What I Read in June 2020

We’re officially halfway through the year! 2020 is closer to ending than the beginning, which during a Global Pandemic is good news. But today’s post is not about the pandemic, it’s about what I read in June 2020.

This month I read nine books. I’m down on last month, but I’ve read books that are a lot longer this month and I think I got into a bit of a reading slump mid-way through. Thankfully I’m out of that now and I’m back to reading like there’s no tomorrow.

What I read in June 2020

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

The first book I read this month was the prequel to the Hunger Games Trilogy. I loved The Hunger Games, I read the complete series in two sittings when I was sixteen. They were great.

This was alright. It’s almost like three books in one, which is why it’s so big! But it was really hard to connect with the characters as the main character is the Big Bad in the Hunger Games series, and in this, he is basically the anti-hero. The timeline isn’t the strongest – his character is nearly 90 in the original series?! And Tigress is 92+? How? And how did he and Tigress fall out? What happened to the other characters? And… so many unanswered questions. Meh. 3.5 star read.

Home Work by Julie Andrews

I love a good Celebrity Autobiography, and I love Julie Andrews so I decided to read her book next. This is actually her second memoir and it focuses on her early adult film career. Her first book, Home, focuses on her childhood and starting out as an actress. This begins with her getting cast as Mary Poppins and then immediately after being cast as Maria in The Sound of Music. She’s a great character, I think I would like her as a person. I hope I would anyway.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

My next Book Club read with the girls is Girl, Woman, Other and about time too! This is the joint Man Booker Prize Winner of 2019 – should have won on its own – and it’s great. It’s a very cleverly written story about many women/men and it culminates around a show at the National Theatre and the after-party. I loved the characterisation in particular Bernardine is a great writer and I’d love to read more of her work.

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

I was in need of a kind of weepy-crappy-trash book so of course I reached for a Nicholas Sparks. Love them or hate them, they’re all the same story set in the same place but they’re good easy reads. I’ve seen The Best of Me movie adaptation and I thought the book sounded the most like the film so I picked it up. It’s a very easy read and does the job.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

From a trashy read to one of my new favourites. I really loved The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I read it in less than twenty-four hours and it properly moved me. I watched the movie adaptation immediately after finishing and it’s pretty well adapted – the cast is proper brat-pack but pre-brat pack – a great read for teenagers I would say.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

I’ve finally read Animal Farm! It’s about time I read a George Orwell book, but honestly, I wasn’t that interested in reading 1984 right now so I went with Animal Farm instead. I studied the Russian Revolution at school, and this is a very clever interpretation of the revolution and Communism but from the voice of evil pigs. Only Orwell.

The High Moments by Sara-Ella Ozbek

This was a NetGalley read and it sounded great to me, but it didn’t deliver exactly what I wanted. It follows Scarlett, a wannabe fashion designer who moves to London on a whim after an argument with her mum and chances at a job as an assistant agent at a model agency. What follows is a drug-fest full of shallow models, a coke-addicted lothario and a lot of self-obsession. It’s an alright read, probably not one I’ll read again. and will forget about within a few weeks, but it’s an alright past-time.

A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks

Is it ridiculous that I’ve only just started to realise that this is predominantly Christian fiction, and I am definitely not Christian? I just want easy reads and I enjoyed the film adaptation of this book. It’s worth noting though that the film is basically completely different to this book. The film is set in the 90s, and the book is in the 50s. The film focuses on Landon helping Jamie, a 17-year-old dying of cancer, completing her list of things to do before she dies – the book doesn’t even mention it. I read it in two sittings though, it’s an alright book. Just a bit wishy-washy, the Lord will provide-y.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

And lastly, I read the Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. I’ve been re-watching the Novels That Shaped Our World series on BBC and one of the episodes is on Colonialism in British literature. One of the books discussed is Wide Sargasso Sea and I decided to read it myself. It’s a very clever book, giving voice to Antoinette Cosway – more famously known as the Woman in the Attic of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Set in the 1830s, it’s a short read in three parts about this beautiful creole woman living in Jamaica at the turn of the slave trade. Not as gripping as I hoped, but still very clever.

What did you read in June 2020? Let me know in the comments below, and if you have any suggestions for what I should read in July.

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