We’re in the last half of July, so I figure it’s time for me to post about June…What a fun and busy summer it’s been! Full of summer parties and gardening and lots of time on the porch.
Here are my butterfly weed and gaura ‘Whirling Butterflies’ in June. They’ve both spread and grown by miles since then.
I haven’t taken many pictures of the porch gatherings and parties we’ve had so far, so I have no friendly faces to show you. Must remember to do that.
Enough prattling—on to the books!
What Shannon Read in June
I read four books in June, including two memoirs, two works of fiction, and a re-read.
Some Notes:
Jog On: How Running Saved by Life by Bella Mackie
This was my re-read and I listened to the audiobook, read by the author, while running.
I started the None to Run program, which is an app that guides you through your runs. It’s like the better-known Couch to 5K app, but it starts out a bit slower, which I like.
The book is a favorite running memoir of mine. Mackie talks about her journey as a runner while reflecting on the changes in her life, most prominently the break-up of her marriage.
I find the book insightful, encouraging, and a definitely a good companion while on my own running journey.
The Lost Wife by Susanna Moore
I’m always on the lookout for well-written historical fiction and this fit the bill. It’s in the sub-genre of early American fiction and centers on interactions between white settlers and Native Americans in 1855 Minnesota.
The Goodreads brief:
“In the summer of 1855, Sarah Brinton abandons her husband and child to make the long and difficult journey to Minnesota, where she will meet a childhood friend. Arriving at a small frontier post on the edge of the prairie, she discovers that her friend has died of cholera. Without work or money or friends, she quickly finds a husband who will become the resident physician at an Indian agency on the Yellow Medicine River. “
Here’s the full Goodreads synopsis if you’re interested.
I thought the writing was solid, the story compelling, and the perspective of the story, while written from a white person’s point-of-view, fair to the Native American characters. That’s something I always look for in a book like this.
Overall worth a read if you like to read about this time period.
Society of Shame by Jane Roper
I like reading fictional books that feature social media and its effects on people’s lives.
From Goodreads:
“Kathleen Held’s life is turned upside down when she arrives home to find her house on fire and her husband on the front lawn in his underwear. But the scandal that emerges is not that Bill, who’s running for Senate, is having a painfully clichéd affair with one of his young staffers: it’s that the eyewitness photographing the scene accidentally captures a period stain on the back of Kathleen’s pants.“
I don’t want to give away much of the plot, but will say that the stain on Kathleen’s pants leads to most of the drama in the story, including the beginning of a social movement and an invitation to a secret society.
It’s a fun book to read because of those elements and I enjoyed the more serious treatment of Kathleen’s relationship with her daughter.
Red Sauce Brown Sauce: A British Breakfast Oddessy by Felicity Cloake
I really enjoyed Felicity Cloake’s first memoir One More Croissant for the Road, in which she writes of her travels around France by bicycle. So I picked up this next memoir, in which she cycles around England seeking out the perfect breakfast—and the right accompanying sauces.
Apparently choosing between ketchup and brown sauce is a thing in England—I really knew nothing about it.
I really liked reading about Cloake’s cycling, travelling, and eating and will continue to read whatever she writes because she is such a real and affable writer.
While you’re here, do you have any food-related travel memoirs to recommend? Do tell!
That’s it for this month! See you in August!
Pillow Fort 