Books Read in June 2021!

Posted On June 30, 2021

Hi Readers! Half the year has gone by already! Did you achieve your goals at least partly? How many more do you have on your list to complete? Here’s the reminder for you to do a quick check on your yearly goal list!

As for me, I read 5 BOOKS this month & 32/50 BOOKS this year! Although a few books were outside of my 2021 Reading Challenge, so I still have 24 books to read this year to complete the challenge! Out of my 21 Things to do in 2021, the reading challenge is undoubtedly the most fun! I will also write another post about how far I have reached in terms of my other 20 Things! Anyway, check out the books I read this month!

~~AT NIGHT ALL BLOOD IS BLACK by DAVID DIOP~~

This novel won the Booker Prize this year. As soon as it was announced, I picked it up & read it. It was unlike any other book I had read. It talks about the war in the most gruesome & horrific ways, but somehow the writing is incredibly poetic. So, even if you are reading about something full of violence, the intensity of it is reduced by the way it is written. Nevertheless, the impact of the story reverberates loudly. All these contrasting elements made the novel a literary sight to behold. I have rated it at 4/5 stars!

~~THE BEEKEEPER OF ALEPPO by CHRISTY LEFTERI~~

The Beekeeper of Aleppo was another unforgettable novel. In Nuri & Afra’s story, the author has shown us the real-life story of so many immigrants who have to leave their home country because of war & ensuing threat to life. It is wonderfully written giving readers a very real picture. It’s an astonishing & tumultuous story with so much loss & darkness leading to hope & light. I have rated it at 4.5/5 stars!

Check out the book review here!

~~FIREKEEPER’S DAUGHTER by ANGELINE BOULLEY~~

Firekeeper’s Daughter was a book I was excited to read ever since it came out, but I was not very pleased with it. I entirely enjoyed the insights of the Ojibwe culture, but all the rest was too mundane to catch my interest. From a predictable mystery to an uninteresting love story angle to almost-perfect characters with no flaws to the overall underwhelming impact & weak writing style, the story did not hit me at all. I have rated it at 3/5 stars!

Check out the book review here!

~~WHY WE SLEEP by MATTHEW WALKER~~

This was the first non-fiction read of the year & undoubtedly the most glorious one! I have never truly enjoyed non-fiction, but the way Matthew Walker has written this book, made me come back for more. He has taken his 20+ years’ worth of knowledge, research, facts & conclusions & turned it into a mere 368-pages book! Being a PhD himself, he has written the book in a way that will not bore or confuse the readers. In fact, it does the opposite! It educates & fascinates you. I will never stop recommending this book! I have rated it at 4/5 stars!

~~THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS by LISA JEWELL~~

I ended this month with a bang with Lisa Jewell’s mystery thriller The Family Upstairs! I am somewhat hesitant on trying new authors especially in the mystery/crime/thriller genre, but after reading this one, I have decided to experiment more. This novel has every single quotient which is necessary for a mystery. It has a high unpredictability quotient with lot of twists in the story. It has a lot of characters spread out in different story lines, which makes the reader confused & always keeps them on the edge of their seat. And lastly, the end is perfectly created. If you are in a reading slump, you should definitely read this book. I have rated this at 4/5 stars!

Looking back at all the books I read, I am really happy with the list! Seldom does it happen that I like majority of the books which I read. Well, yay for me! Hoping for July to be just as good!

Until next time,