“The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.” – Joseph Joubert

June ended up not being a huge reading month for me. I had several books I had hoped to finish in addition to this list…and it just didn’t happen. The good news is, I really enjoyed the three books that I did read!

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson – Second book of the Stormlight Archives series. Again… if you aren’t into fantasy worlds feel free to skip. But I am really liking this series even more than the Mistborn series. The characters feel more complex and world feels more real and comprehensive. In this second book a little more of the lost and distorted history of the world is made clearer. Many characters discover their powers and start to learn more about what they can and cannot do. Many of the main characters who have been disconnected are brought together and we get to see them interact. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, which some people don’t appreciate but I personally love seeing all the different perspectives on a story.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott – I read this book in a college class that was about teaching writing to high schoolers. I loved it then and I love it again now. Anne Lamott is very irreverent about everything…but especially about what it means to be a writer. She lays all of the difficulties and insecurities that writers have out in the open in a successful attempt to make you feel less alone about your perceived shortcomings. In the midst of her humor and self-deprivation, she also provides a very real and tangible approach to writing, including things like writing in “small assignments” by focusing on one scene at a time. Or as the title says “bird by bird.” Highly recommend if you are looking for something on this subject.

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah – This was an entertaining little fluff of a novel. It definitely deals with some difficult subjects (rape, parental neglect, terminal illness) but there are also a lot of fun scenes as we watch two best friends grow up just outside of and then right inside of Seattle. The book takes us from their childhood in the seventies through each decade until the early 2000s. I mostly really enjoyed this novel, but I also found it hard to root for the main characters sometimes because of their inability to stand up for themselves. It makes sense when they are younger, but it becomes less forgivable the older they get. There is also a lot of theming around career vs. family that I think is a little too binary. But other than that, I would recommend as a good vacation read!