

My favorite book was The Names by Florence Knapp. It has three parallel storylines choose-your-own adventure style, but here the choice is the name a woman in an abusive marriage gives her son. While the characters’ paths diverge in each story, I liked how there was some continuity of people and places that teased you with that what if thinking. I’m still pondering the impact of each choice and wondering if you could say any of them turned out “the best”.

While I was trying to figure out what to read next, I downloaded two short stories free to me as an Amazon Prime member—perfect reading for the short flights I took to Detroit and Boston.

Death Row was intriguing, but after I finished it I had know idea what just happened. Maybe that’s the point?

I found myself laughing (but not out loud—I was on a plane) at a lot of the commentary slipped in to The Answer Is No, but also found it a bit exhausting. You know that friend who is very entertaining but talks quickly and jumps from topic to topic? Fredrik Backman’s writing can be like that.

When my flight home from Boston was delayed, I was grateful for free airport wi-fi that let me download Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Read. It’s set in the early 80s, and follows Joan after she is chosen by NASA to train for a possible space shuttle flight. There’s a bit of rocket science and a lot of relationship/romance, and the tension surrounding both kept me riveted.

Thanks to Farrah for inspiring my book reviews!